Van, IMHO Dale W. at the MF is top-shelf all the way
You could also apply his train of thought to KTEL's on-line revs. v. its competitors.
We'll take CDNow because, hey, I always root for the hometown team (their HQ is just outside Philly - and no, I have no ties to them whatsoever).
For example, CDNOW offers MORE PRODUCT LINES than KTEL.
Which management team has had the foresight to understand that t-shirts are a HUGE part of the music culture? Not KTEL. Major margins on those t-shirts.
When I punch in Taxi Driver under videos on the KTEL site, I get the soundtrack album. When I goto to the CDNow site...
...hey wait. How about that - this company's offering 50,000 video, DVD and laser discs.
What's that worth in terms of using the PSR as a metric?
And the idea that the KTEL site is even remotely competitive to that one is just plain flat-out silly. You've gone there. You've see it for yourselves (http://www.cdnow.com).
And BFD about the Billboard charts. The sales charts matter to the guys in the biz wearing the suits, which is I think the airplay charts the tunes site uses (http://www.tunes.com) is much, much better in terms of what the customer wants (and that's what matters, not what a bunch of guys in suits think about what the customer wants).
So, one could say that some of the writing that has been put out there under the heading of "analysis" not only counts revenues in non-online products (in favor of KTEL), but actually uses the revenues contributed by products some of its competitors are offering, but KTEL isn't, as a means of valuing KTEL (also in favor of KTEL).
See, that's just not very good. In fact, IMHO it's unmitigated crap, which is why Lou is taking heat from yours truly.
Good trading,
Tom |
