The Bid Shading Threat to Amazon Advertising
Amazon’s $69 billion advertising business faces an FTC lawsuit over alleged bid shading, threatening a revenue stream that grew roughly sixfold since 2019.
Tuesday, September 1, 2026
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catechwilliams on X
$CVGW In MRQ benefited from temp avocado price spike and 1-time F/X add-back. Volumes have been declining LDD for the last 3Qs ($CMG shifting suppliers). DOJ investigation continues. Prices & earnings reverting lower. Commodity distributor trading at 30x P/E is not sustainable.
catechwilliams on X
$NX Just acquired peer Tyman. >3x leverage, never done a deal before, commodity business, customers all cutting numbers w deteriorating resi remodel activity ($AMWD yesterday, $MBC, $OC, $JELD). Stock is trading at close to 14x EPS. Seen this movie before. Earnings next week.
catechwilliams on X
$CVGW USDA crackdown on Mexican avocado corruption significantly erroding import vols (region where $CVGW sources all product). S. America taking share at accelerating rate as customers (ie. $CMG, grocers) shift suppliers. $CVGW sales vol -13% MRQ. Current Q could be a disaster. https://t.co/KJgK8fXbM4
catechwilliams on X
$PLUS Earnings on 8/5, expectations & stock disconnected from reality. Suppliers ($CSCO – 50% of product sales), competitors & customers all reporting sharp sales declines. Non-event PR today re a service they’ve been offering for 3 yrs is pumping stock; suggests mgmt is grasping
catechwilliams on X
@Mike10947310 $CVGW Sources >90% of its avocados from Michoacan, MX. $CMG purchases ~10% of tot US avocados. Its latest ESG report noted “diversifying away from Mexican suppliers.” This latest drama down there will almost certainly accelerate sourcing away from $CVGW, etc.
catechwilliams on X
Meanwhile disintermediation by OEMs going direct is accelerating. See recent commentary from partners $CSCO, $PANW $DELL, etc. $PLUS has zero discernable benefit from $NVDA and AI.
catechwilliams on X
Answer: aggressive revenue booking, financing sales, selling products at/ below cost to boost revenue and hoping to “then try to build it back up over time” per CEO. Contrast $PLUS performance w competitor and industry leader $CDW.
catechwilliams on X
$PLUS Numbers don’t add up. 50% sales $CSCO product (sales -13% MRQ, guided -11%). MRQ $PLUS sales +13% (reported yesterday). Earnings call question: “OEM Cisco have talked about bottlenecks, weak orders. You’ve been unscathed…how are you outperforming the market significantly?”
Investor Letters
All letters- Protean Funds July 2026 DVYSR $106MEVGGF $17B
- Royce Investment Partners year-to-date period ended 6/30/26 AAP $2.6BAGO $3.3B
- Protean Funds June 2026 CINT $224MIDDWF $9.5B
- Alluvial Capital Management Second Quarter 2026 ZEG $5BDGXX $372M
- Hayden Capital Q2 2026 AMZN $2.8TGOOGL $4.2T
- Intrepid Capital 2Q26 GOOGL $4.2T
- Polaris Capital Management Second Quarter 2026 ENI $81BHDIH
- First Eagle Investments second quarter 2026 032830 $44BBABA $268B
BE 2026-08-29 Bloom Energy: 5 Links That Cannot Break
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Valuation Rewind 6 clicks
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CMCSA 2026-08-28 After A Decade Of Underperformance, Comcast Is Finally Ready To Rebound
Comcast's mobile growth, Verizon roaming agreement, NBCUniversal content and theme parks are positioned to offset broadband competition…
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[scuttleslops] AI Data Center Economics, ADI, INTU, IDXX
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KMI 2026-08-26 Kinder Morgan: The Consolidation Is An Opportunity Before The Next Leg Higher
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Steven Fiorillo 3 clicks
Shitcos, Griftcos, and alignment versus enrichment at $IREN
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$NU: is Nubank Capital One in 1994 or Capital One in 2006? | Vanshap Capital
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MT 2026-08-27 ArcelorMittal: Regionalization Is Creating A Structurally Better Steel Company
ArcelorMittal’s regional steel franchises, integrated mining and India expansion are lifting EBITDA per ton and supporting per-share…
Capital Connoisseur 3 clicks
Nvidia’s Long-Term Margin Question
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CBRS 2026-08-26 Sizing Up Cerebras Systems: Why Its Latency Moat Makes It A Buy For Aggressive Growth Investors
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Star Investments 4 clicks
Big Tech Off-Balance Sheet Concerns
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TTMI 2026-08-25 TTM Technologies: Priced Like A Board Shop, Booked Like A Defense Prime
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Jaden Mealy 2 clicks
AI’s Achilles’ Heel: Why Everything Hinges on Anthropic & OpenAI | The Weekly Wrap
Steve Eisman argues the AI boom hinges on Anthropic and OpenAI’s importance to hyperscalers, while weighing software, CoreWeave and Cisco…
[scuttleslops] ZTS, APO, FISV, TTD, RELY
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