RETIRE ON TRACK: Content is to tech what ‘location, location, location’ is to real estate – Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Evan Guido| Sarasota Herald-Tribune

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Were seeing a decade-long theme play out again. Content is to tech what location, location, location is to real estate. As mega media deals like the Microsoft/Activision and Sony/Bungie combinations continue to pile up, a brief recap of thirty years of content wars might be in order.

In the first tech wave of the 1990s, the focus was on so-called killer apps, software that was so good that it drove people to buy hardware. Word processing programs ended typewriters. VisiCalc, the grandfather of Excel, brought starship level number crunching to the masses. Microsofts Access gave small companies the ability to build huge databases. And lets not forget the most lethal of killer apps, Mosaic and Netscape, the browsers that brought us that new internet thing via bleeps and blat sounds over the phone lines.

Thirty new calendars later, were reminded once again of the importance of content. Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard on Jan. 18for a whopping $69 billion dollar deal to gain control over videogame franchises Call of Duty, Diablo, Candy Crush and World of Warcraft.Less than two weeks later, Sony paid$3.6 billion for Bungie, the studio behind Halo, and would gain control over Destiny, another leading gaming franchise.

Parents despondent over their slacker gaming kids might take comfort from an observation on CNET by Wall Street analyst Michael Pachter, who pointed out that with Bungie having 900 employees, thats $4 million per software developer. Sony also mentioned there are more acquisitions in the works. Play on, kids! Get back on that couch!

Global antitrust regulators are going to scrutinize the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal closely because, hey, its Microsoft doing what it does best: seeking to dominate operating systems, in this case videogame consoles. Its also an easy argument for Microsoft to make that killer apps can pop up anywhere, and what once was killer can easily become prey.

The Aughts brought the collapse of the merger between the legendary juggernaut AOL (Youve Got Mail) and TimeWarner, whose decline hopefully wont be a foreshadowing of the decline of Meta Platforms. On Wednesday, Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, announced disappointing earnings, sales and holds modest expectations of the future. The companys share price dropped by as much as 20% in overnight trading when it failed to hit quarterly profit and sales expectations.

Metas customers are aging. Aging customers buy less stuff and Apple enabled privacy protection that made it more difficult for Facebook to track your every fleeting thought online. Metas pivot towards the virtual/augmented reality future (which Microsoft, Alphabet and Apple are pursuing as well) seems like the right move at the right time. But, as we see, the success depends on the execution, which will come from you guessed it a killer app.

Evan R. Guido is the founder of Aksala Wealth Advisors LLC, a 2018 Forbes Next-Gen Advisors List Member, and Financial Professional at Avantax Investment ServicesSM. Evan heads a team of retirement transition strategists for clients who consider themselves the Millionaire Next Door. He can be reached at 941-500-5122 or eguido@aksalawealth.com.Read more of his insights atheraldtribune.com/business. Securities offered through Avantax Investment ServicesSM, member FINRA, SIPC.Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory ServicesSM, insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency.8225 Natures Way, Suite 119, Lakewood Ranch, FL34202.

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RETIRE ON TRACK: Content is to tech what 'location, location, location' is to real estate - Sarasota Herald-Tribune