| Good morning and Happy Friday. We are halfway through Morning Brew's fundraiser with the nonprofit World Central Kitchen, and time is ticking to score a copy of our exclusive cookbook, Brunch with the Brew, featuring recipes from some of the biggest names in food and business. Donate any amount to help World Central Kitchen provide meals to communities in need, and we'll send you a free digital copy so you can whip up a weekend brunch of ratatouille khachapuri, smoked salmon crepes, nectarine coffee cake, and spicy chai. It's not as complicated as it sounds. Donate and start cooking for a cause today. | | | |  | Nasdaq | 14,369.71 | | | | | S&P | 4,266.49 | | | | | Dow | 34,196.82 | | | | | Bitcoin | $34,860.25 | | | | | 10-Year | 1.499% | | | | | Caterpillar | $219.34 | | | | *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 5:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. | - Markets: Stocks closed higher yesterday following President Biden's announcement that he reached an infrastructure deal (more on that in a jiffy). The S&P and Nasdaq notched record highs, while companies that specialize in building things, such as Caterpillar, got a big boost.
| | | | Microsoft was incorporated 40 years ago today, but instead of installing a barn door in its master bathroom, the company closed above a $2 trillion market cap for the first time this week and unveiled its first major Windows update in years. Windows 11 is adding support for Android apps on its laptops and PCs for the first time and incentivizing developers to put their apps in the Microsoft Store by giving them 100% of revenues from app sales—a swipe at Apple's and Google's 30% fees. Other updates that should be ready by the time you break out douglas fir candles include.... - An upgraded interface
- Features for multitasking and working across multiple screens
- A direct integration with its messaging/collaboration platform, Teams
- New gaming features, including an Xbox Game Pass integration
Not your grandma's operating system Well, actually it is. 35 years after it was first introduced, Windows remains a core part of Microsoft's business and is the world's most popular desktop OS. - Over 1.3 billion users run Windows 10, CEO Satya Nadella disclosed in May, and the division is expected to bring in $23 billion this year.
Still, it can be easy to forget Microsoft is the second-biggest publicly traded company behind Apple. Because of its focus on business software, the company has generally escaped the antitrust scrutiny that lawmakers have leveled on its more consumer-facing peers Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google in recent years. ...until now? Six bills that could reshape antitrust law in the US cleared a major hurdle yesterday morning. And during debate on one pertaining to data portability, the committee specifically discussed whether the bill had been altered so Microsoft wouldn't fall under its purview. Bottom line: These antitrust bills are still in their infancy, but "the House is going faster and farther against tech than anyone expected," Cowen and Company's Paul Gallant told the NYT. Microsoft, though, doesn't appear to be a priority. | | | Alex Wong/Getty Images | Someone must have ordered stuffed-crust pizza during negotiations, because President Biden announced yesterday that he and a bipartisan group of senators agreed to a deal that would put a fresh coat of paint on the country's infrastructure. Both sides compromised to reach an agreement. While Biden's original proposal called for $2.3 trillion to combat climate change and overhaul roads, trains, and broadband, the new plan is the stripped-down, acoustic version: - It'll cost $1.2 trillion over eight years with $579 billion in new spending.
- The president called it the "largest investment in public transit in American history." It certainly would be the largest investment into Amtrak since the creation of Amtrak.
- Some spending on child and elder care as well as education was cut from Biden's original plan.
- A corporate tax rate increase to fund the plan, which Biden originally proposed, was also ditched.
Looking ahead...don't start daydreaming about good train wi-fi yet, the plan still has a ways to go to become law. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her chamber would only take up the infrastructure plan if Democrats were able to push through a separate spending package. | | | BuzzFeed | You'll finally be able to own a piece of the media company that owns a serious chunk of your screen time (we're reusing that line when we IPO). Yesterday, BuzzFeed confirmed plans to go public via SPAC. The backstory: BuzzFeed was founded by CEO Jonah Peretti in 2006 and listicled its way to hundreds of millions in funding from the likes of NBCUniversal. In 2017, it whiffed on revenue targets and in the following years laid off 100 employees. But by 2020, BuzzFeed was able to diversify its revenue streams (i.e., those addictive Tasty videos) and turned its first profit since 2014. This year, it won its first Pulitzer Prize. Now, BuzzFeed is in growth mode. Along with SPACing, it's acquiring Complex Networks, another digital publisher that specializes in youth culture, for $300 million. - With the Complex acquisition, BuzzFeed wants to grow revenue to $654 million next year and draw in an even younger, cooler, more intimidating audience.
Looking ahead...BuzzFeed hopes to scoop up more media companies and use that muscle to grab market share from the most powerful throuple in digital ads: Google, Facebook, and Amazon, which accounted for almost 90% of the US digital ad market in 2020, per ad agency GroupM. | | | | It's easy to stay cool when you're not worrying about the security of your house. Because while crime data shows that break-ins spike during the sweltering summer months, you can be chillaxing without a care in the world thanks to SimpliSafe. Their security systems are tailored to your individual home and family, giving you all the sensors, cameras, and devices (including a nifty smart lock) you need to keep your home protected while on vacay. So let's roleplay for a sec: You're sharing an ice cream float with your sweetie, looking out over Biscayne Bay. A thought pops into your mind, "I hope nobody tries to nab my commemorative work bowling league chalice." Worry not—except about brain freeze from the ice cream. If you've got SimpliSafe, all of your weird chalices are protected. You've got 24/7 home monitoring and sensors that protect from fire, flood, break-ins, and more. Get your very own SimpliSafe system before you get going this summer. | | | Giphy | Stat: About 1,800 cars have been destroyed in the films of the Fast & Furious franchise, not including the ninth installment, F9, which hits theaters today. Fun fact: Insurance companies use movies like the F&F series to train actuaries on how to calculate loss, per Screen Rant. Quote: "There's millions of pets that are basically a furry annuity for the next decade. And that's unique to our industry. And they're going to give us a tailwind for years to come." Petco CEO Ron Coughlin is wagging his tail after Americans spent a record $103.6 billion on their pets last year, up 7% from 2019. He told the AP he expects the pet business to keep booming as people move into larger, suburban houses and workplaces become more pet-friendly. Read: David Dobrik was the king of YouTube. Then he went too far. (Rolling Stone) | | | | The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Weekly News Quiz has been compared to successfully pulling off a beach day without a sunburn. It's that satisfying. Ace the quiz. | | - VC heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz launched a ginormous $2.2 billion fund focused on crypto.
- The Biden administration extended the nationwide eviction moratorium for a month, but said extensions were over after this one.
- Google is delaying its plans to block third-party cookies on Chrome until 2023.
- Peter Thiel, the billionaire tech investor, turned a Roth IRA account worth $2,000 in 1999 into a $5 billion windfall, according to a ProPublica investigation.
- Rescuers are searching for dozens of missing people after a condo building collapsed near Miami.
| | | | Do your home protection homework. Fear not, the task is easy: Get SimpliSafe and you'll have 24/7 monitoring to protect your home from break-ins, fires, floods, and more. You can customize your system online, then it'll ship right to your door and you'll be protected faster than you can say, "My guard dog is a chihuahua named Bert." You're not ready for your summer vacay until you get SimpliSafe right here. | | | Enter the gauntlet: Try the most dangerous random prompt generator ever created to practice your writing. Follow Friday: Today we're doing staff picks from the Brew writers. - Jamie: David Suh will teach you how to pose for any picture, anywhere, and more importantly, change how you think about confidence and self-love.
- Matty: CigSandwich Comedy has made me laugh 1,000,000x. It's always weird and sometimes wildly disgusting. So, sorry about that.
- Neal: If you love solving the Brew's games every day, then you'll enjoy Trivia Corner, an Instagram account posting daily trivia run by my little bro.
- Alex: Edd Kimber, aka "the Boy Who Bakes," is my favorite baker and provides all the motivation you'll ever need to get back into baking. Start with the tahini babka buns.
| | | Spell the word RADAR. Start on any R. Advance in any direction, forward or backward. Follow the lines from letter to letter, but you cannot skip letters. How many different ways can you spell RADAR? 
| | | 80. Here's the solution if you don't believe us. | | |
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