The Eric Jackson Podcast

Stitch Fix is a relatively new tech IPO, coming public last year. Eric goes through some facts about the company and why he thinks it seems to be oddly valued compared to other subscription services out there. This pod is based on an article written a couple of weeks ago in the newsletter and on Medium. He also revisits his recent piece about Apple being undervalued after it hit $1 trillion.

When I was growing up in the dot com craze of the late 90s at Columbia Business School, all the traditionally conservative MBA candidates who normally wanted to go into banking or consulting dreamed of striking it rich by starting their own tech company or going to work for a new one like CMGI, TheGlobe.com, Yahoo, or Excite. Today, it seems like young tech talent wants to go work for Apple, Facebook, Google or Amazon. Where are the hot new young companies of today's generation?

Apple recently passed $1 trillion in market capitalization and its stock has hit all-time highs. Eric argues that it could still rise another 50% before its fairly valued and explains why.

Netflix (NFLX) disappointed investors by missing its own Q218 estimates for US and international subscribers. The bears’ reaction to that news was that the constantly growing international subscriber story is finally coming to an end. The bulls’ reaction has been that this quarterly miss is a blip in the still valid long-term growth story. I tend to agree with the bulls that there is still a lot of international growth ahead for Netflix. To explain why, let’s dive into the details around...

Comcast and Disney are fighting to control Fox. There is a lot of misinformation out there about how it will play out and what issues matter most. Eric weighs in with his views are these matters.

Eric discusses why Disney management should present itself to investors as a "Disney as a Service" offering offline and online entertainment for millions of families around the world on a subscription basis. Taking this subscription-based approach would help increase Disney's stock price to $500 billion in 5 years, he argues.

Eric speaks with Wall Street Journal Reporter Ben Fritz about his new book on Hollywood called "The Big Picture: The Fight For the Future of Movies." They cover which of the Hollywood studios are best positioned to fight Netflix, Apple, and Amazon, which will sell, how the movie-making business is different today from even 5 years ago, and how it's likely to keep changing.

Eric discusses the selection of Jimmy Pitaro as ESPN's next President, why he was the most obvious choice, the problems with the criticisms of his selection, and what his priorities will be in the first year on the job.

Sometime in the next 3 weeks, Disney will announce who is the next President of ESPN. This decision could end up determining the future of Disney as a company and who will eventually succeed Bob Iger as CEO in 2021. Eric discusses all the key questions swirling around the company and what is likely to happen.

Many analysts and pundits on business TV are fond of saying that Netflix is now over-valued as a company and a stock. Eric outlines the 8 reasons why he still thinks Netflix is still massively under-appreciated.

Eric discusses the current turnaround going on at Sony and why he still believes there is still good upside left to come. He discusses their latest earnings results, their plans to elevate Kenichiro Yoshida from CFO to CEO, and whether the new CEO is likely to unload Sony Pictures or keep it in the conglomerate.

Eric discusses the potential candidates to replace John Skipper as ESPN's next President. There are three types of candidates: outsiders, insiders from Bristol, and insiders from Burbank. Eric lays out why he thinks a Burbank insider is most likely to get the nod from Iger and why Jimmy Pitaro probably has the best shot from that group.

Eric speaks with University of Oregon Finance Professor Stephen McKeon about the tokenization of traditional assets in and how this will have an impact on liquidity across multiple asset classes in the coming years. They also discuss the risks of regulation, governance issues, and resistance from players who want the status quo to remain.

Eric argues that Steve Ballmer's bets on Microsoft's cloud business paved the way for Satya Nadella's success. Investors did not see the value of the cloud at the time, as Amazon and other companies hadn't shown huge financial success yet. Ballmer also made other smart bets, like investing in Facebook.

Although there have been a number of articles which have come out since November saying Apple will buy Netflix, Eric throws cold water on this idea. Netflix is too big and Apple is too late if they'd want to do this. Netflix has reached escape velocity and they're too big, even for the biggest company in the world to buy.

Eric goes through his 9 predictions for what will happen in the tech and media worlds in 2018. Will AT&T and Time Warner close? What about Disney and Fox? Will there be more mega-deals? What will happen to Apple? What about the price of cryptocurrencies? Thanks for a great 2017 and all your comments and listens.

John Skipper's shocking resignation as ESPN's President on Monday leaves a number of questions about who the company will pick as his successor and how that will affect ESPN, Disney, and Disney's stock. Eric goes through John's strengths and weaknesses, the short-list of candidates to replace him and gives his prediction of who it will be.

Now that the deal has been finally announced between Fox and Disney, there's been a raft of commentary about it including a lot of off-base information. Eric goes over his top 5 misconceptions about the deal.

Eric spoke with ESPN's Don Van Natta on how he became an investigative reporter, why he switched to ESPN from the New York Times, and his recent detailed pieces on the NFL, Roger Goodell, and Jerry Jones. Thanks to Josh Dickson of Onecast.fm for his help producing. Also, be sure to check out Don's Sunday Long Read newsletter and new podcast as well.

CNBC's David Faber reported on Dec. 5th that Disney is set to announce next week that it's acquiring a set of assets from 21st Century Fox for $60 billion. The assets will help make Disney's planned entertainment and sports OTT apps much more compelling. Faber announced that the deal is set to also include Fox's network of Regional Sports Networks in the deal. Eric discusses the implications of this move.