| Good morning and Happy Lunar New Year to all readers celebrating the upcoming Year of the Ox. Let's all make a pledge to be a little more ox-like this year: honest, reliable, and hard-working without seeking praise. | | | |  | NASDAQ | 14,025.77 | + 0.38% | | | | S&P | 3,916.38 | + 0.17% | |  | DOW | 31,430.70 | - 0.02% | | | | GOLD | 1,825.60 | - 0.93% | | | | 10-YR | 1.167% | + 1.50 bps | | | | OIL | 57.91 | - 1.31% | | | *As of market close. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Economy: Jobless claims, which we've been tracking since last March, dropped slightly last week. And while more than 20 million people still collected unemployment in late January, economists are hopeful that the recent downward trend in Covid cases will allow the labor market to mend further.
- Budget: The federal budget deficit will hit $2.3 trillion during the 2021 fiscal year, per the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. This deficit, which does not include Biden's proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, would come in below fiscal 2020's deficit of $3.1 trillion.
- Government: House Democrats concluded their arguments for convicting former President Trump of inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The defense is up today.
| |  Bumble | That kid has no idea what he just witnessed. Yesterday, America's No. 2 dating app went public, gaining 63% on the day to close at a $8+ billion valuation. In case you've had a ring on it since 2014, Bumble is a dating app famous for letting women swipe first and initiate conversation. Founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd created it to combat rampant sexual harassment on dating platforms. - Wolfe Herd previously cofounded Tinder, but left after suing the company for...sexual harassment and discrimination.
How it makes that honey Bumble used to be part of MagicLab, a company that operated various social and dating apps. In 2019, private equity giant Blackstone took a majority stake in MagicLab and put Wolfe Herd in charge, then rebranded the larger company as Bumble last year. The app offers a free tier to its 12+ million monthly active users, but earns most of its revenue from premium subscriptions and in-app purchases. In the first nine months of 2020, it posted a net loss of $84 million on nearly $377 million in sales. In addition to expanding internationally, Bumble has grown its business with: - BFF, a matchmaking app for friends
- Bizz, a professional networking platform
- Bumble Fund, which offers early-stage investments for women entrepreneurs of color
But Bumble has plenty of catching up to do to $46 billion rival Match Group, which owns Tinder, Hinge, and OkCupid. This IPO broke lots of glass Of the roughly 560 IPOs from the last 12 months, Bumble is the third with a female founder; only eight IPOs from last year had a female CEO. Over 70% of Bumble's board is women, a rarity in corporate America. At 31, Wolfe Herd is the youngest woman to take a company public and her $900+ million stake pushes her fortune above $1 billion. - Of the 500 wealthiest people in the world, self-made women account for <5%, per Bloomberg.
Zoom out: Because so few female founders or CEOs make it to the IPO stage, the tremendous wealth generated through startup exits disproportionately goes to male investors and beneficiaries. | |  Francis Scialabba | After Tesla's cannonball into bitcoin on Monday, more established parts of the biz world are wading into the crypto waters. Yesterday, the US' oldest bank, BNY Mellon, said it will hold, transfer, and issue cryptos for its asset management clients. Wall Street used to be cagey about crypto because of its volatility and legal-ish status, but bankers are getting lots of "sooo…btc   ?" texts from institutional clients now as bitcoin and other digital token prices soar (bitcoin hit another high Thursday). - Mastercard also said yesterday it will support some cryptos, including bitcoin, on its network later this year, following Square and PayPal.
Not to be outmaneuvered by the finance sector, Twitter, GM, and Uber also all signaled openness to receiving cryptocurrencies. All three said in earnings calls this week that, while they wouldn't follow Elon down the investment path, they were open to accepting cryptos as payment from vendors and customers. Zoom out: Momentum was building even before Tesla's move. Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of digital asset manager Grayscale Investments, said interest in crypto helped push assets under management to over $20 billion from just $2 billion over the course of last year. | |  ACMA2020/Getty Images | Yesterday on Good Morning America, Taylor Swift announced that she has finished re-recording her second and most successful album, Fearless. - A re-recording of the song "Love Story," originally released in 2008, dropped at midnight ET last night. The new version of Fearless, titled Fearless (Taylor's Version), will be released on April 9.
The backstory is now music biz legend on par with the Tupac hologram. Swift started her career with label Big Machine, which recorded and retained the rights to her first six albums (2006's Taylor Swift–2017's Reputation). But in 2018, Swift struck a deal with Universal that gave her ownership of her music. - The next year, Big Machine sold the master recordings to music manager Scooter Braun, whom Swift has accused of bullying.
- Then in November, Braun sold the masters to investment firm Shamrock Holdings for a reported $300 million.
Swift has maintained that throughout the selling and re-selling, she was stonewalled from any opportunity to buy her music back. The nowstory: Taylor's revenge. Re-recording her early albums means the value of the masters will shrink. | | SPONSORED BY THE MOTLEY FOOL |  |  Francis Scialabba | Yesterday, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the US should follow Australia's recent efforts and make tech platforms pay for news content they carry. Easy stance to take when your search engine is Bing. Australia's proposed law would require tech companies to negotiate fees with publishers, head to arbitration if they can't, and be more transparent about how their algorithms surface content. Google and Facebook hate it Google threatened to shut down its search engine in Australia, and Facebook said it would block users from sharing links. Their argument: Australia's law sets a dangerous precedent for the free flow of information and could put platforms on the hook for billions. Plus, both companies are already paying some publishers for content (Google has promised $1 billion over three years). - The counterargument: Google and Facebook earn $$$ running ads next to articles like "10 Secrets to Get Hemsworth Abs," but publishers don't see any of it. And as two of the world's biggest platforms, they don't have much incentive to negotiate.
Looking ahead...the parliamentary committee reviewing Australia's proposal is expected to release their anticipated report today. | |  | The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew's Weekly News Quiz has been compared to getting an unexpected heart drawn in your latte foam. It's that satisfying. Ace the quiz. + Want to know how you stack up against other Morning Brew readers? Check out the hardest/easiest questions from January's news quizzes. | |  | —Wayne Gretzky —Michael Scott —Guests on Business Casual this week If you're looking for podcast episodes that will get you amped about taking risks and thinking big, we've got the perfect two interviews: - Josh Wolfe, cofounder and managing partner at moonshot investing firm Lux Capital
- Kathy Hannun, cofounder and president of Dandelion, a home geothermal company that spun out of Alphabet's X moonshot factory in 2017
Here's a little peek inside Wolfe's thought process: "The important thing is to accept and embrace failure...and that is one of the great things about the US. We have a culture of celebrating people who have done big, bold, ambitious things and failed." To listen: Click here for Josh Wolfe // here for Kathy Hannun | | - Disney said it now has 95 million Disney+ subscribers, meaning it gained 8 million in just one month. It also returned to profitability in Q4.
- Next week's congressional hearing on GameStop is shaping up to be a blockbuster, with execs from Citadel Securities, Robinhood, and Reddit expected to weigh in.
- Kraft Heinz is selling its nuts business, which includes Planters, to Hormel (the owner of Spam and Skippy) for $3.4 billion.
- Weed stocks tumbled following their recent rally.
- China banned the airing of BBC World News in the country.
- First Grape-Nuts...now Frosted Flakes? Kellogg said it's having trouble meeting demand for the cereal.
| | | Tough love: Your pomeranian, Precious, isn't an effective guard dog. Instead, try SimpliSafe, the award-winning home security system delivered right to you. For better protection for you (and Precious), get SimpliSafe today.* You had us at free meats. ButcherBox not only delivers high-quality meats straight to your door, they're also fans of a meaty freebie. Don't miss out on free bacon and two NY strip steaks in your first box when you sign up by 2/28.* Update from yesterday's Clubhouse poll: 64% of you are bullish on the audio-based social media platform, 36% are bearish. Here's one comment: "Audio as a medium is really intimate and creates a vulnerability and relatability that can be a nice change of pace from the anonymity and anxiety of other social networks. I think audio-type media...is going to be hugely valuable to big brands, influencers, and individual brands alike." Follow Friday: A different look at architecture from WTF Buildings, Crappy Cheapo Architecture, The Best of Zillow, and Liminal Spaces. For a palate cleanser, check out this perfect mini modern house. *This is sponsored advertising content | | | Ok, pay attention because this week's Friday Puzzle is our most epic yet and will last over the course of the week. The game: Take an eight-by-eight grid and fill it in with names of companies. Your goal is to create a grid with the highest total market value. We made an example below...but you can do better. 
Let's add up the total: Facebook ($770B) + Apple ($2.26T) + Amazon ($1.64T) + Exxon ($211B) = $4.88 trillion We'll show the winning grid in next week's newsletter and give the creator a shoutout. How can you enter? Complete your grid, post it to social media, and tag us on either Twitter or Instagram. Entries close Thursday at noon. A few final notes: To find a company's market value, just Google it or search for "most valuable companies in the S&P." Each company must intersect with at least one other company in the grid. And no stock tickers allowed (abbreviations like GM or GE are allowed, within reason). Good luck! | | | When you share the Brew, you earn rewards. From Brew swag like t-shirts and coffee mugs to exclusive content, we've got something for everyone in our premier rewards program.  Hit the button below to start sharing the Brew. Click to ShareOr copy & paste your referral link to others:
morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=8386977e | | |
Retail newsletter → 
Tech newsletter → 
Marketing newsletter → 
Recommendations newsletter → 
Business podcasts → 
No comments:
Post a Comment