My past blog post was my most popular by far. Now that’s not saying much since mine is not one that is read by the masses. In fact, one could surmise that a little bit of my meanderings go a long way. So thanks to all the visitors and commenters.
Since then the awareness has become more mainstream and positions being taken on all sides of this craze. As most of my readers are aware, I prefer a slightly eclectic view of events. As a consensus forms I tend to migrate to the next concept. Before doing that I wanted to bring some closure to my views on this topic.
Since my piece, in our little slice of the universe both Well Rounded Investor and Investment Hunting presented their take. Over on Seeking Alpha, Maks Financial Services has commenced a multi-part series (part 1 and part 2). For good measure, there’s Smart Karma’s multi-parter as well (part 1 and part 2). Maks’ probably did the best presentation with his Fitness Wearables category being one that I had not considered. To pull these all together, I believe there are seven distinct investment categories available. Not all are suitable or attractively valued investments.
CATEGORIES 1-3
| PRIMARY | DIRECT | ENABLERS |
| Nintendo (NTDOY) | Gamestop (GME) | Key Bank (KEY) (ZAGG) |
| Alphabet (GOOG(L)) | Zagg (ZAGG) | JP Morgan (JPM) (ZAGG) |
| Apple (AAPL) | AT&T (T) | Wells Fargo (WFC) (ZAGG, CMCSA, DIS, SIX) |
| Verizon (VZ) | Zions Bank (ZION) (ZAGG) | |
| T-Mobile (TMUS) | Citi (C) (CMCSA, DIS) | |
| Sprint (S) | TD Bank (TD) (BCE) | |
| BCE BCE) | Bank of Montreal (BMO) (BCE) | |
| Telus (TU) | CIBC (CM) (BCE) | |
| Rogers Comm. (RCI) | Royal Bank (RY) (BCE) | |
| Shaw (SJR) | Bank of America (BAC) (GME) | |
| US Bank (USB) (SIX) | ||
| NOTE: The Enabler list is incomplete as I didn’t complete reading all the 10-Ks. The subsequent ticker(s) are the companies enabled. | ||
CATEGORIES 4-6
| SPONSOR | INDIRECT | POTENTIAL |
| McDonald’s (MCD) | Starbucks (SBUX) | Best Buy (BBY) |
| (I) Vodaphone (VOD) | Six Flags (SIX) | FitBit (FIT) |
| (I) Jamba Juice (JMBA) | Samsung (SSNLF) | Nike (NKE) |
| (I) Duane Read (WBA) | GGP, et.al.(Retail REITs) | Under Armor (UA) |
| (I) Zipcar (CAR) | REITs (Medical) | Garmin (GRMN) |
| (I) AXA (AXAHY) | Walt Disney (DIS) | Wal-Mart (WMT) |
| (I) SoftBank (SFTBF) | Comcast (CMCSA) | Target (TGT) |
| (I) MUFG (MTU) | Dicks Sporting Goods (DKS) | |
| (I) Lawson (LAWS) | Big 5 Sporting Goods (BGFV) | |
| NOTE: The Indirect list is incomplete as I didn’t flesh out all the REITs. (I) denotes Ingress | ||
7. FUTURISTS
Many in this space are private in various stages of funding. Industries able to benefit from Augmented Reality (AR) include Healthcare, Navigation and Broadcasting. A few to watch in this space are:
| MicroSoft (MSFT), HoloLens |
| PTC, Inc. (PTC) (bought Vuforia from QCOM) |
| Catchroom (pvt), spinoff from Telefónica (VIV) |
| Vuzix (VUZI) |
I’m sure this list is incomplete and ever changing. I hope it is a viable starting point in your research.
Seeking Returns 
Hey Charlie,
Nice thoughts on the subject, it’s very interesting. And this is a brief glimpse of what future entertainment may be like, it will be fascinating to see if the current huge players dominate, or a Facebook of VR emerges.
The only thing that concerns me economically about all this is the whereas before kids would go spend their time laser tag, bowling, paintballing, movies etc – giving money to local businesses and providing local wages, all the money is going to a few international companies. Hopefully the pokestops are cafes or something that get some customers 🙂
Tristan
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks Tristan. I think long term, the huge players will try to dominate but it’s early enough for startups to play a part. But most of these are VC backed leaving minimal opportunities for us. AR (or VR) for FB, AAPL, GOOG or MSFT would – near term – be negligible to earnings.
What I see here are local companies sponsoring lures to attract players. Gamestop has an event (sale) next week with discounted Pokéballs (GOOG gift card) to draw traffic. Shopping Malls are seeing higher traffic. Hopefully local businesses are nimble enough to capitalize on the fad before it’s gone.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’d think the Microsoft (Xbox) and Sony (Playstation) will want to get their gaming right, at the moment they dominate but VR games could easily change everything away from that.
I’m glad local businesses are trying to get in on the action, lost opportunity otherwise.
Tristan
LikeLike