After quickly expanding to become the world's largest subscription based video streaming service, (excluding China) Netflix has faced little in the way of competition. Amazon's Prime video offering has come closest so far, but the company doesn't generate the large volumes of new content Netflix does. But now, HBO, a premium content company has declared war on Netflix's global prowess. To increase its audience around the world, HBO is creating more homegrown series in its foreign markets. These shows, at times, surpass even its flagship properties Game of Thrones and Westworld for … [Read more...]
How Many Times Can SpaceX Reuse a Rocket?
A new very of SpaceX's Falcon rocket, the 9 Block 5 is "designed to be capable of 10 or more flights with very limited refurbishment." The company is striving for "rapid reusability and extremely high reliability." Improvements in efficiency for rockets are paramount to making any commercial rocket program a success. In the past rockets were taxpayer funded, and therefore little attention was paid to the profitability of their operation. But with SpaceX and Blue Origin vying with traditional rocket builders like Boeing to become American alternatives to Russian launch operations, every … [Read more...]
Will These Gentle New Robots Replace Even More Employees?
For years the most delicate work has been reserved for human hands. Carefully picking items out in warehouses has been a growing place of employment for real live people as online retail has decimated service positions like cashiers and sales representatives. But now it appears robots may even be coming for the warehouse picking jobs. Soft Robotics is developing robots with "pliable grasp," capabilities that will enable the automatons to replace humans in an even greater number of tasks. Jennifer Smith reports: Soft Robotics Inc., which makes pliable grippers to pick up objects from pens … [Read more...]
Blue Origin’s New Shepard Soars
The crew capsule on the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket that blasted off on April 29 reached an apogee of 351,000 feet. The test was a successful reflight of the vehicle flown on Blue Origin's last mission. The team explained the launch in an email, writing: New Shepard flew again for the eighth time on April 29, 2018, from Blue Origin’s West Texas Launch Site. Known as Mission 8 (M8), the mission featured a reflight of the vehicle flown on Mission 7. The Crew Capsule reached an apogee of 351,000 feet (66 miles, 107 kilometers) – the altitude we’ve been targeting for operations. For the … [Read more...]
Billionaire Says Amazon Won’t Enter Drug Business
Julia La Roche reports at Yahoo Finance: Billionaire hedge fund manager Larry Robbins, the CEO of healthcare-focused Glenview Capital Management, seriously doubts that Amazon (AMZN) is going to get into the pharmaceutical business. “[We] don’t believe Amazon’s entry is imminent,” Robbins told a room of 3,000 investors at the Sohn Conference in New York on Monday. “We don’t think that it’s going to destroy the industry.” He added that some of the vertical integrations currently taking place between companies are “not reactive to Amazon.” Instead, they are “proactive to the … [Read more...]
Where’s the Value in Tech?
IBM reported quarterly results this week that weren’t to Wall Street’s liking. The company beat earnings estimates, but the Street didn’t care. As is often the case in the tech sector, Wall Street is more focused on financial metrics that don’t translate into shareholder value. Revenue growth is where the brokerage community tends to focus, but it is free cash flow, dividends, and share buybacks that create shareholder value. Over the last 12 months, IBM generated $14 billion in free cash flow, paid dividends of $5.6 billion, and repurchased $3.6 billion in stock. Today, IBM is trading at less … [Read more...]
Bearish Concerns on Netflix
Netflix reports earnings after the close today and the Street is looking for another blowout quarter in terms of subscriber growth. Even the bears expect strong numbers, but those street analysts who have the courage to think long-term (there’s only one or two) see challenges in the long-run. As Barron’s reports, the analyst from Webush sees changes in the competitive marketplace that could shake up subscriber loyalty. To wit: Changes in the competitive marketplace could shake up subscriber loyalty. “The combination of less content from Disney (DIS) (pulling the majority of its newer … [Read more...]
Is the Apple’s HomePod a Flop?
Bloomberg is reporting that the Apple HomePod, Apple’s response to the Amazon Echo, is off to a slow start. In the first 10 weeks of sales, the HomePod has about 10% of the smart speaker market. And much of those sales came upon initial release. Price likely has something to do with the speaker’s slow start. The HomePod is $200 more than most smart speakers. Unless you are an Apple fanboy, it may be difficult to justify the premium price for what is a basic speaker with an inferior voice assistant. At first, it looked like the HomePod might be a hit. Pre-orders were strong, and in the last … [Read more...]
Do Google and Facebook Have Bigger Problems than Privacy?
While battles rage in the U.S. and Europe over to what extent the big internet companies should be allowed to collect people's personal information and sell that information to advertisers and other end users, the companies may actually have a bigger problem. It turns out, the internet is a pretty boring place. Generation Z, i.e. the young people born between 1998 and 2010 (post-Millennials), have fallen out of love with the internet. The youngsters are bored like all kids have been in their day, but now they are "phone bored," as Taylor Lorenz calls it in The Daily Beast. Imagine if … [Read more...]
Should Mark Zuckerberg Lead One of America’s Largest Companies?
In the spirit of kicking somebody while he is down, check out the Facebook chart below. Facebook has been on the hot seat for a number of reasons, as you are likely aware. Chief among those reasons, but unsaid explicitly by the media, is that Facebook is responsible for the Donald Trump presidency. Take away the emotion of the issue and it is obviously far-fetched. But the recent Cambridge Analytica issue has provided more oxygen for the fire. Facebook’s response to the scrutiny has been embarrassing. Watch some of Zuckerberg’s CNN interview and ask yourself if this is a guy who should be … [Read more...]
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