Tech Review | How Uber Is Preparing For Its $UBER IPO (video)

Tech Review (TR 2019-04-27)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) How Uber Is Preparing For Its $UBER IPO, 2) Undersea Cables Carry 99% Of Transoceanic Data, 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes,  4)ICYMI Tech News: Apple, Qualcomm, Amazon, Huawei, AT&T, Why Go Long $IBM, London Unicorn Fintech Startups, and more.

1) How Uber Is Preparing For Its $UBER IPO

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says Uber is on track to go public later this year, a move that could make it the biggest IPO of 2019.  WSJ.com’s Jason Bellini breaks down five ways Uber is preparing itself for its market debut. WSJ.com video above published 2 Apr 2019.

Uber Form S-1--"We have applied to list our common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “UBER”--

UPDATE: see also S-1A: AMENDMENT NO. 1 TO FORM S-1 REGISTRATION STATEMENT filed 26 Apr 2019.

2) Undersea Cables Carry 99% Of Transoceanic Data

Despite their high cost and other challenges, modern undersea cables transmit data much faster and cheaper than satellites.The Cable That First United The World:

The dawn of instant global communication can be traced back to entrepreneur Cyrus West Field and his long-shot experiment to link the United States and Europe by telegraph in the 1850s. Bloomberg.com video above published Apr 16, 2019.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite +1.9% | S&P 500 Index +1.2% | DJIA <0.1%

S&P, NASDAQ set all-time closing highs after first-quarter GDP jump--MarketWatch.com

Investor Notes: 

Map of shipping routes shows the relative density of commercial shipping in the world's oceans (modified from original source: B.S. Halpern (T. Hengl; D. Groll) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link),

US economy grows by +3.2% in the first quarter, topping expectations--cnbc.com.

US: Love Affair With Cars Nearly Finished--moneymaven.io.

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, cut its forecast for 2019 growth in half, to just 0.5%, the slowest annual growth rate since 2013, when the euro zone was still trying to pull itself out of a sovereign debt crisis. Last year, German GDP rose by 1.4%.--qz.com

Threat of Contagion to Eurozone from Spanish Banks’ Huge Bet on Emerging Markets to flee the consequences of euro debt crisis.--wolfstreet.com.

Italy's economy is one of the biggest downside risks to the global financial system and could spell disaster for Europe--businessinsider.com.

Gundlach: Modern Monetary Theory ‘Complete Nonsense’--etftrends.com

Avoiding Stupidity is Easier than Seeking Brilliance--fs.blog.

The media exaggerates negative news. This distortion has consequences--theguardian.com:  "Far from being better informed, heavy newswatchers can become miscalibrated. They worry more about crime, even when rates are falling, and sometimes they part company with reality altogether."

Earnings season: Twitter, Facebook, Verisign, Amazon, and Microsoft (below):

Microsoft Earnings Release FY19 Q3 -- Microsoft Cloud Strength Drives Third Quarter Results -- Microsoft Corp. announced 24 Apr 2019, the following results for the quarter ended March 31, 2019, as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year: Revenue was $30.6 billion and increased 14%; Operating income was $10.3 billion and increased 25%; Net income was $8.8 billion and increased 19%; Diluted earnings per share was $1.14 and increased 20% ... “Demand for our cloud offerings drove commercial cloud revenue to $9.6 billion this quarter, up 41% year-over-year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft. 

4) ICYMI Tech News:

Qualcomm: Why The Success Story Just Begins--seekingalpha.com.

Apple said Qualcomm’s tech was 'no good' in legal pleadings, but in private communications Apple said Qualcomm's tech was ‘the best.’--washingtonpost.com: “It potentially reveals that Apple was engaging in a bad faith argument both in front of antitrust enforcers as well as the legal courts about the actual value and nature of Qualcomm’s patented innovation”--Adam Mossoff, a law professor at George Mason University and director of the Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property.

Apple spends more than $30 million on Amazon’s cloud every month, making it one of the biggest AWS customers--cnbc.com.

Huawei funded by Chinese state security according to a report published last week in The Times | thetimes.co.uk: the CIA accused Huawei of receiving funding from China’s National Security Commission, the People’s Liberation Army and a third branch of the Chinese state intelligence network.

AT&T: SeekingAlpha.com: "... tackling debt by selling off assets ... The yield is still over 6.3% ... the stock has had no growth in a decade, [but] that could change with WarnerMedia" [Editor's note: or perhaps not. AT&T Inc’s Q1 2019 revenue fell short of Wall Street estimates, losing subscribers in nearly all its businesses except wireless where it used aggressive price promotions. AT&T lost a net 544,000 premium TV subscribers, a category that includes DirecTV satellite and U-verse television customers. Analysts had expected a loss of 385,000 customers across DirecTV and U-verse, according to FactSet.com.]

Why go long IBM? Red Hat deal closes in H2 2019, plus strategic imperatives like cloud, security, AI, and blockchain.

London unicorn fintech startups vs. San Francisco--cityam.com.

U.S. activist investor Elliott Management invests 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) in German business software company SAP.

Japan’s Softbank Group Corp to invest $1 billion in Wirecard via a convertible bond deal that may provide it a 5.6 percent stake in the German digital payments company.

Former Mozilla exec: Google sabotaged Firefox for years--zdnet.com.

The Streaming Wars: The Market Guide--seekingalpha.com.

Personal tech: feel trapped in Apple's ecosystem? Apple isn't the only one with an expansive ecosystem of products, services, and software--zdnet.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Tech Review 1) Apple $AAPL Rotting? 2) China's T3 Initiative 3) Q1 2019

Tech Review (TR 2019-03-30)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Apple $AAPL Rotting? 2) China's T3 Initiative, 3) Investing: Q1 2019, Investor Notes: Eurozone Alarms Rising, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Google, Apple, Microsoft, Lyft, Amazon, Netflix, Disney, AT&T, Facebook, HP, Startups, FTC v. Robocallers.

1) Apple $AAPL Rotting?

Entering commoditized, fiercely competitive low-margin services cannot substitute for the high-margin profits that will be lost as global recession and saturation erode iPhone sales.--Charles Hugh Smith

Apple's Big Announcement: More TV, News, Credit Cards, and Oprah!

Apple's new entertainment subscription services and credit card, launched to great fanfare this week, could raise new concerns for the company over market power and competition issues. Apple executives at a star-studded event in Cupertino, Calif., this week unveiled subscription services in gaming, news and television, as well as a new Apple credit card. Sally Hubbard, director of enforcement strategy at the Open Markets Institute, told TheHill.com she is concerned that Apple is "controlling the game and playing the game too" as the owner of both the iOS App Store and creator of the iPhone.

Apple's Faulty MacBook Butterfly Keyboard Explained

The third generation of the butterfly keyboard on Apple's Mac laptops was supposed to fix all the problems. But nope. WSJ.com's Joanna Stern explains why the keyboards on the newest and most expensive MacBooks keep breaking—and the few things you can do about it. Wall Street Journal videos above published Mar 26 & 28, 2019.

2) China's T3 Initiative:

The formation of a new ride share initiative called T3 with 3 major Chinese state-run automakers, $BABA & Tencent is just one more example that the next wave of tech-based disruption in areas like mobility will be so expensive that no one or two companies can go it alone. $XLK pic.twitter.com/EEggSQGYfp

— DataTrek Research (@DataTrekMB) March 28, 2019

Alibaba, Tencent, Suning, and 3 Chinese SOE car makers, including Chongqing Changan Automobile, set up a $1.5 billion Chinese ride-hailing venture, a move that threatens China's dominant ride-sharing company, Didi Chuxing.

3) Investing

Q! 2019: NASDAQ Composite +16.5% | S&P 500 Index +13.1% | DJIA +11.2%

S&P 500 notches best start to a year since 1998, Dow rises more than 200 points on trade optimism--CNBC.com.

Snapshot Thursday, March 28: Stocks rose slightly, the S&P 500 holding steady over the past two weeks, but up 12% year-to-date. Treasury yields slightly higher, while the $US surged, hitting gold, which dropped nearly 1% to a three-week low of $1,290 an ounce.

Headwinds:

Investor Notes: Eurozone Alarms Rising

European Economic Storm Clouds--insidesources.com: on our way to another round of the European sovereign debt crisis?

Germany: views of “Current Economic Conditions” at Euro Debt-Crisis Level--wolfstreet.com

EU: A Proposed Megadeal Exposes the Grim Outlook for Europe’s Banks--bloomberg.com: Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank joining forces would be just the start of a long, painful process.

No-Deal Brexit Now Likely Says European Commission--see also Five Reasons to Love a No Deal Brexit.

European Prognosis negative: the Financial Times reports that Deutsche Bank A.G. is looking to raise between €3 billion ($3.4 billion) and €10 billion in equity to help consummate the planned merger with peer Commerzbank A.G., “a move designed to end the debate over whether Germany’s largest lender has enough capital.” In a commentary, Jeffrey Snider of Alhambra Investment Partners wrote that the ECB’s efforts to incentivize credit growth through penalizing idle reserves has backfired, demonstrating the differences between theory and practice.

They really have no idea what they are doing. The ECB is not a collection of newfound doves, they are chickens without their heads. Either way, it does not amount to anything good, and adds more weight to the considerable and growing list of everything bad.--grantspub.com

The average European bank’s holdings of sovereign debt are about 170 percent of its core Tier 1 capital, more than triple the exposure at U.S. banks, according to Deutsche Bank research analysts. What’s more, about 60 percent of an average European bank’s sovereign bond holdings are of those issued by their home government. Why? Because government bonds carry zero risk weightings on banks’ books. This creates some perverse incentives. 

Eurozone flash manufacturing PMI plunges to 47.6 in March, 71-month lows--fxstreet.com. See also: The eurozone lacks the scaffolding to withstand the symmetrical shock of the next recession, which could imperil the euro itself.--socialeurope.eu.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

Google, Microsoft, and Apple Are Fighting For Classrooms--CNBC.com video--chart above source: futuresource-consulting.com. Chromebooks are winning.

Lyft closes up 9% on its first day of trading after raising $2.3B in its IPO, which valued the company at over $20B--NASDAQ: LYFT.

Amazon, Netflix, Apple, Disney, or AT&T? The Surprising Winner In The Streaming Service Race--seekingalpha.com--$AMZN. See also Apple launches Apple TV+ (video) and YouTube Bows Out of Hollywood Arms Race With Netflix and Amazon--bloomberg.com.

Facebook: 10 Reasons Why I Have Sold All My Shares--seekingalpha.com--"Mark Zuckerberg wrote that Facebook will become "privacy-centered". This is really not believable, and if it would be, shareholders should be worried even more ... Zuckerberg himself has become a problem for Facebook."

New research reveals that Google built biases into its search results that influenced the 2018 midterm elections - possibly costing Republicans three congressional districts. --zerohedge.com.

Apple Infringes Qualcomm Patent; Judge Recommends Ban on Some iPhones--bloomberg.com.
Apple $AAPL: few analysts have looked at the headwinds in Europe and the longer term challenges in China.--seekingalpha.com.

The $130 billion digital advertising market may be dominated by Google and Facebook, but Amazon will start selling video spots on its smartphone shopping app.--zerohedge.com.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Mike Lynch faced off against each other in London’s High Court on Monday in a multi-billion dollar showdown over HP's 2011 purchase of the Autonomy software business he founded. The Autonomy-HP deal was a disaster, due, in part, to a failure of due diligence by HP whose CEO at the time, Leo Apotheker, was subsequently fired.

Startups Look Elsewhere: "With the cost of living surging across California, it's hardly surprising that the state has seen the largest net loss of residents as frustrated Californians seek more affordable climes like Nevada and Texas ... many of those who haven't left wish they could."--zerohedge.com.

Recommended reading from cbinsights.com:

• Tech Trends In 2019 (pdf): the top 14 technological trends and developments to watch this year.
• Artificial Intelligence Trends In 2019 (pdf): as AI continuesto sweep across industries, we identified the top 24 trends to watch.
• Fintech Trends In 2019 (pdf): breaking down the disruption of financial services and what's ahead in 2019.

Personal Tech: FTC Crackdown Stops Operations Responsible for Billions of Illegal Robocalls. Unwanted calls pitched auto warranties, debt-relief services, Google listings, and a fake charity--FTC says it has fined four robocalling companies, responsible for “billions” of US calls, which will also cease operations--ftc.gov.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Tech Review 1) Bank of the Future, 2) How China Created Its Own Internet

Tech Review (TR 2019-03-02)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Bank of the Future, 2) How China Created Its Own Internet, 3) Investing: The Week & Investor Notes: China, 4) ICYMI Tech News: Google, Amazon, Nokia, 5G, Ericsson, AT&T, Tesla, Click-and-Collect, Wirecard, Oracle v. Google, Berkshire Hathaway, Gundlach on Facebook $FB. 

1) Bank of the Future

As emerging digital finance platforms launch new and differentiated products, including bespoke, consumer-centric solutions and experiences, they are building scale more efficiently and quickly than ever before, according to Brandon Watkins of the Goldman Sachs Investment Banking Division. In the video above, Watkins explains how the “bank of the future” is being shaped by three trends – a shift from offline to online banking, growing consumer trust for digital-first platforms and consumers’ desire for personalization and tailored product experiences. “You’re seeing these new digital finance platforms… starting to compete with some of the biggest traditional banks in the world,” he says, while some of the traditional financial institutions are turning to “technology platforms to add to the product capabilities and experiences that they’re delivering to their customers today.” Goldman Sachs video above published Feb 20, 2019.

2) How China Created Its Own Internet

From a single email sent to West Germany to restrictions on Winnie the Pooh and the letter N, this is how the Internet took hold in China. Bloomberg.com video above published Feb 19, 2019.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite +0.9% | S&P 500 Index +0.4% | DJIA -0.1%

S&P 500 closes above 2,800 for the first time in nearly 4 months on trade optimism--marketwatch.com

Richard Cohen: The Democratic Party is trying to gift reelection to Trump | WashingtonPost.com.

Even After Sanders, Harris, and Others Enter Race, Bookies Have Donald Trump as Massive 2020 Favorite--mediaite.com.

Longview:

Investor Notes:

China: Anne Stevenson-Yang, co-founder of J Capital Research, reportedly wrote in a Feb. 18 commentary, that Beijing’s recent exertions have helped banks, but reflation efforts seen in January are insufficient to stem the broad deterioration in financial conditions. China’s economy will likely continue in decline until corporate and financial defaults force the authorities to launch a gigantic stimulus.

A Chinese real estate developer in Shanghai, boarded a flight to Malta last month with no plans to return anytime soon. After landing, Mr. Chen, a former judge and lawyer, shared on social media a 28-page article explaining himself. “Why I Left China,” read the headline, “An Entrepreneur’s Farewell Admonition.” “China’s economy is like a giant ship heading to the precipice,” Mr. Chen wrote. “Without fundamental changes, it’s inevitable that the ship will be wrecked and the passengers will die.” “My friends,” he urged, “if you can leave, please make arrangements as early as possible.”--NYTimes.com.

Imports by China and other emerging Asian economies in December plunged to the lowest level in two years, in the steepest one-month plunge since 2008--wolfstreet.com.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

Shaping the future of mobile with Android--Google says Android One activations grew 250% YoY, 50%+ of new entry-level Android devices are Android Go, and Digital Wellbeing tools are coming to more phones. See also: Helping more families set digital ground rules with Family Link--blog.google.

Amazon's Cloud Dominance--cloudchart.png.

Nokia CEO warns 5G implementation 'will be delayed in Europe'--CNBC video. And Nokia says 5G would not be delayed by ban on Chinese suppliers--reuters.com.

5G: Ericsson $ERIC buys antenna and filters business of Germany's Kathrein--reuters.com.

AT&T the Next Kraft Heinz?--SeekingAlpha.com: highest debt load in corporate America, poor earnings growth and has paid over $120 billion for acquisitions in recent years.

Tesla $TSLA moment of truth will arrive in 2020: "Volkswagen’s electric-car onslaught and an economic recession will put Elon Musk’s company to the test"--marketwatch.com Op-ed Feb 22--Until then, Elon Musk has plenty to deal with: SEC problems again; and Consumer Reports recently stopped recommending the Model 3 because of reliability issues.

Click-and-Collect: sales where customers order goods online and pick them up at a nearby store rose 47% in November and December compared with a year earlier, far more than the 16.5% growth in online sales, according to Adobe Analytics.

Germany’s regulator banned short-selling in Wirecard--share price slid after allegations of false accounting surfaced--economist.com.

Amicus Brief (pdf): EFF Asks the Supreme Court to Clean Up the Oracle v. Google Mess--eff.org.

Berkshire Hathaway:  2018 Letter To Shareholders (pdf) (BH owns 5.4% of Apple): 3 Key Takeaways--SeekingAlpha.com.

Facebook:

$FB

Do you still have an opinion on Facebook?" ... I just think that Facebook-- their big problem is obviously their business model. And I talked about things that are safe ended up being unsafe. I think that's Facebook I mean, they sold themselves as comfortable and safe, but they're really just a diabolical data collection monster. And they're unrepentant. And I just saw yesterday they were talking about more regulation in Europe in the UK. And when the regulators show up, usually, the stock prices go down. Health care had a meteoric rise until the regulators showed up a few years ago, and then a big decline. So I don't really trust Facebook. So the fact that I don't trust them makes me not like them, and the fact they don't like them makes me want their stock to go down."--Jeffrey Gundlach extended conversation with Yahoo Finance [Transcript] (pdf).

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Tech Review | 5G Roll Out: What's Coming In 2019 (video)

Tech Review (TR 2019-01-05)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) 5G Roll Out: What's Coming In 2019, 2) Office 3.0 - As Robots Take Over, 3) Investing: The Week, Notes,  4)ICYMI Tech News: Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Tencent, YouTube.

1) 5G Roll Out: What's Coming In 2019

5G Will Be Ultrafast, but the Roll Out May Not Be. WSJ.com video above first published Nov 14, 2018. See also:

• The Truth About 5G: What's Coming (and What's Not) in 2019 | tomsguide.com: Qualcomm says 20 operators around the world will roll out 5G in 2019, including all 4 major US carriers.

• Verizon 5G; 

• AT&T 5G; 

• T-Mobile 5G nationwide (US) in 2020; T-Mobile & Sprint merger plans.

• Wi-Fi Alliance’s Wi-Fi EasyMesh certification aims to standardize mesh networks | PCWorld.com May 14, 2018.

2) Office 3.0 -- As Robots Take Over

As robots take over mechanical tasks, is going in to the office simply a way to interact with others? This is the belief that has shaped Office 3.0, an office design philosophy which runs through the headquarters of The Agnelli Foundation in Turin. FT.com Content Solutions video above first published Jun 6, 2018.

3) Investing

The Week (Friday close to Friday close) ending January 4, 2019: 

NASDAQ Composite +2.36% | S&P 500 Index +1.76% | DJIA +1.53%

NASDAQ Composite

S&P 500

DJIA

Sign of the times: DrudgeReport.com headlines, Jan 4, 2019:
JOBS UP BIG! +312,000 RECORD NUMBER WORKING -- MANUFACTURING BEST IN 20 YEARS -- HISPANIC UNEMPLOYMENT LOWEST EVER -- DOW +750

"One fact that no one is talking about, the S&P is up 60+% in the last 30 months. Markets don’t go up forever, they do have corrections."--seekingalpha.com

Long View:

Investing Notes:

• The Best And Worst Performing Hedge Funds Of 2018--zerohedge.com.

• Better Days Ahead For Tech--the downturn has created an opportunity for investors with a long-term view--seekingalpha.com.

• US equities are still very tech-centric, subjecting the S&P 500 to both valuation contraction and regulatory uncertainty. Just five tech companies--Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet/Google, Amazon, and Facebook--represent 14.6% of the S&P 500, more than all Financials (13.2%) and close to all Health Care (15.4%).--datatrekresearch.com.

• Is Apple $AAPL A Buy?--seekingalpha.com. Apple lost $11 billion buying back its own stock in 2018--zerohedge.com. Apple has lost $452 billion in market capitalization since Oct. 3. 

• China’s Startup Bubble Runs Aground: Bike-share companies, among the hottest startups, are wiping out investors--WolfStreet.com.

• Euroone: at 20, euro is currency giant on fragile footing--France24.com.

• 2019: The year after peak global growth--dw.com.

4) ICYMI Tech News:

source: statista.com

• Apple failed to warn about China and market saturation, the underlying conditions for its guidance downgrade, which were obvious to those paying attention--bloomberg.com. See also the January 2, 2019 Letter from Tim Cook to Apple investors.

• India: New Regulations a Massive Blow For Amazon--Amazon will be disadvantaged versus Flipkart-(Walmart)--seekingalpha.com. But Amazon is opening tiny stores, adding local language descriptors, and accepting cash payments to target the 800M people living outside India's big cities--wsj.com.

• Amazon is planning to build and expand Whole Foods stores across the U.S. to put more customers within range of its Prime Now two-hour delivery service--wsj.com.

• Tesla names Oracle's Larry Ellison to the Board of Directors. Ellison owns nearly $1 billion of $TSLA stock.--reuters.com.

• Tencent Can Leverage WeChat In Auto Sector--seekingalpha.com.

• "Everything Is Fake"--Ex-Reddit CEO Confirms Internet Traffic Metrics Are Bullshit--zerohedge.com.

• YouTube says over 200M people view gaming content each day globally, and 50B+ hours of gaming videos were viewed in the past year--venturebeat.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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US Senate Hearing To Examine Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy

What is the impact of digital privacy regulation on the tech industry?

TheAtlantic.com video above published Sep 14, 2018: Victoria Espinel, President, BSA | The Software Alliance, Michael Beckerman, CEO, The Internet Association and Dean Garfield, President and CEO, Internet Technology Industry Council. The panelists weigh in on adapting to regulation, the social impact of technology, and innovation.

Experts in digital privacy and protection weigh in on the current landscape

TheAtlantic.com video above published Sep 14, 2018: Harriet Pearson, Partner, Hogan Lovells, Bruce Schneier, Fellow, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University and Ari Waldman, Professor of Law and Director, Innovation Center for Law and Society, New York Law School share their thoughts on the importance of emphasizing innovation, risks of data collection and consumer rights. More info: protectingprivacy.theatlantic.com.

US Senate Commerce Committee Hearing: Examining Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy: U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a full committee hearing titled “Examining Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy” at 10:00 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sep 26, 2018. LIVE video of the hearing will be available on commerce.senate.gov.

The hearing will examine privacy policies of top technology and communications firms, review the current state of consumer data privacy, and offer members the opportunity to discuss possible approaches to safeguarding privacy more effectively.

“Consumers deserve clear answers and standards on data privacy protection. This hearing will provide leading technology companies and internet service providers an opportunity to explain their approaches to privacy, how they plan to address new requirements from the European Union and California, and what Congress can do to promote clear privacy expectations without hurting innovation”--Senator Thune.

Witnesses:

• Mr. Len Cali, Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy, AT&T Inc.
• Mr. Andrew DeVore, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Amazon.com, Inc.
• Mr. Keith Enright, Chief Privacy Officer, Google LLC
• Mr. Damian Kieran, Global Data Protection Officer and Associate Legal Director, Twitter, Inc.
• Mr. Guy (Bud) Tribble, Vice President for Software Technology, Apple Inc.
• Ms. Rachel Welch, Senior VP, Policy & External Affairs, Charter Communications, Inc.

*Witness list subject to change (source).
Twitter: @SenateCommerce

Background:

The European Union's sweeping privacy law known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, became enforceable May 25, 2018, requiring websites to be more transparent about how they handle personal data and giving users more control over what companies can do with their information. A month later, California passed the United States' toughest data privacy law to date in an effort to head off an even stricter ballot initiative. The new California law does not go into effect until 2020, setting off a push in the tech industry for national privacy standards that would prevent (preempt) states from enforcing their own rules.

EFF.org: "The Senate Commerce Committee is getting ready to host a much-anticipated hearing on consumer privacy—and consumer privacy groups don’t get a seat at the table. Instead, the Committee is seeking only the testimony of big tech and Internet access corporations: Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Charter Communications, Google, and Twitter. Some of these companies have spent heavily to oppose consumer privacy legislation and have never supported consumer privacy laws. They know policymakers are considering new privacy protections, and are likely to view this hearing as a chance to encourage Congress to adopt the weakest privacy protections possible—and eviscerate stronger state protections at the same time. It is no coincidence that, in the past week, two leading industry groups (the Chamber of Commerceand the Internet Association) have called for federal preemption of state data privacy laws in exchange for weaker federal protections. For example, laws in California and Illinois require companies to have user consent to certain uses of their personal information (Nevada and Minnesota have these requirements for Internet access providers), while the industry proposals would only require transparency. That means that companies would be allowed to collect information without your permission as long as they tell you they’re doing it. The upcoming hearing at the Senate Commerce Committee may be the launch pad for this strategy of undoing stronger state laws ..."

See also:

• Google releases framework to guide data privacy legislation--TheHill.com; 

• Internet Association Proposes Privacy Principles For A Modern National Regulatory Framework | internetassociation.org:

• privacy principles and considerations 

• two-page summary

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Tech Review | Media Disruption, Mergers & Fear of the Future (video)

Tech Review (TR 2018-06-23)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Media Disruption & Fear of the Future, 2) Time Warner - What AT&T Got For $81B, 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes: Short Tesla $TSLA?, 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Media Disruption, Mergers & Fear of the Future
AT&T, Time Warner and the Entire Media Merger Frenzy Explained

Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) video above published Jun 14, 2018: From AT&T and Time Warner to the hot pursuit of 21st Century Fox and Sky, media mergers are in full swing. Why now? WSJ's Amol Sharma answers all your questions about the forces driving media deals.

Is the Media Sector Evolving or Devolving?" | inflectioncapital.co: "The media sector is at an existential crossroads. Its content is going direct to the consumer and traditional distributors like cable and satellite will be bypassed. Savings from cutting out distributors will be passed on to the consumer and video content choice should rise, allowing consumers to watch more TV shows and films. Consequently, audiences will continue to splinter and it will become more costly to attract an audience; industry revenue growth and margins will both deteriorate. 21st Century Fox and Disney have taken steps to produce more value for shareholders. However, that value will likely accumulate only at a low-double-digit annual rate. For the remainder of media, value is likely to fall as the companies don’t have a strategy to resolve their legacy dependencies. The tech and telecom titans (AT&T, Apple, Amazon, etc.) that already have adjacent media business will likely only accumulate value from their core businesses, not from their media assets. This is because video packaging and distribution is becoming a profitless business—unless one has massive global scale. Additionally, there is little way for the other tech and telecom titans to buy Discovery, Viacom, AMC Networks, etc. and create meaningful shareholder value. All the needle-moving assets are now taken. In contrast, Netflix has reached such a large scale in subscribers and content-acquisition capability that its market value is likely to accumulate at a rate faster than low double digits." (emphasis added) [Editor's note: for more, read the White Paper (pdf).]

2) Time Warner - What AT&T Got For $81 Billion (closing price per the 8K filing) - AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner closed on Thursday, June 14, 2018. Since then AT&T (NYSE:T):

The chart below shows the revenue of AT&T and Time Warner in 2017 by business segment

Source: Statista.com

See also:

• Revisiting AT&T's Rationale for Buying Time Warner | fool.com

• Why I Am Acquiring More AT&T | SeekingAlpha.com 

• AT&T (NYSE:T) Best Dividend Stock Of All Time Now Trades Cheap--SeekingAlpha.com 

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite -0.7% | S&P 500 Index -0.9% | DJIA -2%.
But on Friday (June 22), both the S&P 500 and the Dow ended trading up--S&P +0.2%, Dow (DJIA) +0.5%.

“Underlying breadth points to an eventual new high in price for the S&P 500,” wrote Bespoke Investment Group, in a report cited by Raymond James. The “long-term uptrend channels are still in place.”--Improving market breadth could indicate stock strength ahead | MarketWatch.com 18 June 2018.

"... the stock market - particularly big-tech ... Every dip is met by a wall of buying, ramping the market ever higher ..."--This Is The Greatest Short-Squeeze In History | ZeroHedge.com 20 June 2018. 

Wall Street's Charging Bull

Investing Notes: Short Tesla $TSLA?
Black Swan author Nassim Taleb defended Tesla after an actress posted a video of a Tesla on fire:

There are 150K-200K car fires per annum. You take one event & an emotional statement of an actress & turn it into a statement about the safety of @Tesla. And this is 2018.

I am blocking any commentator who doesn't get it. In this and other similar situations. Finito.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) June 17, 2018

On Monday Elon Musk showed off Tesla's newest production line and predicted that those who have shorted $TSLA “have about three weeks before their short position explodes.” But note the report out Friday, June 22, 2018: Exclusive: Tesla to close a dozen solar facilities in nine states--Reuters.com.

Other notes:

• The Cass Freight Index: A Measure of North American Freight Activity | cassinfo.com: shipments and expenditures up significantly. "The US is pretty much the only normalised economy on the planet"--Bill Blain. See also The Huge Ships for the Booming LNG Trade | WolfStreet.com.

• Why heads are exploding at the Fed | MarketWatch.com: at 3.8% unemployment, all of the econometric models indicate we should be seeing a lot more wage and price inflation than we are experiencing, but those econometric models are based upon historical statistics which don't factor in the consequences of the technological and institutional changes that are redefining U.S. labor, commodity and product markets, including the disappearance of the Phillips curve—the hypothesized inverse relationship between inflation and unemployment.

• Euro Risk: "The reasons the European economy remains so anemic are more to do with the Euro – the need to restructure economies at a time of enforced austerity to make the common currency work."--Bill Blain. See also Italy never should have joined the euro, and the ECB can’t rescue it from its next crisis: "Italy could plunge the eurozone into an unmanageable crisis"--MarketWatch.com.

• What about China? Read this week's expose at Axios.com, including intellectual property theft, the link between China's anti-monopoly policies and its industrial goals, etc.

• Global Debt: Are debt crises in Argentina and Turkey a global warning sign? | TheGuardian.com by Kenneth Rogoff. 
• If it’s already carrying significant debt, it’s “really handcuffed”--The Toys “R” Us Bankruptcy and Private Equity | TheAtlantic.com--“Had these companies remained publicly owned, they would have had a much higher probability of being able to adapt, to invest, and to withstand the ups and downs of the economy."--Thomas Paulson, founder of Inflection Capital Management (inflectioncapital.co).

• How U.S. tax reform rewards companies that shift profit to tax havens | Reuters.com.

• Investing Without People (pdf) by Howard Marks, Oaktree Capital (oaktreecapital.com), and Revamping Or Starting A Portfolio Now--SeekingAlpha.com. 

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• Internet Tax: US Supreme Court allows states collect sales tax from online retailers--Reuters.com.
• Regulation: FTC plans to reexamine how it polices tech companies | TheHill.com.
• Yahoo Mail aims at emerging markets and casual users, launches versions for mobile web and Android Go--TechCrunch.com.
• 5G: Ericsson needs industries to embrace 5G to underpin its recovery--Reuters.com.
• Data: The consumer data collection industry is about to explode (opinion June 19, 2018)--TheHill.com.
• Google to invest $550 million in JD.com, China's 2nd largest e-commerce site--cnbc.com.
• Google: More transparency and control in your Google Account--blog.google. 
• Google rolls out web interface for Android Messages enabling texting from desktop and says GIF search, Smart Reply, and more features coming--blog.google.
• Personal tech--pocket-lint.com re: bbc.co.uk/iplayer--How to watch BBC iPlayer in the US and elsewhere. 
• Work: Companies need older workers and here is why--Reuters.com.
• Environment: By 2030, an estimated 111 million metric tons of used plastic will need to be buried or recycled somewhere else—or not manufactured at all according to a new analysis of UN global trade data by University of Georgia researchers--Bloomberg.com.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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