Read the Memo that Gawker Media Founder Nick Denton Sent to His Staff - Fortune

Read the Memo that Gawker Media Founder Nick Denton Sent to His Staff

Posted: 01 Aug 2016 10:47 PM PDT

Gawker Media founder Nick Denton on Monday confirmed that he filed for personal bankruptcy.
The news comes after a Florida judge ruled (and denied Denton’s request to stay said ruling) that former wrestler Terry Bollea, better known as Hulk Hogan, could begin collecting on a judgment against Denton and his company for invasion of privacy.
Denton is personally liable for $10 million of the judgment and jointly liable for an additional $115 million, estimates the Wall Street Journal.
In the wake of that filing, Denton sent the following memo to his staff, entitled “Before the dawn”:

You may have seen the news that I have, as expected, had to join the company in bankruptcy. Peter Thiel’s legal campaign has targeted individual writers like Sam Biddle, editors such as John Cook, and me as publisher. It is a personal vendetta. And yes, it’s a disturbing to live in a world in which a billionaire can bully journalists because he didn’t like the coverage.
Still, I’m in a positive frame of mind, because our influential brands will soon be free to thrive under new ownership, and our very existence as an independent entity has been a triumph. For once, the journalistic cliché is appropriate: We’ve spoken truth to power. Sometimes uncomfortable truths. Sometimes gossipy truths. But truths. There is a price to pay for that, and I am paying it now. But we never gave up our souls in the pursuit of an easy life.
What really lifts my spirits is the way in which we have stood together and just kept on writing, coding, and selling. Our stories reached 12 million more people around the world in July (104m) than they did in April (92m), before the bankruptcy. We were all over the political conventions and Pokémon Go, among other stories.
Eyal just sent round a note saying that last week brought in a million dollars in direct advertising bookings, positioning us well for a further rebound once the future direction of the business is clear. Amazon Prime Day was 63 percent up on last year, with $7m in sales for merchant partners, underlining the unique credibility that brands such as Gizmodo have with consumers.
Every department has kept focus and momentum. The pace of product development is sure and rapid. Our writers are the most productive and effective in digital media. The sales materials are more coherent and professional than they have ever been. Our sites dominate news in categories like technology, cars, and video games.
The brands and the business, which we have built together, are in amazingly robust shape. We’ll go into the final stage of the sale with confidence in our continued momentum, and the knowledge that we’ve all been witnesses to a media miracle.
This is a company founded by a journalist, built around a journalistic mission, beholden only to readers. We can be proud that we survived and prospered as an independent company for more than a decade, and have a second act ahead of us, under the shelter finally of a larger media company.
Gawker endures.
Nick

Gawker Media will be auctioned off next month. Ziff Davis currently leads a pack of at least 15 suitors with a bid of $90 million, according to various reports.
Denton added in a Tweet: “Gawker Media Group’s resilient brands and people will thrive under new ownership, when the sale closes in the next few weeks.”
This article originally appeared on Fortune.com

This Company Just Got Permission to Land a Robot on the Moon - TIME Business

This Company Just Got Permission to Land a Robot on the Moon Posted: 03 Aug 2016 05:00 AM PDT Less than a month after the 47th anniversary of Neil Armstrong‘s first steps on the moon, a private spacefaring firm has overcome a major hurdle on its mission to make a different kind of lunar history. California-based Moon Express is set to announce Wednesday that it has become the first private space company to get U.S. government approval to fly a mission to the moon. “To me, going to the moon is symbolic of what individuals and small groups of people are capable of doing,” says Naveen Jain, co-founder and chairman of Moon Express. “It’s an inspiration that allows people to think that the things that were only done by the superpowers, a small group of people can now do.” (A controversial figure in the technology world, Jain has settled several suits regarding his business practices and trading activity over the years.) Moon Express is one of a handful of firms vying for the Google Lunar X Prize, a $20 million award to be granted to the first team to land a robot on the lunar surface, trek 500 meters, then send back the equivalent of very expensive Instagram photos. Along with Israeli rival SpaceIL, it’s seen as a favorite to win that competition, having knowledge-sharing agreements with and office space from NASA as well as a contract with a rocket-launching company. Moon Express’ lunar lander is a far cry from NASA’s Apollo days. It’s roughly the size of a go-kart, with the overall appearance of a juiced-up interplanetary Roomba. The company’s plan is to hitch a ride to low Earth orbit aboard a small rocket designed to haul tiny satellites. It will then use its own engine for the 200,000-plus mile trip onwards to the moon. Once there, landing thrusters are meant to provide a smooth descent for the firm’s robotic explorer, which is designed to move around via rocket-hops. (Moon Express successfully tested its lander in late 2014.) That trip, says Moon Express, should happen sometime in 2017. But delays are a part of life when it comes to the highly complex task of flinging stuff into outer space. One problem in particular looms large: The launch vehicle it’s planning to use, Rocket Lab’s Electron, has yet to fly. That’s a bit like a newly engaged couple picking a wedding venue that isn’t done being built. It could work out fine, but it’s inviting trouble. “We’re looking at a first test flight in a few months’ time,” says Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck. That timeframe offers little in terms of leeway, and Moon Express isn’t first in line when the Electron is ready to go. But it’s Beck’s job to make sure the Electron is safe before it starts flying cargo. “Obviously, we don’t want to impact anybody’s mission, and we’re working very hard to ensure that we get through the test flight phases as comfortably and as quickly as we can,” says Beck. Rival SpaceIL, meanwhile, is relying on SpaceX’s proven Falcon rockets. And the clock is ticking—Google’s award expires at the end of 2017, though it has been extended in the past. Even if Moon Express misses the deadline, its vision extends well beyond winning Google’s money (it has, after all, already raised millions more than the grand prize amount from investors). Moon Express executives see a business in using its lander for tasks from satellite repair to clearing space junk. Jain also spoke of harvesting lunar resources like platinum and helium-3. “We go to the moon not because it is easy, but because it is profitable,” Jain says, echoing John F. Kennedy the way only a tech entrepreneur might. (He also made the case for moon rocks’ potential to become the new diamonds, though it’s unclear how his firm might override decades of extraordinarily effective marketing from the likes of De Beers and Zales.)  Experts say extracting valuable stuff from the moon isn’t as farfetched as it might sound. “Monetizing the moon’s resources should be pretty easy once we figure out where they are . . . and then figuring out the most efficient way to get them back,” says Dr. Justin Karl, assistant professor of commercial space operations at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He adds that helium-3 could be useful for fueling fusion reactors, assuming such devices are ever actually built. To be sure, getting permission to do something and actually doing that thing are wildly different. The company has a long way to go—roughly 238,900 miles—before it truly makes interplanetary history. But even if it fails, Moon Express has already opened the door for other companies to try and follow suit. Before Wednesday’s announcement, it wasn’t even clear which government agency could give a private company clearance to launch a moon mission—turns out, it’s the Federal Aviation Administration, with blessings from the State Department. If wading through layers of Washington bureaucracy to reach that answer becomes the company’s greatest contribution, it’s a notable accomplishment in its own right.

5 Stocks to Watch During the Rio Olympics - Fortune

5 Stocks to Watch During the Rio Olympics Posted: 04 Aug 2016 10:19 AM PDT As athletes fight for a spot on the Olympic podium, another battle is also raging along the margins. Companies worldwide will be competing for attention at Rio over the next few days. Already, brands such as Coca-Cola, Visa, and Samsung have been deploying ads, rolling out athlete sponsorships, and planting their logos across apparel and stadiums in Brazil. Most companies use this association with the Olympics to make consumers more open to their brands. Other companies though, are using the Rio Olympics to launch exciting new products on the global stage. So which stocks come out on top? It certainly helps that markets tend to be more uplifting during the period. On average, the Dow Industrial Average gains in value 69% during the two-week summer Olympic period, according to market analysis firm, Factset. Here are some companies that have made it work in the past—and may do it again. McDonald’s As an official sponsor of the Olympics, McDonald’s has the rights to use the Olympics brand in marketing campaigns. The company has also done well through each of the past four summer games. In the duration of each of the past four summer Olympics, shares of McDonald’s have beat the MSCI Index—a collection of global stocks—by over 1.5%. McDonald’s also tends to beat the benchmark by nearly 6% one year after the games have finished. Granted, shares of McDonald’s took a dunk earlier this year after the company reported a slowdown in same-stores sales. CEO Stephen Easterbrook also warned that the Olympics would not have a material effect on the company, though the games are likely to help McDonald’s reinforce its brand. Nike A big name in the sports apparel industry, Nike’s stock price did not do well during the past two summer Olympics. The stock slid about 2.77% during the game’s two weeks in 2012 and 2008—likely due to the disappointing earnings that preceded the events, according to a note from Wells Fargo Senior Analyst, Tom Nikic. But there is at least reason to watch the stock through the Olympics. The sporting goods company tends to make the Olympics a “launching pad for innovation,” wrote Nikic. For example, the company launched the Flywire/Lunarlon technology in 2008, and the successful Flyknit style in 2012. Additionally, Nike’s stock has outperformed the S&P 500 during the summer games overtime between 1984 to 2004, according to data compiled by Factset’s Andrew Birstingl. Including the two most recent games, the the stock has risen an average of 6.4% during the Olympics’ two weeks. The S&P 500 has risen just 2.32% in comparison. “Thus, while we believe the Games are a negative near-term catalyst, the success of the company’s new innovations later this year would play a key role in the company’s ability to grow the top line and fight off intense competitive pressure (from rapidly-growing peers such as Adidas and Under Armour),” he wrote. During the year following the games, Nike’s stock rises an average of 15.27%, beating the S&P 500’s 9.3% increase during the same period, according to Birstingl. Comcast Another potential big winner, Comcast, the parent company to NBC, spent $4.38 billion in 2011 to win the rights to stream four Olympics up until 2020. The company has agreed to stream all events live and on air—equal to roughly 24 hours of programming for 250 days straight. That includes the trials. About 217 million Americans watched the 2012 London Olympics on NBCUniversal networks. The company has also already surpassed $1 billion in ad sales for the Olympics segments—putting the company on track to secure the most national advertising sales ever for an Olympics game, Comcast said in March. Comcast also has a solution for that deluge of entertainment: X1, a voice-controlled black box that will allow Comcast customers the ability to search for programming using keywords and watch on demand. For Comcast, X1 is a chance to keep its subscribers in the age of cord-cutting. Shares of Comcast have risen an average of 3.7% during the two-week Olympics, beating the S&P 500’s 2.32% average in the last eight summer games. The stock also rises by an average of 30.3% in the year following the games while the S&P 500 gains 9.3%, according to Birstingl. Comcast recently signed another deal for $7.65 billion, allowing it to exclusively broadcast and stream future Olympics games until 2032. Visa Credit card company Visa is another official sponsor that has used its status to market extensively to consumers. The company is also the exclusive payment provider for the games this year, meaning Visa will be managing the entire payment system for the game’s stadiums, press centers, the Olympic village, and Olympic superstores. In terms of marketing, Visa has given its 45 sponsored athletes, including four-time Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin, Visa payment rings, in a bid to show the company’s tech savvy. The rings allow users to pay with just a tap, and do not require a battery or recharging. It is also water resistant up to a depth of 50 meters. Visa did however cut its 2016 revenue forecast earlier this year, blaming lower U.S. payment volume of weak gas prices and weaknesses in commodity-based economies such as Brazil. But who knows—maybe Visa’s overwhelming presence in Rio during the Olympics will help catalyze use of Visa cards in the country. Under Armour Although not an official sponsor, Under Armour has ramped up efforts to associate itself with the games on an international scale—after all, it has a relatively weak global presence. During the company’s last earnings call, the team emphasized that Under Armor had four times as many athletes representing them as they did during the London Olympics. The company is making the uniforms for both the U.S. women’s and men’s gymnastics teams, and has also created a custom pair of shoes for Olympic gold-medalist Michael Phelps. The company has also rented several outdoor gyms by the beaches in Rio, where it will setup daily workouts for fans during the games, according to Reuters. The sports apparel maker will also host penthouse parties for VIP guests, where they can network with Under Armour’s sponsored athletes. But watch out. In Rio, it will be a head-to-head between Under Armour and Nike. This article originally appeared on Fortune.com