Volume 01 | October 1, 2018

💸 Weekly Business News 💸

***THIS WEEK'S NEWSLETTER WILL BE THE ONLY ONE EMAILED TO THE ENTIRE SCHOOL-- ALL NEWSLETTERS AFTER THIS WEEK WILL ONLY BE SENT TO OUR MAILING LIST. SUBSCRIBE TO MORE CONTENT BY JOINING OUR GOOGLE GROUP HERE .*** Welcome to ISOC's weekly newsletter! Here, we break down and analyze key current events in the markets, recent deals, and industry trends to help Wellesley College students better understand what's going on in the business world. Have any questions or comments? We love feedback! Email us at: isoc-eboard@wellesley.edu  Received this from a friend? Join the conversation here .

First off... Upcoming ISOC Events 📅 ISOC Recruiting Office Hours! Currently recruiting? Stressed out and need some direction? Interested in a finance career but don't know where to begin? Drop in to office hours with the ISOC e-board where our e-board members will walk you through the recruiting process, share interview tips, review resumes, and provide 1-on-1 advice. Our e-board members come from a range of finance backgrounds from investment banking and private equity to investment management and sales & trading. Date TBD-- Keep an eye out for mail from us!

In the news 📢

Markets Fed hikes rates: Federal Reserve raised interest rate for a third time this year and affirmed their outlook for further gradual hikes well into 2019. What this means for the economy: After years of near-zero interest rates due to the '08 financial crisis, a strong, recovering economy has led to the Fed's concerns about overheating. This return to normalcy is unprecedented - stay tuned for updates.  China's economy loses steam as trade conflict with U.S. intensifies: The consequences of the intensifying trade war between the U.S. and China can be felt in China's manufacturing slowdown, boosting the likelihood that Beijing will step up economic stimulus measures. What this means for the economy: The trade war between the U.S. and China, especially the tariffs on Chinese goods imposed by Trump, has led to weakening foreign demand and low domestic consumption for Chinese goods, causing Chinese manufacturers to decrease production. This has led to speculation that the People's Bank of China will step up economic stimulus to increase growth.

M&A Deals Michael Kors (NYSE: KORS) has agreed to buy control of Italian fashion house Versace for $2.12 billion. The merged companies will be renamed Capri Holdings, and Donatella Versace will continue to lead the label. Why? This acquisition is Michael Kors' latest attempt to woo more big spenders (KORS also acquired Jimmy Choo for $1.2 bn last year). Michael Kors has traditionally been in the "middle market" of the luxury sector, and this push into the exclusive European luxury market not only expands its consumer base but also serves as a defense for the next economic downturn since luxury shoppers are more likely to continue spending in a recession.  Broadcasting company SiriusXM (NASDAQ: SIRI) has agreed to acquire music streaming company Pandora (NYSE: P) for $3.5 billion in stock. The deal will create the world's largest audio entertainment company. Why? The deal would immediately let the services promote each other while funding technology improvements for Pandora and enhancing Sirius' position in the radio market. "SiriusXM plans to leverage both services to cross-promote the other service. For instance, you could see references to SiriusXM shows while listening to Pandora. And SiriusXM hosts could suggest downloading the Pandora mobile app." Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) outbids 21st Century Fox in an auction for Sky Plc, paying $39 billion for Fox’s 39% stake in Sky. The deal will expand Comcast’s global reach into Europe. Why? Sky is a British satellite-TV company with a TV studio and valuable sports rights, essentially Comcast’s English counterpart. With Comcast consistently losing many of its U.S. cable-TV customers, it is looking to gain a foothold in the European market, where people have never heard of Comcast and are loyal to Sky. With this deal, Comcast would almost double its customer base while hopefully fending off the competitive rise of Netflix, Amazon, and other online streaming services.

IPOs SurveyMonkey goes public. The company started trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker "SVMK". Shares rose as much as 67% before closing at a 42% premium to its opening price. About: SurveyMonkey is the world leader in digital surveys; it offers digital surveys and data analytics to both personal and enterprise users, which can be used for gauging customer satisfaction, measuring customer engagement, or conducting market research.  Eventbrite goes public. The company started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker "EB". The stock soared 59% on its first day of trading. About: Eventbrite’s business model involves helping organizations sell tickets to events through its online platform, and it a takes a cut of each ticket sold for a particular event. Last year, Eventbrite said it enabled more than 700,000 organizations to “issue approximately 203 million tickets across approximately three million events in over 170 countries,” according to its S-1 filing.

Alternative Investments Payment company Stripe has raised $245 million and is now worth $20 billion. This valuation places Stripe among an elite handful of the world's most valuable private startups alongside Airbnb, Palantir, and Uber. Tiger Global Management, DST Global, and Sequoia Capital led the investment. How? Stripe makes it easier for startups to set up their online billing and payment systems. Rather than dealing with a morass of banking paperwork and procedures, companies can inject a few lines of code from Stripe onto their websites and gain instant access to its payment infrastructure. As its clients (i.e. Target, Lyft, DoorDash, etc.) processed millions of transactions, Stripe charged a small fee on each one for its services.     Female-focused digital health company Maven raises $27 million in Series B to bring women and families better access to healthcare. Sequoia and Oak HC/FT led the investment, with participation from existing investors 14W and Female Founders Fund. For what? Maven is the only virtual clinic dedicated to women's and family health. The new round of financing will help Maven enhance its flagship product, Maven's Family Benefits platform, which supports working mothers and new parents with everything from fertility through return-to-work care, and is currently offered by employers like Snap, Cleary, Protective Life, and Bumble.

Industry Focus 🔎

Technology Facebook security breach exposes accounts of 50 million users and the tech industry is beginning to lose trust in Zuckerberg. The breach, which was discovered this week, was the largest in the company’s 14-year history. The breach was caused by bugs in a video uploader that allowed attackers to find access tokens needed to log in to other users' accounts. No word yet on who the hackers were and why it took 14 months to identify the vulnerability.  Elon Musk agrees to pay $20 million and quit as Tesla chairman in deal with SEC. The SEC filed fraud charges against Elon Musk for allegedly misleading investors by tweeting that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private. Over the weekend, the case was settled--Musk and Tesla will each pay a $20M fine, and Musk will step down as board chair for three years.

Consumer & Retail Snapchat and Amazon are rolling out a partnership to offer users a new image-based shopping feature. Snapchat users simply hold up their mobile device, scan an image or barcode and snap a photo. If it’s available an Amazon, a card will appear and the user can click through to Amazon, review and buy. The program is currently being slowly rolled out and tested, but it's difficult to imagine this not being embraced once the technology is worked out. This announcement led to speculation that an Amazon - Snap acquisition may soon be in the works.  Amazon just opened 4 star, a new physical store that sells popular items from its website. The store is a longer-term real estate deal, compared with the pop-up shops and mall kiosks that Amazon has tested in the past. It shows the company is serious about investing in bricks-and-mortar retail after its acquisition of Whole Foods and the gradual rollout of its cashier-less convenience stores across the U.S.

Commodities Over the weekend, the price of a barrel of crude oil continued its recent upward slide to $85, the highest level in four years. Can crude oil rally to $100 a gallon for the first time since 2015? Why? The price increase is mainly due to OPEC’s decision to control oil supply. With the U.S. already producing record amounts of crude oil, it will be very difficult for the U.S. to produce even more oil at home to offset the price hike. However, more energy efficient vehicles may lower the demand for oil and eventually drive down the price in the future.

Breaking the Glass Ceiling 🔨 Hongyu Lin, ISOC President This week we will be introducing our very own president, Hongyu Lin ! Hongyu is a junior majoring in Economics and has previously interned at State Street and MassMutual. Why did you join ISOC? I wanted to encourage other students to explore careers in finance and provide useful resources and memorable experiences that will help students combine their passions with personal interests and goals What is your favorite part of being in ISOC? It would definitely be forming close relationships with other members and learning about their past internship and recruiting experiences. What's your advice for students who think they might be interested in finance? Don’t underestimate how powerful the network of Wellesley alumnae and students in finance is but more importantly don’t estimate your own abilities to secure your desired internship or job. Don't be afraid to reach out to students and alumnae who have worked or are working in the positions that appeal to you the most. Make your relationships genuine, and always start early!