00:00Individual Stock Movers, it's a podcast. Here's Alexis Christophorus.
00:04All right, guys, let's start with Unity Software. This stock is on the move today. It's up now about 14%.
00:10It is a San Francisco-based gaming company, and they released preliminary first quarter results that beat our earlier forecast
00:17on both the top and bottom line.
00:19So when you dig in here, here's what Wall Street seems to like.
00:21Unity is going to close its iron source ads network and has hired an advisor to find a buyer for
00:27its supersonic games publishing business.
00:30Those titles include things like Bazooka Boy and Clone Boy, which we know Paul Sweeney is all about.
00:36It makes tools that help developers design and make money off of video games.
00:41So it wants to now focus on Vector. That's its AI-driven advertising unit.
00:46But get this, shares of Unity are down 60% year-to-date, and that's because of Google's Project Genie
00:52that some say we're going to disrupt the way video games get made.
00:55So Unity making some strategic moves to sort of, I guess, give it its best advantage.
01:00All right.
01:00All right, they say it is 5 o'clock somewhere, right?
01:02So let's talk a little cocktails.
01:05Francis Pernod-Richard.
01:06Yeah, saw that.
01:07Yeah, owner of Absolute Vodka.
01:09And Brown Foreman, of course, the owner of Jack Daniels, they're apparently in discussions about a possible merger.
01:14So what would this look like?
01:16Well, the world's second largest spirits maker would come together with the world's largest producer of American whiskey.
01:21They're calling it a merger of equals if it were to happen.
01:25Pernod up about 3.5% right now.
01:27Class B shares of Brown Foreman, though, are down a little bit.
01:30Wall Street seems mixed on this possible hookup.
01:33Look, we know that spirit companies have been going through it, right, because sales have been slumping now for years,
01:38and also tariff pressures, let's not forget.
01:40That's causing a lot of valuations there to slide.
01:43So Brown Foreman stock has actually been under pressure for years, losing about half of its value.
01:48So some analysts are questioning the timing of this possible deal.
01:51They're pointing to the fact that Pernod-Richard has made some big acquisitions over the past few years, and they
01:57were hoping they'd actually focus a little bit on, you know, paying down debt as opposed to running out and
02:02buying or merging with another company.
02:04I think people are drinking less because they're gummying up, doing the gummy thing.
02:07Oh, the gummy, the CBD gummy thing.
02:09I think it's a thing.
02:10I went to a formal business lunch the other day.
02:14Not one single person at the table, including me, had a beverage.
02:18And that's-
02:19I think I've never seen that, except, you know, in L.A. you see it because everybody's-
02:23You go to Michael's in Santa Monica.
02:25Right.
02:25No one's drinking because, you know, Michael's like at the bar going, are you kidding me?
02:30Somebody order a beverage.
02:31Well, that's where the restaurant's making the money, right?
02:33Because of the margins there.
02:34But yeah, it's true.
02:35Okay.
02:35All right.
02:35And let's talk a little Blue Owl.
02:37So the stock is down 1%.
02:38It is down 40% year to date.
02:40And a lot of this is about the jitters regarding private credit.
02:43So this is interesting timing.
02:44And maybe, you know, maybe this is a winning strategy.
02:46I don't know.
02:47But Blue Owl is going to expand its team to bring ultra-wealthy investors into private markets.
02:52So it's looking to partner with family offices across various opportunities.
02:58It's, you know, hoping that people are going to look past those recent jitters to expand
03:01into an area that they've traditionally had, you know, limited exposure to, that is retail
03:06investors.
03:07So the firm, of course, grappling to shore up confidence here in its retail-focused funds,
03:11looking to partner with those family offices.
03:13It's hired Blake Shorthouse from KKR to lead the push and has expanded the team to about
03:19eight people.
03:19So we'll see if that goes anywhere.
03:21All right.
03:22I mean, I don't know.
03:23I think there's a lot of appetite on the part of these private wealth managers and family
03:27offices.
03:28There's a lot of dry powder out there, for sure.
03:29You really wonder over the weekend with all that's going on with the tape and with the
03:32yields, where yields are, it's going to be fair.
03:35You asked someone the other day, just simply put, does the M&A boom that everyone, including
03:42New York City, has enjoyed, does it continue?
03:44Yeah, absolutely.
03:45Absolutely.
03:46I mean, the expectations were for a big, big year, but maybe the last four or five weeks
03:50have shaken that a little bit.
03:51Alexis Christophers, thank you so much.
03:53It's Stockmovers.
03:53It's a podcast.
03:54It's a podcast.
03:55And such.
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