eBay is Acquiring Trading Card 🎴 Marketplace TCGplayer
Scott D. Clary | Daily Business, Tech & Finance Newsletter
Scott D. Clary
August 24, 2022
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Here’s whats happening:
- eBay is acquiring trading card marketplace TCGplayer
- Estee Lauder's earnings outlook disappoints
- Telegram's founder hints at NFT-like smart contracts
- Safeheron lands in pre-Series A funding round
- France is Offering a €4000 E-Bike Subsidy
eBay is Acquiring Trading Card 🎴 Marketplace TCGplayer
Global e-commerce marketplace eBay is acquiring TCGplayer, an online marketplace for collectible trading card games.
The deal is valued at up to $295 million. 💰
Why is eBay acquiring TCGplayer? 🤔
eBay says the acquisition will strengthen its commitment to trading card enthusiasts and noted that trading cards are currently showing substantial growth.
About TCGplayer
Founded in 2008, TCGplayer has grown from Syracuse-based hobby stores into an e-commerce platform.
The company develops applications, data management tools, and technologies like robotics automation that benefit buyers and sellers in the collectibles industry. TCGplayer prides itself on creating a culture that fosters camaraderie, embraces diversity, and exudes passion.
What’s next?
- The deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including requisite regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2023.
- TCGplayer, which currently employs more than 600 people, will continue to operate autonomously following the acquisition.
Estee Lauder’s Earnings Outlook Disappoints 📉
American multinational cosmetics company Estée Lauder gave a disappointing sales outlook for the year.
Key Numbers:
- The beauty giant reported net sales of $17.74 billion for its fiscal year ended June 30, 2022, an increase of 9 percent 🔺️ from $16.22 billion in the prior-year period.
- Organic net sales increased 8% 🔺️, driven by double-digit growth in The Americas and Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA) regions.
- However, the company’s net sales in most of the product categories and in the EMEA region were adversely impacted by a stronger U.S. dollar compared to most currencies.
The future outlook
ELC’s first quarter fiscal 2023 reported net sales are forecasted to decrease between 10% and 8% 🔻 versus the prior-year period.
What does this mean? 🤔
This means that the “lipstick effect” phenomenon could emerge, where customers scale down their luxury purchases to something smaller — hence lipstick — rather than stop them altogether.
Telegram’s Founder Hints at NFT-Like Smart Contracts
Pavel Durov, the founder of encrypted messaging app Telegram, has coined the idea of a marketplace that could use “smart contracts like NFTs” to auction off highly sought-after usernames.
The Timeline:
- Durov’s suggestion comes shortly after the auction of wallet domain names on The Open Network (TON), a layer-1 blockchain made by Telegram.
- In July, The blockchain project piloted TON DNS, a service that gives users the ability to assign human-readable names to digital entities like crypto wallets, smart contracts, and websites.
What did Durov say?
In a message to his Telegram group called “Durov’s Channel,” he said that he was “really impressed by the success of the recent TON auction held for their domain/wallet names.”
“Imagine how successful Telegram could be with its 700 million users if we put the @ username, group, and channel links reserved for auction,” he said.
“This would create a new platform where username holders could transfer them to interested parties in protected deals — with ownership secured on the blockchain via NFT-like smart contracts,” Durov added.
Safeheron Lands in Pre-Series A Funding Round 💰
Singapore-based Safeheron has secured $7 million in its pre-Series A funding round.
The investors
The funding was co-led by Yunqi Partners and Web3Vision along with participation from PrimeBlock Ventures, Cobo Ventures, M77 Ventures, ShataCapital, Kryptos, Antalpha Ventures, Waterdrip Capital, 7 O’CLOCK CAPITAL, and Zhang Fan, the co-founder of Sequoia Capital China.
Use of the funds
The funds will be used to continue enhancing the technology and infrastructure and expand Safeheron’s presence internationally.
About Safeheron:
Founded in 2019, Safeheron is an open-source one-stop self-custody solution provider for small-to-medium enterprises in the web3 space.
Since its launch, Safeheron has powered over 20 clients, which altogether have more than $100 million in cryptocurrencies under custody and have facilitated more than $4 billion worth of transactions using Safeheron’s wallet as a service.
France 🇫🇷 is Offering a €4000 E-Bike Subsidy 💶
France’s government will now pay you €4,000 (nearly US $4,000) to swap your old polluting car for an electric bicycle.
The eligibility:
People who live in low-income households in low-emission urban zones that trade in their cars are eligible for the full €4,000 subsidy to put toward the purchase of an e-bike.
The money is meant to incentivize people to ditch their polluting modes of transportation in favor of cleaner, more environmentally friendly alternatives.
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