After taking down Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk started the idea of Coca-Cola again.
On April 28, Musk tweeted, "Next I'm going to buy Coca-Cola and reintroduce cocaine." ”
Some netizens posted a picture of Coca-Cola containing 3.5 grams of cocaine, which was first sold publicly in 1894, and left a message to Musk saying "bring it back." Musk replied, "Kill Red Bull!" ”
However, this move is considered by many to be another joke of Musk's "hi hi".
$284.2 billion in "hard currency"
As of the U.S. stock market close on April 27, Coca-Cola was worth $284.2 billion, while the Bloomberg Billionaires List showed Musk's net worth of $263 billion. In addition, after the completion of the acquisition of Twitter, Musk will also be saddled with a lot of debt. Buying Coca-Cola like Twitter is no easy task for Musk.
Coca-Cola share price
Musk is number one on bloomberg's billionaire list
According to the financial report, Coca-Cola's net revenue in the first quarter of this year was $10.491 billion, an increase of 16% year-on-year (compared with the same period last year), exceeding market expectations of $9.83 billion; net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies (hereinafter referred to as "net profit") was $2.793 billion, an increase of 24% year-on-year. Earnings per share were $0.64, up 23% year-over-year and higher than market expectations of $0.58.
At the same time, as one of the two major bottlers of Coca-Cola in China, Swire Coca-Cola's soda revenue in the Chinese mainland market last year increased by 14% over the previous year.
In recent years, with the improvement of people's health awareness, Coca-Cola, which is characterized by high sugar and carbonic acid, has been sung down by market analysts several times.
However, during the recent epidemic period, the red can Coca-Cola has broken through in a number of epidemic prevention materials, becoming a bottle of "happy water" and a "hard currency" for barters for people in home isolation. And that confirms Buffett's explanation of Coca-Cola's "moat," which has a very loyal, deep-rooted customer base that makes it difficult for any competitor to steal business from it.
Buy Coca-Cola, will Buffett agree?
It is worth mentioning that the "stock god" Warren Buffett has a rather "long affection" for The Coca-Cola Company, and has been firmly holding it since Buffett bought it in 1988. As of the end of last year, Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, held a 9.2 percent stake in Coca-Cola.
This is not the first time Musk has played against Buffett. The two sides have previously engaged in a spat over the concept of a "moat" and Berkshire's Heshi Candy.
Musk said at Tesla's earnings conference on May 3, 2018, that "moat" is a very stupid concept and vulnerable.
However, the concept of "moat" is precisely what Buffett pushed, which means that when a company has a huge competitive advantage, it is like having a wide moat. Coca-Cola and Xishi Candy are typical representatives of companies that have a "moat" in Buffett's eyes.
Two days later, at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting on May 5, 2018, Buffett responded that the rapid advances in technology in recent years have made more moats vulnerable, but the concept of "moats" remains crucial, with moats of some companies now more difficult to invade than ever before.
Buffett also used the example of Hesis Candy and said, "I don't think he (Musk) is going to compete with us in candy, I don't think he's our opponent in this regard." ”
Musk immediately confronted Buffett on Twitter, saying he wanted to set up a candy company.
Musk then tweeted and added: "Okay, okay, just to argue, what candy do you expect my candy company to produce?" But after a while, he revealed the answer and said, "Crypto Candy."
The reason why he said this is because Buffett is not optimistic about cryptocurrencies, and Buffett also predicted at the shareholders' meeting that cryptocurrencies "will end badly."
Musk then tweeted directly at Buffett, saying that he wanted to build a moat and fill it with candy, "Buffett will not refuse to invest in it." Buffett did not respond to this.
Not long ago, on April 14, in an interview with former CBS host Charlie Ross, Buffett praised Musk. He pointed out that Musk has competed with GM and traditional car companies with "one idea", and he is "winning".
Interestingly, Buffett gave this interview while drinking Coca-Cola.