Vacuum Shoes

Quote of the Day

The timing, the size, the unusual nature compared to prior sales—that’s going to get this a lot of scrutiny.”

Market Snapshot

• As Germany discussed restructuring its government, European markets finished up.
• AI partnerships with Uber and Volkswagen sent Nvidia’s shares up 3.1%.
• Weight Watchers' stock climbed after Oprah 2020 speculation.
• Shares of Crocs jumped 8.4% after it revised Q4 guidance.

Jana Partners Is Asking Siri for Better Parental Control on iPhones

We’re not parents yet (at least not that we know of). But we are aware of some troubles facing parents these days: excessive social media and smartphone use by teenagers.

And we’re not the only ones hip to the trend—PE shop Jana Partners and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), which collectively own $2 billion in Apple (-0.37%) shares, have conducted extensive research on the matter.

Their findings? Addiction to smartphones and social media at a young age can lead to increased anxiety, depression, and poor social skills. Which is why they penned a letter to Apple’s board asking...no...insisting that Apple offer parents solutions.

The letter went something like this:

“Dear Apple,” in partnership with a pediatric expert at Harvard, a renowned psychologist at SDSU, and the founding director of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Center on Media and Child Health, here are some things we’d like you to know:

What else did the research find?

* Teens who spend 5+ hours a day on their phones are 51% more likely to suffer from sleep deprivation.
* Teens in 8th grade who use social media excessively are 27% more likely to be depressed.
* Teens who go “iPhone free” for five days at camp perform better on empathy tests.

This wasn’t just a cry for help from Jana and CalSTRS to Apple

And it wasn’t just because the daughter of Barry Rosenstein (Jana’s managing partner) didn’t break 100 likes on her latest insta.

No, they wrote this letter with an action plan in mind for Apple:

Develop a committee of experts in the field.
Create new tools and options for parents to limit daily activity.
Educate parents on findings.
Analyze and adapt to best practices each year.
Because as the letter states, it’s Apple’s responsibility to help solve the problem at the root rather than putting that responsibility on an individual “app designer, or more accurately [on] hundreds of app designers, none of whom have critical mass.”

Did GoPro Ride Itself All the Way to a Sale?

GoPro stock just posted its craziest POV action shot yet, plummeting 13%. The reason? CEO Nick Woodman announced the company was cutting 20% of its staff and nixing its drone business, before reports suggested GoPro was up for sale.

JPMorgan will likely get first licks at the listing, which would value the struggling company at around $1 billion. But if you rewind four years, you’d hear a much different story. One where Woodman went from surf bum and failed .com-era entrepreneur to action sport visionary.

After GPRO IPO’d at $24 per share in June 2014...

its stock quickly shot up to $87 in four months. The camcorders were camcording their way into the hearts of surfers, bikers, and skydivers everywhere, and at the company’s peak it hit $1.6 billion in revenue.

But the ride didn’t last forever—the business was less business and more product. And a failure to innovate coupled with oversaturation in the market led to weaker sales and a dwindling stock price.

Now we’ll see who might buy it up. Apple’s got $261 billion in cash sitting around...

Google Has a Few Disgruntled Employees

James Damore isn’t one to keep his mouth shut—he made that clear in an August memo criticizing Google’s (+0.35%) inclusive hiring practices. And now he’s suing the company for discriminating against conservative, white men.

Damore, fired from his engineering job in the summer, joined up with another ex-Google employee, David Gudeman, to file the class-action suit. Their argument: Google runs an echo-chamber of liberal thought, and those who hold any other opinions are shunned.

From the suit:

Damore, Gudeman, and other class members were ostracized, belittled, and punished for their heterodox political views, and for the added sin of their birth circumstances of being Caucasians and/or males. This is the essence of discrimination.

Damore isn’t the only one taking aim at Google. From the opposite side of the political spectrum, several former female employees filed a revised lawsuit alleging the company pays women less than their male colleagues.

Oh, to be a lawyer in Silicon Valley.

What2Watch4: The Consumer Electronics Show

Yesterday marked the beginning of the massive Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, showcasing gizmos that range from the conventional (TVs) to the...less conventional (vacuum shoes).

Some broad trends we’ll be looking out for:

Internet of Things

We’re beginning to get a sense of what a “smart home” might look like, with appliances activated by voice and wired to the internet for maximum convenience.

Case in point from the exhibition floor: Moen’s smart shower. Starting at $1,200, you can tell it to heat up to a specific temperature and calibrate the settings to your liking. Pranksters everywhere are rejoicing.

Cars

Expect all the major automakers—and plenty of startups—to showcase autonomous tech in their (increasingly electric) vehicles. Ford’s CEO Jim Hackett will deliver Tuesday’s keynote.

And when you’re tired of walking the floor and just want to lose some money at Caesar’s already, Lyft is offering rides around town in its new semi-autonomous taxis.

Fortunately, what happens at CES doesn’t stay at CES. Our Instagram will be bringing you the latest pics from the show throughout the week

What Else Is Happening…

• Here’s more coverage of CES.
• Celgene (-0.77%) is officially buying cancer drug startup Impact Biomedicines for $7 billion.
• Berkshire Hathaway (+0.88%) could net $37 billion from the GOP’s tax bill.
• It’s disappointment for Chinese smartphone maker Huawei, as a deal with AT&T (+0.29%) fell through at the last minute.

Economic Calendar

• Monday     Earnings: No Events

                    Economic Events: Consumer Credit (+)

• Tuesday    Earnings: No Events

                  Economic Events: Small Business Optimism Index

• Wednesday    Earnings: No Events

                        Economic Events: MBA Mortgage Applications, Wholesale

• Thursday   Earnings: No Events

                   Economic Events: Jobless Claims, PPI

• Friday       Earnings: BlackRock, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo

                 Economic Events: CPI, Retail Sales

Venture This: Water Straight From the Source

Have you thought about what’s in your water? Live Water has. It sells unfiltered, unprocessed H2O straight from an Oregon spring that’ll change the way you think about hydration.

Why we're chugging

The company has tapped into a growing market for “raw water,” an industry which looks disapprovingly at the chemicals tap and bottle water might be exposed to during the treatment process. Things like ozone gas, chlorine, and fluoride.

And this isn’t just a conspiracy. We all remember how lead found its way into drinking water in Flint, MI and other cities, resulting in a public health crisis.

But…

This is a niche market. Two-and-a-half gallons of Live Water will set you back $16 per jug. Sure, that’ll do just fine with tech elites in the Bay Area, but somehow we can’t see the average American paying that much to replace the simple task of turning on the sink.

Do you think “raw water” will gain traction as more people get spooked about the water supply? Or is Live Water an expensive solution to a nonexistent problem?

Time to choose: are you IN or OUT on Live Water

The Breakroom

Question of the Day

A man makes the following proposition to his friend:

"I will let you flip a coin 20 times. Each time the coin lands on heads, I will give you $2.00. However, each time the coin lands on tails, you must give me $3.00."

His friend flips the coin 20 times and the end result is that no money is to change hands.

How many times did the coin land on heads?

(Answer located at the bottom of newsletter)

Business Trivia

What is the No. 1 book currently on Amazon’s bestseller list?

(Answer located at the bottom of newsletter)

Discovery of the Day

Isaac Newton developed a theory of gravity. Marie Curie discovered radioactivity. And just last week, a FedEx worker in Tennessee found the greatest prime number known to humankind. We’d write it out but it’s more than 23 million digits.

Breakroom Answers

Question of the Day: 12 (Explannation)

Business Trivia: Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury