📺 WalmartTV
📺 WalmartTV
Walmart’s $2.3B Vizio buyout...Nvidia releases earnings; Vroomsday hits the Germans; Dollarama settles for $2.5M; Japan regains momentum; Reddit partners with Google; Alexei Navalny dies; and more.
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IN THIS ISSUE
🤑 Nvidia smashes earnings
🛍️ Walmart’s $2.3B Vizio buyout
🇷🇺 Alexei Navalny’s suspicious death
On this day. On February 23, 1836, during the Texas war for independence, Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna began a siege of the Alamo, which got captured after just 13 days.
IMPORTANT
💴 Japan regains momentum
Only a week after entering a technical recession and losing the crown for the third biggest economy, the Nikkei 225, Japan's key stock market index, surged 2.1% to 39,098 (breaking its previous record set 34 years ago). The Nikkei has been slowly climbing, and is up 17% since the start of 2024.
This sudden surge in Japan's economy is from various factors, including a weak yen boosting exports and corporate reforms benefiting shareholders. Interest rates are expected to rise, but will likely remain near zero for the whole year.
🚙 Vroomsday hits the Germans
Volkswagen and BMW North America together are recalling over 340,670 vehicles in the United States due to a suction jet pump seal issue in the fuel tank and issues with the brake system respectively (according to the NHTSA).
The number of Volkswagen models amount to 261,000, which includes certain Audi A3 Sedans (2015-2020), Volkswagen Jetta GLIs (2019-2020), and Golf Sportwagens (2018). BMW of North America is recalling 79,670 vehicles, but models have not yet been specified. The J. Nicholas vroomsday counter is now 5.58M.
What is vroomsday? Vroomsday is doomsday but for car recalls. The vroomsday counter is the total of all cars mentioned in recalls since the inception of the J. Nicholas newsletter.
🇮🇷 Iran sends Russia missiles
Iran has reportedly supplied Russia with approximately 400 powerful surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, including models from the Fateh-110 family like the Zolfaghar, according to sources. The shipments began in early January after a deal between Iranian and Russian military officials in Tehran and Moscow.
These missiles are capable of striking targets at distances ranging from 300 to 700 kilometers (186 to 435 miles). Both of these countries are sanctioned by the US, and this deal deepens military cooperation between them.
FINANCE
🤑 Nvidia releases earnings
Nvidia reported fourth fiscal quarter earnings this Tuesday that again surpassed Wall Street's expectations. Nvidia stock rose 15% following the earnings, gaining $250 billion of market cap in a day. Here are the stats:
Earnings per share: $5.16 adjusted versus $4.64 expected
Revenue: $22.10 billion versus $20.62 billion expected (265% Y/Y.)
Net income: $12.29 billion (769% Y/Y.)
Nvidia's massive growth has been fueled by big tech’s focus on large artificial intelligence models, (which are dependent on Nvidia’s high-performance chips), othwerwise known as the AI craze. Nvidia’s share price is already up 55% YTD, and is now the fourth-largest company on earth by market cap right behind Saudi Aramco.
💰 Dollarama settles for $2.5M
Montreal law firm LPC Avocats Inc. recently announced a nationwide settlement in a class-action lawsuit over Dollarama's pricing, pending court approval. Customers in Québec from Dec. 11, 2019, to July 4, 2023, or anywhere else in Canada from May 29, 2021, to July 4, 2023, could get a free gift card worth up to CA$15 with no proof of purchase required.
To claim, customers must provide their email here by April 5, 2024. You will be notified by e-mail when the claim form opens following the settlement approval hearing on April 9, 2024. (PS: the amount might decrease as more claims come in, to as low as $0.08.)
BUSINESS
🛍️ Walmart acquires Vizio
On Tuesday, Walmart announced its $2.3 billion buyout of electronics company Vizio, as a way of boosting its media and advertising business and to compete with Amazon. Vizio is Walmart's best-selling TV brand, and raked in $147 million from ads in 2020 through its Vizio Ads platform.
The all-cash deal, valued at $11.50 per share, received unanimous approval from Vizio's board of directors. This is step one for Walmart as it tries to differentiate itself from being ‘just a grocery company’ and diversify into advertising using TV (like Amazon).
🐸 Reddit partners with Google
Reddit just struck a deal with Google to grant them permission to use Reddit's content for the purpose of training their AI models. This agreement is estimated to be worth approximately $60 million annually, and serves as a means for Reddit to diversify its revenue before its anticipated IPO.
This collaboration represents Reddit's first major partnership with a leading player in the AI market, following its previous decision to monetize API access last year. It creates a trend among AI model developers, who are actively seeking out for sources of training data while struggling with copyright issues.
POLITICS
🇷🇺 Alexei Navalny has died
Russian opposition figure (and lawyer) Alexey Navalny, who gained global attention after being poisoned in 2020, has died at 47 while in Russian custody, according to the Russian prison service. Navalny was one of the few Russian politicians to run against Putin in an election.
Navalny's cause of death has not been stated, but investigations have begun. Western leaders, which includes US President Joe Biden, have blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the death.
🇨🇦 Québec asks Ottawa for $1B
Québec called on Ottawa this week to reimburse $1 billion spent on asylum seekers, as 55% of all asylum seekers reside in Québec. In just 2023, the province spent $576.9 million on social services alone.
Officials demanded the relocation of asylum seekers across Canada and tighter visa policies. They also urged Ottawa to address loopholes, but discussions haven't led to an agreement. Québec's housing and education systems are also not doing very well (even with federal aid).
Thank you for reading today’s issue of Weekly Brief! Consider buying me a coffee if you appreciate these posts, and I wish you great rest of your day.
— Jacob
📚 Book of the Week
Note: I don’t recommend books that I haven’t read or that I would never read. The books I recommend are books I have already read or that I will eventually read.
Elon Musk — Walter Isaacson
Book Description:
When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
His father’s impact on his psyche would linger. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive.
At the beginning of 2022—after a year marked by SpaceX launching thirty-one rockets into orbit, Tesla selling a million cars, and him becoming the richest man on earth—Musk spoke ruefully about his compulsion to stir up dramas. “I need to shift my mindset away from being in crisis mode, which it has been for about fourteen years now, or arguably most of my life,” he said.
It was a wistful comment, not a New Year’s resolution. Even as he said it, he was secretly buying up shares of Twitter, the world’s ultimate playground. Over the years, whenever he was in a dark place, his mind went back to being bullied on the playground. Now he had the chance to own the playground.
For two years, Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers, and adversaries. The result is the revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?
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