FRIDAY WRAP: Tesla’s proxy gaslight, DEI gets twisted, McDonald’s French fry smell, and e-scooters win

Introduction

IT’S FRIDAYYYYY!!! And we are LIVE, and ALIVE. This is Ari the Data Queen, joined by AnalystHole Matt Moscardi, Jessie the Money Whisperer, and Hazelnut Rallis. On today’s weekly wrap up: More Tesla and an extremely special and long-winded and potentially boring and definitely ranty screed against a-holes 

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Tesla Seeks to Revive Musk’s $47 Billion Pay Deal After Judge Says No AB

1. The company’s directors are asking shareholders to again approve the multibillion-dollar compensation plan and to move the company’s registration to Texas, from Delaware.

2. And vote for Kimbal and Nepo-Murdoch

3. Tesla is recalling its Cybertruck vehicles due dangerously defective accelerator pedals

4. Elon Musk Fires More Than Ten Percent of Tesla's Staff After Alienating Pretty Much Everyone Who Might Have Bought a Tesla

1. Tesla's layoffs caused so much confusion that security had to figure things out at the door

1. Some Tesla factory workers realized they were laid off when security scanned their badges and sent them back on shuttles

2. Elon Musk apologized for 'incorrectly low' Tesla severance packages

2. Boeing Whistle-Blower Details His Concerns to Congressional Panel

1. "I'm not gonna sugarcoat this, this is a criminal coverup"

2. A Boeing engineer turned whistleblower says the planemaker needs ground all its 787 Dreamliners

3. Boeing whistleblower said the company threatened him and other engineers to keep quiet about safety concerns

3. Emily or Lakisha? Guess which one hiring managers chose MM DR

1. Researchers studied racial bias in hiring by sending over 83,000 fake résumés to big US companies

1. To determine which names might disadvantage job applicants, researchers from the University of Chicago and the University of California, Berkeley, sent more than 83,000 fake résumés to more than 100 big US companies

2. Résumés with Black-sounding names were often less likely to get callbacks

1. In the best cases, employers went for white-seeming résumés more frequently than Black-seeming ones "only slightly or not at all," the researchers said. But in the most extreme instances, those doing the hiring favored résumés that might be presumed to be from white candidates by 24%, on average

3. Now, the researchers are naming names among the more than 100 Fortune 500 companies involved.

1. Genuine Parts Company (21%/11%), parent of NAPA Auto Parts, and AutoNation (one lonely guy (13% with 6% influence; and 25%/10%F: combined is 38/16), one of the biggest auto retailers in the US, were among those researchers ranked lowest in their assessment

2. Another company where researchers identified disparate response rates for candidates was Costco (also one lonely guy with 9% influence)

4. Of the 108 companies researchers sent résumés to, among the best performers were car-rental company Avis Budget Group and the grocery chain Kroger

1. Avis is my dream board!

2. CEO Joe Ferraro IS NOT ON THE BOARD!

3. 33% F with 36% power/50% people of color including Vice Chairman Jagdeep Pahwa and Compensation Committee chair Karthik Sarma

4. Kroger 36%/26% diverse: not a great power gap but 26% diverse is unusually high

4. Donald Trump's Company Has Diversity And Inclusion Policy While He Rages Against It

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. Apple removes WhatsApp and Threads from Chinese App Store DR MM

1. They retaliated for proposed ban on TikTok - because Zuckerberg is ALSO an authoritarian regime!

2. Fool's gold could actually be worth money now. Here's why

1. It contains lithium which is in short supply and needed for batteries for green energy!

3. 8 years into America’s e-scooter experiment, what have we learned?

1. Multiple studies testing if rental e-scooters are net benefit - if someone would have walked, it’s worse for the environment, but if they would have driven it’s better

2. ALL the studies finding that even though nearly half of people would have walked, the car users would have been so much worse that the experiment is working

3. Saving 20g of CO2 per mile ridden on a scooter - not a lot, but it’s working

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Alex Edmans DR

1. SHORT TIMELINE

1. Edmans is a professor of finance at London Business School

2. Much of his career devoted to sustainability/ESG studies and finance

3. Wrote papers trying to pin down ESG and performance links, driven by a focus on data over user bias

4. Wrote a paper about DEI talking about how it doesn’t work to have a policy, you need a lot of things to make it work - and there aren’t links to performance that are obvious

5. Started writing his book/posts under the title May Contain Lies where he first “debunks”, but then just trashes, other papers in ESG - but not by writing papers that prove they’re wrong, just by publicly talking about how the methods are bad and/or how the media is wrong about everything

6. Doing media rounds himself to self promote, sell his book, get some speaking fees - leans hard into blowhardiness

2. The anti-ESG, racist-veiled-as-meritocracy crowd noticed an ESG prof keeps saying “DEI” and “lies” in the same posts

1. Strive puts him on a webinar called “DEI May Contain Lies” - Edmans seems to not know or acknowledge the fact that Strive votes explicitly against women on boards at a 2:1 rate versus average REGARDLESS OF PERFORMANCE (we have the data to show it)

2. The National Center for Public Policy Research files this gem in support of their shareholder proposal at Boeing, “Report on Risks Created by the Company’s Diversity Equity and Inclusion Efforts”

1. The negative impact of these bad studies then trickle down to all hiring and promotion and compensation decisions Sacrificing merit for diversity by limiting the pool of candidates under consideration in this way should be expected to have a negative impact on performance

3. Texas AG files a document request of Boeing’s supplier Spirit which spends ⅓ of its demands on DEI policies as they try to link DEI to safety issues

3. Thanks fuckface - so you could sell some books, you empowered conservatives to twist what was a good idea (doing solid research) by calling everything you didn’t write “lies” so much so they are using TO KILL DEI EVERYWHERE

2. Jeff Sonnenfeld

1. Damion, this is for you to do an asshole cameo

3. Robyn Denholm MM AB

1. FIRING EVERYONE

1. Elon wrote:

1. Over the years, we have grown rapidly with multiple factories scaling around the globe. With this rapid growth there has been duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas. As we prepare the company for our next phase of growth, it is extremely important to look at every aspect of the company for cost reductions and increasing productivity.

2. As part of this effort, we have done a thorough review of the organization and made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by more than 50% globally. There is nothing I hate more, but it must be done. This will enable us to be lean, innovative and hungry for the next growth phase cycle.

3. For those remaining, I would like to thank you in advance for the difficult job that remains ahead. We are developing some of the most revolutionary technologies in auto, energy and artificial intelligence. As we prepare the company for the next phase of growth, your resolve will make a huge difference in getting us there.

2. Robyn wrote:

1. Of course, a key part of this nimble organization requires careful management of our resources. We recently announced a company-wide restructuring that reduces our headcount by more than 10% globally. Over the years, we have grown rapidly with multiple factories scaling around the globe. With this rapid growth, there has been a duplication of roles and job functions in certain areas. We believe it is extremely important to look at every aspect of our business for cost reductions and increasing productivity. This action will prepare us for our next phase of growth, as we are developing some of the most revolutionary technologies in auto, energy and artificial intelligence.

2. MOVE TO TEXAS

1. Elon wrote:

1. Jan 30 - the same day the decision to rescind Musk’s pay package - on X poll: “Should Tesla change its state of incorporation to Texas, home of its physical headquarters?”

2. Feb 1 - 80% vote for moving - “The public vote is unequivocally in favor of Texas!  Tesla will move immediately to hold a shareholder vote to transfer state of incorporation to Texas.”

2. Robyn wrote:

1. Notwithstanding these communications [Musk’s tweets], redomestication is a Board decision, not a decision for a chief executive officer. And on February 4, 2024, the Board met to discuss these issues, among others, including the multi-year history of Company discussions regarding a potential redomestication.

2. In order to evaluate whether to redomesticate Tesla, the Board formed the Special Committee, which ultimately was comprised of Kathleen Wilson-Thompson

1. Note: the only person of color, director since 2018, ex-HR officer at Walgreens - and when they put the “committee” together, everyone had to recuse themselves (including all brothers) except Gebbia and KWT

3. The Special Committee considered a precise question: where should this Company be incorporated at this time. The Special Committee initially considered all U.S. states as well as the possibility of incorporating outside of the U.S. It narrowed its focus in stages, first to 10 states, then 5, and finally to a binary choice between remaining incorporated in Delaware and reincorporating in one alternative jurisdiction.

1. First identified jurisdictions where Tesla had presence

2. Then reviewed corporate law and found them to be mostly the same!

3. The differentiator was then Tesla’s home state vs. others

4. MAGIC!  TEXAS V. DELAWARE!

4. They recommend Texas because… Texas is home!  

1. The committee remit was expanded to include re-ratifying pay as a shareholder proposal, and Gebbia stepped off the committee because, “out of an abundance of caution because of the potential for unfair attacks based on perceived conflicts of interest.”

2. KWT was on board of Vulcan Materials with Elaine Chao (Mitch McConnell’s wife) who sat on News Corp with James Murdoch - so she was hand chosen by Murdoch/Chao/conservative machine

3. It was a committee of ONE PERSON who was LEAST compromised doing fake due diligence on whether Musk could get RE-paid and move to Texas

3. Keep the gaslight going…

1. That is why we are asking for your support for all of our management proposals including re-election of two of our hardworking and dedicated directors, Kimbal Musk and James Murdoch.

1. Mr. Musk has extensive senior leadership business experience in the technology, retail and consumer markets, and a robust understanding of mission-driven ventures. Mr. Musk also provides valuable expertise based on his experience on the Tesla Board and is able to apply his unique understanding of the business to the strategy and execution of the Company.

2. Because the Delaware Court second-guessed your decision, Elon has not been paid for any of his work for Tesla for the past six years that has helped to generate significant growth and stockholder value. The Board stands behind this pay package.

3. I think Denholm might have been an excellent executive and director once, but she should never get another job again - she is the ultimate spineless puppet

4. Honorary asshole: Governors of six Southern states warn workers against joining UAW union

1. Is there even precedence for this??? The state GOVERNORS telling PRIVATE COMPANY EMPLOYEES NOT to unionize??

5. Honorary asshole: SBTi

1. I went out on a limb and called Bill Baue an asshole

2. Baue has, for a long time, argued with… AND DOCUMENTED PUBLICLY… SBTi for not being science-y enough because they didn’t adhere to his favorite, more stringent science target setting method for carbon

1. His method uses global limits of emissions - “planetary thresholds”

3. He also thinks a science based approach should review all science and not make up its own - but they made up their own

4. He’s not WRONG - but he spent literally YEARS bitching about it, so much so that the GOP in the House last year picked up on it and tried to use his arguments to stop the government considering carbon emissions at all in the supply chain - because Bill Baue said they were compromised and frauds

5. But NOW… SBTi announced two weeks ago they would allow companies to use carbon offsets - basically fake carbon credits - to report lower emissions even as companies emit MORE carbon

6. The result - the entire staff OpenAI’ed and threatened to all quit to save us from greenwashing

7. SBTi backtracked immediately (and tried to make it look like they didn’t every say it was ok) - but those assholes are making even assholes look sympathetic by chasing company dollars (and reportedly Bezos funding)

8. SBTi - I wanted to defend the fact that you were relevant if not perfect - but now you’ve made it impossible you idiots… can you just remember the word “science” is in your acronym?  Change it to “MBTi” - make believe targets initiative - at least and be honest

Headline-iest (ALL):

1. Matt - TWO OPTIONS: 

1. Headline of the year: Tesla's board needs to be refreshed: Corporate governance expert

1. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware Charles Elson

2. Headline of my dreams: Gay Furry Hackers Attack Right-Wing News Outlet

2. DR: Stupid or Stupider?

1. Will Texans Accept New 'Woke' Cups From Starbucks?

1. The cups feature 20% less plastic

2. The cups will also have raised bumps on them so the sizes can be identified by touch by employees

3. The "tall" cups will also be shorter and wider so that the lids from the other cups fit on them

2. Nicola Peltz Beckham, a billionaire’s daughter, made a movie about abject poverty. It’s as bad as you think

1. Nuff said

3. AB: French Fry edition

1. Wendy’s will offer free fries every Friday through the end of the year

2. McDonald's new marketing: Billboards that smell like its French fries DR MM

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Cynically…. The 10% of Tesla workers who don’t have to work for Elon Musk anymore

2. AB: Potatoes

3. MM: Woke appliances!  Republicans Delay War on Woke Appliances to Focus on Actual War

4. JS: 

Predictions

1. DR: Shareholders say No to Musk

2. AB: Idaho’s GDP grows 43% in the next year

3. MM: For the Proxy Countdown, I listened to Abbott Laboratories’ 1Q earnings call and got this nugget - the company launched a nutrition shake designed specifically for people taking Ozempic and other weight loss drugs to offset the muscle loss caused by the weight loss… I predict that the makers of Wegovy and Ozempic will need to offset the muscle re-gain from the muscle loss and launch another new pill called OzemBlimp which adds a small amount of steroids AND a muscle eating bacteria so that people can take all three medicines to finally get the weight off and look more like Chris Hemsworth

4. JS: