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Here's everything you need to know today - in under 5 minutes.‍

Today's big stories:

🏠 Macquarie Bank buying (and holding) property

🎶 Warner Music revenue rises thanks to TikTok

🛌 Mattress start-up Casper are doing a 180

Oh and get this...

Amazon Australia have hired 1,000 extra staff members to help them prep for the massive Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales - seems like nobody can find staff...except Amazon?!

Macquarie Bank is building-to-rent and we can't deny the timing's good

Background: Macquarie Bank are an Aussie-born investment bank and financial services company. Unlike the Big 4 (CBA, Westpac, ANZ, NAB), this crew are less reliant on retail customers...and more into business banking.

What happened: Now, they're stepping into something a 'lil different: build-to-rent. They plan to sink $500 million into complexes around the country under a brand called Local.

What else: Local wanna build around 4,000 units over the next 5 years...and it's not bad timing. Housing prices are through the roof, which means people are looking to rent for longer.

So what's the key learning?

💡Build-to rent is a new-ish kind of residential development where all the apartments are owned by the developer, and rented to tenants...rather than being sold off.

💡 The aim is that the developer can receive constant rental income from tenants...kind of like an investment with constant dividends, as opposed to a lump sum.

💡For tenants, being in a build-to-rent apartment block can be appealing because they can often stay for as long as they like (and personalise the place). But ya never gonna be able to buy it!

Warner Music revenues are up 22% thanks to TikTok and ya don't Say So

Background: Warner Music Group are one of the 'big three' global record labels. And they represent massive artists like Cardi B, Ed Sheeran and Dua Lipa.

What happened: Warner Music have just reported some huuuge fourth-quarter earnings. We're talkin' a 22% increase in revenue to US$1.38 billion.

What else: Digital revenue - aka revenue from digital platforms like streaming services - also increased by 19%. Warner Music reckons that TikTok trends and Peloton beats have a lot to do with this.

So what's the key learning?

💡While TikTok is influential for many industries, its impact on music is nek level. Songs that become trendy on TikTok often end up becoming chart toppers. Think: Jason Derulo's 'Savage Love'...Doja Cat's 'Say So'...

💡Research shows more than two-thirds of TikTok users are likely to seek out songs on music-streaming services after hearing them on the app.

💡It's also about the marketing. Marketers often hire influencers to help a song take off. So if you reckon TikTok is just another addictive social media tool...ya dreamin'. It's a whoole lot more.

Casper whips their company status back and forth as they reveal they're going private

Background: Casper Sleep are an e-commerce mattress company that launched back in 2014. They were the OG direct-to-consumer boxed mattress (kinda like Koala here in Oz).

What happened: This crew were young guns. They raised tens of millions from celebs like Tobey Macguire, Leo DiCaprio, Adam Levine...And by 2019, they were valued at US$1.1 billion.

What else: In 2020, Casper went public at a valuation of around half their initial US$1.1 billion...and it was all downhill from there. Now, they've revealed they're going private via a sale to investment company Durational.

So what's the key learning?

💡We often hear about private companies going public...but it's not as common to hear about public companies going private.

💡Generally, public-to-private acquisition is initiated by a private investment company, who see an opportunity that may not be realised on the public markets.

💡Once private, companies don't need to comply with stock exchange rules, which means management have a lot of free time to concentrate on running and growing a business again. So maybe Casper going private might breathe some life back into them.