Short Squeez
Posts
🍋 MoviePass Back From Dead

🍋 MoviePass Back From Dead

Short Squeez
August 23, 2022

Together With

"That's my lesson for taking a vacation: Vacation will kill you." — Elon Musk (on the time he almost died from malaria while on holiday)

Good Morning! If you're a banker at Credit Suisse, we really hope it's a good morning for you, as the Wall Street staple is preparing for deep job cuts as a result of its latest emergency restructuring. Also being cut are home prices in towns that saw a boom during the pandemic. Redfin saw that 70% of sellers in Boise, Idaho, cut their asking prices in July. AMC shares fell too, over 40%, as rival, Regal Cinemas, signals a potential bankruptcy. It didn't help that AMC preferred APE shares started trading at the same time.

With the public markets in flux, diversifying your portfolio with an asset class that provides the opportunity for outsized returns makes sense. Download the Sweater app to add venture capital to your portfolio.

1. Story of the Day: MoviePass Back From Dead

We've talked about how it's been a slow summer for Hollywood, but it still doesn't compare to the flop that MoviePass was. Just like any bad movie though, the franchise is being revived, and MoviePass is set to premiere its new beta service around Labor Day.

Just like when you relaunch any movie series, there's going to be a new set of challenges this time around. I mean, bringing back the iconic Space Jam, was a bold move considering how great the original was.

I guess for MoviePass, it can't get much worse. They're going to have to compete with the various streaming options that are out there, despite a rebound in theater going. On top of that, AMC, Regal, and Cinemark launched their own subscription services.

If you're interested in checking it out, you can join a waitlist on the website to get "priority access to the service." If you're real old school and want to go the movies with your friends, you'll get 10 friend invites for joining the waitlist as well. After analyzing the rollout of the waitlist, MoviePass will determine the best path to launch the full service.

Co-founder Stacy Spikes says that MoviePass can trailblaze the return to theaters. Spikes believes MoviePass can account for 30% of US ticket sales by 2030, compared to its prior peak in 2018 when it was responsible for 4% of the market.

Short Squeez Takeaway: Call me old fashioned, and a fan of a good underdog story, but I hope this works out. I like going to the movies, getting a cherry coke and a popcorn, and experiencing the movie like the director intended. With general prices expected to be at $10, $20, or $30 for the different tiers, it sounds like even the highest level (getting you access to the most movie credits) is essentially the price of one movie night out.

2. Markets Rundown

New worries about potentially hawkish comments incoming from the Fed this week caused all markets to decline.

Movers & Shakers

(+) Signify Health ($SGFY) +32% after it was revealed Amazon is one of the companies bidding on it.
(–) AMC ($AMC) -42% as the new APE units traded, and news came out that Cineworld may go bankrupt.
(–) Bed Bath & Beyond ($BBBY) -16% as Ryan Cohen exited his position, and the broader meme stock group struggles.

Private Dealmaking

Apollo leads physician-led buyout of GI Alliance at $2.2 billion valuation
Thoma Bravo buys Australian mapping tech firm Nearmap for $729 million
Virgin Voyages, an upscale cruiseline joint venture between Bain Capital and Voyage Group , raises $550 million
Vodafone, a multinational telecommunications company, sells Hungarian business for $1.8 billion
Tamara, a buy-now-pay-later startup, raises $100 million

3. Top Reads

Apple expands its self-repair service (YF)
Elon Musk subpoenas Jack Dorsey (Axios)
Amazon eyes its next big health acquisition (Axios)
Peak freight season is underway with no end in sight for congestion (CNBC)
Private equity’s other close tax shave (Axios)
JP Morgan strategists see last big Fed hike in September (YF)
Apple will let you repair certain MacBooks yourself (CNBC)
Big banks expected to rack up over $1 billion in fines for WhatsApp use (Reuters)
Ford eliminates 3,000 jobs in effort to cut costs (CNBC)
72% of economists see recession by middle of next year (CNN)
Hot month for M&A with $63 billion of North American deals so far (BB)

A Message from Sweater

Looking for ways to diversify your portfolio with the current market conditions? Sweater allows anyone to start investing in venture capital with just $500.

Sweater gives you:

A world-class investment team at your fingertips
An ever-growing portfolio of high-growth private companies
Flexibility with automatic recurring investments
Educational content so you can learn while you invest
A tight-knit community of investors and founders

With the public markets in flux, diversifying your portfolio with an asset class that provides the opportunity for outsized returns just makes sense.

Download the Sweater app to add venture capital to your portfolio, today.

4. Book of the Day: Money Mammoth

When it comes to our relationship with money, we are in the Stone Age.

Despite the relentless barrage of information and warnings from financial experts, the average American is in terrible financial shape.

It turns out that human beings are just not wired to do the right things around money—such as saving and not overspending.

That’s why financial success is so difficult to attain. When it comes to our financial instincts, we are no more evolved than our ancestors who hunted the Woolly Mammoth 400,000 years ago.

Recent findings from the field of financial psychology could help the many Americans who know what they need to do but just can’t seem to make it happen.

If you fall into this category, consider Money Mammoth: Evolve Your Money Mindset and Avoid Financial Extinction.

This book looks at financial well-being from a psychological and evolutionary perspective. It reveals the obstacles that prevent people from taking their first critical steps towards financial wellness.

It examines how our instincts and beliefs about money influence our financial behaviors. It explores money beliefs, how they develop, and how they drive our money behaviors

As the world’s leading experts in financial psychology, authors Dr. Brad Klontz, Dr. Ed Horwitz, and Dr. Ted Klontz can help you:

Discover how the experiences of your ancestors are impacting your finances

Understand how your friends, family members, and tribe may be holding you back

Overcome mental roadblocks to wealth and success

Harness the power of your emotional brain to transform your relationship with money

Build confidence in your ability to take control of your financial future

In Money Mammoth, the authors reveal the secrets to harnessing the power of your psychology to reach your financial goals.

“The average person age 60 or older who does have savings, has about $150,000. Certainly not enough to stop working.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

17 mistakes tourists make when visiting NYC
Why private equity wants to wash your car
5 foods with natural melatonin that improve sleep
What’s the best happy hour protocol for workers?

A Message from JAMF

Apple device management can be time-consuming work for your business, especially if IT is not your day job.

Jamf Now is a mobile device management solution ideal for small businesses looking to manage and protect Apple devices.

With Jamf Now, you can quickly deploy Wi-Fi passwords, secure company data and enforce passcodes.

6. Daily Visual: Richest People in The World

Billion USD; February 2022

Source: Statista

7. Daily Acumen: Get to the Point

"Perhaps the most critical communication skill. Be brief. Use as few words as possible to say what you need, and everyone will appreciate it.

Mark Twain said kids provide the most interesting information, “for they tell all they know and then they stop.” Adults lose this skill and falsely associate the number of words with the amount of insight.

After writing every sentence, it helps to ask “Would the reader still get my point if I deleted that line?” Not “Does that sentence make sense?” Millions of unnecessary sentences make sense. Treating words like they cost you something is the right mindset.

A writer once recommended imagining someone pays you $100 for every word you remove from your draft. Another quipped: “Leave out the parts readers tend to skip.”

Poor communicators ramble. Good communicators leave out unnecessary details. Great communicators treat words as the scarcest commodity."