Tuesday, August 16, 2022

☕ One more time

Adam Neumann gets a big check from a16z...
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Morning Brew

Apple One

Good morning. A new study in the journal Nature Food found that a full-scale nuclear war between the US and Russia would kill 5 billion people (more than half of humanity). It gets better—the vast majority of us wouldn't die instantly from the blasts. No, we'd perish from starvation as the soot kicked up by the detonations would block sunlight, sending crop yields down 90% in a matter of years and causing a global famine.

Let's get after it today .

—Matty Merritt, Max Knoblauch, Abby Rubenstein, Neal Freyman

MARKETS

Nasdaq

13,128.05

S&P

4,297.14

Dow

33,912.44

10-Year

2.787%

Bitcoin

$24,071.31

Oil

$89.41

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 11:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

  • Markets: Stocks are in such a sweet spot right now that not even gloomy economic data out of China could slow their roll. Those warnings did take a bite out of oil prices, though—slower Chinese economic activity = bad sign for global growth = less demand for fuel.

REAL ESTATE

You can't get rid of Neumann

Jerry trying to push Newman out of his apartment, but Newman rolls back in. Seinfeld/Sony Pictures Entertainment via Giphy

It's not how many times you fall, it's how much money Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz are willing to give you to get back up. WeWork founder and barefoot king Adam Neumann is back in the real estate startup game, this time nabbing $350 million in funding from venture capital heavyweight Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) for his new housing rental company, Flow.

An early investor in companies like Facebook, Airbnb, and the orb that scans your eyeballs for crypto, a16z is considered a golden ticket of sorts for tech startups. And despite Neumann being forced out of his last job after WeWork's valuation plummeted by almost $39 billion and its IPO plans fizzled, a16z clearly thinks he's got some of the magic sauce.

  • The $350 million for Flow is the largest individual check the firm has ever written, per the NYT.
  • Andreessen Horowitz also invested in Neumann's crypto company, Flowcarbon, in May. Flowcarbon appears to have no relation to this new real estate venture with half of its name.

What exactly is Neumann trying to revolutionize this time?

Rental housing. Flow will launch in 2023, but there aren't many details about how it will be different from traditional rental- or management firms. What we do know is that Neumann bought 3,000 apartments in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, and Nashville to build out living spaces with "consistent service and community features," according to the NYT. Does this just mean every Flow apartment in the US will have a matching pool? Maybe.

Final plot twist: In explaining the firm's investment in Flow, Marc Andreessen, co-founder of a16z, wrote that current rental market dynamics make it more difficult to create community in larger cities, and that limited access to home ownership contributes to inequality. Some critics raised their eyebrows at this statement, considering that Andreessen recently spoke out against proposed multifamily development in his own exclusive Silicon Valley neighborhood.—MM

        

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Just one subscription with endless possibilities. Get started today.

        

WORLD

Tour de headlines

FBI building Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Trump tells people to chill out. The former president told Fox News that the "temperature has to be brought down" amid a surge in threats against law enforcement following the search of his Florida home. Last week, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a joint bulletin warning of "an increase in threats and acts of violence" against FBI staff. And yesterday, the DOJ unsealed charges against a Pennsylvania man who allegedly posted on social media that he wanted to kill FBI agents.

Kenya elected a new president...but there's drama. Kenya's Vice President William Ruto was declared the victor in a tight contest to lead East Africa's largest economy. There's just one problem: Minutes before Ruto was announced the winner, four of Kenya's seven electoral commissioners issued a statement saying that they could not stand by the results due to the "opaque nature" of the handling of the votes.

Investor urges Disney to make changes. The hedge fund Third Point said it took a stake in Disney and is pushing the entertainment giant to make big changes, including spinning off ESPN and buying the remainder of Hulu. This is actually the second time Third Point, helmed by billionaire investor Daniel S. Loeb, has taken aim at Disney. It sold off its previous stake in the company in the first quarter.

CLIMATE CHANGE

It's getting hot in here

A map of the US showing the "Extreme Heat Belt" on fire Photo Illustration: Dianna "Mick" McDougall, Sources: Getty Images

If you've been feeling like a lobster whose bath is going from pleasantly tepid to just a wee bit scorching, you might wanna get used to it. More than 107 million Americans are expected to suffer through extreme temperatures more often and for longer over the next 30 years, according to new data released yesterday by the nonprofit First Street Foundation.

How extreme? Well, over 1,000 US counties are projected to experience at least one day above 125°F by 2053, mostly located in an emerging "Extreme Heat Belt" stretching from northern Texas and Louisiana to as far north as Illinois, Indiana, and even Wisconsin.

That's likely to impact where people decide to live.

  • To help you with that decision, the First Street Foundation created a tool where you can type in your address—or the one of that place you're thinking about buying—and find out the property's risks from extreme heat.
  • If you're feeling especially apocalyptic, it will show you the risks of flood and fire, too.

What's next: These extremes could mean the US is about to start experiencing a whole lot more climate migration and a very different real estate market. "If people move then you have an impact to the tax base and changes to demand for properties and values overall," First Street Foundation CEO Matthew Eby told CNBC.—AR

        

ADVERTISING

More ads coming to an iPhone near you

A figure surrounded by mobile advertisements Francis Scialabba

Great news for people who can always easily find the little "x": After upending the mobile ads business with new privacy features last year, Apple may expand advertising in its own first-party apps like Maps, Podcasts, and Books, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Bringing ads into Apple's native apps could allow publishers to pay to have their company appear higher in search results or in recommendations, similar to the way ads are already displayed in the App Store.

The news is a bit ironic, because last year, Apple introduced a privacy feature called App Tracking Transparency (ATT) that gave users the choice to allow apps to track them across other apps and websites. And, when given an option about tracking, most people said "no thank you"—78% of iOS 15 users opted out.

The resulting shift has been cataclysmic for the tech industry, costing Facebook, Twitter, Snap, and YouTube $17.8 billion in lost revenue already this year, according to an estimate by Lotame. Could it also explain why mobile game ads always show someone playing the game really badly now? Maybe!

Zoom out: As it's throttling rivals' ad businesses, Apple is ramping up its own. Todd Teresi, Apple's ad group VP, wants to increase the segment's annual revenue from $4 billion to at least $10 billion.—MK

        

GRAB BAG

Key performance indicators

Tampax Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Stat: Scotland is going down in the public health history books, because it just became the first country in the world to guarantee the right to free period products. "We are the first but won't be the last," Scottish Parliament Member Monica Lennon tweeted.

Quote: "Regarding the attack against Salman Rushdie in America, we don't consider anyone deserving reproach, blame or even condemnation, except for (Rushdie) himself and his supporters."

In Iran's first official remarks on the stabbing of Salman Rushdie, an official said the country was not involved in the attack, but placed the blame for it on Rushdie and his followers for disparaging Muslims.

Read: We don't have a hundred biases—we have the wrong model. (Works in Progress)

BREW'S BETS

"God made a misnake": Allen Pan wants to give snakes their legs back. Short clip here and full video here.

A hierarchy of alienness: A list of animals and how closely related they are to you.

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WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

  • Rudy Giuliani, the former NYC mayor and personal lawyer of former President Trump, has been told he's the target of a criminal investigation into election interference in Georgia.
  • Walmart inked a deal with Paramount Global to offer streaming service Paramount+ to its Walmart+ members for free.
  • Starbucks asked the National Labor Relations Board to temporarily halt union elections at US stores, alleging that NLRB officials and union organizers were in cahoots during one union election in the spring.
  • HBO Max laid off 14% of its staff—around 70 employees—as part of the broader reorganization under parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.
  • Capri Sun is recalling thousands of pouches over possible contamination with cleaning solution.

GAMES

The puzzle section

Brew Mini: "Florida island chain" (four letters) is your sample clue for today's Mini. Play it here.

Music biopic trivia

Elvis Presley died on this day in 1977 at just 42 years old. Given that the new Elvis movie was released earlier this summer, today's trivia is all about music biopics. We'll give you the title of a movie, and you have to name the musician (or musical group) that was its subject.

  1. What's Love Got to Do With It?
  2. Lady Sings the Blues
  3. Straight Outta Compton
  4. Walk the Line
  5. Bird

The recession's impact on your job search

The recession's impact on your job search

The job market has been the buzz of the financial world, but how is it impacting you? Watch here to find out more.

Check out more from the Brew:

The CBD market is expected to soar to $19.5 billion in 2025, and CBD company Prospect Farms wants to bring transparency to the space. CEO Brad Tipper and Chief Brand Officer Brooke Shields talk about why they're focused on safety, sustainability, and efficacy. Listen or watch here.

"What's the worst that can happen?" Find out with scenario planning and forecasting. Prove yourself right using data in our Analytics Accelerator.

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ANSWER

  1. Tina Turner
  2. Billie Holiday
  3. NWA
  4. Johnny Cash
  5. Charlie Parker

✤ A Note From eToro

Securities trading through eToro USA Securities, Inc. Member of FINRA and SIPC. Crypto Trading through eToro USA LLC, not FDIC insured.

         

Written by Neal Freyman, Max Knoblauch, Matty Merritt, and Abigail Rubenstein

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