Good morning! In the latest episode of tech titans suing each other... Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its cofounders, alleging a "betrayal" of its founding agreement. Today we're exploring:
Chips off the table
Fintech darling Stripe has struck a deal for current and former employees to sell ~$1 billion in Stripe shares, possibly delaying the company’s long-awaited IPO.
The good news for those cashing out some of their hard-earned shares is that the deal was done at a reported $65 billion valuation, a 30% increase on its last fund raise, when the company raised over $6.5bn in one of the largest private stock sales in history. Despite this uptick, the valuation falls below its 2021 peak of $95bn and well below smaller private sales of Stripe stock that were done at prices that implied a valuation north of $100bn.
Founded by the Irish Collison brothers, Stripe has become an indispensable player in the “buying stuff on the internet” ecosystem, with the company reportedly processing a mind-boggling $1 trillion in payments last year, according to a recent interview given by CEO PatrickCollison. That means Stripe processed more than the GDP of the vast majority (175+) of countries on Earth.
Go faster Stripes
Stripe supercharged its growth by striking early partnerships with other tech startups, including Shopify and Instacart. In recent years, however, the company has also cracked a number of household brands, with Stripe now processing payments for companies such as Ford, Amazon, and IBM.
When e-commerce went hyperbolic in the pandemic, Stripe was catapulted into the limelight as one of the most valuable startups in the world, becoming something of a bellwether for the broader IPO pipeline ever since. Last year's tally of 171public listings marked the global market's lowest point since 2012. Now it looks like Stripe may wait until 2025 to go public... if it does at all.
Joint efforts
Proponents for the legalization of marijuana will celebrate the fact that the majority — some 54% — of Americans now live in a state where recreational use of the drug is now legal, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center.
Since Colorado and Washington first legalized marijuana back in 2012, a wave of laws have passed across the country decriminalizing its use, following a broader trend of public support for legalization. As of today, some 24 states have legalized, with another 14 that allow its consumption for medicinal purposes. Although California has the most cannabis dispensaries in aggregate, with more than 3,600 in total, it is actually Oklahoma that has the most per capita — with 36 dispensaries for every 100,000 OK residents.
Zooming out: Last week, lawmakers in Germanyapproved the legalization of small amounts of cannabis for personal use. If signed off by the country's Federal Council, it will make Germany by far the largest of the few European countries to legalize.
Noperah
Oprah Winfrey is leaving the board of WeightWatchers, ending a near 10-year directorship at the company. The media mogul revealed in December that she had added a weight-loss medication to her health regime, with the company commenting that her exit is meant partly "to eliminate any perceived conflict of interest around her taking weight loss medications".
The news of Oprah’s departure sent investors scrambling for the exit too, with shares in the already-beleaguered company falling more than 18% yesterday, as WW struggles to reinvent itself in the face of stiff competition from weight loss medications such as Wegovy and Ozempic. Last year the company spent $106m acquiring Sequence, a tele-health subscription service that can provide patients with access to the in-demand weight loss drugs.
Up and down
The yo-yo phenomenon in dieting — in which people who lose weight sharply sometimes gain it back just as quickly — also applies, poetically, to WeightWatchers’ business, just in reverse. Indeed, every year, the company gains thousands of new subscribers in Q1, only to slowly shed those customers over the coming months as people either give up on, or meet, their health goals.
Losing the company’s figurehead in its crucial first quarter might make 2024 a tough year.
• In China, live-streaming has taken e-commerce by storm, capturing a whopping 25% of all online shopping last year.
• Rolex just keeps ticking on, as the Swiss brand took a 30% share of the luxury watch market, with its sales passing the $11 billion mark for the first time.
• Thousands of people have turned out for Alexei Navalny's funeral in Moscow, at great personal risk.
• Texas is currently battling the largest wildfire ever in the state, as the Smokehouse Creek Fire has burned through nearly 1.1 million acres, spreading into Oklahoma in the last 24 hrs.
• Charting the booming and ever expanding “she”-conomy.
• Mapping the answer to: Are there more McDonald's restaurants or golf courses in the United States?
