I will say right off the bat that Microsoft’s stock is now one of my favorite short-sell candidates. This is the 2000 tech bubble on steroids. MSFT itself is extremely overvalued given that its revenues are down over 7% on a trailing twelve month basis compared to its FY 2015 ended June 30th. Its net income is down 16% on the same comparison basis. MSFT itself trades at a 38x trailing p/e with declining revenues and income. It trades at 4.7x sales and 5.4x book value.
It’s been issuing debt like the U.S. Government in order to buy back shares, with its debt load increasing nearly 50% since September, from $27 billion to over $40 billion. Since June 2013, MSFT’s debt load is up 333% (from $12 billion).
MSFT’s valuation is in and of itself is insane given it’s debt-addled balance sheet and deteriorating business model. Microsoft Windows 8 was a total abortion and Windows 10 is not much better. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together uses the bare bones Windows 7 and the freeware Linux-based Microsoft surrogate software, which can can be downloaded for free (or a gratis donation) and is superior to MSFT’s crap (see OpenOffice.org, for instance).
Now Microsoft has decided to layer nuclear waste on top of its own toxicity by acquiring Linked-In for over $26 billion. This is a tragic, if not catastrophic, use of shareholder cash. Here’s LNKD’s net income history: It reported GAAP net income going from $11.9 million in 2011 to $26.7 million in 2013. Then it decided to use the Silicon Valley private equity unicorn stock valuation model and spend as much money on “R&D” as possible in order to generate losses. And it has generated massive losses: in 2014 it reported a $15.7 million loss. This ballooned to a $164 million loss in its FY 2015. On a TTM basis, LNKD’s net income has plunged to nearly a $170 million loss.
And MSFT is paying for what? This is from MSFT’s press release announcing the tragedy:
- 19 percent growth year over year (YOY) to more than 433 million members worldwide
- 9 percent growth YOY to more than 105 million unique visiting members per month
- 49 percent growth YOY to 60 percent mobile usage
- 34 percent growth YOY to more than 45 billion quarterly member page views
- 101 percent growth YOY to more than 7 million active job listings (LINK)
Anyone see ANY mention of those attributes generating any revenue, cash flow or operating income? Remember when Maria Bartiromo and Joe Kernan used to crow about “clicks and eyeballs” to justify multi-billion market caps for internet businesses with nary a business model? That’s what this acquisition is all over again. Small businesses looking to sort their own cap table out can do so with something like this cap table management software so that they will be able to demonstrate the value of their company, when necessary.
MSFT on the surface is paying: 5.4x sales, 4x book value, 4.8x enterprise value (market cap + debt) AND 58x enterprise value to EBITDA. Wait, anyone notice there’s no implied p/e ratio? That’s because there’s no “e.” But of course Wall Street has stuck a hockey stick net income forecast for FY 2017, so the implied “forward” p/e is 45x.
Microsoft’s acquisition of LNKD is about as idiotic as it would be to try and convince someone that the sun rises in the west and sets in east. If anything, this deal is emblematic of an American systemic Ponzi scheme that has gone “off the rails.”
Linked-In is nothing more than a glorified jobs networking bulletin board. Sure, as the system continues to unravel and more “business services” people lose their jobs, there might be a big jump in “clicks and eyeballs” on Linked-In. But this will be out of desperation trying to find anyone on the Linked-In board who might offer a ray of hope for employment. But no one will spend their unemployment check on LNKD’s idiotic premium services. That will be money much better spent on whiskey and weed, which is exactly what MSFT’s upper management and board of directors must be ingesting to have come up with this idea. MSFT is my lowest risk short-sell idea of the year.
The best part is that Jim Cramer is pounding the table hard with bullish commentary about this deal. This makes the idea of shorting MSFT a slam-dunk. It reminds me of his bullish call on Bear Stearns before Bear collapsed.
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I totally agree – I don’t know where they see 26B in assets
Assets? Where do they see any earnings – or even earnings potential?
mighty big premium to be paying for clicks & eyeballs
Dave, now this is “off-topic” from your above post, but I hope perhaps you might indulge my following rant, at around 1 AM Western Australian time on this Monday June 13, around 1 PM in America EST:…
…um, I’ve just been seeing AND COMPARING, how for some “MIRACULOUS?” reason the f-ckng SP500 has RISEN BACK TO 2080…but now, WHERE ARE THE USUAL SUSPECTS for the SP500’s recovery?
Oil? (Algos chasing oil.) NO! WTI oil is STILL DOWN!
USD/Japanese Yen carry trade? NO! It’s barely clinging onto bloody 106 – which just a few weeks ago would have indicated total catastrophe (back when it was 114), but the algos don’t “think” that way.
No, no, the ONLY f-cking reason why the SP500 has for the past hour f-cking MELTED UP BACK TO MAGICAL 2080 – without any assistance from oil or the JPY carry trade – is ONLY because the f-cking US Federal Reserve is directly and illegally CREATING NEW, F-CKING COUNTERFEITED US DOLLARS TO BUY THAT SHIT!
JB — uh… that’s kewl. Man, you had enuf consideration to obfuscate the “f-cking” but then the that “shit” hit the fan. Wow. heh heh.
Dude, we share ‘n feel yer pain. But, dude, let it go. Inflation’s here. Can’tcha sniff it in the wind? Buy yer metals and/or miners and oil now. And the popcorn, and spare us yer angst.
Whiskey and Weed !
This is why I am scared of shorting tech stocks. The company could be a turd with no prospects and still get bought out. The likes of YELP, TWTR, LNKD etc would not be bought by any prudent investor but desperate companies with more money than sense think they are a bargain.
You’re missing the bigger picture IMO. Did you not see Yahoo acquire unicorn after unicorn, only to see them die? Its not about business, synergy, or anything honest. Its a money making circle jerk to enrich the insiders. I don’t know if this is deep state, bilderbergers or what but some sort of consortium has been using this playbook for years to create money out of thin air. I think once you’re a “made” man, you have to turn around and fund future nonsensical things, like zika vaccines, gun control, etc. If you were enriched by the machine, then the machine owns you. Look at Patreus, they nailed him via the NSA, let him off easy and now he’s going to be the new poster boy for gun control, while they push for more muslims to be brought into the west. Its a massive, evil effort and I haven’t figured out what this desired new world order will look like in their twisted minds.
I’ve written about THAT “picture” several times. I’m looking for the pictures that are not obvious. Most commentators are now regurgitating what’s already known. I want to figure out what’s next. There’a whole hidden “picture” that shows the insider corruption is much WORSE than anyone writes about right now.
Dave,
With LinkedIn they ARE buying a lot of information they can re-sell.
Since LNKD can’t make money selling that info, what are the margins on those revenues?
Microsoft’s operating systems are getting worse and worse. I use LInux operating system as my main one and which connects to the internet and email. I use Windows 7 in a virtual Linux program called Vmware so that I run Windows that is not connected to the internet so I have absolutely zero viruses. In other words my Windows 7 is fully functional inside the Linux environment but is blocked to the internet where viruses come from.
Great article from Dave.