All posts by James Cannon

About James Cannon

James Cannon is an experienced hedge fund analyst. He has served on the advisory boards for various different Fortune 500 companies as well as serving as an adjunct professor of finance. James Cannon has written for a variety of Financial Magazines both on and off line. Contact James at james[at]businessdistrict.com

Not Quite a Unicorn: Intel Buys Moovit for $0.9 Billion

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Looking towards the future when people order cabs sans drivers, giant chip-maker Intel purchased wildly popular transportation-planning app Moovit for almost, but not quite $1 billion. Just a measly $100 million short of a unicorn’s price-tag.

Kidding aside, $900 million is a nice haul for the Israeli-based app that has revolutionized public transportation and

Moovit is seen as an essential piece in the multi-faceted puzzle of driverless transportation of the future: one more element Intel will need to become an essential part of an autonomous driving revolution futurists see as not only inevitable but imminently upon us.

Developed about 8 years ago in Israel, Moovit takes data from public transportation systems, ride-hailing services, and other transport services, and aggregates it all for their more than 800 million users so they can plan the fastest, most convenient, and least expensive ways of getting where they want to go.

You may remember that Intel purchased another major player needed for autonomous transportation. In 2017 the chipmaker bought Israeli company Mobileye for $15 billion, a self-driving car feature that “sees” around the car’s environment. Revenue for Mobileye has exploded from $210 million in 2017 to $879 million in 2019.

“Intel’s purpose is to create world-changing technology that enriches the lives of every person on earth,” said CEO Bob Swan.

Money Management during dual crisis

How to Manage a Dual Crisis: Coronavirus and Market Meltdown

Commodities, Communications, Consumerism, Economy, Emerging Markets, Finance, Health Care, Health Tech, Investments, News, Taxes, , , , ,

The CEO of Source Financial Advisors, Michelle Smith, has issued several suggestions for how the financial community can endure two conflating situations: the economic fallout of the coronavirus and market declines.

Be in Touch

Use technology to maintain contact with clients. Video platforms should be utilized as much as possible to offer a face-to-face personal interaction. While working remotely may mean that things are a bit more casual, it is important to keep things professional.

Be Authentic

The need to maintain decorum and professionalism notwithstanding, it is also important to be genuine with clients. They want to know that their money is in good hands, but they also want to have a sincere conversation about life. Start and end every conversation with a client by discussing their wellbeing. Ask how they are managing and feeling. Give them the assurance they need. Show them that you care about their physical, mental, and financial health.

Michelle Smith advises maintaining professionalism alongside authenticity during these trying times.

Be Pro-Active

When things are uncertain it is tempting to switch to preservation mode. We have a fiduciary responsibility to do our best for those who are already clients; we may not have the bandwidth to grow our business. But as we focus on the clients we have, we should also maintain business contacts and relationships that can help our business in the future. Look for opportunities in various sectors and actively pursue leads.

Be Thoughtful

Clients are worried about a lot of things right now. It is the job of financial planners and economic advisors to ensure that money is not an additional concern. The current health concerns coupled with economic uncertainties present people with two extremely basic fears: being alone and broke. Now is not the time to overwhelm clients with statistics and trends. Listen closely to what the clients are saying and what they feel most comfortable with at this time. This is unchartered territory for everyone. Every individual, business owner, team leader, and industry specialist is figuring out how to navigate these uncertain times. In the money management field, being attentive, genuine, forthcoming, and caring is the best business practice right now.

Senate to Open on Schedule May Fourth

Politics, , ,
Mitch McConnel. Courtesy of Gage Skidmore

Mitch McConnel, the Republican Senate majority leader, announced that Senators will be returning to Washington to get back to the business of governing. McConnel is determined to move forward with the opening despite the continued health crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that has so far killed almost 60,000 Americans in the two months of March and April this year.

McConnell released a written statement addressing those fears about the opening:

“We will modify routines in ways that are smart and safe, but we will honor our constitutional duty to the American people and conduct critical business in person.”

He added that the importance of this moment requires that Senators pull their weight when others in the country are doing so.

“If it is essential for doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, truck drivers, grocery-store workers, and many other brave Americans to keep carefully manning their own duty stations, then it is essential for Senators to carefully man ours and support them,” McConnell said.

One of the urgent issued McConnel plans on addressing when the lawmakers once again meet is whether to shield businesses from lawsuits that could arise from businesses opening and people contracting corona as a result.

“We cannot let that happen,” McConnell said, referring to lawsuits against businesses. “Our nation is facing the worst pandemic in over a century and potentially the worst economic shock since the Great Depression. Our response must not be slowed, weakened, or exploited to set up the biggest trial lawyer bonanza in history.”

President Trump agreed with McConnel on this issue, that businesses should be protected from lawsuits.

“We just don’t want that because we want the companies to open and to open strong,” Mr. Trump said earlier this month.

No details were offered on how the legislatures will protect themselves from infection when they meet, except to say that changes will be made to keep people, including staff, police, security, reporters, and the Senators safe.

President Invoking DPA to Step Up Swab Production

Economy, ,
Image by Ewa Urban from Pixabay

On Sunday US President Donald Trump announced he was going to once again call on companies to massively increase production of essential equipment which will allow testing for COVID-19 to be ramped-up substantially. Ubiquitous testing is an essential component of getting the economy back on track and people back to work, but at the moment testing is falling seriously short of need.

The President announced that he would call on one particular company to increase its production of test swabs to a staggering 20 million each month.

“We are calling in the Defense Production Act,” Mr. Trump said, adding “You’ll have so many swabs you won’t know what to do with them.”

Details about what company would be compelled to step up production, and when he would invoke the DPA were not stated.

“We already have millions coming in,” Trump said. “In all fairness, governors could get them themselves. But we are going to do it. We’ll work with the governors and if they can’t do it, we’ll do it.”

Public health experts have warned that testing will need to increase by double or triple from present rates to even open the economy slightly. Business leaders have in turn explained this to the President at a conference call they held with Trump last week.

As of mid- to late- April about 150,000 diagnostic tests for COVID-19 were done daily in the USA. Harvard researchers estimated that it will not be possible to ease social isolation restrictions and begin the economic recovery until the country can perform closer to 300,000—450,000 daily tests.

World’s Largest Medical Mask Maker Ramping Up Production

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A NIOSH N95 particulate respirator by 3M that can filters at least 95% of airborne particles. Photo courtesy of Banej

President Donald Trump called into play what is known as the Defense Production Act in order to confront the ever-worsening coronavirus pandemic with increased production of desperately needed personal protective equipment (PPEs). This act requires private industry to re-purpose their factories and to greatly step-up production for the singular effort of producing the needed supplies to properly face the deadly pandemic that is wreaking havoc on the country, especially in New York City.

One such manufacturer is 3M, the world’s largest producer of respirator masks. One day after President Trump invoked the DPA 3M said it is ready and willing to comply with the order to supply more N95 masks for the US. They added, however, that they will not stop exporting masks to other countries that also desperately need them.
3M released the following statement:

“3M and its employees have gone above and beyond to manufacture as many N95 respirators as possible for the US market.”

The DPA also requires that companies supply the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) with the equipment ordered by the agency. 3M said it is working closely with FEMA to supply the requested masks while at the same time enlarging the number of masks it is importing into the US from its offshore factories, including from China.

The company said that it must continue to supply masks to Canada and Latin America, despite the administration’s additional request to halt the sale of US-made respirators to countries other than the USA.

A statement from 3M explained that:

“There are significant humanitarian implications of ceasing respirator supplies to healthcare workers in Canada and Latin America, where we are a critical supplier of respirators,” the statement said. Ceasing delivery of masks to these countries would “likely cause other countries to retaliate and do the same.”

The company warned that retaliation on the part of other countries would most certainly lead to the total number of respirators available for use in the US to decrease.

“That is the opposite of what we and the administration, on behalf of the American people, both seek,” 3M said.