Hey Snackers,
Goldman's tossing around $100K if you can fix its #techproblems.
Markets are more focused on inching up toward 6-month highs.
iHeartMedia challenges Spotify with possible IPO
Long-time listener, first-time IPO'r... With 848 stations, iHeartMedia is America's biggest radio broadcaster. And it just filed paperwork to list its shares on public markets.
- 1 catch: It filed for bankruptcy last year with $20B in debt from the '08 financial crisis. So it needs to thank a bankruptcy judge who said it only has to pay a portion of that debt back.
Battle of the bands 2019... is Spotify vs. iHeart. And antenna-loving iHeart is putting up a shockingly good fight:
- Total $$: The two brought in about the same revenue last year (~$6B), but Spotify's growing much faster.
- Total Ears: iHeart has 275M US listeners. Spotify has 207M (with 62M in North America).
- Live Events: iHeartMedia leads with 20K/year, featuring Cardi B, Ed Sheeran, and iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina.
- Podcasts: Spotify has acquired 3 podcast companies this year. But iHeart already connects 16.6M podders, making it the #2 podcast creator behind NPR.
- Social: iHeart's radio hosts and personalities enjoy 145M followers, compared to the 28M following Spotify's.
"Companionship" is the jingle... iHeart dropped that word 21 times in its IPO filing. Talk radio personalities bond powerfully with daily commuters or anybody enjoying an AM/FM dial. It barely veils resentment for Spotify's core biz of "music collection...which essentially replaced downloads and CDs." It hopes advertisers agree.
T-Mobile seeks to "replace cable for the 5G era"
The Church of "Uncarrier"... is led by unordained John Legere. The T-Mobile CEO had already preached about his "Uncarrier TV," fixing all the stuff you hate about cable. On Wednesday, we got details: It'll feature Viacom's TV channels, including Comedy Central, BET, MTV, and Nickelodeon.
It's exciting for 1 company... It's desperation for the other:
- T-Mobile (networks): Its business is low-cost phone plans. And it boldly (and kind of unrealistically) wants the same with TV. No bundling, no minimum 2-year contracts, "no BS." John's words, not ours.
- Viacom (content): The last kid standing on the streaming dance floor. Other content companies paired-up to compete with Netflix. Viacom finally did, but Uncarrier TV hasn't even launched.
"Bundling" beats "discounting"... We hope Uncarrier TV will be free for T-Mobile subscribers. If it does, T-Mobile can keep winning new customers with freebies. Bundling in free stuff earned it a record 2.4M new subscribers last year:
- Major League Baseball streaming comes free to each T-Mobile subscriber.
- And "T-Mobile Tuesdays" offer up free things weekly: 1 free taco. A Dunkin' latte. 10 cents off Shell gas.
Ikea expands furniture rentals to 30 countries
Plush. Luxurious. Temporary... For $34/month in Holland, you get a bed, desk, table, and chairs. Ikea's now shipping that idea to 29 more countries. It copies the home-y rental partnership between Rent the Runway and West Elm (owned by Williams-Sonoma), and is fueled by demand for subscriptions over ownership.
2 distinct customer types... Many millions of customers. And they all want flexibility. Thanks to Task Rabbit, the gig handyman app Ikea acquired in 2017, these potential furniture renters don't even need to assemble the stuff. Or pronounce Äpplarö.
- College students don't want to buy couches that they'll have to toss on Craigslist two semesters later.
- Startups don't want to waste investor money on desks when the venture could fail before the launch party.
So many trends coming together... Ikea's pouring resources into scaling its anti-ownership rental plan. That's because it snugly fits in with 3 key current themes of twenty and thirty somethings:
- Transient: When you're bouncing city-to-city, you don't want the cost and weight of a dresser with you.
- Not rich: That 1.5-month security deposit was expensive enough.
- Environmentally conscious: Ikea's CEO wants designs like its Poäng armchair to embrace recyclable parts thanks to the new initiative. And to reuse furniture when the rental’s up.
What else we’re Snackin’
- eDrive: Tesla reveals it sold 63K cars last quarter — That's 31% less than the previous one
- ePlay: GameStop rebounds on plans to become the "local YMCA" slash "Pop Warner" of eSports
- Anti-Social: Facebook slips after app developers leaked 540M user records on cloud servers
- Acquired: WeWork drops a secret sum for confusingly-named office management platform Managed by Q
- Folded: Alliance of American Football league shuts down (it was 2 months young)
Thursday
- Earnings from Corona-owner Constellation Brands
- The SEC's court case against Elon Musk's Tesla tweets begins