Archive

It's been an interesting week for prominent hedge fund activists... In an amusing twist of fate, we're talking about two activist investors this week.  On Tuesday, we talked about Carl Icahn and how he has been targeting McDonald's (MCD) for the mistreatment of farm animals.  Those familiar with the history between these two activists might […]

• CP
• HLF
• MCD

Very few products anticipate consumer needs before they exist... In the early 2000s, the mobile phone industry was dominated by the European telecom giant Nokia (NOK). Nokia's market share was as high as 49% in 2007, selling a record 437 million handsets that year. Its cellphones did everything you'd expect – they were durable, had […]

• AAPL
• BB

Carl Icahn made his fame with his activist investment strategy... Carl Icahn has been labeled harshly as a corporate raider, an aggressive activist investor, and a man who can get whatever he wants out of a company. Over the last 50 years, his track record speaks for itself, thanks to his unorthodox investment strategy. As […]

• HLF
• MCD

Analysts have been calling for nothing but a crash this entire year...  What began as market volatility has become a market rout. First came the high inflation... then came the de-risking due to uncertainty around the Ukraine crisis.  As prices rose further and Russia's invasion of Ukraine progressed, investors started worrying about a new looming […]

Important lessons for global leaders reemerge... While the saying goes that there's "nothing is certain except death and taxes," too many have missed the connection between taxes and war. There is an undeniable, direct relationship between war and raising taxes from the earliest days of taxation in the U.S. to ancient Greece. Some of the […]

Alternative assets aren't so alternative anymore... Pensions and endowments have been looking to break into the world's alternative assets for a long time. You can get a diverse stock portfolio by adding asset classes like private equity and real estate. And this helps big investment shops reduce correlations in their portfolios.  Alternative investment firms like […]

• BX
• KKR
• STEP

While most people know how Steve Jobs changed computing, few know how he changed movies... The late Apple (AAPL) founder famously revolutionized the world of computers in the 1980s by bringing a graphical user interface ("GUI") to personal computing. In 1985, Jobs created NeXT after being forced to resign from Apple. NeXT began as a […]

• AAPL
• DIS

Russia's invasion of Ukraine hasn't gone according to plan... Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine came after years of rising tensions between the two countries.  The world was surprised by the speed with which the invasion began. Even more surprising is how Russia appears to be stunned by the firm resistance Ukraine forces have shown.  No […]

• GD

As Russia-Ukraine tensions continue to rise, we're starting to feel the effects here in the U.S... Last week, the U.S. and the U.K. announced another pivotal step in the effort to pressure Russia to halt its war in Ukraine. They announced a ban on imports of Russian oil and Russian-finished petroleum goods. While Russian oil […]

The most important factor in building Altimetry... Warren Buffett once said, "In looking for people to hire, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you." We approach recruiting and hiring people with the same mindset we have when reviewing management teams. Determining […]

• NNVC