🍔 BK’s $1B buyout

…and how Snackers feel about the student-loans restart (poll results)   Trying to take back the crowned beef (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)   Yesterday’s Market Moves   Dow Jones 37,361 (-0.62%) S&P 500 4,766 (-0.37%) Nasdaq 14,944 (-0.19%) Bitcoin $43,200 (+1.67%) Dow Jones 37,361 (-0.62%) S&P 500 4,766 (-0.37%) Nasdaq 14,944 (-0.19%) Bitcoin $43,200 (+1.67%) Hey Snackers, Mid-century modern is out, late-Twitter modern is in. Some ex-X employees missing pre-Musk days have [decorated]( their homes with auction-won relics from their former Twitter office, including 6-foot hashtag statues, blue-bird paraphernalia, and Ellen selfie paintings. Stocks fell after a Fed official tempered expectations for speedy interest-rate cuts this year. Bank earnings chugged on, with [Goldman Sachs]( finally notching a quarterly profit surge, while [Morgan Stanley]( and [PNC]( reported declines. COOKIN’ Burger King buys its largest franchisee for $1B to rebuild its realm — its own way A kingdom-shaking deal… The biz behind Burger King said it’s [buying]( the fast-food chain’s largest franchisee, [Carrols Restaurant Group]( for a whopping $1B. [Restaurant Brands International]( — the proud parent of BK, Popeyes, Firehouse Subs, and fast-casual Canadian fave Tim Hortons — will take over Carrols’ 1K+ Burger King locations and 60 Popeyes spots. The plan: spend $500M to remodel 600 older BKs over the next five years. - Franch fries: Franchising lets companies like RBI earn $$ from folks who want to open and run well-known chains. Brands like Subway, [Taco Bell]( and Dunkin’ are heavily franchised. - Super-sized: More than 80% of [McDonald’s]( and nearly 100% of BKs worldwide are operated by franchisees (juicy stat: there are just 75 corporate-owned BKs). Like loose fries in the bag… Burger King risks going stale. Last year the biz said it would close as many as 400 underperforming locations despite a $400M turnaround plan announced the year before. In November, RBI said soggy BK sales were a drag on its broader business (Popeyes, meanwhile, was poppin’). Now RBI’s hoping the franchise flex — combined with big advertising — will get the restos in fry-shipping shape a lot faster than Carrols would’ve done on its own. THE TAKEAWAY To have it your way, do it yourself… The Carrols acquisition is expected to go through next quarter, teeing RBI up to redo hundreds of restaurants. But RBI says it doesn’t want to run the newly shiny spots itself — it plans to flip a lot of the burger joints back to new (and more) franchisees. By taking over the remodel, RBI hopes it can up the # of US franchisees to 500 from today’s 300. SNACKS-POLLS Snacks Temp Check: student-loan poll results We got over 1.2K responses to our poll about student-loan sentiment (thanks to all who participated!). Here’s how Snackers feel about the loan-repayment restart, which has been [plagued]( by billing mistakes and long customer-service wait times: 😡 57% of people said they’ve had a negative experience. Of those: - 25.5% said their experience was “terrible in every way (issues with loan servicers, financial strain, etc.).” - 17% said it was “troublesome, mainly because of the added financial strain to my budget.” - 14.5% said it was “troublesome, mainly because of issues with loan servicers (hold times, billing errors, etc.).” 😌 Over 35% of people said they had a positive experience (“Fairly easy — no sweat!”). 😵‍💫 ~7% said that while they had student loans due, they hadn’t started repayment. Hangover Uber’s shutting down booze-delivery app Drizly to bolster its all-in-one empire Last call… for your last-minute Truly delivery. [Uber]( reportedly plans to [shutter]( alcohol-delivery biz Drizly, three years after buying it for $1.1B. Drizly is one of the biggest online alcohol-delivery marketplaces, with 100M+ customers in North America. But unlike Uber, Drizly doesn’t have its own delivery drivers — it simply provides the tech to connect customers with liquor stores, which use their own drivers. Uber’s OG plan was to fold Drizly’s biz into UberEats (which offers its own boozy delivery). Now: - Bottoms up: Uber says it’ll still sell alcohol through its namesake app, but will close Drizly’s operations in March to focus on its core UberEats strategy. - Buzzkill: In 2022, Drizly came under fire from the FTC after a major 2020 data breach exposed the personal info (like delivery addresses) of 2.5M users. The “add on” economy… Uber has added a variety of services including package drop-offs and flower deliveries as it tries to become an everything transportation app. While niche platforms like Drizly grow need-specific customer bases, all-in-one apps can spur more frequent (and larger) spending sprees. Rival [DoorDash]( said order values at US convenience stores were 50% higher on average when alcohol was added (and up to 30% higher in grocery orders). [Instacart]( has also said orders with alcohol are usually 25% larger than booze-free carts. THE TAKEAWAY All-in-one is better than one-on-one… While Uber’s still far from becoming a true superapp, its delivery additions have helped it thrive. Uber’s Eats biz buoyed sales during the pandemic, when ride-hail plunged. In August, Uber had its first quarterly operating profit as its in-app ad biz ballooned. Bringing more services to its core app could help ad sales too. Uber’s also closing grocery-delivery biz Cornershop, and it’s not impossible that its Postmates app could be next. What else we're Snackin' - [Grounded]( [Spirit]( isn’t getting spirited away: a federal judge blocked [JetBlue]( $3.8B acquisition of the budget airline, saying it would drive up fares. The mega-merger would’ve created the US’s fifth-largest airline. - [Sliced]( [Apple]( stock fell after news that it’s temporarily discounting iPhones in China by $70 as iDemand in the key market falters. Still, Apple just beat Samsung for the first time in global annual smartphone shipments. - [Reserved]( Jeep maker [Stellantis]( will supply 250K vehicles to Sixt, shortly after the rental co opted to drop [Tesla]( from its fleet because of costly repairs and weakening resale values. [Hertz]( recently said it would sell off 20K EVs (mostly Teslas). - [Chilly]( Extreme winter weather caused big travel headaches in the US, with 1.7K+ flights canceled and ~4K delayed. Temps were subzero overnight Monday for 80% of the country with 140M people getting wind-chill warnings. - [Turbulent]( The US carried out another military strike against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea continue to disrupt global shipping. 🍪 Thanks for Snacking with us! Want to share the Snacks? Invite your friends to sign up [here](. Snack Fact Of the Day NBC said the Chiefs-Dolphins game was the most-streamed live event in US history [Read more]( Wednesday - Retail sales - Earnings expected from Alcoa, Charles Schwab, Discover Financial, and US Bank Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Apple, Comcast, Tesla, Uber, and Yum Brands Correction: In the January 10 edition of Snacks, we misstated that cocaine was a Schedule 1 drug, according to the US DEA. It’s actually a [Schedule 2]( drug. We regret the error. Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... 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