Hey Snackers,
Careful what you reel for: a family on a fishing vacation in Fort Lauderdale had a "jaw-dropping" surprise after catching a great white shark.
Stocks kicked off the week in the green after UBS’s weekend takeover of its struggling rival, Credit Suisse. Investors were hopeful that a broader banking crisis could be avoided. All eyes are on the Fed’s rate-hike decision tomorrow. Traders expect a bump of 25 bps.
Virgin Orbit flirts with bankruptcy as SpaceX and Amazon double down on satellites
Failure to launch… Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit could be on the brink of bankruptcy. Last week the satellite-launching startup paused operations and reportedly furloughed most of its staff. Yesterday, CNBC reported that Branson’s baby was scrambling to raise cash. If Virgin Orbit fails to secure a funding lifeline or a buyer, it could file for bankruptcy as soon as this week. If dollars are rocket fuel, Virgin Orbit is burning it fast.
- Boeing up: Virgin Orbit (which was spun out from space-tourism company Virgin Galactic) developed a new system to launch satellites by dropping rockets from the wings of Boeing 747 jets.
- Major L: In January, Virgin Orbit was poised to send the first satellites into orbit from UK soil. But the historic mission flopped after its rocket failed to reach orbit, which led to the destruction of nine small satellites for governments.
- Descent: Virgin Orbit stock has plunged nearly 75% this year following the failed launch, and it lost $140M from January to September of last year.
To infinity, and Elon… The satellite industry has mostly been dominated by huge missions to launch huge satellites for huge companies, but startups like SpaceX and Virgin Orbit have found a niche: launching smaller satellites for smaller customers at lower orbits. SpaceX's Starlink satellite-internet biz has launched ~4K satellites to date and has 1M subscribers (think: residential WiFi). Now SpaceX is gearing up to test Starlink satellite-to-cell phone service, which Musk had said would be available on T-Mobile phones this year. Meanwhile, Amazon just revealed “Project Kuiper,” its forthcoming low-cost satellite-internet dishes.
A big L can be the nail in a small coffin… In the increasingly competitive small-launch market, there may be room for only a few providers, which means that even one high-profile mishap could mean game over. While Virgin Orbit had four successful launches before its failed UK launch, the high-profile flop may’ve been a final blow.
Businesses embrace the “whenever economy” as remote work powers midday golfing
Meeting up for an early tee time… at 2 on a Wednesday afternoon. Pandemic-born remote work has reshaped the modern office (#hotdesking), but it's also reshuffled non-office life. The flexibility has created a "whenever economy." Remote workers are taking advantage of their schedules to shop or work out when they'd have typically been at a downtown desk. Now they're working different hours (picture: afternoon golf games, late-evening emails). For some industries, that's been a boon:
- Printing greens: A study of 3.4K+ golf courses saw a nearly 4X jump from 2019 to 2022 in Wednesday-afternoon games. Researchers' best guess: WFH golf breaks.
- Midday blowout: According to ClassPass, last year the most popular time for salon or spa visits was noon. Before the pandemic, it was around dinner time.
- Office-chair pose: Yoga studios and rock-climbing gyms are seeing sustained midday business as remote workers downward-dog and scale walls between Zoom calls.
Slack pings to an empty desk… As big names like Amazon, Salesforce, and Meta require (or “strongly encourage”) in-person office work, they may end up looking like loud outliers. A recent survey of 1.1K corporate execs found that only 3% plan to cut down remote options, while 5% said they'll expand them. Many prospective employees are on board: remote opportunities recently attracted a majority of LinkedIn applications, despite making up only 13% of job listings.
The 9-to-5 is losing its hold… Say hello to the 9-to-whenever-it's-done. An overlooked detail of the whenever economy: workers aren't necessarily working less. A three-hour lunch break might mean a post-dinner spreadsheet sesh. That flexibility may be hard to relinquish, both for employees lovin' afternoon golf and for employers expecting late-night email replies.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Slash: Amazon plans to lay off 9K workers across its Twitch, cloud, and ad biz, having already axed 18K employees since November. Meanwhile, Meta let go of 10K more workers last week as the tech scale-down continues.
- Popup: Less than half a year after launching, Netflix’s cheaper $7/month ad tier has reportedly hit 1M sign-ups. As its password-sharing crackdown looms, Netflix could see even more subs from booted users.
- Appy: Microsoft could launch its Xbox mobile gaming store as soon as next year as part of its (pending) Activision games rollout. But first Microsoft needs regulators to break up Apple and Google's app-store reign.
- Clip: ByteDance has a sneaky hit up its sleeve. The Chinese parent of TikTok also owns editing app CapCut, which has racked up 400M+ global downloads in the past year by helping users create Tok-worthy videos.
- Mute: Nearly half of US firms said they’re drafting policies around employee use of ChatGPT as concerns loom. While banks like Goldman and Bank of America have banned the bot, hedge fund Citadel has embraced it.
Tuesday
- Fed meeting begins
- Earnings expected from Nike, Tencent Music, and GameStop
Authors of this Snacks own shares: of Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft
ID: 2803541