FRIDAY WRAP: Vince McMahon is a risk factor, the ghost of Adam Neumann, the ghost of Bob Iger, Meta's Oversight Gaslight, and checkout robots unionize

Introduction

LIVE from your ESG compost bin, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at November 10th Studios, featuring all your favorites: Ari the data queen, Jessie the Money Whisperer, and AnalystHole Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up:

IT’S FRIDAYYYYY!!! And we are LIVE from FreeFloatHQ. This is Ari the Data Queen, joined by AnalystHole Matt Moscardi, Jessie the Money Whisperer, and ex-Host Damion Rallis. On today’s weekly wrap up: the founder that won’t fail out of existence, surprising discrimination, and the labor movement keeps on going!!

Story of the Week (DR):

1. WeWork, once valued at $47 billion, files for bankruptcy

1. Disgraced WeWork founder Adam Neumann still worth $1.7B after company’s bankruptcy

1. There's a new theory that Adam Neumann will buy back WeWork

2. WeWork’s ousted founder Adam Neumann fires subtle shots at his successors, saying the company ‘failed’ to make the most of its relevancy

3. A possible winner from WeWork’s troubles? Adam Neumann

1. The former CEO could leave with a last slug of money, a knock-on effect of the generous terms big investors lavished on tech company founders

2. Before he surrendered control of the company he founded, Neumann negotiated significant concessions and payments from SoftBank: One concession was a roughly $430 million loan from SoftBank to Neumann that had a key feature: Neumann wasn’t personally on the hook for paying it back. Instead, if he stopped paying, SoftBank would be able to seize his shares in WeWork as collateral.

2. SAG-AFTRA actors’ union reaches tentative labor agreement with Hollywood studios

1. The actors strike lasted 118 days

2. The deal comes more than a month after SAG-AFTRA’s sister guild the Writers Guild of America solidified a new contract with studios and ended its own strike.

3. Caesars reaches deal with Las Vegas union to avoid strike

4. Kaiser healthcare workers ratify new contract

5. UAW to 'pull out all stops' organizing nonunion automakers

3. Vince McMahon Listed As Risk Factor In New SEC Filing AB JS MM

1. “The special committee of independent members of WWE’s Board of Directors’ investigation into allegations of misconduct by Mr. McMahon, and any further allegations and investigations may have an adverse financial and operational impact on our business performance.”

2. “Mr. McMahon’s membership on our Board could have adverse financial and operational impacts on our business. Mr. McMahon’s membership on our Board could expose us to negative publicity and/or have other adverse financial and operational impacts on our business. His membership also may result in additional scrutiny or otherwise exacerbate the other risks described herein.”

3. WWE founder and billionaire Vince McMahon is selling 8.4 million shares of TKO stock, according to a company statement, which said $100 million worth of the shares will be repurchased by TKO.

4. Bridgewater rigged its famous 'believability weighting' system after founder Ray Dalio complained that some employees scored higher than him, book says

1. The system signaled how much weight someone's opinion carried and was theoretically meant to help identify talent.

2. After two underlings outranked him, Dalio was set as the baseline for believability, per "The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend," out Tuesday from New York Times finance reporter Rob Copeland.

3. Dalio brought on a consultant in 2009 as an advisor to Bridgewater's management committee and tasked him with creating a system for ranking employees, the book said. Dalio's idea was to have something like a baseball card for each employee — visible to everyone and ranking them on dozens of different attributes in an attempt to spell out their strengths and weaknesses, the book said.

4. Categories included things like determination, practical thinking, and visualization, according to the book, but one metric — believability, which was a combination of all of the ratings in each category — trumped them all. Bridgewater's believability weighting system, in theory, was supposed to help determine how much weight a person's opinion carried and to help identify hidden talent within the firm.

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. US Labor Movement is still having a moment MM JS

1. Caesars reaches deal with Las Vegas union to avoid strike

1. The Culinary Union said it took 20 straight hours of negotiations to produce a tentative deal for a new five-year contract, two days before a deadline of a strike affecting nearly 10k hospitality workers.

2. Kaiser healthcare workers ratify new contract

1. The union of healthcare workers approved the four-year contract that was won shortly after 75,000 workers walked out on a three-day strike in early October

3. Actors’ union reaches tentative deal with Hollywood film and TV studios, ending historic strike

4. ‘Our Family Can Have a Future’: Ford Workers on a New Union Contract

5. GM employees return to work after 17-day strike in Brazil

6. Pharmacy walkout organizers help launch national push to unionize pharmacists, technicians

2. Women’s Soccer DR

1. Netflix To Release Series On USWNT’s 2023 World Cup Campaign Next Month

2. The National Women's Soccer League signed a new four-year media rights deal with CBS, ESPN, Prime Video, and Scripps Sports. It's reportedly valued at $240 million—it is worth 40 times the previous three-year agreement with CBS.

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Meta's Oversight Board and the Need for a New Theory of Online ... - Lawfare JS AB

1. Gaslighting never fared so well

2. 53 decisions since the board began hearing cases in October 2020 - average of 17 per year, or 1.5 per month.

1. Those cases represent “less than .000001%” of all moderation decisions

3. 79% of the cases have been overturned

1. DOESN’T THIS MEAN META SUCKS ASS AT MODERATION??

4. Average turnaround time: 8-10 months after the initial decision

5. Zero changes!

2. Is Disney's New CFO Its Next CEO? - Disney Tourist Blog

1. DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU DID BOB?  DO YOU SEE?

3.  Adam Neumann fires subtle shots at his WeWork successors DR

1. “It has been challenging for me to watch from the sidelines since 2019 as WeWork has failed to take advantage of a product that is more relevant today than ever before.”

4. Citigroup to pay $25.9 mln to settle U.S. discrimination claims

1. When you hear “discrimination claims”, you immediately think, “which black, hispanic, woman, or gay did they casually screw over.”  Which is what makes this weirdly more jarring

2. The CFPB found that “from 2015 to 2021, Citigroup managers trained employees to stereotype applicants suspected of being of Armenian descent because their last names ended in "ian" and "yan," believing them likely to commit fraud”

3. The bank said it was a few bad apples, but CFPB Director Rohit Chopra told reporters on Wednesday that Citigroup was a repeat violator of consumer protection laws, having paid more than $1 billion in fines and consumer redress since 2015.

4. Only ONE DIRECTOR on Citi’s 13 person board bats above 0.300 on controversies.  Fully HALF THE BOARD sits on multiple boards, meaning across ALL the companies they sit on, they all suck

5. Jane Fraser has less influence than Peter Henry, and he’s not even the chair

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

1. A possible winner from WeWork’s troubles? Adam Neumann AB

1. In late 2019, SoftBank committed billions of dollars to bail out WeWork after the office company’s failed attempt at an initial public offering left it low on cash and heavy on losses.

2. Neumann was ousted by the company’s board, but before he surrendered control of the company he founded

3. With WeWork in bankruptcy and his remaining shares near worthless, there is a potential for further financial gain for Neumann. Here’s how:

1. One concession was a roughly $430 million loan from SoftBank to Neumann that had a key feature: Neumann wasn’t personally on the hook for paying it back. Instead, if he stopped paying, SoftBank would be able to seize his shares in WeWork as collateral.

2. The value of that collateral has plummeted. With WeWork’s stock price near zero, Neumann’s WeWork shares are currently worth $4 million, down from around $500 million in fall 2021, according to FactSet. SoftBank executives worry that Neumann may elect to simply walk away with the money he was lent and hand over the shares, people familiar with the situation said.

2. Crypto CEO steps down after ‘misogynistic’ rant DR MM

1. GiveTree founder & CEO, Sam Joel, made misogynistic comments to several women in response to an article about championing women in start-ups on LinkedIn. Here are some of the comments:

1. “Get off your period. Get good. Earn your salary with skill not pr lol. Pathetic.”

2. “bang you then abortion.”

3. “are you single? Should we make a better baby? […] Assuming I wanna bang you, because let’s be honest – you look. Fat.”

4. He also wrote that diversity “might be the dumbest sh*t of the entire century” and claimed that women “have somehow secured majority employment in most verticals now. And still. Complaining. Classic women.”

2. LinkedIn decided that the comments didn’t contravene its professional community policy and refrained from taking them down and removing Joel from the platform

3. One of the targets, a CEO & founder of fintech company Super Fierce Trenna Probert, subsequently posted that she spent all weekend dealing with and responding to the aftermath of these comments. 

1. “Here we are still dealing with it (reams of emails, convos & actvity are going on behind the scenes trying to create action & protections for women). And so, even putting aside the fact that I’m still shaking with revulsion, anger & frustration, I am furious that the time I should have been spending on my family & business is being diverted to having to fight for a FAIR BLOODY GO. I should not have to fight to NOT be sexually harassed, belittled & abused on a ‘professional network’”

4. GiveTree subsequently posted an apology on LinkedIn and Joel revealed that he would be stepping down as CEO. The statement written on Joel’s behalf, in part read: “Sam would therefore like to wholeheartedly apologize for the damage and harm he has caused these, and all, women through his words and actions.” Joel would reportedly attend therapy to address his sexist and, at times, misogynistic behavior towards women

5. Another man getting a slap on the wrist for being sexist and contributing to an unsafe environment for women…yawn

3. Amazon Announces New Benefit For Prime Members: Primary Care Services For $9 Per Month

1. At first read, I thought hmmm maybe this is good for people that can’t afford healthcare. But then I thought, how much of that population is allocating money to an Amazon Prime membership?

2. The details: Virtual primary care through OneMedical, which Amazon acquired last year. It’s normally available for $199/year, but Prime Members get it for $99 with the option to include add’l members for $66

3. We should be ashamed of our healthcare that it’s so deplorable that AMAZON can enter the market with a service like this

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Women in Ohio

2. AB: AB

3. MM: Adam Neumann

4. JS: NWSL: Just won a 40x raise as they sign a $240M TV deal with CBS, ESPN, Amazon & Scripps

Predictions

1. DR: Bob found his next puppet?: Pepsi Vice Chair and CFO Hugh Johnston

1. Audit chair at Microsoft (4%) and HCA Healthcare (3%). 

2. AB: Self checkout machines will unionize to make sure no other grocery stores can fire them all

3. MM: The Armenians win

4. JS: If we keep allowing crazy AI founders to create with no regulations, we’ll live in a world eerily similar to Orbit City where the Jetsons resided WITHIN 5 YEARS- AI personal assistants, a two-hour work week, housekeeping robots