Companies

Gene and Andrew discuss today’s Apple event, including the following product announcements: Upgraded iPhone SE with 5G, $429. Despite the 8% price increase, they will sell as many of these as they can make for the next couple of quarters. …

Nasdaq closed down nearly 4% as investor anxiety begins to shift from the conflict in Ukraine to a global recession.  Apple has been rumored to be bidding on NFL live content. We see a big opportunity for Apple in sports…

Takeaways: Amazon is pushing the FTC for a decision on whether the agency will allow its MGM deal. All eyes are on the outcome, given it will set the pace of tech M&A over the next couple of years. Sony…

Ford’s re-org was an effort to excite investors about the company’s progress in EVs. The plan would have been better received if there was formal split of the company. Big picture: there’s lots of optimism around EVs and it will…

From mid-November 2021 to March 2nd, we have been tracking lead times at Apple for ten products in six countries. We’ve found that supply has improved 2x since January 23rd. This improvement is in line with our expectations and in…

Takeaways: There were reports that TSLA has plans to increase its China production from 1.1M to 2M vehicles/year. As a point of comparison, VW expected to be able to produce 1M EVs in China in 2023. Bottom line is: China is…

Gene and Doug discuss: With all that’s going on in Western Europe, we wonder if European regulators will be more kind to U.S. tech companies. The real question is: Will U.S. regulators be more kind to U.S. tech companies? Netflix…

Gene and Doug discuss: How a global launch of Facebook Reels will further the company’s aim to rival TikTok. While TikTok has a greater pool of content creators, Facebook better understands its users’ network of friends which could be an…

Gene and Doug discuss: How the U.S Senate’s bipartisan Open App Markets Act (S. 2710) will impact our digital ecosystem. The bill was passed with a 20-2 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and aims to penalize developers with what…

Amazon and Visa find a way forward. The two have reached a global resolution after a months-long dispute over processing fees. In November, Amazon threatened to stop accepting VISA in the UK, Singapore and Australia due to a 2% merchant fee,…

Gene and Doug discuss: Google is implementing its Privacy Sandbox for Android OS, and we believe it will be more advertiser-friendly than IDFA. While some have compared Google’s changes to that of Apple, it seems that Google is allowing for…

Gene and Doug discuss: Where there’s massive reach, there’s massive ad opportunity. Amazon increases its ad spend to $31B — which is larger than the ad revenue of Snap, Pinterest and Microsoft combined. Facebook launches its news aggregation service to…