Hey Snackers,
There's now a concierge service for breaking up with Mr./Mrs. Almost Right.
We're not feeling the hate. The Dow jumped 141 points Tuesday as US negotiators head to Beijing to chat Trade War and work on the relationship.
$3.1B gets Uber to the Middle East
Surge pricing?... Doesn't stop Uber from spending $3.1B on "the Uber of the Middle East": Careem. The deal had leaked before — Tuesday's surprise was that Uber closed it just weeks before it plans to go public. Most companies would be focused on their IPO right now. Uber's not most companies.
Let someone else drive... That's been Uber's go-to move abroad. It's buying 100% of its regional rival Careem, but typically it invests in just a percentage of its competitors so they can keep running their own company. This way if a competitor wins, it wins. And a bunch of Uber copycats copy that same strategy:
- Uber owns 37% of Russia's Yandex, and 28% of Southeast Asia's Grab. And it used to own 20% of China's Didi but then sold it back to Didi.
- Didi invested $600M in Brazil's ride-hailer, 99 Taxis.
- Gett, which is Israeli, owns part of New York's Juno.
- It's incestuous competition in ride-hailing, defined by the Uber of (blank) cozying up with the Uber of (blank).
International is Uber's differentiator... With Lyft about to IPO Friday and Uber aiming for April, both are about to become available to public investors. Uber's not just bigger, it's also more internationally sophisticated. It's studied abroad plenty, so an investment in Uber could be exposure to Earth-wide ride-sharing.
FYI, Careem is The Middle East's biggest tech startup sale ever — Here's what Uber's Iranian-born CEO emailed Uberites about it.
Qualcomm patent-trolls Apple hard
Let. There. Be. Lawyers... The SD-based chip company Qualcomm just won a major court ruling that Apple's illegally used its tech in iPhones. Without paying for it. At all. The Qualcomm/Apple relationship's been awkward since Apple left it for Intel a few years back.
Reminds us of Pied Piper... The algorithmic thing from TV's Silicon Valley is freakishly similar to what Qualcomm's patented. Nobody understands it, but it makes tech work better. And Apple's guilty of using Qualcomm's "inventions" that speed downloads. The judge's rec? A ban on selling iPhone 7 and 7 Plus (and maybe more).
Qualcomm's patent trolling Apple hard... This is the third major ruling in favor of Qualcomm, as China and Germany already said Apple did Qualcomm wrong. There are 2 ways to look at this:
- Apple's take: Qualcomm's "taxing innovation" by unfairly suing any smartphone maker that doesn't use its chips.
- Qualcomm's take: Apple stole its fancy tech and gave it to Intel so it could save money.
We let the judges judge.
Bed Bath & Beyond surges 22%...because of an intervention
Awkward... Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond surged 22% for their best day in a decade. But that's all because activist investors (funds who own 5% of the chain) want to replace the CEO and 12 board members. All of them. Fresh start. The stock's down 80% since 2014, so they're staging a corporate intervention. And they got personal (our favorite quotes):
- "The company has lost touch with modern retail"
- "A dizzying array of too-similar items"
Not enough "Bed" and "Bath"... Too much "Beyond." The activist investors simply think the destination for newly cohabitating couples has lost its focus. So they want it to make 2 moves since the competition is cheaper (Homegoods) and more convenient (Amazon):
- Sell off its rando brands (@Christmas Tree Shops, @Buy Buy Baby).
- Slim down its stores since you're probably still lost in one.
Time to "pull an Olive Garden"... Activist investors came in and replaced the board of the pasta chain's parent in 2014. The old leadership didn't add salt to the pasta water. The new leadership does. And shares are up 150% since then. Now activist investors want the same turnaround-style renovation at Bed Bath & Beyond.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Payday: Lyft wants to give free bank accounts to its drivers
- Fancy: Wayfair's building out its 1st brick-and-mortar store this fall
- Smackdown: World Wrestling Entertainment rises as it relaunches its own video network
- Fired: BBC yanks its podcasts from Google because it wasn't sharing enough audience data
- Repent: Purdue Pharmaceuticals pays $270M to settle claims with Oklahoma for its fueling of the Opioid crisis