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🗞️ What were you doing when you were 25?
Imagine being 25 and selling your business for $60B to the world's only trillionaire...
Pick & Scroll News
June 18, 2026
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Good morning. Imagine being 25 and selling your business for $60B to the world's only trillionaire...
The Cursor founders were still in uni 4 years ago. Like everyone else, they saw Al booming and decided to put AI into the interface every software engineer is used to code (VS code)
SpaceX’s decision to buy the AI coding startup Cursor is widely seen as Elon Musk's attempt to get his xAI-merged company into fighting shape against heavyweights like Anthropic and OpenAI.
All the headlines and more below...
QANTAS IS BETTING $400M A YEAR ON CONVINCING PEOPLE TO PAY 20% MORE TO SIT STILL FOR 22 HOURS.
Qantas will announce the first destination for Project Sunrise this week. Sydney to London or New York, non-stop, in modified Airbus A350s with extra fuel tanks. The longest commercial flight in the world. No layover in Singapore or the Middle East. 22 hours airborne instead of 25.
20% premium over one-stop alternatives in premium cabins
The airline has bet that passengers will pay more to save 3 hours and skip a lounge break. Each of the 12 modified A350s seats 238 people. Much of the fuel is burned just carrying the weight of the rest of the fuel. Gulf carriers like Emirates have already said they'll defend their market share. The first plane arrives in April 2027, 5 years late.
AUSTRALIAN NEWS
Australians using buy now, pay later loans are recording a rise in documented hardship rates from 0.06% in June 2025 to 0.24% in March 2026 as new regulations reveal previously hidden financial stress. LINK
IAG has warned home insurance premiums will rise by double digits for some time as construction and natural disaster costs soar. LINK
ASX has confirmed listing rule changes that give investors voting power on major equity raisings for large deals after criticism of James Hardie’s $14B acquisition of Azek. LINK
An Australian court has banned former Star Entertainment CEO Matthias Bekier from managing companies for 6 years and fined him $700,000 as Paula Martin received a 7-year ban and $400,000 fine. LINK
YUM BRANDS DUMPS PIZZA HUT FOR $3.8B AFTER LOSING TO DOMINO'S.
Yum Brands is offloading Pizza Hut after the 67-year-old chain posted consecutive quarters of declining same-store sales. Private equity firm LongRange Capital is paying $1.5B for the global business excluding China. Yum China Holdings is buying the mainland China arm separately for $1.2B.
Pizza Hut's same-store sales have been falling for multiple consecutive quarters.
The company flagged "outdated stores and growing competition" as the problem. Pizza Hut hasn't refreshed its real estate or customer experience in years, while delivery-first competitors built around speed and digital ordering pulled share. Yum began shopping the brand in November after deciding it wasn't worth the distraction from KFC and Taco Bell, both of which are growing.
PepsiCo bought Pizza Hut in 1977, spun it into Yum Brands in 1997, and now Yum is handing it to private equity.
COMPANY NEWS
Sims upgraded its FY26 underlying EBIT forecast to $420M to $435M from $350M to $400M as stronger non-ferrous markets and data centre demand lift outlook. LINK
ASIC has warned banks at the Australian Banking Association conference to prioritise getting basic obligations right over bold innovation to avoid trust risks. LINK
Flight Centre cut its FY26 underlying profit before tax guidance to $275M to $295M due to Middle East conflict travel disruptions, while announcing a $200M share buy back. LINK
KPMG Australia is preparing to appear before a Senate inquiry in Canberra as it faces allegations it has misused confidential audit documents from paying clients. LINK
SpaceX surged to a US$2.655T valuation as frenzied trading in newly listed options briefly pushed it past Amazon and even Microsoft in market value. LINK
Australian fashion retailer Glue Store has permanently closed all remaining outlets and its website after posting a $8.4M first-half loss, as owner Accent Group shifts investment to other brands. LINK
2026 AUSCORP SALARY SURVEY
Since late 2022, your employer can no longer stop you discussing your pay. But most people still have no idea what the person next to them earns. We're trying to fix that.
This is our biggest survey yet and the more people who contribute, the harder it gets for anyone to be underpaid without knowing it. Anonymous, takes 2 minutes, and the results go straight back to the community.
CHART OF THE DAY
An average of 40% of respondents across 48 countries now say they sometimes or often avoid the news, up sharply from 29% in 2017. The Reuters Institute links this growing trend to low trust in news and overload, with many trying to protect their mental wellbeing from distressing coverage.
ONE MORE SCROLL
Editor’s Pick: Bank of Japan raises its key interest rate to a three-decade high of 1%, citing inflation.
Draft Pick: Messi hat-trick fires holders Argentina to win over Algeria at World Cup.
Doctor’s Pick: Preclinical study finds that copper drug restores memory and clears toxic Alzheimer's proteins.
TRIVIA
We'll give you the animal, you give us the collective noun:
Crows
Owls
Ferrets
Jellyfish
Rhinos
Answers below
OUR SOCIALS
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ANSWERS
1. A murder of crows
2. A parliament of owls
3. A business of ferrets
4. A smack of jellyfish
5. A crash of rhinos
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