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Vehicle vigilante. Car theft is getting out of hand, to the point where police across the country are telling people to stash Apple AirTags in their cars. (Yes, you read that right). But with the car’s locations in their own hands, we may have a vehicle vigilante disaster — car owners chasing down their own stolen cars without police — waiting to happen.

In other news… Disney v. Comcast, WFA as the new office perk, and Roblox finishes up the semester with Parsons School of Design.

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ENTERTAINMENT

“You take it!” “No, you take it!” // Illustration by Kate Walker

Disney and Comcast play chess for Hulu

The Future. The Disney-Comcast drama over Hulu has been going for a decade… and will be finally coming to a head at the top of 2024 when one of the companies will have to buy out the remaining stake (Disney has two-thirds, Comcast has one-third). Considering that Disney’s Bob Iger has already laid out plans to make Hulu a tile on Disney+ to build out the streamer’s general entertainment offerings, it’s more than likely Disney will be shelling out billions next year to complete the acquisition.

Canary in a stream-mine
The complicated deal between the two entertainment giants allows for either Comcast to compel Disney to buy out its stake or for Disney to require Comcast to sell its stake (yeah, very complicated).

  • The crux of the issue is that neither company can agree on how much Hulu is actually worth… by the tune of tens of billions of dollars (but it legally can’t be valued below $27.5 billion).

  • The companies are currently in arbitration over the matter; Comcast claims Disney has kept Hulu from growing by not rolling it out internationally.

  • Either way, both companies will do a final valuation early next year, and if the numbers are too far apart, an independent third party will make the final call.

With 48 million subscribers, high ARPU (average revenue per subscriber), and one of the few streamers to actually turn a profit, expect that valuation to be closer to Comcast’s number.

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WORK

The new desk

Work-from-anywhere weeks is the new office perk

The Future. As companies start asking people to return to work, they’re offering a set number of weeks of remote work as a way to entice employees. The offering may demonstrate that, in the modern workforce, control over one’s time is just as important as pay.

Out there, on the job
While work-from-anywhere may have become a pandemic normal, the practice is becoming a perk for the back-to-the-office workforce.

  • Companies as varied as American Express, Google, and Patagonia have introduced WFA weeks as part of their benefits package.

  • Typically, it’s two weeks, giving people the ability to take their work on the road either as an addition to an extended vacation or as a buffer around major travel holidays.

  • Some companies have either set aside specific months when they need to be taken (Citigroup) or implemented rules that the weeks can’t be taken non-consecutively (Freddie Mac).

  • Additionally, employees are typically responsible for any time zone adjustments and tax changes that come with working abroad.

For companies that generally want people back at the office, WFA weeks give employers something flexible to offer in order to attract or retain employees that have been converted by the remote-work revolution.

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TOGETHER WITH QUIMBY

Unleash your brand's social media potential with Quimby's Innovative Incubator

Say hello to Quimby's Social Media Incubator. The first of its kind, this startup incubator is designed to launch, scale, and train you on how to run your brand's social media channels. Over nine months, they'll take over your social media and transform your online presence from meh to marvelous, delivering:

  • Expert Training: Learn from industry professionals as they provide comprehensive training over a 9-month period.

  • Omni-Channel Strategy: Quimby’s fractional CMO will develop a strategic plan to ensure your social media aligns with your overall business objectives.

  • Hands-On Execution: Social Strategy, Content, Copy, and Community Management is fully executed by the Quimby team until the end of the incubator program.

Their next round opens on June 1st. So hop on their waiting list and book a complimentary discovery call to see their dealio.

I need a social media glow up 💻✨

FASHION

College code // Illustration by Kate Walker

Fashion gets an update with Roblox and Parsons School of Design

The Future. The nine students who have taken the virtual fashion course at Parsons (in partnership with Roblox) have discovered both the possibilities and limitations of the art form. If Roblox can age up its user base and turn it into a virtual social hub, clothing may play an outsized role in expressing avatars… but that’s only if the metaverse can survive cultural indifference.

Digital degree
Class is wrapping up on the collaborative course between Parsons and Roblox.

Here are some of the takeaways from the semester:

  • While working without physical restraints is fun, one student, Lea Melendez, discovered that her design was actually too complex to upload onto the platform.

  • Still, many of the students see the skills learned as a great way to mix real-world and digital design, like making virtual versions of IRL looks.

Although the clothing will sell for between 70 to 100 Robux (88 cents to $1.25), there’s potentially some solid money to be made — Epic Games made $50 million from in-game skins designed by the NFL.

And with Roblox trying to shift the user base from teens to people 17-24, there may soon be a larger audience that would take the clothing seriously.

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Highlights

The best curated daily stories from around the web

Media, Music, & Entertainment

  • Cineworld, the parent company of the Regal theater chain, hopes to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy this July after almost all of its lenders have agreed to a restructuring agreement. Read more → deadline

  • MoviePass 2.0 is expanding nationwide this weekend to capitalize on the Memorial Day moviegoing surge. Read more → thr

  • Ford reverses its strategy and plans to keep AM radio in EVs — a key tool for spreading emergency alerts. Read more → wsj

Fashion & E-Commerce

  • Luxury fashion brands expect growth to not come from selling more products but from selling fewer elite products at a higher price point. Read more → businessoffashion

  • A new platform called Checkmate is taking on Honey as the go-to app for collating discounts and promo codes across the internet. Read more → techcrunch

  • Regulators in both the US and UK are working on new rules that would force clothing companies to pay for textile-recycling programs to deal with all of their waste worldwide. Read more → bloomberg

Tech, Web3, & AI

  • Chip-maker Nvidia saw its stock rocket over 30% to an almost-trillion-dollar valuation, which would make it the fourth-largest corporation in the world, ranking above even Amazon. Read more → forbes

  • Open AI says that incoming EU regulations, which would make AI firms reveal their training methods and sources of data, may make it impossible for the company to operate in the region. Read more → theverge

  • Irony alert: Pablo Xavier, the guy behind the now-infamous “Balenciaga Pope” AI images, would really like people to stop using his generated images without his permission. Read more → fastcompany

Creator Economy

  • MrBeast’s Feastables chocolate bars are now available in every 7-Eleven and Speedway. Read more → tubefilter

  • WhatsApp is rolling out usernames — a big push to turn the platform into more of a social network. Read more → engadget

  • YouTube viewership on connected TVs, a longtime ambition for the company, was up 1.5% last quarter, making it the most-watched platform on TV. Read more → tubefilter

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Today's email was brought to you by David Vendrell. Editing by Melody Song. Publishing by Sara Kitnick. ⚡ Hulu Tug-Of-War

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