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GOOG grows up |
rffrydr
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 Posted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 1:29 pm Post subject: GOOG grows up |
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YouTube and new GOOG: The first time a Goog embrace has been met with Jitters:
http://www.forbes.com/entrepreneurs/feeds/ap/2006/10/11/ap3084503.html
Microsoft is supposed to play the heavy. More importantly, first departure from the math-loving self confidence promoting internal growth, small company aquisition for all cash. Now playing the investment bankers, and more shockingly, IT'S OWN STOCK AS CURRENCY.
All lights are green for now.
Last edited by rffrydr on Sun Jul 05, 2009 8:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:30 am Post subject: |
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Morningstar on GOOG's 2Q earnings:
| Quote: | | Google GOOG posted strong second-quarter revenue and earnings growth, driven primarily by continued dominance in what it does best: turning Internet searches into dollars. Quarterly revenue grew 32% versus 2010, an impressive feat given that the firm has only held a steady share in the global search market, which is seeing midteens growth. For Google properties (which includes core search and YouTube), quarterly revenue grew 39% versus 2010, while actual paid clicks grew 18%. From these results, we estimate that Google is improving its ability to convert searchers into users who click on ads. While this conversion speaks to the relevance of Google's advertising, it screams value to the many agencies and brands that are looking for a return on their advertising dollar. Operating margins and free cash flow yields were in line with our estimates. We still expect a modest improvement in operating margins in 2012 as investments in mobile, YouTube, and local commerce begin to generate greater revenue. Even with this investment, Google is generating excess returns on capital and healthy free cash flows. However, we caution investors about the potential for continued volatility around this stock. While we are encouraged by management's patience and long-term focus, the team is not particularly transparent nor interested in smoothing cash flows or providing guidance. We believe this lumpiness helped to provide a very attractive entry point to the stock a couple of weeks ago. Although the discount to our fair value estimate of $720 has narrowed as a result of the recent runup, we believe there is additional upside from here, as the firm's wide economic moat and continued redeployment of free cash flow into high-return projects support our investment thesis. Still, the market can sometimes be myopic, and fear may rear its ugly head and create additional downward pressure on the stock price from time to time. We would encourage investors to focus on the firm's investments in new areas, including mobile and local advertising, and we highlight that the company has the luxury to post high free cash flow yields while supporting these initiatives. |
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HenryTo
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HenryTo
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 8:18 am Post subject: |
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Well I liked the "value" at 500 but now it's clear that The GOOG is getting the big bad bank treatment. And nothing's clear about that:
http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_(A_to_Z)/Stocks_G/threadview?m=tm&bn=25263&tid=1399227&mid=1399227&tof=3&frt=2
ps Shorted the GOOG once, got lucky.... never again. Looked to buy on the china dump but never got as sold off as I thought. Never again. Probably never own this beast.
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 1:08 pm Post subject: |
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The Madman is bitten:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43238470
I think this take is pretty good all around.
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rffrydr
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Fri May 27, 2011 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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Morningstar on GOOG's new mobile payment service:
| Quote: | | On Thursday, Google GOOG formally announced a mobile payment service, Google Wallet, and a related local couponing service, Google Offers. We are encouraged that the company is reinvesting cash flow in businesses that leverage its core competencies. We believe it is well positioned to enter the world of mobile payments. The payment ecosystem is challenging, and Google has chosen to stand on the shoulders of other giants in its quest to drive local commerce. Our enthusiasm is tempered by numerous frictions and inevitable marketplace confusion that could slow progress. First, there are competing technologies pursuing payments. Some are hardware-based, some are software-based, and all are largely unproved. Second, existing players will have challenges investing heavily in a technology or solution that may prove to be the Betamax of payments. Finally, competition is fierce. There are at least five separate initiatives pursuing mobile payments, embracing different partners, strategies, and technologies. Perhaps most significantly, Apple AAPL has yet to announce its mobile payment strategy. Despite the nascency of the market, we believe Google may have the partners and financial resources to drive adoption in mobile payments. The challenge of building a new payments ecosystem involves technology, new commercial agreements, and common standards. Beyond the business mechanics, the biggest challenge is developing something consumers and merchants will trust and use. Google is using near field communication--NFC--technology, a hardware-based solution requiring physical chips on a consumer's smartphone and the merchant's point of sale terminal. The first phone supported is the Nexus S 4G on Sprint's S network. Citigroup's C Citibank, MasterCard MA, Verifone PAY, and First Data are part of the technology solution, while retailers like Macy's M, Subway, and American Eagle AEO have installed terminals to accept payments. The potential implications of the Google Wallet and Google Offers services are quite compelling. Having a wallet that stores coupons makes a great deal of sense and provides immediate value to users and merchants. We believe an NFC environment may finally support mobile couponing in a way that industry watchers have been predicting for the past decade. Helping merchants marry their own payment methodology to location awareness not only provide incentives for users to adopt the solution, it is also the key to driving local commerce. Given all of the risks, we are not explicitly modeling this business in our valuation. We see several challenges even beyond consumer adoption. Competitors such as Visa V, PayPal, and Apple will not sit idle. Also, NFC or Google's Android operating system may have security breaches that could permanently harm commercial efforts for Wallet and Offers. Finally, supporting a successful local commerce and couponing effort still requires feet on the street. Local salespeople are extremely important to support these efforts, as early success by companies such as Groupon and LivingSocial have demonstrated. We still haven't seen Google effectively manage a massive local sales effort. |
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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Down almost 9% for hiring people coming out of a recession. Good thing GS is isn't running the country!
For the same effect by opposite means (same?) see today's post under "Brazil."
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 11:18 am Post subject: |
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Morningstar on GOOG's 1Q results:
| Quote: | | Google GOOG announced solid first-quarter results Thursday, delivering 27% year-over-year growth in revenue, outpacing the overall market for Internet search. The company continued to invest heavily not only in its core search product, but also in the more nascent areas of YouTube, mobile and local, and the social web as quarterly operating expenses grew about 55%. Management has signaled that 2011 would be a year of heavy investment, and these results reinforce that. As the results are mostly in line with our models, we are sticking by our fair value estimate of $720. We endorse the heavy investment by Google. We believe the company needs to protect its core advantages in search and grow in areas where we think it can succeed, such as mobile and local. Much of th e 55% increase in operating expenses was a result of an increase in personnel and a companywide pay raise that was instituted in January. Perhaps the most surprising element to us was the rampant growth in sales and marketing expense, which rose nearly 70%. While most of the growth was tied to new employees and costs from the January pay raise, the company called attention to marketing expenses related to its Chrome browser. Much like the company's efforts with the Android operating system in the mobile environment, investments in user platforms like the Chrome browser (and its cousin, the Chrome operating system) will extend Google's competitive advantages, if they are successful. |
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rffrydr
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 9:28 pm Post subject: |
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I was just there couple days ago and can't say how poor they are: grain is spilling into ad hoc "pile" silos, the arts community is flourishing with new arts center under construction, Ford plant churning out F-150s and Envoys. An entirely modern suburb has rolled out with Costco, BB and all the modern conveniences.
Really a good pick though, very much the "center" of this country. East does meet west in KC and commerce has been that link. Two rivers, and three trains (Atchison, Topeka, Santa Fe). KBOT was already going a long way to making this place central again--I bet even the RE prices pick up. 
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HenryTo
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| Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 5:38 pm Post subject: |
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The GOOG's ultra-fast broadband network closer to fruition:
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Google brings high-speed broadband network to Kan.
Google chooses Kansas City, Kan., to get first ultra-fast broadband network
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) -- After seeing Facebook pleas and flash mobs, and even cities temporarily renaming themselves "Google," the search engine giant said Wednesday it has chosen Kansas City, Kan., as the first place that will get its new ultra-fast broadband network.
Google announced that the city would be the inaugural site for its "Fiber for Communities" program, which it says will be capable of delivering Internet access more than 100 times faster than the home broadband connections provided by phone and cable companies across the U.S.
The company envisions systems that will let consumers to download a high-definition, full-length feature film in less than five minutes, allow rural health clinics to send 3-D medical images over the Internet and let students collaborate with classmates around the world while watching live 3-D video of a university lecture.
Google's service, which will provide Internet connections of 1 gigabit per second to as many as 500,000 people, will be offered in early 2012 while the company looks at other communities across the country.
More than 1,100 cities had made bids to become a test site for the company's fiber-optic network, trying to catch Google's attention and show their enthusiasm.
Milo Medin, Google's vice president for access services, said Kansas City, Kan., was selected in part because of its solid network infrastructure and because the program would have an impact on the community, one of the poorest in the state.
"We believe gigabit broadband can be leveraged for economic development and educational gain, both of which are vital in the global economy that we live in today,'" Medin said. "We want to be able to build strong relationships and partnerships with local government and communities so that we can work together to use technology in a new way to make a city a better place to live in, a better place to work in, a better place to learn in."
The company's deadline for city governments and citizens to express interest in attracting Google passed in March 2010. Many cities used stunts and gimmickry to get the company's attention and show interest in the experimental network.
Topeka informally renamed itself "Google, Kansas." Members of the group Think Big Topeka also organized a flash mob at a community meeting and a formation of fans spelling out "Google" on the ice during a RoadRunners hockey game. A group in Baltimore launched a website that used Google mapping to plot the location of more than 1,000 residents and give their reasons for wanting the service. Hundreds of groups on Facebook implored Google to come to their cities.
Joe Reardon, mayor and CEO of Kansas City and Wyandotte County, said the "1 gigabit fiber backbone straight through to businesses and homes" would mean business and educational opportunities for the area, and would help the community grow in unique ways.
"The unbelievable thing about this from a development perspective is that it knows no particular place or boundary" he said. "It could be deployed to anywhere the need and interest is."
Google's new fiber-optic network comes amid growing worry among policy makers and public interest groups in Washington that broadband connections in the U.S. are far slower and more expensive than those available in many European and Asian countries, and that too many Americans still have no broadband access at all.
President Barack Obama recently pledged to expand high-speed wireless Internet access to 98 percent of Americans. The Federal Communications Commission and the Commerce Department are searching for more wireless spectrum -- or airwaves -- to make that possible. The FCC is also seeking to tap the federal program that subsidizes phone service in rural and poor communities to pay for broadband access.
For its part, Google has said it's not interested in dominating or even grabbing a sizable chunk of the broadband market. Instead, it is dipping into its $35 billion bank account to build an ultra-fast Internet network in hopes of prodding telecommunications and cable providers to upgrade their services in communities across the country.
Google says it hopes phone and cable companies will learn lessons from the experimental network that will help them hurry the rollout of their own high-speed systems and bring faster connections to more Americans at a lower cost. It also hopes to provide a test-bed for online video and other advanced applications that require a lot of bandwidth.
If more data can be sent through Internet pipes at faster speeds, Google believes people will spend more time on the Internet -- an activity that typically enriches the company by bringing more traffic to its dominant search engine and producing more opportunities to show revenue-generating ads.
Unlike many of Google's Web-based applications such as email, calendars and document creation, Kansas City's Internet access using Google's pipes likely won't be free. On a question-and-answer page at its website, Google did not give specifics on its pricing plan, but said the company plans to offer the service "at a competitive price to what people are paying for Internet access today." |
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rffrydr
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rffrydr
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rffrydr
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| Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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Don't know about y'all but noticing a slow but steady decay in my GOOG searches. "Content Farms" are part of the problem, if the searches can be infiltrated by Microsoft (Bing copying algorithms) I guess they can by anybody. The most pernicious is the "image jacking" linking to trapped shopping sites.
But we can't count these guys out:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/02/testing-googles-new-algorithm-it-really-is-better/71720/
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