Month: October 2018 | Beth.technology

What Everyone Should Know Before Facebook’s Q3 Earnings Call

Published by Beth Kindig on October 30, 2018

Facebook’s earnings call today may be the most anticipated call of Q3. The stock has tumbled since the last quarterly earnings call from a high of $217 in July to a low of $142. Three months ago, Street analysts did not think this was possible – and many still have price targets at $200. I believe bullish financial analysts are distracted by Facebook’s security costs, news feed fatigue and Instagram while underestimating the most important number on Facebook’s earnings call tomorrow –user growth rate. Background on Facebook’s User Growth Trajectory Facebook’s rampant growth from 2004-2017 was due to a viral…

The Level 2 Autonomous Vehicle Bubble – Tesla, GM, Audi, BMW, Waymo, Nvidia, and Intel

Published by Beth Kindig on October 17, 2018

Last month, Autonomous Vehicles fell into the “trough of disillusionment,” which is the downward slope that analyst firm Gartner publishes to show the hype cycle for certain technologies. You can think of this as “winter is coming” for tech products – a time when all of the buzz and excitement finally meets reality (note: artificial intelligence winter is a well-documented thing). The reality for autonomous vehicles includes regulations, production cycles, and delays in implementation for what is an extraordinarily difficult problem to solve – how to get machines to respond like humans at crucial moments. This gap between investor expectations…

Why Apple Will Never Buy Tesla: Autonomous Vehicles 101

Published by Beth Kindig on October 9, 2018

It’s understandable if you missed the headlines that Apple may buy Tesla. That piece of speculative news, like most news about Tesla, has been overshadowed by the PR storm that surrounds the CEO’s behavior rather than based on the technology behind the product. Here’s some background information for those who missed it. Simultaneously with the CEO’s investigation for violation SEC law 10b-5, rumors began to circulate that Apple may buy Tesla. Some of these rumors were started by Ross Gerber, a Tesla investor, while others sourced the VC firm Loup Ventures, and the gossip is still being echoed a month…