Technology, Capital Markets, Corporate Governance, Leadership, Entrepreneurship
Category: Media & Entertainment
IBM plans to spin off the Managed Infrastructure Services business within its Global Tech Services ("GTS") segment (approximately $19B TTM revenue through June 2020). Doing so will provide more air time to the acquired RedHat OpenShift (IBM's "Hybrid Cloud" strategy) and cognitive computing businesses. Post-spin, the growth in these businesses will make a greater revenue … Continue reading New IBM CEO Arvind Krishna Understands the Value of Spin-Offs
It is no great mystery as to how or why Google's Ad business is losing share to Amazon and Facebook. People are increasingly conducting product searches on Amazon and are entertaining themselves on Instagram. Thus, advertisers increasingly want to be on Amazon and Facebook. Video game platforms are another competitor Google should be concerned with … Continue reading Amazon and Facebook Are Killing Google’s Ad Biz One Bite at A Time
WarnerMedia ("WM") and AT&T (tkr: T), leadership teams should take note. WM/AT&T completely botched its summer movie release schedule, failing to adapt to the post-COVID reality. The company took the "wait-and-see" approach rather than controlling that which it could. The result? Market share lost to Netflix and DisneyPlus. WarnerMedia's summer tentpole film - Tenet - … Continue reading Muscles, Viruses, Nature and People Adapt. So Do The Best Leadership Teams.
Investors finally may be valuing Amazon as the AI-powered, massively-scaled, market-leading Technology company that it is. We could make the case that AWS and Amazon Prime combined are worth $1.5 trillion (a 20x revenue multiple applied to each). This valuation would imply that the "Retail" operation (ex-Prime), including Whole Foods, Amazon Go, Amazon Pharmacy, Amazon … Continue reading Perception Is Everything
COVID-19 is forcing people, companies and economies to adapt. Many companies have recalibrated their business models to better compete in this new COVID reality. We have yet to see one of America's great export industries - Hollywood - evolve to better capitalize on the current reality. Back in October 2019 we wrote that the future … Continue reading The Best CEOs Are Willing To Break With Tradition
Here is the full Excel workbook disclosure compiled by the Federal Reserve which lists the various issuers, sectors, cusips, coupons, maturity dates, par values, amortized costs and more for the fixed income securities the Federal Reserve has purchased. Among the securities purchased through June 16th, 48.1% were "AAA, AA and A" rated, 48.3% were "BBB" … Continue reading Federal Reserve Discloses Corporate Bond Purchases
Social media advertising revenue will likely take a prolonged hit as Ad buyers curb spending and in some cases go out of business Facebook (tkr: FB) and YouTube (tkr: GOOG) are best positioned to sustain a weak economic backdrop. Facebook is the dominant social media platform from a revenue standpoint and YouTube benefits from being … Continue reading Social Media Ad Revenue & the COVID Recession
Broadly-defined Financial Services and Healthcare are two giant, slow growth industries that could potentially kick start revenue growth by leveraging a variety of video and audio-based technologies. Financial Services & Insurance contributed $1.2 Trillion to GDP in Q1 2020 and Healthcare contributed $2.4 Trillion during the same period (table 1). Both industries are bogged down … Continue reading Financial Services & Healthcare – Sleeping Giants Ready to Awake?
Layoffs are not only taking place across the retail, restaurant, travel and hospitality industries. A number of other industries including the Technology industry have absorbed their fair share of layoffs as well. Some early-stage Technology companies are conserving cash by replacing cash compensation with equity. The list below includes approximately 60 companies (primarily Tech companies) … Continue reading Layoffs Have Extended Beyond Hotels and Restaurants
Disney's Parks business is preventing the "Content" side from realizing its full valuation potential. Look no further than Netflix as a proxy. Disney's (tkr: DIS), "Content" business is significant. "Parks" is large enough to stand on its own. A simple run rate calculation on Disney's December quarter "Content" Operating Income figure of $1.9 billion implies … Continue reading Disney Ought to Spin Off the Parks Business
