Really Big Oil

Hi, today we're exploring: (1) Really big oil, (2) Why Wordle is suing a competitor and (3) Dr Pepper vs. Pepsi. Good morning! Mexico has [elected]( its first female president, China [landed]( on the far side of the moon, and meme stock mania is [back on]( (again). Today we're exploring: - Really big oil: Saudi Arabia is selling a sliver of its Aramco stake. - SUING: Wordle isn’t happy about Worldle. - Pepsi vs. Dr Pepper: The battle for 2nd place in the soda wars. TOGETHER WITH Yesterday, Saudi Arabia’s government [began selling]( some of its shares in state-controlled oil titan Saudi Aramco — a planned offering that could see the country sell just over 0.6% of its 82% direct holding in Aramco, potentially raising as much as $13B by the end of the week. Pumping profits Producing more than 9 million barrels of oil per day — or nearly 10% of the world's [total]( — Saudi Aramco is a behemoth that makes the rest of big oil seem almost unworthy of their moniker. Last quarter alone, Aramco generated over $27B in net income, more than western peers ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips, and BP put together. In fact, since 2020, Aramco has made $460B+... more than even Apple, which has made $384B over that period. At its current run-rate, raising $13B through a share sale is less than a month-and-a-half worth of profits. So, why sell any of its stake? The answer: the Saudi government has spending plans that are more than a match for its income. Those plans, often executed through the Kingdom’s high-profile Public Investment Fund (PIF), include the wildly ambitious [Vision 2030]( a roadmap that seeks to build a 100-mile-long city, a luxury island, a mountain resort, and much more. But, thus far, little work has been completed, with the country scaling back its medium-term ambitions for the development in [April](. Having originally hoped to have more than 1.5 million people living on “The Line” by 2030, Saudi now expects just 300,000 by the same date. The total estimated bill for the development? Some $1.5 trillion. [Read this on the web instead]( War of the Wordles Suing. That’s the 5-letter headline that sums up the New York Times’ approach to games with similar sounding names to their smash-hit Wordle. Last week, The Guardian reported that the Gray Lady had filed a [lawsuit]( on behalf of online sensation Wordle — purchased by the Times from namesake inventor Josh Wardle for a splendid [seven-figure sum]( in 2022 — against the geography-guessing quiz [Worldle](. Wordle’s success spawned countless projects that hoped to replicate the virality of the word-guessing game. Some, like [Quordle]( added complexity to the puzzle, while others, like [Flaggle]( [Stockle]( and [nerdle]( borrowed some of the core mechanics and took them into new domains. Indeed, Worldle’s creator is [fighting the filing]( on grounds of there being “a whole industry of [dot]LE games”. However, none of these, including Worldle’s ~100K monthly players, have matched the original’s millions-strong userbase… which has maintained an impressive amount of momentum, with a similar number of people searching for “wordle” every day for the last 18 months. Play time Wordle’s resilience may be explained by its place within the NYT’s thriving games portfolio — which includes Spelling Bee (a Chartr favorite) — a department that’s buoyed the wider newsroom in the midst of a tumultuous media landscape. [Axios]( reported that the NYT Games app was downloaded 10M times in 2023, with company filings showing that revenues from digital subscriptions, into which Games, News, and Cooking are bundled together, rose 12% from the year before, and YipitData reveals that a huge proportion of time spent on the [NYT app]( is now on games. [Read this on the web instead]( [Sponsored by RYSE]( Less than 2 weeks left to invest in this emerging tech startup The ball-park isn’t the only place to look for home runs. Best Buy has a proven record of being an early retailer of home-tech products that go on to dominate the market: - Nest — acquired by Google for $3.2B in 2014. - Ring — acquired by Amazon for $1.2B in 2018. Early investors in these companies saw this market’s potential firsthand — but for the rest of us, there's still a chance to [get in on the action with RYSE](. [RYSE's launch in 100+ Best Buys]( could see the company become the next (smart)home run. Their Smart Shade tech is well-positioned in an industry growing at 50% annually, and there's still time to invest in their $1.50/share public offering.* [The window to invest is closing — discover RYSE’s offering]( Is Pepsi okay? Despite holding the second-place spot behind Coca-Cola for nearly 4 decades, Pepsi’s market share has been gently fizzling… while the ambiguous-tasting Dr Pepper is frothing to new heights. Data from Beverage Digest, first reported by the [WSJ]( shows that Pepsi and Dr Pepper are now tied as runner-up (8.3%) to Coke in the US carbonated soft drink sector by sales-volume — which, with more than double the market share of any other beverage (19.2%), remains dominant in the drinks space. Invented by a pharmacist in the 1880s, Dr Pepper has steadily risen to become one of America’s most beloved drinks. With a hard-to-pin-down flavor — that ChatGPT unhelpfully described as “a unique blend of 23 flavors, combining hints of cherry, vanilla, and spices” — the drink was in 6th place as recently as 2004, per [the WSJ](. But, in the last 20 years, thanks to careful product placement, innovative marketing campaigns, unusual flavors like [creamy coconut]( and viral [social media trends]( its sales have pepped up… particularly with Gen Z. Pepsi, meanwhile, has struggled. Although the wider PepsiCo conglomerate is still a $236B behemoth, sales growth at the snack and drinks giant has been sluggish in recent quarters, thanks in no small part to price hikes. Even so, losing solo second place to Dr Pepper in the drinks space is a major blow... softened, however, by Subway’s recent [announcement]( that Pepsi will become the sandwich chain’s sole drink supplier across all US stores. [Read this on the web instead]( More Data • John Lennon's long-lost guitar, used while making the 1964 album "Help!", has sold for $2.85M, making it The Beatles’ [highest-selling guitar]( at auction. • On Saturday night, [North Korea]( sent more than 600 "trash balloons" carrying cigarette butts and waste paper into South Korea’s airspace. • The Smart Home sector has produced household names like Ring and Nest… and now, [RYSE’s SmartShade tech]( could be the next disruptor in this $158B industry. There’s still time to invest in their [$1.50/share public offering]( — learn more.** • Rise and Shein: Chinese fast-fashion giant [Shein]( could be set to IPO on the London Stock Exchange this week, for a potential valuation of $66B. • 93-year-old media mogul [Rupert Murdoch]( got married for the 5th time at his California vineyard over the weekend. • Lego has released a 4,383-piece set of Paris’ [Notre-Dame Cathedral]( the Danish toymaker’s first religious structure in 67 years. **This is sponsored content. Off the charts: What major issues are Americans most worried about, per a recent [Gallup poll]( [Answer below.] [Answer here](. Thanks for stopping by! Have some [feedback](mailto:daily@chartr.co?subject=Feedback&body=Hi%2C%0A%0AI%20like%20the%20newsletters%2C%20but%20I%20had%20a%20thought%20for%20you...) or want to [sponsor]( newsletter](mailto:james@sherwoodmedia.com?subject=Chartr%20NL%20Sponsorship%20Enquiry%20)? Not a subscriber? Sign up for free below. 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