gmgravytrain

All the big hedge funds are piling into Facebook because they know the company can't be touched by the Feds. Despite all the moaning and groaning about loss of personal privacy and data breaches, the big investors are more interested in making money than all that consumer privacy nonsense. Almost no one is concerned with loss of personal privacy and the companies that harvest personal data are the most profitable ones around. Even after the data-breach scandal, Facebook stock is up for the year. Zuckerberg walked away untouched by the Capitol Hill watchdogs.

Fire Tim Cook! I've heard that phrase so many times I can't count the number of times I've heard it. One thing for certain, I've never heard anyone say, "Fire Jeff Bezos!" I honestly thought Tim Cook was a highly despised CEO by Apple shareholders and most Wall Street analysts and investors. I think Tim Cook has done OK with Apple financially but the company just doesn't seem the same to me when it comes to desktop computers. I guess I'm just old-fashioned because I'm still living in the desktop age of computing. I happen to like desktop iron. Smartphones are nice, but I don't have that much interest in them. I sure don't have any desire to own a $1000 smartphone. Not that I think it's too expensive. I simply don't have the need to carry a device with such advanced tech. Also, being a senior citizen, I don't want to be a walking target for thieving jackasses.

Anyway, if Tim Cook could just keep Apple's computers updated on a timely basis and allowed user upgrades, I wouldn't have much of a beef with him. I don't care much for that LGBT stuff either but it must be important to him if he's one of them. Now if he could get all of them LGBT consumers to only buy Apple products, then fine. I'll let him campaign all he wants.

That's fairly decent profits but yet the iPhone X is considered a "failed" product. I suppose anything can be considered a failure if it doesn't meet a particular person's standards. Apparently, the only measure for Wall Street is when a product exceeds a certain amount of market share percentage whether or not the product is profitable or not. If market share percentage is the only measure of success for a product, then no Apple product will ever be considered "successful." Generally speaking, Apple's entire business is not considered a successful business as far as Wall Street is concerned because of such low growth potential and Apple doesn't seem to dominate any particular market. However, Apple's cash flow is good and profits are relatively high but is still considered a doomed business due to certain set standards of what is considered a successful business.

The odds are pretty much in favor of Amazon reaching a $1T market cap long before Apple. Tim Cook is doing OK, but Jeff Bezos is playing to win and that's probably more important to big investors. Apple will be up today but down tomorrow whereas Amazon's share price will continue to climb every day without fail with no negatives surrounding the company.

Apple has the profits and is sitting on around $150B (less debt) and it means absolutely nothing to Wall Street. Amazon has all the momentum and a CEO who wants to absolutely crush the competition. Apple seems tame in comparison. I don't think Tim Cook even cares if Apple reaches a $1T market cap. It's likely a CEO has to own the company to care about such things. Apple will never be worth what Amazon is. Jeff Bezos has no match in terms of sheer greed and is being wholly backed by investors with nearly as much greed. In those terms, Apple has already lost.

Apple only needs about $80B or so to reach that elusive $1T mark but will take forever to get there. Amazon can gain that much value in a couple of weeks. Apple shareholders should simply settle for higher dividends and little else. There doesn't appear to be any significant share gains coming to loyal Apple shareholders.  Apple is playing it very conservatively in terms of revenue growth.  No large acquisitions will take place.  It's all going to be done with slightly increased dividends and share buy-backs.  As far as Wall Street is concerned, that's about the most boring thing possible to greedy big investors.  Apple will remain stuck trying to sell more iPhones in a saturated smartphone market.  Absolutely no one wants to hear about $1000 smartphones and I understand that's more than most consumers are willing to pay.  I would think it would be very difficult for Apple to convince consumers to pay that much for a smartphone.  I guess Apple doesn't see it that way.

To me, it makes more sense for Apple to pursue other businesses to increase revenue.  Apple should have acquired a cloud business like all the other major tech companies did but they totally missed that chance.  The "cloud" was easy, low-hanging fruit early on but now that's also crowded.  I don't have a clue about what Apple should pursue next but smart electric cars seems like a possible solution.  Amazon can get into anything with Wall Street's blessing, but things don't work that way for Apple.  Whatever Apple tries will be met with doubts and fears and investors dumping the stock by the truckload.

Anyway, I've been prepared for Amazon easily passing Apple in overall value.  Nothing can stop that from happening.  Apple has already lost the market cap crown in investor mindset.  The reality will take place before 2018 ends.  For Jeff Bezos it was like taking candy from a baby.

Another one bites the dust. I hope not many employees lose their jobs because of these closings. However, there's not much point in Best Buy keeping something that's losing money. I'm sure there's already more than enough smartphone sellers in the U.S.