1/ Access to two networks "isn't abnormal for an MVNO our size," MVNOs like Red Pocket Mobile and TracFone manage a number of MVNO agreements that allow them to sign up customers to whichever wireless network operator is offering the best wholesale rate." lightreading.com/ossbsscx/dish-…?
2/ Wholesale transfer pricing = the bargaining power of company A (eg, a service provider) that supplies a unique product X (eg, wholesale wireless service) to Company B (eg DISH) which may enable company A to take the profits of company B by increasing the wholesale price of X.
3/ Prepaid service was accepted by mobile operators as they started to have trouble finding customers who could pass a credit check. A subsidized phone is effectively a loan. Unit economics differ!
"There is a big transference from the prepaid category to the postpaid category."
4/ Prepaid wireless can generate more revenue per unit of capacity than post paid and yet still produce worse unit economics due to other factors (eg, churn, CAC, COGS or bad debt). CAC alone on a customer that can't pass a credit check is tricky. Post paid is higher ROIC.
5/ T-Mobile's new [wholesale] offer comes in just below what T-Mobile charges Dish for wholesale access to the T-Mobile network.. "They're our wholesale provider. They know our pricing." lightreading.com/ossbsscx/dish-…?
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1/ In my podcast about the space business this week the hard part was making the explanation simple without making it dumb. I was reluctant to do the podcast at all for that reason. I have lots of data about X, Y and Z. I tried instead to paint a picture with a very broad brush.
2/ "We need dreamers and doers.They don't talk about it. They go do shit. They bend metal. They make machines that make machines when you can't get the part you need. Those kinds of people help everybody else say, 'Okay, well I can create things too.'" joincolossus.com/episodes/51296…
3/ While watching Starship land for the first time people's eyes are going to be bugging out. And eventually somebody will yell, "This thing was just grabbed by a huge mechanical arm. It's going to take off again in two hours!"
1/ "We're social animals. We're supposed to help one another and we can do it in various ways. And there's nothing that helps people more than helping them get rid of a wrong idea and replacing it with the right one."
2/ "I've never known anybody in a long life who liked criticism. Zero. So I'm sure Warren didn't like criticism. He taught a course on investments at the University of Omaha. And in that course, he criticized certain common practice in the over the counter securities market."
3/ "Banks were selling stock in utilities with a hidden 5% markup. Warren talked about this practice in his university course and some of the people doing it hated him. So he got private criticism. People tried to keep him out of clubs and stuff like that."
For decades businesses assumed that as a contractor the amount of product demanded wouldn't go up if price dropped.
A new generation of entrepreneurs threw out that assumption. We are just now finding out what low cost access to space enables. There's optionality in this shift.
Imagine what a trip to a grocery store would cost if every time you did if the car or bus fell into the ocean and was lost forever.
That was just one assumption that the new generation of entrepreneurs changed. When rocket boosters or an entire rocket lands, that's impressive!
If you combine the natural interest that humans have for outer space with putting people and objects in a massive bomb with a nozzle on one end, it produces a lot of excitement.
Also exciting is not knowing if a business will be a success. A not boring business is more fun.
1/ This is a tragedy for many family farms in Washington state.
"The heat scorched and ruined 30 to 40% of this season’s raspberry crop, which supplies 80% of North America’s processed raspberry supply, which is typically 65 million pounds of the sweet red berries."
2/ Many clams and oysters also died from the heat. That and other factors have created pricing pressure: bloombergquint.com/amp/business/n… I'm making clam chowder tho:
3/ "The price of clams, often called steamers, is prone to fluctuation, but Rozes said this summer's spike is the worst he has seen in 45 years. He said last week a gallon of clams would go for $225 — $75 more than the highest price he’ll pay." msn.com/en-us/money/co…
“Companies generating high economic returns will attract competitors willing to take a lesser, albeit still attractive return, which will drive aggregate industry returns to opportunity cost of capital.”
X: "You were writing symphonies when you were 10 years of age, and I am 21.”
Mozart: "Yes, but I didn’t run around asking people how to do it.”
3/ Everyone has the idea of owning great companies. The problem: they have high prices in relation to free cash flow.
"That takes all of the fun out of the game. If all you needed to do is to figure out what company is better than others, everyone would make a lot of money."
1/ The $4.25 billion Europa Clipper will launch on SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, NASA officials announced July 23. The total value of the contract is ~$178 million. space.com/nasa-picks-spa…
Europa Clipper has a mass of ~ 6,000 kilograms.
$178 million / 6000 = $29,000 a kilogram
2/ "The White House estimated that the original plan to launch on a SLS rocket would cost more than $2 billion for the Clipper mission. Scientists were also concerned that the oft-delayed SLS rocket would simply not be ready for a 2024 launch date." arstechnica.com/science/2021/0…
3/ The best way to compare rocket launch costs apples to apples is on a cost per kilogram basis.
Pretend the extra $1 Billion isn't required to stop the shaking of the SLS from wrecking the Europa Clipper spacecraft.
$2 billion/ 6,000 kilograms is $333,333 a kilogram.