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| Here’s your daily business briefing. - 💼 Endeavor Group sold to Silver Lake for $13B
- 🔍 Deep Dive: Rivian exceeds EV production targets
- 💳 Chase enables advertisers to target spending data
Thanks for reading! Shriram
p/Shriram | |
| 1 | | Silver Lake Management has reached a $13B deal to acquire Endeavor Group Holdings Inc., which includes its stake in TKO Group. With Silver Lake already owning a 71% voting stake in Endeavor, minority investors are offered $27.50 per share, representing a 55% premium to Endeavor's stock price before the announcement of the potential sale. More: - Silver Lake values the purchase at $25B, with the TKO Group included in the enterprise value.
- Ultimate Fighting Championship and WWE are owned by TKO Group, of which Endeavour controls 51%.
- According to Silver Lake, the purchase is the biggest private equity buyout of a public corporation in more than ten years.
- After the news, Endeavor's stock increased by up to 3%, hitting $26.
- The deal's financing comprises new and reinvested equity from Silver Lake, supplemented by additional capital from Mubadala Investment Co., DFO Management LLC, and Lexington Partners, alongside debt financing from multiple banks.
- Endeavor's management team, including CEO Ari Emanuel, Chairman Patrick Whitesell, and President Mark Shapiro, will retain equity in the company as part of the deal.
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What the numbers say: Rivian Automotive Inc. exceeded analysts' projections by producing 13,980 electric vehicles (EVs) and delivering 13,588 to customers in the first quarter. Despite pausing construction on a planned factory near Atlanta to focus on introducing a new lower-priced R2 model at its Illinois plant, the company maintains its 2024 output goal of about 57,000 units. Relevance: Despite Rivian's better-than-anticipated first-quarter deliveries, its shares plummeted by 4.6% in New York trading, contributing to a YTD decline of approximately 55%. Analysts express reservations regarding Rivian's immediate cash flow and future capital requirements, indicating that the stock may remain stagnant until the company exhibits sustained gross margin enhancement post-plant closure. More data: Rivian's R2 model launch has garnered optimism, seen as a path to broaden appeal and ensure profitability. However, since its 2021 IPO, Rivian has faced challenges scaling production, resulting in job cuts, stagnant output plans, and declining market value. However, conventional carmakers' findings demonstrate the benefits of having a combustion engine industry to finance and hedge the switch to electric vehicles. | | | |
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| 3 | | Chase Bank launches Chase Media Solutions, enabling advertisers to tailor campaigns using customers' transaction histories. The initiative seeks to deliver personalized promotions to Chase clients by utilizing their spending patterns, aligning with the broader trend of companies utilizing consumer data to sell advertising space on their platforms. More: - Global expenditure on retail media networks, comprising retailers' advertising sales divisions, is forecasted to increase to 21.6% of total digital ad spending by 2024, marking a significant rise from 15.1% in 2019.
- Targeting specific consumer groups, such as new, lapsed, or committed customers, based on their purchasing patterns is part of Chase's strategy.
- Advertisers will incur charges solely upon a customer's purchase through a deal, ensuring a measurable return on investment (ROI) for marketers.
- Utilizing its acquisition of The Infatuation in 2021, Chase seeks to enrich customer shopping and purchasing experiences by providing exclusive access to events and content.
Zoom Out: - Recently, JPMorgan reported a 15% decline in profit from the previous year to $3.04 per share, missing analysts' expectations of $3.35 per share, while its revenue increased by 12% to $38.57B, below the anticipated $39.73B.
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| 4 | | General Motors recorded a 1.5% decrease in first-quarter U.S. vehicle sales, amounting to 594,233 vehicles sold, with fleet sales experiencing a significant 22.9% decline while retail sales grew by 6%. GM's sales fell short of industry projections, anticipating a 5.5% rise in overall sales. More: - With sales up 16.4% from the prior year, Buick was the only GM brand to see growth during the quarter.
- Approximately 197,000 full-size pickups were sold by GM in the first quarter, which was a record high since the first quarter of 2020.
- A total of 16,425 GM all-electric cars were sold throughout the time, making up 2.8% of the automaker's entire sales.
- Other significant automakers reported varying results for the first quarter:
- Toyota Motor reported a 16% increase in sales, with nearly 388,000 vehicles sold.
- Honda Motor reported a 17.3% jump in sales, with nearly 334,000 vehicles sold.
- Kia's sales totaled 179,621 vehicles during the quarter, down 2.5% year over year.
- Nissan Group announced first-quarter sales of 252,735 vehicles, a 7.2% increase from the previous year.
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| 5 | | The U.S. Postal Service has chosen United Parcel Service (UPS) as its primary air cargo provider, ending its long-standing partnership with FedEx. Starting in late September, UPS will take over domestic air transportation duties for USPS's first-class mail, priority mail express, and priority mail until at least March 2030. More: - USPS plans to reduce transportation expenses by $3B within the next two years, having already saved $1B in airfreight costs.
- Since FedEx got $1.9B from USPS for the fiscal year that concluded in September 2022, losing the USPS contract will affect FedEx's revenue.
- FedEx's attempts to renegotiate the contract on better terms proved unsuccessful.
- FedEx is restructuring operations to streamline its network and reduce expenses, which includes merging its Express and Ground delivery divisions and cutting costs linked to the postal service agreement.
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| 6 | | The Elite Eight matchup between Iowa and LSU shattered records as the highest-rated women's college basketball game in history, drawing over 12 million viewers and peaking at 16.1 million. ESPN declared it the most-watched college basketball game ever on their platforms, with Monday's audience reaching 12.3 million viewers. More: - With 9.9 million viewers, the previous year's Iowa vs. LSU championship game set the previous record for viewership.
- The average rating for women's NCAA tournament games has increased since the 2023 tournament by 127%.
- The Elite Eight game had the largest audience for any basketball game on ESPN since the 2018 NBA Eastern Conference Finals, according to ESPN's parent company, Disney.
- Monday's Elite Eight games saw unprecedented betting activity on women's sports, with FanDuel reporting that the LSU versus Iowa matchup became its largest betting event ever in women's sports.
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| 7 | | Quick Hits: *This is a sponsored listing. | | | |
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10 | | Ask email experts from Google and Yahoo your most important questions at SocketLabs' interactive webinar on April 10. | | | | | | * This is a sponsored event | | | |
 | Freelance Writer | | Shriram is pursuing Master’s in Business with Marketing at Warwick Business School. He worked as a Senior Consultant in Tech and Political Consultancies before his Masters. He is passionate about Tech, Marketing, Strategy, Anthropology and Politics. He is also the Postgraduate Ambassador for Warwick Business School. | | This newsletter was edited by Shriram Jeevakumar | |
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