Ensemble Capital Profile picture
Sep 25, 2020 25 tweets 11 min read Read on X
As a follow up to our thread on relevance, Netflix in the Media industry is a great example of dynamism within the context of moat relevance… 1/x

This is the classic Christensen cultural/financial issue incumbents have in adapting to disruption... 2/x
bloom.bg/36aKtHk
In contrast to Viacom+most incumbents, @Netflix’s culture enabled it to accept the pain of -75% decline in its stock price in 2011 to transition effectively from legacy DVD by mail… after winning rental battle with Blockbuster 3/x
To Streaming video... though the investment by pivoting cost it an 87% decline in operating profit from $400MM to $50MM, it opened up a larger more sustainable TAM supporting $NFLX next decade of growth runway… 4/x
@reedhastings leadership was key in successful decision & timing of pivot in conjunction with technology… in investor meetings during DVD heydays, everyone "knew" streaming would disrupt DVD business... "being early is no different than being wrong", but neither is too late! 5/x
Lessons from his prior company shaped $NFLX policies of “talent-density”, “leading with context not control”, “freedom & responsibility” in creating a culture of innovation, risk-taking, ownership, & accountability described in his book #NoRulesRules 6/x
bit.ly/3mUsoU3
Though @reedhastings comments focus on innovation above, they extend to other systemic process-driven frameworks prone to ossification, esp. linked to prior success & incentive structures, like business model, strategy, talent mix, go-to-market, capital allocation, etc. 7/x
Transition to streaming drove content/competitive strategy from *regional licensing* of 3rd party content to *global owned* originals, changes to business strategy/skills, while increasing capital intensity & morphing capital structure... "talent density" was indeed critical! 8/x
The successful flywheel underpinning $NFLX business model… 9/x
Using critical, differentiated in-house capabilities necessary to create competitive advantage in an orthogonal content delivery & business model vs industry incumbents, aka @HamitonHelmer type “counter-positioning”… 10/x
Driving scale in content to fuel flywheel momentum… growing subscribers/revenue @ 28%/35% CAGR 2012-19 meant $NFLX could grow its content spend at nearly 10x the incumbents over the time frame from $1.7B to $15B…11/x
Opportunistically utilizing cheap LT debt to accelerate scaling global subs, revenue, & content beyond its own cashflow, building its lead while incumbents were “still asleep at the switch”, enjoying cashflow from optimized, "walking dead" Pay-TV based business models… 12/x
@mjmauboussin articulates $NFLX’s financial dynamics in growth stage in his latest paper when describing $WMT ($HD fits description too), only its investments in stores while NFLX’s are in global content & tech infrastructure: 13/x
mgstn.ly/34eO58T
Framing $NFLX’s strategy this way starts to make sense with confirmation from industry veterans straddling both sides of the technology shift. 14/x
$NFLX’s results have become more clear and as its scale reaches a tipping point globally, with cashflows poised to turn positive in upcoming years demonstrated by widening gap between revenue and content spend... 15/x
Even in light of new expected competition from the only true, most worthy of legacy powers, $DIS with the force of #themouse and #babyyoda guided by the strategic hand of @RobertIger... 16/x
The irony of 2020 vs 2019 in DIS vs NFLX battle investors/media had set up as a narrative 17/x
on.ft.com/2GenZKv
Is that more consumer choice… 18/x
Has hastened the decline of legacy Pay-TV incumbent’s relevance... 19x
As streaming and other forms of entertainment have attracted away attention and freed up $$ to allocate to more relevant the alternatives (gaming, user generated content, social media)… 20/x
matthewball.vc/all/covidvideo
Than they have hurt Netflix’s position as a core service its subscribers value (thanks to its scale and consumer experience, it is the standard bearer for streaming video services): 21/x
Yet this is still early innings of global adoption of streaming, with a market that is broader than wired/satellite delivered video… 22/x
With enormous leverage to value creation in globally deployable business models with global relevance... 23/x
ben-evans.com/presentations
So let’s enjoy the show and see what comes next! 24/24
For a more depth look at Netflix, please check out our report on our blog, where we also have industry level analysis that led us to our thesis on Netflix and additional updates since.

intrinsicinvesting.com/2018/07/20/net…

intrinsicinvesting.com/2016/06/09/of-…

intrinsicinvesting.com/2016/08/16/of-…

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More from @IntrinsicInv

Dec 14, 2023
The US economy right now is running at just about the most perfect economic dynamics you could imagine. When people talk about a "Goldilocks Economy" - "not too hot and not too cold" - what we have right now is what they are talking about.

Consider... 🧵
Core PCE inflation, the inflation rate economists view as most accurate and useful to understanding inflation dynamics, has now been running for 6 months at 2.0%. The 3 month and 1 month rate is also ~2%. Right on target.
Job growth has averaged 190k over 6 months, 200k over 3 months and 200k in the most recent month. We need 100k jobs a month to absorb population growth. So we are drawing more people into the workforce. We have been at higher employment-to-population rates in the past.
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1/x Some people were surprised to hear Buffett say yesterday that Apple was a better business than anything else Berkshire owns. But it was back in 2017 that he declared Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Facebook “ideal businesses.”
2/x The day after the 2017 meeting he went on CNBC and told @BeckyQuick that he felt investors hadn’t paid attention to what he had said.
3/x “I did mention one thing at the meeting, which I don’t think people appreciated at all… So you have close to 10% of the market value perhaps of the United States in five extremely good businesses that essentially take no capital. Now that was not the case in the past.”
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Apr 21, 2023
1/8 Everyone is waiting for a recession. But equity investors need to realize the corporate earnings recession started six months ago. This may help explain the surprising strength of the market. Image
2/8 4Q22 S&P 500 earnings were -5% and 1Q23 is tracking towards -7%. But inflation in those quarters was +7% and +6%. To make these earnings declines comparable to those in the past, we can adjust them for 2% inflation rate.
3/8 Removing the "excess" inflation leads to adjusted earnings declines in 4Q22 of -10% & 1Q23 of -11%. Mild recessions when unemployment increases by less than 3%, are more common than severe recessions. And mild recessions typically have 20%-30% declines, like we got last year. Image
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12/20 Parking lots didn’t present any challenges, but as the rider I was aware that close maneuvering and people walking around made these areas ripe for small accidents.
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1/20 My driver on a recent morning spin around the suburbs of Phoenix was none other than Google’s Waymo self driving taxi service, which has been operating for over a year giving paid rides to the public. This is a thread describing my experience. $GOOGL
2/20 Pick up in a parking lot went smoothly with the car stopping in a safe area and waiting for me to get in.
3/20 Parking lots turned out to be more challenging than you might expect, with people ignoring any rules and wandering in front of the car. But the Waymo handled it all smoothly.
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Mar 19, 2022
1/25 You can’t predict the economy, but understanding the macro context is critically important for bottom up stock pickers. Whether you like it or not your company specific outlook includes a ton of implicit macro assumptions.

The current macro situation demands your attention.
2/25 A lot of company level forecasts are just a form of trend analysis. Most macro trends are usually long duration and slow moving, so you just need a sense of whether macro drivers are above/below mid cycle and how soon/much they might mean revert.
3/25 In a typical cycle, while there are early, mid, and late cycle companies (those that thrive best at various points), all companies are operating within a relatively homogeneous economic context.
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