What the Flux

Coinbase’s valuation reached above $145 billion on day 1 of its IPO - in a landmark moment for the crypto world.   ASX-listed jewellery company Michael Hill is likely to achieve profit growth this year - despite many of its stores still being closed due to lockdowns.   Grab, the Singapore based ‘super-app’ that blends Uber, Menulog, Kogan and Beem It in one app, is goin...

Commbank will become the naming rights sponsor of Australia’s women’s soccer team, the Matildas, and will inject millions into women’s soccer over the next few years.   New Zealand is considering new legislation that would require banks, insurers and investors to disclose the impacts of climate change on their businesses.   Payments company Square is launching business...

Menulog has broken away from UberEats and Deliveroo and is testing a program to classify workers as full time employees.   Aussie loyalty program Flybuys is partnering with Klarna as the buy now pay later service strives to differentiate itself from Afterpay and Zip.   Microsoft is buying the speech recognition company behind Siri for $26 billion.   ---   Save money and win cas...

A record $125 million fine for Volkswagen has been upheld in Australia - after the company falsely represented the emissions standards of its cars.   After spending $14.5 billion to buy the Aussie operations of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Asahi wants to reduce its debt by 50%.   China has fined Alibaba, the Amazon of China, $4.9 billion for anti-competitive behaviour.   ---   Save mo...

Coles has relaunched its famous/infamous Down Down marketing campaign as it strives to win market share back from Woolies.   News Corp, the owner of news.com.au and The Australian newspaper, is raising $1 billion of debt for a potential acquisition frenzy.   Netflix has locked in an exclusive streaming deal with Sony Pictures - the owner of the Spiderman and Jumanji franchises.   --...

Australian retail giant Cotton On is said to be preparing for its long-awaited IPO.   The company that arranged Deliveroo’s disaster IPO, Goldman Sachs, bought £75 million of Deliveroo shares just to keep Deliveroo’s IPO price up.   A big investor has made a $26 billion offer to buy Japanese conglomerate Toshiba - just 4 years after it almost went bankrupt.   --- &...

The Sydney Opera House has launched its own streaming service to compete with Netflix.   Canva, the Australian graphic design company, has been valued at $19.6 billion after a new investment round of $US71 million.   Over 7 million Australians are understood to be included in a leak of Facebook user data, including phone numbers and email addresses.   ---   Save money and win c...

Virgin Australia’s loyalty program, Velocity, is likely to partner with 7-Eleven in order to get ahead of Qantas and its frequent flyer program.   ANZ Bank has declined to sign a letter that condemns recent violence in Myanmar, despite many other global companies doing so.   Electronics company LG has become the first major smartphone brand to withdraw from the global smartphone ma...

Deliveroo had its long awaited IPO last week - and shares in the company fell by 30% on day 1.   Volkswagen could end up in hot water with regulators over its ‘Voltswagen’ name change marketing stunt.   Coke Australia and Coke USA are breaking up -  The Coca-Cola Company is selling its 30.8% ownership to Coke Europe.   ---   TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@flux...

Australian insurer Suncorp reckons the costs it will incur for the recent major floods across eastern Australia could be up to $250 million.   PayPal is going to start allowing customers to convert their cryptocurrency into regular currencies when they make payments and checkout.   Cameo, the app that lets fans pay for personalised videos from celebrities, is now worth over $1 billion. &...

REA Group, the owner of realestate.com.au, wants 10% of the Australian mortgage broking market after buying Mortgage Choice for $244M.   Tabcorp has rejected offers of $3 billion for its betting division because it reckons the price isn’t a fair.   WeWork will finally list on the share market - two years after its first attempt to go public failed spectacularly.   ---   S...

Aussie ‘Link in bio’ startup Linktree has raised $59 million from big investors, including the founder of Afterpay.   Nine Entertainment, the owner of Channel 9, The Age and The SMH, has asked for help from the government after a major cyber attack.   China has locked in another five years of tariffs on the Australian wine industry.   ---   Weekly newsletter: https:...

The founder of TPG Telecom has abruptly quit the company just 8 months after TPG’s giant merger with Vodafone.   The Suez Canal, a waterway in Egypt, has been blocked for almost a week, which has massive implications for businesses and consumers.   Intel has released a new $26 billion strategy to get back to being the number one chipmaker in the world again.   ---   Save...

Premier Investments, the owner of Just Jeans and Peter Alexander, is expecting record results this year, but still refuses to return JobKeeper benefits.   GameStop has actually announced some earnings - and as it turns out, they have fallen short of low expectations.   Streaming music revenue has hit an all-time high - and makes up 62% of all music sales - largely thanks to Spotify and A...

Airtasker, the online Aussie jobs marketplace, had a stellar debut as a public company - ending day two up almost 170%.   Zoom is going to license its technology to other companies, so they can use a non-branded version of Zoom inside their own apps.   Microsoft is in talks to buy Discord, the wildly popular online video game community, for more than $13 billion.   ---   Save m...

Aldi Australia has hit the $10 billion mark for supermarket sales - up 10% from last year - as it closes in on 600 stores in Aus.   Telstra is splitting itself into four seperate divisions as it prepares for a potentially huge acquisition of the NBN.   Clubhouse, the wildly popular audio app that launched in 2019, is still months away from having an Android app.   ---   Save mo...

Australia’s Crown Resorts, the company behind casinos around the country, has received an $8 billion takeover offer.   A TikTok star is auctioning an NFT (ie. non fungible token) of his viral TikTok video - and the bidding starts at around $650,000.   Sales at Nike dropped over the last 3 months due to major shipment delays, with products  being stuck at ports.   --- &nbs...

The battle between Afterpay and Commbank is escalating as Afterpay accelerates plans to launch a banking app.   Amazon has gained some exclusive rights to one of the most lucrative live sports in the world, in a scary sign of things to come for traditional and Pay TV.   Squarespace, the company that helps you build your own website, has hit a whopping $12.9B valuation.   ---  ...

The Commonwealth Bank will launch its own buy now pay later product despite denouncing Afterpay and co for years. Volkswagen is getting ready to take on Tesla in the electric car space, but with a big partnership strategy. Snap has acquired a company that helps you find clothes which will fit you perfectly - to go all in on fashion and social commerce. --- Download the free app (Google Play Store)...

Coles, Nestle and others are planning to build a new soft plastics recycling plant - where chocolate wrappers can be remade into new food wrapping. PepsiCo, the owner of Pepsi, Smith’s Chips and Red Rock Deli, is exploring a potential sale of its Australian snacks business. eToro, the share trading app, is set to go public via SPAC - the latest trend in the finance world - at a valuation of $13.4...

Australia’s plant-based meat industry blossomed in 2020, but consumers aren’t adopting it as much as you’d think (due to prices). Openpay, another Aussie buy now pay later company, will be the first company to let patients split the cost of private hospital procedures. China has asked Alibaba (aka the Amazon of China) to drop its media assets over fears that it is becoming too influential. --- Sav...

Vice, the youth focused media brand, is giving Australia a second crack - this time through a big partnership with Pedestrian. Netflix is finally cracking down on users who share their password with people outside their household. This year, China is expected to be the first country where more sales are made online than in person. --- Save money and win cash prizes up to $250k weekly: https://www....

Menulog has seen a rise in orders of over 100% this year, and now Menulog wants to take its success to rural Australia. Treasury Wines, the owner of wine brands like Penfolds and Wolf Blass, has sold four of its US brands for $100 million. Uber and its overseas rival Lyft have agreed to share info on drivers that have been banned from their platforms, so that the two companies can improve customer...

The Australian government is cutting the price of domestic airfares to get more Aussies to holiday locally. Instagram is targeting developing countries with the launch of ‘Instagram Lite’. Peloton, the American fitness tech company, is coming to Australia and will open retail stores here this year. --- Save money and win cash prizes up to $250k weekly: https://www.flux.finance/ Get your credit sco...

JobKeeper ends in 3 weeks and over 100,000 Australians are expected to lose their jobs when it ends. Australia’s streaming market is getting another big name in the mix. This time, Paramount+ is prepping for its big Aussie launch. PayPal will soon launch a buy now, pay later service in Australia to compete with Afterpay, Zip and Klarna. --- Save money and win cash prizes up to $250k weekly: https:...