The Best One Yet - “Cannabis runs for Vice President” — Microsoft’s forever WFH. Cannabis defines the relationship. Disney’s $3B shuffle.

Episode Date: October 12, 2020

Cannabis stocks just enjoyed their best day in months after 2 major moves to finally define the relationship with DC. Should Disney send out dividend checks forever… or permanently treat itself to $3B every year in a Netflix world? And Microsoft is the first Big Tech to go permanent Work From Home — so we got ourselves the first WFH Playbook.$TLRY $ACB $CGC $DIS $MSFTGot a #SnackFact? Tweet it @RobinhoodSnacks @TBOYJack @NickOfNewYork and tag #SnackFactWant a shoutout on the pod? Fill out this form:https://forms.gle/KhUAo31xmkSdeynD9Learn 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. And this is Snacks Daily. Welcome back. It is Monday, October 12th. Snackers, Monday's the new Monday. It's pretty much the same thing. It hasn't changed at all. This happens, though, to be the best one yet. Jack and I made this our best snacks daily ever. Jack, first story over there. What do we got? Cannabis stocks just had their best week in months as they defined the relationship with the law of the United States of America. We got Joe Biden in the state of Vermont making moves that are pro-weed. For our second story, can Disney a four? to keep sending out $3 billion in checks each year to shareholders as dividends? A little alternative here for Mickey. Instead, treat yourself with $3 billion worth of new Disney Plus shows. For our third and final story, Microsoft is the first big tech company to go permanent work from home. We got ourselves the first ever full-length work-from-home playbook.

But Snackers, before we get into those three great stories, the most meta of all collabs went down last week. Get this, Snackers. Colhan is launching a shoe in partnership with Slack. Now, ironically, Colehan probably has a 300 email-long email chain required to make this happen. Jack, a fax machine was harmed in the making of this collaborative shoe. Now, the shoes are white casual workwear shoes with Slack colored highlights. Here's the thing, you probably know a man in a mid-midlife crisis who's already bought a

pair and lives in Palo Alto. He's definitely posted on social media already. Now there's four versions of the shoes, one in slack red, one in slack green, one in slack blue, and of course, slack yellow. Waiting for it, like the cliffhanger. Now, you get the cushiony soul so they're comfortable enough to be working from your couch. Do the shoes make that pinging noise to notify you of each step? A little... Jack can Zoom make a shoelace plug in already?

We can integrate with this slack shoe? Colhan is famous for leather work lace-up shoes. We guess this is their work-from-home more comfortable pivot. Which is why we noticed the president said this of Cole Hahn. You've got a footwear brand people are passionate about and a software platform people are passionate about. Not sure if we agree with either of those claims, Mr. Hahn. Yeah, I don't think either of them are going to work. Let's start our three stories.

You're tuned in the snacks daily. We spoke to the lawyers and we got to get something legal out the way. The snacks about the hearing food is air candy. They don't reflect the views of the robberhood family. It's all informational just so you know. We're not recommending any securities. Nope. It's not a research report or investment advice. Not an offer or sale of a security.

Right. Snacks is digestible. Business news for you. Robberhood Financial, LLC, member FINRA slash SIPC. For our first story, cannabis stocks just had their most important week of 2020. They're inching from gray market to a fully legal, legitimate business. Jack, we're going to get ourselves a little Facebook official relationship situation over here. In the past year, though, Nick, the third.

three largest cannabis stocks, they've lost 80% of their value. It's been a bloodbath. Brutal, bummer for that one buddy who, like, junior year, moved all the way out to Colorado and has been living in Colorado for the last decade. Dude, I'm telling you, man, the green wave, man. But even though Brad's been enjoying the leisure life on the slopes the last few years, demand for cannabis in Colorado and other legalizing states hasn't met expectations. But then last week, something bright happened. And it caused the stocks of Till, to jump by 19%. And Aurora Cannabis to jump 11%.

And canopy growth to jump by 14%. And this wasn't a peer pressure situation. All three did this all on their own decision making. And it's caused by two subtle political developments that you may have missed. Yeah, this one kind of snuck in on us. No one really saw this coming, but right in the middle of the vice presidential debate, this line just kind of happened. Nick told me about this line and I'm like, I watched the debate.

That line didn't happen. Then I'm like, yes. It did. Kamala Harris mentioned just casually dropped in the middle of the discussion that the Biden administration, if it gets elected, would decriminalize marijuana. It would also expunge the criminal records of people convicted of marijuana-related non-violent offenses. This thing happened so quickly the fly didn't even notice. Then, a little closer to home for me, the Vermont legislature became the 11th state to legalize recreational marijuana. And then Bernie made it official via tweet, which is actually a legal requirement in the state of Vermont legislature. We're actually, Nick, waiting for official official when Ben and Jerry's announces a weed-flavored ice cream. I guess they could just call it full-baked. Now, the reason this is a big deal, 11 states plus the District of Columbia have legalized recreational weed, but it's really only half legalized. Yeah, this is what gets so wildly complicated and confusing snackers about the

entire cannabis industry situation in the stock market. Marijuana is still illegal at the federal level. It always has been. So it's only a lot. It's only a lot of, you know, half legitimate, even in those 11 states that tried to legitimize it. In five years, the Corleone family business will be completely legitimate. If Joe Biden wins the election and follows through on that promise that Kamala Harris made, then those 11 states plus DC would have fully legalized weed. Not just at the state level. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over in the cannabis industry?

Investors don't like businesses in a legal gray area. They need to define the relationship. Investors and cannabis stocks, they've been in a lot. an awkward situation lately. Can I just ask like, where is this going? What are we? Cannabis and U.S. regulators have not figured out what they are, who they are, what the status of this relationship is. And because of this gray zone, this middle situation that neither side's happy about, the cannabis industry faces the three C challenge of the gray market. This is what Jack and I call the three C challenge. The first C is for cash. Banks, even like your local savings alone on

Main Street, they're regulated by the federal government. So they won't open a accounts for cannabis companies. Because banks then would be aiding in money laundering because cannabis is federally illegal. The second C challenge cannabis companies face is costs. Yep, you can't expend certain costs for tax purposes if you're a cannabis company because the IRS is a federal agency and cannabis is illegal federally. Writing off that new weed whacker would be really nice for its tax advantages this year. And then the final C challenge that cannabis companies face is capital. All those cannabis stocks, your buddies keep telling you about, They are Canadian cannabis stocks.

Straight out of Edmonton, U.S. cannabis companies, they can't list on the U.S. stock market because cannabis is federally illegal. Federal legalization is needed to take U.S. cannabis business to the next level. That's how you define the relationship and move from gray market to clear market. For our second story, Microsoft is the first trillion-dollar company to commit to permanent work from home. Is mobile friendliness the next big size?

thing in the talent wars? Now, Snackers, you know, unicorns. This is the company's worth over a billion dollars. What about the company's worth over a trillion dollars? Great question. We call them on Snacks Daily, platinum platypuses. That's right. You got this elusive group. You rarely seem in the wild. You got Apple. You got Amazon.

You got Microsoft. No photograph has ever been captured of one of them. Not a thing. Not a real thing. Now, Microsoft is one of those platinum platypuses, and they updated employees last week on hybrid workplace guidance for their post-COVID world. You're working on Microsoft. then Clippy pops up and says, hey, would you like to know about staying where you are right now forever?

Clippy apparently leaked the plan to a reporter at the verge, so we all see its post-COVID remote friendliness plan. Classic Clippy Jack. Now here's policy number one. Here it goes. Anyone and everyone may work up to 50% of the time from home. Microsoft will still have offices after we get a vaccine, and you can still get a desk and access to work, but you only have to come in half the time. Right. The other half of the time you can split the conference room that is your closet in your home with your wife and book out that time. It's awkward and it's hard. Policy number two, anyone at Microsoft can ask their manager for full-time remote status. It's great. And if you do, you'll lose your assigned space in the office just a heads up. Yeah, you can't have a desk anymore if you're full-time work from home.

That means that drawer with like the pens and the mouthwash and the business cards and the old gym stuff you got in it. Can't keep that. We all have that duffel bag we never once broken. You have it. Our buddy Timmy still has it. But Microsoft wants some space for even remote workers when they're visiting like Seattle, so you can come in, grab a shared workspace on a first-come-first serve basis. Now, here's the wild thing about these hybrid work conversations over Microsoft. They're ended up with way more questions than they're coming up with answers. You're like, so I'll get paid the same, right?

Funny you should mention that because you're not. We didn't say the pay was the same, actually. Congratulations on your paycheck reduction. Microsoft's present salaries, they assume you're living in the Seattle area where Microsoft is headquartered. That's like a $3,000 a month, one-bedroom, zero-kitchen apartment.

What they're going to do then is they're going to look at where you live on their new geo-pay scale and adjust accordingly. If it turns out, you're only paying $1,000 a month for your three-bedroom barn in Montana? Yeah, guess what? You're going to get paid less

than what you'd get paid in Seattle. I'm going to a little less per the paycheck. But can everybody, everybody work from home permanently forever? Glad you asked. No, you can't. Didn't realize that. Turns out jobs requiring hands-on work with new devices and hardware, you got to be in the office for that.

If it's your job to test out the new surface whatever, you got to be physically there. But if you are testing out the new service, whatever, is it really that exciting a product that even want to be doing that? So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Microsoft? Remote flexibility is the next big HR purse. in the talent wars. Snackers, there was a time when the best companies were the ones with the best equipment and the best buildings. Today is the companies with the best human beings, not the best

machines. The most valuable companies in America are almost entirely tech companies right now. Just look at the market. It all comes down to intellectual property. That comes from talented workers, and that's what drives these tech companies values. Case in point, Facebook, they land their top engineering talent simply by paying the absolute most amount of money. These interns over at Facebook, they can afford their own islands. Google is tempting top talent with a souffle bar and a campus that has Google bicycles that anyone can take any time.

It's kind of like Narnia. You have to believe in the Google Office to experience the Google Office. Ironically, Google's not a platinum platypus yet. Other tech companies are highlighting culture or mission. That's how they're trying to get talent because kind bars, they're pretty much standard these days. Yeah, so Microsoft, Twitter and Square,

they're letting their workers work from home forever and now competitors are under pressure just to match that perk. Remote flexibility is the next perk in the talent wars. But Microsoft's showing that it's not as simple as simple as staying at home. For our third and final story, Disney stock jumped 2% last week after it got lectured by one of its investors. Dan Loeb says Disney should cancel its dividend forever and go full Netflix instead. Ever, ever? Now, one of the most charming things that Jack and I have noticed about activist investors is this. They don't email, they don't voicemail, they don't call, do what Ryan Gosling did to Rachel McAdams.

If you're a bird, I'm a bird. They write letters, Jack. They just write letters. Dear Mickey, Magic Kingdom, Sweet Egg. And then they post those letters online to shame companies and to doing what it says in those letters. Now, hedge funder Dan Loeb owns $600 million worth of Disney stock. Just 0.3%, but that's still a lot of Disney stock more than any of us.

And he has a message for the board and the CEO of Disney. Cancel your dividend forever. Bold idea coming over. from Dan, every quarter snackers, Disney sends its shareholders a nice little cash dividend. It's like a birthday check from Grandma, but it comes every three months. And that cash dividend has been grown just about every year since Fantasia? Big reason shareholders like Disney is that nice and growing cash treat. They get every three months. That dividend is worth $3 billion a year. And if they are not hooking up shareholders with that cash money, what could Disney do with it? And on the Jack, I'm looking around here,

maybe put a new roof on that big Epcot golf ball situation. Why not launch a Disney winter themed ice themed Disney Canada? Or maybe just make more of those giant turkey legs. This sounds like it could be a show on Quiffy. This is definitely a show Katzenberg is considered a quibby. But Bill Loeb's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. I want you to spend that entire $3 billion on Disney Plus. 60 million customers have signed up for Disney Plus since it launched last year.

But Bill Loeb thinks there should be a lot more and they should be paying a lot more. Bill Loeb thinks they should take that $3 billion a year from the dividends to over double Disney Plus's budget for original content. He thinks with better content, you'd get more Disney Plus subscribers. Nice. Fewer Disney Plus subscribers would cancel every month. Also nice. And you could charge more than just seven bucks a month. Even better, have you seen inside out?

Jack, that spoke to our souls, I thought. I'm a 32-year-old man, and it taught me so much about my emotions. And about my emotions. No, you hang up. Then Bill also decided to point out that, you know, theaters, they're not coming back, he thinks. Bill Loeb is sad that movie theaters are having a hard time because he loves movie theaters. Although he did point out, it's kind of like if you're a horse person and cars just came out, he doesn't want you to get too sad and nostalgia.

Finally, Bill pointed to one case study, Hamilton, the Broadway play that came to Disney Plus over 4th of July. So Disney reportedly spent $75 million for the rights to Hamilton. Guess what? That led to 2 million new Disney Plus subscribers who are worth 100, of millions of dollars in subscription revenue. So that was a win. Boom. Always need a precedent. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Disney Plus? Bill wants to close the Netflix gap. Snackers, Disney's got Marvel. It's got Star Wars. It's got Pixar and it's got Disney animation.

That is ridiculously impressive, but compared to Netflix's constantly refreshing video content, Disney Plus feels like a bunch of reruns. Toy Story's getting like the fast and the furious treatment. It only has a billion dollars a year, specifically dedicated to Disney Plus, and each one is like the sequel to the sequel to the prequel of something else. They're basically just repackaging. Meanwhile, Leader Netflix spent, get this, 17 billion with a B dollars on original content last year. Don't fact check on this, but we think they rebuilt Buckingham Palace for season three of the crowd. But despite spending one 17th as much as Netflix, Disney Plus already has grown to one third of the audience.

in just a year. Imagine how fast Disney Plus could close the gap on Netflix's 180 million subscribers if it finally spent the money on it. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us over there? Microsoft's permanent-from-home option sets a precedent. It's tech competition going to feel the pressure to match this thing. For our second story, cannabis stocks popped on hopes it could get decriminalized federally next year. You gotta define the relationship with the law, especially the law. For a third and to our Disney's future, seems to be driven by Disney Plus. And Dan Lope thinks that a growing profit puppy really needs to be fed $3 billion a year more. Is that too much to ask for, Jack?

Now, time for our snack fact. Tweeted in hashtag snack fact by Drew Allert in Chicago, Illinois. Going to Disney Plus, Toy Story 13. When you're watching it, you may want to grab a Dr. Pepper, because when Dr. Pepper wanted to create a new flavor, they called one man and one man only. Dr. Howard Moskowitz, better known as Dr. Pepper. Also sounds like a quibby show, Jack. Now, the flavor expert, known as Dr. Howard Moskowitz,

has found what he calls the bliss point within foods. The bliss point is the greatest amount of craving that you can squeeze out of artificial ingredients. Sounds like something very big drink. Now, to get this new Dr. Pepper product, he created 61 different formulas and in 135 page-long report to come up with the perfect blend

for one thing. That thing he came up with is cherry, vanilla, Dr. Pepper, which has neither cherry nor vanilla, nor pepper. And we're not sure Mr. Moskowitz is actually a doctor. No, he can get back to us with that and we'll run a correction. Snackers, you look fantastic, by the way. We should let you know to start the week. You help us grow with HY HY HYS. Have you had your snacks daily, share it with your friends? Nick and I'll see you tomorrow. But before we go, we got to give a shout out to Tatiana in the West Village who introduced Josh to Snacks Daily back in August when they met on a hinge date. Josh loves Snacks Daily.

Thanks for recommending him. He listens every day. Bummer though, because Tatiana never called Josh back, unfortunately. Tatiana, Josh sounds like second date material. Don't ghost this guy. Let's write this wrong and send it a mutual snack fact. And happy bar mitzvah to Eric Ratner tuning in from South Korea. And Vinnie and Angie, congrats on the engagement down in Naples, Florida.

Happy first year anniversary to Mila and Ely and Andy over in Kiev, Ukraine. And Tara Moral, congrats on getting 40 under 40 in Ad Age. Fantastic. Happy first year anniversary to Yvonne and Kevin, home of great barbecue and fried chicken, Austin, Texas. That was kind of generic, Jack, but we'll roll

with it. George and Kaylee, congrats on the honeymoon kickoff down in Annapolis, Maryland. And Ryan Farad got Deanslist over in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Happy birthday to Connor Laylor up in Ottawa, Canada. And Isha Gandhi in Surat, India. And Anna Nickerson in Wellesley, Massachusetts, right near

West and Waltham. Happy 21st, Lucia in Lima, Peru. And Matt Passagio down in Chocopin, Minnesota. And happy birthday, Jacob Huff, from Louisville, Kentucky, same place, Muhammad Ali. We'll see you tomorrow. This is Jack. Nick owned stock of Square and Apple. I own stock of Amazon. The Robin Hood Snacks podcast you just heard reflects the opinions of only the hosts who are associated persons of Robin Hood Financial LLC and does not reflect the views of Robin Hood Markets, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates. The podcast is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as a recommendation

to buy or sell any security and is not an offer or sale of a security. The podcast is also not a research report and is not intended to serve as the basis of any investment decision. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member FINRA, SIPC.