Costco does right, AT&T does DEI dirty, robot dog poop, billionaire safety nets

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Netflix to Buy Warner Bros. in $83 Billion Deal to Create a Streaming Giant

1. The deal to acquire the Hollywood giant’s television and film studios as well as HBO Max will bulk up the world’s biggest paid streaming service.

2. The acquisition is expected to close after Warner Bros. Discovery carves out its cable unit, which the companies expected be completed by the third quarter of 2026. That means there will be a separate public company controlling channels like CNN, TNT and Discovery.

3. Trump administration views Netflix and Warner Bros. deal with ‘heavy skepticism,’ senior official says

4. The New York Post on Thursday reported that, “Paramount Skydance chief David Ellison met with Trump officials and key lawmakers in Washington DC on Wednesday to press his case against Warner Bros. Discovery’s potential selection of Netflix as its merger partner.”

2. Costco is poking the Trump bear MM

1. Big public companies have mostly treated President Donald Trump with kid gloves during his second term. They’ve quietly avoided conflict while seeking favor with ornate gifts, large donations to his pet projects and strategic deployments of CEOs to the Oval Office.

2. That’s what made Costco’s decision last week to sue the Trump administration so shocking.

3. Costco filed a lawsuit that contends Trump overstepped his emergency powers by imposing sweeping tariffs – and claimed the company is due a refund.

4. Biden commerce secretary to join Costco board as company sues over Trump's tariffs

1. Costco board now 50/50

2. Gina Raimondo led the agency responsible for crafting U.S. trade policy during all four years of Democrat Joe Biden's presidency.

1. Rhodes Scholar Raimondo led Biden’s Commerce Department; former  governor of Rhode Island (2015-2021)

3. AT&T Commits to Drop DEI Programs and Goals

1. In the letter, AT&T makes a series of commitments, including stating that:

1. “AT&T does not and will not have any roles focused on DEI”

2. “we removed training related to “diversity, equity and inclusion” as well as any references to it from our internal and external messaging”

3. “It is AT&T’s longstanding practice to pay and advance individuals based on merit and qualification”

4. From Brendan Carr’s tweet: NEW on DEI: AT&T has now memorialized its commitment to ending DEI-related policies in an FCC filing and “will not have any roles focused on DEI.” This follows the big changes  @robbystarbuck  already announced earlier this year.

2. AT&T promised the government it won’t pursue DEI. FCC commissioner warns it will be a ‘stain to their reputation long into the future’

1. Anna Gomez, the sole Democrat on the FCC: “AT&T’s reversal isn’t a sudden transformation of values, but a strategic financial play to curry favor with this FCC/Administration. Companies should remember that abandoning fairness and inclusion for short-term gain will be a stain to their reputation long into the future.”

3. AT&T eliminates DEI programs, says hiring and advancement will now be merit-based

4. Zillow Doesn’t Care If Climate Change Destroys Your New Home

1. The real estate platform recently removed climate risk scores from its listings—a potentially ruinous development for some buyers.

2. Classified board; co-founders/co-Executive Chairs Lloyd D. Frink 36% and Richard N. Barton (Netflix; Qurate Retail) 40%

1. 10 votes per share of Class B common stock

2. 55% voting power; less than 12% economic interest

3. Combined $83M in pay over last 3 years; primarily options

3. Gender Influence Gap (-23%): April Underwood 2%; Amy C. Bohutinsky 2% (former Zillow COO and CMO); Claire Cormier Thielke 1%

4. LT directors

1. Compensation committee chair Jay Hoag (2005-)!

1. Netflix, TripAdvisor, Peloton 65%

2. Audit committee chair Greg Maffei (2005-)

1. Qurate Retail, Charter Communications; Live Nation Entertainment; TripAdvisor; Liberty Broadband; SiriusXM

3. Also: Erik Blachford (2005-); Gordon Stephenson (2005-)

5. Also: CEO Jeremy Wacksman and earnings underperformer: J. William Gurley (Stitch Fix .094 earnings; Nextdoor .010 earnings)

Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):

1. DR: Melinda French Gates slams billionaires who aren't giving away enough of their wealth

1. There are more billionaires than ever — and they have almost $16 trillion

2. MM: Billionaire heads on robot dogs pooping photos go viral at major Miami art fair MM

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. The “arrogant pricking” of CEOs

1. Palantir CEO Alex Karp defends being an ‘arrogant prick’—and says more CEOs should be, too

1. In Karp’s worldview, “arrogance” is a necessary survival mechanism for a leader who intends to be right even when it is unpopular.

2. “The only people who pay the price for being wrong in this culture, in complete fashion, are poor people,” Karp said. “The rest of us somehow outsource all the times we’re wrong and stupid to the whole society.”

2. Meanwhile, we’re now hearing from Sundar Pichai (who’s trying Cassandra on for size), never ending diatribes from Sam Altman, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and everyone else with a 6000x CEO pay ratio… 

2. “Merit based” ass kissing

1. AT&T eliminates DEI programs, says hiring and advancement will now be merit-based

1. FCC boss Brendan Carr claims another victory over DEI as AT&T drops programs

2. So how "merit-based" is the board? Top knowledge: economics (useful for phones... somehow...). Team TSR performance: 0.482 (where 0.500 is the average return for a board). Controversies performance is an excellently horrible 0.204, with CEO John Stankey as one of the worst performers... ON EARTH at 0.028 (meaning, he's in the worst 3% of all people on boards for controversies facing their companies). For most of the board, it matters more to be connected than good.

3. Replacing government safety nets with billionaire whims DR

1. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos commit $102.5 million to organizations combatting homelessness across the U.S.: ‘This is just the beginning’

1. Sánchez Bezos recounted meeting families benefiting from local organizations to which the Bezos Day 1 Families Fund offered grants… she met one woman who had been kicked out of her home with her infant daughter, but the organization took her in for the night, gave them a bed with sheets and a locked door. 

2. “It brought tears to my eyes seeing this little baby and seeing her flourish,” Sánchez Bezos said. “Selfishly, it fills my heart meeting these families. It really, really does.”

2. Michael and Susan Dell to donate $6.25 billion to fund 'Trump accounts' for 25 million U.S. kids

Headliniest of the Week

1. DR: Zuckerberg Basically Giving Up on Metaverse After Renaming Entire Company “Meta”

2. DR: Nvidia CFO admits the $100 billion OpenAI megadeal ‘still’ isn’t signed—two months after it helped fuel an AI rally

1. Nvidia CFO Colette Kress told investors that the much-hyped OpenAI partnership is still at the letter-of-intent stage: “We still haven’t completed a definitive agreement,” Kress said when asked how much of the 10-gigawatt commitment is actually locked in. That’s a striking clarification for a deal that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang once called “the biggest AI infrastructure project in history.

3. MM: Children Sob as Waymo Runs Over Dog

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Costco

2. MM: Robot dogs

Predictions

1. DR: Based on this headline (Jamie Dimon Once Called Bitcoin a ‘Fraud.’ Now, JPMorgan Is Quietly Making Blockchain History and Betting This ‘Crypto Winter’ Will Be Short-Lived), Jamie decides to invest in Volcano-Powered NFT Mining Farms

MM: Costco will start selling a new kind of robot dog (they already sell one) that has Gina Raimando and Jeffrey Raikes face and poops out pictures of Howard Lutnick