#11

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

US Women’s National Soccer team finalizes big $24M equal pay settlement. A financial success, yes of course. But maybe more importantly, the success and accomplishment of paving the way for the next generation. As we all stand on the shoulders of those before us. Here is some history of the situation:

• Lawsuit started back in 2016 with a federal equal pay complaint filed by five higher profile players on the US women’s national team in 2016.
• Later in March 2019, 28 players joined forces and sued U.S. Soccer for consistently being paid below their male counterparts, despite superior performance.
• Strategically, this suit came months after the US men’s team failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup
• …..And also just before they won their second consecutive tournament in 2019 (#winning)
• In May 2020 the case was dismissed by a federal judge who basically stated the discrepancies were due to the agreed upon collective bargaining agreements (CBAs). Which the women contested and later appealed given unfair metrics compared to the Men’s team (needing to win more often than Men’s team in order to receive bonuses).

So not completed settled yet until they finalize a new CBA by the Players Association. And even though there’s still effort needed to close this out, the team must feel good about where they are now compared to just a few short years ago.My daughter and all future US national women’s teams will have the 5 original all-star players of 2016 to look back and thank….while on their shoulders, standing tall.

If cheat meals were a restaurant brand it just may be Fat Brands. This is the parent company of 17 restaurants….including Johnny Rockets, Marble Slab Creamery, Twin Peaks, Great American Cookies and Fatburger to name a few. Yesterday they had a pretty unhealthy (…..can I get a witness?!?!) showing on the Nasdaq ending the day down nearly 23%. Was it driven by inflation? Sinking demand due to health-conscious customers? Ongoing supply chain issues? Negative. The stock went free falling due to the company disclosing that its CEO, Andrew Wiederhorn, was under investigation by the US Attorney General’s office for inappropriate financial dealings, including alleged fraud and money laundering. While that story is pretty interesting in itself (.....Fat Brands merged with its largest shareholder Fog Cutter Capital in December. Which Wiederhorn is also the majority shareholder of Fog Cutter. And his son is also the COO. And [unrelated] his son is married to the daughter of an ex Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Comical and fraught with bad decisions.) What’s more interesting is the stock took a beating due to this situation and NOT due to their horrific financial performance over time. The graphs above speak for themselves showing both annual revenues vs earnings and quarterly EPS estimates vs actuals. And given there should be no surprise, hopefully these investors have enjoyed this cheat meal!!

Though I tend to end up in Home Depot more than I do Lowe’s (….likely a bias towards orange), Lowe’s had a good Q4 earnings report yesterday and the market is reacting favorably (unlike for Home Depot). Lowe’s saw sales grow 5% in Q4 (as Americans continue to invest in their homes especially in this tight real estate market) with sales growing a healthy 23% amongst their “home professionals” who are a more lucrative customer for them. Repair and maintenance projects are apparently driving spending up even with the current backdrop of inflation and interest rate hikes…..yes, we are a strange species. A fun fact I came across was that nearly 50% of the country’s single family homes were built before 1980……and that certainly benefits the home improvement stores. As an investor, you’re typically better off betting on the sound strategy and decision making of a company vs solely banking on your gut feel of a particular trend. One, of the many, great quotes from Jim Cramer sums it up best... “discipline always trumps conviction.” The question then becomes, is Lowe’s performance a function of good company discipline or a good current consumer trends?

It’s no secret that service based businesses are money! Both figuratively and literally. So why wouldn’t one of the most successful and fastest growing crypto exchanges jump on the services train? Introducing…….FTXaaS (insert awkward music with people not entirely sure how to dance to it)! That’s right….our beloved FTXUS is launching FTX-as-a-Service….let me explain. They will support gaming companies who are interested in meshing Web3.0 with new badass games. Basically, offering to help (for a fee of course…. #Merica ) companies launch in-game tokens and NFTs to further benefit the gaming experience. Don’t think that’s a big deal? Consider this….there are over 2 billion gamers in the world who have played with and collected digital items during in-game experiences. This is a massive market for the future. And FTXaaS is helping to pave the way. Click Here for more.

Deuces. ✌️