Hi! Coachella kicks off today and, if you’re in the desert reading this, put down your phone and enjoy Bad Bunny. For the rest of you, today we’re exploring:
Dish’s washed
The share price of Dish Network Corporation, the second-biggest satellite TV provider in the US, hit its lowest level since 1999 this week, dropping some 9.4% as analysts continue to downgrade target prices for the stock.
This 24-year low point compounds a rough start to the year for Dish after a ransomware attack in February saw data stolen, employees locked out of internal systems, and Dish customers facing issues for weeks after.
Satellite struggles
Over the past 10 years, Americans have been cord-cutting like never before, ditching the traditional methods of consuming TV and moving increasingly online, a trend that’s hit satellite TV hard. The rapidly-waning number of functional satellites in the sky only adds to Dish’s issues — with neither Dish nor its largest competitor DirecTV looking to replace the deteriorating fleets, CEO Charlie Ergen has described a merger between the two as “inevitable” for years.
Over the past 4 years, Dish’s total Pay-TV subscriber count has fallen in every quarter but 3 and is down some 26% from the start of 2018. While it’s perhaps understandable that satelliteDish TV subscribers have fallen more than 30% in this period, it’s more concerning for the company that its streaming service, Sling TV, has never really taken off in that time frame either, with ~8k fewer subscribers at the end of 2022 compared to the final quarter of 2018.
U k?
The UK's economic outlook isn't looking too bright, according to the IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook report, which predicts it will be the worst-performing economy among the G7 nations this year, shrinking by 0.3%. While the IMF forecasts a 1% increase in 2024, this still only puts the UK's output 0.7% higher than it was in 2022.
That’s a stark contrast to Britain’s previous performance as the fastest-growing economy in the G7, with growth rates of 7.4% and 4% in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The UK now finds itself as one of only two nations in the G7 predicted to shrink this year, the other is Germany with a -0.1% forecasted growth rate.
Bad news all round
It’s not just Britain and Germany suffering, however. The IMF diagnosed the Eurozone as an area where the “slowdown is concentrated” and gave the US its gloomiest five-year economic forecast since 1990. Indeed, no country in the G7 is predicted to even hit 2% growth in the next couple of years — a target many developed nations aim for.
The global economic forecast continues on a similarly pessimistic note too. The IMF predicts a growth rate of 2.8% this year and 3% in 2024, with the median-term forecast being the weakest the organization has made in over 30 years.
Naming rights
Harvard’s renaming its Graduate School of Arts and Sciences after Citadel's CEO, Ken Griffin, following his recent $300 million donation. Griffin’s been spreading his wealth through the hallowed halls for years now, with his donations now totaling over half a billion, including a $150 million payment back in 2014.
Huge gifts like Griffin’s are just one of the ways Harvard makes its money. Indeed, its gargantuan endowment fund is almost as storied as its academic credentials at this point, weighing in at a whopping $51 billion as of June 2022.
The crimson economy
Harvard’s mega-money pot is overseen by its own investment company, the Harvard Management Company, which takes care of the ~14,000 funds that make up the endowment, seeking to generate returns well in excess of its annual contributions to the school’s operating expenses.
Indeed, in 2021 the endowment managers returned 34% on their investments and helped add over $11bn to the fund. 2022 wasn’t as strong and, like many other investment portfolios, the Harvard fund ended the year down, with around ~$2bn wiped from the total.
It’s important to remember that at least some of that loss will have gone towards the soft 5% target that the college aims to draw from the fund each year to cover collegiate operating costs. That’s a major revenue stream for Harvard — in 2022 the endowment's drawdown was roughly double what the college generated from current students.
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Off the charts: Which beloved Christmas hit just got added to the National Recording Registry alongside the Mario theme tune and Imagine? [Answer below].
Answer here.
