April 7 2023 - Bags and Beans

👋It's Friday! We made it. We got rolling hand bags and baked beans – I swear we're not sponsored by Heinz. Enjoy!

Disney has appointed Asad Ayaz as its first Chief Brand Officer while he continues his role as the President of Marketing for The Walt Disney Studios. Ayaz, who has been with Disney for 18 years, will be responsible for the Disney 100 campaign and develop brand marketing campaigns for Disney's entire suite of content and consumer experiences. He has overseen marketing campaigns for hits like Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Black Panther, and Avatar: The Way of Water.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts seems to have the upper hand over Disney CEO Bob Iger in the battle over the ownership of streaming service Hulu. In January 2024, Comcast can sell its 33% stake in Hulu to Disney, the majority owner, at a price that values Hulu overall at $27.5 billion or more. However, since the valuation was agreed upon in May 2019, the overall streaming business has stalled and the market has fallen. Hulu's owners agreed upon that valuation when the streaming market was growing rapidly. The Hulu negotiation is likely to last until after next January, when Comcast can first exercise its option. It's possible that Comcast sells its stake to Disney at a lower price than agreed but quietly extracts a valuable concession from Disney in a different part of its business. Meanwhile, executives believe that Disney is better off keeping Hulu, given how closely it is now integrated with Disney's operations.

Walmart plans to build a nationwide electric vehicle charging network at thousands of its stores and Sam’s Club locations by 2030. The company is currently partnering with third-party suppliers to offer almost 1,300 third-party chargers across 280 stores. The new expansion plan is set to make EV ownership more accessible, reliable, convenient, and affordable for customers. Walmart claims that its stores and wholesale warehouses are located within 10 miles of approximately 90% of Americans, making it uniquely positioned to offer charging solutions. Walmart also aims to make its own logistics emissions-free by 2040 and has incorporated EVs into its Walmart Plus shopping deliveries.

Paramount is exploring the sale of a majority stake in Noggin, its online learning service for preschool children, as part of the company's efforts to prioritize its Paramount+ and Pluto TV streaming services. Paramount wants to retain a stake in Noggin as a minority investor, believing there is a revenue opportunity from the digital service. Noggin is mainly a content service, including shows like "PAW Patrol" and "Peppa Pig," and Paramount sees an opportunity to develop Noggin into more of an interactive learning platform and is seeking an investor to help it do so.

• Disney is launching a new 2D platformer game called Disney Illusion Island on July 28, exclusively for the Switch. The game features Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy, and has a focus on movement with no attacks or combat. It is a Metroidvania game, with a large map that players unlock new areas by obtaining new abilities. The game also has co-op play, cutscenes featuring classic characters and their voice actors, and fully orchestrated music. The lead developer, AJ Grand-Scrutton, says the game is all about the joy of movement. Love this style.

• An Apple Store in Washington state was robbed of 436 iPhones worth approximately $500,000. The thieves tunneled into the backroom of the store by cutting a hole through the bathroom wall of an adjacent coffee shop, Seattle Coffee Gear. The coffee shop manager said he was surprised that they were adjacent to the Apple Store due to the mall's layout. The theft occurred when the mall was closed, and no employees were present. The police have obtained surveillance footage of the incident, and an investigation is ongoing. Apple has not yet commented on the robbery.

• Microsoft is reassuring content creators that its new AI-driven search results, which include features like chat and answers, will drive more traffic and revenue to publishers. The company's vision is to move beyond search and create a "copilot for the web." Microsoft is exploring placing ads in chat and sharing ad revenue with partners whose content contributed to the chat response. However, participation in Microsoft's Start program, which is similar to Google News or Apple News, is currently limited to publishers based in the US, Germany, Spain, France, or Italy who meet specific criteria. Microsoft aims to double its ad business sales to $20 billion in the next several years.
• Apple has apparently hidden a copy of Satoshi Nakamoto's bitcoin white paper in "every copy of macOS since Mojave in 2018," according to technologist Andy Baio. In an April 5 blog post, Baio explained that he stumbled upon a PDF of the original bitcoin white paper on his MacBook while trying to fix his printer. Baio shared instructions on how users can locate the manifesto on their own Apple computers, and Insider confirmed the document's existence using Baio's instructions. The document is titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System" and was published by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008.
  

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