tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post1619769012707321610..comments2024-03-08T06:18:28.125+11:00Comments on Bronte Capital: Measuring how bad Twitter isJohn Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-59783871892566597882016-11-09T06:48:42.859+11:002016-11-09T06:48:42.859+11:00John,
Ackman is sitting on a fantastic new produc...John,<br /><br />Ackman is sitting on a fantastic new product - The Pershing Square 2X Inverse ETF!! <br /><br />I'd almost respect him if he actually launched it.<br /><br />Cheerslongshorthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09305294302675016679noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-72271051475331783212016-11-02T08:51:36.816+11:002016-11-02T08:51:36.816+11:00Not as sophisticated as some commenters, but doesn...Not as sophisticated as some commenters, but doesn't Dorsey get lift from Square? I agree with your analysis re: the raw numbers on Twitter, but what other rationale than the numbers from square would justify Disney's apparent admiration for Sir Jack? rwwAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16716643405895973486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-24065613594348946582016-10-25T22:16:47.235+11:002016-10-25T22:16:47.235+11:008% cut is not enough! More "talent" need...8% cut is not enough! More "talent" needs to be culled!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-58897887422612677722016-10-18T08:22:27.935+11:002016-10-18T08:22:27.935+11:00This is a great opportunity for Ackman as activist...This is a great opportunity for Ackman as activist investor. You two could even meet and compare notes. :-PAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-38744695004338553942016-10-17T17:29:19.093+11:002016-10-17T17:29:19.093+11:00Nice articles on Twitter.
It doesnt have a strong...Nice articles on Twitter.<br /><br />It doesnt have a strong business model. Probably that is the reason they are stuck with Jack Dorsey. He doesnt even work at Twitter full time.<br /><br /><br />They sell the data dump of all the tweets. It currently contributes $200m but that is supposed to be bread and butter strategy. Customers i.e. Corporates need to mine that data for trends and other consumer behaviour. I guess they also sell analytics tool for that. Most of the R&D should be going there - not to the Twitter website. Technically the vine and periscope should have same architecture so cant say that R&D is required for this.<br /><br />Overall cost seem to be too high. SGA seems to be too high. I doubt the cost of web-servers and the hardware to run this should be $800m. It includes Traffic acquisition costs (TAC) but also amortized Intellectual Property and capitalised labour cost. <br /><br />As per their report<br />"TAC consists of costs we incur with third parties in connection with the sale to advertisers of our advertising products that we place on third-party publishers’ websites, applications or other offerings collectively resulting from acquisitions, and from our organically-built advertising network, Twitter Audience Platform." Now Sales and marketing is entirely salaries and it amounts to $800m. Add to that their is too much money is being wasted on "talent" when it is not contributing. <br />This sounds weird to me - the costs are too out of line. <br /><br /><br />All the items (Cost of rev, R&D, sales and marketing etc) includes salaries and stock option pay within each of them. Possibly the salary components are too high and rest of spend is actually low.<br /><br />May be before Carl Ichan, it needs you to look at the accounts.<br /><br />Rahul Deodharhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13354874480198485819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-72601981861072605032016-10-17T06:16:47.331+11:002016-10-17T06:16:47.331+11:00If they cut the costs by the amount you indicate, ...If they cut the costs by the amount you indicate, will revenue suffer? Wasteful spending or bad business model?<br /><br />Nick de Peyster<br />http://undervaluedstocks.infoAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14467530210717699362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-17211793159569312342016-10-17T05:13:41.519+11:002016-10-17T05:13:41.519+11:00Interesting article. Have you thought about looki...Interesting article. Have you thought about looking at it from the revenue side? Perhaps the problem is that it cost some certain amount to maintain a website and the relevant ad infrastructure and that Twitter just doesn't get enough money per ad to cover that cost.<br /><br />A decent analogy might be when Buffett bought Buffalo Evening News. At first when they were competing with the other paper (I forget the name) their ad rates were fairly low and they were unprofitable. You could have looked at that and concluded that management was poor and costs were way out of control, but the problem was that running a newspaper cost what it cost and that the ad rates were just too low. Once they started circulating the Sunday edition and their competitor folded, they increased their ad rates and became immensely profitable over night.<br /><br />I've talked with a couple of people that run ad buying accounts, and they tell me that even in an environment with diminishing returns to their bidding that they spend almost all of their money on Google and exactly $0 on Twitter. The click throughs and conversions just aren't good enough to make a very cheap ad profitable. So perhaps it's a problem inherent in their platform where ads just aren't worth that much, so they can't charge enough to cover costs. The financials would look pretty analogous to a situation where costs were out of control, but the problems would be very different.KYLERhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13869668135385918564noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-71627226484852202872016-10-14T13:29:25.042+11:002016-10-14T13:29:25.042+11:00Will you be sending a letter to the board John?
h...Will you be sending a letter to the board John?<br /><br />https://investor.twitterinc.com/directors.cfmHenrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-1295744137581058472016-10-14T08:52:01.552+11:002016-10-14T08:52:01.552+11:00Hilarious! I'll been trolling twitter since th...Hilarious! I'll been trolling twitter since the IPO (http://dollardeathspiral.blogspot.com/2013/11/frittering-with-twitter-v1.html) and I've done 10 posts tracking how much money they lose. They have mastered the art of selling toilet paper stock to investors in order to throw outrageous parties and pay heavenly bonuses. I don't know why some people treat them like an indispensable service, it's nothing but a cash burning machine. I guess there is some value to Politicos since they are now censoring and shadow banning people they don't like. tekewinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10230830520110635922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-52234933578426077242016-10-13T21:53:47.683+11:002016-10-13T21:53:47.683+11:00Hey John,
Nice article. I would say to hammer the...Hey John,<br /><br />Nice article. I would say to hammer the point home and make it easy for comparison between the two graphics, that the numbers on both graphics should be expressed in the same way. Eg, both millions, or both thousands<br /><br />Nice article otherwise. I can't see how Twitter has any longevity myself.<br /><br />DDave Bowkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02004930526782463038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-87705637921006459232016-10-13T21:43:43.703+11:002016-10-13T21:43:43.703+11:00http://brontecapital.blogspot.ch/2016/10/some-comm...http://brontecapital.blogspot.ch/2016/10/some-comment-on-twitter-buyout-rumours.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-50796736476052052892016-10-13T20:38:14.547+11:002016-10-13T20:38:14.547+11:00I heard Jack Dorsey and Marissa Mayer are related ...I heard Jack Dorsey and Marissa Mayer are related :PAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-59636770670506622112016-10-13T19:16:17.844+11:002016-10-13T19:16:17.844+11:00you cannot compare facebook and twitter, because t...you cannot compare facebook and twitter, because their products are not compareable. that would be like comparing Samsung and Volkswagen.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4815867514277794362.post-86078301204599091752016-10-13T11:46:42.048+11:002016-10-13T11:46:42.048+11:00What happened to the previous post that you referr...What happened to the previous post that you referred to?<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com