Facebook’s Staffing Switch-Up

It’s no secret that Facebook has been under fire recently. 🔥 🚨 To add to the bad press, the tech giant’s CTO, Mike Schroepfer, announced that he would step down from his position next year.

Schroepfer wrote that “This is a difficult decision because of how much I love Facebook and how excited I am about the future we are building together.” Schroepfer shared (on his Facebook profile, the irony 😅) that he will be spending more time with his family and participating in philanthropy. He says will return to the company part-time in 2022. 🤔

The company promoted the company’s head of hardware, Andrew (“Boz”) Bosworth, to become Facebook’s new CTO. Bosworth is a former Harvard professor and his promotion will likely advance Facebook’s growing interest in hardware (Smart Ray Bans, video calling, and virtual reality). A leaked memo from a 2020 Facebook company meeting quotes Bosworth’s view on social media use:

“While Facebook may not be nicotine I think it is probably like sugar. Sugar is delicious and for most of us there is a special place for it in our lives. But like all things it benefits from moderation.”

Apparently, Facebook’s staff has mixed feelings about Bosworth. Facebook declined to comment on the staffing switcheroo. $FB closed +0.80%.

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Adobe Leads Day Of Breakups

Most of today’s stories were related to hookups in the market, but we also need to touch on some major breakups. 💔

The first and most prevalent news story was that Adobe and Figma have called off their $20 billion acquisition. The two companies have faced intense scrutiny from European regulators, today saying, “There is no clear path to receive necessary regulatory approvals from the European Commission and the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority.”

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Peloton’s New Partnership

With Peloton’s turnaround strategy not yet bearing the fruit it had anticipated, the company continues to lean on partnerships to grow market share. For example, in September, the company entered a 5-year strategic partnership with Lulemon to bring its content to the athleisure brand’s exercise app. It also made Lululemon Peloton’s primary athletic apparel partner. 👟

It’s still too early to tell whether or not that cooperative effort is working, but management seems to think further initiatives like it will help boost revenues. As a result, it’s partnering with TikTok to bring short-form fitness videos and other content to the social media platform.

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March Madness Continues At NYCB

When regular people talk about March Madness, they’re referring to college basketball. But when traders and investors talk about March Madness, they’re referring to a regional bank stock imploding.

We’re about a year out from three regional banks failing and/or being rescued, and now the sharks are circling New York Community Bancorp. The long story short, until today, is that the regional lender has too much commercial real estate exposure, weak internal controls over financial reporting, and a new CEO trying to right the ship. 🗞️

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Nio & Nikola’s Never-Ending Story

No matter the day, there seems to be an endless stream of electric vehicle (EV) industry news. Let’s get into today’s headlines. 📰

First up is China’s Nio, which just received an additional $2.2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi’s CYVN Holdings, which raised its stake to 20.1%. The fund had last invested in Nio during July, with a $1 billion investment. 

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