Technology, Capital Markets, Corporate Governance, Leadership, Entrepreneurship
Category: Leadership
FTC slaps Facebook on the wrist and levies $5B fine. Combining legacy Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. A grand product strategy or slick tactical move to avert regulators? Facebook only found religion as it relates to user privacy after the FTC threatened to break up the company into three separate entities - 1) legacy Facebook, 2) … Continue reading Checkmate. Facebook Wins.
It has leaked that semiconductor giant Broadcom (tkr: AVGO) is working to acquire CyberSecurity software company Symantec (tkr: SYMC). Semiconductor investors are not fans of the deal as AVGO shares have traded off 6% since the news leaked. Conversely, we like the prospective acquisition for a couple of reasons: First, Symantec’s recurring revenues will help … Continue reading We Applaud Creative M&A Strategies
Much was made of Apple's chief designer Jony Ive stepping down last week. Rightfully so. What does it mean when companies aren't led by domain experts? "He’s not just a designer. That’s why he works directly for me. He has more operational power than anyone else at Apple except me. There’s no one who can … Continue reading When Companies Aren’t Led by Experts
We are sometimes critical of CEO compensation packages, yet we are first to admit that CEOs have an outsized influence on the future prospects of companies large and small. This is particularly true of fast-moving industries such as technology where having the correct CEO in place may mean catching the latest technology wave - cloud, … Continue reading CEOs – The Most Undervalued Investment Variable
Mark Zuckerberg does not trust his people. Facebook is a great example of a company that has lost its way as founder CEO Mark Zuckerberg increasingly exercises control over product decisions. Tightening control. It is difficult to fault Zuckerberg for tightening his grip on Facebook's strategic reins in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. … Continue reading In Zuck We Trust?
Apple will have a new CEO within 5 years. You may thank Apple CEO Tim Cook and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Microsoft shares flat-lined from 2001 to 2013 during a series of flubs including being late to the Internet, late to mobile, late to the cloud, late to AI, slow to capitalize on the … Continue reading Apple Will Have A New CEO Within 5 YearsPremium
From Chat bots to Ambient AI. Cloud-based AI and Machine Learning technology is readily available. Large technology platform companies such as Amazon (Alexa), Google and Microsoft (Azure), encourage third-party developers to build applications and services on top of their core AI and Machine Learning platforms. This enables developers to focus resources on building value through … Continue reading How AI Will Conquer Financial Services
We pulled a list of the top CEOs from our CEORater platform as measured by our "CRScore". The CRScore is a crowdsourced score based upon user reviews at CEORater.com. CEOs are scored on a scale of 0-100, 100 being the best. Users "review" CEOs by posting comments, allocating a Thumbs Up or Down, and by … Continue reading CEORater’s Top CEOs
Some companies execute smart, strategic acquisitions better than others. Here’s a short list of publicly-traded FinTech & Info Services companies that do M&A well: CoStar Group (tkr: CSGP), Intercontinental Exchange (tkr: ICE), IHS Markit (tkr: INFO) SS&C Technologies (tkr: SSNC) and Verisk (tkr: VRSK). Click Here for Revenue, EBITDA and related metrics. We love FinTech … Continue reading Build. Acquire. Repeat.
BB&T announced that it plans to acquire SunTrust primarily in an effort to scale its technology capability such that it may deliver more on-demand services to customers. This is a corporate governance issue. You simply DO NOT have the luxury to wait for Payments upstarts like Square (tkr: SQ) to capture a $30B-plus valuation ($40B-plus … Continue reading Too Little Too Late. BB&T & SunTrust.Premium
