wonder_bread

The above helpful comments being said, my question now is, how long is he going to be able to run these companies separately without a shareholder revolt saying they should be put under one roof to create more value for the investors in Tesla? Right now it feels like I'm an unofficial investor in TeSpaceBoringLink as opposed to just the former.

I expect to get some hate for the comment as it's a Wall Street type complaint, but to my eye, it seems like these companies are becoming ever more similar.

Can somebody clear this up; is "The Boring Company" it's own entity, or is it a division of Tesla?

This seemed to be the case but after the recent earnings report Bezos & Co. hinted that they are likely to go back to losing money now.

https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/27/it-looks-like-amazon-would...

Seems like a tactful play by FB to promote their efforts by letting this 'event' leak out to the press

Do you trust a Facebook camera on your kitchen counter/night stand/living room table? I feel like they haven't done much for themselves(in terms of branding) as a privacy-friendly company to the point where technophobes are going to be comfortable setting these up in their homes.

Who needs Mayweather Vs. McGregor news when we get to have this

I would argue against that, I couldn't think of anything more powerful in an industry than a company that could use it's tens of billions of dollars in operating profit annually to fund their efforts to dominate ride-sharing as well. You are making a good point, but although there is a fine line in regards to its prospective market power until they can make it profitable and sustain it afterward, I don't see how this doesn't lead to bad things for them down the road even if it something like this did get approval

It would be a prospective purchase in regards to autonomous driving software but Uber holds a current dominating market share in ride-sharing. They could potentially single-handedly create fear of an information monopoly and be the impetus for the fed's to look at re-writing anti-trust. It's almost too sexy of an acquisition at a time when governments seem to be losing trust in them. I could be wrong obviously, but that would just seem like a bad idea in the long term, both for the price, and for the microscope it would put on them.

"Google is going to increase or fully acquire Uber."

Talk about a "God's View", they'd be literally begging for regulator's attention if they tried buying Uber

Definitely, I feel like it's partially just a question of what a full-stack 21st/22nd century auto company is going to be worth once the dust settles after the autonomous car wars. If it still means producing close to 10 million cars a year while also being a leader in autonomous driving software then we could be talking about a multi-hundred billion dollar company in the making. If, however, the number of cars needed to be manufactured drops precipitously and a number of strong competitors emerge in autonomous transport they may end up relying on their semi-truck and energy network investments a bit more. Only time will tell

Relative to the companies their stock is being compared against I'd say I'm still pretty impressed with their lithium-ion production plans.

Listing current financial metrics compared to incumbent automakers kind of misses the point on Tesla. Not that it isn't "overvalued" (might be the most ambiguous word in investing) but Tesla's annualized GM is ~8% better than Fords, they own the refueling network (as opposed to incumbents which outsource it to gas stations), and are poised to control much of the future battery supply. Your Musk marketing comment is spot on in my opinion but at the end of they day these are not analogous companies financially, Tesla's charted a much-bifurcated path to growth and profitability relative to current auto companies.

There are loads of good ones out there but here's a few IMP:

-MadewithARkit (brand new, lots of cool stuff)

-SwiftonSecurity

-VentureBeat

-Kara Swisher

-Christopher Mims

-Google Developers

-Google Research

-Steve Jurvetson

-Siraj Raval

Honorable Mentions, the Parody Tech Accounts:

-Not Jonny Ive

-Bored Elon Musk

By "even though all they've really done", I mean most of those achievements could be replicated by supermarkets without spending 18% of their revenue on marketing. They coined the "costly middleman" term in this scenario, I'm sure you could fluff up a lot of achievements about any company in that indsutry in terms of the nature of their supply chain.

^preach

Welcome to the modern news cycle, where alternative realities are only a click away! Sit back and enjoy your daily deluge into the fantasies of some revenue-pressured writer seeking to capitalize on the latest zeitgeists us citizens consume each day as if they are fact.

Good point

I am very curious what Salzberg has to say about this. They do seem to have done a good job out-maneuvering the direct competition. However, looking through their website, it does seem hard to find a niche they can play when the inevitable 'me-too' introduction from a behemoth comes. It's also kind of comical how they preach the "Eliminating the costly middleman" card even though all they've really done is become their own version of a costly middleman.

Is Uber's brand as bad across the rest of the world as it is in the tech news echo chamber? Simply curious how ubiquitous news of the turmoil has become

More than their entire R&D budget for 2016....I sure hope they have something up their sleeves...

Wow. It doesn't tell you fully how they actually do it, but I'm still a little surprised they put that out there

^Also true

I think the 10-20% discounts based on keeping 3-5 items is one point of appeal.

Also the fact that you are the one choosing the items in the box as opposed to having a "stylist" choose them for you could be considered appealing (depending on the person).

Not a good day to be Stitch Fix...

Classic Amazon/Google move, take away the easy appeal and marginalize the growing competitor, forcing them to innovate if they're going to find a role.

Not a good day to be Stitch Fix...

Those 10-20% discounts on kept items are very appealing, especially considering how you get to choose the items in the box as opposed to having a "stylist" choose them for you.

Seems like they're going to have to really embody 'fashion discovery' if they're going to find a role, much like Hastings said Netflix has to embody entertainment.

How much R&D does Casper do in developing their mattresses? Seems like they're more of a marketing experiment than a "bedtime is back" sleep revolution.

Would be very curious to see if this is, in fact, a play to get into other industries via the backdoor by reimaging the whole foods layout. Seems odd on the surface to pay a premium for a Grocery store with slowing growth at a time when rivals from across the pond (Aldi and Lidl) seek to gain a foothold in the market. If anybody has some expertise in gamesmanship and would like to give their two cents on the deal, that would be nice.

Very true, it just remains to be seen whether the "main street murderer" stigma will remain despite this push

If only Wal-Mart had better branding...

So because Snap has a higher market cap means there's no excuse for the messy financials? Show me all the money Amazon was making when it was worth $20B.