The Dive | Business News

Rupert Murdoch has stepped down from his media empire, handing over the reigns to his son Lachlan Murdoch. While a lot has been written about what Rupert Murdoch built, far less has been written about Lachlan’s thoughts on what to do with it. So we wanted to take a look. Today Sascha and Alec ask - what are Lachlan Murdoch’s plans for Fox Corp and News Corp? Want more Equity Mates? Click here .&nb...

Epic Games - maker of Fortnite - has been firmly embroiled in this stoush already for years.  Epic sued Apple in 2020 after the game company introduced its own payment system into Fortnite, which broke Apple's rules and ultimately got the company banned from the App Store.  A ruling in the US in April decided Epic had not shown that Apple has monopoly power… but despite this,  the f...

This episode, it’s another fast 3, as promised. What’s on the agenda? Well, Simon has an update about Elon Musk’s microchips that he plans to insert in our brains, Alec tells us why Audiobooks are at the centre of a stoush between Spotify and Apple, and also Bryce gets us up to speed with interest rates and what's coming down the pipeline for us. For all our Elon themed eps, check them out here ....

Sascha is joined by Eliza Owen from Core Logic to chat about their latest data. Together they discuss the market’s remarkable rally, in spite of rising interest rates, our ever-present rental crisis, and the rise of short-term resales - a new data trend for 2023. Want more Equity Mates? Click here .  In the spirit of reconciliation, Equity Mates Media and the hosts of The Dive acknowledge the...

On September 18, Michelle Bullock succeeded Dr. Phillip Lowe as the RBA Governor. Her term starts amid heightened national attention on the RBA's interest rate decisions. Add to this the fact the federal government is restructuring the RBA, and Bullock herself has noted emerging pressures on the financial system. This episode Sascha welcomes Jennifer Duke, Economics Correspondent at Capital Brief...

Sport is big business. That is something we’ve covered over and over again on this podcast.  From lucrative TV rights deals to oil-states funding rival leagues, it is impossible to escape the headlines of the amount of money flowing into sport. In Australia this reaches a fever pitch this weekend as our two biggest domestic competitions - the AFL and the NRL - host their grand finals.  S...

On the weekend, a friend of the pod was sitting in a pub owned by Britain's biggest pub company, Stonegate Group. If you have ever drunk in a pub in the UK there is a good chance it may have been Stonegate Group - their brands include Yates’s, Be at one, and the Slug & Lettuce, they have over 800 venues. Recently, they’ve introduced a ‘dynamic pricing’ policy across all their locations. Think...

Build, build and build some more. That sums up our government’s approach to our current housing crisis.  Just this month we’ve seen it from all levels of government. At a Federal Level, we’ve seen the government pass the Housing Australia Future Fund. At a state level, we’ve seen Australia’s biggest state - New South Wales - pass a budget with housing at the centre. And Australia’s second lar...

It’s another Fast 3 - the three stories that we thought you needed to hear this Friday. Today we’ll be talking about why Rotten Tomatoes scores aren’t so fresh, a massive discovery of lithium in the crater of a US volcano, and we’ve an update on those BMW heated seats. Sascha is joined by three of her Equity Mates colleagues to unpack these stories. Want more Equity Mates? Click here .  In th...

Last week we saw the biggest news on Apple’s calendar - Apple’s announcement of the new iPhone.  There was a time when the world sat up and marvelled at what Steve Jobs and his team had managed to squeeze into the palm of our hand, but now it is a pretty routine update - new colour, better camera, faster chip - then they wave us all goodbye and set the date in the calendar for next year.&nbsp...

If you’ve booked an AirBnB recently, it seems like we're drowning in a sea of house rules: no parties, quiet hours after 10 pm, laundry duties before departure, and the stern warnings to meticulously follow instructions or risk facing fines. But that’s not the only issue they’re facing. Major cities from New York to London to basically everywhere in Australia are facing housing shortages and rent...

2003 was the most recent high water mark for Australian Rugby. We were hosting a World Cupt on our shores, and we very close to winning it all, before losing to England in the grand final. In the following two decades, it was besieged by scandals, pandemics, and public court cases, resulting in Rugby Australia facing the brink of bankruptcy. Today Sascha and Alec talk about the pivot point Rugby A...

It’s another favourite of The Dive fans - 3 stories in 15 minutes. We’ve gone around the office and asked for the stories that are grabbing our attention. We’re chatting about the new music deal Universal have arranged with a French music streamer, the concrete crisis that’s the main conversation in the UK, and a battle that’s bringing two major streaming services head to head.  Want more Equ...

The extension of oil production cuts by Saudi Arabia is driven by its geopolitical and economic ambitions. Last week the Australian Financial Review wrote a Chanticleer column about these ambitions connect to the massive contract that Cristiano Ronado has recently inked. Sascha is joined by AFR journalist James Thomson to talk about this today. Want more Equity Mates? Click here .  In the spi...

It turns out that fake diamonds are having a moment. As a new threshold has been reached - Last year, lab-grown diamond jewellery surpassed 10% of the world’s total diamond jewellery sales for the first time.  Today Sascha and Alec ask - what is happening in the diamond industry?  And how is the traditional diamond industry responding to this surge?  Want more Equity Mates? Click he...

QANTAS has had an interesting time of late. Everything started well, reporting a recording $2.5 billion dollar pre-tax profit. But since that announcement it’s gone downhill. Australia’s national airline is now mired in multiple scandals, their CEO is getting grilled at Parliamentary hearings, and the Australian government is being accused of prioritising QANTAS’ bottom line over the concerns of t...

China has too much debt, has over-built infrastructure, has youth unemployment north of 20% and is facing a slow moving economic crisis as its years of unproductive spending are coming home to roost. That is a sentence you could’ve read in an economic publication at any time over the past 5 years. China’s collapse has been called before, and over the past few weeks we saw the latest round of dire...

EU food producers are incredibly protective of their products and the history that surrounds them - that’s why there’s such specific rules around who can make a Champagne, or Burgandy, when we’re really drinking a sparking wine or a glass of light pinot.  But it’s one thing to want to call your product by that name to get the accolades, and another to fabricate its origins to benefit from the...

There’s two big space stories that have happened recently that we wanted to talk about.  The world’s leading space company Space X had their financials leaked, and India has just landed on the moon - just the fourth country to do so.  Today Alec and Sascha chat about how these stories show how much cheaper space travel is becoming. Want more Equity Mates? Click here .  In the spirit...

The Commonwealth Games has not been having a great time of late. Here in Australia you couldn’t miss the headlines last month, when Victorian Premier Dan Andrews cancelled the event, citing a huge blowout in the budget as the reason behind the decision. This isn’t the first time the games has been without a home - last year, Birmingham stepped up to the host role four years early, when South Afric...

In July, the Australian government put a huge stimulus into the childcare system - increasing Child Care Subsidy payments for many families. In Australia, over one million households used childcare last year. That’s 1.275 million children - and there are two broad reviews currently underway. Still, even with significant funding - childcare is still really expensive for most families.  So when...

Bryce is back from holidays! While we’ve all been chained to our desks, covering multiple stories in detail, Bryce has been swanning about in Europe. Ok, that’s a little harsh, but he’s brought us a few topics to chat about today.  So, what’s the agenda? A company that was once valued at $47 billion dollars is now on its knees, Saudi Arabia seemingly has a blank chequebook when it comes to sp...

You may have recently seen the headlines that the founder of Barstool Sports recently bought his media company back for $1 after selling it for $840 million. That sounds like a pretty good deal… We knew there was more of a story there.  Today, Sascha is joined by Equity Mates colleague Alf Eddy to discuss how Dave Portnoy regained control of the massive media empire BarStool Sports all for a...

Earlier this week, we read that the skies above Melbourne and Adelaide have ghost planes flying overhead every day. No, it’s not planes piloted by poltergeists, it’s just near-empty planes, operating every day.  The Guardian has reported that Qatar Airways has been exploiting a legal loophole, operating these "ghost flights" to run extra services to Australia. These 354-seater Boeing 777s som...

Here’s a sentence we thought we'd never write - there's multiple stories about flying cars in the news. Not one story, but several! We’ve got multiple companies getting regulatory approval to start testing their flying cars and we’ve got the world’s first flying taxi service slated to kick off in 2024. That's next year. Today, Simon and Sascha discuss just what has to happen, before we're all sitt...