Today's big stories

Software giant Oracle is going up against Microsoft in the race to buy TikTok
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett seems to have finally changed his mind on gold – Read Now
Retailers Walmart and Home Depot reported strong second-quarter earnings

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Snitches Get Riches

What’s Going On Here?

Oracle – the world’s second-biggest software maker – has reportedly joined the chase to buy TikTok’s operations in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

What Does This Mean?

Oracle – which focuses on selling cloud computing software to corporate customers – doesn’t seem like it has the background for a consumer-facing social media app. In fact, analysts reckon it’ll have to build an entirely new arm just to accommodate the platform. But that might not matter: Oracle’s reportedly spoken to venture capital firms about partnering up in hopes that their expertise might plug the gaps in its knowledge.

Oracle’s rival-apparent seems like a more natural fit: Microsoft already owns professional social networking platform LinkedIn and search engine Bing (yep, Bing’s still around), and has experience with both their advertising businesses. Social media firm Twitter has expressed interest too, though there are some concerns it can’t actually pay for the deal…

Why Should I Care?

For markets: Where’s your competitive spirit?
As of May, Oracle had around $43 billion worth of cash lying around, so it could in theory buy TikTok – valued by analysts at between $20-50 billion – on its own. Microsoft has plenty in the bank too – over $136 billion, in fact – but it might be worried that suitors like Oracle could push up the price it has to pay (tweet this). Even if Microsoft eventually wins out, then, it’ll be under more pressure to turn TikTok into an advertising powerhouse to justify its likely-higher cost.

For you personally: Blind data.
A major concern the US government has with TikTok is that users’ data is exported to China – something a US buyer would aim to undo. But if you’re already worried about where your data is ending up, it’s worth keeping track of which tech giant is running your favorite platforms. That way, you can always get it wiped altogether – though that’s admittedly easier to do in Europe than elsewhere in the world.

Recommended: What makes Microsoft so special?

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2/3 Premium

He’s A Gold Digger

What’s Going On Here?

Billionaire Warren Buffett’s investment company has bought $600 million worth of shares in one major miner, but the smart money may be backing a decidedly less flashy metal.

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3/3

Livin’ Large

What’s Going On Here?

Walmart and Home Depot are a scrappy pair of US retail titans: they reported stronger-than-expected second-quarter results on Tuesday.

What Does This Mean?

Analysts had been expecting Walmart’s sales in existing US stores to have risen 5.4% last quarter compared to the same time last year. But the company revealed sales were actually up 9.3%, helped by almost twice as much ecommerce revenue as home deliveries became "the new normal”. That meant Walmart’s revenue and profit – up 80% on a year ago – was higher than predicted. And that, it said, was thanks to a spending boost from the government’s stimulus checks.

Home improvement retailer Home Depot might’ve appreciated them too, revealing much better-than-expected revenue and profit. Sales in its existing stores were 23% higher than the same time last year – more than double the growth analysts had predicted. And it looks like all that time indoors gave homeowners expensive ideas: the average price of products they bought was up 10% from a year ago.

Why Should I Care?

The bigger picture: Stand and deliver.
Walmart’s ramped up its same-day delivery options lately, but if food delivery services Instacart and Deliveroo have taught us anything, it’s that the move will probably lose the retailer money in the near term. That might be why it’s restarted plans to sell its UK grocery chain, Asda, in an effort to free up some extra cash.

Zooming in: Home is where the money is.
Home Depot doesn’t lend itself to ecommerce like Walmart does: its customers, after all, are generally looking for particular things they need straight away. So investors tend to look at housing data in the US – where Home Depot makes 90% of its sales – for a sense of where the company’s earnings are headed next. And Tuesday’s fresh data was encouraging: homebuilding activity and building permits were higher last month than economists predicted, suggesting future demand for Home Depot’s products might be higher than investors think too.

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💬 Quote of the day

“Nobody who says ‘I told you so’ has ever been, or will ever be, a hero.”

– Ursula K. Le Guin (an American author)

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🌎 Finimize Community

🤯 Let’s. Get. Meta.

At today’s event, we’ll be teaching you to teach yourself to invest. But that’s just the start: soon enough we’ll be teaching you to teach yourself to teach yourself to invest, and then teaching you to teach yourself to teach yourself to teach yourself to invest. And by that point, the petty concepts of time and space will have no meaning to you. Sorry about that.

🇺🇸 USA: The Self-Taught Investor – 1pm New York Time, August 19th
🇦🇪 UAE: Is The Worst Over For Oil? – 5pm Dubai Time, August 20th
🇬🇧 UK: Create your Financial Fitness Plan – 2.30pm UK Time, August 26th
🇩🇪 Germany: The Rise of Sustainable Investment – 11am Berlin Time, August 27th
🇬🇧 UK: Build Your Own Investment Portfolio – 11am UK Time, August 28th

📚 What we're reading

No bear left behind (One Green Planet)
The USPS has come a long way (BuzzFeed)
Meet the nurses treating the coronavirus deniers (Mel)

Finimize - 😡 TikTok: Oracle vs. Microsoft

Today's big stories

Snitches Get Riches

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

He’s A Gold Digger

💪 A card for crypto users

Livin’ Large

What’s Going On Here?

What Does This Mean?

Why Should I Care?

🤯 Let’s. Get. Meta.

Older messages

😶 Billionaire biotech forgets about vaccines

👾 Apple versus Fortnite

🎉 New Events: The Rise Of Young China, Self-Taught Investor & Is The Worst Over For Oil?

👻 Oil gets a little bit more frightening

💸 Extra Tesla shares for you

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