A reader asked why I would not invest in Zoom. See comments at this link.
First, some "background."
This site compares three: Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams. That linked site, I believe, is a "google" site.
That site does not include: Apple's FaceTime, Cisco's Webex, or Amazon's Chime. I assume there are others.
Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here.
All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them.
The reader asked whether I thought Zoom would be around in 30 years, at least in some iteration.
Yes, and that's the problem, in some iteration. No moat. Too many video conferencing platforms. Six of them mentioned above.
As a trading stock, Zoom should be considered. But I am not a trader; I'm an investor. For a trader:
- volatility is great; and,
- possibility of company being acquired (even better).
The biggest problem I have with Zoom -- unless I'm missing something -- it's a one-trick pony with no moats. The other platforms are all "divisions" in much larger companies: Google, Amazon, Apple, Cisco, and Microsoft. These much bigger companies have much deeper pockets; important when it comes to R&D during flush times, and financial support during lean times.
For all the money Zoom has made its founder(s) and owners, Zoom pays no dividend.
And that's why this is not an investment site. We all have different criteria for investing. One of my criteria is dividends. Not absolute but a huge discriminator.
The video teleconferencing platforms surged during Covid; it's unlikely we'll ever see anything like that again, and if we do, the platforms are already in place. The type of growth we saw in 2020 - 2021 video teleconferencing won't be repeated.
My wife uses Zoom regularly for one of her virtual meetings. The local school district uses Webex, which I love. The family uses FaceTime for family chats. My hunch: many / most Fortune 500 companies use Microsoft Teams which complements their desktop operating system.
And finally, when it comes to tech, so many -- thousands -- of investing options out there. Zoom doesn't rise to a level to compete for my investment money.
By the way, speaking of tech and acquisitions and traders, news today: apparently Broadcom looks to acquire VMWare (Michael Dell).
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