Gold on gold on goldddd

Going for the gold: Gold giant Barrick acquires its rival for $6B

Barrick Gold agreed to buy Randgold Resources for $6B in an all-stock merger yesterday that will solidify Barrick as the world’s largest gold producer.

Still awaiting shareholder approval, the deal will give Barrick shareholders a 67% stake in the new company (Randgold investors keep 33%) giving them a market cap of $18.3B.

Gold mining ain’t what it used to be…

And even giants are banding together to weather the storm. Gold prices continue to flounder worldwide, falling below $1.2k per ounce last month in a 9% decline so far this year.

Barrick’s stock has fallen behind their closest production rival in recent years, as they decreased their gold production by more than 30% since 2013.

Now, they’re betting on Randgold’s ties to Africa

Barrick desperately needs to get back in the good graces of the resource-rich continent after selling off their African holdings 8 years ago.

Luckily for them, Randgold has a massive foothold in Africa, and Barrick is hoping their new partner’s dominant position will make up for production losses.

It’s helped so far...

Business Insider reports that the news raised stock prices for both companies; 2.7% for Barrick and 6.8% for Randgold.

Yeah, maybe gold isn’t really worth anything these days, but the merger gives the new company ownership over 5 of the top 10 gold mines, and, based on 2017 financial results, the new company would have pulled in a combined revenue of $9.7B with adjusted earnings of $4.7B.

BREAKING: Instagram’s 2 co-founders resign unexpectedly from Facebook

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the 2 co-founders of Instagram, resigned suddenly from Facebook yesterday after working there for 6 years.

Instagram has been a remarkably successful acquisition for Facebook: The company ballooned from $1B to more than $100B and now accounts for 29% of Facebook’s quarterly growth.

But this unexpected departure couldn’t come at a worse time for Facebook. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Instagram was one of the company’s most stable assets -- but now it could face turmoil, too.

Will settle for bronze: Sirius XM buys Pandora for $3.5B to keep up with Spotify and Apple

Sirius announced yesterday it will buy Pandora for $3.5B. Once the merger passes antitrust review, Sirius will become a $41B company with $7B projected for 2018 revenue.

But, with both companies struggling to expand, the merger is a last-ditch effort to hold ground against market leaders Spotify and Apple.

They were meant for each other...

But not necessarily in a good way. Pandora’s audience shrank from 76m to 71.4m in the past year, with just 6m paying subscribers -- a far cry from Spotify’s 180m listeners and 83m paying subscribers.

Sirius XM, on the other hand, only offers a premium paid radio product, losing revenue on millions of dads who refuse to upgrade their car radio (23m listeners use Sirius’ “trial” version, most without upgrading).

Execs hope the merger will offer Sirius listeners a new free listening option and add to Pandora’s audience size in the process. But if Pandora’s past performance is any indicator, investors should be wary.

Closing Pandora’s box

Since it was founded in 2000, Pandora has spent most of its life on the brink of extinction, begging employees to work for free for 2 years after going broke in 2001 before clawing its way back to a 2011 IPO.

Unfortunately for Pandora stockholders, the sale prices Pandora stock at $10.14 -- 37% lower than when the company IPO’d and at ¼ of the stock’s all-time high.

The new Sirius faces an uphill battle: Pandora and Sirius XM have 44.4m mobile monthly mobile listeners combined -- still short of Spotify’s 47.7m and Apple Music’s 49.5m.

Oh, you fancy, huh? Michael Kors challenges Euro-fashion with $2.35B Versace acquisition

American fashion company Michael Kors agreed to buy Italian brand Versace for $2.35B, positioning the “affordable-chic” Michael Kors brand to compete with Europe’s biggest and bougiest luxury fashion brands.

Fashion giants are buying each up other like trendy handbags

Consolidation is in this season: Luxury Italian suit-maker Ermenegildo Zegna bought American menswear outfit Thom Browne last month, and Swiss luxury titan Richemont purchased luxury e-commerce platform Net-a-Porter in May for $3.3B.

In American fashion, Tapestry (formerly Coach) acquired footwear company Stuart Weitzman in 2015 for $574m and handbag-maker Kate Spade for $2.4B in 2017.

American fashion is copying Europe’s style

High fashion has long been centered in Europe. Case in point: The world’s 3 biggest fashion conglomerates are Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (France), Richemont (Switzerland), and Kering (France).

Now, Michael Kors wants to beat European high fashion at its own exclusive game, purchasing British luxury shoemaker Jimmy Choo last year for $1.2B and now Versace.

But here’s the thing -- Kors might be fancy, but it’s not Versace-fancy. Kors handbags sell for under $500, while Versace’s start at $1.5k. Not all investors are convinced the company can pull off the merger: Kors shares fell more than 9.5% yesterday after the deal was announced.

Slack acquires email app Astro as it inches closer toward digital workplace domination

Last year, Slack predicted that cloud-based messaging channels will become the flagship form of business communication by 2025 -- and yesterday, the collaboration platform used by more than 8m people just got one step closer to achieving its vision.

Slack announced its acquisition of Astro, a Bay Area productivity startup that uses AI to highlight important information from your emails and calendar amid all the fluff.

Cuttin’ out the slack

This acquisition checks yet another box off the list for Slack in its quest to to become a one-stop virtual office (AKA, a GIF treasure trove) for companies worldwide.

Astro was founded in 2015 and last year introduced Astrobot, a Slack app that -- conveniently enough -- integrates email and calendars directly into Slack’s messaging platform.

Now, users won’t have to waste milliseconds of their precious day toggling back and forth across the tops of their internet browsers, deep in the criminal monstrosity that is the open tab labyrinth (tabyrinth!).

Slack is on a tear in the workplace

Slack snatched up Hipchat and Stride 2 months ago (both workflow productivity apps designed for corporate enterprises by Australian-based Atlassian).

Astro’s 28-person team will join Slack later this year, making it Slack’s largest team acquisition to date. Financial terms weren’t disclosed, but thanks to a new $427m in series H funding last month, we’re guessing they didn’t sweat the price tag.

361 days of sunshine, 36 miles of white-sand beaches, 137 parks, and 11 craft breweries

Is this heaven?

Nope, guess again.

This is the same place that, in 2017, ranked in the top 20 Best Places to Live in (Southern Living), one of the Best Towns in America (Outside Magazine), and the Top 5 Cities For Millennial Homebuyers (Bankrate).

Still don’t know where we’re raving about?

We’re talking about St. Petersburg, Florida

Or ‘St. Pete’ for the cool kids.

St. Petersburg sits in the sweet spot of big-city amenities, with small city prices -- making it the perfect launching point for young professionals and budding entrepreneurs.

Case in point: Kyle Taylor, the 30-year-old founder of the fastest-growing private US media company, The Penny Hoarder, now headquartered in -- where else? St. Pete.

With a booming art and restaurant scene, plus some of the best parks, coastlines, and hiking trails in the country, St. Pete has somehow managed to avoid the sky-high rents of San Francisco and NYC -- that’s a stat worth celebrating.

Honestly, the only question we have is: Why haven’t we moved there yet?

Balls in the air (noun)

1. Several different tasks competing for one’s attention simultaneously. 2. A catchall metaphor to explain how busy you are without explaining why.

Example:

Employee: Do you have time to review that 30-slide deck I prepped for the client pitch tomorrow -- can we run through it together?

Manager: *taking a selfie on new in-office scooter* Ahh man, to be honest I’ve got a lot of balls in the air right now... gonna have to take a rain check.

Employee: Anything I can take off your--

Manager: Nope, sorry, nothing you can help with. *Spends another 20 min crafting selfie caption*