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- Alternative Investing Report - October 23, 2024
Alternative Investing Report - October 23, 2024
Happy Wednesday. A $4 million home run ball, Perplexity is raising funds and fighting a lawsuit, and home prices keep rising. Let’s dive in!
🎤 Listen: From the archives, an episode of Smart Humans featuring EquityMultiple CEO Charles Clinton, who talks about real estate investing and his favorite markets.
Today’s issue is brought to you by Elf Labs, the biggest disruption to IP since Disney.
📈 DAILY MARKETS
⚾ OHTANI HR BALL
(Goldin)
The ball hit in September by Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani for his 50th home run sold late last night for $4.39 million, setting a new record for any baseball. Ohtani became the first player in baseball history to hit more than 50 home runs and steal more than 50 bases in a single season. Initial estimates on the day Ohtani hit the home run ranged from $250,000 to $500,000 to $1 million, but there was no mention of hitting the $4 million mark. The previous record belonged to Mark McGwire’s record 70th home run ball from1999, which sold for just over $3 million.
➨ TAKEAWAY: This is a monumental sale for the sports memorabilia world, but it is an outlier in many ways. Ohtani is a global superstar, and is incredibly popular in his native Japan, which may have contributed to the 40 bids the ball received. His team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, have made it to the World Series which begins this Friday, so the timing of the sale was impeccable for maximum press coverage. There is also a lawsuit between three parties who all claim to be the rightful owner of the ball, which added intrigue to the story. Another interesting sale will come in 10 days, as Ohtani’s 51st home run ball is sold - it currently sits at $73,200 and will fall well short of what the 50th achieved, as the historical value is significantly less.
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🤖 PERPLEXITY'S RAISE
The AI search engine startup Perplexity is reportedly raising $500 million at an $8 billion valuation, only six months after raising $62.7 million at a $1 billion valuation. This news comes just after Perplexity was sued by Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal and New York Post, for allegedly training its model on copyrighted material. It also recently received a cease-and-desist order from the New York Times making similar allegations.
➨ TAKEAWAY: While Perplexity’s raise is at a smaller scale than recent raises by competitors OpenAI and Anthropic, to grow its valuation eightfold in six months is remarkable. Its legal issues do not seem to be acting as a deterrent, either, which speaks to the amount of investor interest in AI there is. In Perplexity’s case, an AI-powered “answer engine” could completely disrupt the current search model and has almost limitless potential.
🎤 PODCAST
In this episode of Smart Humans, Slava Rubin talks with EquityMultiple CEO Charles Clinton about real estate investing, and which sectors and markets to invest in, and which to avoid.
📰 NOTABLE NEWS
🏡 Home prices growing: U.S. home prices rose by 0.5% in September, the biggest gain since April, and are up 6% year-over-year, partially due to lower mortgage rates, which briefly fell towards 6% before rising again.
🪙 Crypto Congress: All the political spending by crypto companies could lead to the most pro-crypto Congress ever, with as many as 13 new members who are being backed by the industry’s Super PACs.
🏀 Sports fund: The private equity firm TPG is raising a sports-focused fund with golfer Rory McIlroy as an advisor, as more major players enter the sports investing space.
🏢 Multifamily sentiment rises: Investor confidence in multifamily properties has increased, with 69% of CRE professionals expecting the sector to outperform office, retail and industrial over the next 12 months.
💵 Wendel acquires Monroe Capital: The French investment company is paying $1.13 billion for 75% of the U.S.-based private credit firm, as they look to expand their footprint in the asset class.
🏡 Moving to Australia: U.S.-based search volume for Australian property is up over 50% since last year, as election uncertainty is leading people to explore the idea of moving to the other side of the world.
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🪙 CRYPTO MARKET MOVER
Coin: ApeCoin (APE)
Price: $1.30
Price change last 7 days: +75.1%
Yuga Labs, the company behind the popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), released its new blockchain network ApeChain over the weekend. Users can now earn passive yields by staking their ApeCoin, the BAYC-affiliated cryptocurrency. The new feature has led to a surge of interest, more than doubling the price of ApeCoin from $0.75 to $1.70, before declining in the last day. The token’s price had been falling from a March high of $2.42, as interest in NFTs and BAYC has also been declining steadily throughout the year.
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