‘Spittin’ Chiclets’ co-host Ryan Whitney and Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini discuss success of merging media with alcohol on ‘The Claman Countdown’
Philadelphia and Chicago are getting Barstool Sports-branded sports bars, according to the Pennsylvania-based gaming company that owns a minority stake in the company.
The announcement came as Penn National Gaming, the Wyomissing-based casino operator that bought a 36% stake in Barstool last year, was delivering its second-quarter 2021 earnings report earlier this week.
“We are making progress on the build out of stand-alone Barstool-branded sports bars, with the initial locations in Philadelphia and Chicago scheduled to open later this year,” PNG president and CEO Jay Snowden told investors Thursday.
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Additional details about when and where the two pilot locations would crop up or what the venues might look like was not immediately available. FOX Business has reached out to the company for comment.
THE BARSTOOL FUND IS HERE TO STAY, LOOKING FOR A PHILANTHROPIC LEADER
Overall, the company said it expects additional growth in the near future – with its Barstool Sportsbook and iCasino apps as it looks to online gaming to continue to bolster its core business model.
MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA – JANUARY 30: David Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, speaks during a radio broadcast prior to Super Bowl LIV on January 30, 2020 in Miami Beach, Florida. The San Francisco 49ers will face the Kansas City Chiefs in the 54th pl
A year after the coronavirus pandemic led to shutdowns and restrictions on venues and sporting events across the country, the company posted revenue of $1.5 billion – more than $1.2 billion better than 2020 and $233 million above pre-pandemic 2019.
“The strong results were driven by exceptional performance across our portfolio of core gaming business properties,” Snowden said. “Contributions from Barstool Sports, the media company, were also positive. Further, we saw strong revenue growth across our Penn Interactive segment, which operated near breakeven for the quarter despite being live in only four states.”
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The company is also looking for more acquisitions, and earlier this week announced it entered an agreement to buy Score Media and Gaming (also known as theScore), the leading sports app in Canada and the third-largest in North America, for $2 billion in cash and stock.
“When we add theScore’s unique integrated media and betting platform and modern, state-of-the art technology, to the massive audience of Barstool Sports and its wildly popular personalities and content, we’ll be creating North America’s leading digital sports content, gaming and technology company,” Snowden said.
Andrade scores nearly a half-point higher on bars than she did in qualifications.
July 29, 2021, 7:36 a.m. ET
Rebeca Andrade nails her bars routine and sticks the dismount cold.
July 29, 2021, 7:35 a.m. ET
Tang Xijing, who had the second-highest balance beam score in the qualifying round, just fell off the beam.
July 29, 2021, 7:34 a.m. ET
It seems that we have more and more fans here at gymnastics with every women’s event. By the last day of the competition — the balance beam final next week — this place might just be as packed as it could be, considering Covid-19 restrictions. It could be that athletes and coaches are coming to watch after they finish their events. They have 48 hours to leave the country once their competitions are over.
July 29, 2021, 7:33 a.m. ET
I’m surprised Angelina Melnikova scored a few hundredths higher than Sunisa Lee on vault. I thought Lee’s vault was cleaner. Lee should have the edge over her on bars, and Melnikova should have the edge on floor exercise at the end of the competition. Melnikova qualified into the vault final, though, because of the two-per-country rule.
July 29, 2021, 7:31 a.m. ET
Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos of France wobbles badly on her front pike mount on balance beam. She manages to stay on the beam, but that’s a big deduction.
July 29, 2021, 7:27 a.m. ET
One rotation down, three to go. The top-ranked group heads to the uneven bars now. Rebeca Andrade is currently ranked first and Jade Carey second, but always take the rankings after a single event with a grain of salt — Andrade and Carey just competed on one of their best apparatuses, and the other gymnasts in their group didn’t.
July 29, 2021, 7:21 a.m. ET
Lu Yufei of China falls trying to connect two release moves on the uneven bars, a Tkatchev and a Gienger.
July 29, 2021, 7:20 a.m. ET
That’s a tough blow for Lu, who qualified to the uneven bars final and probably needed a good score on bars to be competitive in the all-around.
July 29, 2021, 7:16 a.m. ET
Because I’ve heard the floor exercise music for each Olympic gymnast seemingly a hundred times now here at the Tokyo Games, the bad music is starting to get to me. Yunseo Lee of Korea is on the floor now, performing to creepy music you’d hear in a horror movie about a creepy clown doll stalking children.
July 29, 2021, 7:15 a.m. ET
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil just made one of the most difficult vaults in the world look easy. It’s called a Cheng, which is a roundoff onto the springboard, a half twist onto the vault and a front flip with 1½ twists.
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesCredit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesCredit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Credit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesCredit…Doug Mills/The New York TimesCredit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
After pushing off of the vaulting table, Andrade soared so high into the air that it made her look weightless. She received 15.3 points, just one-tenth off of her score in qualification. That 15.4 score in qualification was the best score of the day — even higher than Simone Biles’s vault, which is usually the best, by far.
Andrade’s score was high enough to lead all gymnasts after one rotation.
July 29, 2021, 7:12 a.m. ET
Angelina Melnikova plays it safe with a double-twisting vault. She scores a 14.633, just slightly ahead of Lee.
July 29, 2021, 7:12 a.m. ET
The Swiss gymnast Giulia Steingruber has some seriously angry floor music. Head-banger lite.
July 29, 2021, 7:12 a.m. ET
Angelina Melnikova of Russia does a double-twisting Yurchenko. Like her teammate Urazova, her leg form is a bit messy, but she lands well. All of the top competitors are hitting so far.
July 29, 2021, 7:10 a.m. ET
Simone Biles could be mistaken for any other fan here (well, if there were paying spectators). She’s cheering, checking her phone and chatting with a friend. (Jordan Chiles, that is.)
July 29, 2021, 7:10 a.m. ET
Gorgeous pirouetting work from Tang Xijing of China on the uneven bars. She lost her balance slightly on one handstand but recovered well.
July 29, 2021, 7:10 a.m. ET
Nina Derwael of Belgium does a 1.5-twisting Yurchenko, which is one of the easiest vaults we’ll see today. Where Derwael really shines is on the uneven bars, where she had the highest score in the qualifying round.
July 29, 2021, 7:08 a.m. ET
Vladislava Urazova, from Russia, does a double-twisting Yurchenko with some leg form problems in the air but a solid landing. She landed a bit oddly, with her feet crossed, but stuck it nonetheless and doesn’t seem to be hurt at all.
July 29, 2021, 7:06 a.m. ET
Jade Carey also does a Cheng, with some leg separation as she comes off the springboard and a hop backward. 15.2 for her.
July 29, 2021, 7:03 a.m. ET
Andrade’s score on that vault in the qualifying round, 15.4, was the highest of the day. She scores one-tenth lower today, 15.3, but don’t be fooled — that is a MASSIVE score.
July 29, 2021, 7:03 a.m. ET
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil nails one of the most difficult vaults in the world, called the Cheng. It’s a roundoff onto the springboard, a half twist onto the vault, and a front layout with one and a half twists. It looks like her right foot might have been just barely out of bounds, but that would only be a one-tenth deduction.
July 29, 2021, 6:59 a.m. ET
Suni Lee just stuck a double-twisting Yurchenko. Great start for her. This vault isn’t as difficult as the ones we’ll see from some other gymnasts, but given that vault isn’t Lee’s best event, that performance couldn’t be better for her.
July 29, 2021, 6:58 a.m. ET
In one of the first routines of the day, Alice D’Amato of Italy, the 15th-ranked qualifier, just fell on balance beam.
July 29, 2021, 6:58 a.m. ET
Simone Biles, who pulled out of this competition because of mental health concerns, is in the stands with the rest of the U.S. team. They are here to see which gymnast not named Simone Biles will be the first to win an all-around at the world championships or the Olympics since 2013. Those gymnasts can’t be on the competition floor — this event is only for the all-arounders and their coaches.
July 29, 2021, 6:56 a.m. ET
Sunisa Lee will be the first competitor on vault. It’s her weakest event, and she typically performs a less difficult vault (a double-twisting Yurchenko) than her teammate Jade Carey. So, if you see Lee out of the first three places after this rotation, fear not.
July 29, 2021, 6:51 a.m. ET
The top-ranked group will start on vault and then rotate to bars, beam and floor. The second group will start on bars and rotate in the same order, finishing on the vault.
July 29, 2021, 6:50 a.m. ET
The competition is divided into four groups of six gymnasts each, which will rotate through the four apparatuses. The groups are determined by rank in the qualifying round — the gymnasts ranked 1-6 in one group, 7-12 in another, and so on — with one exception. Jade Carey, whose qualifying score would place her in the second group, will compete in the first because Simone Biles was already assigned to that group when she withdrew and Carey took her place.
July 29, 2021, 6:40 a.m. ET
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil on Sunday.Credit…Dylan Martinez/Reuters
With Simone Biles out of the competition, there are several contenders from outside the United States who could contend for the gold. Here are a few of them:
Rebeca Andrade of Brazil placed second in the qualification, where her competition went so well that, for a fleeting moment, it seemed her total score could have surpassed Biles’s. She earned a 15.4 that night after executing a near-perfect Cheng, a very difficult vault that only a handful of gymnasts can do.
Angelina Melnikova and Vladislava Urazova will represent Russia, which won the team event. Russia has never won an Olympic all-around title as an independent nation, though the Soviet Union had dominated the sport for decades. Both women are stellar on the uneven bars, but fell on the beam in the team final and cannot afford that mistake here.
China finished a disappointing seventh in the team event, so Tang Xijing and Lu Yufei will be looking for redemption. Tang finished second all-around to Biles at the 2019 world championship. Both women are capable of high scores on the bars and beam.
Nina Derwael of Belgium, Melanie de Jesus dos Santos of France, Mai Murakami of Japan, and the twins Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova of Britain all could win a medal, especially if the top contenders falter. Derwael qualified in seventh all-around and will also challenge Lee in what should be an exciting uneven bars final on Sunday. De Jesus dos Santos is the 2019 European champion, and Murakami was second to Biles at the 2018 world championship. The Gadirovas, like the Russians, already have Olympic medals; Britain won the bronze on Tuesday, its first team medal in women’s gymnastics since 1928.
Ellie Black, Canada’s best gymnast, withdrew from the competition on Wednesday after reinjuring her left ankle.
July 29, 2021, 6:20 a.m. ET
Jade Carey performs her floor routine during the qualification round.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
The American gymnast Jade Carey is so good on the floor exercise that she might debut the hardest tumbling pass ever to be attempted by a woman in competition: the triple-twisting double layout.
During the skill, Carey launches herself into a roundoff and back handspring before rising to complete three twists and two back flips. The feat is similar to Biles’s triple-double on the floor, but whereas Biles tucks her knees into her chest, Carey increases the difficulty by keeping her body straight.
So far, she has only attempted the skill in practice.
In the all-around final, Carey will slot into the spot once allotted to Biles, who was scheduled to close out the competition on the floor but withdrew, citing mental health challenges and “a little bit of the twisties” (a term that refers to a gymnast’s ability to sense where she is in space). That means Carey will have her three other scores — on the vault, uneven bars and beam — in hand. If the math shows that she is just out of the medals, the risk of trying the skill might be worth the reward.
If she were to land the triple-twisting double layout, it would be named the Carey.
July 29, 2021, 5:40 a.m. ET
Sunisa Lee on the balance beam during the team final.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Sunisa Lee and Jade Carey will represent the United States. Biles’s decision to step back created the spot for Carey, who would have qualified for the all-around final if not for a rule that allows only two gymnasts from any country to compete in the event.
Leeis the second-best all-around gymnast in the United States, behind Biles, and is a strong contender for a medal. During qualifying, she placed third among the 24 gymnasts but she did not do her most difficult uneven bars routine — the one she performed during the team final.
At the Olympic trials, she outscored Biles on one of the two days of competition, something no other gymnast had done since 2013.
Lee, 18, will also compete next week in the uneven bars and beam finals. She has a good chance of becoming the Olympic champion on the bars because her routine is the most difficult in the world. In the team final on Tuesday it scored a 15.4, tying for the highest mark in women’s gymnastics at these Games so far.
Carey did not win silver with the U.S. team on Tuesday because she secured her own spot in the Olympics, separate from the U.S.A. Gymnastics selection process, by ranking first on the vault in the multiyear World Cup series. She is capable of winning individual medals on vault and floor and has already qualified for both of those finals next week.
The yearlong postponement of the Olympics allowed Carey, 21, to improve her uneven bars and beam skills. As she steps up for the all-around, she will need to score her best on those two events to contend for a medal. But Carey will finish the day on the floor exercise, where she could debut a risky skill: a triple-twisting double layout. It would be the hardest tumbling pass ever performed by a woman.
The Americans MyKayla Skinner and Grace McCallum will not participate in the final because of the two-per-country rule. Skinner was fourth best among the Americans and 11th best among all gymnasts in the qualifying round, but a lower-ranked athlete from another nation will compete instead. McCallum was fifth best among the Americans and 13th best among all gymnasts, while Jordan Chiles finished a distant 40th overall.
Gabby Douglas, the 2012 Olympic champion, was similarly left out of the all-around in 2016, despite qualifying in third place behind Biles and Aly Raisman.
July 29, 2021, 5:03 a.m. ET
Sunisa Lee during the uneven bars in the team final on Tuesday night.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Simone Biles will not repeat as the Olympic all-around champion on Thursday after pulling herself from the event. The shake-up, which came after she withdrew from the team competition on Tuesday, opens the door for her teammate Sunisa Lee, or Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, or the Russians, or the Chinese, to win the individual title. Biles could still participate in the four apparatus finals next week.
The United States has won each Olympic all-around title since 2004, when Carly Patterson became the first American winner of the competition since Mary Lou Retton in 1984. Brazil has never won an Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics.
July 29, 2021, 5:02 a.m. ET
The women’s gymnastics all-around final begins Thursday at 7:50 p.m. local time in Tokyo, and is expected to last about two hours, with the winner determined following turns on the vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise.
WATCH LIVE: In the United States, the competition begins at 6:50 a.m. Eastern time. It can be streamed live via the NBC Olympics site, Peacock or the NBC Sports app.
TAPE DELAY: Many fans will prefer to stream a replay or watch the tape-delayed broadcast, which will air on NBC at 8 p.m. Eastern time. To avoid spoilers, turn off mobile news notifications and try to stay off social media.
July 29, 2021, 5:01 a.m. ET
The all-around will test 24 individual athletes on vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. Their scores on each apparatus will be totaled to determine the most complete gymnast.
Each routine will receive a “D score” for difficulty (such as a 5.4 for the common double-twisting Yurchenko vault) and an “E score” for execution (starting at 10 and decreasing for errors). The two scores are combined, so that the double-twisting Yurchenko could merit a maximum possible score of 15.4.
For a more in-depth explanation, watch this helpful video:
A group that represents nearly 500 bars in San Francisco said on Monday that customers will be required to show proof of vaccination or a recent COVID-19 test showing a negative result in order to drink inside.
The group, the San Francisco Bar Owner Alliance, confirmed to NBC News that its members would be implementing the new rules starting Thursday.
In its statement announcing the new move, the group said it’s “obligated to protect our workers and their families and to offer safe space for customers to relax and socialize.”
The alliance reportedly added that the move came after it saw a number of bar workers come down with coronavirus infections despite being vaccinated.
The announcement arrived the same day California said it would be requiring state employees and health care workers to show proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing for the virus as it works to curb the spread of the disease amid rising cases of the delta variant.
“We are now dealing with a pandemic of the unvaccinated, and it’s going to take renewed efforts to protect Californians from the dangerous Delta variant,” Gov. Gavin NewsomGavin NewsomJudge clears way for Larry Elder to appear on California recall ballot Caitlyn Jenner pledges to support Trump if he makes another bid for the White House Harris says she will campaign for Newsom in California recall election MORE (D) said in a press release.
“As the state’s largest employer, we are leading by example and requiring all state and health care workers to show proof of vaccination or be tested regularly, and we are encouraging local governments and businesses to do the same,” he said.
“Vaccines are safe — they protect our family, those who truly can’t get vaccinated, our children and our economy. Vaccines are the way we end this pandemic,” he added.
Recent California data show that 62.1 percent of the state’s population is fully vaccinated.
Due to a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant, a group of more than 500 San Francisco bar owners is considering whether to require vaccine cards for entry at their members’ bars across the city, just as new mask recommendations have arrived in the Bay Area.
Moving to check vaccinations at entry to bars in the San Francisco Bar Owner Alliance would be done on a volunteer basis, but Ben Bleiman — the head of the San Francisco Bar Owner Alliance — said the alliance may issue a statement from the 500-member group recommending only patrons who are vaccinated would be allowed in, a move that would include accompanying signage outside of the participating bars.
“I didn’t know anybody who was [requiring vaccine cards at first], only the most strict people,” Bleiman said. “Just in the last 24 hours, I’ve seen a lot of people changing their tunes. So I think we’re in the middle of a big flux.”
Although the alliance likely won’t make a formal decision until next week at the earliest, some members of the alliance are already starting to take part: Vesuvio Cafe in North Beach made the decision Tuesday to require proof of vaccination before entry, said owner Janet Clyde.
“We just started it because it’s clear that there’s just a segment of the population that is not vaccinated,” Clyde said. “And really until this settles down, I think it’s definitely safer for our staff and our clientele if we limit the indoors to people who have proof of vaccination.”
Customers are required to show a photo or QR code showing proof of vaccination before entering Vesuvio. Clyde said she is looking to take a proactive stance on requiring vaccinations for patrons, rather than waiting for government mask mandates. Citing the mask requirements in Los Angeles, Clyde said it was important to “get ahead of it” and that people will be understanding.
“We’ve had a couple employees who have tested positive and we want to protect our staff and I think we really can’t wait for [local government] to develop general guidelines at this point,” said Clyde, who noted both cases were breakthrough COVID cases. “I mean, this is a situation that’s happening now.”
Bleiman is most likely making the change with his own bars as well, he said, which includes Teeth, Tonic and Soda Popinski’s. “If, you know, 50, 100, 200 bars want to put up a sign that says ‘you must be vaccinated to enter,’ I think that’ll be impactful,” Bleiman said.
Bleiman says he’s heard similar stories about breakthrough cases happening at other bars in San Francisco. He echoed Clyde’s assertion that bar owners should be getting ahead of any potential surges to protect staff and business.
“I think getting out ahead of it would be really smart and I think our survival will be based on people feeling safe in our establishment,” Bleiman said. “And if we can put a line in the sand — and again, we [as an alliance] haven’t done this yet — but I think there’s potential if we put a line in the sand for us getting out ahead of this, and for our customers feeling safer, meaning that we are back to normal faster [since] we’re clearly not normal yet.”
Bleiman expressed support for the local government, but he doesn’t want to wait for guidance from them before making the change to require vaccination cards.
“I think that [the San Francisco government is] still hoping that our vaccination rates are gonna hold up, but we are anecdotally seeing a lot of people come down with mild to medium cases of COVID,” Bleiman said. “I kind of see the writing on the wall and I think if we get out ahead of it — and it’s not like we’re shutting down or anything, we’re just saying you’ve gotta have a vaccine.
“I also think that, for some reason, the government everywhere — from the feds to the state to the locals — have been so nice to people who won’t get vaccines and I think that needs to stop,” Bleiman continued. “We need to start playing hardball with them, they’re a bunch of a—holes, and you can quote me on that. And I’m not talking about the people who can’t get [the vaccine], I’m talking to the people who can and choose not to. They’re selfish and they’re ignorant and they’re putting us all in jeopardy and making it harder for all of us to recover from this. And we need to stop treating them like they just don’t have the right information. The information is right there, it doesn’t lie. And they need to stop thinking that they know more than the scientific experts.”
Doughnuts on a production line inside a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts store in Times Square in Manhattan.
Angus Mordant/Bloomberg
Krispy Kreme
led a group of six companies to the public markets on Thursday.
Besides the doughnut chain,
Acumen Pharmaceuticals,
D-MARKET Electronic Services & Trading,
Evercommerce,
Torrid Holdings,
and the
Glimpse Group
made their stock-market debuts.
So far this week, 17 companies, including those six, have listed their shares. There are no initial public offerings on tap for Friday because of the holiday weekend. On Wednesday, 10 companies went public, with
Didi Global,
the Uber of China, trading flat and closing at $14.14, 14 cents above its offering price.
On Thursday, Acumen Pharmaceuticals (ticker: ABOS) was one of the first to begin trading. The stock opened at $25.07 and closed at $20.10, up nearly 26% from the offering price.
The solid performance came after Acumen increased the size of its deal by nearly 20%. The biotech company, which is developing therapies to treat Alzheimer’s disease, collected about $160 million. It sold roughly 10 million shares at $16, the top of its $14-to-$16 range.
The Glimpse Group (VRAR), which develops and commercializes virtual and augmented reality software products, also opened. Shares kicked off at $11.75 and ended at $17.66, up 152% from its offer price. Glimpse delivered Thursday’s smallest deal. The company collected $12.3 million, after selling 1.75 million shares at $7, the midpoint of its $6-to-$8 price range.
Torrid Holdings (CURV) shares rose 15% from the offer price to close at $24.15. The direct-to-consumer retailer of plus-sized women’s clothes increased the size of its deal twice. It filed to offer 8 million shares at $18 to $21, which it boosted Wednesday to 10 million. It ended up selling 11 million shares at $21, the top of its expected range, raising $231 million. Sycamore Partners, the retail-focused private-equity firm, will own nearly 76% of Torrid after the IPO.
Krispy Kreme (DNUT), the most well-known of Thursday’s group, kicked off at $16.30 and ended at $21, up nearly 24% from the offer price. The doughnut chain increased the size of its deal by 10% but priced it well below its expected range to raise $500 million. Krispy Kreme had planned to offer 26.7 million shares at $21 to $24 each, but ended up selling 29.4 million shares at $17 each. JAB Holding, the European investment firm, will own about 39% of Krispy Kreme after the IPO
D-Market Electronic Services & Trading, or Hepsiburada (HEPS), jumped nearly 12% from its offer price to close at $13.43. Hepsiburada, which means “you can find anything you want here” in Turkish, is a leading e-commerce platform from Istanbul. The company raised $680 million after selling 56,740,000 American depositary shares at $12 each, the midpoint of its $11-to-$13 price range. Each ADS represents one class B ordinary share.
Lastly, EverCommerce (EVCM) stock opened at $20, but slipped back to close nearly 4% above its offer price at $17.60. EverCommerce’s IPO came in at $325 million after the comp[any sold 19.1 million shares at $17, the middle of its $16-to-$18 range. The company provides software for small and midsize service businesses.
Doughnuts on a production line inside a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts store in Times Square in Manhattan.
Angus Mordant/Bloomberg
Krispy Kreme
is leading a group of six companies to the public markets on Thursday.
Besides the doughnut chain,
Acumen Pharmaceuticals,
D-MARKET Electronic Services & Trading,
Evercommerce,
Torrid Holdings,
and the
Glimpse Group
opened for trading.
So far this week, 17 companies, including the current six, have listed their shares. There are no initial public offerings on tap for Friday because of the holiday weekend. On Wednesday, 10 companies went public, with
Didi Global,
the Uber of China, trading flat and closing at $14.14, 14 cents above its offering price.
On Thursday, Acumen Pharmaceuticals (ticker: ABOS) was one of the first to begin trading. The stock opened at $25.07, hit a high of $26.98, and recently changed hands in afternoon trading at $20.98, up 31% from the offering price.
The solid performance came after Acumen increased the size of its deal by nearly 20%. The biotech company, which is developing therapies to treat Alzheimer’s disease, collected about $160 million. It sold roughly 10 million shares at $16, the top of its $14-to-$16 range.
The Glimpse Group (VRAR), which develops and commercializes virtual and augmented reality software products, also opened. Shares kicked off at $11.75, peaked at $16.44, and recently traded at $12.95, up nearly 85%. Glimpse delivered Thursday’s smallest deal. The company collected $12.3 million, after selling 1.75 million shares at $7, the midpoint of its $6-to-$8 price range.
Torrid Holdings (CURV) began trading, with shares rising 15% from its offering price to $24.18 in afternoon trading. The plus-size, direct-to-consumer women’s retailer increased the size of its deal twice. It filed to offer 8 million shares at $18 to $21, which it boosted Wednesday to 10 million. It ended up selling 11 million shares at $21, the top of its expected range, raising $231 million. Sycamore Partners, the retail-focused private-equity firm, will own nearly 76% of Torrid after the IPO.
Krispy Kreme (DNUT), the most well-known of Thursday’s group, kicked off at $16.30, peaked at $20.17 and recently changed hands at $19.57, up 15% from the offer price. The doughnut chain increased the size of its deal by 10% but priced well below its expected range to raise $500 million. Krispy Kreme had planned to offer 26.7 million shares at $21 to $24 each, but ended up selling 29.4 million shares at $17 each. JAB Holding, the European investment firm, will own about 39% of Krispy Kreme after the IPO
D-Market Electronic Services & Trading, or Hepsiburada (HEPS), jumped 8% from its offer price and is trading at $13. Hepsiburada, which means “you can find anything you want here” in Turkish, is a leading e-commerce platform from Istanbul. The company raised $680 million after selling 56,740,000 American depositary shares at $12 each, the midpoint of its $11-to-$13 price range. Each ADS represents one class B ordinary share.
Lastly, Evercommerce (EVCM) also began trading. The stock opened at $20, hit a high of $21 and recently changed hands at $17.46, up nearly 3% from the offer price. Evercommerce’s IPO came in at $325 million after selling 19.1 million shares at $17, the middle of its $16-to-$18 range. The company provides SaaS software for small and midsize service businesses.
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Chris Nassetta worked from home in Arlington, Va., with his wife, six daughters and two dogs for two weeks before returning to the hotel chain’s nearly empty headquarters for the rest of the past year. Sharmistha Dubey has been leading Match Group Inc. from her dining room table near Dallas. Herman Miller ’s Andi Owen has her dog Finn to keep her company while working from her home office in Grand Rapids, Mich. Moderna Inc. CEO Stéphane Bancel relishes twice-daily 30-minute walks between his home in Boston and the vaccine maker’s Cambridge offices, where he resumed working in August, so he can crystallize his priorities and reflect on the day. The Wall Street Journal photographed them and 11 other business leaders in their pandemic office spaces as they discussed the past year and what’s to come.
More than a year after the coronavirus upended the way we work, the business leaders said they have found that more communication, flexibility and transparency have been crucial in staying connected to their employees.
Heads of companies across sectors including finance, hospitality and technology spoke from their current workspaces about what they’ve learned from the largely remote year, what challenges they faced and what changes they plan to leave in place during the next phase of work.
Brad Karp, chairman of the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, predicted his schedule will remain less hectic after the pandemic is over: “Personally, I can’t see myself reflexively flying cross-country for an hour-long presentation or meeting.”
The New Orleans mayor announced relief support for local businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Cantrell and Jeff Schwartz of the Office of Economic Development held a news conference Thursday where they announced ways the city is providing relief and support for businesses, especially bars, restaurants and live music venues.About 150 businesses will be eligible to receive the assistance. Cantrell also announced that she is waiving businesses Alcohol and Beverage Outlet fees for 2021. Howlin’ Wolf owner Howie Kaplan said live music is one step closer to coming back to the city, and the waiving of the ABO fees will save his business about $3,000 a year. “We are finally able to start coming back,” Kaplan said.Mayor Cantrell said more help from the federal government is on the way. In about two weeks, they will have guidance from the Department of Treasury on how they can spend $375 million from the federal funds. Cantrell said what the city needs most is more vaccinations. She is not ready to allow businesses to operate at 100 percent capacity like the rest of the state. “Herd immunity what we are being told is at 75 percent so that’s a threshold for the city of New Orleans and so looking at that number and percentage and where we are now or going deeper into inequities taking the vaccine we are not where we want to be,” Cantrell said.
NEW ORLEANS —
The New Orleans mayor announced relief support for local businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Cantrell and Jeff Schwartz of the Office of Economic Development held a news conference Thursday where they announced ways the city is providing relief and support for businesses, especially bars, restaurants and live music venues.
About 150 businesses will be eligible to receive the assistance.
Cantrell also announced that she is waiving businesses Alcohol and Beverage Outlet fees for 2021.
Howlin’ Wolf owner Howie Kaplan said live music is one step closer to coming back to the city, and the waiving of the ABO fees will save his business about $3,000 a year.
“We are finally able to start coming back,” Kaplan said.
Mayor Cantrell said more help from the federal government is on the way.
In about two weeks, they will have guidance from the Department of Treasury on how they can spend $375 million from the federal funds.
Cantrell said what the city needs most is more vaccinations.
She is not ready to allow businesses to operate at 100 percent capacity like the rest of the state.
“Herd immunity what we are being told is at 75 percent so that’s a threshold for the city of New Orleans and so looking at that number and percentage and where we are now or going deeper into inequities taking the vaccine we are not where we want to be,” Cantrell said.
If you were looking forward to traveling to Japan for the Tokyo Olympics this year, you’re going to have to change your plans.
Organizers of the Tokyo 2020 Games — which had already been delayed by one year due to the pandemic — announced Saturday that international spectators will be barred from the Summer Olympics and Paralympics.
Citing the restrictions on international travel, organizers said in a statement there was no guarantee that Japan will be allowing international visitors to enter the country by the summer.
The decision to bar foreign fans was made “to give clarity to ticket holders living overseas and to enable them to adjust their travel plans at this stage,” the statement said.
Japan has barred most foreign entry into the country as part of its COVID-19 restrictions, and only recently lifted a state of emergency in some prefectures.
Tickets purchased by those overseas will be refunded. Organizers said 600,000 tickets were sold outside of Japan.
There had been speculation about whether the committee would allow foreigners at the games in the months leading up to the announcement. Tokyo committee president Seiko Hashimoto also hinted in early March that they would not.
That the games were scheduled to go ahead at all was contentious; a poll by national outlet NHK earlier this year found that a vast majority of Japanese wanted the games to be canceled or postponed again.
“In many ways the Tokyo 2020 Games will be completely different to any previous Games,” Hashimoto said in a statement Saturday. “We are currently working on specific plans to share support remotely from around the world and help bring people together in ways suited to our current times.”
The postponement of the 2020 Olympics last year was the first time in the modern era that the timing of the games was affected by an event other than war.
Organizers said it would still be called the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.
There has been more than 455,000 COVID-19 cases in Japan to date, and 8,802 deaths. Its vaccine rollout is still in the early stages, with only frontline workers eligible to be vaccinated. As of Saturday, Japan has administered 0.46 doses per 100 people.
The Utah Jazz have been winning a lot this season, but not as much as their new owner.
Just look back at three days in late January. The Jazz — which Ryan Smith bought for $1.66 billion late last year — beat the Dallas Mavericks for their 10th win in a row on Jan. 27, the same evening that Qualtrics International Inc.
XM,
+2.83%,
the software company Smith co-founded with his father Scott and brother Jared in 2002, set the price for its $1.55 billion IPO. The next day, Qualtrics shares would soar 52% in their trading debut, giving the software company a market valuation of $27.3 billion; a day later, the Jazz would win their 11th straight, putting them solidly at the top of the NBA standings.
So it’s good to be Ryan Smith. At the NBA All-Star break, the Jazz have a league-best record of 27-9. At the same time, Qualtrics is a major mover in a market estimated to be worth $60 billion, and topped Wall Street estimates for earnings and sales in its first quarterly results as a publicly traded company Tuesday.
The combination of a successful basketball team and another large, publicly traded tech company are helping to secure an even loftier goal for Smith: Making the Utah region known for something more than majestic mountains and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“His goals and objectives have never been anything but over the top,” Todd Pedersen, CEO of Vivint Smart Home Inc.
VVNT,
+0.40%,
told MarketWatch.
Qualtrics got its start in the Smith’s basement, which is near Pedersen’s home. And it’s not just Smith and Pedersen who are neighbors — their companies are right next to one another as well. And they can now watch the NBA team that Smith owns play at an arena that bears the name of Pedersen’s company, as they recently did for a nationally-televised Jazz game against the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.
The Jazz won.
Handling double duties
Smith sits in a position occupied by few in the history of corporate America: head of a publicly traded company, and owner of an unrelated sports franchise. There is no such owner in the National Football League, Major League Baseball nor the National Hockey League, though Wayne Huizenga once owned franchises in all three while leading Blockbuster Video.
The NBA seems more willing to welcome public-company executives to its ranks, even while denying bids from Oracle Corp.’s
ORCL,
-0.10%
co-founder Larry Ellison. Another recent majority owner is Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s
BABA,
-1.34%
co-founder and Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai, who snapped up the Brooklyn Nets for a record $2.35 billion in 2020. The reclusive Robert Pera, CEO of Ubiquiti Inc.
UI,
-0.68%,
is also owner of the Memphis Grizzlies.
Vivek Ranidive was still chief executive of Tibco Software Inc. when he led a group that bought the Sacramento Kings in 2013, and Miami Heat owner Micky Arison led Carnival Cruise Inc. for more than a decade while leading his franchise. In Pera’s first attempt to buy into the NBA, a bid for the Philadelphia 76ers, he was topped by a group that included AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc.
AMC,
+1.92%
CEO Adam Aron, who also served as CEO of the Sixers for the first two years the group owned the team.
Read more: 5 things to know as Qualtrics prepares for its IPO this week
Smith has adroitly navigated the corporate and professional sports worlds by delegating day-to-day operations at each organization.
“As executive chairman, my job during the day is running Qualtrics with [Chief Executive] Zig [Serafin]. My job with the Jazz is at night, and I leave it to the coaches, players, and executives in charge of the team,” Smith told MarketWatch. “The product is proof of their abilities.”
At Qualtrics, CEO Zig Serafin and Smith are self-described “co-builders” of a company that has grown in the four-and-a-half years since Serafin joined as chief operating officer. (Serafin, who was named CEO nine months ago, says he and Smith are “joined at the hip” in their vision.) During that time, Qualtrics has expanded employees (from 1,100 to 3,500), customers (3,000-4,000 to 13,500), and revenue (from less than $200 million annually to $763.5 million last year, the company reported Tuesday).
As the NBA’s newest owner, “One of Ryan’s leadership styles is to delegate. He lets people think big, but by doing so through smart decisions,” Jim Olson, president of the Utah Jazz, told MarketWatch.
To that end, the Jazz use Qualtrics’ data analytics technology to improve team performance on the court and off, down to traveling, sleep, and diet for players and coaching staff.
The rise of Silicon Slopes
Illustrated by Terrence Horan
Such partnerships have fueled not just the success of the Jazz and Qualtrics but the larger Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem area.
“The Jazz and Sundance [Film Festival] are the two most identifiable brands in this state, and Ryan is smartly leveraging the Jazz for global reach,” says Domo Inc.
DOMO,
+1.20%
CEO Josh James, who coined the term “Silicon Slopes” for the region and started the non-profit organization of the same name. “Ryan Smith used to be just another successful tech founder,” he said. “Now he is universally known as Ryan Smith, owner of the Jazz. This is a much larger megaphone and platform for the community.”
For example, the Jazz use Qualtrics software to collect and analyze fan data to improve their experience at home games on everything from concessions and apparel to parking and in-game entertainment. The two organizations have also teamed on 5 For The Fight, a nonprofit that invites everyone to give $5 for the fight against cancer. It is the Jazz’s official jersey patch, a rarity in the corporate-skewed NBA.
The winning ways of Smith and Qualtrics, amid a wave of freshly minted unicorns in the Salt Lake City region, underscores the rise of Silicon Slopes as one of a handful of regions in the U.S. to successfully mold itself after Silicon Valley. From the days of computer-networking pioneer Novell Inc. and word-processing maker WordPerfect Corp. in the 1980s, Utah has stood out as a tech outpost, albeit in the shadow of Silicon Valley and Seattle, but its recent string of triumphs has considerably raised its profile.
Indeed, the Provo-Orem area was deemed the best regional economy in America, according to rankings released in February by the Milken Institute.
Even COVID-19 hasn’t dampened the state’s can-do mindset.
Utah has among the most-open vaccination criteria in the nation. Starting in early March, anyone 50 and over is eligible for a jab—as well as those 16 and older with pre-existing conditions. By emphasizing “speed over perfection,” Nomi Health Inc. CEO Mark Newman says, the state has been able to send kids back to school since September, reduce the unemployment rate of 3% to a pre-pandemic level, and attain a budget surplus.
“The states that figure it out will have a long-tale of success over those states that don’t,” said Newman, whose direct healthcare company is partnering with the state of Utah and Qualtrics in bringing mass testing sites and vaccinations.
“Utah as a state has a get-it-done attitude,” says Newman, who moved to the state in 1993. “That goes back to Utah’s pioneer roots.”
James says Utah’s tech history can be divided into three phases: The first in the late 1980s and early ‘90s led by Novell and WordPerfect; a second in the late 1990s and 2000s, with internet plays Overstock Inc.
OSTK,
-2.18%,
Omniture (acquired by Adobe Systems Inc.
ADBE,
+0.69%
), Altris Corp. (bought by then-Symantec Corp.), Iomega (acquired by then-EMC Corp.), and dozens of companies that were sold for millions each; and the current one of big independent enterprise companies like Qualtrics and Domo, and consumer plays like Vivint.
“A giant crop of companies are coming behind us,” James said, mentioning such unicorns as MX Technologies Inc., Lucid Software Inc. and DivvyPay Inc. “This feels like Silicon Valley in the ‘90s. It’s a really exciting time.”
“Silicon Slopes is doing great, building off the great history of [tech pioneers] Novell and WordPerfect in the state,” Steve Case, the co-founder of AOL who now leads venture-capital firm Revolution, told MarketWatch. The latest iteration, he added, is the byproduct of the region’s focus on enterprise technology and “strong collaboration in building a community.”
Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson credits Utah’s “rich entrepreneurial spirit” to a “business-friendly environment where constant innovation, great employment opportunities, and real technological advancement are present.”
“Utah is a mixing bowl of cultures,” says Serafin, whose previous stop was 17 years in Redmond, Wash., all of them at Microsoft Corp.
MSFT,
-0.10%.
“Utah is close to the coast, and San Francisco and Los Angeles. It’s not much different than Silicon Valley folks who moved to Nevada.”
An ‘interesting journey’
In a state increasingly bustling with unicorns, none arguably have been hotter than Qualtrics, which went public in late January.
The company’s XM tracker stands for experience management, a software category that Qualtrics coined. Qualtrics, whose software lets businesses gauge how customers use their products so those products can be improved, has about 13,000 customers from about 9,000 two years ago. The company’s sales jumped 30% in the first three quarters of 2020 to $550 million, from $413.4 million a year earlier.
Smith’s “rare and unique ability to spot markets before they exist” gave him an vision of the experience economy that has helped evolve the way enterprises think about culture, brand, products, and people,” says ServiceNow Inc.
NOW,
-1.32%
CEO Bill McDermott, who was previously CEO of SAP
SAP,
-0.10%
when it owned Qualtrics.
Read more: 5 things to know as Qualtrics prepares for its IPO this week
Smith co-founded Qualtrics with his father and brother in 2002. On the cusp of going public in 2018, Qualtrics was acquired by SAP for $8 billion, making it the largest private enterprise-software acquisition in tech history when the deal closed in early 2019.
“It’s been an interesting journey,” Smith says. “For one-and-a-half to two years with SAP, they took our name everywhere while keeping our company independent and keeping the management team together, which is rare. It retained our culture, with an option to IPO.”
“To be in this spot as a public company, so many things had to go right,” Smith said. “It’s freakin’ incredible.”
