Meta Warns Shut Down of Facebook & Instagram in Europe

MARKET MOVERS

• Demand for apartments in the Sun Belt remains red hot. Mid-America Apartment Communities and Camden Property Trust are both benefiting from their focus on the Sun Belt region. Both apartment REITs saw rents rise double digits in the fourth quarter at 10.1% and 14.9% respectively, a trend they see continuing in 2022 and is expecting double-digit income growth this year.

• The decline in housing inventory year-over-year is 42.6%. That's how much housing inventory went down compared to this time last year. That number is 36% decline in California, 52% decline in Washington, over 44% decline in Texas, over 43% in Alabama, and more than 51% in Georgia. The housing shortage now is even worse than a year ago. This will eventually push more people to rent, says Jason Hartman. Source(17:35)

• Real estate tech disruptors are investing billions to build integrated brokerage and mortgage experiences. The number and growth of MLOs(Mortgage Loan Originators) is an important leading indicator. Opendoor is clearly ramping up its mortgage resources and ambitions by acquiring RedDoor with 10 MLOs, while Redfin has made a big investment acquiring Bay Equity Home Loans for $135 million, adding 485 MLOs to its roster. Read more here.

• Spirit Airlines and Frontier Group to merge in a stock-and-cash deal valued at $6.6 billion. The merger is expected to close in the second half and to create a leading U.S. low-fare airline. The deal is expected to deliver $1 billion in annual consumer savings, offer more than 1,000 daily flights to more than 145 destinations in 19 countries, and create 10,000 direct jobs by 2026.

• Tech talent shortage is helping drive M&A deals. A shortage of information-technology workers is prompting some companies to buy firms for their employees, a strategy that is helping drive up the number of merger-and-acquisition deals across the IT and business-services sector. The pandemic sparked a 10% increase in IT and business-services deals in 2021 as companies boosted budgets and tech staffing.  Read more here.

• Sequoia Capital led a $450 million investment in Polygon. Sequoia Capital is playing catchup with arch-rival Andreessen Horowitz in the race to invest in what could be the future of the internet also known as Web3. Meanwhile, Polygon eventually wants to become a decentralized version of Amazon Web Services. Read more here.

WHAT TO WATCH

• Meta might pull Facebook and Instagram in Europe over data transfer rules. Europe’s new laws require users’ data to be kept and processed on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The tech giant warned that the processing of data is crucial for its business. If it is not given the option to transfer, process, and receive data from its European customers, both Facebook and Instagram risk being shut down. Read more here.

• SoftBank-backed fintech DriveWealth is adding crypto to take on Coinbase. DriveWealth is getting into cryptocurrency trading. The New Jersey-based start-up, valued at $2.85 billion in recent fundraising, is acquiring a crypto firm founded by Harvard-trained quants and launching two subsidiaries to handle and execute trades.

• Apple is likely involved in the Peloton bidding war, Wedbush’s Dan Ives says. With media reports swirling that Peloton could be up for sale with Amazon and Nike potential suitors, he thinks it just makes sense that Apple is aggressively involved in this potential deal process. Peloton would fit well into Apple’s golden consumer ecosystem. Read more here.

• Bumble to acquire French dating app Fruitz for an undisclosed amount. Bumble says Fruitz is one of the fastest-growing dating apps in Europe across countries like France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, and it is available in Canada. The app, especially popular with Gen Z, enables users to metaphorically set their dating intentions by selecting one of four fruits.