Luis Alvarez As GameStop ( GME ) launched a bold takeover interest in eBay ( EBAY ), it signaled a potential strategic shift as the video game retailer looks to scale its digital commerce presence through an established global marketplace. GameStop ( GME ), valued at nearly $12B, has built a 5% economic stake in eBay ( EBAY ) through derivatives and direct ownership of common shares. eBay’s ( EBAY...
Luis Alvarez As GameStop ( GME ) launched a bold takeover interest in eBay ( EBAY ), it signaled a potential strategic shift as the video game retailer looks to scale its digital commerce presence through an established global marketplace. GameStop ( GME ), valued at nearly $12B, has built a 5% economic stake in eBay ( EBAY ) through derivatives and direct ownership of common shares. eBay’s ( EBAY ) market cap stands at about $46B. The proposed offer is $125 per share, comprising 50% cash and 50% GameStop ( GME ) common stock. Marketplace-led platforms generally trade at relatively higher multiples, supported by scalable, capital-light economics and take-rate expansion. However, retail-led players such as Walmart ( WMT ) and Target ( TGT ), by contrast, tend to reflect lower valuation multiples given their exposure to inventory costs, logistics, and tighter operating margins. A look at how these stocks are quant-rated on Seeking Alpha. eBay ( EBAY ) bags a quant rating of Hold with a score of 3.33 and the highest factor grades are given to its profitability and momentum. Snapshot of Quant ratings on peer e-commerce stocks: Global e-commerce platform Amazon.com ( AMZN ): Quant rating - Hold - 3.45 Mass retail chain Target ( TGT ): Quant rating - 3.43 Handmade goods marketplace Etsy ( ETSY ): Quant rating - Hold - 3.40 Omnichannel retail giant Walmart ( WMT ): Quant rating - Hold - 3.39 Luxury resale marketplace The RealReal ( REAL ): Quant rating - Hold - 3.10 Online home retailer Wayfair ( W ): Quant rating - Hold - 2.76 Apparel resale platform ThredUp ( TDUP ): Quant rating - Sell - 1.83 More on Etsy, Target, etc. Amazon: Why Is There No Focus On The Chip Business, Mr. Market? Wayfair: Strong Net Revenue Growth, But There Are Concerns Around Macro Environment (Rating Upgrade) Amazon Has Broken Out After Q1 Earnings (Rating Upgrade) GameStop launches bold $56B takeover attempt for eBay ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ catwalks to $77M opening, lifting box office
Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts Listen to Odd Lots on Spotify Watch Odd Lots on YouTube Subscribe to the newsletter Since Mayor Brandon Scott took office in 2020, he's fixated on a very visible problem in Baltimore: the tens of thousands of vacant homes that dot the city. It's hard to build new houses when there are so many that sit empty and unused. And the process of tracking down owners, c...
Listen to Odd Lots on Apple Podcasts Listen to Odd Lots on Spotify Watch Odd Lots on YouTube Subscribe to the newsletter Since Mayor Brandon Scott took office in 2020, he's fixated on a very visible problem in Baltimore: the tens of thousands of vacant homes that dot the city. It's hard to build new houses when there are so many that sit empty and unused. And the process of tracking down owners, convincing them to sell their vacant properties, and then converting those homes into usable housing supply is a tall task. In the last few years, the number of vacant homes in Baltimore has dropped from 16,000 to just over 11,800. On this episode — recorded in Madrid while we attended the Bloomberg CityLab conference — we speak to Mayor Scott about deindustrialization, redlining, and gun violence's historical effects on the current housing crisis, how his government identifies, block-by-block, redevelopment opportunities and matches projects with publicly-minded developers, and why Baltimore natives aren't huge fans of The Wire .
A young pregnant woman is assailed by dark visions of sisterhood in a novel splicing eco-horror, cosmic distress and ideas of the monstrous feminine Realism, contrary to appearances, isn’t a form closed off to horror. The stories in ’Pemi Aguda’s debut collection, Ghostroots, a finalist for the 2024 US National Book award, rivetingly bore out this fact. Neither strictly realistic nor wholly supern...
A young pregnant woman is assailed by dark visions of sisterhood in a novel splicing eco-horror, cosmic distress and ideas of the monstrous feminine Realism, contrary to appearances, isn’t a form closed off to horror. The stories in ’Pemi Aguda’s debut collection, Ghostroots, a finalist for the 2024 US National Book award, rivetingly bore out this fact. Neither strictly realistic nor wholly supernatural, they seized on ordinary events pulsing with sinister possibility: a mother distraught at her inability to produce milk for her newborn wonders whether her unresolved feelings over her husband’s infidelity might have poisoned her body; a young woman prone to violence fears she is inhabited by the spirit of a wicked ancestor; a driver who runs over a pedestrian can’t shake off the feeling that her own daughter will be next to die. One Leg on Earth, as the title suggests, is similarly a liminal creature, although it flirts more openly and ingeniously with darkness. It follows a young woman, Yosoye Bakare, newly arrived in Lagos to intern at an architecture firm involved with building Omi City, a state-of-the-art enclave on land reclaimed from the sea. Away from home, Yosoye is hungry for adventure. Out on a stroll one night, she slips into a cruddy bar, allows a man to buy her a drink, and goes to a cheap motel where they have ravenous sex without protection. Across the city, pregnant women are inexplicably throwing themselves into open water. But when Yosoye learns she is expecting, she decides to keep the baby. “It was hard to explain to someone who hadn’t spent their whole life trying to belong, to be inside – the joke, the anecdote – that the promise of another being that would be just theirs, that would, yes, belong to them, was like cold water on the tongue after hours of trekking under the Lagos sun.” Continue reading...
Soho theatre, London Directed with swagger and finesse by Matthew Xia, Dave Harris’s play explores sex, pleasure, parenthood and what makes a man There are two kinds of people in the world – those who, given a paddle to signal willingness for audience participation at a play set in a strip club, will raise it high, and then there’s me. The crowd arrived hyped for Dave Harris’s Tender – my neighbou...
Soho theatre, London Directed with swagger and finesse by Matthew Xia, Dave Harris’s play explores sex, pleasure, parenthood and what makes a man There are two kinds of people in the world – those who, given a paddle to signal willingness for audience participation at a play set in a strip club, will raise it high, and then there’s me. The crowd arrived hyped for Dave Harris’s Tender – my neighbour waved her paddle through the pre-show playlist – but it’s not really about rambunctious bump and grind. Instead, Harris delves into modern masculinity: hard bodies, squishy hearts. The Dancing Bears is a down at heel club in New Jersey. Two young dudes and a non-dancing daddy work their teddy-bear heads and neon-green jocks for a dwindling crowd of middle-school teachers and recovering divorcees. Monster-schlonged rivals are stealing their punters and then Geoff has an onstage panic attack. Bear down! Continue reading...
An Oxford theology student and a middle-aged fisher are drawn together despite their many differences in an ambitious first film from Max Morgan This evocative debut feature from Max Morgan is a film of many contrasts. One is the May-December attraction between Otto (Daniel McNamee), a theology student and aspiring violinist, and John (Shaun Paul McGrath), a middle-aged fisher with a shadowy past....
An Oxford theology student and a middle-aged fisher are drawn together despite their many differences in an ambitious first film from Max Morgan This evocative debut feature from Max Morgan is a film of many contrasts. One is the May-December attraction between Otto (Daniel McNamee), a theology student and aspiring violinist, and John (Shaun Paul McGrath), a middle-aged fisher with a shadowy past. The worlds that they inhabit seem poles apart. Compared with the storm-ravaged Suffolk coast that curves around John’s rugged village, the imposing halls of Otto’s college at Oxford are at once grand and isolating. Despite their differences in age, the two men are bound by shared trauma and turmoil: both struggle with their sexuality and the loss of a loved one. The highly textured cinematography renders these inner conflicts strikingly tactile. The camera at times stays uncomfortably close to the main characters, highlighting the gnawing anxiety of not belonging. From the demands of a frustrated girlfriend to the prying gaze of close-minded townsfolk, the film stacks these moments of unease to breaking point. Much emphasis is placed on minute gestures – a panicked gaze, a gentle touch of the hands – to communicate the gradual bonding of two unmoored souls. Continue reading...
Phase Space pilot programme with NHS mental health trust used to calm anxiety around exams, ADHD and home troubles Schools have begun deploying virtual reality to help pupils cope with stress caused by impending exams, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or difficult home lives. All 15 secondary schools in the London borough of Sutton are using VR headsets made by tech firm Phase Space in a p...
Phase Space pilot programme with NHS mental health trust used to calm anxiety around exams, ADHD and home troubles Schools have begun deploying virtual reality to help pupils cope with stress caused by impending exams, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or difficult home lives. All 15 secondary schools in the London borough of Sutton are using VR headsets made by tech firm Phase Space in a pilot in conjunction with the local NHS mental health trust. Continue reading...
Lost anti-fascist Yiddish language songs from World War II will be making their Asian debut this month. Yiddish Glory will be performing in Shanghai, a city where some 18,000 Jewish refugees found shelter from the Nazis, Hong Kong and in South Korea. The project is the brainchild of University of Toronto academic Anna Shternshis, who said Shanghai’s own history gave the choice of venue an extra si...
Lost anti-fascist Yiddish language songs from World War II will be making their Asian debut this month. Yiddish Glory will be performing in Shanghai, a city where some 18,000 Jewish refugees found shelter from the Nazis, Hong Kong and in South Korea. The project is the brainchild of University of Toronto academic Anna Shternshis, who said Shanghai’s own history gave the choice of venue an extra significance, and songwriter and musician Psoy Korolenko. Their performances, which combine live music...
Since Mayor Brandon Scott took office in 2020, he has fixated on a very visible problem in Baltimore: the tens of thousands of vacant homes that dot the city. It’s hard to build new houses when there are so many that sit empty and unused. And the process of tracking down owners, convincing them to sell their vacant properties, and then converting those homes into usable housing supply is a tall ta...
Since Mayor Brandon Scott took office in 2020, he has fixated on a very visible problem in Baltimore: the tens of thousands of vacant homes that dot the city. It’s hard to build new houses when there are so many that sit empty and unused. And the process of tracking down owners, convincing them to sell their vacant properties, and then converting those homes into usable housing supply is a tall task. But in the last few years, the number of vacant homes in Baltimore has dropped from 16,000 to ju
Euro-zone inflation will jump to 2.7% on average this year but return close to the European Central Bank ’s 2% target already next year, according to the institution’s quarterly survey of professional forecasters. Respondents revised up their expectations for 2026 significantly — from 1.8% in the previous round — while they see price gains of 2.1% and 2% in 2027 and 2028. At the same time, they fo...
Euro-zone inflation will jump to 2.7% on average this year but return close to the European Central Bank ’s 2% target already next year, according to the institution’s quarterly survey of professional forecasters. Respondents revised up their expectations for 2026 significantly — from 1.8% in the previous round — while they see price gains of 2.1% and 2% in 2027 and 2028. At the same time, they forecast slightly slower economic growth than before. A separate ECB poll – the corporate telephone survey – concluded that the broader pass-through from higher energy costs due to the Iran war “might be more gradual than in the past” but also warned that things could get worse if the fighting isn’t over soon. The data come after the ECB last Thursday kept interest rates unchanged while signaling that an interest-rate increase will be considered at the next meeting. Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said Friday that such a move will be needed if there’s no significant improvement in the outlook for inflation and growth. While some of his colleagues echoed such comments, others struck a more cautious tone, with Greece’s Yannis Stournaras saying that a risk of a recession is “real” and Finland’s Olli Rehn arguing that there are ” no obvious signs “ yet of war-induced higher inflation becoming entrenched in the economy through higher wages and prices. The ECB’s analysis is now focused on the risk of so-called indirect and second-round effects — such as a buildup of pressure on salaries and a rise in inflation expectations among consumers and companies. The corporate telephone survey said March’s advance in oil prices was being transmitted rapidly to selling prices for most oil-dependent goods and services, but it also highlighted that at least large firms tended to be better hedged against fluctuations in energy prices than in 2022, limiting the impact. If the Middle East war isn’t concluded soon, however, “it was likely to induce supply chain disruption, putting significant fu...