Transcript
Live. From the kit part of a Kit Kat bar. It's a big Twizzlers bucket of Biz, nuggets joined. As always, by Emma. I'm right over here, lurking and Matt, another vacation mascardi. I'm the French part of Switzerland, alpi and non-federation, a confusing mix of protagonists who called themselves activists and assorted crypto headaches. Okay. The word activist is has is now more confusing, I think than it should be it. I know what the word activist to me. It's all over her headlines today. So we just decided to dedicate most of our show to these activists. Here we go. Let's do it. I'm gonna awkwardly now, repeat what I already said, which really Destroys the illusion that we're just talking off the top of her heads. It's an active as Monday here. Business pants headquarters, a confusing tale of the Haves and the Have Nots where the extremely wealthy, and the low wage earners. Both labeled himself as activists It's the punch operas versus the punch downers. Like yes, let's begin with the most confusing combination of Haves and Have Nots and punched donors, and punch uppers, the Disney Offspring. That's actually perfect. I agree with this. Documentary. Here's the headline documentary critical of Disney from the Disney family. It's called The American Dream and other fairy tales a harsh portrait of pay inequality at Disney premiering at the Sundance Film Festival today. I believe and brought to you by real life Disney spawn. It's like succession as reality TV, right? I guess. The production team includes the grandchildren of Disney co-founder Roy. Oh, Disney and the patriarch in the succession is Roy, too. I'm just Interesting, probably not a coincidence, probably okay it includes co-director, Abigail Disney and executive producers Susan, Disney Lord. And Tim Disney, imagine being named Tim Disney, having Disney's last name was really something just in general. Abigail Abigail has been publicly dissing, the Walt Disney Company for its obscene, pay inequality for several years. Now, the documentary profiles for Disneyland. Custodians, who all struggle with soaring housing, costs and Southern California. One says he knows Disneyland workers who have had to make a decision between medication or food. Hey, as a contrast, the filmmakers cut to photographs of former CEO, Bob Iger, and his juicy 2018 pay package worth 66 million dollars. I think you get the point, The Disney family has not been involved in managing Disney since the grandkids father Roy, he Disney stepped down from the board in 2003 according to Abigail and her siblings. Here's the quote, from the documentary, they cannot see their father, Roy taking 66 million dollars home for a Year's work. In the same year, win at the same company? People can't afford food, that would never have happened. That would never have happened. Never is that the fairy tale part of the documentary. I'm wondering the Disney's a stakeholder capitalist Heroes Yeah, I don't get me started on that. The Disney companies responses. Interesting, here's what they say. Blah, blah blah. We provide a leading in holistic employment package that includes competitive. Pay in comprehensive benefits, blah blah. We are committed to building two. Okay, here's a quote, we are committed to building on our significant efforts to date. Committed to building on. Isn't that basically admitting that? They should be doing more like, it's a very am I wrong? It's a non pledge. It's like we're doing enough but also we pledged to do better. But why do better? But they already know they should be Dubai. I just found out the weird but there you have it. Trust fund kid activists are unironically punching up. But whatever I'm on Abigail side here. So I'm not gonna roll my eyes too loudly. Oh absolutely. I'll take it. I'll take it. All Right, Moving On. Here's the headline. activist investor pushes Peloton to fire CEO and seek sale, we have another activist but this time it's just some Finance people, but First and foremost, I'd like you to meet one, John Foley, the founder CEO and chair of Peloton according to his company bio. John is a simple triathlete who enjoys Boutique group fitness classes, yes, go to the Peloton website. That is in his bio. I swear simple what you put simple enough, they say simple but enjoying Boutique group fitness classes is a direct quote from his bio. That doesn't sound very simple. No, it doesn't. But his bio made some very crucial information about himself. Of course, I will Enlighten you. Number one, John Foley has 39% of the total voting power at Peloton. That's like getting up there with Mark Zuckerberg levels. Number two, amidst, the news of a hiring freeze and layoffs at Peloton, John bought himself, a 55 million dollar compound in the Hamptons, and through a lavish Christmas party for Peloton. Instructors and Executives. You can imagine how pleased everyone else was at Peloton about this year. That was this year. Yep, at 2021 right now. Wow. Yep. Number three, and finally, John hired his wife as one of peloton's key Executives. But wait, wait. Surprise headline alert Peloton takes another PR, hit after billions character, suffers a heart attack while using its bike. Luckily for Peloton, at least this time, the character didn't die from the exercise bike induced. Cardiac Arrest appear in a Peloton commercial and then get accused of multiple counts of sexual assault. It wasn't quite as bad this time but all that's true. By the way, all of that is true. And I would also like to add on that in the scene in billions the character references, The Sex and the City reboot Peloton death, which okay. Yeah, weird. Okay. Kind of, I don't know weird but kind of amazing. So while this unfortunate piece of PR certainly doesn't help Foley's case, it doesn't hurt. It nearly as much as the following number 80% 80% is an important number for so-called activist investor Blackwell's capital on two counts. The first is that Peloton, CEO and other company insiders retain 80% of the companies power. 80% of the companies voting powers held by individuals, which is crazy and of itself. Blackwells is in a fan of this obviously and second is that Peloton stock price is down about 80% from its peak in November Blackwell's isn't happy about this either in a letter to the Peloton board asking for Foley to step down. Chief investment officer from Blackwell's wrote The Ride for Mr. Foley is over the board. Must now independently chart and path for Peloton. I never thought that a bike pun would be so scaving, but I like it puns, puns and souls. I'm a fan. Ah, this is what happens, Peloton and zoom. Where the two pandemic, Darlings? I mean, you know, you put all this attention on yourself, this stuff's gonna happen. And by the way, this is the also the problem with having one person with so much power, That one person can make stupid decisions and then suddenly your company's blowing up, I'm just just, I know they even had an investment from Beyonce and they messed it up. Damn Peloton. Oh shocking. All right. Building on Emma's story. Yes. The wealthy can be activists to I guess, but I think, you know, before I get to the story, I think as a company. I'm a, let's let's commit to not labeling, these people activists anymore, I don't like it. No, I don't like, we're gonna think of some new terminology for this. All right. And everyone listening out there, who might be part of this ESG world and write stories like this and do coverage on store. It's like this, join us. Don't call them activists. Here we go. Here's a headline. Major investor will Target bosses at firms failing on climate Aviva investors. Which has 262 billion pounds of assets, under management said, it will seek to remove board directors that fail to make good on environmental pledges. They will also want bosses, pay linked to sustainability goals. The fun set is broaden. Its Definition of sustainability and would now focus on issues such as biodiversity and human rights alongside existing priorities like climate change and executive pay. I look this is a activism from rich people. I can enjoy but so just do it already. Yeah. Okay. Just it's 2022. We don't think we even need these announcement anymore. Just do it. Do the right thing. To switch topics a little bit here. Let's talk about crypto. I'm so sorry. I someone who's completely uninvolved in crypto. I feel like I shouldn't be stressed out about it, but here I am and this is the stressful headline. The crypto crash has wiped out more than one trillion dollars First of all, can we talk about what a shitshow of a headline that is if I just read the headline and didn't give any further information or explanation, you would be lost in that word, soup of nothingness, that being said, here's your mediocre explanation, the value of all cryptocurrencies has been cut in almost in half from 3 trillion dollars in November to its current 1.7 trillion dollars. The entire crypto Market lost 200 billion dollars in value. Over just 24 hours. Last Friday, the crypto, crash charged. Seems to be led by none. Other than Jack, dorsey's favorite child, Bitcoin. Bitcoin has also lost about half of its value down to 36,000 dollars from 67,000 dollars in November. I think that's all I got because frankly crypto boggles my mind and I'm confused if someone feels like to me, that'd be very welcome. That would be matched job because he is our our wonky and nerdy crypto metaverse in Nft weirdo in lieu of Matt not being here because he's on some kind of crypto nft vacation. I will say this. There are real investors who are being cajoled by the likes of Jack, Dorsey types, and Tom Brady types. Whoever. I mean there's a lot of them out there all the celebrities who have lost real value recently, right? Like that's that's real that part of it, people losing money. Oh yeah. The losing money part of it, that's a real okay. All right. That's all I can. That's all I'm taking from it. Perfect. Finally from my investor series, Emma has won more crypto story, I want to cover the traditional activist. The punch upper, here we go. Workers at an Activision game, come game Studio. Say they are forming a union. The game workers Alliance represents workers at Raven software, a studio owned by Activision Blizzard, where some employees walked out in early. December to protest work conditions. Here's the quote from Aaron Hall who helped organize the union. This is just the best thing for us in our company, going forward for us to have a voice. Workers having a voice, what a concept. The next headline workers at REI store in Manhattan seek to form retailers, only Union and filing for Union election employees of the Outdoor Equipment retailer cited, safety. During the pandemic among other concerns. But here's what interests me about this one like Starbucks, REI a consumer Cooperative made up of customers who buy lifetime memberships for 20 dollars, they cultivate a progressive image. Rei's website says that the Cooperative believes in quote, putting purpose before profits and quote, despite that sentiment are yep. Despite that sentiment REI management said quote, we do not believe placing a union between the coop and its employees is needed or beneficial and quote. So you think workers having a voice is neither needed or beneficial that some sad snow shoe bulshit, I'm just saying. And lastly, before we get the last one, I do like this, like let's target. All the companies that project the progressive image, right? It's like oh you want to project? Let's see it. Yeah, it's the perfect Target. Lastly, here's the headline. How do workers take on a national chain? Like Starbucks Starbucks, one store at a time. After three Starbucks stores in Buffalo sought Union elections, the movement has quickly spread to more than 20 stores across the country. It may not be the most traditional way to unionize a giant company, but it has one key ingredient momentum pursuing a store by store strategy is sure to be time consuming but it's also a way to grow the movement organically, and to hedge against holding larger potentially harder to win elections. The fast-moving trend has not been happening as part of a broader campaign from Workers United, but from the employees themselves, I think that's what's exciting here. You see what happens when you caffeinate the low wage earners, I see what happens, of course, the caffeinated ones are the ones to do it first, you know, it makes a certain amount of sense. And finally, I'm so sorry. But my last headline is another crypto headline, it felt necessary. So in this crypto headline, fortunately has a more excitable tone despite what I just said. They had the headline is. Touchdown goal, knockout crypto and sports Collide in 2021. Okay, so people who write headlines about crypto clearly have some workshopping to do. None of these have been good. I kind of liked it. Despite my other troubling crypto headline, every Sports Superstar seems to have some skin in the crypto game, Tom, Brady launched. His own nft Marketplace called autograph which might as well be called. Look at me and all my famous friends autograph offers nfts from Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt, Simone biles, and every other famous athlete. Tom Brady has access to. So all of them in addition to individual sports figures and entering the crypto market. Large. Sports organizations are following suit a crypto trading platform called FTX acquired, the naming rights to the Miami Heat, stadium this year and the Staples Center in La. Now Bears, the elegant name crypto.com Arena considering he did not realize that. Yep. Crypto.com Arena. How beautiful considering coinbase is now, the exclusive crypto? Platform of the NBA. I'm not exactly sure how all of this jives, but it seems like a problem for a later date. In conclusion, despite how confused I am in general, a strong relationship between sports and crypto makes a certain amount of sense, just addictive personalities. And a lot of money. Yay, gambling. That's all that's the key Point here. Gambling. That's the Gambler. It's gambling. There is no future of sports without all the fun. Gambling course not people are by the way, we We've gone from things, like, naming your Stadium, the Boston Garden. That's a nice sounding name, right? Boston Garden, which eventually turned to TD Garden? I yeah, we don't have to, we don't have to Tell people that to crypto.com Arena. I know they couldn't even think of a better name. I feel like there's so much you can do with crypto and they just put the name of their website in front of Arena and that's all they could think of sure. It's such a shame that's the show for today. Yeah, that's all we got. We're not gonna do the long winded, Matt mascardi outro. We're just gonna say this, we're gonna say be a part of our world. Listen to us and hire us to be your your expert consultant because that's what we do here. We love you very much. Bye.