This is Zack Fuss, an investor at Irenic Capital, and today we’re breaking down MTN Group. MTN is the largest mobile network operator in Africa and one of the 10 largest in the world. It has over 270 million subscribers, operates in 20 different markets, and is also one of the largest FinTech’s in the continent. To break down MTN, I’m joined by Benjamin Isaac, founder and Chief Investment Officer at Brizo Capital. We unpack their mobile money business in some detail, contrast the development of Telcos in Africa with what we’ve experienced in the US, and explore the competitive dynamics of operating in Africa. Please enjoy this breakdown of MTN.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors. Stretch your research budget with flexible expert calls you can trust. At a fraction of the cost of traditional expert networks, Tegus customers pay only what an expert charges – with zero markups and no confusing call credits – netting an average 70% savings. Don’t want to conduct a full hour call? Tegus offers the ability to schedule 30-minutes, an offer you won’t find anywhere else. And they don’t stop there. With white-glove custom sourcing for every project and robust compliance measures, including a dedicated 50+ analyst team that vets every call transcript, Tegus ensures your privacy and protection. As the industry innovator for qualitative insights, Tegus helps you find the right experts you need at a quality and speed that can’t be matched. For a limited time, as a listener, you can trial Tegus for free by visiting tegus.co/patrick. ----- Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss | @ReustleMatt | @domcooke Show Notes (00:02:24) - An overview of MTN Group today (00:04:13) - Contextualizing the scale and trajectory of the business vis-à-vis  its strong African demographic (00:05:52) - MTN Group’s unique position in the value chain (00:10:37) - The origin and the evolution of MTN Group (00:13:19) - The business’ current and future revenue models and how they differ domestically and internationally (00:15:52) - Comparing ARPU in North America and Africa (00:18:03) - His take on why the international fintech market is developing as rapidly as it is (00:22:48) - Understanding use cases for MTN Group’s mobile money products (00:27:57) - The low market share held by credit card companies in Africa, and the opportunity it represents for MTN Group (00:29:07) - Regional differences, local competition, and the overall market structure (00:30:42) - The architects, visionaries, and capital allocators behind MTN Group (00:34:33) - What structural separation means for a business like MTN Group (00:36:31) - Measuring the size and scale of the business (00:38:53) - Investing in emerging markets (00:42:59) - The importance of location in a mobile fintech company listing (00:45:09) - Risks and challenges facing MTN Group (00:49:53) - How African mobile and fintech markets fared during COVID (00:51:23) - Framing the business’ current and future picture of profitability (00:56:23) - Lessons learned in studying the story of MTN Group

This is Matt Reustle and today we are breaking down Dolby Labs. Our favorite Breakdowns are those businesses, which are widely known but barely understood. Dolby fits the bill. You see the logo everywhere but what does Dolby technology do and how does the business work? To answer those questions and break down Dolby, I was joined by Paul Vincent and William Nott from investment manager, Ninety One. We cover the backstory of Ray Dolby, what Dolby's actually building and selling, and how the business model works. Please enjoy this breakdown of Dolby. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. (for me - https://joincolossus.com/episodes/69279744/vincent-dolby-the-sound-standard)  ----- This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus is the modern research platform for leading investors. I’m a longtime user and advocate of Tegus, a company that I’ve been so consistently impressed with that last fall my firm, Positive Sum, invested $20M to support Tegus’ mission to expand its product ecosystem. Whether it’s quantitative analysis, company disclosures, management presentations, earnings calls - Tegus has tools for every step of your investment research. They even have over 4000 fully driveable financial models. Tegus’ maniacal focus on quality, as well as its depth, breadth and recency of content makes it the one-stop, end-to-end research platform for investors. Move faster, gather deep research to build conviction and surface high-quality, alpha-driving insights to find your differentiated edge with Tegus. As a listener, you can take the Tegus platform for a free test drive by visiting tegus.co/patrick. ----- Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss | @ReustleMatt | @domcooke Show Notes (00:02:50) - (First question) - The problem that Dolby initially set out to solve (00:05:02) - Some of the well-known products Dolby offers today  (00:08:41) - The path from noise reduction to enhancing the listener experience  (00:13:23) - Invisalign: Patents, Patients, Profits; How their codec technology is actually implemented  (00:16:40) - Whether or not how we record and what we record on can inhibit our ability to use Dolby’s products (00:18:32) - What the end markets for Dolby look like today   (00:21:04) - Whether or not they can offset against the consolidation of consumer technology  (00:22:54) - Targeting manufacturers as customers (00:26:55) - The trouble in defining Dolby’s total addressable market  (00:28:15) - Metrics used for measuring the size and relevance of the business  (00:31:23) - Outlining their royalty pricing model, its evolution, and the model’s dynamics   (00:34:54) - Whether or not the decline of movie theaters will impact their growth  (00:38:01) - Thoughts about Dolby’s cyclicality and potential trend impacts   (00:42:38) - The margin profile and how capital intensive the business is  (00:46:03) - His views on the potential risks to Dolby’s future  (00:50:30) - What stops Amazon or Apple from producing Dolby adjacent products in house (00:53:18) - How risky it is for Dolby to start pushing into the visual side of entertainment  (01:00:53) - Lessons for investors and builders when studying Dolby’s story