TECH

Microsoft Goes for the Nuanced Argument

While you were scouring the internet for a Telfar Shopping Bag, Microsoft was eyeing some slightly bigger investments. The company just announced its second-largest purchase ever: $16 billion for Nuance Communications.

We're assuming you know Microsoft, which at $1.93 trillion is the world's second-most valuable public company. What's the lowdown on Nuance?

There's lots to talk about

Massachusetts-based Nuance uses artificial intelligence to process and transcribe speech. Sounds straightforward, but it takes pretty advanced tech for machines to capture the...er, nuance of human language. 

Nuance was a pioneer in voice recognition and once powered Siri's backend. But competition came quick: Following advances in deep learning (a subset of AI) in the 2010s, Big Tech companies built their own expertise and Apple brought Siri software in-house. Nuance has since refocused on serving specific markets, particularly healthcare, where its tools transcribe doctor-patient conversations and update medical records. 

• In the US, over half of physicians and three-quarters of hospitals use Nuance software.

Microsoft has also cozied up to doctors, and not for leftover vaccine hookups. Its healthcare cloud revenue grew 37% annually in 2020, and last fall the company launched its first industry-specific bundle of cloud offerings for the healthcare space. 

• With Nuance, Microsoft scores a big list of healthcare clients + lots of speech data, which is important for building and fine-tuning those AI systems. 

Big picture: Microsoft worked on speech tech for years, but has had less success in the consumer market than Amazon or Google. The Nuance acquisition could catapult it ahead.

Speaking of Amazon and Google...

While they're preoccupied with Zoom antitrust hearings, Microsoft's gone fishing with $132 billion in cash on hand:

• It tried buying TikTok last year. 
• This year, it reportedly dangled over $50 billion in front of Pinterest and is in talks to buy Discord for $10+ billion. 

Zoom out: Microsoft's lawyers have stayed busy under CEO Satya Nadella, who's overseen high-profile deals including buying LinkedIn for $26 billion, GitHub for $7.5 billion, and video game maker ZeniMax for $7.6 billion. 

FILM & TV

The Show Must not Go on in Georgia

Will Smith and director Antoine Fuqua announced yesterday they would pull production of their upcoming film out of Georgia because of the state's new controversial voting law. CEOs of major corporations based in the state have publicly opposed the law, and MLB has moved its All-Star Game from Atlanta, but this is the first major film production to back out.

Why it's a big deal. Georgia has spent the last two decades transforming itself into a film and TV powerhouse, locking in productions with Netflix, HBO Max, and the best Spider-Man (it's Tom Holland, don't even start). The state brings in ~$9.5 billion a year from direct and indirect production spending by offering 30% uncapped tax credits for any film major with a dream.

• If you wanted to make a feature film in California, you'd qualify for a 20% tax credit that would be capped at $100 million.

Bottom line: Hollywood has stayed relatively quiet about Georgia's new law, but if more creators follow Smith and Fuqua, it could threaten one of the state's fastest-growing industries.

FINTECH

The Chinese Government Flexes on Jack Ma

Ant Group, the world's largest fintech company, is undergoing a major restructuring with the reluctance of someone checking their email after a week-long vacation.

The Chinese government ordered Ant to transition to a "financial holding" company and take other measures to distance its payments arm and its lending products.

The backstory: You might remember Ant from last November, when its IPO—projected to be the biggest ever—was halted by regulators.  

• It wasn't clear exactly why proceedings stopped but, the month before the planned offering, Jack Ma, the billionaire controlling shareholder of Ant and cofounder of Ant's sister company, Alibaba, criticized Chinese officials in a high-profile speech. 

Yesterday's crackdown shows that the Chinese government thinks now is the time to rein in the country's tech giants. On Friday, regulators fined Alibaba a record $2.8 billion over uncompetitive practices.  

Bottom line: Alibaba may have gotten off a lot better than Ant. While the government's order threatens Ant's business model, Alibaba added $40 billion in market value yesterday because investors viewed its punishment as rather light. 

SPONSORED BY DIVERSYFUND

Put Your Tax Refund to Work

You bust your butt working all year in anticipation of receiving your tax refund—and all the different ways you can spend it. But what if you turned the tables on that tax cash and made the money work for you?

We’re talkin’ about investing in the preferred asset class of the wealthy: Private market real estate.  

DiversyFund makes diversifying your portfolio easy peasy lemon squeezy. With as little as $500, you can be investing in asset classes that are traditionally reserved for the 1%. 

Unlike the stock market, private real estate is a time-tested asset with way less daily volatility. DiversyFund works as a partner, not a broker—so you can avoid broker fees and invest in million-dollar deals without writing million-dollar checks. 

You’ve still got time to do big things with your refund.

Start investing with DiversyFund today. 

GRAB BAG

Key Performance Indicators

Stat: If you got rejected from an Ivy this year, don't sweat it—so did virtually everyone. Harvard's acceptance rate fell to 3.4% from 5.2% and Columbia's dropped to 3.7% from 6.1%. This happened for a number of Covid-induced reasons, including a) more applications than ever as colleges dropped standardized test requirements and b) lots of deferments last year, tightening the number of spots available this year.

Quote: "When the road is clear for cannabis, when federal laws come into play, we're absolutely going to take a look at it."

In an interview with CNBC, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi hinted that one day you might be able to order marijuana delivery via the Uber app...and then open it again to order Uber Eats. 

Khosrowshahi is high on the company's trajectory. Yesterday, Uber said total monthly bookings, which include ride-hailing and food delivery, hit record levels in March. 

Read: The future of work is a pyramid scheme, where every person sells his favorite person to the next person. (Dror Poleg)

DELIVERY

The Latest in Pizza Tech

Whether it's an extensive apology campaign or its unhinged plan to fill potholes, Domino's has always been the king of pizza biz innovation. The chain is ready to one-up itself yet again by using Nuro's driverless cars to deliver pizzas in Houston this week. Nuro's R2 is the first driverless vehicle to be approved by the US Department of Transportation, and it's already been used to transport groceries and medical supplies.

Only the best for the best. From a sales and drunk on High Life POV, Domino's pizza is the top pizza chain in the country. But our colleague Toby is right—it's also a tech company. 

• From 2012 to 2019, Domino's consistently grew revenue by 12% per year and, since the company's reinvention in 2009, it became the first pizza company to offer mobile ordering and build its very own digital pizza tracker.

Looking ahead...this is R2’s first test delivering for a restaurant, but things are looking bright for the little guy. Chipotle invested in Nuro's $500 million Series C funding round last month and the company was just approved at the end of last year to begin testing on public roads in California.

STONKS

Sign of the Times

New York Magazine’s latest cover story is on the “New World of Money.” As for whether you can SPAC your stonks with NFTs...it is technically possible, but only on the blockchain.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• England eased its lockdown yesterday, allowing residents to shop and drink beer at non-essential stores for the first time in months. And shop and drink beer they did.
• The US posted a budget deficit of $660 billion for March, a record for the month.
• New Mexico became the seventh state since November to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults.
• ICYMI: Our interview with Blogilates' Cassey Ho about running a social media empire.

BREW'S BETS

Hike Kilimanjaro commando. Vuori’s soft, lightweight, ultra-stretch shorts are perfect for hiking, running, training, or just chilling. Treat your lower torso to their breathable boxer-brief liner and get 20% your first purchase today.*

We’re not being ~cryptic~ about how to get $50. When you buy $1,000 worth of crypto with eToro, you’ll get $50. You can choose from over a dozen cryptocurrencies, and even copy the moves of eToro’s top traders. Get $50 bucks here.*

Go deep: Here's an image showing the depths of a few lakes. One is not like the rest...

Tech Tip Tuesday: Type "gif" before "youtube" in the URL of any YouTube video to turn it into a gif.

FROM THE CREW

Make This Part of Your Morning Routine

Our new video series, Morning People, invites you into the Internet’s most interesting people’s lives to give you a glimpse at their morning routines. Sure, there’s coffee. But there’s also productivity hacks, breakfast recipes, babies, workstation setups, and plenty of good vibes. Catch up with the series and be on the lookout for more episodes here.

GAMES

How Good Is Your Memory?

Let’s kick it back to Ms. Laughlin’s 11th-grade homeroom for today's quiz. We’ll give you a popular mnemonic device (a memory technique), and you have to determine the underlying information it’s trying to help you remember. 

For example: ROY G BIV is for the colors of the rainbow.

1. Super Man Helps Every One
2. My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos
3. All Cows Eat Grass
4. Some Old Hippy Caught Another Hippy Tripping on Acid
5. King Philip Came Over for Good Spaghetti

ANSWER

1. Super Man Helps Every One = Great Lakes (Superior, Michigan…)
2. My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos = Planets in the Solar System (Mercury, Venus…)
3. All Cows Eat Grass = Musical notes in the white spaces of bass clef (A, C, E, G)
4. Some Old Hippy Caught Another Hippy Tripping On Acid = Trigonometry ratios (Sine = opposite / hypotenuse...)
5. King Philip Came Over for Good Spaghetti = Primary taxonomic ranks (Kingdom, phylum, class, order…)

✤ A Note From eToro

eToro USA LLC; Investments are subject to market risk, including the possible loss of principal. *Terms and conditions apply.