MARKETS

Just Hear Those IPO Bells Ringing

This week, DoorDash and Airbnb will go public in back-to-back mega IPOs, basically the sports equinox for Wall Street investors. Up tomorrow, the food delivery giant.

DoorDash reportedly priced its shares at $102 a pop, which, on a fully diluted basis, would equate to about a $39 billion market cap. The company had been aiming for $90–$95 a share just last week. 

Why the hype? 

The pandemic solidified DoorDash's lead in the U.S. food delivery industry, catapulting its market share to nearly 50% (No. 2 Uber Eats has 28%). The success story begins in 2013...

As food delivery companies went wheel-to-wheel in cities, DoorDash opted for a market with less competition: the 'burbs. When the pandemic sent families scurrying out of urban areas, DoorDash was ready to greet them with $10 off a falafel family platter. 

• The suburbs offer some extra perks: Families tend to place larger orders ($$$), there's less traffic and more parking, and restaurants are generally farther away from homes, incentivizing customers to splurge on delivery.

Today, DoorDash says it has 58% of the suburban market. But as the top player in Dallas, Houston, Philly, D.C., Minneapolis, and SF, it's not exactly hurting in cities.

Are the numbers keeping up?

Monthly subscribers have more than tripled to 5 million, and 390,000+ merchants use its app. Q2 revenue jumped 214% annually, propelling DoorDash to the first profitable quarter for a food delivery company.

It lost some bragging rights after dipping back into a loss in Q3, but revenue still grew 268% annually and net losses fell over $380 million in the first nine months of the year. 

DoorDash acknowledges that, like takeout french fries, its hot streak might not stand the test of time. One day, diners will venture back out. And with DoorDash commissions climbing as high as 30%, restaurants may look for cheaper options.

Looking ahead...DoorDash wants to move beyond food and offer last-mile delivery for other types of local businesses. Raising $3+ billion should help. 

PHARMA

Friends, Britons, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Arms

It's hard not to get a little emotional when looking at this picture of 90-year-old grandmother Margaret Keenan receiving a standing O from hospital staff in England yesterday morning. With a brief shot in the arm, Keenan became the first person outside of a clinical trial to receive Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine. The second person? A guy named William Shakespeare. 

You might think the UK rolling out its mass inoculation program was enough vaccine news for one day, but there were several other important developments.

More good news for Pfizer-BioNTech: Following deep analysis, the FDA concluded that this vaccine reduced the risk of severe Covid-19 after just one dose (for full efficacy, it requires two doses three weeks apart). Tomorrow, an advisory panel of vaccine experts will decide whether to authorize it for emergency use. Fingers crossed.

AstraZeneca and Oxford get a stamp of approval: A new, peer-reviewed study showed the pair's Covid-19 vaccine, whose confusing initial results raised questions in the medical community, is about 70% effective at preventing infection.

Zoom out: President-elect and fan of symmetry Joe Biden promised 100 million vaccines in the first 100 days of his administration. 

CYBERSECURITY

Who Can Protect the Protectors?

The Federal Bureau of Investigations, apparently. Yesterday, cybersecurity company FireEye announced it had been hacked by a nation-state—and called the FBI. 

• The company said the attacker accessed some of its internal systems and zeroed in on information about government clients. 

What FireEye is: the go-to security provider for governments and companies that suffer sophisticated hacks; for instance, it helped Sony and Equifax bulletproof their operations following breaches. So this is like if an animal control office got infested by raccoons. 

• FireEye's tools work by imitating actual hacking tools, making them an attractive target for a window-shopping hacker. 

Big picture: The FBI referred the case to its Russia specialists, indicating which nation-state the evidence points to. It's possible that Russian hackers took advantage of American attention on election infrastructure to target FireEye. 

Bottom line: We don't know yet if client data was exposed, but the investigation only just started. 

SPONSORED BY POLICYGENIUS

No Stoppin’ Our Perfect Policy Shoppin’

Some things are hard to find—like the other sock every time we do our laundry. Other things aren’t as hard to find—like the perfect life insurance policy with Policygenius.  

Let’s be clear: Life insurance is way more important than matching socks, which is why we only trust the life insurance policy phenoms at Policygenius when it comes to finding the best policy for us. They make it easy to shop the top-rated insurers in one place.

Policygenius combines a cutting-edge insurance marketplace with help from licensed experts to simplify the process and save you time and money. They always advocate for you—not the insurance company.

So why are you still thinking about your long lost socks when you could be saving 50% or more by using Policygenius to compare life insurance? 

Find your perfect life insurance policy with Policygenius today.

MEDIA

You Come at the King, You'd Best Not Miss

The execs in charge of HBO Max should know that better than anyone. 

Last week, Warner Bros. sent tremors from Echo Park to Santa Monica when it decided to release its 2021 films directly to HBO Max the same day they're released in theaters, bucking the time-honored custom of a "theatrical window." 

The straight-to-streaming decision has upset Hollywood creators. In a fiery statement Monday night, filmmaker Christopher Nolan said, "They don't even understand what they're losing. Their decision makes no economic sense." 

But new data shows that Warner Bros. parent AT&T may be right to focus on streaming. HBO Max is now the fastest-growing major streaming video-on-demand service in the U.S., per Apptopia. 

• Then again, it's still playing catch-up. According to AT&T CEO John Stankey, HBO Max will notch 12.6 million activated accounts by today. That's a nice bounce from 8.6 million on Sept. 30...but miles behind Disney+'s 73.7 million subscribers. 

Big picture: Showbiz folks aren't known for their understanding. The Hollywood Reporter writes that AT&T could be headed for a mountain of legal scuffles. 

TECH

Beats by Cook

If you're looking for a new way to flex on your Zoom calls, Apple unveiled its first over-ear headphones yesterday, the AirPods Max.

It'd be quite the flex. At $549, the AirPods Max cost hundreds of dollars more than similar headphones from Bose and Sony. 

But they're completely on-brand for Apple, which offers premium products at ultra-premium prices. These headphones are noise-canceling, have up to 20 hours of battery life, and come with various whiz-bang features like automatically pausing audio when you take them off your ears.

Zoom out: We all made fun of the design of Apple's in-ear AirPods when they debuted in 2016, but the "don't talk to me because I could potentially be listening to a podcast" look caught on. Apple's wearables revenue (up 21% last fiscal year) has been a surprise growth segment for the company as iPhone sales plateau. And the AirPods Max is a play to capitalize on that success. 

Looking ahead...the headphones arrive Dec. 15, and Apple's workout service, Fitness+ ($9.99/mo.), will debut Dec. 14. 

GIVEAWAY

We Are All Sign Guy

It's Day #2 of the Brew's MacBook Pro giveaway. That means when you share the Brew today, you’ll have a chance to win a MacBook Pro for you and someone who signs up to the newsletter using your referral link.

• Each time you refer someone to Morning Brew, you'll get a ticket entered into the raffle. 1 referral = 1 ticket.

How to start: Click the share button below to grab your unique referral link. Then, tell everyone you know that they can 1) get all the business news they need in just 5 minutes and 2) have a chance to win a new computer.

Insider tips: We wrote about six popular methods readers have used to rack up referrals. So if you're not sure where to start on your sharing journey, make sure you consult this document.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Tesla announced a $5 billion share sale yesterday, its second in three months, to capitalize on its surging stock price. Also, Elon Musk said he had in fact moved to Texas from California. 
• Joe Biden will reportedly nominate Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• Meditation app Calm raised $75 million at a valuation of more than $2 billion. 
• U.S. airline passenger traffic fell 62% annually in October, according to the U.S. Transportation Department. 
• Uber sold its flying taxi unit.
• Howard Stern signed a five-year extension with SiriusXM.

BREW'S BETS

One week. $1 million. Less than a week after Gatsby’s online public offering, they’ve surpassed $1 million in funding. That’s because Gatsby is making it easier than ever to invest in the growing options market. Don’t miss out, invest in Gatsby today.*

Are you a mover? A shaker? A difference maker? Then advance your career in accounting and finance with the CMA® (Certified Management Accountant). Get started today and you can be certified in just 12–18 months while working full time.*

Guessing game: Think you know your historical trends? Play this game to find out.  

The Brew's style blog is back: In this spicy edition, Eliza Carter lays out the grammar rules you can break without going to writer jail. Check it out.

A meaty year-end list: Reddit revealed the most upvoted posts, AMAs, and discussions. The top AMA was Borat. 

^{*This is sponsored advertising content}

GAMES

HBO Trivia

This is trivia in the truest sense of the word: In which two years did the HBO dramas Six Feet Under, Deadwood, The Sopranos, and The Wire overlap? 

ANSWER

2004 and 2005