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kylos · 5 years ago

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Finding high quality film/tv rips, saving the large files, and screencapping them are half the battle for gifmakers when setting out to make a gifset. Here’s a little guide on this process, including my advice on

Where to download stuff

Where to store your movies/shows

Screencapping programs

Making gifs as HQ as possible, including tips for picking out what to download when you have multiple options (not all 1080p rips of the same movie or tv episode are the same quality and I explain why)

Why screencaps of 4k movies can look weird and washed out and how to fix that

and more

✨ You can find my gifmaking 101 tutorial here and the rest of my tutorials here.

Where can I download movies and shows?

First off, I prefer direct downloading rather than torrenting stuff because it’s faster and with torrenting, there’s more of a risk. Other people downloading the same torrent can see your IP address. This means movie studios can find out you’re downloading their content and can send you a warning letter. The download speed also varies depending on how many other people are seeding it. I would only do it if it’s your only option and you have a VPN or something.

This is THE best guide for pirating I’ve ever seen. I use it for finding sites for books, music, you name it. The part of the guide you’d want to look at is where it says Direct Downloads Link (DDL) sites. My favorite place is Snahp. These ddl sites will have links to their movie/tv rips that are typically hosted on one of these two sites: google drive or mega.nz. You can download stuff from both of those sites for free, but with mega, they have a 5GB file download limit unless you have a premium account. I personally pay the $5 a month membership for mega because it’s worth it imo. You can buy a subscription through the mega app found on the iphone app store (so you’re billed through apple and it’s less scary than giving a random site your credit card info lmao) and as for androids I think mega has an app on there too.

So basically, if you go to http://snahp.it, they’ll have rips for different movies and shows.

You click on the movie title and it’ll take you to a page where they have links for the video which they have uploaded on a variety of sites (including mega).

How do I make my gifs as HQ as possible?

It’s best to gif things that are 1080p. And usually the higher the file size, the better. A really important thing to note is that not all 1080p bluray rips are the same. The piracy groups that rip these files take uncompressed .mkv rips from discs that are anywhere from 10gb to like 50gb, and then run that through video converters to compress the file down so that they’re 2-8gb. Sometimes when that happens, the video quality goes down a LOT. The same goes for TV episodes. One rip could be 800mb, the other could be 3gb and both could claim to be “1080p” but the quality would be NOTICEABLY different. Your best bet is to always pick the rip with the highest file size.

I’ll show you an example with this scene from You’ve Got Mail.

I downloaded 2 different 1080p rip versions of the film. Both claim to be 1080p, but one is 2.41 GB and the other is 9.75 GB. After taking screencaps, it’s obvious that there’s a BIG difference in quality.

(these pictures are best viewed on desktop tumblr)

When it comes to Blu-ray rips, download remux versions of films and shows if possible. Remux means .mkv files that are uncompressed and straight from a Blu-Ray disc. Giffing remux rips cuts down on the possibility of seeing pixel-y effects a LOT in my experience. It’ll take a bit longer to download than typical 1080p rips but it’s worth it imo.

For TV episodes, if you can’t find a Blu-Ray rip, uploads with the word AMZN in it are usually the highest quality and your best bet (unless you see another upload that’s higher in file size - again: always try to pick the highest file size). 'AMZN’ means they’re from a person that ripped the episode from Amazon Prime Video.

Also, even better than 1080p is 4k (2160p). I only really recommend this though if you know you’re going to gif something up close and crop it a lot - like if it’s a big 540x540px close-up gif of a person. You’ll REALLY see the difference if it’s a 1080p vs 4k rip in that situation. I usually don’t bother with giffing 4k files unless it’s the case above because my laptop lags when taking 4k screencaps and it takes longer to load them into photoshop (4k screencaps are usually about 60mb each!)

⭐️ Another thing that’s important is making sure that when you actually make your gifs, you set them to the correct speed (.05 for movies and most shows, and .04 sometimes for reality tv and live broadcasts). Here’s my gif speed guide. Having the right gif speed is really important for making a gifset HQ. You don’t want it to look too slow or too fast.

What’s your favorite video player to take screenshots with?

MPV player, hands down. And I’ve tried a TON of programs over the years. I’ve tried KMPlayer and found that it added duplicate frames (and even missing frames) which is horrible, and I’ve tried GomPlayer which is.....I’m just gonna say it, I’m not the biggest fan of it. It’s a little overly complicated in my opinion and it has ads. If you like these programs, more power to you! Use whatever you’re comfortable using. I just like MPV the most because it doesn’t have ads, it’s simple, you can take sequential screencaps with a keyboard shortcut, and it can play 4k movies.

Screencaps I take of 4k 2160p movies look so dull and washed out, like the colors aren’t right. Why is that?

That’s because your computer can’t handle HDR 4k video files. It probably can handle SDR 4k video files, but unfortunately, 99% of 4k rips out there are HDR.

[picture source]

Now, HDR displays just fine on computers that have 4k-HDR capabilities, but most older computers don’t have this ability. Having said that, MPV - the video player I mentioned above can take a 4K-HDR video and fix the colors/lighting in real time so it displays correctly AND take screenshots of it with the fixed colors. If you have an older version of MPV, make sure you download the newest update for this. In my general gifmaking tutorial, there’s a portion on how to install this program on macs. I also just made a video tutorial on how to install it on pcs here!

High quality TV and Movie rips can take up a LOT of space on my computer. Where do you store your files?

I store them on external hard drives. External hard drives are like flash drives but they have a MUCH higher storage capacity. You just plug them into your computer via a usb cord when you need access to the files and it’s that easy. I have two of these Seagate 4TB hard drives in different colors so I can easily pick out whichever one I need. I have silver for my movies (because it makes me think of “silver screen” lmao and it’s easier for me to remember) and then I just have a blue for shows. Now, external hard drives of this size can be $$$$ but it’s worth it imo. Look out for when they’re on sale.

What’s the size limit for gifs now?

It’s 10mb! It used to be 3mb and then last year Tumblr upped it to 5mb. Some gifs initially had distortion because of Tumblr’s switch from the .gif to .gifv format, but they’ve fixed the problem AND increased the upload limit to 10mb. Just make sure not to add any lossy to a gif.

Lossy is basically a grain you can add to a gif to lower the file size down. Gifmakers (including myself) used to use this as a trick to get the file size down under 3mb. However, since the .gifv update on Tumblr, any gifs with Lossy added will look distorted like it’s a gif made on a phone app or something.

_________________________________

That’s it for this guide! Again, feel free to check out my other tutorials on photoshop, how to center subtitles, download hq movie trailers, and more ✌️

UPDATE 6/23/20 ⚠️

I’ve gotten an ask about this problem 3 times since I’ve uploaded this tutorial, so I thought I’d add this in. If you are experiencing duplicate and/or missing frames in mpv, it is a glitch with the latest version of mpv. download an older version like 0.29.0. this happened to me on my mac and downloading an older version fixed the problem.

#giffing tutorial #gifmaking #tutorial #mine:tutorial #*

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ghooolish · 3 years ago

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alternative places to buy books instead of amaz*n

edited: removing abebooks from this list because i've been informed it's an amzn subsidiary. thanks!

i apologize in advance, these sources are generally best for people looking for books in the U.S. and not outside of it. this is by no means a comprehensive list; please feel free to add onto this list, especially if you know of places that cater to customers outside of the U.S.

used books

- thriftbooks (used and new, ships outside of U.S. at higher cost): you can usually get used popular books here for under $10 and they'll generally come in very good shape. for U.S. domestic orders, shipping is free for orders $10 or more, and only $0.99 for anything under. this was one of my favorite places to buy books for class when I was in college. they also have a points reward system, so every purchase gets you a certain amount of points, and if you earn enough, you get a $5 credit, which is generally enough to get you a free book.

- goodwill books (used, only operates in the U.S.): rather than aimlessly searching shelves in a physical store, goodwill has an online database that sells games, movies, and music in addition to books. free standard shipping on all orders, but shipping can take a while depending on where your order is coming from. it depends on what you're looking for, but books will generally be very cheap. i almost paid $50 for a book before finding it here for $10, and it came in near-perfect condition.

- abebooks (new and used, ships to many different locations): in addition to new and used books, this might also be a good resources for students to find cheap(er) textbooks. you also have the option to sell your textbooks back to them when you're done.

- bookmooch (a bartering system for used books, good for non-English texts, works worldwide): i haven't personally used this one, so this is just what i know from online information, but instead of buying books, there's a point system that allows you to give away and receive books. you list which books you own and want to give away, then someone can request that book from you. you ship it out to them and pay shipping fees (the only money you'll spend) and then gain points, allowing you to request books from others.

- bookoff (used, physical store, locations only in U.S.): their online store is only for buying anime figures and manga, but if you have a location near you like i do, i suggest you go there! unfortunately, the majority of them are in California, but they have a $1 section, where i've gotten a lot of good books. they also sell movies, music, video games, video game consoles, used electronics, and one time i randomly got a set of rubber stamps there.

new books

- bookshop (ships to U.K., Spain, and U.S.): an online bookstore meant to support independent bookstores by dedicating a certain portion of their profits to helping independent bookstores and providing a platform to connect you to independent booksellers . their "find a bookstore" feature is my favorite because they'll recommend you independent booksellers in your area and you can avoid the shipping costs and wait.

- indiebound: similar to bookshop except you can't buy directly from this website, but what it does is connect you to local booksellers based on your location and you can buy directly from their websites or go in person.

- just buy from indie shops' websites if they have one

other ways to get books

- this generally won't work with big publishers, but if the book's publisher is small enough, you can buy it directly from them

- just check for shops you can go to in your area!

- i know this is meant to be a resource for buying books, but also just borrow! borrow books from your local library or get them electronically. you can get access and borrow ebooks from your library using the mobile app Libby, and you don't need a kindle to read the books on, you can read directly from the app.

- if your library doesn't have the book you want, you can sometimes request an order. or you can do an inter-library loan, where your library will request it from another library system, though there might be a fee of a couple dollars.

- my final note. there is no need to buy the Twilight series new. every single used bookstore i've gone to has had multiple copies of the entire series for, like, a dollar for each book. i am generally very big on supporting authors because their income is nowhere near as glamorous as actors or directors, but SM will be fine. whatever you were willing to spend on the books, just donate that to moving the Quileute nation to higher ground

#bookblr #litblr #english major #studyblr #reading #books #literature #this is the culmination of my efforts not to buy from amaz*n as an english major who had to buy so many books #but this is also motivated by me seeing massive book hauls on bookstagram that came straight from amaz*n #i just think if you have the means to spend large sums of money on books in one go #you can be a bit more conscious about who you're supporting with your purchases #namely not someone like j*ff b*zos who is a real-life villain #i also have a list of g**dreads alternatives that i want to share #bye and thanks for this callout

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thesevillereport · 4 years ago

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In Focus: GameStop

There may be no better feeling for a business owner than seeing a large demographic start to shift in your favor. For example, a company that specializes in faux fur or faux leather couches had to be excited when more of the society started to care about the treatment of animals and nature. Chipotle's market value increased as more Americans became health conscious, and began to question and analyze what they ate.

For video game companies the numbers started to look really really good in the early 2000s. At that time, a population of people who started playing video games on the Nintendo Entertainment System back in the 80s were beginning to graduate college and enter the "real world." A good portion of that generation, Generation X, still played video games, and now they were going to be able to financially support their own gaming habits. No more relying on mom and dad for games.

This was going to be a huge windfall of profits for gaming companies. My self for instance, by the mid 2000s, I could comfortably afford to purchase a few brand new games a month, and maybe more if I decided to cut back on something. Gaming companies were looking forward to this, and it's continued growth as more young adults stayed connected to gaming. GameStop (GME)

created a hiccup in the grand plan of the gaming companies by allowing gamers to buy and trade pre-owned games.

If you aren't aware of how it works, a customer walks into GameStop a week or two after a game is released, and asks for that game title, the GameStop employee by default sells them a pre-owned version of that game, unless the customer specifically requests a new game.

Through GameStop, brand new games were bought, played, and then sold back to GameStop. GameStop would then resell the game for a profit to another gamer, and the gaming companies only saw money from the first sale of their brand new game. To couple insult with injury, for game titles that were really in demand, GameStop would sell those used titles for only slightly less than the cost of a brand new copy.

GameStop circumvented billions of dollars from gaming manufacturers. Instead of someone like me buying two new games a month, I was often buying two used games a month, and only buying a new game when I was compelled to play a game right away, which wasn't often, because the real world left me with little time for gaming.

Operation Get Them The F*ck Out of Here

By the late 2000s and early 2010s the gaming companies had had enough of GameStop. As the Xbox One and PS4 were in the works, one of the issues both Microsoft (MSFT) and Sony (SNE) took on together was how to stop or slow the pre-owned game market.

The easy answer was to stop producing physical games, and instead just make everything digital. That ideal at the time would have mimicked the music industry, which had seen CDs all but disappear, but video games are much larger files than a full length Jay-Z album, and digital storage was getting cheaper, but it wasn't cheap at that time. Also, the internet infrastructure was still sketchy in many places around the world, and not everyone had access to high speed internet. A full game download over a bad internet connection could take hours to complete.

Microsoft flirted with an idea of a digital lock that would bound one game to one system, making it impossible for the game to be played on any other system after it was played on and matched to its host system.

Essentially, the GameStop problem was solved by gaming companies creating downloadable content or DLC. Now gaming companies sell to consumers what they say is a completed game, but then charges the consumer to make character upgrades or obtain tools that can make the game play easier or more fun. DLCs are purchased while playing the game, and have allowed game companies to get even more money out of consumers ($60 to purchase the game, and then more money spent on DLC), and it's caused gamers to keep games longer, because DLCs can extend the life of a game by adding difference levels and challenges, which again, the gamer has to pay for to access.

In addition to the DLC, the rise of smartphone gaming has been a thorn in the side of GameStop. Also, digital space is now the cheapest it's ever been, making digitally distributed games an option for gamers. Both Sony and Microsoft's newest consoles come in versions especially made for digitally distributed games. In these models, there is no CD drive to insert a physical game.

DLC, mobile gaming, and digitally distributed games together has been able severely hurt GameStop's stock price. In late 2013 the stock was trading above $55 per share, and it entered 2020 trading at under $6 per share, an 89% drop in a little over six years.

GameStop 2021

Today it appears GameStop's stock has gotten it's swagger back. The stock closed last week at $65.01, it even halted trading on Friday January 22, 2021 due to the volatility in the stock. Traders ran the stock up to as high as $77 per share on the day.

The GameStop's hype started last summer when Chewy (CHWY) co-founder Ryan Cohen's investment firm RC Ventures bought a 9% stake in GameStop. In the past week Cohen secured a board seat at GameStop, which played a big part in the week long rally in GameStop's stock.

Cohen helped build Chewy into a real player in the pet care space, which prompted PetSmart to acquire the company for over $3 billion. Investors are looking to Cohen to do it again, but this time with GameStop.

There's also a massive short squeeze that played out, that also contributed to the rocket-like rise in GameStop's stock price. The short squeeze occurred when investors who were short GameStop had to buy the stock to cover their positions as the stock price started increasing. The rapid buying of GME by short sellers to cut losses or prevent bigger losses helped to drive the stock price higher. A Barron's article suggests that GameStop short sellers have lost nearly $3 billion betting against the stock in 2021, ouch.

My Concern

My concern about the newfound love for GameStop centers around the company's problem, and what investors believe is GameStop's problem. Chewy has been applauded for its ability to survive against Amazon (AMZN)

(It's too early to say they've beaten Amazon). Because GameStop is considered a brick-and-mortar retailer, I believe investors see Amazon as the problem, which is understandable because Amazon is the problem for most brick-and-mortar retailers. Unfortunately, Amazon is not GameStop's biggest problem, and I say unfortunately because GameStop's problem is much bigger.

GameStop is disliked by the gaming industry. They're the partner none of the other partners care for. EA, Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft, TakeTwo, Activision, they all win big with GameStop gone. With GameStop as we know it now gone, the plan I discussed earlier goes back into motion, and video game playing adults are back to buying new games all of the time, with a few going to eBay for pre-owned games. How does Cohen and his firm fix this issue?

Personally I'm out on this one, I'll watch it all play out from the sidelines. We won big shorting GameStop back in 2017, but I'm not ready to short it here. Investors should beware here at $65 per share. If you believe you see a solid pathway towards success for GameStop, and you believe that pathway leads to the company being worth more than $4 billion, then by all means, invest a way. To me, at this price level, it feels that the best possible plans for GameStop have already been incorporated into the stock price, not leaving much value to invest in at this time.

#stocks #Investing #GameStop #Gaming #VideoGames #Money #StockMarket #WallStreet #eSports

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kiwitrader24 · 6 years ago

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Using Closing High/Closing Low To Signal Continuation or Exhaustion

This article comes at a time where we have just finished trading January week 3, 2019. We have a long string of green candles on our daily chart. All are wondering, when can I buy puts and not see them decay so quickly? Something we can look for to answer this, is a continuation pattern in the form of daily closing highs, or an exhaustion pattern in the form of failing to make a higher daily closing high. As we make new intraday highs that are meaningful, like right now we are making new 2019 highs each day, we have to see a higher daily closing high to go with it. IF we make a new intraday high for 2019 and then sell off at the end of the day to close below the previous closing high, that is the exhaustion signal. We can usually count on a pullback of 1% off the intraday (2019) high. We might see quite a bit more, but 1% is good starting point.

METHOD Mark off the daily closing high on what you are trading in an uptrend, be it SPX, AMZN, NFLX, whatever. That becomes your benchmark. Watch for that level to HOLD or NOT on a closing basis. BE aware of that level if price moves well away from it, only to see it head fake you and come trading back to close below it, or hold above it.

The same thing can be used in an ongoing downtrend.

In Q4 2018, we could buy calls and watch them go to zero, or we could wait for the exhaustion signal. We began to sell off from the 2018 and ATH in October, we ticked down each day for a new low on the month, the quarter, and finally we started making lower lows for the year 2018. Each day we needed to see LOWER CLOSING LOWs as well. IF we did not, if we made a lower intraday low and then buyers took us up at the end of the day to make a higher close than the existing closing low, we knew calls would have a better chance of working.

REPEAT METHOD Mark off the daily closing low on what you are trading, if in a downtrend. That becomes your benchmark. Watch for that level to hold or NOT on a closing basis. BE aware of that level if price moves well away from it, only to see it head fake you and come trading back to close back below it, or hold above it.

You can use this signal to try and see through choppy trading as well.

When we are in relentless chop, if a day that starts off as a sell, turns around at some point and gives us a higher close than the one that acts as our current benchmark, we know we are likely to see the UPTREND continue. When we are in relentless chop, but we seem to have caught a bounce. Then at the end of the day we get selling and miss the close above the one we use as the benchmark, we know the selling is likely to continue, not time to BTD! IF we have an intraday high and a higher close, but then turn around and gap down the next session or open flat and trade down, make sure and be aware of the closing high. We have often seen a day like this play out only to have a buy program come in and take us up to close higher than our benchmark level. IF we see a higher close, we can look for the uptrend to resume. IF we don’t, we can look for continuation of the selling for another day. IF we have an intraday low and a lower close, then come in and gap up the next session or open flat and trade up, make sure and be aware of the closing low. If we see a sell program come in at the end of the day and take us back to make a lower close, even while holding a higher low, it it bearish. Be protective, look for selling to continue the next session. At this point you have probably become confused. Once you have seen this play out a few times, it will become second nature and you will always be on the look out for this. IT all start with marking your chart or making note on your list of levels for where the current closing high and low is. As of this article, the SPX closing high is 2670.71 from Fri 1/18/19. Use that as a benchmark, change it if we make a higher daily close from the next trading day forward (1/22/19).

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olko71 · 3 years ago

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New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on http://yaroreviews.info/2021/06/amazon-others-race-to-buy-up-renewable-energy

Amazon, Others Race to Buy Up Renewable Energy

The race to secure electricity deals for power-hungry data centers has tech companies reshaping the renewable-energy market and grappling with a new challenge: how to ensure their investments actually reduce emissions.

Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -0.05% said it planned Wednesday to announce commitments to buy 1.5 gigawatts of production capacity from 14 new solar and wind plants around the world as part of its push to purchase enough renewable energy to cover all of the company’s activities by 2025.

Tech companies are wielding their balance sheets to finance solar, wind and other renewable-energy projects on an unprecedented scale. In some countries, developers say tech companies’ willingness to spend upfront—signing commitments to buy energy at a certain price for long periods—has helped make corporations more important than government subsidies as the main drivers of renewable investment.

Amazon says its new investments will boost its total to 85 utility-scale wind and solar projects globally. Its existing projects include this wind farm in Texas.

Photo: Jordan Stead/Amazon

Amazon, Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG -0.42% Google, Facebook Inc. FB 0.46% and Microsoft Corp. MSFT -0.09% are four of the top six corporate buyers of publicly disclosed renewable-energy- purchase agreements, accounting for 30%, or 25.7 gigawatts, of the cumulative total from corporations globally, according to the research firm BloombergNEF. Amazon is the largest corporate purchaser world-wide, with other top purchasers including the French oil company TotalEnergies TTE -0.49% SE and AT&T Inc. T -0.45%

“It’s almost like a stampede for clean energy,” said Michael Terrell, director of energy at Google.

The scale of these investments is placing the tech companies under pressure to show that the projects actually add new renewable capacity to the energy grid instead of sucking up pre-existing supply. A thorny issue is whether tech companies’ green-power purchases replace power generated from carbon-emitting plants or simply increase power generation to feed growing global energy consumption. That is important because the companies want to tell consumers and investors that they are helping to reduce absolute carbon output, not just shifting it around.

“Just because you put a clean electron on the grid doesn’t necessarily mean you’re displacing a carbon-based electron,” said Brian Janous, general manager of energy and renewables at Microsoft. Mr. Janous said Microsoft is now analyzing power grids to determine at which locations and times of day additional renewable-energy production would replace the most production from existing fossil-fuel-powered plants to determine where to invest.

Amazon’s latest projects, across seven U.S. states as well as Canada, Finland and Spain, have pushed the firm’s signed commitments to a total of 10 gigawatts of renewable production, the company said. After the new deals, Amazon is the top all-time corporate purchaser of clean energy in the U.S., according to the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, a group of companies that promotes renewable-power procurement. The new plants, which will supply company operations including Amazon’s cloud-services arm, Amazon Web Services, are scheduled to come online in the next one to three years.

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Nat Sahlstrom, director of energy at Amazon Web Services, said the company looks for projects where it can be first to set up a commercial template other companies can follow to help jump-start demand. He added that Amazon only selects projects based on whether its purchasing commitments are pivotal to the projects’ viability. “If not for our investments in these projects, they would not have gone forward,” he said.

Google, which said it matched its energy consumption with renewables beginning in 2017, says it now has a tougher goal: aligning its consumption with renewable energy not just annually but hour by hour. That means the company is trying to make sure there is sufficient carbon-free energy on electrical grids where it operates at the times when it is using power, including at night and at times of peak demand.

“I think the evolution is to focus not only on the quantity but also the quality of sourcing,” Mr. Terrell of Google said.

Driving the purchases are skyrocketing data usage and computer processing. In the past decade, growing efficiency has largely offset rising usage, in part as companies shifted from on-premises computer servers to more-efficient cloud providers, according to the International Energy Agency. But while there is more efficiency to tap, according to researchers, it isn’t clear for how much longer, particularly with the rise of 5G networks and as more of the world lives and works online.

Amazon Wind Farm Texas, one of the company’s early clean-energy projects, began operation in 2017.

Photo: Jordan Stead/Amazon

“The data-center industry is one of the largest power consumers world-wide,” said Stefan-Jörg Göbel, a senior vice president of wind and solar for the Norwegian energy company Statkraft AS. “They’re reshaping the demand side of the industry just from the pure physics of it.”

Data centers were estimated to account for roughly 1% of global electricity use, according to a 2020 paper in the journal Science.

Retail energy companies compete with local utilities to give U.S. consumers more choice. But in nearly every state where they operate, retailers have charged more than regulated incumbents, meaning you may be paying more for your electricity than your neighbor. Here’s why. Photo Illustration: Jacob Reynolds

Big tech companies say they have built up in-house teams staffed with former deal makers at electrical utilities who can source deals directly with providers, often sidestepping an industry of middlemen and brokers that generally handle power deals. Firms such as Amazon often blanket a country where they have operations with requests for energy projects, according to developers.

“We’ll say, hey, we want to go look at every potential project that could be in development in a country,” Mr. Sahlstrom of Amazon said of his team that seeks out power-purchase agreements, or PPAs.

Developers of wind- and solar-energy projects say demand from big tech has encouraged a rise in demand for PPAs from other corporate buyers. Because the projects require heavy upfront investment that takes years to recoup, banks often won’t finance them—or will give less favorable terms—unless the projects have an anchor purchaser promising to buy most or all of the production, according to developers and energy financiers.

In Spain, where Amazon has committed to buying power from five solar plants, developers say multiple big tech companies are looking for new deals.

Share Your Thoughts

Will emissions be reduced when tech companies buy up renewable energy to power data? Join the conversation below.

“We’re talking to all of them,” Martin Scharrer, who leads such negotiations for the renewable-energy producer Encavis AG ECV -1.16% , said of the tech companies. Mr. Scharrer previously struck a deal with Amazon to sell energy from a solar plant outside Seville, Spain.

Facebook said that it reached its goal of buying enough renewable energy to cover its global operations, including data centers, last year but that it is continuing to strike new power deals because its energy use is growing. Facebook’s electricity use rose 39% in 2020, according to its annual sustainability report. “It’s showing that voluntary targets are really moving the market,” said Urvi Parekh, director of renewable energy at Facebook.

Microsoft said it has power-purchase deals that it hasn’t yet announced that will catapult it to near the top of the world’s biggest green-energy buyers. Mr. Janous said his company focuses on shared environmental goals rather than rankings, but added: “We know what the rankings are and, trust me, my boss knows what the rankings are, and any time there’s a new one that comes out, I hear about it.”

Write to Sam Schechner at [email protected]

#PAID

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orbemnews · 4 years ago

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He might maintain the successful ticket in tech and Silicon Valley is aware of it The recipient of all these billions is Jio Platforms, a part of Ambani’s sprawling conglomerate Reliance Industries. Jio began as a cell community in 2016. Since then it has amassed round 400 million customers and launched a streaming service, a video conferencing app, a fiber broadband community and digital funds. Its super-cheap knowledge has helped carry a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of Indians on-line for the primary time. When Ambani launched Jio, India had fewer than 350 million web customers. Now, it has 750 million. Jio has turn into the gateway to India’s web, and Ambani holds the keys. “Numerous this variation, particularly by way of bringing individuals on-line, has occurred on the again of the constructive disruption that Jio triggered,” Ajit Mohan, Fb’s vp and managing director in India, advised CNN Enterprise. “Jio has been the hero in that story by way of offering that entry, and I feel that units the context for our funding and Jio and our partnership, as a result of… we noticed alignment of the imaginative and prescient.” Ambani’s imaginative and prescient retains getting greater. After elevating greater than $20 billion for Jio Platforms, Reliance went courting buyers for its retail enterprise. Between late September and early November, Reliance Retail raised round $6.4 billion, a lot of it coming from Jio buyers together with Silver Lake, Common Atlantic, TPG in addition to the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. Ambani’s retail chain is the most important in India, with greater than 12,000 shops. And he has made no secret of his ambitions to mix his retail and tech empires to tackle two large US gamers. Amazon (AMZN) and Walmart’s (WMT) Flipkart dominate on-line procuring in India, controlling greater than 60% of the market between them. Ambani is making an aggressive play for a slice. He is doing that with JioMart, an initiative introduced in 2019 to carry on-line 1000’s of India’s mom-and-pop shops often called “kiranas.” And Reliance Retail not too long ago acquired one among its greatest Indian rivals, Future Retail, for $3.3 billion — a deal that has kicked off a protracted and sophisticated authorized battle with Amazon. Whilst he digests all of that, India’s richest man is already trying to the following large factor — bringing 5G to India within the second half of 2021. “It is going to be powered by an indigenous developed community, {hardware}, and know-how parts,” Ambani advised a digital viewers on the India Cellular Congress in November, in a potential nod to requires China’s Huawei to be excluded from constructing the nation’s 5G community. Any a kind of plans by itself can be an enormous enterprise and executing all of them collectively is a big ask even for one of many world’s high billionaires. His ambition is to essentially rework the best way greater than a billion individuals talk, do enterprise and make purchases. And the last word aim is to achieve billions extra. “We’re creating compelling homegrown options in training, well being care, agriculture, infrastructure, monetary companies and new commerce,” Ambani stated in his speech. “Every of those options, as soon as confirmed in India, will probably be supplied to the remainder of the world to handle world challenges.” Geography vs Expertise However the billionaire, who’s reportedly trying to take Jio public in america, might discover it difficult to parlay the corporate’s meteoric rise in India into success on the worldwide stage. “Reliance doesn’t have anyone space the place it has a technological edge and superiority like say Google’s search, Fb’s portfolio of social networks, Amazon’s e-commerce engine, Alibaba’s mixture of strengths in e-commerce and funds or Tencent’s tremendous app,” stated Ravi Shankar Chaturvedi, analysis director on the Institute for Enterprise within the International Context at Tufts College’s Fletcher Faculty. Relatively, Jio’s dominance has been largely geographical, helped by a regulatory regime that helps homegrown gamers. “One can be onerous pressed to give you a significant record of technological improvements and IP that Jio created that could possibly be the idea for its enlargement overseas,” Chaturvedi added. India is, after all, a large prize in itself that Jio has largely already captured. The nation’s on-line inhabitants of 750 million — second solely to China, which has shut out US corporations for many years — is the most important draw for world tech. Fb, Google, Amazon, Netflix (NFLX) and Uber (UBER), to call just a few, have already spent a number of years and billions of {dollars} to crack open the market. “For Silicon Valley, the Indian market alone is larger than the 5 subsequent greatest shopper markets — by inhabitants — on the planet mixed,” stated Chaturvedi. The place China has its “Nice Firewall” of on-line censorship that retains out US tech corporations en masse, Ambani has succeeded in making a “Nice Indian Paywall” that runs by means of Jio, Chaturvedi argues. International tech companies have been pressured to navigate a sequence of regulatory hurdles from an Indian authorities that has proven a higher willingness to clamp down on overseas gamers — whether or not blocking Fb’s efforts to offer free web, altering how corporations can retailer and gather knowledge or, extra not too long ago, shutting out Chinese language tech corporations over a border dispute. Ambani has been the most important beneficiary of lots of these laws, and the billionaire has been a vocal champion of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his marketing campaign for a “self-reliant” India. Just a few cracks — albeit small ones — have began to seem in Ambani’s dominance. Barely a day into 2021, the Securities and Trade Board of India ordered Reliance Industries and Ambani to pay a $5.5 million wonderful over what the regulator described as a “fraudulent and manipulative buying and selling scheme” over a former subsidiary in 2007. However that is unlikely to dent his tech ambitions. Ambani, who declined a number of requests to be interviewed for this text, is used to creating audacious bets and having them repay — often with huge sources at his disposal and a good political wind at his again. “In spite of everything he is India’s richest man, he has due to this fact the deepest pockets on this nation,” stated Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, journalist and co-author of Gasoline Wars: Crony Capitalism and the Ambanis. “I can say with none threat of contradiction that he has been supported by a positive political dispensation and a regulatory regime,” he added. From Oil to Jio The company empire that Ambani presides over in the present day appears to be like somewhat completely different to the one he inherited. His father, Dhirubhai, began a small yarn buying and selling agency in Mumbai in 1957 that he subsequently spun right into a thriving textile enterprise. Over many years, it grew into the sprawling conglomerate Reliance Industries spanning power, petrochemicals and telecommunications. Dhirubhai’s loss of life in 2002 kicked off an acrimonious succession battle that cut up the enterprise in two. Mukesh Ambani in the end took over the corporate’s predominant oil and petrochemicals belongings, whereas his youthful brother Anil assumed management of the newer ventures, together with telecom and digital companies. Then, in September 2016, Mukesh Ambani stormed onto his brother’s turf with a proposal that blew the lid off India’s telecom and web development. Jio gave each new buyer six months of free 4G web and Indians signed up by the hundreds of thousands, triggering a brutal value conflict. “You lure your customers by giving one thing free, and as soon as they have hooked onto it, you steadily begin growing the costs,” Thakurta stated. “It is the traditional approach all types of monopolies work throughout the globe.” One of many main casualties of the value conflict was Anil Ambani. His Reliance Communications firm introduced in late 2017 that it will promote most of its belongings and exit the cell enterprise. Two days later, Jio acquired Reliance Communications. And two years later, the elder Ambani underscored the divergence within the brothers’ fortunes by serving to repay an $80 million debt to Ericsson (ERIC), retaining Anil out of jail. Jio’s meteoric rise has helped offset a few of the volatility in oil that value Ambani billions final yr and arrange Reliance for a future that is additional faraway from its core enterprise. In actual fact, an organization spokesperson beforehand advised CNN Enterprise that the title Jio — which suggests “to dwell” in Hindi — was chosen partly as a result of it is a mirror picture of the world “oiL.” The daring try to remodel his $170 billion conglomerate faces a large check in 2021 as the Indian financial system recovers from its first recession in practically 1 / 4 of a century. Like different tech corporations world wide, Jio has strengthened throughout the pandemic, however the query is whether or not it may well proceed to develop quick sufficient for the corporate to meaningfully transition away from oil. Ambani charted his course years in the past. “Information is the brand new oil,” he stated in 2017, simply six months into his marketing campaign to disrupt India’s tech panorama. India first, then the world For American tech giants, having an enormous homegrown participant in your nook typically makes life simpler abroad, and Jio is by far the most important in India. “Why did Fb, why did Google…put of their cash in Jio at a time when the world financial system is in a large number, the Indian financial system is in recession, why would they do it? Clearly as a result of there may be greater than an financial angle,” stated Thakurta. “It is also I imagine, not directly… a political insurance coverage of kinds.” Mohan, Fb’s India head, denied that authorities regulation was a part of the dialog. “That did not have something to do with our funding in Jio or the partnership,” he stated. “It actually did come from recognizing that this was a particular firm that had finished fairly superb work in reworking the digital infrastructure of India in a brief time frame.” From Ambani’s perspective, a wide-ranging coalition of a few of the greatest names in tech is only a solution to additional Jio’s command over all facets of India’s web. The corporate already controls a lion’s share of the pipes by means of its huge cell community. By means of Fb, it’s working to combine JioMart with WhatsApp, the one platform in India with a person base akin to Jio’s. With Google, it is gunning for management of cell gadgets by collectively creating an “entry stage, inexpensive smartphone” for India’s big center class. And it is even acquired a watch on the chip know-how that underpins these networks and gadgets by means of companions reminiscent of Qualcomm. “As digitization of the Indian financial system and Indian society picks up velocity, the demand for digital {hardware} will develop enormously. We can’t depend on large-scale imports,” Ambani stated final month. “I clearly foresee India changing into a significant hub for a state-of-the-art semiconductor business.” Qualcomm, a longtime Jio companion, joined the funding bandwagon by spending round $97 million in July for a 0.15% stake. Jio’s dedication to constructing out its personal community whereas additionally creating a smartphone offered the chipmaker with a novel alternative to become involved on either side of Ambani’s web entry plan, in response to Quinn Li, senior vp and world head of the corporate’s funding arm Qualcomm Ventures. “For those who have a look at operators the world over, not many are that vertically built-in,” he advised CNN Enterprise. “Given we are the know-how provider to the business, we’re I feel finest outfitted to work with Jio each on the gadget entrance in addition to infrastructure.” Ambani seems able to leverage the worldwide backing for Jio and Reliance Retail into IPOs, saying in June that he would “transfer in the direction of itemizing of each these corporations throughout the subsequent 5 years.” An IPO for Jio Platforms on Nasdaq may come as quickly as 2021, in response to a number of media studies and business analysts. Reliance didn’t reply to a request for touch upon its IPO plans. “I would not be shocked within the least,” stated Thakurta. “When you’re on Nasdaq, you give all these buyers exit route.” Ambani appears assured he can get the world to purchase into India’s second, anchored in his firm. And given his monitor document to date, he has no purpose to not be. “Associates, we’re about to step into a wonderful decade of the India story,” he declared. “Nothing can cease India’s rise, not even Covid-19. That is our likelihood to create historical past.” Supply hyperlink #Hold #IndianbillionaireMukeshAmbanimayholdthewinningticketintechandSiliconValleyknowsit-CNN #Silicon #Tech #ticket #Valley #Winning

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thesevillereport · 4 years ago

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In Focus: Amazon, Wall Street’s Gift

Last year Apple's (AAPL) stock price started its epic run from $240 per share to over $500 per share before doing a 4-to-1 split. Nothing could contain Wall Street's excitement and anticipation of the iPhone with 5G.

On Thursday Apple released its most recent quarterly results, which did not blow Wall Street away. Apple's iPhone sales for the quarter came in at $26.4 billion, which was below the $27.7 billion consensus. Slowing iPhone sales in China caused Wall Street to panic and hit the sell button on Apple, sending the stock price down over 5.5% on Friday.

This sell off and Wall Street's exit from Apple would be funny if these big firms didn't have such a large influence over the public's money.

For a year Wall Street has used the storyline of the 5G iPhone as a reason to buy Apple, and with one mediocre quarter Wall Street is ready to sell, even though the quarter Apple recently reported on did not include the company's 5G iPhone.

Apple's iPhone 12 with 5G technology was only recently released, and will be included in the company's next quarterly earnings call.

Maybe the selling in Apple's stock occurred because Wall Street realized buying Apple based on the iPhone 12 and 5G technology was always a weak story and it only got weaker when the pandemic hit.

The Most Valuable Company in the World

But the company I want to bring in focus today isn't Apple, it's the real most valuable company in the world, Amazon (AMZN).

Amazon also reported it's quarterly earnings on Thursday and beat revenue and net income expectations, but the stock also sold off on Friday because of Wall Street's concern over slowing growth in Amazon's AWS service.

The revenue for AWS came in at $11.6 billion just in line with consensus estimates, but free cash flow and operating income were up year-over-year and beat Wall Street estimates. Still Wall Street hit sell on Amazon.

I often wonder how clients of big Wall Street firms make money with all of the unnecessary buying, selling, and the commissions that are charged for each transaction.

It's Simple, Invest By Looking Around

My brother lives in a middle class neighborhood in Orland, Florida. His home is close enough to Disney that you can see the Disney World fireworks show if you sit on the roof of the house at night. In my brother's neighborhood cul-de-sac made up of around 70 houses, I see the Amazon van at least two times a day, every day. My morning runs on Tuesday are greeted by empty Amazon boxes in front of homes waiting to be picked up by the recycling truck.

I don't imagine this is any different from other parts of the United States, and probably even more so in the neighborhoods of the affluent. Not everyone has an iPhone, not everyone has a MacBook, not everyone uses Clorox, or Energizer batteries, but it seems like everyone buys something from Amazon, so how could this not be the most valuable company in the world?

I've only touched on the retail aspect of the company, AWS is a giant within the cloud industry and has Netflix, Facebook, ESPN, and the NFL among its long list of clients big and small. A large portion of Amazon's stock gains over the past two years had a lot to do with how successful AWS has been, but it appears Wall Street movers and shakers are ready to bail off of one ehhh quarter.

Don't Be Wall Street, Be Better

Investors should use Wall Street's need to move money to generate excitement and commissions against them and buy any dip they can in Amazon.

"...All of our senior executives operate the same way that I do, they work in the future, they live in the future, none of the people who report to me should really be focused on the current quarter" - Jeff Bezos - The David Rubenstein Show

Bezos' quote from his interview with David Rubenstein represents a long-term mindset, which Wall Street firms have a hard time practicing. Wall Street, to the detriment of its client's accounts, lives, breathes, eats, sleeps, and invests based on the coming quarter, because, you know, they've gotta generate those commissions.

The Next Berkshire Hathaway

What I see in Amazon is the next Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Jeff Bezos is operating on a different level than other CEOs. His ability to see the future is spooky. He went all in on selling books online and helped usher in e-commerce, which is still growing. He built out AWS for 15 years behind the scenes before launching the service; what other CEOs were thinking about cloud computing back then?

Last week I discussed video games and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's highly viewed gaming stream on Twitch. Amazon bought Twitch in 2014 for under $1 billion dollars and has turned it into the premier site for game streaming. What Warren Buffett built with Berkshire, the highly valued collection of companies big and small operating under one major umbrella is what Bezos is doing. Amazon retail, Prime, Twitch, Alexa, the Fire product line, and AWS, are just the start.

I have no knowledge of what Amazon is working on now, but I'm sure they're working on something that will add value to the company, it's just their way.

Amazon is the most valuable company in the world, the markets just haven't realized it yet. The stock price is up there, $3,036.15 per share as of this writing, but don't let that scare you away, get some if you can on this dip. If Wall Street wants to sell it now, then buy it cheap, and sell it back to them later at a much higher price.

I day traded in and out of Amazon back in 2014, 2015, and 2016, when the stock was under $600 per share. One of my great regrets is not holding on to more of the stock for the long term. I think six years from now we'll be looking at a $6,000 per share stock price for Amazon and $3,036 per share will feel like the bargain of the century.

#Stocks #Investing #Investments #Amazon #AWS #Cloud Computing #Twtich #Prime #Alexa #Apple #iPhone12 #5G #Money #StocksToBuy #StocksToWatch #Investment Education #Financial Education

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sknews7 · 4 years ago

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Merger Monday Confirms An Active Stock Market – Buy Under-Appreciated Biotech

Mergers have been lagging

Mergers for 2020 have vastly lagged final yr. This has been a explanation for concern for me in judging the well being of the inventory market. For the raison d’etres of Wall Avenue is to not make us wealthy, it is to create a supply of fairness capital to construct firms. Our function will be in comparison with the remora fish that safe themselves to the leviathans and eat the wealthy the rest that they go away behind. Although our function is a little more symbiotic as we do provide liquidity, value discovery and thru the blessings of the brief vendor we current a stage of policing to stop the occasional “Theranos” that occurs every now and then. The inventory market didn’t come about for our amusement or enrichment. If it is not creating true transactions like M&A and public choices it is sickly and that doesn’t portend nicely for us remoras or the better economic system.

So I heartily accepted yesterday’s “Merger Monday” information. The torrent and dimension of the offers give me optimism that regardless of authorities intervention into our economic system and markets, the underlying mechanism is returning to life. There is a very actual chance that there will likely be a rush of mergers earlier than the shut of the yr both due to feared tax adjustments or the economic system is returning to a bustling boil. Why do I say that? Effectively, this coming quarter could be very prone to show the quickest development the economic system ever measured. Additionally, you might not have observed however revenue estimates are going up slightly properly, thanks very a lot. So with rates of interest at zero for so far as the attention can see, biotech, which bases its worth manner out sooner or later, because the promised stream of income are sometimes on the come, low rates of interest are extra welcome to this sector than the cloud software program world. I imagine that with the proof of yesterday’s mergers, particularly the astoundingly well-priced buy of Immunomedics (IMMU) by Gilead, that that is an space that ought to be speculated upon. Biotech’s time has come as soon as once more.

Gilead (GILD) forking out with a 108% excessive bid for Immunumedics (IMMU) for $21 billion: Recreation changer!

Biotech has been comparatively quiescent. We’ve all been enamored of the WFH motion (meaning “Work From House” for you modern-day Rip Van Winkles). Meaning demand for the likes of Zoom (ZM) and Amazon (AMZN) and never IBB, the Biotech ETF. Immunomedics’s new drug Trodelvy works on triple unfavorable breast most cancers, however the modality for effecting the remedy is the holy grail of most cancers remedy. Sure, I mentioned remedy, remedy is on supply, not 100%, however the chance is there. Let me insert a caveat right here. I‘m lower than knowledgeable on biotech. I hate that I can’t get my arms round it. So I do know there are numerous of you on the market who will remark under “how I don’t know what I am speaking about,” or that there are many different biotechs that even have the identical functionality. Good and high-quality, however you’re the blessed 2% with PHDs or MSs or you’ve spent the final decade poring over Lancet or NEJM, or no matter. I salute you, and you might deposit your derision within the remark part under. I am providing you with what I believe your on a regular basis dealer who pauses 60 seconds to consider what simply occurred yesterday and what it means for the biotech sector for them. OK?

So this is what I imply. IMMU has mainly developed a guided missile of remedy. They recognized a protein that is on the most cancers cell. Their drug is an antibody focusing on that protein on one facet and on different finish is a substance that is poisonous to the cell. Once they meet – kaboom. Meaning even cells that metastasize at a clump of even two, three cells, and even one will be focused. Maybe at a while there will likely be a number of protein targets, and easy blood exams that floor most cancers earlier than it may even be seen by present diagnostics. We simply had the submitting of an IPO for Grail Biotech that may just do that. In any case IMMU is thrilling and GILD bought them for a straightforward 108% above the final shut.

In yesterday’s CNBC interview GILD’s CEO intimated that whereas Tradelvy has been authorized for triple neg breast most cancers it has broad purposes to different cancers like lung most cancers strong tumors.

Trodelvy offered nicely in its first two months in the marketplace. As well as there was Sunday’s name to analysts. Gilead chief medical officer Merdad Parsey mentioned that his firm has seen unpublished information on Trodelvy that implies the drug will likely be of use towards a broad vary of strong tumors, together with bladder and lung cancers. Trodelvy’s gross sales in breast most cancers would widen, too, if it will get approval as a first-line remedy for tumors that present drug-resistant genetic traits

The primary response by analysts and market commentators was a wringing of arms and gnashing of enamel.

We heard a bunch of the naysayers say nay yesterday. I do not agree. GILD is anticipating the acquisition to be accretive to earnings by 2023. So even with out future indications IMMU will contribute to earnings in three years. Three years is the standard return on funding for gear. That is in my thoughts an astounding cut price. As well as, I am saying that biotech is simply too low cost total and that there must be different bargains on the market. Extra on that later. So let me defend GILD a bit additional. They’ve $15 billion in money proper now mendacity round doing nothing. It could actually’t even earn curiosity. So actually the acquisition is $5 billion that will likely be borrowed basically for nothing. I do know, I do know, you as a shareholder need that $15 billion. You need that in dividends or inventory buybacks? No you don’t. GILD is uniquely suited to do what most of us can’t – sift by way of all of the dross of biotech fly specs and floor those which can be value an funding. You additionally know that present authorized medication whereas throwing off astounding ranges of money are a losing asset quickly to be relegated to the generic drug pile. So that you don’t need that money. You need them to place that money to work. I for one am very excited by this information. So I purchased GILD and I believe it has plenty of room to run. Take a look at this one yr chart here.

That little fuschia arrow on the best is the place GILD is now. The large mountain of beneficial properties to the left was as a result of pleasure over Remdesivir which remains to be very a lot alive, and can have an additional function to play in combating COVID-19. In actual fact, yesterday we heard information that Eli Lilly (LLY) and incyte (INCY) are introducing a drug working with Remdesivir that provides to optimistic results for restoration. Olumiant is a particular immuno suppressant in a phase-Three research, on the lookout for emergency use approval from the FDA.

That apart, since I am a dummy with regards to choosing out up-and-coming biotechs, I am investing within the medium-sized biotech consolidators like GILD, but in addition Bristol Myers (BMY) that simply acquired Celgene, and Abbvie (ABBV) that simply purchased Allergan. I imagine that they are going to purchase smaller tuck-in acquisitions that may present extra beta. Within the meantime they throw off a pleasant dividend whilst you wait. They’re all in my funding account that I by no means speak about, as a result of I intend to purchase and maintain them without end. Nonetheless, I believe GILD will likely be a runner now, and so I’ve it in my hypothesis account as nicely.

Lest I neglect there was different main M&A information yesterday

Merck (NYSE:MRK) invested $1 billion in Seattle Genetics (SGEN) Antibody blood conjugates. Additionally this bizarre improvement with TikTok that I’m undecided tips on how to categorize, and the very attention-grabbing Nvidia (NVDA) information about buying ARM Holdings for $40B, (see under). Let’s additionally not neglect that Verizon (NYSE:VZ) purchased TracFone for a cool $9B whew!

Oracle (ORCL) might have bitten off greater than it may chew

There was a feeding frenzy over the acquisition of TikTok. Apparently the idea is that TikTok has an AI that may do it higher than anybody else. What occurs if they’re flawed? What occurs if that is only a random “fad?” By fad I imply that youngsters which can be amazingly fickle have determined that TikTok is the bee’s knees, like they determined that Snapchat was scorching at one level.

I believe it is the expansion, TikTok DAU shot up like loopy, so everybody assumes its the algorithm

It’d simply be a fad. I believe that is what Oracle is relying on, that they might rise up an AI algo that’s “adequate.” I will say “watch out what you want for” – ORCL might have bitten off greater than it may chew. Just like the canine chasing the automotive and eventually catches it – then what?

Possibly fad is not the best phrase. It caught on, and due to the community impact it’ll have endurance till it would not. Nonetheless it is not being categorized as an acquisition, and I am not even certain the deal they submitted with CFIUS will get authorized. I might be cautious about leaping on ORCL. I purchased on the rumor and offered it earlier than the information. I might be flawed, but when it isn’t a full acquisition and so they have to face up a working AI back-end for it, it might be a really thankless job.

In an identical vein, I believe Nvidia’s (NVDA) ARM Holdings acquisition is a “no bueno” as nicely

On this case the worth of ARM itself just isn’t in query. It was a jewel when Masayoshi Son stole it, and will probably be so when NVDA tries to accumulate it. I imagine there are large antitrust points, sovereign points with the UK, and China will take years to approve. This may be an equally large distraction for NVDA and at its present lofty (although justified) valuation. I see a hazard of a giant deflation in its worth as uncertainty creeps in because the deal drags on.

One of many founders of ARM, Hermann Hauser, mentioned he and lots of others have been involved that the UK would lose jobs and affect and argued ARM’s enterprise mannequin could be compromised. He acknowledged, “Surrendering UK’s strongest commerce weapon to the US is making Britain a US vassal state,” Hauser wrote within the open letter, which was revealed yesterday.

He referred to as on Boris Johnson to pressure Nvidia to signal legally-binding phrases agreeing to protect UK jobs, keep ARM’s market neutrality, and safe exemptions from US guidelines that will ban ARM from coping with China. If the UK authorities can’t safe these commitments, Hauser mentioned it ought to help an IPO of ARM on the London Inventory Change. I believe NVDA has opened a nasty can of worms. In fact if NVDA does crater, you’ll hear me shouting from the rooftops to purchase, purchase, purchase.

Talking of which, what did I purchase yesterday…

I began a place in Vroom (VRM) like I mentioned I might. I purchased a bunch of SPACs which I am not able to reveal proper now. SPACs have simply turn out to be so nuts that I would like to jot down a chunk simply to speak about them. I am constructing a place in Rocket Mortgage (RKT), extra on that tomorrow. Additionally like I mentioned I am making a speculative place in GILD along with my funding. I additionally rolled my Draft Kings (NASDAQ:DKNG) calls up and out to February liberating some premium after which spreading them as soon as once more to hopefully generate additional income by Oct. 2.

Disclosure: I’m/we’re lengthy VRM. I wrote this text myself, and it expresses my very own opinions. I’m not receiving compensation for it (aside from from Looking for Alpha). I’ve no enterprise relationship with any firm whose inventory is talked about on this article.

Further disclosure: I began a place in VRM, RKT and GILD. I additionally rolled my DKNG place up and out to February, and re-spread with brief calls and an Oct 2 expiry

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patrononfire · 4 years ago

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Hard industries to learn but with moat

Chemicals

Healthcare

Financial Institutions

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2017/01/26/2177854/the-curious-case-of-constellation-health-and-blackstones-former-top-deal-maker/

I would say you want to find industries where there is a lot of alpha available. Energy, insurance (financials in general), REITs are all very macro oriented. They depend on commodity prices and the yield curve.

I think that tech is a phenomenal choice right now. There is so much happening as we embrace the digital world. If you take a couple of months to dig deeply into AMZN, GOOGL, FB, AAPL and MSFT, you will have an overview of where society is going. Some will say that it is difficult to have a differentiated view on such well-covered companies. That may have some truth to it (although I find that there is still a decent amount of skepticism out there), but these companies spend a combined $50B+ on capex and a similar amount on COS.

Find the datacenter beneficiaries, the component suppliers, the content purveyors, whatever. There is so much emanating from the wakes of these five companies.

My votes are industrials and healthcare. You'll learn to do actual primary research, and learn how to model fixed/variable costs properly. As implausible as it sounds, those are two skills that genuinely differentiate you as an analyst. Healthcare also teaches you how to trade/invest around news flow.

Generalist analysts frequently get burned in these sectors ('industrials look cheap' - end up buying at the peak of the cycle / 'healthcare is simple' - end up buying Valeant). This increases the value of specialists.

Tech is fun, but most tech, esp. the consumer-facing stuff is just guessing TAM , penetration rates, ARPU, etc. Very difficult to build repeatable edge. Let's say you 'estimated' FB's growth correctly in the past - how does that make you a better investor in TWTR or SNAP in the future?

I will add a slightly contrarian perspective/ insight: you also want to choose a sector where you will be differentiated and competition will be relatively limited.

Tech is incredibly crowded because it is the 'obvious' choice. The products are highly visible in popular culture and the space is constantly evolving. The downside is that every schmuck thinks they can have a differentiated understanding of FANG (or is willing to try).

Add to that the fact that much of internet/ growth tech requires limited 'deep' analysis and is 'finger in the air' 'secular growth vs. secular decliner' stuff. While a lot of industrials are 'gdp +/- growth' and you focus on the rest of the model, a lot of growth tech is largely about getting the revenue growth rate correct. This kind of directional guesswork is relatively easy to do (though almost impossible to be particularly accurate at), attracting a lot of people that aren't really about that modelling stuff.

What sectors aren't easily crowded by lazy 'generalist' schmucks? Financials, healthcare, and energy - all require some significant domain expertise.

Overall though, I think I would put my vote on industrial. It's the best of both worlds - a big space that has a lot of things you interact with / understand intuitively (cars, trains, planes, houses, furniture). However, it also involves some domain knowledge asnd some serious analysis below the top line (i.e. cost structures, incremental margins and returns, etc).

Someone above also said 'try to be a generalist as long as possible.' This sounds like a good idea, but often just results in you being not quite as smart as the reserve investor across a number of fields. Its harder to pull off, but I might recommend trying to spend time specializing across multiple sectors (i.e. make at least 1 or 2 sector moves in your career)

The commentary from below on tech vs. industrials isn't as simple/complicated as people believe.

Tech is incredibly varied

Semiconductors, for example, are very similar to industrials in they are cyclical businesses with GDP+- end demand markets and very detailed focus on incremental margins, fixed/variable costs and inventory accounting.

Outside of NVDA and AMD most semis are not pie in the sky revenue growth models that are based on some intangible addressable market in the future.

Then you have software. Do you know why half of software trades at infinite earnings multiples? It's because they basically represent NPVs of recurring revenue streams and the best companies can reinvest 100% of their proceeds to get additional revenue.

Software is basically a series of present value equations based on growth, churn, pricing and incremental/decremental margins from that pricing. Generalists investors thus get destroyed in software if they are buying/shorting based on multiples on their models.

Then look at internet.

Amazon is a capex intensive businesses where there is a ton of modeling you can do on the incremental margins and capacity utilization on new fulfillment centers (on the retail side) and data centers (on the AWS side).

The best analysts on AMZN were the ones who can understand the unit economics of new data centers and how to think about the flow through of the various business lines to both gross margins and operating income.

GOOG has the same dynamic as AMZN. FB and NFLX are a little bit softer but you can definitely do in-depth work on the margin side by looking at the new engineers, cost per new engineer, and think about how the costs can truly grow with revenue based on the limited pool of demand in the valley.

Then on primary research, tech has ton of opportunities. Talk to the software resellers and partners and see how they are doing and what trends they are seeing. Talk to the fabs in Taiwan to gauge end market supply/demand. Talk to the people at AWS reinvent and Strata to figure out what is happening in the database environment.

Tech is a great space and definitely not just about clicks, eyeballs, and buzzwords like AI. Ultimately, the best part about tech is that outside of certain segments like semis, they are predominantly high quality businesses ("compounders" though I hate that phrase as it has become a catch all for everything that is 15x ebitda these days) with long-term growth opportunities. Unlike industrials, you do not need to time a cycle right to do well because over a long enough period of time your stocks typically go up because the intrinsic value of the businesses are growing and the multiples are not high enough where the multiple compression will mask the underlying growth of the businesses over a multi year holding period - as a result you see a ton of the top LT investors have big weightings in tech

My prior criticisms were meant to be somewhat contrarian and focused on a particular set of investors that has really grown in the last ~10 years. These are the 'tech' investors that only do internet/ software (dead giveaway when someone says I do 'tech', but not 'hard tech') and are not particularly thoughtful ('finger in the air' ). Even some of the sharper ones have a hard time avoiding 'VC-ization (where they start thinking of themselves as visionaries instead of analysts). Don't be one of these.

It might be cyclical (pun intended), but I've also realized as I move more into mid-career/ trying to get sector head/ PM jobs that there are a ton of TMT people out there (especially media/telecom/ internet, much less so hardware) and very few industrial. I would honestly expect that to remain the case going forward, with more analysts/ investable name (though not necessarily per unit of market cap) focused on internet and software in particular. From a headcount perspective U.S. public equities is not a growth industry, so this is important to take into account

HFs typically don’t care too much about your industry expertise because, to be frank, you don’t really have any coming out of banking.

Covering several industries is definitely more challenging, regardless of your background, but it often turns out to be better for your career in the long run. You retain optionality over time, you spot themes across spaces, you’re better suited to be a PM, and you get diversification so you can shift your focus over time as industries change in attractiveness.

TMT

Internet

Gaming

Software

Semis

Media

Telecom

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pogueman · 7 years ago

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The Pogie Awards: The best ideas in tech of 2017

yahoo

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! Please find your seats and silence your phones… it’s time now for the 13th annual Pogie Awards!

To be clear: These awards don’t go to the best products of the year. You really don’t need another one of those articles.

These are awards for the best feature ideas within products—even if the products themselves aren’t so hot. The point is to celebrate the inspiration that struck some designer or engineer—and to hail that idea’s successful journey out of committee, past the lawyers, and into the hands of the public.

So what were the best ideas in tech of 2017?

The Safety With Numbers Award

This new feature in iOS 11 could save your bacon—or your life. It’s called Emergency SOS.

Once you’ve set it up, it works like this: If you ever feel that you’re in danger—walking down the street, or someone’s assaulting you, or you’ve been in an accident—you click the power button five times fast. You can even do that in your pocket without looking at the phone.

After a 3-second countdown, it automatically dials 911 … texts anyone you’ve setup in the Settings, letting them know you’re in danger and showing where you are … and starts a loud whooping alarm, to rattle whoever’s bothering you.

The new Emergency SOS feature of iOS 11 is always there if you need it.

Just knowing that your phone is an emergency beacon can give you a little boost of confidence—and a big boost of safety.

A New UI for You and I Award

The public wants bigger screens on their phones, and also wants more features every year. But if you’re the manufacturer, it’s hard to expand the screen without taking away buttons.

But HTC’s U11 phone introduces a new form of user-interface that adds features without adding buttons: Squeezing the sides. Since you’re already holding the phone with your hand wrapped around the sides, it’s a natural, one-handed, useful move.

The HTC U11 is squeezably good.

You decide what that action does. It can open the camera app, bring up the Google Assistant, turn on the flashlight, take a screenshot, start a voice recording, ask a question of Alexa, or turn the personal hotspot on or off, for example. You can also make a short squeeze and a long one do different things.

Google (GOOG, GOOGL) has now added that same idea to its Pixel 2 phones; looks like it’s a good idea catching on.

The Cut Cord Award

At this point, tens of millions of us own voice-assistant speakers, like Alexa on the Amazon (AMZN) Echo, or OK Google on the Google Home. But this year, both companies added a killer idea: free phone calls. To regular phone numbers.

Without budging from the couch, you can say, “Alexa, call Casey’s cellphone,” or “OK Google, call mom,” and boom—free speakerphone call. Free as in hands-free, and free as in, the calls are free.

Free phone calls? We’ll take it.

The Massive Transportation Award

OurBus gives power to the people—by letting the people crowdsource new commuter bus routes.

The buses are luxury liners, with power and WiFi at every deluxe, reclining seat. (OurBus doesn’t actually own any buses. It supplies only the technology and software to existing bus companies—usually charter bus companies whose buses aren’t being used to their full capacity.) If you can find 100 people who’d be interested in a certain bus route, they’ll put it together.

OurBus crowdsources commuter bus routes.

The Pedal Wins a Medal Award

Buses aren’t the only way to get around without choking up the air and the roads. Bikes are free to ride, free to park, great exercise, and they never get stuck in traffic. Too bad you show up at work panting and sweaty.

Electric bikes are all the rage in Europe, but the nice ones are very expensive. But suppose you could electrify the bike you already have? Suppose you could just pop off its wheel, and replace it with a motorized one—without giving up the frame, seat, brakes, gears, and handlebars you already own and love?

That’s where the Copenhagen Wheel comes in. It replaces the rear wheel of your existing bike.

The Copenhagen Wheel electrifies your existing bike.

It’s a beautiful, compact, simple-looking machine. There’s nothing on your handlebar, no cable snaking up your bike frame. Instead, the shiny red capsule hub of your wheel contains everything: motor, battery, circuitry, and 74 sensors.

When you start to pedal, the Wheel amplifies the power of your foot. The boost is smooth, silent, and controlled, and the feeling is exhilarating. Everyone who tries it utters one delighted exclamation or another: “WOOHOO!!” or “Whoa!” or “Oh, wow!” or “Omigod!”

The huge benefit of replacing your rear wheel is, of course, that the Wheel knows when you’re pedaling, and how hard. It gives you a boost proportional to the effort you’re expending.

The Stick It in Your Ear Award

Like it or not, the smartphone headphone jack is gradually going away. It’s gone from Apple’s phones, Google’s phones, HTC’s phones. We’ve entered the age of wireless earbuds.

Apple’s AirPods look bizarre, because of that little stick, and because they’re completely detached. (The Airpods technically went on sale in December 2016, but the idea behind them really took off this year.) The beauty is that you can pull out just one when you need a quick listen—some phone call, some Facebook video—and then pop it right back into the charging case.

The AirPods are completely detached, making them quicker to put on and off.

You may love the AirPods or you may hate them, but the idea here—two completely detached earbuds—puts them into a new realm of instant access. (It also means double the battery life, because each earbud plays for 5 hours on a charge.)

The Pogie Ultimo

And finally, we come to our biggest award of the evening: The Pogie Ultimo!

The one idea that has the most potential to improve the lives of the downtrodden technology-using masses with a single, ingenious stroke. And that award goes to: the MoviePass card.

The MoviePass card gets you into movie theaters every day—for $10 a month, flat fee.

It’s like Netflix for movie theaters. You pay a flat 10 bucks a month, and for that flat fee, you can go out to the movies all you want! A movie every day, if you want. But with movie tickets at $15 in cities, even if you see one movie a month, you’re coming out ahead.

Movie Pass buys you a ticket at full price, so the theaters don’t lose out, either. (MoviePass says that it will make money by selling the data it collects about its customers—anonymized, of course.)

The only footnote is that 3D and IMAX movies aren’t included. But otherwise, this is the deal—and the idea—of the year!

Happy New Year

And there you have it, folks—the 2017 Pogie Awards. Let these bursts of inspiration show you that even products that are turkeys… sometimes harbor a little bit of gravy. Good night, everyone—and happy New Year!

More from David Pogue:

Royal Caribbean’s big bet on new tech

Battle of the 4K streaming boxes: Apple, Google, Amazon, and Roku

iPhone X review: Gorgeous, pricey, and worth it

Inside the Amazon company that’s even bigger than Amazon

The $50 Google Home Mini vs. the $50 Amazon Echo Dot — who wins?

The Fitbit Ionic doesn’t quite deserve the term ‘smartwatch’

Augmented reality? Pogue checks out 7 of the first iPhone AR apps

David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, is the author of “iPhone: The Missing Manual.” He welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com. On Twitter, he’s @pogue. On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here, or you can sign up to get his columns by email.

#Pogue #David Pogue #_lmsid:a077000000BAh3wAAD #$GOOGL #_uuid:b4edfa56-6d93-33c7-8773-7bf850c0df24 #_revsp:yahoofinance.com #$GOOG #$AAPL #_author:David Pogue #$AMZN

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valuentumbrian · 7 years ago

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Microsoft: A Dividend Growth Giant

Image Source: Valuentum’s 16-page Report

Microsoft is no longer a tech dinosaur. Estimates suggest it is beating Amazon at its own game. We’re huge fans of Microsoft’s free cash flow generation and balance-sheet health and what that means for the dividend. There’s not a lot to dislike about Microsoft, and while the risks are many, few company’s have a stronger business model.

By Brian Nelson, CFA

Many of you know Microsoft (MSFT) well. The company’s products run the gamut in technology and include operating systems, cloud services, server applications, desktop and server management tools, software development tools, video games, and online advertising, among other things. It also designs, manufactures and sells hardware, including PCs, tablets, gaming consoles, and other smart accessories that integrate with its cloud offerings. What I find to be one of the more compelling things about Microsoft, however, is not so much what it is today, but what it might be in the years ahead, as technology continues its breakneck pace of innovation.

I think many investors thought Microsoft was a tech dinosaur, perhaps as recently as a few years ago, but momentum behind new devices and platforms, Windows 10, Office 365 and Azure continues to build. The company’s cloud-based product suite, Office 365 and Azure, continues to gain popularity among both consumers and enterprises at impressive rates. This momentum helped Microsoft achieve its goal of $20 billion in commercial cloud annual recurring revenue well ahead of schedule. According to estimates, Microsoft’s cloud revenue is even greater than that of Amazon (AMZN) Web Services, meaning that if you like Amazon, you probably must love Microsoft, right? Cloud-based revenue at Microsoft is even growing at a faster clip than Amazon’s. I find these statistics incredible given the buzz around Amazon these days.

As you may already be aware, Microsoft recently acquired LinkedIn for over $26 billion in cash, and we weren’t exactly thrilled with the transaction as Microsoft may have overpaid a bit, but we’re not too worried about it. The deal is expected to be dilutive to earnings per share in coming years, but Microsoft’s impressive financial profile continues to give us confidence in the enterprise moving forward, and its tremendous free cash flow generating capacity has not wavered. Microsoft’s net cash from operating activities has advanced to $39.5 billion in fiscal 2017 from $29.7 billion in fiscal 2015, implying tremendous growth for this behemoth (where it counts), while additions to property plant and equipment have been relatively contained under $9 billion during the past two years. In fiscal 2017, Microsoft generated traditional free cash flow of $31.4 billion, a measure that is a multiple of the cash dividends it paid during the year, $11.8 billion, implying tremendous dividend coverage with traditional free cash flow alone.

What’s more, Microsoft can't scoop up its own shares fast enough through its massive buyback program. In the fiscal first-quarter of 2018 (the calendar third quarter of 2017), Microsoft returned $4.8 billion to stockholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends, just an incredible sum of money for a company even of any size. The software and cloud giant floats debt with the best credit quality, too, and we can't think of another company with a better financial profile, save for maybe Apple (AAPL). Financial discipline and strong execution remain hallmarks of Microsoft’s business. At the end of fiscal 2017, Microsoft ended the year with total cash and short-term investments of $133 billion and total short and long-term debt of ~$86 billion, revealing a nice net cash position that covers annual dividends a multiple of times, too!

I think you’re getting the gist of this article. Even if we look at Microsoft’s free cash flow generation alone, the company has room to keep raising the dividend payout, but it has incremental cushion on the balance sheet, even after netting out its debt position. Microsoft’s financial statements reveal that it has tremendous dividend growth potential, and we would not be surprised to see an acceleration in the pace of dividend expansion above the near-8% hike in the payout last September. To a large extent, it comes down to how the executive team feels about the tradeoff between dividend growth and buybacks because with Microsoft’s free cash flow generation and balance-sheet health, there’s just a lot of cash in the business that may eventually find its way into shareholder hands one way or another.

But investors should still keep their heads about them. Our valuation of Microsoft is not too aggressive, but we think it is optimistic, and we’re arriving at a discounted cash-flow fair value estimate of ~$79. We’re modeling in 7% compound annual growth during the next 5 years on solid average operating margins, resulting in a rather strong pace of earnings expansion. We’re using a weighted average cost of capital assumption of 9%+, so we could be a bit high in the discount rate, but even considering sensitivity analysis, we’d put the high end of Microsoft’s fair value estimate at ~$95 at the moment. Shares aren’t necessarily cheap, but as the company continues to haul in more and more cash, its value has all the potential to grow into its price. If the team hikes the dividend in a big way, then the marketplace may simply go bananas over Microsoft! Some are even saying that Microsoft could fetch a market capitalization of $1 trillion in coming years.

Let’s cover a couple risks. The first, of course, is that technology is fast-changing, and while this spells opportunities, it also spells threats. Not everything that Microsoft dreams up will work out, but we think it is in the right spot long-term with cloud-based revenue. Rivals in that area will only get stronger, but given recent trends, Microsoft looks to be the one to beat. After the LinkedIn deal, we're a little cautious management may jeopardize the health of its balance sheet with another reckless acquisition during the frothiest times the market has yet seen, but we hope not. We’re using evidence of the net cash buffer as an indication of management’s prudence. Once net cash turns to net debt on the balance sheet, if it ever does, then we’d start to worry about the pace of growth in the dividend. There’s not a lot that would make us worry about the health of the actual dividend at this point, however, only the rate of expansion. Some are saying that Microsoft could make a huge security acquisition, but we’re not much for speculation, even if a deal does end up coming to fruition.

All things considered, here’s what you need to know about Microsoft: it is no longer a tech dinosaur--if it ever was one--its cloud business is growing like a weed, it generates tremendous free cash flow that covers the dividend nicely, its balance-sheet health is top-notch, it has solid revenue prospects--especially for a company of its size--and its dividend growth prospects are fantastic, in my view. We’re hoping Microsoft steps up the pace of dividend growth in coming years, and maybe scales share repurchases back a bit, but we’re big fans of the executive team and respect their judgment. Shares of Microsoft yield ~2% at the time of this writing. We continue to like this software and cloud giant!

Related: CRM, IBM, GOOG, GOOGL, BABA

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The High Yield Dividend Newsletter, Best Ideas Newsletter, Dividend Growth Newsletter, Nelson Exclusive publication, and any reports and content found on this website are for information purposes only and should not be considered a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Valuentum is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for results obtained from the use of its newsletters, reports, commentary, or publications and accepts no liability for how readers may choose to utilize the content. Valuentum is not a money manager, is not a registered investment advisor, and does not offer brokerage or investment banking services. The sources of the data used on this website and reports are believed by Valuentum to be reliable, but the data’s accuracy, completeness or interpretation cannot be guaranteed. Valuentum, its employees, independent contractors and affiliates may have long, short or derivative positions in the securities mentioned on this website. The High Yield Dividend Newsletter portfolio, Best Ideas Newsletter portfolio and Dividend Growth Newsletter portfolio are not real money portfolios. Performance, including that in the Nelson Exclusive publication, is hypothetical and does not represent actual trading. Actual results may differ from simulated information, results, or performance being presented. For more information about Valuentum and the products and services it offers, please contact us at [email protected]

#$msft #$amzn #$aapl #$crm #$ibm #$goog #$googl #$baba

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billehrman · 7 years ago

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Sorry Warren: Active Management Is The Way To Go

If anything was proven this week it was that outperforming the markets is all about stock selection. Warren Buffett, the sage of Omaha, has decided that when he passes he wants his fortune managed by index funds. He has stated time and again that indexing will outperform active management over any reasonable time frame. To back up his beliefs, he has placed numerous bets along these lines and won. Well, why doesn’t he do it himself? The answer is that he and his team at Berkshire Hathaway can outperform the indices and he has been doing so successfully over his lifetime.

We returned to managing money a few years ago when the hedge fund sector was under tremendous pressure for having under-performed for so many years. We did so to make a point. We were out to show that a well-managed global hedge fund could still outperform all indices as we have successfully done over our 40-year career - much like Warren who I know and deeply respect.

Paix et Prospérité has outperformed all indices by a mile and the hedge fund index by many, many times. It all comes down to management! Not all managers are alike. In fact, the first decision that I have to make when considering an investment in a company is the caliber of the management. I have said many times that bad management can screw up a great business and good management can succeed at all times when most can’t.

AI (artificial intelligence) cannot replace people as investing requires that we look through that proverbial windshield rather than the rear view mirror. AI has history and predictive algorithms. Good managers have history, evidence-based principles that inform forward-looking strategy, and a healthy dose of intuition which never hurts.

If you did not notice, the OTC market significantly outperformed the S&P and DJIA last week as several of the big tech names, GOOG, INTC and MSFT as well as AMZN, reported great numbers and took off on Friday. The mundane traditional sectors like box retailers on the NYSE got killed as JCP came out with an announcement of horrible earnings. Most of the disruptors with a great future are on the OTC while the more traditional companies are on the NYSE.

What if CVS and Aetna merge? Do you know why this is potentially happening? It is their fear that Amazon will enter the drug distribution business. Disruptors are everywhere causing well-established old-line businesses to turn upside down, inside out and potentially out of business. Just ask Sears! And why do you think that the broadcasters/newspapers are having difficulty? Netflix and Facebook, and other disruptors, are besieging their advertising business where they make the bulk of their profit. Can passive management and AI forecast the demise of these businesses while simultaneously anointing the new winners? That is what a successful active global hedge fund manager can do as these new trends emerge globally.

The backdrop for the global stock markets remains excellent: global economic growth is clearly accelerating without inflationary pressures; monetary authorities remain very accommodative although some plan to reduce, but not eliminate, their stimulus down the road; interest rates remain ridiculously low for this stage in an economic recovery but the global yield curve is steepening which is good for financials; and earnings growth is better than expected in the aggregate as unit volume growth is improving while costs stay controlled. And to top it all off, the prospects for tax reform occurring this year or the beginning of next is getting more likely by the day which will boost S&P reported earnings up by around 11% overnight.

Let’s review what was reported last week to see if it supported or detracted from our economic and investment view:

1.) The United States is growing in importance in our overall global view, as it becomes the engine for accelerating growth continuing next year. We expect tax reform will be passed creating some certainty for both businesses and individuals to plan and move ahead. We were pleasantly surprised that third-quarter GNP growth grew by an above-forecast 3% as consumer spending increased by 2.4%, penalized by the hurricanes; business fixed investment rose by a robust 3.9%, net exports grew by 2.3%, government spending fell by 0.1% and core prices, excluding food and energy, increased by 1.3%. Consumer sentiment was reported on Friday and remains at a very high index at 100.7 with the index of future expectations increasing to 90.5 from 84.4 last month.

The key event of the week was the House passing the 2018 budget last Thursday. Both the House and Senate Republican leaders are aiming to pass tax reform legislation by Thanksgiving and a final bill on the President’s desk to sign by the end of the year or early 2018. Our fingers are crossed but we definitely see progress on Trump’s pro-growth, pro-business agenda. “What if” really appears to be “what will be.”

2.) I continue to believe that China offers tremendous long-term opportunities to profitably invest as long as you invest in those sectors with the wind to their back with the support of the government emphasizing the consumer and technology sectors. President Xi said that the government would focus less on the speed of economic growth and more on the quality of growth. That means that he will move to increase the standard of living for all. Excessive pollution and speculation will be reduced and financial capital ratios and liquidity will be increased so that the foundation for the future is strengthened. China issued its first U.S. dollar-denominated debt sale in 13 years priced with a yield of 2.678% or just 0.25% above comparable Treasury yields.

The next important event to monitor will be Trump’s trip to China next month. I expect many positive things to come out of their meeting especially trade-related to avoid future trade conflicts down the road.

3.) The ECB met last week and announced that its overly accommodative policy will ebb over time but not too much and not too fast. Under its new plan, the ECB will reduce its purchases to 30 billion Euros per month down from its current rate of 60 billion, keep its rates constant for now, and extend its buying to the end of 2018. “This is not tapering; it’s downsizing” Draghi said, which says it all!

The OECD raised its forecast to 2.1% growth this year slowing to 1.9% next year, which we find conservative. It’s more important to note that business investment is likely to increase by more than 7% this year, a new record, and indicative of a new spirit in the Eurozone who tend to be very conservative.

4.) It is clear that the Saudis’ want to prop up the price of crude before capitalizing and selling a piece of Aramco so it is no surprise that Saudi Arabia and Russia, a country in dire need of funds, is willing to limit oil output thru 2018. Expect the price of crude to remain artificially supported until then but as long as the price of crude stays above $50 per barrel, U.S. shale production will continue to rise.

Let’s wrap this up.

The wind remains to your back investing in global stock markets as long as the monetary authorities are creating more capital than are needed for the real economy. But neither all markets nor all industries or stocks will benefit. A successful investor must be able to fully understand what is happening in each region, both economically and politically, and how it will impact not only its own country and its people but also all others. There are clear winners and losers here and also as you need to drill down amongst industry groups and finally amongst companies. There is no way that passive or artificial intelligence can adjust to change quick enough to adjust their capital allocation, regional emphasis and industry selection to reflect such rapid change as is occurring now.

The bottom line is that wind remains at our backs so the path of least resistance for most stock markets, especially the U.S. where tax reform is on the horizon, remains up.

I was asked to comment on the emerging markets, which have outperformed this year as they have underperformed for so many years before. Most emerging market countries emphasize production over consumption so acceleration in global growth is welcome and tremendously beneficial to their companies’ earnings. It will only get stronger in 2018 but we emphasize only stocks that we can follow and monitor closely ourselves so we do not dabble in these markets. It’s tough enough following Alibaba and others, which we have owned for years.

We continue to emphasize the large money center banks like BAC, C and JPM; global industrials like EMR, GE, HON, IR, FTV, and UTX; low cost industrial commodity stocks such as BHP and RIO including U.S. low cost aluminum and steel companies such as AA and NUE; technology at a fair price such as CSCO, MSFT, NVDA and ORCL special situations such as DWDP, FMC, HUN and PX and others.

Do as Buffet does and not what he says!

So remember to review all the facts; pause, reflect and consider mindset shifts; review you capital allocation and risk controls; do independent research on each idea and...

Invest Accordingly!

Bill Ehrman Paix et Prospérité LLC

#$AA #$AIG #$AAPL #$AMZN #$BMNY #$BHP #$BAC #$C #$DWDO #$FTV #$IR #$JPM #$NUE #$RIO #$CSCO #$MSFT #$NVDA #$ORCL #$NFLX #$HUN #$VNTR #$PX #$FMC #$IBM #$T #$V #$M #$MA #$TGT #$SHLD

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riskhedge · 5 years ago

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The Best “Pick-and-Shovel” Play for the Online Grocery Boom

By Justin Spittler

Everyone knows online shopping revolutionized how we buy clothing, electronics, and other merchandise.

Many malls across the country have closed their doors because people simply don’t shop at malls like they once did. Instead they buy things online. After a few days, the things show up at their doorstep.

The media nicknamed this phenomenon the “Retail Apocalypse.” And it has led to…

The “Rewiring” of American Real Estate

Amazon (AMZN) alone ships 5 billion packages a year. That’s more than 13 million packages per day.

To ensure these packages make it to their destination, a whole new network of infrastructure was built out. Industrial warehouses and distribution centers form the heart of this network.

These facilities store, process, and ship the packages you order online.

You might drive by an industrial warehouse on your way to work. They’re generally non-descript cement buildings, located off highways. They can stretch over a quarter mile long. And they usually have dozens of trucks docked outside.

Without these centers, online shopping would be impossible. And the stocks of companies that operate them have been great investments. Just look at the returns you could have made…

Terreno Realty (TRNO)—a company that owns a portfolio of warehouses—has surged 187% since the start of 2014.

First Industrial Realty (FR), another warehouse operator, is up 111%. Prologis (PLD) is up 117%. And Duke Realty (DRE) is up 105%. The S&P 500 rose just 67% over the same period.

If You Missed Out on This Run, It’s Not Too Late

There’s a second real estate transformation happening now… thanks to the boom in online grocery shopping.

In just the last five years, online grocery sales have tripled. By 2023, the market is expected to quadruple again.

It’s easy to see why. Visiting the grocery store is a chore. The typical American family spends over a hundred hours a year shopping for groceries. A lot of that time is spent in the car and waiting in the checkout line.

Online shopping eliminates all that. It leaves you with more time to spend with your family, friends, and doing things you like.

This might surprise you, but…

The US Lags Behind Many Countries in Online Grocery Shopping

Last year, groceries accounted for just 1.6% of total US online sales. In China, they accounted for 3.8%. In Japan and South Korea, they accounted for 7.1% and 8.3% of total online sales.

You don’t see this often. Normally, the US is a leader in tech trends. In this case, it has some catching up to do.

There’s every reason to believe online grocery shopping will catch on soon in the US. The Food Marketing Institute and Nielsen predict 70% of consumers will try buying groceries online within the next four to six years. This should push grocery sales to 3.5% of total online sales by 2023.

Will Grocery Stories Disappear?

We’re not necessarily headed for a “Grocery Store Apocalypse.” But much like retail did, the industry will evolve.

Grocery stores will shrink because there will be fewer people walking up and down the aisles. They’ll store more food and beverage offsite.

As you can imagine, regular warehouses aren’t adequate for storing and processing groceries. Unlike most of the things you might buy on Amazon, groceries go bad.

A grocer can’t place a frozen chicken or a bunch of broccoli in a box and mail it to you. They have to keep the food fresh.

Cold storage warehouses store frozen and fresh food before it reaches a supermarket. About 96% of frozen food stops by one of these warehouses before reaching the grocery store.

Cold storage warehouses are specialized facilities. They aren’t cheap or easy to build. They require extensive piping, large HVAC systems, and a whole lot of refrigeration.

So, it’s unlikely Amazon, WalMart, or any other online grocer will build their own. Instead, they’ll leave cold storage to the pros.

I Like Americold Realty Trust (COLD)

Americold is a leader in cold storage. It owns and operates 156 warehouses and about 928 million cubic feet of temperature-controlled storage.

The company has been around for decades. But it went public back in January 2018… and it’s been on a tear since then, as you can see here:

Americold’s stock has rocketed 112% since its IPO. I expect it to climb much higher as online groceries catch on.

About 82% of Americold’s sales come from the United States. And Americold commands a 23% market share in the US. Lineage Logistics is the only bigger player in the space, and it’s private. You can’t buy its stock.

Americold serves some of the biggest players in the food and beverage space. I’m talking Walmart, Kroger, Trader Joe’s, and Beyond Meat.

Finally, Americold pays a 2.5% dividend. The S&P 500, for perspective, yields 1.9%.

Americold is a unique and safe way to capitalize on the emerging online grocery market. But it also offers plenty of upside. I wouldn’t be surprised if its stock doubles over the next two to three years as online groceries take off.

Download our free report The Great Disruptors: 3 Breakthrough Stocks Set to Double Your Money. These stocks will hand you 100% gains as they disrupt whole industries.

#online grocery shopping #online grocery #online grocery delivery #online grocery storage

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turkiyeecom · 5 years ago

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If You're Not Long CVS Yet, You Should Be - Seeking Alpha

In this article, I'll revisit a company I wrote about a few months back and give my current take on its valuation and current overall position. I will argue why I believe that nothing regarding the positives I mentioned in my article "Fill A Prescription For CVS Today " has changed, and why in fact the negatives have grown somewhat less relevant at this time. I believe the company presents an excellent investment opportunity with tremendous upside and very little downside - if any - if you believe that a company the size and scope of CVS Health (CVS) has any future whatsoever. Let's take a look. CVS - what's changed? Back in my original article, I was long on CVS and recommended a buy at prices of ~$60/share. The share price back then has dropped somewhat more, to roughly ~54.50/share at this point. It's been hovering between the low to mid-50s for some time now, yielding an impressive ~3.6% at that price. In my article, I pointed to future sector uncertainties, competition from new business models, the high debt load and the slowdown of PBM as the primary risks when investing here, with several positives, in my opinion, offsetting these risks somewhat. Since the article, several pieces of news and a quarterly report has gone by. Because of this, lets' wrap what's changed in the company thesis here. The company has paid off $4B worth of debt related to the Aetna deal. The company's leverage, which was at a near-record 4.7X at the time of the deal, is expected to drop to the low 3.X by 2022 - and the company will have cash available for the large debt repayments coming due in 2020-2021 (Source: Bloomberg). CVS, aside from dividend payments, also generates significant amounts of FCF available to be used for repayments of debt. A potential nixing of the Aetna/CVS deal seems very unlikely given the DoJ recommendation. Even if this unlikely event was to occur, it would not turn me a CVS bear, as the further-depressed share price would be little more than an opportunity to purchase more. The company may be required to spin off portions of Aetna to satisfy the ruling, but in essence, I believe CVS would continue forward as a strong company even without Aetna as part of its core business. CVS's cost-cutting potential through its ongoing modernization efforts (which I mentioned in my initial article), continue to act as a catalyst for future savings. Its long-term vertical integration will, at worst, save some money and at best save the company's own target or beyond (~$2B) The company continues to expand its traditional retail infrastructure in new ways. I strongly believe that pharmacies are one of the exceptions to the online shopping rule (in many cases), and the company's targets here are both well-strategized and positive. The company increased forward guidance (more below). The company also reported 1Q19 - let's take a quick look. 1Q19 - A good quarter for CVS with exciting news The last quarter exceeded CVS's expectations, and the company beat expectations, coming in at an EPS of $1.62, which was beyond even their own guidance. As a result of this, CVS is raising their own FY19 EPS guidance to 6.75-6.90 which comes in at a low-end guidance increase of roughly ~1%. The guidance increase isn't all however, as several positive pieces of news were available for perusal, including: Good implementation in Pharmacy and Health Care Benefits. Medicare Advantage membership growth. Market share increases in retail pharmacy. Debt reduction of $900M in 1Q19 alone, while also paying $600M in dividends. Prescription growth of 5.5%, with a growing interest in the PBM, guaranteed net pricing cost model. Several clients are set to adopt it in 2019, and more in 2020. Aetna integration is well on-track with $300-$350M synergy goals well in sight and a possible exceeding of the $750M goal of 2020. (Source: CVS) The above-seen CVS health hubs are also being rolled out in several locations after a successful pilot, a concept including the offering of health services, wellness products and personalized care that comes with the combination of walking into a local CVS pharmacy. This concept will include the service of: Chronic condition management Diabetes management Blood pressure screening/management Sleep assessment/assisting services. It also includes a licensed dietician on staff, as well as enabling the hosting of individual sessions and community events. By 2021, the company plans to have rolled out ~1500 such HealthHUB stores. As someone without access to any such functionality, it's my firm belief both as a consumer and an investor, that this sort of healthcare model - not strictly the online model - is the future of modern healthcare, and it re-affirms my belief in CVS that they are continuing and improving this development. In the quarter, the company expressed its confidence in regardless of what share the future healthcare industry takes, that: The role of the private sector will be a significant one. CVS's role in that the private sector will continue to be significant Both of these assertions/beliefs are two I very much concur with, and they, together with the company's fundamentals and finances, are part of what forms the core of my thesis in my CVS investment. CVS - the overall picture Apart from modernizing its stores, the company, at the same time (through the aforementioned modernization) is looking to cut costs rather aggressively, through the integration of business structures/system, optimization of existing medical program deliveries and of course, through sheer economic scale/vertical integration. New technologies will also play a big part here. These savings and modernizations are expected to form the core of the forward net savings the company is expecting, together with merger synergies. The primary care leakage plug the company has introduced through its introduction of primary care clinics inside CVS stores will reduce the number of patients referred to "standard" primary care. At the same time, the company is investing in new store models and concepts, is facing PBM model changes, taxation increases and other headwinds - which will likely offset the above-mentioned tailwinds somewhat. So while the company is creating some great synergies and doing excellent investments, the forward risks that I mentioned in the article (both this one and the previous one), do remain and are worth considering. However - after 1Q19, I believe the overall picture for this investment has been made somewhat more clear. While we, of course, do not yet have any guarantees whatsoever, things are more on track than they were at the time of my previous article. Why? Because the company's debt is manageable. The synergies and savings seem likely enough, given that current results/expectations are already exceeding original parameters somewhat. The company is developing successful pilot programs. The share price is, in my opinion, overemphasizing the risks while downplaying the company's performance and incredible market share. The last bump in revenues/sales is obviously related to Aetna, but the trends are nonetheless extremely positive. However, all of these factors, of course, pale next to the relevance of the more important area - current valuation and risk/reward. Valuation (Source: F.A.S.T Graphs) Once again, the undervaluation in terms of expected forward earnings is evident at this time. The company, historically trading at a premium to earnings of 17.10X, is trading at almost 10 P/E below this level, at a current level of ~7.8 blended P/E. Now, as we've discussed both in the previous article and here, there are risks to an investment in CVS. To put any sort of premium to this company's fair value would seem excessive to me. However, the market has, in my view, severely undervalued this company's forward potential, resulting in an unfair undervaluation - and opportunity. (Source: F.A.S.T Graphs) Even calculating a conservative forward P/E of ~12, you're still receiving returns of above 20% annually at this price/share, assuming the company doesn't cut the dividend. Since they are freezing the dividend, one must take this into consideration when calculating forward as well, so perhaps a somewhat lower return should be expected. That doesn't change the fact, however, that even at the most conservative metrics and forward expectations available, losing money at an investment with CVS seems to be a hard thing to do long term when buying in at this price. And that is sort of what I'm counting on - it represents the foundation of the thesis here. Thesis update CVS at a premium valuation, given the forward risks that exist, wouldn't have been an appealing buy. If the stock were trading above P/Es of 12-13, I wouldn't be recommending a buy here. With a depressed share price seemingly representing absolutely zero faith in the company's ability however, it's an entirely different story. The market is considering this company to be worth below 8X forward earnings - and this for a company with a market share the size of CVS. This, I believe, is the very definition of a value opportunity. With the savings program on track to exceed expectations, sales growths in stores, new (successful) concepts being rolled out and the leverage reduction on track - what could possibly materialize as a storm cloud on this horizon? Amazon (AMZN)? While the online giant remains a risk to any business, the fact remains that Amazon as of yet has to make any sort of meaningful strides in this business segment. This risk is impossible to evaluate at this point, and as such, I consider the future of the PBM/Healthcare market in the US the greater and the only significant risk to this company. While this risk is significant, it is neither company-specific nor measurable at this stage. It seems a bit like the oil/gas discussion. Everyone knows that sooner or later, oil will be replaced as a primary fuel source for many applications. When that will be, however, that could be anybody's guess - and I doubt our own social-democratic 2030-goals in Sweden will be material to the overall, global considerations here. In the same way, the healthcare/pharma sector needs to change in order to meet the demands of an increasingly aging population and the associated cost increases. How or when it will do so, however, there's no clear, accepted road to that destination as of right now. Because of this, and a few other reasons, CVS is currently trading at multi-year lows. I choose to believe that the company has a strong role to play in the future of healthcare and supplying people with vital medications and medical supplies - and I don't consider these risks material enough to change my thesis here. CVS remains a strong buy at these levels. Thank you for reading Recommendation As of this article, I consider CVS a 'STRONG BUY' at these levels of ~$53-$55 /share. I myself will increase my exposure to CVS at these levels and may do more of the same if we experience further stock price drops. I will update this article, or publish an updated thesis should things change, or/and in conjunction with future earnings updates. Disclosure: I am/we are long CVS. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. Additional disclosure: While this article may sound like financial advice, please observe that the author is not a CFA or in any way licensed to give financial advice. It may be structured as such, but it is not financial advice. Investors are required and expected to do their own due diligence and research prior to any investment. SOURCE NEWS SITE Read the full article

#Alpha #Seeking

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creativesage · 6 years ago

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(via Shenzhen: How China's Silicon Valley Went from Counterfeiting to Innovating — CNN)

By Matt Rivers, CNN Business

Shenzhen, China — At the Huaqiangbei Market in Shenzhen, you can build a smartphone from scratch in a couple of hours.

Spread over several floors and covering hundreds of thousands of square feet, the market is home to vendors selling the parts that make up your standard phone — cameras, motherboards, frames, screens and so on. All you have to do is buy the right bits and know how to put them all together. And it's not just smartphones. You can find the parts here for almost any consumer electronics device you can think of, like portable power banks and drones.

To be sure, there is copycatting going on here. The designs of Apple (AAPL) or Samsung devices are regularly ripped off. Intellectual property rights, one of the US government's biggest bugbears with China, are nonexistent. But there's invention at work, too. Some people are trying to use the parts to come up with new and improved versions of existing gadgets. The whirling, chaotic market highlights how innovation sometimes works in China. Experts say viewing the country as just a vast manufacturing base for products designed by foreign companies is outdated and misguided.

"There's a ton of innovations at a huge scale that are happening in China," said Christian Grewell, a business professor at NYU Shanghai. "They are just happening very, very quickly and without the knowledge of the rest of us."

He pointed to how smartphone maker Xiaomi has updated its software based on user feedback, and China's rapid adoption of digital payments through Tencent's (TCEHY) WeChat app and Ant Financial's Alipay.

Hardware hubOnce a tiny fishing village in the shadow of nearby Hong Kong, Shenzhen is now a glittering metropolis of more than 12 million people. Along with other cities spread across Southern China's Pearl River Delta, it rose to prominence in the 80s and 90s as the world's factory floor, pumping out boatloads of industrial and consumer products. But today it's also widely known as China's answer to Silicon Valley, the home of tech giants like Tencent and Huawei.Shenzhen has become a magnet for ambitious young entrepreneurs seeking to take advantage of the city's position at the heart of global tech supply chains. It has produced startups like DJI, the world's top maker of non-military drones.

"If you have an idea, you can quickly evaluate this idea and find factories to manufacture the product for you," said Jasen Wang, CEO of tech education startup Makeblock. The company produces kits that kids can use to build things like race cars and walking robots — and then program them. Makeblock's products and software are designed to teach children the language of computer programming in a fun way.

Shenzhen provides a ready supply of the hardware needed by his company, which was valued around $350 million in its last fundraising round. And it also has the human talent. "There are so many big companies here, it's very easy to find hardware development engineers," Wang said. "You don't have that kind of advantage in Beijing or Shanghai."

Moving fast, Shenzhen also gets things done quickly."If you really want to develop products in a fast pace, I think you have to be in China — and practically have to be in Shenzhen," said Steven Yang, CEO of battery technology company Anker Innovations. "Anything you have to do in days or weeks elsewhere can be done in hours here."

Yang, a 36-year-old former Google (GOOGL) employee, has built Anker into one of the top makers of portable power banks for smartphones and other devices. It generated revenue of well of over $500 million last year, and its products sell on Amazon (AMZN) and at Walmart (WMT).

Ten years ago, Shenzhen was 90% about copycatting and 10% innovation, according to Yang. Now, it's 70% innovation and 30% copycatting, he suggests. Foreign businesses agree that Chinese companies are upping their game.

In an annual survey by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, this was the first year that a majority of respondents said they view Chinese companies as "equally or more innovative than European firms." Counterfeiting is still rife. While genuine innovation is happening in Shenzhen, so are trademark infringement and intellectual property theft. The counterfeiting industry is still massive, with fake iPhones and Nike (NKE) sneakers prominently on sale. Anker suffered from knockoffs in its early days, but authorities are gradually taking a tougher line on copycats, according to Yang. "I think it's getting better year over year," he said.

The Trump administration remains unconvinced. It has cited Chinese theft of American intellectual property as one of the main reasons for the trade war between the two giant economies. Experts say the Chinese government needs to do more if it wants to become a global tech powerhouse.

"China does want to see a few of their local firms take on world markets. And they are making lot of bets in various places, such as electric vehicles and artificial intelligence,” NYU Shanghai's Grewell said.

"For China to go send its innovations overseas," he added, "I think it's got to fully join the international community in protecting some of that intellectual property."

Jon Jensen contributed to this report.

[Entire post, click on the title link to read it at CNN Business, and to view all of the video clips and see the additional illustrations.]

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Come experience our Creative Sage™ version of an Innovation Tour!

We’re glad that “new Silicon Valleys,” or place-specific innovation centers, are growing all over the world, at least in terms of innovation and the development of creative economy ecosystems — and we would love to visit them all! We all learn best by exchanging ideas across cultures and industries. We fully support complete diversity in the workplace, and overcoming the inequality challenges that are still too prevalent in our world.

Now, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and organizational leaders from other cities and countries who are visiting the San Francisco Bay Area can have access to Silicon Valley companies to learn from their cultures, hiring, leadership and innovation methods. Come join us for a dynamic, unforgettable, and very enjoyable Innovation Tour in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, the East Bay (Emeryville, Oakland, Berkeley, and more), in the Wine Country, or on the beautiful, rural Northern California seacoast in Mendocino County, including Fort Bragg, California, where we have worked on business, arts and tourism projects.

At Creative Sage™, we design high impact, customized creativity, innovation, and leadership programs, and we are now offering related tours, events, corporate retreats, and workshops in wonderful urban and rural settings that will spark your imagination — and your team’s — to come up with brilliant ideas and plan how to implement new innovations in services, products, your organization’s business model, operations, or in any other area. We also design programs for specific areas and markets, such as health care and health-related travel.

We use the latest in value-tested creativity and innovation techniques and processes; and we select world-class facilitators and partners to help your organization gain lasting value from your experience working — and playing — with us. Creativity and innovation processes could include design thinking, business model canvas, arts-based, interactive creativity activities, lateral thinking, gamification, World Cafe, or other proven methods.

We also work on workplace culture issues, leadership challenges, handling transitions, and building resilience in organizations and individual clients. You’ll be able to see first-hand how Silicon Valley companies create a culture of creativity and innovation, and you’ll be able to talk with their leaders. We’ll arrange a customized tour for you that addresses your organization’s issues.

We can design additional customized programs and tours for individuals, families, work teams, university students and faculty, including those in undergraduate or graduate entrepreneurship or MBA programs, and other special interest groups, such as the charitable tourism activities.

Join our email list and visit our web site, or call: (510) 845-5510 for more information.

You’ll take away essential, valuable insights that you could not achieve in any other way, while enjoying the experience of a lifetime!

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