[FNF, FAF] Title Insurance, Ownership, and “Blockchain”

For real estate markets to properly function, the buyer of a property and the lender financing its purchase must be assured that the person selling it actually has the right to do so and that the delinquencies of any prior owner have not lingered in the form of present day ownership conflicts.  In the US, […]

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[SQ – Square; PYPL – PayPal] Comparing Business Models and Strategies

[PYPL – PayPal] From its origins in peer-to-peer transfers, PayPal has evolved into the ubiquitous online payment gateway that it is today.  Consumers use PayPal because it is a secure, reliable, and fast payment method that is widely accepted by merchants; merchants accept PayPal because it eases checkout friction for ~240mn potential customers, converting 90% […]
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Blurbs [Independence v. Diversity, S-Curves, Freedom from vs. freedom to]

Capital Allocators with Ted Seides, Ep. #32 (Paul Johnson and Paul Sonkin – The Perfect Investment) “Fama says that an efficient stock is one where the market incorporates all available information.  So, there are 3 major parts of that: the information has to be properly disseminated and the second is that it has to be […]

[MELI – MercadoLibre] Digging the Moat (Or Is It A Grave?), Part 2

In nascent markets with winner-take-most dynamics, it’s particularly hard to know in the moment whether or not a company’s investments will ultimately add shareholder value.  You’ll know when you get there but getting there means engaging in what looks like and very well may be, a reckless race to the bottom.  But, to abstain while competitors spend gobs of […]

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[CPRT – Copart; KAR – KAR Auction Services] Copart is a Beast + Impending IAA Spin-Off from KAR

Beneath the bustle of a used car lot lies a swarm of activity that few of us have ever seen, a thriving ecosystem of wholesalers, rebuilders, parts recyclers, insurers, and intermediators whose trading activities usher some vehicles to dealer lots for resale and others to repair shops or salvage auctions.  Roughly 45mn used cars are […]

[GDDY – GoDaddy; VRSN – Verisign; EIGI – Endurance International] Value Migration in Web Services

When you type “scuttleblurb.com” into your browser, that domain name is translated into a unique series of numbers called an IP address, which corresponds to a particular computer that all other networked computers comprising the internet reference in order to find and deliver my website to you.  A non-profit entity called the Internet Corporation for […]

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[ZO1 – Zooplus] Competing with Amazon

The demand side of this story is easy.  As a former dog owner, I can assure you that there is nothing “experiential” about driving to Safeway and lugging 30lb bags of kibble back to the parking lot.  Having it delivered to your front door is obviously the way to go.  The supply side is more […]

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[LYV – Live Nation] On Flywheels and Bundles

Related Post: [LYV – Live Nation Entertainment] Some of It’s Magic, Some of It’s Tragic In my last blurb on Live Nation, I fussed over impending competition from Amazon, which was populating its US site with “Amazon Tickets” job listings that included the following salvo: “The ticketing business is ripe for innovation and improvement, as much […]

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