👟 Dick's Sporting Goods Races To Acquire Foot Locker

In today’s newsletter I discuss Dick's Sporting Goods races to acquire Foot Locker, Coinbase joins the S&P 500, GM creates a new battery, video podcasting is cleaning up in the media upfronts this year, OpenAI to stay a non-profit but still raising billions of dollars, and African arm wrestling is a thing.

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WHAT WE’RE READING

👟 Dick's Sporting Goods Races To Acquire Foot Locker

Dick's Sporting Goods has announced they plan to acquire Foot Locker in a $2.4 billion dollar deal, offering Foot Locker shareholders $24 per share in cash or 0.1168 shares of Dick's Sporting Goods common stock. This acquisition will expand Dick's Sporting Goods reach internationally and into mall-based retail, adding Foot Locker's $8 billion in annual sales to their portfolio. One has to wonder if they'll start selling more athletic tape to cover up all those Foot Locker logos.

Dick's Sporting Goods is a major player in the U.S. sporting goods retail market, and has shown consistent revenue growth in recent years, reaching approximately $13.4 billion in fiscal year 2025. 

Foot Locker, on the other hand, has experienced some financial headwinds to say the least. Their stock is down around 40% for the year, which has made them an attractive acquisition target. Foot Locker's total revenue for fiscal year 2024, ending February 1, 2025, was $7.99 billion dollars, which represents a decrease from the $8.17 billion in the previous fiscal year. This decline was despite Foot Locker's net income for the year being $18 million, up from a $330 million loss the previous year.

The combined companies will face continued challenges of integrating their businesses, but together should be a powerhouse in the competitive sneaker retail game.

Hopefully they can manage to avoid tripping over their own laces as they execute on their new strategy.

🪙 Business

Days after Bitcoin's price surged past the $100,000 mark, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has been added to the S&P 500. Coinbase currently has a market cap of around $64 billion dollars, and following a company’s addition to the S&P 500, research shows that a company’s market cap can go up by 3%.

Here’s to hoping for a crypto bull market.

🎤 Entertainment

Video podcasts are popular at this year’s media upfronts, where media companies aim to capitalize on their growing popularity with advertisers. With global podcast ad spending projected to reach $4.46 billion in 2025, and video podcasts capturing an increasing share of viewership, networks are highlighting this content to attract ad dollars.

What is most surprising is that video podcasts aren’t anything revolutionary; they are literally just a podcast that is recorded to show people talking. And this is where advertisers are putting their ad dollars in 2025? Unbelievable!

In completely unrelated news, I’m now going to get started on launching a new video podcast.

🔋 Tech

GM has unveiled a new lithium manganese-rich (LMR) prismatic battery technology, developed in partnership with LG Energy Solution, which research shows will significantly reduce battery costs by potentially $6,000 per pack compared to current technology. GM aims to be the first automaker to market with this LMR technology in their electric trucks and SUVs starting in 2028, promising over 400 miles of range, but Ford is hot on their tracks to introduce their own LMR batteries. 

🤖 AI

It’s back to the restructuring drawing board for OpenAI. With their unwilling decision to remain a non-profit, they face some challenges in raising additional funding from their backers, specifically SoftBank and Microsoft.

OpenAI has decided that its non-profit arm will retain control of its for-profit LLC, which will  become a public benefit corporation. This has been met with approval by SoftBank, who’s committed up to $30 billion dollars in funding following this change. Now all eyes are on Microsoft, OpenAI’s other big financial backers, to see if they can renegotiate the terms of their multi-billion dollar partnership.

One thing is for certain, AI isn’t getting any cheaper going forward.

💪 Sports

It turns out that African arm wrestling is actually a thing.

African arm wrestling is an organized form of arm wrestling that has grown across the African continent, featuring athletes vying for recognition in this test of strength and technique. The sport has even debuted at the African Games where Ghana won 41 medals.

Who knew Ghana was a powerhouse in the world of competitive arm wrestling?

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irl Media NEWSLETTER is written, edited, and published by Chris Thompson.