Cheddar Awards: Facebook and CBS Lead the 2018 Hall of Shame
*By Carlo Versano*
As 2018 dwindles, we're reviewing the year's most extravagant fails as part of Cheddar's Hall of Shame.
**5. Victoria’s Secret**
The annual tradition of the barely-dressed supermodel strutting down the runway in a primetime “fashion” show is becoming, well, not as sexy as it used to be. This year’s Victoria’s Secret ($LB) Fashion Show saw its lowest ratings ever, as the brand struggles to maintain its relevance in a changing retail environment. Parent company L Brands saw its stock plunge by more than 50 percent in 2018, and a parade of PR debacles battered the brand, culminating with Victoria’s Secret executive Ed Razek telling Vogue that he had no interest in plus-size or trans models walking the runway. He later apologized, around the same time CEO Jan Singer departed the company.
**4. Scooters**
2018 was the year of the scooter ー for better or worse. Electric scooters took cities by storm this year, from San Francisco to Santa Monica to Washington, D.C., and to a broad range of reception from locals. The scooter invasion was so unpopular with San Franciscans that the city banned them outright in the spring before granting permits to a pair of start-ups, Scoot and Skip, and shutting out hometown heavyweights Bird and Lime. The rollout in other cities didn’t fare much better, spawning social media hashtags and Instagram accounts, like [@BirdGraveyard](https://www.instagram.com/birdgraveyard/), which posts images and videos of the scooters in various states of being destroyed or vandalized. The irony is that the scooters are viewed by nearly everyone as a good idea, at least in theory. They don’t produce emissions, they cut down on traffic in crowded cities, and solve the proverbial last-mile problem. But the way in which they were introduced to the public this year ー without regard for safety, laws, or feedback from the cities themselves ー squandered much of the goodwill that should have come with an innovative (and cheap) way to help people get around.
**3. Snap**
In a year of epic tech fails, Snapchat’s ($SNAP) decision to redesign its app in a way that alienated just about all of its core users was particularly impressive. According to YouGov’s brand-tracking poll, consumer sentiment dropped a staggering 73 percent in its key demo after the redesign rollout. The app lost support from celebrity users like Kylie Jenner, just months after Instagram overtook it in daily active users with its copycat Stories feature. Snap spent the year struggling with declining growth and the competition from Instagram, which now has more than double the active users that Snap counts. The stock, which traded as high as $27 last year, is toiling below $5 as the year ends.
**2. CBS**
Of all the entities and people ensnared in the #MeToo movement, CBS ($CBS) is unique. The network ousted its longtime chairman and CEO, Les Moonves ーone of the most powerful people in Hollywood for two decades ー and is refusing to pay him any of his $120 million severance after decades of his misconduct surfaced. In primetime, the star of one of its most popular shows was publicly accused of getting a co-star written off the show after she complained about his alleged harassment. Its news division was upended ー the morning show spent the year without Charlie Rose, who was fired for misconduct, and Jeff Fager, longtime leader of the venerable 60 Minutes, was canned after he sent threatening texts to his own reporter over an investigation into allegations of inappropriate conduct at the newsmagazine. Meanwhile, the company, led by Moonves, remained locked in a messy battle with its controlling shareholder.
**1. Facebook**
It’d be hard to have a Hall of Shame in 2018 without giving the top spot to Facebook ($FB), which takes the cake this year for the litany of scandals related to its mismanagement of user data and obfuscation. It all started with the revelations in the spring that 87 million users had their information harvested for use by Cambridge Analytica for political purposes, which serves as a bookend to The New York Times investigation last week that found the company had shared more data with its partners than it had previously been disclosed ー including some data their partners didn’t even ask for. On top of all that, a separate report disclosed that CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg spent the better part of the year minimizing the damage inflicted by a Russian misinformation campaign that continued after the 2016 U.S. presidential election and leveraged the platform to spread fake news and propaganda. Reports also surfaced the company hired a right-wing opposition firm to dig into some of its most outspoken opponents, like liberal billionaire George Soros. The company also took heat from the international community for failing to stop a child bride auction in Africa and genocide in Myanmar, plus a separate data breach that exposed information of 27 million users. And there are still few days left in 2018.
Private equity firms in 2021 spent $401.71 billion in U.S. tech investments — doubling 2020's level of $196.34 billion. As tech becomes increasingly interwoven into our lives amid the pandemic, investors grow bullish on the sector, especially software-as-a-service companies. How will 2022 stack up to 2021, and is there potential for parts of the tech sector to sink this year? John Jannarone, Editor in Chief at IPO-Edge, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss 2021's record year of deals, how potential interest rate hikes will impact tech investments in 2022, the fastest-growing IPOs, and more.
Bed Bath & Beyond delivered disappointing fiscal third-quarter results for 2022. Shares initially dove more than 9% in premarket trading on the news but finished the day up nearly 8%. Bed Bath & Beyond has been a meme-stock target for online investors in the past -- so was meme-stock mania a factor in the recent stock movement for the company? Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of the subreddit WallStreetBets, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more, as his forum helped spark the meme stock phenomena. He also discussed some decentralized finance services and trends for the retail investor to watch for in 2022.
College athletes scored big in 2021 when they were finally allowed to begin earning money based off of their name, image, and likeness, known as NIL. But how can young athletes best manage their money so they can set themselves up for years of success? Nicole Pullen Ross, Head of Goldman Sachs Sports and Entertainment Solutions, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss why financial management for college athletes is important, common pitfalls they could run into, and more.
December's jobs report was weaker than expected: the economy only added 199,000 nonfarm payrolls compared to an estimate of 422,000. However, the unemployment rate hit a new pandemic-era low of 3.9%, beating expectations. One thing to consider is the fact that the impact of the COVID-19 omicron variant is not factored into these results as the read is taken around the middle of the month. So — how might the variant impact job reports over the next few months? Mark Zandi, Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss December's jobs numbers, his 2022 labor market outlook, how COVID-19 will continue to impact the labor market, and more.
Digital medical care provider Pear Therapeutics rang the closing bell on the Nasdaq Friday and President and CEO Dr. Corey McCann, joined Cheddar to talk about how the company plans to grow the business of software-based therapeutics and how the first FDA authorized prescription digital therapeutics company will go about treating illnesses like insomnia and addiction. "These really are pieces of software. In many cases, they're apps and in the cases of our addiction products, these are based on something called cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT," he said. "These products change the patient's brain circuitry to help them be abstinent, to help them stay in treatment, and that's exactly what we see in randomized clinical trials and that's what we see in the real world." He also addressed the ongoing mental health crises brought on by the pandemic. **copy updated to remove IPO information as Pear Therapeutics went public in December**
Gamestop shares were up on The Wall Street Journal report that the video game retail company plans to enter the NFT and crypto space. Adam Hollander, the founder of Hungry Wolves NFT, joined Cheddar to break down how it could be a lifeline for the struggling meme stock darling. "They're not resigning themselves to becoming the next Blockbuster story, and so while people may not be buying as many video games in a retail environment anymore, NFTs, in particular, people are starting to expect more gaming utility on the backend — at least for a variety of projects — and I personally think its a very smart move for them to do this," Hollander told Cheddar.
On Saturday, New York will join neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut in authorizing mobile sports betting. Matt Kalish, president and co-founder of Draftkings North America, joined Cheddar to talk about the landmark change that is estimated to rake in $500 million in annual tax revenue on a potential billion-dollar market. Kalish also addressed the possibility that legalized sports betting in the Empire State could cannibalize his company's revenues in the bordering states. "It's pretty inconvenient, you know, to go across the border to make a bet. And people were doing it, but I think it really stifled a lot of the opportunity," he said. "So while there's some of that going on, I think really a tremendous amount, like a giant percent, of New York will be very incremental."
James Tattersall, director of sales and marketing for Lake Nona Wave Hotel, talks about the hotel's initiatives to foster diversity and how these amenities champion inclusivity in the Orlando area.
Desmond Howard, former NFL wide receiver and Modelo college football playoff ambassador, joins Cheddar News to talk about the Modelo sweepstakes honoring the 30th anniversary of his iconic punt return.
Satoshi Island is looking to become the world's first blockchain-driven economy. James Law, the chief architect of the planned private community, joined Cheddar to discuss the vision for the potential crypto capital of the world and how it will be brought to life. For people looking to live on the island, Law said they will be able to purchase land and homes and even design their own dwellings both in real life and via the metaverse. "Satoshi Island has already been digitally scanned. We have an absolute digital twin already in our metaverse," he said. Citizenship applications are expected to be launched via NFTs, he told Cheddar.
