Hey Snackers,
ZuckBucks are coming.
Word that official details on Facebook's new cryptocurrency arrive today dominated attention spans. Markets barely budged in anticipation, but Facebook already jumped 4%.
Domino's self-driving minivan is coming to Texas
More cheese, less human... Domino's is launching self-driving pizza delivery in Houston, TX later this year. The fully-autonomous minivans are named "R2" and created by California-based Nuro (look at this thing go). The startup was founded by two Waymo engineers (that's Google's self-driving car side-hustle) who tested them out in the dry heat of Scottsdale, Arizona.
Here's how it goes down... These adorable pizza-packed vehicles are purpose-built — designed to deliver you carbs as efficiently as possible:
- No room for people: At 8.5-feet long, the R2 has no driver's seat, steering wheel, or brake pedal — just pizza box storage.
- No sidewalks: Unlike Postmates' and Amazon's mini-bot delivery concepts, R2 rides with traffic at 25 mph.
- Easy, app-y process: Houstonians can open their Domino's app, click "robot delivery," and they'll receive a PIN when R2 arrives. Type those digits into the delivery bot and boom — it's pepperoni time.
Domino's is cutting humans from its diet... Just as Uber and Lyft are banking on self-driving cars to help them achieve future profitability, the pizza chain wants to avoid delivery boys to save costs (it's thinking like a tech company). We counted three other Domino’s partnerships to cut out drivers and their costly wages:
Pfizer pays big (strategically) for a cancer drug company
Pfizer really wanted these drugs... NY-based pharma giant Pfizer just dropped $10.6B for cancer drug company Array BioPharma. Pfizer wanted Array so badly that it offered $48 cash per share to buy out the whole company — That's 62% higher than Array's stock was trading on Friday.
2 cancer-crushing future money-makers... That's what Pfizer gets. Braftovi and Mektovi are both approved to treat skin cancer, including melanoma. Pending the results of a couple other studies, they could treat colon and rectal cancer patients, too. Guess how much each of those drugs cost per month — $11K. That adds up over the life of a cancer survivor.
Life-saving monopoly drugs are good business... Life-improving non-monopoly drugs aren't so much. Pfizer got famous with erection-helping Viagra and cholesterol-hating Lipitor. Both face competition now that their patents expired (online disruptors, like Hims and Roman, copied the generic versions). That's why Pfizer's buying up these life-saving cancer drugs.
Blue Apron pulls a "reverse split" in a desperation move
Not a good sign... Blue Apron just completed a "reverse stock split" — It's combining 15 (really tiny) Blue Apron shares into 1 (way more reasonably sized) share. That financial engineering boosted the stock price from $0.55 to over $8 in one day. The struggling meal kit pioneer pulled off the maneuver for two key reasons:
- Psychological messing: Seeing the stock fall from its $10 IPO price down to $1 in less than two years was depressing. And when potential investors check and see the stock's under a buck, it sends a bad signal.
- The minor leagues: The New York Stock Exchange may actually de-list stocks that are less than $1. If they stay below that price for too long, the stock is relegated down to the "Over the Counter" markets.
Blue Apron warned us this could happen... When Blue Apron prepped to become the first publicly traded company focused on zucchini-wrapped salmon entrées for your night in, it was honest with investors about the risks it faced. Here are three top concerns the company listed in its pre-IPO S-1 document, all of which have come true:
- “We have a history of losses, and we may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability.” That first profit champagne is still in the fridge.
- “If we fail to cost-effectively acquire new customers or retain our existing customers... our business could be materially adversely affected.” Customers haven't been loyal.
- "If we fail to manage future growth effectively, our business could be materially adversely affected.” Competition is everywhere.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Artistic: Sotheby's auction house was just sold to a French telecom tycoon for $3.7B
- Fancy: Chanel invests in a Boston startup making sustainable silk
- Venture: Goldman Sachs is combining its 4 private capital arms into one division with $140B in assets
- Talent: AT&T's WarnerMedia reportedly close to $500M contract for top director JJ Abrams
- Fresh: SweetGreen makes first acquisition, delivery company Galley Foods