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Meta Heading to Antitrust Trial Over IG, Whatsapp & Disney+ Rallies With 4.4M Subs
00:31:12
Meta goes to trial for its Instagram, WhatsApp acquisition & Disney crushes its earnings
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- [00:01]
Kyle Hagee
Ryan Reynolds here for I guess my hundredth mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, don't. No, no, no. I mean, honestly, when I started this.
- [00:08]
Ann Berry
I thought I'd only have to do.
- [00:09]
Kyle Hagee
Like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited to Premium Wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming. Here, give it a try@mintmobile.com save whenever you're ready. $45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three month plan only. Taxes and fees, extra speed slower above 40 gigabyte CD tails. Good morning Brew Daily Show. I'm Kyle Hagee.
- [00:35]
Ann Berry
And I'm Ann Berry.
- [00:37]
Kyle Hagee
Today Meta is heading to an antitrust trial. What that means for their ownership of Instagram and WhatsApp.
- [00:43]
Ann Berry
And Disney's latest earnings have investors excited. Have they finally gotten their streaming legs under them? It's Friday, November 15th.
- [00:50]
Kyle Hagee
Let's ride. So it is Friday and we actually are making Morning Brew Daily history because there's no Neil, there's no Toby. They're slacking off. They're out somewhere having fun. It's me and Ann Barry locked in the studio and the audience might know me a little bit, but they may not know you for Morning Brew Daily Show. So tell us a little bit about yourself.
- [01:15]
Ann Berry
Thanks, Carl. First of all, I miss Neil and Toby, so out to them who doesn't? So I am really involved here in Brew markets where we are focusing on the hotter stories coming out of public stocks and we do a ton of great work. We have a newsletter we are building on social. Come find us on Instagram, can find us on X. And there's a lot more to come. So working hard. Also host, just like you do, another podcast here at Morning Brew. It's called After Earnings. That's where we have in depth conversations with public company executives that retail investors often don't get to have. So we're trying to unpack that for folks.
- [01:48]
Kyle Hagee
I love it. Well, Anna's probably the smartest person at Morning Brew, so this is going to be a really fun conversation. We actually are talking a lot about earnings today, so you're going to be right in your sweet spot. And I have to compete with this accent, so I'm a little nervous. But let's get into it.
- [01:59]
Ann Berry
Yes, but before we get to all that, let's hear a word from our sponsor, Sage. Not the hub, but a tool that saves finance professionals a lot of time and money. Life as a CFO is stressful and I was talking to our CFO here at the Brew and he said that a lot of times CFOs call themselves Chief figure out is and part of.
- [02:16]
Kyle Hagee
The reason why CFOs call themselves that is the financial health of a business is like a jigsaw puzzle. Bill pays over here, closing in quarters over there. It's hard to see the big picture.
- [02:27]
Ann Berry
Which is where Sage comes in. It is the box that contains all the puzzle pieces but it also shows picture you are trying to make.
- [02:33]
Kyle Hagee
So if you want to do a little less searching on the ground for pieces and a little less guessing where those pieces go, check out sage.
- [02:39]
Ann Berry
Head to sage.comforward/morning brew that sage.com/morning brew.
- [02:44]
Kyle Hagee
We are about to find out who is stronger, the US Federal Trade Commission or Mark Zuckerberg in his wife guy era. Now why is that? It's because Meta must face trial over claims it overpaid in its purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp to crush emerging competitors. This strategy is often called Buy or Barry, no relation to the co host and Barry, where a company basically says let me buy you or we will throw our entire weight behind destroying you. Now, for reference, metabot Instagram in 2012 for a cool $1 billion. And they bought WhatsApp in 2014 for 19 times that for $19 billion. Now the history of the case. The FTC and 48 states attorneys generals sued Metta in 2020 during the first Trump administration, and the lawsuit was then refined under the Biden admin, which kind of highlights this seemingly bipartisan effort to curtail Mehta's influence and more broadly, Big Tech's perceived monopolistic power. Metta had urged the judge to dismiss this entire case, saying it depended on an overly narrow view of social media markets. It didn't take into account competition from ByteDance's TikTok, Google's YouTube X and Microsoft's LinkedIn. Trump's return to the White House in January. It might bring some changes to this antitrust approach that the US has had, although it's hard to predict how exactly his admin will act in practice. And do you think we have a serious threat to Meta here?
- [04:09]
Ann Berry
I don't think we do, actually, and for a couple of reasons. First of all, can we just touch on something you said right at the top?
- [04:14]
Kyle Hagee
Yes.
- [04:15]
Ann Berry
You said the fact that Matter is now defending its purchase, saying it overpaid. If you could buy Instagram for $1 billion now, it'd be a great deal, amazing deal, incredible deal, Deal of the century. So I thought that was just interesting to show how times have changed. Right. So back to your question, which is, is this going to happen? Look, we are looking at with the change administration, a change more likely than not in leadership of the Federal Trade Commission. You've had Lina Khan there. Technically her term expired in September. And so the question is, is she going to be reappointed? Probably not. So who is it going to be that's going to get appointed by the Senate? We don't know. And until we know, I don't think we know what's going to happen with this case. Just one person's view.
- [04:55]
Kyle Hagee
Yeah. And it's been interesting. I think Facebook or met at one time had maybe bipartisan zeal to attack it, maybe for different reasons. Now it seems like Zuckerberg and maybe the company are pivoting their pr. They're showing a different side of them. I'm not sure actually if there is still the same bipartisan anger towards better as there maybe used to be. But also just against the backdrop, a lot of the big tech companies are getting sued. I think Amazon is facing an antitrust lawsuit. Apple is facing an antitrust lawsuit. Google is facing two antitrust lawsuits. So until we see what changes are going to happen in the administration, it might still be hunting season for big tech.
- [05:33]
Ann Berry
It's also interesting to see how with time elapsing the definitions of the markets that these big tech companies are defending, changes. So you just said it right? When this deal was done in the 2012 era, Meta was going after buying social assets. That was before TikTok exploded, right? It was before X exploded. It was YouTube exploded. So the argument today about who are we competing against, do we dominate the social market? Different argument then, same thing. Let's take Google, right? Antitrust, going after them because of search. I mean, do you use Google for search or are you using ChatGPT?
- [06:03]
Kyle Hagee
I mean ChatGPT is definitely increasing. Perplexity is big in the search space. So I think your point about these markets change or consumer behavior changes and so maybe we don't even need to break them up. This is just a distraction, allowing a little bit of sunlight in the market for these new emerging companies to take some share from these big tech companies, I will say I think Zuck, I mean, I don't think he wants his company to be broken up, but either way, he is loving life right now. He recorded a song with T Pain to show how much he loved his wife because he met her and they would play the song get low. So this guy's having a good time no matter what.
- [06:37]
Ann Berry
Also, how sweet is he with his wife? Didn't he get a sculpture commission?
- [06:41]
Kyle Hagee
Oh, so sweet. He's in his wife guerra. I love it.
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Ann Berry
I also, if somebody wanted to make a sculpture of me and a T pain rendition, I would find.
- [06:48]
Kyle Hagee
Yeah, listeners, you heard it.
- [06:49]
Ann Berry
Yeah, no, I'm going to get flooded now with D. I'm going to find find a ton of this coming into my inbox. The other thing, Carl, that you touched on, which is how perception has changed. It used to be bipartisan. I don't hear people riffing on Facebook now the same amount that they're riffing on X. Yes, the power of X is what everyone's talking about. No one's really talking about the power of Facebook when it comes to public discourse in the same way.
- [07:12]
Kyle Hagee
Agreed. So we'll have to see how this case plays out in the new administration. Now it's time for our Friday segment, Stock of the Week Dog of the Week, where Ann and I tell you about a stock who is full of holiday cheer and one who is just mumbling ba humbug. Now, as a reminder, we are not financial advisors. I was a philosophy major. Do not take my advice on stocks and I'll throw it over to you for stock of the week.
- [07:34]
Ann Berry
Don't take my advice on stocks either, by the way, just to double down on that. My stock of the week is Disney. And it's not just because the stock popped, went up just under 7% yesterday, Kyle. It's because the story behind Disney the magician when it comes to storytelling is absolutely fascinating. After years of investing heavily in their streaming business, seems as though it could finally be paying off. Disney reported on Thursday a profit of $321 million for the third quarter, actually its fourth quarter. So that's for September. Bouncing back from a loss of roughly the same amount a year ago. Big boost to their financial performance because there have been so many question marks about where's this company going in the age where linear TV is really struggling. So let's talk about what happened in their streaming business. A whopping 4.4 million new subscribers joined Disney, plus crushing expectations of 900,000. And there was a little bit of Netflix mimicry here. Took a page out of the Netflix playbook, hiked up prices and it pushed some subscribers to their ad tier plan. And there was this really funny moment card. And if you saw this, there seemed to have been a hot mic moment where CEO CEO Bob Iger almost accidentally disclosed about 47% of US subscribers are in that ad t now don't forget that ad tier only launched less than a year ago. So it's working. And it's not only working, it's working at real pace, which I thought thought was pretty interesting. Let's talk a little bit too about what's been going on in the box office. Shining performances from the studio division including Inside out to Brought out one. Did you watch it?
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Kyle Hagee
Oh, I saw it.
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Ann Berry
Oh, did you?
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Kyle Hagee
I did.
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Ann Berry
Did you love it?
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Kyle Hagee
I thought it was good. I also didn't even see inside out one, so it got me on two.
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Ann Berry
It got you. Well, it got you and $1.7 billion worth of other getting people to highest grossing animated movie of all time. And Marvel's Deadpool and Wolverine rate in $1.3 billion, setting a new record. I love this for an R rated movie. So in all of this though decent performance. There has been huge drama in the C suite Disney. So have you been following all of the stories about the succession planning issues that I have?
- [09:39]
Kyle Hagee
I mean, I think this is a really interesting part of the story which is Bob Iger obviously left Disney and then he came back. It's kind of like LeBron James, Cleveland and then coming back for the second stint. And you know, Bob might be a little bit more washed up. You talked about the hot mic moment now, but I still think he is one of the best executives probably ever in media. And I would not bet against Disney. I think you've, you've shown the streaming numbers are turning around. They have, I think one of the premier brands in all of business. You like are a bad parent if you don't take your kid to Disney World somehow. So they really own that relationship with a young generation. And I think Bob is putting them in a good spot. But the succession planning, because they announced that they're trying to find a new CEO in early 2026, that is what I think is going to be kind of the linchpin of this continued success of Disney. Can they find someone to replace Bob Iger? Because the first time they tried, they, they put in another Bob and that didn't work. So just pick someone without the name of Bob and maybe you're in a better spot. So, and what do you think of this succession plan? Are they going to find someone to replace Bob Iger?
- [10:40]
Ann Berry
Well, they're definitely taking it really seriously and the pressure is on to do it this time. So we've got James Gorman, who is the former CEO of Morgan Stanley, who is now taking over as chair of the board and running the succession planning committee. Now, James Gorman himself had been CEO of Morgan Stanley for 12 years, did a really good job of handing over the seat. So let's compare that to Bob Iger. He was CEO for about 15 years. The first time left in 2020, came back two years later when the board ousted his successor, possibly with his own workings in the background.
- [11:11]
Kyle Hagee
No comment from Bob.
- [11:13]
Ann Berry
And he's meant to be gone by now, but he's still sitting there. And Mary Barrett, who's the CEO of General Motors, is on the same succession planning committee, so is the CEO of Lululemon. Right. So you've got people who are really serious people really focused on this. What I thought was really interesting, Kyle, as a separate but nuanced point around this, Disney very, very unusually put out three year projections in their earnings call yesterday. And they said, look, we're good till 2027. We've got challenges. It's tough in TV, it's been a little tough in the theme parks, but we're good till the end of 2027. And I think that was almost their way of saying, even when Bob Iger's gone by the end of 2026, we're telling you there's life after him. We're going to be okay.
- [11:55]
Kyle Hagee
Yeah, I think that's a really great call out. And I think that is right. That is the question. Like Disney has been very, very successful. Bob Iger left, things started to get rocky. He came back turning it around. Can Disney exist in a post Bob Iger world? We got James Gorman and company on it. We'll see how it goes. Let's move on to the dog of the week. My dog of the week is electric vehicles. Now, this holiday season, I'm hoping Santa can fit an EV down your chimney because come 2025, these vehicles might be getting a little more expensive. Now the Trump transition team is discussing ending the $7,500 EV subsidy as part of a broader tax reform effort. This EV tax credit was actually established as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Now, the current EV tax credit, if left alone, is set to remain in place for 10 years. And there's actually a big change in 2024 that allowed consumers to use a point of sale discount. Essentially, instead of claiming this as a credit on their tax return, they would get the discount immediately at point of sale. So it pushed a lot of people to feel a lot more comfortable buying EVs. It also allowed electric vehicle companies or companies trying to establish themselves in the EV Space to remain profitable on these vehicles because they were getting essentially $7,500 from the government. This was effective in 2023. EV sales in the US reached a record high of nearly 1.2 million units. And this was a substantial increase from 5.9% in 2022 and 3.2% in 2021. In terms of total US vehicle market, now zooming out a little bit, Tesla is actually about half of all of the US EVs. In the third quarter they sold half, so they are a major player in this. However, Tesla's US EV rivals have collectively steadily eroded this market because Tesla used to be about 80% in the first quarter of 2020. So the EV market might be getting a shake up. We're not sure who the winners are going to be. We're not sure who the loser going to be. And does this mean I need to add a Tesla to my Christmas list? What should I be doing here?
- [13:57]
Ann Berry
Well, here's what I find so fascinating, right? You've got Elon Musk, who's become this incredibly influential and loud voice advising what will be the new administration sitting right there, founder and CEO of Tesla. @ the same time as this tax credit which was helped, the whole industry is potentially going to go away. So my big question around this is, why so should you be adding a Tesla to your Christmas list? I mean, if I, if someone dropped a car in my stocking for Christmas, I'd be absolutely thrilled. But my question is, what happens more broadly? So if you go back to some of the things Elon Musk has said, and this is really interesting to me, he said earlier this year that killing the subsidy might slightly hurt Tesla sales. Right. And we saw the Tesla share price come down a little bit on this news, but he said it would devastate his US competitors in ev, including legacy automakers such as General Motors. So if you get a Tesla, I mean, you might be the last person standing. Maybe everyone else does get decimated along the way.
- [14:49]
Kyle Hagee
I think that is the most interesting point here, which is Tesla is kind of far out ahead of the competitors. They've built EV infrastructure, they have the manufacturing process down. Gm, Ford, Rivian, all these companies are trying to catch up to Tesla and in some ways the subsidy is helping them all, but it's helping these challengers to Tesla a little more. So if they kill the subsidy. Exactly to your point, it hurts Tesla a little bit, it hurts these other companies a lot more. What I also think is interesting is on a global scale, China is really ascending in the EV market. They have the company byd, which is blowing up in China. It's trying to enter other markets. So far we've been effective at keeping it out of the US Market. I don't see the Trump administration changing that. And so there's also this push of remaining dominant in the EV and battery space for the US Is a concern of like national security. And there was this alliance for Automotive Innovation actually telling Congress we need to keep these subsidies in place, not just for consumers, but to allow our companies to develop better EV infrastructure to remain competitive from a national security perspective as well. So I think this is actually a really interesting story. It has hurt most EV companies. Rivian stock was quite down on the news. We'll see if it goes through. But I do think the most sneaky piece is that it might also help Tesla overall.
- [16:09]
Ann Berry
Amazing to see what Tesla stock price has has done in response to this. I mean, it's been on a complete test since the election.
- [16:15]
Kyle Hagee
Yeah, I feel like every day I open up and Tesla's up like 20% or down 20%. They've never had a normal day. Coming up, the story behind how the Onion won the bid for Infowars.
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- [18:28]
Kyle Hagee
In a move that has me more and more convinced we live in a simulation, the Onion has purchased Infowars, the famous conspiracy network by Alex Jones. Now the Onions bid was actually backed by the families of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting and one first responder. It's also going to have an exclusive advertising deal with Gun Control group Every Town for Gun. Alex Jones placed InfoWars parent company into bankruptcy and later filed for personal bankruptcy in 2022 following years of costly litigations with the families of Sandy Hook victims. He had been ordered to pay over $1 billion in damages for repeatedly claiming on Infowars that the 2012 Sandy Hook School shooting was a government hoax. It involved crisis actors, hence the maybe irony of the Sandy Hook school shooting families joining in this bid to take down infowars. Now Ben Collins, who owns the Onion, said the new plan for Infowars going forward was, quote, to shine a light on the economy around this that has completely engulfed our current media, which is people getting you really, really upset and then driving you to a page to buy a panacea. Robby Parker, whose daughter Emily was killed in the Sandy Hooks shooting, said in part, quote, the world needs to see that having a platform does not mean you are above accountability. The dissolution of Alex Jones assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for. And I was a massive Onion fan growing up. Then it kind of faded into irrelevancy. It seems like it's back and back with a vengeance. Taking down infowars is satire back on the menu.
- [19:59]
Ann Berry
I think the Onion satire is it never went away. It's coming back into conversation. I find this move a tricky one. I think for them to Navigate, because if you look at the motivations here, the family partnering with the Onion, you called that out. I can see them wanting to have a way to make sure that this content is pulled down. The Infowars content is pulled down. It's in the control of someone who they trust, and it's going to be either managed away or goes away in a method that they can get behind. Where the Onion actually goes from here with it, I think, is a real question mark. They've talked about turning it into a parody, satirical website turning into a parody. Parody is a really tough pivot. I mean, this is tough stuff for them to go after, I think.
- [20:42]
Kyle Hagee
Yeah, it's. I mean, I'm glad the families were involved in this takeover of Infowars because it seems like getting their buy in is very important, given the nature of Infowars and that tragedy. So I'm glad they have involvement. I don't know what the Onion is going to do with this. I think one of the interesting things is they were doing a fire sale of infowars. Like, it wasn't just the domain or the assets. This included everything from platforms, studio equipment. They had an online dietary supplement store, a Teradyne armored truck, its social media accounts, and even a Winnebago motorhome. So Alex Jones was selling everything to try to get enough money to pay out these. These fines that he's been ordered to pay to the families. So I also just don't know what they're going to do with the Teradyne armored truck. So we're going to find that out soon. Maybe put the Onion logo and drive it around.
- [21:30]
Ann Berry
It's. I actually went down the rabbit hole a little bit to try and figure out who owns the Onion. And the owner of the Onion is one of the founders of Twilio, which I found quite interesting. So tech sort of coming back into a very different kind of media ownership. I don't know if that gives some insight into. Into what the motives of the Onion could be here, but figuring out who the players are, unpacking that a little bit more, I think is going to be a part of how this unfolds.
- [21:53]
Kyle Hagee
Yes. And Alex Jones, no surprise, was on X, saying he's going to stay until the lights turn off and that there's probably a big conspiracy to take Infowars away, obviously, so he isn't going away forever. But I think this is a big step in limiting his reach because Infowars was relatively popular in the media landscape.
- [22:10]
Ann Berry
All right, Carl, before we end our morning brew, Daily maiden voyage together. Let's share some other stories that you should know before we head in to the weekend. Starting up with media, but a different kind. Tonight is a big night for Netflix because they're getting into live sports. We will see the streaming giant airing a highly anticipated fight between YouTuber turned boxer Jake Paul and boxing titan Mike Tyson, set to take place this evening at the ATT Stadium in Dallas, Texas. But it's not just about the spectacle of the match itself. It's not just about the belt. Because for Netflix, the stakes are even higher. The company's bold move into live sports content could be a game changer for its growing portfolio of sports programming. There's been so much discussion, hasn't there, about traditional sports networks seeing competition from digital platforms. Netflix betting big on high profile events like this one. Do you remember they also went off to Raw, so be broadcasting WWE starting next year. All of this to attract subscribers with the thesis that that's how you get engagement with these live sports and trying to redefine what live sports can look like in the streaming era. Now Tyson's got a massive profile. It's not without controversy, by the way. Both he and Jake Paul slightly polarizing Personas. But this fight does have the potential to bring in a new viewership to Netflix to drive real engagement, particularly amongst younger audiences who may be familiar with Jake Paul from YouTube and bringing them over to perhaps try and tempt them into subscription. But Kyle, what's your take on this? It's. It's a big bet, It's a big intention. Does it work?
- [23:49]
Kyle Hagee
I have two takes. The first is Jake Paul fighting Mike Tyson might like. Just seeing that headline is almost surprising. If I showed that headline to my grandpa, I think his head would explode. Why?
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Ann Berry
Why?
- [24:00]
Kyle Hagee
It just seems like we're in this new era of like absurdity almost for like spectacle. And I think Jake Paul and the Paul brothers, like somehow they are always in the news. Like they just find a way to pierce through this bubble and are always being talked about. The second thing is I think this is a really smart move from a Netflix perspective. What I kind of think about it is it's very similar to like paid pay per view boxing, but you actually capture the customer theoretically forever. So using this as a top of funnel to gain new subscribers. But then they don't just go away now they're subscribed to your platform. And I'm sure Netflix is going to pull the data on which of these live sports are the best for attention long term and then double and triple down on those. So I think this is a really powerful move by Netflix as a new funnel to get new subscribers. I think they're going to continue going into live sports because that is the one thing that Linear TV has always said we still have. Live sports is going to keep people buying these large cable packages. Netflix is now moving into that territory. I think it's a great expansion by the company. Let's move on to this Coach Tapestry merger news. In 2023, we learned that Lina Khan doesn't like luxury. No, I'm not talking about handbags. I'm talking about the companies that own the companies that own the handbags. Now, if you remember, in 2023, the FTC sued Coach parent company Tapestry, and Versace parent company Capri to stop them from merging, citing with decreased competition in the marketplace. And now the brands have officially called off the merger and they're actually pursuing different goals to achieve their desired growth. Tapestry, which owns again, a number of brands, Coach Kate Spade actually said it was going to do stock buybacks. They're doing a $2 billion stock buyback program. Capri, the owner of Versace, Michael Coors, Jimmy Choo, on the other hand, said it was going to focus more on remarketing efforts, changing its retail footprint and kind of aligning product offerings to new consumer preferences. So very different strategies. How is the market responding to this news? Tapestry shares soared. Capri shares are down. Personally, I just don't think the companies should emerge because Coach and Versace obviously clash. But, you know, what do I know? And what's your take on this luxury merger call off story?
- [26:11]
Ann Berry
Well, I think Tapestry share price going up. Is the market saying, we didn't think Capri was a good idea anyway. So actually, in this case, maybe Lina Khan in the ftc, you did us a favor. Which is, which is interesting. Also the fact that Tapestry is saying, we've got a bunch of cash. Right. They were going to use that cash to go buy Capri. Had that happened. Instead, we're going to buy back our shares. There's one cautionary tale in there. I think they're sort of saying without explicitly saying it, we can't think of a better way to spend our money organically.
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Kyle Hagee
Yep.
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Ann Berry
Right. Investing in our own growth doesn't make sense. We're better off sending our cash back to shareholders. Longer term, I'm. You do worry about that a little bit. What's the longer term thesis? Ironically, Capri saying, great, now we're going to invest in ourselves. We're going to take care of ourselves and the market saying, well, we don't trust it's going to work. So, you know, I look at this and say tons going on in luxury right now. Do you see Burberry coming out with a brand new strategy that the market got quite excited about that. But overall for luxury, China is such a big question mark for this whole sector. If the Chinese consumer doesn't come back with a plum, where do you make up for that growth? So understanding that more broadly is going to be the thing to keep an eye on. From my perspective.
- [27:16]
Kyle Hagee
I think they should just send us some Versace. We'll wear it on the show and it'll, it'll boom.
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Ann Berry
Next story, Kyle, let's talk about NBC, which is making a big shake up on the Today show. So Craig Melvin, co anchor of the show's 9am stepping into the seat, big seat being vacated by Hoda Kat B. Who's leaving the morning show next year. So Craig's now going to host the 7 and ATM hours alongside Savannah Guthrie, changing not only the lineup of that show but also signaling NBC's broader strategy as it's trying to navigate what's been a really difficult landscape for network television. So, Carl, tell me, are you a fan? Do you watch the morning network news shows?
- [27:55]
Kyle Hagee
I'm contractually I cannot mention any competitors on the show. Craig, I wish you the best of luck, but you're going up against some heavy hitters in the Morning Brew Daily Show. So good luck out there.
- [28:04]
Ann Berry
Yeah, we drop at the same hour.
- [28:05]
Kyle Hagee
Yeah. Bring it on, Craig. Bring it on. I wish them the best. Let's move on to our last story here, which is a story you're going to want to listen to because it's going to allow you to win the most fun conversation at happy hour competition. Four people in Southern California claimed their cars were trashed by a bear. The only problem, the bear was actually just a person in a bear costume. And the four suspects have been arrested and accused of insurance fraud. Now, the so called bear claimed to have entered and damaged a Rolls Royce and two Mercedes cars. So at least the bear has very good taste in vehicles. And the insurance department said in what I think is probably the greatest statement I've ever heard, upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume. The bear costume with brown fur, a head shaped like a bear, paws, metal hand tools was actually found in one of the suspects home. So I hope they at least used it for Halloween and got, you know, two uses out of it. And brilliant plan. Stupid plan or brilliantly stupid plan here?
- [29:06]
Ann Berry
No plan. Terrible. Terrible.
- [29:09]
Kyle Hagee
This was a very fascinating story, folks. If you're listening at home, do not dress up as a bear. Attack your own car and try to claim the insurance.
- [29:18]
Ann Berry
Don't do it.
- [29:18]
Kyle Hagee
Don't do it.
- [29:19]
Ann Berry
Don't do it.
- [29:20]
Kyle Hagee
All right. Well, we have made history today. Me and Ann filling in for Neil and Toby. It was lovely to have you in the studio. Ann and I really enjoyed doing the show with you.
- [29:27]
Ann Berry
Thanks for having me on.
- [29:29]
Kyle Hagee
Let's roll the credits. Emily Milian is our executive producer. Raymond Liu is our producer. Olivia Graham is our associate producer. Uchenna Wagu is our technical director. Billy Menino is on audio. Hair and makeup are partying with Neil and Toby. Devin Emery is our chief content officer, and our show is a production of Morning Brew.