(Reuters) -Figma posted a slight beat on second-quarter profit and revenue in its first financial report as a public company on Wednesday, but fell short of the lofty expectations set by AI and tech investors, sending its shares down 13% after the bell.
The company delivered a blowout debut in July as investors rallied behind its new product lineup, revenue growth and potential to capture a significant share of the design software market.
Figma’s strategy to incorporate every aspect of product development — from ideation to coding and shipping — into its software has made it an attractive option for companies such as Netflix and freelancers to create their own platforms.
“The stock had been priced for perfection at over two hundred times expected earnings, which means even solid numbers cannot carry that many layers without some flattening,” said Michael Ashley Schulman, partner and CIO at Running Point Capital Advisors.
“Figma’s high valuation was built on story and future potential and management’s outlook disappointed,” he said.
Shares of the company, which gained 250% on the first day of trading, were down more than 40% since the debut.
Figma’s second-quarter revenue jumped 41% to $249.6 million. Analysts on average estimated $248.8 million, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Its adjusted earnings per share of 9 cents also edged passed the estimate of 8 cents.
Figma has been aggressively rolling out new features to attract and retain subscribers. This year it launched four products, including Figma Make — an AI-powered product that turns a written prompt into a functional prototype.
The company expects fiscal 2025 revenue to be between $1.02 billion and $1.03 billion, while analysts estimate $1.01 billion.
Separately, as its stock price has met certain conditions relating to its initial public offering, the lock-up period for certain employees will end later this week, while senior executives will have to hold their shares till later in the year.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
Sunny weather and the women’s Euro football tournament helped to lift retail sales in July, according to the latest official figures.
Retail sales volumes rose by 0.6% in July, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which was higher than analysts’ forecasts.
The release of the figures had been delayed by two weeks over concerns about the quality of the data.
The ONS has come under fire recently over the reliability of some of its statistics.
While sales volumes in July rose, sales in the three months to July were down 0.6% when compared with the previous three months.
“Supermarkets, sports shops and household goods stores had a strong start to the year, but spending there has fallen since March,” said the ONS’s director general of economic statistics, James Benford.
However, he added this was partially offset by strong sales online and at clothing and footwear stores.
Mr Benford apologised for errors in past data, and said the ONS had “improvement plans” in place.
Trump’s strike on ‘narco-terrorist’ boat legally murky
The Trump administration’s few details about a U.S. military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea has fueled questions as to whether it violated maritime law or human rights conventions.
President Trump, who announced on Tuesday that American forces destroyed a vessel from Venezuela allegedly carrying illegal narcotics, claimed the boat was bound for the U.S. and operated by the Tren de Aragua cartel, which the U.S. has designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Trump has shared a video appearing to show drone footage of a boat on the water exploding and then on fire, but the Pentagon has not released any specifics about the strike, including how it was carried out and how much and what kind of drugs were on board.
Nor has the administration said what legal authority officials relied upon to justify the move — an unprecedented and significant escalation by the White House against Latin American drug cartels, given that narcotic runners are typically rounded up by the Coast Guard instead of being fired upon by U.S. aircraft.
Experts have accused the administration of violating international law.
“These extrajudicial killings are a clear violation of international law,” Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in a statement to The Hill. “If there are no consequences, we should be extremely concerned about what comes next — will this administration begin executing alleged gang members or drug dealers at home without any judicial process?”
On Thursday, the administration was set to provide to Congress its rationale for the strike, a legal deadline to send a report to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) detailing its reasons for the attack.
The administration so far has suggested the president’s authority to defend the U.S. is sufficient in justifying carrying out the strike, the same rationale used for the Pentagon’s months-long bombing campaign of Houthi targets in Yemen earlier this spring.
Ahead of the report, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday alluded to this rationale.
“President Trump has shown whether it’s the southwest border, whether it’s the Houthis in freedom of navigation, whether it’s Midnight Hammer in Iran, that the precise application of American power can have incredible impacts and reshape dynamics around the world and in the region,” Hegseth said on Fox and Friends, referring to the U.S. strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites in June.
“This is a deadly, serious mission for us and it won’t stop with just this strike. Anyone else trafficking in the waters who we know is a designated narco-terrorist will face the same fate,” he added.
And Trump on Wednesday again insisted the boat was laden with drugs and that the attack on it would deter cartels from similar actions in the future.
But Human rights groups say the attack has potentially violated a whole host of international standards and Washington’s own regulations for maritime operations against civilian vessels in international waters.
The president’s war powers, as stipulated under the Constitution, are typically limited to events where groups have done violent harm to U.S. citizens and interests. But given that the administration appeared to target drug traffickers in a situation where it’s not clear if the group was armed or if it had plans to physically harm Americans, experts warn the strike sets a dangerous precedent.
Welcome to The Hill’s Defense & National Security newsletter, I’m Ellen Mitchell — your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond.
President Trump is scheduled to sign an executive order Friday formally renaming the Department of Defense the Department of War, the White House confirmed. Trump had in recent days signaled the change was coming, pointing to the history behind the name and his belief that it better reflected the Pentagon’s offensive operations. Fox News first reported that Trump would sign an executive order Friday to alter the name. …
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) on Wednesday evening warned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky not to attend a Moscow summit floated by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I’ll give a free piece of advice to President Zelensky: Don’t go to Moscow. They don’t have your best interests at heart,” Smith, the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill.” “If he …
The Navy has restored Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) to the retired rank of rear admiral after he received a demotion in 2022 for unethical behavior. “After finding good cause to reopen your retired grade determination, and upon review of all applicable reports and references, it is my pleasure to inform you, effective immediately, you are hereby reinstated to the retired grade of Rear Admiral (Lower Half) in the United States …
President Trump’s deployment of Washington National Guard troops to patrol the nation’s capital has been extended through December to ensure that service members receive the full scope of benefits for the mission, according to multiple news outlets. The soldiers were placed in the district to aid in Trump’s federal takeover of local law enforcement, but not all of the nearly 1,000 members will serve until …
Homeland Dems demand investigation into DHS’s potential ‘unlawful destruction’ of records
House Democrats are asking the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to open an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after it told a watchdog group that it was no longer retaining text messages when the nonprofit sought communications about immigration enforcement …
Upcoming things we’re watching in and around the defense world:
The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studieswill have a virtual discussion on “Winning the Next War: Overcoming the U.S. Air Force’s Capacity, Capability, and Readiness Crisis,” at 10 a.m.
Georgetown Universitywill hold an in-person talk on “Grand Strategy,” with Rebecca Lissner, senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, former deputy assistant to former President Biden and former principal deputy national security advisor to former Vice President Harris, at 5 p.m.
What We’re Reading
News we’ve flagged from other outlets:
Russia wants ‘security guarantees’ too. Here’s what they look like. (The New York Times)
Trump administration to end European security programs focused on Russia (The Washington Post)
The jets were late. Lockheed got on-time bonuses anyway (Defense One)
Opinions in The Hill
Op-eds related to defense & national security submitted to The Hill:
Lucy Bronze: I guess it has changed throughout the years. When I was younger, it was everything to me. I maybe put a bit too much on it. I have never seen it as a job, I’ll be honest, but what it means to me now has changed. There is football as in the football that I do, and there is the football that I am a part of, which is the big picture. That means a lot to me now.
KS: Your career has gone in parallel with the growth of women’s football. At first you just played football but now it seems like it is a bit of a movement?
LB: I always say I am so fortunate that my career has been on the same trajectory as women’s football in England. 2015 was when I had my moment. It was also the moment for England football and the WSL was kicking off. Each tournament the stage is getting bigger, and the football is getting bigger in line with my career. I have always felt quite lucky to be on the same journey as women’s football.
KS: What is your first memory of playing the game?
LB: I played with my big brother – that’s why I started. When I was younger, people would be like: ‘Is his sister coming?’ And he would be like: ‘Yeah she is, and she’s going to be on my team because she is good.’ He never had a problem with it. He would never let me win anything – if I won it was because I earned it. But I never had that barrier of ‘girls can’t play’ or ‘it’s not girls’ football’ because my family and my brother were some of the best examples of it.
KS: Who had a big impact on your career football-wise?
LB: The very first one was Ray Smith, who was my Alnwick Town coach. When I was in the boys’ team, he was a painter and decorator, then helped with the team on the weekends. Just your local volunteer in grassroots football. And at 12, the FA were like, ‘Lucy can’t play in the boys’ team any more. It’s part of the rules’. My mum was like, ‘Well, she’s got nowhere else to go. We can’t take her anywhere. We can’t afford to take her anywhere’. So Ray went up to my mum, and was like, ‘Please find Lucy a team – she’ll play for England one day.’ At 12 years old.
KS: What has been a turning point in your career? I’m almost wondering if maybe that conversation is it?
LB: A huge turning point for me was going to America. When my mum Googled women’s football, the USA came up. College, Mia Hamm, World Cup, Olympic champions – everything to do with women’s football was USA. So she was like, ‘OK, let’s go’. So she said to all the family: ‘Let’s go to the States next summer. We’ll save up, and if this is your dream, we’re going to take you, and we’re going to see if it’s a possibility.’ This is in the time of Bend it like Beckham . So it was a hot topic at the time, going to America. I went to the soccer camp and the coach there saw me play, and he said: ‘When she’s old enough, she should come back and she’s got a scholarship.’ So I went back because England rejected me. Going to America and going to college, I only stayed for a year, but that was the biggest turning point.
KS: Talk to me about England rejecting you?
LB: I was in the youth age groups, but I was never the star player, or the one that was picked out. They used to give out scholarships and funding to help players, and I never got picked for anything. They had a programme for Loughborough where you could train full-time and study. At my age group, either you went there or you went to Arsenal’s academy and I was the only one who wasn’t in either of them. I applied for Loughborough, and they were like, ‘She’s just not good enough’. My mum rang them back to ask what it is that she needs to improve on, and just never got the call back. So then my mum was like, ‘Right, America, let’s go. Let’s do it’.
President Trump on Thursday said “real” jobs numbers will come next year, ahead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) first jobs report since he fired its leader in response to dismal numbers in July.
“They come out tomorrow, but the real numbers that I’m talking about are going to be whatever it is, but will be in a year from now on,” Trump told reporters, while flanked by over two dozen top tech executives at a White House dinner.
He said that when “huge, beautiful places, the palaces of genius” open, job numbers will improve. He did not specify what projects he was referring to.
“When they start opening up… I think you’ll see job numbers that are going to be absolutely incredible,” Trump said. “Right now, it’s a lot of construction numbers, but you’re gonna see job numbers like our country has never seen.”
His comments on the jobs report come as economists are predicting more weakening in the labor market for August. The July jobs report, which sparked Trump to fire former BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, showed an average of just 35,000 jobs being added to the economy across May, June and July.
Her firing has raised concerns over the politicization of jobs data and whether the public should question whether they can trust future releases. White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNN last week, “I think they’ll be as good as they can be, but they need to get a lot better.”
The president spoke to reporters while he hosted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Google Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, among several others, for a dinner at the White House.
At the dinner, which was slated to be the inaugural event in the newly renovated Rose Garden but moved inside due to rain, Trump asked attendees to say how much their companies were investing in U.S. manufacturing.
The fallout from Angela Rayner’s stamp duty admission continues to dominate Friday’s papers. It’s “Judgement day” for the deputy prime minister, says the i. The paper reports the PM is “prepared to sack” Rayner if his ethics adviser’s findings go against her in his investigation. It adds that Sir Laurie Magnus’s report could be expected as soon as Friday.
Rayner’s lawyers say they did not give her tax advice and are being made “scapegoats” in her tax scandal, according to the Times. The paper features the conveyancing firm that acted on the deputy PM’s behalf when she bought the Hove flat saying they did not advise her she was eligible for a lower rate of stamp duty. Rayner has said the taxation “mistake” was the result of incorrect legal advice which failed to “properly take account” of her circumstances. Alongside, the Princess of Wales is pictured during a visit to the Natural History Museum on Thursday.
“Rayner’s lawyer rebuts her tax claim” echoes The Daily Telegraph. The paper says the comments are a major blow to the deputy PM’s case as she fights for political survival. Also front and centre is a “farewell to the king of the catwalk”, as the paper pays tribute to Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani who has died aged 91.
“Writing’s on wall for Rayner” is the Daily Star’s take. It features a picture of the words “tax evader” written in graffiti outside the apartment building in Hove where the deputy PM owns a flat. A spokesperson for Rayner has called the act “beyond the pale”.
It would be an “insult not to sack Rayner” is the Daily Express’ headline. The paper quotes farmers who are “furious” over the deputy PM’s scandal.
The deputy PM is at a “crisis point” declares the Daily Mirror. The paper says Rayner’s stamp duty row has deepened after lawyers denied giving her tax advice and the PM refused to rule out firing her.
The Sun focuses on what it says is a viral AI-generated rap video mocking Rayner’s ordeal. The paper features an image from the video of the deputy PM holding a roll of banknotes and wearing several gold chains.
“Nadine Dorries quits Tories to join Reform”, writes the Daily Mail. The paper says the former Conservative culture secretary is joining forces with Nigel Farage “after months of secret negotiations”. The Mail calls the move a “seismic blow” to the party she’s served for more than 30 years.
Labour MPs are urging the PM not to meet the Israeli President Isaac Herzog during his planned trip to London next week, the Guardian says. The paper reports Herzog’s visit comes at a fraught time as the UK prepares to recognise a Palestinian state at the UN general assembly. Elsewhere, “the world has lost a giant” headlines the Guardian’s coverage of Armani’s death, as it spotlights the designer surrounded at one of his fashion shows.
Thousands of staff at Lloyds Banking Group are at risk of losing their jobs as the bank prepares to inform its lowest performers they must improve their work or be sacked, the Financial Times reports. The paper also remembers Armani as a “creative force” who put Italy at the forefront of global fashion.
Finally, The Metro leads with the discovery of “mind-mending chemicals”. The paper says a trial has revealed taking small amounts of LSD can keep severe anxiety at bay for weeks. Experts have hailed the breakthrough as “a true turning point in the history of psychiatry”.
The Daily Telegraph, which first reported the story about Angela Rayner’s stamp duty underpayment, uses its editorial to say she “has to go”. It says the statement from her conveyancers, contradicting her account of what happened, is a “major blow” to the deputy prime minister.
The firm’s boss has told the paper: “We probably are being made scapegoats for all this, and I have got the arrows stuck in my back to show it.”
Related Video: US Navy Strikes Drug Cartel Vessel Off Venezuela, Rubio Confirms
The Pentagon said late Thursday that two Venezuelan aircraft flew close to a U.S. Naval vessel in what it called a “highly provocative move.”
“Today, two Maduro regime military aircraft flew near a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters. This highly provocative move was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations,” the Defense Department said in a post on the social platform X.
“The cartel running Venezuela is strongly advised not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter or interfere with counter-narcotics and counter-terror operations carried out by the US military,” the department added.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said that his country was at “maximum preparedness” in light of the U.S. military recently boosting its Caribbean maritime force to fight against threats from Latin American drug cartels.
“In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela,” Maduro said Monday, according to The Associated Press.
Maduro called the deployment of multiple U.S. ships, a submarine and Marines “an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.”
On Tuesday, President Trump said that the U.S. military strike that killed 11 “terrorists” on a “drug vessel” in the Caribbean in the wake of leaving Venezuela.
The Tuesday morning strike hit a boat with members of the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan transnational gang that is also designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
“Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump said in a previous Truth Social post.
