Jason Hall

If a company has a history of doing M&A well, then it should be already part of the thesis to invest in that company.

If not, I want to see a long history of being really disciplined in operations and managing the balance sheet.

I want it to be a move about playing offense.

I need to be confident the corporate culture of the acquirer is strong enough to not get eroded because of a merger.

I see all of those things with Netflix in this case.

Hot take, Netflix is going to get a better deal on these assets in five years when it's able to buy it off the scrap heap because Warner Brothers Discovery shareholders are going to take the quick cash and Paramount's going to screw it up.

I think the vibe check and the data line up here for me.

We have a bifurcated economy where the haves have a lot and are supporting the big headline numbers.

But we also have a large and maybe growing portion of consumers who are having to spend less to make ends meet.

Now, there's how I feel as a person, but then there's the investor in me who thinks that the companies that know their customer and know what they are, are the ones that can continue to win.

You look at companies like Amazon, ticker AMZN, Walmart, ticker WMT, they lead on selection and price.

The caveat, of course, that Amazon is playing a different game in groceries than Walmart.

Then you look at companies like TJX Companies, and that's the ticker, continues to win because they're the smartest buyers of goods that manufacturers and distributors have got to get off of warehouse shelves, that they know they can quickly sell for cheap and get good margins.

Then you have the Targets and Kohl's of the world, Target ticker TGT and Kohl's KSS.

It seems like they're stuck in the middle, likely losing customers on both of those demographic ends.

while struggling with higher costs, just like everybody else is along the way.

You find the companies that have the go-to-market strategies that continue to work, and the excellent operations.

Those are the ones that are going to win as investors.

Then look at Rule Breakers like Shopify, MercadoLibre.

Those are excellent examples of incredible retailers.