Jeff Green + My Thoughts

Interview w Cramer from this week. https://youtu.be/mbmT33Mk1sI

(1) Sort of the first time that Jeff had somewhat negative things to say re: ROKU. Up until this point, he speaks them up. This time, he bundled ROKU into the likes of FB, GOOGL, others ---- that aren’t really the open internet. He says this as ROKU does now technically own content ---- with their own channel. Jeff speaks up the point that TTD doesn’t own any media like them ---- and is objectively suggesting. Likely a pushback given ROKU’s recent acquisition of dataxu.
(2) Spoke to the key point re their DNA was to get profitable first. Then to reinvest profits into the biz. Probably a big reason the company has recently outperformed even though revenue growth rates have somewhat slowed.
(3) I believe that “universal ID” that Jeff/TTD team have instituted to mitigate against PII is a major advantage to them. This universal ID allows an advertiser to know who the customer is ---- regardless of advertising channel (desktop, mobile, etc.,).
(4) Interesting tidbit re: linear TV and overtime sports at the end of the video. Jeff has spoken to this in the past ---- but this time super clearly. Basically, the broadcasters comp/give away inventory for free during overtime sports events ---- which in theory is the most lucrative inventory. Logic would say that if/when Streaming can ever get sports truly right ---- likes of TTD continue to win
(5) China. He spoke to being the only vendor in the world that is a partner to GOOGL, AMZN, and the BAT stocks. Could be a big opportunity longer term to be the pervasive “behind the scenes” global brand…
(6) I still like the NFLX longer term opportunity ---- where I feel sure NFLX will follow an ad supported model. Similar to IQ. TTD wins if that happens too.

Anyway, I still love this equity for many reasons. TTD 13.43% and ROKU 10.71%. Both are winners. This space is a monstrosity in the making w streaming ---- $1Tn TAM. Bet on the winners. Heck, I even have a 2.41% position in DIS ---- sticks out like a sore thumb amongst my rest…but nontheless, I think a winner too.

Cash 21.84%
AYX 13.57%
TTD 13.43%
ROKU 10.71%
DDOG 7.76%
AMZN 6.56%
MDB 5.98%
ZS 3.90%
GH 3.68%
OKTA 2.73%
ZM 2.53%
DIS 2.41%
RCEL 2.09%
IIPR 1.47%
CRWD 1.34%

Yes, I know. Too much cash. I trimmed down MDB significantly this week ---- but am very comfortable at ~6%. I have been building RCEL up and likely continue to build up CRWD.

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JKB…

You said: I have been building RCEL…

A quick glance at yahoo shows they had a significant spike in revenues from 2018 to 2019. $1.2M to $7.7M…but they also booked $35M in losses. (Again, numbers are from quick look at Yahoo page). It would be great to get a deep dive from you on this company to better understand why you are investing here. I’d do it but I am behind on completing a couple of ER posts (DOCU, ZUO).

Any interest in sharing what you know?

Thanks, Swift…
No position RCEL

I’ve thought a lot about the acquisition of Dataxu and I think it was an incredible move by Roku that creates strong competition within the Roku platform.

Roku’s ad revenue model has been to sell two types of ad space. The first is Roku’s own ad space, through its home screen, channel, etc. The second is to require streamers on the Roku platform to provide Roku with a certain percentage of their ad supply.

The acquisition of Dataxu gives Roku yet another vector for advertising income. Roku can now allow streamers to access Roku’s user data through the Dataxu platform to place advertising. Even though the streamers own the ad space, Roku takes a cut through the Dataxu demand side platform. This is the revenue that The Trade Desk was going for through its own platform.

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Chuckled at Jeff Green’s hyping talent. He lumps ROKU in with Google and Facebook (carefully avoiding mentioning his new partner AMZN, and then talks about “objectivity.”

i like it and i do own a sizable stake in TTD, but what matters is that ROKU (my ROKU stake is a little bigger than TTD) only uses demographic information, owns no personal information like Amazon, Google, and FB, and owns no original content (i think).

The shot at Roku is interesting though, a fight for advertising dollars, i assume. Wonder if it could be also that Green is doing bidding on behalf of Amazon, which would like to be seen as less of a privacy threat in this steaming space than the other giants. Thus it’s recent move to partner the upstarts with less intrusive demographic data.

Agree the dataxu acquisition looks smart at this point.

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