“It is very, very infrequent, think less than one percent of the time, that there’s someone that would be called competitive in that deal”. This comment came from the management team of Gartner, the global research and advisory firm, at an analyst day last year in response to a question from an analyst who was… Read More Gartner

As the leaves turn and the nights close in, it would be easy to start batch cooking with an eye on filling up the freezer. The news is all bad. It’s going to be a long winter. And a digital winter at that, if new lockdown restrictions don’t flatten the curve. These are, extraordinary times;… Read More Consumer

At a time when businesses are reeling, fighting to reposition, to cut costs and survive as Covid decimates demand, the results from the credit bureau Equifax this week spoke to a very different backdrop. Revenue surged through $1bn for the first time ever, printing the third straight quarter of double digit revenue growth. Indeed, the… Read More Equifax

There will be many long-term changes to behaviour as a result of the Covid pandemic. Many habits, views, and ways of doing things will shift. The world, perhaps, will be seen through a different lens. The books will come, so too in time, when vaccines allow it and the scriptwriters are done, the Hollywood films.… Read More Payments

There is no more powerful a trend in markets than that of sustainability, and one that is no more evident than in the world of packaging. When it comes to packaging, consumers are driving change. Tired with images of floating islands of plastic waste, there is overwhelming demand for beverage containers to be sustainable. As… Read More Crown Holdings

The statistics are well aired. Year-to-date the S&P has been dragged up by a handful of stocks. Markets are now, as any taxi driver will tell you, crowded. Stay-at-home day-traders have also got a taste for the go-go momentum and piled in. In size. At the other end of the market, many stocks have been… Read More Extremes

A stray tweet from the deep leather armchairs of the White House, and the newly symptom-free President walloped risk assets. No more speaks with the Democrats. The latest, trillion-dollar sized, stimulus bill is now dead in the water. Volatility spiked, stocks fell. With near term risks elevated, it is challenging for investors to gaze beyond… Read More T-Mobile

“Has anyone bought my scarf-dress that I dressed Georgia Fowler in when I went to the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards?” wheezed Scott Studenberg, the creative director of lux-fashion brand Baja East to a sympathetic Vogue reporter. One assumes, given the Covid pandemic, the reporter did not need to reply. As a result of zero orders for… Read More Restocking

For investors, there is a lot to contend with. Disney just cut 28k resort staff, American Airlines 19k, Allstate 3k: many others are following suit. In New York, bankruptcies are up 40%. Some data points to ongoing repair, other data a stall in activity. And then there is the increasingly toxic Presidential election; but enough… Read More Micron

Energy shares have been obliterated. So too, banks. Once muscled-up bulwarks of the broader index, the mighty have since been dumped in the ditch. ‘ExxonMobil booted from the Dow after close to a century’ headlined the FT in late August, tying a pretty pink bow on the whole sorry affair. For banks, down almost 40%… Read More Value