Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 445 posts

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#41

Post by pearlsteinj »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #34
pearlsteinj wrote: post #26

Also interesting to see in this earnings report is that Google's "other bets" aka moonshots are 3.5 billion in the red...[0] [0] https://abc.xyz/investor/news/earnings/2015/Q4_google_earnin...

I'd expect years, if not a decade for those to make money. I'm fond of how Google's voting structure is designed to prevent common stockholders from changing the direction of the company (for the same reason Elon Musk won't take SpaceX public until there are ongoing flights to Mars): investors are too concerned with short-term enrichment. If all of your ventures are making money hand over fist, you're not trying anyt…

I totally agree, this is just the first glimpse we get into the finances of the moonshots.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#42

Post by jonesb6 »

cryptoz wrote: post #35

The comparisons between Google and Apple aren't as apples-to-apples as everyone in the media seems to think. If we're talking about the future of these companies, and their earning power, they are situating themselves very differently. Apple is really a consumer electronics company, Google is an artificial intelligence company. And investors think more money will be in the future of AI instead of consumer hardware an…

I absolutely agree that comparing Google and apple is silly. But calling Google an "artificial intelligence" company is just feeding another buzzword into the fire.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#43

Post by lern_too_spel »

draw_down wrote: post #24
pbreit wrote: post #2

Both tremendous companies. I actually wish Apple would deploy some of its know-how and capabilities a little more broadly. Not everything has to be an immediate $20 billion opportunity.

On the other hand, that product stance helps them avoid Google Reader-type situations.

Right, it gets them into more iTunes Ping situations.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#44

Post by jonknee »

tyingq wrote: post #28
ghayes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> b) The shift from desktop to mobile should have the effect of reducing clicks. Can you clarify this statement?

If you're an advertiser, you've already seen this. Mobile viewers click on ads less often than desktop viewers. So, absent any other variables...if mobile traffic is growing faster than desktop traffic, year over year, click growth would slow.

Mobile traffic is also exploding, there is a lot more inventory to sell against.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#45

Post by gertef »

jdmichal wrote: post #12
BorisMelnik wrote: post #3

interesting adjective "most valuable." To many that equates to revenue generated, to others profitability. Haven't read this article but starred for later I'm curious to see what it says.

For public companies this is always going to mean market capitalization, which is the number of outstanding shares multiplied by the share price. This is the amount that would be required to instantaneously buy all the stock were it for sale at the listed price and thereby gain 100% ownership. ( In reality this never happens, and quickly buying large amounts of a stock typically elicits an additional premium on top o…

> This is the amount that would be required to buy all the stock and thereby gain 100% ownership.

This is not true. Stock price is marginal price of a share -- the point at which all sellers are askin more than all buyers are accepting, not the price that every share would sell for.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#46

Post by xyzzy4 »

kbenzle wrote: post #36
xyzzy4 wrote: post #14

Good time to short Alphabet? I haven't looked yet but I bet their P/E ratio is bubble-ish.

Yeh, at a PE of 36 I like what your saying, but still not close an the Amazonian 850+ PE!

I think Amazon's revenue could grow another 10X though.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#47

Post by jonknee »

jonesb6 wrote: post #42
cryptoz wrote: post #35

The comparisons between Google and Apple aren't as apples-to-apples as everyone in the media seems to think. If we're talking about the future of these companies, and their earning power, they are situating themselves very differently. Apple is really a consumer electronics company, Google is an artificial intelligence company. And investors think more money will be in the future of AI instead of consumer hardware an…

I absolutely agree that comparing Google and apple is silly. But calling Google an "artificial intelligence" company is just feeding another buzzword into the fire.

Why? It's obvious that is where they are going.

Re: Alphabet Becomes the Most Valuable Public Company in the World

#48

Post by tootie »

tyingq wrote: post #28
ghayes wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> b) The shift from desktop to mobile should have the effect of reducing clicks. Can you clarify this statement?

If you're an advertiser, you've already seen this. Mobile viewers click on ads less often than desktop viewers. So, absent any other variables...if mobile traffic is growing faster than desktop traffic, year over year, click growth would slow.

Do they even measure clicks anymore? Isn't view throughs the new metric?
Post reply on HN