Strategic Foresight - Insights in Business and Technology

Palo Alto Networks - Leader in Cyber Security   Key Indicators  Market Cap – 73.07 Bn EV – 72.95 Bn Debt - $2.26Bn P/B – 41.79 (Goodwill from M&A)  P/E (Trailing) – 184.99 (Growth)  P/E (Forward) – 44.44 (Growth) Economic Moat: Wide (product, innovative)    Palo Alto Network provides network security solutions. The company's solution offerings spread across network security, cloud-native application protection, security operations, and endpoint security and are available across multiple key industries. Cybersecurity has 5 stage lifecycle - Identify, Protect, Detect, Recover and Restore. This cyclical process is essential for protecting an organisation from cyber threats. It helps to ensure that corporations are constantly prepared and able to respond to evolving threats. Dominating Growth Strategy Since Nikesh Joined as CEO in 2018, Palo Alto Networks has grown with a CAGR of 24.9% with market cap. surging by $48Bn to $73.1Bn. This growth is spurred by M&A activity, improvi

 Generative AI - Changing the World, Key Players and Their Progress - Part One  

Taiwan Semiconductor (TSMC) - The Chipmaker That Runs The World Key Indicators   Domain: Semiconductors  Comp. (Chip Manf) – Samsung, SMIC, GFS, UMC Growth Segment – HPC AI Chips (Up) Economic Moat – Wide Cyclical - Yes Key Customers (Total 530+) TSMC's revenue is made up of 26% from Apple and 7% from Nvidia. Apple has a 10-year partnership with the chip maker.  Apple designs chips for iPhones and Mac computers, while Google designs Tensor Chips for Pixel smartphones. Qualcomm and MediaTek design processors for Android phones. Nvidia designs Gaming and Artificial Intelligence (AI) processors and AMD and Nvidia design advanced processors for Tesla.  TSMC chips are also used by major cloud providers like AWS, MSFT, Google, Oracle, and IBM for data centres, networking, and software. Broadcom designs chips for broadband and wireless markets.   TSMC is able to offer its customers its manufacturing capabilities in the areas of Smartphones, High-Performance Computing (HPC), Internet of Th

 Oracle's Evolution - Database Leader to AI Innovator   Market Cap – 290.15 Bn EV – 369.18Bn Debt - $88.94Bn (High), Cash – $12.08Bn  P/B – 122.43 (intangibles in the book)  P/E (Trailing) – 31.05 (Growth)  P/E (Forward) – 19.43 (Growth) Economic Moat: Wide (product sales, under threat)    Domain: Enterprise Software and Database Comp. (Business Apps) – IBM, SAP, Workday, MSFT, Salesforce Comp. (Database) – MongoDB, MySQL, Cassandra, AWS, Azure, IBM  Growth Segment – OCI (Up)  Oracle's Facing Headwinds - In the Age of No SQL The emergence of Digital Transformation in the early 2010s has brought multiple challenges to Oracle's relational database segment. Today, it is facing stiff competition from both commercial and open-source vendors. It must constantly innovate and create new products and services to stay ahead of the database market. Despite the challenges, it is rising to the occasion by developing its own cloud-native database products and investing in artificial inte

Google the King of Search - What the Future Beholds in the AI World  Google's Evolution   Google King of Search - Where is the Growth Google Search - Economics with Gen AI Google Cloud's - AI and ML Play Googles AI Journey  Googles $100Bn Blunder Google - Risks to its Growth My other posts on  AI Value Chain ,  Amazon the King of Retail -WhyAWS is the Crown Jewel ,  Microsoft the King of AI in Software ,  Salesforce under the AI Cloud  and how  Generative AI can transform Telecoms ,  Energy and Utilities Source:  Seekingalpha ,  Bloomberg , Martinfowler.com,  Databricks.com , Linkedin,  Nvidia ,  Google ,  AWS ,  Fourweek MBA Blog ,  Amazon

Amazon Flywheel Phenomenon - Why AWS is The Crown Jewel  -- Amazon Evolution   Where is the Growth   Amazons Flywheel Phenomenon Amazons Multiple Flywheels  AWS The Crown Jewel  Amazon Chasing new Flywheel My other posts on Generative AI and Strategic Analysis of Key Players AI Value Chain   Microsoft the King of AI in Software ,  Salesforce under the AI Cloud   Tesla - It's not a Car, Its an AI Device on Wheels Google the King of Search - What the Future Beholds in the AI World Nvidia Godfather of AI - Why the Market is Bullish Generative AI can transform Telecoms ,  Energy and Utilities Source:  SeekingAlpha ,  Bloomberg ,  Martinfowler.com ,  Databricks.com ,  Nvidia ,  Google ,  AWS ,  Fourweek MBA Blog ,  Amazon ,  Ashwath Damodaran ,  TSMC

 Nvidia Godfather of AI - Why the Market is Bullish What is their Economic Moat Where is the Growth Dot Com Era - History Repeating Itself  Nvidia - Under The Hood  Two CEO's Personal and Professional Relationship Risks to its Growth My other posts on  AI Value Chain ,   Microsoft King of AI in Software ,  Salesforce under the AI Cloud , AWS is the Crown Jewel and how  Generative AI can transform Telecoms ,  Energy and Utilities

Microsoft's transformation under Satya is phenomenal, from a PC dominant player to being called the King of AI in Software and Cloud.   Where is the Growth Partnership with OpenAI Why Microsoft is called as The King of Generative AI in Software and Cloud.  My other posts on  AI Value Chain ,   Microsoft The King of AI in Software ,  Salesforce under the AI Cloud  ,  AWS is the Crown Jewel  and how  Generative AI can transform Telecoms ,  Energy and Utilities Source:  Seekingalpha ,  Bloomberg , Martinfowler.com,  Databricks.com  Linkedin,  Nvidia ,  Google ,  AWS

Why Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a leader in cloud computing? Response from ChatGPT (Generative AI Tool) -- Amazon Web Services (AWS) is considered a leader in cloud computing for several reasons, which have contributed to its dominant position in the cloud services market:  Comprehensive Service Portfolio: AWS offers a wide range of cloud services, including computing, storage, databases, machine learning, analytics, IoT, security, and more. This extensive portfolio enables organizations to address diverse business needs within a single cloud provider. Global Reach: AWS has a global presence with data centres (Availability Zones) in multiple regions around the world. This global network infrastructure allows customers to deploy their applications and services close to their end-users for low-latency access. Scalability and Elasticity: AWS provides scalable and elastic infrastructure, allowing users to easily adjust resources up or down based on demand. This pay-as-you-go model is cos

 Aussie Broadband's  (ABB) FY23 Results and Why it's Emerging as an Acquisition Target NBN Consumer 2019, 100K customers, unprofitable.  2023, 700K customers, NPAT of $37Mn. 65% of Revenue from the consumer segment. 12% of NBN customers are on >  $100/month plan and 40% of Aussie customers are in this segment. Aussie acquires more than half of all new high value subscribers to the NBN. Business & Govt Business segment grew by 8% to $90Mn Rev. EE is adding to margin growth >800 new deals – SMB is driving it  Both segments utilise wholly owned fibre and an internally built cloud platform to generate 50% GM against residential GM of 30%. As those segments grow, profits will disproportionately rise. Smallest telco to build its own fibre backhaul. Built in house software to manage data loads, billing and other core functions. Wholesale business offers white labelled telco services to 3rd parties like Origin, was its fastest growing segment and a genuine surprise. Revenue r

TPG Heading for a Challenging Future  HY23 Results - Key Takeaways - The merger with Vodafone was a necessary remedy to the NBN, but it hasn’t lived up to expectations. TPG’s plan for the Vodafone merger was to do what it has always done – cram lots of users through a fixed asset base to raise profits. It hasn’t worked out that way. Selling off the wholesale Fibre Business can be likened to relinquishing a fortress, where the installation of the fibre requires minimal capital and new customers translate to higher margins and earnings, with the capacity for expansion being remarkable. This decision can be interpreted as a demonstration of TPG's weakness, rather than one that emanates from a position of strength. The business cannot sustain an expensive multi-brand strategy as it shifts towards a pure RSP play. Hence abandoning it. The emerging trend of choosing Prepaid mobile over post-paid is reemphasised (MVNO Play). Post-paid ARPU increase primarily from price rise in Jan and Feb