GameStop Plummets, BioNTech to Buy CureVac, Oracle Soars

On this edition of Stock Movers:

- GameStop (GME) shares plummeted today. The company had two developments. First, GameStop is focused on growing its trading card business. That is according to CEO Ryan Cohen. The business of Pokémon and sports trading cards “is in line with our heritage,” Cohen said. “It fits our trade-in model, it appeals to our core customer base and it’s deeply embedded in physical retail.” The second development is GameStop plans to offer $1.75 billion worth of convertible bonds, which would make the video-game retailer one of the year’s biggest issuers of the equity-linked securities.

- BioNTech (BNTX) agreed to buy former Covid vaccine rival CureVac NV (CVAC) for about $1.25 billion in an all-stock transaction that will boost its growing oncology business. CureVac investors will get approximately $5.46 in BioNTech shares for each CureVac one, the companies said Thursday. The price represents a 34% premium to CureVac’s closing share price on Wednesday. CureVac shareholders will own between 4% and 6% of BioNTech once the deal closes. Shares of BioNTech are flat while CureVac shares surged.

- Oracle (ORCL) shares soared to a record high after the software maker projected a 70% gain in cloud infrastructure sales this fiscal year, giving a bullish outlook for the closely watched business. The company, long known for its database software, has been gaining traction in its effort to become a major player in the business of cloud computing — renting out computing power and storage — by targeting clients focused on artificial intelligence work. Earlier this year, it announced a joint venture dubbed Stargate to provide OpenAI with massive sums of computing power.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts, radio news.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
The Stock Movers podcast, your roundup of companies making moves
in the stock market, harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
I'm Jim stand back along with Carold Master. Let's take
a look at some stocks on the move today with
us is the Bloomberg News processt reporter Danitza Sokova, Denis,
are you taking us back in time? Yeah, today twenty
twenty one.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Right back in time to twenty twenty one and even further.

Speaker 4 (00:32):
But I don't want to go talking about I don't
want to go there.

Speaker 5 (00:35):
Yeah, same, same, I'll go further back talking about Pokemon cards.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
So we're looking at games stop.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
I'm sure that.

Speaker 5 (00:41):
We're looking at GameStop. It's down as much as twenty
five percent. There are two developments. So first, the company
is focusing on collectibles and specifically trading card business. We
know it's been very popular for Pokemon cards. There have
been lines, people have uh. It's made up twenty nine
percent of the revenue in the first quarter.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
It's been a big part of the business.

Speaker 5 (01:04):
But investors, needless to say, they didn't take that very well.
The big drug started earlier this morning when we heard
the company announced plans to offer one point seventy five
billion worth of convertible bonds, which would make the video
game retail or one of the biggest issues of equitylingk securities.

(01:24):
We know this is a very popular trade book. More
and more people have been using it, but the name
that obviously comes to mind is Michael Sayers and his
company's strategy. They allowed this to happen in March, and
this is the second time they.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Do it, but it hasn't been taken well.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
The company is down about thirty percent year to date,
so pretty well starts.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
It's like borrowing money to buy bitcoin coin exactly right,
pretty much, and you know, as long as bitcoin keeps
going up and up and up, it's usually.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Good first strategies.

Speaker 4 (01:57):
He's been great, but you know, if some that happens
not so good. I'm just going to point out, for
Game Stop, almost twelve percent of the float is shorted,
so investors continue to you know, have a little bit
of a skeptical view on this one. First to say.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
That you just did, Yeah, I'm going to stock versus
left the barn, all right. A couple of stocks in
the biopharma space that you've got your eye on.

Speaker 5 (02:21):
Yeah, let's talk about Beyond Tech. The ticker is b
and t X, and then cure Vacs the ticker is
cv AC. So Beyontech agreed to buy cure Vac, which
was a former rival. When it comes to the COVID vaccines,
we know obviously Beyond Tech partnered with Pfizer and became
one of the biggest vaccines in Europe, and then cure

(02:43):
Vax vaccine actually wasn't approved, but they have pivoted away
from infectious disease work and focused on cancer immunio therapies,
which is something Beyond Tech is expanding.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
So clearly that's a good acquisition for them.

Speaker 5 (02:58):
What we're seeing is that the reaction for BioNTech wasn't
that big. It was about two point half percent now
it's flat. But Cure of Acts had a great day.
It was up forty percent, now it's thirty something.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
It helps to be the target right exactly.

Speaker 5 (03:12):
Exactly, and obviously the company after covid didn't get the
same type of boost as most vaccine makers that were approved,
So that's a much needed relief there.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
What M and A Usually it's M and A Monday,
but it's Thursday and we're getting some news.

Speaker 4 (03:26):
Yeah, maybe you know, let's leve at the gate.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Maybe, hey, Oracle also on your radar today.

Speaker 5 (03:32):
Yes, another big winner dicker is all our cl sort
of record high and it's based on a seventy percent
projected gain in cloud infrastructure. So the stock is about
fourteen percent today, twenty percent year today, So you can
see how one day move really changed the picture for
the stock. The company has been gaining traction in its

(03:53):
effort to become a major player in cloud computing, and
it's kind of an interesting niche.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
In the AI. AI is just right renting out computing.

Speaker 5 (04:02):
Power and storage, and it has struck very important partnership. First,
it has the open Ai partnership the Stargate. It also
has a partnership with Amazon. It has a partnership with
Meta Platforms with Ewan musk ex Ai. So clearly a
lot of optimism. The company had quite a few difficult months,

(04:23):
but that cloud computing business is definitely adding a big
boost and the stock is a twenty percent here todate.

Speaker 3 (04:30):
I love this.

Speaker 4 (04:30):
I feel like coming off of that Cisco event that
we did in San Diego, we talked so much about
You know Cisco historically networking routers, but really infrastructure, and
they seem to be firing on a lot of cylinders
when it comes to the AI infrastructure build.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, and here you have Oracle CEO saying that Oracle
could become one of the world's largest cloud infrastructure companies,
remaining performance obligations reaching one hundred and thirty eight billion
dollars in the quarter that ended May thirty first. It's
pretty remarkable, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
Helota, I think he's the number one gainer in the
S and P five hundred. So now the stock's up
about twenty percent year today.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
The Stock Movers podcast from Bloomberg Radio. Check back with
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