Instagram straight flexin'

MARKETS

• U.S. markets: Stocks rallied. Tech pushed the Nasdaq to an all-time high.
• International economy: Argentina received a $50 billion credit line from the International Monetary Fund to stabilize the peso and help turn around the economy. It's the IMF's largest loan to date.

HEALTHCARE

Berkshire, Amazon, and JPMorgan Announce CEO for Healthcare Initiative

In January, the real Avengers (Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, and Jamie Dimon) slapped on their skin-tight spandex and promised to take down the rising cost of healthcare in America.

What's the plan? Offer a better health insurance program for their U.S. employees, built from the ground up and "free from profit-making incentives."

The details of what that'll look like are still foggy, but one thing's clear: re-imagining healthcare (with its sky-high drug prices and misaligned incentives) is a task for no ordinary CEO.

Which is why the Avengers just announced their Super CEO: Dr. Atul Gawande
Dr. Gawande is everything we're not: A general and endocrine surgeon, professor at Harvard Medical School, staff writer for the New Yorker, author of four books (including the best-selling The Checklist Manifesto), and director at the World Health Organization.

Besides having little business experience, Dr. Gawande seems to fit the bill to lead this long-term initiative—he's often highlighted the unnecessary rise of healthcare costs in his work.

In one New Yorker piece, he wrote:

• "In just a single year, the researchers reported, twenty-five to forty-two per cent of Medicare patients received at least one of the twenty-six useless tests and treatments."
• A 2010 study showed "waste accounted for thirty per cent of health-care spending."

He even called out his own clinic for unnecessary spending.

Not the hero we want, the hero we need

Here's the deal with misaligned healthcare incentives: Now that more people have insurance under the ACA, there are more doctor visits. The docs can order more tests and treatments because they make more money and insurance will cover the costs. Insurance providers don't care, because they just raise the premium families pay.

And the cycle goes on...and on...

The average yearly premium for a single worker in 2000: $2,500.
The average in 2017: $6,700.
The only question that matters: Can Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan, and Dr. Gawande (a world-renowned thought leader in the healthcare space) finally break the cycle?

MEDIA

Another Day, Another Disney Deal for Fox

"Take all of our money," said Disney to Fox, as it roared back with a $71.3 billion offer for a chunk of Fox's media assets (like its film studio and European pay-TV operator Sky).

So...what did the Fox say? "We'll take it."

How is this different from the last deal the two companies reached?

• It's a ~36% increase—a result of a bidding war with Comcast (which offered $65 billion for those assets last week).
• While the first deal was all-stock, this one gives Fox shareholders the option of taking cash or stock.

But this isn't over until Brian Roberts sings

The Comcast CEO could come back with an even more attractive offer.

Why he will:

• FOMO. Comcast watched how AT&T scooped up Time Warner, and it's desperate to add some of its own hot media properties.

Why he won't:

• Debt. If it tried to top Disney, Comcast's bend-but-don't-break balance sheet might...break. A deal would make Comcast the second-most indebted company in the world (behind a combined AT&T-Time Warner).

SOCIAL MEDIA

Zuckerberg Is Instagram Straight Flexin’

The numbers are in...and? Instagram has officially passed 1 billion monthly active users (MAU).

So be hard on the Zuck all you want, but just remember he now owns:

• Facebook: 2.19 billion monthly active users
• WhatsApp: 1.5 billion
• Messenger: 1.3 billion
• And of course, Instagram

So it's no wonder Facebook shares jumped to a record-high $203 yesterday. As outspoken NYU professor Scott Galloway puts it: "Zuckerberg oversees the content and influence and mood of a community greater than Christianity, the southern hemisphere, plus India."

And Insta didn't stop at 1 billion. It also announced the rollout of IGTV—a YouTube competitor.

+ Is Zuckerberg bound to pass Buffett in wealth? He's getting close.

TALKING POINTS

Numbers That Make You Go..."Wow"

$139: The price of an entrée at the "World's Best Restaurant," Osteria Francescana (if you can't tell...it's in Italy). The rankings, which came out this week, have been criticized for snubbing female chefs.

30 grams: How much marijuana Canadians will be allowed to carry, now that the country voted to legalize pot. You can also grow four plants in your home.

10 million: As of Tuesday, the number of patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since it handed out the first one back in 1836. What was the 10 millionth? A "Coherent Ladar Using Intra-Pexel Quadrature Detection."

99.6%: Iceland TV viewers who watched their national soccer team play Argentina in the World Cup on Saturday.

ENTERTAINMENT

AMC Starts Playing by MoviePass's Rules

AMC, the largest movie theater chain in the U.S., announced a $19.95 a month subscription service through its loyalty program, AMC Stubs. Among other perks (like booking tickets ahead of time and concession stand discounts), AMC Stubs "A-List" members will be able to see up to three movies a week.

Well hello there, MoviePass. You popularized the subscription model and have plenty of beef with AMC. How are you taking the news?

The Crew's take: This could be the best rivalry in movies since Rocky Balboa vs. Apollo Creed.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Amazon Prime Wardrobe is open for business.
• Microsoft (+1.00%) acquired Bonsai (no, not the tree). It's a small AI startup with about 40 employees.
• Chinese investment in the U.S. is down 92% from last year.
• Facebook (+2.28%) will let some group admins start charging monthly subscriptions of up to $29.99.
• Tesla (+2.74%) sued a former employee it accuses of "transferring several gigabytes of Tesla data to outside entities."

BREAKROOM

WHAT WE'RE READING
Want to wake up to the best new products every day? So do we. That's why we use Product Hunt's awesome Facebook Messenger bot. You'll discover the next hot apps before everybody else.

KICKING AROUND KICKSTARTER

• Moon Pod—You haven't relaxed until you've lounged on this zero-gravity beanbag chair. Seriously, we've tried it out...it defies the rules of science.
• The Xeric Halograph II watch—Let's just say, this isn't your traditional watch. With a super unique display, there's a reason they call it a "guaranteed conversation starter."

BRAIN TEASER
Find what all the letters stand for to make the equation correct.

ABCD x 4=DCBA

(Answer located at bottom of newsletter)

Breakroom Answers