New York Post, Saturday, November 14, 2020nypost.comMart toppers
The S&P 500 rose to a
new record Friday as
optimism over a COV-
ID-19 vaccine raised
hopes of an economic
recovery next year.
Also, the Dow notched
its second consecutive
week of gains, rallying
4.1 percent for the week.Tok clock stop
The Trump adminis-
tration confirmed Fri-
day it has granted Byte-
Dance a 15-day exten-
sion, until Nov. 27, of a
divestiture order that
had directed the Chi-
nese company to sell
its TikTok video-shar-
ing app by this week.Sorry Google
The CEO of Google
parent Alphabet has
apologized to Europe’s
industry chief over a
leaked internal docu-
ment that showed the
Internet giant propos-
ing tactics to counter
the EU’s tough new
rules on the industry.$our note
Guitar Center, the na-
tion’s largest retailer of
musical instruments, is
finalizing terms of a
bankruptcy. Bloomberg
reports the firm could
file this weekend.‘Royal’ profits
DraftKings saw its
shares soar Friday after
reporting its third-
quarter revenue grew
to $132.8 million, from
$67 million a year ago.
The firm also saw its
tally of monthly unique
players grow by 64 per-
cent year over year.
Sources: AP, Dow
Jones, Reuters, WiresBusiness
Briefs
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opEn
‘door’
to ipo
By LIsA FICkeNsCherDoorDash filed to take it-
self public on Friday, setting
the stage for a blockbuster
IPO by the end of this year.
The fast-growing food-de-
livery giant, which in just
seven years has become the
US’s No. 1 service of its kind,
said in a prospectus that its
revenue tripled during the
first nine months of the year
to $1.92 billion as hunkered-
down consumers increas-
ingly ordered in for breakfast,
lunch and dinner.
DoorDash — whose rivals
include Grubhub, Uber Eats
and Postmates — reported its
first-ever profit of $23 million
on $675 million in revenue
during the second quarter
ended in June. For the third
quarter ending Sept. 30, it fell
back to a loss of $43 million
on $879 million in revenue,
according to the filing.
Over the past two years,
DoorDash’s growth has far
outpaced that of Uber Eats
and Grubhub, rising from 17
percent market share to 50
percent as of October and
unseating Grubhub as the
No. 1 food delivery service,
according to the prospectus.
Grubhub held 39 percent
market share as of January
2018, the filing states, citing
Euromonitor International.
The IPO could value the
company at $25 billion, the
Wall Street Journal reported,
citing sources. DoorDash
was valued at $15 billion in
the private markets earlier
this year, up from just $1.4
billion in 2018.
The Palo Alto-based com-pany, whose backers include
the struggling Japanese tech
conglomerate Softbank, aims
to list its shares on the New
York Stock Exchange under
the symbol DASH by mid-
December following a road-
show slated to begin later this
month, according to reports.
Some 390,000 businesses
use DoorDash and some 18
million consumers have
placed orders on its platform,
the company said. Chief Ex-
ecutive Tony Xu, who co-
founded the company, said in
a letter that “we could not
have imagined how big a
transformation this would
become, and we are still in
the early innings of this evo-
lution of local commerce.”
DoorDash admitted its rise
has been fueled by “substan-
tial investments” in promo-
tions that discount the fees
consumers pay for ordering
meal delivery. Nevertheless,
for the full nine months
ended Sept. 30, DoorDash
narrowed its net loss to $149
million from $533 million a
year earlier.
DoorDash, however, has
also attracted regulatory
scrutiny and activism among
its gig workers who claim
they are not paid fairly. The
company said it faces litiga-
tion over pay issues, includ-
ing how workers are tipped.
The company also faces
regulatory risks, as states in-
cluding New York look to cap
the fees food-delivery com-
panies charge.
Goldman Sachs and
JPMorgan are the lead under-
writers for DoorDash’s IPO.
[email protected]‘Dash’ food-deliver boon
By NICoLAs VegAElon Musk sowed doubts about the accu-
racy of coronavirus tests on Friday — just
hours after tweeting that he took four rapid
tests with conflicting results.
The Tesla boss and fifth-richest man in the
world had initially tweeted Thursday night
that “something extremely bogus is going
on” regarding COVID-19 testing. “Two tests
came back negative, two came back positive.
Same machine, same test, same nurse.”
Media outlets quickly reported on
Musk’s tweets, with stories highlighting his
positive diagnosis — provoking the prickly
tech entrepreneur to protest.
“Technically, I tested positive, then nega-
tive twice, then positive again, so ‘Elon
Musk Tests Negative for Covid’ is an
equally correct title,” he tweeted.
Musk said he took the “rapid antigen test
from BD,” likely referring to Becton, Dick-
inson and Company, and called it “about as
useful as flipping a coin.”
“If it’s happening to me, it’s happening to
others,” he said in a follow-up tweet. “I’m
getting PCR tests from separate labs. Re-
sults will take about 24 hours.”One Twitter user quipped that “revenues
from tests are likely not bogus & very con-
sistent,” prompting Musk to reply “Exactly.”
Though Musk had initially tweeted that
his symptoms were “nothing unusual” and
those “of a typical cold,” he gave more de-
tail Friday morning.
“Mild sniffles & cough & slight fever past
few days,” he told one Twitter user who
asked how he was feeling. “Right now, no
symptoms, although I did take NyQuil.”
The tech tycoon has previously down-
played the seriousness of the pandemic, call-
ing it “dumb” in early March. Musk railed
against California’s lockdown in late spring,
calling it “fascist” and saying the government
was “forcibly imprisoning people in their
homes against all their constitutional rights.”
In a May appearance on Joe Rogan’s pod-
cast, Musk called the probability of death
from the virus “extremely low,” adding that
“it’s almost like people really wanted a pan-
demic.”
“I think the mortality rate is much less
than what the World Health Organization
said it was,” he said at the time. “It’s much,
much less. It’s like probably at least an or-
der of magnitude less.”‘Musk’ not be reliable:
Elon now a test skeptic
AFP via Getty ImagesHe’s positively negative
Billionaire Elon Musk tells his
millions of followers that he’s
gotten both positive and negative
test results for COVID-19,
suggesting there could be some
financial chicanery in the
production process.Business
Dow
Jones
Indust.
Avg.Up
399.6429,479.81Nasdaq
Comp. Up
119.7011,829.29