Pfizer x Ben & Jerrys🍦
This Week in Review☕️: Cannabis to the rescue | Unilever goes shopping | Microsoft is heading to the Metaverse | Kandy Kush can treat Covid | A Four Day Work Week is the New Global Experiment | Travel
Quick Bites:
Mergers 🛒 : Consumer Goods giant Unilever wants to add a new product to its portfolio: Pfizer.
If you've been sanitizing your hands, used a brand-name cotton swab, applied petroleum jelly to your chapped lips or drank hot tea, it’s almost certain that you’ve used a Unilever product.
Think- Vaseline, Lipton, Lifebuoy, Dove, St.Ives.. Ring a bell?
Unilever announced it wants to take over GSK Consumer Health (the joint venture between GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer) in a $68bn bid last week.
💡GSK's response: Rejected. They already rejected 3 takeover bids by Unilever late last year "for fundamentally undervaluing the business", BBC reports.
💡Unilever's response: "We will not increase our offer above $68bn."
If the mega-merger happens, this will be Unilever's largest-ever acquisition. It also signals their strong focus towards healthcare and hygiene.
GSK, home to brands like Sensodyne Toothpaste and Panadol, would be "a highly complementary" target for Unilever with "good potential for synergies and a number of routes to build scale."
Our Thoughts💡: Ben & Jerrys, Magnum, Marmite, Hellmanns Mayo (a.k.a all the junk we love)- what do they all have in common?
Unilever makes them. And, when CEO Alan Jope wants something, he gets it.
The deal might be on ice but rest assured, Unilever is preparing to engage in what could be a long and very expensive takeover battle.
PS. Speaking of Ben & Jerrys, just added their Caramel Cookie Dough to our McFlurry.. kinda GENIUS🙌🏻
Big Tech 💻 : Microsoft announced it is buying video-game maker 'Activision Blizzard' for $68.7bn, last week.
To put that into context, this 'whopping' $69bn acquisition is just 3% of Microsoft's market cap..
PS. Is the DOJ Antitrust committee on vacay or what??🤔
Key Highlights:
💡The purchase is an all-cash deal
💡It will provide Microsoft with Activision's many hits, including Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Warcraft and Diablo
💡It gives Microsoft access to its nearly 400 million monthly gaming users
💡It also rockets Microsoft in the battle to dominate the metaverse (had to slip the metaverse in there)
Microsoft's Top 10 acquistions:
💡#1: Activision Blizzard- $69bn
💡#2: LinkedIn- $26bn
💡#3: Nuance: $20bn
💡#4: Skype: $9bn
💡#5: Bethesda: $7.5bn
💡#6: GitHub: $7.5bn
💡#7: Nokia: $7.2bn
💡#8: aQuantive: $6bn
💡#9: Mojang: $2.5bn
💡#10: Visio: $1.5bn
Activision, by itself, is larger than the top 5 combined.
Our Thoughts💡: The 3 competitors left, after this deal: Sony, Microsoft and Epic Games.
Tbh, Sony has primarily dominated the console gaming market for the better part of a decade. It was always the 'safe' bet. This deal changes that.
Sony right now👇🏻
Work 🌎 : A 4-day working week pilot has been launched in the UK.
Whoever marketed corporate slavery as a "stable 9-5" is a genius 💯
Led by the 4 Day Week Global Organization, the six-month scheme is set to start in June this year.
Key Highlights, according to the Metro:
💡Around 30 British companies are signing up for the experiment
💡Employees will have no reduction in pay + benefits to remain unchanged
💡Similar trials to run at the same time in the US, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
💡Advocates highlight the “social and environmental benefits of the shorter working week”
When Microsoft experimented with a 4-day week with no loss of pay in Japan, productivity went up by 40%.
Moreover, researchers in Iceland said their 4-day working week trial, which lasted from 2015 to 2019, was an 'overwhelming success.’
Our Thoughts💡: We know the UK just started piloting a 4-day week but can they also compare it to a 2-day work week?
Now that we're at it, why unnecessarily stop at 4..👇🏻
Pandemic 🦠: Cannabis compounds prevented Covid infection, Bloomberg reports.
Like Jimmy Kimmel just said: "All this time we've been listening to the C.D.C, we should have been eating CBD!"
New research shows that hemp compounds prevent Coronavirus from entering human cells.
"These compounds can be taken orally are safe for humans. They have the potential to prevent as well as treat infection by SARS-CoV-2."
Our Thoughts💡: Personally, we feel the people who don't smoke pot create 95% of world's problems.. just sayin🤷🏻♀️
Our motto: Puff puff pass stay Covid-free at last🙏
Food 🍫 : One of the most frequently asked questions "Wait, can vegans eat chocolate?
While the world of chocolate is rich and vast, most chocolates don't really fit in with an animal-friendly diet.
Major confectionary brands are introducing vegan versions of their iconic chocolates to meet the shift towards a plant-based lifestyle.
Iconic Canadian chocolatier Purdys is the latest to jump on the bandwagon, Veg News reports.
The 115-year old company is debuting a vegan version of its most popular chocolate- 'The Sweet Georgia Browns' by using a combination of apple cider and coconut milk for the gooey caramel inside.
Purdys joins a number of major chocolate brands who have gone plant-based from Cadbury, Hershey's and Lindt.
Cadbury’s marketing campaign in the UK included an apology letter to Brits for taking so long to create the dairy-free bars.
“Sorry it’s taken this long,” the letter said. "Sorry it seemed like we weren’t listening to your calls…And sorry for all the other chocolate you’ve had to eat while you waited. We simply wanted it to be perfect.”
Quicker Bites:
NATO sends fighter jets and ships to Eastern Europe as Russia accuses West of hysteria.
Premier League set for huge rule change on Covid match cancellations.
Netlfix's Squid Game is coming back for Season 2.
Manfred Thierry Mugler, the fashion icon known for his metamorphic silhouettes, died on Sunday at the age of 73.
Kiribati, a Covid-19 free island, gets 36 positive cases on its 1st international flight.
Covid-19 hospitalizations are dropping in some parts of the US, CNN reports.
Bella Hadid speaks about the "Never-ending effect of pain and stress that alcohol gave her."