Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, August 4

• Tesla misses Q2 earnings, delivers 14,402 vehicles: Tesla missed its Q2 earnings targets today in a report released after the close of the market. Tesla executives are not wavering on yearly targets, despite a slower than expected quarter. All of this comes amidst a seemingly never-ending wave of Tesla headlines dominating Silicon Valley over the last few weeks. The energy company born out of an automobile company reported non-GAAP Q2 revenue of $1.56 billion up from last year’s Q2 revenue of $1.2 billion. The company came close but ultimately missed analyst estimates of $1.6 billion. Tesla closed down 0.62 percent today at $225.79. After the news was released, Tesla shares moved up almost instantly in after-hours trading after the news dropped but have been fluctuating up and down by 2 percent since.Wall Street analysts expected an adjusted net loss of $52 cents a share but found themselves with a worse than expected loss of $1.06 per share. Tesla delivered 14,402 new vehicles consisting of 9,764 Model S and 4,638 Model X in Q2, slightly ahead of last month’s estimates. Tesla had originally aimed to deliver 80,000 vehicles by the end of the year. It is growing tougher by the day for the company to hit that goal. On the bright side, the company noted that almost half of Q2 production occurred in the final four weeks of the quarter. Moreover, Tesla had an additional 5,000 cars in transit at the quarter end on their way to be delivered.

• Why it makes sense for Walmart to buy Jet.com — even for $3 billion: Walmart missed out on a Marc Lore company once, when Amazon swooped in to beat it to the purchase of Diapers.com’s parent company several years back. The giant retailer may not let it happen again. Walmart is in talks to acquire Jet.com, Lore’s new startup that has raised more than $800 million in financing in an attempt to build a new online megastore, according to a person familiar with the talks. It is not clear how far along they are. News of the talks was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, which said the tie-up could value Jet at as much as $3 billion. A Walmart spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. A Jet spokesman declined to comment. A $3 billion price tag would be a steep one for Walmart, considering that Jet is largely still unproven and burning more than $20 million a month on advertising alone. A deal would also certainly not be what Lore had in mind when he set out to build a legitimate competitor to Amazon, Walmart and others after his non-compete agreement with the Seattle-based retailer expired two years ago. But it would be a marriage of necessity for both sides, and one that probably makes too much sense not to happen. On the Walmart side, its e-commerce efforts have largely been viewed as a failure in recent years for a retailer of its size and power. Annual revenue for the division is around $14 billion, compared to $99 billion for Amazon, excluding Amazon’s AWS cloud computing unit.Five years ago, it would have seemed possible, but unlikely, that Walmart could catch up with Amazon. Today, that notion is laughable.For Lore and Jet, the deal would be something of a shocker. Lore pocketed dozens of millions of dollars when he sold Diapers.com to Amazon so he doesn’t exactly need the money. That’s one of the reasons his backers believed him when he said his goal was to build a company worth tens of billions. But the hurdles to get there have been significant from the start and perhaps even larger than Lore imagined. Jet only really works long-term as a standalone company if it can convince millions of people to order multiple items at a time to earn discounts; individual product prices aren’t typically better than its competitors.

• Dorsey's Square reports 41.5 percent jump in quarterly revenue: Mobile payments company Square Inc on Wednesday reported a 41.5 percent jump in revenue and diminishing losses as more large merchants make sales using Square's technology, a sign the company has moved beyond serving only pop-up shops and food trucks.Square stock was up more than 14 percent to about $12 in after-hours trading following the second-quarter earnings call. The price at closing bell was $10.44. Square's revenue reached $438.5 million, up 41.5 percent from its earnings of $310.0 million a year earlier. It processed $12.5 billion in payments, up 42 percent from a year ago, mostly due to new and larger retailers using Square, the company said. About 42 percent of total payments is coming from larger retailers, signaling a dramatic transition for Square. The company started seven years ago as a card reader that turns a mobile phone into a payment terminal, and was sold primarily to pop-up stores, coffee shops, food trucks and other small merchants that couldn't afford elaborate payment systems.Square, which went public in November, has expanded to offer an array of services for businesses such as point-of-sale registers, invoice software and loans. Square Capital, the loan program, saw a 123 percent increase over last year, with $189 million in loans made to businesses. Square added five investors to the program, which will provide capital for additional borrowers, said Sarah Friar, Square chief financial officer. About 90 percent of borrowers renew their loans.Friar said Square's familiarity with borrowers - the company lends to merchants it has already done business with - and the low cost of the program distinguishes it from other lenders.Still, the company is not profitable. Its losses narrowed to $27.3 million from $29.6 million during the same period last year.