Kerrisdale – Tucows Inc. (TCX): Three Terrible Businesses In One

Kerrisdale Capital is short shares of Tucows Inc. (NASDAQ:TCX).

Q1 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc

Tucows (TCX) operates two declining tech/telecom businesses and a fledgling low-return fiber division, yet is being valued by the market at 60x trailing normalized earnings. Its two profitable segments barely deserve double-digit earnings multiples given their bleak growth profiles, and the company's cash flow is being plowed back into a third segment that will prove to be a massive destroyer of capital. TCX’s valuation is wildly overstretched and the stock is worth 50%+ less.

Ting Mobile, the company's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) division, saw subscribers peak in 2017, and has witnessed declines ever since. Historical examples of MVNO failures are abundant – like...