As we approach the anticipated and pivotal June launch of Tesla’s Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, several details have become clearer following tonight’s Tesla earnings call: Tesla’s vision for autonomy continues to challenge conventional assumptions around the necessity of detailed maps and Lidar. But Tesla isn’t alone. Much of what was shared tonight echoes the…
Here are our nine key questions for Netflix management on tomorrow’s Q1 2025 earnings discussion (our Q4 2024 questions can be found here). 1) Where Do Next 110 Million Subs Come From? The Wall Street Journal (link) reported leaked targets from your recent annual business review, including ~110 million net adds over the next five years.…
Welcome to the fifteenth edition of the LightShed Earnings Scorecard, our ongoing analysis of earnings call quality. This quarter, we tracked 77 companies, up two from last quarter, with the addition of Aurora Innovation and the return of MSG Sports. Next quarter we are contemplating awarding a Disgrace of the Quarter for the worst question…
Our thesis around President Trump keeping TikTok available in the US, despite the passage of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACA), was his vocal commentary around how important the platform was to his reelection campaign, particularly in capturing the youth vote and a desire to prevent Meta from becoming even more…
On Saturday, Jack Dorsey tweeted “delete all IP Law” and the following day agreed with a response to his tweet that stated abolishing all IP laws/protections would enable “ruthless iteration, instantaneous remixing, the ability to build on anything without lawyers at your throat.” Dorsey is not alone in wanting IP laws abolished, with Elon Musk…
As Spotify advertising broke through the $1 billion barrier in 2021, growth exploded in 1H 2022 with advertising growing over 30% in the first half of that year. Since that time, the growth has underperformed our expectations (Spotify exited 2024 with Q4 growth at just 7%), even as Spotify’s advertising revenue should exceed $2 billion in 2025.…
We watched Disney’s entire SXSW 2025 presentation over the weekend (embedded to the right), led by the head of Disney Parks, Josh D’Amaro, and the co-head of Disney Entertainment, Alan Bergman. The powerful relationship between family-focused movie production (and to a far lesser extent television) and its theme parks is unique to The Walt Disney…
“The most streamed show in the United States last year was Bluey.” That quote above is from Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Dana Walden, who spoke earlier this week at an investor conference. Walden is referencing the Nielsen 2024 year-end streaming report, link (with charts embedded at bottom of this post as well), which shows the Top…
Apple’s launch of a new iPad yesterday, once again raises questions about the company’s pace of innovation. Check out the comments on Tim Cook’s post on X introducing the new iPad. It’s not pretty. Even more concerning is Apple’s failure to deliver on the AI promises it first introduced at WWDC last year, as well…
In mid-November 2024, the Disneyland Paris theme parks shifted from fixed pricing to airline-style pricing (link). As you can see in the Disneyland Paris theme park ticket pricing screenshot (embedded to the right and highlighted in the red box), the daily ticket prices shown for a 2-park ticket are only applicable if purchased in the…
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