#competition

Optimum's outlook 'more aspirational than realistic' – analyst
Optimum's new multi-year outlook sees its broadband business stabilizing at 3.8 million subs by the end of 2028. That's a 'tall order,' says New Street Research, which expects broadband losses to continue.

Picture of Jeff Baumgartner
Jeff Baumgartner,Senior Editor,Light Reading
June 10, 2026

For more than a decade, Comcast and Charter operated broadband internet businesses that were monopolies in everything but name. When a company passes a cable past 100 homes and 53 of those homes buy internet service from them — representing nearly 70% of every actual internet-buying household — that is not a competitive market. That is captive demand. Customers stayed not because the product was superior, but because there was no alternative.

That era is over. It is not ending gradually. It is ending structurally, simultaneously, and permanently across multiple dimensions at once.

The competitive as--ult is coming from every direction. Fiber providers — led by AT&T, which is building 5 million new fiber locations every year through the end of the decade, and Verizon, which acquired Frontier to assemble a 30-million-location national fiber network — are overbuilding cable's footprint at an accelerating pace. Fiber now passes more than 60% of US homes. Where fiber arrives, cable loses approximately one-third of its subscribers — not over time, but immediately and durably. Fiber customers don't come back. Fixed wireless from T-Mobile and Verizon has already attracted 16 million subscribers nationally and capacity is still expanding. Starlink is beginning to address suburban markets at the margin. Charter's CEO described the competitive environment in plain language: it is "not letting up."

The businesses in secular decline are the core businesses. Broadband — the segment representing more than half of both companies' enterprise value — is losing subscribers every quarter with no visible floor. Penetration has fallen from 53% toward 47% and the structural math, applied to AT&T's declared buildout trajectory, points to 38-42% by 2030. Video is losing 3,500 customers per day and will continue doing so until the subscriber base reaches a small residual of customers with no alternatives. Wireline voice is effectively already gone. These are not cyclical downturns. They are one-way technology and market transitions.

The responses available to management make things worse, not better. To slow broadband subscriber losses, Comcast cut prices and locked customers into five-year rate agreements — surrendering pricing power permanently. Charter chose the opposite: protect ARPU, absorb the subscriber losses. Neither path leads to stability. Both companies are investing billions in network upgrades that are defensive in nature — spending capital to stay competitive, not to grow. The wireless businesses are real but structurally parasitic on the broadband base they depend on. If the base shrinks, the wireless ceiling shrinks with it.

The hard reality for the coming years is that two of America's largest companies face simultaneous volume and price pressure in their most important businesses, rising capital requirements to remain competitive, and a competitive landscape that is accelerating rather than stabilizing. The monopoly that sustained their economics for a decade has been replaced by genuine, well-funded, structurally superior competition. What took a decade to build is unwinding in years. There is no technology upgrade, no acquisition, and no promotional campaign that reverses a fiber buildout already written into AT&T's capital plan through 2030.

The ice is melting. The question is only how fast.

More layoffs are coming this summer, and will continue to come as long as they bleed customers.

Productivity is several times lower than competitors, employee morale has hit an all‑time low, revenue growth is far behind the rest of the industry, and customers are developing AI tools better than us.

If I were in his position, I would initiate a targeted layoff focused on non‑essential roles immediately, followed by a clear public commitment that no major workforce reductions will occur for the next one to two years. This would stabilize the organization, reduce uncertainty, and allow remaining employees to focus on execution rather than worrying about job security.

What is your thought?

The Existential Threat -- what is Verizon's strategic plan or more importantly an imminent plan to diffuse the potential diminishing of the wireless market share??

The products, service plans, rendered by SpaceX and Amazon -- technologically satellite internet??

Mr. Schulman you are a friend of Elon's so we-ponize to create powerful combinations!!!

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/03/att-downgraded-ahead-of-spacex-ipo-on-coming-broadband-competition-from-starlink.html

It’s over y’all!

Our closest competitor is ki-ling us.

Chinese sportswear company snags Curry

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/48940127/stephen-curry-signs-chinese-sportswear-company-li-ning

9.7B dollar Gov contract can't have been won fairly... maybe some bias here ya think?

Is this going to be a game changer for Voyix restaurants? Will Voyix finally be able to compete with Toast?

Just a thought, maybe start chasing VAST/Weka/Qumulo before they eat all your NAS lunch?

Just another reason to change up the agency model and contracts. Wake-up people…

So basically, Bridgeport Partners owns CSI, which competes with Fiserv, and now they’re being brought in to run parts of our business — are things really that bad?

Dont know how we are doing with competition.

Go-Go has been saying for a while now that the “Transformation” that he’s inflicted on the company are going to show real results in the year 2027.
Things are going to have to pickup pretty soon because we’re nearly 5 months into 2026 and our stock is still badly lagging our 2 main competitors stock price.

Multiple gambling companies announced layoffs this week. Penn Entertainment cut over 75 employees from its interactive division. Gambling.com Group reduced its workforce by 25%, impacting around 150 people. LSports, an Israeli data provider, also laid off 39 employees. AI adoption, slowing growth, and new competition drive these cuts. The online gambling industry faces a broader recalibration.

https://frontofficesports.com/gambling-layoffs-pile-up-as-sports-betting-industry-recalibrates/

That might complicate business for Nike since biggest team dealer for Nike is BSN (overwhelmingly) and they are already part of KKR.

So KKR will own UA and do business with NIKE. Will they be fair with Nike or use Nike while they support their own UA. That is intriguing.

Once again, Nike in their hubris went around closing almost all of the independent team dealers. And pivoted all of the Nike's team business with BSN. Another brilliant march towards corner by our smart former CEOs MP and JD. They thought that they will maximize the profit if they deal with one big guy. Hmmm....yes but if that strategy turns against you then it might ki-l you too. LOL
BSN has already been producing their private label apparels. And if it gets supported by UA then they don't need Nike.
One time, I talked to former BSN VP and he was not too happy that they have order too much futures because Nike demands it therefore eating their profits. Maybe they won't be forced to order too much futures with UA that owned by KKR.
Since Nike has no other option, they might have to continue to do business with BSN even if they emphasize on their own brands.

One of the scenario is that they might sever ties with Nike and go exclusively with UA.
That would be devastating to Nike since Nike don't have anyone as big as BSN when it comes to team items. Eastbay had team business but they have closed their business.

And I don't know how Nike will combat KKR if it really happens since Nike is pauper compared to KKR. Yes, KKR has more money than GOD.

That was brilliant MP and JD. It was your fault

Currently, BSN is serving Nike's key high schools like Mater Dei, St. John Bosco, de la Salle on behalf of Nike, all over the USA. They might try to sign those school for themselves.
Once again, KKR has more money than God. And in addition to it Nike stock is totally depressed now and losing their shirts in China (3 billion feet). I am not sh-t talking it is in today WSJ.

Nike is currently a company that has Plan A but no Plan B nor Plan C. Why? Becuase they ki-led them all. The little account that is.

Did you see some of their World Cup kits? We could learn a thing or two from them at this point. At least somebody still seems capable of putting out work people get excited about.

Given the times what happening around the world, internal struggling, competitors with strong growth day by day, no wonder stock going down.

Online marketing company ZoomInfo plans to eliminate 600 jobs. This represents about 20% of its global workforce. The news accompanied weak financial results, sending the company's stock down 28% to an all-time low. ZoomInfo reported flat sales of $310 million in the first quarter of 2026. Investors are increasingly concerned about competition from artificial intelligence.

Vancouver, Washington

https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/2026/05/vancouver-company-will-lay-off-600-worldwide-stock-falls-to-all-time-low.html

A lot of my coworkers are jumping ship to join Wells Fargo. What is the deal?

I work for Q, but I hate working here enough to buy its competitor's flagship.

While you are busy Mickey Mousing, cutting and laying off people every month without solving big problem. There is a marauder on the horizon. And I am afraid they are here is to conquer you.
And I am talking about Chinese Shoe Makers. Yes, those people that were making your contract Nikes are now have grown up.
I was at GuangZhou about 30 days ago and I had to admit that I was impressed of Anta and Li Ning. And the energy and motivation that I felt from them was same one that I got from Nike during 90s.
Just like Nike of yesterday years, NO was not an answer. Arrogance, entitlement, overconfidence was not with them yet.
And they are ready to expand. They conquered China and Asia. Now they are eyeing towards America.

Get your A game out!!

Or one IT design from Anta and it will leave Nike in the dust.

Albertsons is undertaking a new restructuring. Two retail locations in Texas ceased operations. This impacted 138 individuals. A major acquisition attempt involving Kroger collapsed. The company now faces intense competition alone.

Texas

https://internationalsupermarketnews.com/albertsons-at-a-crossroads-store-closures-layoffs-and-the-aftermath-of-a-failed-merger/

Adidas told Kanye West to pack it up and took the hit. Cleaned house. Nike keeps doubling down with Travis Scott looking for a shortcut to relevance.
Adidas reports earnings and the stock jumps. Nike reports earnings and the stock drops.
Adidas is back to making gear for actual athletes. Winning marathons, on the feet of the best young footballers, everywhere that performance still matters. Nike feels like it is selling nostalgia and hoping the logo carries it.

Look at basketball. Adidas got Anthony Edwards. Electric, marketable, and compared to Ja Morant headlines he looks like a saint. One company reset and moved forward. The other one is going to to keep slimming down to greatness… make it make sense.

The Missed Targets Report
​A report (notably from the Wall Street Journal) revealed that OpenAI failed to meet several key internal goals:

​User Growth: ChatGPT failed to reach its goal of 1 billion weekly active users by the end of 2025.

​Revenue: The company missed multiple monthly revenue targets in early 2026.

​Competition: Competitors like Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude are reportedly eating into OpenAI’s market share, particularly in the high-value coding and enterprise sectors.

For all the Nike hype and innovation that went into the Breaking Two event, I think it's pretty hilarious that it was a couple of ADIDAS runners that broke two hours and set the world record in the marathon in an actual official race!

A great achievement for mankind. Another failure for Nike.

https://wwd.com/footwear-news/sneaker-news/adidas-sneaker-london-marathon-records-1238929791/

Every so often I read a press release put out by some competitor that hired away one of our WMAs. They try to puff themselves up by saying “Stiffo Nickelback adds Billion dollar TIAA broker…”. What a joke. As if that advisor is going to bring over every account they ever touched. The truth is that the vast majority of those accounts barely know the name of the advisor without looking at their paperwork. The joke is on Stiffo Nickelback when that advisor’s non-compete is over and they can’t lure more than a few accounts because they really didn’t have any real wealth management relationship with the client beyond the initial sale. I’ve seen several articles in the past with different shops bragging about bringing over some “big hitter” advisor from TIAA. There is a huge difference between the quality of relationships for a wirehouse broker with a legit billion dollar book and a TIAA advisor who has 1200 accounts assigned to them and their assistant WMA. I enjoy knowing that these ex-WMAs who over sell themselves will be cut down to size when they can’t deliver

That is the exact message being sent with the appointment of HON to CEO of Lululemon. It’s disgusting that this website continues to censor every post like we are in greater china (with CS!) ha

Jokes aside, this is a serious matter - what is truly wrong with the world when the message is sent that you can destroy one of the biggest brands in the world and then get rewarded by becoming the ceo of a competitor. Absolutely egregious.

I’m sure this post will be deleted as everything is ultra censored on here but hopefully the message will come thru.

at least 'the other' company in OR is doing well

My wife's company used NetSuite as its accounting system. They paid the yearly software subscription fee, plus the technical support fee. Now it's coming time to renew, and NetSuite wanted to charge 25% more than last year, with no support.

They declined, and are now going with a competitor. Not a huge dollar amount in the grand scheme of things, but another loss for O makes me happy!

Is it now a fact that Sony won and Microsoft will simply lick its wounds and step away from Xbox and gaming in general? Am I being too paranoid, because that's certainly how it feels to me.

Look at what this company is dealing with. Debt that keeps growing. Competition that keeps getting stronger. Lawsuits that never seem to end. Any one of those would be bad, but all three together? I don't see a way out.

Central Garden & Pet will close its Henrico facility. This closure will result in 94 employee layoffs. Operations are consolidating to an existing New Jersey facility. The company cited increased competition and market pressures. The wind-down process is expected to finalize by June 30.

Henrico, Virginia

https://richmondbizsense.com/2026/04/16/homegrown-pet-treat-brand-best-bully-sticks-closing-henrico-facility-laying-off-dozens/

European oil refining margins turn negative, bucking global trend
4/14/2026 12:00:00 PM

European refining margins turn negative despite record fuel prices, IEA and traders report
Asian refiners' competition for crude drives up costs, squeezing European margins
Simpler European refineries may cut runs if margin pressure persists, analysts and sources say
European oil refining margins have turned negative, lagging stronger margins in Asia and the U.S., as competition for crude from Asian buyers due to the Iran war drives up costs even as fuel prices hit record highs, according to IEA data and trade sources.

Northwest European light sweet hydroskimming margins dropped to an average of minus $6.45 a barrel in the week beginning April 6, the IEA said in its monthly report.

Margins for medium sour cracking were also in negative territory, the data showed. Light sweet cracking margins remain positive, though they have also weakened significantly.

The margin squeeze is a consequence of the surge in physical crude prices to record highs as the war in Iran disrupts Middle East flows.

The narrowing European margin effectively shows that these plants would be running at a loss, and is likely to prompt some to process less crude into fuels, analysts said.

Simpler European refineries, which lack upgrading units to extract more higher-value products such as jet fuel, could be forced to trim runs if margins remain under pressure, though there is no sign of widespread cuts yet, trading sources said.

"As things stand, Europe is going to cut utilization," Sparta Commodities analyst Neil Crosby said, adding that runs could fall by as much as 500,000 barrels per day.

Asian competition for crude drives up prices. By contrast, in the U.S. Gulf, heavy sour coking margins strengthened last week compared with the March average, IEA data showed. In Singapore, similarly, medium sour cracking margins were also stronger last week than their March averages.

The squeeze in Europe reflects rising crude costs as Asian refiners compete aggressively for cargoes, several trading sources said, as well as higher operating costs such as for electricity and natural gas.

"It's typical of these crises," said a trading source at a European refinery. "Fuel cracks rise first, but as crude and other costs adjust, margins get dented." He added that their margin dropped from about $30 a barrel in the first week of the conflict to just over $4 currently.

The squeeze comes after margins globally soared in March, with those in Europe reaching record highs.

In Singapore, the IEA said, margins in March were some 14-fold higher than February levels, while in northwest Europe light sweet hydroskimming margins in March were more than nine times higher than in February at $15.20 a barrel.

Some refiners even delayed planned shutdowns to take advantage of the higher fuel prices.

Italy's 300,000 barrel per day Sarroch refinery, for instance, pushed a maintenance shutdown from late March to mid-May, industry monitor IIR said. The refinery's operator, Vitol, declined to comment.

https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2026/04/european-oil-refining-margins-turn-negative-bucking-global-trend/

All we do is new marketing brands

I would be curious to hear from folks that feel like they aren’t being considered for spots due to age. I know I have two other bad marks against me, white and male. But I’d honestly like to hear some feedback. More me personally I keep getting told it’s competitive out there but then I think maybe they forget that emails go out with who got selected for positions.

From product I see, adidas is about to pull the ki-l shot and eliminate Nike from performance running.

Not to mention legit running brands with top innovation ASICS, Brooks, Saucony with Hoka, New Balance and ON taking casual running.

Is it true that parts of the business are about to sold off?
FMS, that’s Mono pumps is apparently about to be sold one of its larger competitors!
If it’s true then it’s great that we will soon be managed more professionally but I’m sure it will lead to cuts as they have a lot of duplication of roles!
Brush up on your German guys, it’s about to get interesting

Doesn't Amazon S3 Files thing completely annihilate one of netapps' core revenue streams?

The company eventually achieved the Grand or GRAT target of 50 billion.
Well done, you may have sold your sole to do it.

Now, well the market is always hard, and these businesses, International Footwear and Apparel are competitive, fickle, and were roiled by COVID and Now Tariffs.

A managed teconstruction to a profitable 35 billion dollar firm, with International Licensees, like China would certainly serve TAK better.