Business Pants

By: Free Float Media Inc.
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  • Whether you love business news or feel like you’re supposed to know it but hate it, Business Pants is business news for humans. Snarky and irreverent, deeply researched and factual, a podcast devoted to market quirks and the humans that make up companies. Investing isn’t a what, it’s a who.
    2024, Free Float Media Inc.
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Episodes
  • Costco vs. racist investors, tech bro victimhood, Altman cries, and Zuck sucks up

    Costco vs. racist investors, tech bro victimhood, Altman cries, and Zuck sucks up
    Jan 8 2025
    Live from an ESG-flavored 2025, it’s an all-new Wacky Wednesday edition of Business Pants. Joined by Analyst-Hole Matt Moscardi! On today's Costco lovefest called January 8th 2025: Headlines We Missed since the end of December and the new comic book superhero named Costco!Our show today is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE.DAMION1Shit We Missed (in no particular order):Tech BrosZuckDana White, UFC CEO and Trump ally, to join Meta's board of directorsZuckerberg Announces New Measures to Increase Hate Speech on FacebookMark Zuckerberg's Meta is moving moderators out of California to combat concerns about bias and censorship“Huge problems” with axing fact-checkers, Meta oversight board saysCo-chair Helle Thorning-Schmidt said she is "very concerned" about how parent company Meta's decision to ditch fact-checkers will affect minority groups: "We are seeing many instances where hate speech can lead to real-life harm, so we will be watching that space very carefully," she added.Meta Drops Rules Protecting LGBTQ Community as Part of Content Moderation OverhaulThe changes included allowing users to share “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality.”Meta replaces policy chief Nick Clegg with former Republican staffer Joel Kaplan ahead of Trump inaugurationSamSam Altman Explodes at Board Members Who Fired Him"And all those people that I feel like really fucked me and fucked the company were gone, and now I had to clean up their mess," adding that he was "fucking depressed and tired.""And it felt so unfair," the billionaire told Bloomberg. "It was just a crazy thing to have to go through and then have no time to recover, because the house was on fire."The board’s primary fiduciary duty was not to maintain shareholder value or profits, but rather to stay true to OpenAI's mission of creating safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits humanity.Helen Toner: the director of strategy at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.Tasha McCauley: an adjunct senior management scientist at think tank RAND Corporation. McCauley was also on the advisory board of the Centre for Effective Altruism. In 2017 she signed the Asilomar AI Principles on ethical AI development alongside Altman, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, and former board member Elon MuskOpenAI CEO Sam Altman denies sexual abuse allegations made by his sister in lawsuitMuskMaga v Musk: Trump camp divided in bitter fight over immigration policyElon Musk Endorses Nazi-Linked German Party, Even Though It Opposed Tesla’s GigafactoryTech Bro Wealth12 US billionaires gained almost $1 trillion in wealth in 2024 as the stock market delivered another year of massive returnsNYT Report Says Jensen Huang, The CEO Of Nvidia And The 10th-Richest Person In The U.S., Trying To Allegedly Avoid $8 Billion In TaxesMark Zuckerberg says he doesn't have a Hawaiian doomsday bunker, just a 'little shelter.' It's bigger than most houses.You could live next door to Jeff Bezos on 'Billionaire Bunker' island for $200 millionMusk urges Bezos to throw an ‘epic wedding’ after Amazon founder blasts report of $600 million nuptials as ‘completely false’Elon Musk takes aim at MacKenzie Scott again for giving billions to liberal causes, calling the gifts 'concerning'How Jensen Huang and 3 Nvidia Board Members Became BillionairesMark Zuckerberg sported a $900,000 piece of wrist candy as he announced the end of fact-checking on MetaDEI/ESG Flip-FloppingWhen an anti-DEI activist took a swing at Costco, the board hit backA Costco shareholder proposal brought by conservative activist The National Center for Public Policy Research asked the company to probe its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, with an eye toward eliminating them.The thrust of the proposal is that certain DEI initiatives could open Costco up to financial risks over discrimination lawsuits from employees who are “white, Asian, male or straight.”The company’s board of directors unanimously urged shareholders to reject the proposal and made the case that Costco’s success depends on establishing a racially diverse, inclusive workplace: “We believe that our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are legally appropriate, and nothing in the (Center for Public Policy Research) proposal demonstrates otherwise,” the board’s statement said.The statement went on to rebuke the Center for Public Policy Research, saying that they and others were the ones responsible for inflicting financial and legal burdens on companies. “The proponent’s broader agenda is not reducing the risk for the Company but abolition of diversity programs,” the board said.Costco board member defends DEI practices, rebukes companies scrapping policiesJeff Raikes, co-founder of the Raikes ...
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    51 mins
  • 2024 News of the Year

    2024 News of the Year
    Dec 20 2024
    IntroductionLIVE from your ESG Hanukkah Jesus Bush, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at December 20th Studios, featuring AnalystHole Matt Moscardi. On today’s YEARLY wrap up: Everything.Our show today is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE.Story of the Year (DR):Exxon Sues Two ESG Investors [Follow This, Arjuna Capital] MMJudge voids Elon Musk's "unfathomable" $56 billion Tesla pay packageBoeingBoeing CEO says it was 100% his own decision to resignBoeing CEO's tearful apologyBoeing pleads guilty to fraud in fatal 737 Max crashes, fined $243.6 millionBoeing names Robert ‘Kelly’ Ortberg as new president and CEOBoeing factory workers strike for first time since 2008 after overwhelmingly rejecting contractTrump’s victory adds record $64bn to wealth of richest top 10The Murder of Brian Thompson, UnitedHealthcare C.E.O. DRGoodliest of the Year (MM/DR):DR: 2,000 senior women win “biggest victory possible” in landmark climate caseMore than 2,000 older Swiss women have won a landmark European case proving that government climate inaction violates human rights.The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday that Switzerland had not acted urgently to achieve climate targets, leading victims, who are mostly in their 70s, to suffer physically and emotionally while potentially placed at risk of dying.The women, part of a group called KlimaSeniorinnen (Senior Women for Climate Protection), filed the lawsuit nine years ago. DR: Minnesota capital St. Paul makes history as first large U.S. city with all-female councilDR: Delta paying $1.4 billion in profit sharing payments to employeesDR: 42% of shareholders vote against BlackRock CEO Larry Fink's payMM: Stakeholders rule: U.S. bans noncompete agreements for nearly all jobs: MM“30 million people, or one in five American workers are bound by noncompetes. It will take effect later this year, except for existing noncompetes that companies have with senior executives ‘on the grounds that these agreements are more likely to have been negotiated.’”MM: Women > men: First NCAA women’s basketball championship surpasses men’s viewership: DR“Iowa-South Carolina game averaged 19 million viewers, 24M in the final 15 minutes. Men’s averaged 15 million. Year of renegotiating for women’s basketball.”MM: Porn figures it out: A Pornhub Chatbot Stopped Millions From Searching for Child Abuse VideosMeanwhile… “Google’s Search AI Recommends Changing Your Car’s Blinker Fluid, Which Is a Made Up Thing That Does Not Exist.”Researchers Call for "Child-Safe AI" After Alexa Tells Little Girl to Stick Penny in Wall SocketGoogle’s Gemini Chatbot Explodes at User, Calling Them "Stain on the Universe" and Begging Them To "Please Die"Meta's AI Refuses to Show Asian Men With White WomenMM: Study: Playing Dungeons & Dragons helps autistic players in social interactions Assholiest of the YEAR (MM):Sam AltmanSam Altman will return to OpenAI's board with three new directors“Our primary fiduciary duty is to humanity.” - So let’s summarize - we have a board with Bret Taylor (ex Twitter chair, Salesforce founder, worked at Google, worked at Facebook and created the like button), Larry Summers (grumpy grandpa Harvard who thinks women are unable to compete with men and was master of Harvard when Zuck founded Facebook), Adam D’Angelo (founder of Quora, former CTO of Facebook), Sue DH (who was on board of Facebook), Fidji Simo (who lead monetization at Facebook), and the only NON FB alums Sam Altman (the master and founder) and Nicole Seligman (who oversaw one of the largest hacks in history and has a history on boards of CBS/Viacom under dictators)...Proxy voters DRDisney Shareholders Are Selling Their Proxy Votes Online - IndieWireA share of Disney is currently hovering at $118.Buying the vote is currently valued at $0.20.The current economic value to shareholder right value multiple is 590:1McDonald's CEO Kempczinski to assume role of board chairmanMiles White named Lead Independent DirectorDirector since 2009 (15 years)Connected to 58% of the CURRENT boardHas nearly 40 loops back to board members in the last 7 years aloneWas on the board for the disaster that was Steve EasterbrookMiles is part of the Boeing American Board Other board history:LIDsThere are 284 US large caps out of just over 600 with CEO/Chair combo, founder, or executive chair and a Lead Independent Director on the board - that’s 47% of US large cap boardsAt 59% the LID has 10+ years of tenureAt 29% BOTH the executive AND the LID have more than 10 years of tenure - as in they worked together for a decadeAppointments, not electionsNumber of new directors appointed from 6/1/23 to 6/1/24: 1,875Average time between appointment and election: ~4 monthsThomas Gayner was added to the Coca Cola board and served 10 full months before he got a vote from investors - and they voted 39.1% AGAINST SEC ...
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Walmart’s award, E.L.F.’s award, and the real top 100 methodology

    Walmart’s award, E.L.F.’s award, and the real top 100 methodology
    Dec 17 2024
    Live from an ESG-scented 100% cotton unisex onesie, it’s an all-new Terrific Tuesday edition of Business Pants. Joined by Analyst-Hole Matt Moscardi! On today's anti-anti-DEI lovefest called December 17th 2024: Random ESG Headlines That I Care About Because Somebody Has To Care About Something and Changing the Methodology for Fortune 100 Most Powerful Executives!Our show today is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE.DAMION1Random ESG Headlines That I Care About Because Somebody Has To Care About Something:Walmart is the 2024 Yahoo Finance Company of the YearThe legacy retailer, once seen as slow to adopt technology as Amazon (AMZN) rose to the forefront, has quietly invested in everything from artificial intelligence and augmented reality to same-day delivery and cheap groceries. The combo punch has led to nearly four quarters of record earnings — and a title as Yahoo Finance's annual Company of the Year award winner.A committee of Yahoo Finance editorial leaders selected Walmart because of its strong year of sales and profits, financial outperformance relative to key rivals like Target (TGT), and a stock price that has reached fresh records in 2024.Another unknown is the impact of Walmart's Nov. 26 decision to scale back its DEI work amid right-wing pressure. The decision came a few days after our interviews with McMillon and Rainey, at which time Walmart had already secured its Yahoo Finance Company of the Year recognition.In a Dec. 2 phone call with Yahoo Finance, Walmart's chief people officer, Donna Morris, defended the company's choice:"We are the exact same company today as we were last week, and we will continue to be the same company," Morris said. "We act with integrity, we serve our customers and our members, and we strive for excellence. So our values are absolutely not changing.""Our values are absolutely not changing, the specific initiatives or terms, they change over time," she continued. The company started moving to "belonging" in early 2023, though Morris said the move wasn't due to pressure from any specific group."When you talk about diversity, equity, inclusion, all in part, there can be communities, and often the largest communities, that step back and say, 'Geez, I'm not sure if I'm even actually included'," Morris explained of the decision.After Floyd's murder, a "majority" of companies felt the need to boost their DEI efforts, but now they are reevaluating. "What we observed and felt was really important is that everyone was part of that work, and that's why we really made the shift," Morris said.‘A huge regression’: Walmart’s DEI rollback incites new racial equity pushA year after the murder of George Floyd, Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart had a warning for corporate America. The death of Floyd triggered a wave of protest over systemic racism and was “not an isolated event. We have a long history of racism, and we see unacceptable events continue.”Walmart and other large US corporations made pledges to address inequities within their business, ones many feared would be dropped once the focus on Floyd’s killing and its aftermath faded. “We can’t let that be the case,” he wrote, outlining how the company was releasing its “diversity metrics twice a year” and calling on companies to “continue to address systemic racism and the structural inequities that are rooted in this nation’s history of slavery and that persist today”.Times have changed. Last month Walmart became the latest corporation to cave to a rightwing campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, announcing it would stop using the term DEI altogether, drop DEI trainings, no longer consider race and gender as a means to improve diversity when making offers to suppliers and would not renew a racial equity center committed to addressing “the root causes of gaps in outcomes experienced by Black and African American people”.The union-backed Walmart workers group United for Respect has tried to introduce a shareholder proposal at Walmart’s past two annual shareholder meetings for a third-party independent racial equity audit of the corporation.The racial equity shareholder proposal has come up short of the 20% support it would need for Walmart to discuss it, receiving 18% in 2023 and just over 15% in 2024. Hightower said she planned on reintroducing it at the 2025 annual shareholder meeting in Arkansas.Why Tarang Amin, CEO of E.l.f. Beauty, is Modern CEO of the YearModern CEO set out to recognize an executive who embodies the traits and values we’ve been covering in this newsletter for the last two years: inclusion, accessibility, humility, and innovationEarlier this year, E.l.f. proclaimed its commitment to diversity when it launched “Change the Board Game,” a campaign to encourage corporate board diversity. “I’m proud to say that our board has 78% women and 44% diverse ...
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    45 mins

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