Latest / What the Flux / Nine's share buyback doesn't go to plan | Airbnb shares drop 13% | Warner Brothers' pay-TV battle
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: This is the Blacks.
- 0:06Speaker 2: I'm Brettan, I'm justin and it's Friday, the ninth of August.
- 0:09Speaker 2: Juzzy Boy.
- 0:10Speaker 1: Online betting agencies are shaking in their betting booties. The
- 0:13Speaker 1: government is exploring new crackdowns on gambling ads on TV, before, during,
- 0:18Speaker 1: and after live sport, and experts reckon. If these changes
- 0:22Speaker 1: go through, it could cost the gambling industry six point
- 0:25Speaker 1: four billion dollars.
- 0:26Speaker 2: Not a small amount of money, by man, I'm speaking
- 0:29Speaker 2: of money. If you want fifty bucks in your front
- 0:31Speaker 2: pocket this weekend, there is only one way to do it.
- 0:34Speaker 2: It's through our weekly quiz at quick Stix that we
- 0:36Speaker 2: three questions. That we three business or money questions, and
- 0:39Speaker 2: if you're the first to answer correctly, you'll win the
- 0:41Speaker 2: fifty bucks. So all you've got to do is download
- 0:43Speaker 2: the Flux app and turn your notifications on.
- 0:45Speaker 1: Three revolutionary stories today. Juzzy boy, let's do it for
- 0:48Speaker 1: our first. Nine Entertainment is expected to wrap up its
- 0:52Speaker 1: two year share buyback after a whack in profits and
- 0:56Speaker 1: business performance.
- 0:57Speaker 2: Not ideal to be buying back shares when your revenue
- 0:59Speaker 2: is on the way down, So tell me all, okay.
- 1:01Speaker 1: Nine Entertainment is the Aussie media company with the whole
- 1:04Speaker 1: range of media.
- 1:06Speaker 2: We're talking TV like Channel nine, radio like three W.
- 1:09Speaker 1: And two GB, and then there's also publications like The
- 1:12Speaker 1: Australian Financial Review, The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald.
- 1:15Speaker 2: Now an two years ago, Nine Entertainment announced it would
- 1:17Speaker 2: start a share buyback plan where it would buy back
- 1:20Speaker 2: up to ten percent of its stock.
- 1:22Speaker 1: Now at the time this was considered quite a signal
- 1:25Speaker 1: of strength.
- 1:26Speaker 2: But now, after two hundred and twenty million bucks in
- 1:28Speaker 2: share buybacks, nine has announced that it will finish buying
- 1:31Speaker 2: back its own shares.
- 1:32Speaker 1: Okay, interesting, juzzy boy, Yeah, why is this all happening
- 1:35Speaker 1: right now?
- 1:35Speaker 2: Well, be man Nine's been struggling with a weaker ad market,
- 1:38Speaker 2: it's lost the media bargaining deal with Meta, and it's
- 1:41Speaker 2: laying off over two hundred of their staff.
- 1:43Speaker 1: So the buyback may not be the best use of
- 1:45Speaker 1: its cash right now.
- 1:47Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?
- 1:48Speaker 1: Share buybacks can be a double edged sword for companies.
- 1:51Speaker 1: On the one hand, they sent a very strong signal
- 1:54Speaker 1: to the market. We are so confident in our business
- 1:57Speaker 1: that we see in no better way to spend our
- 1:59Speaker 1: money than to buy more of our very own shares.
- 2:01Speaker 2: And share buy backs typically also result in a higher
- 2:04Speaker 2: share price for the company.
- 2:05Speaker 1: Yep. That's because when the company buys back shares, it
- 2:08Speaker 1: lowers the number of shares available on the market, and
- 2:10Speaker 1: as a result.
- 2:11Speaker 2: It boosts the company's earnings per share.
- 2:13Speaker 1: But on the other hand, Juzzy boy, share buybacks can
- 2:15Speaker 1: be a big disaster in some cases.
- 2:18Speaker 2: For some investors, they see a share buy back as
- 2:20Speaker 2: a signal that a company's run out of other investment opportunities.
- 2:23Speaker 1: But even bigger disaster is when you buy back your
- 2:26Speaker 1: shares and the share price falls. And in Nine's case,
- 2:29Speaker 1: its share price has dropped thirty seven percent over the
- 2:31Speaker 1: last year.
- 2:32Speaker 2: So rather than continuing to invest in a falling company,
- 2:35Speaker 2: Nine decided to put a pause on the.
- 2:37Speaker 1: Buy back because maybe there are now better internal investments
- 2:40Speaker 1: to be made to get Nine back on track. For
- 2:43Speaker 1: our second story, Airbnb has had its largest share price
- 2:46Speaker 1: drop since going public in twenty twenty. That post pandemic
- 2:50Speaker 1: holiday revenge really starting to slow down. Juzzy boy, what's
- 2:53Speaker 1: going on here?
- 2:53Speaker 2: When airbb launched back in two thousand and eight, was
- 2:55Speaker 2: considered a bit of a zany idea to let someone
- 2:57Speaker 2: sleep in your spare room or your house while you're away.
- 3:00Speaker 1: But it's crazy how fifteen odd years later everything can change.
- 3:03Speaker 2: Yep, Because now Airbnb has over one hundred and fifty
- 3:05Speaker 2: million worldwide users.
- 3:07Speaker 1: Who have booked more than one point five billion stays.
- 3:10Speaker 1: If you don't mind, but.
- 3:11Speaker 2: Be man, it seems like those stays are slowing down
- 3:13Speaker 2: real fast for Airbnb. Yep.
- 3:15Speaker 1: While Airbnb announced that its bookings increased eight point seven
- 3:18Speaker 1: percent in the second quarter, it was well below Airbnb's
- 3:22Speaker 1: growth forecasts.
- 3:23Speaker 2: Particularly during this summer period in the US and Europe.
- 3:25Speaker 1: So Airbnb share price dropped more than thirteen percent, which,
- 3:28Speaker 1: as it happens jusey Boy, is the largest drop since
- 3:31Speaker 1: enlisted in twenty twenty.
- 3:32Speaker 2: Avebman. Some companies have an off quarter, but Airbnb has
- 3:35Speaker 2: had three off quarters in a row and now be man.
- 3:38Speaker 2: Rather than underperforming again, Airbnb's warned investors of sequential moderation
- 3:43Speaker 2: for the next quarter.
- 3:44Speaker 1: In other words, just calm your farm and keep your
- 3:47Speaker 1: expectations in check Wall Street, but be man.
- 3:50Speaker 2: The biggest red flag airbb's marketing spend will outpace its
- 3:53Speaker 2: revenue in the next quarter.
- 3:54Speaker 1: Not what you want to hear in a slowing market.
- 3:57Speaker 1: So what is the key learning here? Marketing spend just
- 4:00Speaker 1: be another cost. It needs to be an investment with
- 4:03Speaker 1: a strong return, you see, b Man.
- 4:04Speaker 2: Airbnb's always promoted the fact that the majority of its
- 4:06Speaker 2: traffic is direct. We're talking ninety percent of their traffic
- 4:10Speaker 2: comes from unpaid channels.
- 4:11Speaker 1: And the reason, well, Airbnb CEO claims it's because of
- 4:14Speaker 1: its brand strength.
- 4:15Speaker 2: In fact, Airbnb spend just over eighteen percent of its
- 4:18Speaker 2: revenue on marketing in twenty twenty three.
- 4:20Speaker 1: But boy, in the upcoming quarter, Airbnb now expects its
- 4:23Speaker 1: marketing expenses to grow faster than revenue.
- 4:25Speaker 2: And increasing marketing spend at a time when demand is
- 4:28Speaker 2: softening could be a major red flag for investors. For
- 4:31Speaker 2: our third and final story, Warner Brothers Discovery has written
- 4:35Speaker 2: down the value of all its TV assets over nine
- 4:37Speaker 2: billion US dollars and that led them to a ten
- 4:40Speaker 2: billion US dollar loss for the.
- 4:41Speaker 1: Quarter Yaikaruni's Juzzy Boy. After losing the NBA broadcast deal
- 4:45Speaker 1: this year, this just can't be good for Warner Bros.
- 4:48Speaker 1: So what is the story right here?
- 4:49Speaker 2: Okay? Warner Brothers is the entertainment giant that was founded
- 4:52Speaker 2: back in nineteen twenty three.
- 4:54Speaker 1: It's the name behind iconic movies like the Harry Potter series,
- 4:57Speaker 1: Dark Knight, The Matrix, and b Man.
- 4:59Speaker 2: In twenty two twenty two, Warner Brothers merge with Discovery Channel,
- 5:02Speaker 2: added subsidiary channels in a forty three billion US dollar
- 5:06Speaker 2: whopper deal, and now Warner Brothers Discovery has written down
- 5:09Speaker 2: its PayTV business by a woppin' nine point one billion
- 5:12Speaker 2: US dollery dues. Yep, surprise, surprise. They say that they
- 5:15Speaker 2: cable channels just aren't worth what they used to be
- 5:18Speaker 2: in this uncertain PATV.
- 5:20Speaker 1: Market, And as it happens, juzzy boy, this news sent
- 5:22Speaker 1: Warner brother Discovery share price down eleven percent, wow.
- 5:25Speaker 2: To its lowest share price since these two companies merged.
- 5:28Speaker 1: Sounds like this merger hasn't quite panned out the way
- 5:31Speaker 1: these two media companies had hoped.
- 5:33Speaker 2: So what is the key learning here?
- 5:34Speaker 1: Even the most well planned mergers have a chance of
- 5:37Speaker 1: not reaching their potential see man.
- 5:39Speaker 2: Since Warner Brothers merge with Discovery Channel, the audience size
- 5:42Speaker 2: of PATV channels has only gotten smaller.
- 5:44Speaker 1: They're on top of that a mountain of debt softening
- 5:46Speaker 1: AD market layoffs at the company last month, and.
- 5:48Speaker 2: It's pretty clear that Warner Broy's merger with Discovery Channel
- 5:51Speaker 2: isn't quite panning out as they'd hope.
- 5:53Speaker 1: And Jesseyboy, this isn't as uncommon as you might think.
- 5:56Speaker 2: In fact, according to the Harvard Business Review, some mergers
- 5:58Speaker 2: actually have a seventy two percent chance of failure.
- 6:01Speaker 1: But you can dramatically increase the odds of success if.
- 6:03Speaker 2: You understand the select targets, understand how much to pay
- 6:07Speaker 2: them and how much to integrate them as well.
- 6:09Speaker 1: So it's not too surprising that Warner Brothers Discovery has
- 6:11Speaker 1: been considering a breakup and splitting its streaming and its
- 6:14Speaker 1: studio business from its old TV networks black Lam.
- 6:18Speaker 2: If you want to test your business knowledge as well
- 6:20Speaker 2: as earn a tasty little bit of cash for the weekend,
- 6:22Speaker 2: there is only one place to be. It is in
- 6:24Speaker 2: the Flux app playing quick Sticks Today. You receive a
- 6:26Speaker 2: notification at a random time of the day, and the
- 6:28Speaker 2: first person to answer correctly win's the fifty bucks.
- 6:30Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Monday.