Busts this week: Sports and Offices

Welcome to Sunday Snacks, folks. We’re here destroying the complicated Jenga Tower of company strategy to help you level up your analysis game for the week.

NOTE: No long-weekend Reading List this week, as a surprising number of you of you are working on Monday.

Here’s the run-down for the week:

ESPN Layoffs

• ESPN recently announced it’s parting ways with about 20 on-air personalities

• This is in line with Bob Iger: The Sequel, which promised to deliver streamlined content and cost cutting

How to mansplain the chess moves to people who are sad about losing Suzy Kolber on their TV:

The ESPN layoffs are a mix of 2 things that Bob Iger promised: cut costs, streaming losses, and take a hard look at content and fix what’s not working (he is excellent at doing the latter). The streaming losses were a BIG DEAL last year. Iger came in to stabilize the ship after Chapek started doing his Bill Buckner impression. The move could also be contributed to forward looking economic indicators that may spell ‘trouble ahead’ when interest rates start hitting consumer spending and company hiring.

Bob Iger’s other thing he’s excellent at? Providing direction and leeway to senior creative talent on making content that works.

Result? Pat McAfee’s 5-year deal.

These cuts are only going to be a win for Disney. Don’t believe us? Watch what happens at the 3Q earnings.

Commercial Real Estate: it’s giving…Titanic?

This was our attempt at a Gen Z joke. Did it work? No? ok.

• The 20-story tower at 529 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan has been sold for $105 million, less than the value of the land it sits on.

• The US commercial property industry is experiencing a reckoning due to rising interest rates, regional banking crises, and remote work trends, impacting older office buildings and other real estate categories.

• Manhattan's office buildings have lost $76 billion in value, with many properties facing distress due to high levels of debt and low occupancy.

How to get real with the guy who just became a homeowner: 

Manhattan's real estate market is in a topsy-turvy situation, just like the surreal pink designs of an Alice in Wonderland exhibit in a tower at 529 Fifth Avenue. Buildings are selling for less than the value of the land they occupy— what a…steel (we’re gonna see ourselves out).

Rising interest rates, remote work, and banking crises have sent shockwaves through the industry. It's a stormy situation, and it seems like many buildings are being returned to lenders faster than you can say "foreclosure."

Again, none of this email is investment advice. We’re here to have fun.

Tweet of the Week

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Have a great week!

Ahmed and Peter