✈️ Delta’s delayed YOLO

Biscoff cookies and Coca-Cola… a match made in cabin. Delta unloaded first-quarter earnings yesterday. The Atlanta-based carrier posted a chunkier-than-expected loss, partly driven by extra costs like raises for pilots and employee bonuses. But Delta said it saw sunnier skies ahead, and forecast upbeat sales growth and profit for the spring.

• Booked Italian summer (in March): Delta projected record advance summer bookings as consumers continue to prioritize travel, planning trips months in advance.

• Champagne and free socks: First- and business-class sales (think: premium products) made up over half of Delta’s revenue as $4K splurges on bed-like seats beat out economy spending.

• Charge it to corporate: Delta said business-travel bookings have been rebounding, with US corporate sales in March at 85% of prepandemic levels.

• Cloudy: Still, Delta, JetBlue, and other airlines are dialing back growth plans and routes as airport labor shortages and congestion limit capacity.

Only 47 days left ’til check-in… Consumers are upping their travel spending, despite cutting back in other areas. While inflation has been steadily cooling, travel costs are still sky-high: US airline fares rose 4% from February to March, and are up 17% on the year. Spring break 2023 is expected to be the busiest travel season ever for airlines, and the TSA expects demand to keep soaring throughout the year. Last quarter, Delta’s advance cash bookings were up nearly 20% from prepandemic levels, and CEO Ed Bastian said he doesn’t see a pullback on the horizon.

Stuck under the couch… Amazon's $1.7B acquisition of Roomba-maker iRobot has gathered dust since it was announced last summer. Amazon’s potential fourth-largest acquisition ever is facing an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission and, as of last week, also by the UK’s antitrust regulator. Amazon’s already so dominant that regulators may be concerned about it ruling the vacuum world, too.

• Small vac, big punch: In late 2021 iRobot held a whopping 62% of the robotic-vacuum market (excluding China) — a significantly larger market share than that held by previous Amazon buys like MGM and One Medical.

• Privacy please: Antitrust and data-privacy experts are concerned that the acquisition might give Amazon access to Roomba customer data (picture: cameras that map homes to avoid couch run-ins).

• Sputtering: iRobot shares are down 32% from Amazon’s $61/share offering.

Dusting off powers… The FTC, under chair Lina Khan, has grown much tougher on big tech in recent years. In December, the agency sued to block Microsoft's $69B takeover of Activision Blizzard, and earlier this month ordered biotech company Illumina to undo its $7B buyout of cancer-test developer Grail. The moves may be having an effect: last year, Nvidia ditched plans to buy chip maker Arm in what would’ve been the biggest semiconductor deal ever. Looking ahead, the FTC last month vowed to protect competition in the AI industry.

🤖 Techy… Ethereum, the second largest crypto, successfully completed a major update dubbed Shanghai. Validators who locked up ether as collateral can finally begin to withdraw (and sell) their staked coins. About that…

🪙 Coins… As of yesterday, validators had queued up $1.7B+ worth of staked ether to withdraw. The Shanghai update limits the # of coins which can be pulled out at once, so those who want to withdraw staked ETH have to get in line.

🌶️ Spicy… Crypto has a reputation problem: a Pew survey found that while nearly 90% of US adults have heard of cryptocurrency, two-thirds aren’t confident that current ways to trade the digital assets are safe.

• PrimeAI: Amazon announced two large-language models — one for creating text, and one that could power search features. As tech giants speed into the AI race, data concerns are brewing.

• Delhitful: Apple is set to open its first two stores in India. 5% of iPhones are now made in the country, and Apple’s reportedly shifting some production there from China (its biggest manufacturing hub).

• Burn: The family-owned company behind Purell is looking for a buyer (possible price tag: $3B). Gojo Industries saw hand-sanitizer demand soar during the pandemic, but demand has since plunged.

• Gucci: Rent the Runway said demand for its rented designer fits is growing, with subscribers up 8% on the year. The biz reported expectation-beating quarterly #s, though it’s still losing money.

• Myte: TikTok-owner ByteDance is said to be offering cash payouts of up to $25K to VR-app developers. The goal: bring apps built for Meta's VR platform over to ByteDance’s competing Pico headset.

• Earnings expected from UnitedHealth, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, BlackRock, and PNC Financial

Authors of this Snacks own ethereum and shares of: Amazon, Apple, Delta, Alaska Airlines, Microsoft, and Nvidia

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