Tonight, Modern Family hottie, Ariel Winter, shared a preview of her new lingerie photoshoot on her snapchat and she brought the heat as usual.

Here’s Ariel showing off her boobs in a fantastic GIF she shared on the social media site.

The post Ariel Winter Shows A Ton Of Boobage In Lingerie Photoshoot appeared first on BroBible.

There’s a Snapchat scandal unfolding and its thanks to leaked emails obtained by the website Mic.com. In the emails, pro-gun safety group Everytown for Gun Safety (a Michael Bloomberg charity) was told by Snapchat that they had to spend money with Snapchat’s Advertising branch or run the risk of Snapchat running pro-gun NRA ads on their gun safety campaign.

Everytown for Gun Safety was set to run an editorial campaign featuring families who have lost members to gunshot wounds, and this is a campaign that Snapchat Editorial was excited to partner with them on for National Gun Violence Awareness Day. When Everytown for Gun Safety first reached out to Snapchat about running the campaign they were quoted $150,000 by Snapchat’s head of political sales. While this was all happening, Snapchat’s news team had contacted Everytown for Gun Safety about running editorial free of charge because it’s a campaign they believed in, and the campaign feature high-profile celebrities like Kim Kardashian.

Since Snapchat’s editorial department offered to feature the campaign for free, Everytown for Gun Safety backed off of Snapchat’s political sales quote only to receive some fucked up emails.

via Mic.com:

In mid-May, shortly after Saliterman became aware that another arm of Snapchat was effectively undercutting him on a client he’d been working to secure, he sent an email to Everytown.
….
“I just learned our News Team is doing a Live Story on National Gun Violence Awareness Day,” Saliterman’s message began. “I would urgently like to speak with you about advertising opportunities within the story, as there will be three ad slots. We are also talking to the NRA about running ads within the story.”
Everytown responded via email, explaining it could not afford the advertising rate, but expressing concern about having its stories of lives lost to gun violence flanked by pro-gun advertising.
Saliterman explained that, as is standard of most media organizations, the editorial and advertising divisions of Snapchat operate independently of each other — a firewall that appears to have contributed in this case to one department’s effective sabotaging of another. He also again brought up the possibility that the NRA, which advertised with Snapchat during a presidential debate in 2015, would advertise on the package.
“That’s really unfortunate news on your budget, as Snapchat reaches 41% of 18-34 year olds in the U.S. on a daily basis and I don’t believe there’s a more efficient way to reach that audience,” Saliterman said in his final email to the charity. “To be clear, the story has the potential to be bought by any advertiser, including the NRA, which will enable the advertiser to run three 10-sec video ads within the story. This is analogous to how any advertiser could buy advertising in a TV news program about violence. The advertising will not impact the editorial content within the story as our teams are independent.”

If this is all legit then this is a pretty sketchy move on behalf of Snapchat, regardless of whether you stand with the NRA or the gun safety group at the center of this scandal. To try and extort a company for $$$$$ by threatening them with NRA ads is fucked up.

Once it became apparent that Snapchat’s editorial was offering up the campaign promotion for free the Sales branch should have backed the fuck off. Instead, it appears as if they tried to play off the charity’s worst fears and threaten to run pro-gun NRA ads on top of their pro-gun safety/anti-gun violence campaign.

To read about how Snapchat is responding to this unfolding scandal you can CLICK HERE to head on over to Mic.com.

The post Leaked Emails Shows Snapchat Threatened To Run Pro-Gun NRA Ads On Gun Safety Campaign Unless Company Paid Up appeared first on BroBible.

Twitter Composite

Snapchat’s recent IPO made a lot of people stupid rich. The IPO pushed the value of Snapchat to over $30 billion, despite it not making a cent in profit and losing $515 million in 2016. However, Snapchat sees over 2.5 billion snaps per day and the average user opens the app 18 times per day, a level of engagement that will undoubtedly have brands salivating.

Co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy made $272 million each from selling some of their shares, and now their net worth hovers around $5 billion based on the stocks first-day closing price. They are just 26 and 28-years-old, respectively.

One person who will not have the luxury of bathing in the Snapchat cash is Shark Tank special guest Chris Sacca. Sacca tweeted out a screenshot of an email that Snapchat co-founder Bobby Murphy sent him five years ago, one that he ignored. Regrettably.

In a December interview with CNBC, Sacca revealed why he didn’t pay any mind to Snapchat in its infancy stages. The short answer: nudes.

“The Snapchat guys came up to me after a talk once, and I said I’m really flattered but the pics of your junk… really? So I passed. Later I told my business partner ten years younger than I am and he lost his mind. (He said) ‘do you realize what Snapchat is?’ That probably cost me a billion dollars or two,” Sacca told CNBC.

Wow, what kind of LOSER takes a pass on a trillion dollar company?! Oh wait, BroBible did. Fuck.

Here’s our editor Brandon Wenerd talking about the one that got away. Props to Brandon for not breaking down in tears on air.

I could have been riding on a unicorn in Paradise right now, but instead I’m sitting in my cockroach infested apartment. Oh, the choices we make.

[h/t For The Win]

The post ‘Shark Tank’ Investor Chris Sacca Shares An Email Snapchat Sent Him In 2012 That He Regrettably Ignored appeared first on BroBible.

Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Snapchat had a DAY yesterday. The company that started off as a mechanism for your dick pics to go untraced went public yesterday, with stock prices closing at $24.48 per share–a mind-numbing 44 percent higher than initial expectations and the highest valuation of a US tech company since Facebook in 2012.

Evan Spiegel, the 26-year-old co-founder of Snapchat, is set to become the world’s youngest self-made billionaire on an idea that initially started as a class project at Stanford. In 2013, Spiegel turned down a $3 billion cash acquisition from Facebook that would have pocketed him personally $750 million dollars. Today, Spiegel’s net worth could hover around $5.5 billion.

Snapchat’s IPO made yesterday a good day for many other investors, including a high school in Mountain View, California  that invested $15,000 in the tech company just four years ago.

Saint Francis High School was one of the first investors in the company after they infused a small percentage of its endowment money in Snapchat in Snap Inc’s seed round of financing in 2012, according to CNBC.

The private Catholic high school whose tuition is $17,000 per year sold 1.4 million shares,  two thirds of its overall stake, for $17 per share at Thursday’s IPO. The school has yet to confirm the exact return on their investment, by officials cited by NBC estimate it to be a $24 million haul.

The school first got involved with Snapchat in 2012 after a parent of two Saint Francis High School students noticed his children’s obsession with the app. That parent also happened to be Barry Eggers, the founding partner of venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners.

After meeting with Snap co-founders Evan Spiegal and Bobby Murphy, Eggers was sold. His VC firm infused a $500,000 investment round, the company’s first. Lightspeed invested $485,000 and Eggers invited Saint Francis’ to throw down the remaining $15,000 from its investment fund, proving very very beneficial for both parties.

Lightspeed Venture Partners stake is now valued at over $1 billion.

[h/t CNBC]

The post A Small Investment In Snapchat In 2012 Made This California High School A Ton Of Money After Company’s IPO appeared first on BroBible.

Getty Image

Being a billionaire is great and all. But what’s the point of being rich beyond your wildest dreams if your friends aren’t rich as well? That’s the dream — Getting rich with your best buddies so you can ball out and live the American Dream together.

Now that they’re officially billionaires, that’s what 26-year-old Snapchat founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy plan on doing. Yesterday Snapchat went public on the New York Stock Exchange, making both Murphy and Spiegel worth about $3.9 billion each at the IPO price of $17 a share. After the IPO, Snap Inc’s shares have rocketed to over a $27, up 60%.

The two have a plan in place to make their “friends” rich in the IPO event. According to Business Insider, they saved a special pool of 14 million SNAP Inc shares at the IPO price of $17 for their friends. So it works as a securities option, with their friends able to buy in at $17 a share, even if the public market price is significantly higher.

The company said it was going to hold about 14 million shares, or about 7% of the stock, at the IPO price of $17 for “certain institutions as well as individuals who are friends of our executive officers, which may include existing investors or their affiliates,” according to the company’s S-1 filing dated March 1.

The real gem for these folks is that, unlike Snap insiders and some other investors, the friends likely aren’t subject to a lockup that keeps them from selling the stock right away. Snap’s stock popped when it went public on Thursday morning. After opening at $24 per share the shares have continued to rise – and are now 60% higher than the IPO price.

If Snapchat’s stock price rockets to the moon, there’s millions and millions — if not billions — of dollars to be made in those options. Murphy and Spiegel’s Bro move like this for their friends reminds me of how billionaire GoPro founder Neil Woodman made good on his promise to give 10% of GoPro to his college roommate, Neil Dana. Dana. Dana exercised his 4.7 million stock options in GoPro to the tune of $229 million in May 2015.

Given this news, all of us who started BroBible back in the day REALLY have some regrets about not responding to Evan’s e-mail back in his frat days at Stanford. Maybe there’s still some room in that share pool for us “certified Bros”

Maybe? Bueller? Buellller? Buelllller?

All the Bud Lights my blogger salary can buy next time you’re in New York, Evan and Bobby. But seriously, congrats and props for pull a Bro move in your IPO for your friends. That’s the dream.

The post The Snapchat Co-Founders Saved SNAP Inc. Stock Specifically To Make Their Friends Rich As Hell Too appeared first on BroBible.

Love this dude. He’s like the Johnny Utah x Spicoli of animal rescuers, saving this little turtle’s life and what not. Who knows how long that poor thing would be chillin’ there before becoming vulture food. He’s basically a stoner college version of Ace Ventura, Pet Detective.

Good work, young broslice. You’ve done your good deed of the day.

The post Bro Saves A Stranded Turtle’s Life, Documents It On Snapchat Like A Young Johnny Utah appeared first on BroBible.

Snapchat / Twitter

Ian Kahaloa is a prominent pitching prospect in Cincinnati Reds farm system, and he just got hit with a 50-game suspension for being a complete idiot on social media. The 50-game suspension was handed down as part of the minor league drug program put in place by Major League Baseball, and Ian Kahaloa was suspended after a video surfaced of him snorting what appears to be cocaine on Snapchat while getting tuned up.

Drugs and social media NEVER MIX WELL under any circumstances. I know this, you know this, and I’d like to think that Ian Kahaloa knew this but the video footage of him tooting a gator tail up the nostrils suggests otherwise:

If that Twitter video’s not loading up for you then you can access it directly on Twitter here.

Here’s another video showing drugs at the partay:

via SI Wire:

“We’re obviously really concerned,” Reds player development director Jeff Graupe told the Cincinnati Enquirer. “We’re working to get Ian the help and assistance that we believe he needs to get his long-term future to a more stable place. We’re kind of putting the baseball on the backburner.”
There are four total videos that were posted Kahaloa’s Snapchat account, and it appears that they were all recorded by someone else.
Kahala was a fifth-round pick by Cincinnati in 2015 and was playing for the Billings Mustangs of the Pioneer League at the time of his suspension. He will miss the majority of the season as the Mustangs season is only 75 games long.

Someone did him dirty by filming his Snapchat videos and sharing them, but he deserves this punishment for being a fucking idiot and posting himself snorting white powder to social media. Listen, I’m all about everyone ‘living their best life’ possible. I get it, party your fucking asses off while you can.

If life isn’t getting in the way then take each and every opportunity to live your best life. But, if you’re a prominent MLB prospect for the Cincinnati Reds and have a lucrative career in front of you then you REALLY NEED TO KEEP THAT SHIT OFF SOCIAL MEDIA. This reminds me of athletes and celebrities getting DUIs when they’re worth $50 million and can afford to have a full-time driver but actively choose to make stupid decisions.

(H/T SI Wire)

The post Drugs And Social Media Don’t Mix, Just Ask This MLB Prospect Blowing Coke On Snapchat appeared first on BroBible.

Getty Image

On Monday, as the annual White House Easter Egg Roll was taking place (and getting roasted on Twitter), several very odd things happened.

First, President Trump’s wife Melania, an immigrant, had to remind The Donald to put his hand on his heart during the playing of the national anthem.

At another point in the festivities Trump signed a kid’s MAGA hat and rather than hand it back to him Trump just tossed it into the crowd.

The topper to the day in Washington, however, had to be when the White House decided to Snapchat a photo of Betsy DeVos reading to a group of kids on the lawn. See if you notice anything off about the caption?

Needless to say, Twitter ate this ironic typo up with a spoon…

Unfortunately, or fortunately I suppose, depending on your viewpoint, that might not have even been the worst typo of the day from the White House…

Congressioal. Wow.

The post The White House Snapchat HAD TO BE Trolling America With This Horribly Ironic Typo, Right? appeared first on BroBible.

dennizn / Shutterstock.com

Snapchat seems to update their app more than any of the major social networking apps in the world. Facebook’s app updates are disgustingly large, with update sizes over 250MB these days. Snapchat‘s updates are marginally smaller, but the app often requires updates several times a week. 99.999% of the time those apps are bullshit and don’t have any bearing on the user experience. However, the latest app update is actually, for the first time in Snapchat history, a definite game changer.

In the Snapchat update released earlier today, they’ve released ‘Limitless Snaps’. The new functionality will allow users to loop pictures and videos forever. When taking a video, you still hold down the center button as you always have but when you’re done filming the clip there’s an option to loop it once, as has always been the case, or set your snap to ‘infinity loop’.

You can see the two options here, with the Limitless Snaps option on the right:

BroBible

The new Limitless Snaps functionality was also announced in a blog post earlier today by Snap Inc., alongside the announcement of some other new functionality:

Today we’re making a pretty big change to the way you create and send Snaps. We’re reorganizing the layout of our creative tools, adding a Magic Eraser (you’ll find this under the Scissor tool), and adding a new setting to the timer: infinity!
We’ve all felt the frustration of not being able to fully enjoy a Snap – even after replaying it – and we wanted to give you the option of allowing the recipient to enjoy your Snap as long as they’d like. After your friend finishes viewing the Snap and taps to close it, it will delete as usual.
There’s also a new Loop tool for videos so you can decide if your Snap plays once or loops until your friend is ready to tap to the next Snap.
These changes allow us to continue evolving the Snapchat service and provide a foundation for introducing even more creative tools for making fun Snaps! We hope you enjoy it!

There’s no doubt that Snapchat’s feeling the pinch right now after recent estimates claim there are more daily users on Instagram Stories than there are using Snapchat.

It’s unclear if this is the industry-shaking move Snapchat needs to regain its audience from Instagram Stories, but it’s certain to at least make Snapchat users happier.

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The post For The First Time, Snapchat’s Latest Update Is Actually A Game Changer appeared first on BroBible.

ThomasDeco / Shutterstock.com

Dating in the 21st century is certainly different than it used to be back in the day. The advent of smartphones and social media have changed the entire way it’s done these days.

Used to be if you wanted to give someone a photo you had to get it developed from this thing called “film” and either mail (not e-mail) or deliver it to them personally.

Now, however, with apps like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and the like, it’s all done digitally. And the instantaneous nature of those apps can sometimes come back to bite you. HARD.

So let this guy’s story be a lesson to all who use apps like Snapchat to send pictures not meant for public consumption.

You see, this guy on Reddit, Chase, has a girlfriend named Haley. His sister is also named Haley. You see where this is going, right? He sent a photo to his sister that was intended for his girlfriend. One has to assume it wasn’t a picture of him just smiling at the camera.

That right there is what panic looks like.

One commenter, Meatslinger, made a very important point for all to follow, “Let this be a reminder to you all that every major phone brand lets you put in a person’s last name as well as their first when editing a contact.”

theafonis followed that up with, “You can also edit names on snapchat.”

While Bruxae may have said it best, “You can also not send dick pics. And show your gf in person, seriously I like to live by the rule that you don’t pass anything through the internet that you’re not willing to risk going public. There’s just so many ways it can go wrong.”

On the plus side, as 4ColorTheoremIsWrong put it, “At least she was a bro about it lmfao.”

Then again, as StinkyDogFarts put it, “Nobody needs to see pictures of your dick, Chase.”

Seriously, Chase.

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The post Guy’s Girlfriend And Sister Having The Same Name Almost Leads To Monumental Snapchat Mistake appeared first on BroBible.

Here’s your hand-crafted Brew for June 21st

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“If it’s going to be that long every time, I won’t order it.” ––McDonald’s customer on waiting for the all-new Quarter Pounder. Yikes, he’s got some serious beef…

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Market Snapshot

• Major U.S. indexes sunk following an energy sector sell-off.
• Nine out of eleven S&P sectors finished lower on the day.
• The dollar index rose to its one-month high on future Fed rate hike predictions.
• Oil dropped 2%, hitting a nine-month low.

On Instagram, Straight Flexin’

Instagram Stories just hit 250 million daily active users (as Spiegel’s smug look from yesterday slowly turns to a scowl).

Since last August, Stories has taken off faster than a toupee in a hurricane.

Don’t believe us?

Two months after release it hit 100 million users. By January, it scored 150 million. And in April, Instagram Stories landed 200 million daily active users.

Zuck shoots, Zuck scores.

But guess who isn’t scoring…

…Snap (-3.19%).

The company’s growth (at first) was impressive for an app that built its network from scratch. But in true Snap fashion, it didn’t stay for long.

Since the first quarter of 2016, Snap has only grown by 44 million daily active users. And while Instagram Stories grew 33% in the first quarter of 2017, Snap was hovering around only 5%.

To make matters worse, during the same period, only three million new users in North America hopped on the Snap bandwagon.

Why does that matter?

Maybe because Snap makes $1.81 per user in North America and only about $0.24 everywhere else.

Taking this one step further, Facebook (-0.41%) rakes in $19.81 per user (in North America).

A final thought to let Brew

Instagram is an app that boasts 700 million unique monthly users and a private valuation of $50 billion. Snap’s market cap as of Wednesday? $20 billion.

And with Insta continuing to roll out features like live video replays and location stories, let’s hope for Snap’s sake, Monday’s $100 million deal is the first of many…because this instababy looks like it’s on cruise control.

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Somebody Stop Amazon

Amazon (-0.26%)—it never ends, we’re sorry—just introduced Prime Wardrobe in its quest to take the hassle out of shopping and the money out of our wallets.

Just order (at least) three items from a laundry list of great brands and try everything on in the comfort of your home. If you don’t like something, don’t worry. Amazon will come by to pick it up.

Keep three items? You get 10% off. Keep five or more? Get 20% off. 10 items? You get Jeff Bezos.

Next up: Amazon Spoon-feed—they’ll strap you in a high chair, give you a bib and shove mushed applesauce down your throat. Right to your door. No effort required.

Changing Lanes

Sure it took a little while, but Uber finally launched a tipping option yesterday.

That’s right, you haven’t been tipping this whole time.

After fighting through a storm of negative press and Travis Kalanick’s recent leave of absence, Uber now presents: “180 Days of Change.”

The campaign looks to change the historically bad relationship Uber has had with its drivers. And the ride-sharing company is hoping that tips, two-minute cancellation fees and paid wait-times will be just the fix.

For now though, tipping is only rolling out in Seattle, Minneapolis and Houston, but if all goes well, it just might be coming to a city near you.

Built Ford Tough

Michigan legend Jim Hackett just made his first major move as Ford (-0.98%) CEO, sending compact car manufacturing to China.

The pivot from building a new Mexico plant to simply retooling its plant in Chongqing will save the #2 automaker $500 million annually.

Disclaimer: No U.S. jobs were harmed in the making of this decision.

In fact…at the same time, Ford is injecting $900 million into a Kentucky-based plant securing 1,000 blue-collar jobs.

Overall, Ford’s refocus(ed) strategies emphasize production of large SUVs and trucks as lower gasoline prices shift consumers’ attention back to good ol’ gas guzzlers.

What Else Is Happening…

• An installation failure in China is forcing Aston Martin to recall 1,658 cars.
• PayPal (-0.77%) launched “instant transfers,” a service that can deliver funds to your bank account in minutes.
• Boeing (-0.38%) unveiled its newest version of the 737 aircraft and secured more than 240 orders.
• Google (-0.64%) just introduced a new AI-powered job board.

Economic Calendar

• Monday: No events today
• Tuesday: Adobe Systems (+), FedEx (+), La-Z-Boy (+) Earnings
• Wednesday: Crude Inventories; Existing Home Sales
• Thursday: Accenture, Barnes & Noble, Bed Bath & Beyond, Carnival, Sonic Earnings; Housing Price Index
• Friday: BlackBerry, Finish Line Earnings; New Home Sales

Gimme 5…Fintech Startups

Fintech is disrupting everything from banks to consumers, so this week, we’re bringing some of the hottest startups in the space right to your inbox.

1. Metromile
   • Founded: 2011
   • Raised: $200 million
   • About: Metromile is a pay-per-mile auto insurance company that has the potential to save low-mileage drivers tons of cash—we know you like your cash.
2. SoFi
   • Founded: 2011
   • Raised: $1.8 billion
   • About: SoFi makes student debt more affordable and manageable by taking banks out of the equation. Quickly source loans, reduce monthly payments and never miss an opportunity to refinance.
3. Digit
   • Founded: 2015
   • Raised: $36.3 million
   • About: Digit makes saving easier for the average millennial by tracking daily spending habits and saving up any extra money not spent. And why spend, when you can save.
4. Betterment
   • Founded: 2008
   • Raised: $205 million
   • About: Betterment personalizes investment services through a portfolio of ETFs in taxable accounts like IRAs and Roth IRAs. Investing doesn’t have to be such a headache, folks.
5. Robinhood
   • Founded: 2013
   • Raised: $176 million
   • About: Robinhood offers free trading for the small-time investor…and it already has over two million users. Can we get a golf clap, please.

Interview Question of the Day

Your teacher asks your class to find the sum of the first 50 odd numbers. A student immediately shouts out, “The sum is 2,500.” Thinking it was a lucky guess, your teacher then asks for the sum of the first 75 odd numbers. Within 20 seconds, the same student was back with the correct answer of 5,625.

(How?)

Who Am I?

1. I control over 200 companies.
2. Forbes ranked me the world’s richest man from 2010-2013.
3. I have a 17% stake in the New York Times.
4. I am primarily known as the CEO of Telmex.

(Who am I?)

Stat of the Day

1.6 billion

The number of credit cards in circulation as of 2013. That’s enough to circle the earth…3.5 times. We’re afraid to ask what that number is now.

The post Will The Success Of Instagram Stories Be The Death Of Snapchat? Plus Amazon Is Making Moves…Again appeared first on BroBible.

ThomasDeco / Shutterstock.com

Bill Bellamy of MTV’s How To Be A Player would be ashamed by this man’s tactics. If you’re going to juggle multiple relationships you need to be careful and methodic. Sloppiness is what will get you caught, and getting caught likely means that screenshots will be taken and you’ll wind up on the Internet looking like a total ass hat.

This guy named Nathan accidentally sent a Snapchat group message of ‘hey beautiful :)’ to a group chat later named ‘Nathan’s Beautiful Girls’ by one of the girls, which as an aside is the saddest group chat name I’ve ever heard. Nathan appears to have thought he was dating all 7 of these chicks even though he’d never met some of them in person. After group messaging them all and realizing what he’d done, Nathan went running to the hills to hide his shame (via Mashable):

Mashable / Chrissa Harris

Mashable / Chrissa Harris

Mashable / Chrissa Harris

Mashable / Chrissa Harris

Mashable / Chrissa Harris

If you’re Nathan, is there any way to get out of this while maintaining at least one of the relationships? And how to you come to grips with the fact that you thought you were ‘dating’ one or more chicks that you’d never even met? To me, that’s the saddest part in all of this.

Some of these girls told Mashable Nathan thought they were dating but they’d never even met him….How the fuck are you going to be dating someone when you’ve never met them and/or don’t even know if they’re a real human being?! I don’t see anyone out for Nathan. He dug his own grave this round and he’ll have to sleep in it.

The post Dude Accidentally Group Messages ‘Hey Beautiful’ To 7 Girls On Snapchat At Once, Gets Roasted appeared first on BroBible.

ThomasDeco / Shutterstock.com

Snapchat was once a promising tech stock, but it has had major growing pains since going public. On Thursday, the popular social media company revealed it has 173 million daily active users in Q2, which is up more than 20% since last year. You would imagine that would be seen as fantastic news and cause the stocks to rise, but the numbers did not impress Wall Street. Investors were expecting at least 175 million daily users. Snapchat had a whopping $181.7 million in revenue, a staggering 153% increase from last year. You would imagine that would be seen as fantastic news and cause the stocks to rise, but the numbers did not impress Wall Street. Investors were expecting more than $186 million. Snapchat has had growth, but its net loss also bloated to $443.1 million, from $115.9 million a year ago. Snapchat is on pace to lose more than $1 billion in 2017.

Only five months after the social messaging service went public, Snapchat has seen a rollercoaster of ebbs and flows on their stock. Snap, Snapchat’s parent company, had an IPO of $17 in March, hit a high of $27, but on Friday Snap closed at $11.83. The company had lost 14% of its value in a single day’s trading.

In what must be a monumental slap in the face, Instagram Stories is surging, a feature Instagram copied from Snapchat. Instagram’s Stories feature only launched last August but has 250 million daily users, over 75 million more than Snapchat. With the Facebook-backed Instagram having features nearly identical as Snapchat, investors worry about the growth of Snapchat since it has stolen Snapchat’s momentum. Snapchat’s growth in daily users has slowed to only a few million each quarter, the same major issue for Twitter.

During Snap’s Q2 conference call on Thursday, CEO Evan Spiegel said the company had made improvements to its Android app, but there were certain issues that required more significant structural changes that could creep into 2018.

“We’ve seen great traction with many of our new products, from lenses and creative tools that inspire Snap creation to Search, Maps and Memories that provide new ways to view snaps,” Spiegel said. “Although many of these products are in their infancy, we should be able to improve them quickly as our community adopts them and lets us know how we can better serve their needs.”

[CBSNews]

The post Is Snapchat In Trouble? Snap Stock Hits All-Time Low After Plunging 14% In One Day appeared first on BroBible.

AlesiaKan / Shutterstock.com

Sooo…how much money did you make as a teenager? Did you have a paper route? Maybe you had a job someplace like McDonald’s or Wendy’s? Or did you just depend on your parents for an allowance?

Now then, how much money do you now make as an adult? Are you happy with your income? Are you killing yourself to make ends meet?

If so, you’re really going to hate this story.

That’s because there is a better than average chance that there are teens out there, even as young as 13, making significantly more money than you do. And the kicker is, they’re doing it by using Snapchat, of all things.

Reports the Post…

Using Snapchat-focused product Fanbytes, popular users of the platform are getting connected with brands like Universal and Charlotte Tilbury to collaborate on advertising videos targeting people under the age of 21.

Co-founder Timothy Armoo said the service has worked on over 300 campaigns with its 1,000 influencers who attract between 10,000 and one million views per Snap.

“Last month, our highest earner was a 17-year-old kid who got $7,000 through delivering ads in our network,” he told Adweek. “The average person is making around $2,000 a month.”

Each influencer is given a “Fanbytes Score,” which helps determine how much cash they will receive from the advertising — those with up to 25,000 followers can expect to earn around $1,500 per month, while those with 150,000 plus receive upwards of $6,500.

Ummm… the average person is making around $2,000 a month? What does a teen do with that much money? Better yet, what does a teen do with $7,000 a month?!

Many of the people who have succeeded using Snapchat already had a following…on YouTube.

One such example of that is 20-year-old Drew Gilchrist, AKA @DrewIsSharing. Yeah, this guy…

According to the Post, his “content is largely focused on weed, with his controversial videos offering advice on things like how to get drugs and roll joints.”

Amazing.

Welp, I guess there’s really only one thing I can say about all of this…

[protected-iframe id=”882d2147a855693ed57885f2f8f9f3ec-97886205-92827192″ info=”https://giphy.com/embed/vT06Z0n45nUhG” width=”640″ height=”256″ frameborder=”0″ class=”giphy-embed” allowfullscreen=””]
 

H/T FHM

The post Teen ‘Influencers’ Are Earning Thousands A Month Using Snapchat So Enjoy Your Ramen Dinner Tonight appeared first on BroBible.

ThomasDeco / Shutterstock.com

Starting this week, ESPN is rolling out a new SportsCenter show that’s being made exclusively for Snapchat. It will air at 5am and 5pm (EST), and while it’s possible there will be a carousel of regular rotating hosts, today’s premiere will be hosted by Katie Nolan.

ESPN announced this move today on their MediaZone blog:

SportsCenter on Snapchat will be hosted by a dynamic roster of ESPN talent, each with his or her own unique point of view, providing diverse perspectives and personality to every show. Today’s first show will be hosted by Emmy-winning sports personality Katie Nolan, who recently joined ESPN. Other hosts for SportsCenter on Snapchat include Elle Duncan, Cassidy Hubbarth, Jason Fitz and Cy Amundson.
“SportsCenter on Snapchat provides a creative new format and platform for our flagship franchise to continue to evolve,” said Connor Schell, ESPN executive vice president, content. “Katie, Elle, Cassidy, Jason and Cy collectively bring a new style, energy and substance that I believe will connect with Snapchat’s audience in a real way. I’m thrilled to bring this level of talent and personality to a new and innovative daily touchpoint for ESPN.” (via)

I’ll be honest, I think this is a great move for ESPN and it’ll be great to see Katie Nolan getting more coverage. I used to share a desk with Katie Nolan when we worked together on Guyism years ago, and it’s been wild to see her career explode over the past few years. I just hope that this doesn’t mean ESPN will be keeping her tucked away on Snapchat and not on TV.

ESPN has been an exclusive content provider on Snapchat for over two years now, but it’s interesting to see ESPN devote additional resources to Snapchat when the social media platform is slowly being made obsolete by Instagram’s stories. I think this is a great deal for Snapchat, getting exclusive SportsCenter content with Katie Nolan, but I think ESPN might be sleeping on Instagram here.

You can click here to visit ESPN’s Media Zone to see the full press release.

The post ESPN Is Launching ‘SportsCenter’ On Snapchat Today And Your Girl Katie Nolan Is Hosting appeared first on BroBible.

Editor’s Note: Welcome to a daily column we run here at BroBible breaking down the day’s biggest stories in sports finance with commentary from the equities analyst and sports fanatic perspectives. It comes to us via our friends at JohnWallStreet, publisher of a free e-mail newsletter focused on sports related public equities and their subsidiaries. You can sign up here.

Trey Wingo Opines on NFL Headlines

ESPN’s long-running morning drive radio show Mike & Mike, is coming to an end; with the last show scheduled for Friday. Beginning Monday November 27^th, Mike Golic will be joined in studio by new co-host Trey Wingo. Golic & Wingo will air weekdays from 6-10a EST, with simulcast on ESPN2 (moving to ESPNU in January). JohnWallStreet had the opportunity to catch up with the guys to discuss finance, the NFL and their new show. In part 2 of a 3-part series, Trey discuss his thoughts on some recent NFL finance-related headlines.

JWS: Reports have indicated that the Tennesse Titans are having difficulty selling a 33% share of their franchise at $2.05 billion valuation. Is it possible “there are no buyers” (as stated in the report)?

Trey: Buffalo has the longest playoff drought in the league (17 years) and they sold for $1.1 billion dollars, so you can’t tell me there isn’t interest in buying a team. The question is what are you selling?  If you are going to put that kind of money in and have no say, I can understand why there wouldn’t be a lot of interest there.

JWS: Mark Cuban predicts that NBA broadcast rights will continue to skyrocket, do you foresee similar growth with future NFL media rights?

Trey: The NFL’s (media rights) will skyrocket too and I’ll tell you why, they still have not sold one of their biggest bargaining chips; streaming rights. Those will be available to somebody in the next round. The NFL is keeping television alive. Thursday night football exists because people will pay a significant amount of money to put it on television. If somebody were to walk away from that contract, 3 other networks would happily pick up that package. They may not make as much money as they would have 10 years ago, they’ll still make money on it; hand over fist.

JWS: Several leagues have started to broadcast games in virtual reality. Is it a gimmick or the future?

Trey: The best way to watch a sporting event is still in front of a big TV, with other people around (Golic chimed in “with some beverages”). It’s a communal event. The 3D thing isn’t going to work because you put on those glasses and suddenly you aren’t having the interaction. If you can find a way to do 3D without the glasses, money; until that happens, VR takes away from the communal spirit of watching the game.

Does ESPN need the NFL?

Trey: That’s a question for people above my pay grade. People will tell you though, that the most significant day in ESPN history was in 1986 when they got Sunday night rights.

Howie Long-Short: “There are no buyers” for Susie Adams Smith’s stake in the Titans franchise, because they’re asking for more than $665 million for minority interest with no path to control.  Complicating matters, the buyer must also be willing to purchase the other assets within the KSA Industries conglomerate (which Smith owns); oil & energy businesses, a ranch and auto dealerships. The article insinuates that the 33% stake could be sold for less than the $2.05 billion Forbes valuation. No chance. There isn’t a single scenario in which an NFL franchise sells for at less than a $2 billion valuation. The Nets just sold for $2.3 billion, without the building!

Fan Marino: Did you know that the NFLPA has a startup accelerator? One Team Collective, which launched last December, invests in data analytics, wearables, consumer products and content that improve the lives of professional athletes, their fans and athletes everywhere. The company has invested in 2 start-ups to date; WHOOP (fitness wearing trackable) and StatMuse (Siri-like app with player voices).

Short-Form SportsCenter Now on Snapchat

ESPN (DIS) launched a new short-form version of its flagship show SportsCenter on Snapchat (SNAP) Monday evening. The 3-5 minute show has been “re-imagined” for a younger, mobile demographic and the new platform; though it will still be comprised of sports news, highlights and commentary. SportsCenter on Snapchat will air weekdays at 5a and 5p (just 5a on weekends) on Snapchat Discover. While terms of the deal were not disclosed, the companies will share the revenue generated.

Howie Long-Short: This partnership looks to be mutually beneficial. 47% of teenagers list Snapchat as their favorite social media platform, so ESPN was wise to bring their flagship show to where their future audience is hanging out. SNAP has been actively working to expand its sports programming and while it has deals in place with the NFL, F1, Turner Sports and the NBC for the Olympics; it never had a daily sports show. Unfortunately, SNAP’s Q3 ’17 earnings report wasn’t as promising. The company reported a quarterly net loss of $443 million and grew its user base QOQ just 2.9% (4.5 million new users), its lowest ever growth rate.

Fan Marino: At 35 years old, I’ve never downloaded the Snapchat application; but this partnership may change that. Short-form SportsCenter has me intrigued. The hosts named thus far are Katie Nolan, Elle Duncan, Cassidy Hubbarth, Jason Fitz and Cy Amundson. While Nolan is a household name, the other 4 are relatively unknown entities. With upcoming layoffs expected to hit the SC franchise hard, I’m not surprised to see the names of anchors that likely command lower salaries (Nolan being the exception).

Note: The summary for this story was co-written by our friends at The Water Coolest. Check out TheWaterCoolest.com for the latest market news and professional advice.

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Rapid Consolidation Within the Ski Industry

Vail Resorts (MTN) and Aspen Skiing Co. have led an industry wide consolidation that has dawned an era of multi-resort seasonal passes; providing skiers discounts on lift tickets, a hedge against warm winters and incentives to visit different mountains. Within the last 12 months, Vail Resorts bought Vermont’s Stowe mountain and acquired Whistler-Blackcomb Holdings for a record $1.3 billion; while Aspen Skiing Co. (in partnership with KSL Capital Partners) bought 6 resorts from Intrawest Resort Holdings for $1.5 billion and 4 additional properties from Mammoth Resorts. Independent mountains, feeling the pressure to remain competitive, are also banding together to provide comparable offerings.

Howie Long-Short: MTN and Aspen Skiing have used acquisitions to take market share within the ski industry. There isn’t much of an alternative. No new ski resorts have been built in North America in nearly 40 years as environmental regulations and enormous infrastructure costs prevent new destinations from being developed. As of September 24^th, MTN North American 2017-2018 pass sales were up 17% YOY. The company will next report earnings in December.

Fan Marino: Vail Resort Inc.’s top of the line multi-mountain seasonal pass includes unlimited access to all 15 MTN owned resorts plus bonus days at 30 partner resorts in Europe. The RFID-enabled Epic Pass costs $899. Looking to get in some runs before Thanksgiving? Vail Mountain will open as scheduled on Friday November 17^th. Breckenridge and Keystone, 2 other MTN resorts opened last Friday.

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What is JohnWallStreet?

JohnWallStreet is not a person or location, but a destination for the educated sports fan.

While we won’t be publishing “hot takes” on LeBron’s relative greatness to Jordan, we will be offering up the most relevant sports related finance news, in easily digestible bites, with commentary from both the equities analyst and sports fanatic perspectives.

We’ll cover publicly traded professional teams & stadiums, television networks, apparel & footwear companies, equipment companies, ticketing companies, content and facilities providers. If it trades on Wall Street, and has a sports angle, it’s in our wheel house.

Howie Long-Short and Fan Marino will be providing their expert opinions on each story. They have slightly different areas of expertise. Fan Marino is a firm believer that the SEC is the premier football conference. Howie Long-Short knows it as the Securities & Exchange Commission. Fan Marino lives and dies with the college selection of 5 star, blue chip recruits. Howie Long-Short spends his days analyzing blue chip stocks. Howie Long-Short knows that Black Monday occurred on October 19th, 1987. Fan Marino swears it happens every January after Week 17. You get the point.

The post Sports Finance Report: Short-Form SportsCenter Coming To Snapchat, Trey Wingo On NFL Headlines appeared first on BroBible.

ThomasDeco / Shutterstock.com

Snapchat is developing a new “Stories Everywhere” feature where content could be shared outside of the app, according to live-streaming financial news network Cheddar. Stories Everywhere would be similar to Twitter embeds, allowing Snapchat content to be easily shared outside of the app such as including the content on websites. Cheddar reported that Snapchat could share content on other platforms through a web player that also prompts people to sign up and download the app. This is the latest move by Snapchat to compete against other social media giants such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

This month, Snap hired Rahul Chopra, who is the former CEO of Storyful, the content provider that shares stories on social media and was purchased by News Corp for $25 million in December of 2013. Chopra’s LinkedIn profile title reads “Head of Stories Everywhere, Content” at Snap Inc. and he is the former Senior Vice President and Global Head of Video at News Corp.

Snapchat is hoping that the embeddable Snaps will be used by news, entertainment, and sports sites. Allowing Snapchat content to be shared across a broader web ecosystem should provide Snap with more exposure which should spur growth and be more enticing to advertisers. Snap could potentially get into the content licensing game for added revenue. Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., declined to comment on the possible new developments.

Cheddar also reported Snap’s goal in 2018, which includes the “increase the overall output of content in the redesigned Discover feed, widen content distribution, and double-down on news.” Earlier this month, Snapchat announced a new desktop app called Lens Studio for Mac and Windows. The app allows Snapchat users to design their own Snapchat Lenses.

Snap went public in February and is attempting to find ways to increase user growth and make their social media platform more profitable. Snap had an atrocious third quarter after badly missing expectations and causing its stock to nosedive. Snapchat only had 3% user growth from the previous quarter, had a 60% drop in advertising rates, and took a $40 million charge for overestimating the demand for its Spectacles glasses. Plus Facebook and Instagram have successfully replicated many Snapchat features that were once exclusive to the company. Currently, Facebook and Instagram don’t allow embeds on Stories, so this could give Snapchat an edge.

[Cheddar]

The post Snapchat Developing ‘Stories Everywhere’ To Share Content Outside The App appeared first on BroBible.

GREEN BAY, WI - SEPTEMBER 10: The name of the late Reggie White of the Green Bay Packers, inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame this summer, is unveiled before a game between the Packers and the Chicago Bears on September 10, 2006 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Editor’s Note: Welcome to a daily column we run here at BroBible breaking down the day’s biggest stories in sports finance with commentary from the equities analyst and sports fanatic perspectives. It comes to us via our friends at JohnWallStreet, publisher of a free e-mail newsletter focused on sports related public equities and their subsidiaries. You can sign up here.

Rising Cap, CBA Clauses Change NFL Team-Building Strategy

The NFL salary cap has risen from $120 million in 2012 to $167 million in 2017, escalating $10 million annually over the last 4 years; while the value of rookie contracts has simultaneously declined after the players negotiated to increase cap allocation for veterans, within the 2011 collective bargaining agreement. The current CBA also allows for teams to roll over available cap space to the next season, creating a situation where teams can stockpile money (see: Browns, 49ers and Jets all have over $100 million to spend this offseason). Those large sums of available cap space have changed the perception that free agency is a collection of desperate teams overpaying to acquire talent on the decline, to a viable roster-building strategy with empirical data to support those beliefs; 6 of the top 10 spenders during the 2016 offseason made the 2017 playoffs, with the Jaguars (spent $20 million more than anyone else last offseason) turning it around from 3-13 to 10-6.

Howie Long-Short: NFL players are underpaid relative to athletes in other professional sports. Their careers are shorter, their contracts are rarely guaranteed in full and there are simply far more players divvying up the revenue allocated. NFL teams also don’t tie contracts to a percentage of the salary cap, so as the cap rises, star player contracts become relative bargains. Only once a player receives a franchise tender (a tactic used to retain valuable free-agents) is the contract tied to a percentage of the salary cap, and even then, it’s an average of the Top 5 players at the position or a 120% increase from the year prior; far less than a player could earn on the open market.

Fan Marino: The Jets gave up a 1^st and 3^rd round pick to acquire restricted free-agent (and current HOF) Curtis Martin in March of 1998. There was another 1998 free-agent signing that receives far less acclaim, but deserves to be recognized among the all-time great free-agent acquisitions. In February of 1998, the Jets made Center Kevin Mawae the highest paid player at the position with a 5-year $17 million contract. Mawae, who went on to play 8 seasons with the Jets, including 7 times as a First Team All-Pro, is a 2018 HOF finalist. Pro-football-reference.com, compares Mawae’s career to those of Mike Webster, Gene Upshaw, Jim Otto, Larry Allen, John Hannah, Gary Zimmerman, Will Shields, Walter Jones and Jonathan Ogden. What do all those guys have in common? Their busts reside in Canton, Ohio.

Kering to Spin Off Puma SE, Focus on High-Margin Luxury Brands

Kering (OTC: PPRUY) has announced plans to spin off a majority stake in Puma SE (PMMAF), enabling the company to focus on its high-margin luxury brands Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga. CFO Jean-Marc Duplaix indicated the group would also look to rid itself of the boardsports label Volcom. The company will distribute 70% of Puma shares to its investors, reducing its own stake to 16%. The transaction price will be determined at April’s shareholder meeting. PPRUY shareholder Groupe Artemis (see: Francois Pinault), will become PMMAF’s largest shareholder; controlling 29% of the company.

Howie Long-Short: Kering paid $6.4 billion for Puma in 2007, slightly above the current market cap ($6.1 billion); despite the stock price climbing 45% over the last 12 months. Despite not yet having capitalized on the turnaround (profits fell from $324 million in ’07 to $6.3 million in ’13, before rising to $161.5 million over the first 9 months of ‘17), it makes sense for Kering to sell their sportswear (and lifestyle) brands; as Duplaix explained, the company has found itself in “a sort of imbalance, linked to the outperformance of the luxury sector.” In other words, their sportswear businesses were dragging down the overall performance of the company; particularly Gucci, among the hottest names in fashion.

Fan Marino: PMMAF, the German footwear and sports apparel manufacturer, will report full year earnings on February 12^th; after having increasing profit guidance 3x in 2017. The company turnaround can be attributed to a refocusing on the world’s most popular sports (soccer, running, motorsports) and a boost in women’s sportswear sales. Puma publicly stated it welcomes the transaction, but shares closed -4.4% on Thursday amid concerns the company lost a powerful backer.

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Fox Sports Announces WC Content Partnerships with Twitter, Snapchat

Twenty First Century Fox Inc.’s (FOXA) Fox Sports, which holds the exclusive English broadcast rights to the 2018 World Cup, has announced several content partnerships that will expand their coverage beyond the television screen. FOXA announced plans to stream exclusive digital content on Twitter, Inc. (TWTR), including 27 live shows (30 minutes per) and near real-time highlights of every goal scored. On Snapchat (SNAP), the broadcast network will create “Publisher Stories” using video, text, artwork and motion graphics to comprehensively document every day of the tournament. SNAP will also produce FIFA World Cup “Our Stories”, featuring highlights and exclusive fan reactions. The 2018 World Cup, hosted by Russia, runs from June 14^th through July 15^th.

Howie Long-Short: To boost advertiser interest, Snapchat commissioned a recent study (using internal data and insight from Nielsen) on the company’s “unique audience”; users more active on SNAP than they are on other social platforms. The study focused on a subset of users interested in sports and sports-related content. It found SNAP users are more likely to be sports fans (i.e. watch, attend, stream games) than non-users, are more active on their smartphones at sporting events (important to activate and connect with fans) and “feel a stronger connection to sports” (i.e. spend more on officially licensed products). That sounds like a platform all sports leagues might want to explore.

Fan Marino: Twitter is reportedly exploring the concept of implementing micro-payments that would enable sports fans to watch the endings of close games; think iTunes for sporting events. I don’t see it. Fanatics (or gamblers) who would care about the ending of a close game, already have access to the out-of-market packages. The casual fan will simply continue to catch the highlights as soon as the game ends, for free. Proponents of this idea point to video games and the success in-game micro-payments, but gamers are engaged. I don’t believe that’s a valid case study.

Still reading?  Make sure to sign-up for our free daily newsletter

What is JohnWallStreet?

JohnWallStreet is not a person or location, but a destination for the educated sports fan.

While we won’t be publishing “hot takes” on LeBron’s relative greatness to Jordan, we will be offering up the most relevant sports related finance news, in easily digestible bites, with commentary from both the equities analyst and sports fanatic perspectives.

We’ll cover publicly traded professional teams & stadiums, television networks, apparel & footwear companies, equipment companies, ticketing companies, content and facilities providers. If it trades on Wall Street, and has a sports angle, it’s in our wheel house.

Howie Long-Short and Fan Marino will be providing their expert opinions on each story. They have slightly different areas of expertise. Fan Marino is a firm believer that the SEC is the premier football conference. Howie Long-Short knows it as the Securities & Exchange Commission. Fan Marino lives and dies with the college selection of 5 star, blue chip recruits. Howie Long-Short spends his days analyzing blue chip stocks. Howie Long-Short knows that Black Monday occurred on October 19th, 1987. Fan Marino swears it happens every January after Week 17. You get the point.

The post Sports Finance Report: Rising Cap, CBA Clauses Change NFL Team-Building Strategy appeared first on BroBible.

Shutterstock

After Facebook and Instagram have ripped off key features from Snapchat, Twitter joins the other social media platforms by snagging a Snapchat-style tool. Twitter is developing a tool to make it easier for users to post video instantly. The San Francisco-based company already has a working demo of the camera-oriented product, but it hasn’t been finalized. There is no timeline on the release of this new tool. Bloomberg reported that the tool could “change significantly over the next several months.”

Right now on Twitter, you need to use a separate camera app before uploading video to Twitter. But the new Snapchat-like feature will cut down the number of steps by allowing Twitter users to use a built-in camera option in the app to upload photos and cameras in seconds. Twitter is hoping that the new feature will increase engagement and entice users to upload more videos and capture more real-time events. Facebook and Instagram implemented a similar feature back in 2016.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey called the app’s user experience “confusing” in an interview with Recode in 2016. Dorsey also complimented Snapchat by saying they are “recognizing that we’re going to press buttons less and gesture more.” In recent months, Twitter has made several changes including doubling the character count to 280 and allowing users to thread multiple tweets.

[Bloomberg]

The post Twitter Is Developing A New Snapchat-Like Camera Feature appeared first on BroBible.

The Water Coolest is a free daily business news and professional advice email newsletter created for weekday warriors that is delivered fresh daily at 7 AM EST. You can subscribe at thewatercoolest.com.

THE HEADLINES

Estimated Read Time: 3 minutes and 19 seconds

SNAPCASH FLOW

Snapchat is like that friend from your hometown who still lives in his parent’s basement: he’s constantly disappointing everyone around him so when he does something even remotely positive the excitement is palpable. 

Evan Spiegel’s dick-pic sharing app lost $350M vs. a predicted $440M in Q4. That brings Snap’s total loss for 2017 to $3.45B. Daily active users (DAUs), one of Silicon Valley’s favorite buzzwords, increased by 8.9M in Q4. What size rock do you have to be living under to just be hearing about Snapchat now?

Snap’s stock rose above its IPO price on the good (read: not as bad as everyone thought) news. But there is optimism that Snapchat is ready to sit at the big kid table, having made updates to its interface (which has had mixed reviews), programmatic ad revenue is becoming more profitable and most importantly, your mom still hasn’t signed up for Snapchat.

Water Cooler Talking Point: “Will they just let Spectacles die already? They haven’t been cool since Evan Spiegal was still driving a Miata and dating non-super models. The fact that they are a line item in Snap’s earnings report is an insult to investor’s intelligence.”

SIZE MATTERS

What cures a headache caused by miles of red tape, countless design change delays and a $1B investment? Launching your car into orbit on your rocket. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy launch sent the largest rocket currently in use towards the heavens. This isn’t a rocket measuring contest but Elon’s isn’t quite as big as the Saturn V that carried astronauts to the moon.

Loaded with a Tesla Roadster, complete with a dummy dressed in a space suit, the Falcon Heavy took off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:45 PM on Tuesday. Musk’s Big F*ckin’ Rockets carry the thrust equivalent of 18 Boeing 747s.

After liftoff, the center core of the rocket, the part carrying Elon’s car, was supposed to break away and land back on one of SpaceX’s drone ship. That piece of the rocket apparently missed its mark, according to an unlisted live stream of the launch that continued after cameras stopped rolling. So basically we missed the best part. You’re better than that, Elon.

Water Cooler Talking Point: “At this point in my life, owning a brand new Tesla seems like a pipe dream. Launching that brand new Tesla into space? That’s a financial stratosphere we all hope to reach someday (pun intended).”

OVER-THE-TOP, A DISNEY STORY

Last year Disney announced that they would remove all of their movies from Netflix. The reason? They were planning to create a streaming service all their own. Don’t worry, you can still watch Toy Story 4 on Netflix through 2018.

Today Disney announced it is re-launching the ESPN app with an over-the-top feature called “ESPN plus,” that allows users to stream ESPN programs for $4.99/month. The “plus” translates roughly to “every f*cking sporting event ever.” The app will stream live sporting events not seen on other ESPN channels. If a live sporting event isn’t making it onto “the Ocho”, who is actually watching it? Right Cotton?

The ESPN Plus app is Disney’s answer to “cord-cutters” and “cord-nevers” who are “starting to adopt less expensive, over-the-top packages,” according to CEO Bob Iger. The app will stream over 10k MLB, NHL, MLS, collegiate, and Grand Slam tennis events. Disney’s stock jumped on the news. Consider that a fairy tale ending.

Water Cooler Talking Point: “I can’t wait to FINALLY see the Prairie View A&M vs. Texas Southern field hockey game this year. GO LADY PANTHERS!”

IN OTHER NEWS

• Steve Wynn is out as the CEO of Wynn Resorts after allegations of sexual misconduct. And to think, you just started to believe that rich guys in Vegas weren’t super creepy.
• Uber and Bell Helicopters are partnering to bring us flying taxis. The flying cabs will be functional by 2025 according to Uber. The bad news? “Get to the choppa” jokes are going to get old really fast.
• Game of Thrones directors David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are set to direct a Star Wars’ spinoff. We’re interested to see how they manage to work nudity into the Star Wars’ universe. 
• Doritos says they’re rolling out a new chip with less crunch and cheese dust made exclusively for women. There’s no way that this could end poorly. 
• US indices were up yesterday:
  • DOW: +2.33%
  • S&P 500: +1.74%
  • NASDAQ: +2.13%

TALKING SHOP

Professional motivation, tips, tricks, hacks & resources carefully-curated by yours truly. Something you’d like to see featured? Shoot me an email at team@thewatercoolest.com

LET’S GET IT ON

I’m not easily sold on things. So when one of my favorite new podcasts, American History Tellers, pulled the old bait-and-switch and tried to sell me on one of the other podcasts living on their network, Wondery, I was skeptical.

Meet Business Wars, a highly produced (think: NOT Joe Rogan rambling for 2 hours) podcast that mixes American Greed, those explainer scenes in the Big Short and Celebrity Death Match to create a story about two companies going at it the the no-holds barred gauntlet that is the world of commerce.

The first episode is about Netflix and Blockbuster trading hay makers in the mid-2000’s and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t picking sides like your grandmother watching day-time telenovelas even though she doesn’t speak Spanish.

(BTW, Business Wars didn’t pay me to say any of this)

SERVE AND PROTECT

Citizens of New York City can breathe a bit easier tonight, the biggest threat to their security and well-being is off the streets: police officer’s standard issue Nokia Windows phones.

Their new weapon of choice? iPhone 7’s.

So it got me thinking. What’s your preferred work phone? Blackberry, Android, iPhone … or do you go dark outside of working hours? Let me know at team@thewatercoolest.com

The post Snapchat’s Impressive Earnings; SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch; ESPN Cuts The Cord appeared first on BroBible.