Wednesday Apr.14, 2021

🛍 The largest SPAC merger ever

_When you don't have a $2K workout mirror_

Hey Snackers,

The latest shortage item: tapioca balls. Shipping containers loaded with boba pearls are stuck in a traffic jam, delaying America's precious supply. Savor that bubble tea while you still can.

Stocks hit all-time highs yesterday (again). Inflation jumped higher than expected in March, but investors shrugged that off to focus on recovery.

Super

Super-app Grab is going public in the biggest SPAC merger ever

SPAC at it again... Singapore-based Grab is going public on the Nasdaq by merging with a SPAC (a public company that exists only to acquire others... and then become them). Grab will notch a ~$40B valuation, making it the largest SPAC merger in history. It'll also be the largest US equity offering by a Southeast Asian company. Grab started as a ride-hail platform, but now it's a claaassic Super-app...

Super-app: Think Uber, DoorDash, Venmo, and Amazon... all in one. Grab is the top ride-hail and delivery app in Southeast Asia, and offers digital wallets and financial services.
Swiss army knife: Book a car, order a salad and floss for home delivery, pay for coffee in-store, send money, and buy insurance...all in Grab.

You can leave the chat... but you can't leave the app. Mega-apps like Grab are widely used in Asia (the convenience factor is next-level). But along with that convience comes a 360° insight into your daily life: A single app can know what you’re buying, where you're going, who you’re dating, what you’re chatting about, and your Bulldog's entire life story (think: Google X 10).

China is leading super-app innovation with WeChat – aka: the app for everything. Other notable Chinese mega-apps: Alipay, Alibaba, and Baidu. The question isn't "what can they do?" but "what can't they do?"

The future of apps is unified... Grab's massive SPAC highlights the value in mega-app platforms. And American companies have been leaning deeper into super-app territory: Facebook unified its payment tools, launched shopping in Insta, and integrated messaging across its apps. Uber launched food delivery, e-scooters, and public transit. And food delivery apps like DoorDash have expanded into "delivery everything." All-in-one platforms are a goldmine for advertisers, and super convenient for users. But that comes at a cost: bigger privacy and regulatory concerns.

WFH

Tempo raises $220M, because home fitness has made itself at home

YouTube on, mat out, Target mirror up... For many of us, it's the go-to setup for home workouts. Not for Tempo: the AI-powered home gym company just raised a muscular $220M in funding.

Tempo Studio: This $2.5K contraption looks like a giant iPhone mixed with a West Elm cabinet — sleek. It includes "over $1K of premium weights" inside (#flex). But when it's off, it looks like furniture.
Smart tracking: Tempo captures your movements as you lift and squat through classes, while its AI "coach" gives you instant feedback on-screen.

Equinox is paging you... Home fitness companies were corona-conomy thrivers. Tempo says it grew 10X last year. Mirror, a $1.5K fitness screen that doubles as a mirror, was acquired by Lululemon for a whopping $500M. Peloton's 2020 sales nearly doubled from 2019 (and its stock nearly 6X'd in a year).

With vaccines rolling out and gyms reopening, you'd think Tempo's customers would be part way to SoulCycle by now. Some might expect home fitness to shrink.
Not VC investors: Tempo isn't the only one raising big $$$. Tonal, another expensive workout screen company, raised $250M just last month.

Work(out)-from-Home is here to stay... At least, in part. People have become conditioned to their home workout routines. Going back to commuting, searching for parking, and sweating in public would be a change of habit. And with restrictions still in place at gyms, many are choosing to sweat from the comfort of their homes. According to a recent McKinsey study, 68% of people who worked out at home during the pandemic plan to stick with it. Venture capital investors seem to believe this, too.

What else we’re Snackin’

Vax: The FDA asked states to temporarily halt using J&J's Covid vax after six people in the US developed a rare blood-clotting disorder.
Unstitched: Stitch Fix stock dropped on news that its founder Katrina Lake is stepping down as CEO. She’s staying involved as exec chair.
Epic: Fortnite-maker Epic games raised fresh cash at a huge $29B valuation (and it still has beef with Apple).
Warned: China's regulator warned WeChat-owner Tencent and dozens of others to stop using banned practices, after fining Alibaba $2.8B.
iRSVP: Apple is expected to drop new products at its April 20 press event, including new iPads (and possibly AirTags).

Wednesday

Coinbase goes public
Earnings expected from JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and First Republic Bank

Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Uber

ID: 1603305

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Friday, Apr 26th

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Sales of what are up 136% since 2019?

Don't be a sucka

$70B

Alphabet shares are soaring in the after-market session, with a initial jump of more than 10% implying a gain of upwards of about $200B in market value when the stock opens tomorrow morning.

Google’s parent company crushed earnings expectations, initiated a cash dividend for the first time, and authorized a fresh $70B in share repurchases for good measure. The market likes it very much.

What’s up doc?

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HOP TO IT

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4/25/24

No, Apple hasn’t cut its Vision Pro production estimates in half

Quite a few news outlets are reporting that Apple thinks it’s only going to sell 400,000 to 450,000 Vision Pros in 2024, compared a “market consensus” of 700,000 to 800,000. They’re all citing a note from Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

Obviously there’s no question that Apple’s $3,500 face computer will have a limited audience and could be a huge flop, but this also doesn’t seem like accurate news.

The issue is that 1) this 400,000 number isn’t new. Back in July of 2023, the Financial Times reported that Apple planned to make fewer than 400,000 units in 2024, reducing its initial projections of 1M units, citing two people close to Apple and, the Chinese contract manufacturer assembling the device. 2) It's unclear who was estimating 700,000-800,000 Vision Pros in the first place, but it appears that it was Ming-Chi Kuo himself?