SAPA, Nice One! 🙈
This week, we got SpaceX, Buy Now, Pay Later, Apple and Microsoft on our minds!
Hi👋,
Tourists To Space - SpaceX low-key Making History!!
When we first heard the phrase “around the world in 80 days”, we we’re probably like, “Na so”. But it seems perhaps very soon ‘Around the galaxy in 80 days’ won’t be so far-fetched. Elon Musk and his company SpaceX has made history in space tourism, but unlike most things the guy does, they decided to keep it on the down low.
Four people returned to Earth from a three-day extraterrestrial excursion aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule on Saturday evening, marking the end of the first-ever flight to Earth's orbit flown entirely by tourists or otherwise non-astronauts.
Crazy? I know! Like MAADEAUX (pronunciation: Mad o 😰🌝🌚)
The trip was expected to raise $200 million for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - It had already netted $160 million by Saturday evening. "Count me in for $50M," Musk then pledged in a tweet, which would put the fundraiser $10 million over its goal. Fam, When you’re big, you’re what? Big!! (One day, I will also pledge like so. Aah, why are you squeezing face, Don’t hate on my dream na 😩😩)
The space flight called Inspiration4 had on board Jared Isaacman, Sian Proctor, Medical Officer, Hayley Arceneaux and mission specialist, Chris sembroski. Lmao!! Was including the medical officer a strategic addition? 😂😅
The cost of the flight was not disclosed (which is a hint in and of itself, if you know what I mean😉). SpaceX’ President said this is paving the way for a future where space is more accessible to all who wish to go.
Would you like to go to Space?
“Buy Now, Pay Small Small”
It's big money season in the “Buy Now, Pay Later” space. This year seems to be the year of Buy Now, Pay Later startups.
Barely a few weeks after Affirm joined forces with Amazon, resulting in Affirm stocks rising over 40%, PayPal got in on the BNPL craze with their acquisition of Paidy, followed by Square’s acquisition of Afterpay.
Tomi From Trove: Sapa nice one, my mates are selling companies and I’m here writing newsletters 😂😭🌚 (I’m only half kidding)
In summary, Everyone wants a bit of that BNPL schmoney.
Seeing as Goldman Sachs won’t come and carry last (because God no go shame us), they announced a $2.2 billion deal to acquire a Buy Now, Pay Later fintech company called GreenSky. The bank said the Greensky deal bulks up its customer base and gives it access to the fintech’s network of more than 10,000 merchants.
Context: GreenSky operates a platform that facilitates loans for big-ticket items like home improvement projects or elective dental or medical procedures. (In the United States, these types of procedures cost thousands of $$$ because you can’t just call Baba Shaki to pull up and handle your home needs… neither can you wing it at a pharmacy for your medical or dental needs. So, folks need to “buy now, and pay later in installments aka small-small). GreenSky enables brands like Home Depot, as well as medical and dental practices, to offer instalment loan repayment to customers at the point of sale, thereby increasing sales and conversions for its clients.
As expected, shares of GreenSky rose 44% pre-market; this move is projected to help Goldman ramp up in consumer finance - a space they’ve had their eyes on for a hot minute.
Tomi From Trove: When I realize I didn’t get in on the +44% stock move
Microsoft: You’re Getting Paid
It's certainly payday for Microsoft investors!!! And the company has been busy at work to make this happen!
The tech giant has been coming through with some MAJOR announcements. On Tuesday, Microsoft announced that it would be conducting a 60 billion dollar share buy-back/repurchase.
Yup. You read that right. Sixty B-I-L-L-I-O-N American dollars.
This is great news for Microsoft investors because this means that the share price is likely to experience a pretty significant upturn, hypothetically.
You right now if you own a share of MSFT ☝️💃
But the good news doesn’t stop there, it was also announced that they’re raising their quarterly dividend by 11% bringing it to $0.62 per share.
Microsoft investors are going to be smiling all the way to the bank. Stop smiling joh, you want to rub it in abi?!
Hold on tight, cos e never finish! That isn’t all they’re doing oh! The company also recently announced that they plan to release passwordless login technology for its users. That’s an answer to prayer for a lot of people because I ain’t never remembering my passwords fam! Imagine a world without the hassle of passwords, a literal dream come true.
Microsoft is doing so many amazing things and we love to see it all!
Apple releases the iPhone 13, & other devices...
At its annual fall event, Apple unveiled the new iPad, iPad mini, & The Apple Watch Series 7.
Apple CEO, Tim Cook, wrapped it up with the launch of the highly anticipated iPhone 13 series - The iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Despite the devices having new features such as longer battery life, larger memory and an upgraded camera, investors were generally unmoved🤣🤣🤣. Don’t say Tomi you’re mean o, but who’s shocked? 😂🤣😂😅 I'd have said Sapa Nice one but this one is on Tim Cook this time. This was reflected in the share price which dropped by 0.96% to $148.12 apiece by the end of the trading day. Rotflol but it’s Apple sha!
While this continues the trend of Apple stock doing poorly after an iPhone launch, the event certainly lacked the pizazz we normally get from these product launches, with most people coming away with the feeling of being slightly short-changed. This probably explains why the stock dipped.
Tim Cook, Nice One 😂😶🌫️😵💫
....and it is what it is, for today y’all ~!!!
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Remember, it’s always Darkest Before Dawn! Keep the Faith.
Your dearest and favourite Stocks Market Gist Partner,
Tomi, From Trove 🖤
XOXO