This is what the flucks I'm Brett and aren't Justin and Friday, the twenty fourth of January, Doboy, we spoke the other day about the potential merger between Maya and Apparel Brands, and now it has been overwhelmingly approved if you don't mind. We're talking ninety five percent of Maya shareholders approving the deal and almost one hundred percent of
Premier's shareholders. That means Maya is officially becoming the owner of JJ's, Dottie Portman's, and your personal favorite Jackie E. Holby shopping there mighty soon, flocks out, Here's a little tip for you. If you're going to play in our weekly game Quick Sticks, which will drop today, there may or may not be a little question about the Maya Apparel Brands mergerup. So if you want to own fifty bucks a day in the Flux app make sure you turn on your notifications and be the fastest person to
answer the three questions correctly. Three hard done by stories today, Dozzy boy, let's do it for our first Quantus has made major changes to its Frequent Flyer program, meaning you will need to use more points to book most international flights. They added the Classic Plus tier. Now this what is next? B man a search oute for breathing on board. So j Boy, we know that Quantus spent the last couple of years in full blown damage control. They had backed
back scandals that could rival a reality TV series. We'd be talking illegally sacking staff, allowing customers to pook ghost flights, and of course delays of more than forty percent on its flights and the man. The reputation repairing seemed to work because Quantus' share price was up nearly seventy percent last year. As part of this rep rebuild, Jazzy Boy,
they revamped their frequent Flyer program. Yeh. Last year they opened up twenty million new seats for Frequent Flyer members under a new Classic Plus offering more seats available, but they were more expensive than the traditional Classic Reward, which had less flights but were also cheaper. Now the trusty Classic Award system is getting a bit of a shake up. Yeap.
Quantuses announce it'll cost more points to book flights under the Classic Rewards tier, anywhere from five percent to twenty percent more, in effect devaluing current frequent Flyer points, which would reduce Quantus's deferred revenue liability. Oh a nice one, jazzy boy, So what is the key learning here? Deferred revenue liability is when a company gets paid upfront for a product or a service that it hasn't delivered yet.
In accounting terms, it's added to the balance sheet as a liability because in this case, Quantus still owes its customers flights in the future, and Quantus customers have been earning points at an increasing rate over the past few years, and the customers haven't been able to burn these points at the same rate, meaning Quantus's deferred revenue liability keeps
growing and growing and growing. Get this be man. The number of total frequent flypoints in the world was up thirteen percent in the six months to December twenty twenty three. So now Quantus is devalue the points of its classic reward system to encourage its customers to burn more points and ultimately reduce this defer revenue liability. But Quantus spent a year trying to get out of scandal mode, and now it could be stepping right back into it. Yep.
For our second story, Netflix has cracked three hundred million global subscribers for the very first time after the major release of Squid Game two. More like Squid Gain two. Mrib Man, terrible joke, Tell me more juzzy boy. We know Netflix is the OG of the streaming platforms. It actually launched back in nineteen ninety eight as a DVD rental business before shifting into the streaming world. In fact, Netflix's founders famously tried to sell the business to Blockbuster
back in two thousand for fifty million bucks. Oh how the tables have turned Aha, and now juzzy boy. Netflix has announced it hit three hundred million global subscribers in the most recent quarter, which is a jump of nearly nineteen million new subscribers chuck. On top of that, it's profit doubled from a year earlier to nearly one point eight billion dollars. And it's no surprise that Netflix investors were doing the Wednesday Adams dance and the share price
rocketed fourteen percent. But what was the reason for these big jump in subscribers. Netflix reckons that the Jake Paul and Mike Tyson boxing match brought in millions of new subby's, as well as the NFL games over the holiday period, but the icing on the cake was the new release of squid Game two, which personally, I must say it was kind of underwhelming. Sorry to hear that, Juzzy boy, but I'm wondering, what is the key learning come for
the specials stay for the series. Yes, recently we've seen every broadcaster and their dog vying for live sports rights. Live sports are scene as a way to actually differentiate themselves in a very crowded streaming market. In Australia, You've got streaming platform Dezone acquiring fox Sell for three point four billion dollars, largely for Foxtell's sports rights. You've got op This with English Premier League rights. You've also got
Stan with rugby and oz Open. Interestingly, though be Man, Netflix is targeting the one of specials like Paul and Tyson as opposed to the full season of any major sports. Seems counterintuitive because subscribers can then unsubscribe shortly after the event is done. But Netflix reckons that its subscribers are signing up for these events and then sticking around for its quality content like squidty Game. And this is what
we call the ultimate Mike Tyson one two punch. For our third and final story, Donald Trump has announced at least five hundred billion US dollars into a project called Stargate that will fund AI infrastructure in the US basically anything China does. Trump wants the US to do more of.
Juzzy boy, So tell me what's going on here? Okay, So we know that Donald Trump officially became the pres of the US last week, and now, in one of his first moves, he's announced a five hundred billion US dollar joint venture in the AI space called Stargate, sounding very sci fi if you asked me, uh huh, and juzy boy, some of the big dogs of the AI industry will be tipping in as part of this private
sector investment. We'd be talking Open AI, Oracle Soft bang. Now, apart from this very dramatic name, what actually is this Stargate that we're all speaking of will be man. The idea is that Stargate will encourage investment in the physical and digital infrastructure of AI. Okay, and what does that mean? But basically means these private companies will build a heap of data centers to power AI in the US, or, as Trump calls it, very very massive structures and man.
The goal of Stargate is to maintain the US lead in developing AI ahead of China through a public private partnership. Interesting, So what is the key learning here? Public private partnerships are collaborative agreements between the government and private sector companies.
The government brings the mission in this case, make our AI better than China's AI, and the private sector brings the technology, the innovation, and of course the all important cash, and together they get the job done with less risk for government funding and pretty chunky financial incentives for the private sector and be man. These public private partnerships happen
all over the world, even here in Australia yep. Many of the major toll roads in Australia, like CityLink in Melbourne or Sydney Metro Northwest, they are public private partnerships. The goals which connects freeways and improve traffic flow, but the private sector funded, built and operates these toll roads and the government collects the share of toll revenue while
someone else is doing the heavy lifting. Flux, d'am, if you want to win fifty bucks to kick off this weekend on a high, there is only one place to do it. It is in the Flux app at a random time today. To make sure you turn on your notifications with the fastest person to answer the three questions correctly in quick sticks. Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Monday.