MONDAY KETCHUP: Chapek FTW, LeBron's a "no" on $8 checkmarks, OTHER Chinese apps, tech bros are NOW worried about humanity, Musk, and another "black eye" for ESG

Live from the Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, it’s yet another Manic Monday edition of Business Pants. Joined as always by our Lord of the BS, Matt Moscardi. In today’s rusted muffin tin called April 3, 2023: Sexy Story Updates! And a deep-ish dive on America’s newest billionaire bromance that nobody asked for

DAMION1

1. Wars

1. DeSantis Had 10 Months To See What Disney Was Up To

1. so it looks like the Royal Clause agreement was crafted two days after the state legislature passed the bill to dissolve Disney’s special governing district... meaning April 21, 2022... that's Chapek

2. Disney notified Orange County about the new agreement on 4/21/22; the public hearing was 1/25/23; it was ratified on 2/8/23... so meatball Ron had almost a year to figure it out

3. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California praised Walt Disney World for its "masterclass" of putting Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida "back in his place" after the company created a loophole to maintain control of its land. 

1. "I guess there's a new sheriff in town," Newsom told Insider on Saturday, in a not-so-subtle reference to a comment DeSantis made when he appointed a new board to oversee Disney's district.

2. "It's Mickey Mouse, back on top," Newsom added.

2. Drugs

1. Twitter Verification

1. Billionaire LeBron James Says He Won’t Shell Out $8 A Month For Twitter Verification

2. Musk Appears To Revoke N.Y. Times’ Blue Checkmark For Refusing To Buy Paid Twitter Subscription

1. An anonymous Twitter account brought the Times’ refusal to pay for a blue checkmark to Musk’s attention early Sunday morning, leading the billionaire to tweet, “ok, we’ll take it off then.”

2. Musk criticized the publication early on Sunday, tweeting its “propaganda isn’t even interesting” and “their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea.”

1. Tesla has reportedly installed around 3,000 solar roofs since 2016

1. A new report says Tesla Solar is behind on its goal to install 1,000 solar roofs per week.

2. The other Chinese apps taking the US and UK by storm

1. Analytics firm Apptopia estimates that another three of the top 10 free mobile apps in the US are also owned by Chinese firms. Two of them are also among the most downloaded in the UK.

1. CapCut

1. Video editing app CapCut is often pitched as a companion editor for TikTok content creators and it was downloaded 13 million times in February alone. CapCut is also owned by TikTok's parent company, ByteDance.

2. Shein

1. Shein is a global fashion brand was founded in 2012 and now boasts a nearly $15 billion valuation.

2. It was founded by Chinese billionaire Chris Xu and is headquartered in Singapore.

3. Temu

1. It's been less than a year since this shopping app debuted in the US but it quickly outpaced Amazon and Walmart.

2. The online superstore sells everything from apparel to electronics and allows consumers to bypass warehouse stores and buy directly from the Chinese manufacturer.

3. The company is headquartered in Boston, MA, but it is a subsidiary of PDD Holdings, a Chinese-owned online retail giant that specializes in direct-to-consumer products.

3. France to limit what internet influencers can say and sell for brands

1. France is to become first European country to regulate internet influencers, as lawmakers debate a cross-party bill to impose limits on what people can promote on social media.

2. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, will be required to set up channels for consumers to report fraud.

3. Bro Culture

1. WWE and UFC owner Endeavor agree to massive merger

1. It's official: WWE (WWE) and UFC (EDR) will be under one house known as $TKO.

2. WWE and Endeavor announced Monday that the two public companies would combine in a deal valuing both companies at more than $21 billion. WWE is being valued at $9.3 billion, a more than 33% premium to the company's market cap on Friday, while UFC owner Endeavor is being valued at $12.1 billion.

3. Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel will run the combined company as CEO, while WWE majority owner and Executive Chairman Vince McMahon is assuming the executive chairman role. WWE's Nick Khan will be the president of the wrestling brand alongside UFC president Dana White.

4. Vince McMahon locks in two-year contract as WWE looks for buyers

1. WWE CEO Nick Khan has said McMahon would be open to leaving WWE for good in the event of a sale.

2. Epstein Lawsuit: Billionaires Sergey Brin, Thomas Pritzker And Mortimer Zuckerman Subpoenaed In JPMorgan Case

1. At least three billionaires received subpoenas this week connected to a lawsuit against JPMorgan over the bank’s relationship with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a person familiar with the matter told Forbes—the latest twist in a case that has ensnared some of America’s most powerful figures.

2. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Hyatt Hotels executive chairman Thomas Pritzker and co-founder, executive chairman and former CEO of Boston Properties real estate mogul Mortimer Zuckerman were the billionaires subpoenaed, while former Disney president Michael Ovitz has also been asked to provide information.

3. The reason the businessmen were subpoenaed is not clear, but they’ve been told to provide documents and communications connected to Epstein and the bank, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news Thursday.

4. Stakeholders Rule!

1. Elon Musk broke the law with a tweet about Tesla stock options, court rules

1. Elon Musk broke labor law with a 2018 tweet about Tesla employees' stock options, a court ruled.

2. The US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said Musk threatened staff in the wake of a unionization drive.

3. It also upheld the reinstatement by Tesla of a worker fired for leading unionizing efforts.

4. "Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted. But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing? Our safety record is 2X better than when plant was UAW & everybody already gets healthcare," Musk tweeted.

1. Tesla argued that because Musk said there was nothing stopping Tesla workers joining a union, it couldn't be regarded as a threat.

5. However, the 5th Circuit court sided with the NLRB's initial ruling. 

1. "Because stock options are part of Tesla's employees' compensation, and nothing in the tweet suggested that Tesla would be forced to end stock options or that the UAW would be the cause of giving up stock options, substantial evidence supports the NLRB's conclusion that the tweet is as an implied threat to end stock options as retaliation for unionization," the panel wrote in its conclusion.

2. Starbucks fired the worker who led unionization movement, just days after former CEO grilled by Congress

1. Starbucks fired Alexis Rizzo, who served as a shift supervisor for seven years, on Friday.

2. Rizzo sparked a nationwide labor movement by working to unionize two Starbucks stores in New York. 

3. "That is beyond unacceptable. Ms. Rizzo must be reinstated," Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted.

3. McDonald’s reportedly tells U.S. staff to work from home over the next 3 days so it can deliver layoff messages remotely

1. McDonald’s is closing its U.S. offices and telling U.S. and some international staff to work remotely between Monday and Wednesday as the fast food giant prepares for layoffs.

2. The company made the request in an internal email last week, reports the Wall Street Journal. It also asked employees to cancel all in-person meetings with vendors and other external parties. 

3. McDonald’s is stopping people from going into the office so that it can deliver staffing notices remotely, citing the increased likelihood that people will be traveling during the week of April 3. “We want to ensure the comfort and confidentiality of our people during the notification period,” the company said in its internal email, according to the Wall Street Journal.

4. NBA and Players’ Union Agree To New 7-Year Contract As Focus Turns to TV Deals

1. The new collective bargaining agreement with the National Basketball Players Association comes as the league prepares for a new round of media-rights talks.

5. Paris votes overwhelmingly to ban shared e-scooters

1. In a major blow to shared micromobility companies Lime, Dott and Tier, Paris has voted to ban rental e-scooters from its streets. Many in the industry fear the move in Paris, where free-floating scooters initially took off in 2018, will have ripple effects in other cities.

2. Paris has been one of the most heavily regulated e-scooter markets, something companies have pointed to as an example of how they can play nice with cities. Yet, despite limiting scooter top speeds to as slow as 10 kilometers per hour (about 6 miles per hour) and requiring riders to use dedicated parking areas or pay fines, Paris has become the first city to completely reverse its policy on offering contracts to shared micromobility companies.

3. In a referendum on Sunday organized by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, Paris residents voted 89% against keeping shared e-scooters in the city. The three companies that pay for contracts to operate in the City of Light will have to pull their fleets — a total of 15,000 e-scooters — out of the city by September 1.

5. Dystopia

1. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt says those in AI industry have to 'make sure' the technology 'doesn't harm but just helps'

1. AI Technology has advanced rapidly and gained popularity in recent years. 

2. Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt told ABC News the technology has promise, but there are concerns.

3. He said the industry has to work to find "guardrails" to prevent negative impacts on democracy. 

2. Clearview AI scraped 30 billion images from Facebook and gave them to cops: it puts everyone into a 'perpetual police line-up'

1. Clearview AI scraped 30 billion photos from Facebook to build its facial recognition database.

2. US police have used the database nearly a million times, the company's CEO told the BBC.

3. One digital rights advocate told Insider the company is "a total affront to peoples' rights, full stop."

3. BuzzFeed Publishes AI-Generated Travel Guides Collaboratively Written with Buzzy the Robot

1. According to a report by Futurism, BuzzFeed has taken a significant step forward in AI-generated content by releasing travel guides written entirely by AI. While the publisher's initial AI-generated content consisted of ad-lib quizzes that were relatively harmless, the travel guides are a more audacious attempt to draw in search traffic for various destinations.

2. Here’s a new rule for you to consider: should we just ban all content that can be AI-generated?

4. Sam Altman compared OpenAI's ambitions with the scale of the Manhattan Project in 2019, per the NYT.

1. He paraphrased Robert Oppenheimer with his belief that AI must progress despite the risks.

2. Altman cautioned that AGI would come with a "serious risk of misuse, drastic accidents, and societal disruption" in the February blog post. In the 2019 conversation with Metz, he also reportedly questioned: "Am I doing something good? Or really bad?"

3. He further detailed his beliefs in this blog post, saying: "Because the upside of AGI is so great, we do not believe it is possible or desirable for society to stop its development forever; instead, society and the developers of AGI have to figure out how to get it right."

6. Blowhard Index

1. Bank with a similar name to troubled First Republic is livid that its shares have tumbled too and insists ‘there are significant differences’

1. A case of mistaken identity is sparking a selloff in Republic First Bancorp, which had fallen by more than 40% this month because investors have it confused with embattled First Republic Bank.

2. “We are NOT First Republic Bank,” Republic First CEO Thomas Geisel wrote in a letter on the company’s website. “It’s important to fully understand there are significant differences between these banks, other ‘Start-up’ or ‘Crypto-focused’ banks versus Republic Bank and the thousands of other community banks.”

3. “Yeah, first of all we only have ONE female director, not four, and we probably have the greatest-named Chairman Emeritus ever—Harry madonna”

7. Woke Data

1. Another Black Eye for ESG in MSCI’s Mass Downgrade

1. A change in methodology will see ratings on thousands of funds lowered, highlighting once again the problems with such scores. 

2. Tens of thousands of funds that have changed nothing about their investment approach are about to see their environmental, social and governance scores lowered — a poor look for an $8.4 trillion market in the US that’s struggling to be seen as bona fide.

8. And finally.. In a mashup between CEOs RUle, OK Billionaire, and Dystopia:

1. Elon Musk isn't the only billionaire to try and build his own town. From Bill Gates to Peter Thiel, here's a list of the super rich who have attempted to build utopias.

1. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported Elon Musk plans to build a town named "Snailbrook."

1. Musk and his employees have described the vision for the city as a "sort of Texas utopia along the Colorado River," the Journal reported. The town of prefabricated homes will be outfitted with a pool, an outdoor sports area, and a gym, as well as a charter school, the publication has said.

2. The Tesla CEO also plans to build a private compound just outside of the town where he could live, according to the report.

3. Elon Musk also named a town in Boca Chica, Texas "Starbase."

2. In 2021, former Walmart CEO Marc Lore announced plans to build a futuristic utopia called "Telosa."

1. At the time, Lore said he wanted to build an egalitarian utopia that about 50,000 people could call home by as soon as 2030. Lore has said the city would be governed by "equitism," which appears to be a mix of equality and capitalism. 

3. Billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel also had a plan for a utopian city.

1. In 2008, Peter Thiel launched a mission to develop a floating city, called a seastead, that would operate independently from existing nations as a small, self-sufficient island.

2. The billionaire investor said the city would be libertarian and "an escape from politics in all its forms," and launched the Seasteading Institute with Google software engineer Patri Friedman in 2008.

4. In Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is constructing a city named "The Line" as part of a larger development called Neom.

1. Neom, a futuristic megacity development that is located on the Red Sea, has been in the works since 2017. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019 that plans for the city include artificial rain, a fake moon, robotic maids, robot dinosaurs, a glow-in-the-dark beach, and holographic teachers. 

2. Neom is intended to house millions of people, the majority of whom will live on The Line — a set of two parallel 75-mile-long skyscrapers that will house residences and facilities, including a high-speed train, sports stadium, and yacht marina.

5. In 2017, Bill Gates invested about $80 million into plans for a smart city outside of Phoenix, Arizona.

1. At the time, the plan was for 80,000 homes to be built, with 3,800 acres reserved for industrial, office, and retail space, 3,400 acres of open space, and 470 acres dedicated to public schools, the local news outlet said. The publication said the city would be known as "Belmont."

6. Larry Ellison has taken a less futuristic, more luxurious approach.

1. In 2012, the Oracle cofounder bought about 98% of Hawaiian island Lanai for about $300 million, according to Bloomberg. 

2. After acquiring the land, he added a Nobu, created a resort with a wellness center, and renovated the existing hotels on the island.

3. Since, the island, which is home to about 3,000 people, has become a destination for the ultrawealthy, counting the likes of Tom Cruise, Cindy Crawford, and Will Smith as visitors. Ellison, himself, moved to the island full time in 2020.

4. Before Ellison bought the island and began upgrading it, the land was owned by billionaire David Murdock, the former chairman of Dole Foods.

7. Victoria's Secret and Bath & Bodywork's billionaire Les Wexner built up his own town in Ohio.

1. Wexner decided to build his country home in New Albany, Ohio in the 1980s, Bloomberg reported in 2019.

2. Since, he's built his own 30-room mansion in the community and acquired 10,000 acres of land around it — buying up the entire town, Bloomberg reported.

3. Over the past 40 years, he's developed the town, constructing rows of Georgia style brick mansions that are virtually identical, the publication said. He spends his Saturday mornings driving around to make sure everything is "remaining true to the original vision." 

4. Jeffrey Epstein reportedly had a hand in helping the billionaire create the town and invested millions of dollars into the project, New York Magazine reported in 2019.

5. Today, the median household income in New Albany is over $200,000. and the town has a population of about 11,000, Bloomberg said. The median listing price for homes in the town is over $500,000, according to Realtor.com.

8. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban bought Mustang, Texas in 2021.

1. The longtime Shark Tank host bought the small town for about $2 million as a favor to a dying friend, Marty Price.

2. "I don't know what if anything I will do with it," Cuban told the Dallas Morning News in 2021. 

9. "King of cashmere" Brunello Cucinelli has been working to restore a small hamlet in Italy for the past 30 years.

10. Billionaires like Kevin Plank and Dan Gilbert have also invested their money into towns and cities.