Who run the world

MARKETS

• U.S. markets: Investors' brackets must have been on point, because stocks surged on the first day of March Madness. Apple regained its title as the most valuable public company in the U.S.

STARTUP

Let's Hear It for the Women Founders

This week, two women-founded, women-led companies (Glossier and Rent the Runway) joined the ranks of startups worth at least $1 billion.

You call them unicorns, we’ll call them breakthroughs:

• As of May 2018, there were 130 venture-backed unicorns in the U.S. Only 14 of them had a woman founder or cofounder, according to Pitchbook.
• Globally, it’s not much different: 23 of the world’s 239 billion-dollar VC-backed companies were founded by women.

First up,

The beauty brand (under founder and CEO Emily Weiss) has found a passionate following as a fever dream for millennials in search of the “no makeup” makeup look. Glossier says it did over $100 million in revenue last year.

Glossier’s most recent funding round, a $100 million Series D led by VC titan Sequoia Capital, gave it a $1.2 billion valuation—and it was valued at $390 million just a year earlier.

When asked about a possible IPO, Weiss told the WSJ, “We are certainly in a position where...we are able to do that.”

Then came Rent the Runway

The clothing rental company was founded a decade ago by now-CEO Jennifer Hyman and co-founder Jennifer Fleiss. After closing a $125 million round, its valuation hit the $1 billion mark this week.

RTR will use the cash to scale its subscription business—which it says grew 160% annually last year—and offer new rental categories.

• “Our goal is really to create the Amazon Prime of rental,” Hyman told the NYT.
• Shots fired, Netflix.

So who comes

Last month, unicorn hunter CB Insights cherry picked 50 companies likely to join the three-comma club in the near future.

On that list was Zola, a wedding startup cofounded and run by a woman—Shan-Lyn Ma. FYI, Zola has raised more than $140 million and was last valued at $600 million.

BIOTECH

Biogen Bet the Ranch...

But the harvest couldn’t make it out of the lab. The biotech giant announced yesterday that its experimental Alzheimer’s drug was unlikely to be effective, halting research and ending two late-stage studies for the treatment.

The news sank shares as much as 25% for their biggest intraday drop since '05, plus it knocked off about $18 billion from Biogen’s market value—the equivalent of losing an entire Expedia.

It stings for a couple reasons.

1. The failure of this Alzheimer’s drug, aducanumab, is another dose of bad news for the estimated 5.7 million Americans affected by the disease.
2. It was a “transformative failure for Biogen’s pipeline,” said RBC. Analysts had expected aducanumab to do about $3 billion in sales come 2023—and represent nearly one-fifth of Biogen’s top line for the year. Biogen itself has recently spent $743 million on aducanumab R&D, along with $93 million marketing the drug.

Zoom out: The company is one of several big biotechs that’ve staked their futures on the outcomes of only a handful of drugs. But it doesn’t always work out—Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer have all recently ended quests for Alzheimer’s treatments.

BREXIT

Checking in on Brexit

Sounds about right. A petition calling for U.K. leaders to revoke Article 50 and cancel Brexit crashed a government website yesterday morning...just when things were getting exciting with 1,500 signatures a minute. As of yesterday evening, more than 2 million people had signed the petition.

Despite the public outcry, Brexit is probably, maybe, presumably still happening—just later than we thought.

• The EU extended the deadline for the U.K. to leave the bloc from next Friday until May 22, provided that...
• ...U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May can get Parliament to back her plan. If not (and she's 0-2 already), April 12 is the new Brexit deadline.

Zoom out: Don't know how this will all play out? Neither does the Bank of England. It held interest rates steady at its meeting yesterday, admitting its economic outlook would “depend significantly” on what happens with Brexit.

APPAREL

Nike's Home Court Disadvantage

There was a lot riding on Nike’s fiscal third-quarter earnings yesterday. Heading into the report, the company had topped quarterly earnings estimates 93% of the time in the last 11 years. That’s done wonders for shares, which have more than tripled broader market gains since 2008.

Looks like not everyone chokes under pressure (that was *this close* to being an Auburn joke). Nike reported earnings that slightly topped analyst expectations, while revenue grew 7% to $9.61 billion and came in line with forecasts.

Where matters: North American sales grew 7%, which is...fine, until you hear sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa grew 12% and sales in China ballooned 24%.

• Of course, the North American market is easily Nike’s biggest. And this is “old terrain for Nike investors,” writes Bloomberg...perhaps why the stock dropped more than 4% after hours.

+ About the sprained knee heard ’round the world...it didn’t do any damage beyond a few ligaments. Nike stock took a brief hit following Zion Williamson’s injury, but shares remain higher close to 19% year-to-date.

QUIZ

You’re Gonna Quiz Me When I’m Gone

Tougher than Levi’s denim. Beating buzzers since 2018. Known widely as the “Netflix of news quizzes.” It’s the Brew’s weekly news quiz.

1. Google unveiled its new video game streaming service on Tuesday. What is it called?

2. Facebook came out with a concerning new report this week and used this map to show the problem. What is represented on this map?

3. What social media company said it lost 50 million tracks from 14 million artists?

4. Fill in the blank: A study found that 30% more __________ were performed during the first round of the 2016 NCAA tournament than during a typical week.

5. The Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the world’s most expensive cities. Which of the following was not included in the top 10?

1. London, U.K.
2. Zurich, Switzerland
3. Tel Aviv, Israel
4. Los Angeles

Answers: 1) Stadia 2) Availability of local news 3) MySpace 4) Vasectomies 5) London

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Facebook (+0.39%) stored hundreds of millions of users’ passwords as plain text on an internal database tens of thousands of employees could access. It said it will alert users who've been affected.
• Levi Strauss stock rocketed 31% in its first day on public markets. We’d say it’s beginner’s luck...but this isn’t the first time Levi’s has IPO’d.
• Pinterest is watching. It's reportedly speeding up its own IPO process and wants to hit the New York Stock Exchange by mid-April, the WSJ writes.
• Comcast (+1.47%) is launching a new $5/month streaming box aimed at its broadband-only cord cutter customers.
• The NFL reportedly paid Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid less than $10 million to settle their collusion accusations against the league, per the WSJ.

BREAKROOM

Friday Puzzle
This puzzle is in honor of Finland, which was just named the world’s happiest country. Onneksi olkoon!

Okay, now on to the question: Saippuakivikauppias is the Finnish word for a person who sells soapstone. What’s so special about this word?

Breakroom Answers