Jon Quast

It's buying back shares, and the share count is coming down.

And it's investing in new opportunities.

And here's the thing, its competitive position does afford

investors the luxury of patience.

If it was being out-competed, if it was burning cash, you wouldn't have the ability to be very patient here.

But because it is so strong, you can be patient while it waits for some of these new ideas to work out.

It's so interesting, Dan, that we're going to experience a change here at CEO.

I'm a little bit worried about a new management team coming in here and overcorrecting, because I really don't think things are as bad as it appears.

I think you have good apparel businesses and bad ones.

Bad ones have piling up inventory, and that leads to markdowns, and it leads to a complete disintegration of its profit margins.

You look at Lululemon, that's not what's happening.

It's a good business.

Inventory is fine.

Margins are fine.

It's just having a slowdown.

I'm worried that a new manager could come in here and overcorrect when, in reality, it's stay the course and do what you need to do to keep appealing to your customers.

I think that's exactly why Alphabet is a hidden gem.

It's not because it's undiscovered, but rather because investors tend to think about it one-dimensionally, when in reality, as you point out, Jason, this business can win every way from Thursday in so many different ways.

As an analyst, I can barely keep up with everything that it is doing and succeeding in.

Optionality is a business trait that we can't measure by any valuation metric.