Since the beginning of the year, Bitcoin has erased over half of its value, leading to increasing criticism for digital currencies, including from billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

Speaking at a TechCrunch talk on Tuesday, Gates described crypto and NFTs as “100% based on greater tool theory”, referring to the concept that overvalued assets will go up in price when there are enough willing investors. Gates joked that “expensive digital images of monkeys” would “improve the world immensely.”

NFTs are cryptographic assets on a blockchain with unique identification codes that set them apart from one another. Unlike crypto, they cannot be traded or exchanged at equivalency. NFTs are often touted as a means of proving ownership of digital assets, such as art. However, critics such as Gates view NFTs as overhyped and potentially damaging.

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Michael Kamerman, CEO of Skilling, shares his opinion on what stock you should buy this week.

Microsoft

In light of recent political triggers, markets are more prone than ever to volatility. For investors, it’s best to focus on big companies during this – given their high transparency and rigid business models.

Valued at over $2 trillion, Microsoft is a great example of a robust company. However, even the most robust companies are vulnerable to market volatility, as shown by shares falling by over 22% from the highs of $311 before rallying to $303.

Whilst buying during the dip has been a winning strategy for investors in the past, they need to exercise extra caution given the impact of political triggers on stocks currently. The stock market is facing heightened pressure and as a result, stocks aren’t performing in line with investors’ expected patterns. This means investors need to be certain they’re making rational and realistic decisions, rather than following the zeitgeist. 

Despite this, Microsoft stock is still a sustainable choice for investors given its track record of healthy returns. Also, given the growth runway, Microsoft can reap from the cloud, there’s a great opportunity for extra revenue for the company. By considering gaming and the emerging metaverse, the company can also look at expanding its offerings exponentially.

Warning: CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 89% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider. You should consider whether you understand how CFDs work and whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Not investment advice. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Disclaimer: The information contained within this article is for educational and entertainment purposes ONLY. The commentary provided is the opinion of the author and should NOT be considered as personalised advice or recommendation. The information provided in this article should NOT be a person’s sole basis for an investment decision. All investments are made at the reader’s own risk. 

Cryptocurrency has become somewhat inevitable in our world today. From being a relatively obscure proof of concept announced in 2008, it has become part and parcel of the global financial fabric.

Initially used by individuals to make purchases—such as the 10,000 BTC spent on a pizza—the industry continues to evolve and find use cases in almost every sector of the global economy. This evolution has led to its adoption by multinational corporations, who continue to find interesting uses for these digital assets.

The evolution in the crypto industry has led to the development of Decentralised Finance (DeFi), Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Game-Fi and more recently, the Metaverse. Consequently, institutional adoption has continued apace. 

Global Fintech giants PayPal and MasterCard are looking to integrate crypto payments into their list of products. Electric car company Tesla and Software giant Microstrategy purchased Bitcoin and hold it on their balance sheet, as seen in their recently released Q4 reports. Adidas and Nike have announced NFT collections with their sights on the virtual world, while Microsoft has ventured into the Metaverse through its acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Conspicuously, the banking industry has also wanted a piece of the action as institutional adoption rallies. Initially, the consensus was that it would be adversely affected by the emergence of crypto. However, both industries seem to be coexisting just fine.

Several banks globally have announced their intentions to integrate crypto services into their offerings. This would allow their customers to easily access the best of both worlds on one platform. 

However, the stakes have been raised even higher, as Wall Street banking giants JP Morgan recently announced joining the Metaverse. The move represents the first major bank to venture into this space.

JP Morgan’s Approach To The Metaverse

JP Morgan has opened a lounge in the blockchain-based Decentraland. The US bank believes its Metaverse branch will enable customers to create virtual avatars, establish virtual rooms, and travel in the 'Onyx Lounge’—named after its suite of Ethereum-based services.

The Wall Street behemoth plans to take advantage of prospective growth opportunities in the metaverse through its virtual presence. With the entire world at a critical crossroad, it believes that there isn't a single company or celebrity that is not considering or building an identity on the Metaverse. JP Morgan’s report said,

“The metaverse will likely infiltrate every sector in some way in the coming years, with the market opportunity estimated at over $1 trillion in yearly revenue. As a result, we see companies of all shapes and sizes entering the metaverse in different ways, including household names like Walmart, Nike, Gap, Verizon, Hulu, PWC, Adidas, Atari, and others.”

In its approach to the Metaverse, JP Morgan believes that if the digital world is to succeed, having a robust and flexible financial structure is critical. With this in focus, its strategy will ensure interoperability grows due to its payment and financial architecture. This infrastructure will ensure users can seamlessly interact between the physical and virtual worlds.

However, the bank issued a warning about the difficulty of building a corporate strategy in a dynamic environment as metaverse components evolve quickly. Despite this, it believes the cost and risks of engaging early and regularly to build intellectual property, develop a hypothesis and identify partners are minimal. It further buttressed that the high risk of being left behind justifies the small initial expenditure required to get started and explore this new digital terrain. It said,

“However, the costs and risks of engaging early and consistently in order to build internal intellectual property, develop hypotheses about future business models, and identify ecosystem partners and collaborators are relatively low.”

Opportunities In The Metaverse: What JP Morgan Sees

According to JP Morgan, the opportunities present in the Metaverse are limitless for both individuals and corporate brands alike. These available opportunities within the economy of the Metaverse—Metanomics—cut across virtually every market area with an estimated value of $1 trillion.

The dynamics of supply and demand are expected to push more people into the Metaverse and necessitate the development of new avenues to generate revenue. The creator economy will present enormous opportunities for its participants to develop products consumed in the digital world. Together with marketing and advertising, the service sector also offers another considerable segment within the Meta-economy. 

Consequently, it is estimated that by 2027, spending in the virtual world’s advertising market will reach $18.41 billion due to branding and immersive ad experiences. This potential also spreads to the service industry as a recent fortnight virtual concert grossed $20 million, including sales and merchandise. The event was seen by 45 million people as geographical and cost impediments were removed. This provides a glimpse of the potential of the metaverse.

As the augmented technology behind the Metaverse continues to grow, commercial activities will most likely occur. Consumers will purchase goods, and workers will earn money by working in the virtual world. Reports estimate that $54 billion is already spent yearly on virtual goods, with NFTs having a market capitalisation of $41 billion. This number more than doubles the total amount spent purchasing music.

Moreover, the Metaverse evolved from online gaming, especially multiplayer online games, which have developed their economies for a while now. The evolution of these games can give a picture of the potential in this digital world. Roblox, an established online gaming platform for developers to create games for immersive 3D experience, carries 60 billion messages per day. This far outpaces the number of texts handled by leading phone companies and shows that more people are interested in the virtual world.

The growth of the play-to-earn model in the virtual world has made it more appealing by incentivising the process for users. These remunerations earned can then be invested into an in-game asset, bringing about potential income and expenses such as rent, tax maintenance and repairs. This sentiment is backed up by the reported GDP of Second Life, one of the earliest metaverse games that reached $650 million in 2021.

The potential for projects in the Metaverse is enormous. This has led to the social media platform Facebook rebranding to Meta, seeing the company focus its efforts on the immersive virtual experience.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, reiterated that one company would not build the metaverse. Rather a collective effort of developers and institutions would make the whole experience a reality. In the wake of this announcement, several metaverse tokens on the blockchain, including Decentraland and Sandbox, saw a surge in market capitalisation.

From the chart below, SAND has held the largest slice of the pie among the big players, while MANA and CUBE have taken second and third place respectively. The spike followed the announcement of this development in November last year which pushed the valuation of all three above $17 billion.

Source: JP Morgan Report

With this enormous potential available, banking institutions must get in early and take full advantage of them. A recent survey from Credit Donkey revealed that customers are willing to open new accounts if given a bonus. Through airdrops, we’ve seen a similar trend in the Metaverse. Such an incentive could be just what’s needed for prospective users to jump into the Metaverse and see what it’s all about.

According to the Financial Times, the Berkshire Hathaway CEO purchased the substantial stake just weeks before the record-breaking $68.7 billion acquisition was completed.

Berkshire Hathaway purchased nearly 14.7 million shares of Activision Blizzard in the fourth quarter of 2021, a stake that was worth approximately $975 million at the time. However, the video game company is now trading at around $81.50 per share following the deal. Consequently, Berkshire Hathaway’s stake is now worth approximately $1.2 billion. The perfect timing of Hathaway’s purchase has led many to believe that Buffett had inside knowledge of the Microsoft-Activision deal. 

Though he resigned in 2020, Gates sat on Berkshire Hathaway’s board for 16 years, while Buffett served as a trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation from 2006 to 2021. However, the pair’s relationship is not solely professional. On Buffett’s 90th birthday, Gates marked the occasion by sharing a video of himself baking a birthday cake for the Berkshire Hathaway CEO. 

The tech giant’s acquisition of Activision will see it become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue after Japan’s Sony and China’s Tencent and is hoped to help provide “the building blocks for the metaverse.” 

“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft, commented following the deal. “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”

Here’s what investors and gamers alike can expect from Microsoft once the deal with Activision Blizzard is complete. 

Activision CEO Likely To Stand Down

While it has not yet been officially confirmed that Activision Blizzard’s CEO Bobby Kotick will exit the company following the deal, The Wall Street Journal has reported that, behind the scenes, his resignation has been agreed upon.  

Kotick has been credited for the transformation of Activision Blizzard from a bankrupt company to one of the largest video game publishers in the world. However, Kotick came under fire last year after it was reported by The Wall Street Journal that he had been aware of sexual misconduct allegations in the company but had failed to report them to his board. Since, questions about Kotick’s employment at Activision have circulated with some employees and company investors calling for his resignation. As Microsoft looks to build a new future for itself and the game publisher, questions around Kotick’s role as CEO have only intensified. 

A Move Toward A Post-Console World

While consoles remain highly popular amongst gamers, Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision will likely bring the community closer to a post-console world. Microsoft claims that its acquisition of Activision will help “democratise” gaming by providing access to popular titles, which are otherwise expensive, through Game Pass — its cloud-based monthly subscription service.

The acquisition “bolsters Microsoft’s Game Pass portfolio with plans to launch Activision Blizzard games into Game Pass, which has reached a new milestone of over 25 million subscribers,” the tech giant says. “With Activision Blizzard’s nearly 400 million monthly active players in 190 countries and three billion-dollar franchises, this acquisition will make Game Pass one of the most compelling and diverse lineups of gaming content in the industry. Upon close, Microsoft will have 30 internal game development studios, along with additional publishing and esports production capabilities.”

Interestingly, most of Microsoft’s stock price gains have stemmed from investor enthusiasm for its cloud services division. In 2020, the global cloud gaming market was valued at approximately $432 million and, by 2026, it is expected to reach a value of around $3,256.7 million. As a top market player, Microsoft will likely see huge profits from this shift in gaming in the years ahead. The acquisition of Activision will only make it easier for Microsoft to achieve its goal of making gaming more affordable and more accessible for consumers. 

A Boost For Microsoft’s Metaverse Ambitions?

While Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision boosts the potential for cloud-based gaming, Activision’s virtual worlds do not yet comprise a metaverse play as they still largely depend on various platforms, including consoles and mobile platforms, and are not yet fully immersive. However, Microsoft’s technological push in cloud computing and virtual reality could see it become a metaverse play over time.

Last week, Bernstein analyst Mark Moerdler said that "over many years [Microsoft has] built what we would argue is the largest breadth and depth of functionality that will be required to deliver the metaverse platform." Meanwhile, despite Meta having purchased 8 of the 13 firms that currently work in AR and VR, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella insisted that “there won't be a single centralized metaverse.”

Some experts view Microsoft’s ambitious move to enter the gaming scene alongside one of the leading gaming giants as its first major step to position itself at the forefront of the Metaverse race, ready to compete against big names such as Meta and Apple. 

Final Thoughts

The news of the Microsoft-Activision deal was followed by a tidal wave of speculation, though only time will tell what materialises from the largest tech deal in history. 

Microsoft said that the $68.7 billion deal, which is the biggest in tech history, will “provide the building blocks for the metaverse.” It will see Microsoft become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue after China’s Tencent and Japan’s Sony. Following news of the Microsoft-Activision deal, Sony shares dropped 13%, while Activision shares skyrocketed. 

“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” commented Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”

The deal follows a challenging period for Activision Blizzard, which has been impacted by a string of allegations of sexual misconduct and discrimination. Since July, the video game company has fired over three dozen employees and has disciplined another 40 to address such claims.

Following the close of COP26, sustainability is at the forefront of everyone’s minds. The conference highlighted the need for organisations to drive greater investment, focus and action to make the world a more sustainable place to live.

Microsoft: Accelerating The Journey To Net-Zero

Ahead of the conference, Microsoft published an academic study in partnership with Dr Chris Brauer, Goldsmiths, University of London, that painted a picture of the UK’s current sustainability climate and a blueprint to accelerate action. Its findings offered a stark warning – despite strong sustainability commitments and ambitions – only 41% of UK organisations are set to hit the government’s 2050 net-zero target, currently. 

Why Are UK Businesses Struggling With Sustainability?

In benchmarking UK organisations’ progress on sustainability, the findings illustrated that UK leaders are struggling to turn sustainability commitments into tangible action and the financial services industry is no exception. When looking specifically at sector data, the team of academics found that currently, only 16% of financial institutions surveyed will be net-zero by 2050 – a number far below the national average of 41%. Although every organisation must play their part in reducing global warming, the UK’s financial institutions are in a unique position to drive change, not just for themselves, but for the entire UK economy. The financial services sector has the power to lead by example and by reducing their exposure to high carbon sectors, using tools to measure the impact of investments on the planet, they can encourage sustainable growth and investment across the nation. Before diving into how financial institutions can turn their commitments into action, it’s important to understand where exactly they’re struggling. 

For the majority, financial organisations are failing to set out policies that enact their sustainability strategies, for example, our research found that only 29% of UK financial organisations currently apply environmental standards in their supply chain. Second to that was a lack of in-house skills and expertise in sustainable practises, followed by a struggle to shift their corporate thinking towards more sustainable business operations. Many also found it difficult to identify the right technology to help, while calculating costs was another problem area. 

A Blueprint To Achieve Net-Zero

Despite the struggle to create a clear path to a greener future, the appetite for improvement is there, the UK’s financial institutions are willing to change, they just need help to get there. This is in part thanks to growing pressures from regulators, customers and even employees to become more sustainable. 

To support the sector in accelerating its journey to net-zero, we worked with academics led by Dr Chris Brauer, Goldsmiths, University of London, to create a series of short and long-term steps – a blueprint – that financial organisations can follow to help achieve net-zero; these steps not only explain how financial institutions can improve their own sustainability performance but how they can play a part in building the wider net-zero economy. 

The blueprint includes steps such as integrating the negative impact of climate change into extended risk assessments across the whole organisation to boost financing for investment in net-zero measures. Organisations should also include an environmental sustainability disclosure in all corporate reporting and accounting metrics. The financial service sector can also explore linking executive pay to progress on climate issues as an incentive for sustainable development. They should also work to improve access to finance for green investment by helping the Government establish robust, long-term policy frameworks and removing market barriers. Other measures laid out in the blueprint include accounting for natural capital, investing in sustainable infrastructures such as energy systems, water and transport networks and supporting greater supply chain resilience through innovative financial instruments and new, green investment portfolios. 

Finally, the blueprint calls for increased investment in technological innovation by switching to less energy-intensive digital infrastructure and harnessing more sophisticated, environmentally friendly solutions, such as machine learning, digital twin, and cloud-based technologies. 

The above may look like a lot of work, but it’s an investment that won’t fall short to pay its worth back, both for the planet and for the organisation. What’s more, potential employees – particularly the younger workforce – are increasingly demanding employers place sustainability and ethics higher up the corporate agenda. Our research found that only 22% of financial services employees believe their work premises are as friendly as their own home, and over half of them also said the strength of a firms’ sustainability plan would impact where they chose to work.

Organisations already reaping the benefits of following more sustainable practices include NatWest, which, together with Microsoft, are helping UK businesses better understand their carbon footprint through innovative measurement tools and tailored action plans to reduce their carbon emissions. This approach allows NatWest to reduce their own carbon footprint by helping their customers, a prime example of the ripple effect that financial services institutions can have on the UK economy by placing sustainability high on their priority list. 

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, we all need to work together to solve the climate crisis and financial institutions must play their part in helping create a better, cleaner world for everyone. Whether that be implementing new data measurement tools to help customers and the organisation itself track sustainability progress, or helping identify new ways for customers to discover green investment opportunities, each step will help a business do their bit to improve the planet, while they reap the rewards in terms of reputation, talent acquisition and more.

“Over time, I hope that we are seen as a metaverse company and I want to anchor our work and our identity on what we’re building towards,” Zuckerberg told a virtual conference. “We’re now looking at and reporting on our business as two different segments, one for our family of apps, and one for our work on future platforms. And as part of this, it is time for us to adopt a new company brand to encompass everything that we do, to reflect who we are and what we hope to build.”

Following Zuckerberg’s announcement, “metaverse” has become an even bigger buzzword in tech, with plenty of investors now wanting a slice of it. But what exactly is the metaverse? And should you also consider investing in it?

What Is The Metaverse?

The metaverse is far from being a new concept. The term “metaverse” was coined by science fiction author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel Snow Crash. Stephenson used the term to mean a computer-generated universe, which is now understood as an immersive virtual world where people come together to play games and socialise but also to work. 

In a founder’s letter, Zuckerberg explained that the metaverse will be defined by “the feeling of presence.”

“In this future, you will be able to teleport instantly as a hologram to be at the office without a commute, at a concert with friends, or in your parents’ living room to catch up,” Zuckerberg said. “This will open up more opportunity no matter where you live. You’ll be able to spend more time on what matters to you, cut down time in traffic, and reduce your carbon footprint.” 

Metaverse users will be able to create avatars that resemble their real-world appearance, with Zuckerberg insisting that avatars will become as common as profile pictures on social media. As technology improves, people will be able to join the metaverse with increasing ease, simultaneously engaging with the physical and virtual in mixed reality. 

Metaverse Use Cases

While the use cases for the metaverse are essentially only limited by human creativity, some ideas make more business sense than others. Here are three common examples: 

Games: Gaming is held in close association with the metaverse and understandably so, with games such as Minecraft and Fortnite, as well as platforms such as Roblox, already offering a taste of the metaverse. However, in the coming years, games are set to become increasingly immersive, increasingly social, and increasingly interactive. 

Travel: There is huge potential for the metaverse to someday allow users to visit tourist destinations in multiplayer mode via telepresence, potentially making world travel more accessible for millions of people. 

Commerce: The metaverse would allow retailers to release products into games alongside their real-world product launches. Vice versa, metaverse users will likely design their own brands and products, which may then come to exist in the real world too. 

Metaverse Industry Outlook

Many believe that companies and investors alike cannot ignore the emerging online marketplace that is the metaverse, arguing that it would be a repeat of companies dismissing the emergence of the World Wide Web. Just like the World Wide Web, which now plays a monumental role in day-to-day life, the metaverse will create new marketplaces that mirror those of the physical world. 

The potential in this space is huge, with platforms such as Roblox already seeing significant success. However, the market is expected to double with ease over the next few years. According to ARK Invest, revenue from virtual worlds will compound 17% annually to $390 billion by 2025. Meanwhile, Bloomberg Intelligence predicts that the market opportunity for the metaverse could reach $800 billion by 2025.

Investing In Companies Engaged In The Metaverse

Investors may look to gain exposure by investing in companies that are actively working on metaverse applications, such as Meta Platforms (Facebook), Microsoft, and Roblox. 

• Meta Platforms: As Zuckerberg has made the world well-aware, Facebook is in full metaverse mode. Prior to their rebranding announcement, in mid-October, Facebook said it planned to hire 10,000 employees in Europe to build the “metaverse”, stating its construction would take place over five years. The company called its work in Europe an “exciting time” for European tech.
• Microsoft:  Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has spoken about the concept of an “enterprise metaverse” which would enable the company to expand its dominance in the professional software market. 
• Roblox: As a global platform that brings people together through games, Roblox already embraces many metaverse aspects today with its own digital currency and the virtual social experiences that it enables. 

Metaverse ETFs

For investors who are struggling to decide which metaverse stock is best to invest in, an option worth considering is investing in the Round Ball Metaverse ETF (META). Launched in June 2021, META is the first index globally designed to track the metaverse’s performance and has already amassed $176 million in assets. The fund tracks the Ball Metaverse Index and invests in global public companies actively involved in the metaverse. 

The vast majority of META’s holdings are US equities (80%), with the rest spread between Asian countries such as China, Singapore, Japan, Taiwan. The three top holdings are NVIDIA (8.99%), Microsoft (7.26%), and Roblox (6.79%). Since starting out in June, META has risen by almost 3%.  

Summary

While the metaverse is by no means a new concept, Facebook’s recent push will spur further investments into the space. In the coming years, society is almost certain to dive deeper into a digital economy and virtual world, significantly altering life as we currently know it.  

This article does not constitute financial advice. The author and Universal Media Ltd. are not qualified financial advisers. All investments are made at the reader’s own risk.

The new Mission-Driven Bank Fund will invest exclusively in banks that service lower-income, minority communities that frequently suffer from a lack of long-term capital. The launch of the investment fund marks the latest government-supported effort to help minority-owned banks, many of which have struggled to stay afloat in recent years due to larger competitors, failed loans, and financial downturns. 

Alongside backing from Truist Financial and Microsoft, the fund is also being supported by media giant Discovery, which has already raised approximately $120 million to date.

Focusing on the importance of long-term capital, the fund indirectly endorses a new school of thinking on the most effective ways to uplift banks that support, or are owned by, minority groups. Lenders are given greater flexibility to lend capital to borrowers at a profit through longer-term investments, an important factor considering this is the key money-making fever for small-business banks. 

It is hoped by minority bank advocates that more large-scale corporate deposits or an increased number of certificates of deposit will enable small-business banks to effectively generate profits and help rectify racial economic inequality in the years to come. 

Apple saw $21.7 billion profit for the three-month period that ended in June, marking its best-ever fiscal third quarter. The company’s record-breaking performance was boosted by strong sales of the new iPhone 12.

Google’s parent company Alphabet has revealed second-quarter revenue of $61.8 billion and a profit exceeding $18.5 billion, a figure which stands at twice its profits for the same period last year. Google’s advertising revenues also rose 69% from last year.

Microsoft has also reported record-breaking revenues of over $46 billion for the quarter, a 21% rise compared to the same quarter last year.

As share prices have rocketed throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the collective market value of Apple, Google, Microsoft and social media giant Facebook, is now worth over a third of the entire S&P 500 index of America’s 500 largest traded companies. 

*DISCLAIMER: The content is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial advice. Nothing contained in this article constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Graham Norton-Standen, HIG, Finance Monthly or any third-party service provider to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created countless global issues during the past few months. Yet, more and more will soon come to light in the months ahead, and one particular issue that I am now witnessing is the new battleground between the ‘oldies’ and the ‘digitals’.

 The ‘oldies’ in my book are represented by the regimes of governments, administrations and the leviathans of establishments and institutions of our past. These ‘oldies’ could not wait to close down their borders and forget any formal or informal ‘groups’ such as the EU and the World Health Organisation (WHO) as soon as the COVID-19 pandemic arrived on their doorstep. They simply shut their doors and told the rest of the world to go away.

The ‘digitals’ are the new breed of organisations that do not acknowledge borders. These digitals were at the same time already looking at a completely different picture, that of global collaboration and finding relationships to assist in creating long term successes for a future for all of us as well as for themselves, of course.

The contrast of old fashioned geographic borders and governance, is almost alien in a digital world that sees no borders, does not even think in the same way and deliberately sees the future with expectation, continuous change and recognising COVID as part of the new normal – and therefore works to find ways around it, within it, and using it, to create and adapt to a safer world.

Collaboration, global, no borders, and communities based on no tribal issues of the past. The only tribes for the future are which of the digital tribes you choose to use for your client interface into a world of everything.

Today we are now looking at the future as companies and governments make substantial changes in how they live, survive and grow and probably all based on how they use the future of digital to move forwards.

It is still a shame to hear governments focusing on their borders, their rights, their decisions, and their mistakes – all related to where we have come from and where we are – and still referring to a time “after COVID when we will return to our old norm”.

Sometime soon, we will be looking back to where we were as the time digital really did create a new way into our future world where our children and the world come together to embrace the future together – in communities that have no borders, no restraints and no issues, except to exist together.

A digital environment that will be much more about how to live everywhere and not about where you came from.

Therefore, we are here to look at digital stocks that can be the part of the successors in the market. Some of these digital groups are also old and grew up around the old rule books, however, most will adapt to the future much easier than the markets today and the rules and regulations that were built when words like blockchain, cryptocurrencies, clouds and 5G were words of dreams to come and not the future we are now in presently.

Therefore for the benefit of the administrations that still exist at this time, let us look at some of the digital stocks that we believe can not only work through this but grow and flourish in the future…and also deal with some of the political and government-driven issues for today.

If we look at digital stocks from the perspective of the ‘old’ geographical administration, then we would, therefore, have to accept the anti-trust of Chinese technologies and its government, which is causing ripples throughout the world (including for the Chinese), as well as countries from the western hemisphere and impacting a number of technology companies – in both directions.

It is interesting to be sitting here, in London, England, using a Chinese made IBM machine and sending the notes through a Chinese made 220 Megabits 5G system in a country that has suddenly decided that it is wrong to deal with China.

However, we also are still in the midst of ‘what is and where is COVID-19 going’, which has created its own global impact on all types of companies and people. With these factors in mind, we have been looking more at stocks which are resilient, established, global and ones that are benefitting from and taking advantage of the entire environment.

In reviewing this, ‘we’ as a team, are collaborating on this stock pick together, and are avoiding FinTech as there are many companies in the sector which should be addressed separately.  So, for this article, we chose four that stand out.

1. Microsoft

COVID has turned companies into remote working clouds of staff which suddenly required the ability to be able to work efficiently and effectively from home. VPN’s were opened up and laptops purchased in bulk leading to many shortages of stock. Microsoft has been developing their Office 365 suite for a number of years and a wonderful example is how Microsoft Teams was built on Skype for business. It was the perfect timing of advertising Teams, which is free with Office 365 plans, which then led to vast uptake from businesses of many sizes. This, hand in hand with a security flaw in Zoom, meant that CISOs were pushing for the migration to the 365 platform in droves. With many businesses deciding that remote working is actually good for them, it seems that Microsoft are rocketing through the uptake of their platform, along with a long-anticipated and imminent release of Teams 2020. One potential impact to Microsoft could be the negative sentiments regarding datacentre technologies and the potential life after the big cloud providers; however, we think they are certainly in a good position for now.

2. Dynatrace

Dynatrace provides software intelligence to simplify enterprise cloud complexity and accelerate digital transformation. This company has been on my radar for a while now. Early versions were quite clunky, but the technology has matured very well. They have pulled in a nice selection of Enterprise clients, boosting their profile in the technology sector. With the fact that more cloud solutions are being implemented daily, Dynatrace is becoming a powerhouse of monitoring solutions. Add to this their maturing AI service, Davis and they are now reducing the requirements on Network Operations Centres (NOCs), meaning return on investment (ROI) is quite rapid. Again, COVID-19 is likely to boost sales with the migration of enterprise solutions and infrastructure to the cloud.

3. Akamai Technologies Inc

Akamai Technologies Inc (AKAM) is a global content delivery network that also specialises in cloud services and cybersecurity. This is an interesting one for me and I’m currently able to take advantage of the increase in cloud deployments and cybersecurity threats. In 2019, Akamai partnered with Microsoft to integrate into the Azure platform for their Content Delivery Network (CDN) and with a targeted approach to credential threats, they are in a very good position to leverage the current COVID-19 landscape. Why? Because as many have witnessed, the increase of remote workers and cloud users has provided a perfect opportunity for cybercriminals to exploit.

4. Tower Semiconductor

Tower Semiconductor (NASDAQ/TASE: TSEM) manufactures integrated circuits using speciality process technologies, including SiGe, BiCMOS, SOI, mixed-signal and RFCMOS, CMOS image sensors, non-imaging sensors, power management, and non-volatile memory as well as MEMS capabilities. With the increasing migration of computation to edge (on device), we are going to place vast demands on devices, data centres and infrastructure as a whole. With 5G looming and even in place in certain environments, the demands are only going to increase. Manufacturing systems are fast adopting IoT and this will exponentially increase demand too. Tower Semiconductor are developing ultra-fast products to deliver the speed required both now and into the future. With the increase of home workers too, they are in a very good position.

One of the major issues in the future will be: Where will the ‘oldies’ fit in the new ‘digital’ world, and that in itself is a much more politically focused debate. However, it does raise a question that will also be relevant for all commercial businesses today.

How much further can an old and fixed slow governance system formed around a geographic border keep up with where the world is going now? How does it adapt itself to a much more globally needed relationship in partnership and collaboration for the benefits of all in this world?

Perhaps in our near future and for the first time, the ‘oldies’ should be ready to shuck off its old clothes and start swimming and leading for the future of a truly global business and personal community for everyone.

And that means that doing deals with companies from countries that provide the very best technologies.

Below Nic Redfern, Finance Director at Know Your Money, discusses the potential for a four-day work week and how that could work in today’s busy working environment, particularly for the finance sector.

Despite the above changes, there are some aspects of work that have remained somewhat constant, and one of those is the 5-day 9 to 5 working week. This makes sense. The 9-5 offers a relatively good balance for allowing workers time to rest, and for employers to reach maximal productivity.

However, technological advancements have changed the way in which employees are able to connect to their offices. Laptops, smartphones, and of course, the internet have transformed workplace connectivity, so employees can connect with their offices at any location, at any time. Thus, people are now beginning to question whether the regimented 9-to-5 working day is fit for purpose.

The rise of flexible working

With this challenge has come the rise of flexible working; an approach which grants employees greater freedom to organise their own working day. It has clearly grown in popularity amongst the UK’s workforce. Indeed, in a recent survey of 2,000 UK adults in fulltime employment, Know Your Money revealed that 71% of people believe that flexible working is highly important to their overall job satisfaction.

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Perhaps unsurprisingly, flexible working can be adjusted to meet the various needs of individual employees. For some it may mean coming into work later in the day to do the school run or working at home to avoid a long commute. For these individuals, flexible working can provide a huge help. Evidence also suggests that flexible working doesn’t just benefit the individual. Indeed, the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development recently released new guidance on flexible working which cited numerous cases where employees experiences boosts in morale, motivation and productivity as a result of the policy. Thus, one could infer that the flexible working revolution is definitely blazing the trail for employee wellbeing.

However, over the last few months, particular attention has been drawn to an alternative working structure: the four-day working week. This concept has gained momentum amongst many employees, the aforementioned research from Know Your Money revealing that three quarters of survey respondents would be in favour working additional hours over four days if it meant having the fifth away from the office.

But will it work in reality?

It is possible to see the attraction of a four-day working week. Firstly, an additional day away from the office provides employees the opportunity to create a healthier work-life balance. What’s more, there is also a business case in favour of the system. Trials in New Zealand and Microsoft Japan have shown that productivity can improve significantly with a reduced working week – as well as improving working morale.

However, it’s not going to be an easy policy to adopt, and various issues could present themselves throughout implementation.

Firstly, it would be wrong to assume that the four-day week is merely an extension of flexible working. Whilst some employees might assume that it will mean they can dictate their own working week – for example, not working at all on Fridays or stretching out their hours over seven days rather than condensing them into four days – the reality will be very different. Managers will find it impossible to implement numerous structures which simultaneously ensure employees work the exact hours they want and maintaining business performance. So, in reality, it is likely that four-day working weeks would create greater regimentation within the workplace, therefore undermining the principle of flexible working.

In reality, it is likely that four-day working weeks would create greater regimentation within the workplace, therefore undermining the principle of flexible working.

Further, the adoption of flexible working would require a massive overhaul of the working structure of a business. This would inevitably require major financial and resource commitments, which some organisations might not be able to provide. So, whilst at face value it may seem easy to assume the policy would simply mean closing the office for an extra day, the reality is far more complex.

So, what are the next steps for companies?

The most important thing to remember is that your workforce is the life and soul of your operation, without which you would not be able to operate. To retain and embolden them, adaptation might be necessary; indeed, more than one in four (28%) of the workforce have left their company over the last 12 months because the role was not flexible enough. So, open and honest discussions between employees and employers are vital. Only then will managers be able to understand the needs of their workforce.

After careful consideration, it is them up to decision makers to consider what kind of flexible working, or week length, is right for them. As with all business decisions, it will not be a case of one size fits all. To assume as much could ultimately harm employee satisfaction, and overall business performance.