As of last Thursday, private health and fitness monitoring company, Fitbit, filed for an initial public offering (IPO) of common stock under the ticker symbol "FIT." In selling equity, Fitbit plans to raise $100 million in additional operating capital; the company also hopes to gauge investor sentiment and promote its product portfolio.
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Corrupt Costolo Out Of Time
In what was one of the more unusual events on Wall Street last week, Twitter’s (TWTR) Q1 earnings report was leaked before the closing bell. Ironically, the results were made public via a series of tweets from Selerity, a data science firm. The tweets revealed that Twitter missed revenue expectations by more than $20 million and also cut quarterly and annual guidance. Not surprisingly, Twitter’s stock price plummeted more than 20%.
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Offensive Advertising Pays Dividends
A new marketing campaign by supplement retailer Protein World has people fuming over the company’s decision to use scantily clad fitness models to advertise weight loss products. Many people claim the main goal of the advertisements is to make people feel guilty about their bodies because they are not, as Protein World states, “beach body ready.” In response to Protein World’s promotion, over 70,000 people have signed a petition calling for an end to the offensive advertising campaign.
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Ronald McDonald Is Dying
It’s 3 a.m. and you’re “Ubering” home from a late night out with the bros. Your stomach rumbles in search of something greasy to satisfy your monstrous appetite. Lucky for you, there is a McDonald’s at the upcoming intersection. In your heart of hearts, you know that dollar-menu cheeseburger will make you happier than any one-night stand, but then you realize the satisfaction of the fatty burger isn’t worth a morning run.
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Facebook To Dethrone Google
Last week marked the 10-year anniversary of the first video ever uploaded to Google’s (GOOGL) popular video sharing service, YouTube. As one of the most popular websites on the Internet, and the second leading search engine behind Google, YouTube clearly has a lot to celebrate. However, as a profitless Google subsidiary, YouTube’s future could prove quite volatile, especially as its main competitor continues to invest in an entirely new video-sharing platform.
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Wall Street Hammers Chipotle
One of the most popular (and most traded) fast food restaurants, the Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG), reported that its same-store sales (defined on a Y/Y basis) missed analyst expectations for Q1 2015 by 1.4%, thereby offsetting the company's otherwise impressive earnings results of $3.88/share on revenue of $1.09 billion. Although Chipotle’s same-store sales rose 10.4%, this metric fell far short of Wall Street’s expected 11.8% growth rate.
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Facebook's Recent Release
Social media giant Facebook (FB) recently took a page out of AOL’s (ancient) playbook by creating a standalone desktop messaging platform similar to AIM (for those who remember, this was the greatest invention of all time). The goal of Facebook’s new PC application is to expand its user base, increase data collection, and generate higher revenues.
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