Barclays analyst Tim Long says he noticed what he believes may be the first step in changing Apple Inc.’s “lucrative, high margin ‘advertising’ revenues,” specifically the traffic acquisition costs.
A new pop-up for the Alphabet Inc. Google Search app on the iPhone “could signal a slight change to the current relationship,” Long tells investors in a research note.
Like other Google TAC agreements, the economics to Apple is based on a “healthy” share on the estimated lifetime search ad revenue generated by each phone, specific to each geography, the sum of which could be about $15 billion annually, Long says.
He believes Apple could be facing TAC pressure from Google and keeps an Equal Weight rating on the shares with a $145 price target, implying a 17 percent downside.
