In light of Allbirds’ (NASDAQ: BIRD) head-scratching transition to an AI compute infrastructure company, Mike and Emmet break down some of the market’s best and worst business pivots.
In simple terms, a pivot is when a business decides to stop doing what it’s known for and pursue something else. This can be proactive, like Slack giving up its gaming business to develop its internal communication tool, or reactive, like Netflix opting to move into streaming in response to digital competition.
Emmet kicks things off with Nokia (NYSE: NOK). It started as a paper mill in Finland back in 1865. In the early ’90s, it exited its legacy businesses to focus entirely on mobile phones and network equipment, eventually ending up in a cell phone duopoly with Ericsson. However, Nokia is also a key example of how quickly market leadership can be lost when a company fails to anticipate major shifts – in this case, the move to smartphones. Luckily, it pivoted again, going all in on infrastructure and investing heavily in 5G, and it currently has a market cap of more than $50 billion.
Saab started out building fighter jets for the Swedish military in the 1930s before expanding into cars after the war. In 1989, GM came in, bought half of the car company, and split it away from the aerospace division. By 2008, it was struggling and eventually went under. However, Saab AB (SAAB-B.ST) is thriving, with record backlog and profitability.
Another post-war success story, Hyundai started as a civil engineering company helping Korea rebuild, eventually pivoting to car manufacturing in the 1960s. During the Asian financial crisis, Hyundai made a deliberate decision to move upmarket, investing heavily in design, engineering, and quality. Over time, it transformed from producing low-quality vehicles into a reliable, stylish, and increasingly desirable automaker.
Finally, one of the market’s most infamous pivot stories: MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR). It was initially focused on information systems in the ’90s, rising and collapsing during the dot-com bubble. While its stock never fully recovered, its core business continued generating cash over the next 20 years. In 2020, CEO Michael Saylor decided to go all in on Bitcoin, and the stock is up 15x since. Today, the company holds $61.5 billion in Bitcoin on its balance sheet – about 4% of the current supply – at an average price of $75,527. Unfortunately, if Bitcoin falls below this price, it could trigger a massive sell-off of both MSTR and Bitcoin – not ideal.
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00:00 Intro02:40 Allbirds Goes AI07:34 What Is a Pivot12:05 Nokia Reinvents Itself18:52 Saab Cars to Defense28:09 Hyundai From Construction to Cars34:03 MicroStrategy Bitcoin Bet43:22 Follow Prophet Picks
