Thomas Cooked

MARKETS

• U.S. markets: All of the hype, none of the price action. Those bitcoin futures we told you about yesterday traded thinly on Day 1, and the price of bitcoin itself sank a little.
• UN meeting: At the Climate Action Summit, 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg gave a rousing speech. “How dare you?” she asked leaders. “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words...people are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing.”

TRAVEL

THOMAS COOKED

Thomas Cook, the world’s oldest travel company, has abruptly shut down, leaving as many as 500,000 stranded passengers around the world feverishly Googling “max number of days it’s ok to wear the same socks.”

FYI: The 178-year-old U.K.-based firm specialized in low-cost package vacations, bundling flights and accommodations in over 60 destinations around the world. All 21,000 of its employees' jobs are at risk.

How did T-Cook get here?

The money reason: In May, Thomas Cook issued its third profit warning in under a year. Its debts were approaching £2 billion ($2.5 billion), and recent emergency negotiations came up at least £200 million short.

• The U.K. refused to intervene, lest it create a “moral hazard.” PM Boris Johnson said one government bailout could suggest that’s an option for any risky company.
• And we know saving a travel firm, no matter how old, isn’t priority No. 1 for 10 Downing these Brexit days.

The meta reason: Ask any college junior who recently embarked on a semester abroad—EasyJet or bust. The rapid rise of a) low-cost European airlines and b) cheap, easy-to-book accommodations like Airbnb sucked the life out of the old-school Thomas Cook.

Looking ahead

Now that it’s “ceased trading with immediate effect,” Thomas Cook has set off what U.K. officials are calling the largest peacetime repatriation effort in the country's history, or at least since One Direction’s “Where We Are” tour finished its North American leg.

• The government has announced plans to bring back 150,000 travelers over the next two weeks. As of yesterday afternoon, they’d chartered 60 flights.
• Officials haven’t disclosed the cost of the operation, but the government forked over about $62 million to repatriate ~110,000 people when smaller tour operator Monarch Airlines folded in 2017.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Snap Isn’t One for Subtlety

That’s our takeaway from the WSJ’s scoop yesterday on the FTC’s antitrust investigation of Facebook (-1.64%). Snap’s reportedly been tracking Facebook’s more cutthroat moves in a dossier it calls “Project Voldemort.”

• Snap (+0.47%) isn't the only one talking to FTC investigators. The Journal’s sources say “a number of Facebook’s current and former competitors” are cooperating with the probe.

The investigation allegedly focuses on Facebook CEO Tom Riddle Mark Zuckerberg’s efforts to acquire or undermine potentially competitive startups...like Snap. A few examples:

• Facebook reportedly discouraged Instagram influencers from mentioning Snapchat on their accounts.
• Zuckerberg gave Snap CEO Evan Spiegel an “accept my acquisition offer or you’ll get hit with an Avada Kedavra” ultimatum. Spiegel refused, so Zuck went ahead and copied Snap's most popular features.

The Horcrux of it: We’d need a college directory to catalog all the governmental bodies currently scrutinizing Facebook over antitrust. But the FTC is the one with shiny, sharp enforcement fangs.

Looking ahead...if you've ever worked for a tech company that competed or worked with Facebook, watch out for calls from unfamiliar D.C. area codes. The FTC’s casting a wide net.

TECH

If You’re Appy and You Know It Launch a Subscription Service

Is your thumb sore after constantly closing out of in-app advertisements? Google wants to give it a hot stone massage.

Yesterday it revealed Google Play Pass, a subscription service that gives Android users access to more than 350 games and apps completely ad- and microtransaction-free. It costs $4.99/month and goes live in the U.S. this week.

How Play Pass works: If you sign up, you won’t see ads or be solicited to buy anything in available apps, about two-thirds of which are games. Some non-game apps include AccuWeather and Pic Stitch.

Zoom out: Last week, Apple launched Apple Arcade, a subscription gaming service that also costs $4.99/month. But don’t get them confused...

• Unlike Google’s, Apple’s games are exclusive to the service. Plus, Arcade is just that—games, not the other kinds of apps Google is offering.

Bottom line: The subscription model has disrupted razors, clothing, and red meat. Mobile apps could be next.

MEDIA

Netflix Is Just Honored to Be Nominated

Yesterday we learned that new streaming entrants are coming for Netflix like Phoebe Waller-Bridge is coming for Julia Louis-Dreyfus's Queen of Comedy crown.

Amazon's Fleabag and its star, Waller-Bridge, were big winners at Sunday night’s Emmys. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently admitted Amazon outbid him for the series, per the Hollywood Reporter.

But Hastings has other problems. Netflix stock sank to its lowest point of 2019 yesterday, erasing its entire 46% gain for the year.

Bottom line: The threat of more competition is driving Netflix shares down. Many investors still believe in the OG weekend-swallower, just not at its lofty valuation.

RESTAURANT

Venture This: Hold onto Your Kale Caesars

Welcome to Venture This, where we toss out a startup generating buzz...then ask: would you invest?

Sweetgreen, the salad chain specializing in hexagonal troughs of leafy greens, has closed a $150 million funding round that values it at $1.6 billion.

Sweetgreen has now raised over $500 million since its 2007 founding. But to invest in a fast casual chain, you need to know the difference between your shaved parm and your parm crisps...plus have a decent risk tolerance.

• Restaurants have tons of overhead and are the opposite of margin machines.

But Sweetgreen’s investors bought in “with the hopes that this will be a public company one day,” per the WSJ. No surprise, then, that this $150 million will further techy goals like…

• Delivery capabilities in its app, launching in 2020 to streamline the over 50% of Sweetgreen orders placed digitally.
• Outpost, Sweetgreen’s office delivery program. A year ago, there were 13 Outpost locations; Sweetgreen wants 600 by year-end.

Ok, Brewquoia Capital—would you invest in Sweetgreen? Tell us here.

PODCAST

Business Casual Episode 1: The Breakup

After Stuffed Cheez-It Pizza, the question of whether to break up Big Tech might be the most important business story of our generation. But do you know how chopping up a company like Facebook would actually work? Or why we would do it? Or who benefits?

There is no one better to walk us through this than NYU professor Scott Galloway. He’s no ordinary professor. For one, he lets us call him Scott. Second, he’s more quotable than Shakespeare.

Here are a few Galloway-isms from the first episode of Business Casual:

• "I don't think [social media CEOs] wake up and say we want to promote bad content. What they wake up and say is we want to sell more Chobani ads."
• "My only investment advice to all your listeners is always invest in unregulated monopolies. That's the only investment advice you ever need."
• "Thanks for having me."

You're welcome, Scott. And we are giving readers full permission to stop reading this newsletter now and listen to the episode.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Apple (+0.45%) said it would make new Mac Pro computers in Austin, TX, after being granted tariff exemptions last Friday. Tim Cook has been offered the keys to the city from Matthew McConaughey.
• Facebook is acquiring CTRL-Labs, a startup that wants to allow humans to control digital avatars with their minds. The size of the deal is reportedly between $500 million and $1 billion.
• Samsung will finally start selling its foldable Galaxy Fold phone in the U.S. this Friday after months of delays.
• Honda (-0.06%) has inked the biggest clean-power purchase ever by an automaker. It’ll buy 320 megawatts of electricity from wind and solar farms in Texas and Oklahoma.
• Nissan will pay $15 million and its former chairman Carlos Ghosn $1 million to U.S. regulators to settle allegations they hid over $140 million of Ghosn's benefits from investors.

BREAKROOM

For the 'Gram
Today is also National Punctuation Day, so we’re giving For the ’Gram a celeb shot on Tuesday. The WSJ editors have provided three slightly incorrect sentences. Can you figure out the grammar or style error in each?

1. The Satellite Industry Association estimates that about $127 billion in annual revenue from satellite services is vulnerable.
2. While the cancer is left untreated, patients follow a rigorous program of MRI’s, tests and biopsies.
3. Michelle Santacreu, a Girls Who Code alumnae, won a $20,000 college scholarship.

Breakroom Answers

For the 'Gram
1. Using “estimates” and “about” is redundant when talking about the same figure.
2 .MRIs shouldn’t have an apostrophe.
3. One woman is an alumna.