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The week's question
In December 2024, in the thread "Re: BRK: Why Not XOM?", BreckHutHigh asked the members: "What about the long road trips with kids?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Stocks A to Z / Stocks G / Alphabet (GOOG)
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Author: valu3hunter   😊 😞
Number: of 442 
Subject: Re: Bear Case
Date: 04/02/25 10:30 AM
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No. of Recommendations: 12

The fundamental bear case is that the Company's competitive moat has diminished significantly. This will lead to ongoing declines in revenues/profits -- as the days of 20%+ growth in revenues are behind us. Depending on how you look at the company, somewhere between 50% and 80% of revenues/profits are linked to search/ads -- and if one goes, they'll both go.

While Google has an "ecosystem" (and imo, chrome/gmail/youtube are very sticky), that ecosystem can rapidly diminish once alternatives are presented. I remember how quickly we all dropped Yahoo! search when Google was deemed better (or Yahoo! email when gmail offered more storage). The LLMs have already digested the internet so the war will be over "interpretation of old" or "access to new" -- competitors have significantly reduced costs (Deepseek) and real time new info (X, Meta). Google's deal with reddit fails (for example).

Further, there is an argument that Google has become highly politicized internally and this will be a complex subject that plays out negatively for the company.

The combination of these factors could support a longer term flatline in revenue, decrease in profit (as costs increase and management throws capex in an effort to defend the moat against competition) and we'd see a flat to negative stock return.

I'm still trying to decide if I'm a buyer here fyi -- I'm getting flash backs to BABA.
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This community has written 442 posts about Alphabet. The article-length ones it recommended most:
Judge's Ruling · 24 recs · 2025
Alphabet's Century Long Bet · 23 recs · 2026
Will the Sexy Six Strut or Stumble? · 19 recs · 2025
2Q Summary 2026 · 18 recs · 2026
Up about 50% this year · 17 recs · 2023
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