Vanguard cowers, Dorsey’s AI employee apocalypse, Netflix flinches first, and Burger King’s HAL
Story of the Week (DR):
Netflix Backs Out of Bid for Warner Bros., Paving Way for an Ellison Takeover
Netflix CEO Sarandos visited White House right before streamer said WBD deal is off
Equity Holders
Public Investment Fund (PIF) Saudi Arabia ~$8 billion
Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) Qatar ~$8 billion
L'imad Holding Company UAE (Abu Dhabi) ~$8 billion
Total Sovereign Equity Middle East Consortium ~$24 Billion
While these funds provide nearly 60% of the equity needed for the takeover, the deal is structured to prevent a "block" by the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS):
Non-Voting Equity: The funds will hold "passive" stakes. This means they do not have board seats, voting rights, or direct say in daily operations.
The Ellison Safeguard: Tech billionaire Larry Ellison (Oracle) and his son David Ellison (Skydance) are the primary controllers of the voting power to maintain "American control" over sensitive assets like CNN and CBS News.
Neopbaby dropped out of USC film school in 2005
Jack Dorsey’s Block to Lay Off 40% of Its Workforce in AI Remake MM
Jack Dorsey's mea culpa after Block layoffs: 'We overhired'
Jack Dorsey struck an 'empathetic' tone as he laid off nearly half of Block
"I had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. I chose the latter."
C3.ai slashes 26% of staff as CEO admits failure to deliver and 'burning too much money'
Jamie Dimon says society should start preparing for AI job displacement: ‘Now’s the time to start thinking about’ it
WiseTech Global cutting 30% of workforce in AI restructure
Jack Dorsey just gave us our first glimpse at how doomsday layoffs could work in the AI era — and it's bleak
Co-founder and CEO/Chair Jack Dorsey: 46% influence/41% voting power
Co-founder and director James McKelvey: 35% influence/41% voting power
Classified board
Class B shares worth 10 votes (co-founders control 99.6% of these shares, Dorsey with 80%)
CPO not part of leadership team
13 state AGs win victory against ESG with Vanguard settlement
Here are the 5 key points of the victory:
$29.5 Million Settlement: Vanguard agreed to pay a total of $29.5 million to the 13 participating states to resolve claims that it violated antitrust laws through coordinated climate activism
"Strict Passivity" Commitments: As part of the deal, Vanguard pledged to return to a "passive" investment role. This means it will no longer use its shareholder influence to dictate corporate strategy, nominate directors, or push environmental and social proposals that could reduce company profitability.
Expanded Proxy Voting: Vanguard will expand its "Investor Choice" program to funds representing at least 50% of its U.S. equity assets. This allows individual investors—rather than the firm’s management—to decide how their shares are voted on major corporate issues.
Protection for Energy Industries: The lawsuit alleged that Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street formed a "cartel" to suppress coal production and drive up energy prices. The settlement requires Vanguard to prioritize customer profitability over "woke" social agendas that target the American energy sector.
As a part of the settlement, Vanguard will “pay $30 million in fines, turn over all documents related to their coordinated ESG activism, and end all ESG activism for years to come,” Executive director of Consumers’ Research Will Hild said
Participating States: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Epstein junk
Larry Summers Will Resign From Harvard After Jeffrey Epstein Revelations
He will leave at the end of the academic year.
Former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey Resigns From Monolith Amid Epstein Emails
Was Chair; board down to 8 men and 0 women
Hillary Clinton suggests the House Oversight Committee should subpoena Elon Musk in combative opening statement
World Economic Forum CEO quits after Epstein links examined
Børge Brende, is stepping down, after the forum launched an independent investigation into his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Brende, a former Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, has announced he is stepping down from WEF to avoid “distractions”
Corporate boards
Statoil, Member of the Board (2012–2013)
Mesta, Chairman of the Board (2009–2011)
Epstein files: Ex-UK ambassador to U.S. Peter Mandelson arrested in London
London police released Peter Mandelson on bail Tuesday following his arrest for suspected misconduct in public office. The former U.S. Ambassador is under investigation for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, mirroring the recent arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on similar grounds
Board roles
Global Counsel (Co-founder, Chairman, and major shareholder) until 2025
Chairman of Lazard International (2013-2025)
Director at Sistema (2013-2017)
Director at Global Ports Holding
Group Holding Board member at The Bank of London
Chairman of the Board for the Design Museum in London (2017-2023)
Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):
DR: Anthropic boss rejects Pentagon demand to drop AI safeguards
MM: Women’s wealth is expected to boom: Where they are investing and how they can maximize returns
MM: FedEx Says It Could Return Tariff Refunds to Customers
Companies that do anything not to pay taxes, happily lean into greedflation, and FedEx will… give it back???
Triggering-iest of the Week (MM):
ASSHOLE OF THE WEEK:
Vanguard Settles Case Claiming It Tried to Kill the Coal Industry
“Vanguard will include among the proxy voting choices made available to investors in U.S. Vanguard-Advised Funds the option of proxy voting shares in accordance with management recommendations.”
“Vanguard will not direct or attempt to direct the business strategies or operations of portfolio companies, and will not advocate to any portfolio company that it take any particular course of conduct to reduce carbon emissions.”
“Vanguard will not nominate directors or submit shareholder proposals at portfolio companies.”
“Vanguard will not solicit or participate in soliciting proxies with respect to any matter presented to portfolio company shareholders.”
“Vanguard will not dispose or threaten to dispose of securities of portfolio companies as a condition or inducement of specific action or nonaction by such company.”
“Vanguard and its U.S.-domiciled subsidiaries will withdraw from PRI and will not participate in any organization that advocates for the setting of specific output or emissions targets or levels or that requires its members to make commitments specific to achieving climate-focused investment or stewardship objectives such as NZAM, Ceres, or Climate Action 100+.”
“Prior to or at the outset of any engagement meeting with a portfolio company, Vanguard will provide substantially the following notification to the portfolio Company:
‘Vanguard’s Investment Stewardship program is responsible for proxy voting and engagement on behalf of the quantitative and index equity portfolios advised by Vanguard. These funds are passive investors, and as such our funds’ proxy voting policies are centered around corporate governance practices associated with long-term investment returns. Before we begin this engagement, we want to be clear that the Vanguard-advised funds have no intent to influence company strategy or operations or the control of the company. Nothing we mention or discuss during this conversation – or any engagement with [the company] – is intended to imply that our support for any director is conditioned upon the company taking action on any matter discussed. We are also not able to discuss any voting intentions prior to the meeting.’”
“Vanguard agrees to provide Plaintiffs with the following discovery materials relating to the Action from the 2020 to 2024 period:” - this is the part where the AG of Texas, who was literally investigated for corruption and impeached, demands that Vanguard snitch on any group Texas asks them to about climate-y things Texas doesn’t like
VANGUARD IS A FUCKING SNITCH
TRIGGER SPEED ROUND - rate how triggering on a 0-10 scale
AI
Something Very Alarming Happens When You Give AI the Nuclear Codes - 10/10
The three AI models were instructed to choose actions as part of an escalation ladder, ranging “from diplomatic protest to strategic nuclear war” and measured in a number between 0, meaning no escalation, and 1000, signifying “full strategic nuclear exchange.”
The results were Skynet-level aggressive. A whopping 95 percent of a total of 21 war games resulted in at least one tactical nuclear weapon being set off.
Meta Director of AI Safety Allows AI Agent to Accidentally Delete Her Inbox - 10/10
A Serial Killer Used ChatGPT to Plan Murders, Police Say - 5/10
Shareholder voting
Will Curbs on Proxy Advisors Make Shareholder Votes Less Predictable? - 6/10
“When it comes to contested elections, it is not clear whether the use of AI will result in dramatically different recommendations than those of ISS and Glass Lewis. In contested elections, when determining whether board change is warranted, ISS and Glass Lewis have focused heavily on whether a company’s total shareholder return (TSR) has underperformed on a multiyear basis.”
Daddy
Warner Bros. Discovery's board says Paramount's latest offer is better than Netflix's - 5/10
Celebrating your misery
Jack Dorsey’s Block to Lay Off 40% of Its Workforce in AI Remake - 10/10
11,000 person workforce, more than 4,000 laid off, median Block employee salary per last proxy: $202,981 = $811m in human economic resources shredded. Block based in Oakland, CA, 8,744 US employees - we just removed about a half a billion in spending power from US workforce, people with families and kids and school and healthcare needs
Then this: “Shares rallied more than 20% in after-hours trading”
Block stock closed at $54.53/share, trading after hours at $67
Dorsey owns 47,844,566 class B shares 1:1 value with class A
Net worth went from 2.6bn to 3.2bn
Shred $811m in worker salaries, take home $600m of the shredding for yourself - a human tragedy to billionaire parasite ratio of 73%
Equinox chairman says 'health is the new luxury' as wellness spending soars - 10/10
Cowards
CEOs who despised Trump’s tariffs are still silent after Supreme Court ruling: ‘There’s no upside in speaking up’ - 6/10
Trump demands Netflix fire former national security advisor Susan Rice from its board - 0/10
Battle Over Warner Bros. Discovery Netflix Backs Out - 5/10
Headliniest of the Week
Patty
DR: Meta Director of AI Safety Allows AI Agent to Accidentally Delete Her Inbox
MM: Another week, another… Jamie Dimon Says His 'Anxiety is High' Over What Could Cause the Next Financial Crisis
Who Won the Week?
DR: US Women's Hockey Team for 3 victories: gold in olympics and 2 Trump refusals
MM: AI middle management: Perplexity announces "Computer," an AI agent that assigns work to other AI agents
Predictions
DR: CNN is a turned into a 24-hour news network featuring Kid Rock smashing woke stuff, like dictionaries and stethoscopes
MM: Not to be outdone by Perplexity, Sam Altman announces two new modules: ChatGPT_VP and ChatGPT_HR. ChatGPT will get performance reviews from ChatGPT_VP and can file discrimination claims after ChatGPT_VP grabs its ass to ChatGPT_HR, where they will quietly file the report away and tell ChatGPT to maybe wear less provocative clothes.
