Manthropic’s S-1, Theranos’ board, Peltz’s fail is his win

Written by Matt Moscardi
Manthropic’s S-1, Theranos’ board, Peltz’s fail is his win
Free Float Media


Story of the Week (DR):

  1. Anthropic’s founders’ 80% giving pledge could be worth nearly $80 billion MM

    1. Anthropic’s Founders Pledged to Donate Most of Their Stock. Their IPO Tells Another Story.

      1. “In addition, our co-founders have each pledged to dedicate 80% of their personal equity in Anthropic to philanthropic causes. These commitments are voluntary, revocable expressions of each co-founder’s philanthropic intent and do not constitute legally binding obligations.”

    2. Americans Are Officially More Scared of AI Than a Loved One Getting Cancer

    3. Anthropic IPO warns its AI could blackmail people, become sentient, end humanity

    4. Anthropic IPO (See Matt quiz)

  2. A24’s 2026 meta-documentary You Can See Everything, directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim

    1. crossed $50M domestically faster than any non-concert documentary since Fahrenheit 9/11 and March of the Penguins.

    2. Billy Evans’ ‘Theranos 2.0’ startup has patents, investors, and a missing CTO—but no product

    3. Zero Medical Experts on Theranos board: mostly included former U.S. officials and military leaders recruited by George Schultz

    4. Theranos was structured with dual-class stock giving Holmes shares with 100 votes each.

    5. A separate Board of Counselors was established after reputation damage from press reports and because of the board’s lack of medical and scientific expertise. It had zero fiduciary authority, no power to demand audited financial statements, and no authority to fire the CEO. Holmes leveraged their resumes on corporate letterheads for credibility while locking them out of corporate oversight.

    6. Elizabeth Holmes (2003–2018): Theranos founder/CEO/chair

      1. As part of her 2018 SEC civil fraud settlement, Holmes was formally barred from serving as an officer or director of any public company for 10 years (2028)

    7. Channing Robertson (early years; exact dates unclear): Stanford chemical-engineering professor, Holmes’s mentor and Theranos’s first board member.

    8. Avie Tevanian (2006–2007): Apple’s former chief software technology officer and a Theranos director early on; he later said he raised concerns about the company’s progress and finances.

      1. Dolby Laboratories (2009-2021)

    9. George Shultz (2011–2016; Board Counselor until 2017): Former U.S. secretary of state

      1. Charles Schwab; Gilead Sciences (Director Emeritus until 2019); Bechtel (private)

    10. Henry Kissinger (2011–2016): Former U.S. secretary of state and national security adviser

      1. Hollinger International; ContiGroup

    11. William Perry (2011–2016; Board Counselor until 2017): Former U.S. secretary of defense

      1. Fabrinet; Cylink

    12. Sam Nunn (2011–2016; Board Counselor until 2017): Former U.S. senator and Senate Armed Services Committee chairman

      1. The Coca-Cola Company; General Electric; Dell; Chevron; Hess Corporation.

    13. Bill Frist (2011–2016; Board Counselor until 2017): Former U.S. senator, Senate majority leader and heart-transplant surgeon

      1. Teladoc Health; Select Medical Holdings; AECOM; Accolade

    14. Gary Roughead (2011–2016; Board Counselor until 2017): Retired U.S. Navy admiral and former chief of naval operations

      1. Northrop Grumman (2012-present)

    15. Richard Kovacevich (2011–2016): Former CEO/chair Wells Fargo

      1. Wells Fargo; Cisco Systems; Target

    16. Riley Bechtel (2011–2016): Former CEO/chair of engineering and construction firm Bechtel

      1. Bechtel (private)

    17. Jim Mattis (2013–2017): Retired Marine Corps general

      1. General Dynamics (rejoined board in 2019)

    18. David Boies (2016): Prominent trial lawyer and chair of law firm Boies Schiller Flexner

    19. William Foege (2016): Former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

    20. Fabrizio Bonanni (2016): Former EVP of biotechnology company Amgen

      1. Stevanato Group (until 2021); XBiotech

    21. Daniel Warmenhoven (2016–2017): Former NetApp CEO

      1. NetApp; Palo Alto Networks (LD until 2020); Aruba Networks; Alteryx

    22. Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani (unclear dates): COO/boyfriend


Story of the Week (MM):

  1. CEO proximity to Trump is now a national security threat

    1. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang may have been the target of a spy plot through 'Chinese intelligence asset,' report claims — exec from firm under investigation for smuggling banned AI chips to China accused of being a spy, was also feeding information to Beijing

      1. U.S. officials are worried that Beijing may be targeting close allies of President Trump

      2. Trump reportedly chose not to do anything about the information, as he apparently did not want to affect Nvidia sales or antagonize China

      3. given Jensen Huang’s status as a celebrity CEO, it’s not surprising that he is surrounded by all kinds of people from both the U.S. and China

    2. Worth remembering Huang was NOT a celebrity CEO from 1993 to 2016 - they didn’t make most of their revenue from AI chips until 2020, he was a celebrity after that.  25 years in nerdy obscurity making video game chips, 6 years as a leather jacket wearing celebrity

    3. Board of national security experts = none:

      1. Tench Coxe (33 year), Harvey Jones (32 years), Brooke Seawell (28 years) - old skool VC bros

      2. John Dabiri (professor)

      3. Dawn Hudson (NFL marketing officer)

      4. Melissa Lora (Taco Bell)

      5. Stephen Neal (corporate law)

      6. Aarti Shah (Eli Lily)

      7. Suzanne Johnson (Goldman)

      8. Mark Stevens (VC)

    4. Management team with national security experts = none: 

      1. Colette Kress (CFO, ex MSFT, finance)

      2. Nick Parker (“Field Ops”, ex MSFT, sales)

      3. Debora Shoquist (ops, built hard drives, electrical engineer)

      4. Tim Teter (lawyer)

    5. Just think - every dinner, every gift they gave, every time they sucked up - now do they need a national security board member to offset the sucking up?

  2. After disaster fixes

    1. Binance Estimates $6.3 Billion Hacked in Crypto's Biggest Heist

      1. No regulations!

    2. Six Flags to Add Seatbelts on Roller Coasters After Rider’s Death

      1. Seatbelts!  Invented in 1885 for horse taxis!

    3. Anthropic IPO warns its AI could blackmail people, become sentient, end humanity

    4. Anthropic's SEC filing devotes 90 pages to risk as it prepares for IPO - ABC News

    5. Don't Tell Your Doctor': ChatGPT Accused of Coaching Seattle Woman off Epilepsy Medication Before Death

    6. Top AI Safety Researcher Says He’s Stopped Saving for Retirement Because He’s So Sure We’re All Going to Die

      1. No regulations!  End of humanity!

    7. Air pollution from Utah’s planned Stratos data center could spread to states as far away as Illinois: report

      1. EPA stripped!  All die of cancer!

    8. This is what a board is for - avoided disaster, not growth and TSR and founder mode - they are insurance against stupid




Headliniest/Blowhardiest/Quizziest/Assholiest/Goodliest (Flex1 DR):

  1. Bloomberg, trading firms to pay Trump for faster Truth Social access, sources say

    1. Who?

      1. Bloomberg: CEO Vlad Kliatchko and majority owner Michael Bloomberg

      2. Susquehanna International Group: Co-Founder/Managing Director: Jeff Yass (MAGA megadonor)

      3. Jump Trading: Founders John Harada and Bill DiSomma; COO Matthew Schrecengost

    2. What?

      1. Subscribers get access approximately 50 milliseconds ahead of the public feed, according to Trump Media officials and reporting on the service.   While 50 milliseconds is roughly one-sixth of the time it takes for a human to blink, in high-frequency trading (HFT), that gap is an eternity

    3. Why?

      1. Insider training

    4. How?

      1. From the perspective of the SEC, the arrangement exists in an aggressive legal grey area created by loopholes in securities law. While critics argue it is an obvious scheme to monetize non-public information, the corporate and legal structures behind it were specifically tailored to bypass core SEC enforcement rules.

        1. How, part 2? The SEC regulates capital markets primarily through rules against insider trading and selective disclosure. Trump Media’s legal rationale hinges on avoiding the definitions that trigger those rules 


Headliniest/Blowhardiest/Quizziest/Assholiest/Goodliest (Flex1 MM):

  1. Anthropic S-1 Quiz of the Week:

    1. How many share classes are there?

    2. The non profit will pick the majority of the board - what skills does Anthropic disclose the trustees of the non profit should have?

    3. How many of the trustees are women?

    4. The non profit chose the board - how many of the trustee appointed board members are women?

    5. How many of the board members total are women?

    6. How many pages of risk does Anthropic have?

    7. How many times is “humanity” mentioned in the S1?

    8. How many times is “existential” mentioned in the S1?

    9. How many times between 2021 and today is “existential” mentioned in an Annual Report?


Headliniest/Blowhardiest/Quizziest/Assholiest/Goodliest (Flex2 DR):

  1. CEO of 101-Year-Old Company That Has Never Laid Off Workers Says Mass Layoffs Are a Choice, Not a Necessity

    1. Man or Woman? Torani CEO Melanie Dulbecco

  2. Lindt Board Chairman Rules Out Resignation

    1. The chair of the Lindt & Sprüngli board of directors, does not intend to step down amid the current difficult situation. “I am convinced that I can make a significant contribution to getting the company back on track.”

    2. Acknowledged that Lindt had underestimated how customers would react to the massive price increases. Especially in Germany and Switzerland, the products had become too expensive for many consumers. Market tests had originally suggested that customers were willing to pay significantly higher prices. This turned out to be a misjudgment in some countries.

    3. Was elected CEO and Vice-Chair by the Board of Directors in 1993. In 1994, he became Chair of the Board.

    4. Man or Woman? Ernst Tanner

  3. Microsoft is offering buyouts to around 60,000 employees. Read the Chief People Officer’s memo: “more ways for employees to shape their next chapter”

    1. Man or Woman? Be specific. Amy Coleman

  4. The 7 Anthropic co-founders

    1. How Many Are Women Not Related to the CEO?

  5. Senator Demands Answers From Anthropic on ‘Existential’ Risks

    1. Man or Woman? Elizabeth Warren


Headliniest/Blowhardiest/Quizziest/Assholiest/Goodliest (Flex2 MM):

  1. Nelson Peltz-led group offers to buy Wendy’s for $1.4B

    1. Nelson Peltz took an activist stake and joined the Wendy’s board in 1993 - stock price was $8.16

    2. Nelson added son Matthew in 2015 to the board - stock price was $10.84

    3. Nelson added other son Bradley in 2025 - stock price was $11.02

    4. Nelson wants to buy Wendy’s for $1.4bn, a 20% premium to the current price - stock price was $6.14

      1. A 20% premium brings the share value to $7.37

      2. That’s a 10% DISCOUNT from when he bought in - Peltz will make money by destroying the value of the company over the last 30 years


Who Won the Week?

  1. DR: Nathan Fielder

  2. MM: Marissa Mayer, who’s positioned Dazzle AI, her new company, as a way for women to get in on AI and AI usage.  Mayer shed her image as a massive failure at Yahoo, moved on to a successful board career with Brian Niccol, and is now getting written up for helping women in AI

Predictions

  1. DR: People chuckle at Holmes and Theranos but still don’t take boards seriously

  2. MM: Marissa Mayer, who uses Dazzle AI, her own product, to know basic facts about her own children, also uses AI to understand how to shed her image as a massive failure at Yahoo, have a successful board career with Brian Niccol, and position her product as helping women in AI

Matt Moscardi
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