Mergers and Acquisitions
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Visa, Plaid, Networks, and Jobs
The history of credit cards helps explain why Plaid is valuable to Visa, and how Visa can make it significantly better.
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Facebook Buys Beat Saber, Capital and Copyright, The Oculus Conundrum
Facebook has bought Beat Games, a company of the future, and not just because they made a game for VR. Then, why it is the old world that needs capital, and why Oculus is still confusing strategically.
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PayPal Acquires Honey, What Honey Is, PayPal’s Play
PayPal bought Honey, which is best known as a browser extension. What does this mean for both end users and merchants, and which is more important?
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Google Buys Fitbit, Why Fitbit is a Good Idea, Why It Isn’t
First some important updates about Stratechery, then Google is seeking to acquire Fitbit. Why the acquisition makes sense, and why it doesn’t.
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Facebook Acquires CTRL-Labs, Acquisitions and Value, The Portal and Facebook’s Reputation
Facebook is acquiring CTRL-Labs, a computer-neural interface that is potentially a great fit with Oculus. At this point, though, is Facebook’s involvement in this new technology value-destructive?
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Verizon Sells Tumblr to Automattic, What Went Wrong?, Tumblr’s Future
Verizon is selling Tumblr to WordPress for only $3 million. Why did Tumblr fail, and is there reason for optimism with Automattic as its new owner?
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Uber Layoffs, T-Mobile-Sprint Merger Approved, Additional Notes on the Merger
Uber’s layoffs were a necessary adjustment to a marketing strategy that made sense previously, but not today. Then, why the T-Mobile-Sprint merger should have been approved, and the secondary impacts of the decision.
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Tech and Antitrust Follow-up, Google Buys Looker, Salesforce Buys Tableau
Sometimes analysis is about what will happen, not what should happen. Then, two big acquisitions in the data analytics face: Google’s purchase of Looker makes sense, while Salesforce is paying a steep price for Tableau.
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Airbnb Acquires HotelTonight, Supply Versus Demand, The HotelTonight Proposition
Airbnb has acquired Hotel Tonight, three years too late. The question is whether Airbnb wants to own a subset of the travel market, or the whole thing — and abandon its view of itself.
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Amazon Acquires Eero, Owning the Home, Amazon Earnings
Amazon acquires Eero, solidifying its play for the home. Then, Amazon’s Earnings show an e-commerce business that is slowing.