Magic Leap & Seagate – Open and closed.

Seagate fares well while Magic Leap all but closes.  Magic Leap – Shattered dreams Magic Leap has all but shut up shop and given that its IP has already been pledged to JP Morgan as collateral for its debts (see here), it will remain expensive to acquire even if the acquirer pays $0 for the shares. Magic Leap is using...

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Netflix & Snap Q1 2020 – Night of surprise.

Snap is the biggest surprise of the night.  Netflix Q1 2020 Netflix added far more subscribers in Asia and Europe than expected but this did not translate into extra revenue as these subscribers were predominantly in lower-priced countries where the strength of the dollar has impacted net revenue to Netflix. Q1 2020 revenues / EPS were $5.77bn / $1.57 disappointing...

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Alibaba & The cloud – The leading indicator

The cloud theme likely to stay despite a return to work.  Alibaba is doubling its investments in the cloud following the pandemic in China in a clear sign that the acceleration of cloud usage is a trend that is here to stay. The shift towards cloud computing has been a steady secular trend over the last several years but the...

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Q1 2020 reports – COVID-19 data points

The first view of the lockdown starts this week.  The most important reporting season for many years is about to begin in earnest giving the first concrete idea of how the current pandemic and the economic knock-on effect is going to affect the technology sector. Listed below are some of the key companies reporting this week and what I expect...

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TSMC Q1 2020 – Defying gravity

Too many moving pieces for a clear picture.  TSMC reported excellent results as smartphone orders remained resilient and a boost in demand for servers, PCs and office equipment pushed the numbers ahead of expectations. However, the company was cautious on its guidance meaning that there are other factors at play in the heavily disrupted supply chain that has meant that...

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Google – Cloak and dagger

Google issues a closet profit warning. Google has effectively warned the market that 2020 is going to be rough by freezing hiring in another sign that its customers, the advertisers, have slashed spending meaning lower revenues and profits for Google. Sundar Pichai, CEO emailed Google employees (and the world (see here)) saying that the time has come to “significantly slow...

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Netflix – The addition game

Netflix needs subscribers. Netflix is being hailed as one of the lockdown winners and while usage of the service has probably jumped 30% or more in the last quarter, Netflix needs to add subscribers to increase revenues and justify its recent rally. RFM research has found that most of the digital ecosystem will not benefit from the pandemic induced lockdown...

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SoftBank – Viral pin.

SoftBank will emerge better and stronger. It is the realisation it overpaid for many of its portfolio investments that is causing SoftBank so much difficulty at the moment which I think will lead to a complete re-writing of its investment process for the better. SoftBank has revealed that it expects to write down some assets in its Vision Fund by...

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Research Event – COVID-19 Webinar – Impact on the economy, technology sector & share prices

Radio Free Mobile is running a series of webinars for its subscription clients to present what it sees as the issues an outcomes resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Richard founded RFM after spending 20 years in investment banking as a technology lead analyst. Richard also gained a PhD in molecular immunology at University College London providing the foundation for a...

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Zoom Video Communications – Harsh Limelight

Short-term issues mask long-term promise.  Zoom has been thrust into the limelight due to the current pandemic and as a result, its shortcomings (typical for any young company), it has lost customers which masks its long term potential. RFM is a subscriber to Zoom’s professional service and regularly uses all of the other systems with its clients as the nature...