*By Conor White*
Apple, the world's most valuable publicly traded company, may be seriously undervalued, said longtime tech investor Eric Jackson, founder and president at EMJ Capital. He told Cheddar that the iPhone maker should've crossed the $1 trillion threshold long ago.
"This is a company that should be valued as a services business instead of a discreet product business, which is, as long as I can remember, how this company has been valued," he said in an interview Friday.
Jackson estimated Apple's value closer to $1.5 trillion, and he views it as a service-oriented company, much like Salesforce and Google, which get traded at roughly six times price-to-sales multiple.
Though many investors consider Apple a hardware company, Jackson said most consumers have a different relationship with Apple's products.
"Your relationship with your iPhone itself is a long-term service commitment," he said. "Even though you don't have a contract that says your next iPhone you're going to upgrade in one year or two years, who among us who owns an iPhone is not going to, in three to four years, upgrade to the latest and greatest iPhone?"
As bullish as Jackson is on Apple, he admitted China ー and consumers in other countries ー may stunt the company's growth because the iPhone faces competition from cheaper smartphones.
"China is a challenge, for sure, probably the biggest challenge that Apple faces in that regard because you have other services like WeChat that can potentially get in between your personal relationship with the phone," Jackson said.
For more on this story, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-one-investor-believes-apple-is-worth-more-than-1-trillion).
According to the Labor Department December report, the U.S added 199,000 jobs as opposed to the more than 400,000 that had been expected. William M. Rodgers III, vice president and director of the Institute for Economic Equality at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, joined Cheddar's Baker Machado to talk about the state of the economy and noted that, despite the miss, the drop-off in the unemployment rate signaled to him that the economy is moving in the right direction. "There was an upward revision of about 100,000, a little more than 100,000, for the months of October and November, so, again, I'm not as worried or looking at this as negative as you all are," Rodgers added. He also noted the next three months would likely see slower growth due to the winter but stated that it would remain in a positive direction.
The New York Times has acquired sports outlet The Athletic in a $550 million deal. The acquisition brings the Times closer to its 10 million paid subscribers goal by 2025.
The year 2021 saw numerous natural disasters around the world, including extreme heat and wildfires, rare deep freezes, and historic flooding. This year's United Nations COP26 conference was key for getting world leaders on board with emissions reductions and other climate-focused policies as the UN Secretary-General said the agency's report on global warming is a 'code red for humanity.' In the U.S., President Joe Biden has focused most of his domestic agenda on slashing emissions and building climate-focused infrastructure. Guests from The Economist, UNC-Chapel Hill, Global Rescue, and more join Cheddar Climate's year-end special to discuss how the climate changed in 2021, and what to expect in 2022.
It's no secret tech giant Amazon has a mission of becoming a major player in sports media, and the company is poised to make progress on that goal in 2022. Amazon Prime Video will be the exclusive home to Thursday Night Football for the 2022-23 NFL season. In December, the New York Post reported that Amazon is in the beginning stages of developing studio sports programs, and hopes to soon have a full daily lineup of sports shows. Front Office Sports senior reporter A.J. Perez joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
