This past earnings cycle in tech land was a doozy. Among the five traditional Big Tech firms, the average stock price magnitude change in the trading day that followed earnings was 13 percentage points. For public giants measured in the trillions of dollars of market capitalization, that kind of share price movement is unusual. Such dramatic one-day moves only tell part of the story. Leading up to…
Some days, I find myself super perplexed by Meta’s business. The company has what may be one of the most fascinating and value-add content delivery apparatuses the world has ever seen. There are other days when Meta’s business strikes me as a stain on society, an addiction-inducing slop machine representing grave harm for users. How can one company fuel such opposing attitudes? The answer is found…
Over the Fourth of July weekend, I did something that I hadn’t done in years: visit a shoe store – one of those massive shoe emporiums in a retrofitted space previously belonging to a now bankrupt retailer. The store’s entire inventory, consisting of thousands of shoes, was positioned on the showroom floor, viewable to the public. It was an enlightening experience to see firsthand how dramatically…
It’s been years since I last wrote about Roku. The lack of discussion reflected the company having lost relevancy in video streaming despite reporting continued growth in customers and watch time. Thanks to Fox’s $22 billion acquisition offer for Roku, founder and CEO Anthony Wood received an honorable discharge from the market with some dignity intact. The deal total is a far cry, however from…
Last month, Rivian’s software chief did some press to talk up the company’s AI assistant. It was some of the worst PR to hit my radar in quite a long time. Rivian yet again allowed its controversial CarPlay stance to lead headlines, and its agentic AI vision didn’t make sense. The company positioning Rivian as an agentic vehicle tells me that it does not know where its next marginal customer will…
It may have seemed innocent enough. Google showcased two iPhones (and a Mac) on stage during the keynote at its largest developer conference of the year. The devices were used to demo various Google AI features working on popular Apple devices. Industry observers and analysts were quick to downplay Google’s decision to elevate Apple hardware at Google I/O. Google was said to be smart to highlight…
As expected, social media is ablaze with Berkshire Hathaway’s latest 13F filing, the first to be released with Greg Abel as CEO. The various buy and sell decisions overseen by Warren Buffett’s successor were always going to be put under a microscope as the market debates Abel’s skill as a stock picker. The 13F wasn’t short of drama. When examining Abel’s background, strengths, and weaknesses, as…
Both Netflix and Spotify deserve close monitoring. From Wall Street’s perspective, something is wrong with the companies. On a combined basis, Netflix’s and Spotify’s market caps have declined by 35% or $250 billion from peak levels. The move especially stands out relative to continued momentum that has flowed to Big Tech companies. Wall Street trading behavior rarely tells the full story as the…
Prior to OpenAI acquiring TBPN for approximately $100 million, there had been something about the podcasts, newsletters, and livecasts comprising new media that wasn’t sitting right with me. It increasingly felt like some of the prevailing assumptions underpinning new media’s growth over the past decade had been a mirage. There is now a side to new media that once seen, can’t be unseen, and it’s…
OpenAI is spooked. Thanks to Anthropic grabbing a series of business, financial, and product wins along with the need to improve finances ahead of an IPO, OpenAI has been making one change after another in a bid to clean up house. The latest move, acquiring TBPN, is a Hail Mary pass that strikes me as having low odds of succeeding. OpenAI is looking for a way to reach consumers, and they think two…
Three years into AI mania, things continue to be volatile. The items capturing buzz continue to evolve while consumers are looking at AI with increasingly divergent viewpoints. Consider the following AI developments that have been on my radar: Chatbot platform craze has cooled. Efforts to turn chatbots into new-age digital platforms are not going as smoothly as some companies planned. The idea of…
For the past 10 days, an all-new $599 MacBook has captivated the tech press. A laptop grabbing so much attention in 2026 probably wasn’t on too many prediction lists. The situation may lead people to wonder if we are seeing something of a laptop renewal or even renaissance. Such an assertion doesn’t sit right with me. After spending some time with MacBook Neo, the takeaway isn’t that the laptop is…
Although we are only three months into 2026, this is shaping up to be a good year for Anthropic. The company can count a number of business, product, and branding wins that will be valuable in pursuing an IPO. At the heart of this development is a company willing to put aside near-term revenue generation in order to stand for something. It’s a trait that is increasingly not talked about enough or…
Over the past few years, a periodic topic that we have talked about in these essays has revolved around Wall Street’s evolving attitude to AI mania. On again, off again jitters found with AI-related capital expenditures (capex) in 2023 and 2024 led to an attempt to separate perceived AI winners from losers in the back half of 2025. While this winners versus losers mentality still stands as certain…
Last week, the NYT published a bombshell of a report that alleged Meta was looking to add facial recognition to its Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses while civil liberty groups were preoccupied with “the political tumult in the United States.” The report also alluded to Meta possibly using accessibility as a guise to avoid backlash found with facial recognition. If the reporting is accurate, it’s bottom…
Earlier this week, Ferrari took the wraps off the first byproduct of its multi-year partnership with LoveFrom, Jony Ive’s and Marc Newson’s design consultancy. In a well-orchestrated unveiling in San Francisco, catering to both tech and auto reporters, the two companies showed off the LoveFrom-designed interior of the upcoming Ferrari Luce. The auto manufacturers’ first electric car, which still…
SpaceX acquiring xAI may not seem related to Anthropic unveiling a controversial Super Bowl ad. However, the two developments this week speak to a financial race that is unfolding with the finish line being successful IPOs. Anthropic unveiled a series of Claude commercials designed to throw shade against OpenAI and its recent decision to brings ads to ChatGPT. The four commercials, part of the…
Earlier this week, Tesla released quarterly earnings. Instead of any specific number grabbing headlines, there was one line from Elon Musk on the Tesla earnings call that made waves. Tesla will be discontinuing both the Model S and Model X. The Model S put Tesla on the map prior to the Model 3, offering the longest range out of any Tesla vehicle. The Model X has been Tesla’s genuine SUV offering.…
Last week, Meta announced it was laying off 10% of employees in its Reality Labs division, which is home to the company’s VR/AR/MR/HW pursuits. The layoffs were aimed at VR: Quest headsets, Horizon Worlds / metaverse experiences, and first-party VR game studios. Not surprisingly, the news did not go over well within the VR community, which framed the layoffs as a doomsday scenario for the VR…
If someone said ten years ago that Barnes & Noble, the U.S. book seller, would experience a resurgence in the mid-2020s, few would believe the prediction. And yet, Barnes & Noble is doing just that by opening dozens of stores a year, defying consensus expectations of a there being a retail desert drained of water by Amazon. Thanks to a multi-year expansion, the number of Barnes & Noble stores…