Top searches for 2013

The top searches of the year from Yahoo, as reported by Anchorman Ron Burgundy. Well worth a watch!

You probably might have guessed the first one Miley Cyrus, the only male to make the list was none other than Justin Bieber. Click here for the full list.

Youtube also weighed in with their most popular videos for 2013. To celebrate the end of the year Google got the top 60 creators on Youtube to summarise the top videos for your enjoyment.

Top Trending Videos for 2013

1. Ylvis - "The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)" by tvnorge
2. "Harlem Shake (original army edition)" by kennethaakonsen
3. "How Animals Eat Their Food" | MisterEpicMann by MisterEpicMann
4. "Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball (Chatroulette Version)" by SteveKardynal
5. "baby&me / the new evian film" by EvianBabies
6. Volvo Trucks - "The Epic Split feat. Van Damme" by VolvoTrucks
7. "YOLO (feat. Adam Levine & Kendrick Lamar)" by thelonelyisland
8. "Telekinetic Coffee Shop Surprise" by CarrieNYC
9. "THE NFL : A Bad Lip Reading" by BadLipReading
10. "Mozart vs Skrillex. Epic Rap Battles of History Season 2" by ERB

Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com.au/

If you are lucky enough to find yourself travelling internationally over the holidays keep in mind the top location Facebook check ins around the world. They might give you a few ideas when you're there, of course in Australia it had to be the MCG!

Argentina: Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires 

Australia: Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), East Melbourne, Victoria 

Brazil: Parque Ibirapuera, São Paulo

Canada: Rogers Arena, Vancouver, British Columbia 

Egypt: Sharm el-Sheikh, South Sinai Governorate, Egypt

France: Disneyland Paris, Marne La Vallée

Germany: Reeperbahn, Hamburg

Hong Kong: 香港迪士尼樂園 | Hong Kong Disneyland

Iceland: Blue Lagoon, Reykjavík, Iceland 

India: Harmandir Sahib (The Golden Temple)

Italy: Piazza San Marco, Venice

Japan: 東京ディズニーランド (Tokyo Disneyland), Tokyo

Mexico: Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City 

Nigeria: Ikeja City Mall, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria

Poland: Temat Rzeka, Warsaw 

Russia: Центральный парк культуры и отдыха им. Горького | Gorky Park of Culture and Leisure 

Singapore: Marina Bay Sands

South Africa: Victoria & Alfred Waterfront 

South Korea: Myungdong Street, Seoul 

Spain: Las Ramblas, Barcelona, Catalonia 

Sweden: Friends Arena, Solna

Taiwan: 花園夜市Tainan Flower Night Market, Tainan City

Turkey: Taksim Square, Istanbul

United Kingdom: The 02, London

United States: Disneyland, Anaheim, California

http://newsroom.fb.com/Trends/770/2013-Year-in-Review

All the best for the New Year.

Jason

http://www.decisiveassetmanagement.com/

Disclosure: Decisive has a long position in Yahoo (YHOO) and Facebook (FB) stock 

The material in this article is for informational purposes only and in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. The material has been prepared without regard to any client's or other person's investment objectives. Before making an investment decision you should consider the assistance of a financial adviser and whether any investment or service is appropriate in light of your particular investment needs.

Santa shareholder benefits

The Wall Street Journal recently published a good article on stocks with shareholder perks. It identified Ford shareholders as the biggest winners with the largest savings potential. Shareholders are offered near employee prices provided they own a minimum of 100 shares (last share price $16.50) for at least the past 6 months. Shareholders only pay 4% above the employee price saving shareholders hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the purchase price. Unfortunately this trend of extra shareholder benefits has decreased over time. The WSJ article talks about how Disney used to give shareholder discounts to its theme parks and how Starbucks no longer slips gift cards into annual meeting reports.

But what about here in Australia? The trend is similar to the US. Coles famously closed down their shareholder discount cards a number of years ago which outraged retail investors especially since it offered discounts of up to 10% on weekly shopping expenses. It is now seen as normal to concentrate on shareholder returns rather than benefits. Thankfully there are some companies out there that reward shareholders with other benefits, though they tend to only be in the entertainment and retailing industries.

Even a bank offers a shareholder discount
A number of banks used to offer discounts on home loans but now it is only NAB a shareholder with over 500 shares will see their annual credit card fees waived. Who said all banks were greedy! Unfortunately NAB have cancelled their shareholder package home loan discontinued in August 2012.

Funnily enough AMP is not a bank but it does offer home loan discounts. As a shareholder you can receive a discount of up to 0.85% on loans from $100,000-$499,000 and up to 1% off variable loans above $500,000.

Blackmores offers shareholders an order form with 30% off recommended retail prices though it needs to be for personal use only.

For the travellers out there Amalgamated holdings provides some of the best benefits. They even provide a shareholders benefits pamphlet (see below). Holders of 500 or more shares of the company get 10% off Rydges and QT hotels. Shareholders can also pay $10.50 for tickets at Greater Union and Birch Carroll and Coyle cinemas and get 10% off sky lift tickets at Thredbo.

Ardent Leisure offers similar value to shareholders with at least 2,000 shares. An investor benefits card is mailed out to newly eligible investors within a few weeks of becoming an investor. Investors gets discounts to Dreamworld and can save up to 50% off at SkyPoint at the top of Q1 on the Gold Coast.

Lastly for the gamblers and travelers out there Echo Entertainment offers shareholders 10% off rooms at The Star in Sydney, Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast, Treasury casino in Brisbane and Jupiters Townsville. The shareholder benefits card also gives holders 10% off food and drinks at the majority of restaurants.

If you can't find that last minute gift maybe one of these vouchers can help you out, Merry Christmas!

Jason

http://www.decisiveassetmanagement.com/

The material in this article is for informational purposes only and in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. The material has been prepared without regard to any client's or other person's investment objectives. Before making an investment decision you should consider the assistance of a financial adviser and whether any investment or service is appropriate in light of your particular investment needs.

Solarcity pay for power not panels

Solarcity (SCTY) provides customers with a cleaner and more affordable alternative to their utility bill through the use of solar power. What makes SCTY different is that customers have the option of buying their own solar panel system upfront or they can lease panels like in a normal electricity agreement. The majority 52% of sales are sold as solar as a service similar to paying a utility, consumers pay for power and not panels. SCTY enters into long term 20 year contracts with consumers and finances the panel for the consumer. SCTY makes money by pocketing the long term value of the contracts minus the upfront cost of the panel. Customers benefit by saving up to 15% of their electricity bill while being more environmentally friendly and avoiding the near $20,000 upfront cost of solar panels.

I see the light
The solar power system will be interconnected to the local utility grid so that you won’t experience any power interruptions. Most of the parts such as solar panels, carry manufacturer's warranties of 25 years; other parts, such as inverters, carry 10-year warranties. In addition, SolarCity offers 20 year warranties including monitoring and repair service. If you generate more solar power than you require you get a credit for your bill. The interesting thing about solar is that it generates it power when utility rates are at their highest.

As can be seen in the slide above rooftop solar provides 0.1% of the electricity today. The Department of Energy has estimated that it could contribute 3.5% of US electricity by 2030. SCTY is dominant in the space with around 26% share of installations and an installed base of 0.5 GW with 75,000 customers. It is a long range target out to 2018 but they expect to have 1 million customers and 6GW of capacity by that time. SCTY believe their addressable market to be 41 million homes.

Risks
Rising interest rates play a massive part in any valuation. Due to the fact that the panels are funded upfront while SCTY receives payments over a 20 year annuity stream.  Another risk is tax credits which are scheduled to reduce from 30% to 10% by 2017. Offsetting some of this risk is the likelihood that the price of panels should reduce over time.

Disrupting utilites
The majority of competitors are private the industry is fragmented with most of the work done by local installers like plumbers and landscaping businesses. At the end of the day solar is a scale and financing business, being listed allows SCTY to have a financing advantage over competitors. Utilities themselves are potential competitors if they enter the roof top market. The great part about SCTY's model is that it bypasses the distribution system of utility providers giving users a choice of provider. SCTY can create energy at the place it is needed instead of a centralized monopoly (utility) that is miles away.

Elon Musk not just electric cars
The CEO and CTO are the cousins of Elon Musk who is chairman and a significant shareholder at 25% with total insider ownership at 33%. Elon Musk if you don't know is one of the great entrepreneurs, a co-founder of Paypal, Tesla and Space X a rocket company that produced the first privately developed liquid fueled rocket to reach orbit. As with everything Elon does SCTY is a company that has the opportunity to disrupt a large market.

While difficult to value SCTY has the potential to be the most compelling energy company of the future.

Jason

http://www.decisiveassetmanagement.com/

Disclosure: Decisive has no long position in Solarcity (SCTY) stock 

The material in this article is for informational purposes only and in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. The material has been prepared without regard to any client's or other person's investment objectives. Before making an investment decision you should consider the assistance of a financial adviser and whether any investment or service is appropriate in light of your particular investment needs.

Activision Blizzard the Disney of gaming

Activision Blizzard (ATVI) is the world’s largest and most profitable independent gaming company. ATVI develops and publishes some of the most successful entertainment franchises on any medium, including Call of Duty, Skylanders, World of Warcraft, StarCraft® and Diablo.

Gaming is a bit like the movie business the hits need to keep coming but some companies are just able to keep on executing, with their track record ATVI could be described as the Disney of the gaming industry. ATVI's management track record is the best in the business they have created many $1bn+ franchises from scratch. Other competitors like Electronics Arts license brands like Star Wars and sports but ATVI actually creates and therefore owns the content which gives rise to other opportunities like licensing. Games can now gross and cost a similar amount to movies but provide even more monetisation opportunities for die hard fans like extra micro transactions (in game purchases) and on going subscription fees (World of Warcraft a major driver of profit was first released in 2004).

A new console cycle
The new consoles the PS4 and Xbox One are 10x more powerful than the previous cycle. They are also more digitally friendly with the introduction of new payment systems with similar capability to the PC like monthly billing. These devices are also able to download games incrementally so there is no need to download the entire game before you can play. As can be seen below digital allows ATVI to increase overall margins due to decreased marketing and distribution costs. Around 45% of ATVI's revenues are digital that is subscriptions, digitally distributed products and downloads.

The consoles are also more social in that they allow sharing of experiences and incorporate the second screen of mobile in many games. Past console transitions have successfully expanded the market and business opportunity for software providers but in the short term drive uncertainty as gamers hold off on purchases ahead of new releases while sales of the new console take time to ramp up.

Its all about the franchises
Blizzard is well known for its PC based titles of Warcraft inlcuding the largest online multiplayer game World of Warcraft with 7.5 million subscribers and Starcraft and Diablo. Activision is better known for its first person shooters such as Call of Duty/Cabela's hunting and the introduction 3 years ago of interactive toy figure gaming for kids Skylanders. ATVI's four largest franchises in 2012—Call of Duty, Diablo, Skylanders and World of Warcraft—accounted for approximately 83% of net revenues. Call of Duty is facing competition from Battlefield 4 and Skylanders from Disney Infinity. High hopes are placed on a new first shooter franchisee Destiny to be released next year.

China finally cracked?
China has been a struggle for developers to crack due to regulation and the difficulty of distributing games. Like most industries in China the game market is showing tremendous growth with more online gamers than the US and Japan combined. Tencent is the key to distribution in China. Tencent is a US$100 billion company with over 800 million users. Tecent is a social messaging service which is monestised mostly through free to play games that have in game purchases. Tencent and ATVI have teamed up to distribute a free to play version of Call of Duty specifically for China. This has the potential to become a billion dollar business given Tencent's current first person shooter CrossFire has arguably poorer graphics yet brings in $1 billion per year. The game is slated for release next year.

Vivendi has traditionally controlled ATVI but due to high debt levels has sold back some of its stake back to ATVI and to Tencent its China partner. Its interesting that ATVI could buy back 429 million shares for $5.8 billion just ahead of a new console transition. The newly independent ATVI will allow management to focus more on their operations and increase the company's strategic flexibility.

Jason

http://www.decisiveassetmanagement.com/

Disclosure: Decisive has no long position in Activision Blizzard (ATVI) stock 

The material in this article is for informational purposes only and in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. The material has been prepared without regard to any client's or other person's investment objectives. Before making an investment decision you should consider the assistance of a financial adviser and whether any investment or service is appropriate in light of your particular investment needs.