.crazylegs..

103 Comments

    • ON: Fri Oct 3rd 13:59 PM
      Commented on:
      Five Reasons RIMM Will Continue to Fall
      Questions:
      1. Why is Price to Sales the only metric you care about? Do earnings matter?
      2. When you calculate price to sales, why do you ONLY include handsets and not SERVICE REVENUE?

      Answers:
      1. YES
      2. Because your total lack of understanding limits you. So you say that RIM (not RIMM, that's the ticker, not the name of the company) could sell 100 million handsets in a few years. If that was the case, assuming the usual 50/50 split between upgrades and new subs, then 50 million new subs would be added. At ARPU of just half current ARPU of $7 (from service fees, Matt) or $3.5 per month, per sub, equals $2.1B annual revenue from JUST service fees at 80% margins, 30% taxes, that alone equals over $1 billion after tax profits, which you could easily place a 20 multiple on. And the user base would have grown dramatically if they got to those number. So you would have to add device sales PLUS service fees for existing customers and OBVIOUSLY the value of this enterprise will be far greater than your ridiculously inane target value.
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    • ON: Fri Oct 3rd 13:44 PM
      Commented on:
      Five Reasons RIMM Will Continue to Fall
      I re-read this article and it strikes me how DUMB this it is. Uses faulty valuation metrics. Never looks at earnings. Doesn't once mention how to value the service revenue. Doesn't look at carrier incentives. Pretty much doesn't add any real value to this site. Thanks for a nothing article Matt. You will be proven wrong in the next 12 months.
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    • ON: Fri Oct 3rd 13:39 PM
      Commented on:
      Five Reasons RIMM Will Continue to Fall
      Any iPhone user will defend it to death. There is no reason involved. So of course iPhone will be in every single person's pocket in the world and no other mobile phone will ever be sold again. Why try to reason an iPhonatic? It's a fool's errand. Anyone with half a brain knows the end market for these devices is huge and growing so anyone who brings value to the table will sell tons of devices.
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    • ON: Thu Oct 2nd 11:04 AM
      Commented on:
      RIMM: The Cheapest Growth Stock?
      Why is everyone so intent on only focusing on the enterprise/business user? Doesn't the Flip, cheap Pearls and Curves, Javelins pose a threat to samsung, moto, and nokia on the lower end of things where RIM can essentially use the same BOM of those guys but offer a "smart" phone experience. Why doesn't anyone think about that element instead of only trying to compare the high end Bold to iPhone or E71?
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    • ON: Thu Oct 2nd 10:24 AM
      Commented on:
      Five Reasons RIMM Will Continue to Fall
      This article will be proven to be DEAD wrong. I would suggest reading the last two conference calls for obvious clues why.

      You are missing a HUGE point that the service revenue, which carries 80% margins, is currently at an annual run rate of $1.3B, and that number is increasing as they sell more devices. Even if I buy your ridiculous assumptions, you haven't included a nickel of valuation for that high margin, recurring revenue stream.

      The carrier argument is simply wrong. Carriers love Blackberry. Why? Value added subs. And the best part is that you don't have to step up to the full blown unlimited data package with the BB if the carrier offers a cheap (or pre-paid) email plan. There is huge demand elasticity in data as carriers seek to get more out of existing subs and RIM is uniquely positioned to drive this. Please look at economic incentive schemes before posting this dribble. Did I mention that RIM compresses all the data as well - yet another incentive for carriers to have BBs on their network. Just ask ATT about the $1B they have to spend because iPhones are using so much capacity (because they are such great internet devices).

      This article is poorly though out using the wrong valuation assumptions. How can you simply ignore the service fees. At least tell us they are going away. Weak. Just weak.
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    • ON: Tue Sep 23rd 13:47 PM
      Commented on:
      The Google Phone: Blockbuster or Bust?
      Android = Linux. this will be more popular with tech geeks. Google has no ambition of being the windows of mobile phones. they just want you to use google apps and search on your phone so they can deliver ads to every phone platform, whether it be iphone, blackberry, windows mobile, symbian, etc
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    • ON: Thu Sep 11th 10:40 AM
      Commented on:
      Why Doesn't Apple Give Away iPods?
      IS this guy serious? Apple's STATED strategy is to use the content store to sell iPods, not the other way around. They run the store at break even and make all the money on the hardware.
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    • ON: Tue Sep 9th 17:37 PM
      Commented on:
      Lehman's Worth: Sinking Fast
      No, what killed them is LEVERAGE. Einhorn, et al only profited from the decline.
      View article »
    • ON: Mon Aug 25th 09:45 AM
      Commented on:
      Apple's Problems - Bad to the Core?
      With an opening like this:

      "The company boasted revenue of $9.6 billion and a net profit of $1.58 billion, compared to revenue of $7.1 billion and a net profit of $1 billion in the third quarter of 2007. But its second quarter results were down ($7.51 billion in posted revenue and $1.05 billion in net profit) from the first quarter. Some people think this downtick signals the beginning of an unfortunate trend-line … or worse."

      It seems difficult to take this article seriously. Isn't the first quarter the holiday selling season? And the second quarter is Jan 1 - Mar 31? Does the author just totally dismiss this?

      No doubt with greater volumes comes more glitches, but overall, in terms of quality can one realistically say that Apple products exhibit significant issues and they are rotten to the core? That's a huge stretch. Puffy piece here.
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    • ON: Wed Aug 13th 14:02 PM
      Commented on:
      Research In Motion's Blackberry Bold Launch Should Calm Investors
      been watching you a long time hasn't been watching the mobile space for a long time. simply doesn't understand how economics and elasticity of demand works. just keep believing there will only be one platform that thrives in a billion plus annual unit market. even though the iphone is an amazing device, it just won't hurt the blackberry. what's funny is it actually helps blackberry sales due to more attention to smartphones and more folks wanting more than just a voice capable handset.

      carriers could never do with iphone what they are doing with blackberry - offering cheap data/email plans. why? because iphone has such a great browser. the owners use them so much that they eat up network capacity/bandwidth. so they'll have to keep the price of data high to justify necessary upgrades over time. RIM compresses all data through their network so the data intensity/bandwidth usage is much lower.

      RIM gives the carrier greater incentive to offer their product because 1. they subsidize them less (i.e. lose less money on the handset = quicker time to profitable sub) and 2. they get a high value customer (data upsell) that respects the use of the network.

      the average person doesn't understand this, but the carriers sure do, and in time, you'll see more cheap and/or pre-pay bb plans that drive huge amounts of adoption.
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    • ON: Thu Aug 7th 09:06 AM
      Commented on:
      Research In Motion's 3G Counteroffensive: The Smartphone Arms Race Escalates
      ALL YOU IPHONE FANS/USERS/BELIEVERS SHOULD READ THIS:

      You all are accurate in believing how wonderful the iPhone is. It is. Truly an awesome device. A great platform that will develop and get better and better. I love my iPhone.

      BUT, you need to understand economics to see why RIM has an advantage to take huge amounts of market share from Motorola, Samsung, and Nokia even when iPhone is exploding.

      There is HUGE demand elasticity in data pricing. All you guys here simply accept whatever the monthly data charge is and pay it happily to have the iPhone. But the vast majority of people are very price sensitive and may not want to pay the full $30/month for data services. However, they might pay $10/month extra to have a great email service. This is where RIM comes in and is uniquely positioned to expand. They are actively working with carriers to offer flexible data pricing plans for BBs. This drives huge adoption in every carrier they have done this.

      Apple could never do this. Why? The posters above say it all - they are addicted to the iPhone and use huge amounts of data/bandwidth. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see AT&T try to tier the iPhone data plans because of this.

      So, on one hand you get an iPhone sub that costs you more money upfront (larger subsidy) and taxes your network but offers a great experience and on the other hand the BB offers you a high value customer (typically higher ARPU) but respects the network's bandwidth due to the BB architecture which compresses all data.

      Economics usually end up winning out, so before you guys call it game over for RIM, you might want to delve deeper into some of these issues that affect actual end user sales AND incentives that carriers have to sell one product vs another.

      Oh, did I tell you I love my iPhone? I did, but interestingly enough, I USE my Blackberry because it does everything I need it to do very efficiently. Funny how personal choice affects end use as well.

      Disclosure: Long AAPL & RIMM
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    • ON: Thu Jul 31st 10:58 AM
      Commented on:
      Replacing P/E in Valuing Apple Stock
      You're only missing one thing in your formula - you have to back out the cash on the balance sheet before doing the calculation. Cash is worth cash, so net out the $23 per share cash and your multiple gets even cheaper.
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    • ON: Wed Jul 30th 13:43 PM
      Commented on:
      Apple: Are Investors Overlooking Cash Earnings?
      Well written article. Spot on analysis. Agree that shares are dirt cheap at these levels - when you look at the only thing that really matters: CASH. However, I have one issue - margin guidance should not be attributed to iPhone accounting issues. They should be attributed to the apparently new strategy to really stick it to the competition, grab mkt share, and increase sales by lowering prices on products. Apple senses a critical juncture in the landscape where they have great products, great momentum, and finally the grassroots distribution (retail) to really extend mkt share. Why not give up some margin today for a large increase in adoption of the iPlatform? They will hopefully ride the elasticity curve to even greater results in the future.
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    • ON: Tue Jul 29th 11:01 AM
      Commented on:
      Despite Drop, RIMM's Valuation Still Too High
      WOW! This article misses on many fronts:
      1. High expectations: 14% sequential growth is HUGE (that would mean 68% annual growth if that continued each quarter for a year). It's priced at a discount to its growth and the opportunity ahead of them is gigantic.
      2. Food companies? Yeah, that's a fair comparison.
      3. Transparency? How about the 6K that I read. You know, the one they file with the SEC after each quarter.
      4. Pitfalls? Finance represents about 13% of the company's users and that is falling each quarter. Not a large impact. And if you think any bank will adopt the activesync protocol and accept incoming pings from devices (which requires opening their firewalls), you aren't paying attention. Patent fights are part of the business and always present a risk to any company.

      I can't say whether the stock might be down "20%" in the near future, but you simply can't ignore the fundamental opportunity ahead as mobile phone users adopt "smarter", connected platform devices. Combine that with RIM's push to have carriers offer low cost BB plans, and you'll see how the economic principle of elasticity of demand for data services propels the company's revenues and earnings significantly higher over the coming years.
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    • ON: Mon Jul 28th 10:21 AM
      Commented on:
      Five Great Quality Companies: Are They Too Expensive?
      1. GOOG is expected to put up $20 earnings in 2008 and it has $40 cash per share. SO, net of cash it is valued at 22.5x 2008 earnings.
      2. AAPL EPS means little. Show me the cash! They have generated $6 per share of cash in the first 3 quarters and will generate at least another $1 to $1.50 per share in cash in Q4. With $23 per share cash on the balance sheet, it trades at about 18x 2008 cash flow net of cash - and you are paying for that figure for the year ending in 2 months! It gets even cheaper if you look at 2009.
      3. RIMM might appear most over valued but it has the best growth potential. iPhone is serving to HELP them in a big way by bringing tons of attention to the smart phone space. Seems strange, but the reason for this is simply price of data. They will ride the demand elasticity curve for data services as they continue to work with carriers to offer lower data plans (tmobile $10 BB plan?, pre-pay BB plans?) The company has said they see huge volume increases anywhere they get the carrier to lower data pricing. Demand elasticity is huge for data services - and they are the only handset maker who is in a position to work with carriers to lower data prices as RIM offers a compelling service with their email system. Combine that with cheaper handset prices (cheap flip, curve update coming) and you shouldn't be focused on whether the Bold or Thunder competes with the iPhone, but you should watch home many folks buy the BB flip (aka Kickstart) instead of that cheap LG, samsung, or moto when combined with a low priced email plan because the customer gets a great service for a small incremental fee.
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