• The Walt Disney Company hosted its second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.
• Analysts say a slowdown in travel may drag down Disney stocks.
• The company said it is building a new theme park resort in Abu Dhabi.

The Walt Disney Company says it will open a seventh theme park resort in Abu Dhabi.

Disney, which won't own the park but is licensing the operation to Miral, an immersive experiences company, announced the new destination on Wednesday.

"As our seventh theme park destination, it will rise from this land in spectacular fashion, blending contemporary architecture with cutting-edge technology to offer guests deeply immersive entertainment experiences in unique and modern ways," Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement online.

"Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati — an oasis of extraordinary Disney entertainment at this crossroads of the world that will bring to life our timeless characters and stories in many new ways and will become a source of joy and inspiration for the people of this vast region to enjoy for generations to come."

A blog published on Disney's website said the destination would be located on Yas Island.

Disney also reported its second-quarter finances on Wednesday.

Ahead of the earnings call, analysts at Raymond James said that while Disney's travel and leisure experiences helped diversify the company "away from the tumultuous Media space into a secularly growing business," it also made Disney "more cyclical and macro sensitive."

"As such, both the fears around tariffs and a possible recession, along with a slowdown in travel that has already begun, have dragged DIS stock down ~27% in ~6 weeks," wrote Raymond James analysts Ric Prentiss and Brent Penter.

Here are the key numbers for the second quarter compared to analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

• Earnings per share: $1.45 adjusted vs. $1.20 expected
• Revenue: $23.6 billion vs. $23.05 billion expected
• Entertainment: $10.68 billion vs. $10.48 billion expected
• Sports: $4.5 billion vs. $4.32 billion expected
• Experiences: $8.8 billion vs. $8.76 billion expected

The earnings report came after President Donald Trump on Sunday called for a 100% tariff on foreign-made films.

The announcement confused Hollywood. Industry insiders were concerned the tariffs could hurt the entertainment business, which is still recovering from labor strikes and spending cuts. In a Monday statement, the White House said the Trump administration is "exploring all options."

"Although no final decisions on foreign film tariffs have been made, the Administration is exploring all options to deliver on President Trump's directive to safeguard our country's national and economic security while Making Hollywood Great Again," the statement said.

Analysts from Raymond James also said that "Disney's streaming networks are relatively less exposed to international content," and that the company's "emphasis on animation (largely done domestically) further insulates Disney from potential film tariffs."

However, the analysts also wrote that the idea of a film tariff poses "more questions than answers," including whether films partially shot or produced domestically would also face tariffs, and if it could be applied to libraries and movies already produced.

During its first-quarter earnings call in February, Disney reported strong earnings, surpassing Wall Street expectations with adjusted earnings of $1.76 per share and $24.69 billion in revenue.

Despite a slight dip in Disney+ subscribers in the first quarter, the entertainment division received a boost from box office hits like "Moana 2" and "Inside Out 2." In the experiences segment, Disney also saw revenue growth last quarter and has a $60 billion investment plan underway for its parks and experiences over the next 10 years.

• Alphabet reported its 2025 first-quarter results on Thursday that beat initial estimates.
• Google CEO Sundar Pichai credited an "unique full stack approach to AI" for "strong Q1 results."
• Google confirms its commitment to invest $75 billion in AI over the course of the year.

Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, reported its first-quarter earnings Thursday after the market close, exceeding initial revenue estimates and sending shares up by more than 4% in after-hours trading.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement that the company's "strong Q1 results, which reflect healthy growth and momentum across the business," reflect its "unique full stack approach to AI."

"This quarter was super exciting as we rolled out Gemini 2.5, our most intelligent AI model, which is achieving breakthroughs in performance and is an extraordinary foundation for our future innovation," said Pichai in the earnings report. "Search saw continued strong growth, boosted by the engagement we're seeing with features like AI Overviews, which now has 1.5 billion users per month."

Alphabet Inc., comprised of Google and a collective of companies called Other Bets, held a call with investors following the earnings report.

During the earnings call with investors, Philipp Schindler, Google's chief business officer, said that AI Overviews could become a major revenue driver.

"Q1 marked our largest expansion to date for AI overviews, both in terms of launching to new users and providing responses for more questions," said Schindler.

"For AI overviews, overall, we continue to see monetization at approximately the same rate, which gives us a strong base in which we can innovate even more," he added.

Anat Ashkenazi, chief financial officer of Alphabet, said that most of the $17.2 billion in capital expenditure for the quarter went into technical infrastructures "with the largest component being investment in servers, followed by data centers" to support growth across Google services, Google Cloud, and Google DeepMind.

On top of that, Ashkenazi confirmed that Alphabet is still committed to investing $75 billion over the course of the year in AI, despite possible headwinds like tariffs that could hit advertisement revenue.

Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com, said in a note that Alphabet has "delivered a sound response to those questioning the solidity of the search business" amid increasing AI demand.

"When you combine the numbers seen today with Alphabet's also solid cloud performance, it leaves few doubts about the company's leading position in the AI search revolution," said Monteiro.

Here are the key numbers for the fourth quarter compared to analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg:

• Earnings per share: $2.81 vs. $2.01 expected
• Revenue: $90.23 billion vs. $89.1 billion expected
• Google advertising revenue: $66.89 billion vs. $66.39 billion expected
• YouTube advertising revenue: $8.93 billion vs. $8.94 billion expected
• Google Cloud revenue: $12.26 billion vs. $12.31 billion expected

Thursday's earnings call also comes as Alphabet navigates increased scrutiny from federal regulators. The Justice Department and several states filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google in 2020. Four years later, a federal judge ruled that Google spent billions to make its search engine the default on iPhones, Android devices, and web browsers.

"After having carefully considered and weighed the witness testimony and evidence, the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly," District Judge Amit Mehta wrote.

This month, Judge Leonie Brinkema of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled that Google holds an illegal monopoly in specific online advertising markets.

Brinkema wrote in her ruling that the Justice Department and states that filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google proved the company "willfully engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising."

"For over a decade, Google has tied its publisher ad server and ad exchange together through contractual policies and technological integration, which enabled the company to establish and protect its monopoly power in these two markets," Brinkema wrote.

Google and the Justice Department are now in the middle of a remedies trial related to the search engine ruling. Both parties will make arguments before a judge determines the appropriate market remedy. Google, for its part, is trying to avoid being forced to divest certain products, like the Chrome browser.

• Elon Musk's DOGE had emails sent to federal workers requesting a list of what they did last week.
• The decision frustrated federal workers, many of whom risk losing their jobs.
• A career coach told BI that DOGE's approach is "fear-based management."

Elon Musk's management style has once again sparked intense debate, this time for asking federal employees to respond to an email with what they accomplished in the past week — or risk losing their jobs.

Musk, a special government employee who is the face of the DOGE White House office, is known for his disruptive leadership style at Tesla, SpaceX, and X.

He is now applying those same tactics to federal operations — with mixed reactions from business leaders and government officials.

"This method is not just ineffective, it's harmful," George Carrillo, a former Oregon government executive, told Business Insider.

Carrillo, the CEO of the Hispanic Construction Council, previously worked as a program executive at the Oregon Department of Human Services.

"Overloading employees with unrealistic demands creates instability and causes talented workers to leave, which risks disrupting the continuity and expertise the government depends on to function," he said. "I've seen firsthand how these kinds of actions can harm team dynamics and reduce public confidence."

On Saturday, federal employees received an email asking them to respond with a five-bullet-point summary of their work in the last week and to copy their manager.

"Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," Musk said in a post on X before the emails went out.

The emails appeared to be in response to President Donald Trump, who earlier said on TruthSocial that Musk should be "more aggressive."

The email resembled one Musk sent when he took over Twitter — now rebranded as X — in 2022. Following the acquisition, Musk instructed engineers to print out their latest software code for review as a way to evaluate their skills.

Some business leaders said DOGE's approach could yield results, despite the negative reaction.

Neal K. Shah, CareYaya Health Technologies CEO, told BI that the approach shows a "commitment to rapid organizational improvement" and has "unique advantages over traditional downsizing."

Shah said DOGE's method "slices through typical government delays caused by bureaucracy" and "directly empowers employees to control the documentation of their worth."

He also said it gives leadership real-time productivity data, which could lead to long-term benefits like better documentation of work-related tasks, efficiency, and boosting public trust through "demonstrated effectiveness."

Other management experts, however, said the email demonstrated a lack of empathy and could hurt morale, ultimately reducing efficiency. Federal employees told BI that DOGE's email left them frustrated and fearful of losing their jobs. One told BI the action felt like "harassment."

Lisa Rigoli, a human resources strategist and leadership coach who founded Elements of Change, a group focused on HR consultation and leadership coaching, said the email lacked emotional intelligence and prioritized "efficiency over human-centered leadership."

"This is a clear example of how leaders are becoming increasingly disconnected from the emotional impact of their decisions," Rigoli said. "Business schools and leadership programs do a great job preparing executives intellectually, but very few equip them for the emotional demands of leadership."

Tamanna Ramesh, founder of professional training service Spark Careers, said such tactics could damage staff morale.

"Requiring employees to justify their jobs through a weekly report — under the threat of termination — is fear-based management. It doesn't drive innovation or efficiency. It fuels resentment, disengagement, and quiet quitting," Ramesh told BI. "Accountability matters, but when employees feel like they're on trial rather than trusted contributors, performance suffers."

Ramesh said performance tracking is common, but the "level of public scrutiny and punitive framing is rare."

"This approach ignores psychological safety, a key driver of high-performing teams," Ramesh said.

Rigoli told BI that DOGE's email is part of a "growing trend where leaders handle layoffs with cold efficiency rather than intentional leadership.

"We ask employees to be loyal, transparent, and committed, yet when organizations make cuts, they often default to impersonal mass communication," Rigoli said.

"Efficiency isn't about arbitrary cuts or applying pressure for the sake of it," Carrillo told BI. "Successful organizations build trust, foster collaboration, and create thoughtful strategies to meet their goals while maintaining staff morale."

He suggested making "informed' and "data-driven decisions."

"Before considering layoffs, DOGE must conduct a comprehensive workforce analysis to pinpoint priorities and address staffing gaps," Carrillo said.