Control issues

Getting QWERTY with it at Logitech

Good morning, gadget gurus. This is your Stock Market Rundown for May 8th, 2024. Thanks for pointing and clicking. Let’s get into it:

TODAY’S TOP STORY: CLICK CHAMPIONS

Some brands are hip and aspirational. Think Apple and their sleek designs, or trendy Beats headphones. Then there’s Logitech. 

The 35-year-old computer accessory maker has never been considered cool. But most of us have our fingers on its products every day, thanks to Logitech’s vast catalog of mice, keyboards, webcams, and other peripherals. Okay, they may not be the sexiest, but the price is right.

Based in Switzerland, Logitech launched its dominance of global desks when it introduced the first-ever wireless mouse in 1984. It later expanded into accessory categories from gaming to videoconferencing. 

(The ill-fated submarine that imploded in 2023 famously used a Logitech game controller to pilot the vessel… which worked out about as well as you’d expect.)

Logitech’s market capitalization tripled during the pandemic as work-from-home became our grim reality, and everybody needed a fully-equipped home office. But when panny wrapped up and folks returned to the office, sales plummeted. Understandable… I mean, how many keyboards do we really need?

Now it seems like the slump might be over: Logitech just reported its first quarterly sales increase in two years. Why not support them by treating yourself to the Logitech Lightspeed wireless gaming mouse? It’s ergonomic.

SO WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

• Doordash’s stock took a dive as management said this quarter’s profit will disappoint. Costs are ratcheting up due to higher delivery-worker pay. Instead of a raise, how about they can steal a few of our fries? 

• Online platform Etsy missed estimates due to lower demand for the handcrafted items made by its vendors. Problem with making earrings that look like carrots or a toadstool-shaped cat bed: there are dozens of factories in Guangdong doing the same thing—cheaper.

• Soon your Android smartphone will be smarter than you. Qualcomm, the world’s biggest supplier of chips for mobile devices, reported a strong quarter as AI features drove demand for more computing power.

• Auction site EBay forecasted a weak quarter as shoppers pared back spending. When people are price-squeezed at the grocery store, they’re not logging onto  EBay to pick up a 1986 Fleer Michael Jordan rookie card.

That’s it for today, my friends; catch you back here at the usual time tomorrow morning.  Yours in capitalism, The Axe

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