Why AI Is Unlikely to Kill OTAs
Online Travel Agency (OTA) stocks such as Booking and Expedia both reacted very positively yesterday after The Information reported OpenAI’s retreat from direct checkouts.
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Portfolio_Change
A collection of 49 issues
Digital Advertising Industry Snapshot 4Q'25
Programming Note: I will be in San Francisco Bay Area next Tuesday. If any of you wants to meet for lunch around Larkspur, please feel free to reach out.
CoStar's Obfuscation, and AI vulnerabilities
While I used to enjoy Andy Florance’s humor during CoStar’s earnings calls, I cannot say I relished listening to the 45-minute prepared remarks by Andy Florance and almost 90-minute earnings call yesterday.
Walmart’s Trillion-Dollar Mojo
Walmart was the most recent member in the trillion dollar club companies. After coming to IPO in 1970, it took them almost 54 years to reach half a trillion dollar of Enterprise Value (EV).
Some Portfolio Changes
Perhaps it’s hardly a surprise if you read yesterday’s piece “Lipstick on Frontier AI Pigs”, but I made some changes to my portfolio yesterday which I will elaborate behind the paywall.
Airbnb 4Q'25 Update
Programming Note: I will be traveling with my family for the next three days. Hence, I will take some time off, but will be back on Tuesday next week.
Some thoughts from last week
Phew! What a week.
The Great SaaS Debate
Software is having one of its periodic identity crises. Instead of writing yet another think piece on the future of SaaS, let me curate today a wide range of point of views that I came across on this debate which I think will help you think through the high pitched noise in the great SaaS debate.
CoStar's Outlook
Rich Simonelli, the Head of Investor Relations (IR) of CoStar, wrote only two sentences in his “About” section on LinkedIn. The first sentence reads the following: “I maximize shareholder value.” Since becoming Head of CoStar IR in August 2024, this is how CoStar performed: Hmm, not quite my tempo.
The Battle for Attention
During 1Q’17 Netflix earnings call, Reed Hastings mentioned something that raised some eyebrows or perhaps created a muffled laughter: Think about it when you watch a show from Netflix and you get addicted to it, you stay up late at night.