Electronic Arts Goes Private In $50B Deal? & CA vs Nonstick Cookware

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0:29Good morning, Brew Daily Show. I'm Neil Freiman. And I'm Raymond Liu. Today, a comedy festival in Saudi Arabia has divided the stand-up community. Then, a fight between California and celebrity chefs over nonstick cookware is starting to boil over. It's Monday, September 29th. Let's ride!

0:51Good morning and welcome back to The Work Week. Toby is living his best Florida man life today, which means that producer Ray is stepping from out of the control room to host the show with me. Ray, a big welcome. And I want to ask you about this piece of news that dropped last night. The NFL announced that Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny will be headlining the upcoming Super Bowl halftime show in February. Now, I probably am not going to be focused on the music because the Eagles are going to be playing, and that'll require my undivided attention. But, Ray, thoughts on this selection? Well, first of all, I just want to say hello to everyone.

1:24You've probably heard my name at the end of the credits, so it's nice to be behind the mic instead of behind the scenes. But yes, we got this news last night about Bad Bunny performing at the Super Bowl halftime show, which will actually take place in my hometown, the Bay Area. Just want to put that out there just to let everyone know where I'm from. But I think what's really impressive is that this three-time Grammy winner is having probably the biggest moment of his career. He's recently wrapping up a two-month residency in San Juan. And mainly, it speaks to the global reach that the NFL is really pushing forward.

1:58You know, Commissioner Roger Goodell has been really public about the NFL having more of a global reach. I mean, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Minnesota Vikings just had a game in Ireland. And, you know, Bad Bunny is one of the biggest international artists in the world. So this is just further building that bridge. Totally. And you're going to see a lot of Bad Bunny come up just this week, too, because he is hosting the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, which is happening on Saturday night. But first, a word from our sponsor, LinkedIn Ads. Neil, how good are you with acronyms? I would say I'm B-A-D at acronyms.

2:33What does that stand for? Bad, Ray. Oh, oh. Well, a good acronym for you to know is ROAS, Return on Ad Spend. LinkedIn Ads generates the highest B2B, that's business to business, ROAS of all online ad networks. They also have a network of over 1 billion professionals and 130 million decision makers. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, seniority skills, company revenue, so you can stop wasting budget on the wrong audience. Spend$250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get a free$250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com slash MBD. That's LinkedIn.com slash MBD.

3:16Terms and conditions may apply. EA Sports, it's in the game, but maybe not for long. A group of big-name investors is planning to take the video game publisher private in what would be the largest leveraged buyout of all time, the Wall Street Journal reported. Those investors are the private equity giant Silver Lake, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, and Jared Kushner's investment firm Affinity Partners, who are cobbling together$50 billion to whisk electronic arts from the public markets. With that representing a premium to EA's current market value, shares shot up about 14 % Friday afternoon following the announcement.

3:52$50 billion is a tremendous amount of money, but EA has a tremendous game library, one of the best in the biz. It's dominant in sports games with the Madden franchise and the soccer title FC, formerly known as FIFA. It also makes The Sims and Battlefield, which competes with Call of Duty in the shooter game market. However, EA and the rest of the traditional gaming industry is still trying to break out of an extended slump following the COVID boom. Companies have cut tens of thousands of employees as blockbuster games become more expensive to make and gamers are turning to mobile and free to play options like Fortnite and Roblox.

4:27These investors think EA can maintain its leadership position in a changing market, but not under the demands of a public company. Yeah. And, you know, you might be wondering what is the point of a company going from public to private? Because most of the times you may if you start off most companies start off as a private company and they want to shoot for going public. But one of the biggest reasons that a public company will want to go private is to escape public pressures coming from shareholders. You know, when you make drastic strategic moves, a lot of times they're not welcome with open arms because massive overhauls can cost a lot of money.

5:02And when you're beholden by shareholders, especially having to report quarterly earnings, it could be a real damper on the stock price. So by going private, you essentially avoid all the risk of public scrutiny. And you can also escape some of the regulations that a public company would often have to go through, like SEC filings and shareholder disclosures. But it also provides greater control over a company. One of the more famous public to private takeovers was Twitter recently, as Elon Musk bought it in 2022. And you can see how much control he has over X. So it's just one of those things where you have to kind of wonder, EA is going through this overhaul most likely.

5:44And then like you mentioned, the gaming industry isn't doing too hot right now. No, I mean, projections for 2025 industry growth are about 4.6%, which is just a hair over inflation. So basically the industry is barely growing at all. And there is this transformation from the types of blockbuster games that these companies have been putting out. I mean, I looked at the price for the most recent Madden, which EA publishes. It's$70, and people are really balking at that price for titles across the industry. What they're moving to is these live service games, think Fortnite, where they're free to play, but you get this recurring revenue that goes on over time, and you play them years and years, and these companies rake in all this money that you're trying to when you try to buy various upgrades in this particular game.

6:29So EA has moved into that domain. Actually, 75 % of fiscal 2025 sales comes from live service revenue like this game, Apex Legends, which is competing with Fortnite. So you're right, they have to make these big strategic transformations. They've had three mass layoffs since 2023. This industry is grinding to a halt in terms of growth. So that's perhaps why these executives at EA are looking for maybe a little bit of a parachute to bail them out of the public markets where they'll be under less scrutiny in the private markets. It's also interesting to look at who is doing this deal, who are the investors that are planning.

7:04And I should add that this announcement has not been made. It's not been finalized yet, but it is reported that it will come this week. The three big investors, one is Silver Lake, which was one of the biggest private equity firms in the entire world. Silver Lake, you may have heard recently, is one of the investors that want to buy into TikTok and buy that from Chinese ByteDance. They also own the parent company of UFC. Then you have the Saudi Wealth Fund, which the public investment firm, they already own a 10 % stake in EA. They're one of the biggest shareholders already, and they are moving into the gaming space in a big way, especially in mobile games.

7:41They already own the parent company of Monopoly Go, and they already own the parent company of Pokemon Go. Then the final piece of this triumvirate is Jared Kushner, who's the son-in-law of President Trump. He has this investment firm called Affinity Partners, which he founded in 2021. That also has huge ties to the Middle East. Most of their money comes from Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Yeah, one of the biggest things, just to close it out, is even though the gaming industry isn't doing too hot, and like you said, these brand titles can be pretty expensive, they're kind of switching strategically about getting them, getting to play the game first, and then kind of charging later with microtransactions.

8:16But the biggest thing is IP, I think. Madden, as long as there's football, there's always going to be a Madden. Pokemon, a massive brand. So I think this is one of those things where, regardless of those industries kind of struggling a bit, there's always going to be invaluable value in the IP. And let's not forget The Sims. Yes. Oh, I love The Sims. That was one of my favorite games. But let's move on. There's a food fight heating up between California and celebrity chefs over a law that could ban the sale of nonstick cookware in the state. The bill, Senate Bill 682, heads to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk to sign into law if he signs it into law.

8:54He does have until October 12th to decide. So what's at the yoke of the matter? A chemical called perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl, a.k.a. PFAS, which is probably what I'm going to be referring it as from now on, which is a large group of man-made chemicals resistant to water, oil, temperature extremes, and friction. It's what makes nonstick pans nonsticky. As such, these pots and pans are a staple across kitchens in America, meaning if you're cooking at the moment and listening to this podcast, you're likely using a nonstick pan right now. Proponents of the bill, who are mostly public health advocates and environmental groups, say regulating PFAS is a public health necessity and that nonstick cookware can produce toxic fumes at high temperatures, which can then get into the food that we eat.

9:46Some research has shown that exposure to these chemicals is linked to a number of health conditions such as infertility, cancer, and thyroid disease. However, opponents of the bill say that nonstick cookware is relatively safe as long as it's used properly. Celebrity chefs such as Rachel Ray, David Chang, and others have been pretty outspoken about the issue, saying that the ban would do more immediate harm than good to the restaurant industry if this ban goes into effect. Now, it should be noted that Rachel Ray, David Chang, and these celebrity chefs either have or endorsed their own line of nonstick cookware.

10:25Steve Burns, president of the Cookware Sustainability Alliance, which didn't even know existed, said that the lack of concern for increasing costs for people feeding their families is frankly baffling to us. Neil, the restaurant industry is facing a potential seismic shift in California, and it's looking like a sticky situation. waste it. It really is. I mean, more than$4 billion of cookware is sold in the U S each year. This is a pretty big industry and pots and pans with Teflon like coatings account for nearly two thirds of sales. So when you said people are cooking with nonstick pans, it's absolutely the case.

10:58I made a ton of food this weekend and virtually all of it was on a nonstick pan because do you want to cook? Do you want to clean up for 30 seconds or do you want to clean up for 15 minutes? I mean, the answer is pretty clear. Now the chefs who are opposed to this ban cite the fact that one of the chemicals, I said Teflon, that is used on these particular nonstick surfaces is called PTFE or under the brand name Teflon. It is a type of PFAS, but what they say is it is inert and it is safer than other types of, quote unquote, forever chemicals. And that is their main assertion that this is a particularly safe thing to use only if you heat up your pan to over 500 degrees Fahrenheit, which I've never cooked anything over 500 degrees Fahrenheit on the pan.

11:45That is when it can get a little dangerous. But they're saying the fact that the vast majority of uses when you use nonstick pans, usually for cooking an egg or just sauteing something, you're never getting up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. And if you keep them in good shape, then this is not going to be a safety concern. and they cite a bunch of research that shows that. So yeah, it's interesting battle between these celebrity chefs and the state of California. And you're very right that all these chefs do have nonstick cookware lines, so they have a lot of skin in the game. Yeah, and one of the things I think you pointed out with the distinction of the chemicals, they are known as forever chemicals.

12:19But researchers are probably at the tip of the iceberg in terms of understanding how they actually degrade, so when we use them. So other states have banned this, have similar laws that have banned nonstick cookware. Just want to kind of go through them. Minnesota recently just banned the sale of nonstick cookware as of earlier this year. Connecticut, Maine, Rhode Island, Vermont have laws that are beginning to phase out PFAS and cookware. New York is also kind of flirting with the fact of potentially banning this law, banning the cookware. But I think it's really significant in California because of the restaurant industry having such a big impact there.

12:59You think about the range of restaurants in the state alone, going from fine dining to just home cooks to social media chefs, which is also important here. The fact that the celebrity factor of it, Rachel Ray, David Chang, I'm sure they have shot a lot of content in California. So there's a lot of money on the line. Like you said, a lot of these celebrity chefs have or own or endorse some kind of cookware. But there is a public health concern for it. A lot of the science can be debated either way, whether it's kind of negligible or potentially harmful. Some of the research has said that, look, there's other health.

13:35There's a lot of other sources of exposure of PFAS. Cookware is not necessarily the biggest concern of it all. That's what some researchers are saying. But again, a lot of money on the line, which is kind of why this is a big story. Yeah, they say you could get more Forever Chemicals in your body from the fish that you're eating that you cook on the pan than from the pan itself. So a lot writing on Gavin Newsom's pen. Moving on, what is the deal with the Riyadh Comedy Festival? America's most famous comedians are beefing with each other over a comedy festival in Saudi Arabia that kicked off on Friday and runs through the start of October.

14:10Dubbed the world's largest comedy festival, the stand-up event features huge names like Dave Chappelle, Bill Burr, Pete Davidson, Kevin Hart, and Aziz Ansari. It's part of Saudi Arabia's push to diversify away from an oil economy and become a power player in sports and entertainment. But who's not performing is perhaps the bigger story. Shane Gillis said he was offered, quote, a significant bag, but said no to take a principled stand. The comedy podcaster Mark Maron, who wasn't offered a slot, still jokes sarcastically, from the folks that brought you 9-11, two weeks of laughter in the desert, don't miss it.

14:43Those two represent a group of comics who are going after their own for taking money from the Saudi Kingdom, which boasts a laundry list of documented human rights abuses, including the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Civil War in comedy is reminiscent of the schism in Gulf a few years ago, when PGA Tour players blasted their colleagues for switching to the Live Tour, an upstart league set up by the Saudis. Saudi Arabia has been accused of sports washing. Now they're calling this comedy play joke washing. Wow. I mean, comedians from all over are using whatever platform they have to chime in on this matter.

15:15Although I think it is interesting to point out a group that really hasn't said much, and that's the comedians that are performing at the festival. Some of the more famous participants like Dave Chappelle, Aziz Ansari, Kevin Hart, haven't done much promoting of the comedy festival in Riyadh. And you think about Kevin Hart, he's probably one of the more prolific marketers that you have today. And I just looked at his Instagram page, virtually nothing about the comedy festival. Look, as you mentioned, it echoes a lot of what happened between the PGA and Live Golf. I think it does come down to money.

15:48The Saudi government has a lot of money. We just talked about them doing private talks, potentially taking over EA. and I think each comedian has to decide how much money they're willing to accept knowing the potential consequences to their reputation and or brand. So Tim Dillon talked about this. He is a comedian known for being particularly edgy and he said he was offered a large sum of money, called it$375 ,000 for one performance and said that other comedians had been offered as much as 1.6 million. He said he was going to do it because he said he was being paid a lot of money to not care about what they do in their country.

16:29Quote, so what if they have slaves? They're paying me enough to look the other way. And that's very on brand for Tim Dillon, if you know him. But he actually got dropped from the festival because he made that slavery comment. So they decided to not have him, which kind of speaks to the overall environment of free speech in Saudi Arabia. Namely, they don't have it. Jimmy Kimmel would certainly not be on the air there. According to the Global Expression Report, Saudi Arabia ranks 149th out of 161 countries in terms of the right to free expression and information. And the chairman of the General Entertainment Authority, Turkey al-Sheikh, the guy who's running this entire playbook for bringing Saudi Arabia into the entertainment world, literally has a wing named after him in the Riyadh jail for jailing so many people who have sent critical tweets about him.

17:16So it's kind of an interesting juxtaposition to have a comedy festival in Saudi Arabia. And I think that's what a lot of these outraged comedians are pointing out and why a lot of the comedians who are performing have denied it. I've tried to just kind of sweep it under the rug, get their bag and then come back home. Yeah, just so quickly, it's all part of the country's Vision 2030 plan, which is Saudi Arabia's plan to diversify its economy beyond oil. So they're bringing a lot of live music, sports, film, essentially kind of bringing over a lot of culture into the country. And so it's, again, part of that recent push to expand their entertainment industry and to boost tourism.

17:53But again, in this comedy festival, a lot of layers to where, especially in a comedy festival, you have to kind of wonder what the comedians will be allowed and not allowed to say. Is it really a comedy festival? Okay, don't go anywhere. Up next, why is the economy doing so well? Toby, have you ever gotten ads for products that are totally unrelated to you? Absolutely. There was a solid week where I got ads for 55 plus senior living communities in the Midwest. What a waste of ad dollars. To avoid unproductive spend, B2B marketers can turn to LinkedIn ads to reach the right audiences. LinkedIn has over 1 billion professionals on the platform and 130 million decision makers.

18:32And it allows marketers to target all of those pros by job title, industry, company, you name it. With that level of precision, it's no wonder LinkedIn ads generates the highest B2B return on ad spend of all online ad networks. Start targeting the right professionals with LinkedIn ads. Spend$250 on your first campaign and get a free$250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com slash MBD. That's LinkedIn.com slash MBD. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads. Toby, I want to talk to you about exposure. Oh, you mean like that reoccurring nightmare where I show up for the podcast in my underwear?

19:11It's actually nothing like that at all, because I'm talking about exposure to the NASDAQ 100 index using micro-index options. Oh, well, that's totally different. NASDAQ 100 micro-index options, XND, offer precise and manageable exposure to the NASDAQ 100 index at a smaller notional value. The smaller notional value can make it an attractive option by allowing retail investors to participate in options trading with lower capital requirements. Plus, this can provide flexibility for those managing smaller accounts or looking to diversify investment strategies without committing significant resources.

19:45Potential tax benefits can help sweeten the deal too. Index derivatives like XND index options may benefit from a potentially lower blended tax liability. There are many more ways you can benefit from XND index options. So to learn more, head to nasdaq.com slash mpd. That's nasdaq.com slash mbd. Welcome to Winners of the Weekend, the segment where Ray and I pick two things that actually meal prepped. Ray, you won the pre-show, Never Have I Ever, hosted Morning Brew Daily before, so you get to go first. Thank you, Neil. Well, remember how some were worried that we were nearing a recession? Well, the U.S.

20:23economy grew in the second quarter at the fastest pace in the last two years as the government revised its earlier report of GDP that showed it increased 3.8 % up from its previous report of 3.3%. Personal consumption expenditure is also up 0.6 % for the month of August, meaning consumer spending is stronger than analysis initially expected. And earlier estimates show that the third quarter should remain pretty solid. Some economists are saying that this is a good sign, that it shows that the economy's ability to rebound after the initial shock of Trump's flurry of tariffs that basically gave the markets a cardiac arrest.

21:04These latest reports have eased some of the anxiety that came from earlier forecasting that we were heading towards a bad economic downturn. And yet, despite the data, Americans aren't feeling the love. In its latest survey by the University of Michigan, consumer sentiment is down to 55.1, the seventh lowest on record going back to 1952. And it's essentially the same story. Fears of inflation, the downstream effects of tariffs, and now a weaker labor market. Hiring has been in a slump lately, and monthly job gains recently fell below the amount needed to keep up with the population gain. But, Neil, all in all, no matter what you throw at it, seems like the U.S.

21:45economy is powering through. We've heard this for the past three years that there's going to be a recession. People are pulling back. They're worried about inflation. And we're going to see a economic downturn. But time and time again, the U.S. economy has stayed resilient. We found out that the economy grew at the fastest pace in nearly two years. Consumer spending continues to crush expectations. At the same time, we're seeing views on the economy still at very low levels, the seventh lowest on record. So what is going on? How do we square this particular circle? And one theory that's posed is that if you look at the stock market, it is near record highs.

22:23It's been doing really well. And Americans just have a ton of money in the stock market. So they're looking at their portfolios and feeling a little bit better. Maybe they're looking at their paychecks and not looking so good. But they're looking at their 401ks and they're seeing that go straight to the roof. And actually, it's a historic amount of money that Americans have in the stock market, direct and indirect stock holdings, whether through mutual funds or retirement plans. accounted for an all-time high of 45 % of households' financial assets in the second quarter, according to the Fed. Plus, if you're a homeowner and you got your home before 2020, you have a really low mortgage rate.

22:59If you got it around 2020, you have a really low mortgage rate, and your home property has skyrocketed in value as well. And then expectations for the current quarter are also through the roof in terms of economic growth. Atlanta Fed's GDP Now tool, which is this live tracking tool of how the economy is performing. It expects GDP to grow 4 % this quarter, which would be a huge turnaround from some of the lower GDP readings we've seen over the past few years and just booming economic growth. So very interesting to see what's happening in the economy. People are down on it, but if you actually look at the hard data, it's doing really well.

23:34Yeah, it's all part of the whole vibe session things where there's always that debate of hard economic data versus soft economic data. But regardless of the reasons, the fact that consumers are still willing to spend is pretty much a good sign because America's GDP, just to throw this out there, is more than two thirds of consumer spending. So us spending money, whether or not we should be spending money is essentially good for the U.S. economy. OK, let's head to my winner, which is Team Europe, who eked out a thrilling victory over the United States to retain the Ryder Cup on Long Island. Down big after the first two rounds, USA staged a furious comeback to crank up the drama Sunday afternoon, but it wasn't enough as Europe became the first team to win the Ryder Cup on away soil since 2012.

24:17The biennial tournament, golfing's biggest stage, is known for its rowdy crowds, and that certainly was the storyline for most of the event. Boisterous New Yorkers, instilled with some liquid confidence, taunted and jeered Europe's Rory McIlroy in ways that many considered crossed the line, leading to state police getting involved and an emcee stepping down after leading a vulgar chant over the loudspeaker. The 50 ,000 fans at Bethpage Black seemed to get the message and were mostly better behaved yesterday. But the American golfers will surely face a similarly hostile crowd in Ireland when they try to get revenge in two years' time.