Liberty

Heico Q3: You know things are a little rough when they focus on "first nine month of Fiscal 2020" rather than Q2... https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200825005877/en/HEICO-Corporation-Reports-Strong-Net-Income-Cash "The Flight Support Group's net sales were $178.2 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2020, as compared to $320.0 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2019" ETG only down 2% in the Q, though..

New podcast about VMS by a CSI employee: https://twitter.com/_Suthen/status/1298240750132637696?s=20 h/t @JerryCap

Putin's likely response: YA deystvitel'no ne znayu etogo parnya. YA s nim ne vstrechalsya. Chto yest', to yest'. ;) ?

CSI published a new Q&A a few days ago: https://www.csisoftware.com/docs/default-source/investor-relations/shareholder-q-a/qa---august-2020---final.pdf One of my questions got in.

I re-watched (for the 3rd time, I think) 'Up in the Air' (2009) last night. It holds up. Still liking it quite a bit, and the 2009 recession context kinds of fits today's environment. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/ I love that Sad Brad Smith song, "Help Yourself".

I'm about 2/3 of the way through "The Innocence Files" on Netflix, and I think everybody should watch it. Well made and very interesting, but also important information about the real reliability of things like forensics experts, eye witnesses, etc, vs the perceived reliability (that people mostly get through TV and film and such).

https://brooklyninvestor.blogspot.com/2020/08/is-buffett-really-bearish.html

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/how-tiktok-suitors-microsoft-oracle-wield-power-in-washington

Spain not looking good..

Volaris acquisition in Sweden: https://www.volarisgroup.com/news/article/volaris-group-expands-its-portfolio-with-the-acquisition-of-symbrio-ab H/t @pearnick

COVID looks rough even if you're young and apparently healthy.. Dave Portnoy:

"Nobody knows anything." -William Goldman

New acquisition at ETG: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200819005455/en/ "acquired 89.99% of Connect Tech... Connect Tech designs and manufactures rugged, small-form-factor embedded computing solutions... CTI is NVIDIA’s largest global embedded hardware partner"

https://www.aboveavalon.com/dailypremiumupdate/2020/8/18/the-app-stores-impact-on-apple-financials-facebook-launches-paid-online-events-4q20-microsoft-surface-results

This is B.S. If this were true, there would not be the second wave phenomenon seen in past pandemics. Can confirm, it is total B.S. made up by people who have no idea what they're talking about or what it would take for "herd immunity".

I'll take that as a: "I have no evidence to show and I concede defeat." Thank you, come again.

As I said above, it’s not merely that they’re burning billions in order to create Tim Studios, it is that they have put themselves into a position where they have to increasingly squeeze (and damage) the actual, critical parts of their profitable businesses in order to put the shine on the whole operation every quarter. I can’t stress this enough: Apple developers do not like Apple anymore. These were once a fairly fanatical bunch—they would sit around defending Steve Jobs over all sorts of totally non-sequitur bullshit where they had nothing to gain (options backdating, etc.). This is over, and it’s meaningful. Beyond that, this sort of cultural shift at the top will change the entire firm. The teams that are responsible for value creation are already aware what they do is increasingly unappreciated and uncelebrated by the company. There are tons of people who have been with the company ten years, putting in incredibly important work on hard, tangible problems for the product that is generating all of the money for those buybacks and first-look deals you love. They will notice as the keynotes shift increasingly from celebrating the technical people that create and improve these products, to celebrating movie stars that are So Excited to show you a Sneak Preview of an upcoming DocuDrama that HBO, Netflix, and Disney passed on, but Tim, being the market-proven tastemaker he is, saw potential in. I believe those things matter, and just as the cultish devotion of external Apple developers has waned over the past few years, I imagine a great deal of enthusiasm internally has softened as well. I think you're conflating multiple separate issues. The content play is clearly as a way to get people into the app so they can sell 3rd party channels, which is a sticky and profitable business (Amazon does the same through Prime Video/Fire TV), and to make the ecosystem a bit stickier (because every tiny reduction in churn is worth a ton -- it doesn't have to be monetized directly).

I think Larry sees a chance to get the loot because of his political connections. Yeah, it's probably Bytedance and the VCs trying to get a better price out of MSFT. Or maybe if Oracle gets it, they'll flip it around later, because they certainly wouldn't know what to do with it longer term.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/covid-spit-test-is-faster-cheaper-avoids-shortages-and-now-greenlit-by-fda/

The definition of paranoia:

Lol, Apple would have 650 billion in cash if they didn't have the capital return program. You think whatever they're spending on hollywood makes a difference?

you took the joke seriously? Anyway, Jeff went Hollywood mostly because of Amazon Prime Video's ambitious in the past couple years, spending a ton of money and trying to woo big producers and get big IP off the ground (biggest was their LotR series under devlopment).

Because that has worked so well for the people who shorted Amazon when Bezos started going out to glamorous events?

Acquisition at Harris: https://www.harriscomputer.com/en/news/?data-ipsquote-timestamp=1597636800&article=harris-acquires-tcsc-expanding-public-safety-portfolio-with-forensic-advantage-systems-platform h/t @pearnick