BLOG OF ADAM HARTUNG
CSC – When All Else Fails, Split!
Information technology (IT) services company Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) recently announced it is splitting into two separate companies. One will "focus" on commercial markets, the other will "focus" on government contracts. Ostensibly, as we've heard...
Focus is Only Confusion at Failing HP
Hewlett Packard yesterday announced second quarter results. And they were undoubtedly terrible. Revenue compared to a year ago is down 7%, net income is down 21% as the growth stall at HP continues. Yet, CEO Meg Whitman remains upbeat. She is pleased with "the...
Culture, Leadership and Why Tom Brady Needs to Sit Out 4 Games
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodall slammed Tom Brady and the New England Patriots today for what seemed, to many, like a pretty minor thing. Under-inflating balls to give the quarterback and receivers a small advantage would seem a far cry from the kind of offense...
Why McDonald’s Can’t Save Itself – They Myth of Core
McDonald's just had another lousy quarter. All segments saw declining traffic, revenues fell 11%. Profits were off 33%. Pretty well expected, given its established growth stall. A new CEO is in place, and he announced is turnaround plan to fix what ails the burger...
Why You Want to Own Facebook Rather Than Google
Last week saw another slew of quarterly earnings releases. For long term investors, who hold stocks for years rather than months, these provide the opportunity to look at trends, then compare and contrast companies to determine what should be in their portfolio. It...
Innovating to Solve Tanqueray’s Growth Quandary
If you don’t drink gin you may not know the brand Tanqueray, a product owned by Diageo. But Tanqueray has been around for almost 190 years, going back to the days when London Dry Gin was first created. Today Tanqueray is one of the most dominant gin brands in the...
GE’s Complete Leadership Failure
General Electric's Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt announced last week that his next big step as leader will be to sell off the company's real estate assets and the balance of its financial services business. This is a massive $300B asset sale. It follows the very...
Why Google Created a Self-Driving Car and DuPont Didn’t
This week a self-driving car built by Delphi of England completed a 9 day trip from San Francisco to New York City. The car traveled 3,400 miles, and was fully automated for 99% of the trip. Attention has again focused on self-driving cars. There are a handful of...
Surface 3 and Apple Watch – Red Oceans v Blue Oceans
Microsoft launched its new Surface 3 this week, and it has been gathering rave reviews. Many analysts think its combination of a full Windows OS (not the slimmed down RT version on previous Surface tablets,) thinness and ability to operate as both a tablet and a PC...
Why Phablet Growth is Bad for Microsoft
Phablets are a very hot, growing market. Phablets are those huge phones (greater than 4" screen size) that some people carry around. From almost nothing in 2012, over the last 3 years the market has exploded: The original creator of this market data, Kulbinder...
Why Adding Apple to the DJIA Makes It a Good Investment
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been around for about 100 years. It is 30 of the largest market capitalization companies in the USA. Lots of people think "the Dow," as it is often called, is the value of the market. This is pretty far from correct, as there are...
Obama’s Trifecta – Democrats Continue Economically Trouncing Republicans
This week marks the 6th anniversary of the stock market's bull run, with the S&P up 206%. Only 3 other times since WWII have equities had such a prolonged, sustained growth series. Simultaneously, last week saw yet another month with over 200,000 non-farm jobs...
Netflix Valuation is Not a “House of Cards”
The Netflix hit series "House of Cards" was released last night. Most media reviewers and analysts are expecting huge numbers of fans will watch the show, given its tremendous popularity the last 2 years. Simultaneously, there are already skeptics who think that...
Don’t Fight Trends – So Don’t Invest in Best Buy
Best Buy, the venerable electronics retailer, is hitting 52 week highs. Coming off a low of $24 in April, 2014 the current price of about $40 is a 67% increase in just 10 months. Analysts are now cheering investors to own the stock, with Marketwatch pronouncing that...
Governor Walker, A College Degree Really Matters When Being A Leader
There has been a hullabaloo lately about Wisconsin Governor Walker's lack of a degree. Some think this is a big deal, while others think almost nobody cares. In the end, we all should care about the formal education of any of our leaders. In government, business...
Why Google Glass, Amazon Fire Phone and the Segway Failed
Despite huge fanfare at launch, after a few brief months Google Glass is no longer on the market. The Amazon Fire Phone was also launched to great hype, yet sales flopped and the company recently took a $170M write off on inventory. Fortune mercilessly blamed Fire...
Apple – Leading Another Market Shift, So Buy It and Forget About It
Apple was a high flyer. As the stock hit $700, analysts predicted it would reach $1,000. Then Steve Jobs died. He so personified the company that many felt his death left Apple leaderless. So the stock lost 42% of its value dropping to $400. Apple has now...
Yahoo – Another Disappearing Giant Has Nowhere To Hide
This week Yahoo announced it is spinning off the last of its Alibaba holdings. This is a big deal, because it might well signal the end of Yahoo. Yahoo created internet advertising. Yahoo was once the #1 home page for browsers across America. But the company has...
Why Microsoft Windows 10 Really Doesn’t Matter
Yesterday Microsoft conducted a pre-launch of Windows 10, demonstrating its features in an effort to excite developers and create some buzz before consumer launch later in 2015. By and large, nobody cared. Were you aware of the event? Did you try to watch the live...
December Retail Sales down 1% – Sell WalMart, Buy Amazon
Retail sales fell .9% in December. Even excluding autos and gasoline, retail sales fell .3%. Further, November retail sales estimates were revised downward from an initial .7% gain to a meager .4%, and October sales advances were revised downward from a .5% gain to a...
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