🍋 Plane WiFi Problem Solved?

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Short Squeez
April 19, 2022

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"I always say you could publish trading rules in the newspaper and no one would follow them." — Richard Dennis

Good morning! Hope y'all procrastinators got your taxes done in time! Elon is taking no prisoners and is going after Twitter & its board: “Board salary will be $0 if my bid succeeds, so that’s ~$3M/year saved right there." He also posted a cryptic tweet that said “Love Me Tender,” suggesting he was either listening to Elvis or considering a potential tender offer to Twitter shareholders to take control of the company. LBO guru, Apollo is also looking to get in on the Twitter action and has had talks to provide Musk or another bidder financing to get a deal done. In some non-Elon Musk news, Taco Bell is bringing the fire Mexican Pizza back. If you've never had one of these bad boys, you've truly been missing out. Maybe drink more? Or, come on down off that high horse cowboy.

Speaking of drinking more, say goodbye to hangovers. Today's sponsor, LMNT pls fixes your hangover so you can party all night and not bust your models in the morning. LMNT is giving an 8 serving pack for free to ShortSqueez readers.

1. Story of the Day: Plane WiFi Problem Solved?

If you've ever tried to connect to plane WiFi to get work done, communicate with someone, or maybe just stream something, I'm sure you've run into plenty of issues. Plane WiFi works about as much as the McDonald's ice cream machines...

Well, worry no more because Delta is working on fixing that issue! Who are they working with? Well, Elon Musk of course. I mean, in this day and age, who else would it be? Musk's Starlink satellite-internet business is testing their service with Delta, and we're all hoping it works out.

Delta Chief Exec Ed Bastian said that they're in talks with Starlink, but declined to provide specifics. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. Fair enough, considering they're probably worried about the fact that their fearless leader is busy trying to buy a whole different company atm.

Starlink has been around for a few years, sending satellites into orbit and selling broadband services. Last year, Musk tweeted that they were focused on getting certified for Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s. It's a worthy and ambitious goal. There's growing demand for the service, with the number of connected aircraft projected to double to 20,000 by the end of the decade.

Competitors in the space like Intelsat and Viasat already work with thousands of planes. The key issue for getting quality broadband on board is making sure it doesn't add too much weight. It also wouldn't be cheap, but Delta's Bastian believes the service should be free.

Short Squeez Takeaway: In a world that's more connected by the second, it will be key for airlines to adopt something like this, if they want to keep customers happy, and more importantly, loyal. It could be bad news for us though, as comments will have to be turned around mid-flight when you're on your way back from your trip to Tulum. Talk about Sunday Scaries.

Source: WSJ

2. Markets Rundown

A relatively quiet start to the week after the Holiday, as equities remained relatively flat for the day.

Movers & Shakers

  • (+) Casa Systems ($CASA) +83% after the company announced that they've been awarded a multi-year purchase contract from Verizon.

  • (+) Enservco ($ENSV) +38% on a 71% increase in Q earnings compared to the year before, based on increased customer activity and higher commodity prices.

  • (–) Nektar Therapeutics ($NKTR) -23% because of more failed trials of their cancer drug, bempeg.

3. Top Reads

  • Elizabeth Warren wants the dirty deets from TurboTax (BB)

  • Tax prep ate into refunds for low-wage workers (Axios)

  • Banks' credit-card success soothes worry over consumer (BB)

  • At least 36 bald eagles have died in a bird-flu outbreak (WSJ)

  • Goldman's youngest black partner will leave to start his own fund (BB)

  • Judge rules Amazon must reinstate a fired worker (NYT)

  • Andrew Yang says stimulus checks not to blame for inflation (CNBC)

  • Ark sees Tesla shares more than quadrupling (BB)

  • Spotify rival Deezer gets $1.1 billion valuation in SPAC deal (WSJ)

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4. Book of the Day: A Brief History of Equality

It’s easy to be pessimistic about inequality. We know it has increased dramatically in many parts of the world over the past two generations. No one has done more to reveal the problem than Thomas Piketty. Now, in this surprising and powerful new work, Piketty reminds us that the grand sweep of history gives us reasons to be optimistic. Over the centuries, he shows, we have been moving toward greater equality.

Piketty guides us with elegance and concision through the great movements that have made the modern world for better and worse: the growth of capitalism, revolutions, imperialism, slavery, wars, and the building of the welfare state. It’s a history of violence and social struggle, punctuated by regression and disaster.

But through it all, Piketty shows, human societies have moved fitfully toward a more just distribution of income and assets, a reduction of racial and gender inequalities, and greater access to health care, education, and the rights of citizenship. Our rough march forward is political and ideological, an endless fight against injustice.

To keep moving, Piketty argues, we need to learn and commit to what works, to institutional, legal, social, fiscal, and educational systems that can make equality a lasting reality. At the same time, we need to resist historical amnesia and the temptations of cultural separatism and intellectual compartmentalization. At stake is the quality of life for billions of people. We know we can do better, Piketty concludes. The past shows us how. The future is up to us.

“As algorithms push humans out of the job market, wealth and power might become concentrated in the hands of the tiny elite that owns the all-powerful algorithms, creating unprecedented social and political inequality. Alternatively, the algorithms might themselves become the owners.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

6. Daily Visual: US Government Going Electric?

US gov vehicles by type as of fiscal year 2020

Source: Axios

7. Daily Acumen: Investment Memo From Howard Marks

“Today, unlike in the 1950s and ’60s, everything seems to change every day. It’s particularly hard to think of a company or industry that won’t either be a disrupter or be disrupted (or both) in the years ahead. Anyone who believes all the firms on today’s list of leading growth companies will still be there in five or ten years has a good chance of being proved wrong.

For investors, this means there’s a new world order. Words like “stable,” “defensive” and “moat” will be less relevant in the future. Much of investing will require more technological expertise than it did in the past. And investments made on the assumptions that tomorrow will look like yesterday must be subject to vastly increased scrutiny.”

8. Crypto Corner

  • "Necessity for regulation" before crypto's new era

  • North Korean hacker group blacklisted from Ethereum mixer

  • Twitter scam capitalizes on Moonbirds success, and goes after Bernie Sanders' son

  • Crypto-focused PAC has used $9 million to support Democratic candidates

  • Meta plans to keep 47.5% of Metaverse sales

  • Rhode Island lawmakers' housing bill introduces "green coin"

9. Memes of the Day

 

 

 

A Message from Insiders

Short Squeez Insiders was launched last week and offers:

  1. Exclusive interviews with top talent at investment banking, private equity, hedge funds and big tech firms

  2. Resources to help you level up your career in finance (or break into IB, PE, VC etc.)

  3. A tight-knit community of finance professionals

In our 1st edition, we interviewed a Goldman Sachs VP and evaluated their #1 investment pick: Ethereum (sneak peak below). 

"What is the Bull Case for ETH?

1) Transition to ETH2 2) Regulatory Moat from being more Energy-Efficient3) Growing Use Cases: Decentralized Finance & NFTs4) More Catalysts than Any Other Cryptocurrency5) The Triple-Point Asset"

In today's edition, we interview a Finance Manager at Amazon and analyze their #1 tech stock pick.

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