FRIDAY WRAP: Disney wins, China’s mother friendly benefits, Texas uses Boeing vs. DEI, and Meta’s racist AI

Introduction

IT’S FRIDAYYYYY!!! EARTHQUAKE DAY! And we are LIVE, and ALIVE. This is Ari the Data Queen, joined by AnalystHole Matt Moscardi, Jessie the Money Whisperer, and Hazelnut Rallis. On today’s weekly wrap up: Disney’s proxy fight… finally over?, Tesla may or may not be feeling the after effects of its CEO, and my favorite employee benefit I’ve ever heard of.

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Disney wins AB MM

1. Succession

1. Disney Entertainment co-chair Dana Walden: worked 25 years at 21st Century Fox, before joining Disney in 2019 when the latter acquired the former. She currently leads the media giant’s television business, including streaming.

2. Disney Entertainment’s other co-chair Alan Bergman: with the company since 1996 and currently oversees Disney’s movie studios

3. Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney Experiences, heads some of the company’s most revenue generating divisions. D’Amaro’s portfolio includes Disney’s 12 theme parks around the world, hotels, cruises and consumer products. Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal and Reuters have all reported that he’s a top internal candidate for the role of CEO

4. ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro

2. FanDuel says Iowa-LSU game was its biggest betting event of all time for women's sports

1. ‘This is potentially once in a generation’: AT&T marketing head says Caitlin Clark is a ‘big deal’ for women’s sports

2. Iowa-LSU outdrew all but one of the five games in last year's NBA Finals, along with the clinching game of last year's World Series (11.48 million)

3. It was also the most watched men's or women's college basketball game ever on ESPN, more than doubling the prior largest audience

4. Only one men's NCAA tournament game this year had bigger viewership: North Carolina State's win over Duke on Sunday in the men's Elite Eight on CBS averaged 15.1 million

5. According to Sports Media Watch, it was the most viewed basketball game on ESPN since Game 7 of the 2018 Eastern Conference finals

3. Want to be a Fortune 500 CEO? Be a Girl Scout

1. Eight women leaders of Fortune 500 companies were once Daisies, Brownies, Juniors, or more, according to an analysis by Fortune staff

2. Current Fortune 500 CEOs who are Girl Scouts alumnae include General Motors’ Mary Barra, Centene’s Sarah London, Oracle’s Safra Catz, General Dynamics’ Phebe Novakovic, Bath & Body Works’ Gina Boswell, Edward Jones Investments’ Penny Pennington, and Graybar Electric’s Kathleen Mazzarella

3. The list also extends to former members of Fortune 500 C-suites, like former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, former Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, and former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg. Other business leaders include former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, former JCPenny CEO Jill Soltau, and former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

4. Warner Bros. Discovery Directors Step Down Amid Antitrust Inquiry

1. The Justice Department was investigating whether the two violated a law forbidding simultaneous service on the boards of competitors.

2. Warner Bros. Discovery said on Monday that two members of its board of directors, Steven Newhouse and Steven Miron, had stepped down after the company learned about an investigation into whether their presence on the board violated antitrust law.

3. Federal law forbids most corporate officers and board members to simultaneously serve on the boards of their competitors.

4. Mr. Newhouse and Mr. Miron are both executives at Advance

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. Elon Musk's reputation is probably turning buyers off Tesla

1. Who knew consumers had limits? Q1 deliveries were down 20% from the previous quarter, first decline in 4 years.

2. A couple of weeks ago Wells Fargo analyst called Tesla a “growth company with no growth” 

3. This week Tesla investor Ross Gerber said “Tesla can’t sell its cars due to Elon’s behavior. Let’s stop blaming the Houthi rebels, German environmental terrorists, a recession that never came. Or interest rates."

2. 3M’s $12.5 billion settlement to address ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water receives final court approval

3. Free taxis, education subsidies, and egg freezing—how Chinese companies are crafting next-gen benefits for mothers amid the country’s baby bust DR MM

1. Am I about to get canceled for getting excited about Chinese companies?

2. I was reading an article about a panel from a fortune summit last week, during the conversation CEOs talked about benefits their companies currently offer that I have come across - like egg-freezing stipends, childcare stipends, education benefits etc.

3. Then others I have never heard of but is in the ballpark of fringe benefits so I could imagine it - like taxi rides for pregnant workers, birthday gifts up to $1,400 for children until the age of 5. 

4. THEN Joey Wat, the CEO of Yum China (KFC and Taco Bell) CAME OUT AND SAID that among all the benefits the company offers to women, the most impactful has been allowing employees to add their parents to their health insurance plans. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Regulators suck

1. Fed Blocks Tough Global Climate-Risk Rules for Wall Street Banks

1. The Fed said it goes beyond regulatory purpose for banks to disclose how climate change will fuck up their business

2. US SEC stays climate disclosure rule amid legal challenges

1. The SEC put on “pause” new rules they just passed to let the Eighth Circuit court decide if it’s cool

2. Last decision from Eighth Circuit:

1. Plaintiff, an inmate at an all-male prison who has gender dysphoria and identifies as a transgender woman, sued prison officials asserting various federal civil rights claims. The claims arose out of an incident during which plaintiff was allegedly forcibly stripped of all clothing except underwear by male guards, pepper sprayed, placed in restraints, exposed to other inmates while largely unclothed, and then placed on suicide watch. Plaintiff also asserted violations of a right to wear gender-identity-conforming clothing and to have others use preferred pronouns and claimed that various defendants retaliated against plaintiff after this lawsuit was filed. The district court denied defendants' motion to dismiss plaintiff's operative complaint based on qualified immunity, and defendants appeal. Held: The district court did not err in denying defendants qualified immunity on plaintiff's Fourth Amendment unlawful search claim as the search plausibly crossed the line into unreasonableness; defendants are entitled to qualified immunity on plaintiff's equal protection and First Amendment expressive-conduct claims, as it was not clearly established at the time of the incident that they would violate plaintiff's constitutional rights by engaging in the gender-identity discrimination alleged; 

3. Regulators Force Microsoft to Unbundle Teams from Office

2. Racist regulators suck AB DR

1. Texas is using Boeing's troubles to expand its war on DEI

2. “Documents that Spirit relies on to substantiate its claim that a diverse workplace improves product quality.”

3. “Produce all meeting minutes of Spirit’s Global Diversity & Inclusion Council(s). Meeting minutes is defined to include any document that memorializes the agenda or discussion of any meetings held by these groups.”

3. Racist misogynists with money suck

1. Elon Musk backs Nelson Peltz in Disney proxy fight: 'His track record is excellent'

2. Billionaire Bill Ackman Accuses The Walt Disney Company Of Leaking Shareholder Votes Amidst Nelson Peltz Proxy ... - That Park Place

3. Nelson Peltz lost the Disney fight — but he did clear a cool $300 million

Headline-iest (ALL):

1. Matt

1. Billionaire hedge-fund boss Steve Cohen says a 4-day workweek is coming — and it's part of why he made a big investment in golf

2. The accountant shortage is so bad that it's delaying key reports at companies like Tupperware

1. Market cap: 57m, share price: $1.24

2. Ari

1. Inmates in NY are suing to be allowed to see the solar eclipse

3. DR

1. Meta's AI Refuses to Show Asian Men With White Women AB DR MM

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Blackwells? Because they can pretend they won?

2. AB: N.Y. prison will let inmates go outdoors to view eclipse after lawsuit. 

3. MM: Mel Lagomasino, who three months from now NO ONE will remember and she can keep cashing those crony Disney checks

4. JS: 

Predictions

1. DR: not ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro

2. AB: Elon fires Tom Zhu - #2 exec

3. MM: Michael Froman is named CEO of Disney

4. JS: