Hey Snackers,
"Oil" is having a moment.
$75M of cooking oil is stolen from restaurants every year.
In markets, stocks barely budged yesterday — But oil prices popped to their highest level in six months after the US moved to completely cut Iran's oil exports to zero.
Feels like home... But isn't. Online real estate platform Zillow expanded its virtual reality feature Monday so you can tour that cozy 1-bedroom without schlepping there. But shares fell 4% on a WSJ report that its "iBuying" house-flipping strategy may "flop."
iBuying is like an affordable 2-BR NYC apartment w/ washer/dryer & AMAZING view... Maybe too good to be true. Zillow stock jumped 25% in Feb. when the CEO announced it was doubling down on iBuying. But shares are back down now on word Zillow's not making as much off the higher fee — And on the increased risks of owning tons of homes.
Not all middlewomen can be cut... It's worked for mattresses and razor blades. But home selling is a unique, life-changing, big-money event. People may just want the handholding of a real estate agent, even if it costs money and time, to make sure the sale goes down smooth. Zillow's betting against that.
Set your watch to Elon-time... which is typically 18 months late. That's critical context for Tesla's big autonomous driving update — Just as other carmakers push back timetables for robotaxis, CEO Elon Musk said this Monday:
Airbnb your Tesla in an Uber network for Teslas... Here's the vision revealed Monday: Once the Teslas can drive themselves, owners can add their cars to the Tesla Ride-Sharing App. Elon sees it like this:
This announcement was sooo Tesla... Shares are down over 30% from their high on weak 1st quarter sales and endless legal/boardroom issues. But Musk wants investors to look past today's drama for tomorrow's moonshot ideas.
Cue the hazing ritual... Kraft Heinz announced Monday it's replacing its CEO with Miguel Patricio. Shares barely budged on the switch, but they're still down 43% in the past 12 months. Some of that's caused by you not eating hot dogs and mac anymore. The rest is on the company:
An "obsession for cutting costs"... That's been the un-fun, un-secret, unsuccessful formula baked into Kraft Heinz lately. It's the business doctrine of Brazilian private equity firm 3G, which teamed up with Warren Buffett to finance the $49B Kraft and Heinz merger back in 2015 (3G also bought Budweiser). Cutting company-wide budgets may have made some short term extra profits, but insiders say it's hurting long term sales.
Kraft's pulling a 180... "I bring a very different profile" (Patricio's words, not ours). The former Budweiser exec focuses on more than just ruthless low-cost efficiency — He expanded beer brands abroad at Bud. Now Kraft Heinz wants him to pour the same marketing formula on its ketchup to revive sales.
Disclosure: An author of this Snacks owns Tesla shares.