The purpose of this report is to address several critical questions surrounding MCRS and the company’s future growth prospects. In general, we would argue that most of these queries aren’t part of the general...
READ MORE >“Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.”Morgan Freeman (Red), Shawshank RedemptionWe are not alone in this. There’s no shortage of short sellers who lament the action in...
READ MORE >In another market environment things might be different. Marking the fifth time in the past three years, OPEN missed consensus revenue expectations for 2Q13. On top of that, the company lowered guidance for FY13 substantially. Panic? Not exactly. Had the...
READ MORE >In what can only be described as a surprise to the marketplace, OPEN announced that it had reached an agreement to acquire IACI’s Rezbook. As part of the deal Urbanspoon, a leading mobile...
READ MORE >“There’s a party going on right here, a celebration to last through the years….”Kool & the GangIn retrospect it all seems so simple doesn’t it? Let’s play a short game of check this...
READ MORE >And so it begins….Two and a half years ago we introduced OPEN as a short idea predicated on four principal tenets: At its core, OPEN provides a “solution without a problem”. OPEN’s ERB technology and...
READ MORE >It seems to happen all of the time in growth industries, particularly among small and mid-cap companies. A leader in said growth industry goes public, creates a successful track record, which engenders investor enthusiasm about the company and...
READ MORE >Yesterday we had the opportunity to tour the floor at the National Restaurant Association’s 2013 annual conference. We wanted to pass along some key observations from our time in the exhibit...
READ MORE >Almost a year to the day from when we first introduced Z as a long idea, we’re closing it out with a 72% gain. It’s been a wild ride to say the least. Was it really only 6-months ago when the stock ticked $23.00 following...
READ MORE >Seriously, who wouldn’t love this business? In 4Q12, OPEN’s growth in diners seated per restaurant collapsed, but the company had healthy net additions in restaurant clients, stability in NA cover...
READ MORE >A few weeks ago we published a lengthy report which outlined some of the more troubling competitive developments for OPEN in North America. We maintain our view that the company is on the cusp of a major deceleration in many of its key...
READ MORE >When we initially introduced MCRS as a short idea roughly 8-months ago, here were the principal tenets of our thesis: The elimination of the hardware “tether” could result in rapid share gains...
READ MORE >It’s true, OPEN shares are up 55.6% over the past 12-months with the stock witnessing gains of nearly 22% in the past 3-months alone. The short interest, which once represented close to 50% of the float has now...
READ MORE >Didn’t we go through the same experience last quarter? Zillow beat revenue and EPS for 4Q12, operating metrics were stellar, and management guided lower in large part due to increased expectations for...
READ MORE >Well at least they didn’t miss consensus revenue estimates again…. Seriously though, do you remember the “good old days” when supposed growth companies that reported a massive deceleration in operating metrics, low quality...
READ MORE >MCRS reported a quarter that was as uneventful as it was uninspiring. Ultimately there were operating metrics that improved somewhat and those that could be construed as confirmation of our short thesis. Below we discuss the key positives and negatives from the quarter.
READ MORE >Over the past month, PAA Research conducted a survey of approximately 80-85 restaurant operators a significant percentage of which are clients of OPEN and MCRS. The general purpose of the survey was to gain...
READ MORE >Yesterday we had the opportunity to tour the floor at the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show 2013”. We wanted to pass along some key observations from our time in the exhibit hall. As you might imagine given our outstanding short call on...
READ MORE >It’s been nearly four months since we first introduced MCRS as a short idea. Since that time the stock has declined (-13%) compared to a 1% gain for the S&P 500 over the same period. As so often is...
READ MORE >Heading into XOXO’s 3Q12 earnings release we thought we knew the following: The Knot and the Bump franchises remained incredibly strong from a consumer engagement perspective Investors had...
READ MORE >If you told us heading into the earnings print that Zillow would have added more than 4,000 premier agent subscribers in the third quarter, we almost certainly would have expected Zillow shares to trade higher. Obviously that has not...
READ MORE >Heading into the company’s 3Q12 earnings release, OPEN shares had rallied 31.8% over the past 3-months compared to a meager 3.4% gain for the Nasdaq. Clearly investor enthusiasm for OPEN shares continued to increase over the past...
READ MORE >With one simple statement, the management of Urban Outfitters changed the entire perception surrounding the sustainability of incumbent providers of PC based POS software solutions to restaurants and retailers. On September 27th at the Urban Outfitters investor day, the...
READ MORE >In the housing depression over the past five years, there has been one segment of the marketplace that has performed quite well – rentals. Historically, the rental property market has been largely comprised of...
READ MORE >“I just charge additional license fees for these iPad implementations, so it actually drives business”Peter Rodgers, EVP Investor Relations and Business Development MICROS Systems, Inc.That’s it, nothing to see here....
READ MORE >Zillow shares traded off sharply after hours yesterday following earnings results that were good, but perhaps not strong enough relative to “whisper numbers”. Additionally, the company filed a shelf offering which included the option for significant stock holders to sell as much as 3.6MM...
READ MORE >With OPEN shares down 24% in the past month and now trading at what some might think is an attractive 18.7x consensus EPS for 2013 we shouldn’t be completely surprised by the strength in the stock...
READ MORE >If you were to listen solely to OPEN management, the company’s path to market dominance in the online restaurant reservation space is merely an exercise in “blocking and tackling”. Management continues to execute on the same strategy the company had in...
READ MORE >Some investors might be perplexed by the strength in Zillow shares after hours. Yes, the company did report strong 1Q12 results that handily beat estimates. Yes, the operating metrics delivered in 1Q12 were fantastic and well above what most...
READ MORE >Was it really just only 12-months ago that OPEN was the darling of Wall Street? It seems like another lifetime. Approximately one year ago to the day, OPEN reported another quarter of 40%+ YOY organic revenue growth and handily...
READ MORE >SELL/SHORT
$4
SELL
$50
SELL/SHORT
$45
SHORT
$18
SELL/SHORT
$5
SELL/SHORT
$42
LONG
$75
LONG
$128
SELL/SHORT
$50
SELL/SHORT
$50
LONG
$5.50
SHORT
$50
SHORT
$28
LONG
$65
LONG
$37
PAIR TRADE
$10
PAIR TRADE
$30
LONG
$35
SHORT
$35
SELL/SHORT
$10
SHORT
$101
SHORT
$15
SHORT
$0
SHORT
$9
SHORT
$0
PAIR - LONG BGG/SHORT TTC
25%
PAIR - LONG BGG/SHORT TTC
25%
SHORT
$14.00
SHORT
$22
SHORT
$15
SHORT
$20
SHORT
$31
SHORT
$35
SHORT
$30
PAIR - LONG KNL/SHORT MLHR
25%
SHORT
$100
LONG
$8
LONG
$20
SHORT
$22
PAIR - LONG CSGP/SHORT LOOP
40%
LONG
$35
SHORT
$275
SHORT
$0