What the Flux

Sportsbet is facing a record $3.7m indemnity fine for sending 150,000 spam messages to people who had unsubscribed from their alerts.   New research by the crypto firm that is advising CommBank shows that NFT traders are making millions from ‘wash trading’.   Microsoft is warming up regulators to their proposed acquisition of gaming giant Activision Blizzard by pledging a fut...

Despite high shipping costs, Aussie retailer Temple & Webster has seen revenue hit $235m (up 45%) for the last 6 months.   Apple says it will transform iPhones into contactless credit card readers and payment processors later this year.   Bumble has made its first acquisition - fast-growing French dating app Fruitz - which Bumble hopes will help it gain traction with a younger, Gen Z...

Grill’d says the price of some items will increase in the coming months due to supply chain issues and inflation.   At-home fitness company Peloton has drawn interest from potential buyers including Amazon - as it struggles to maintain pandemic-related growth.   UK-based department store Selfridges will offer sex therapy and drug-free “psychedelic trips” in-store, in it...

“Memestock” GameStop has partnered with Aussie crypto platform Immutable to build an NFT marketplace for GameStop’s fans to trade digital video game assets.   Shares in one of Australia’s largest investors, Magellan, which has over $100B in assets, sunk yesterday after its founder/chair took a leave of absence.   Facebook owner Meta is adding tools to guard users...

After a rough couple of years, Qantas has slashed the amount of frequent flyer points consumers will need to book accommodation.   An Aussie ‘rent-to-own’ startup named OwnHome has raised $31m from big name investors, including CBA, to help Aussies break into the housing market.   Meditation app Calm has acquired Ripple Health Group, a health care tech company that connects i...

Diem, the ambitious crypto project funded by Facebook has collapsed after a more than two-year effort.   Aussie gambling software maker Aristocrat Leisure has to abandon its $4B takeover of Playtech after Playtech’s shareholders rejected the deal.   After the oil industry hit record lows in 2020, Exxon Mobil’s annual profits have exploded to US$23 billion - its highest levels...

Dolce & Gabbana has joined a growing list of fashion houses to ban animal fur, saying it will use a sustainable “eco-fur” in future collections.   Sony has announced plans to acquire Bungie, the creator of popular video games Halo and Destiny, for US$3.6b.   Amcor, the Australia-born company that has become the world’s largest consumer packaging company, has impleme...

Local venture capital fund AirTree Ventures has closed the biggest fund yet in Australia, raising $700 million to back startups in software and Web3.   The New York Times has acquired the super popular word puzzle game Wordle for ‘low seven figures’.   China is rolling out its digital yuan to athletes and spectators ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics - the first test of whe...

Aussie jobs marketplace Airtasker was hit hard by covid in 2021, but since then has seen a 37.5% increase in Q2 revenue - and growth in wages for its airtaskers.   Google is investing another $1 billion in India’s smartphone market - a move it hopes will drive down the cost of smartphones in a huge market.   Share trading app Robinhood is forecasting its first quarter revenue to be...

Atlassian shares jumped 10% last week after announcing second quarter revenue of $688.5 million (37% better than last year).   Toy giant Mattel has won back control of the lucrative licenses for Disney Princess and “Frozen” characters - from arch rival Hasbro.   Apple has reported record quarterly revenue and it’s largely due to strong sales of the iPhone 13.   ---...

Bunnings has claimed the title of Australia’s strongest brand, with Woolworths and Officeworks rounding out the top three.   Spotify will remove Neil Young’s music after the singer demanded Spotify take it down - in response to vaccine misinformation being spread by Joe Rogan (a popular podcaster on Spotify).   Chinese fashion giant Shein is planning to IPO in the US, and its...

McDonald’s has announced that it has 100 new Australian restaurants in the pipeline, but now it needs to find the right franchise candidates.   Amazon plans to open a department store where technology will recommend what shoppers should try on next.   The founders of buy now pay later company QuadPay are suing Merrill Lynch over their advice to sell nearly 13m shares in Zip Co - im...

Aussie mining giant Fortescue has paid $311m for Williams Advanced Engineering, a battery and engineering company with links to the Williams Formula One motorsport team.   IGA has taken market share from its big name rivals because IGA’s more local supply chains have let them to keep shelves better stocked during the omicron wave.   Instagram is giving creators more ways to make mo...

Dovetail, the Aussie customer research start-up, has raised $89 million at a $960 million valuation, as its founders acknowledge a “bubble-like” time for raising capital.   Fitness company Peloton plans to cut jobs and production levels, as sales slow down significantly.   The EU has passed legislation that could transform how Big Tech operates, requiring them to police conte...

Uber has acquired Australian car-sharing service Car Next Door to expand the range of services it offers to customers.   Coke is unveiling a new look for flavoured Coke products, as the company strives to stand out at the supermarket.   Disney has created a new international content team to build up its pipeline of content in countries around the world, ultimately to boost global subscri...

Aussie freight and logistics companies are being forced to introduce Omicron surcharges in order to cover the costs of staff shortages.   Gaming giant Activision Blizzard, the maker of World of Warcraft and Candy Crush, has agreed to be acquired by Microsoft for $96 billion.   Shares in Goldman Sachs dropped 8% after it announced its expenses have been rising - due to ‘rewarding to...

Shares in Aussie on-demand wage service Beforepay fell 42% on their IPO day - the worst first-day performance in 2 years on the ASX.   Redbubble expects revenue to drop, as the pandemic leads to increased customer acquisition costs and decreased shipping margins.   Unilever, the owner of Ben & Jerry’s, is willing to pay big money for the company that makes Advil and Aquafresh t...

The AFLW has locked in the first major crypto sports sponsorship in Australia - a $25m deal with crypto.com.   UberEats is using its sponsorship of the Aus Open to re-position itself as a way to get anything delivered, rather than just food takeaway.   Beyond Meat has become the most ‘shorted’ stock on the Russell 1000 Index - with investors betting against the company in a b...

Stan is raising the stakes against rival Foxtel with the launch of Stan Event, a pay-per-view service aimed to increasing Stan’s subscriber numbers.   Aussie gaming giant Crown Resorts will recommend its shareholders accept a new takeover bid of at least $8.87 billion by private equity firm Blackstone.   Shares in Virgin Galactic dropped more than 16% last week when it announced it...

Private health insurance premiums will increase next year by an average of 2.7% -  the lowest increase in 20 years - thanks to the pandemic and its impact on health insurance profits.   The former CEO of Disney says that Disney+ needs ‘more content for more people’ if it wants to hit its lofty 2022 goals.   TikTok rival Triller will go public via a ‘reverse merger&...

Chemist Warehouse has been accused of cooking up inflated pricetags for Black Friday sales.   Global meal kit company Marley Spoon has eaten up ready-to-heat meal company Chefgood for a delicious $21 million.   Shareholders of Meta (fka Facebook) are questioning whether the company is able to oversee public safety on its platforms - and now want an independent evaluation.   --- &nbs...

NAB plans to approve mortgage applications in one hour, as banks fight it out for the fastest mortgage process.   Plant-based food makers in Australia could be forced to remove words like ‘beef’ and ‘sausage’ from their packaging.   Chinese AI giant SenseTime has excluded US investors from buying shares in its US$767m IPO.   ---   Sign up to the Flux app...

Beauty retailer Mecca has created Australia’s first ‘pay-to-dispense’ street vending machines in order to drive gift sales in high traffic locations.   Bruce Springsteen has sold the rights to all of his music to Sony for over US$500 million - in the largest music rights deal ever.   Disney and YouTube have finally reached a new distribution deal after YouTube TV droppe...

Rokt, the e-commerce tech unicorn has smashed the record for the largest single venture capital raising in Aussie history - $458m.   Spotify has bought Aussie podcast-tech platform Whooshkaa with big plans to gain a foothold in the broadcast-to-podcast space.   The US Federal Reserve has said it will increase interest rates next year as inflation continues to get out of hand.   ---...

Westpac’s shareholders have hit Westpac with a ‘protest vote’ over the new pay plans for its executives.   Kraft, the brand behind Kraft Singles, is getting crafty with its marketing - due to a major cream cheese shortage.   Sales at Zara and H&M are back to pre-pandemic levels (or in some cases are better) thanks to post-lockdown wardrobe updates.   ---  ...