Kyle Hagee

Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Kyle Hagee. Today, Mark Zuckerberg takes a page from Elon Musk's book and rips up Meta's fact-checking system.

They're called naming conventions for a reason, and that's because they're conventional. It's the reason why every streaming service decided to do an add a plus. It's not You know, they probably wanted to be original, but they said, I don't even remember who the first Plus was. Was it ESPN Plus? I don't remember.

I like having options. Never know what kind of mood I'm going to be in on any given day.

But either way, as soon as Plus came to indicate streaming service, then every company just said, okay, well, whatever. We want consumers to know that we are launching a streaming service and that this is a streaming service, so we're going to add a Plus.

It got us talking about Dell computers, and it got me thinking about what companies do naming well. Well, one, I think, is BMW. BMW has so many different cars and different versions of those cars. And I think the way they've done it, they've honed it over the years, is quite extraordinary. They have, you know, the model series in letters, 123.

through eight, the even numbers indicate two doors, the odd numbers indicate four doors, the cars generally get bigger, you have X for off-road, M means fast or souped up, D for diesel, it's just very communicated in a very elegant way, a very complicated product offering.

The best part is Public doesn't make you choose. You can build a multi-asset investment portfolio. It's the all-you-can-eat buffet of investment apps.

Let's sprint to the finish with some final headlines. Multiple fires are raging around Los Angeles, sparking evacuation orders for at least 30,000 people and consuming homes in flames.

Weather analysts say this was the worst fire event for the area in at least 15 years because you have this combustible recipe of extremely dry vegetation and Santa Ana winds that gust up to 80 miles per hour and push the fire along quickly, giving firefighters no chance at containing it.

The footage coming out of Southern California is truly harrowing, and residents say they've never seen a day like yesterday. The most dangerous conditions are expected to last through this afternoon.

And some more grim news out of Florida. Officials have launched an investigation after the bodies of two individuals were found in the landing gear compartment of a jet blue plane after it landed in Fort Lauderdale Monday night. The bodies were found during a routine post-flight maintenance check after the aircraft arrived from JFK in New York.

It is unclear why and how these people got into the wheel well, but once you're in there, it is not good news. Any number of things can kill you from the lack of oxygen when the plane is at cruising altitude, hypothermia from freezing temperatures, and potentially falling out once the wheels are deployed for landing.

A report from 2011 found that only 18 of 89 people survived attempts to fly in compartments outside the aircraft cabin.

Yeah, I don't think they're doing it because they want to. It's out of desperation. On a lighter note, if you want to be an artificial intelligence engineer or consultant when you grow up, great news. Those are the fastest growing jobs in the United States.

LinkedIn released its list of the most in-demand jobs for 2025 yesterday, and those two AI-facing roles came out on top, rounding out the top five. Physical therapist came in third, workforce development manager fourth, and travel advisor fifth.

And a sign of the rapid advancement of technology, 60% of the fastest-growing jobs are new to the list this year, while about half the positions didn't even exist 25 years ago.

It is, and I also thought it was interesting that travel advisors fifth and event coordinator was sixth. It shows that in-person meetups are still a thing, thankfully, after the pandemic and the rise of AI and all of that, but... The turn of the year is a time when a lot of people are thinking about new jobs.

So if you want an in-demand job, maybe go to the LinkedIn top 25 list and see what's out there. Finally, I'm about to get all your stomachs rumbling because yesterday the Girl Scouts of the USA announced the start of the new season for Girl Scout cookies, which runs through the spring. All the classic flavors will be back, but two cookies are going to be discontinued after this year.

S'mores and toast, yay. So stock up if you're one of the few who actually like those. We'll see if a black market takes shape, actually. Two years ago, when the Girl Scouts retired Raspberry Rally, boxes were being sold on eBay for $30.

If you want to sample Public's menu of offering, head to public.com slash morningbrew. Public, invest in everything. Paid for by Public Investing. Full disclosures in podcast description. Last year, Mark Zuckerberg was training to fight Elon Musk in a cage match. This year, he's taking notes from him.

It would, but I think Derek Jeter ended it forever with his farewell tour. It was just so over the top that we can't even do it even for Girl Scout cookies.

Okay. Yeah. What about you? I don't know what it's called. Tagalong, I think. Just chocolate peanut butter. You can't go wrong. You can't go wrong with that. Okay, let's wrap it up there. Thanks for starting your morning with us and have a wonderful Wednesday. Thanks again for stepping in, Kyle. It was great to be here.

For any questions, comments, or feedback, send an email to morningbrewdaily at morningbrew.com. Let's roll the credits. Morning Brew. Let's run it back tomorrow.

Yesterday, Meta made the surprise announcement that it would scrap its third-party fact-checking process and replace it with a version of Community Notes, the crowdsource moderation system Musk introduced at X. With billions of users globally across Instagram, Facebook, and threads, Meta's policy change will mean a profound change in the way people everywhere consume social media.

So why'd Zuck do it? He said that the current fact-checking system, which employs news organizations to flag misleading or inaccurate information, had gone too far and led to the suppression of differing opinions. We've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship, he said. Trump's victory in November was also a major factor.

Zuck said the recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech. And it's probably not a coincidence that Meta gave this news exclusively to Fox and Friends, one of Trump's favorite shows. Kyle, a clear trend has emerged in recent weeks.

Mark Zuckerberg has in a significant way repositioned his company to a tight embrace of Trump, Musk and the philosophies of the incoming White House.

Like many people you know right now, Toby is out sick and hopefully crushing tea at home. Feel better, Toby, and everyone else who's laid up this winter. But we are delighted to have 2024's sixth man of the year, Kyle Hagee, back on board. Kyle, thank you for joining me.

He's definitely shifting with the winds. I mean, go back to 2016 when this current fact-checking system was put in place. This was on the heels of Trump's first election when misinformation, social media, Cambridge Analytica, data scandal, Russia meddling in the elections was all the buzz. And Mark Zuckerberg implemented a very heavy-handed fact-checking and content moderation process.

In response to that, he employed news organizations like the AP, CNN, to flag to flag misleading or inaccurate posts. And now we're in 2024. Things have completely changed. Elon Musk bought X or Twitter in 2022, changed it to X, ripped up this content moderation for X and employed

Community notes, which if people don't know what community notes is on, you know, because they don't go on Twitter or X, that's it's a community crowdsource based fact checking system.

So if you see a post that is misleading or not or false, then you will see oftentimes a note attached to it by that has been voted on by people that that explains why it's not correct and provides a source at the bottom to say this is why this is not correct.

Yeah. And Zuck said there would be a trade-off here. He said, the reality, this is a trade-off. It means that we're going to catch less bad stuff, but we'll also reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that we accidentally take down. And that admission that, you know, there will be more harmful content on these platforms seen by billions of people, you know, is a serious thing.

And people who care about, you know, the lack of you know, not allowing fake news to spread, are very concerned about this. Employees who were against this vented on internal messaging platforms, saying this would lead to more transphobic and racist remarks on Meta's platforms that go unchecked. Other employees said this is a welcome change. So certainly sparks a debate.

Yeah, as you mentioned, Joel Kaplan going to become the head of public policy for Meta, the addition of Dana White to the board, this move to employ Musk's favored fact-checking system. All signs are showing that Zuck is trying to get in the good graces of the incoming administration.

Greenland may be the least dense political entity on the planet, but the chatter around it has never been louder after President-elect Trump has, in the last few weeks, repeated his intention for the US to buy the autonomous territory off of Denmark, its current owner.

Those plans were on full symbolic display yesterday when Trump's son, John Jr., visited Greenland in his father's jet, Trump Force One. Don Jr. emphasized he wasn't there to make a land deal, but the implications were clear. The Trumps are eyeing the island for America. There's just one problem. It is not for sale.

You said it yourself.

Remember, Trump floated buying Greenland the last time he was in office in 2019, causing Denmark to lash out at the, quote, absurd idea. Denmark and Greenland leaders said nothing has changed this time around and that the U.S. can't buy it even if they wanted to. It would go against the will and the sovereignty of the 56,000 Inuit majority people who live there.

But Trump does not seem to be taking note for an answer at a press conference yesterday. He said he wouldn't commit to ruling out the use of military force to seize control of Greenland and the Panama Canal, for that matter, either, calling it a national security issue. Kyle, did you know Greenland isn't even green?

Yeah, Greenland is home to 37 of 50 critical minerals. You just go down the periodic table. I mean, gold, silver, uranium, it's all there and all of those components are so necessary. for the green transition. It's also a strategic region in general because a lot of transatlantic flights, if you've ever flown to Europe, you go over Greenland. The U.S. has a military base there.

And you might be thinking, wow, this is such an outlandish idea, but the U.S. has bought land before. Sovereignty purchases are responsible for more than 40% of U.S. land. And a number of times in our history, the U.S. has tried to buy land. Greenland, most recently, post-World War II in 1946, we offered $100 million for it. They rejected it. Now, you know, who knows what it's worth?

But we know that the authority on such matters, Larry David, has said that the Statue of Limitations for wishing somebody a Happy New Year runs out three days after January 1st.

The Washington Post did a deep analysis, and they said it could be worth anywhere from $200 billion to $1.7 trillion. But we should say, this is—it's not for sale. Greenland right now is a semi-autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark, and as you alluded to, The people of Greenland do not want to be under the auspices of Denmark for much longer.

The problem is Denmark pays them $550 million per year in subsidies to protect them and they provide security. So there is an interesting tango going on right now. And, you know, people who say, Trump, like, we know that Greenland is a strategic area. Instead of buying it, why don't you invest in it? You know, partner with Denmark and Greenland to push, you know, U.S.

interests there instead of having Russia and China sort of expend their influence there.

Well, the CFPB said they came to the conclusion that medical debt is just a poor predictor of your ability to repay a loan, which is what a credit score does, essentially. And the trends have been moving in this direction already. It's medical debt is already treated differently. than other kinds of debt on credit reports.

I think you're in the minority here. People are going to look at you weird. You can't say happy birthday on January 8th if it's not somebody's birthday. In a similar fashion, you can't say happy new year on January 8th. I want people to sound off in the YouTube comments and see who's right, me or you, and it's obviously me.

The three major credit reporting agencies, which are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, two years ago said they wouldn't include medical debt more than a year old or under $500 on their credit reports. States like New York and California had already done this provision that the CFPB did.

So it seems like the you know, every the all the momentum was moving in this direction for for medical debt to sort of not appear on your credit score. And that is a or not have an impact on your credit score. And that is will have a major impact on your ability to get a loan, whether that's to buy a house or do anything else.

Speaking of like predatory practices, as you were talking about, this seemed to be like a major lever that debt collectors use to have you pay bills that you may not even owe, saying you had better pay your bills now because it will negatively impact your credit score. And I think that was exactly that was a popular practice that that this agency wants to to get rid of.

Now, up next, is Dell becoming like Apple?

I think it's just inevitable. Someone invents a language and you have to start speaking that language or no one will understand you. And Apple invented this language around the pros and Macs and everyone understands conceptually what those models mean in terms of what you're getting. One is bigger, one has more, one is faster, right? You just understand that.

And Dell had this outdated language that it was like Yiddish, no one speaks it anymore. it had to move to the simplified language because its PC sales are flagging and it needs to sell more. So this is not a move from a position of offense, obviously, because it's basically copying another company. But I just think it's an inevitable way for companies now to adopt conventional naming conventions.

Well, if Rolex, Patek, Grand Seiko, they're listening. Sponsor the pod.

Yeah. Well, he's a tech guy. Tech guy. Tech guy. We'll be right back with some more quotes. Okay, another really insightful quote here. Let's guess who said it. Talk on de-dollarization is something that gets on my last nerves. People keep saying no one is going to use the U.S. dollar. The U.S. dollar is going to explode. If the U.S.

dollar explodes, the rest of the financial system will explode, including crypto. There needs to be less fear-mongering around it. It's got to be you, Kyle.

I just have to say, I'm honored that Neil heard de-dollarization. He goes, yeah, it was Kyle. You're more opinionated than we are.

And it's the only time this year that all three of us, I believe, have been in the studio at once. The government said it's too powerful when we get together, so they let us do it once a year. Do we have a designated survivor? Oh, no. I don't know. We'll have to talk to the producers about that.

That's insightful. Was it Kyla Scanlon? It was Kyla Scanlon. A really good interview you all did, and apparently she, de-dollarization gets on her last nerves.

Agreed. Very insightful breakdown there. For next year, we need to take a quote from this episode. It's just a meta quote. It's going to be a meta quote. All right. Moving on to a next quote. I think COVID changed people's perspectives on trade work. As businesses shut down, people realized that trade work and skilled trade workers were reliable, well-paying jobs that weren't going away.

You guys are two in your own heads now. No, it's Toby. Shoot. It was Toby. It was about Gen Z skipping college and going to trade schools. All right, moving on. This one's very fun. Because it starts with, it is just club bangers, one after another.

I was listening to it midday yesterday, and I was like, I really shouldn't be listening to this right now because I need to get on a dance floor right now.

Wait, I don't even remember you saying that. Literally, Neil, you two were talking about the song in the summer. This wasn't reference to Charlie XCX, and it was Neil. Well done. Club bangers. I would say prescient, too. Very prescient.

You had a Brad Brill era, and now you're moving on. Yeah. That's fair. Next quote. This is really just an example of how TikTok can play into spreading some not-so-sound financial advice.

I'm sure that happened, but it's not correct. There was one trend that went pretty viral on TikTok.

Bank glitch is very close. I think that's what it is.

Out of the ATM.

Yes. So it was the viral Chase ATM trend where people were basically committing check fraud when you broke it down. Who said it, though? Was it Toby or was it Neil? Say that again.

This really is just an example of how TikTok can play into spreading some not so sound financial advice. Toby. Not so sound sounds like me. You guys know yourself well. It was Toby. I would have done that in just one word. He needs three.

Of course. This is one of my favorite episodes, so let's make it a good one. Are you all ready to play Who Said It? Let's do it. All right. Quote number one. It does feel like the layoffs of early 2024 do have some AI tinge to it. When you listen to these CEOs doing their layoff announcements, it's more strategic focused on reorganizing. It's not like the layoffs of 2023.

So if you're listening at home and you hear Toby say not so sound, just know he's actually swearing.

All right. Next quote. I think people are looking at the broad candy market and seeing people are innovating in the candy sector. They're not innovating as much in the chocolate sector, and that's why you're seeing people lean towards candy instead of chocolate. Okay, someone went to business school before this quote.

But who said it, Toby?

It was Toby. Neil, incorrect. And this was candy makers shifting towards Halloween gummies versus chocolates.

Yeah, this was an incredible breakdown. I want to see this on like a memo that's distributed to like Mars or Hershey's

Constraints create innovation. Yeah. Next quote. Theatricality is critical. People know it's scripted, but it doesn't matter because we're all hardwired for narrative. And even though we know it's scripted, we're going to feel those emotions.

And let me give you another clue. Is it Kyle? No. Macy did a really cool video where she was actually selling these in New York. Oh, hot dogs?

Ding, ding, ding, George Shea. Yeah. You did an awesome interview with Hot Dogs Eating Contest host extraordinaire George Shea. Right. And he loved the theatricality.

We'll have George Shea back on to break this down next year. Last quote. When I think of this story, I just think to myself, man, this is totally going to be a movie one day. Because it's soaked with drama and so many important issues of our time tied into this one man. Sounds like me.

Wow. Give it to us one more time. Okay. When I think of this story, I just think to myself, man, this is totally going to be a movie one day because it's soaked with drama and so many important issues of our time tied into this one man.

You got a hint for us? It's an app founder. The app allows you to send messages. Pavel Durov, Telegram. Nailed it. Whoa. Yeah.

He's had a pretty wild year. Yeah.

Okay, so you would have used it properly. So Neil did say this. Now, this was on a pretty special episode. Do you remember what episode this was from?

Yeah.

Super interesting. All right, special last question. Who said it? Let's ride.

We've all had a few. What a beautiful moment. We're all coming together at the end. Exactly. So I will announce the winners, and I'll say the real winners are the audience, because I want to give a shout-out literally to you both and the entire team at Morning Brew Daily. If you think about all of these quotes... All of the stories you covered over the past, like, you know, 300 plus days.

It's pretty remarkable. And I think you've just created such an awesome show. People absolutely love this. And I see you all waking up at 4 a.m. every day to make this happen. So kudos to you. It was really fun to go through all these stories again.

And thank you for filling in, Kyle. Of course. Neil and Toby, thanks for playing our second annual Who Said It game. I guess I'll see you back here in about 365 days. Let's do it. Let's roll the credits now. Emily Milliron is our executive producer. Raymond Liu is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate producer. Uchenna Waogu is our technical director. Billy Menino is on audio.

Hair and Makeup had no memorable quotes this year. Devin Emery is our chief content officer. And our show is a production of Morning Brew. Thanks for listening.

Exactly. It was the year of Zock. It was the Mark Zuckerberg interview, and I think you were talking about should people be worried about AI taking their job. So, Zock, thank you for that really great quote, and you are correct, Neil. Had that insightful wisdom. Number two, if I were a betting man in this scenario, I think Warner Bros.

relinquishes the TV rights for the NBA because it's so expensive, right?

The answer is Toby. Let's go. You are using your correct heuristic. If it's right, Toby probably said it. The NBA TV rights were up for grabs between major media companies. This was from May 10th, episode 320. Okay, yeah.

We're still going to have Sir Charles on TV, which is great news. All right, number three. Quote, you want to bring tourists to your neck of the woods, but you also want them to behave responsibly and be respectful of the businesses. What a thoughtful quote here. Who said it? Sounds like me.

Okay, so the guess is Neil said it's about over-tourism mainly abroad. You're wrong on both accounts. Well done, guys. Toby said this, and it had nothing to do with Europe and international travel. It was Miami launches ad campaign to deter spring breakers. You all were thinking too intellectually.

Gotta look closer to home.

It was you want to bring tourists to your neck of the woods, but you also want them to behave responsibly and be respectful of the businesses. I think Miami spring break was getting a little out of hand.

Yeah. But if you go to Miami beach, you're not trying to behave responsibly. That's the whole point. That is the whole point. I have been to Miami beach during spring break and people do not behave responsibly. We'll move on from that. Number four. This one is a, this one's nice. We're breaking 85 in golf this year.

Hell yeah. Congratulations. Do you remember when you shared this, though, Neil? You are correct. No, no idea.

Ding, ding, ding. It was your New Year's resolution, the first episode of 2024, and you pulled it off. That's huge, actually. Huge news on the podcast.

He had a great golf year. A long putt for 84, and you just sinked it on 18? I don't remember. I probably flailed into the end there. All right, we're moving on to the next quote. This one is pretty serious. We've never seen anything like this in the history of financial markets.

When a company's earnings report has become as important as the jobs report or the inflation report or a Jerome Powell press conference, who said it and what was this quote about?

The two N's right there? Feeling good. The double N, N squared. N squared. You are correct. You guys nailed that one. It was NEO, NVIDIA. You probably said that a million times on this. A million.

Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Kyle Hagee. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Toby Howell. And on today's episode, we see if Neil and Toby can remember the brilliant things they said throughout the year. It's Thursday, December 26th. Let's ride. Hey, that's my line. So today we have a very special episode of the podcast with a game called Who Said It?

A gangbuster of a year for them. It would be really fun if you all did like earnings report watches.

You're on it. You're on it. You're Pat McAfee. We'll get Nick Saban in the house too. All right. Next quote. I probably account for 50% of global sales of Breyers. Me? Yeah.

Okay. Inflation has taken away your love. Yeah.

So it was, Neil, it was March 20th. So it was earlier this year. And it was about parent company Unilever trying to sell its ice cream businesses. Right.

It's probably good we're getting corporate interests aligned on not having climate change. Yeah, ice cream business. Ice cream companies are going to.

What's everyone's favorite ice cream brand? Ben and Jerry's. What flavor? There's a Maricone Dream, which is really good. If I'm not doing Ben and Jerry's, Salt and Straw, now that it's in New York City. And that is a Pacific Northwest staple.

That's like Michael Jordan buying Jordans right there. Also, we're doxing Stephen Colbert on that.

Public interest. All right, we're going to move on to the next quote. Every media company now has a streaming platform. So how do you stand out these days? It's having live sports. Oh, I mean, it's a pretty generic quote.

Every single person.

I'm going to give you the date and maybe that helps you identify what they're specifically talking about. It was an early episode, January 16th.

It was Peacock streaming the Chief Dolphins AFC wildcard game. And Neil said it. All right. Neil said it. All right. I love this next quote. Okay. This is a classic case of the overengineering that has gripped our society. Why can't we just have a low-tech vending machine? What was wrong with the former system where you put in a quarter, you type F3, and you get a snack?

And this is actually our second annual time we've done this. The rules are very complex, all right? So stick with me here. I'm going to read a quote from the podcast that was said during 2024, and you're both going to guess... Who said it? So crazy stuff going on. So I'll read the quote. You do discuss who you think said the quote. Maybe you agree. Maybe you disagree.

Someone is on their philosophical society level quote here. Who said it?

An incredible call. It was Toby, and you nailed it. It was about the facial recognition technology on college campuses. You have very good memories of what you all said.

That's pretty good. It was either NVIDIA or vending machines. That's all we're talking about. Okay, next quote. This is what you've always seen in music, people pushing the boundaries. This is why music is an awesome medium. A deep quote here. Someone did the research on this one. Music pushes the boundaries.

I'm drawing a blank here. You got to help us out. So it was February 2nd. Toby actually said it, which this is why music is an awesome medium. That feels Toby coded. Yeah.

It was Beyonce announcing her country album during the Super Bowl.

Music is an awesome medium. All right. I love this one too. Bring a megaphone, especially if you're a podcaster.

It's like a field day. All right, get the calendar out. It's April 30th. We're still early in the year. This was in reference to an extracurricular activity that one of you two did outside of the studio. That's exactly what I said. Toby hosted field day.

You all nailed it. There we go. Exactly. Toby said it. Toby lost his voice hosting field games during his sister's wedding. So if you brought a megaphone, you wouldn't have to yell.

Protect the moneymaker. I think from a corporate risk standpoint, we need both. Right. Ensure our cords insured. Our vocal. Yeah, we got to talk. We got to talk to someone about that. All right. Next quote. That's one of the problems with buy now, pay later. When you make these purchases, you can't build credit through them. Really good analysis here. Who said it?

And then bonus points if you can tell me the context of the quote. And if you can name a specific episode and date. It was said that, like, you might win a brand-new car or something. We encourage you to play at home, so feel free to pause the show. Think to yourself who said it. Or better yet, play it out loud on your commute. Get everyone guessing who said it as well.

Oh, my gosh. I need to just learn to read your Facebook. Yeah, I think I'm giving it away. You two are looking at each other too much.

Yes. Okay. Next quote. I just say, quote, you know your deal is stupid. It's going to go to zero because it's a bad idea. It doesn't mean you're a bad person. Take it behind the barn and shoot it and try something else. I'm the only one that tells the truth.

Kevin O'Leary.

Yesterday, Amazon launched its highly anticipated competitor to Taimou, Shein, and TikTok Shop, the China-linked marketplaces that have surged in popularity by offering ultra-cheap clothing and accessories. Called Amazon Haul, Amazon's storefront can be found on its mobile app and hawks a variety of products across apparel, home goods, electronics, and more.

You can get $1 eyelash curlers, an iPhone case for $3, and a four-pack of Christmas socks for $7. But those prices require a very un-Amazon-like compromise. The company says it'll take one to two weeks for your purchases to get delivered, and you'll be charged a shipping fee for orders under $25. Kyle, Amazon is clearly feeling the heat from these ultra-discounted online stores.

Do you think this gives it a little breathing room?

And one way they're trying to differentiate from Taimou and Shein is by hyping up the quality of their products. These other, these China-linked marketplaces have been accused of shady practices for sourcing materials to build these goods or ripping off, you know, third-party sellers.

And Amazon, in their press release for Amazon haul, sort of touted the fact that they screen the products that sellers offer in this particular marketplace so customers can be confident about They're going to receive safe, authentic and and products that are compliant with applicable regulations. So that's how they're standing out from from the ultra discounters that exist.

But clearly they're feeling the heat. They don't want to be disrupted. And so this is their this is their launch to stay ahead of the pack. For my second number, I need you to call your friend who you tease for being a terrible sports better. You owe them an apology.

At least in this NFL season, amateur gamblers have been gaining the upper hand on sportsbooks like DraftKings and FanDuel, forcing these companies to pay out more to customers and lower their sales forecasts as a result. Get this. Last week, DraftKings slashed its 2024 revenue guidance by $250 million. And on Tuesday, FanDuel parent Flutter cut its annual U.S. revenue forecast by $50 million.

So what's going on? Isn't the number one rule of the casino, the house always wins? Well, not always. This NFL season, fan favorite picks like the Chiefs and the Lions have been winning a lot, and generally there have been fewer upsets, which would be better for the sportsbooks.

For example, FanDuel's worst day of the NFL season was on the second Sunday of October, when 11 of the 13 favorites beat their opponents. To sum it up, the DraftKings CEO said, This was the most customer-friendly stretch of NFL sports outcomes we have ever seen.

My final number is for anyone out there who thinks they would win the amazing race. Scandinavian Airlines, or SAS, is handing out 1 million frequent flyer points to anyone who flies in at least 15 airlines in the SkyTeam Alliance by the end of the year.

The promotion is worth more than $10,000 and is SAS's way of celebrating its entrance into the alliance, which includes carriers like Delta, Air France, and KLM. So here's what you'll need. Excellent itinerary planning skills, a boss who lets you work remotely, and a passion for lower back pain.

One guy who took up the challenge told the Wall Street Journal he plans to spend about 90 hours on airplanes across 20 different flights in the next two weeks to complete the challenge. Kyle, 1 million points, $10,000. Do you think you could pull this off?

I don't think I look like any celebrity, but I've been told that I look a little bit like Mike from Suits. That's the only thing that has ever been mentioned to me in the realm of celebrity lookalikes. I don't even know what this guy looks like. I'm sure he's extremely handsome.

Apparently, employees at the airlines are placing bets on how many people will complete this, ranging from 500 to 500. I would say probably more people than not. Like, if there was an over-under, if DraftKings gave me the over-under— I would probably take the over on this. I think people are very wily. They're very clever. Apparently, travel forums are bursting with information about itineraries.

They're lighting up with people trying to complete this. But it's, what is it, November 14th? Yeah, until December 31st. So if you want to get a million frequent flyer points on Scandinavian Airlines, then you might as well start now.

No, I mean, you don't, and I love these people. I am one of them. Okay, let's sprint to the finish with some final headlines. Lots of drama at Polymarket, the prediction betting platform that rose to prominence during the recent election. Yesterday, the FBI raided the Manhattan home of the founder and CEO of the site, 26-year-old Shane Coplin, and seized his phone.

We don't know yet what the agents were looking for or why they raided the home, but... But Polymarket was quick to call it politically motivated after its users accurately predicted the outcome of the election in favor of Donald Trump.

A spokesman for the company said, quote, This is obvious political retribution by the outgoing administration against Polymarket for providing a market that correctly called the 2024 presidential election.

Well, Spirit, if you remember, was an incredible disruptor in this industry. It pioneered this ultra-low-cost model, kind of like the story we were just talking about with Taimou and Sheehan, forcing the other carriers to offer very cheap seats and then charge you for literally anything else you want online.

On the flight, Spirit was a big player in forcing the big four, Delta, American, all of those, to offer more discounted seats and charge more for bags, which I guess is not a great thing for customers. But it does appear headed for bankruptcy.

And critics of the Biden administration's antitrust initiative, that crackdown, have been pointing out that, you know, they blocked a merger between Spirit and JetBlue to... compete with the big four airlines. And in doing so, they basically condemned Spirit to bankruptcy. So we'll be looking in the next few weeks.

Wall Street Journal reported that Spirit does appear to be filing for bankruptcy in the next few weeks, and its stock price just fell 60 percent yesterday. Spotify is going all in on video podcasts to dethrone YouTube.

Yesterday, the company announced that it will start paying creators who hit certain engagement levels on their videos and will remove automated ad breaks and videos for premium subscribers. It's a bet that more podcasters who film themselves podcasting like we do will put more content on the platform if they had a financial incentive to do so.

I would show up to that, but I would probably be the only person there.

Right now, Spotify offers no payout to creators, while YouTube pays most creators a 55% share of the revenue of the ads it sells against the video. Kyle, video podcasts are growing faster than audio podcasts. Can Spotify compete with YouTube in this format?

I am a little excited about this. The CEO went on today's show on Monday and hyped up this new menu. And he said there was a riot in the streets when they removed hush puppies. And so now he expects, he said this cheekily, but he expects a flood of customers to come back because of hush puppies. Are you, you're like a Northern Midwest guy, like hush puppies.

could not be farther in terms of regional cuisine of what you are accustomed to. They're Southern.

Yeah, it does. So, all right, let's go get some hush puppies. That is all the time we have. Thanks for starting your day with us and have a wonderful Thursday. I'm going to be out tomorrow as well as Toby, so you will be in the incredibly good hands of Kyle and Ann, our newest guest host. Kyle, if you guys throw a party, I just ask, make sure to clean up and leave some beers in the fridge, okay?

All right. For any questions, comments, or feedback, send an email to morningbrewdaily at morningbrew.com. Let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our executive producer. Raymond Liu is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate producer. Uchenna Waogu is our technical director. Billy Menino is on audio. Karen Makeup is accepting the Scandinavian Air Challenge.

Ed Devin Emery is our chief content officer, and our show is a production of Morning Brew.

Reliable, well-made, lets me throw a lot of stuff in it.

Let's take this metaphor one step further. With the new AI and automation tools that Sage has added, you're slicing with cutting-edge razor-sharp knives as well. So fancy pot, but also fancy knives. I knew you were a phenomenal chef, Neil. And Sage is a phenomenal platform. Head to sage.com slash morningbrew. That's sage.com slash morningbrew.

It is a little bit. I mean, this was a terrible acquisition by Just Eat Takeaway. They paid seven point three billion dollars for Grubhub at the height of the covid delivery boom. Now they sold it for ninety one percent less than that valuation. They really just kind of bought it at the top. Just looking at the market share of delivery apps in the United States right now.

Grubhub has a market share of 8% compared to 67% with DoorDash, and Uber Eats now has a 23% market share. So Just Eat bought Grubhub to get into the U.S. market, expand their European empire, and they are the biggest food delivery service in Europe. It did not work out as well. People started going back to restaurants, and the overall delivery market just hasn't grown as much as was expected. But

Now that we tied the bow on Grubhub, let's talk about Wonder, which bought Grubhub. What is your take on Wonder and what they're doing? I mean, it is a sensibly a startup that few people have heard of outside of maybe New York City of seeing these storefronts, but they have insane plans. I mean, $30 billion valuation is insane that if they do achieve that, that would be within 10 years.

Chipotle had a $30 billion market cap. After 30 years in business, Shake Shack is worth $5.5 billion right now. This company in its last wonder, in its last funding round, was valued at $5 billion. So clearly investors are betting on Mark Lurie. And you mentioned he had these incredible exits, $3.3 billion to Walmart by Jet.com.

So it's very interesting what he's doing here and playing around in the restaurant space.

Yeah, one other differentiating factor is they've partnered with celebrity chefs. So they have they have menus inspired by Bobby Flay and Marcus Samuelson, Jose Andres and people like these. They've actually paid them to use their signature dishes to sell to people. And Mark Lurie wants to give customers a more elevated dining experience.

Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Kyle Heggie. Today, the biggest restaurant company you've never heard of just bought Grubhub is Wonder, the next Chipotle.

But what he does really is the goal here is a super app for mealtime. which I think super app is just a buzzy word. I don't know exactly what it means.

But now that he bought Grubhub, he wants to go from recipe development through the food preparation, through, you know, bought Grubhub's delivery drivers, through actually fulfillment to create this holistic experience for when you want food, they control everything. And he spent $60 million on IP alone. to own particular brands that they're selling out of these spaces.

So right now they have a few dozen locations in and around the Northeast, but he said he wants to expand to 100 locations by 2026 and then eventually IPO at a $30 billion valuation in 2027. Another interesting part of this super app is MealKits. You might have not heard this name in a while, Blue Apron. Oh, yeah.

But Wonder bought Blue Apron, again, for pennies on the dollar, just like they did Grubhub last year for $100 million. So now they do meal kits. They do these more elevated dining concepts with celebrity chefs. So it's an interesting proposition. It's hard to pin down what exactly Wonder does, but they've raised $1.7 billion. Investors clearly think that Mark Lurie is onto something again.

Okay, it's been a wild post-election week for Elon Musk's ex. In bad news for its business, many users appear to be leaving the platform, but in better news, more advertisers might return. Let's start with the users who appear to be leaving at rates not seen since Musk took over the company two years ago. On Wednesday, the day after the election, 115,000 U.S.

users deleted their X accounts, which was the single biggest day of web account exits since SimilarWeb began tracking the figure. Many of them appear headed to Blue Sky, the ex-rival that began as a project by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey in 2019.

Blue Sky said it has scored 1.25 million new signups in the past week alone, bringing its total user base to above 15 million, which is still very small compared to other platforms. But even as users flee, marketers could be coming back, which would be a huge help to X's sagging finances.

The Financial Times reported that some brands that had left X once Musk took over and stripped its content moderation policies are considering making a return. The move would be a strategic, politically motivated one, marketing consultants said. Musk owns the platform. He figures to be an influential figure in the next administration.

So if you want to get in his good graces and the good graces of the president, it helps to be an advertiser. Kyle, it's quite a contrast. Users going, advertisers maybe coming back.

We are lucky to be joined by the great Kyle Hagee, the co-host of Morning Brew's other podcast, per my last email. Yes. Kyle, we've got to talk about the trend that is sweeping the globe, celebrity lookalike contests. So this started a few weeks ago when a Timothee Chalamet lookalike competition was held in New York City and went viral after the man himself showed up.

275 million. That's Meta's threads. That number may be inflated because everyone knows who scrolls Instagram. You might see threads pop up every now and again while you're scrolling. And then as soon as you click on that, you become, in effect, a thread user. So it is 275 million compared to Blue Sky's 15 million.

And let's talk about X's finances, because I mentioned they were not in a great place. So it really needs advertisers to come back. According to eMarketer, the company is going to bring in $1.9 billion in advertising revenue this year, which is down from $2 billion last year. And in 2021, before the takeover, it was doing $4.5 billion in revenue. So a pretty dramatic decline.

Meanwhile, X's valuation has plummeted from $44 billion, which Musk paid, to below $10 billion. So it is a very important business imperative to get advertisers coming back to the platform. And it's a bet that paid off for Musk when he aligned with President-elect Trump that it would be really good for a lot of his businesses, as we've talked about on the show.

But we didn't talk about what it could mean for X, and it does seem like it might provide well.

excited. I'd love that. Yeah, this dude is 26 years old. He's already making waves in the New York City Council. You said brokers were in shambles, but they're still going to get paid. It just depends on by who. And right now in New York City is very unique.

We have a lot of listeners from outside of New York City, and they're probably thinking right now, wait, the tenant has to pay the broker fee? That is not how we do it. New York City was certainly an outlier in this regard. It goes back decades to when brokers were were the gatekeepers of the rental market.

Then these started popping up all over the place. A Paul Mescal lookalike competition in Dublin, Harry Styles in London, Dev Patel in San Francisco. This upcoming weekend will feature more, including a Jeremy Allen White lookalike competition in Chicago, of course. Kyle, help us explain what's going on here.

And now that has been disrupted by online platforms like Street Easy, which was a big proponent of this bill. They threw a lot of their weight behind it. But yeah, this was very much an anachronism of New York City. What they just passed brings it in line with more of the national standard, which is that the person, the landlord who hires the broker to show their apartment

pays them, and the tenant is relieved of some of these thousands of dollars of costs that were prohibited. You know, many people have to save a bunch of paychecks just for the upfront cost, for the opportunity to live in the apartment, let alone rent that is among the highest in the world. The median rent for an apartment in New York City is $3,500 a month.

So this is a big win for renters and tenants who had pushed for this for a long time.

And we should say that tenants and renters can hire their own broker and pay as well. It's just if you don't hire one, you don't need to pay under this new law.

Welcome to Neil's Numbers, the segment where I share three stats from the week's news that will make your brain neurons light up like a neon sign in Vegas. My first number is $20, which is the most you'll pay for an item on Amazon's new storefront.

Yeah, it's interesting, too. It's also a bit of supply and demand. So I think in a vacuum, I would say like most people see an MBA, they're like, oh, that's good. But if more people are getting an MBA and you're now fielding more candidates with MBAs, you still have to find a differentiating way to stand out to a hiring manager.

So it'll be interesting to see after this batch goes through the process if they're actually lucky enough to get a job. I think really what underpins this is people don't like to go home on the holidays or whatever and see their aunt and be like, I'm not working. It's so much easier to be like, well, I'm getting an MBA, Aunt Pam. And so I think there's a bit of this like you feel stuck.

You're not sure where to go. And an MBA is a convenient off ramp to like feel like you're doing something and to figure out what you want to do next in your career.

It's really interesting, Neil, though, because as you said, like as new fields get developed more and more rapidly, I feel like a two year program should actually become less relevant. And you'd want to focus on really quick bits of learning that are hyper relevant to the scenario you find yourself in right now, because you start an MBA program in two years.

There's like 100 new fields that didn't even exist when you started. So that's an interesting like counter trend. And we'll have to see how it plays out.

That is true. Personally, I would love to be an AI CEO. So if anyone's hiring, just let me know. Where did I come up with that? There you go.

I'm going to go give him an assignment that's not even part of this a-hole. That's cringe. I'll go full cringe. It's 2024.

Yeah. I mean, that's just showing that you're getting treated very differently based on your gender. Is that illegal?

I mean, first, if I work at Starbucks and they're making me come in and Brian Nichols is like taking his private jet from California to Seattle.

That sounds like discrimination. Yeah.

Just even hearing that made me cringe.

Juan, if this is the same Brooke, you've had a tough go of it, so I apologize. I don't think this person's the asshole at all. I mean, I think they were put in a tough situation. They were kind of promised something. It didn't pan out. And you should use every tool available to you to make sure that it comes to the conclusion you want, which is you ultimately do get that job.

I would say even if they were like, OK, we'll give it to you. It's probably not a good scenario. It's like once someone shows you who they are, believe them. Sounds like this company kind of pulled the rug on you. And I would start trying to find something else. Yeah.

I mean, I would push. I would try to get the job and see how it goes. But in the back of my head, I'd be like, even if I get it, I'm going to start evaluating my options elsewhere because, again, the company promised me something they didn't come through. This probably isn't the first time or the last time it's going to happen, and I'd be a little more weary going forward.

Exactly. I would be pretty pissed. I mean, I think this is all about voluntary layoffs. Even in Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon's note, he said, we're doing this. as well to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers. So I think this is a way to right-size without actually having to assess talent.

I don't think so. I mean I think personally for me, like I wouldn't want to work in a place where they're like, we didn't technically give that to you in writing even though we promised it to you. So legally we don't have to give it to you. Like I just wouldn't want that. You told me I was going to get something. I put in all the work. I didn't get it.

Yeah, I mean, treat people like adults and communicate clearly as soon as you know, and this issue doesn't happen.

Yeah, me and Kayla are actually going to launch a relationship.

Yeah, I think that's a brilliant answer. I mean, name it to tame it is the saying we use often, like it is going to be awkward and it's going to be a challenge if you go from, you know, a colleague to a manager of your friends. So have that conversation.

It's just an easier way to get people to quit if they don't want to work there or they like their work-from-home setup. And I'm actually pretty disappointed. This feels like a big step backwards, particularly from Amazon, who's always been super innovative. They were like, people don't need to go into a physical bookstore. We can actually sell books online and embrace these new technologies.

Ultimately, if you're able to help them grow in their career and help them achieve the success they want at work, they're going to love you as a manager. And so I think the hard part internally after you name it to tame it is kind of getting into that manager role and understanding it is not all about you now. It's also about growing your direct reports and that really matters to them.

If you can prove that you're going to grow in your friendship and I think unique ways too.

I don't know what your take is, Kayla. I do think like the relationship dynamic will change. Like when you go from just a colleague and a friend to a manager and a friend, your responsibilities to that person do change in like almost like a legal way, like you in the hierarchical way. So I think it will change and it'll probably change the nature of your friendship a little bit.

And that's just realistic. But I think that's what you get when you accept that role.

We're on every platform out there. Just type in Per My Last Email to your AI-powered search engine, and it'll pop up.

And now it seems like, but people still need to work in an office, it feels backwards and I'm a little disappointed in Amazon.

If I'm an employee, I'd rather them just be honest. I think from Amazon's perspective, they have so many employees that it's probably hard to go and assess each individual's talent and like make layoffs that way. So this is like just a more effective way for them to do that. But I'd rather them just be honest.

Yeah, ultimately, it is a war for talent. I think the genie is out of the bottle on hybrid work. And so if you're a very talented employee and you want to work in a hybrid setup, I think there is going to be a company that will pay you the same to do that. And you're ultimately going to end up there.

And so I think Amazon is going to be stuck in this messy middle where if you want to work for a large company, you probably also want to work hybrid. If you want to work in person and tackle really, really thorny challenges, you might want to go for a startup. And that's not what Amazon is.

Kayla hates fantasy football.

Yeah, I mean, I think we already talked about voluntary layoffs. Now we're talking about sneaky layoffs. We're going to talk about AI. The word that's pinning all these together is efficiency. And even Zuck said, like, this is the year of efficiency. I think we're seeing companies with new tools. And with hiring too much during COVID, wanting to right size and finding any way to do that.

And so if they can find someone that's like broken a company policy, they can fire them. It looks better from a PR perspective. You're not having to do mass layoffs. And I think that's what this is all about. I think what gets tricky is if the person running the fantasy football league was like the top performer at that company, they wouldn't have fired them.

And so I think you're going to get into this place where like some people break the rules and they're given more leeway. Some people break the rules and they're not performing well and they're given no leeway. And we'll see how that affects overall employee morale.

Well, obviously everyone would love the show, but early to mid-career professionals looking to level up in their career, they want help navigating some of the thorniest work-life scenarios per my last email of the show for them.

Yeah, I mean, I think going back to what I said, the problem is most people think they're above average. So, like, everyone's probably like, oh, I'm doing a great job at work. It would never happen to me. I think be realistic. So, like, don't do something that the company says not to do. We probably all do a little bit of that, but don't do something egregious.

But then the second thing is I think you just have to decide, do I want to work at a place that legitimately would fire me for doing fantasy football? For me, I'd be like – F that, like I don't even wanna work here. Like that is super, super lame. So I think you also just have to come to terms with like, do you wanna be micromanaged to that degree? I personally wouldn't, so.

If I'm a company and I found someone doing two training videos at once, I'd promote the person. That's efficiency. Come on.

Yeah, I mean, my take is it is a game changer, personally, I think. And I think people forget, like, the world is an open notes test. And so, like, you should be using every tool available to you. And I think there are so many really incredible tools out there now, ChatGBT, Perplexity being a few. And, Toby, you mentioned this. Like, people are using this when they're stuck.

And I think that is a common thing you find in knowledge work. Like, you're overwhelmed at a task. Even having something to prompt to get you started I think is very effective. The thing I think people are hesitant about is they feel like they need to understand how the tool works, or they need to learn deep LLM technology to use these tools, which you don't.

You just have to be open to experimenting and trying them. So if I was a worker, I would definitely be experimenting with AI tools. You're retired.

I think human in the loop is still very important. I mean, even thinking about the Morning Brew newsletter, for example. An AI could write that. An AI could curate the news. But what makes Morning Brew newsletter so special is the tone. It's witty. It's smart. It's irreverent. It's funny. And right now, I don't think AI can emulate that.

And I think people still love communicating with other people. So I think when you're doing some sort of communication that goes to an external person, they want to feel like you actually care. It is a sign of respect to like, I put effort into this email and that's going to get their attention.

I think to Kayla's point, when it's obviously AI, people feel like, okay, I'm just getting a hundred spam emails a day now. They're all AI. I don't really care. So external facing communication, I think a human should still be in the loop. Internal efficiency, I think AI should be used all the time.

The one thing I will say is a lot of AI, you are using AI. It's just built into the existing tools you're already using. So I think also asking people, are you using AI, depends on if they recognize that, like, Google already has AI built into their suite of products. Autocomplete, all that stuff. Autocomplete, stuff like that.

So I think everyone is using AI, just not everyone knows they're using AI.

I'm actually quite sad about this because Spirit, like it needs to exist just spiritually for America. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I think it is actually super impressive. And Jensen Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA and founder, praised Musk a little bit ago saying that to build this data center, it would have normally took years or a year plus. He did it in 19 days. And so I think when Elon decides he is going to do something, he almost will stop at nothing to get it done.

So I think that just the feat of engineering to get this data center up is really, really impressive. And obviously now it's just a money game. People need GPUs to build really large language models and other AI capabilities, so they've secured funding for that, and it's off to the races for Elon and XAI.

Yeah, I mean, basically, if Elon wakes up and says, I'm going to start a company, he'll have $5 billion at his door in about 10 minutes. I mean, you said he didn't have an AI company, but I want to go back to when he actually co-founded OpenAI because you mentioned the lawsuit. I actually think the lawsuit is very revelatory about both Sam Altman and Elon Musk.

The emails that are coming out between them are now part of discovery so everyone can see them. Sam Altman, people are complaining that like we're not really sure what your like calculus is, what your true ambitions are, which is what we've heard when he got kicked out and came back exactly about Sam Altman.

For Elon, they were like, it seems like you want complete dominance and you want to own AI completely. And that's kind of what we're seeing, too. So interesting to think even, you know, five, 10 years ago, their characteristics were quite the same.

Doesn't even sign his email. So for all of you being like best, Kyle, which I do, delete it. Delete it. You don't need it. All right, Toby, let me paint a picture for you. Your phone rings and it's an unknown number. You pick it up because you're convinced it's actually your crush calling from a new number. You say hello. Nothing happens. You say hello again.

A prerecorded message plays telling you that you're behind on a car payment and you need to pay immediately. You don't even own a car. You're confused. You hang up. Yes. This is a classic American experience, but thanks to the FTC, it's happening less and less each year.

Now, the Federal Trade Commission reported that unwanted telemarketing calls are down more than 51% since 2021, and they've dropped in each of the past three years. Now, This has been a major focus for the FTC. In 2023, the agency announced Operation Stop Spam Calls. Very creative name there. The largest crackdown on illegal telemarketing in the agency's history.

They've also gotten the big phone mobile carriers to do anti-spoofing protocols and to stop people from spoofing numbers. And they've also put out new regulations around AI, saying AI telemarketing is still telemarketing. Now, for every month in the fiscal year, robocalls made up the most of consumer complaints. Those are down.

I just thought it was interesting, the other common tactics, imposters. debt reduction, fake calls, and then energy, solar and utilities, fake calls. Now the FTC said they'll continue to be vigilant on this front. They also clarified that this doesn't mean you don't have to call your grandma anymore. So please pick up the phone and call her. Toby, have you felt like spam calls are down?

I never do, but I feel like I get so many spam calls still.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're kind of in this interesting purgatory period, though, where, like, Trump is going to be president in, like, you know, a couple months. Obviously, focus on China relations will be major in this administration and the next.

Well, it's really the only place on the internet that you can go for both real-time market data and trusted news. So if you want a holistic picture of how a treasury appointment is affecting the market or how investors are reacting to an earnings call, Yahoo Finance is the only place to go.

You know I'm Team Target, Toby. Shout out to Minnesota. I'm hoping for a good call for Target.

Toby, they got to hire you for marketing. I'm so excited for Glicket. I just saw Wicked recently on Broadway and it was amazing. So I'm actually very excited for that movie.

I wasn't, but then all of my favorite artists became country, like, overnight. And so I guess I am. Like, Post Malone was, like, your country now. And I'm like, okay, Post. I am.

And to check out the Purple Prince yourself, head to yahoofinance.com. That's yahoofinance.com.

Yeah, hashtag Netflix crash, which if you're Netflix, you don't want that trending. It did start trending on X on Friday, and Down Detector received more than 500,000 reports that Netflix was having issues. Obviously, a ton of people wanted to watch this, and they were having some issues. Jake Paul, the marketing, legitimately the marketing master he is somehow.

He took the opportunity to brag that we, quote, crashed the site in an interview after beating Tyson. What will likely have Netflix execs kind of sweating bullets right now is this fight was a dry run for Netflix. Christmas Day, they're going to broadcast NFL games. And the NFL, if there's streaming issues, they're going to get a lot more than 500,000 reports on Down Detector.

So it was a smashing success for Netflix in some regards, but also maybe a failure or something they need to check before Christmas in other regards.

Yeah, I mean, there was a January playoff game a year ago, Kansas City Chiefs versus Miami Dolphins, or a few years ago, and that drew 23 million viewers. And obviously that was streamed on Peacock. So they could handle the bandwidth of 23 million users. Just to talk about the scale of Netflix, there's 280 million subscribers in more than 190 countries. So...

I think the Christmas games could see more than what Jake Paul and Mike Tyson had. And if it's more like Netflix is probably getting to work right now, making sure the stream doesn't go down. Also, apparently this morning, breaking news, Beyonce is playing the halftime show at one of these games. So you probably double the number of subscribers that are going to look into this game now.

So Netflix is definitely needs to get ready for these Christmas day games.

Yeah, I think it's such a great point.

Not only is the Christmas Day game going to be important for Netflix to go off without a hitch, but it's also Netflix needs to be viewed as credible by some of these larger sports leagues because I think if they can crack the code on live sports, it just unlocks so much value for this company because that is the one thing people are still buying cable packages for.

If they can crack the code, then they're looking really good for future growth and using this as top of funnel to get more permanent subscribers. Yeah, that's a great point.

And the reason you haven't been getting as many robocalls.

Okay, one, I cannot confirm nor deny anything about my high school love life. So let me set the record straight there. I mean, just to take a step back, what does the Treasury Secretary actually do? And this is a really important position for the Trump administration.

This is economic policy and advising the president on those economic issues, managing federal finances, overseeing the IRS, managing U.S. dollar and monetary policy, regulating financial institutions. And so much of what Trump talked about on the campaign trail was, one, tariffs. And so he needs a treasury secretary that's going to go along with at least using tariffs as a negotiating tactic.

And two, maybe some changes to the IRS, which this post would actually oversee. So I think it's a very important role. You've talked about kind of how the two candidates that were most in favor maybe have fallen out, and there's some emerging contenders. I love that some of the reporting, they were like, talking to Trump, what do you want from this person?

One, he was like, he wants someone, quote unquote, big for the role that has respect on Wall Street, which maybe points to Mark Rowan, who's the CEO of Apollo Global Management. But he also said he wants someone handsome. And he thinks that Kevin Walsh is handsome.

Right.

Yeah, but just one final note. These are just nominees. They do have to get confirmed by the Senate. And so none of these are finalized until they do that task. Warner Bros. Discovery settled their breach of contract lawsuit against the NBA, an agreement that will keep the company in business with the league for over about 10 years.

Now, the backstory on this lawsuit, the NBA signed a new rights deal with ESPN, Comcast and Amazon.com. for nearly $80 billion, and then Discovery sued, saying that this violated a matching rights clause it had with its own TNT cable network. Now, the ref has blown the whistle. They've gone away from the review, and they're not going to court.

The new settlement now focuses on the ability for Warner Bros. Discovery to develop new shows with the NBA. house some international rights for Northern Europe and Latin America, and then Bleacher Report and House of Highlights, two of their social media channels, will continue to have access to NBA content. The company is also going to partner with the NBA's digital operations.

That'll drive about $350 million in revenue for Discovery. And then finally, which was the most important to me, Warner Bros. Discovery struck a deal with Disney to license the TNT show inside the NBA. This is kind of a cult classic show of NBA followers. So we're still going to have Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal on the big screen for the NBA season.

Toby, what are your thoughts about this deal? And are you pumped that we're still going to have Sir Charles on TV?

Yeah, Spirit has not been having a good time lately. Not only was it dealing with like failing demand, a failed merger, but it also had an engine recall, which had to ground a bunch of its planes earlier this year. And I think the final nail in the coffin was just post-pandemic travel inflation. It couldn't find a way to get back to where it used to be.

100%. I think three things to me are super interesting. One is international expansion will continue, that the rights internationally are still worth something. The second is I think just looking at viewers of games being down doesn't tell the whole picture of the NBA. This is a sport that's really leaned into social content. Mm-hmm.

And so, so many people, they might not watch a regular season game between like the Portland Trailblazers and the New Orleans Pelicans, but they'll definitely watch the highlight of like Brandon Ingram dunking on someone. And that will get so much play across social. And I think the third thing is this ability for Warner Bros to develop new shows around NBA content.

We just saw the Netflix show that followed five NBA players. I think we're going to see more of that where it's not NBA games, but it's NBA content. And that's the real kind of breadwinner for the NBA to develop almost a universe outside of the games that'll keep the league relevant for a long time.

We will fill the void.

Welcome to Winners of the Weekend, the segment where Toby and I introduce two entities that absolutely crushed the weekend, unlike your friend who brought that side dish at Friendsgiving that nobody ate. Toby, you won the pre-show game of Pickleball, so you're up first.

Zinn is the only nicotine pouch brand authorized by the FDA. What is also interesting is tobacco manufacturing is predominantly domestic. And so they're relatively, compared to the competition, insulated from these tariff and trade uncertainties. So, Neil, I guess they found out that selling addictive things makes you money.

Neil is five for five, and you can now trust him on this podcast. Let's go. Minnesota, though, I do have to call them out. My home state only has half a trillion in GDP, so we're going to have to pump those numbers up. And now a word from our sponsor, Planet Oat. Neil, you know that one hoodie that's just softer than all the others? Oh, yeah. It doesn't matter how many you've got.

Yeah. I mean, you mentioned they don't spend anything on marketing. Like the Zins have kind of gone viral and that's the marketing for them. Like this whole like take us in and lock in trend has been everywhere. And so they're putting all their money towards production. Neil, if they ever make the social network, too, I think I have a story for you that they need to base it on.

So let me break this down. A high school kid named Roy Lee gets accepted to Harvard, which is his dream. He sneaks away on a high school field trip, tries to outrun a cop, gets into some legal trouble, which causes Harvard to rescind his offer, and then other colleges don't want to touch him either. He goes to community college. He locks himself away. He learns to code.

He finally transfers to Columbia University, where he builds Interview Coder, which is an undetectable application that lets you cheat on leet code exams, which are basically coding exams. Big tech offer often uses, he gets an internship with Amazon because of this. Then he gets discovered that he was cheating. It goes viral. He gets suspended from Columbia. The offer pulled from Amazon.

Then he says, I'm just going to take the idea for interview coder and said, what if the application allowed you to cheat on anything virtual like sales calls or live meetings? He calls this new company clueless. He goes viral again on X with an over the top ad where he basically uses this app to like get real time information to hit on an older woman he's on a date with.

And it is blowing up all over the Internet. So, Neil, does this have movie potential? What are we thinking?

Yeah, I think – I mean he's being – I think the company is being intentionally like cheat on everything is very like incendiary. Like you're like, oh, what? What's going on here? They said, quote, we're being ludicrous and controversial almost intentionally.

There's always the one. Well, that's how Planet Oat's extra creamy feels. Sure, you can put a lot of stuff in your morning coffee, but this one's the creamiest, the richest, and the one you keep reaching for.

They said we've just been blowing up the story as much as possible in order to get as much attention and eyes on me because I really think that's the only differentiator between winner and losers and in a post-AI world. So they're playing up this cheat on everything angle, but – To your point, it is interesting, like the ad that they showed where he's talking to this woman, it's basically lying.

And so this this idea of like, OK, if you're doing something that's unintentionally or not known to the other person, is that really good? And so it has generated a lot of controversy for that fact.

We're not using clearly for this podcast.

No dairy, no peanuts, no gluten, just smooth texture that makes everything feel a little more luxe.

Yeah, I mean, I think the critique of this one is we've already done this challenge, and the point of the original challenge was to simulate what ALS might feel like. This is about mental health, and there's been a critique online which is basically saying, okay, so you're supposed to tag people to do this. It becomes a popularity contest on the internet.

Well, we've seen how bad this is for mental health. How is this tied to like promoting mental health? That being said, it is raising some money. It is funny to me, like this is kind of like the Avengers 2 where we're like, we're not going to make a new film. Let's just take a a trend from the past and remix it and call it like ice bucket challenge too.

I was looking up what was going on in 2014 though, which is super interesting. You mentioned Iggy Azalea. The most retweeted image of 2014 was that Ellen DeGeneres picture at the Oscars. Alex from Target was trending, which apparently was just a cute guy that worked at Target and apparently blew up on the internet.

The crop top was in Gilmore girls were added to Netflix and former president Barack Obama went on Zach Alphanackis, between two ferns.

Get your hands on the oat milk that has it all.

Yeah, this is actually going to be very exciting. It sounds electric, and I want to get Roger Federer involved somehow. Pickleball is definitely having its moment, a long moment for sure.

Yeah, and you mentioned a lot of the companies. The one that you didn't mention was 3M, who also said that tariffs are going to be a headwind this year, which may raise the price of Post-it notes. So they're coming for our Post-it notes as well. And there's also this demand challenge on the other side, because there's volatility in the stock market.

We have maybe tariffs increasing the cost of goods, fluctuation in interest rates. So there's a consumer spending challenge also that's affecting some of these companies. I thought the travel sector was really interesting. And United Airlines took this very unusual step where they offered dual earning forecasts. They said, if it kind of continues down this recession path,

Yes, great to be here, Neil, and I run no marathon, so I'm always available when Toby's doing his athletic pursuits.

here's what our earnings might be. And if things can stabilize, here's what our earnings might be, which is very rare for a company to do. The Southwest CEO, Bob Jordan, said that the drop in domestic leisure bookings are the worst he's ever seen outside of COVID, which basically brought travel to a halt. So this is affecting every industry. I thought the travel industry was an interesting one.

Yeah, Juan, I don't know who still uses handsets, so we got to find those people. I think that's just a fancy word for phone. And then analysts are also saying just like the uncertainty around where these policies are going in the future is causing a lot of concern. You know, TCW's Purdy said the chief executives were stuck in a kind of suspended animation.

Basically, like, we don't know if we're going to wake up in six months into an entirely new world order or if this is going to feel like a bad fever dream and things get to normal. Until there's a lot of certainty around policy, it's going to be continued tariff talk for these companies.

Yeah, I mean, uncertainty on the consumer side is never good, obviously, for the housing market. There's this general fear that a recession might be coming. I've stopped buying my Starbucks personally, so Lord knows I would pause on a house. A real estate brokerage, Redfin, did this survey that I thought was really interesting. They found that about

Twenty five percent of respondents overall were canceling plans outright to make a major purchase due to the tariffs. And nearly four in 10 respondents said the tariff policy was making them less likely. So you have people canceling plans outright and people saying I'm less likely to do it. Even before the tariff announcement, consumer confidence was fading because of these recession fears.

A survey by Fannie Mae in March said that people concerned about losing their jobs in the next 12 months hit a record high. It was about one-third of consumers. And then with stock market volatility, a lot of people, how do you pay for a home? You might sell some of your stock or sell some of your Bitcoin. About 16% of homebuyers use financial assets to do a down payment.

When your stocks are down, you don't want to sell. So that is also putting pressure on this housing market. And again, there's a lot of uncertainty of when this will clear up.

Interesting, too, because I think sellers are now in some markets having to make more concessions because buyers are so scared. They said that about 44 percent of purchases in the first quarter included a seller concession, according to Redfin. And in some markets such as Seattle, it was 71 percent of sellers were offering concessions.

So stay strong and maybe sellers will just, you know, do pay some of your closing costs, fix the roof for you, throw in a hot tub. I don't know. But they're going to have to bring more to the table if they want a buyer to jump in.

Yeah, it was really good news for Alphabet. And I think it's nice to step back and realize just how diverse this business is, you know, which makes it they got the whole alphabet from A to Z. So YouTube advertising revenue, eight point nine three billion in the quarter. Google cloud revenue, twelve point two six billion in the quarter. You mentioned search did almost fifty one billion.

And then they're so big they have this, quote unquote, other bets situation. segment, which includes Waymo, the self-driving car, and some life science units, did $450 million. So they have a lot going right in terms of all the different business lines they have. And I feel like they're kind of locking in because of some of this other news. They've turned dark mode on on the Chrome browser.

I mean, California, massive economy, also a beautiful state. Like, you have money and you look good. Like, come on, California, that's too much. Neil, I'm going to quiz you, though, because if people come to you for news, can you name the other top four and the five largest state economies in the U.S. ?

They've made their largest acquisition recently in Wiz for $32 billion. And they're now telling some remote workers It's time to get back to the office, lock in, collaborate, like let's keep this momentum going. So I think finally some good news for Alphabet, which is really nice to hear for them.

And how the infamous Zin nicotine pouches are driving shareholder value. Today is Friday, April 25th. Let's ride.

Okay, we're back with our next stock of the week. And Neil, it's officially a Zinfandel spring because my stock of the week is Philip Morris International, the maker of the infamous Zin nicotine pouch. Now, the company announced Wednesday that it expects a bigger adjusted profit this year. Its stock is up nearly 5% over the past five days. And let's talk numbers.

For the first three months of the year, the company recorded a quarterly operating profit of $3.5 billion, up 16% from a year earlier, and revenue rose 5.8% to $9.3 billion. Now on Zin specifically, shipments of Zin topped 200 million cans, which is 53% higher year over year, and the company now expects to sell 800 to 840 million cans in 2025. They also have the FDA stamp of approval.

A group led by Grosbeck bought the Celtics in 2002 for $360 million. And if you felt bad for Wick for only making a 20X investment here, don't worry. Hopefully the two championships the Celtics won during his tenure will help him sleep at night. Final note, the deal still needs approval from the NBA's Board of Governors, and so it should take a few months to officially close.

Neil, when is Morning Brew going to buy a franchise? We've got to get in the mix here.

I'm going for over $100 on Taco Bell later today.

And the U.S. hits its lowest ranking ever in the World Happiness Report. It's Friday, March 21st. Let's ride. Let's ride.

Yes, that is a really interesting angle. And because of these increased valuations, the fee that would be dispersed to all the teams for allowing another team to enter the league would increase. And just the competition for buying a franchise is really, really heating up. Steve Pegliacua, who's a minority owner of the Celtics or was. actually put together a group to try to buy it.

He was like, we got the best people. We have the best technology. We would not have any debt financing. And he was rejected for another offer. So people really want to buy franchises. They're the things that even sometimes a billionaire can't buy outright. There's also a sports angle here, which is the team is quite good.

And their roster is very expensive, and so they're getting into luxury tax bill territory. And so it's still unclear just how much this new ownership group will be willing to put money into it or pay these luxury taxes. Although he did say, quote, I bleed green, I love the Celtics, and it's all about winning. So we'll see if Bill is ready to foot the bill.

The days where I wake up early with the Morning Brew Daily crew are certainly longer than others.

Yeah. Something to watch going forward. Let's move on to our next story. The new Disney remake of Snow White comes out today and it's, So here's the details, Neil. First, just some bad luck. COVID cases flare up in London just as production gets underway, forcing Disney to increase safety protocols, which starts to bloat the budget. Then one of the sets catches fire and has to be redone.

and the 2023 actor strike and complication from Gal Gadot, who plays the evil queen. Her pregnancy forced Disney to halt reshoots, do visual effects over again. Then, just on top of bad luck, people think Disney made a lot of unforced errors during the production of this movie. The star of the movie, Rachel Zegler, made some comments that

People implied throwing shade at the OG Snow White movie, so some fans were put off by those. In addition, many thought Disney flubbed this response to some leaked images that came out from the movie, which had people concerned that they actually just scrubbed the dwarves entirely from the movie.

On the other hand, stars like Peter Dinklage felt like the movie was perpetuating negative stereotypes. These unforced errors, I think, highlight the difficult cultural landscape Disney has tried to navigate over the years making this movie, seemingly angering people no matter what they did.

Now that you mention it, I do remember you and Toby talking about the importance of defense and offense yesterday.

The whole rollout could be summarized by the trailer stats, which have passed over 1.5 million dislikes on YouTube. Neil, is this actually a big deal, or is this movie going to be just fine?

Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head, and there was actually these rumors that they might kick it to streaming, like, oh, this is not going to perform well, let's just put it on Disney+. The budget had risen to $270 million, and Disney would have had to absorb those costs, and Disney has made this whole point of making their streaming much more profitable.

So to the big screen, it's going to go, based on ticket pre-sales and some surveys of moviegoers, Snow White, it's expected to collect between $45 million and $50 million at domestic theaters over the weekend, again, according to box office analysts. And so that's a decent number.

But in the 15 years that the company has been producing them, none of these like big budget entries have exclusively arrived in theaters to less than $58 million. So this would actually be kind of a down round for Disney if it does hit those numbers as projected.

Yeah, and David A. Gross, a box office analyst, actually said, never doubt the babysitter effect, which is if you're babysitting kids and you need to entertain a six-year-old, you take him to the movies. Probably why I'd never heard of Mufasa, yet it did 700 million. So the babysitter effect might save Disney here.

Okay, someone watched 12 hours of basketball yesterday.

I mean, my big takeaway is Finland is on a heater. They cannot be stopped. I actually love this report. I think people, when they hear world happiness report, think it's like a flimsy kind of study. It's actually pretty, it's done very, very well. So how they do this is it's a self-assessed life evaluation averaged over 2022 through 2024.

And they take into account GDP per capita, social support, health, life expectancy, freedom, generosity, and freedom of corruption. So it's actually a pretty robust survey. And going to the website and reading through it is really, really interesting. I do want to double click on the U.S. and young people. Among the 143 countries surveyed, the U.S. ranked 10th.

for people 60 and older, but 62nd for people under 30. And so it seems like young people in America are really not having a good time. I do have one qualm with the report, though. It went into how dining alone is kind of taking over the world, and that might be causing some sadness. I love dining alone. So leave... I'm defending dining alone. I'm a very happy person. So I like dining alone.

The rest of the report had a lot of interesting nuggets in there. And, yeah, the U.S. young people angle is really, really sad.

I know. I guess I'm bucking the trend there. The World Happiness Report, too, it has themes every year. And this one was all about benevolence. And I actually think it's a maybe nice way to end. They found that most people think other people are less kind than they actually are.

And if you survey people on how many people would pick up a wallet and return it to an owner, people think that no one would do that. But in reality, when they run experiments, almost everyone does. And they saw that this is actually a very powerful intervention. Stanford University did a study where they told people the actual reality of how kind others are.

And it made everyone else do more kind acts and feel happier. And so I get a sense that we have the wrong perception of other people. And we actually are a lot nicer than we think. And that leads to more happiness.

I think that's a nice happy note to end on.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

You can't miss it seemingly these days. And if this charging claim is true, this brings about BYD up to 80 kilometers per minute for charging compared to Tesla's 18. So if this proves to be true and they can build a network, this is a leap in terms of charging an electric vehicle.

What I think is really interesting about BYD, it's not just about the technology, but this also illuminates the kind of geopolitical trade uncertainties as well. Kim Sung-tae, an executive at the Korea Battery Industry Association, said, quote, Our companies will maintain their dominance in the U.S.

market as long as the IRA, the Inflation Reduction Act, is maintained, referring to Biden-era legislation, which excluded electrical vehicle tax credits to Chinese car companies. And so you don't see a lot of BYDs in the U.S. because of the trade. Any. Yeah. Any because of the trade regulations. However, they are taking over the world.

And so that will be really interesting to see how it plays out with tariffs and trade uncertainty only increasing.

I'm feeling great. It's good to be back in the Manu Ginobili spot.

Yeah, you're spot on. I mean, those stats you read a lot. China sends more vehicles abroad than any other country. Its passenger car exports surged nearly 20% to 4.9 million in 2024 alone. And so I think we're seeing global influence of China. through car exportation only increase. And it'll be really interesting to see how that plays out.

The other thing is, going back to the technology, the self-driving technology that BYD has and is enabling everyone who buys a BYD car to get is also putting pressure on Tesla, where you actually have to pay for that feature.

Yeah, the stock price is down 42%, nearly 42% this year. It originally rose a bit due to Musk's relationship with President Trump. That has been nearly wiped out this year. The other thing that's concerning for Tesla, some data from morning consults, their favorable and unfavorable ratings, it used to be pretty wide. People really had a positive, rosy view of Tesla.

Now, according to in January 2025, 35% of people have a favorable view of and 30% have an unfavorable view. So that gap has really, really shrunk, and the brand has become less rosy in the eyes of a lot of consumers. So a falling stock price, a falling brand, it is probably a crisis at Tesla.

Yeah. And we I mean, we have some like maybe unforced errors at Tesla. But going back to the stock of the week, BYD, the competition is also increasing. So there's a lot of pressure from all directions to Tesla.

I think I'm on board. I feel like I'm doing something wrong. My Grubhub orders, my DoorDash orders, they've never been that big. Like, should I be ordering more stuff? And I need to be hitting like triple digits here.

Taking a look at the stuff that's adjacent to the loans, like a public service loan forgiveness. So once you have a loan, how does the government help you pay that back? It gives people that work in public service and nurse a firefighter the opportunity for their loans to go away after they've made payments for 10 years. It's like unclear what is going to happen to that program. There's a lot of

questions still here on the kind of domino effects that this decision will have.

You mentioned that it would likely take an act of Congress to officially wind this down. The House actually considered an amendment to close the agency in 2023. Sixty Republicans joined with Democrats in opposing it. So it's even unclear if Congress has the appetite for this. However, there's been agencies in the past that were phased out.

The Interstate Commerce Commission and the Civil Aeronautics Board were two of them. And then additionally, no cabinet level department has been abolished outright since the U.S. Postal Service replaced the post office department nearly a half century ago. Some precedent, but not a whole lot of precedent for doing something like this.

It's a great time to check between your couch cushions to see if you may have a spare NBA franchise hanging around because they are fetching a pretty penny as the Boston Celtics just sold for $6.1 billion to a group led by private equity executive Bill Chisholm.

This sale is the highest of any sports franchise and pretty easily surpasses the $4 billion and $3.5 billion paid in 2022 and 2023, respectively, for the Phoenix Suns and the Dallas Mavericks, the last two NBA franchises to be sold before the Celtics.

Now, in the background, the valuation of sports franchises have been skyrocketing amidst a general rule change most leagues have adopted, allowing private equity firms to take stakes in teams and making it harder for a single individual or a family to own a team outright. Now, who was selling the team? Well, the Celtics majority owner was Wick Grosbeck.

Yeah, I feel like every day I open up and Tesla's up like 20% or down 20%. They've never had a normal day. Coming up, the story behind how the Onion won the bid for InfoWars. In a move that has me more and more convinced we live in a simulation, The Onion has purchased InfoWars, the famous conspiracy network by Alex Jones.

Now, The Onion's bid was actually backed by the families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting and one first responder. It's also going to have an exclusive advertising deal with gun control group Everytownforgun.com.

Alex Jones placed InfoWars' parent company into bankruptcy and later filed for personal bankruptcy in 2022 following years of costly litigations with the families of Sandy Hook victims.

He had been ordered to pay over $1 billion in damages for repeatedly claiming on InfoWars that the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting was a government hoax and involved crisis actors, hence the maybe irony of the Sandy Hook school shooting families joining in this bid to take down InfoWars. Now, Ben Collins, who owns The Onion,

said the new plan for Infowars going forward was, quote, to shine a light on the economy around this that has completely engulfed our current media, which is people getting you really, really upset and then driving you to a page to buy a panacea.

Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emily was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting, said in part, quote, the world needs to see that having a platform does not mean you are above accountability. The dissolution of Alex Jones' assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for. And I was a massive Onion fan growing up. Then it kind of faded into irrelevancy.

It seems like it's back and back with a vengeance, taking down InfoWars. Is satire back on the menu?

Yeah, I mean, I'm glad the families were involved in this takeover of InfoWars because it seems like getting their buy-in is very important given the nature of InfoWars and that tragedy. So I'm glad they have involvement. I don't know what The Onion is going to do with this. I think one of the interesting things is they were doing a fire sale of InfoWars.

It wasn't just the domain or the assets. This included everything from Platform's studio equipment. They had an online dietary supplement store, a Teradyne armored truck, its social media accounts, and even a Winnebago motorhome. So Alex Jones was selling everything to try to get enough money to pay out these fines that he's been ordered to pay to the families.

I love it. Well, Anne is probably the smartest person at Morning Brew. So this is going to be a really fun conversation. We actually are talking a lot about earnings today. So you're going to be right in your sweet spot. And I have to compete with this accent. So I'm a little nervous, but let's get into it.

So I also just don't know what they're going to do with the Teradyne armored truck. So we're going to find that out soon. Maybe put the Onion logo and drive it around.

Yes, and Alex Jones, no surprise, was on X saying he's going to stay until the lights turn off and that there's probably a big conspiracy to take InfoWars away, obviously. So he isn't going away forever, but I think this is a big step in limiting his reach because InfoWars was relatively popular in the media landscape.

Does it work? I have two takes. The first is Jake Paul fighting Mike Tyson. Just seeing that headline is almost surprising. If I showed that headline to my grandpa, I think his head would explode.

It just seems like we're in this new era of absurdity, almost, for spectacle. And I think Jake Paul... and the Paul brothers, somehow they are always in the news. They just find a way to pierce through this bubble and are always being talked about. The second thing is, I think this is a really smart move from a Netflix perspective.

What I kind of think about it is, it's very similar to pay-per-view boxing, but you actually capture the customer theoretically forever. So using this as a top of funnel to gain new subscribers, but then they don't just go away. Now they're subscribed to your platform.

And I'm sure Netflix is going to pull the data on which of these live sports are the best for attention long-term and then double and triple down on those. I think this is a really powerful move by Netflix as a new funnel to get new subscribers.

I think they're going to continue going into live sports, because that is the one thing that linear TV has always said, we still have live sports, it's going to keep people buying these large cable packages. Netflix is now moving into that territory. I think it's a great expansion by the company. Let's move on to this Coach Tapestry merger news.

In 2023, we learned that Lena Kahn doesn't like luxury. No, I'm not talking about handbags. I'm talking about the companies that own the companies that own the handbags. Now, if you remember in 2023, the FTC sued Coach parent company Tapestry and Versace parent company Capri to stop them from merging, citing it would decrease competition in the marketplace.

And now the brands have officially called off the merger, and they're actually pursuing different goals to achieve their desired growth. Tapestry, which owns, again, a number of brands, coach Kate Spade, actually said it was going to do stock buybacks. They're doing a $2 billion stock buyback program.

Capri, the owner of Versace, Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo, on the other hand, said it was going to focus more on remarketing efforts, changing its retail footprint, and kind of aligning product offerings to new consumer preferences. So, very different strategies. How is the market responding to this news? Tapestry shares soared. Capri shares are down.

And part of the reason why CFOs call themselves that is the financial health of a business is like a jigsaw puzzle. Bill pay is over here, closing a quarter is over there. It's hard to see the big picture.

Personally, I just don't think the companies should emerge because Coach and Versace obviously clash. But what do I know? And what's your take on this luxury merger call-off story?

I think they should just send us some Versace. We'll wear it on the show and it'll boom.

Contractually, I cannot mention any competitors on the show. Craig, I wish you the best of luck, but you're going up against some heavy hitters in the morning of our daily show. So good luck out there, Craig.

Yeah, bring it on, Craig. Bring it on. I wish them the best. Let's move on to our last story here, which is a story you're going to want to listen to because it's going to allow you to win the most fun conversation at happy hour competition for people in Southern California claimed their cars were trashed by a bear.

The only problem, the bear was actually just a person in a bear costume and the four suspects have been arrested and accused of insurance fraud. Now, the so-called bear claimed to have entered and damaged a Rolls Royce and two Mercedes cars. So at least the bear has very good taste in vehicles.

And the insurance department said, and what I think is probably the greatest statement I've ever heard, upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume. The bear costume with brown fur, a head shaped like a bear, paws, metal hand tools, was actually found in one of the suspect's homes.

So if you want to do a little less searching on the ground for pieces and a little less guessing where those pieces go, check out Sage.

So I hope they at least used it for Halloween and got two uses out of it. Anne, brilliant plan, stupid plan, or brilliantly stupid plan here?

This was a very fascinating story. Folks, if you're listening at home, do not dress up as a bear, attack your own car, and try to claim the insurance. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't do it. All right. Well, we have made history today, me and Anne, filling in for Neil and Toby. It was lovely to have you in the studio, Anne, and I really enjoyed doing the show with you.

Let's roll the credits. Emily Milliron is our executive producer. Raymond Liu is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate producer. Uchenna Waogu is our technical director. Billy Menino is on audio. Hair and makeup are partying with Neil and Toby. Devin Emery is our chief content officer. And our show is a production of Morning Brew.

We are about to find out who is stronger, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission or Mark Zuckerberg in his wife guy era. Now, why is that? It's because Meta must face trial over claims it overpaid in its purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp to crush emerging competitors. This strategy is often called buy or bury, no relation to the co-host and Barry, where a company basically says,

Now, for reference, Meta bought Instagram in 2012 for a cool $1 billion, and they bought WhatsApp in 2014 for 19 times that, for $19 billion. Now, the history of the case, the FTC and 48 states' attorneys general's. sued Meta in 2020 during the first Trump administration.

And the lawsuit was then refined under the Biden admin, which kind of highlights this seemingly bipartisan effort to curtail Meta's influence and more broadly, Big Tech's perceived monopolistic power. Meta had urged the judge to dismiss this entire case, saying it depended on an overly narrow view of social media markets.

It didn't take into account competition from ByteDance's TikTok, Google's YouTube, X, and Microsoft's LinkedIn. Trump's return to the White House in January, it might bring some changes to this antitrust approach that the U.S. has had, although it's hard to predict how exactly his admin will act in practice. And do you think we have a serious threat to Meta here?

It would be a great deal.

Yeah, and it's been interesting. I think Facebook or Meta at one time had maybe bipartisan zeal to attack it, maybe for different reasons. Now it seems like Zuckerberg and maybe the company are pivoting their PR. They're showing a different side of them. I'm not sure actually if there is. Still the same bipartisan anger towards Meta as there maybe used to be.

But also just against the backdrop, a lot of the big tech companies are getting sued. I think Amazon is facing an antitrust lawsuit. Apple is facing an antitrust lawsuit. Google is facing two antitrust lawsuits. So until we see what changes are going to happen in the administration, it might still be hunting season for big tech.

I mean, ChatGPT is definitely increasing. Plexity is big in the search space. I think your point about these markets change or consumer behavior changes. Maybe we don't even need to break them up. This is just a distraction allowing a little bit of sunlight in the market for these new emerging companies to take some share from these big tech companies. I will say,

I think Zuck, I mean, I don't think he wants his company to be broken up. But either way, he is loving life right now. He recorded a song with T-Pain to show how much he loved his wife because he met her. And they would play the song Get Low. So this guy's having a good time no matter what.

He's in his wife, Gaiera. I love it.

Yeah, listeners, you heard it.

Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Kyle Heggie. And I'm Anne Barry. Today, Meta is heading to an antitrust trial. What that means for their ownership of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Yes. Agreed. So we'll have to see how this case plays out in the new administration. Now it's time for our Friday segment, Stock of the Week, Dog of the Week, where Ann and I tell you about a stock who is full of holiday cheer and one who is just mumbling bah humbug. Now, as a reminder, we are not financial advisors. I was a philosophy major. Do not take my advice on stocks.

Ann, I'll throw it over to you for Stock of the Week.

I did.

I thought it was good. I also didn't even see Inside Out 1, so it got me on 2.

Let's ride. So it is Friday, and we actually are making Morning Brew Daily history because there's no Neil. There's no Toby. They're slacking off. They're out somewhere having fun. It's me and Ann Barry locked in the studio. And Ann, the audience might know me a little bit, but they may not know you for Morning Brew Daily show. So tell us a little bit about yourself.

I mean, I think this is a really interesting part of the story, which is Bob Iger obviously left Disney and then he came back. It's kind of like LeBron James leaving Cleveland and then coming back for the second stint. And, you know, Bob might be a little bit more washed up. You talked about the hot mic moment now, but I still think he is one of the best executives probably ever in media.

And I would not bet against Disney. I think you've shown the streaming numbers are turning around. They have, I think, one of the premier brands in all of business. You like are a bad parent if you don't take your kid to Disney World. So they really own that relationship with a young generation. And I think Bob is putting them in a good spot.

But the succession planning, because they have announced that they're trying to find a new CEO in early 2026. That is what I think is going to be kind of the linchpin of this continued success of Disney. Can they find someone to replace Bob Iger? Because the first time they tried, they didn't. They put in another Bob and that didn't work.

So just pick someone without the name of Bob and maybe you're in a better spot. So, Anne, what do you think of the succession plan? Are they going to find someone to replace Bob Iger?

Yeah, I think that's a really great call out. And I think that is right. That is the question. Like Disney has been very successful. Bob Iger left. Things started to get rocky. He came back turning it around. Can Disney exist in a post Bob Iger world? We got James Gorman and company on it. We'll see how it goes. Let's move on to the dog of the week. My dog of the week is electric dog. vehicles.

Now, this holiday season, I'm hoping Santa can fit an EV down your chimney because come 2025, these vehicles might be getting a little more expensive. Now, the Trump transition team is discussing ending the $7,500 EV subsidy as part of a broader tax reform effort. This EV tax credit was actually established as part of the inflation reduction.

Now, the current EV tax credit, if left alone, is set to remain in place for 10 years. And there's actually a big change in 2024 that allowed consumers to use a point of sale discount. Essentially, instead of claiming this as a credit on their tax return, they would get the discount immediately at point of sale. So it pushed a lot of people to feel a lot more comfortable buying EVs.

It also allowed electric vehicle companies or companies trying to establish themselves in the EV space to to remain profitable on these vehicles because they were getting essentially $7,500 from the government. This was effective. In 2023, EV sales in the U.S.

reached a record high of nearly 1.2 million units, and this was a substantial increase from 5.9% in 2022 and 3.2% in 2021 in terms of total U.S. vehicle market. Now, zooming out a little bit, Tesla is actually about half of all of the U.S. EVs in the third quarter. They sold half. So they are a major player in this. However, Tesla's U.S.

EV rivals have collectively steadily eroded this market because Tesla used to be about 80% in the first quarter of 2020. So the EV market might be getting a shakeup. We're not sure who the winners are going to be. We're not sure who the losers are going to be. And does this mean I need to add a Tesla to my Christmas list? What should I be doing here?

I think that is the most interesting point here, which is Tesla is kind of far out ahead of the competitors. They've built EV infrastructure. They have the manufacturing process down. GM, Ford, Rivian, all these companies are trying to catch up to Tesla. And in some ways, the subsidy is helping them all, but it's helping these challengers to Tesla a little more.

So if they kill the subsidy, exactly to your point, it hurts Tesla a little bit. It hurts these other companies a lot more. What I also think is interesting is on a global scale, China is really ascending in the EV market. They have the company BYD, which is blowing up in China. It's trying to enter other markets. So far, we've been effective at keeping it out of the U.S. market.

I don't see the Trump administration changing that. And so there's also this push of remaining dominant in the EV and battery space for the U.S. as a concern of national security. And there was this Alliance for Automotive Innovation actually telling Congress, we need to keep these subsidies in place, not just for consumers, but to allow our companies to develop better EV infrastructure.

to remain competitive from a national security perspective as well. I think this is actually a really interesting story. It has hurt most EV companies. Rivian stock was quite down on the news. We'll see if it goes through, but I do think the most sneaky piece is that it might also help Tesla overall.

You win that one. So if you're looking for a healthy dose of Disney magic, check out Disney Countdown wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Kayla Lopez. And I'm Kyle Hagee. And together, we've helped thousands of Morning Brew subscribers grow in their careers.

So join us each week on Per My Last Email on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.