| | | | On Thursday Snap became the biggest U.S. tech company to go public since Facebook in 2012. The IPO was priced at $17 a share... The company began trading at $24... and ended the day at $24.48, a gain of of 44%. "At the closing price, Snap now has a market valuation of nearly $35 billion," CNNMoney's Seth Fiegerman reported. (At the moment Snap is worth about three times as much as Twitter.)
"Demand outpaced the number of shares offered in the IPO by a multiple of 10," sources told Bloomberg's Sarah Frier and Alex Barinka. They noted that "investors still don't have a clear picture of how the company plans to become profitable, so instead must put their faith in CEO Evan Spiegel, who rarely talks publicly about his vision..." | | -- How many shares did Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, Michael Lynton, and Snap's early investors sell? Reuters has a handy graphic with the details...
-- CNBC's Steve Kopack tweets: "Facebook offered to buy Snap for $4B in 2013. Now, both of Snap's founders are each worth at LEAST that in today's IPO..."
-- LUCK: Check out Rolfe Winkler's WSJ's story about how "Lightspeed's $8 million investment yielded stock worth $2.1 billion..." (WSJ)
-- WSJ's Scott Austin tweets: "At $34 billion, $SNAP is valued higher than: Target, Marriott, Hyundai, Kellogg, Deutsche Bank, Kroger, DISH, Credit Suisse, CBS, PG&E."
-- A bearish view: "It is significantly overvalued," Brian Wieser, an analyst with Pivotal Research Group, wrote in an investor note. "We value Snap at $10 per share."
-- Andreseen Horowitz's Benedict Evans: "Focus on the next quarterly user growth number for Snap will be... intense."
-- Spiegel, in an interview with Paresh Dave of the LAT, naturally promoted engagement as a metric instead of user growth: "We'd rather inspire creation because we know a derivative of that is growth..." | | | James Stewart's skepticism | | Want to really understand Snap's business and the reasons why there's so much insider skepticism despite Thursday's successful open? Read James Stewart's column in Friday's NYT... | | | "We're only learning the truth... because of good reporting" | | As you surely know by now, Jeff Sessions said Thursday afternoon that he would recuse himself from any investigation related to Trump's campaign. Sessions' presser came 19 hours after the WashPost published a story about his previously undisclosed meetings with the Russian ambassador.
--> Chris Matthews speaking on MSNBC Thursday afternoon: "This whole thing -- maybe cover-up is too strong a word for it -- but we're only learning the truth of all these endless meetings with the Russians because of good reporting... We're getting great print coverage by the hour. And that's the only reason this administration is admitting things. Trump didn't act on Flynn until it was exposed by the press. The attorney general didn't recuse himself until today because the report ran in today's newspapers. This is an administration being driven by truth that's coming from somewhere else. The truth. This is a strong case of the press causing the public to know the truth when the people in elected power aren't telling them the truth." | | | "Triple Whammy" for Trump | | Megan Thomas emails: An interesting take on the news cycle of the last 24 hours by The New Yorker's John Cassidy: "For the Trump White House, the stories in the Post, the Journal, and the Times were a triple whammy..." | | Margaret Sullivan's latest WashPost column: "While pundits swooned over Trump's speech, reporters plugged away at the real story." She criticizes Tuesday night's "gushing" commentary but says "the strength of the Wednesday reporting made the weakness of the Tuesday punditry easier to take for those who care about the media's credibility..." | | I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the developments. And I'm in the news business. I imagine it's even harder for more casual consumers of the news. But here's a feature that cut through the clutter: USA Today made a list of the 20+ "denials of campaign officials' communications with and connections with Russian officials..." | | "Sean Spicer is giving up alcohol for Lent," The Daily Caller's Kaitlan Collins reports... | | | Thursday's specials at the NYT cafeteria | | Chicken Kiev, beef stroganoff, egg noodles, and other staples of Russian cuisine... (hat tip Patrick LaForge) | | | Perfect timing for "The Americans" | | | Sunday on "Reliable Sources" | | Annenberg Public Policy Center director Kathleen Hall Jamieson... Trump campaign aide Jason Miller... The Federalist's MZ Hemingway... and many more... | | "Only 49% of Republicans say media freedom to criticize politicians is very important for democracy in America."
--Pew's Conrad Hackett, tweeting one of the results of this new survey about democracy. 76% of respondents who are Democrats said it's very important... | | | End of an era at The New Yorker | | "Bob Mankoff is stepping down from his post as the cartoon editor of The New Yorker after a 20-year run. Emma Allen, another editor at the magazine, will assume his position at the end of April," NYT's Andrew R. Chow writes.
-- From David Remnick's internal memo: Mankoff is "assuming what is arguably a higher post, that of a regularly contributing artist. In addition to going back to the drawing board with greater frequency, Bob will edit an ambitious new anthology, The New Yorker Encyclopedia of Cartoons, and will continue to work with Condé Nast on redeveloping the Cartoon Bank..." | | -- Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer, who went to work for four months as a private prison guard in Louisiana, has been awarded the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting from the Shorenstein Center...
-- Didja know? "While the audience for rival Univision has declined sharply in the last three years, Telemundo's has been growing..." (Bloomberg)
-- Via Peter Sterne: "Mental Floss co-founders Mangesh Hattikudur and Will Pearson are leaving the magazine, according to memo sent to staff..." (Twitter)
-- "A new documentary about Roger Stone, the political consultant and Trump supporter, is heading to Netflix, which will launch it globally this spring." First it will premiere at the TriBeCa Film Festival... (THR) | | | Colbert's first sweeps win | | More congrats are in order for Stephen Colbert, Chris Licht and the "Late Show" staff.
Brian Lowry emails: Colbert notched his first total-viewer victory over "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" during a sweeps period, CBS announced, and the network's first February sweeps win by that measure since 2010, a survey conducted right after Conan O'Brien left.
Perhaps more interesting, the year-to-year comparisons showed Colbert (an average of 3.02 million viewers) up 18%, while Fallon (2.87 million) dropped by roughly the same percentage. (Jimmy Kimmel's numbers were skewed by a week of reruns leading up to his Oscar hosting stint.) | | | Today in envelope-gate... | | Megan Thomas emails: Late Wednesday, TheWrap scored an interview with the Oscars stage manager, Gary Natoli -- the man in the headset we all watched working to straighten out the best picture fiasco. Natoli said the two PwC accountants "froze" and failed to act quickly when the wrong winner was read.
Separately, Oscars producer Michael DeLuca called Natoli a "hero" in an email to CNN on Thursday, adding: "I'm still moved and inspired by how both sets of producers behaved in those moments." | | Chloe Melas emails: Jimmy Kimmel told "The Bill Simmons Podcast" that when the Best Picture mixup happened, it was actually his "rival" Matt Damon who told him that the wrong film had been awarded the statue. The two were sitting next to each other at the end of the show for a planned stunt that never happened. Read more about Kimmel's night after the Academy's biggest blunder in history... | | -- Tom Hanks has upgraded the espresso machine in the White House press corps' workspace... (CNNPolitics)
-- George W. Bush knows his inauguration rain poncho photo became a meme... (People)
-- I meant to include this in last night's newsletter: "More than 230 former ABC News correspondents, executives and producers have signed a letter urging the network's current top executive to take a firm stand against any Trump administration effort to curtail press access," David Bauder reports... (The AP) | | | CJR holding "Covering Trump" event on Friday | | Columbia Journalism Review, in partnership with Reuters and The Guardian, is holding a one-day conference about Trump and the media on Friday. Details here... I'll be on the 10:30am panel... | | | Fox getting a greater share of Trump's viewership? | | One fringe benefit of Trump's cable news fixation is exposure to a wide variety of opinions. But now comes this twist, courtesy Bloomberg's Shannon Pettypiece and Gerry Smith: "Trump has cut back how much he watches CNN and MSNBC in recent weeks, having sworn off the latter network's 'Morning Joe' after criticism from its hosts, according to a senior White House aide privy to the president's viewing habits. Instead, the president now spends hours some mornings watching Fox News, switching occasionally to CNBC for business headlines." It's an intriguing story, with the caveat that it's sourced to a single W.H. aide... | | NPR's David Folkenflik interviewed CNN prez Jeff Zucker about the channel's mission. Here's the story from Thursday's "Morning Edition." Zucker's message for CNN staffers: "Do not be intimidated. Go where the story goes. Report the facts. Make sure you've got it right. And don't let things that the president says or that the White House does throw you off your game. | | MSNBC prez Phil Griffin cracking a joke while talking with The Hill's Joe Concha about Trump's complaints about CNN: "I wish he called us out once in awhile because it's like a promo for CNN all the time." Griffin says "day to day, I think we're giving the most unique, smartest coverage out there..." | | | Oprah running? "N-E-V-A-H" | | On Thursday's "CBS This Morning," Oprah Winfrey's best friend Gayle King sought to extinguish the swirling talk about Oprah maybe just maybe running for president in 2020. "It was clearly a joke… that ain't NEVER happening," King said, adding, "nevah, N-E-V-A-H, nevah." | | Sandra Gonzalez emails:
On Wednesday night, multi-platform editor Melissah Yang and I were on hand for the opening night of the Backstreet Boys residency in Las Vegas. I wrote a bit of a personal piece about how the amazing show is a full circle moment...
AND I just wrapped up an interview with Kevin and A.J -- we talked about Backstreet Boys' secret to longevity. That story's coming on Friday... | | Megan Thomas adds: Sandra's Backstreet Boys tribute may be the most delightful story you read all day... It even includes a photo of Sandra's pre-teen bedroom wallpapered with BSB posters... | | Brian Lowry emails: Following "Deadpool," Fox and Marvel are on their way to another big weekend for an R-rated superhero movie with roots in the X-Men franchise. "Logan," Hugh Jackman's third solo outing as Wolverine, certainly earns its rating, although my take on it was a bit less rhapsodic than a lot of critics...
Read Brian's full review here >>> | | | For the record, part three | | | -- Frank Pallotta notes: Mark your calendars: Dave Chappelle's comedy specials hit Netflix on March 21...
-- More from Frank: Disney has released the newest trailer for its next "Pirates" film, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales." It's pretty cool -- it includes a dead but yet very much alive Javier Bardem, a CGI-tastic young Johnny Depp aka Jack Sparrow, and is pretty dark for a Disney flick. But, hey, the Disneyland ride it's based on is about burning and ravaging a whole town, so there you go...
-- Chloe Melas emails: You'll be seeing more of 16-year-old "Moana" star Auli'i Cravalho. The teen gave a show stopping performance at the Oscars that everyone is still talking about and she's been cast as the lead in an NBC pilot, "Drama High." Here are five fun facts to know about her... | | What do you like about this newsletter? What do you dislike? Send your feedback to reliablesources@cnn.com. We appreciate every email. See you tomorrow... | |  | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get Reliable Sources, a comprehensive summary of the most important media news, delivered to your inbox every afternoon. | | | | | |
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