Mostly Borrowed Ideas Deep Dives, MBI Deep Dives

MBI Deep Dives

Mostly Borrowed Ideas Deep Dives

MBI is the abbreviation for “Mostly Borrowed Ideas”. Why “Mostly Borrowed Ideas?” As a generalist, I do not have a background in any particular sector. I enjoy navigating across industries, businesses, and countries to learn, understand, and connect the dots. In any case, most ideas and innovations are incremental in nature. Very few of us are smart enough to come up with truly original or groundbreaking ideas. I am Abdullah Al-Rezwan. I was born and brought up in Bangladesh. I went to University of Dhaka for my undergrad and majored in Finance. After working three and half years in Equity Research (Sell-side) covering Financial Sector in Bangladesh, I left Bangladesh to pursue my MBA in the US. I graduated within top 10% of the class from Cornell University's two-year MBA program and worked on the buy-side following my graduation. During my time at Cornell, I won two stock pitch competitions and also became finalists in four other competitions. I thoroughly enjoyed my stint as a generalist in the US large cap team at Madison Investments and covered a wide range of companies from UnitedHealth to Amazon and Boeing before US immigration reality paused my career in investment management. As my work authorization expired, I moved to Canada in January, 2021. Then in early 2022, I was able to return to the US.

Equity Bottom-Up

<ul><li>Let’s start with not-so-good news. For the 9th consecutive quarters, Google Network revenue kept declining. Everything else is good news.</li><li>Despite all the disruption narrative, Search keeps humming along.</li><li>YouTube is doing okay. But the highlight from last quarter was Google Cloud.</li></ul>

Let’s start with not-so-good news. For the 9th consecutive quarters, Google Network revenue kept declining. Everything else is good news.Despite all the disruption narrative, Search keeps humming along.YouTube is doing okay. But the highlight from last quarter was Google Cloud.

<ul><li>Yesterday’s Google’s earnings may have been bit of “meh” at first glance, but there were nuggets in the call that may have important implications for the broader market.</li><li>Network segment continues to struggle, but the rest of the businesses continue to grow at healthy double digit rate.</li><li>Search revenue growth surpassed YouTube ads revenue growth last quarter. For the first time, Cloud posted &gt;$10 Bn quarter while maintaining high 20s growth YoY.</li></ul>

Yesterday’s Google’s earnings may have been bit of “meh” at first glance, but there were nuggets in the call that may have important implications for the broader market.Network segment continues to struggle, but the rest of the businesses continue to grow at healthy double digit rate.Search revenue growth surpassed YouTube ads revenue growth last quarter. For the first time, Cloud posted &gt;$10 Bn quarter while maintaining high 20s growth YoY.

<ul><li>Now that Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon all reported their quarters, we now have better context to how their quarters went.</li><li>So, while I will mostly discuss Amazon's earnings in this update, I will briefly touch on some broader themes as well.</li><li>Overall revenue was slightly below the high end of Amazon's guidance.</li></ul>

Now that Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon all reported their quarters, we now have better context to how their quarters went.So, while I will mostly discuss Amazon's earnings in this update, I will briefly touch on some broader themes as well.Overall revenue was slightly below the high end of Amazon's guidance.

<ul><li>Despite following Big Tech closely for the last 5 years, this sentence from today's call still somewhat surprised me!</li><li>The scale and the height of success of Google truly boggles my mind.</li><li>Over the last year or so, Google has had its fair share of skeptics, including yours truly. </li></ul>

Despite following Big Tech closely for the last 5 years, this sentence from today's call still somewhat surprised me!The scale and the height of success of Google truly boggles my mind.Over the last year or so, Google has had its fair share of skeptics, including yours truly. 

Independent Research, US Dominant Players, Investment Talk

Investment Talk

Independent Research, US Dominant Players

Investment Talk is for readers who wish to learn about companies that are potentially outside of their own circle of research, as well as those who are longing to become part of a community of like-minded investors and learn more about investment research. I would describe myself as a long-term investor who typically takes a 3Y to 5Y outlook, before reassessing once that period matures. I follow the adage that one should research, reach a conclusion, and then verify and continue to hold so long as the thesis remains intact. My own investing style is one that seeks to find dominant players within their respective market who have shown signs of monopoly or oligopolistic behaviour, unlikely to be disrupted, in tandem with discovering market disruptors who have a high likelihood of disrupting their respective market. Equally (and weighted accordingly) I seek to discover more nuanced, misunderstood, situations with a shorter time frame.

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul><li>I was today-years-old when I learned that Europe has its own version of the Magnificent 7; the basket of giga-cap US tech companies comprised of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla.</li><li>The GRANOLAS Dubbed the “Granolas” by Goldman Sachs in 2020, this basket was chosen because it echoed themes present amongst the Mag 7 (back then it was just “FAAMG”) .</li><li><p>Namely, they were market leaders in the STOXX 600 Europe Index, they had grown to become an increasingly larger share of the market, and their earnings had far outpaced the broader index.</p><div></div></li></ul>

I was today-years-old when I learned that Europe has its own version of the Magnificent 7; the basket of giga-cap US tech companies comprised of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla.The GRANOLAS Dubbed the “Granolas” by Goldman Sachs in 2020, this basket was chosen because it echoed themes present amongst the Mag 7 (back then it was just “FAAMG”) .Namely, they were market leaders in the STOXX 600 Europe Index, they had grown to become an increasingly larger share of the market, and their earnings had far outpaced the broader index.

United States

Alphabet, Inc. operates as a holding company. The Company, through its subsidiaries, provides web-based search, advertisements, maps, software applications, mobile operating systems, consumer content, enterprise solutions, commerce, and hardware products.

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Alphabet (GOOG US)

Alphabet 3Q'24 Update

Let’s start with not-so-good news. For the 9th consecutive quarters, Google Network revenue kept declining. Everything else is good news.

MBI Deep Dives

Alphabet 2Q'24 Update

Yesterday’s Google’s earnings may have been bit of “meh” at first glance, but there were nuggets in the call that may have important implications...

MBI Deep Dives

Amazon 1Q'24 Update

Now that Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon all reported their quarters, we now have better context to how their quarters went.

MBI Deep Dives

Alphabet 1Q'24 Update

Despite following Big Tech closely for the last 5 years, this sentence from today's call still somewhat surprised me! The scale and the height of...

MBI Deep Dives

Europe's Magnificent Eleven

The GRANOLAS Dubbed the “Granolas” by Goldman Sachs in 2020, this basket was chosen because it echoed themes present amongst the Mag 7 (back then...

Investment Talk

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