📈 Birken-stonk

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Tonight: Birkenstock's IPO dreams are finally coming true. And Burger King is getting a much-needed facelift. Let's get into it.

By Elisabeth Buchwald

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Last updated October 10 at 7:49 PM ET

📢 A QUICK PSA

Here at Nightcap, we tend to have a bit of fun with the news. But there is little to poke fun at regarding the Israel-Hamas war.

I have been in touch with people who are on the front lines as well as those who are anxiously waiting to get called back to fight. My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones and those who are sleeplessly waiting for their loved ones to return.

For the latest news on the war, be sure to follow CNN's live updates.

MORE ON THE CONFLICT

What is Hamas and why is it attacking Israel now?
Festivalgoers, children, soldiers: What we know about the people captured by Hamas
Israel just shut a gas field near Gaza. Here's why that matters

📈 BIRKEN-STONK?

It's official: Birkenstock will be making its debut on the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow under the ticker symbol BIRK.

The beloved cork-soled shoemaker priced its initial public offering tonight at $46 a share, making Birkenstock an $8.6 billion company. That's according to multiple reports Tuesday evening citing people familiar with the matter.

The backstory

As Nightcap recently wrote about, Birkenstocks are having something along the lines of a Crocs moment. Both shoe brands experienced a surge of popularity but lost their luster and were demoted to fads. Then decades after their peaks, they made miraculous comebacks.

Now even supermodels wear them.

OK but is Birkenstock really worth $8.6 billion?!

Just like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, how much publicly traded companies are worth is ultimately a function of how much traders think they're worth.

And yes, it's pretty wacky when traders rushed to buy a stock like Bed Bath and Beyond when it was hanging by a thread.

But that's a story for another time... (Spoiler alert: It didn't last very long.)

For right now, Birkenstock is essentially saying it thinks it is an $8.6 billion company.

But after Birkenstock makes its debut tomorrow regular people like you and me can get in on the action. When people think the price it's trading at is low relative to what they think the company is worth, they tend to hit the buy button in their brokerage accounts. Or if they think it's too high relative to what they think it's worth, they short it.

As masses of traders make those judgment calls in real-time tomorrow, you can expect to see lots of volatility in the stock's price throughout the day.

But just for funsies...Here's how Birkenstock stacks up to other publicly traded shoemakers:

Nike: $149 billion
Deckers Outdoor (the parent company of Ugg, Hoka, Teva and more): $13.29 billion
Sketchers: $7.53 billion
Crocs: $5.36 billion
Steve Madden: $2.44 billion

NUMBER OF THE DAY

$40,000

That's how much it costs each time to shoot down rockets fired into Israel using the Iron Dome, a defense system that destroys these missiles by firing missiles at them from the ground.

The Israel Defense Forces said the system boasted a 95.6% success rate during a rocket salvo fired by Islamic Jihad in May.

The US government has spent over $1.5 billion on the Iron Dome program, and research related to it as well. A US official told CNN that Israel will likely request additional interceptors in addition to other military assistance from Washington in the aftermath of Saturday's attack.

🍔 A NEW REIGN

If you walked into a Burger King recently and thought to yourself, "When's the last time this place upgraded anything?" I have some good news for you.

The company announced its doing more than just redesigning its logo and packaging to court you.

Customers entering Burger King locations will "start to see something different in 2024," said Tom Curtis, president of Burger King US & Canada.

The fast food chain officially unveiled a new restaurant design called "Sizzle" during the company's franchisee convention last week. (Shoutout to unnecessary corporate lingo.)

My colleague Danielle Wiener-Bronner has all the details on the makeover.

What's changing:

The decor: Expect to see some more Instagram-able wall art, better selfie lighting, more comfortable seats... You know, the stuff that really matters these days.
Faster orders: That's because BK will be adding more digital ordering kiosks and streamlined drive-thru and pickup lanes.

Why'd Burger King wait until now?

Burger King execs might have been thinking,"customers love us 'cause we're home of the delicious Whopper. We never promised to give them a fine-dining experience, we're a fast food company, after all. And hey, we have your back when you're driving on I-95 and you're stuck in a lot of traffic and your stomach starts grumbling."

Whatever their logic for waiting so long even as its competitors remodeled their locations one thing is clear: Burger King is struggling to get customers in the door.

Even though sales are up year-over-year, it's mainly because the people that were already going to BK are spending more — not because more people were coming through the door.

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON?

💰 Former crypto poster child SBF's ex-girlfriend came clean

in court on Tuesday saying her crimes "were committed with Sam."

🔓 Google looks to do away with passwords, making "passkeys" the default option. The tech-gaint said passcodes are easier to remember, quicker to use and offer more security.

🥤Ozempic and Wegovy are proving to be problematic for a lot of companies that sell or make food and beverages. But Pepsi isn't feeling a pain from it (at least for now).

🚗 The cost of owning a car is skyrocketing. Among the many contributors is rising auto loan rates. Here's how you can save on that front.

📱POST OF THE DAY