C&W Worldwide’s performance over the year to March was weak, with the most meaningful metrics showing positive but very low growth
The sharp decline in the mid-market business appears to be over, but price pressure and accelerating loss of ‘traditional’ voice revenue is preventing further progress
Guidance for the year to March 2012 is uninspiring. Beyond that, growing momentum in cloud services and the overseas businesses should generate more significant progress, but organic growth looks set to remain modest
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In this presentation we show our analysis of revenue growth trends for mobile operators in the top five European markets (UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain). The historical analysis is based on the published results of the operators, although they include our estimates where their data is inconsistent or not complete.
Revenues and profits continue to crash at the directory giant as local and small business expenditure shifts to cheaper online media
We believe Yell’s challenges may be less about share of voice, and more about how to absorb the pace of structural change – and to operate its business effectively from a much lower top-line
Tough conditions in all territories – UK, US, Spain and Latin America – have accelerated structural change, but Yell has some advantages over the start-ups, search algorithms and social networks that surround it
TTG’s full year results were, in the most important respects, solid, despite customer service issues and high churn caused by the migration of former Tiscali customers onto a single set of platforms
We remain cautious about the speed with which churn can be reduced, but there is little sign of the problem spreading beyond the former Tiscali base
Operating leverage and cost reduction have been impressive and give us confidence that new financial guidance will be met, although other sources of growth remain elusive
Amazon now sells more ebooks than print books on Amazon.com, while overall US ebook sales were 15.6% of the consumer market in March, up 142% from last year. Meanwhile, for some publishers over half of book sales are now through companies that are not book sellers
Waterstone’s has been bought by a Russian investor for £53m, with James Daunt parachuted in to take it back to its roots in bookselling, while in the USA John Malone has bid for Barnes & Noble valuing it at $1.45bn
As book buying moves away from bookshops and away from print, both retailers and publishers will need to rethink both their scale and the way that they engage with readers. Beautiful shops and beautiful apps are probably an insufficient response
Vodafone Europe’s service revenue growth dipped by 1ppt in the March 2011 quarter, but nearly all of this was due to regulated MTR cuts, with its competitive performance actually improving again
The combined Europe and common cost EBITDA margin was actually held flat in H2 10/11 on H2 09/10, aided by some heroic (and, frankly, uncharacteristic) cost cutting efforts, with Vodafone’s cost profligacy days apparently behind it
The outlook for next quarter is poor due to the UK MTR cut, but we then expect revenue growth to steadily improve for the rest of the year, with smartphone-driven data growth a help rather than a hindrance
Sky’s revamped model has delivered a sharp reduction in churn and higher gross additions, accelerating subscriber growth. Rising high definition take-up is sustaining the increase in average revenue per user
Business prospects are improving on stronger private consumption and a carriage deal for HD versions of German commercial channels
Our forecasts have been revised upwards and we now expect faster improvement in cash flow, though it will still be negative in 2013
BT met its full year guidance for the second year running, but new guidance reflects the weak revenue outlook and limited potential for further cost reduction
Group performance continues to hinge on capex levels, in particular deployment of next generation access, scheduled to continue until 2015
BT is not a financial basket case doomed to be eaten alive by mobile, satellite, cable or internet-based alternatives. But nor does it look like a huge growth story
In the March 2011 quarter Apple’s revenue was up 83% year-on-year and net income up 95%. iPhone sales are up 113% and the iPad has sold 19.5m units in the last 12 months. Even the ‘legacy’ Mac business grew 32%, and Apple now has over $65bn cash in the bank. Not bad for a niche business
With single digit penetration in its core growth businesses, Apple has the opportunity to continue growing fast for some time to come
The threat from Google’s Android is real but limited: we expect Android to take a large part of the mid range phone market but that Apple will retain and extend its competitive advantage for tablets and high end phones
Facebook's audience and consumption growth is now generating substantial and rising display advertising revenue, with consensus estimates of $2 billion in 2010, up 160% YoY, and it will overtake Google on this count this year
The social network's growing position as the centre of the internet experience is enabling it to become a platform for other services, such as e-commerce, making it an increasing strategic threat to Google, as well as other players in the digital media
More importantly, like Google before it, Facebook’s scale and function has the power to disrupt the digital e-commerce and marketing models built over the past decade