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Yahoo is for sale – what about Twitter?

Everybody believed in tech stocks in the late 90`s and some investors were buying tech share with both hands, but you all know what happened. The tech bubble burst, just like all bubbles do. Many of the tech companies lost everything they had and so did its investors.

But some survived and one of them is Yahoo. You know what Yahoo is right? Well, I know what Google is. It is a search engine. And Apple is iPhone, but what about Yahoo? What is it? What I know right now, is that Yahoo is for sale.

More than 10 bids is on the table and some of the bidders are Verizon and YP Holdings. Yahoo`s CEO Merissa Mayer has not succeeded after a three-year turnaround and «sale» is a top priority for Mayer. What about Twitter? Are Jack Dorsey in the same boat?

 

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Twitter is trading at about $17 which is well below its IPO price of $26. Its market cap is now $11,77 billion, and Twitters MAUs has formerly plummeted. That is not music in investors ears. They expect more than that.

If you compare Yahoo with Twitter you can see that Twitter is much more than Yahoo which is nothing without its huge stake in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan. So, if you take away Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, there is nothing left. Twitter has so far more than that.

Investors must realize that Twitter is more like LinkedIn Corp. A niche company. LinkedIn Corp is valued at about 6 billion more than Twitter but it would be difficult for them do be the next Facebook I think.

Twitter`s User growth is not looking good. Since 2013, the user growth have plummeted, and the company do many things to turn around the ugly trend, but that is very expensive. Twitter paid less than $10 million for the digital right to NFL games, which is very reasonable given the $20 million that Yahoo paid last year.

In comparison, CBS/NBC paid $450 million for the same 10 games, but Twitter feed is essentially a rebroadcast of CBS/NBC games with ads. The drawback for Twitter is that of the 70 ads throughout the game, it can only sell 15-20.

Twitter sounds like a NFL team to me. If it goes the wrong way they start to fire the coach. It nothing happens, they will do the same again and hire a new one. Twitter have had 6 heads of products in 6 years and 3 CFO`s in 4 years, and three heads of engineering in 3 years. Wow!

Im not so shure that the people are the problem at Twitter. The user growth is declining and their platform have about one billion inactive users. Im not shure what Steve Ballmer think about the company but fire Jack will not change Twitter`s core business and niche product.

They can continue to spend money on NFL games to attract new users but that is a risky and expensive strategy and in the long run they can end up being a new Yahoo were Jack Dorsey will end up just like Merissa Mayer.

Twitter is expected to report earnings on 26 April after the bell, and the report will be for the fiscal Quarter ending March 2016. EPS is expected to come in at $-0,13 which is worse than last quarter at $-0,2.

It`s time to jump around and make a change.

 

skjold5

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Shiny bull. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Shiny bull nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in precious metal products, commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Shiny bull and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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The 400th anniversary of William Shakespare`s death

Tomorrow, it is 400 years since William Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616. He is interesting because he is considered to be the greatest writer in the English language and the world`s pre-eminent dramatist.

He was an English poet, playwright, and actor, and he is often called England`s national poet, and the «Bard of Avon». I wrote about Julius Caesar on March 15 earlier this year, and this is a date to remember thanks to William Shakespeare.

«Beware the ides of March», William Shakespeare said, and that is why people around the world always remember the assassination on Julius Caesar on March 15. This year, the 400th anniversary of the playwright`s death, celebrations will commence in the United Kingdom and across the world to honour Shakespeare and his work.

 

williamshakespeare

 

Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 1564. He wrote at least 37 plays and collaborated on several more. His 17 comedies include A Midsummer Nights Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Among his 10 plays are Henry V and Richard III. The most famous among his 10 tragedies are Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. Shakespeares best-known poems are The Sonnets, first published in 1609.

Shakespeare produced most of his work between 1589 and 1613, and his early plays were primarily comedians and histories, and these are regarded as some of the best work ever produced in these genres.

He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language.

In the 20th and 21th centuries, his works have been repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular, and are constantly studied, performed, and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

Shakespeare signed his last will and testament on 25 March 1616, the following day his new son-in-law, Thomas Quiney was found guilty of fathering an illegitimate son by Margaret Wheeler, who had died during childbirth.

Thomas was ordered by the church court to do public penance, which would have caused much shame and embarrassment for the Shakespeare family. Shakespeare died on 23 April 1616, at the age of 52.

He died within a month of signing his will, a document which he begins by describing himself as being in «perfect health».

No extant contemporary source explains how or why he died.

Shakespeare was buried in the chancel of the Holy Trinity Church two days after his death. The epitaph carved into the stone slab covering his grave includes a curse against moving his bones, which was carefully avoided during restoration of the church in 2008:

Good frend for Iesvs sake forbeare,
To digg the dvst encloased heare.
Bleste be  man  spares thes stones,
And cvrst be he  moves my bones.

(Modern spelling: Good friend, for Jusus’ sake forbear,/ To dig the dust enclosed here. / Blessed be the man who spares these stones,/ And cursed be he that moves my bones.)

 

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Sometimes before 1623, a funerary monument was erected in his memory on the north wall, with a half-effigy of him in the act of writing. Its plague compares him to Nestor, Socrates and Virgil. In 1623, in conjunction with the publication of the First Folio, the Droeshout engraving was published.

Shakespeare has been commemorated in many statues and memorials around the world, including funeral monuments in Southwark Cathedral and Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Shakespear`s romantic Merchant of Venice, contains a portrayal of the vengeful Jewish moneylender Shylock, which reflects Elizabethan views but may appear derogatory to modern audiences.

After the lyrical Richard II, written almost entirely in verse, Shakespeare introduced prose comedy into the histories of the late 1590`s, Henry IV, parts 1, and Henry V. His characters become more complex and tender as he switches deftly between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and achieves the narrative variety of his mature work.

This period begins and ends with two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy of sexually charged adolescence, love, and death, and Julius Caesar (based on Sir Thomas Norths 1579 translation of Plutarchs Parallel Lives) which introduced a new kind of drama.

according to Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, in Julius Caesar «the various strands of politics, character, inwardness, contemporary events, even Shakespeare`s own reflections on the act of writing, began to infuse each other.

Many critics belive that Shakespeares greatest tragedies represent the peak of his art. The titular hero of one of Shakespeares most famous tragedies, Hamlet, has probably been discussed more than any other Shakespearean character, especially for his famous soliloquy which begins «To be or not to be; that is the question».

Unlike the introverted Hamlet, whose fatal flaw is hesitation, the heroes, of the tragedies that followed, Othello and King Lear, are undone by hasty errors of judgement. The plot of Shakespear`s tragedies often hinge on such fatal errors or flows, which overturn order and destroy the hero and those he loves.

In Othello, the villain Iago stokes Othellos sexual jealousy to the point where he murders the innocent wife who loves him. In King Lear, the old king commits the tragic error of giving up his powers, initiating the events which lead to the torture and blinding of the Earl of Gloucester and the murder of Lears youngest daughter Cordelia.

 

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In Macbeth, the shortest and most compressed of Shakespear`s tragedies, uncontrollable ambition incites Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, to murder the rightful king and usurp the throne, until their own guilt destroys them in turn.

In this play, Shakespeare adds a supernatural element to the tragic structure.

Shakespeare was not revered in his lifetime, but he received a large amount of praise. In 1598, the cleric and author Francis Meres singled him out from a group of English writers as «the most excellent» in both comedy and tragedy.

By 1800, Shakespeare was firmly enshrined as the national poet. In the 18th and 19th centuried, his reputation also spread abroad. Among those who championed him were writers like Voltaire, Goethe, Stendhal and Victor Hugo.

 

skjold5

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Shiny bull. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Shiny bull nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in precious metal products, commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Shiny bull and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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In the early 1930`s, more people emigrated from the United States than to it

I looked up at the sky yesterday and saw a flock of birds coming in to our country as they usually do every year. Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement and has been recorded as much as 3,000 years by Ancient Greek authors like Aristotle and Homer.

The primary motivation for migration appears to be food and they are free to go were they want to hunt. The birds are welcome and they are not doing something illegal. How can a bird be illegal? Human activities have threatened many migratory bird species and that is a huge problem.

People are also moving from one country to another and that is called Immigration. Just ask the indians.

 

immigrant

 

Immigrants are motivated to leave their former countries of citizenship, or habitual residence, for a variety of reasons, including a lack of local access to resources, a desire for economic prosperity, to find or engage in paid work, to better their standard of living, family reunification, retirement, climate change or environmentally induced migration, exile, escape from prejudice, conflict or natural disaster, or simply the wish to change one`s quality of life.

Many people claim they are threatened by a bunch of immigrants that are refusing to assimilate to their culture and their way of life. They claim they are illegal aliens, but that is not true because a human being can never be illegal.

Killing is illegal.

Columbus returned to America in 1493, but this time he was not alone. He brought a force of 17 ships. He began to implement slavery and mass-extermination of the Taino population of the Caribbean.

The Europeans took indians lands and saw themselves as the superior culture bringing civilization to an inferior culture. The colonial world view split reality into popular parts; good and evil, body and spirit, man and nature, head and hear, European and primitive.

The world view which converted bare economic self-interest into noble, even moral, motives was a notion of Christianity as the one redemptive religion which demands fealty from all cultures. In this remaking of the American Indians the impetus drove the conquistador`s invading wars not exploration, but the drive to expand an empire, not discovery of new land, but the drive to accumulate treasure, land and cheap labor.

We are billions of people on this planet with so many different cultures which is the expression of people`s creativity. Everything they make which is distinctively theirs like: language, art, music, healing, religion, cooking, agriculture, style and the institutions governing social life.

It all boils down to one thing: Respect!

 

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In 2013, the United Nations estimated that there were 231, 522, 215 immigrants in the world which is 3,25 percent of the world population. The United Arab Emirates has the largest proportion of immigrants in the world, followed by Qatar.

London has become multiethnic as a result of immigration. In 2008, Black British and British Asian children outnumbered white British children by about 3 to 2 in government-run schools.

American immigration history can be viewed in four epochs: the colonial period, the mid-19th century, the start of the 20th century, and post-1965. Each period brought distinct national groups, races and ethnicities to the United States.

During the 17th century, approximately 400,000 English people migrated to Colonial America. Over half of all European immigrants to Colonial America during the 17th and 17th centuries arrived as indentured servants.

The mid-19th century saw mainly an influx from northern Europe; the early 20th-century mainly from Southern and Eastern Europe; post-1965 mostly from Latin America and Asia.

Historians estimate that fewer than 1 million immigrants came to the United States from Europe between 1600 and 1799. The 1790 Act limited naturalization to «free white persons».

It was expanded to include blacks in the 1860s and Asians in the 1950s. In the early years of the United States, immigration was fewer than 8,000 people a year, including French refugees from the slave revolt in Haiti.

After 1820, immigration gradually increased. From 1836 to 1914, over 30 million migrated to the United States. The death rate on these transatlantic voyages was high, during which one in seven travelers dies.

In 1875, the nation passed its first immigration law, the Page Act of 1875.

After an initial wave of immigration from China following the California Gold Rush, Congress passed a series of laws culmination in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, banning virtually all immigration from China until the laws repeal in 1943. In the late 1800s, immigration from other Asian countries, especially to the West Coast, became more common.

The peak year of European immigration was in 1907, when 1,285,349 persons entered the country. By 1910, 13,5 million immigrants were living in the United States.

Immigration patterns of the 1930`s were dominated by the Great Depression. In 1929, there were 279,678 immigrants recorded, but in 1933, only 23,068 came to the U.S.

In the early 1930`s, more people emigrated from the United States than to it.

Immigrants is positive for the economy and makes the average American better off. Immigrants contribute more than $10 billion a year to the economy. The Kauffman Foundation index of entrepreneurial activity is nearly 40% higher for immigrants than for natives.

Immigrants were involved in the founding of many prominent American high-tech companies, such as Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Sun Microsystems, and eBay.

All Americans are immigrants, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of them. He moved to the United States in September 1968 at the age of 21, speaking little English. He became the biggest movie star in the world in the 1990`s and are the most famous immigrant in America.

What gave him the opportunities and were he is today is the open arms of Americans. He said; «I have been adopted by America.

Schwarzenegger is born in Thal, Styria, Austria, and his father was the local chief of police, and served in World War II as a Hauptfeldwebel after voluntarily joining the Nazi Party and SA in 1938. According to Arnold, both his parents were very strict.

He grew up in a Roman Catholic family, and in an interview with Fortune in 2004, he told how he suffered what «would now be called child abuse» at the hands of his father: «My hair was pulled, and I was hit with belts. So was the kid next door. Many of the children I`ve seen were broken by their parents, which was the German-Austrian mentality.

They didnt want to create an individual. It was about conforming. I was one who did not conform, and whose will could not be broken. Therefore, I became a rebel. Every time I got hit, and every time someone said, «you cant do this», I said;

“this is not going to be for much longer, because I`m going to move out of here. I want to be rich. I want to be somebody.”

Schwarzenegger served two terms as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011.

 

sb-wall5

 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Shiny bull. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Shiny bull nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in precious metal products, commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Shiny bull and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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French music industry declined by 7% but streaming increased by 47% in 2015

Take a look at the chart below. It shows that the French music streaming has increased by a whopping 47% last year. At the same time you can see from the chart that downloads and Physical are both declining by -21% and -16%.

Subscriptions is up by 69% which is pretty impressive. Free streaming is also up, but only by 8%. All in all you can see from the chart that the French recorded music market registered a whopping 7% decline last year.

 

france-decline1

 

French music had another 7% decline in 2014, and the result is that France`s recorded music market is 67% smaller that it was in 2000. We are talking about €876 million and this is heart breaking. Streaming goes straight up, while the revenue goes straight down.

We know that 99% of the French people listen to music, on average 2 hours and 25 minutes per day, and 3 out of 4 French people could not live without it. So, streaming should continue to rise in the future.

Streaming is very important, but is still a minority player in France, increasing its market share from 16% in 2014 to 24% last year. Downloads declined and lost revenue of €12,7 million which is half the amount that streaming grew by €33,2.

If you add the decline in downloads sales and physical sales together, you find that the amount is double what streaming added. Download and physical sales declined by €64,3 million, so revenue from streaming in France has to double to fill that gap.

I belive that many of the consumers in the streaming market are the same in the download and physical market. What we see is a shift from a sales model to an access model. You can imagine how easy it is to be a DeeJay now as you can pay only $9,99 for 30 million songs instead of buying each and one of them.

According to the French government, the music industry represents about 241,000 jobs in France, and one of the French export champions is the 48-year-old DeeJay David Guetta who have sold 9 million albums and 30 million singles worldwide.

David Guetta`s father is of Moroccan Jewish descent, and in 2013, Billboard crowned his hit «When love takes over» as the number one dance-pop collaboration of all time. The unemployment rate is extremely high in France, but David Guetta is not in that category.

The France unemployment rate is 10,3% (near all-time high of 10,7% in 1997). This is the number of people looking for a job as a percent of the labour force. The France youth unemployment rate is even more shocking at 25,9% (near all-time high of 26,2% in 2012).

France has a huge social problem and the suburb residents are mostly Arab or African, often Muslim and poor. One out of three live below the poverty line. The suburbs are zones of separation. Those outside Paris are set apart from the capital by pèriphèrique, a roaring eight-lane road that encircles the city.

On one side is success, culture, and wealth (Modern France). On the other is the banlieue (a place Parisians never go). Some 7,5% of French live in this «other France».

France claims the greatest social equality in the world and officially bans ethnic and religious identification, and Marine Le Pen`s far-right party is growing. Their campaign target minorities, implying they were unwanted and un-French.

Not only the suburbs of Frances cities are home to the countrys poor. People living in rural areas are «descending into poverty», and many of them can feel socially excluded.

They are all potentially streaming consumers.

 

sb-wall5

 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Shiny bull. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Shiny bull nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in precious metal products, commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Shiny bull and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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Music Streaming increased in 2015

2015 was a milestone year for streaming music in the United States. For the first time, streaming was the largest component of industry revenues, comprising 34,3% of the market, just slightly higher than digital downloads, according to RIAA.

All parts of the streaming music market grew in 2015, and total streaming revenue exceeded $2 billion for the first time ever. Combining all categories of streaming music like subscription, ad-supported on-demand, and SoundExchange distributions, revenue grew 29% to $2,4 billion.

The number of paid subscriptions grew 40% to an average of 10,8 million for the full year.

 

RIAA

 

Apple Inc launched its Apple Music last summer and I think that helped the streaming category a lot. Subscription and streaming went straight up. The streaming category includes revenue from subscription services such as paid versions of Spotify, Deezer and Apple Music to name a few.

It also comes from streaming radio services that are distributed by SoundExchange like Pandora, SiriusXM, and other internet radios. On top of that you have YouTube, Vevo and ad-supported Spotify.

This is all good for the artists and music industry, but for the distributors it can be different because they are all selling the same $9,99 product. They all have the same 30 million tracks and their target is the same group of consumers.

The rise of music streaming is clear. Streaming accounts for $2,4 million in 2015. Up from $1,9 in 2014. Downloads is down from $2,5 to $2,3 million in 2015, while physical is down from $2,2 to $2,0 million in 2015.

This data tells us that the music industry had the most balanced revenue mix in recent history were 1/3 of revenue coming from each of the major platform categories; streaming, permanent downloads and physical sales.

Streaming continue to increase its market share, but it is a big surprise for someone to see that Vinyl LPs were up 32% by value versus the prior year, and at $416 million Vinyl LPs were at their highest level since 1988.

 

phonogram

 

Phonogram is a patent by Ritter P Winne. A citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, in the country of Kings and State of New York. The patent is from 4 December 1906 which means that the phonogram is celebrating 100 year on December 4, 2016.

Some people still print their news on dead paper. Some people still print their music on dead vinyl, and some people still use horses. But the majority prefer cars.

 

sb-wall5

 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Shiny bull. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Shiny bull nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in precious metal products, commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Shiny bull and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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