Apple is one of the most influential and recognisable brands in the world, responsible for the rise of the smartphone with the iPhone. Valued at over $2 trillion in 2021, it is also the most valuable...

The Americas region accounted for the largest share of Apple’s revenue in terms of geographical distribution. As of the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, the Americas held around ** percent of the revenue, whereas Europe came in second with roughly over ** percent. Apple’s revenue tends to be the highest in the first quarters of every financial year (October to December), when the holiday seasons take place. iPhone's prominence First introduced in 2007, the iPhone has been described as “revolutionary” for the mobile phones industry with its unique designs, features, and services. Despite a slight fluctuations in the share of Apple’s revenue, iPhone still generates the largest part of the company’s revenue. Within the smartphone industry, iPhones composed **** percent of the total smartphone sales globally in the second quarter of 2024. Smartphones global picture Looking at the global smartphone market over the years, Apple and Samsung have been the main competitors until recent years, when the Chinese brands Huawei and Xiaomi started to grow rapidly. According to the most recent data, Samsung was positioned first, closely followed Apple.

The apple sauce market size was over USD 1.99 billion in 2024 and is anticipated to cross USD 4.04 billion by 2037, growing at more than 5.6% CAGR during the forecast period i.e., between 2025-2037. North America industry is set to account for largest revenue share of 31% by 2037, North America industry is poised to account for largest revenue share of 31% by 2037

The UK video downloading and streaming services industry has undergone substantial transformation recently, driven by technological advancements and an influx of diverse content. By December 2023, the industry's top platforms boasted a staggering 100,000 hours of content, according to IBISWorld, luring subscribers with captivating titles like House of Dragon and The Rings of Power. Market concentration in the industry is exceptionally high. Netflix Inc, Amazon Digital UK Ltd, The Walt Disney Company Ltd and Sky UK Ltd dominate the scene. Collectively, they account for over 90% of revenue with their platforms Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and NOW TV. Revenue is expected to mount at a compound annual rate of 8.6% to £2.6 billion over the five years through 2024-25. Hikes in household disposable income, mobile connections and online expenditure have expanded viewers' appetite for videos accessed on-demand. Revenue surged in 2020-21 with the pandemic confining people to their homes because of lockdowns. More leisure time saw customers looking for more content on various platforms, boosting subscriptions. Revenue is forecast to climb by 5.5% in 2024-25, with the profit margin widening to 6.7%. Streaming will continue to transform, with many companies entering the crowded market. The success of ITVX, Paramount+ and Max will shape future revenue. It will ramp up competition to capture viewers' attention. It will boost UK subscriptions but impact individual platforms' ability to retain customers, facilitating substantial revenue growth. Rising technology adoption, changing viewing habits and expanding content libraries will drive industry growth. New platforms, premium content exclusivity and technological breakthroughs, like adaptive bitrate streaming, will drive growth. Over the five years through 2029-30, video downloading and streaming platforms' revenue is forecast to climb at a compound annual rate of 6.2% to £3.5 billion. The recent crackdown on password sharing by Netflix and its move to introduce ad-supported tiers reflect broader trends of platforms adapting to optimise revenue streams and enhance user experience. By 2026, Max's anticipated launch in the UK will likely shake up the industry further, as existing services, mainly Sky's NOW TV, face new competitive pressures.

Description Executive Summary Bausch Health Companies Inc. (BHC) is an attractive and timely event-driven short idea. On 02/06/25 BHC announced that the sale process for its subsidiary Bausch + Lomb Corporation (BLCO) “will not result in a transaction at this time.” With the sale process now dead, BHC has failed in its remaining attempt to transfer corporate value away from creditors to shareholders. BHC is highly and unsustainably leveraged. Up to this point the value of BHC stock has essentially been an option that BHC management might find a way to separate off BLCO in a manner which is beneficial to the equity. BHC originally tried to accomplish this through a spinoff of BLCO (May 2022). The full separation was never completed. Management then tried to sell the BLCO subsidiary outright. That process has now failed as well. With no more realistic avenues for management to pursue to try to strip value away from creditors for the benefit of shareholders, the most likely path forward for BHC is a financial restructuring through bankruptcy which should leave little value to the existing equity. As discussed below, the Company might be able to meet its November and December 2025 debt maturities through a combination of FCF generation, revolver draw and refinancing, but this will only delay the inevitable restructuring which should take place no later than early 2027. Is Apple undervalued? Is Apple a buy? Is Apple a good investment Is Nvidia undervalued? Is Nvidia a buy? Is Nvidia a good investment The main event to play for is the restructuring of BHC which should take place no later than early 2027. Other catalysts which are nearer-term include: BHC potentially defaulting on its November and December 2025 debt maturities Insertion of “going concern” language in its SEC filings Currently, the short interest in BHC is 3% of the float at the short interest ratio for the stock is 5.4x. Background BHC was written up on VIC by dsteiner84 in February 2022. Please reference that write-up for additional detail on BHC and BLCO. BHC is the former Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX). Benefitting from a favorable tax structure, Valeant pursued a “growth through acquisition” strategy, primarily funded through debt. As the Company grew, its balance sheet steadily expanded and its stock price soared. However, Valeant collapsed in 2015-2016 due to an accounting scandal and regulatory inquiries into its pharmaceutical pricing. The history of Valeant is quite a saga and typing “what happened to Valeant Pharmaceuticals” into Google search will yield many articles which will tell the story. After its collapse Valeant rebranded itself as Bausch Health Companies, Inc. and has been struggling to manage under its high debt load. Company Description BHC is a global, diversified specialty pharmaceutical and medical device company that develops, manufactures and markets, primarily in the therapeutic areas of gastroenterology (GI), hepatology, neurology and dermatology, a broad range of branded, generic and branded generic pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter (OTC) products and aesthetic medical devices. The Company has five reportable segments: Salix (26% of 2023 Revenues) – consists of sales in the US of GI products. Sales of Xifaxan represented ~80% of Salix revenues. Xifaxan is used for the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome in adults. International (12% of 2023 Revenues) – consists of sales outside the US of branded pharmaceutical products, branded generic pharmaceutical products and OTC products Solta Medical (4% of 2023 Revenues) – consists of global sales of Solta Medical aesthetic medical devices Diversified (11% of 2023 Revenues) – consists of sales in the US of (i) pharmaceutical products in the areas of neurology and certain other therapeutic classes, (ii) dermatology products, (iii) generic pharmaceutical products, and (iv) dentistry products. Bausch + Lomb (BLCO) (47% of 2023 Revenues) – consists of global sales of Bausch + Lomb Vision Care, Surgical and Pharmaceutical products. Although BHC reports in five segments, it is easiest to think about BHC as being composed of two parts: Bausch Health (excl. B+L) – composed of Salix, International, Solta and Diversified Bausch + Lomb (BLCO) This is also how BHC presents its financials in its earnings releases. Importantly, Bausch Health (excl. B+L) is the parent company which owns 88% of BLCO. The Problem The problem Bausch Health (excl. B+L) faces is twofold: First, Bausch Health (excl. B+L) EBITDA will decline significantly in 2028 when it loses exclusivity on Xifaxan and faces competition from generics. Presented below are historical and estimated financials for Bausch Health (excl. B+L). Several things to note: Is Google undervalued? Is Google a buy? Is Google a good investment Is Walmart undervalued? Is Walmart a buy? Is Walmart a good investment Financials for 2024 are estimated and fall within management’s guidance of $4.775-4.850bn in Revenues and $2.425-2.475bn in EBITDA (see 3Q24 earnings release). The Company is scheduled to report 4Q24 earnings on 02/19/25 Xifaxan sales are based on its percentage of Salix revenues provided by BHC in its earnings presentations (as an example, see slide 11 of BHC’s 3Q24 earnings presentation). Bausch Health (excl. B+L) will lose exclusivity on Xifaxan no later than 01/01/28 and will face competition from generic versions of the drug. Branded drug revenues typically decline by 80% once generic competition is introduced and this assumption is used here. While BHC doesn’t disclose its EBITDA margin on Xifaxan, conversations with multiple sell-side analysts estimate it is ~70%. Inputting this margin estimate, one can back out that the remainder of Bausch Health (excl. B+L)’s portfolio has an EBITDA margin of ~37%. One can then apply these margins to 2028E revenues and the resulting margin is about 41%, as shown in the table below. Based on the above financial estimates, Bausch Health (excl. B+L) EBITDA will decline to ~$1.5bn in 2028. On a consolidated basis, BHC generates ~$1.0bn/year in FCF. The FCF from BLCO is actually minimal, as one can see in its separately published financial filings. Accordingly, Bausch Health (excl. B+L) generates almost all of the $1.0bn/year in FCF. When Bausch Health (excl. B+L) loses Xifaxan exclusivity and EBITDA drops by ~$1.0bn, Bausch Health (excl. B+L)’s FCF will drop to ~$0. Second, Bausch Health (excl. B+L) has $15.3bn in Net Debt and will not be able to meet its maturity schedule, as shown in the chart below (slide 28, 3Q24 earnings presentation). Several things to note: In 2025 BHC has the following maturities: $1.68bn outstanding of 5.500% 1L Notes due 11/01/25 $535mm outstanding of 9.000% Sr. Unsec. Notes due 12/15/25, and $125mm of mandatory amortization ($31.25mm quarterly) on its Term Loan B maturing on 02/01/27 As of 9/30/24, BHC has the following sources of liquidity: $719mm in cash $975mm in undrawn revolver capacity The Company might meet its 2025 debt maturities through a combination of FCF generation, revolver draw and refinancing. It’s not a sure thing but possible. Given the magnitude of the 2025 maturities vs. the Company’s liquidity, BHC might insert “going concern” language into its SEC filings. This would be a negative catalyst for the stock. In addition, failure to meet these maturities would be a significant, negative catalyst for the stock. It does not appear possible for the Company to meet the $4.1bn in debt maturing in 2027, most of which matures in early 2027: $643mm of 8.500% Sr. Unsec. Notes due 01/31/27 $1,000mm of 6.125% 1L Notes due 02/01/27 $1,937mm of SOFR + 525 Term Loan B due 02/01/27, and $500mm of 5.750% 1L Notes due 08/15/27 Based on $15.3bn in current Net Debt outstanding and 2024E EBITDA of $2.468bn, Bausch Health (excl. B+L)’s current Net Leverage is already an elevated 6.2x. The Net Leverage will then jump higher with Bausch Health (excl. B+L)’s EBITDA projected to decline to ~$1.5bn in 2028. With Bausch Health (excl. B+L) being unable to meet its debt maturities in early 2027 or generate any FCF starting in 2028, it appears inevitable that it will need to pursue a significant financial restructuring, likely through bankruptcy. Attempted Separation of BLCO BHC management has been well aware of the twofold problem above for years. Management has significant exposure to BHC’s equity and has been trying shift as much “corporate value” as possible away from creditors to the equity. This is why management has been trying to separate off BLCO from BHC. In May 2022 BHC executed a partial spinoff of BLCO. The stock of BLCO became publicly traded and BHC retained an 88% interest. Management then tried to distribute BHC’s remaining 88% interest in BLCO to BHC shareholders, including themselves. The concept was to take the value of BLCO assets, separate it from BHC, distribute that value to BHC shareholders in the form of BLCO stock, and leave BHC creditors with only a claim on the assets remaining at Bausch Health (excl. B+L). However, in order to consummate the full spinoff of BLCO, BHC needed to get (i) a financial advisor’s opinion that both BLCO and Bausch Health (excl. B+L) would be financially viable entities as separate companies and (ii) Canadian regulatory approval. It appears that BHC was not able to find a financial advisor to issue such an opinion given the high leverage that would be left on Bausch Health (excl. B+L). BHC then pursued an outright sale of BLCO to private equity, with interested parties including Blackstone, Advent International, and TPG Capital. According to industry chatter, a large bid/ask spread existed between BHC and the financial buyer(s) with BHC looking for an unreasonable price. This was not surprising. Given the leverage at Bausch Health (excl. B+L), the sale price of BLCO had to be high enough for BHC management to receive any value to their equity. On 02/06/25

The revenue of Apple International Co., Ltd. with headquarters in Japan amounted to ***** billion Japanese yen in 2022. The reported fiscal year ends on December 31.Compared to the earliest depicted value from 2020 this is a total increase by approximately **** billion Japanese yen. The trend from 2020 to 2022 shows, however, that this increase did not happen continuously.

Android maintained its position as the leading mobile operating system worldwide in the first quarter of 2025 with a market share of about ***** percent. Android's closest rival, Apple's iOS, had a market share of approximately ***** percent during the same period. The leading mobile operating systems Both unveiled in 2007, Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS have evolved through incremental updates introducing new features and capabilities. The latest version of iOS, iOS 18, was released in September 2024, while the most recent Android iteration, Android 15, was made available in September 2023. A key difference between the two systems concerns hardware - iOS is only available on Apple devices, whereas Android ships with devices from a range of manufacturers such as Samsung, Google and OnePlus. In addition, Apple has had far greater success in bringing its users up to date. As of February 2024, ** percent of iOS users had iOS 17 installed, while in the same month only ** percent of Android users ran the latest version. The rise of the smartphone From around 2010, the touchscreen smartphone revolution had a major impact on sales of basic feature phones, as the sales of smartphones increased from *** million units in 2008 to **** billion units in 2023. In 2020, smartphone sales decreased to **** billion units due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Apple, Samsung, and lately also Xiaomi, were the big winners in this shift towards smartphones, with BlackBerry and Nokia among those unable to capitalize.

This statistic shows global Apple iPod sales from the first quarter of 2006 to the most recent fiscal quarter. In the first quarter of the 2006 fiscal year (October to December 2005), Apple sold 14.04 million iPods worldwide. In all of its 2006 fiscal year Apple sold more than 39 million iPods.

Apple iPod sales - additional information

Introduced to the consumer market in 2001, Apple revolutionized the music industry with its pocket-sized music player iPod. Since its release, the iPod has been one of the most dominant products within the digital music player market, with total aggregate unit sales of nearly 360 million. The market for portable music players, however, has been slowing down in recent years. Apple’s own sales figures essentially follow the existing overall trend, as iPods sales worldwide have been dropping since 2010. The company still experiences a consistent sales peak in the first quarter of the company’s own financial year. For Apple, the first quarter of their financial year is from early October to late December – just around the holiday season.

The increased capacity of smartphones to play and store music as a multi-functional device has been pinpointed by industry experts as the main reason for the decline of digital music devices sales. This explanation seems fitting when looking at Apple’s devices sales figures over the years. iPod sales have decreased as iPhone and iPad sales have increased in the last few years. Up until the third quarter of 2010, Apple still sold more iPods than iPhones. In the last quarter of 2014, iPod sales accounted for only about one percent of Apple's total revenue.

The declining of iPod sales has not had a negative impact on the company. As the share of the company’s total revenue made from iPod sales has decreased, strong sales of the iPad and the iPhone have allowed the company to maintain a dominant position in many markets worldwide. In 2014, Apple announced its highest annual revenue to date.

In 2024, video game publisher and software developer Epic Games is projected to generate approximately 5.8 billion U.S. dollars in gross revenues, up from 5.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.

How does Epic Games make money? Epic Games' gross does not only include game revenue from the company battle royale hit Fortnite, but also engine revenue derived from game licenses and royalties, as well as Unreal Engine assets. Epic is the developer of the gaming engine Unreal Engine, which is currently monetized under a royalty model, meaning that is can be downloaded for free and Epic claims a percentage of sales revenue. Currently, Epic is not claiming a fee for developers that publish their games on the Epic Games Store. The Epic Games Store (EGS) was launched in December 2018. In May 2020, Epic announced that their share of royalties for games developed in Unreal Engine are waived until developers have earned their first 1 million U.S. dollars in revenue. Other income streams of the company include Epic Games Store revenue, and Merchandise and other revenue. Epic Games Store upsetting the industry standard One of the biggest headlines regarding the launch of Epic’s own digital storefront was the company’s attitude to developer / store revenue split. Gaming stores and app platforms including Valve’s Steam, the Apple App Store, or Google Play, usually take a 30 percent commission cut from game sales and in-game revenues. The Epic Games Store was released with the announcement that the EGS would only claim 12 percent of revenue, leaving 88 percent to the developers. This approach, as well as Epic’s attempt to circumvent Apple’s monetization strategies in the iOS app of Fortnite, has made many headlines, led to Apple removing the app from its App Store, and resulted in the still ongoing lawsuit Epic vs. Apple.

As of May 2025, nearly ** percent of apps in the Google Play app store were freely available. The number of free apps on the Google Play Store and the Apple Store alike has been consistently higher than the number of paid apps. By comparison, free Android apps on Amazon Appstore were roughly ** percent, while paid apps accounted for a share of ** percent of the total apps available in the store. Mobile apps and consumer spending Mobile apps have become integral to our daily routine, offering convenience and entertainment. In the second quarter of 2024, the total value of the global consumer spending on mobile apps was almost ** billion U.S. dollars, highlighting the significant role that mobile apps play in the digital economy. As of the third quarter of 2023, consumers spent an average of **** U.S. dollars on mobile apps per smartphone, which underlines the high demand for these digital solutions. App stores commission rates under scrutiny As of August 2023, the standard commission rates on revenues generated from apps hosted on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store were set at ** percent. However, between the end of 2020 and mid-2021, both Apple and Google were forced to address the criticism of their app store policies. In 2020, the European Union drafted the Digital Market Act, with the purpose of ensuring a healthy degree of competition in the tech environment. In December 2022, Apple was reported to start planning to allow sideloading and the presence of alternative app stores on its devices. In August 2021, the United States Senate presented the Open Apps Market Act to reduce tech giants‘ control over the digital app market. As regulations are expected to promote competition in the tech and mobile environment, in March 2023, Microsoft was reported to preparing to launch a new mobile gaming store, which will compete with the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.In 2026, mobile app spending is forecasted to reach *** billion U.S. dollars and ** billion U.S. dollars on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, respectively. While both Google and Apple started applying some changes in their app store policies in 2021, like lowering commission fees for small publishers generating less than *** million U.S. dollars in yearly revenues, the two tech giants might face additional restrictions and limitations in all their major markets. In the case of Apple, in 2021, the company updated its App Store policies, allowing developers to offer alternative payment methods. In 2022, Apple updated its review guidelines, requiring developers to share more information about collecting and using data, including disclosing the types of collected data and how it's used.

In the fiscal year 2020/21, Currys PLC saw its online share of group revenue increase considerably to some ** percent, likely boosted by the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. This figure decreased to ** percent in fiscal year 2022/23, as global economies began to reopen and consumers went back to in-store shopping. Currys PLC: company profile Currys PLC, formerly known as Dixons Carphone, was born out of the merger between Dixons Retail and Carphone Warehouse in August 2014. The company is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and operates in the UK, Ireland, and mainland Europe. In 2023/24, the company generated approximately *** billion British pounds in annual revenues. In 2023, currys.co.uk ranked third among the leading online stores in the consumer electronics segment in the UK, behind industry heavyweights Amazon and Apple. Currys’ online store was also among the top brands for online purchases in the UK as of June 2024. Consumer electronics shopping in the UK The share of the population buying technology and electronics online in the United Kingdom increased considerably since the start of the pandemic. When only ** percent of the UK population purchased electronics online in December 2019, that figure peaked at ** percent in December 2020, before decreasing again to ** percent as of September 2023. In another survey, it was revealed that less than a fifth of UK and Irish shoppers opted for brick-and-mortar stores as their preferred search and purchase channel for electronics, in contrast to ** percent who opted for online-only.