Late predictions for 2016: Obama becomes a dictator, Europe overrun with terrorists

For a day or two around New Year’s Day I published a host of 2016 predictions curated from around the World Wide Web.
Unfortunately, some prognosticators didn’t stick to that timetable and posted their predictions for the year ahead after 2016 had already started.
What follows are some of those late predictions for 2016.

Barack Obama will be the last president of the United States

A blind psychic from Bulgaria who died in 1996 allegedly predicted dire events for the U.S. and Europe for 2016.
Baba Vanga, known as the “Nostradamus from the Balkans,” reportedly said the 44th president of the U.S. would be an African American and that he would be the last president the country ever had.
This prediction could mean that President Barack Obama “will attempt to usher in a New World Order by oppression and indoctrination, followed by tyranny and a complete takeover of the nation,” conservative blog Mad World News said in a Jan. 4 article. “Not only that, but many believe Obama will institute martial law to cancel the elections and stay in power, which would be unprecedented and likely cause a violent insurrection.”
As for Europe, Vanga reportedly said the continent would be overrun by Muslim terrorists this year.

Tough presidential race ahead for the Republicans

Republican political consultant Karl Rove made his 2016 predictions on Jan. 6 in an article in the Wall Street Journal.
He predicted that the GOP will hold its first multi-ballot convention since 1948. At least two ballots will be needed to pick a Republican presidential nominee.
If Donald Trump gets the nomination, the GOP will lose the race, he said. If Ted Cruz gets the nod, his chances are “dicey.” But if “any of the other major (Republican) candidates” is nominated, he or she will beat Hillary Clinton in a close race.

Big growth ahead for e-sports

Many are predicting e-sports to be the next big professional sport. Competitive video gaming already has 100 million engaged fans, says investment bank Jefferies.
“E-sports has exploded in popularity due to the emergence of connected gaming platforms like Twitch, which has audiences larger than many cable networks,” Jefferies said in a Sept. 17 report. “More people watched League of Legends finals than NBA Finals Game 7.”
Jefferies included e-sports in its Jan. 13 year-ahead predictions.
Here’s a good question: When will Sports Illustrated devote its first cover to an e-sports player?

Some mega-unicorns to go public this year

RBC Capital Markets on Jan. 12 made its predictions for the Internet sector in 2016.
In its “Top 10 Internet Surprises for 2016,” RBC made a list of potential “surprise” events in the year-ahead. It defines surprise events as those that the average Internet investor would find highly improbable, but that RBC thinks has a reasonable chance (30%+) of occurring.
Those predictions include:

• Some mega-unicorns will go public in 2016 instead of waiting until 2017 or later, which is the prevailing wisdom. Those high-value private companies include Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Snapchat, Dropbox, Pinterest and Lyft.
• Facebook will enter China.
• Twitter’s monthly active users will decline.
• Yahoo!’s fundamentals improve and Marissa Mayer remains CEO.
• Yelp gets acquired.

Media industry mergers and acquisitions

BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield posted his top 16 media industry predictions for 2016 on Jan. 4.
Among his predictions:

• Comcast bids for T-Mobile.
• Lionsgate acquires Starz and sells Epix.
• Amazon creates a standalone streaming video service.
• Comcast launches an over-the-top Internet TV service.
• Biggest movie of the year: “Finding Dory.”
• Biggest movie flop of the year: “Independence Day: Resurgence.”

Big changes at Yahoo

S&P Capital IQ analyst Scott Kessler released his 16 predictions for the Internet sector for 2016 at the start of the year.
Among his predictions:

• Yahoo will announce a CEO change.
• Yahoo also will announce a major M&A transaction worth more than $1 billion (perhaps involving the sale of an important asset or business).
• Alphabet will start disclosing YouTube revenues.
• Akamai is announced as an M&A target for a larger company looking to get strategically stronger and take share in “the cloud.”

Artwork: Illustration of President Barack Obama as a dictator from TeaParty.org.