The Best One Yet - 🎢 “Influencer World” — Dude Perfect’s theme park. Biogen’s Alzheimer’s assassin. Lyft’s acquisition whispers.

Episode Date: September 29, 2022

Our TBOY Survey: https://u0d3uxj78l0.typeform.com/tboypodLyft’s stock has dropped so much, it may be thinking about the A-Word: Acquisition (“Lyft and General Motors, sitting in a tree, M-E-R-G-I-N-G”). Dude Perfect is a team of YouTube stars online, but they’re now opening the first ever Influencer Amusement Park in real life. And Biogen’s stock gained $11B of value in one day because it’s latest drug is a huge hope for Alzheimer's sufferers.$LYFT $GM $BIIB $GOOGFollow 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. It's Thursday, the new Friday, September 29th, and today's pod, out of every pod. From every pod we've done, today's pod is the best one yet. It's a T-boy. It's a T-boy. But Florida besties, we are thinking of you. The Sunshine State is in our minds this T-Boy.

Go Gators, go Noles, go Cains. Black Knights, Champa Bay, everyone down there. First story, Jack, what do we got for the T-B? Lyft. Just announced a hiring freeze, so they must be thinking about the A-word. Acquisition. General. motors and lifts sitting in a tree.

M-E-R-G-I-N-G. For our second story, dude perfect, it's five former college roommates who have 58 million YouTube subscribers. But they're building the first ever influencer amusement park. Our third and final story is Biogen. A pharmaceutical company just saw its stock gain $10 billion in one single day. Because get this, Biogen may be the first ever Alzheimer's assassin. But Nick, before we hit that wonderful mix.

Just a fantastic mix, and I think you know why it's such a mix. I've been up since 1 o'clock Pacific time, just pointing that out. Fantastic. Your eyes not red at all. Yeties, I flew from Burlington to Newark to San Francisco today. Jack just landed and Jack, what's the first thing we're going to do after the pod? We are scooting over to Oracle Park, a ballpark I've never been to, to watch the San Francisco Giants play some baseball. Jack, what's the first thing we're going to do at the San Francisco Giants game tonight?

I'm jumping into McCovee Covee, Nick. I was expecting actually something different. I wasn't expecting that one, but I'm ready to roll. This is the city by the bay. This is the stadium on the bay. My boxers are waterproof. I could pull this off. But funny thing we noticed while we were looking into the San Francisco Giants game.

Jack and I always do a scouting report of the food and beverage situation. And we decided we're not going to get a beer. We're going to get some wine. Because the San Francisco Giants are a baseball team and have a Somalia. Yeah, this is the latest news. They are now the only sports team. with a wine expert on site at the stadium. Classic San Francisco.

To guide your wine. The Giants Master Somalié will tell you which wine pairs with which pitcher. Okay, because no joke. If they hit the ball hard enough, it will land in Napa. Nothing pairs with peanuts like a Pinole. We're watching batters drinking Malbax. Excuse me, ball boy. I ordered this Chardonnay slightly chilled.

The D.H stands for DeCanter. But the best thing about baseball wine. Oh, I know what you're thinking of Jay. Baseball games take forever. That's nine innings of Napa Cabern. And you know I'm a slow sipper. Oh, I do. Which means that Merlot has plenty of time to open up.

But there are three stories. I'm getting notes ago. Fifteen years before this song. Two boys from the Northeast met in the dorm. They had an idea that caused a cultural storm. It's the best one yet, but the best is an norm. Jack Nick, that's it. I don't even think they need to practice.

50% that's a fat tip. Tea Boy City on your at list. If you know, you know, because we're ready to go. We can't. Wait no more, so just start the show. Start the show. For our first story, Lyft, just announced a hiring freeze, and that means one of two things is going down.

It either means it's tightening its belt or it's dressing up to get acquired. Either way, Jack and I spent a lot of time working on a fashion analogy for them. I think we stock to land. Well, Lyft IPOed in 2019, and the stock hit $80 a share. Okay, Jack, where is Lyft stock trading now? It's down to $14. It is more expensive to ride a lift than it is to buy a share of lift. And that 80% stock price drop means that lift is now worth just one lift.

We repeat, lift is only worth one lift. Lift is a $5 billion market cap company. That has never made a profit. Even though they charge you a Benjamin to go like six blocks in the middle of rush hour. But there's one problem that every lift executive thinks about before they go to bed. One problem that lift just can't get out of its mind. That problem is Uber, which is doing comparatively so much better. Get this, Uber's revenue doubled during the pandemic, but Lyft's revenue?

Shrank. Uber and Lyft doing the exact opposites. Uber's doing really well. Lyft is doing really poorly. So, feeling some pressure from Wall Street and now Lyft announced a hiring freeze yesterday. And Nick and I interpret that as one of two fashion moves. It means Lyfts either tightening the belts or it's dressing up for an acquisition. Can we talk about this for a second?

Can we talk about what I think you're going to talk about, Jack? Sock is down 80%. That means Lyft is on sale. Lift is down 80%. No surge charge, no extra fees. We're talking Lyft 80% off. There is one suitor that has been thinking for a long time about acquiring Lyft. Because at that price, it is an acquisition target.

We're talking about Detroit's General Motors. It was reported back in 2016 that they offered to acquire Lyft in its entirety for $6 billion. Well, Lyft said no to that acquisition deal. wouldn't sell to General Motors, but they did do something else instead. They took a $500 million investment from GM, so GM has been a shareholder of Lid. If so facto, Jack, that means General Motors knows Lyft really well because they've been an investor in Lyft for a whole long time. And that means GM sees that Lyft has never been weaker than it is right now. Lyft just shut down its car rental business, and it just froze hiring.

And GM also knows that GM has never been stronger. GM's rocking eight straight quarters a billion dollar profit selling Silveradoes and Suburbans. GM is stronger than ever. Lyft is weaker than ever. GM knows that it can afford to buy Lyft. And again, Lyft is only worth one lift right now.

Now, this is just a rumor. And when asked about this rumor that GM might acquire Lyft last month, GM said no comment. But Jack and I have a strong comment to make. Jack wants the takeaway for our buddies over a lift. GM's greatest weakness is Lyft's greatest strength. We're talking about

installed user base. All right, Yeties. Not all of you have a General Motors car. A lot of you don't even have a car, but almost all of you have the Lyft app. I bet you have the Lyft app on your phone, right? Well, that's the value that GM wants right now, because General Motors' long-term goal is really to ultimately build a Robotaxy business. Yes, they've been working on it for years, and a Robo Taxi business would be so much more profitable than Uber and Lyft today. So much more. Because they wouldn't have to send 70s. 35% of your fare to the driver. Yeah. Well, General Motors spent billions of dollars to build those self-driving cars.

They did the hardware for that. But Detroit, in general, GM specifically, they're not that good at building apps. They're not that good at the software. Well, that software part. That's General Motors weakness and Lyft's greatest strength. Last quarter, 20 million people used the Lyft app. So the way we see it, General Motors wouldn't buy Lyft for its unprofitable ride hail business. GM would acquire a lift for that installed user base.

Never underestimate the value of an installed user base. For our second story, the YouTube stars of Dude Perfect just announced they're going to build a, you know, an $100 million amusement park. This could be. This will be. It will be. The first ever influencer theme park. Unprecedented.

But Jack, Jack, first, a good hero stat for the weekend. World's longest basketball shot, who you got. It wasn't Reggie. Miller. No, it wasn't even Michael Vick who can throw a ball like 100 yards. It was not. It was it. Guinness Book of World Records has Dude Perfect as making the longest basketball shot ever. Dude Perfect already in the Guinness Book of World Records. Also a five-member team of YouTube guys. Yeah, they turned trick shots into their profit puppy. It did. And they've amassed 58 million YouTube subscribers. Actually goes back to college roommates at Texas A&M University,

these guys. After school, they decided like, let's chuck a frisbee off a skyscraper. And have somebody on the ground level, catch it. And then let's upload that video to YouTube. It's like every double dare you've done in a swimming pool growing up, except their shots get, you know, 15 billion views. Yeah, their antics have gotten more and more sensational, and they've amassed 15 billion views. Which has led to an enormous YouTube viewership that brings in $25 million in revenue for Dude Perfect every single year. They take cut of the YouTube ad revenues. They do. And they're the number eight top paid YouTuber, according to And Jack, we actually mentioned them earlier this month.

We did. With that Amazon Thursday Night Football Story. They did the alternate broadcast in case you didn't want to listen to Al Michaels and Kirk Kherb Street. Well, they described themselves as a sports comedy group. But in reality, we're looking at the business model here. They are a media. And then this happened.

Boom. This week, the online creators of Dude Perfect, YouTubers announced they're building a $100 million headquarters slash theme park in real life. This thing's going to make it choke on a. Turkey Lake. They got a trick shot town, as they call it. It's called trick shot town. They haven't chosen the location yet. They're shopping it out to a few select southern cities. Put the way, Jack, and I see this, it's the first ever amusement park based on a celebrity, not a fictional anthropomorphic character. Like Mickey Mouse. And that celebrity happens to be a YouTube influencer. Just picture like if Kim Kardashian did a water park, but sponsored it by skims. That would be what this is. It's like if you could ride the Mr. Beast, but that was like an actual ride.

You know what I mean? Now, artist renderings for this theme park Oh, yeah. Look like it flew out of some Star Wars planet. Are you picturing like Nickelodeon guts? Like the set of Nickelodeon guts, right? I was thinking more American gladiars. Either way, I want a piece of that agro-crack, man.

Now let me sprinkle on some context of what's going to be at this theme park. It's going to include what they call crazy mini-gall. Which is their version of the Magic Kingdom. It's going to include two acres of outdoor space, restaurants, and merch shops. Which isn't in a zucking of Epcot, but it's Epcot. But here's the main event. They're building a 330-foot trick-shot tower. They are.

That you can climb up with a basketball and shoot the basketball trying to land it in a hoop that's on the ground level. Pitch me, Mickey. I may get in that line instead of Splash Mountain. A third of Disney's revenues come from Disney's amusement parks. Well, so could Dude Perfect. So, Jack, what's the takeaway for our body over at Dude Perfect? Building a media company, it's a lot like building a house. It is.

You're always adding additions. Yet he's the first revenue model of a media company. You've got to monetize the show. Yes. First, you build an audience and then you run ads or you charge a subscription to that audience. Yes, the foundation of the media house. The second phase of a media house after you've built an audience and monetized it is merch. Merch.

That's the addition to the house. Selling shirts, lunch boxes, anything else that the fans will delight in from the content. The third phase of a media house is real life engagement, like live shows or a live tour. engaging with the audience to strengthen the relationship and add a third revenue stream. The final phase, not everyone does. This is the upper echelon of media houses. You build a theme park. You build the ultimate destination.

A fan mecca that ignites the imagination of fans and families and brings in new fans to. Disney built that house and few others have built that house. But now YouTube stars are using Disney's same blueprint. Now, a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. You know, honestly, your salad, it says so much about you. Nick, you like to blaze your own trail at the salad bar. I'm ordering a salad. I go off menu, man, like a combo of kale and croutons that has never been made before.

Me? I'm not reinventing the wheel. I like to go classic. Sweenery and thinks it's a good combo, Jack's not going to change that. Kind of like investing strategies. Someone to build a custom portfolio of stocks, crypto, and options. Others don't want to reinvent. Just give me the most stank.

standard ETF. Whether you're tweaking your one-of-a-kind portfolio every day or prefer a more hands-off approach, Robin Hood has the tools. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet to get started, go to robin hood.com slash T-Boy to choose your free stock. That's robinood.com slash T-B-O-I. Limitations apply. Stocks offered by Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC. Crypto offered through Robin Hood crypto. All investments involve risk. By the way, this podcast is not owned or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood. For our third and final story, before we pop some Zinfandel. Biogen stock surged 40% literally in minutes yesterday.

Because Biogen may have found an Alzheimer assassin of a drug. Okay, Jack, let's go back in time. A year and a half ago, what was one pharmaceutical company doing? Biogen got 1,800 Alzheimer patients to sign up to join in an experimental drug trial. Okay, so 900 of those patients got the drug, but 900 others got a placebo. Yes, the 900 who got the real potential life-saving medication drug and the other 900 got a fake pill, a sugar pill. On Tuesday, we got the results. And Jack, what kind of results really? Those who took the real drug experienced a 27% reduction in the rate of cognitive decline.

Now, we should sprinkle on a little context here. This drug doesn't reverse Alzheimer's, but it does slow Alzheimer's for existing and future. suffer. This is huge and hopeful news. This stock jumped in insane 40% the moment stock markets open. Jack, it's like Biogen got an A plus, plus, plus, plus on the science fair project. Biogen just aced the MCATs and got into every school of care. They didn't even do the whole test. They left and they still ate it. And Wall Street freaking loved it too. But wait a second. All around good news. Jack, I was sorry. We're going to stop for a second. Can we do like

a record scratch like for a second? Is this deja vu all over again? This feels like we've been here, haven't we? One year ago, Yetis, we saw the same headlines. Yes, we did. From the same company. That is true. And the same 40% stock job. We're not kidding.

We didn't do any rounding on this thing. 40%. Last year, we covered on this pod Aduhelm, which was the first FDA-approved Alzheimer drug in 20 years, also by biogen. Now, we definitely mispronounce that, but it did go through the same progress as this drug. Here's the difference. It ended in huge disappointment. Yes.

It was a highly controversial FDA approval. Many think it shouldn't have been approved and it needed another trial. Biogen said, you know what? We're going to go up to the plate again. We're going to take another crack at it. And they did exactly one year later with a new drug tackling the same problem. It's called lichenab. We think.

We think. Yadis, 50 million people worldwide have Alzheimer's. And it affects dozens of friends and families and caretakers for each of those 50 million who are suffering. The grandmother had it. And it's awful because you're seeing the same person, but they don't even recognize you. It's heartbreaking. that's why this news is so incredibly hopeful. It's amazing that there are no caveats from experts this night. Biogen and Japanese partner, Asai, they seem to have stuck the landing with this drug.

And the medical community, in addition to the investor community, is cheering. Again, all around good news. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at Biogen? We know exactly what this single drug is worth because Wall Street told us. In minutes yesterday, Biogen stock jumped by seven $174 a share. Multiply that by the 145 million shares of the company. And you get $11 billion. Which means that this drug, which isn't even approved yet, is worth $11 billion in one day. Wall Street decided yesterday they think the future profits from this blockbuster drug are worth more than some entire Fortune 500 companies. $11 billion in value in one day. $11 billion of value in one drug.

This $11 billion drug is worth more than Carnival Cruise the entire company or Etsy or United Airlines. This one drug is worth more than two lifts. This one drug is worth four Pelotons. And we still, yeah, own shares of Peloton. Biogen has been working for years to crack the mystery of the Alzheimer's disease. Now it's being rewarded with an $11 billion win. Jack, after powering through like eight hours of cross-country flights, can you whip up the takeaways for us over that? With Lyft's business doing poorly, Lyft has become a desirable acquisition target.

And Lyft's greatest strength is GM's greatest weakness. Our second story is Dude Perfect. They just announced plans to build a $100 million theme park. They're following Disney's blueprint and building a media house. Our third and final story is Biogen. They developed a drug that reduces cognitive decline in Alzheimer's patients by 27%. And we know that drug's worth $11 billion because Wall Street told us so. Now, time for the best fact yet.

This one sent in by Terris Melanchenko in lovely Austin, Texas. Nick, there's a lot of folks on this planet. There are like 8 billion people. There's almost 8 billion humans. 8 billion people. But scientists just conducted the first ant census. Okay, ants like the animals. And it turns out there are 20, you know, quadrillion ants in the world.

That sounds like a made-up number. It does sound like quadrillion. Didn't know that was a thing. Daddy's take the number 20 and add 15 zeros behind it. It's how you get to quadrillion. Oh, and then it's 20 of those. That's how many ants there are. Can we sprinkle a little more context here, Jack?

Well, whenever I see an ant-hill, I'm always shocked at how many run out of it. That's true. Do you want to sprinkle on a little more context, though? That means there are two and a half million ants for every human being on the planet. Combined. That is alarming. I might have a nightmare. I'm actually not comfortable.

I'm living a nightmare right now. This scaring me as we're doing the pot. I'm like scratching myself. Terest, great, best fact yet. Yetis, you'll look fantastic today. And if you're going to be at the San Francisco Giants game, we should see people. We should see the Yetis out there, Jack.

At the fifth inning, we'll go to a public section. How about the center field food area? That crazy crab sandwich. I really like that sandwich. The fifth inning. Crazy crab sandwich. Nick and I will be there. If there's any Yeties or any besties at the game,

meet us by the crazy crab sandwich in the fifth inning. Because there's no way we can last until the seventh inning, right? wine. It knocks me out, man. At 9 p.m., I've got a seaweed mask on, man. Grab a cabernet, Jack, and I'll see you in center field. And before we go, a happy birthday to legendary Yeti, Jordan Ferry, down in Tampa Bay. We know it's tough down there in Florida.

We hope there's something you can celebrate amid this storm. And a happy 30-second birthday to Jaya Deer Tudevay in Mountain View, California. And happy 11th birthday to Jordan Jackson in Los Angeles. California. And a happy birthday to Shannon Chow over in New York City. Shannon's a big H-Y-H-T-B-O-I. And Abby Heller, happy birthday in Westminster, Colorado. Abby, halfway through the PhD, only three and a half years to go. And Ali Brenner, happy birthday over at Warner Brothers, enjoying life in New York City. And a huge T-boy, happy birthday to Jordan Buzanski. Not Jason. No. Jordan, who turns 34 over in Lancaster. And to anyone else who's celebrating something today, make it a chance.

Teaboard. Celebrate the wins. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Disney, and Nick and I both own stock of Pelton and Robin Hood. Now a word about our sponsor, Robin Hood. Okay, so Jack and I both worked in finance for a while. And we know the six-monitor Bloomberg jockey, with charts, numbers, balances, and more charts. They got coffees in both hands

while they're executing some complex trade on a soybean future. Well, we're not trying to impress with our mission control trading center. Just give us an app, please. Robin Hood, with its mobile first and intuitive design, and lets you trade with just a few quick taps on their app. And even if things still don't seem easy, Robin Hood has your back 24-7 with its live and robust customer support. If you're not investing on Robin Hood yet, to get started,

go to robin hood.com slash t-boy and choose your free stock. That's Robin Hood.com slash T-B-O-Y. Limitations apply. Robin Hood Financial LLC, member SIPC, all investments involved for us. By the way, this podcast is not owned by or part of Robin Hood, and we are not employees of Robin Hood.