e been doing a ton of homework on other ways to play the sudden…
I am thrilled and honored to once again be sharing a platform with my old friend, mentor and Jedi Master, James “The Bob Dylan of Wall Street” Altucher, as he’s now brought his blog to Marketwatch. He wrote an article yesterday that got me thinking, about how TV ain’t dead.
In it, he cites two of my long-time favorite stocks, as being the next big winners of TV — Apple and Google. I call them two of my long-time favorite stocks because, as long-time readers, including my friend James, know that I first cited for readers and bought Apple at $7 and Google the day it came public at $85 a share or so. And I continue to own them now (I did sell them as I sold all my positions while I was an anchor on Fox Business from 2007 to 2010) for many of the reasons that James cites in his column, including how these two companies will continue to figure out ways to become dominant video providers beyond the iTunes and YouTube successes they already have.
But James forgot one other company that I think is a must-own right now in large part because it’s already showing some huge success in disrupting the traditional broadcast TV model — Microsoft with its XBox 360, “Entertainment Device” as the company likes to call it these days. The company’s now sold some 53 million units of the XBox 360 device to end users.
But more important and more germane to James’ TV article and why I immediately thought of Microsoft’s XBox when he wrote about the next generation winners of the TV wars is this quote from, Frank X. Shaw, Corporate Vice President of Corporate Communications at Microsoft:
“While people are still playing a ton of games, 40 percent of all Xbox activity now is non-game. Put another way, we’re seeing an average of 30 hours of video consumption per month per Xbox, a number that is growing fast. And people are expecting more — more options, more games, more videos, more entertainment.”
30 hours of video consumption per month per Xbox RIGHT NOW! Already.
I’m a big bull on Microsoft at these levels right now and have been buying both common stock and long-dated calls in the name in large part because the TV successes that Softee’s already having with the XBox platform. Layer in Kinect and the incredible revolutions in robotics and gaming and entertainment and productivity that it will drive in coming years, along with the mainstays of Windows and Office and server software, and we don’t even need Windows Mobile to make much of a dent in order for Softee to go higher in coming quarters and years.
And sales of the XBox have indeed already accelerated since the introduction of the Kinect. Don’t underestimate what the XBox and Kinect are about to do to your living room and how you entertain yourself in it.
TV ain’t dead. And the revolution is being televised. Not on your TV though.
Speaking of Xbox and the Kinect, I’ve been doing a ton of homework on other ways to play the sudden and building acceleration of sales that will completely blindside Wall Street in next quarter’s reports — and I’m about ready to pull the trigger on a new name and will likely be doing so next week. Stay tuned.
