This is what the Flux. I'm Brett and Justin at Wednesday, this seventh of August, Juzzy boy, the Reserve Bank of Australia put a pause on the cash rate for the sixth consecutive meeting. It's fair to say they're holding onto that four point three five percent cash rate tight. And I'm talking tighter than an Olympic gymnast on the ropes. Those athletes are very very impressive.
Now, Fox, maam, did you know two million Australians are property investors already and one point two million and negatively gearing that property. So if you're keen to learn more about how to get on the property investing journey, make sure to check out the Academy in the Flux app this March.
Three marvelous stories today, Juzzy boy, let's do it for our first. Treasury Wine Estates, the owner of Penfolds, will sell off some of its cheaper wine brands after budget drinkers tighten their purse strings.
It's Penfolds or Bus for Treasury Wine right now, be man, So tell me more about this one. Well.
Treasury Wine Estates is the wine brand behind Big Dog pen Folds, but also the cheaper brands like wolf Blasts, Linderman's Yellow Glen. Nothing like a goonsack from wolf Blasts now Josey Boy. Over the past few years, Treasury Wine Estates has experienced more flips and turns than Simone Biles in Paris.
You've definitely be watching the Olympics bay Man.
I have. Treasury Wine has faced tariffs in China, excise taxes in Australia, and also of course changing market conditions, so.
It's no surprise that it's had to make some big calls on its brands.
And now Treasury Wine has announced plans to sell off some of its cheaper wine brands.
And the reason wine drinkers who normally buy wines around the ten dollars bottle mark just aren't drinking as much.
And how much will we talk in Jozi Boy.
Well, analysts reckon they may only be able to sell these cheaper brands for around one hundred million bucks collectively.
And that's because there's limited demand from buyers for these lower margin wine and.
That's exactly why Treasury Wine wants to offload them. A little bit of brand portfolio management very interesting, So what is the key learning here? Managing a brand portfolio involves making decisions about which brands to grow, maintain, and prune.
And Jesiboy, Treasury Wine has made the decision to sell off its lower priced brands.
In other words, they're pruning for profitability.
Huh, and that means they can concentrate on their premium brands like pen Folds and dal Vineyards.
Get this, Nearly seventy five percent of Treasury Wine's profits come from its premium wine portfolio.
So rather than invest time and effort into a declining market, and Treasury Wine is aiming to focus on quality wines over quantity of wine.
You're telling me Linderman's isn't equality drop b.
Man, Treasury Wine isn't the only alcohol brand to dust off the low quality cobwebs.
No Perna ricard. They also announced last month that they're going to sell Jacob's Creek to Accolade Wines.
So now Juzy Boy Treasury Wine will focus on higher priced, higher quality, and higher margin bottles of vino. For our second story, a US court has found that Google spent billions of dollars to illegally monopolize the online search market.
Geez, that sounds horribly damning. D man, so tell me what is happening here.
Well, we know Google first started back in nineteen ninety eight under the name BackRub. That's right, back Rub.
And even though Google has launched a squillion products like Google Maps, Gmail, Google Drive, its search division is still its most lucrative.
But does the way Back in twenty twenty, the US Justice Department started to pursue an anti trust case against Google in court.
That's the US version of anti competitive monopolies.
The Justice Department claimed that Google suppressed competition in the search space and had they do this been man, have you ever heard of twenty six billion US dollary doudar days?
That's the amount Google page to companies like Apple to be their default search engine.
It also paid Mozilla, Samsung, Motorola, even Sony, and the US Justice Department claimed that these payments effectively blocked any competitor from succeeding in the search market. And now four years later, the judge has agreed that Google is a monopolist. You like that word.
Yeah. The judge reckons that these payments meant Google could increase their ad prices without any meaningful competitive limitation.
And the next thing that happens Google's owner, Alphabet saw its shares drop four and a half percent.
And be man. This sends a very strong signal to tech companies of what is to come.
Oh well, like where you're going here, Josey boy, what's the gay learning here?
One small step for the Department of Justice, one giant ly for antitrust cases.
Many analysts believe that although Google may have been a monopoly, it was almost too big to prosecute against.
Get this, be Man. Google generated one hundred and seventy five billion US dollars in revenue from its search based advertising last year alone.
And it does ninety percent of the world's Internet searches.
Be Man. This win in court for the Department of Justice puts other big tech companies on notice.
Yep, Amazon, Apple, Meta, They're all facing their own monopoly lawsuits from the US government as well.
And to make matters worse, Google, they'll be going back to trial against the US government for a second time.
And given the decision made in this court, the other big tech companies may be shaking in their trillion dollar booties for their own cases. For our third and final story, Mars Incorporated is considering a takeover of Kellnova. The makers of Pringles and Coco Pops. Quite huge news to snack on. No, no, no, no, no, normal, What is the story, Juzzy boy.
Well me man. Mars is the global snack food company started in the US in nineteen eleven, over one hundred years ago. Yep.
They're the owner of brands like Mars, Bars, Milky Way, m and MS, Skittle, Snickers, and of course, just to name about six.
Everything you'd expect to find in a birthday party, olibai Ah.
And now Mars is understood to be exploring an acquisition of kelen Over, which used to be named care Logs horrible rebrand, I must say, deplorable rebrand.
And that's the company behind Pringles, Special k, Coco Pope, Sultana Brand and.
Many many more and Jazzy Boy. If this deal goes through, it would be the biggest deal in history for both companies.
Which is why the news of this potential deal sent Kelenover shares up a massive twenty percent.
And this merger is coming at a time when the snack food industry is battling seriously low consumer demand, firstly due to the cost of living squeeze. And here's the twist, also thanks to the rise of weight loss drugs.
So what is the key learning here.
Competitors can be found in the unlikeliest of places.
You see me man. Generally, companies compete against other companies in the same industry for market share.
So snack food companies like mars Kelenova craft times competing against each other. That all makes sense.
But with the rise of weight loss drugs like a Zempi, some customers are actually substituting snack food appetite suppressing weight loss drugs.
Get this dozzed. Weight Grocery spending in household that use weight loss drugs decreased by between six and nine percent, with snacks taking the biggest hit.
That's according to Morgan Stanley.
So with the new unexpected challenger rivaling snack food companies, it's new wonder they're finding ways to join forces.
Am Twenty percent of tax paying Australians are actually property investors, and if that's something you're keen to do now or in the future, the Property Investing Academy that we have this month is the perfect way to get started. To make sure you download the Flux app and check out the academy.
Thanks for listening and we'll see you on Friday,