Still a reprieve in name only. A series of US suppliers are soon to be granted licenses to supply Huawei but picking apart commentary from US officials over the last few weeks, it is clear that this will provide no relief whatsoever to Huawei’s current predicament. Bloomberg (see here) has conducted an interview with commerce secretary Wilbur Ross who made...
Engineering disease bill rises to $16bn. Doctor Porat has been able to do very little to treat Google’s chronic case of engineering disease (see here), the bill for which is about to rise to $16bn (hardware acquisitions minus divestments) and where the outlook remains very difficult. Fitbit has done what I always thought it would to do (see here) and...
Pinterest is back where it started. Pinterest has exactly the same problem that plagued both LINE and KakaoTalk in that users in the home country are very productive but overseas they are virtually worthless. This became clear in Pinterest’s Q3 19 results which missed expectations as the home market is slowing and international is not taking over the mantle of...
Big tech is just fine. Apple FQ4 19 – Accessories assemble Apple reported good FQ4 19 results as wearables and services offset a less than expected decline in iPhone shipments. FQ4 19 revenues / EPS were $64.0bn / $3.03 ahead of consensus forecasts of $62.9bn / $2.84. A 9% YoY decline in iPhone sales was offset by a 16% increase...
Grubhub clearly demonstrates a lack of barriers. Grubhub reported reasonable Q3 2019 results compared to already lowered expectations but took expectations even further down in a clear demonstration that there are no barriers in this brutal business. Grubhub Q3 19 revenues / EPS were $322.1m / $0.01 both below consensus of $330.0m / $0.02 but not enough to trigger the...
Google Q3 19, Another Softbank write-down, Huawei’s UK respite. Google Q3 19 – Core drives. The rest lags. Alphabet reported good Q3 19 results that were poorly received as cost pressure from Google Cloud roll-out and the strong US$ dented profitability. Q3 19A revenues / EPS were $40.5bn / $10.12 compared to consensus at $40.1bn / $12.46 with further profitability...
Better search but not assistant. Google is going to get even better at search which will improve its relevance with users and increase its dominance, but it won’t help in the struggle with Amazon for the smart home Google has announced the launch of a major revision to its search engine which sees it improve its relevance in the long...
Radio Free Mobile is taking a short break. Daily commentary will resume on October 28th.
Goodbye blue sky. Softbank needs to take a good hard look at its processes as the valuation that it is prepared to pay for WeWork has fallen by 83% in a matter of weeks despite no fundamental change in the business outlook for WeWork. Softbank looks set to bail out WeWork in a deal that will see it inject a...
Richard is founder, owner of research company, Radio Free Mobile. He has 16 years of experience working in sell side equity research. During his 11 year tenure at Nomura Securities, he focused on the equity coverage of the Global Technology sector.
Uber Q3 2019 – Edge of the woods
Uber is not quite out of the woods yet. I have been very negative on Uber since long before the IPO, but I think that the time has come to view the company is a somewhat more positive light. This is due to a combination of the current valuation, improving fundamentals (with caveats) and the increasingly negative sentiment both in...