Speaker 1: This is what the Flux.
Speaker 2: I'm justin and I'm harsh deep, and it's Wednesday, the twelfth.
Speaker 1: Of June a se We know the bonds that entered
Speaker 1: voluntary administration in April this year. There was still a
Speaker 1: little sparkle of hope that it could bounce back. But
Speaker 1: now more than three hundred bonds or employees have been
Speaker 1: told their roles are officially terminated, so they won't pay
Speaker 1: for the past two months. It's kind of hard to
Speaker 1: see it come back from here. FLUXPAM.
Speaker 2: Is there anything more annoying than looking at your bank
Speaker 2: balance in one banking app, and then your high interest
Speaker 2: savings in another account, and then your credit card in another.
Speaker 2: That's part of the reason why we built the Flux
Speaker 2: budgeting tool. You get a three sixty degree view of
Speaker 2: your finances all in one spot. It takes thirty seconds
Speaker 2: to sign up and will save you hours of time.
Speaker 1: Three time saving stories.
Speaker 2: Today, let's get into it for our first.
Speaker 1: Apple has announced a partnership with GPT's creator to bring
Speaker 1: generative AI tools to iPhones as part of their New
Speaker 1: Age of AI, or Apple Intelligence, as they call it.
Speaker 2: No surprise that Eon Musk had a thing or two
Speaker 2: to say about this union. What's going on here?
Speaker 1: Just Apple is, of course, one of the world's most
Speaker 1: valuable tech companies, with evaluation of two point nine trillion
Speaker 1: US dollars.
Speaker 2: It started back in nineteen seventy six with a handbuilt
Speaker 2: computer that was actually a circuit board minus the keyboard,
Speaker 2: minus the mouse, minus the monitor and the power supply.
Speaker 1: But today Apple's an entire ecosystem of tech, hardware and
Speaker 1: software and entertainment, and now it looks like it's finally
Speaker 1: leading into artificial intelligence too. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Apple has announced in its latest conference that it will
Speaker 2: be launching Apple Intelligence, a bunch of generative AI products
Speaker 2: and services to its devices.
Speaker 1: We're talking things like turning your sketches on your Notes
Speaker 1: app into clear images.
Speaker 2: Or automatically recording and transcribing audio including phone calls.
Speaker 1: Kind of creepy, very creepy. And we're talking Siri being
Speaker 1: able to access your texts and your emails to answer
Speaker 1: questions and do simple tasks, also kind of creepy.
Speaker 2: Apple's also announced a partnership with open ai to allow
Speaker 2: its users to integrate the devices would chat GBT, but.
Speaker 1: A she there is one little catch apart from it
Speaker 1: all being very creepy. These features won't work on any
Speaker 1: iPhone older than an iPhone fifteen.
Speaker 2: So with these tech big dogs coming together to bring
Speaker 2: AI to iPhones, we could see the biggest iPhone upgrade
Speaker 2: cycle we've seen so far.
Speaker 1: Interesting, So what is the key learning here?
Speaker 2: The upgrade cycle is a pattern of replacing old technology
Speaker 2: with newer versions.
Speaker 1: Remember seeing the lines outside Apple stores when a new
Speaker 1: iPhone would drop, Well, they might be oh, yeah, come back.
Speaker 2: You see about two hundred and seventy million iPhone users
Speaker 2: haven't upgraded their iPhone in four or more years.
Speaker 1: And that means they're not buying new Apple devices often
Speaker 1: enough for Apple's liking. Yep.
Speaker 2: But as part of this AI update, customers will need
Speaker 2: to upgrade to at least an iPhone fifteen first.
Speaker 1: And there's a good chance they will. In fact, according
Speaker 1: to Apple, more than fifteen percent of the Apple installed
Speaker 1: base is expected to upgrade to the latest iPhone to
Speaker 1: use the AI, and this.
Speaker 2: Could trigger the biggest upgrade cycle since Apple came out
Speaker 2: with the iPhone twelve in twenty twenty, that often five
Speaker 2: G connectivity.
Speaker 1: For our second story, Toyota's reputation just took a fifteen
Speaker 1: billion US dollar hit after it was found to have
Speaker 1: falsified its car safety tests.
Speaker 2: A reliable turder pulling a fast one here, tell me
Speaker 2: what's going on?
Speaker 1: Okay, So, Turda is the Japanese car manufacturer that was
Speaker 1: found in nineteen thirty seven.
Speaker 2: And Turda also owns a Diahatsuit, Lexus and Heino brands,
Speaker 2: as well as twenty percent of Subaru.
Speaker 1: In fact, Toyota is the largest automotive company in the
Speaker 1: whole universe based on vehicle salt.
Speaker 2: Yep, we're talking over ten million vehicle sold in just
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three alone.
Speaker 1: But now Toyota's investors have slammed on the handbreak after
Speaker 1: discovering the Toyota had falsified and mishandled its car safety tests.
Speaker 2: Now floxwam. The good news is if you are cruising
Speaker 2: in a turder, they've promised that the cars are still
Speaker 2: safe to drive.
Speaker 1: But the bad news for Touda was that the share
Speaker 1: price dropped over five percent, which took more than fifteen
Speaker 1: billion US dollars off its market valuation.
Speaker 2: Really taken a hit to their brand equity.
Speaker 1: A yeah, so what is the key learning here?
Speaker 2: Brand equity is the value that a company gained or
Speaker 2: losers from the perception of its brand by its customers, and.
Speaker 1: This perception is based on customers experiences as well as
Speaker 1: the company's reputation in the market.
Speaker 2: Lexis and Tuda were both known as the most reliable
Speaker 2: car brands in the world in twenty twenty three, according
Speaker 2: to Consumer Report, but.
Speaker 1: This safety scandal has caused severe damage shorts brand equity
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: Four, and recovering from such a hit involves not just
Speaker 2: addressing the immediate issues transparently, but also re establishing customer trust.
Speaker 1: Remember diesel GATEHD back in twenty fifteen when Volkswagen manipulated
Speaker 1: their diesel emission results. Oh yeah, after that, their CEO
Speaker 1: stepped down and they sidered a lawsuit fourteen point seven
Speaker 1: billion US dollars and as part of.
Speaker 2: That settlement put ten billion dollars towards repairing or buying
Speaker 2: back polluting Volkswagen vehicles.
Speaker 1: Which has contributed to renewing Volkswagen's brand equity, especially as
Speaker 1: it's now becoming one of the leaders in the shift
Speaker 1: to clean energy.
Speaker 2: For our third and final story, the company behind car
Speaker 2: part retailers Autobarn and Berson has received a takeover bid
Speaker 2: of more than one point eight billion dollars from a
Speaker 2: private equity giant.
Speaker 1: Sounds like a very opportunistic of EHD. So tell me everything.
Speaker 2: Well, you may not have heard of Bapcore, but they're
Speaker 2: the company behind some of the biggest car part retailers.
Speaker 1: Yeah. They started back in nineteen seventy one when it
Speaker 1: was just persons, but after arrange of acquisitions and sales
Speaker 1: a changed name to babcour in twenty sixteen and.
Speaker 2: Just backcour may not be in a sexy industry, but
Speaker 2: it is a seriously big company.
Speaker 1: Yeah. They're the owner of more than eleven hundred auto
Speaker 1: barn Persons, Midas and Auto pro.
Speaker 2: Stores with over five five hundred employees.
Speaker 1: Actually, over the past twelve months, Bapcoor has been struggling
Speaker 1: more than the engine on my two thousand and nine
Speaker 1: master YEP.
Speaker 2: It suffered the reprofit downgrades in the past twelve months and.
Speaker 1: Then through on top of that, its share price has
Speaker 1: declined more than twenty seven percent too.
Speaker 2: So now Bain Capital, the private equity giant, has swooped
Speaker 2: in with a takeover offer of more than one point
Speaker 2: eight billion.
Speaker 1: Dollars and its values each share at around five dollars
Speaker 1: forty that's still well below the eight dollars that the
Speaker 1: share price was sitting at just over two years ago.
Speaker 2: Seems like beIN trying to turbo charge and under performing
Speaker 2: engine here.
Speaker 1: So what is the key learning here?
Speaker 2: Private equity is all about seeing value where others see challenges.
Speaker 1: Seg that call has all the makings of a very
Speaker 1: successful business.
Speaker 2: They've got a significant presence in the car parts industry
Speaker 2: across Australia.
Speaker 1: We've got strong brand value and they've.
Speaker 2: Got more than twenty five percent market share across Australia.
Speaker 1: Oh and by blah bye, there are twenty million passenger
Speaker 1: vehicles in Australia currently and it's still expected to grow.
Speaker 2: But just Bapcourt doesn't even have a CEO right now.
Speaker 1: So private equity giants like Bank Capital see this as
Speaker 1: an opportunistic buy and we'll try and implement a turnaround,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: Change backcourse tires, tweak the engine and maybe change some
Speaker 2: detals before it puts it back on the market at
Speaker 2: a premium.
Speaker 1: Plus. I've ever wondered what you're spending each and every month, Well,
Speaker 1: in the Flux app, we can through that for you.
Speaker 1: In under thirty seconds. It's a three hundred and sixty
Speaker 1: degree view of all your finances in the one spot
Speaker 1: to download the Flux app, check out the budgeting tool
Speaker 1: and it will save the hours of time.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on Friday.