Boneless Wings #35

**NOTHING HERE SHOULD BE CONSIDERED INVESTMENT ADVICE**

Good morning to all my wingmen and wingwomen out there. Here are a few noteworthy and tasty bites worth digesting. Enjoy!

Elon buys 9.2% stake in Twitter

Elon Musk has not been very nice to Twitter after weeks of criticizing the company on…….well, Twitter. Then yesterday Musk purchased enough shares to take a 9.2% stake in the company and joins the board of directors. Part of me is confused and thinks he’s an idiot (….the smartest and richest idiot in the world mind you) for doing this as it seems like such small potatoes for a guy worth around $275 billion! You’ve got to wonder what the real motive is here. Few questions come to mind:

• Why? Why is he doing this?

• Was he just looking for an undervalued business to buy a stake in and increase its value?

• Does he really have the time for taking on another board seat given all that he’s involved with?

• Does he want to take the company private?

• Is there significant value to be had by moving higher on the chart above? (….yes!)

• But is the incremental value really worth his time? (…..scratching my head.)

After it was announced yesterday, the stock ended the day up close to 30% on the news (…..the company’s best day since IPO in 2013). This price movement signals how investors are ready for things to progress at the company.

Given above graph, you can see where Twitter ranks with regards to monthly active users coming in 15th place. Elon has been publicly vocal about what he likes and doesn’t like about the current platform and is now seeking the input of the people via Twitter polls.

If a mover and shaker is needed, there’s something to be said about Elon being the person to take charge and move the needle. He’s just a few tweets away from moving Facebook lower and Twitter higher on the above chart.

The current board of directors for Twitter is made up of an impressive mix of heavy hitters who aren’t short in experience and expertise (...although none of the board members are active Twitter users themselves, which is ironic.) It will be interesting to see if Musk can easily fold into the mix there.

But then again, when you're a larger than life leader and own such a large piece of the business maybe you don’t have to worry about playing nice.

Shultz returns and makes a splash!

Howard Shultz returned at the helm of Starbucks this week to shake (….not stir) things up as interim CEO. The first major lever he pulled was suspending the $20 billion stock buyback program that was approved just 6 months ago.

Shultz stated the company would rather use that money to invest in their stores and their partners (….what they refer to Starbucks employees as).

But it doesn’t go unnoticed that such a decision to invest in its stores and employees coincides with the threat of unionization that the chain is facing. Specifically, more than “170 of 9,000 U.S. corporate stores have filed petitions to organize with the Starbucks Workers United union.” Nine stores have already voted to unionize, so the threat is real.

Here’s an open letter from Howard Schultz, from yesterday, to all Starbucks stakeholders on the future of Starbucks.

He seems to be saying the right things and giving the right message. But when it comes to unionization, the question really is…..are the employees interpreting that message the same way as the company intends?

Will Schultz be able to prevent this union domino effect from taking place across the U.S.? Per usual…..time will tell!

Don't Call it a Comeback

Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk, KU! The Kansas Jayhawks pulled off the improbable win after blowing an early lead and finding themselves down by 16 points at halftime. No team has ever come back from such a deficit in a National Championship game.....until last night. I'm a big Bill Self fan and was happy to see him remain calm and steer the team to victory. Winning the team's 2nd National Championship under Coach Self and the 4th National Championship for the program.

As I mentioned in Boneless Wings #22, this is my favorite time of the year which culminates in the greatest video compilation of the year…..”One Shining Moment”. Enjoy it HERE.

And now we begin the countdown to next year’s video.....

Deuces. ✌️

- Chef Tasty