Investing for Outsized Returns
In July 2020, Pershing Square raised $4bn from public investors for the biggest SPAC ever, Pershing Square Tontine Holdings (PSTH). At one point, the stock rallied to above $30/share but has since settled back down to around low-$20s. In June 2021, PSTH announced a series of transactions, with the bulk…
Lately legacy media seems to be back in vogue, with Amazon buying MGM Holdings for $8.5bn, or estimated 37x annualized EBITDA in May 2021. Taking a dive into the sector, ViacomCBS stands out. The company, together with Discovery, were poster child from the fallout of Archegos Capital in April 2021.…
2020/2021 have been the years of SPACs. In 2020, there were ~250 SPAC IPOs being raised, which was more than the total over the 10 years prior (see statistics here). Then in just first half of 2021, over 300 were raised with over $100bn in funding. Generally I have always…
Last two posts on Zoom Video and Etsy, I mentioned network effects. The term has popped up everywhere for tech start-ups and IPOs. In my layman’s opinion, if the network doesn’t provide much pricing power and / or participants have low switching costs, there is not much “network effect”. Case…
On last post of MicroStrategy, its software business was obviously overshadowed by its bitcoin holdings. Today let’s take a look at a pure play software business, Zoom Video, which has really piqued my interest as of late. Honestly wish I have looked at it sooner! Zoom is a Software as…
Today let’s take a look at this company called MicroStrategy, taking a spin to the crypto land. Founder and CEO It was founded by Michael Saylor in 1989. Today, he remains tightly in control of the company as the Chairman and CEO. He has 25% ownership of the common and…
Etsy.com is a global online destination for unique and creative goods, as alternative to mass produced goods. The niche goods version of Amazon. The company put out interesting statistics, for example, saying that 88% of buyers agreed that Etsy has items you can’t find anywhere else. Personally I can’t verify…
First looked at Chewy (currently the largest pure play online pet retailer) when it got bought out by PetSmart (the biggest specialty pet physical retailer owned by BC Partners) for $3.4bn in 2017. At the time I thought the price tag was excessive. Then in 2019, Chewy IPO’ed at a…
This meme stock phenomenon fascinates me not only because of the sheer monster returns that they are generating but also the fact that much elevated stock prices seem to be staying! GameStop was at ~$15/share in Dec 2020. By end of Jan 2021, it rallied to almost $350/share. That’s 20+x…
AMC Entertainment epitomizes the latest wave of the meme stock phenomenon. Now it is retreating. What to do now? Before we concern ourselves with the monster returns that we may be missing or enjoying, let’s first dial back to the good old fundamentals. Industry and Financial Statement Details First started…