[verdverm]

I saw some commentary that their free cash flow is misleading because it doesn't subtract the stock compensation they are paying to attract / keep top AI talent. Their point was also that deciphering financial statements is hard

[brainwad]

Why would it? Stock compensation doesn't affect cash flow, it just dilutes the shareholders.

[verdverm]

Except that's the thing, they do stock buybacks so they do not dilute existing shareholders or lower stock prices.

This is the video I watched that explained the shenanigans (from the guests' perspective, not illegal, obfuscated)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrJzjC4kKCY

[wqaatwt]

Yeah but that’s very standard and pretty much all pre-profit tech companies do something like that when/if they can

[verdverm]

sure, the guests say as much, their point is that it is hard to determine their real free cash flow. They estimate Meta is 80% lower and Alphabet is 2/3 lower. They give more details and quarterly perspectives