BLOG OF ADAM HARTUNG
Tesla Model 3 – This is What a “Game Changer” Looks Like
Tesla started taking orders for the Model 3 last week, and the results were remarkable. In 24 hours the company took $1,000 deposits for 198,000 vehicles. By end of Saturday the $1,000 deposits topped 276,000 units. And for a car not expected to be available in any...
Why Activists Succeed – and Will Change Yahoo
Starboard Value last week sent a letter to Yahoo's Board of Directors announcing its intention to ask shareholders to replace the entire Board. That is why Starboard is called an "activist" fund. It is not shy about seeking action at the Board level to change the...
What’s Really Happening with United’s Board?
United Continental Holdings is the most recent public company to come under attack by hedge funds. Last week Altimeter Capital and PAR Capital announced they were using their combined 7.1% ownership of United to propose a slate of 6 new directors to the company's...
BIAS – Why Results Don’t Matter, and Trump Keeps Turning Out the Vote
We all like to think the world is a meritocracy, where hard work is important and results matter. As we watched Mitt Romney, and others, frontally assault Donald Trump this week it was clear they were saying Mr. Trump is not the right person to be President. They are...
The 10 Telltale Signs of Future Troubles for WalMart
Walmart announced quarterly financial results last week, and they were not good. Sales were down $500million vs the previous year, and management lowered forecasts for 2016. And profits were down almost 8% vs. the previous year. The stock dropped, and pundits went...
The 5 Ways Chairman Lampert Destroyed Sears’ Value
USAToday alerted investors that when Sears Holdings reports results 2/25/16 they will be horrible. Revenues down another 8.7% vs. last year. Same store sales down 7.1%. To deal with ongoing losses the company plans to close another 50 stores, and sell another...
The 4 Reasons Verizon Should Buy Yahoo
Verizon tipped its hand that it would be interested to buy Yahoo back in December. In the last few days this possibility drew more attention as Verizon's CFO confirmed interest on CNBC, and Bloomberg reported that AOL's CEO Tim Armstrong is investigating a potential...
How Google Stole the Show from Apple
The three highest valued publicly traded companies today (2/3/16) are Google/Alphabet, Apple and Microsoft. All 3 are tech companies, and they compete - although with different business models - in multiple markets. However, investor views as to their futures are...
Apple’s Debacle – Why Growth is All That Matters
Apple announced earnings for the 4th quarter this week, and the company was creamed. Almost universally industry analysts and stock analysts had nothing good to say about the company's reports, and forecast. The stock ended the week down about 5%, and down a...
Why Cheating is Prevalent – and We Can’t Stop It
Cheating in sports is now officially prevalent. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) last week issued its report, and confirmed that across the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) athletes were cheating. And very frequently doing so under the...
The 5 Stocks You Should Buy This Week
Stocks are starting 2016 horribly. To put it mildly. From a Dow (DJIA or Dow Jones Industrial Average) at 18,000 in early November values of leading companies have fallen to under 16,000 - a decline of over 11%. Worse, in many regards, has been the free-fall of...
Is Donald Trump the New Joe McCarthy?
"Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it" - George Santayana, "The Life of Reason," 1905 There seems to be nothing Donald Trump will not say. Or at least imply. Take for example his recent comment that evangelicals should not trust Ted Cruz because...
5 Leadership Lessons from 2015’s Business Headlines
2015 was not short on bad decisions, nor bad outcomes. But there are 5 major leadership themes from 2015 that can help companies be better in 2016: 1 – Cost cutting, restructurings and stock buybacks do not increase company value – Dow/DuPont There was no shortage of...
A Christmas Carole 2015 – The Ebenezer 1% and Cratchit Middle Class
America’s middle class has been decimated. Ever since Ronald Reagan rewrote the tax code, dramatically lowering marginal rates on wealthy people and slashing capital gains taxes, America's wealthy have been amassing even greater wealth, while the middle class has gone...
Dow and DuPont – Nobody wins when transactions replace leadership
DuPont is one of America's oldest corporations. Founded by Eleuthere Irenee duPont as a gunpowder manufacturer for the Revolutionary War, the company has long been one of America's leading business institutions. From humble beginnings, DuPont became well known as a...
Is Yahoo Doomed? Probably
Marissa Mayer's reign as head of Yahoo looks to be ending like her predecessors. With a serious flop. Only this may well be the last flop - and the end of the internet pioneer. It didn't have to happen this way, but an inability to manage Status Quo Risk doomed Ms....
Three Leadership Lessons From Tree Climbing Goats
No. You're not seeing things. These are goats in trees. These goats love the fruit growing on argon trees west of Marrakesh, Morocco. They don't care so much for the nut inside, so they spit it out. People gather those nuts and make them into argon oil highly valued...
Poor Microsoft – How Good Decisions, Made Too Late, Bode Poorly for the Future
Microsoft recently announced it was offering Windows 10 on xBox, thus unifying all its hardware products on a single operating system - PCs, mobile devices, gaming devices and 3D devices. This means that application developers can create solutions that can run on all...
How the NFL and NBA Corrupted American Universities
This week saw two big stories develop around the big money in college sports. It makes one wonder, when did sports become more important than academics in American universities - and why? The first story was how the football team at the University of Missouri was...
As Goes Apple So Goes the Nation – The Rise of the Digital Service Economy
"As goes GM, so goes the Nation" is attributed to Charles Wilson, CEO of GM, in Congressional hearings 1953. His viewpoint was that GM was so big, and so important, that the country's economic fortunes were inherently dependent on a robust General Motors. And this...
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