The Best One Yet - 🍨 “The Best Deal in History” — Ben & Jerry’s Unilever deal, undone. MrBeast’s Amazon game show. Nvidia CEO’s wild origin story

Episode Date: March 20, 2024

Unilever is spinning off its $9B ice cream biz into a separate company, they’re unwinding Ben & Jerry’s 24 years after they acquired it — We’re looking at how Ben & Jerry managed to get rich and stay king.The biggest YouTuber on earth, MrBeast, is partnering with Amazon for the biggest game show on earth — With a $5 million prize, the game show sounds expensive. But it’s not.And Nvidia’s CEO may be the most important person you don’t know — He hates watches, he loves Denny’s, and has a tattoo of the company’s logo on his arm… and now he’s a king-maker.$UL $AMZN $NVDASubscribe to our newsletter: tboypod.com/newsletterWant merch, a shoutout, or got TheBestFactYet? Go to: www.tboypod.comFollow The Best One Yet on Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok: @tboypodAnd now watch us on Youtube Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is Nick. This is Jack. It's Wednesday, Sabiche Wednesday, March 20th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This is the best pod we've ever done, Jack. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. Yeti stocks rose before the Fed's big meeting later today. Not too shabby.

Today, the Federal Reserve finishes their two-day policy meeting where they make their big interest rate announcement. Ooh, the big interest rate announcement. Jack and I will update you when we get the numbers. In the meantime, Jack, we've got a one-term. wonderful show. What's on it today? For our first story, Ben and Jerry's ice cream is getting spun off from Unilever. It's the biggest ice cream deal since the Sunday.

Jack, it's the biggest split since the banana split. For our second story, Mr. Beast is launching a game show on Amazon Prime Video called Beast Games. Amazon is paying big for Mr. Beast because game shows are the new profit puppies. And our third and final story, Nvidia's CEO may be the most interesting person you don't know. Besties, the founder of NVIDIA, loves Denny's, hates watches, and has a giant computer chip tattoo. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories.

No one else is doing this mix today, Jack. Love the mix of stories today. This is Nick. This is Jack. And we actually have different names than you think. Yeah. Jack's real first name is not Jack. Nick legally changed his first name when he was a kid.

True story. But those are stories for another podcast, Yeti. This is for another podcast. In the meantime, Sam Altman, the king of artificial intelligence, he actually hates his company's name. Get this. Sam Alman just admitted openly that he does not like the name OpenAI. And he really doesn't like the name ChatGPT.

In fact, the founder and CEO of the world's most important startup hates both of those names. And that's ironic because he created those names years ago, but today he hates him. Last week on a podcast, Sam Alman said that if I could go back in time, with an Oracle, I would pick a different name. He even said that ChatGPT, which is his company's most important product. He came up with the name. Has a horrible name, his words. He said, no marketer would ever choose that name.

I hate the name, horrible name. And I got to say, we agree. ChatGPT is an awful name. Nick and I hate having to write it down like in our notes for the show. ChatGPT, it sounds like a crypto pharmaceutical company. But if this famous name is so bad, what should it be renamed to? That's the question. Jack and I started thinking.

And we're thinking, hey, chat GPT could become chat buddy. Or it could become Sam, named after the founder, short for super automated machine. Chat GPT could pull a Justin Timberlake and drop the GPT. Just chat. It's cleaner. That's actually a good idea, chat. But yet is Jack and I decided to jump in T-Boy style and ask Chat G-PT what it would rename Chat GPT.

Wait, we're going to ask Chat Cheptie what its name should be. Oh, yeah, I didn't tell you this. All right. I got it actually up right now. You want to read to you what it says when I asked Chat-G-PT, what should rename? itself. Enter that prompt and push enter. Okay, here we go. Here we go. As an AI language model, I don't have personal preferences or desires, but if I were to suggest a name for myself, perhaps convo logic. Convo logic, huh? That's the least creative name I've ever heard. Chad DVDs, no Picasso.

Yet. Sam, your move. Yeties, actually, your move. What do you think we should rename ChatGPT to? Besties, what's a better name for Open AI or ChatGPT? We want to know. And don't say Closed AI. We know it's closed source. That's a little joke. Hit us up at Tea Boy Pot and let us know what would you rename Chatch E.P. Now, let's hear our three steps.

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. First, a quick word from our sponsor. For our first story, Unilever is breaking up with Ben and Jerry's 24 years after acquiring the ice cream brand. The most famous ice cream in the world is getting unacquired, and the details are shocking.

Ice cream, you scream, and Unilever, is just screaming about their ice cream right now. Unilever is actually the biggest ice cream company in the world, and they're based out of the Netherlands. Unilever, they own Dove Soap and they own Helmand's mayonnaise, but they also own Magnum ice cream, Good Humor ice cream, Talentee ice cream, Briars ice cream, Klondack ice cream,

and Ben and Jerry's ice cream. And despite owning 30 different ice cream brands globally, Unilever sold 6% less ice cream last year than the year before. Jack, why exactly are people eating less ice cream these days? because we're not. Ice cream is too expensive. The dairy, the sugar, and the chocolate chips that are required for ice cream. They're all soaring in costs this year.

So Unilever had to raise the price of their ice cream by 8%. It's Chipflation. And what was the result of this chipflation, Jack? What Unilever calls downtrating. Customers are finding lower-priced private label ice cream brands like Kirkland instead of Ben and Jerry's. Maybe a little less gelato in your freezer these days, Yiddies. That's why ice cream was the worst performing division at Unilever last year. It's 22% of Unilever sales, and yet ice cream is just 8% of their operating profit.

So here's the news. Unilever is done with ice cream. They announced yesterday they're spinning off all their 30 ice cream brands into a separate company and basically saying, bye, bye, good luck. It's like they're on a diet jack. Like, keep it away from me. I don't even want to see the cookie out. I don't even want it in the house. Maybe just a little bit. But yeties, we know what you're thinking because we were thinking it too.

What exactly does this ice cream split mean for you? It's pretty exciting, actually. It means later this year, we're going to have a new Pure Play publicly traded ice cream company. The whole company is just going to be 30 brands of ice cream. Pure Play Sorbet, Sorbet, is what we're talking about. What do you think the ticker symbol is going to be in this thing, Jack? We hope the ticker symbol is cone or chalk or chip. Can we do lick?

Is lick acceptable, Jack? Four-letter word. I told you we don't say lick on this podcast. That's the rule. Okay. No, we need to edit that out. That's ASMR. People love it, Jack.

No, they don't. But Yetis, this new ice cream galammerit, it's actually going to include five of the top 10 selling ice cream brands on planet Earth. And yet, it's led by one brand. Ben and Jerry's. Because Unilever acquired Ben and Jerry back in the year 2000. Unilever paid $326 million for what was at the time, and still today, the top ice cream brand in the world. But yeties, Jack and I got to pause the pod here.

Because Ben and Jerry is getting acquired by Unilever. was maybe, actually it was, the most unusual deal we have ever seen. Because Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's, they negotiated the most Vermonty things into the contract you could possibly imagine. Get this, Unilever agreed that 7.5% of Ben and Jerry's profits would go to the Ben and Jerry Foundation in perpetuity. Unilever is sending a big check to the Ben and Jerry's Foundation every year, which fights for social justice.

And Unilever agreed not to change the way that Ben and Jerry's ice cream is actually made. If you can't name the cow whose milk you're using for that vanilla, then Unilever, you got a problem. And Unilever agreed not to cut any jobs ever at Ben and Jerry's. So Ben and Jerry's childhood buddy, Doug, he's still chunking every monkey in each pint. He's not good at chunking that monkey, but... He can't be fired because of the contract. Keep missing the chips. It's one of the best deals we've ever heard negotiated, and it was Ben and Jenner.

Two Vermonters who got it done. And perhaps the biggest thing Ben and Jerry negotiated by far with Unilever was editorial independence. We'll get to that in our takeaway. Well, Jack, I'm getting kind of hungry. So could you scoop up the takeaway for our buddies over at Ben and Jerry? We've said you can be rich or you can be king, but not both. Well, Ben and Jerry got both. Yeties, even though Ben and Jerry sold Ben and Jerry's to Unilever,

they still control it because they have an independent board. from Unilever. Ben and Jerry's negotiated that Ben and Jerry's would have an independent board, which let the two OG founders retain control of the brand even though it was owned by Unilever. Oh, Ben and Jerry's used their control of the brand to become the most outspoken brand in business. This ice cream company has spoken publicly about defunding police, fossil fuels, even Israel and Palestine. Even though they sold to Unilever, they're like kings because they have control. But Ben and Jerry also got that $326 million payout when they sold the company. So Ben and Jerry's are both king and they're rich.

When entrepreneurs make deals, Jack and I often say you can be rich or you can be king, but you can't be both. What we mean is you can either have control of the company you built or you can have a lot of money, but you can't be both in any deal. And yet, Ben and Jerry, best friends in seventh grade negotiated a deal back in 2000 that may be the best deal Jack and I have ever seen in our lives. Because they got the best of both worlds. They're both rich and king. They got a huge payout and they retained control of their beloved brand. Well, for Unilever, they arguably have the worst of both worlds. So Unilever is finally ending it.

They're spinning off Ben and Jerry's and letting them be a separate company again. For our second story, Mr. Beast, the top YouTuber in the world is moving to the big screen, Amazon Prime Video. The new show is called Beast Games. It will be the biggest competition game show series in television history. Well, yadies, before we kick off this story, quick PSA reminder, Amazon owns MGM studios. We should throw that out there. Thanks for that. Well, Amazon also just signed a deal with Jimmy Donaldson, aka Mr. Beast.

And one of Jimmy's most famous YouTube videos as Mr. Beast is a squid game competition in real life. He paid a half a million dollars to the winner of an elaborate, Squid Game style competition that is company organized. And that is why Mr. Beast has become the top grossing YouTuber of all time with 245 million subscribers. Mr. Beast made $82 million last year. Jack, can you sprinkle on some Hollywood context for us over there, please? That's not just a lot of money.

That's nearly twice the income that Tom Cruise made last year. And Tom's not happy about it. Yet he's each of Mr. Beast videos brings in a couple million dollars in ad revenue on average, but they also bring in a couple million in brand deals as well. The last time we covered Mr. Beast on this pod was about this deal. At the time, it was a rumored deal. But a couple months later, it is now official. Beast Games is the new show coming to Amazon Prime video.

But yet here's what Jack and I find fascinating about this story. In content, because we are also creators in the content industry, every video requires a hook. And the hook for this new game show series is superlatives. I think you mean the hook for this new game show series is superlatives. Because the goal of this show is the goal of pretty much every Mr. Beast production, extremeness. Jack and I were shocked to see this because Amazon is like a more conservative company, but Amazon's announcement had some big words, didn't it, Jack? Amazon's announcement of this deal, which was published yesterday,

used the words biggest or greatest five times. And Nick and I can tell you, lawyers hate those words because they're hard to confirm that they're true. Jack, I think CEO Andy Chassee popped a blood vessel when he was reading this thing. But Amazon and Mr. Beast are calling it the biggest, greatest game show ever, because 1,000 contestants are going to compete in a competition to win a $5 million cash prize. $5 million. That is five who wants to be a millionaire's, isn't it? They call it the biggest prize for the biggest competition in TV and streaming history. Yeties, Amazon gave Jimmy creative control.

And Jimmy hopes to make the YouTube community proud with a lot of superlative hooks. In Beast games. coming probably later this year, maybe next year. So Jack, what's the takeaway? We're at Amazon and Mr. Beast. The most expensive show on TV is actually the cheapest show on TV. Best is 1,000 contestants and a $5 million cash prize. That's a record number.

Like, that sounds like a really expensive show. But in reality, this is a relatively cheap show to produce. And we know it's a cheap show because you can see it when you compare Mr. Beast games to Amazon's other big production, Rings of Power. Remember last summer the Amazon spin-off of Lord of the Rings? It was called Rings of Power. And it costs a shocking $500 million to produce those eight episodes. That was an insanely expensive show.

Well, Beast Games isn't going to cost $500 million. Beast Games is a reality TV show, not a scripted show, which means it avoids a lot of the big production costs. This is the interesting business model angle of reality shows. There are no actors to pay, no CGI to pay for, no costume budgets, and no team of writers. Plus, there will be minimal marketing required since Mr. Beast is going to promote this show

to his 250 million YouTube subscribers. Yet, he's added all up and a $5 million record cash prize, that sounds expensive. But in reality, this is a reality show. And reality shows are cheaper to produce. The most expensive show on TV is actually the cheapest show on TV.

Now a quick word from our sponsor. For our third and final story, As NVIDIA hosts the biggest chip event of the year, we want to talk about NVIDIA's founder. Because NVIDIA's founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, is the most important person who you don't know yet. Nick, what time is it, though? Yeah, it is here in the West Coast. It's 2.34 p.m. exactly. You know because you have a watch.

I got a lovely watch right here. Jensen Huang, the founder of NVIDIA, he doesn't care what time it is. He doesn't wear a watch. That's right. The founder and CEO of NVIDIA does. He doesn't believe in watches because he believes now is the only time that matters. He is so focused on being present that he lives every day. Like, as he puts it, the company is going to go bankrupt tomorrow.

So he doesn't need to watch. Jensen Wong also has a tattoo of a company on his bicep. And that company is his company, Invidia. He went full Harley Davidson on his bicep, but with the computer chip logo. That's because Nvidia is the $2 trillion dollar computer chip company that is powering the AI revolution. Artificial intelligence is hype for most tech companies, but it's real for NVIDIA. Profits at NVIDIA have six-touple.

They have increased by six-fold year-over-year as they sell all the chips that are powering all of the world's AI. In the past 18 months since ChatschipT was unveiled, NVIDIA has soared to become the number three most valuable company in the world. You get a tattoo for that, Jack. And this week, NVIDIA is hosting their chip conference in San Jose, dubbed the Woodstock of AI. But yet is the way Jack. and I see it. The real story here isn't the chip conference down in San Jose. The real story is Jensen. Jensen Huang is now worth $70 billion. But 61 years ago, he was born in Taiwan, then moved to

Thailand when he was five, and then he moved to Kentucky to go to boarding school. Jensen Wong cleaned bathrooms over the summers at that boarding school. And then he got into weightlifting, and now he could probably pin Zuck. But what's so interesting about Jensen is how long his success story took. Yetis, the idea for Nvidia, it actually began over 30 years ago at a Denny's fast food breakfast restaurant. If you visit the Denny's in San Jose, there's actually a plaque on the bench where Jensen Huang came up with the idea for Nvidia.

If you're in San Jose and you go to this Denny's and you see that plaque, we want to see the pick. Please send it to us. Back in 1993 over some pancakes and waffles, he decided instead of a general computer chip for any kind of computing, Jensen was going to develop a chip that does one kind of of computer, the graphics processing unit. And for the next 30 long years, Nvidia sold those chips to video game consoles and to biotech companies and they steadily grew and grew with the tech industry. But then in November of 2022, the AI era began and AI needed those GPUs. They need a lot of those Nvidia GPUs. And that artificial intelligence demand was so real

that the value of Nvidia has grown by $1 trillion in that period. Success has happens slowly and then it comes suddenly. Jensen puts it, success is a marathon, and it doesn't take years. It takes decades. That's why he does this when he wishes someone well. He also wishes them suffering. Interestingly, Jensen, the guy without a watch and with a big Nvidia tattoo worth $70 billion, hopes that you struggle for the reward. Because that makes it all the more worth it. Or at least it did for him. Maybe that's why he's not wearing the Shinole. So Jack, what's the takeaway for all our buddies in the tech industry. Jensen Huang isn't the king of tech. He's the king maker of tech. Our favorite part about researching this Jensen Wong story wasn't like just the wild things he said or the watches or the

tata. It's actually what others said about him. According to the Wall Street Journal, Larry Ellison, the founder and CEO of Oracle, took Jensen out to dinner in September to beg him for his chips. Apparently Larry Ellison and Elon Musk, wine, dined. They took Jensen out to Nobu and like basically begged him over the black cod $50 dish for more computer chips. Because there aren't enough computer chips and nobody makes the chip that Nvidia makes. Invity's chips are really machines. They are the crucial brain cells that compute AI. So meta, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Oracle, even Tesla. They can't execute their AI plans unless they get invidious chips. So whomever Jensen sells his limited chips to are the ones who will win the race for AI. Jensen isn't

the king of tech. He may be something more powerful. He's the kingmaker of tech. Jack, can you whip up the takeaways for us for Saviche Wednesday? Unilever is separating itself from its 30 ice cream brands. Soon, we're going to have ice cream ink led by Ben and Jerry's. With most deals, you can be rich or you can be king. But Ben and Jerry, they got both. For our second story, Mr. Beast's Beast games comes to Amazon Prime Video soon. A thousand people are going to compete for a $5 million prize. But the most expensive show on TV is actually the cheapest show on TV. And our third and final story is Jensen Huang. He decides who gets his limited supply of AI capable computer chips.

Jensen Wong, the founder of Nvidia, isn't the king of tech. He's the king maker. But yeties, this pod's not over yet. Here's what else you need to know today. First, happy Reddit IPO day. Reddit is the biggest IPO of the year in the United States and the first social media company to go public in five years. They'll begin trading today on the New York Stock Exchange, and they're targeting a six and a half

billion dollar valuation. Interestingly, Reddit set aside 8% of their stock for passionate users. So we'll cover this story tomorrow when we see what those passionate users end up doing with the stock. Second, Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant in Tennessee could be next to join the United Auto Workers. This would be the first non-Detroit car company in the United States to form a union. Although every Volkswagen plant in its home country of Germany is already in. year now. And finally, the numbers are in. The average Wall Street bonus dipped by 2% last year to

$176,000. Wall Street profits were up last year, but the banks are being more cautious about divvying out bonuses. Now, time for the best fact yet. This one is a surprise fact. Wipped up by Jack and me. Jack hasn't actually seen it yet, so I am just going to drop it on Jack. Who's whipped up by you? What do you got? Hit me. Here's the question, Jack. Trivia. Ben and Jerry's is famous for having a lot of different ice. But how many Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavors are on the market right now? So half-baked comes in like original dairy. They have a non-dairy version of half-banked.

Does that count as two different flavors? Sounds like a wordy answer to an I don't know exactly. I'm trying to figure out the parameters of the question. No, Jack, that is two different flavors. That is fair. You were laying the lane of the land. All right. And I'm going to say 60 flavors.

Jack, 60 flavors would fill your fridge, but 60 flavors would not fill Ben and Jerry's imagination. because Ben and Jerry have 98 different flavors of ice cream on the market right now. That was pretty close. That was not too sharp. Do you know how many are chocolate-based versus how many are vanilla-based? 50-50. Actually, only 20 of them are chocolate-based, 16 are vanilla-based,

and the remainder are just wild. Yeties, you're looking fantastic for Cevice Wednesday. And if you think you've got the best fact yet, or if you want to get a buddy a shout-out on this show, just head over to tboypodpod.com. We got a form there. And we also got a link in the episode description. In the meantime, we're going to go rename Chat, GPT,

and Jack and I will see you tomorrow. Before we go, a shout out to Sierra Smith from Chicago, who's running her very first marathon. And video would be proud. And happy birthday to Jordan Roseboro, who's turning 29 in Washington, D.C. And Ali Harrington's got a 31st birthday celebrating in Smear, to Georgia. Happy birthday to Raya L. Abdallah,

was turning nine and listening on the way to school in Dubai over in the United Arab Emirates. Raya is a legendary Yeti wishing her the best in class today because we know Raya, you're going to be singing the T-Boy jingle. Probably better than Mick and I can. Definitely better than us. This is Jack. I own stock of Amazon and Unilever.