The Best One Yet - 🦇 “Batgirl For Never” — DC Comics’ cancellation. Colleges’ merging. Amazon’s iRobot deal.

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

Batgirl has already cost $90M to film and produce, but it was still canceled last week because Warner Bros hasn’t figured out “The Franchise Formula.” Forget ‘Bama Rush videos (#RollTideTok) ��� The newest trend on college campuses… is mergers and acquisitions. And iRobot is getting acquired by Amazon for $1.7B because there’s no data more powerful than a map… that your vacuum learned by vacuuming.$IRBT $AMZN $WBDFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on YoutubeWant a Shoutout on the pod? Fill out this formGot the Best Fact Yet? We got a form for that tooLearn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, August 8th, and today's pot is the best one yet. TVOI, Nick. Welcome back. The number one topic at brunch this weekend. What was it, Jack?

Jobs. Jobs, baby. On Friday, we got another sign that really confuses the whole recession narrative. Yeah, apparently the economy added a whole lot of jobs in July, 528,000 jobs. We haven't seen that kind of job creation since... Since... Hands across America, Nick? It's across America. TVOI. Jack, what's the first story for the pod?

Warner Brothers Studios spent $90 million to produce the Batgirl movie. But $90 million later, Warner Brothers shockingly killed the Batgirl. For our second story, a strange trend is happening across college campuses nationwide. Colleges are buying other colleges. Our third and final story, that Rumba Robot Vacuum was just acquired by Amazon for $1.7 billion. Now Amazon knows how dirty you really are. Oh dear. You're going to want to flicks that spot over there. But Yeties, before we hit that wonderful mix. Just a fantastic mix to kick off the week, Jack. It is Horters Almanac Week 123. Things were running at it because the pandemic, Jack and I

been keeping track for you. This week, we're running out of a very specific commercial product. We're running out of Victoria's Secret bombshell perfume. You've seen this perfume. It's pink. It's diamond shaped. It's pricey. smells like the underwings of an angel. Full disclosure, this is Jack, and I am now in the market for victorious secret bombshell perfume. Full, full disclosure, this is Nick. I'm also in the market for this Victoria's Secret bombshell perfume. Why are we hunting for this?

Because it's not really a perfume. No. This is a bug repellent. It ain't a perfume. It's also a bug repellent. With this, Yeties, in 2015, an academic study discovered that if you apply Victoria's secret perfume? Two hours later, it's going to deter mosquitoes really well. Yeah, this perfume, it's meant to make guys think you smell good. But it's even better at

making bugs think you smell awful. Jack, hold the citronella over there. Scientists are literally saying that this Victoria's Secret Bombshell perfume is quite effective post-application. No, Jack, do you want to share with the Yetis how you really feel? I love herbal armor, bug spray. It's deep free. It makes you smell incredible. In that case, Jack, put down the deep you're going to be downright swooning for this Victoria Secrets shampoo perfume. Yetis, the only solution to your mosquito madness is this Victoria's Secret potion. It's a fragrance with a function. So the next time you see a bottle of the bombshell perfume.

Forget the lingerie. It's for keeping the bugs away. This has not helped Victoria's Secret stock price by the way. No, it hasn't. Let's hit our three stories. Let's do it, baby. Fifteen years before this song, two boys from the Northeast met in the dawn. They had an idea to cause a cultural storm

It's the best 50% That's a fat tip Tea boy city on your at list If you know you know Cause we're ready to go We can't wait no more So just start the show Start the show

For our first story Warner Brothers Discovery Just explained why it killed The Bat Girl It's another example of Warner Bros. Discovery Failing the franchise formula Okay apparently Jack

Some men aren't looking For anything logical Like money They just want to see the world burn That's the Joker, right? It is the junker. Warner Brothers, they're one of those men, $35 billion media monster. Warner Bros. Discovery is a publicly traded stock. It's brand new because it's the merger of HBO Max, CNN, Time Warner, Warner, Warner Brothers, and Discover. And a bunch of other channels. And in their earnings last week, their CEO said, yeah, we like watching the world burn. So we're going to merge our two streamers together into like one big streamer.

That's right. Next summer, HBO Max and Discovery Plus, two separate. streamers will become one. Yeah. And combined, they're going to have 92 million subscribers. Not too shabby. That's like number three in the streaming wars behind Netflix and Disney. But all the drama, all the attention, all the focus is on Gotham. Why did they kill the Batgirl?

Where is she? I was born in the dark. Yet he's one shocking story last week shows the change and turmoil happening at HBO Max since merging with Discover. Get this. Warner Brothers Discovery, they already spent $90 million filming the movie Backgirl. Like, they filmed the whole thing. That's right. Latina actress Leslie

Grace was going to play Backgirl. By the way, Back Girl is Commissioner Gordon's daughter in the movie. And $90 million is a lot of money. That's like Wayne Enterprise money. Yet, who is in the cast? Talk to me, Jack. Oscar nominee Michael Keaton. Boom, he's the OG Bruce Wayne. Oscar winner

J.K. Simmons was in this movie. He's playing Commissioner Gordon, also an Oscar winner. And Brandon Frazier got hired for this movie, too. Still waiting for that Oscar potentially. This could have been it. But last week, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Dasloff called Alfred and straight up killed this movie, which has already been filmed.

Okay, so Jack, first we lose the Chaco Taco Taco. Now we're losing Backgirl, too. What's going on out there? And get this. The studio has no plans to salvage all that footage they already produced. They made the movie. It's not even direct to HBO Max for free. So which leads to the big question, we know you're wondering yet, is why did they kill off

a movie they'd already finished. Executives reportedly thought that the Batgirl could tarnish the brand of DC Comics movies. Apparently, Batgirl reportedly wasn't getting positive reviews in the early test. So Warner has taken a $90 million hit to protect the Bat brand. Yeah, because it's not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you? So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in Goth? Warner Brothers is failing the franchise formula. The franchise formula.

Yet he's just out of colon to any title of a movie. And that's the franchise formula. Get this. The top eight movies in the box office this summer, they are all remakes and sequels. Not a single original film in the top eight. Here's the formula. You just add a colon to a successful movie and it will be a success again. Spider-Man, no way home.

Thor. Love and Thunder. Top Gun, Maverick. Sonic the Hedgehog, too, the sequel. Other studios, like Disney and Universal, they are crushing this colon-centric franchise formula. Warner Brothers, not so much. Only three of its movies made the top 25 this year, only three. Even though Warner Brothers has DC Comics, which is Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and over 200 other characters. Despite that, DC Comics and Warner Brothers just aren't producing franchises like the other hero gangs going on in theaters.

So here's the one big thing Warner's new CEO has to prove. Can he solve the franchise formula? Does he know how to use a colon? For our second story, a new phenomenon is hitting college campuses. It's not TikTok or be real. It's mergers and acquisitions. Yeah, it's Mn A. Because we've always seen college dropouts. Now entire colleges are dropping out.

Okay, Jack, can we talk about a school on the hill? Northeastern University, located in Boston, just outside Boston, hit us with some Latin, baby. Lux, Veritas, Vertus. We're talking 1900 undergrads at Northeastern University. The fight in Huskies, you don't mess with the Huskies. They're renowned across New England for their job placement program. I remember this when I was 17. I got mailers in the mail telling me to apply.

D1, by the way, they've won a few of the Boston Bean Pot Hockey tournaments. They're doing pretty well. Have they ever won a national championship in hockey? I don't know if they have, but I do know they have 65 different majors. But Jack, can you tell us about the newest academic department over at Northeastern University? M&A. Yeah. Mergers and acquisitions.

Uh, Yetis, they're not teaching M&A and Northeastern University. They're doing it. They're acting less like a school, more like a corporate empire. Like literally, they're procrastinating on term papers because they're focused on term sheets. And the term sheet is because last month, Northeastern University acquired 170-year-old Mills College, a women's school based in Oakland. We repeat the news. Northeastern University acquired another school. Jack, how much land did they get out of this deal?

It's based in Oakland and its campus and all the beautiful buildings are worth an estimated $1 billion. And now Northeastern owns all that property. As you're describing this, Jack, I feel like you should be walking backwards and pointing things out. And that's the Stufack Center. And that's the lunch. And this is the dormitore.

Northeastern University now owns Mills College and gets their $191 million endowment. And it inherits their art collection. Not just any art collection. They've got original works by Winslow Homer. My mom is going to love this. Sounds like a phenomenal deal for Northeastern because now they can brag that they have a satellite campus on the West Coast. Yeah, that means the Northeastern Admissions Department is going to start touting their coast-to-coast presence in that Northeastern materials they send you in the mail, Jack. Go to northeastern.edu next year and you'll see a profile of an undergrad who tossed out his Canada Goose Parker for the Boston Winters.

Please. Spent a summer at Northeastern's Mills Silicon Valley campus instead. I got an internship in tech thanks to our West Coast campus. Now all they have to do is figure out the new hazing ritual for the Mills students on the West Coast. Yeah, they do. Well, in exchange for getting a West Coast campus at close to zero cost, Northeastern is also inheriting one other thing we should mention. The 21 million in debt that Mills College has.

And Northeastern promises to invest in the college because Mills College, it was expected to close. Enrollment at Mills College had dropped. It was actually headed to show. shut down, but now it's been acquired instead. As we've told you before, when the going gets tough, the tough get merging. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies who have a college? We've always had college dropouts. Now we're having colleges that drop out. Yeties, colleges have always had to deal with budgets and cost cuts and like investment return. But Morgan Stanley style collegiate M&A, like what we just saw, it's more common than you think. Get this, according to the

Wall Street Journal. In the last four years, 95 colleges. have merged. That's more than the previous two decades. There's a lot of reasons that colleges are struggling to survive on their own right now. Good point, Jack. You know, you got the student loan crisis that's made some families rethink the whole value of a college education. States are providing less funding for schools. Plus, online courses can be a better ROI than paying for like a dorm, a dining hall and a fitness center that you don't need. Now, on the extreme end of the spectrum, big flagship schools with big brands that like your boss has up on her wall, they're doing fine. That's right. The Ivy League's, the Nescacs, the SECs, the ACC's,

they're still getting record numbers of applicants. But some colleges with following admissions, they're getting squeezed. That's why we're seeing that colleges can drop out too. And now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. So for the last three and a half years, Jack and I were running a startup within a startup, basically. We turned our company market snacks into Robin Hood Snacks, the news arm of Robin Hood. And in Robin Hood, we co-hosted the Snacks Daily pod that you got to know and love. At Robin Hood, we also got to hire an awesome team of news people who run the Robin Hood Snacks newsletter. Wild fact here. The biggest newsletter in America, Robin Hood Snacks. A key detail, though, not many are aware of is the editorial independence.

So Jack and I set it up so that we could independently cover the most interesting and most important news stories of the day. Robin Hood's commitment to free, digestible news snack style was an awesome differentiator. Yeah, if you're not investing in Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to Robinhood.com slash T-Boy and choose a free stock. That's robinood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Certain limitations apply. All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. By the way, Robin Hood is no longer affiliated with us or the podcast.

For our third and final story to kick off the week, Amazon's acquisition spree continues because it just bought I-Robot for $1.7 billion. Buying the dip, it applies to corporations too. Oh, did you have a nice Saturday? Will you stroll around? Did you have those Bloomingdale shopping dags? You thought you had a shopping problem? Amazon has gone full treat yourself recently.

First of all, Amazon closed its deal to acquire MGM Studios. Must be nice. Then it announced last month that they're buying one medical of $4 billion company. Well, one week later, just as Jack and I are going into the weekend, Amazon announces it's buying I-Robot for $1.7 billion. I-Robot. Not the movie. but the maker of Rumba, the only robot.

Right. Worth putting on your wedding registry. This thing's going to cost you a few hundred bucks. Yeties, here's what Jack and I found fascinating about this story. In the 16th century, in Europe, the most valuable job out there was the cartographer, the mapmaker. In the 18th century in America, the most valuable job out there was cartographer. Because as someone wise, probably once said, he who has the map has the power. When you control the mail, you control information.

Newman, well, that is exactly the reason behind this deal. Mapmaking, Amazon is getting a map of your home. Because Rumba doesn't just do your dog's hair, which it sucks up very effectively. Rumba also does data. Yeah, it's not dust mice, it's data. Because I robot, it mops up information like a hoover. I got a Rumba in my house. This thing roams my floor, and as it does, next, I know it's learning the blueprint of my house.

as it vacuons. Well, now Amazon will have that blueprint and Apple doesn't have that blueprint. Rumba also recognizes that there's baby toys on the floor because it bumps into them and avoids them. That's a sign that you may have kids. Now, Amazon knows that. Other tech companies, they won't know that. While Rumba sucks up dust, it learns so much data about your house. One man's trash is actually Amazon's treasure in this case. And on Amazon's voyage for smart home supremacy, Rumba, is their map-making cartographer. Now Amazon can bundle I-Robot with ring security cameras and Alexa home devices.

Hey, Alexa, order me pistachios on Amazon and get Rumba ready to clean up all those shells that I spelt all over the floor. I'm going to pick them apart myself. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Amazon and I-Robot? When stocks fall, investors can buy the dip, and so can companies. Yetis, the NASDAQ is still down 21% from its all-time high. And some individual stocks, they're down even worse. It still shocks and depresses us that Peloton's price tag is 90% lower than what it was a year and a half ago. I feel it every day, Jack.

Well, Yetis, if you're an investor with cash to invest right now, now is a buyer's market. Just like it's a buyer's market for retail investors, it's a buyer's market for companies who have cash. Amazon, they've got cash because Amazon, they've got $61 billion in cash right now. 18 months ago, it would have cost Amazon $4 billion at least to buy I-Robo. But now that stocks have fallen so much, Amazon can snag I-Robot for less than half the price. When stocks drop, investors can buy the dip. And companies, they can't too. Jack, can you and Rachel whip up the takeaways for us over there?

We watched the 2008 Dark Night in theaters together and we watched the 2012 Dark Night Dises in theaters together. And then we watched Batman Begins just to top it all off, right? right after that. But now Batgirl has gotten killed. More proof that DC is no Marvel. It needs more colon. It's failing the franchise formula. For a second story, Northeastern University of Boston,

just bought Mills College in Oakland. But some colleges with falling admissions, they're getting squeezed. Our third and final story, Amazon has acquired I-Robot, the vacuuming cartographer. Investors can buy dips. Hey, why not companies too?

Now, time for the best fact yet. This one was actually discovered by Jack and me when we were researching that Victoria's Secret bombshell perfume story for you. Yeah, those mosquitoes that the Victoria's Secret can repel, they're not just an annoying nuisance. No, in fact, mosquitoes are the most dangerous animal in the world. Tiny bite. Big bite.

Yeah, the diseases that these mosquitoes carry, they infect people, and that makes them absurdly deadly. According to the World Health Organization, 750,000 people die every year. because of mosquito bites. Yeah, we'll sprinkle on a little more context here. Hippos kill 500 people every year. Sharks kill 10 people. Falling coconuts only kill 150 people every year.

But mosquitoes, because of the diseases they carry, kill almost a million people every year. Just watch out for those coconuts that try to bite you. I'd kill for a perfume that repels those. Yeties, you look fantastic to start the week. And if you have the best fact yet, Or if you just want to shout out on the pod, we've got links right here in every episode description. They're Google Farms.

Also, we're open to hear someone's voice in this podcast. Can we get a voice? What do we got to do to get a voicemail? Did Jack and I have to buy a college to do this? Let's add a colon to our name. If you know, you know. Nick and I'll see you tomorrow. And before we go, congratulations to Yeti, Jason, Raymond Werner.

He just bottled his first commercial vintage of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir at Archetype 12 wines. Congrats to Alexis Chambers, who just graduated with the Masters of Anatomy at the Ohio State University trademark. And Cisley Barrero has a new job. Congrats on the win. Congrats to Hussein Pugana, who just got a new job at Visa. And Luke Dorhurst is going full Blue J. Just got a new job at Johns Hopkins. Congrats to Thomas Tran, who just started a new gig over in Fremont, California.

And Rayleigh Petit, happy birthday in Birmingham, Alabama. And happy birthday to Antia Fetidis, who's surfing over in Roe's. Georgia. And to anyone else celebrating something today, make it a T-boy. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I'm on stock of Amazon, Disney, and Netflix, and Nick and I both on stock of Apple, Peloton, and Robin Hood. And now word about our exclusive sponsor, Robin Hood. Look, we're not tech guys. We're not engineers. Nick, I'm no product manager.

You look great, but we're not technically. When our computer's not working, Jack and I turn it off and then we turn it back on again. But when we moved to California to join Robin Hood, we were in tech's mecca. So we were soaking up as much about the tech industry as we could. One thing we saw about the tech industry at Robin Hood was insane customer focus. Every product launched, every tweak made to the app was a laser focused move on customers. Robin Hood would be interviewing hundreds of users to figure out of one tweak of one button in the app would improve the experience.

Inside of Robin Hood, we saw that everything the company did was focused on the best outcome for you, the customer. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started, go to robinode.com. slash T-B-B-B-R-A and choose a stock. That's robin hood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Certain limitations apply. All investments involve risk. Robin Hood Financial LLC member S-I-P-C.

By the way, Robin Hood is no longer affiliated with us or this podcast.