For the first time in weeks, the tech sector wasn't overwhelmed by what has been an ongoing circus involving Elon Musk and his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter (TWTR).
In fact, Musk actually made his most noise this past week with his day job, as the Tesla (TSLA) Chief Executive said he expects the electric carmaker's top executives to get back and start working at least 40 hours a week at Tesla (TSLA) offices. Musk laid down the law, so to speak, when he said in an email to Tesla (TSLA) employees that company leaders would no longer be allowed to work full-time from "some remote pseudo office" if they wanted to keep their jobs.
Instead, one of the biggest happenings in the tech industry was the changing of the old guard at Facebook parent company Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:FB), as Sheryl Sandberg said she would be stepping down from her chief operating officer position. Sandberg has been with Meta (FB) for 14 years, and will remain on the company's board of directors after she leaves her day-to-day responsibilities behind later this year.
Sandberg will be replaced by Meta's (FB) current Chief Growth Officer, Javier Olivan, and analysts said the move makes sense given the company putting more emphasis on the metaverse, integrated ads and other business products.
And in another symbol of the changes taking place at Meta (FB), the company said it will change its stock trading symbol to META on June 9.
Cloud computing stocks continued to get more attention on Wall Street after Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) reported upbeat quarterly results that suggested some stability and growth in the sector. Salesforce (CRM) co-CEO Marc Benioff cited a "whirlwind" of activity in the last quarter that boosted his company's business performance.
Microsoft (MSFT) found itself in the crosshairs after it surprised Wall Street by cutting its fourth quarter earnings and revenue outlook.
It was a notable week for Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) in that the company premiered the long-awaited fourth season of its hit series Stranger Things. And while Netflix (NFLX) could claim record viewership from Stranger Things debut, there were still concerns about just how much of a subscriber benefit Netflix (NFLX) might see from the 1980s-themed show.
After weeks of concerns about its direction following a disappointing quarterly report and a decline in subscribers, Netflix (NFLX) was said to have adopted a new philosophy about its movie production efforts. Instead of is prior direction of a new movie a week, Netflix (NFLX) is reportedly taking a "bigger, better, fewer" approach to its slate of original content films.
But, when it came to films, nothing was bigger than the new Tom Cruise blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick (PARA), which set a Memorial Day holiday weekend record with more than $156 million in U.S. ticket sales. Theater chain AMC Entertainment (AMC) was quick to tout that Maverick helped bring in more than 4 million people to its U.S. theaters.
However, AMC (AMC) shares failed to rally behind Top Gun, and fell more than 10% early in the week as AMC (AMC) went back to its meme stock ways. By the end of the week, AMC (AMC) shares were basically at the same level as before Top Gun hit the nation's movie screens.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) watchers were looking ahead to the company's Worldwide Developers Conference, which starts on Monday. In the meantime, Apple (AAPL) defended its policies involving the App Store as it said it stopped almost $1.5 billion in fraudulent App Store purchases last year, and Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said that Apple (AAPL) could see weakness in its services business if App Store growth slows down in the months ahead.