Member Info for 1pencil

If correct, we should be due a TR1 for Aberforth Smaller Companies, according to Morningstar their holding increased to 29,847,930 during Nov, that would take them to around 4.5%

> buying > funds

https://www.morningstar.com/stocks/xlon/sfor/ownership

S4 at 75 end of Sept

https://www.aberforth.co.uk/trusts-and-funds/aberforth-smaller-companies-trust-plc/portfolio/

In 2021, Amazon's device chief, Dave Limp, predicted that "within 5 to 10 years, we believe every home will have at least one robot," becoming part of daily life.

This was part of a statement issued when they were buying iRobot

In March of 2025 iRobot said:

In March, iRobot warned there’s “substantial doubt” about its ability to stay in business.

Also in 2021

The move would be notable for the Facebook parent company, which changed its name to Meta in October 2021 to signal its pivot beyond social media.

Zuckerberg said at the time that “the metaverse is the next frontier just like social networking was when we got started.”

In 2025

Meta’s Reality Labs unit, which develops the Quest family of VR headsets and Ray-Ban and Oakley AI smart glasses, reported a $4.4 billion loss in the company’s most recent quarter.

The division had recorded over $70 billion in cumulative losses since late 2020 as of the third-quarter report.

The only way to truly understand the Ai tools are to have a go using them, it becomes very obvious very quickly there is a big gap between what people expect and what is actually involved, at least that's my experience.

Lets say at a very basic level you use an image generator to produce a new company logo, very easy to do with multiple options but here's a few questions remaining.

1. Does it for in with our corporate identity ?

2. is it what customers what or recognise ?

3. Will it alienate our loyal customer base ?

4. The edges look all blurry when its enlarged

5. Does it infringe upon other designs out there ?

You may only create a new logo every 20 years, is it worth having your own in-house agency which will need expertise across this landscape ?

According to PWC just 6% of the global work force use Ai agents every day, not sure if that includes co-pilot but its a marked contrast to what has been promoted even just 12 months ago.

That's a bit of a feisty move there for Boo, nigh on 60% - REVB also up 11% with some director buying, Puma shares jump on bid interest too.

We maybe seeing a relief rally on retail post budget, I think the view is could have been a lot worse..

Boohoo is one of the most piled on stocks, look what happened today with a positive update no one saw coming, closed up just shy of 60%.

One thing S4 has in its favour is optionality, lots of levers that can be pulled to unlock share holder value, some ideas below:

> Sale of non core assets

> Sale of equity holding in S4V

>Diversify away from tech companies

>Merge with a symbiotic partner

>Stanhope/Private equity step in and take the company private

S4 would make a good bolt on I am sure, the Golden Share is a bit of a red herring imo, it made not a jot of difference when Matt renounced his early, in fact the share price dropped by c 8% on the day..

Its speculative of course but the value is there for someone to unlock..

This is a condensed list of news and acquisitions from S4 web site, in terms of purchase costs its all a bit vague with various formulas involved, however the three that are easily to calculate are - monks, Mighty Hive and Firewood with a combined purchase cost of $650m assuming targets were met.

Is there any value int these companies as stand alone businesses, can we sell them off to reduce leverage - I have no idea, but as shareholders we should really have a better understanding of the companies assets, I can't believe they are all duds..

Media.Monks rebrands as Monks

Formula Consultants merger to create Formula. Monks, a strategic combination with our existing technology agencies TheoremOne, Zemoga and Proof

Announcement of combination between Media.Monks and 4 Mile Analytics

Announcement of combination between Media.Monks and TheoremOne

Announcement of a conditional combination between XX Artists and Media.Monks

Announcements of combination of MediaMonks with TOMORROW and STAUD STUDIOS

MightyHive acquired the assets of Datalicious Australia

Announcement of conditional agreement to combine MediaMonks and Jam3, completed in May

Announcement of agreement to combine MightyHive and Raccoon

Announcement of combination of Destined and MediaMonks

MediaMonks and MightyHive into one brand - Media.Monks

Announcement of combinations of Cashmere and Zemoga with Media.Monks

Announcement of combination of Miyagi and Media.Monks

Announcement of combination of Maverick and Media.Monks

Announcement of combination of MediaMonks with Circus Marketing

Announcement of combination of MightyHive with Digodat

Announcement of combination of MightyHive with Lens10

Announcement of combination of MightyHive with Orca Pacific

Announcement of combination of MightyHive with Brightblue

Announcement of combination of MediaMonks with Dare.Win

Business combinations of MediaMonks with Decoded and MightyHive with Metric Theory

Caramel Pictures acquired by MediaMonks

Combination of MightyHive with ProgMedia

Announcement of combination of MediaMonks with BizTech

Combination of MediaMonks with IMA

Combination of MediaMonks with Firewood Marketing

Combination of MightyHive with ConversionWorks

Announcement of combination of MediaMonks with WhiteBalance

Formation and initial funding of S4Capital plc

Combined with digital content production company MediaMonks

Combined with programmatic company MightyHive

Well thats the budget out of the way, might shovel some cash into the markets with a cut on cash ISA's next year.

Keep a mince pie on the pound as I am sure S4 are too, this is the one variable outside of tech spending that can help make a difference to year end, maybe this is why the range is so high...

Wes & Co bought 1m shares not the other way around.

I think he is on the hook for a few more than that Nig, this from Oct 2019, share price was around 150p mark back then.

'Sir Martin Sorrell has spent almost £13million buying 9m shares in his agency S4 Capital.'

That was linked in part to Firewood Marketing, S4 have bought an astonishing amount of companies in the past..

S4 Capital signs $150 million deal with Silicon Valley’s largest digital marketing firm

Published Tue, Oct 8 2019

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/08/s4-capital-in-150-million-deal-with-digital-marketing-firm-firewood.html

This from the 24 AR, the carrying balance is nominal so no clues there:

The Group, through its subsidiary S4Capital 2 Limited a directly owned subsidiary, together

with Stanhope Capital LLP (Stanhope LLP), through its subsidiary Portman Square General

Partner S.à r.l. (Stanhope), subscribed for the initial €6,000 of shares each to incorporate

S4S Ventures General Partner S.à r.l. (GP), a Luxembourg company. The GP also controls

S4S Ventures General Partner LLC. The GP has since established two S4S Ventures funds

established in Luxembourg and the US.

The Group has a 50% interest in the GP (2023: 50%), a joint venture whose primary activity

s to invest in technology companies focused on the marketing and advertising

industries, to focus on early-stage technology investments with the ability to transform

the sector. S4S aims to invest in companies across five principal areas: Martech, Adtech,

Data Technology, Creative Technology, and Emerging Digital Media/Content.

The range for net debt even in yesterdays forecast remains wide at 'year end net debt remains £100 million to £140 million.', I think what they are doing is seeing how the dollar moves which is currently moving in our favour, that's cash straight to the bottom line.

What exactly is S4 Capital relationship with S4 Ventures ?

There's a whole bunch of companies listed as part of their portfolio but the one that interests me most is Runway

https://runwayml.com/

Good post S4, I would like to see some proactive moves to unlock shareholder value similar to THG with Claremont, we don't know the value of their investments S4Ventures unless they IPO, its on the balance sheet but still unsure if it forms part of S4 Capital ?

We need a breakout of S4 Ventures now while Ai is at the forefront, companies like Runway are in the media regularly - now might be a good time to realise some of that investment.

The acquisition of monks and MightyHive cost $500m in aggregate, SMS put in £53m of his own money to get the ball rolling, yet we are now valued at c£110m

If debt level is ahead of forecast maybe they will keep it, agree, something hasn't materialised in October that was due.

S4 has to be a contender for the most continuous profit warnings of any listed company, quite an accolade - how does SMS now get up on stage and tell everyone how the media world is and more importantly where its going.

On the plus side someone appears to be buying..

Agreed, guidance is truly shocking, that's not even three weeks since last trading update and already its changed for the worse.

I still have a lot of faith in Martin, he is a consummate deal maker of epic proportions - I am sure he doesn't want this to be his legacy so something will change, either a buy out/merger/takeover or the market will improve.

I would have thought Wes & Co are still onboard and supportive with their recent purchase, last years AGM vote also gave Martin over 98% of the vote to re-elect.

To my knowledge there has been no market sales from directors, only buys some at much higher levels too.

Its always darkest before the dawn

NIVIDIA closed down 3% yesterday on what appeared to be good numbers beating forecasts, perhaps realisation is finally setting in..?

They say a picture paints a thousand words well..bit of humour before the weekend : )

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15309605

There's a really good interview with Anthropics CEO where he talks about the potential of Ai in euphoric terms, halfway through they interview the head of tech without him, he says they can't trust it to look after the firms vending machine, worth a listen as quite funny in parts - its on 60 minutes if anyone is interested..

Infrastructure stocks, those which are leveraged and most likely to fail should the plates stop spinning.

Coreweave is a good example, should be flying but..

CoreWeave, Inc. (CRWV)

69.36 -5.56 -7.39%

I think it would be helpful to define what Ai means in relation to S4, the term is so generic it covers everything really which may in turn lead to some confusion.

Certainly punching above their weight for a small UK company, some background on Snickers across the pond..

https://www.snickers.com/our-story

Snickers originated in the US way back, highly recognised brand especially if they can get it into existing accounts such as Walmart and other big box stores..

https://www.walmart.com/browse/health/all-protein-supplements/myprotein/976760_1166769_9231506/YnJhbmQ6TXlwcm90ZWlu

Still need rates to come down though and get past this budget..

That wasn't how it was structured though, it was geared to allow everyone to participate regardless of financial situation.

Please also remember this is the stock market before quoting personal tax incentives such as ISA's and so forth, I didn't say 'offer' I said allocation in my post which is correct.

At the time there were a number of posters asking what would be the best option, so I am sure this forum had some influence at the time.

It was only a few weeks ago they signed a massive deal with Meta to fund their Louisiana data centre complex

Meta partners with Blue Owl Capital on $27 billion AI data center project

Meta said Tuesday that it formed a joint venture agreement with Blue Owl Capital in a deal worth $27 billion to fund and develop the massive Hyperion data center in rural Louisiana.

The asset management firm will own 80% in the joint venture, while Meta will retain a 20% stake and oversee the construction and property management services of the data center.

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/OWL/