Hey Snackers,
Bezos is pulling a Patagonia: the Amazon founder said he plans to give away most of his $124B fortune to fighting the climate crisis and supporting humanitarian causes.
Stocks ticked down yesterday after the Fed hinted at more rate hikes ahead. Bitcoin fell slightly as investors considered the potential fallout from FTX’s bankruptcy.
Miami ditches “FTX Arena” as sponsorships with the bankrupt exchange haunt sports orgs
Chilling in Miami with the heat… Not enjoying the Florida sunshine: FTX. The bankrupt crypto exchange had signed a 19-year, $135M deal for naming rights to the Miami Heat’s home arena last year. Now Miami-Dade County and its NBA team say they’re “immediately taking action” to end their relationship with FTX. The exchange had paid $14M up front and was scheduled to make a $5.5M payment in January.
- Bye, FTX Arena: It’ll still be referred to as FTX Arena for Saturday’s Heat game, but social-media pics suggest the FTX logo is already being dismantled.
- Hi, [insert name here] Arena: Miami said it would work with the Heat to find a new naming-rights partner for the arena.
From the NBA to the MLB… FTX has a stacked portfolio of sports sponsorships. Last year, Major League Baseball signed a five-year deal to name FTX its official crypto-exchange partner (think: FTX.us patches on umpire uniforms).
- Racing: FTX also had a long-term sponsorship deal with Mercedes’ Formula One team — that’s now been scrapped (no more FTX logos on F1 cars).
- Esports: FTX had struck a naming-rights deal with US esports giant TSM, among other esports players. Brazilian org Furia tweeted that it’s ending its deal with FTX.
- Football: Last year UC Berkeley struck a $17.5M, 10-year naming-rights deal with FTX for its football stadium. TBD if it’s getting a new name.
Crypto has covered its bases… in sports. Crypto brands spent $130M+ on NBA sponsorships alone last season, up from ~$2M in the previous season. Five crypto companies — including FTX, Crypto.com, and Coinbase — were responsible for 92% of NBA sponsorship spending in the crypto category. Crypto.com’s Lakers’ stadium-naming deal alone is reportedly worth $700M. But now that the Enron-style “naming-rights curse” has hit FTX, sports orgs might need to cover their bases too.
Disney’s “Black Panther” sequel broke a November box-office record — another win for the Marvel-verse
Big opening weekend for Wakanda… Disney’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” just raked in $180M in North America, the second-biggest box-office haul of the year and the highest-grossing November debut ever.
- It’s a much-needed win for Disney, whose sales and earnings fell short of expectations last quarter despite rebounding attendance at its parks.
- Big shoes to fill: “Wakanda Forever” was the first flick to crack $100M since July. But the super sequel fell short of the original “Black Panther,” which featured the late Chadwick Boseman ($202M on opening weekend).
It’s Marvel’s universe… we’re just living in it. The only movie that’s outperformed “Wakanda Forever” this year was another Marvel flick, the latest “Doctor Strange.” In fact, 9 of the top 15 domestic debuts in history are now Marvel films (not adjusted for inflation).
- Marvel mania: The seven Marvel movies that Disney’s released in the past two years have grossed $2.3B, more than a fifth of total box-office sales in that period.
- Well-versed: Disney uses its Marvel-verse to cross-promote shows, parks, and merch. It plans to build an Avatar-verse around its new “Avatar” film, which opens next month.
It’s the “-verses” versus everyone… Disney has invested heavily in “theatrical universes” like the Marvel-verse and the “Star Wars”-verse, whose recognizable characters still attract large audiences even as theater attendance slumps. Last month, rival Hollywood heavyweight Warner Bros. Discovery released “Black Adam” to bolster its growing DC-verse. But as studios focus on a few mega-blockbusters, theater chains like AMC are suffering: US box-office sales this year are still a third below prepandemic levels.
Heard on the Block: “proof of reserves”
📊 Like if your banker did a show-and-tell, but left half the presentation at home…
Crypto exchanges are in the spotlight after FTX’s bankruptcy. Now nine exchanges are rushing to reassure everyone that they've actually got customers' assets. Binance said it would issue "proof of reserves": cryptographic proof it holds the coins it claims. But proof of reserves has been criticized because it's only one part of an exchange's financial health. Another part: proof of liabilities (how much the exchange owes).
What else we’re Snackin’
- Packed: Amazon is reportedly cutting 10K employees this week, including workers from its money-losing devices division (think: Alexa). Last week Meta and Twitter axed a combined 14K+ employees to cut costs.
- Balexit: Luxury designer Balenciaga became the first big fashion brand to ditch Twitter since the Elon-quisition. Meanwhile, Elon’s SpaceX just bought a $250K Twitter “takeover” ad campaign to promo Starlink satellites.
- Spoiled: Oatly shares fell 14% after the oat-milk biz slashed its annual revenue forecast and announced job-cut plans. The company’s losses have grown as it deals with a strong US dollar and China’s zero-Covid policy.
- Nugget: Tyson shares fell as higher costs and falling beef prices ate into the meat giant’s profits last quarter. Tyson’s CFO again apologized for his actions last week after authorities said he fell asleep in the wrong house.
- Pricey: NJ’s American Dream mall cut a deal with JPMorgan lenders to extend its debt payments until 2026. The $5B luxury mega-mall includes mini golf and a water park, but is millions of dollars in debt as rent payments pile up.
Tuesday
- Earnings expected from: Walmart, Home Depot, Advance Auto Parts, Aramark, Tencent Music, and Krispy Kreme
Authors of this Snacks own: bitcoin and shares of Amazon, Disney, Twitter, and Walmart
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