Apple Metaverse – No choice.

Apple must address the Metaverse but not yet. According to the media chatter, Apple was supposed to release a Metaverse device this year, but I continue to think that this makes no sense at all before 2025 at the earliest. This is very likely to go hand-in-hand with its own version of the Metaverse creating yet another silo, which if...

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TikTok – No immunity.

AI can’t rescue this one. The general malaise in advertising is by no means limited to the big names as even TikTok which has gained a lot of market share in the last few years is feeling the pinch and has been cutting its estimates for 2022. TikTok’s original forecast made earlier this year was for revenues of $13.3bn but...

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Meta Platforms – Token gesture.

Zuckerberg throws his gadflies a bone. If Mr Zuckerberg really intends to cater to the interests of minority investors he should immediately realign his voting interest in the company with his economic interest as the cuts announced this week are not much more than a token gesture. Meta Platforms has announced that it will cut 11,000 employees in a move...

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Crypto – Coin crunch pt. III.

The crash continues The collapse of FTX is doing further damage to the now very fragile crypto proposition but I have no doubt that once the dust settles, blockchain & cryptocurrencies will survive as will Coinbase although I suspect that the shares still have further to fall. However, FTX is almost certainly worthless in yet another example of Softbank leading...

Renault, Qualcomm & Google – More GAS.

Renault finally lets Google off the leash. Renault has announced its new long-term strategy and for EVs, it is deepening its partnership with Google & Qualcomm which in my opinion is the first time that Google has managed to get proper traction. However, this will come at a cost to Renault because letting Google run the services in its vehicles...

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Palantir Q3 2022 – Value punishment

Palantir is punished for its high revenue multiple. Palantir reported reasonable results but a small FX-related adjustment to guidance sent the shares down 11% in an indication of just how nervous the market remains about companies that still have high short-term to medium-term valuations. Q3 2022 revenues / Adj-EPS were $477.9m / $0.01 in line with forecasts of $474.9m /...

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Crypto & Coinbase – Deep freeze.

Coinbase has further to fall. Cryptocurrencies have stabilised around current levels but activity in the space has declined greatly, meaning that exchanges and banks need to make the investment case on valuation which is something that Coinbase is still not able to do. Coinbase reported depressing Q3 22 results with revenues / EPS of $590.3m / LOSS$2.43 compared to forecasts...

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Qualcomm FQ4 22 – Opportunity incoming

The long-term scale tips in Qualcomm’s favour. A good set of results marred by a difficult outlook for FQ1 & FY 2023 also contained a few medium-term positives which were, as usual, completely ignored by the market which sent the shares down a further 6.8% in after-hours trading. This combined with a 2023 PER of 12.3x leads me to think...

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AMD & Sony Q3 2022 – The outliers.

AMD and Sony beat on company-specific issues. AMD Q3 2022 AMD met expectations and guided better than expected not because there has been a sudden bounce in demand but because it is taking market share which is a small positive sign in that the market itself may not be as bad as Intel implied. Q3 2022 revenues / Adj-EPS were...

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Corporate Governance – Caveat emptor pt. II.

Meta investors do not have a leg to stand on. Meta investors are starting to whine about the bad corporate governance practices at Meta as Mr Zuckerberg appears to be unwilling to revise his strategy, but the reality is that investors have no grounds whatsoever to make any complaints. The heart of this issue is that after a set of...