
Intel CEO forced out after 3 years & TikTok creeps closer to Amazon
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Good Morning Brew Daily Show I'm Neal Freyman.
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And I'm Toby Howell.
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Today sales of the Bible are skyrocketing this year. Why is everyone curling up with 2.
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Corinthians then TikTok Shop had a Black Friday to remember. Is it actually a threat to dethrone Amazon? It's Tuesday, December 3rd. Let's ride. Hope you all are back in the swing of things at work after your time off. No worries. If not though, it's only Tuesday if you feel like you forgot how to use a mouse. Though luckily for you, we have a work Life themed episode coming up soon that we need your help for.
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Your favorite super sub Kyle and the co host of his podcast Kayla are hopping on MBD to talk about the hottest workplace trends they've identified on their show. Per my last email, one segment their listeners love is called MI the A Hole where people submit workplace questions for them to break down.
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If you've ever left a meeting and thought to yourself, did he just say that? Or maybe you've had a tense one on one with your boss that made a promotion feel even further away. Those are perfect fodder for the Am I in a Hole? Segment.
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So our request to you email Morning Brew Daily at Morning Broadcom with your workplace horror stories or questions. And the Per my last email crew along with us is going to help you make sense of them.
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Drop us some tea at Morning Brew Daily at Morning Broadcom and we'll anonymously help you work through your work toys, conundrums and questions. That's Morning Brew daily@morning brew.com Now a word from our sponsor, Yahoo Finance. Neil Some of our listeners don't know this, but we actually have a YouTube version of the podcast where you can come see our smiling faces every morning.
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But MBD is not the only one with a video feed. Yahoo Finance also has a video tab you should check out.
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You can watch their morning shows like the Morning Brief or Opening Bid or get deeper in the weeds with specific Investing Related Insights It's a really good.
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Change of pace if you want to catch up on some market news without having to actually sit down and read the headlines.
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And rumor has it that hair and makeup actually shows up for Yahoo Finance's video team, so it's got that going for it.
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If you want to see what sort of multimedia Yahoo Finance has to offer, just head to yahoo.finance.com and click on the videos tab. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger was brought in three years ago to restore the struggling chip maker to its former glory. But like Aaron Rodgers with the jets, his veteran savvy didn't quite translate. Gelsinger retired as CEO yesterday after failing to see his turnaround plan through, leaving intel in perhaps worse shape than when he began. By all accounts, this was a either you quit or we fire you situation. According to Bloomberg, Gelsinger was hauled in before the board last week to describe how he was planning to narrow the gap with Nvidia, the chip maker that sprinted past intel in the past several years. They apparently didn't like what they heard and gave Gelsinger the choice of retiring or being removed.
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Investors that have been beaten down by Intel's cratering share price were happy about the move. They sent intel stock up about 4% on the day, showing how they lost confidence in Gelsinger. Still, the company has lost about half of its value this year, and it's lost all of its reputation as America's chipmaking champion on the world stage. So Neal, what went so wrong here and was it entirely on Gelsinger?
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Look, he definitely inherited a company that was already feeling a bit creaky, way behind the eight ball, and that was due to decisions made by his predecessors that proved disastrous in hindsight. In one of those moves back in 2005, intel turned down an opportunity to make the processor for the iPhone. So intel was a PC chipmaking giant. They dominated the market for PC computer processors and they had this opportunity to to make the processor for the iPhone. And they turned it down thinking that, you know, mobile phones just wouldn't be a big market. And now they are cut off from that market and obviously it is massive now. So that was one mistake. And the other mistake also in 2005, the CEO at the time was thinking about buying Nvidia for about $20 billion. You know, in hindsight that was a bad move because currently in video is worth $3.3 trillion and is way more valuable than intel thanks to its prowess in the AI market. So there were two decisions that were made previously before Gelsinger even got there. That said, sent intel on the path to decline. But he made certain moves and took intel in a direction that clearly didn't work as well.
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Yeah, it's almost like you have this twin sibling in Nvidia that just overshadows you at every turn. That is part of the reason why Gelsinger's term will not be looked at favorably is that you had Nvidia become the most valuable company in the world. It's now 33 times larger than Intel's market cap. So that just is always in comparison. You're always going to look bad. One thing that Gelsinger did try to do is make this very expensive bid, this very, you know, incredibly risky transition of the company's business model. They wanted to be on the level of chip making giants like TSMC and actually fabricate the physical chips themselves. That has been central to it. Lined up very well with the Biden administration's agenda as well, though. They wanted to revitalize American chip manufacturing on American soil. So that, that was a bet that Gelsinger made. It could still pay off. Like, this is a long and lengthy transition. It's a long and expensive process. So maybe down the line they'll say that Gelsinger actually laid the foundation for this shift. But right now it's not looking too great for intel, especially when you compare it to its high flying twin brother, Nvidia.
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Yeah, intel was not prepared for the. What happened with the revolution when Chat CBT was released and you mentioned expense. I mean, intel under Gelsinger has tried to build massive factories. And when you're trying to make chips, these things are so expensive. He wants to, he's laid the foundation for a $20 billion new factory coal complex, multiple factories in Ohio. There's also one in Arizona. He wants to build stuff in Europe. So it's been immensely expensive. And he was banking on the Biden administration's CHIPS act money to help fund that. And intel has become the biggest recipient of the Chips Act. The Chips and Science act was, was instituted two years ago and his hand is handing out $39 billion to chipmakers that are setting up shop in the United states. Intel got $8 billion from that. So it's not, you know, especially great look for the CHIPS act or the Biden administration to be pouring all this money into a company that has just been behind the curve consistently for the past few decades. All right, so we just talked about intel, but there's been another big CEO resignation, if you want to call that in. The past few days. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares is stepping down immediately. And this company, I know you guys talked about this on the show a few weeks ago, it makes Jeep and Ram and Dodge and Chrysler and it has just been absolutely going through it. Q3 sales in the United States were down 20% after a record breaking year in 2023. This company has just not caught up to its rivals and Tavares, who is one of the biggest names in the auto world is, is the victim here.
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Yeah, definitely not a great year for Stellantis. A lot of their dealerships have been complaining that their of inventory blow where these cars are just sitting on the lot. They've kind of made some miscalculations in the North American market. Their cars are a lot more expensive than any of the other car on the market right now. And they also just have some brands that are kind of stalling out a little bit. Yes, Jeep and Ram have had some good sales momentum in recent years. Jeep is always going to be iconic brand but Chrysler is another brand that they own. It only has one product on offer right now, the Shout Out Pacifica minivan owners and then also Maserati is another one of their brands. It's their luxury brand. They've seen sales plummet 60% compared to a year ago. So they have sort of these zombie lines that aren't selling very well. And while Tavares was seen as kind of this auto industry kind of whisperer when he brought all these brands together under one brand of Stellantis, now it looks like some of those are just dead weight at this point. If the lines were too long at your local mall and Amazon just ain't hitting like it used to, you might have found yourself perusing TikTok Shop this holiday shopping period. On Black Friday, the social media app turned E commerce platform did over $100 million in U.S. sales. Success stories from brands poured in thick and fast. Canvas Beauty, a cosmetics company, said it sold over 100,000 products, including $2 million worth alone on a single live stream. Those numbers are music to the ears of TikTok, who has been pushing sellers and creators towards the livestream format for 15 months now, trying to recreate the success of live shopping that they've seen over in China. Now a little perspective is in order here. Overall Black Friday sales in the US hit just under $11 billion this year. So TikTok is still a small slice of the pumpkin pie. Gross merchandise volume on the app is expected to double to reach $50 billion this year. But still small fries compared to Amazon's expected $757 billion haul. But Tik Tok is also in a race against the clock if it wants to close the gap, as it could get banned as soon as January next year. For now, though, brands are taking every sale they can get.
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Yeah, I mean, this is a very interesting phenomenon to watch. TikTok launched its shop app or shop tab in 15 months ago. And I'm sure anyone who's gone on TikTok has seen those posts by influencers. Hawking products and social commerce is what this entire thing is called, where you shop on social media and you don't ever have to leave the app to buy stuff. It works really well in China. In China, it's. It accounts for 30% of all E commerce. TikTok is, of course, owned by a Chinese company. Many have tried to make social commerce live streaming work here in the United States, Metta among them, and it has just not worked out. It looks, though, like in this particular holiday shopping season, Black Friday, TikTok shop is finally catching on a little bit. You mentioned it's just a rounding error compared to all e commerce shopping. But as you can see, with the Chinese shopping numbers, 30% of all E commerce, the sky is the limit. So if TikTok shop can get more merchants on board, that'll be key. And people getting accustomed to buying stuff while they're scrolling on TikTok. I mean, the potential here is enormous, right?
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Let's talk about that potential. Dunian, the sister app of TikTok over in China, made over $200 billion during livestream. So clearly the market is there if you can get it, get the format to catch on. And it does look like one way to imagine TikTok is Gen Z version of QVC, which is QVC was that program where people just come on and explain products. You could buy them directly by calling a number on your TV screen. Now it's even quicker. You can just press a button within an app. So technically the groundwork is laid there. It has run into some issues though, because part of the reason people don't like it is it's almost an inchification of the app, instead of just scrolling through videos that were served up to you by the algorithm. Now every fourth video, every fifth video is a undercover ad, if you will, these creators hawking a product that maybe you want, maybe you don't want. So it has been a little bit of a curve to get the audience on board with it, but if you can kind of normalize it yes, obviously the sky is the limit here.
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Yeah. And it does represent just the fusion of entertainment and shopping. Anyone who watched the Amazon Black Friday game on Friday, they aired an NFL game for the, for the second time. And that also represents the, the confluence of entertainment and shopping in a way that I think this world is moving toward. Because if you're Amazon.com you have to essentially pay people or you know, you pay a toll to get people to come to your website. Meanwhile, TikTok has 170 million users that it is force feeding content to you and force feeding shopping to you. So if you're a brand, there is a lot to like about TikTok Shop. One, one challenge is these products are kind of cheap and they are, they come at extreme discounts. So if you're a brand that, you know, wants to show off quality and craftsmanship, the idea that you would put it on TikTok shop alongside other brands that are very cheap and could break easily and might be scammy is certainly something that's holding them back.
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That being said though, brands like Puma, L'Oreal, Nike and Crocs are selling on there. So clearly they are attracting in those Bluer Chip, those bigger names. We'll see if it just is a rising tide that becomes a major channel for a lot of these brands or if it's just something that happens over in China but can't quite catch a foothold in the US there's no vaping.
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Allowed in the Supreme Court building, but vaping was a topic du jour at the highest court in the land. Yesterday the justices heard oral arguments in a high profile case that pits the FDA against two flavored e cigarette companies whose applications it rejected. At stake is not only whether these products can legally hit the shelves, but also the FDA's broader mandate to regulate tobacco products. So what's going on here? The two e cig companies, Triton Distribution and Vape Stasia, are accusing the FDA of shifting the goalposts in terms of what scientific backing is needed to submit their products for approval. The companies say the FDA abruptly required them to include long term studies that show their flavored products would help people stop smoking when compared to tobacco varieties. But since these products haven't been on the market for a long time, there's no way they could provide long term studies. The companies say this amounts to a blanket ban on flavored vapes. It's true the FDA has been no friend to the flavored vape industry. It's rejected applications for more than 1 million flavored vape products while approving just 34 that have tobacco and menthol flavors. This case could determine whether this multibillion dollar industry is brought into the mainstream or is kept in a murky regulatory area. Toby, there are a lot of competing theories here about the role of vapes vis a vis smoking.
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Yeah, I think one of the issues that the FDA really has with these flavored vaping products is that they don't want them to appeal to kids. That is something that they think that they've made very clear because the flavors of these vapes, I just have to read some Pink lemonade, a rainbow road, Jimmy the juice Man, Peachy strawberry, Suicide bunny, Mother's milk and cookies. So these are products that the FDA is looking at and saying maybe there's an audience for them in the adult category. But I think if you are looking to attract people with a name like Rainbow Row, you're probably targeting kids. And that is something the FDA really doesn't like. So they have repeatedly declined to approve these flavored vapes because they don't want to encourage young people to use tobacco products to use vaping products like that. But the companies are like, hey, fda, you have got it wrong. These flavored vapes are just out there to help people stop smoking and stop moving the goalposts on us. Just, we will abide by your rules as long as you make them clear to us. When the FDA can come back and say, hey, vapes are still a pretty new product, it takes time to drop regulations around them. So you can see why everyone is very contentious about this and why it's made it all the way to the Supreme Court at this point.
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And meanwhile, vaping has been on a dramatic decline. Back in 2018, when Juul was the hot thing, 15 high school students said that they had used an e cigarette in the last month. But recently there's new data that shows that vaping is now at its lowest levels in a decade. And both sides are pointing to that data to support their their arguments. The FDA is saying, yeah, crackdown is working. Like, we stop these from hitting the market. And now people are doing it less. Meanwhile, the Easter companies are saying, look, this is not a problem. People are using it to get away from smoking tobacco, smoking cigarettes, and they're not being addicted. So they are both using that pretty astonishing decline in vaping usage to advance their arguments before the Supreme Court.
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Up next, it's Tuesday, which means it's time for Toby's trends.
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Pop quiz. Toby, what do brands like? Aloe. Allbirds and skims have in common.
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For one thing, they're all top notch brands that sell directly to consumers.
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Bingo. But achieving big name success comes down to more than having a cool brand and brilliant marketing. Who who's behind the scenes powering each and every one of their sales? Shopify.
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Of course, nobody does selling better than Shopify. They're home to the number one checkout on the planet.
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And we've got to mention they're not so secret Secret Shop Pay Shop pay Boost conversions up to 50%. That means fewer abandoned carts and higher rev numbers.
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Shopify should be every business's one stop.
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Shop to growth, level up your biz and sign up for your $1 per month trial period at shopify.com morning brew all lowercase that's shopify.com morning brew all lowercase in the noisy world of advertising, it's easy for a message to get lost. And if your brand isn't targeting your ideal audience, there's a chance you'll never reach them. But here's the good news. LinkedIn Ads can help you reach your people with precise B2B targeting LinkedIn Ads.
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Start converting your B2B audience into high quality leads today. LinkedIn ads will even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com/mbd to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com/mbd. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn the place to be to be if you are looking for answers. Some people open up Google, some people look to ChatGPT. But increasingly, people are turning to one of the oldest sources of truth in the world, the Bible. And it's the suddenly booming Bible industry that I want to talk about on today's edition of Toby's Trends. Bible sales are up 22% this year, according to the book tracker Circana, bucking a trend in the wider book industry where sales are up just 1% over the same period. But interestingly enough, demand for Bibles is growing, despite religion increasingly taking a backseat in people's lives. Pew found that just over a quarter of adults in the US now consider themselves religiously unaffiliated, up from over 15% in 2007. Despite that, Bible sales have been steadily rising, jumping from 9.7 million in 2019 to reach 14.2 million last year. So there are two ways industry insiders are looking at this trend. First, Jeff Crosby, president of the Evangelical Christian Publishers association, said it all stems from a, quote, desire for assurance that we're going to be okay. But Mark Bertrand, the founder of a Bible design site, has a more cynical view, saying a lot of smart people are thinking about Bible marketing now, which could be leading to a jump in sales rather than a craving for knowledge of scripture. So, Neal, Bible sales are going up, but the reason might not be so cut and dry.
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Well, either way, it's definitely a new testament to the enduring popularity of this book. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the Bible is the best selling book of all time since it was standardized 1500 years ago. The British and Foreign Bible Society in 2021 said that the total number of Bible copies sold was between 5 and 7 billion copies. So people have turned to this book time and time again to seek answers, to increase spirituality for maybe a little light reading. So I don't know which one of the justifications you provided, perhaps it's a sense of both. But it's clear, at least in terms of the marketing side. There are an exploding amount of ways you can consume the Bible, whether it's graphic, in graphic form or in a leather bound copy, or they have all these different types of assortments now that people can access it that way.
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Oh, tons of different Bibles are out there. There's one retailer called Faith and Life. It offers more than 270 different versions of the Bible. They range all the way from a 7.99 pocket sized new Testament all the way up to that leather bound book that you described. That's $95. There's audiobooks, there's books bound in goatskin, there's books or Bibles marketed towards teens and early readers. So there's definitely a big marketing boom around Bibles. One aspect of this too that we have to talk about is that there's been this collision of TikTok accounts also promote promoting Bibles. It's almost a cousin to book talk, which we've talked about a lot, where romantic books have popped off a little different in terms of content, but a similar mechanism just with different subject matter. Plus, I think the customization aspect of the modern Bible industry appeals to people. You can see why. I mean, we've talked about Stanley cup crazes where people want to collect things and adorn them with different things. Similar things are happening in the Bible industry as well. So I Think it's a confluence of a lot of factors with a general undertone that, of course, the Bible is the bestselling book of all time.
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All right, let's sprint to the finish by running down some final headlines. The saga of Elon Musk's $56 billion pay package at Tesla took another dramatic turn yesterday. A judge in Delaware rejected it again, dealing a fresh blow of uncertainty to the largest compensation plan in corporate America history. Remember, Musk was awarded this ginormous pay package 2018, provided Tesla hit aggressive share price goals, which it did. But back in January, Judge Kathleen McCormick of Delaware Court of Chancery threw it out, saying that the board was too friendly with Musk and that shareholders were misled when they originally approved it. Tesla was miffed, but said, okay, we'll do another vote to show you that our shareholders do really want this, to pay Musk for all the growth we've experienced at the company. So they held a vote over the summer, and the pay package passed easily. Still, the judge said, not good enough, and last night rejected it again.
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I tell you someone who is celebrating, though, and that is the lawyers. As part of the ruling, McCormick did approve $345 million in attorney fees for the lawyers who worked on behalf of Tesla shareholders in order to avoid this pay plan. So Musk is extremely mad because the lawyers that took away his pay package are now getting paid. That being said, Elon Musk is doing all right financially. He's more than $43 billion richer since Donald Trump won the election in November. At today's stock price, that 2018 package would have risen to be worth around.01 billion dollars. So, again, you can be upset that you got that taken away from you, but he is doing. He is the richest man in the world and is doing okay.
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And I mean, yes, you can say that, but he would. They would argue that he should be getting this because it's what the shareholders want. Now, what happened after this first rejection was TEs picked up and moved its incorporation out of Delaware, where the vast majority of Fortune 500 companies and businesses anywhere incorporate and move to Texas. So it's likely that Tesla is going to drop a new, very generous pay package in Texas for Musk to stay with the company, and then it will have to be approved in Texas, but it will be under heavy scrutiny. And it does speak to this larger semi exodus out of. Out of Delaware, where. Where companies feel like they are being taken advantage of by. By activist shareholders in the Delaware court has been too activist in that regard.
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As well now here's a headline you probably didn't expect to read in 2024. Enron is back. An ex account under the handle at Enron posted a weird promotional video yesterday setting off a string of questions. Was the energy company that famously collapsed over two decades ago really staging a modern comeback pretty quickly? Internet sleuths found out that the answer was likely no. Publicly available documents show that an LLC called the College Company bought the Enron trademark for 275 bucks back in 2020. The co founder of that company is the same person behind the mock conspiracy theory Birds aren't real. So what we're dealing with here is likely some sort of publicity stunt. If you go to enron.com you'll see a snazzy news site full of smiling faces and corporate platitudes, as well as a timer that shows about six days to go until they have something very special to introduce. But as of now, that something special looks like merch and possibly a crypto token. Neal?
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Yeah, we'll see. I mean the timing was not a coincidence. This was 23 years to the day that Enron filed for bankruptcy after one of the largest accounting frauds in corporate history. Initially it just speaks to the time where, and maybe that's why people are going to the Bible. Initially everyone was like yeah, this is totally a crypto scam. It turned out to be maybe perhaps more benign than that. We'll have to see what these guys announce six days from now. But they are very good at publicity stunts and if you go to the website does say that this is a parody. But there's something enduring about Enron and people do still like buying their merch.
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It was funny to me that people are like born too late to be rugged by the original Enron, but born just in time to be rugged by Enron rebranding as a crypto token. So time is a flat circle here, so if anything people are paying attention.
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Ron Weasley better hope his Gringotts vault is flush because the actor who plays him owes millions of dollars in taxes. Rupert Grint, who was cast as Ron in all eight Harry Potter films, is being forced to hand over about $2.3 million to the UK government after losing a legal battle over his tax bill. The issue dates back to the 20112012 tax year when Grint raked in nearly $6 million through residuals from the movies. The horcrux of it is Grint or some wily mark those payments as capital assets rather than income. And as in America, you pay a lower tax rate in the UK on capital gains a k a investments than on income. So now His Majesty's Revenue and Customs Agency is going after our favorite Ginger Wizard.
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I tell you why instead of Defense against the Dark Arts, Hogwarts should have been teaching personal finance instead of potion making, Snape should have taught bookkeeping. Accio Horcrux More like Accio a few bucks. But honestly I feel bad for the guy. Here you are facing a multimillion dollar tax bill and all people can do is make Harry Potter jokes. So I am sorry Ron, of all the Harry Potters for this to happen to of course it was going to be Ron Weasley. Well, it's December, which means we have our first Word of the Year awardee and according to Oxford Press, 2024 was defined by brain rot. If you don't know what brain rot is, congrats for not having it. It's a catch all term for the type of Internet content your younger cousin likely quoted at Thanksgiving dinner this year. Examples include skibidi toilet videos, a persistent meme about Ohio being weird, or just general mind numbing content usually originating from a short form video platform like TikTok. Even saying this out loud, Neal, I feel like I'm giving people brain rot. But the word saw a 230% rise this year and beat out other terms like demure, slop, dynamic pricing, romantasy and lore. Is it a worthy champion for Word of the Year?
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It seems so. I mean, to be perfectly honest, I have never used the word brainwritten. I really didn't see it a lot in the, you know, in the world this year, but apparently all the kids were using it, which is what Oxford really wants to tap into. What was very interesting to me about their choices of finalists and including brainwat was that none of these words were new or those portmanteaus that have come into vogue. Like Romantasy was also a finalist, but those have been like something like Riz was last year. Like that is a new that is a new word that was invented. A lot of these words come from hundreds of years ago. Brain rot was first used in Walden Pond by Thoreau and some of these other words have been are over hundreds of years old, maybe even a thousand like lore and demure. So people are finding ways to repurpose old words to fit new ends and maybe use them ironically and non ironically to fit the times we live in. Which is I think brain rot does do an interesting does do an interesting thing by by explaining what it feels like to be overloaded with just truly mid content all the time on the Internet.
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It is the perfect encapsulation when you see when you come across a brain rot video, you absolutely know it. And I do think it is a perfect catch all term for kind of the content that exuded out of the Internet this year. So unfortunately I was cursed with a little bit of brain rot in my algorithm, so I don't know what that says about us, Neal, but I'm I'm on the brain rot patrol. You can, you can stay above the mud.
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All right. That is all the time we have. Thanks so much for listening and have a wonderful Tuesday. For any questions, comments or feedback, send an email to Morning Brew Daily at Morning Broadcom. If you're enjoying the pod, please spread the word and share it with a friend, family or coworker. It's as easy as copying the link on Spotify into a group chat. For today's sharing idea of the day, here's Toby I want you to share.
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The pod with someone who has brain rot. Yep, if you have a friend who dooms girls for breakfast and binges the Costco guys for dinner, who knows what's going on on the Talk to a podcast and earnestly keeps up with Logan Paul, please, please send them Morning Brew daily.
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Let's roll credits. Emily Milligram is our executive producer. Raymond Liu is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate producer. Eugenia Ogu is our technical director. Billy Menino is on Audio Hero Makeup is our Words of the Year. Devin Emery is our Chief Content Officer, and our show is a production of Morning Brew.
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Great show, Danielle. Let's run it back tomorrow.
Morning Brew Daily – Episode: Intel Ousts CEO & TikTok Shop Banks $100M in One Day? Release Date: December 3, 2024
In this engaging episode of Morning Brew Daily, hosts Neal Freyman and Toby Howell delve into a suite of pressing business and cultural topics, providing listeners with insightful analysis and notable commentary. From significant leadership changes in major corporations to burgeoning trends in e-commerce and unexpected spikes in Bible sales, the episode offers a comprehensive overview of the latest happenings shaping the business landscape.
[02:19 - 07:47]
The episode opens with the dramatic resignation of Intel’s CEO, Pat Gelsinger. Brought in three years ago to rejuvenate the struggling chip manufacturer, Gelsinger’s tenure failed to deliver the anticipated turnaround. As Toby Howell explains, “Intel has lost about half of its value this year, and its reputation as America’s chipmaking champion is in tatters” (03:51).
The hosts discuss the historical missteps that predated Gelsinger, including Intel’s decision in 2005 to forgo producing the iPhone processor and the failed attempt to acquire Nvidia. Toby notes, “These were pivotal decisions that set Intel on a path to decline even before Gelsinger took the helm” (05:02). Despite his efforts to transition Intel towards becoming a fabrication giant akin to TSMC, the strategy proved costly and ineffective, exacerbated by significant investments supported by the Biden administration’s CHIPS Act.
Neal Freyman adds, “Investors were already disillusioned, and Gelsinger’s departure only further eroded their confidence,” highlighting Intel’s plummeting market value and loss of investor trust.
[07:47 - 09:55]
Transitioning to the automotive sector, Stellantis announced the immediate resignation of CEO Carlos Tavares. The company, known for brands like Jeep, Ram, Dodge, and Chrysler, reported a 20% drop in Q3 sales in the U.S., a stark contrast to its record-breaking performance in 2023.
Neal remarks, “Stellantis has miscalculated the North American market, resulting in overstocked dealerships and overpriced vehicles” (07:47). The hosts delve into the struggles of underperforming brands within the conglomerate, such as Maserati, which experienced a 60% sales decline, indicating broader issues within Stellantis’s brand management and market strategy.
[09:55 - 16:44]
A standout topic of the episode is TikTok Shop’s impressive Black Friday performance, which saw U.S. sales surge past $100 million in a single day. Toby Howell highlights, “Brands like Canvas Beauty sold over 100,000 products, including $2 million worth in a single live stream” (08:15).
Neal provides context by comparing TikTok Shop’s figures to Amazon’s anticipated $757 billion in sales, emphasizing that while TikTok's share remains modest, the platform’s integration of entertainment and shopping represents a significant shift in e-commerce dynamics. Toby adds, “With gross merchandise volume expected to double to $50 billion this year, TikTok is poised for substantial growth despite potential regulatory challenges” (09:55).
The discussion also touches on the broader implications of social commerce, noting that TikTok’s success in the U.S. mirrors its dominance in China, where social commerce accounts for 30% of all e-commerce transactions.
[13:27 - 16:44]
The hosts turn their attention to a pivotal Supreme Court case involving the FDA and flavored e-cigarette companies Triton Distribution and Vape Stasia. The companies argue that the FDA has unfairly shifted the regulatory requirements, demanding long-term studies that are impractical given the relatively new market for vaping products.
Toby explains, “The FDA’s primary concern is preventing flavored vapes from appealing to minors, but the companies contend that these products help adults quit smoking” (14:45). Neal adds, “Vaping rates have dropped to their lowest in a decade, which both sides use to bolster their arguments,” highlighting the contentious nature of regulatory oversight in this industry.
[16:44 - 21:57]
In the "Trends" segment, the podcast explores two contrasting phenomena: the dominance of Shopify in powering direct-to-consumer brands and the unexpected surge in Bible sales.
Neal kicks off with, “Brands like Allbirds, Skims, and L’Oreal rely heavily on Shopify’s platform to drive their sales” (16:55). The hosts discuss how Shopify’s robust infrastructure and tools like Shop Pay have enabled these brands to achieve significant growth and high conversion rates.
Shifting gears, Toby introduces the surprising trend of a 22% increase in Bible sales this year, with sales rising to 14.2 million copies despite a general decline in religious affiliation among Americans. Jeff Crosby attributes this to a “desire for assurance that we’re going to be okay,” while Mark Bertrand suggests that aggressive marketing strategies may be fueling the rise in sales (19:57). The hosts ponder whether the increase is driven by genuine spiritual seeking or savvy marketing, ultimately agreeing that the Bible’s enduring popularity is undeniable.
[21:57 - 26:10]
The podcast delves into the ongoing saga of Elon Musk's $56 billion compensation package at Tesla, which has been rejected twice by a Delaware judge. Despite shareholder approval, the court cited conflicts of interest and misleading approval processes as reasons for rejection.
Neal highlights, “The judge approved $345 million in attorney fees for Tesla shareholders who opposed the pay package,” emphasizing the legal ramifications for Musk (22:53). Toby speculates on Tesla’s potential move from Delaware to Texas to seek more favorable regulatory conditions, noting, “This could signal a larger trend of companies seeking safer jurisdictions away from activist-friendly states like Delaware.”
[24:22 - 29:36]
An intriguing segment covers the revival attempts of Enron. An LLC named The College Company reacquired the Enron trademark for a mere $275, sparking speculation about a potential comeback. However, hosts Neal and Toby suggest it’s likely a publicity stunt tied to merchandise or a crypto token, especially considering the co-founder’s association with the parody conspiracy theory "Birds Aren’t Real" (24:22).
Shifting to entertainment, the podcast discusses Rupert Grint’s legal woes. The actor, known for portraying Ron Weasley in Harry Potter, faces a $2.3 million tax bill in the UK after misclassifying his residual income as capital gains to benefit from lower tax rates. Toby notes, “This highlights the importance of accurate financial reporting and the consequences of tax missteps” (26:10).
[26:10 - 29:36]
Concluding the episode, the hosts announce Oxford Press’s selection of “brain rot” as the Word of the Year for 2024. Defined as the consumption of mind-numbing internet content, “brain rot” perfectly encapsulates the overwhelming influx of shallow and repetitive content prevalent on platforms like TikTok (28:07). Neal humorously admits, “Even saying this out loud, I feel like I’m giving people brain rot” (29:14), underscoring the term’s relevance in today’s digital age.
[29:36 - End]
The episode wraps up with a mix of light-hearted banter and final headlines, reinforcing the show’s blend of serious analysis and approachable discussion. Hosts encourage listeners to share the podcast and engage with upcoming content, maintaining the show’s friendly and informative tone.
Throughout this episode, Neal Freyman and Toby Howell adeptly navigate through a diverse array of topics, offering listeners a well-rounded understanding of significant business developments and cultural trends. Their insightful commentary, combined with pertinent data and expert opinions, makes this episode of Morning Brew Daily a valuable resource for staying informed in a rapidly evolving world.
Notable Quotes:
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