In today’s newsletter we discuss MrBeast launching his new analytics company ViewStats, Macy’s may be up for sale, Brad Pitt is crushing it in the real estate game, those mysterious fast radio bursts in space are getting more mysterious, and SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles will host Super Bowl 61 in February 2027.

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Are Meghan and Prince Harry Moving To Hollywood?

Business

The venerable Macy’s may be up for sale, and has received a $5.8 billion dollar buyout offer from Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management, which is above their current market cap.

Macy’s sales have slumped in recent years as they’ve been slow to embrace online shopping, and consumers have migrated to shopping at stripmalls as opposed to the indoor malls that Macy’s has based their stores for decades. They recently launched plans to open 30 new locations in the U.S. in stripmalls to try to attract more shoppers.

Macy's shares surge 21% after it receives $5.8 billion buyout offer

Tech

MrBeast has already taken over YouTube, with his channel the #5 most popular YouTube channel in the world with 109 million subscribers.

Now MrBeast has launched his analytics platform ViewStats, “uses the YouTube API to unveil detailed stats about channels that both creators and their fans can see.” ViewStats, which Jimmy Donaldson co-founded with his fellow content creator Chucky Appleby, “displays basic information like subscriber numbers, estimated monthly ad revenue, video views and how those figures fluctuate over a given period of time. ViewStats is also available as a Chrome extension.” The platform will be adding more tools in the future, including thumbnail analytics tools (something I could definitely benefit from).

MrBeast is known for being a perfectionist, and studying every aspect of YouTube, and just so you know his success didn’t come overnight. He’s worked at his craft for years, and has had a near obsession with cracking the YouTube algorithm.

Beyond YouTube MrBeast has expanded his business and leveraged his brand to open up MrBeast Burger, which operates out of ghost kitchens across the U.S., and Feastables a snack company, which recently raised $5 million this year at a $50 million valuation from 776, Shrug Capital and Sugar Capital.

He’s recently embarrassed on a fundraising campaign to raise $150 million dollars for his YouTube business which would value it at $1.5 Billion dollars with a capital B!

If I had to guess he’ll crack the fundraising nut too!

MrBeast’s analytics platform ViewStats is out in beta

Real Estate

If that whole acting thing doesn’t work out for Brad Pitt he might have a future career ahead of him as a real estate investor. In the last few years since his divorce from Angelina Jolie, he’s acquired 3 art studios in Los Angeles for $7,028,500.

He sold his family compound for a whopping $33 million in 2023, having bought it over 3 decades ago for $1.7 million, representing an insane 1,840% profit!

He also owns 50% of the French vineyard Chateau Miraval, which was estimated to be worth $160 Million in 2023. In 2021 Angelina Jolie reportedly sold her 50% stake in the vineyard to Russian billionaire Yuri Shefler. Before that Brad Pitt is quoted as saying he had a right of first refusal to buy Angelina Jolie’s 50% stake for an estimated $54.5 million. There’s been no credible reporting on how much Angelina Jolie did sell her 50% stake in the French vineyard Chateau Miraval for, but it was a quick sale that is rumored to have been done out of spite for Brad Pitt who she was in the process of getting a divorce from.

Now Brad Pitt is facing a $350 million lawsuit by the company owned by Russian billionaire Yuri Shefler who reportedly bought Angelina Jolie’s 50% stake in the French vineyard Chateau Miraval (which I just love saying).

Tune-in in 2024 for more of this never-ending soap opera, which with Brad Pitt being the savvy actor that he is he should definitely turn into a movie!

Inside Brad Pitt's eye-watering $72 million real estate portfolio as he rakes massive profits

Space

The mysterious fast radio bursts in space keep getting stranger, and I keep getting more interested. Perhaps it's just the conspiracy theorist in me that wants to believe that aliens are trying to contact us, but if that turns out to be true I want it to be recorded that I welcomed our new alien overlords with open arms (and I’d love a role in their new figurehead government overseeing all Earthlings, but we can negotiate that later).

I won’t try to explain to you the science behind the observation of fast radio bursts, but I will tell you that everytime scientists think they figure something out they are left with even more questions, so that sounds like a depressing career if you ask me.

What are fast radio bursts, and where do they come from? I’m not going to answer that, because I have no idea, but some scientists think that “fast radio bursts may originate from magnetars, the powerfully magnetized cores of dead stars. But other research has suggested that collisions between dense neutron stars or dead stars called white dwarfs may be the cause.”

Who’s right? I’ll let the aliens sending out those signals settle that debate once-and-for-all.

Mysterious fast radio bursts in space keep getting stranger

Sports

SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, home to the Rams & Chargers, will host Super Bowl 61 in February 2027, but don’t rush out to buy your tickets just yet because they won’t go on sale for another 4-years.

The stadium last hosted the Super Bowl in 2022, and has hosted a number of big sporting events including the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship between Georgia and TCU, WrestleMania 39 in April of 2022.

In the future SoFi Stadium will be one of the host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and along with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, they will be hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics.

Interesting fact:

“The five-year turnaround for SoFi Stadium to host the game will be the second-shortest in the 21st century. Hard Rock Stadium, home of the Miami Dolphins, had a three-year gap between Super Bowls in 2007 and 2010.”

Hosting the Super Bowl is obviously a big deal for the host city, but it’s an even bigger deal for the television network that people tune in to watch the big game. For the 2022 Super Bowl, the advertising revenue was a record $578 Million with a capital M.

For the winning team of the Super Bowl each player earns a bonus of $157,000 for playing in the Super Bowl, while players on the losing team earn $82,000 (not bad for losing). They also get a Super Bowl that is typically made of yellow or rose gold and encrusted with diamonds, and usually include the team’s name, logo, the phrase "World Champions" and the Super Bowl number indicated in Roman numerals. Each ring can be customized with the player's name and uniform number.

That doesn’t sound cheap, so how much do these rings usually go for you might be wondering?

The final price of a Super Bowl ring usually comes in between $30,000-$50,000 per ring!

I don’t wear jewelry, or play for a Super Bowl winning Football team, but I wonder if they’d just cut me a check.

SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles to Host Super Bowl 61 in February 2027

So much news, so little time. Until tomorrow we’re signing out.

— Chris