FRIDAY WRAP: Pfizer’s Yale backer, Boeing’s intransigence, and Hindenburg’s Roblox hellscape

Introduction

LIVE from your ESG olive grove, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at October 11th Studios, featuring all your favorites: AnalystHole Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: shenanigans at Pfizer, the potential end of the Google search monopoly, and bumbling Boeing.

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. Pfizer threatened to sue renegade executives prior to activist schism, Starboard's Smith says

1. Starboard plotted a campaign against Pfizer’s chief. Then a blank email dropped in his inbox

2. The Boeing strike has no end in sight

1. Boeing files unfair labor practice charge against striking union

2. Boeing Would Be Biggest-Ever US ‘Fallen Angel’ If Cut to Junk

3. Feds slap TD Bank with $3.1 billion in fines for money laundering of fentanyl trafficking and terrorist financing

1. “The vast majority of financial institutions have partnered with [Financial Crimes Enforcement Network] FinCEN to protect the integrity of the U.S. financial system. TD Bank did the opposite. From fentanyl and narcotics trafficking, to terrorist financing and human trafficking, TD Bank’s chronic failures provided fertile ground for a host of illicit activity to penetrate our financial system.”

2. approximately $18.3 trillion of transaction activity from Jan. 1, 2018, to April 12, 2024 went unmonitored

4. Bombshell report claims Roblox is ‘pedophile hellscape’ MM

1. Hindenburg Research accused the company of overinflating its user metrics and fostering an unsafe environment for underage users

Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):

1. DR: AI startup Writer, currently fundraising at a $1.9 billion valuation, launches new model to compete with OpenAI: female CEO

2. DR: The CEO of disgraced crypto firm FTX actually announced his prison stint on LinkedIn

1. Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets: “I'm happy to share that I'm starting a new position as Inmate at FCI Cumberland!”

3. MM: DOJ proposes breakup and other big changes to end Google search monopoly

1. Sharing search data with rivals

2. Restricting distribution agreements with browsers

3. Possible breakup of company/products

4. MM: Woman slightly winning the week MM DR

1. ‘You’re a girl?’ The duo taking on the male-dominated plastering world

1. 10% of construction employees are women, 4% of on site employees

2. Women’s health startup Maven Clinic closes funding at $1.7 billion valuation

3. Corporate DEI may be under attack, but S&P 500 companies with diverse boards perform better

4. Women in Asia are slowly starting to break through historic barriers to the top of the corporate world

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Why are you even here?

1. Here are the facts that activist critics of Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla are missing, according to a Yale analysis

1. Presentation conveniently…

1. Shows a stock performance chart from 2023-today including Astrazenca and Abbvie to illustrate the pharma winners are just GLP-1 makers (Lilly/Novo) vs. everyone else

2. Adds Pfizer to the chart, changes the date from Jan 1 2024 to today, and REMOVES Astrazenca and Abbvie - ostensibly to show Pfizer is “in line” - except when you put Astrazeneca and Abbvie BACK in the chart, Pfizer is the second worst performer and Astrazenca/Abbvie are having solid years

3. Shows a PE ratio showing the whole industry is depressed - again ignores Astrazenca and Abbvie which would show Pfizer as the second worst company, not “in line”

4. Refers constantly to their “objective take” - after Yale awarded Bourla the Legend of Leadership award just two years into his role as Pfizer CEO?  “But we have no conflicts of interest that get in the way of offering our independent, objective analysis and calling it as we see it.”

5. Spends a tremendous amount of time talking about how Pfizer has been punished for acquisitions before only for them to work out… but the examples aren’t of Bourla in defense of Bourla, they’re from 2002 prior to his even working at the firm in any real capacity

6. Board: “But the Pfizer board—one of the most qualified boards in America with stars such as Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey, State Street CEO Cyrus Taraporevala, and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb…”

1. Quincey has a 0.064 controversies batting average, Gottlieb is batting 0.119 for TSR and 0.269 for earnings, and Cyrus Taraporevala was “elected” in July 2024 - he hasn’t made a single decision, his background was in finance and asset management with a background in accounting... super useful for a board with FOUR OTHER DIRECTORS with finance backgrounds (⅓ of the board)

2. Board is highly interconnected, obviously, with 33 active paths between current board members

2. Has Sonnefeld ever taken a position WITH an activist?  He’s backed so far…

1. Yale Legend in Leadership award winners include Jim McNerney and David Stern

2. Alan Shaw (fired for undisclosed relationship)

3. Dave Calhoun (retired with bags of money while Boeing is in the middle of strike and planes that don’t function)

2. Boeing

1. Boeing halts talks, withdraws pay offer to union as strike drags on

1. Boeing offered a 30% pay increase, union wants at least 40%

2. Calhoun got a 45% increase of summary pay YoY, plus a $42m golden parachute for jumping out of the burning plane he built

1. Summary pay was $32.8m in 2023, compensation actually paid was $44.4m - so he actually got a raise from comp actually paid in 2022 of $15.2m (summary was $22.6m) to $44.4m - he got a 290% raise in take home pay YoY)

2. Why?  He tanked the stock by crashing planes and mismanaging the company, gets options that he cashes out with the first announcement the company delivered a functional plane

3. He generated -11.8bn, -4.2bn, -4.9bn, -2.2bn in net income from 2020-2024 for which he made $13.8m, $12.6m, $9.6m, and $41.8m

3. Ortberg got…

1. $21m summary pay in 2025 - a 35% decrease from Calhoun’s summary pay in 2023, a tacit admittance that the company is shit… but the board is in Calhoun’s pocket

2. A cash payment of $1.25m if he stays through December (he was hired for Aug 8)

3. Data DR

1. 95% of teens used Camel cigarettes, ⅔ used Malboro, Natural Spirit, or Pall Malls

2. More than 50% used Camels “almost constantly” or “several times a day”

3. More than half said it would be hard to give up, with a full third saying they do it too much but couldn’t quit

4. A third said they using had a “mostly negative” effect on them

5. 41% said their parents cared just a little or not at all

6. Now, replace every cigarettes with a social media company and those are the answers to a Pew survey - and now this: Bombshell report claims Roblox is ‘pedophile hellscape’

1. Pew survey found 95% of teens used YouTube, ⅔ used TikTok, Instagram, or Snapchat

2. More than 50% used YouTube “almost constantly” or “several times a day”

3. They are fully addicted - more than half said it would be hard to give up, with a full third saying they spend too much time on it but couldn’t quit

4. Hindenburg Research found: 

1. Beyond inflated key user metrics, our in-game research revealed an X-rated pedophile hellscape, exposing children to grooming, pornography, violent content and extremely abusive speech.

2. Core to the problem is that Roblox’s social media features allow pedophiles to efficiently target hundreds of children, with no up-front screening to prevent them from joining the platform.

3. Following years of scandals, we performed our own checks to see if the platform had cleaned up its act. As a test, we attempted to set up an account under the name ‘Jeffrey Epstein’…only to see the name was taken, along with 900+ variations.

4. Many were Jeffrey Epstein fan accounts, including “JeffEpsteinSupporter” which had earned multiple badges for spending time in kid’s games. Other Jeff Epstein accounts had the usernames “@igruum_minors” [I groom minors], and “@RavpeTinyK1dsJE” [rape tiny kids].

5. We attempted to set up a Roblox account under the name of another notorious pedophile to see if Roblox had any up-front pedophile screening: Earl Brian Bradley was indicted on 471 charges of molesting, raping and exploiting 103 children. The username was taken, along with multiple variants like earlbrianbradley69.

6. Despite the company’s mission “to connect a billion users with optimism and civility”, we found games such as “Beat Up Homeless Outside 7/11 Simulator”, which had 1 million visits and 15,000 favorites before being removed from Roblox.

5. Number of directors with Public Safety knowledge: 0

Headliniest of the Week

1. DR: Turkish Airlines flight makes emergency landing at JFK after pilot dies

2. MM: Captain’s gender didn’t cause ship to sink, New Zealand minister says

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Swiss bosses: Swiss workers must clock out for bathroom breaks, court rules

2. MM: Ozempic!  McDonald's and Krispy Kreme are giving away free donuts - bring in a McDonald’s receipt on Oct 14th to Krispy Kreme and you get a free donut after your McD’s!

Predictions

1. DR: Swiss workers start wearing diapers to work

2. MM: After reading this: Man learns he’s being dumped via “dystopian” AI summary of texts, I predict by 2026, someone has AI read out loud a summary of their day during breakfast that reads as follows: “Good morning.  Here’s what you missed: your mother has liver failure and is in the hospital, but says you shouldn’t visit because you are a horrible child. Also, your bank account has been hacked after you visited a pornographic website and searched for kick me in the nuts sex. Your doctor would also like you to know you do have a micropenis, and that you can expect more test results about your foot fungus later this afternoon.  Your 2pm appointment labeled Exploring Divorce has been canceled. The weather today is sunny with a high of 63.  Alexa AI suggests purchasing the following to brighten your day: Will Smith's Hitch on VHS or DVD for 17.99 and Archie McPhee Yodeling Pickle: A Musical Toy, Fun for All Ages, Great Gift, Hours of Mindless Entertainment, Multi-colored on sale for 12.60 with prime one day delivery.”