Author: Lew
Kyte shuts down after sinking $550+ million
Rental car company sputters? Kyte falls out of the sky? What kind of metaphor should I have used to describe the spectacular bust of a company once touted itself as the next Hertz? As tempting as some NY Post wordplay could have been, the amount of cash that they burned through was just too large to not put in the title. Oh well. Kyte is now floating its way to the great airport parking lot in the...
Kyte, which billed itself as the ‘best competitor to Hertz,’ shuts down
Super Micro threatened with Nasdaq de-listing
Knives falls fast. Last night Super Micro was notified that it faces Nasdaq de-listing if it does not submit a “compliance plan.” That should be easy, they can just tack it on to the earnings report that they must be furiously working on with their brand new auditor…
Super Micro Shares Plummet as Nasdaq Delisting Looms
Miro slashes workforce by 275
Online whiteboarding tool Mira is dry-erasing 275 people from its workforce (18% of total) according to The Information. The company’s last valuation was 17.5 bil and has an annual recurring revenue of over $500 million. In an internal memo, CEO Andrey Khusid had this to say: “Our internal organizations have become too complex, we have too many layers, some duplications in roles, and candidl...
Productivity Startup Miro To Lay Off Roughly 18% of Staff
Super Micro blasted by their auditors on the way out
Wow. In the strongest statement I’ve seen in a long time by an auditor, Ernst and Young has resigned as Super Micro Computer’s auditing firm saying that it is “unwilling to be associated with the financial statements prepared by management.” This happens just six days ahead of their earnings November 5, which the company has reiterated will still take place.
Janus International Group’s stock is in freefall after bad quarter & bad guidance
Q3 earnings are out and storage building company Janus International saw its sales fall 18% from last year. Its EPS was half of what analysts were expecting and it completely the triple crown by guiding this year’s full revenue forecast from over 1 billion to $917.5. Good thing they were able to squeeze in that extra 500k. The stock has continued falling from -16% pre-market to a nice red -3...
Lilium NV plummets to the ground after gov declines to rescue it mid-air
In our second “falling to earth” headline metaphor of the day, Lilium NV will be shuttering its two subsidiaries after it failed to raise the 100mm in loans it needed to stay afloat. Layoffs of 1,000 are inbound as well. The hail mary that Lilium hoped for was the involvement of the German government, but with that window now closed, any hopes of raising the loans are now closed. Tech ...
Spirit Airlines continues its tailspin
Making more moves to stave off bankruptcy after the courts refused an acquisition by JetBlue, Spirit is set to sell 23 planes and implement a cost-cutting (layoff) round. The cutting will save it $80mm & the planes will fetch ~$519mm. As dire as things appear, Inc notes that Frontier might be exploring making a new bid for the company. Could this one be saved? Will the government allow it to ...
Espirit is shirtless
Eighties and nineties kids might remember when Espirit was the peak of cool, but no one else does. The failed fashion brand company is filing chapter 7 bankruptcy and will liquidate its assets. An article in ChainStorage notes that the company recently signed a least in downtown Manhattan for a “global creative headquarters.” You’d think that a company on the verge of bankruptcy ...
Is Zeta Global using weaselly language to play up its revenue retention expectations?
Lauren Balik has been looking into digital media company Zeta Global lately with posts about their election data and irregularities surrounding their “AI” play. Now she’s back with an overview of how the company uses weaselly language “in order to cook revenue guidance.” She makes a very good case that the company is creatively downplaying political ad spending during...
The Princeton University endowment fund is laughably bad
Want to feel better about underperforming the market by actively managing your IRA? Well, you’re probably beating Princeton as its endowment fund returned just 3.9 percent in its last fiscal year, underperforming even treasury bills during the same period. It’s not a fluke, either. From the same article: “During the past 10 years, Princeton’s endowment has returned an annualized ...
