26 Burst results for "Bill Ackman"
Bloomberg Radio New York
"bill ackman" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"1%. No trading in Tokyo today for a holiday. Part of the confidence here in markets is the regulators have come out in a jumped in to try to maintain confidence. And some traders seem to be betting that the recent banking turmoil may slow down the tightening of major central banks and we'll see that front and center this week with the U.S. Federal Reserve. Bill ackman of Pershing square said that the fed should not raise its benchmark rate this week, but we heard from Bill Dudley, the former New York fed president, who said he'd probably pause if he were voting, but he does think that the fed should maintain its quantitative tightening. First republic bank plunged on another credit downgrade, its stock sank 47% and is now down 91% in the last month of trading. South Korea's February produced prices rose 4.8% year on year, but it was only 0.1%, month on month. Some other quick numbers for you, the yield on the ten year treasury. Finished up in New York at 3.48%, the two year at three 97, WTI has advanced about two tenths of 1% 67 75. Bitcoin staying firm 27,936 and gold, if you look at gold futures, June, $1999 at tryouts. And that is a check of markets. Let's get to head Baxter in San Francisco for headline news. All right, thank you, Brianna EU is imposed new package of sanctions against Iran. This is its 6th in response to claim human rights violations. It adds 8 individuals and one entity to the already existing list. French president of ania Macron's government is now facing two motions of no confidence in the National Assembly regarding the change to the country's pension system. U.S. president Joe Biden has issued his first veto reject legislation that would thwart a rule allowing retirement portfolio managers to weigh climate change and other governance issues in their investment decisions. Trump fixer Michael Cohen preparing to be a witness for the prosecution of district attorney Alvin Bragg decides to go ahead with a case on Trump. U.S. Pentagon warning that a potential $100 billion budget could cripple recruiting, shipbuilding, and the overhaul of the nuclear triad, it says a devastating impact if that cut budget passes and Russian president Vladimir Putin has told China's president Xi Jinping is ready to look at China's peace initiative regarding Ukraine. Global news powered by more than 2700 journalists and analysts in over 120 countries in San Francisco, I'm Ed Baxter and this is Bloomberg and let
CryptoGlobe
Billionaire Investor Bill Ackman Found SBF Believable During DealBook Summit Interview
"5 p.m. Sunday December 4th, 2022. Billionaire investor Bill ackman found SPF believable during DealBook summit interview. On Saturday, December 3rd, 2022, former crypto skeptic, Bill ackman, the founder and CEO of hedge fund management firm, Pershing square capital management, shared his thoughts on Sam banker, and Friday K SPF, the disgraced cofounder and former CEO of bankrupt crypto exchange FDX. As you may remember, on Wednesday, November 30th, 2022, The New York Times held its.
CoinDesk Podcast Network
"bill ackman" Discussed on CoinDesk Podcast Network
"To note if you're getting your first hardware wallet, you don't need to have that hardware wallet forever to have access to your funds. So I think a lot of people who are just getting into hardware welds are afraid. I'm going to lose this. I lose USB keys, hard drives all the time. As long as you keep that secret phrase safe, you have access to your money. All right, let's transition into our last story. We're talking about a trad 5 figurehead. Feels like a long time since we've done that. American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Bill ackman has turned a leaf and is endorsing crypto in a Twitter thread ackman said he's a fan of helium, the decentralized Wi-Fi mesh network has been accused of some fraudulent endorsements from tech giants like Salesforce and also reportedly exaggerated its relationship with DISH Network. We spoke about that on the show. Months ago, ancient tea, the native token is down nearly 95% over the past year according to coin gecko data, and it seems to me like an odd time for a trad 5 figurehead to come out in support of a project with such a checkered past. It just feels like not the right moment, but I'm going to pass it to you. What did you make of this thread? Crypto was the great Reaper. We have these awesome legendary investors come into the fold and then just get whacked. I don't even know what happens to them. Is that they can't handle it. Last night we saw Mark Cuban just unfollow so many different people in crypto last night. And why? All those coins are down, right? He bought the top. And that happens with a lot of these investors. They come into crypto. They think what's going on. They think they can imply their old models to it. Crypto doesn't work that way. Crypto is pretty wild and you have to you have to hold on for dear life. I know that's not actually what HODL means. But you do have to hold on for dear life in many situations because no one's used to it. Bitcoin hits $69,000 a year ago, and now we touched $15,000 last night, right? And we have a lot of these lending firms blowing up. We've always projects and tokens, everyone thought was going to legitimize the space, explode. And that is part of what crypto, what makes crypto awesome. It's also what makes crypto unappealing for so many people out there. And it's lastly what makes crypto very hard for investors and traditional space to value crypto now. They seemingly always make the wrong bet. And with this instance, helium network does have some troubling aspects about it. They've exaggerated some claims. They've made false claims. There seems to be some things that just flat out did not exist. And there seems to also be some issues without the token itself. Token, it's a cool model, but if it's not a buyer for the token, then it sort of just bleeding value all the time. And there's a lot of investors who bought helium token or bought the node network last year. And now they're racing to zero along with everybody else. So is odd to see him throw this tweet thread up last night. And he got burned on crypto Twitter for doing so. Zack throw it up to you. All right, so full disclosure. I've done a little bit of events programming for helium, so bear with me. I have no HNT bags, no financial stake in this thing. But I will say that you guys might be sort of missing the mystic seeing missing, seeing the forest for the trees missing the forest for the trees. I always mess that one up. But that's one of my keys to you guys here because the point stands step away from HNT as an example. His point is that tokens have a powerful ability to incentivize cooperation across disparate actors. At HNT, I think, has been a poster child of some of the more traditional finance leaning people in the space. I remember this New York Times glowing profile about helium being the one true use case that proves crypto utility some months ago, right? So we've seen that in the mainstream press as sort of a talking point. But I think basically what he's trying to say is tokens, work magic, right? They get people to do things. They get people to bootstrap networks. They get people to bootstrap liquidity in a way that doesn't exist with existing Internet technologies. And that's why he's saying it could be as revolutionary as the Internet or the telephone. After all this craziness shakes out, right? I think a little bit of this is rich guy talking his own book because as you mentioned later on, he's invested in a project that leverages helium, right? So rich guy talking book to me is the story here. Rather than beefing with a particulars of helium and the project itself. But hey, that's just what I'm saying. I think the broader point we often discuss it tokens have a way of incentivizing collective activity. I don't know. What do you guys think? I was going to get there, Zach. I just want to say I was going to get there. I think some of what he said in his Twitter thread is true, and there was a tweet that control threw up on the screen earlier and his outlook on crypto, I think is right and aligned with what we say on the show so often. It just feels weird in the current climate for him to be backing or vocally backing in public on Twitter where everything is unraveling, helium, and then he promoted two other projects, the origin foundation he said he has a stake in the origin foundation, which it's not really clear what they do. And then a position in goldfinch finance. I don't know. It just felt like a weird time, but I'll stop rambling, and Wendy, I'm sorry I cut you off. No, that's okay. I just don't understand why all these really successful people in traditional finance are not really able to take a step back and look and see that crypto still does operate in a four year cycle. It's something that's happened for quite some time. I don't understand I am not the smartest person in the room ever and I never do I want to be, but I don't understand how I get this and I'm able to make a little bit better investment decisions in some of these fancy suits. It just is absolutely mind-blowing, but kudos to them. Kudos needs. Last point, I want to throw some shade back up. I think the token model is fine, right? Like the token model works. But his choice here is like, why did you pick HNT versus any other token and then ecosystem that makes it a little bit more sense? Like H and T has it does have a track record of exaggerating claims at the very least as detailed in this article. And so for him to put this out, just seems like he didn't do any due diligence. And we've seen what that causes with FTX and all these other firms blowing up. Stabbing my one rebuttal. And now we have to close up shop, so I think I win the argument. Wow, you got last word there. That was well timed by you. I will say the lime shout out was definitely a bit sus. So that one had been thoroughly debunked. So maybe he got a little bit of what he deserved. Wow. We all came together, hugs all around. Thanks for watching the hash on a Monday.
CoinDesk Podcast Network
Some Bad News for This Bearish Crypto Market...
"I'm leading off today with some bad news. We keep starting the week off on bad news, but that's kind of where we're at with crypto right now. It's a bear market. Grayscale Bitcoin trust is down to a discount of 43% of its record high. And that's because look at this on the right there. Bitcoin is not doing so great either. 50% of wallets are actually in the red in terms of purchases. So if you look at the longevity of coins and purchase since Bitcoin's inception, 50% of those coins have been purchased and now we're at a loss that's a huge negative note for investors out there who probably purchased during either one of the bull markets and are now sitting on a stack that's underwater. And that leads to different accounts in Bitcoin or different products in Bitcoin that aren't doing so hot either. So we have the grayscale Bitcoin trust, which I mentioned in the second go is down at 43% discount. Of course, coin desk is now owned by DCG, so we'll make a little disclosure there. Why does this matter that this product is at a discount? Well, a lot of people have it in their 401k. That's the reason this trust product actually gained ground and why it's actually a bedrock of crypto is because people had access to Bitcoin in their traditional brokerage account for the first time ever. So it's sort of like a very it's a good metric to follow in terms of Bitcoin. So when it's trading at this high of a discount, you have to start asking questions and wonder what is next. And it is everything okay. The one thing that really should be noted in this is the reason this is trading at discount is because a lot of people thought this would be converted into a Bitcoin ETF. That does not happen because the SEC has not moved forward with allowing any Bitcoin ETFs. So we're still just waiting.
Money For the Rest of Us
"bill ackman" Discussed on Money For the Rest of Us
"Here's the thing though, I don't know anyone who has been successful at a multi level marketing business. But they have to exist, multi level marketing companies are controversial. In 2012, hedge fund manager Bill ackman, who runs the hedge fund Pershing square capital management, made a big short bet. He short the stock of herbal life, a multi level marketing company. He launched his attempt to bring down the company with a three hour presentation titled who wants to be a millionaire.
Squawk Pod
"bill ackman" Discussed on Squawk Pod
"Whatsoever of any kind. And you don't intend to. I have no interest in whatsoever. Lila, help us with this also from a disclosure perspective. As I was reading about you in the context of this case and the work that you've been doing, there have been critics who have called trafficking hub, which is the group that you work for, an abolitionist endeavor related to a Kansas City church called the international House of prayers that's trying to reframe conservative ideas of sexual purity. This is from an article in Vanity Fair. And I just wanted to put that on the table so that everybody who's listening to this understands your history as well. Yeah, absolutely. And I would respond to that by saying it's absolutely untrue. The trafficking hub movement is supported by 600 organizations around the world. Sex workers and those in the porn industry have been vocal supporters, the queen of foreign, the most famous porn star of all time, has been very vocal in supporting we have 2.2 million people who have signed the petition to shut down Pornhub and hold its executives accountable from 192 countries. And this is not about legal consensual pornography. This is about sex crime scenes, masquerading, as pornography on the world's largest porn sites. And this is in the interest of the porn industry itself. So we're now out here to put an end to legal pornography. We're here to put an end to rape, filmed rape, child sexual abuse that's being monetized on mainstream pornography sites, namely Pornhub. We're talking about Visa right now, but one of the questions invariably that comes up is, where is Mastercard on this, but also what about the Internet service providers that effectively allow access for the public to get to these sites and what kind of culpability accountability you think they should be held to? Absolutely. Listen, Mastercard is still doing business with mind geek as well. And I've been in touch with their executives in the same way. The CE the former CEO recognized child pornography on the sites, child sexual abuse material, and they stopped doing business for a time. They have reinstated their business with the advertising arm of my geek, which is how they make 50% of their revenue. And I would just say that, you know, I've spoken the top executives management level executives at mind geek have come to me and they have told me the only thing that they're concerned about, the only thing that can make them change the way that they do business to halt this kind of exploitation is the credit card companies. That is their main concern. And that is why Visa and Mastercard have the most power. They have more power over the situation than government legislation. The moment that they enact policies that require aging consent verification for every person and every video immediately, this company will fall in line. And so I think that their power and all of this is extremely, extremely important. Hey Bill, two things. Real quick. Where do you think the line should be? I know this case is narrow, but there are questions about what kind of liability Visa or Mastercard would be otherwise held to in other circumstances. If there was a bar that routinely was providing drinks to underage kids, for example, or to over serving people and they were routinely creating drunk driving issues. For example, should they be held to account? We talked about guns, other things. Where do you think the line should be for this? The line should be extremely narrow. I think that the payment system is a critical part of kind of global infrastructure and commerce. And I think it's an extreme measure when these are Mastercard shuts down a merchant. But if a merchant's business is fundamentally illegal, I mean, actually, it's pretty simple way to think about it when online poker was illegal. And it's still a legal in various places. Visa and Mastercard didn't provide payment support for those sites. Pretty straightforward, right? If you have a site selling heroin and cocaine on the online, I guarantee you that Mastercard and Visa isn't providing payment support. And if you have a site where people are putting up videos. Of children are being raped or anyone that's being raped, by the way, and by the way, the site is also filled with adult unconsented videos and rape and other problems. On the most egregious front, you focus on the kids. My focus here has been on Visa and Mastercard are both culpable. But here we have a judge that's rendered decision against Visa and it's very, very clear what the facts are. Read where the judge is coming from, I encourage everyone to read the decision. I find it extraordinary that a company that really Visa doesn't actually do very much. Think about their business model. It's a brand. We've got some pipes. They authorize and de authorize merchants, and then they figure out which sports teams to sponsor whether the Olympics and they fight with Mastercard over that. And that's their very fundamentally their business model. And so the thing that you need to focus on with the board needs to focus on is their reputation. And regulatory risk. And by the way, let's not put aside the economic loss here for a second, right? There's a case making its way through the courts. Now, in federal court, where the victim is suing. And this is going to be a jury trial, okay? We're actually making sure, you know, in many cases, you have a class action lawyer gets together people that's great for the defendant because they can settle the case, pennies on the dollar. It's great for the lawyer because they can make a windfall. In this case, you've got a great law firm run if you got one plaintiff. Their first test case make its way through the courts. How do you think a jury is going to react here? Yeah, I would add that this is one plaintiff. But I have victims reaching out to me on a very regular basis. I've been in touch with hundreds. And so Visa needs to realize the liability, the floodgates have been opened with this decision. And I guarantee you, you're going to see many lawsuits following this one. This is not the end for vista. Keys will be next. Lila, we are going to press pause for a second and thank you and Bill, we're going to come back with you after the break to continue a little bit of this discussion as well as talk about the markets inflation and what you think is happening next in our economy. Spot box coming right back after this, thanks. This is where capitalism was created in our country. Bringing med money to the New York Stock Exchange is like bringing it home and I can't wait to bring it to you. Not money at the end when you see weeknight 6 eastern CNBC. You're listening to squawk pod. Today with Joe kernan and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Here's Andrew. We are speaking this morning with Pershing square CEO Bill ackman, a bill. We also want to talk to you about the economy, the fed, the state of the markets you've also been tweeting recently. I should say that I hope you're over COVID because I know you had said you had had COVID and that's why you're spending so much time on Twitter. But you've had a lot of very strong views about inflation about where the economy is heading. What's your, what's your current take about the economy itself, but also where the stock markets are in terms of fairly valued or not? Yeah, I think the economy is actually quite strong right now. The question is where it's going to be in 6 months and 12 months. But we're at full employment. There are plenty of jobs available, wages are going up. Howard Hughes company we own is opening a food hall. The John George food health fall at the south street seaport. We've had to hire 600 people. And they've been working really hard to do it. We've only hired 350 people in the last couple of months. If you're looking for a job, it's a good one there. So I think the economy itself is very strong. I had the opportunity to see Jamie Dimon this weekend, and I apologize, I do. I still am a little congested from COVID and Jamie
Squawk Pod
"bill ackman" Discussed on Squawk Pod
"Reaction that you've gotten from Visa? Yeah, I mean, Visa has known about this for a very, very long time, as you said. Not only from my own personal communications, all the way up to CEO level, executives and VPs, but also through the news. I mean, egregious cases of child rape proliferating in the news cycle, they were very aware that this has been going on. I mean, even as early as 2019, the London Sunday times did an investigation of Pornhub and they found within minutes dozens of videos of illegal content, including children as young as three years old. When that was in the news PayPal immediately withdrew their services from my gate completely, Heinz and Unilever has disengaged with them. Every actually every legitimate corporation has stopped doing business with mind geek, but Visa persists. And they have persisted. They have refused to disengage from this company essentially as the judge said, continuing to give them the tools through which they complete their crimes of child trafficking and the distribution and monetization of child pornography. And it's unacceptable. And to this day, I'll tell you before I got on this show, I went and checked. Again, within minutes, dozens of videos that would constitute trafficking, rape, completely blatantly non consensual content, and I could take my Visa card this moment. And I could go purchase ads 4.6 billion ad impressions on Pornhub every day that Visa enables to be monetized that actually advertise, monetize and commercialize the torture and the immortalization of the torture because these videos, they're downloaded, they're reuploaded victims say, my trauma will live on, but after I'm dead, the harm is so serious, I could take my Visa, I could purchase an ad to make sure that video will continue to be monetized and continue to proliferate on the Internet. And Al Kelly needs to stop and he needs to disengage, then he needs to implement policies that would prevent this from happening in the future. What does that mean? Just like credit card companies have anti money laundering policies, they need anti child exploitation and trafficking policies that say we will not do business with user generated porn sites unless they reliably verify the age and the unambiguous consent of every individual in every video. And that is what will ultimately halt this exploitation. Bill, you have said online just in the past 72 hours effectively that you believe that there could be huge liability for Visa as a company for the board and the board members individually and for Al Kelly personally potentially even criminally. Why do you say that? Sure, really, there are two forms of liability here. There's sort of the traditional breach of fiduciary duty, right? When a company has a product or service that can cause harm and the cases are the cases of Listeria with soup or jam or something like this, a board has an obligation to have a monitoring system in place to make sure that that product or service is not causing harm. In this case, of course, the payment system being used for illegal activity, which is enabling child trafficking. That's something the board needs to pay very close attention to. They don't have that system in place and not properly monitoring that risk. We're exposed to what's called camera liability, case ultimately went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court found that boards of directors have personal liability for not having such systems in place. So either they have a system in place or they don't. If they don't, and they don't think that sort of Caremark liability. If they do have a system in place and they understand what's going on, then they have criminal liability for being aware of and facilitating the payments that enable child trafficking. And there is a criminal statute for this. Obviously, the government and does not allow this kind of conduct. And the payment rails that enable this conduct, you know, create criminal liability for the CEO. I mean, Lila, as you can tell, is a fierce advocate. She's not afraid to reach out to people in power. She shared with me email. She sent to the company. She's been dealing with an executive vice president of global brand reputation and security. I mean, you know, the highest level people who report to the CEO and what I find particularly, I would say, is if you read the Visa and report and you read the letter to shareholders, again, another example of a company what I would call virtue signaling, talking about how they care about communities, how they care about empowering sort of economically disadvantaged people. And maybe they say that in writing. But here's a way to think about the worst harm economic physical mental harm you can impact upon a human being, it's having a child trafficked and having their video of the break appear. It's hard to even talk about it. And I just, it makes any member of this board who hasn't read that court decision. And by the way, this is not, this is a judge that Joe kernan would like. This is an extremely conservative judge. This is a very narrowly written decision. He's not saying that he's responsible for anything that takes place, you know, someone goes and buys a gun using a Visa card. He's not saying that Visa is liable. What are you saying is they are the known accessory to a crime because they know or should have known that this various mind websites that this activity is taking place today, right? And I don't want to look myself. So a lot of that can do her thing. But take a look at what's going on here. Bill, just to put it all on the table here from a disclosure perspective, given that there have been questions about statements you have made over the years and potential stock investments. Do you have a short position, a long position in anything related to this in Visa, Mastercard, American Express, any type of retailer that you think would either benefit or get hurt from this in some way that I can't even be that I don't even know about. Absolutely not. We own 7 stocks. They're publicly disclosed. I guess Lowe's takes Visa and Mastercard. But so does restaurant Burger King, you know, use the payment systems. But I have no economic involvement here whatsoever. Zero. And you know, it's unfortunate that I can't actually advocate on behalf of something that's, you know, the benefit of humanity without people assuming I have some side interests. As you know, we gave up short selling a number of years ago and actually, if I could do it all over again, we would have run the Herbalife campaign without having an economic interest in the company would have been bankrupt from the victims would have been protected a long time ago. You know, unfortunately, if a shortened to short seller has an economic stake, people assume what they say is not true. In this case, absolutely no economic interest
Squawk Pod
"bill ackman" Discussed on Squawk Pod
"Do you think? Well, I mean, it's very difficult to say. I mean, obviously, president Xi is going to want to look very strong. But if he does take as you're suggesting, possibly a calculated bet that he wants to go ahead and maybe have some military move on Taiwan or something like that. Then he also has to think about the detrimental effect that that could have on China. So, you know, he is, he does have to manage this economic situation, which is currently not going very well. The relationship with the U.S. is kind of in the doldrums. He's not being seen as the best when it comes to zero COVID. A lot of people very frustrated, even though they don't necessarily talk about it publicly. So he's kind of managing a situation, which is very difficult. So he wants to make sure that he projects himself as strong, but doesn't put China in a situation where the economy and society starts to turn on him ultimately in on the Chinese Communist Party. This morning, thank you for breaking it down for us. Appreciate it, Joe. Hi, thanks, Anna, coming up. Twitter report, yeah. As a state, does he care about being a statesman? Andrew, that's what I would think that that for me, that's the way I'd handle it. I mean, by the way, maybe he's going to be forced to handle it as a statesman in this moment. Right. You know, my view about this is sort of the priority of when you decide to pick your fights and you know, is this one of those moments? Just for cakes. But it's too late. It's too late for us. Maybe, but the situation in China is I think there's a human sort of dynamic of respect is considered super important. Now I know that a lot of people don't respect the Chinese, but I do think that if you're trying to have a relationship, recognizing that there are different cultures and the like, but I know if I say these things, I'm going to be described as some kind of, you know, hand to hugging something or other. I don't know. But I don't know. They're pretty cute. I mean, it's hard. It's hard not to, in the Cincinnati zoo has had great success over the years. I know a little bit about that. Next, on squawk pod a hard look at corporate accountability. Hedge fund investor Bill ackman is furious at Visa for working with an Internet giant known to have hosted child pornography. A board has an obligation to have a monitoring system in place to make sure that that product or service is not causing harm. He took to Twitter and now he's on squawk box with justice defense fund founder Leila mcelwain. PayPal immediately withdrew their services from Mindy completely Heinz and Unilever has disengaged with them. Every actually every legitimate corporation has stopped doing business with mind geek, but Visa persists that conversation is right after this. This is where capitalism was created in our country. Bringing med money to the New York Stock Exchange is like bringing it home and I can't wait to bring it to you. Not money at the end where you see weeknight 6 eastern CNBC. This is squawk pod from CNBC, and this next conversation is about the shocking legal case against Pornhub's parent company mind geek and Visa, a warning before you listen to this. We delve into the disturbing world of child exploitation and sex trafficking. Yesterday on this podcast we brought you a discussion with the attorney representing a woman suing mind geek for posting explicit videos of her recorded when she was just 13 years old. The legal crux of this story is the allegation that Visa was aware of illegal and underage pornography on mind geek's porn hub site continued to offer its payment tools and services to the company anyway, and then brought upon itself liability in any crime, a U.S. district court judge has denied Visa's request to be removed from the lawsuit. So key players in this story are mind geek, the CEO of Visa, L Kelly, and Bill ackman, the famed hedge funder and short seller whose outraged tweet storm over the weekend brought the story to the top of our own anchor news feeds. Here's Andrew. In a statement to CNBC, a Visa spokesperson said, this pre trial ruling is disappointing and mischaracterizes visas role in its policies and practices Visa will not tolerate the use of our network for illegal activity. Joining us now to talk about all of this in an exclusive interview is Bill ackman, CEO of Pershing square. He has taken a vocal stance against Visa and mind geek over this lawsuit. And Lila Miko wait, an activist and founder of the justice defense fund, thank you for joining us to talk about what is an immensely important story, both when it comes to child pornography, but also to the role that financial services companies, in this case, Visa may have played in it. Bill, I want to start with you because you've been very vocal online about this and you've also been working behind the scenes related to it, where does your interest in this come from and tell us about how it began? My interest comes from the fact that four daughters and I read this article that Nick kristof had written in the times, describing how mind geek and its companion sites Pornhub operates and the harm it's caused. And the horror of it all. And one of the centerpieces of the article is how the business persists because it's funded or the payments are funded for the Visa and Mastercard network and what shocked me was the network is one of the greatest businesses in the world owning the pipes that convey commerce and taking a little royalty on every payment that goes through. But a key part of their business is Visa's job if you think about it. It's maintaining brand integrity. This is one of the most important brands in the world when people put a Visa card or a Mastercard or American Express card out of their wallet. What drives them is the power and the quality of the brand. If you think about the most important risks to that brand reputational risk, regulatory risk, but remarkably, the company despite being entirely aware that there's child pornography on these sites. And it's littered with child pornography. They continue to provide payment services until the Christophe article, and then they shut down the sites overnight, which would have bankrupted them. And then within a matter of weeks, they reauthorized the merchants and they started accepting payments again, and the crime continues. And there have been hearings in Canada around the world. People doing the best to shut down these companies. And the ultimate regulator is actually Visa. Visa tomorrow could shut down mind cake. We had a court decision that came down on Friday, where it was very, very clear that the judge is extremely concerned with behavior of Visa. And yet Visa continues to provide payment services to Pornhub and advertising that takes place on Pornhub, premium services, the wheels of commerce of child trafficking are being I'm not making up the language. Look at the judges, decisions, really remarkable. Lila, you have been fighting this cause for a very long time. You've been in touch with Visa. You've brought your concerns to them directly. There have been emails and other documentation about this. What has been the
Squawk Pod
"bill ackman" Discussed on Squawk Pod
"Did business. We're up against the heartbreak in just a moment. So I have to ask you, Al Kelly, do you believe that he should be held criminally liable for what Visa has done here? And recognizing that their defense is they should not be in the business of policing what their merchants do. When they know that their merchants are engaged in crime and then and he knew, they knew this was at the CEO and board level for at least two years. And they continue to do that business. So yes. Michael, we appreciate you joining us. It is a longer conversation. I'm sure we'll be talking to you and others about this big topic and actually seismic potentially news event in terms of what it could mean to the industry more broadly. Michael, we appreciate you being here this week. He was emphasizing how specific and very specific and unique this is, because to try to do it, to try to police and monitor every single activity that Visa but let me just say there are other cases like this, just so we're clear. So it's not that unique, but it's certainly maybe one or 2% of oh, it's a small number, but there's a number of companies and merchants that Visa and Mastercard do business with knowingly that are involved in criminal behavior. And that is the point. Cheese will be next. Still to come on squawk pod investing for impact, why a complete portfolio, and a good company these days includes an ESG strategy, with Ford foundation president Darren walker. It's a shame that this backlash is occurring. I fear it's ideological and not based on data and facts. We'll be right back. Tired of writing the stock market roller coaster, whether you're in stocks, bonds, crypto or tick. This year has been a bumpy ride. Most people are worried about their investments right now, but bear markets don't have to be scary. Take a different investing approach with a mutual fund built for the storm. Abraham trading company believes the diversification can help your investments thrive in challenging markets, since 1990, investors have chosen Abraham trading funds for their strong diversification and risk management. Their mutual fund, the Abraham fortress fund, aims to be a solution for today's volatile markets. Learn what the Abraham fortress fund can do for your portfolio at Abraham trading dot com or follow the fortress fund symbols and FOR KX Abraham trading, confident investing starts here. The fund's investment objectives risk charges and expenses must be considered carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other important information about your investment company, and it may be obtained by calling 8 zero 6 three two three 8000 or visiting Abraham trading dot com, read it carefully before investing, mutual fund investing involves risk, principal loss is possible. That's performance does not guarantee future results, distributor. IMST distributors LLC. You're listening to squawk pod. Welcome back to squawk box right here on CNBC we're live from the NASDAQ market side in Times Square mantra Sorkin along with Joe kernan Becky's off this morning. 5 years ago, the Ford foundation took a $1 billion from its endowment and started on a mission to make investments that address big social issues while at the same time earning a good return of the 5 year mark the initiative is reporting a compound annual return rate of 28%, I think most people would be more than happy with that. And the foundation saying it's portfolio has generated measurable social impact. For more on the results, I want to bring in Darren walker. He's the president of the Ford foundation. Darren, it's great to see you this morning. I should say you are a former corporate lawyer also banker, bond trader. So I think of you as much a professional investor as just about anything else. Let's talk about ESG because right now it feels like ESG is in the crosshairs. You were sort of at the early edge of it here, putting this money to work to try to show that it could work. And yet we're now in this sort of remarkable political moment where there seems to be a backlash against it. Well, that's really unfortunate, Andrew, because this is good for the markets. This is good for our country. This is good for investors. So let's look at the Ford foundation's portfolio in three primary asset classes. In affordable housing, we invested in fund managers who created or preserved over 23,000 units of housing for low to moderate income Americans. We invested in 15 FinTech companies that are serving the global south, the developing world. We invested in health companies that served over 76 million consumers around the globe and diagnostics, Therapeutics in vaccine development. So it is possible we believe to do both an investment that provides both a financial return and a social return. I agree, Andrew, it's a shame that this backlash is occurring. It's unfortunate. I fear it's ideological and not based on data and facts. And this is market driven. This comes out of consumers, clients, every firm on Wall Street is creating ESG funds, not because they're being proud beaten by activists, but because customers, clients are saying we want to buy these products. We want to buy products. We want to invest in ways that do as little harm or no harm to the planet as we can. So what do you think when you see somebody like Elon Musk, who's built Tesla, by the way, on the back of the argument around the climate, of course, now calling ESG a scam? I think it's unfortunate. And hopefully Tesla will stand as a company that is both an investment in the planet and an investment that returns you a good financial yield. I really don't to me this is less about the personalities who are fanning the flames here and more about let's look at the data. Let's look at the numbers. Let's look at the social impact. And then we'll question what we can make the assessment. In terms of the investments that have worked thus far. And frankly, maybe some of the investments that have and what have been the lessons in terms of the metrics you used to make those investments and what the results turned out to be. Well, we need to invest in the areas that make a difference in the lives of people in this country and the world. So housing, for example, healthcare, education, workforce, and the American worker. These are all investments that are rock solid that get you both a strong ROI and get you a social return. So let's look at the things that matter in this country that give people an opportunity to get on the mobility escalator. And if we invest in those things, we will get both a financial return and a social return. Darren, and not to bring it back to politics, but one of the things that's happened really in the last year is you've seen political leaders often on the right who have effectively decided to go after companies that have made ESG emission. You've seen this now from governor desantis in Florida. There's a whole movement in West Virginia now, and if you saw the treasurer there in the state of Texas against some of the banks that were decided that they weren't going to finance gun
Squawk Pod
"bill ackman" Discussed on Squawk Pod
"Single winning ticket was sold for the past Friday's mega millions drawing. The ticket was worth $1.3 billion that's with a B, it was sold at a speedway gas station in Illinois. We may never know who won, however, because Illinois is one of the states where the winner can choose not to be identified publicly, which is pretty much how I would do it. I would recommend that to anyone who does who does win. Come out of the going to hiding. You've seen how they've gone and tracked the lives of a lot of people. It doesn't work out for a lot of folks who are too jarring. That still doesn't stop me from wanting. Do you remember? You remember how much trouble Richard Pryor had trying to spend. Yes. Brewster's millions. Yeah. We're showing our age here by talking about producers, millions. Money is a root of all evil. You think? Yes. Look at us here on squawk box. That's what Arthur Brooks always says. It's not about the money you can make X amount of dollars or a hundred X amount of dollars. It's getting up. It's contributing. It's being productive. Okay, so if you earn success. If you had won the 1.3 billion, first of all, you're taking a lump sum. Yeah. You take the lump sum. And what are you buying? First thing. A ticket out of here. To get out of here, you know, come on. I would put it in the bank and still come in every day just to be with you. I would. I know you would. I would do the same actually. That's how crazy we are. I know it is. Next, on squawk pod, Pornhub's child exploitation scandal. Yet you heard that correctly. A federal judge has ruled that Visa can be sued as part of a case against Pornhub for monetizing child abuse and sex trafficking. The decision is just so fascinating. The implications for Visa and other financial services companies plus how is famed short seller Bill ackman involved? Could the board be held accountable? Could the CEO be held accountable criminally? It's all right after this. Tired of writing the stock market roller coaster, whether you're in stocks, bonds, crypto or tick. This year has been a bumpy ride. Most people are worried about their investments right now, but bear markets don't have to be scary. Take a different investing approach with a mutual fund built for the storm. Abraham trading company believes the diversification can help your investments thrive in challenging markets, since 1990, investors have chosen Abraham trading funds for their strong diversification and risk management. Their mutual fund, the Abraham fortress fund, aims to be a solution for today's volatile markets. Learn what the Abraham fortress fund can do for your portfolio at Abraham trading dot com or follow the fortress fund symbols and FO archaic Abraham trading confident investing starts here. The fund's investment objectives risk charges and expenses must be considered carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other important information about your investment company and it may be obtained by calling 8 zero 6 three two three 8000 or visiting Abraham trading dot com, read it carefully before investing. Mutual fund investing involves risk, principal loss is possible. That's performance does not guarantee future results distributor. IMST distributors LLC. This is squawk pod. I'm producer Katie Kramer, a warning here is appropriate. This next story on our podcast discusses the disturbing world of child pornography online, mind geek is a privately held Canadian founded digital conglomerate that owns some of the most popularly visited websites in the adult content industry, perhaps it's best known brand is the site Pornhub, which makes money from advertising and from a paywall. In 2020, credit card company Visa paused payment processing for Pornhub following revelations that it had hosted videos depicting child abuse, one of the victims is suing both Visa and Pornhub's parent, mind geek, and says Visa either knew or should have known it was facilitating abuse. Visa's inclusion in the case and what happens next legally certainly grabbed Wall Street's attention over the weekend, hedge funder Bill ackman, of Pershing square capital management, tweeted on Saturday. A federal judge rendered a decision that no one has likely read, you should. The lawsuit is against mind geek, the largest Internet porn company in the world and Visa both are culpable. Alternate back over now to Andrew Ross Sorkin and Joe kernan. Okay, we've got a story. This to me may actually turn out to be one of the biggest stories in business this week, which is this. New developments in a lawsuit against Pornhub's parent company mind geek, a judge talking about whether Visa intentionally helped monetize child pornography on Friday a district judge denied the payment company's motion to be dropped from the suit. So this would be holding Visa accountable for what was happening on Pornhub, the court saying, quote, Visa being kept in this case because it is alleged to have continued to recognize as a merchant, an immense well-known, highly visible business that it knew used its websites to host and monetize child porn. Adding Visa lent to mind geek a much needed tool, its payment network with the alleged knowledge that there was a wealth of monetized child porn on mind geek's websites. Over the weekend, investor Bill ackman, who says he has no financial stake in Visa or any other payment company tweeted about that case. And calling visas behavior inexcusable likely to cause the company incalculable financial and reputational damage and potential criminal liability for the board, potentially by the way I'd add for its executives. Now, in a statement to CNBC a Visa spokesman said quote, this pretrial ruling is disappointing and mischaracterizes Visa's role in its policies and practices. Visa will not tolerate the use of our network for illegal activity. We'll have more on that in a second. But it's a fascinating and important case because it potentially could hold Visa and Mastercard and other credit card networks. Yeah, I wonder if financial services companies for accountable for wrongdoings that happen as a result of the financial payment. Now, in this case, you might remember Nick kristof from The New York Times to his credit, about a year and a half ago, wrote a piece really exposing what was happening on these porn sites and how they were being used for trafficking and for child pornography and just how really terrible it was, but more importantly, what happened in the aftermath of that was that Visa and Mastercard actually decided to stop doing business with those companies because they realized there was illegal activity on those sites. They shouldn't be in that business. However, interestingly enough, after the sort of hubbub of all that went down, these Mastercard came back to the table and actually reestablished relationships with those sites. And
Squawk Pod
"bill ackman" Discussed on Squawk Pod
"Wants. Bill ackman has now taken a stake in Netflix, the billionaire hedge fund manager saying, he bought more than 3.1 million shares after the stock had plunged last week and makes him a top 20 shareholder and a tweet as yesterday, ackman said, quote, I have long admired Reed Hastings in the remarkable company. He and his team have built were delighted that the market is now presented us with this opportunity and a letter to investors ackman wrote about his positions and Netflix and also in Universal Music groups saying quote we are all in on streaming as we love the business models, the industry context and the management teams. Now ackman's Pershing square owns 10% of Universal Music group. You remember he gained that stake after the deal for his spac to buy that stake fell apart. So there's an interesting irony there because that deal actually looks like it's also been a great boon for him. Could have been a boon for spac investors. And we talk about all the spacs that have not done so well. One could have gotten here in the SEC. The little guy against making some money finally. Bill could have gotten in on Netflix for 10% of where it is even after the sell off if he wasn't playing around with JCPenney. I mean, in a lot of those other crappy place. So he had a chance to buy Netflix just like the rest of us all along 5 years ago. 6, 7 years ago. So now what's he paying? He's paying up ten times what it was when he set passing out those little buttons that said remember that you find a way to critique him at every turn. Warren Buffett got a critique. He got into Apple late. When it was nothing, but nobody sits around and says Warren Buffett's a dope for getting when he got in. We'll see. That's my point. In hindsight, Warren Buffett looks pretty smart for what he did. We'll see what happens with exactly. But that's the point. We will see whether Bill ackman looks smart or dumb in the general growth. They were some of the greatest buys of all time. But past performance isn't indicative of the future. He's got more money than any of us will ever even think about having. A lot of people to criticize him too because they said, look at what happened with IBM. He got heavily criticized when he first bought in. It's only later now that if you're 51%, that's what I said. If you're 51%, you're doing well. And we're doing this as total armchair cord. I said that yesterday. We got the best job in the world. We don't have to be right about anything. That's perfect. So the financial middle matter if we could be right. Well, keep trying, Andrew. He's will be next. Next, on squawk pod, walk on Neil Young, we're rocking in a free world. Spotify is picking its most lucrative podcaster Joe Rogan over the legendary musician. But how many artists would Spotify be willing to sacrifice? Axios media reporter Sarah Fisher. The question that I have is where a Spotify going to draw the line in the future. That conversation is right after this. You got to take a listen to this. It's squawk pod. That's right, CNBC's flagship business news show is a podcast. Squawk pot. It is not just the show, folks. It might be even better because it's only audio. Join me, Katie Kramer, as I take you inside the squawk box control room and beyond the headlines of our TV broadcast with Joe kernan, Becky quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin. Every weekday. Subscribe to squawk pod on Apple podcasts, Spotify, stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to squawk pod. Good morning and welcome back to squawk box right here on CNBC and draw a circle along with Becky quick and Joe kernan. Musician Neil Young issuing Spotify and ultimatum, young a Rogan, not both. Now the streaming giant granting young's wishes taking down his entire music library from the platform, young said earlier this week that he didn't want his music on the same platform as podcast or Joe Rogan, accusing him of spreading disinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. Now, Spotify says it's detailed content policies in place that it has those and has removed 20,000 COVID related podcast episodes since the start of the pandemic put the company has a big bet going on rogue and it signed a deal with him in 2020 worth more than a $100 million. It's taken down, I don't know if they are Rogan podcasts. It's taken down a bunch of the Rogan podcast, but not necessarily related to COVID. Clearly they've made a bet on Rogan. The question that I would ask guys is whether you think other musicians and if a band of musicians were to come together and call it Spotify, I mean, when I say a band, not just one band. Lots of the bands coming together. Saying, hey, rather than a cigarette. But we're not cool with this. Having said that, I think it's very hard given that a lot of songs have a lot of lyrics that people find objectionable. People want to be creative and say what they want to say. So I think musicians may be in a tougher spot in certain cases to object to some of this, having said that, you know my view on vaccines and the Kaiser foundation, even though you may get infected, it would have saved a 163,000 people just in the past 6 months alone. So, look, they've stood up. And in the past, not just about this, but about other issues that kind of infuriated some of their employees. So they're in. They're all in with Joe Rogan. Well, I think he is a legend. And I love Neil Young. And I listen to him all the time. Still. But when you said you're going to use me, you're going to lose me. It picked between Joe Rogan. That was a foregone conclusion. If neo thinks he's still got the juice to kick Rogan off. And he's like, tell Spotify give him an ultimatum. So they know that. Okay, see you Neil. I don't even know that they he thought they were going to kick them off. I think Neil Young. Making a point. He always has with his music. You know, he's just something a lot of people like to do with making a point about things like that he was still in negotiations both with his record company and Spotify even after this happened. So who knows how long before he'll be back? But if you had Taylor Swift and Adele and name your name your top, the top 5 artists that are played on that platform, if they all banded together and said, no go. I think that Daniel eck would have a different night have to think about this in a different way. So you haven't heard anybody else speak up yet. But then you got artists who would say their First Amendment people because there are some very, very pro first amendments. So Neil, I've seen Neil say other stuff. I find I listen to his music, I just don't listen to him when he talks, so and this goes back years, but that's just me. What's that? Harper's moon, harvest moon, right? Harvest food is a great song. Joining us now Sarah Fisher, axios, media reporter, a lot of high flung intentions being ascribed to both sides as well as just down and dirty profit modes I think it's probably a little bit of both, Sarah. I mean, Spotify, they paid Joe Rogan a lot of money. It's very profitable for Spotify. But they could certainly say artists like Rogan have a First Amendment protection to and we're standing up for the First Amendment. And then I could see Neil Young saying, well, I have a First Amendment right as well. And the free market for me means that I want you to take my music down. So maybe the free market is working. I'm sure you have some, you have some.
Invested: The Rule #1 Podcast
"bill ackman" Discussed on Invested: The Rule #1 Podcast
"No data company has large. Does tesla have large barrier to entry or not. Maybe i mean. I would say that there's different ones like for example a very high capital intensive industry that requires a lot of money to get into the game. I would call that a large barrier to entry or it's a lot of the mody stuff you know or something a business sarah an area where Everybody just buys the standard brand so like coca cola. Fantastic example of that. It's very hard to get into the. What do you call that. What coach pepsi he calls distribution. No but like what do you call like the dark. Cola that coke and pepsi both. Are there some name for that. So if you wanna make a dark cola and that's the niche that you're trying to get into it's gonna be really hard to get into that one because they've got the market. Yeah and they've got the market because they spend a tremendous amount of money and have for one hundred years on branding so they've got a piece of your head i don't and and the way the product tastes right is also you get a certain addictions and that's what you want. I wanna coke. I don't drink pepsi. i don't even like pepsi right. So so i don't like to go taco bell even though i like tacos because they don't have cokes. Yeah right so crap for the benefit of the audience is one hundred percent true and annoying when you wanna have sas food of a certain type and we're in one car together. It is so true so large barrett entry is massively important and it's really easy to to make an error here particularly if the business isn't simple if you don't know what the barrier to entry is just assume that it's too hard the the the companies aren't move on and i thought for me. This is a place of really thinking about. What is the future bringing down for this industry or this niche industry good. What kind of barriers aren't going to exist in five years and i'm thinking about the wrong stuff. This is like one of those. I'm selling encyclopedias question. And it's really hard to get into making encyclopedias because you have to have such a great Process of people write them. And then you have to have printers and you have to have distribution. It's a really great business with really high barriers to entry until nobody wants an encyclopedia all of a sudden right. 'cause everything's on the internet. Yeah hundred percent. True large bears interest. Figure that out that's super key And this next one is super easy. I mean free cash flow.
Invested: The Rule #1 Podcast
"bill ackman" Discussed on Invested: The Rule #1 Podcast
"That's it i. it's so short and so fast and he clearly house with them. So dan did you get that way driving in your car exactly wreck exactly so from that. Let's let's unfold this because we do use this every day and it's so funny that say that because we talked about it whenever we did those episodes and i found them so helpful that i wrote them out for myself and i keep them on my bulletin board in front of my desk and just so that i make sure i look at them on the regular. It's they're just they're just good. They're just goes goes to the point that i mean we've done five years of podcast around the basic principles that charlie outlined. Which are you know. Make sure understand the business. It's got a durable competitive advantages got management you trust in you by the margin of safety all right but if you're not careful these things just become words and yeah parise point not really attentive to what it means to be able to understand the business. So what and. I think. That happened to bill honestly. I think it happens to everybody. Well it makes a lot of sense. It's actually human nature because you're right they do turn into just words and then you start thinking about all the details of what goes into those for principals as we've done like crazy so i i really like it that he's he's made it clear what charlie means by being able to understand the business by number one principle that it's simple and predictable. Yeah and that is actually better for us. We we liked that better than are we capable of understanding because hubris can creep right in there man. It's like of course we are. We're smart yeah. Also a great point experienced. I've been doing this for forty years.
Invested: The Rule #1 Podcast
"bill ackman" Discussed on Invested: The Rule #1 Podcast
"Invest podcast. Where we talking as you guys know about how to invest. I mean really how to invest. That's what you said last time. Something about the endless pursuit of learning about investing. Well that is just at the root of all great investors. They never stop leaning. Never stop learning. I'm sure i've told you guys about going over to see why he kita and discovering that he wanted to meet me. Because i'd written. I mean for somebody in japan might rule number one. It's got to be a bit of an obscure book particularly for a billionaire investor. And here's this guy. Eighty four years old and he's reading my book. I mean it's just ridiculous to me about the level of constant learning that the very best investors in the world never they never stop they. Never stop. Charlie mongers a learning machine at ninety seven years old ninety seven. He's learning didn't charlie. Just say how happy was that. He just found out one of the key things that he always believed in his whole life was totally not true. He says i did. He say recently as well and just constantly learning and constantly trying to improve himself. I just love that. Warren buffett constantly reading buffet reads and he's ninety reading. How many pages a week do you rate. I mean buffets ninety. Okay about five hundred pages a week. Somebody estimated yes. He read our book. Let's not go that for. We know he looked at it and read the.
Squawk Pod
Taking the SPAC out of Ackman
"Ackman spec the biggest in history dropping a deal to buy ten percent of a wendy's flagship universal music group pershing square tanti in holdings agreed to buy that stake last month. You remember for about four billion dollars but the spec announcing early this morning that the board had unanimously decided not to proceed with the purchase in a letter to shareholders. Bill ackman decision with driven by issues raised by the sec about several elements the proposed transaction in particular whether the structure would have qualified under nyse. Rules ackman said they would now pursue a conventional spec merger. Something else so they're going to now there's going to be a effectively a new deal over the next eighteen months. I've got to go buy something pershing's spac price has fallen eighteen percent since the g. purchase was announced on june fourth akron city underestimated shareholders reaction to the complexity of all of it. Remember that structure that we've talked about. Joe said we all serve struggling to to sort of make sense of how it would all work ackman said that pershing still intends to become a long term shareholder of you. Mg after its public listing in amsterdam in september
This Week in Startups
"bill ackman" Discussed on This Week in Startups
"That are doing huge amount of work. But they do it instantly. So that the consumer for for the zuma's like bush upon get a car payments Taking care of the negative is that you lose the context of why something surging and it's hard to explain because you make it so damn simple and soda fast and i think extending the definition of number An and making every single interaction. Whether you're taking the subway or taking the bus or taking a e scooter or you're taking over making it all delightful Is is is really going to be teams going forward taking out the pain travis's rallying cry. Like that's where he wouldn't participate in and i was. I thought tepid forever. And i couldn't even rug idaho. Well i mean. I understand his point which was it just adds another cognitive dissonance moment. You have to. Oh my god. is it included as it. Not and he had the idea of six or like a hidden star. You'd hold down the star and that it would be a six you could give tap is always tipping in cash but tipping tiptop worked out. Pretty well i think yeah. It's it's helped out driver earnings than anything that helps out. Your earnings is a good thing and and you know it creates an incentive for the driver to provide a better service and above and beyond Service to earn that tip And we think any kind of a product that drives kind of Quality it's goofing off final question. You mentioned that the workers in london were going to be more fulltime ish. Or i've got the term you used of art in london or in england their their workers which is essentially i see plus is e plus pension benefits and other benefits as well which is essentially the model that we want to go forward that makes sense so if that is the case. Does that mean you will be able to like say. Hey you have to wear it. Uber logo jacket or shirt. And you you have to. You should only work for us where we need your during these specific times in you dictate a little bit more of what you need as a company as with an independent contractor with may be able to honestly. That's not what we're looking to do. That's not what we're trying to accomplish. It is retained flexibility. Give some benefits. And i think it's a good good way forward ultimately. It's a better way this icy plus. I always felt like it. Be great if you could. I always said the worst case scenarios if we have to go full time with the drivers the benefit the person who wins it just cements uber's victory as the number one player because all the drivers go uber. Because we have the most rides and then you can have. Everybody wear an uber logo and you can put an uber logo on the side of the car. Which right now you can put like a little sticker. Maybe or they can put a sticker but we can put a full. Rubber are listen dr. This has been amazing beckham on the bod. And i'm still a very large shareholder and very delighted to see your incredible focus and your decisiveness on these issues and i hope the markets realized. How brilliantly gotten us to here and give you that ability to to keep investing. I like to see you have that ability to invest. Maybe get some cannabis on the road. Maybe get some drinks going not for the drivers liver and to the customers you know. I'm not saying that people are smoking cannabis a lot. I don't know how frequent it is. But i wouldn't say in california. It's infrequent seems to me. That's really good by jason. I think you have a future if you ever wanted in our team just let us know doing okay with podcast with the pod but this has been great really appreciate the time and continued success getting drivers on the road. If you're a driver this is the time. It's thirty forty bucks an hour. Get that extra cash. Now it's gonna be a yolo summer. It's going to go into the fall. Just grab all that money. Put a down payment on your house or pay down some bills or mortgage. Now is the time to be a driver. Go to uber. Dot com to sign up as a driver has person perfect thanks. We'll see you next time on this means by by..
This Week in Startups
"bill ackman" Discussed on This Week in Startups
"We want a safe and open system. That's open for anyone who wants to get from point a. to b. and is open for anyone wanting to earn money and were not at the point now in terms of vaccination percentages where you know we would say hey you've got to be vaccinated and which which could exclude a certain percentage of the population but we're definitely thinking about it and it's something that we're going to revisit. I wonder you know you have a driver. Stimulus any giving people are bonuses for coming back on the order doing rides. I wonder if you know you showed up your vaccine card. If you got an extra hundred bucks in your account that when motive folks there yeah right now we're just offering free rise to get vaccinated and and it's especially targeted against the younger crowd of you know you. I don't belong in a row. Jason like they. I don't think he'll particularly vulnerable. And that's a pretty big audience for us so we're working with the white house. Essentially we got. We're taking their data. Who's got vaccine appointments. Ready where he walk in. And essentially you get a free ride to and back you know for two vacination that i think is a pretty cool derive to help An we'll be creative about other solutions as well. Yeah i think there's such an amazing opportunity for you know as it were really contributed with the free rides for vaccines and delivering saving these restaurants and keeping them in the game gave them solvent to have some sort of notation of who's vaccinated in the system. More you know an an opt in system. It doesn't have to be like you can't work for uber or door dash lift if you're not vaccinated but it could be. Hey there's a subtle optum opting in that has some benefits that come with it. Let's talk about profitability There has been this Concept that oh this business can never be profitable. We both know. That's ridiculous because there have been various cities in uber's history that have been wildly profitable. There have been various categories of rides that have been wildly profitable so and even in the money losing days i divided at one point the loss for the quarter with the number of rides and i think it was fifty cents lost if you want across rides and i said to myself if you add if you made every wright fifty cents more you would not lose that many rides. So how are you doing with this sort of path to profitability. I know you put out q four. I think of this year getting towards profitability. How confident are you in. The profitability of the core rideshare. Business obviously eats is going to be a lower margin but it's it seems like it's quite probable that that also will hit profitability. Yeah i'm very confident now. We talked about hitting profitably sometime in the second half of this year. I think people sometimes forget that the mobility business pre covid was profitable and as she have thirty percent ebitda margins And have paid was able to pay for one hundred percent of our corporate overhead And it was really earned vestment in the east business pre covid that was causing the losses right and and like you said there are some people who criticize us for that because we could have been a profitable company had we not invested an eats. Free covid and debate would be gone now fast forward to a year later. Thank god we invest it. Whether we're luckier smarter. Combination of both. Thank god we use eats and lost money on each because now it is a huge part of our business and with our business. The way i look at it is the run quarterly. Losses are about two hundred million as it relates to eat when we burgeon postmates badly about fifty million of synergies and the eats run right now on a quarterly basis as twelve and a half plus billion dollars. One percent of that is hundred Twenty five million dollars so this is were now getting at scale where we absolutely need mobility volume comeback because mobility is the big profit generator for us. And that's why we're leaning into supply to make sure we have enough drivers out there to draw mobility profitability. Assuming we succeed erin. i'd say so far. The signs are good Than we can also move eats on a positive profit path while reinvesting for growth potential there so huge and confidence could come together in the second half. I'm looking forward to getting that debates over with and then and then hopefully the debate will become on how much growth. We have ahead of us. Which i think it'll be good conversation. And you've also simplified. Self-driving that's been spun out vertical-takeoff-landing. That's been spun out. And i think trucking also don't trucking is still a part of the job afraid zuber so that means uber frame must be doing phenomenal. So you can't back those few cards in the deck. So tell us about uber freight and how that's doing is your so running it. Yes leader still running it. so he's an angle former. Google exact is known for being a killer So that's a reason to keep it. But how how's he doing i. It's doing great and that the way. I described uber freighters in the olden days. When you wanted to call for a tax your car he has to take your phone. And you have to call a dispatcher. Or broker right with an called car and take a huge margin and essentially. That's still happening. In the freight business and eighty ninety percent of the freight business people collies brokers and. They're calling their Friends and putting together cetera and taking these giant margins and we are simply a bunch of the original uber engineers who built the original system. We are essentially taking that off long process. We are digitizing yet Now it's a much more complex process right lots lots of bills going back and forth but essentially the the the trucker experience is much much. Better get they get paid faster. They can see all those they can pick and choose. What low they won't take. They can take routes keeping closer to family closer home and for sharper. They just see so much more inventory in terms of The veil ability of truckers etc in ultimately..
This Week in Startups
"bill ackman" Discussed on This Week in Startups
"They put into the system and rate drivers in great careers and there are some not so great drivers and not so great careers who then designed to self select to do something else. So that's one of the cool things about an open system use sensually earn relative to your productivity as well but the flexibility is by far the most important factor. Yeah and it now if you look at it there was this whole concept that if uber drivers are lift driver's door drivers or any ridesharing drivers were going to be classified as employees. Well what about hairdressers and real estate brokers and freelance writers. I'm in the media business. A lot of The same publications that were giving ride sharing companies hard time. My friendship bank off runs. Vox had to cancel because had some of those rights had to cancel every freelancer in california. Because if the freelancer worked over x. Number of hours now triggered full-time and it cost chaos. So they just opted out of that market so where is the united states as a country and obviously uber endured ash. I think are kind of having to navigate this most of all. Where are we with this archaic system where either full time or you're a freelancer. But with this caveat. If you're a freelancer and unless you're you know got a really great lobby or you're an elite freelance like a real estate person. You're you can have freedom but the people may be who are. Starting their chris can have freedom. It seems incredibly un-american to me that people can make their choice but putting that aside is there a third way. That's better that's what we always talked about in the early days of uber was there has to be a third way here because you know that would seem more equitable. Maybe if somebody works over twenty or thirty hours. I know you've been reading on this pretty hard. And that's that's actually that's third way is what we're trying to shake now and to a large extent. That was what prop twenty two in california was all about. Which is how do you retain the best of both worlds right the the really cool thing about being your own boss. You're the ceo of yourself and you get to be totally flexible based on when where how you were based on productivity. They're good times to work right there. Good ways to work as well. But how do you combine that with some of the important elements of kuala traditional work which is a safety net protection healthcare coverage etc and. That's what we call an icy plus ashes the uk. There's a third designation. There's there's worker designation. And then there's fulltime employee and worker is is essentially an icy plus pension benefits some vacation benefits etc and in the uk we have designated drivers essentially workers. And now we are in the process of having discussions really on a state by state level is a needs. Every states needs are different. These are workers in the states to hopefully come up with us. Third model flexibility of an i see the freedom of an i see with protections whether it's minimum wage or a fun for healthcare or other benefits as well and i think it is the better way forward it takes time you know Government sometimes move slowly but by design. But i do think this is a better way forward and pretty optimistic independent contractor status with me if i hit a certain benchmark is there a certain benchmark. You're thinking because i think the average number of hours for full time employment is two thousand pretty easy if you wanna do this at home. Fifty two hours a week. Forty hours twenty eight years the number of hours per year. So if somebody did one thousand forty hours that would be halftime. Therefore they could get half the benefits as a full-time person doesn't seem so difficult for us to comprehend. We're actually not looking at it benchmark because to some extent but he picked twenty hours thirty hours forty hours. I think those are the kind of picking it out of your at indexing right. Which is if you work funny hours. And ninety percent of drivers for example work less than forty hours right like the vast majority of drivers the vast majority of couriers were far less than forty hours but basically index the benefits based on. How long you and the other. I think cool idea. Is you pull together the hours that you put into all the platforms. Hopefully it's an ideology benefits. Which i think is really cool right. Which is hey if you if it's just based on how long you worked for one company And how many hours you uber or door should cetera. That's one solution. It's and it's not a bad solution. I think that's some are gonna go in that direction. There's another concept which is portable benefits. That if you work hours over. Let's say ten hours on lift. You actually get benefits worth of twenty hours so that freedom to to work with multiple platforms. I think both ideas are good ideas. And hopefully you know depending on a state by state level which is the right idea. We'll go forward that way. Yeah and i think people are forgetting that you are one hundred percent dependent on drivers. There is no business without drivers. It's in your best interest. In fact i would think it's your obsession to make this a better to for them than other opportunities they might be presented is am i correct in thinking that your competition is people working at a starbucks or a target or walmart versus deciding to be an icy or an icy plus code totally and and drivers are our customers right. We have a driver app. We we run that app just like we run our rider app and it's in our interest to track the customer to give them a great experience for their earnings.
This Week in Startups
"bill ackman" Discussed on This Week in Startups
"Have powerful e commerce functionality and everything is optimized for mobile right out of the box so no matter what you're using and i've had a surface iphone and android phone. And does it matter all these beautiful templates just work and of course it's got dalton. Seal free insecure hosting and twenty four seven award winning customer support. We did remote demo day in two thousand twenty. We were suffering through the pandemic. we were confused. How are these startups going to get funded. I said you know what throw worse base site. It's a project. Maybe it turns into a business and boy did it. Ever we have now funded over a dozen companies over fourteen million dollars in funding and this all from setting up the symbol squarespace website tweeting to go to squarespace dot com slash twist for a free trial squarespace dot com slash twist for free trial. When you're ready to launch us the offer code twist and save ten percent off your first purchase of a website or domain and congratulations for the team going public by direct listing on eighteenth. What an amazing journey. It's been just super congratulations. I know you're all worked really hard over there to get the product to scale and to customers and it's just delightful for us and we look forward to having you on the pod. Anthony take a little victory lap. Okay let's get back to this amazing episode now. I don't speak for lockable. But i am an investor and on the board of that company and they were constantly being told and the market was constantly saying can't be qatar. They're over they have so much funding Why are we not raising all this money. Like tara and i think if you're in a slow moving industry like contraction -cation healthcare. No amount of fuel is going to allow you to drive that train faster. In other words the rails of the railway system are capable of a certain speed. You can put a high speed.
This Week in Startups
"bill ackman" Discussed on This Week in Startups
"Insights. Try user testing free today at user testing dot com slash twist. Okay but i the news. Softbank bats qattara shutting down And i think this is an important topic for two reasons one. I wanna talk to you about over funding of startups and the problems. That can cause. And then i wanna talk to you about a new concept i have been discussing internally something i call slingshot startups and these are startups. That got set back during the pandemic but like a slingshot they got pulled back and all that energy built up. Now that the reopening is happening they are moving again but with more velocity. Sometimes you have to step back to go forward. Let's start with qatar. If you don't know this is a vertically integrated construction starting. What does that mean it means. They tried to make construction work better faster and taller etc so the company was founded in two thousand fifteen. The ceo is michael marks. Iran flex electronics from ninety. Two to two thousand five before working in private equity and the concept was pretty basic offsite manufacturing with onsite assembly. So you make a bunch of parts and then you put the home together almost like a kit car if you think about it and maybe over time using software and accurate planning design the could reduce time and build cost and they focused on large scale buildings apartments commercial offices etc. They race two billion dollars. And if this all sounds familiar and it sounds like. Wasn't this the same problems we were at well. The largest investor was softbank vision fund. If you have a vision and you wanna go. Big masayoshi son has been doing. You have the risk of putting so much energy capital and jet fuel behind the rocket at the rocket blows up on the landing pad or just goes off in a crazy direction like we saw with we work and like we see now with qatari ca terrorists totally blown up. We work seems to gone off target But maybe they can course correct if they make it to escape velocity so the information did a great story and just outlined exactly how apparently the firm was. that's capterra. we're talking about here. Obviously we were also mismanaged going to get into why that happens after cova hit was hemorrhaging money. According to sources and This was because of delays increased material costs etc and to artificially boost revenue according to the story tara exaggerated updates on certain apartment renovation. Projects now exaggerated updates. This could be one of these. How you frame something so to speak and it might not be outright lying but exaggeration can be framed as ally. This is very important for founders. Were listening especially when you're selling securities you want to be as honest upfront. Give as much data as possible to investors employees shareholders and the broader stakeholders in a company. You never want to exaggerate or polish or massage the truth because massaging the truth for one person might be fraud or allies to an organization like the sec or investors right so And typically the outcome will determine that if you massage the truth and you have a big win. You're a hero. Nobody's doing you if you massage the truth and you lose your investors money. Now you're in court now. The sec gets a tip from one of your previous investors. Who feels bad. That you exaggerated Or some people might call it. Faking it till you make it and they. They claim employees. Use the fake updates to frontload revenue by millions of dollars in financial reports given to investors. So when i see this might take on this. As the information got this from investors who were very upset by what qatar was doing and they took the most negative lease charitable position on qatar behavior. That's what i'm reading into this. Because how else would the information get this when something blows up and you've got hundreds of people in the capital. It only takes one person to say you know what i feel wronged. I'm going to give this information to a journalist and that's How these things go down. Typically capterra firm to investigate this internally according to the story and the ceo and co founder. Michael marks down in may of twenty two. It's likely the board fired marks who knows No indication here that mark knew of the misleading financial reports. Most people would say you're supposed to know about that But you know. I can tell you. In a company with thousands of employees with hundreds of millions of dollars in investment or billions of dollars in this case a lot of times. The ceo gets abstracted from a reality. And you have people feeding you information and sometimes you get disconnected from the ground truth in your business. This is why. I always look at bank statements or ask people to tell me how much cash is in the bank account a look at the bank statements or credit card charges as they happen. Why wouldn't you do that right sometimes. You got get into the weeds as a founder and other times you have to delegate a little bit of both trust but verify is always in order so in december of two thousand twenty territory investors. It was running out of money. Softbank injected two hundred million in. What's called rescue financing This wiped out The stakes of other investors in other words it was a crackdown. Probably pay to play. Yeah i think that's the term. A lot of people will use. Which is we're going to make all the equity in the company worthless but you can buy new equity at this incredible price so you pay to play. If you don't pay your wiped out but everybody had the opportunity to put more money in so this is where you could have had a fracturing of the loyalty within the company the existing investors feel wronged. They feel like they were lied to. They put a bunch of money and now they're being told their equity is wiped out and the only way for them to get new equities to put money into a company. They feel has not been honest with them. Can you see how this is a bit of a prisoner's dilemma. They're gonna wipe out your equity as an investor in. Can you understand how this would make bad feelings inside baseball. But this is what really happens So you get all these bad feelings. The company goes from a four billion dollar valuation to than four hundred million according to a letter sent to qatar shareholders and in the information story certainly a lot of her feelings with other investors. So i'm guessing they leaked all this information and according to an anonymous source be careful with these obviously because anonymous sources are relied on far too much for stories by journalists and frequently. They're wrong or they have massive agendas but they say the. Sec is also investigating qataris. Fos front loading claims. Who knows if that's an active investigation. Where if they confirm they received information. I i think the sec doesn't actually tell you based on my experience they don't actually tell you what's going on. They'll do a document. Request is my understanding from attorneys. I know who work in the space. They'll just give me all the information that doesn't mean there's investigation it means. They want information because they just want to check things out. The shutdown announcement comes in qatar which had eighty five hundred employees before cutting it down to twenty four hundred after numerous rounds of layoffs sent an email to the remaining employees on june first tuesday following a thorough review. I'm quoting year of strategic business alternatives. Qatar has determined that it must wind down the majority of its. Us business operations effective immediately. Unfortunately most of our us employees would no longer be working for the new in the near future. That means you're fired by the way. Just say you're fired. An executive told employees video call. They didn't have money to pay severance or unused. Pto a person who attended the meeting again unnamed source. Who knows if that's true. Who knows if that's speculation. If they don't pay those things then. I believe the board members and the ceo and Folks like that could be on the hook. So there are specific laws in specific regions about factory shutdowns and the notice. You have to give employees and this is called the warren act of you a. r. and i believe and this requires employers to provide employees with at least sixty days written notice of plant closings and mass layoffs. The purpose of the events notice is to provide the employee swift transition time enabled find alternative employment or to enter a skills training program. Warren act mass layoff is a reduction of force within a single site of that resulted.
Money For the Rest of Us
What Are SPACs and Should You Invest in Them?
"Now, why do spags exist? A primary reason is the reverse mergers that occur was back with a publicly traded company purchasing a private company is in some ways simpler and easier way for private companies to become publicly traded compared with doing their own initial public offering. One Reason, the appetite for IPO's varies. There are some times where markets are more receptive to IPO's, and that's when a lot of private companies startup companies want to go public. Other Times not so much with a back. It's already public. and. So it's a way for a private company to become public without having to go through the road shows and much of the paperwork and legal hassle of going public. Another reason is often when a startup goes public doesn't initial public offering they lock up period for existing shareholders. It's not necessarily great press for a newly public company to have its founders selling a lot of their shares. With us back, they have the cash already raised and it's easier for founders and other principles of the private company to be able to liquidate more of their shares in the company. The other thing with initial public offering is often times money is left on the table. The underwriters try to price the initial public offering at ten to fifteen percent discount to the fair value of the company. But what that price is very difficult to determine and oftentimes after the initial public offering in the first few hours the IPO jump significantly in price, which means the private company didn't get that money that was money that was trading in the secondary market. It wasn't money that flowed to that private company is part of that public offering. With specs, there's a negotiated price. So the private company knows what they're getting. They know what the valuation is and so they potentially can get more money. How then do specs work? Well specs also need to raise capital so they do an initial public offering. It's usually combined with one common share plus a warrant or a fraction of a warrant, and what a warrant is gives the holder the right to buy more stock at a fixed price at a later date. It's an incentive for SPAC holders to potentially get more shares of the company wants that target is identified. The initial public offering is help for the back and at least eighty, five percent of the proceeds needs to go into an escrow account for future acquisitions. In practice, it's closer to ninety seven percent of the proceeds with three percent held in reserve for underwriting fees for the initial public offering operating expenses for this back to cover due diligence cost legal accounting et CETERA. Most of the money goes into this escrow account, which is then invested in government bonds. So before the acquisition, it's fairly risk free investment. Most of the time, the specs are issued at A. Price of ten dollars per share. In theory, it should stay about ten dollars per share because it's just an escrow account invested in government bonds and shareholders of this they don't know what the potential acquisition target will be. In practice, we're seeing specs sell for more than the IPO price because holders believe the management team of back is going to identify a very attractive company that will be profitable to the SPAC shareholders. So sometimes, they can bid up the price of this back. For example, that back that pershing square bill ackman's company came out with July is trading about twenty percent above its IPO price. The specs sponsors have a specified period to identify a potential target. Typically it's about two years and if they're not able to identify an acquisition and close an acquisition, then the trust is liquidated and the money in escrow account is return his shareholders. If the back sponsors do identify potential target firm, then they make an announcement, it's called the announcement date. Then the back shareholders are notified that there is a potential acquisition target. At that point that's back sponsors perform additional due diligence negotiate a structure of the acquisition. The SEC has to review the terms of the acquisition because the private company will be made public. And then there's a proxy vote for the shareholders of this back and they are deciding to issues. Whether they approve the acquisition or disprove, they don't want to Spec to go forward with it. The. Second thing that they are voting on whether they wanted to liquidate their shares in this back they have an opportunity to get out at the net asset value of the trust, which is the value held in the escrow account divided by the number of shares. Outstanding. If more than fifty percent of the shareholders approved the acquisition and less than twenty percent of the shareholders vote for liquidation. Then the transaction is approved and the target firm is listed on Stock Exchange. If more than fifty percent, approve it but more than twenty percent want their money back. Then this back is also liquidated.
MarketFoolery
Ackman's Pershing Square unveils $900 million stake in Starbucks
"The funding runs Pershing square has invested nine hundred million dollars in Starbucks and ackman Noche ranking violet. He said that he expects shares of Starbucks to double in the next three years. I will just say, from my standpoint. This is the single biggest holding I have in my portfolio is Starbucks and I do not view this as welcome news. I just I saw this, it's the curse. It's not even. It's not even so much the curse, but I just sort of thought, you know what? I don't need that right now, and I'm not. I don't even work at Starbucks, but I just thought if your Starbucks management of your Starbucks board. You're looking at Bill ackman saying, well, I'm here. I've got some ideas. Let me share with you. The wisdom that I shared with the people at Cipolla took steak there and Burger King, and you know, I don't want to dump all over Afrin. Even though I just have many because the guy has had some success. But this this just seems like ultimately more of a distraction for Starbucks management than anything. Positive. I agree. I think Starbucks is a business. I'm not. I mean, I'm sure this is. I mean, he's he's in investing in less or a little over one percent of the shares. I gotta feel this got to be a passive investment. I mean, I don't know what value he thinks he can add. I mean, in my mind, Starbucks is a business that has a pretty clear trajectory. There's not really a lot wrong with the business. I know growth has been slower for this isn't a business where I think ackman's coming in saying, oh, here's a problem, or here's something that's undervalued that I think I can create value or add to. And again, I. I don't know why we have to keep talking about Bill ackman. He's definitely a newsmaker, but you start you start telling up the MRs here over the last decade starting with target herbalife and then value pharmaceutical, which was multi billion dollars. I mean, the JC Penney. Right. I mean, it just the list is building here, and so I share your discomfort as a Starbucks shoulder as well. I'm not sure what Bill ackman actually brings to the table anymore. I think he's just looking for an easy win. Frankly, I think given the stretch that he's had and you just listed off some of his Villier failures that will in all of them. I mean, he's had a really tough gov lately, and and I think frankly, he's just looking for an easy win and we were talking about this yesterday. I think it's easy enough to get out there and make fun of ackman for picking Starbucks. Oh, it's no big secret. Everybody knows what Starbucks is, but that's kind of the point to really. And I think we talked about this a lot that really at the end of the day, those great businesses, they're not secrets. They're out there right in front of us since. I mean, he, he in the reasoning behind this. I mean, he listed off a lot of qualities that really we like. The business end. So for me, I mean, I don't think he's going to go there and try to turn things around or shape their strategy whatsoever because he certainly has a history of seeming to think he knows more than he really does in Starbucks is obviously very big company. Obviously, with with management, they're already said on a strategy, I guarantee you, they know more about the business and its future markets than he ever will. So yet to me, I really just think he's looking for an easy win here in that can't blame him. Starbucks is is a is a good business. That's when we like a lot here, and I think that you can hang onto a free longer than three years. Then you'd be better off. You think a doubles, like totally route I would love. I would love to be sitting here three years doing this show talking about how wrong I was to doubt Bill ackman that Starbucks shares had doubled in a three year period. It's such a mature business at this point. As you said, Mattie, the trajectory for Starbucks is pretty clear. If I the bet I'm betting it's higher in three years, but dub. It's a seventy seven billion dollar company. Yeah, I think to me, Starbucks is more of a a total return story. You're looking at dividends looking to buy backs. You're looking at a little bit of growth on the top line. You're looking at what they can do in China. But yeah, double in three years again to for that to happen, there has to be the dreaded financial engineering or something like that. That kind of does that. And you know, acting kind of does bring that to the table. I hope that's not the case to me. Starbucks, steady, ten percent, return her business. Certainly not a double in three years. I'd love to see it, but I think it's also worth remembering too. I mean, Starbucks is probably a witness a little bit more on the expense line there as a pertains to employ ease because they continue to revamp the benefits that they offer. I mean, just a recent example here was was the childcare subsidy, and I think they're, they're expanding that they're expanding that offering to every employee in the company. So I mean as an investor, I think you have to applaud that as a as an employee. I'm sure you'll love that it does it. Perhaps tamp down potential returns in the short run. Yep. Is that the right. Thing to do? Yeah. I think longer term it gives the company more opportunity to succeed to grow in. So those are good things, but we'll definitely play into that returns projection over the course of the next three years. I mean, fifteen percent annualized over the next three years or well, no, you're seeing double over the. Twenty percent. Yeah. Fifteen would be five years that seemed like a really hot hurdle very hurdle. You mentioned financial engineering. I'll just say this. I've never sold a single share of Starbucks in all the years. I've owned it if Eddie Lampert joins the
Bloomberg Best
Bill Ackman, who flamed out on Herbalife, now targeting Starbucks
"Shares in Starbucks picked up two percent in the US session. That was after hedge fund manager Bill ackman announced on nine hundred million dollar stake in the company ackman believes Starbucks troubles are surmountable and the company has tremendous growth opportunities with its expansion plans in China ackman is betting.
Noon Report with Rick Van Cise
Ackman's Pershing Square unveils $900 million stake in Starbucks
"On the same day gave him subsidized backup care for kids and adults starbuck stock up more than two percent CNBC reports activist investor Bill ackman has revealed a nine hundred million dollar bet on Starbucks. His fund has fifteen little more fifteen million plus shares of Starbucks at about nine hundred million dollars worth company says by the way, going
Bloomberg Markets
Square obtains NY State cryptocurrency license
"Yeah because it was earlier today just saying that mergers to make at and t and comcast the world's most indebted companies and they were just talking about you know these guys you've got atf chris moving ahead with its deal and have comcast gets us fox out assets it would be a lot of debt media companies also often have a lot of debt on their balance sheets but nonetheless this would add to the picture and so maybe that's also playing until a bit of the trade today and you're seeing other peers in the kind of do takeover speculation space cvs trading down with their upcoming merger as you said at and t dropped again today so there's a lot of concern over what's going to be next when these companies are executing these large deals issuing debt or having to find a way to do investors in the other company staying with companies that are trading to the downside valid invested you do realize if they don't investors who is like internet dating thing that you do convinced me it's not an economic business anyway go ahead inside the pharmaceutical since february us regulators rejected an application for its plaques rises lotion management saw it is the first of many drugs that the company was going to use to get approval and launched this year in the next four and a half years valley and trying to get back on its feet and you're looking at the chart this shares were up just over eighty one percent year to date prior today's session kind of reversing that rebound bill ackman obviously the former favorite of a manager but wells fargo saying major setback given plans for the company to launch seven products over the next four and a half years to make up one hundred one billion dollars in sales to kind of revamp the company's portfolio as we saw it shift more towards dermatology at after that distribution scandal correct all right let's talk a bit about square up almost two point seven percent dollar seventy two to sixty six dollars twenty cents a share a square climbing to their highest price after new york granted the company a virtual currency license letting customers in the state by until bitcoin you might recall the ceo of us jack dorsey saying earlier this year at the company would introduce bitcoin trading must all its users have square cash which allows people to transfer money to friends and family so anyway optimism on this has certainly been quite a kick to shares of square they're up ninety one percents so far this year driven by optimism for cryptocurrency trading and growth in ice cores main operations that provide payments and.
Bloomberg Markets
Ackman makes roughly $1 billion bet on Lowe's
"Industry altogether tying it all together for you and yet we continue to let them cheat and steal that's the trade issue as early as monday the president was touting the benefit for farmers of china buying more stuff this morning though he tweeted the deal might be too hard to get done shift of rhetoric from secretary of state mike pompeo when it comes to north korea till now he said no sanctions relief till the north completely denuclearize is now posture will not change until we see credible steps taken towards the complete verifiable and irreversible nico denuclearization of the korean peninsula pompeo isn't saying what credible steps would look like iran's supreme leader is speaking out for the first time since pompeo laid out demands for iran to halt its nuclear program in comments posted to his website i told ali khamenei says the us has tried various tactics to topple the regime and its forty year history and quoting here like the famous cat in tom and jerry it will fail again global news twenty four hours a day on air at tick tock on twitter powered by more than twenty seven hundred journalists and analysts in more than one hundred twenty countries this is bloomberg thinks nathan now with our other top stories i'm happy little there's been a shakeup inside wells fargo's municipal bond unit the unit's new chief is dismissing senior bankers in new york chicago and la and bringing in colleagues from his almatar morgan stanley wells fargo is looking to bolster shrinking meany bond underwriting business it's fall into the eighth spot on the list of the biggest us municipal bond managers customers are coming back to tiffany sales at the luxury jewelry chain blew away estimates in the last quarter growth was led by gains in north america and asia tiffany also raised its profit forecast for the year and announced a billion dollar share buyback plan bill ackman shopping at home retailer lowe's bloomberg's pimm fox has details bill ackman's pershing square capital management has taken a stake worth about a billion dollars in the retailer and is supportive of the company's incoming chief executive marvin ellison ackman disclosed the steak at a mergers and acquisitions conference in new new york hosted by the law firm kirkland and ellis ackman joins de sean company as an investor in the home improvement retailer ackman's position would put him in.