An NEO murder, Musk’s pay re-re-reversal, a woke lawsuit for BLK, and corporate cowardice

Introduction

LIVE from your ESG bath salts inhaler kit, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at December 6th Studios, featuring AnalystHole Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: Murder, Black women fighting back, Investor cowards, and the darkest reason imaginable for a CEO pay cut

Our show today is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE.

Story of the Week (DR):

1. The Murder of Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare C.E.O. DR

1. Mr. Thompson was on his way to an investors’ gathering when he was killed by a masked shooter who fled on an electric bike, the police said.

2. UnitedHealth CEO's killing unleashes social media rage against insurers

3. After UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting, Americans Express Frustration With Health Insurance Industry

4. Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO prompts flurry of stories on social media over denied insurance claims

1. Bullet casings found at the scene appear to have had the words “delay” and “deny” on them: Those words may have been a message related to “Delay, Deny, Defend,” the title of a book that discusses how health insurance companies avoid paying patients’ claims. The book, by Jay M. Feinman, a professor emeritus at Rutgers Law School, was published in 2010.

2. Murdered Insurance CEO Had Deployed an AI to Automatically Deny Benefits for Sick People

5. Slain UnitedHealthcare CEO Was Accused Of Insider Trading Amid DOJ Probe

6. Social media swoons over alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer amid investigation

7. Brian Thompson didn't seem to have a bodyguard, and that surprises corporate-security consultants

1. 'A wake up call': C-suite security comes into focus after UnitedHealthcare CEO's death

8. Zero pay targets related to customers or patients: mostly revenue, operating income, cash flow from operations, EPS, return on equity 

2. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger ousted by board after disastrous performance

1. Intel CFO David Zinsner and Intel products CEO MJ Holthaus were named interim co-CEOs. Frank Yeary will serve as interim executive chair.

2. Intel has started evaluating a handful of outsiders, including former board member Lip-Bu Tan, for the role of chief executive

3. Intel's board is mostly evaluating outsider candidates for the role and has also approached Marvell Technology CEO Matt Murphy

4. Former ASML CEO Eric Meurice and Microchip interim CEO Steve Sanghi will join Intel’s board effective immediately.

5. Gelsinger had 20% influence

1. Next four directors had combined 45%, including Yeary

3. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares abruptly quits as US Jeep, Ram sales falter

1. Influence:

1. Tavares 16%

2. Chair John Elkann 13%

3. Senior Independent Director Henri de Castries 20%

4. Tesla CEO Elon Musk loses bid to get $56 billion pay package reinstated

1. A Delaware judge upheld her January ruling in a case brought by shareholders that said the process leading to approval of the pay package was “deeply flawed.”

1. In January, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick voided the pay plan, ruling that Musk had individually “controlled Tesla” and dictated the terms of his compensation to a board that didn’t fairly negotiate. She called the process leading to approval of that pay plan “deeply flawed.”

2. “Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here,” McCormick wrote in her opinion Monday. “Were the court to condone the practice of allowing defeated parties to create new facts for the purpose of revising judgments, lawsuits would become interminable.” 

Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):

1. DR: Namibia Elects Its First-Ever Female Leader MM

1. Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was a member of the country's underground independence movement in the 1970s.

2. DR: North Carolina Town Sues Duke Energy Over Climate Change

1. Carrboro accused Duke, one the nation’s largest utility companies, of ignoring data about climate change while increasing use of fossil fuels.

2. Carrboro Mayor Barbara Foushee

3. MM: Mattel sued over 'Wicked' dolls with porn website link

1. Who goes to the website URL in fine print on the back of a box?

2. Also, did you actually go to the website?  There’s no nudity on the page you land on! 

1. Winning porn!  XBIZ awards for best supporting acting, best all sex scene, best editing, best art direction, best art direction, best screenplay… 

3. Some dolls with the misprint on the packaging have sold for more than $100 on eBay.

4. One "Singing Glinda" doll sold for $450 on the shopping site.

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Investor governance analysts DR

1. This is going to sound crass, but… 

1. The murdered UNH executive is the CEO of a single division, NOT the company - he’s not on the board, but the media makes it sound like the CEO is dead.  He’s not.

1. If you looked at the board, you’d realize the acting CEO Andrew Witty isn’t even the most influential - executive chair Stephen Helmsley

2. The assassin - we can say assassin at this point, right? - had more data on the people that run the company than virtually every governance analyst I’ve ever met, and I was just at a conference

1. They knew who he was, where he would be, at what time

2. They were even aware of an investor day at all

3. They knew he was the CEO of the DIVISION, they didn’t target the CEO of the company

3. If you invested in the company pre-murder, you made money post-murder

2. Murderers who make me sympathize with murderers

3. Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO prompts flurry of stories on social media over denied insurance claims

4. Murdered Insurance CEO Had Deployed an AI to Automatically Deny Benefits for Sick People

5. Made me think of the Jamie Says quote: “The fault line is inequality. And its cause is staring us in the face: our own failure to move beyond our differences and self-interest and act for the greater good.”

1. Jamie Dimon, 4/7/2021

2. Anyone who calls any company anywhere “woke”

1. Disney Agrees to $43.3 Million Settlement in Suit Alleging It Paid Women Less Than Men

2. "Why do I have to have a Marvel that's all women? Not that I have anything against women, but why do I have to do that? Why can't I have Marvels that are both?”

1. Nelson Peltz, 4/3/2024

3. Cowards and liars

1. Texas and GOP states sue BLK, Vanguard, State Street

1. All withdrew from Climate Action 100+ in a show of fun cowardice, here’s what they got:

1. Rather than individually wield their shareholdings to reduce coal output, therefore, Defendants effectively formed a syndicate and agreed to use their collective holdings of publicly traded coal companies to induce industry-wide output reductions. To be sure, earlier this year BlackRock and State Street publicly proclaimed that they withdrew from one of the organizations that they previously used to coordinate their anticompetitive conduct, Climate Action 100+. But formal withdrawal from that one organization does not change the reality that Defendants’ holdings threaten to substantially reduce competition in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act. Nor does it negate the ongoing and future threat of Defendants’ coordinated anticompetitive conduct or absolve Defendants of their legal liability for past violations.

2. Coca-Cola accused of quietly dropping its 25% reusable packaging target

3. Racial diversity falling among new corporate directors: Conference Board

4. AT&T CEO: If Trump slashes taxes, we will invest more in American infrastructure

Headliniest of the Week

1. DR: Nomura boss takes pay cut after employee 'tried to kill clients' MM

1. The worker allegedly stole money from clients and set fire to their home after visiting them on 28 July this year.

2. Nomura apologised to the alleged victims, and said CEO Kentaro Okuda would voluntarily return 30% of his pay for three months.

3. In addition, nine other Nomura directors and executives will return 20% to 30% of their pay for the same period.

2. MM: Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume reportedly booed by workers after telling them he didn’t live in a ‘fantasy world’

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Amateur ESG conspiracy theorists

2. MM: Professional ESG conspiracy theorists

Predictions

1. DR: This is an easy one: C-suite security spending rises to unprecedented levels

2. MM:  Gun control

1. Texas - sues Blackrock AND gets to hear the eventual new Musk pay case? Winning.