NECCO pulls a Twinkie

A billionaire investor with a sweet tooth swoops in to save yet another failing candy brand. The Hustle Mon, Jun 4 Brought to you by Grow.com… a life raft in a sea of data. Billionaire brand-whisperer rescues NECCO with $17.3m purchase Charles Dean Metropoulos, the snack savant who rescued Twinkies, PBR, and Chef Boyardee from falling off their assembly lines into oblivion, purchased NECCO, the bankrupt makers of Sweethearts.  It was a sweet deal for both Metropoulos and the candy company (which had been looking for a sweet-toothed savior). The end of a bitter chapter for an aging sweetmaker In March, the CEO of NECCO announced he would have to lay off nearly 400 workers if the company didn't find a buyer. The move was a sweet stroke of PR genius -- wafer-mania ensued as customers stockpiled chalky candies and buyers lined up. When America's oldest candy company went up for auction in bankruptcy court, a company called Spangler Candy Co (the family-owned maker of Dum-Dums and Circus Peanuts) won a bidding war that started at $15.5m with an $18.83m offer. But, less than a week later, the deal dissolved after NECCO failed to meet unspecified conditions -- and then the candy man made his move. Move fast and bake things Metropoulos eats dying brands for dessert, sniffing out business opportunities where brands' names are bigger than their balance sheets. Using a "strip and flip" approach, the connoisseur of the cult classic buys bankrupt brands and then revamps their most popular products. Using this strategy, Metropoulos put Pabst Blue Ribbon back on the map in just 4 years (for a $500m profit) and revitalized Twinkies (for a gain of more than $2B). Now he's applying his Midas touch to NECCO's famous Sweethearts.  A sweet deal for both parties  Last week, Metropoulos incorporated a company called Sweetheart Candy to pave the way for increased production, starting his signature process of "rehabilitation" that will involve stripping the businesses to its sweetest essentials. For NECCO, this is good news. Brands bought by the Metropoulos family -- including Aunt Jemima, Chef Boyardee, Ghirardelli, Bumble Bee, Vlasic, Utz -- tend to have an extended shelf life. Bring back Nestle Wonder Balls already   Lyft nears a deal to buy OG bikeshare company behind GoBike and Citi Bike The mustachioed ride-sharing giant is reportedly close to acquiring bikeshare company Motivate, in a deal said to be worth at least $250m, according to The Information (paywall). The news comes during boom times for new transit options Mobility companies -- including car manufacturers like GM and Ford and ride hail companies like Uber and Lyft -- are all champing at the bit to hit the streets with new transportation options for their consumers. And bikes and scooter startups are riding the new 2-wheel transit wave. Last month, Lyft reportedly expressed interest in acquiring a permit to operate scooters in San Francisco, Chinese company Meituan-Dianping picked up bike share Mobike for $2.7B and, earlier this year, Uber bought Jump Bikes for $250m.  Lyft could pull ahead of Uber in the bikeshare race Motivate has a much larger footprint than Jump, currently operating nearly 32k bikes across the US, according to CNET. As a matter of fact, Motivate backs some of the most well-known US bike-share companies, operating behind the scenes for docked bike companies like Ford's GoBike and Citi Bike. If Lyft does acquire Motivate, their next challenge will be to find a way to compete with Jump's "dock-less" bike program. Let there be bikes   Samsonite CEO packs his bags after report says he faked his resume On Friday, luggage maker Samsonite announced its CEO stepped down following a report from US-based short-seller, Blue Orca Capital, questioning his credentials. According to the 48-page report, Ramesh Tainwala claimed on his resume that he earned a doctoral degree in business administration.  Spoiler alert: he didn't. But more importantly… The report also alleged Samsonite played some "accounting games" under Tainwala's watch, primarily having to do with their acquisition of Tumi, another luxury bag maker, in 2016. Samsonite claims the conclusions drawn about their financial results are incorrect and "one-sided," and says they correctly disclosed Tainwala's educational background since it went public in Hong Kong in 2011. But, wait -- he didn't become CEO until 2014 So, in 2011, the bag maker found out a guy who had been working for them since 1995 lied about being a doctor and then made him CEO 3 years later. Hold up though, Tainwala told The Wall Street Journal he "never claimed" to hold a doctoral degree, assuring the title was all just a joke between friends. You know, that classic doctorate goof…  Joke or not, the report led to a serious 20% drop in the Hong Kong listed stock, until their biggest shareholder Capital Group Cos. bailed them out with a purchase of 13.3m more Samsonite shares on Friday to bring them back to baseline. "Samsonite! I was way off."   Data analytics startup Domo, valued at $2B, files a last-ditch IPO to raise some cash Domo, a data-analytics company based in Utah, filed an IPO last Friday -- after its credit ran dry and it posted a net annual loss of $176.6m.  The company, known for asking its 1k customers to swear to secrecy during 4-years of "stealth" to boost its valuation, hopes that a public listing will give it the cash it needs to avoid selling off its expensive furniture. Domo kept its cards too close to its chest For most CEOs, an IPO is an opportunity to pop a champagne cork -- but for Domo CEO Josh James (who sold his startup Omniture to Adobe for $1.8B), it was a time to push the panic button.  In spite of the $730m it received in funding, the company has racked up $803.3m in debt -- and maxed out its credit card.  Now James, known for spending Domo dollars on himself and his other companies ($600k at a BBQ restaurant he owns and $1.6m on his private plane over 2 years), is looking for "equity or debt financing" to avoid the need to "significantly reduce operating expenses." Another unicorn straps on its ski boots To pay down Domo's debts, James -- who also founded a Utah tech consortium called "Silicon Slopes" -- hopes to draft off the success of fellow Utahn unicorn Pluralsight, which recently boosted its value with a $1.56B IPO (yes, that is the real word for a person from Utah). So James, who has 40x the voting power of other shareholders, better hope that investors are ready to send another unicorn down the slopes if he doesn't want to double down on the spare rib business next year. Great folks, those Utahns...   monday morning review Announcing a limited merch run Typically, official company merch is reserved for employees, friends of the company, or ambassadors. But because so many people kept asking about it and since it's Hustle Con season and we're feeling spirited, we figured what the hell. For this week only, we're selling a limited presale of our newest swag item, the "Almost World Famous" tee and tank along with access to some of our tried and true favorites. See, we've always thought of ourselves as a pirate ship Sailing across uncharted territory with just the wind in our sails, a hope for the future, and the freedom to operate independently. That's why we chose to deliver our content via email instead of building our business on someone else's platform (looking at you, Zuck) and how we can justify being entrepreneurial against all odds. It all comes down to faith. Faith that one day your vision with come true, faith that you can make dent in the world, and faith that it's only a matter of time. But remember: this is a limited run These aspirational bad boys are available for this week only. We're closing up shop Sunday then turning it over to our trusty fulfillment partners to print, seal, and deliver the goods by the end of the month. If you like this type of stuff, who knows, maybe we'll run a few more limited editions but for now this is it. Order now or something scary about Davy Jones' locker. We'll show ourselves out. This edition of The Hustle was brought to you by Mo' data, mo' problems At least that's what we always thought...  It's 2018, and no matter your role, you deal with data. Like, a metric-boatload of data coming at you from hundreds of sources, making an already stressful existence more so. Grow is your lifejacket in the sea of statistics Their 150+ integrations let you pull data from the tools you already use, then display it in a single dashboard -- allowing you to instantly see the metrics that matter to you, without having to call in Dan the IT guy.  Grow gives you the power to accelerate your business and be the captain of your morning standup meeting.  Do yourself a favor: check out a 15 minute demo and see Grow in action. It'll blow your spreadsheets out of the water.   Now Playing: Since I Left You, The Avalanches. Moonwalk like nobody's watching. We won't judge. 0 SHARE THE HUSTLE REFERRALS http://ambassadors.thehustle.co/?ref=4991210e5d YOUR UNIQUE URL Zack Crockett NEWS WRITER Wes Schlagenhauf NEWS WRITER Conor Grant NEWS WRITER Kolby Hatch AD WRITER Lindsey "I also have a Ph.D. in luggage" Quinn MANAGING EDITOR Bernadette Bridge Chief Negotiator SUBSCRIBE JOBS ADVERTISE EVENTS SHOP Join our Facebook community → You opted in by signing up, attending an event, or through divine intervention. 771 CLEMENTINA STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94103, UNITED STATES • 415.506.7210 Never want to hear from us again? Break our hearts and unsubscribe