Motley Fool Money - Mid-Year Review & the Business of Extreme Sports

Episode Date: June 10, 2015

On this week's show, our analysts review the first half of 2015 and talk about some of the stock market's biggest surprises. And CNBC's Carl Quintanilla talks Apple, GoPro, and the big business of ext...reme sports. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:42 app, which makes it so much easier to stay on track. And you can get unlimited expert help at no extra cost, even on nights and weekends during tax season. Visit turbotax.com to get matched with an expert today, only available with TurboTax full service experts. Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money. From Fool Global Headquarters, this is Motley Fool Money Radio Show. I'm Chris Hill joining me in studio this week for a million-dollar portfolio, Jason Moser, for Motley-Full Income Investor James Early and from Motley-Fool Deep Value, Ron Gross. Good to see you, Jens. It is our mid-year review. We're going to hit some of the big stories of 2015 so far and look at which company. companies need a strong second half of the year. We'll talk about the business of extreme sports with CNBC's Carl Kintanilla, and as always, we'll give you an inside look at the stocks
Starting point is 00:01:46 on our radar. But, Ron, let's get a jump on the competition by not actually waiting. That's what we do here. But no, we're not going to wait for the actual middle of the calendar year. But so far, your headline for 2015 when it comes to business and investing? For me, it's that the economy, I got to go big macro again. It's that the economy hasn't shown the promise or the growth that I think. was widely expected at the end of 2014. We've had several factors that have been going on to contribute to this underwhelming performance. We've had weak spending in the energy sector, the problems in the West Coast ports that we've talked about quite a bit, and we've had
Starting point is 00:02:22 a very strong U.S. dollar. And I think those three things combined have really constrained growth. In fact, GDP contracted in the first quarter of this year. We have seen unemployment come down nicely. I'm a big fan of that. Wage growth is not where the the Fed would like it to be, so that's another negative factor. And estimates for the full year are coming down. We're probably somewhere in the mid-2 percent range now. I think folks would have like to see something 3 percent or higher. We're going to see how the rest of this year turns out. Ron, going negative right out of the gate, James. Sounds like a guy on CNBC, just the way he's like Mr. Macro over there.
Starting point is 00:02:56 What's your headline, James? As a dividend investor, I'm going to say that the dividend stocks have been kicked surprisingly hard below the waist by this possibility of rising interest rates. Interters haven't even risen yet, but it's sort of like, if I tell Ron, I'm going to hit him in the next 30 seconds. Like, that's almost worse than just doing it, right? I dare you. It's like, and we've had rates that have been so low for so long that just the talk of them for investors is sort of like Gallum coming out of the cave, right? The sunlight just, oh my God.
Starting point is 00:03:25 So they're freaking out. I think it's unwarranted. The rate rise is going to happen, is going to be slow, is going to be much more gradual, and it's going to accompany a strengthening economy, which is actually good for stocks. How many analogies did you shoehorn into that one soliloquy? I'm paid by analogy, if you know. I do my best. Ron brought the negative.
Starting point is 00:03:43 I mean, you're talking about getting hit below the belt, apparently. That's, man, you don't want to. What about you, Jason? I'm going to get a little bit more granular here on the company level. I think that the story that's unfolded for lumber liquidators has been just really unbelievable. I mean, you couldn't have written this thing. The CEO leaving, the chief compliance officer leaving. Now the CFO is gone.
Starting point is 00:04:03 I mean, there are questions. obviously with the formalde high levels in the flooring that they sell, sourcing issues. So this company has taken a tremendous hit to the brand. And now what you have ultimately left here is the founder, Tom Sullivan, kind of trying to pick up the pieces here and salvage the reputation of the company. And on top of all of this, you know, now we have questions on the testing kits that they're sending out to customers so they can test the air quality in their homes. It's just, it's a story that it's not going to go away anytime soon.
Starting point is 00:04:32 And this is going to be really, I think, a good example. for better or for worse to see how these guys actually recover, because the biggest thing right now for them is to get that brand reputation back so that when I do a Google search on hardwood floors, I don't immediately see a litany of bad press for lumber liquid. I'll get a great deal on some flooring from them now. Heck of a deal. Now's the time. Ron, I'll start with you in terms of the biggest surprise so far in 2015.
Starting point is 00:04:57 And I'll just preface this by saying, I'm personally surprised that the big M&A story so far in 2015 is in the technology industry, I really would have thought that by this point we would have seen a lot more mergers and acquisitions in oil and gas. But what about you? Well, I happen to agree with you, and it's not over yet. We'll see how the second half goes. For me, the biggest surprise was the announcement that AOL was being acquired by Verizon. I fully expected AOL to be gobbled up by someone, but Verizon wasn't really on my radar. And to be honest, I didn't really understand that AOL had this highly regarded advertising
Starting point is 00:05:33 platform. They kept out a secret, didn't they? Well, clearly it's worth $4.4 billion to someone, and that's someone as Verizon, and I wasn't expecting it. So, you know, competing with Google and Facebook and those folks is an uphill battle. We're going to have to see if $4.4 billion was worth it, but it did take me by surprise.
Starting point is 00:05:49 James? I'm going to talk about Hong Kong's energy stock. I don't know if you guys are familiar with it, but the owner, the Chinese guy, was briefly the richest man in China for a couple of months, and it was just kind of out of the blue. This is a thin film solar company, which is a declining market share business. It's just sort of an outdated technology. And nobody has any idea why the stock
Starting point is 00:06:08 just shut up and shot down basically. And his entity in the British Virgin Islands was apparently using the Hong Kong shares as collateral to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars and come to find out most of the sales were to the parent company who sold the product back to the listed company. So it's this big weird mess. Wasn't he shorting and buying at the same time? I vaguely recall something about that. He was just trying to get out. It's very convoluted. Very strange. So just to recap, financial shenanigans in China. That's a big surprise. It's not a surprise, in fact. Jason? Yeah, in line with Ron, I think there was a merger and acquisition there that kind of
Starting point is 00:06:40 surprised me. I was not expecting to see Under Armour make this deal in February to buy My Fitness Pau and Endomondo, these apps that are basically working on trying to build the world's largest digital health and fitness community. You know, this was not a small acquisition by any means. About $550 million. Under Armour is obviously not a small company at this point in the game. But nevertheless, it was a bit surprising. And I think it's interesting. It's certainly playing into that sort of wearable technology, the future of wearable technology. Kevin Plank, the founder and CEO, is certainly a big believer in that.
Starting point is 00:07:14 And while it was a big upfront investment, it gave them what is now a fitness community with more than 130 million users. I think a very robust suite of apps that can help you from watching what you eat to tracking your exercise. And ultimately, this is just a big investment in the brand. that I think over the years I think it will pay off, but it was a surprising acquisition to me. Do you use these apps yourself, Jason? I do, as a matter of fact. I don't really use the one to track what I eat because I feel like I eat pretty well. Because that would be so depressing.
Starting point is 00:07:42 I do use the fitness app to track whenever I run or walk or use the treadmill, and they're actually very good. Tracking what you eat is so hard because how do I know exactly how many ounces of this I'm eating or how many grams of broccoli? It's just really hard to know, right? Unless you carry a scale with you. I will say one of the things is it does fire off a lot of great recipes. So instead of tracking what you eat, maybe you don't do that, but they will give you a lot of good recipes for healthy eating. And I like that, too, as the cook in the house.
Starting point is 00:08:05 I have time to cook once a year, so I'll pass on that. That's why my strategy is just to eat the entire bag of Cheetos. You have the measurement on the bag? It's right there on the bag. Amortize that out over time, right? No division necessary. Some companies have done pretty well in the first half of 2015. Others really need a strong second half, whether it's the business or the stock, Ron.
Starting point is 00:08:26 Who needs a strong second half? Boy, does Leaprognate the second half? That is going to knock the cover off the ball. Stocks down 72 percent over the last year. The business is a disaster. Competition is fierce. Its assets are likely going to be written down. But the company's products actually do get very high marks. They're highly reviewed. With a market cap of $142 million, the company does have $94 million in cash. The second half of this year obviously includes the all-important holiday season. I feel that if they don't get it, you know, it's a company that if they don't get it done and we don't see some positive momentum during that, this could be lights out for
Starting point is 00:09:02 Leapfrog. And then they're either a really cheap acquisition for someone or it's just over. That's the Michael Milken company, right? I don't think it is the right. He's in the board. I think he's a big funder of that business, actually. Okay. I kind of wonder why it wouldn't have been acquired already. I mean, at this point in the game, I mean, with the stock price that's been hammered so hard and with much of the market cap represented by the cash on the balance sheet, I hear the argument of Hasbro or Mattel, this would be an attractive acquisition target. I'm not terribly sure.
Starting point is 00:09:27 that it is because I think regardless of who owns it, the competition is still out there in the form of your apples and Amazon's of the world that are already building offerings for families and kids. It's going to be tough. James, who needs a strong second half? Just about anybody in the oil-producing business, at least in the U.S., one income investor stock that certainly does, is called Brightburn. B-B-B-E-P is the ticker there. Those have sort of become my four scarlet letters and income investor. This stock is just way down. They kept saying, oh, we're not going to cut our dividend, not going to cut our dividend.
Starting point is 00:09:57 And they cut the dividend. No, no, no, no, we're fine. They weren't so fine. And finally, after it was so obvious, they did a big cut, which is actually, like, realistic. Like, their last cut has finally put them into sort of normal territory. I think it's an undervalued stock now, ironically. It does have a 9.4% yield after all the cuts, which says a lot right there. But they could definitely benefit from a good second half. Do you consider that a slap in the face when they say, we're not going to cut the dividend, and then they do? There's just a sign of incompetence. I mean, they really shouldn't. I mean, it's my recommendation. but I think they played it wrong. I mean, they're a public company. They need to learn to do better than that. Jason, what about you? Sure, yeah, Curie Green Mountain has had a tough year.
Starting point is 00:10:37 Stock is down about 36% year to date. And it's just a couple of interesting decisions here that I have to question leadership there, Brian Kelly, the CEO. There was this one issue with the new machine and pod compatibility that you couldn't use the old pods with the new machine. And so that caused a lot of consternation among loyalists there. And then the other thing, you know, we're hearing about this new cold machine that they're going to be coming out with serving individual sodas in the home. And in the pricing, the room is out there on the pricing for this machine. It's going to be upward of $300 for the machine, which I find it be utterly absurd.
Starting point is 00:11:10 I don't know how that gains any traction. I mean, Soda Stream can't gain traction selling their machines at $75 here domestically. So I have to believe that if they're selling that machine at $300 a pop, they are going to witness tremendous failure here domestically. And then it's back to square one again. And so just a lot of questions with the decision-making there. And they really need to do something here special the second half of this year. How much would it help Kerr Green Mountain if Ron Gross bought several of these machines and gave them as gifts? Well, I mean, I think that would definitely be a start.
Starting point is 00:11:40 You know, I mean, it can't hurt, right? I use it every day. Hey, I'm a fan. Coming up, the business stories, we can't wait to watch unfold. Stay right here. This is Motley Full Money. As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against.
Starting point is 00:11:57 So, don't buy ourselves stocks based solely on what you hear. Welcome back to Motleyful Money, Chris Hill, here in studio with Jason Moser, James Early, and Ron Gross. All right, guys, when you think about the second half of 2015, what's the story you're dying to watch unfold? Because I think there are a lot of great stories evolving out there, Ron, that I don't have any interest in as an investor. I don't have any stake as a shareholder, but I just, I want to watch the carnage. Well, my guilty little pleasure, I have to admit, is I love that I love you. I don't have I love watching the drama unfold in the Herbalife Bill Ackman fight. Ackman is really betting a significant part of not only his capital, but his reputation on this.
Starting point is 00:12:36 He's calling it a pyramid scheme and a criminal enterprise, and Herbalife is fighting back with its own website, called The Real Billackman.com. You've got the FBI and federal prosecutors involved. It's really down and dirty, and I just like to watch. James, what about you? Mine is not as exciting as Ron's, actually. I'm going to go the boring macro route, but I'm watching interest rates and what happens with the U.S. dollar. If the U.S. is paying more, yeah, stock market, by the way, is sort of near seven-year high.
Starting point is 00:13:05 So if we raise our interest rates, that's going to make our stocks, our economy even more desirable from a foreign investment standpoint. They're going to want to put more money here. So that could propel the U.S. stock rally even more at a time when everyone's saying, oh, my God, stocks are so expensive. Jason? Yeah, so in the beginning of the year, we heard some talk about these live video streaming apps, And in particular, we heard a lot about Mirkat. It was kind of like, okay, what is all of this? Then we heard Twitter had acquired Periscope.
Starting point is 00:13:30 And lo and behold, we have this whole new sort of concept out there of live video streaming via your smartphone with these apps, Periscope and Mirkat. I think the big aha moment was the quote unquote fight of the century, Floyd Mayweather, Mani Pachiao. Who are you rooting for in that? You know, honestly, I was rooting for Periscope because I watched the entire fight play out on Periscope. I didn't care. But I actually went to see if there were people actually streaming it with Periscope and sort of sticking it to the cable companies. And there, in fact, were. And some of the cable companies dropped the ball there as well.
Starting point is 00:14:02 But I think it just really spoke to the implications there of this technology. And it's been a lot of fun to watch. We've actually been able to periscope some market fooleries. As you know, in some of the comments that we get there are just brilliant. I think one compared Steve to the Giant in Game of Thrones, which I think that's apropos. Absolutely. But I think that's going to be a really interesting technology to watch it progress and develop. And, you know, Twitter owns Periscope. Mirkat is still on its own. I don't know that Mirat
Starting point is 00:14:28 will be on its own much longer. I wouldn't be surprised to see Facebook or something like that come take it. I remember after that fight talking with our colleague, Mark Brooks, who's one of the leaders in our tech and business intelligence groups. And I asked him what he thought about all this, where it was going. And he thought for a moment. And he just said simply, I think this is going to be very ugly. And that's why I love it. Because you mentioned the cable companies. This is going to be a really ugly battle, and I just can't wait for it. Let's get to the stocks that are on our radar, and we'll bring in our man, Steve Broido,
Starting point is 00:15:01 from the other side of the glass, to hate you with a question. And we've got time, so if you want to hit him back with a question, you go right ahead. Ron Gross, you're up first. What's on your radar? Steve, Hertz Global Holdings, H.T.Z. It's a recommendation from our friends over at our special ops service, obviously the well-known car rental company. Opportunity exists because the market is waiting for results from an audit that's reviewing three years worth of accounting and financial reports. So we're going to see some, probably
Starting point is 00:15:27 see some revisions of the financial statements there. The investment thesis also relies on the spin-off transaction of the equipment rental business, buy back some stock with the cash flow that gets freed up. You've got big new shareholder in there, the state teachers retirement system of Ohio, 10% owner of the stock. They joined Carl Icon and Jane to Partners. So my friends over at Special Ops thinks we have at least a 30% upside here. And I think it looks interesting. Hertz Global Holdings, Steve. What do you think? What do you think about Hertz Gold, where you get to be that your name's on the billboard, you walk into your car? It's unbelievable. I feel amazing. I love it. Do you have a question for Steve? Yeah. Do you rent cars? Do you Uber? Do you zip?
Starting point is 00:16:08 I don't zip. I will rent cars if I'm staying in it somewhere for a while, or I will Uber as well. Uber's great. Yeah. James Early, what's on your radar? I am going boring with Verizon. This is the stock. It's 4.6% yield, by the way, 33% upside. I haven't I'm reluctant to talk about it because it just seems so unoriginal. You know, like, where's my Honda Accord? But it's a perfectly good stock. I mean, it's just really, really solid. It's actually an income investor buy first.
Starting point is 00:16:32 The price has been pushed down. Obviously, they've been doing them acquisitions lately, but they've also been a price war in the mobile. But these guys have a lot of cash. They're the ones whose side you want to be on in the price war. So I like this company. It's bland, but I like it. And the ticker simple? VZ.
Starting point is 00:16:47 VZ. What do you think, Steve? Is there any way Verizon could get really good at customer, service or is it just too big? They don't need to and that's the beauty. They can treat you like crap and you're still going to be their customer, right? I mean, I hate them too, but that's why I don't hate them. But I do find that
Starting point is 00:17:01 they've got a monopoly and there's no way around it. You're out of luck. Question for Steve? What was the last movie? Do you stream movies illegally or not? Wow. Steve, I'm just wondering on public radio. Definitely legally. Okay, okay. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:17:18 We'll watch all sorts of different shows and stuff so I can't, nothing's coming to mind right now. I'm blanking. That memorable. Jason Moser, what's on your radar? Yeah, what I've talked about here before? A company is called Zoom, ticker X-O-O-O-M. Zoom is in U.S. outbound remittances, and they focus on getting money transferred from the U.S. into 32 countries in which they have a presence, and they will continue to grow that country base as time goes on. This is very capital-like business model.
Starting point is 00:17:41 I essentially refer to it as the Western Union for the 21st century. Total addressable market today of $100 billion, and that is growing as time goes on. They just entered China and Pakistan. And we'll see those results start going to the top line in 2016. Very customer-centric business, very customer-centric leadership team there. It's when we just got into Stock Advisor, I'm happy to say. And so I immediately brought it over to the watch list in MDP. Very excited about the prospects for this business.
Starting point is 00:18:08 The sexy world of outbound remittances, Steve. What do you think? So what happens when all that money leaves the U.S.? Is that a bad thing for our economy? Oh, no. Actually, that money is typically brought over. That money is from migrant workers who send that money back to their families to live. And so if you think about it from that perspective, Steve, it really contributes to the global economy.
Starting point is 00:18:28 And so we're actually helping the world become a better place. 17% of the Philippines' GDP is remittances. Question for Steve? Okay, Steve, if you could be an activist investor, what stock, what company would you get out there and really, you know, try to go to town on? You got Ackman going on our own urban life. What would Broydo go to? I think the Uber thing. Someone mentioned Uber. I think Uber is a really interesting.
Starting point is 00:18:50 company right now. And I think they are not playing along. They just seem to do what they want to do. I love Uber. I think it's a great model. But they banned it in the state of Virginia, and Virginia just kept on operating. Hey, Jason, Zoom is the Western Union of the 21st century. What happens to Western Union in that 24th century? I think Western Union is a bit of a pickle here. They're faced with that sort of innovator's dilemma where they're back on their heels with their old sort of physical infrastructure business trying to become more nimble like a tech company like Zoom, but they weren't founded as that kind of a company. And so really, I think Western Union is,
Starting point is 00:19:20 is facing some headwinds there. They still have a good dividend over there at Western Union? I think they do, yeah. For now. Wouldn't we all pay money to watch a reality show where Steve is an activist investor? I love it, love it.
Starting point is 00:19:30 I think we got an idea there. Drop us an email, radio at fool.com. Tell us what you want to watch. Thanks for being here, guys. Thanks. Up next, we will talk about the rise of extreme sports with CNBC's Carl Kintania. Stay right here.
Starting point is 00:19:42 You're listening to Motley Fool Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. I'm Chris Hill. When we talk about innovation, it's natural to focus on technology. or science, but what about sports? Over the past few years, entirely new sports have been invented, backed by the time and money of some passionate individuals and companies.
Starting point is 00:20:10 It's a topic explored in the brand-new CNBC primetime documentary, The New High Extreme Sports. It premieres Thursday, June 18th at 10 p.m., and it's reported and hosted by Carl Cantania. He joins me now from New York City. How are you? Chris, good to talk to you again. Good to talk to you.
Starting point is 00:20:28 I'm glad you're holding up well. because having seen an advanced cut of this documentary, which delves into the growth of things like obstacle races, kiteboarding, base jumping, and more. This was a story that you were not just reporting. You were really out there doing some of this stuff. And, you know, it's not, in terms of money, this isn't the NFL. But these things are starting to become big business, aren't they?
Starting point is 00:20:54 Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, part of the idea for this was I myself just, had some co-workers and friends start running things like tough mutters and Spartan races
Starting point is 00:21:06 and it just seemed like it was feeding into an overall trend that that typical weekend warrior stuff was being
Starting point is 00:21:15 graduated to a new level and the more we thought about it and the more we looked at it it did it does seem like the dovetailing of social media platforms where you want to show off
Starting point is 00:21:27 what you've done camera technology like go pro has demonstrated, the influence of the X games, a generation that's grown up on snowboards instead of skis, I mean, it's all converged into this new lifestyle of really taking athleticism to some extreme levels, and it just seemed like a made-for-TV kind of topic. Well, let's go to the social media aspect for a second, because organizations like Spartan race and tough mutter, and for those unfamiliar, these are beyond just races, these are races.
Starting point is 00:22:00 that have obstacles, some of them pretty challenging. These organizations didn't start until 2010. How much of the rise of Facebook and Twitter and selfies, et cetera, gets credit for the increasing popularity of these things? I think, you know, I think, I don't know, 30%, I think is in large part because, as someone says in the documentary, there is no better selfie than watching, than having, and showing yourself leaping over fire at the finish line of a Spartan race.
Starting point is 00:22:35 And that was jaw-dropping for us as well. It's only been five years since these races have really been invented at scale. But already, I mean, more people this year will run an alternative race than ran marathons or triathlons combined. And that's incredible. I just, the sheer volume of people who are now considering this rather than your typical 26-mile, Boston Marathon, New York City Marathon.
Starting point is 00:23:03 I think it's just feeding into a new kind of zeitgeist. Well, I was going to say that stat is astonishing to me because it's not like marathons are on the decline. There are more people running marathons, at least in the United States, than ever before. So the fact that in such a short amount of time, these alternative races have overtaken them, it's really surprising.
Starting point is 00:23:25 Yeah, it is. And I think, it is, I mean, look, to run a marathon requires a huge amount of training, and you have to get those long runs in on the weekend and all of that. But you and I, you know, Chris and Carl could probably go out there on Saturday and run three miles with 15 obstacles, and it might take us two hours, three hours. We might, you know, be literally crawling through the mud at the end,
Starting point is 00:23:48 but we could get it done. And once it's done, I mean, it's a high-value media property to show Chris Hill, you know, climbing a rope and ringing a bell. I mean, I would put that at the top of the fool website. Absolutely. That would really get the clicks going. Let me tell you what Chris and Carl are not going to be doing, and that is base jumping.
Starting point is 00:24:10 And you mentioned GoPro. That's another part of this documentary. People who are essentially in flying squirrel outfits, for lack of a better term, jumping off 9,000-foot cliffs, they've got a parachute attached to them, but you were up there when they're jumping. I was terrified just watching it. What was it like for you standing on top of a 9,000-foot cliff
Starting point is 00:24:35 and watching these GoPro bomb squad guys just leap off into thin air? Yeah, no, it was surreal. It was literally, it's hard to describe they're standing there one minute, and then they're just gone. They just disappear into thin air, literally. and I just think it is almost the pinnacle of what we're talking about. There's a marathon obstacle course thing. All right, that's a natural progression you could argue.
Starting point is 00:25:04 But this, I mean, this is for guys and mostly guys, for whom skydiving is not enough, you know, for whom skydive number 500 is boring. You know, what else is there? And this is their answer. And obviously it comes with enormous risk. And as we take a look at in the dock, people die. People die to the tune of 200 people since 1981.
Starting point is 00:25:30 I mean, the characters that we profile have had dozens of friends pass away. And their entire existence with this sport is now trying to ratchet that risk just enough to where it's pushing the limits but not going to get them killed. So how concerning is something like that for corporate sponsors? like GoPro, like Reebok, another sponsor that's featured in the documentary. To what extent, you know, do injuries and death factor in their decision making? I think it's huge. I mean, I think, when we pose this question to GoPro, if it's all about getting the clicks, as you say, getting the views on YouTube, that means you have to do something new and more dangerous and more extreme. Doesn't that encourage you and I to maybe push our limits beyond where they should be?
Starting point is 00:26:25 Why did Cliff Barr stop sponsoring all these rock climbers? Because they felt that the risks they were taking, it just wasn't good corporate sportsmanship and not good statesmenhood. I think it must be an incredibly interesting discussion for marketing departments because these guys, obviously, they are attention-getters, but push that limit too far and you're getting attention. for the wrong reason. GoPro has been a public company for just under a year, the stock up somewhere in the neighborhood of 85% since the IPO. And when you listen to management talking about what they're trying to become,
Starting point is 00:27:03 they're trying to become more of a media content type of company than just the hardware. Obviously, the cameras are what sort of get people's attentions. But knowing what you know now, having, sat down with executives meeting these guys on the bomb squad. Where do you think that company is in three years? You know, I think it's really, I think it's easy to build a bare case on GoPro. How many times have you and I sat and talked about the commoditization of another piece of hardware? In this case, it's a camera.
Starting point is 00:27:39 You know, there was a reason why they called it camera on a stick on IPO day, because a lot of the shorts believe that that's exactly what will happen to these guys. once the Chinese figure out how to make a durable camera, that's easy to mount on something fun. So they're right. They're trying to transition into this content brand, YouTube be kind of thing where you and I will tune in to watch guys play golf and kids will watch pets,
Starting point is 00:28:05 but I think it's a hard sell. Now, they've had a lot of success, obviously. This past quarter looked pretty good, actually. Stocks off the lows. So I think, you know, they're still in the mix, but they've got to be extremely careful. Once the smartphone becomes waterproof, then what? I think that's going to be a good question in three years. You're listening to Motley Full Money talking with Carl Kintini,
Starting point is 00:28:31 the new CNBC Prime Time documentary, the new high extreme sports premieres on Thursday, June 18th. You mentioned YouTube, and obviously one level up from that is television sports program. And one thing we've seen that's risen steadily over the past decade is the cost of sports programming. You mentioned the X games. Obviously, ESPN has those. But at some point, are we going to start seeing more of these type of extreme sports? Because let's face it, just like they're getting bigger, but they're not quite at the level of the NFL, the same can be said of the broadcast rights for these sports. I totally agree. I mean, this is, if you're a programmer, you know, the sport, whatever it is, it doesn't really matter. It just has to be arresting television, right? And you're bad, the bang for your buck, sponsoring or covering something like a Spartan race like NBC Sports does,
Starting point is 00:29:34 is a sliver of the rights for an NFL game. We saw the other day, Yahoo, going to broadcast this NFL game out of London. I think $20 million was the reported cost for a game between the, is it the bills and the Jaguars? So I do think that a lot of the programmers are looking for bargains, and here are some emerging sports, but with demonstrated staying power, with a very valuable demographic. So I think we can all sort of read the trajectory where this is headed. Coming up more with Carl Kintanilla. Stay right here. This is Motley Full Money. Welcome back to Motley Fool Money, Chris Hill talking with Carl Kintanilla from CNBC.
Starting point is 00:30:24 One of the other parts of the documentary is about kiteboarding, which is basically holding onto a big kite while you're riding a boogie board in the water. That looked pretty tough, not for sort of the weekend warriors like we talked about before, but the people who are signing up for this are young business people who are running startups in Silicon Valley. and it's this sort of combination of a sports camp but also VC networking. I've got to say by the end, I was pretty impressed by what they were putting themselves through. Yeah, I gave it a try. It's extremely scary because the kites are huge.
Starting point is 00:31:03 The wind is strong and you're buckled in. And if that kite powers up the wrong way, you will get yanked into the air out of control. And so learning is a very difficult process. But it was interesting. This is actually a big thing in the Valley right now. Young VCs, young entrepreneurs, trying to sort of build a community around the sport because, in their words, it requires sort of incredible focus, an ability to confront your fears, just as they say it would if you were building a business or starting a business.
Starting point is 00:31:41 So actually a fair amount of business and funding centers around who knows who in this community, which we found fascinating. And the fact that they take these big excursions to Maui and pitch ideas in between surfing sessions, we just thought was hilarious and, again, made for television. But it also gets at sort of the quality of a potential business leader that really has nothing to do with whatever business they're pitching. Yes, you've got a business idea great. But how do you handle adversity? How do you handle dealing with something new?
Starting point is 00:32:14 And in the case of kiteboarding, literally falling on your face in front of your peers. Yeah. No, it's – I mean, and we hung out with people who've been doing this literally four years, a decade plus. And we just watched them bite it again and again, which you can imagine, you know, building a business. Someone disrupts your space and eats your lunch. You have to move on. And if you're funding that kind of company, you're looking for that type A, take no prisoners, sort of business leader, CEO entrepreneur.
Starting point is 00:32:52 And for them, it's a filter, you know, it's a filter to find out who's got the medal and who doesn't. I couldn't help but think that there are companies not featured in this documentary who have to be smiling at the prospect of everything that you unveil in this documentary. And we've mentioned YouTube. If you're Google, you have to love the fact that people are uploading these videos. If you're in the sports apparel business, if you're Nike or Under Armour or someone like that, well, there's no way someone's gear is going to last after going through one of these 10-mile tough mutters. I mean, there are hidden winners in the business world that aren't being featured here.
Starting point is 00:33:32 It's a great point. I hadn't thought a lot about it, but it brings to mind I was looking at a chart the other day of market share denim versus athletic wear for young women, like over the past 15 years. And it's remarkable. I mean, it's just, I think it's a real statement on the younger generations that are growing up. They don't wear jeans. You're crazy. Nobody wears jeans. Your dad wears jeans. You wear Lulu Lemon. You wear Nike. You wear Under Armour, even when you're not going to the gym. And again, this mindset that being active and being extreme in a sense, is just sort of your modus apparandi.
Starting point is 00:34:11 That applies to the kinds of food you eat and the kind of clothes you wear, even the kind of cars you drive. Yeah, there's a whole subterranean texture to this particular story, which unfortunately we didn't get to, but talk about tradable stock plays. They're all over the place in this space. You're listening to Motley Full Money talking with Carl Kintinia from CNBC, NBC Real Sports on HBO. Before I let you go, let me ask you a couple of things not related,
Starting point is 00:34:39 to the documentary earlier this week. Apple had its worldwide developer conference, a few new things unveiled, including a music streaming service to compete with the likes of Spotify, Pandora, et cetera. You've got some people saying, well, those companies are in trouble, and others saying, you know what, this is much ado about nothing. What do you think of this new offering from Apple? One of my favorite tweets, one of my favorite tweets of today was, I think it was from Slate, it said, Apple's new products are uninteresting, you know, boring and stale, they'll be a huge hit, which is true.
Starting point is 00:35:18 Apple does not need to be the best because they've got an – all they need to do is convince you to stay in their ecosystem. And if they get 10% of the installed iPhone base to sign up, they've won. So I think there is a sense they're playing defense rather than offense. A lot of their innovations this week were playing. hatch up to rival devices and software. But you know what? It doesn't really matter. They're a phone company.
Starting point is 00:35:46 All that matters is how many phones and tablets they sell. All the rest of this is sort of window dressing. And I think that's why the stock has not moved materially based on, based on new music or even the watch, for that matter. Watch is going to be. It's 2% of their business. We have to remember they make phones. End of story.
Starting point is 00:36:04 When we talked at the end of last year, you said automakers, were one group you were going to be watching in 2015, and we're almost at the halfway point of the year, and things are looking pretty good, particularly in the wake of the auto sales in May. Trucks are back like never before. Is this sustainable for the rest of the year, or do you think there was some pen-up demand
Starting point is 00:36:29 from just a rough winter? You know what? The more people we talk to, it drives the bear's crazy. but we're beginning to see some very like eye-popping projections on year-end auto sales well above what we're on pace for now. The theory is you're getting job growth. Now we're finally getting a little bit of wage growth.
Starting point is 00:36:52 A car, people are eating out and they're saving for a car. And maybe a home improvement. They might not be buying as many clothes, but a car is a very discretionary purchase. And a lot of the cars on the road are old. and it's just hard to ignore when you're creeping up on an 18 million unit run rate that this is not one of the pillars on which our economy is standing right now. It's amazing. This weekend at a motley full event we're having in Seattle, we're interviewing Jim Senegal, the founder of Costco. You did a fantastic documentary for CNBC on Costco.
Starting point is 00:37:30 What's a question we should ask him? I haven't they, why couldn't they nail online? It was one of the admissions they made to us at the time that they had not. They've done so many things so well. Totally invigorated an entire category of retail, eaten Sam's Club's lunch. But has anybody ever ordered from Costco online? I'm a frequent shopper and if we get it, it's through Google Express. I just thought that was a huge missed opportunity that he might be able to shed some light on.
Starting point is 00:38:04 You know, shorter term, they're being hammered by the strong dollar and gas prices have had a volatile effect on their comps. But I just think, you know, they could have done probably a much better job than they've done already online. Last question, I'll let you go. Duncan Brands recently announced it is testing home delivery, which puts it in the company of Starbucks, Chipotle, and McDonald's, who are also testing home delivery. Is this going to work? Are they, are we going to have a fleet, everyone's going to have a fleet of their own vehicles? Are they going to partner with Uber? I mean, I'm not opposed to this food getting to my house.
Starting point is 00:38:41 I'm just wondering how it's all going to work. Either delivery trucks or drones, one of the two. Someone said, I forget who, that if they were to start testing commercial delivery, right, to the Motley Fool offices, to the CNBC offices, then they might have something going. But, yeah, it is amazing the home delivery craze. A lot of people are just praying This is not Cosmo.com, you know, Act 2. What's next?
Starting point is 00:39:12 I mean, they're going to start testing intravenous delivery. It's going to be like in Wally where those fat people never had to get off their chairs. That's what America is becoming. The brand-new CNBC Primetime Documentary, The New High Extreme Sports premieres Thursday, June 18th at 10 p.m., so check it out. Carl Continia.
Starting point is 00:39:31 Always good to talk to you, my friend. Thanks, Chris. That's going to do it for this week's edition of Motley Full Money. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week.

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