E-commerce

Capital Calls: Farfetch

1 Dec 2022

Concise views on global finance: Shares of the New York-listed online retailer dropped over 20% as its plan to sell e-commerce services to luxury groups like Salvatore Ferragamo failed to convince investors.

Buy-now-pay-later has a case of the holiday blues

29 Nov 2022

Even though the use of credit cards has jumped, the big U.S. shopping weekend hasn’t been great for e-borrowing. With the economic outlook weakening, that isn’t terrible. The trouble is that investors in companies like Affirm are still expecting massive growth.

Capital Calls: Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift

18 Nov 2022

Concise views on global finance: A meltdown involving the pop star’s upcoming “Eras” concert tour is attracting an audience on Capitol Hill and risks an unwanted corporate fight with the artist herself.

Capital Calls: American shoppers

16 Nov 2022

Concise views on global finance: Target blamed its ugly quarterly results on consumers pulling back on discretionary items even as fresh government data shows they keep buying loads of stuff.

Walmart turns inflation into a land grab

15 Nov 2022

The $375 bln retailer is attracting higher earners with its lower prices, gaining market share in the third quarter. That’s leading to revenue growth despite the uptick in prices. But the makers of the soaps and snacks that Walmart sells are seeing their pricing power slip away.

Capital Calls: Jeff Bezos

15 Nov 2022

Concise views on global finance: The Amazon founder is telling consumers to batten down the hatches. Yet the e-commerce giant has plenty of room to capture more online market share.

Capital Calls: Roche’s risky big drug bets

14 Nov 2022

Concise views on global finance: Shares in the Swiss drugmaker fell 4% after a treatment for dementia produced disappointing results in a late-stage trial, reminding investors of the downsides of pursuing potential blockbusters.

Capital Calls: Twitter ads, Supervoting stock

11 Nov 2022

Concise views on global finance: Elon Musk is giving big brands an easy out – and a drain on advertising is harder for Twitter to overcome than Facebook; a dual-class share structure enabled the ousted CEO of TuSimple to team up with his co-founder and sack the board.

UK tech flops expose perils of IPO forecasts

2 Nov 2022

E-commerce group Made.com has all but collapsed little more than a year after issuing sunny targets in an 800 mln pound float. Stock market duds Deliveroo and Funding Circle had optimistic guidance. When initial public offerings restart, investors should ignore the projections.

Capital Calls: DuPont, Dollar stores, Twitter

2 Nov 2022

Concise views on global finance: The chemicals company takes an unexpected but welcome M&A break; Dollar General is being sued for practices that raise questions about pricing power; and Elon Musk plans to charge micro-bloggers for blue checks to help cover his huge deal costs.

Capital Calls: Ocado in South Korea

1 Nov 2022

Concise views on global finance: The $6 bln online grocer’s shares surged almost 40% after it announced a partnership with Lotte Shopping, showing that its strategy of building warehouses for global supermarkets may have legs.

Brazil can buoy Sea’s growth ambitions

28 Oct 2022

The Singaporean games-to-payments group is exiting smaller countries and cutting costs to satisfy impatient investors. But it is making progress in the fast-growing Latin American market, where losses are narrowing. A $6.5 bln cash pile suggests Sea can stay the course.

Amazon gets irrationally swept up in tech angst

27 Oct 2022

The online retailer lost $200 bln of market value after its Christmas outlook spooked investors. The results are decent, however, with strong contributions from retail and cloud. A fresh focus by fund managers on profit diverges from the company’s ethos, which poses a problem.

Capital Calls: Netflix struts

18 Oct 2022

Concise views on global finance: The $109 bln streaming service reversed its subscriber losing streak and reminded rivals of its first-mover advantage.

Naver’s $1.2 bln U.S. bet tests investor limits

5 Oct 2022

They wiped $3 bln off the South Korean e-commerce giant’s market value after its swoop for struggling online marketplace Poshmark. Naver boss Choi Soo-Yeon reckons she can turn her target’s fortunes around. But amid crashing markets and slowing growth, the deal looks ill-timed.

Shopify plays ‘choose your own adventure’ with pay

23 Sep 2022

The Canadian e-commerce firm is giving rank and file the chance to choose between equity and cash. Flexibility is good, and it could eliminate a gap between perceived and actual benefits. But it also forces employees to take a stand on how they think their own company is valued.

Italy’s first female leader, Amazon’s monopoly

22 Sep 2022

Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni is favourite to become prime minister after Sunday’s election. In this Viewsroom podcast, Breakingviews columnists debate how she will handle Rome’s debt, which is expected to reach 148% of GDP. And: the online retail giant’s antitrust battle.

Capital Calls: Sea’s distress call

21 Sep 2022

Concise views on global finance: The boss of Singapore’s $26 bln e-commerce to video-games outfit has laid out plans to achieve financial self-sufficiency, sending a wake-up call to other cash-burning peers in the region.

Loudmouth investors tone it down for new era

20 Sep 2022

Jeff Smith’s Starboard has ideas for $5 bln Wix but isn’t asking for a board seat. Bill Ackman and Dan Loeb also are playing nicer. Updated proxy voting rules make shareholder campaigns easier. Getting access to directors makes a bigger difference and demands tactical changes.

Amazon is already valued like a monopoly

19 Sep 2022

The $1.3 trln retailer is facing its biggest legal challenge yet after California sued it for antitrust violations. The company said the suit had it “exactly backwards." Investors – who value Amazon as if it is capturing a huge part of U.S. e-commerce– seem to think otherwise.