Good morning, who knew shrimp and crab legs could cause bankruptcy. Here’s what’s up:

• Housing inventory is rising, but no interest from buyer.

• Endless shrimp results in bankruptcy for Red Lobster.

• Autonomous cars under investigation, including Tesla.

• Boeing is facing criminal charges.

• Uber has a solution for concert traffic.

• Netflix is levelling up their ad business.

Let’s get into it.

CANADIAN - REAL ESTATE

🏠️ Inventory up, sales down

According to Bloomberg CA, Canadian housing market saw a significant 6.5% increase in the number of properties available for sale in April.

But home sales fell by 1.7% despite the increase in listings.

Market condition: interest rates are the highest they have been in 20 years, causing many buyers to stay out of market. Normally, housing market activity goes up in summer, but even the warm weather isn’t helping when interests rates are boiling hot.

FOOD & BEV

🦐 Endless Shrimp results in Bankruptcy

Endless Shrimps and Crab Legs led to endless losses for Red Lobster.

The restaurant thought it would be a good promotion to bring people in. But they didn’t anticipate that the customers would really eat endlessly.

Well that’s only one of the reasons, the company has also faced management challenges for past 5 years. Plus, high interest rates and inflations have added to that.

Not to mention, lack of connection with the younger generations has been a major challenge for the restaurant.

What’s happening?
The restaurant is closing down 99 locations to save themselves from bankruptcy. What this means for the 27 locations in Canada is unclear at the moment.

TRANSPORTATION

🚗 Autonomous cars under investigation

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into 22 incidents involving Waymo's autonomous vehicles.

Why?
There have been multiple incidents where Waymo cars drove in lanes with oncoming traffic, crashed into parked vehicles, or hit other stationary objects.

Tesla is caught up in this as well: due to some serious accidents, they are also being examined to determine if they misled the drivers about Autopilot function and whether their software is capable enough to ensure driver alertness.

✈️ Boeing is facing criminal charges

Boeing is facing criminal charges by U.S. Justice Department for the breach of 2021 agreement, which protected the company from criminal prosecution over 346 fatalities (including 18 Canadians) in 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019.

Background: In 2021, Boeing signed a $2.5 billion settlement to compensate the loss of victims’ families and to protect them from criminal charges. However, the company have failed to comply with the terms in the agreement, which reopened the case against them.

Decision: The Justice Department is doing their investigation and have till July 7 to decide whether they will file charges against Boeing.

TRANSPORTATION

🚋 Uber’s solution for concert traffic problem

So you have big concert coming up and you are all excited about it. But that exhausting drive thru the traffic is eating up your excitement, plus the parking hassle.

Uber has a solution for it: Uber Shuttle

What is Uber Shuttle?
Uber introduced a shuttle service for commuters in India and Egypt. Now Uber is launching it in the US market and offering it for events like concerts and sports games.

How will it work?
Riders can book seats for up to 5 people, for seven days in advance. The rider will receive a QR code which will be used as a ticket for the Shuttle.

Uber plans to partner with Live Nation this summer to offer pick up and drop offer service for concert goers.

How it is different from booking an UberX?
Uber promises that shuttle prices won’t rise if the demand is high and it is fraction of the price of UberX - company spokesperson.

ENTERTAINEMENT

🎥 Netflix levelling up their Ad business

Only a year and half in the ad business and Netflix is planning to build their own ad tech platform in house.

Netflix is looking to revolutionize the ad business by experimenting with “episodic'“ ad campaigns that will focus on the storytelling aspect rather than traditional standard ad.

Why does this matter?
Netflix has a massive user base of 270 million subscribers. Creating their own ad tech platform will allow them to have control over the future of advertising.

Plus, it will help companies create more personalized campaigns and connect with the customers on a deeper level.

GAMES

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