Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio, studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Shares of Intel are just surging as we speak right now.
Speaker 2: Taking a look at shares in the after hours, they
Speaker 2: were up as much as fifteen percent. This after the
Speaker 2: company gave a fourth quarter revenue forecast slightly above estimates.
Speaker 2: It sparked optimism that it's capable of reclaiming some lost
Speaker 2: market share. Shares are just absolutely surging right now. Remember
Speaker 2: shares down going into this print, close to sixty percent.
Speaker 2: We got with us Ed Ludlow joining us from our
Speaker 2: San Francisco bureau. I know he's looking closely at these
Speaker 2: results because he's got a chat with Pat Gelsinger coming
Speaker 2: up at six pm Wall Street Time, a special edition
Speaker 2: of Bloomberg Technology on Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Radio, YouTube, and
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Originals. We'll get to that in just a minute. First, though,
Speaker 2: Ed expectations were pretty low going into this print.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's a lot to unpick here.
Speaker 3: It's not straightforward because in the core to gone, Intel,
Speaker 3: which was previously like one of the world's leading chip makers,
Speaker 3: has given us a mixed bag. Its data centerships business
Speaker 3: did better than expected, but it's PC business where it
Speaker 3: has historically been the leader did worse. The answer to
Speaker 3: that is customers had inventories and they worked through backlogs.
Speaker 3: And when we speak to Pat later, I think there's
Speaker 3: a discussion to be had about the future of Intel
Speaker 3: and the PC market. But the most important thing to
Speaker 3: note is the stock is up significantly and after hours,
Speaker 3: and that is in spite of almost three billion dollars
Speaker 3: of impairment charges that Intel took relating to headcount reduction
Speaker 3: canceled projects. And what's so interesting about that is if
Speaker 3: you look at the estimates going into this quarter, and
Speaker 3: lists on Wall Street had not factored that in.
Speaker 1: So it's a surprise, a negative surprise.
Speaker 3: And even so the stock is up significantly because, as
Speaker 3: you point out, the top line of the story is
Speaker 3: maybe there's some hope here for Intel.
Speaker 2: It is there. There's also a headline ed and I'm
Speaker 2: just getting caught up. I know you've made some time
Speaker 2: to look at this, but there's the news is coming
Speaker 2: fast and furious. They're reducing headcount by sixteen five hundred employees.
Speaker 2: Is that on top of the other headcount productions this year.
Speaker 3: This is a confirmation of the previously stated plan for
Speaker 3: headcount reduction, and that the literal update is that the
Speaker 3: Audit Committee of Intel, a section of its board, has
Speaker 3: approved that plan. So the number is final sixteen thy
Speaker 3: five hundred staff to be cut. And again I go
Speaker 3: back to the impairment charges. If you look at the
Speaker 3: adjusted loss per share in the quarter gone much much
Speaker 3: wider than anyone on the Wall Street had anticipated. And
Speaker 3: a part of that was that the impairment charges it
Speaker 3: disclosed relative to headcount reduction, but there's other things in there.
Speaker 3: They just hadn't factored that in for this quarter. Intel
Speaker 3: wasn't able to guide for it into this quarter. So
Speaker 3: it's a timing and an accounting issue, which you know
Speaker 3: sometimes can be a bit dry.
Speaker 1: There's much more to discuss.
Speaker 2: Okay, well' speina, much more to discuss. The Intel CEO
Speaker 2: Pat Gelsinger, who you're going to speak with a little
Speaker 2: later today, saying in a statement that he intends to
Speaker 2: keep the company together. Yeah, he says that distinct, but
Speaker 2: better together is the strategy. The context for this is
Speaker 2: is reporting from earlier this year that said they were
Speaker 2: exploring a separation of parts of the company.
Speaker 1: So it's complicated.
Speaker 3: And first off, the headlines from Pat Gelsinger were a
Speaker 3: part of a brief conversation that our colleague and King
Speaker 3: had with him on the phone. And the context is, yes,
Speaker 3: Intel is a chip company. It offers chip products processes
Speaker 3: that go into computers and data centers and other business areas.
Speaker 3: But it also has a manufacturing business, which historically the
Speaker 3: reason that Intel was so good at chips is it
Speaker 3: built them or manufactured them for itself. As many of
Speaker 3: your listeners have learned in the last two or three years,
Speaker 3: there's a company in Taiwan called TSMC that has basically
Speaker 3: taken over the vast majority of cutting edge chip manufacturing
Speaker 3: on a contract basis for everyone else, and Intel had
Speaker 3: really fallen behind. But Intel's ambition is to have a
Speaker 3: company where it has its own products, it manufactures its
Speaker 3: own products, but it also wants to manufacture chips with others,
Speaker 3: just like TSMC does. And that's a long answer, but
Speaker 3: the short of it is, this is Pat Gelsinger saying, yes,
Speaker 3: we're going to run the company that way to separate divisions,
Speaker 3: but no, we're not going to sell off one part
Speaker 3: to a third party or be acquired by a third party.
Speaker 3: That's kind of reading between the lines because he was
Speaker 3: not explicit.
Speaker 4: Ed. You have to wonder how much patience investors have
Speaker 4: right now to see this turnaround play out, because, like
Speaker 4: Tim had mentioned, Intel stock is down almost sixty percent
Speaker 4: year to date. So what do we know right now
Speaker 4: about just how urgent the need for the turnaround is.
Speaker 4: When you think about the share price.
Speaker 3: I mean, do we have to wait for those listening
Speaker 3: on radio. I'm looking at a chart and the line
Speaker 3: goes straight up in the air with a thirteen percent
Speaker 3: next to it, And if you're watching on YouTube, maybe
Speaker 3: we can put the chart up. And it's an astonishing
Speaker 3: market reaction because of the pain of the quarter gone
Speaker 3: that I just told you, and what Intel told us
Speaker 3: for the final three months of this year is here's
Speaker 3: a range of revenues we think we're going to have.
Speaker 3: At the midpoint of that range, it was just slightly
Speaker 3: ahead of consensus estimates. But the market is you know,
Speaker 3: what's the saying, you guys that the investors vote with
Speaker 3: their feet, right, And you know, I think that's the
Speaker 3: read here. They look at the commentary from Intel and say,
Speaker 3: you've done some really painful things in the quarters gone.
Speaker 3: You've let go of a lot of people canceled a
Speaker 3: lot of projects. You had a pretty rough quarter in
Speaker 3: your PC business where you were once a leader and
Speaker 3: you've fallen behind. But as we look to the next
Speaker 3: three months and beyond that, there are signs that you
Speaker 3: might be turning a corner here. And that's great because
Speaker 3: that gives us a lot to ask Pat Gelsinger about
Speaker 3: to today.
Speaker 2: Don't give away the questions, ed, I would never ask
Speaker 2: you to do that, but what is top of mind
Speaker 2: for you ahead of this conversation, especially given that you
Speaker 2: got to read a little bit of what Ian's conversation
Speaker 2: went with him earlier, and then also you get the
Speaker 2: most recent numbers that we're talking about right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because of the analyst call as well, and you
Speaker 3: never know what's going to come up in an analyst call.
Speaker 3: There's definitely a technology to discussion to have here. You know,
Speaker 3: one of the interesting parts of Qualcomm, or the report
Speaker 3: that Qualcomm was Qualcom was interested in buying some all
Speaker 3: of Intel, is that they had made inroads themselves into
Speaker 3: the PC market where Intel had once been dominant. And
Speaker 3: you know, a theoretical idea that came out of that is,
Speaker 3: why would Qualcom want to buy Intel if they're doing
Speaker 3: so well on their own, But you could flip that
Speaker 3: on its head and say, the story of twenty twenty
Speaker 3: four has been about the AIPC PC laptops that have
Speaker 3: new chips in them that are not made by Intel.
Speaker 3: So when's Intel going to come to the races on that?
Speaker 3: And in fact, a number of our audience, but also
Speaker 3: like executives in the world of tech, have asked me
Speaker 3: to ask Pat about that issue, because if Intel's so
Speaker 3: good at PC chips, why is it not doing the
Speaker 3: latest thing? These are technology questions, but I think we
Speaker 3: should probably be explicit. Was Intel or was Intel not
Speaker 3: approached by some of its peers about an acquisition?
Speaker 1: Simple stuff.
Speaker 4: Ed In just three minutes, we should be getting Apple's
Speaker 4: earnings reports.
Speaker 1: What goodness?
Speaker 4: What should people be watching hump for for the iPhone?
Speaker 3: Yeah, iPhone sixteen and China very simple, leading product, most
Speaker 3: important market, and that's probably what it will come down to.
Speaker 4: Will those iPhone sixteen's are they flying off the shelves?
Speaker 3: So we've learned in the newsroom a really painful lesson
Speaker 3: this year, which is treat the third party data with caution.
Speaker 3: You guys will probably have done it on the show
Speaker 3: right these stories about some of the market researchers, who
Speaker 3: is you report saying the first six weeks of iPhone
Speaker 3: sixteen sales are down relative to the first six weeks
Speaker 3: of iPhone fifteen according to xyz data set Counterpoint research
Speaker 3: is one.
Speaker 1: But there's also evidence that in recent.
Speaker 3: Quarters, Apple's actual data has proven the third party data
Speaker 3: to be off the mark a little bit. And there's
Speaker 3: a very interesting phenomena happening in China. Apple won't make
Speaker 3: its latest generf generative AI tech available in China for
Speaker 3: some time until the regulator says it's okay. But there
Speaker 3: is evidence that the consumer in China is buying the
Speaker 3: iPhone anyway in anticipation they might have access at some
Speaker 3: point to like the latest and greatest software, which I
Speaker 3: think is so interesting. Right, You're buying something without having
Speaker 3: been able to experience it and like look at it
Speaker 3: because it's not available in that market.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, So okay, let's talk a little bit about China.
Speaker 2: Just thirty seconds here, ed because these numbers are coming
Speaker 2: out in thirty seconds. Sure, what are the numbers we
Speaker 2: need to see in China indicate that that Apple is
Speaker 2: not losing market share to Samsung show me and the.
Speaker 3: Like numbers or commentary, so they'll report something for Gray
Speaker 3: to China. They won't be as sort of candid about
Speaker 3: category specific stuff, but on the call they would tell
Speaker 3: us how they think they do or rank in that market.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're going to get numbers from Apple in just
Speaker 2: about fifteen seconds. Going into today, shares for the year
Speaker 2: up seventeen percent, so underperforming the S and P five
Speaker 2: hundred shares today down one point eight percent. We are
Speaker 2: getting a slew of earnings continuing and now we're getting
Speaker 2: Apple results. Bear with me while I bring these up.
Speaker 2: Fourth quarter revenue meets estimates coming in at ninety four
Speaker 2: point nine three billion dollars. Estimates were for ninety four
Speaker 2: point three six billion dollars. As we look at the
Speaker 2: different parts of the reportable categories, services revenue for the
Speaker 2: fourth quarter coming in below estimates, twenty four point nine
Speaker 2: to seven billion. Estimates for twenty five point two seven
Speaker 2: billion fourth quarter earnings per share coming in way below
Speaker 2: estimate and are not excuse me, not below estimates below
Speaker 2: what they were last year ninety seven cents versus one
Speaker 2: dollar and forty six year over year fourth quarter revenue
Speaker 2: once again beating estimates, coming in at ninety four point
Speaker 2: nine three billion dollars. Estimates were for ninety four point
Speaker 2: three six billion dollars. Apple also declaring a cash dividend
Speaker 2: of twenty five cents per share.
Speaker 1: That's I'm not done that much.
Speaker 2: Okay. Let's look at fourth quarter iPhone revenue coming in
Speaker 2: above estimates at forty six point twenty two billion.
Speaker 1: Estimate.
Speaker 2: Weres for forty five billion dollars, fourth quarter Greater China
Speaker 2: revenue coming in just shy of estimates fifteen point zero
Speaker 2: three billion dollars. Estimates are for fifteen point eight billion.
Speaker 4: Dollars, and their fourth quarter Wearables, Home and Accessories slightly
Speaker 4: missing estimates nine billion dollars. The MAC revenue seven point
Speaker 4: seventy four billion, right in line with estimates, and iPad
Speaker 4: revenue slightly below estimates six point ninety five billion versus
Speaker 4: estimates of seven billion. The red headline crossing the Bloomberg
Speaker 4: terminal is that the Apple fourth quarter Greater China revenue
Speaker 4: missed estimates. It's fifteen point oh three billion versus estimates
Speaker 4: of fifteen point eight billion.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a that's a pretty significant miss right there.
Speaker 2: Seeing shares bounce around a little. They were higher when
Speaker 2: these numbers came out. Now they're down about one point
Speaker 2: three percent. Some of these certainly worth repeating. Fourth quarter
Speaker 2: iPhone revenue coming in above estimates at forty six point
Speaker 2: two to two billion dollars, fourth quarter revenue coming in
Speaker 2: at ninety four billion, ninety four point ninety three billion
Speaker 2: dollars above estimates, but fourth quarter Greater China revenue coming
Speaker 2: in below estimates. I do want to go back to
Speaker 2: Ed Ludlow, who's standing by in San Francisco. He's only
Speaker 2: had two minutes to look at these numbers China. That
Speaker 2: certainly seems like a story here.
Speaker 3: Ed, Yeah, I mean you want wonderful summary. I mean, all,
Speaker 3: how do you follow that? But I think that that's
Speaker 3: the simple calculus. Overall iPhone revenue beat right, Greater China
Speaker 3: slightly missed. It's not until the analyst call that you
Speaker 3: get the commentary. It's usually from the CFO rather than
Speaker 3: Tim Kirk that says, actually, by category or products are
Speaker 3: be it iPhone, mac wearables, here's how we did, and
Speaker 3: in that explanation we will find out did iPhone grow
Speaker 3: in China or not? It's interesting, you know the miss
Speaker 3: is it's a miss, you know, it's slight. The only
Speaker 3: other thing that I point out is that you have
Speaker 3: to read between the lines a bit. And the Apple
Speaker 3: once again has a new record high of number of
Speaker 3: installed devices around the world. That's the number of people
Speaker 3: with an Apple hardware product or device somewhere in the world.
Speaker 1: It's growing. But where in particular, which product line. That's
Speaker 1: kind of the question next.
Speaker 2: But that's an important number because increasingly, as people hold
Speaker 2: onto these devices for longer, the more of them that
Speaker 2: are out there, the more people are spending on services
Speaker 2: like Apple TV plus, Apple Music, iCloud and the like.
Speaker 2: I know, I'm certainly not buying new devices right now,
Speaker 2: but I'm still spending each month quite a bit on
Speaker 2: Apple and Apple loves that it's a high margin business.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the timing of this very interesting.
Speaker 3: So in the release they talk about the rollout of
Speaker 3: Apple Intelligence, which is staggered. As Mark German has reported
Speaker 3: here at Bloomberg News. Apple Intelligence is the company's proprietary
Speaker 3: AI or generative AI offering. It's a suite of software
Speaker 3: tools in iOS that can do various things. This past week,
Speaker 3: I was offered to upgrade MYOS to eighteen point one.
Speaker 3: Then I was put on a wait list for Apple Intelligence.
Speaker 3: That's all lot preamble to say, we don't know anything
Speaker 3: from this release. And you noted that services missed right,
Speaker 3: that all this work they put in AI and all
Speaker 3: of the delay translates to consumers spending more money within
Speaker 3: the iOS or Apple ecosystem. And I know that many
Speaker 3: analysts investors are going to be listening carefully for that.
Speaker 2: Let's go through some of these numbers again. If you're
Speaker 2: just joining us. Apple shares down about one point seven
Speaker 2: percent in the after hours. They reported just about four
Speaker 2: minutes ago, five minutes ago, our fourth quarter revenue came
Speaker 2: in above estimates at ninety four point ninety three billion dollars.
Speaker 2: Quarter iPhone revenue came in above estimates at forty six
Speaker 2: point two two billion dollars. That's a billion dollars more
Speaker 2: than what analysts were expecting. Fourth quarter greater China revenue,
Speaker 2: though coming in below estimates, Does that mean the iPhone
Speaker 2: sixteen is a huge success ad.
Speaker 3: You have to read between the lines again until an
Speaker 3: executive says it definitively on the call, you don't know.
Speaker 3: But there were other areas that were a bit of
Speaker 3: a surprise, right. iPad was a surprising miss despite having
Speaker 3: released new generations.
Speaker 1: So take that.
Speaker 3: MAC revenue came in at one hundred million more than
Speaker 3: the same period a year ago, or maybe sequentially in
Speaker 3: line with expectations, so that's not giving a surprise contribution.
Speaker 3: What's left we know revenue services revenue missed, maybe iPhone.
Speaker 2: Piecing it together, well, how much of the iPhone sixteen
Speaker 2: was sold in this most recent quarter? Like, do we that? No,
Speaker 2: we do in terms of availability.
Speaker 3: So in terms of availability, I'm trying to go through
Speaker 3: the tank, you and the thing to look at the
Speaker 3: inventory number because that's the next place that I can.
Speaker 3: I can't find it yet because to me with another one,
Speaker 3: and I'll try catch.
Speaker 2: Out, Okay, So I'll give you some time to look
Speaker 2: for that. The reason I always am interested in that
Speaker 2: is because they announced this thing in September, goes on
Speaker 2: sale a few weeks later. The quarter ends after only
Speaker 2: a couple weeks after that, iPhone goes on sale. In
Speaker 2: some years Emily, they haven't even been able to put
Speaker 2: the new phone on sale before the quarter of learning.
Speaker 2: So it's just a question of okay, how many people
Speaker 2: were buying the old iPhone versus the new iPhone right
Speaker 2: here as an indication of how well is that new
Speaker 2: model selling.
Speaker 4: I'll also add Tim that we are seeing Apple stock
Speaker 4: extending some losses. You know, nothing huge here, and it is.
Speaker 4: It has only been six minutes since Arnais came out,
Speaker 4: but we do now see shares of Apple down about
Speaker 4: one point seven percent, despite the fact that fourth quarter
Speaker 4: revenue met estimates and was still up six percent year
Speaker 4: over year, and also that service revenue up twelve percent
Speaker 4: year over year but did slightly miss estimates.
Speaker 2: Taking a look now at our live blog. If you
Speaker 2: have access to this on the Bloomberg terminal, do check
Speaker 2: it out our own. Mark German, adding to what Ed
Speaker 2: said that iprad is a surprising miss, coming out just
Speaker 2: shy of seven billion, despite the release of that new
Speaker 2: iPad Pro and iPad Air models earlier this year. That
Speaker 2: new iPad Mini released this month unlikely to help materially.
Speaker 2: Mark Kerman also writing that the Mac came in with
Speaker 2: about one hundred million dollars annual revenue increase, meeting Wall
Speaker 2: Street estimates of seven point seven billion dollars. New Max
Speaker 2: released this week should help that product segment in the
Speaker 2: current quarter, and I want to go back to you.
Speaker 2: I know you've been diving into that ten Q speed
Speaker 2: reading it. What sticks out to you from there.
Speaker 3: Well, not the inventries. They're basically very similar to the
Speaker 3: same period a year ago. So I'm going to spend
Speaker 3: a bit more time pondering that. You know, a story
Speaker 3: of the megacaps so far in twenty twenty four has
Speaker 3: been sweetness for shareholders and this is more dry stuff.
Speaker 3: But you know that your audience on this show, whether
Speaker 3: they're listening or watching, there are so many different types
Speaker 3: of Apple investors out there where the role of a
Speaker 3: dividend or shareholder returns is really important. And so whatever's
Speaker 3: happening with any given products line or category, Remember this
Speaker 3: Apple is a cash machine twenty seven billion dollars of
Speaker 3: operating cash flow generated in the quarter. Hence they're able
Speaker 3: to return relatively the same twenty nine billion dollars back
Speaker 3: to investors. The differences is that in prior quarters, when
Speaker 3: we've seen a sweetener like a divvy or a boost
Speaker 3: into a buyback program, that's been a great thing for investors,
Speaker 3: they've responded positively. On EM's note, just then, the stock
Speaker 3: isn't really responding to that, right, there isn't some sort
Speaker 3: of relief in that sense, knowing that the bar too
Speaker 3: is high.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and you bring up a really good point that
Speaker 4: I know you said it's dry, but it's not as
Speaker 4: dry to me. I interview a lot of I know,
Speaker 4: full managers.
Speaker 2: This is a nice little mix for you.
Speaker 4: You know, people always talk about cash rich companies and
Speaker 4: how those kinds of companies are despite what the macro
Speaker 4: economic environment is doing. If you buy a large company
Speaker 4: that has a big, strong balance sheet, no matter what
Speaker 4: the FED does, no matter what other earnings do, you'll
Speaker 4: be safe. And I think that sentiment has really carried
Speaker 4: these mega tex stocks this year, all the volatility.
Speaker 3: It's important because again there's a badge of honor for
Speaker 3: many that comes with holding Apple stock, whether you're the
Speaker 3: smallest retail investor or the giant on Wall Street.
Speaker 1: That's been the case for so long.
Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, you have in
Speaker 3: the world of technology, two main operating systems for smartphones
Speaker 3: iOS and the iPhone, and then Android, where a number
Speaker 3: of handset makers are involved. And it comes back to
Speaker 3: what's happened to Apple, and the cores are just gone.
Speaker 3: It grew in every market around the world apart from
Speaker 3: one greater China. Tim's question is did the iPhone do
Speaker 3: great well? The question outstanding is as important as the
Speaker 3: data that we've related to the audiences we don't know.
Speaker 1: Let us answer the question on the call.
Speaker 3: The iPhone grow in China and all of these things
Speaker 3: investors take into account just as much as they do
Speaker 3: the sweeteners that have put before them.
Speaker 2: All Right, We're going to hear from Apple executives on
Speaker 2: the call a little later.
Speaker 4: ED.
Speaker 2: It's notable because it is I believe Luka Maistri's last
Speaker 2: earnings call at Apple. He's going to be passing the
Speaker 2: torch to his top deputy when the calendar turns to
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. Is that something that is meaningful to
Speaker 2: you in terms of how this There's not a lot
Speaker 2: of executive turnover at this company. These people have been
Speaker 2: there for years. Can text you like that for us?
Speaker 3: On the one hand, Kevan Perek, who's you're like right,
Speaker 3: his deputy and steps up to being CFO, is a
Speaker 3: known quantity because he's been there and this was telegraphed.
Speaker 3: But I've often posted in the Bloomberg Top Life blog
Speaker 3: it's the blog we run during these big moments that
Speaker 3: it's often my Strey rather than cook that gives you
Speaker 3: the information that we'd consider news. It is some more
Speaker 3: granular detail about performance of a specific product in a
Speaker 3: specific market, like iPhone in China. He is widely seen
Speaker 3: as being a master of the margin, right you think
Speaker 3: about it, talked about cash generation but the bottom line
Speaker 3: in general and Apple being a highly profitable company with
Speaker 3: just insane amounts of cash on the balance sheet. You know,
Speaker 3: Luke and Maistreet has been a big part of that story.
Speaker 3: Does can Correct have the same prowess in that field?
Speaker 3: It takes some quarters to find out, but you know,
Speaker 3: when you're a journalists and an investor, you become familiar
Speaker 3: with these names and you listen closely when they say
Speaker 3: things because you know that they choose their words with purpose.
Speaker 4: Ed.
Speaker 2: We're going to give you a break in just a minute.
Speaker 2: But last question to you is just give us the
Speaker 2: high level view of Apple for people who are just
Speaker 2: joining us right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, in the quarter, Apple posted sales that were about
Speaker 3: what everyone expected. They grew their sales in every geography
Speaker 3: around world world apart from China. An iPhone which is
Speaker 3: basically everything still for anyone that cares about Apple beat
Speaker 3: estimates overall, but there's a lingering question about how it's
Speaker 3: doing in China because it's such an important market. The
Speaker 3: next phase, or the forward looking bit, is the work
Speaker 3: they've done in AI. Working for them is a business
Speaker 3: because services revenue came in a bit light.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 3: Apple Intelligence is only just this week, last couple of
Speaker 3: days been rolling out in markets like North America. It
Speaker 3: is not available in the EU. It is not available
Speaker 3: in China. But some explanation because we don't have it
Speaker 3: in the release of how this amazing AI tech is
Speaker 3: going to drive growth for them in terms of sales
Speaker 3: and profit is probably the next logical thing to look at.
Speaker 2: D Love though, is the cohost of Bloomberg Technology on
Speaker 2: Bloomberg TV.