Business

Waffle Recall Turns Breakfast Upside Down

Your morning routine may need a reboot. Check your freezer!

Another recall, and this time it’s frozen waffles. Nearly 700 frozen waffle products were recalled on Friday over concerns of potential contamination with the bacteria Listeria monocytogenes. 

This includes brands of major retailers like Kroger, Target and Walmart.

The manufacturer, TreeHouse Foods, issued a voluntary recall and stated that the “issue was discovered through routine testing at the manufacturing facility.” 

The good news is, there have been no confirmed reports of illness related to this issue yet. So TreeHouse might have gotten the word out early enough. This is just the latest in a string of food recalls because of outbreaks in recent months.

Leggo my eggo? Right now it’s more like leg-NO my eggo (we’ll be here all week, tip your waitress, try the veal)...

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Tech

Tension in the Tech Trenches, OpenAI and Microsoft’s Quiet Rivalry

Two tech giants, one simmering standoff

As AI continues to grow, so too does the pressure and tension. Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI has reportedly become increasingly strained by the AI startup’s need for more funding and computing power. But that’s not all, other issues include Microsoft recruiting leaders from OpenAI’s rival Infection AI, as well as questions over the Redmond company’s equity stake in any future version of OpenAI as a for-profit company.

It seems, based off the reporting, that Microsoft is doing what it can to forge its own path in the AI world, regardless of its relationship with OpenAI over the long term.

OpenAI just opened a new satellite office in Bellevue, Washington, which is down the road from Microsoft’s headquarters. It’s a convenient location near OpenAI’s partner, but it also puts them nearby in case any of Microsoft’s current employees want to jump ship. In fact, Sebastien Bubeck, one of Microsoft’s key AI researchers, has just joined OpenAI.

Like they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. This might be some sort of frenemy type of relationship. However, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, continues to call this partnership “the best bromance in tech.” We’ll just see about that. Right now it seems like they’re both sleeping next to each other with one eye open.

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Politics

First Amendment Smackdown, Florida Court Champions Free Speech

Free speech gets a victory lap in the Sunshine State

A Florida judge granted a temporary restraining order Thursday which prohibits Govenever Ron DeSantis’ administration from threatening to prosecute TV stations that carry ads promoting the state’s abortion rights referendum on November’s ballot.

Florida’s Department of Health sent a cease-and-desist letter earlier this month to TV stations that aired an ad supporting the measure, sponsored by Floridians Protecting Freedom, the coalition that put abortion access on the ballot. 

A six-week ban already took effect in Florida earlier this year, however, if voters approve the amendment next month, it would guarantee abortion access until fetal viability (which is typically around 24-28 weeks of pregnancy). 

“Political advertisement is political speech - speech at the core of the First Amendment,” the judge wrote. “The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech ‘false,’” the judge wrote in their ruling.

“To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid,” the judge added. For all the people who always claim “it’s my first amendment right!” - well, this time, they’re actually right… stupid.

This order prevents the defendants from “taking any further actions to coerce, threaten, or intimate repercussions directly, or indirectly, to television stations, broadcasters, or other parties for airing, or undertaking enforcement action,” against them.

The temporary restraining order expires on October 29th, which is also the day of the scheduled preliminary injunction hearing.

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Finance

Netflix Climbs, Subscriber Surge Sends Stock Soaring

Streaming success boosts investor confidence

Maybe it’s the addition of the NFL, or WWE (see below), or the endless seasons of Love is Blind from seemingly every country on the planet… whatever the reason - Netflix has been stacking subscribers. 

Netflix stock finished last week 11% higher, pushing shares to a fresh record of more than $760. The streamer beat third quarter revenue estimates and are now on pace to exceed Wall Street’s expectations for this current quarter, as well. 

Netflix hit $9.83 billion in revenue in quarter 3, exceeding Bloomberg’s consensus estimate of $9.78 billion. Furthermore, Netflix is up 15% compared to this same time a year ago. 

A main reason, other than those mentioned above, might be the fact that Netflix cracked down on password sharing - forcing many people to get, and pay, for their own account, as opposed to borrowing the password of a friend, family member or ex-significant other (speaking from experience…). In fact, Netflix added more than five million subscribers last quarter, higher than the 4.5 million expectation. The company also expects to add an even higher number of subscribers in the final months of 2024, due to the holidays (which usually provides a bump… I mean, who doesn’t love cheesy Christmas movies), as well as the aforementioned NFL games on Christmas, the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight, and season two of “Squid Games.” Subscribers have been on a steady climb over the past decade, now inching towards 300 million in total.

Additionally, Netflix also installed an ad-supported tier, which has allowed them to make money from commercials, as well, creating another source of revenue. This tier accounted for more than half of the sign-ups last quarter. Also, increasing the price of certain subscription plans (like all streamers have) hasn’t hurt either.

Some might call it good business, some might call it greed. Either way, these moves have made more money for Netflix over the past 12 months. 

Right now Netflix is looking at $10.13 billion in revenue in quarter 4, which is even higher than Q3 ($9.83 billion), and higher than consensus estimates ($10.01 billion), as well. For the 2025 calendar year, Netflix now forecasts revenue hitting $43-44 billion - which could be slightly higher than the consensus estimate of $43.4 billion. This would represent growth of 11-13%, as Netflix appears to continue to climb.

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Global News

China’s GDP Stalls, A Superpower’s Sluggish Sprint

The economic engine slows, raising concerns for global markets

China’s GDP continues to drop, now reaching record lows, as concerns about the country’s economy grow. The government has been showing some urgency recently in attempting to bolster growth.

China has been attempting to build back up since early 2023, after lifting its strict zero covid policy. The GDP did grow 4.6% in quarter 3, which was slightly higher than expectations, but still lower than the previous quarter (4.7%) and quarter one of 2024 (5.3% growth).

Furthermore, property investments are down more than 10% so far in 2024, as construction has slowed in what has been described as a “housing market meltdown” by the New York Times.

To address these concerns, the central bank has cut interest rates and minimum down payments for mortgages and the finance ministry promised the sale of more bonds to raise money for local governments to pay municipal salaries and buy apartments for conversion into affordable housing. 

Policymakers are facing some complications though because of deflation and the falling prices across the economy. With prices lower for everything, it’s hard for many companies and families to earn enough to pay their mortgages and/or other debts. Prices are currently 0.5% lower than this time a year ago. Sounds like a good thing - but apparently it is a pretty big issue for China right now.

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Entertainment

WWE Smackdown, How Wrestling Landed on Netflix

From the ring to your screen—WWE's unexpected streaming deal

We discussed Netflix’s recent success earlier. So it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that the WWE would want to partner up with the company for (at least some of) their streaming needs. 

The WWE have already been partnered with Peacock, after taking the WWE Network there years ago. And now, will be sending their Raw brand to Netflix, starting in 2025. 

The two sides entered into a 10-year partnership earlier this year that will pay the WWE $5 billion, with a b, over the next decade. January 6th, 2025 will mark the first time WWE airs it’s signature TV product (Raw) live on a streaming platform. 

And funny enough, it was the WWE who went to Netflix to make the pitch… which was: “it’s up your alley,” according to the Sports Business Journal. WWE COO Mark Shapiro spoke about the deal last week at the Leaders Week London and admitted that it took a lot of convincing from his side to get the deal done. 

Shapiro thought it was a good fit, as (at the time) it was Netflix’s first foray into live “sports” (depending on your definition of professional wrestling), but with something that is scripted and a little more controllable than, say, an NFL game. It’s also a weekly event, which will ideally help bring people back to Netflix. 

The two sides are still working on the length of the show, which has been three hours for the past 12 years, but was just trimmed to two in the last few months. 

Netflix also just released a six-part documentary about Vince McMahon, who is no longer with WWE, causing McMahon to put out a statement before the debut of the documentary defending himself and complaining about editing tricks. Maybe burying the former boss was part of the partnership too…

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