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☆ Paramount Global shares jump after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway increases stake
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Paramount Global 's stock got a boost Tuesday after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway upped its stake, a fresh signal that the media and entertainment company could be an acquisition target. Berkshire disclosed in public filings late Monday that it now owns more than 91 million shares in Paramount. Buffett's firm first disclosed its new stake in Paramount in May. Paramount is controlled through its class A shares by National Amusements, chairman Shari Redstone's holding company. Paramount owns "Top Gun: Maverick" movie studio Paramount Pictures, as well as the broadcast network CBS, cable channels including MTV and VH1, the premium network Showtime, and fledgling streaming service Paramount+.

☆ Kanye West told staff he was inspired by 'skinheads and Nazis' while planning the Yeezy fashion show where he wore a 'White Lives Matter' shirt, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Rolling Stone reports that Kanye West said he was inspired by "skinheads and Nazis." It was described as a "casual remark," per Rolling Stone's report. Insider has not been able to independently verify the claims made in Rolling Stone's article. Rolling Stone's report now adds that some of the 90 employees commuted there by a weekly private plane from California. Adidas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider on the contents of Rolling Stone's report.

☆ 'Yellowstone' creator says it's not 'the red-state Game of Thrones,' pushing back on the idea that it's a conservative TV show
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

"Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan pushed back against the notion it's a right-leaning series. It's not the first time he's contested that "Yellowstone" is a conservative TV show. "They refer to it as 'the conservative show' or 'the Republican show' or 'the red-state Game of Thrones,' " Sheridan said in an Atlantic profile published on Thursday. A New York Times opinion piece in August referred to the show as "a conservative fantasy liberals should watch." "People perceive all my stuff as red state, and it's the most ridiculous thing," he told The New York Times.

☆ We need to keep an eye on leverage in the real estate market, says Centerstone's Deshpande
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailWe need to keep an eye on leverage in the real estate market, says Centerstone's DeshpandeAbhay Deshpande, Centerstone Investors CIO, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss his take on how the markets move forward from Tuesday's elections, why data confirming a recession would move the markets higher and downside catalysts in the market.

Blackstone Credit is working with an investment bank to explore options for PRI Operating at a time when commodity prices continue to trade at elevated levels after touching multi-year highs earlier in 2022. The sources cautioned a sale of PRI Operating was not guaranteed and the value Blackstone Credit might secure was difficult to estimate given how volatility in commodity prices influences asset valuations. PRI Operating did not respond to comment requests. Founded in 2017, PRI Operating is backed by Blackstone Credit and management. In July, Reuters reported Blackstone Credit and Apollo Global Management were marketing for sale Canadian oil and gas producer Ridgeback Resources.

[1/4] James Gorman, Chairman and Chief Executive of Morgan Stanley, speaks during the Global Financial Leaders Investment Summit in Hong Kong, China November 2, 2022. "It’s a painful transition, but not an unexpected transition," said Gorman, also the bank's chairman, at the Global Financial Leaders' Investment Summit. It was Hong Kong's biggest corporate event since it shut its borders in 2020 and introduced restrictions to combat COVID-19. Inflation and "very quick" monetary tightening after over a decade of relatively accommodative policies are making the world more volatile and uncertain, said Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon (GS.N). If central banks find a way to tame inflation meaningfully and in a balanced way, it will "increase the chance of a soft landing" for their economies, Solomon said.

☆ Rapper Takeoff killed in Houston shooting, media reports
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

ATLANTA, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Takeoff, a member of the rap group Migos, was fatally shot at a party held at a Houston bowling alley early on Tuesday, according to media reports. Two other people were wounded, but Houston police were holding back the names of the victims until the next of kin are notified, police spokesman John Cannon said. Rolling Stone's website and TMZ said Takeoff, 28, the rapper whose real name is Kirshnik Khari Ball, was killed. A second member of Migos - Quavo, 31, whose real name is Quavious Keyate Marshall - was also at the party but not hurt, Rolling Stone reported. A third member - Takeoff's cousin Offset, whose real name is Kiari Kendrell Cephus - was not there.

☆ Meta is losing billions, but people are making real-life money in the metaverse: 'It's been an incredibly positive experience'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

A year ago on Friday, Mark Zuckerberg made a huge bet on the metaverse, announcing his company's name change from Facebook to Meta. The billionaire's vision of virtual worlds, along with the $10 billion he's spent on metaverse development over the past year, "really struck me," Sorrels says. Alexis Dimas, a 37-year-old metaverse creator based in Santa Ana, California, says he joined Horizon Worlds in beta nearly two years ago. "As far as Horizon Worlds losing users, I haven't witnessed that or seen that. Zuckerberg: 'I appreciate the patience'On Wednesday's Meta earnings call, Zuckerberg told investors that Meta could weather its problems and that its investments in the metaverse will eventually be fruitful.

☆ Blackstone's earnings fall 16% on sharp drop in asset sales
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Chibuike Oguh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Oct 20 (Reuters) - Blackstone Inc (BX.N), the world's largest alternative asset manager, said on Thursday its third-quarter distributable earnings fell 16% year-on-year, owing to a sharp drop in asset sales amid a downturn in the market. Distributable earnings — the cash used to pay dividends to shareholders — fell to $1.4 billion from $1.6 billion a year earlier. Financial markets have been rocked by geopolitical unrest from the Russia-Ukraine conflict and rising interest rates by central banks, which have prevented private equity firms like Blackstone from cashing out their investments for top dollar. During the quarter, Blackstone said its opportunistic real estate funds fell 0.6%, corporate private equity funds depreciated by 0.3%, and hedge funds gained 1%. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Chibuike Oguh in New YorkOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ That nondescript building on the side of the highway is the newest gold mine Wall Street is trying to tap
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But first, inside the latest Wall Street investment trend that's offering double-digit returns. Meet Wall Street's newest gold mine. So why should you care about Wall Street's sudden interest in warehouses? To read more about Wall Street's appetite for warehouses, check out the full story here. PE firms have started buying up stakes in law firms.

☆ Blackstone's president, Jonathan Gray, says rental properties are still a smart investment as developers slash supply, keeping rents high
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Gray said this is good news for Blackstone, which has invested heavily in multifamily real estate. But as real estate isn't immune from the rising interest rates rocking most financial markets, multifamily investments that grew significantly last year are still facing headwinds. Jonathan Gray, Blackstone's president and chief operating officer, says there's no need to panic, though, given other economic factors now in play. He argued that demand for rental housing isn't going anywhere and that with supply further constrained, rents can continue to rise. Gray described rental properties as "beneficial" because it doesn't cost much to invest in them after they're built.

☆ Blackstone is betting big on lending out money in the private markets, and the PE giant has $182 billion to do it
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Blackstone has some money to lendBlackstone, the world's largest private-equity firm and a big fan of warehouses, reported earnings on Thursday. By comparison, back in the good ole days (see: Q3 2021), Blackstone reported a profit of $1.4 billion. Blackstone reported its private credit unit was up 3% in the third quarter and 9.3% over the past 12 months. To read more about Blackstone's push into private credit, click here. A Fed president spoke somewhere that a Fed president shouldn't really be speaking, The New York Times reported.

☆ 'What are they hiding?': Group sues Biden and National Archives over JFK assassination records
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Marc Caputo | Marc Caputo Is A Senior National Political Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

The country's largest online source of JFK assassination records is suing President Joe Biden and the National Archives to force the federal government to release all remaining documents related to the most mysterious murder of a U.S. president nearly 60 years ago. “This is about our history and our right to know it,” said Morley, the author of the JFK Facts blog. The National Archives and Records Administration, the agency in charge of the JFK documents, also said it’s complying with the law and the procedures Biden outlined. JFK assassination historian David Talbot, a Trump critic, said he sees an irony in the two cases. Uscinski said he’s hesitant to draw a direct line between lack of trust in the government and the refusal to release the JFK records, but he argued the feds essentially have themselves to blame.

☆ Blackstone and Prologis turned warehouses from safe and boring investments into white-hot assets. Now they're battling to see who can own more.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Alex Nicoll | Danielle Walker | Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

In other words, big money is buying up warehouse space as fast as smaller owners can sell. The coronavirus pandemic accelerated this change, with warehouse investment outpacing office investment in 2020 and 2021, according to CBRE. A Prologis warehouse in Ichikawa City, Japan. Prologis, Blackstone, and the rest of big money duke it outOther big-money investors have increasingly invested in warehouses. The UK's Segro once sold warehouse space to Blackstone — now it's acquiring its own warehouses for last-mile delivery that Blackstone might have otherwise picked up for itself.

"If we prevail in this race, it will make Utah the most influential state in the union, because nothing will get through the Senate without Utah's support," said McMullin. A former CIA operations officer, McMullin was a Republican until 2016, when Donald Trump won the party's nomination to run for president. But this year, Utah Democrats opted not to nominate a challenger to Lee, a two-term hard-line conservative, ceding the field to McMullin's challenge. Lee dismissed his rival on Monday night as "an opportunistic gadfly supported by the Democratic Party." "You've refused to talk about which party you'd join," Lee told McMullin.

☆ Facebook said an Indian publication, The Wire, used faked documents in an investigation. Now the publication is taking the stories down. Here's a timeline of the escalating conflict.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Facebook claims a series of reports by an Indian news site, The Wire, were based on faked documents. On Tuesday, an expert The Wire used in a story denied publicly that he commented in any way to the publication. Stone responded on Twitter saying, "as it's been clear from the outset @thewire_in's stories are based on fabrications." Varadarajan wrote on Twitter that the email account The Wire uses, a protonmail.com address, had been "hacked via the hacking of a MacBook." Kumar of The Wire deactivated his Twitter account.

Share this -Link copiedCommittee votes to subpoena Trump The committee voted on Thursday unanimously to subpoena Trump. Trump would not be the first president to be subpoenaed, nor would he be the first former president subpoenaed by Congress. "Even before the networks called the race for President Biden on Nov. 7th, his chances of pulling out a victory were virtually nonexistent, and President Trump knew it," Kinzinger said. “At times, President Trump acknowledged the reality of his loss. “What did President Trump know?

That's based on a Secret Service email from 9:09 a.m. "The head of the President’s Secret Service protective detail, Robert Engel, was specifically aware of the large crowds outside the magnetometers," Schiff said. A Secret Service report at 7:58 a.m. said, "Some members of the crowd are wearing ballistic helmets, body armor carrying radio equipment and military grade backpacks." On Dec. 26, a Secret Service field office relayed a tip that had been received by the FBI, Schiff said. Trump would not be the first president to be subpoenaed, nor would he be the first former president subpoenaed by Congress.

☆ It's time to be making some investments in solid companies that earn money, says Kari Firestone
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailIt's time to be making some investments in solid companies that earn money, says Kari FirestoneCNBC's Halftime Report Investment Committee discusses why equity markets are performing well during Thursday's trade, Kari Firestone's thoughts on stocks, and more.

☆ Only one city has foiled Blackstone's $320 billion real estate empire
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-01 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Danish parliament even passed a "Blackstone law," which prevents new landlords from raising rents. Blackstone has one of the largest real estate portfolios in the world, with $320 billion invested in commercial and residential properties spanning the US, Spain, and, at one time, Sweden. In the Guardian, reporter Hettie O'Brien details how a Copenhagen tenants group thwarted Blackstone's expansion, aided by a national political mood wary of international investors. Blackstone's journey to becoming a worldwide player in residential real estate began after it seriously invested in American properties following the 2008 housing and stock-market crash. Blackstone's involvement in the Copenhagen housing market angered locals for two reasons, according to the Guardian.

☆ The Fed cannot stop hiking rates until there are major job losses, says Jim Cramer
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThe Fed cannot stop hiking rates until there are major job losses, says Jim Cramer'Mad Money' host Jim Cramer and the 'Squawk on the Street' team discuss the Federal Reserve's efforts to tamp down inflation following comments from Blackstone's Jonathan Gray.

☆ Roger Stone sought a second pardon from Donald Trump after the January 6 Capitol riot: New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Stone, a Trump confidante, sought a second pardon from the former president after the Capitol riot. Stone had a prison sentence commuted by Trump before he left the White House. Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy PolicyRoger Stone sought a second pardon from former President Donald Trump after the Capitol riot, The New York Times reported Tuesday. Stone asked Schoen to "plug" his request for a pardon when he spoke to Trump, per the outlet. "Fuck the voting, let's get right to the violence," Stone can be heard saying to his associates during a car ride.

☆ How Blackstone, the private equity giant behind cult-favorite sunscreen Supergoop, is thinking about its next big consumer bet
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Michelle Abrego | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The growth of e-commerce has opened new private equity opportunities, a top investor said. The $941 billion private equity firm took a majority stake in Supergoop last December. The investment valued Supergoop, which makes sunscreen and sun protection-focused makeup, at some $600 million to $700 million at the time, Bloomberg News reported. "What is at work here is the colossal, growing nature of private equity everywhere," said Carter Dougherty, communications director for the progressive advocacy coalition Americans for Financial Reform. Some $78 billion of that is in private equity, with the rest across real estate, hedge fund solutions, and credit and insurance, according to filings.

☆ A new player in the grocery software startup just raised $10 million to compete in the nearly $150 billion online grocery segment. Check out the 13-page pitch deck that helped Vori secure the deal.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( Alex Bitter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Vori raised a $10 million Series A for its grocery-inventory software aimed at indepedent grocers. Roughly a third of US grocery sales happen at independent grocers, but many of these grocers lack the technology of bigger players like Kroger and Walmart. Vori, an inventory-management startup, pitches itself as a solution for those smaller grocers — a position that just helped it raise $10 million. Vori's inventory software provides inventory services to grocers that might only have a few stores, Hill said. "Our customers have been our most active and enthusiastic investors," Hill said.

Centre-left Democratic Party (PD) supporters gather before the electoral campaign closing event of Enrico Letta, secretary of PD, in Piazza del Popolo, ahead of the general election, in Rome, Italy, September 23, 2022. Pollsters say his relentless message has particularly resonated in the poorer south, where hundreds of thousands live off welfare, and could yet prevent a right-wing landslide. BERLUSCONI FIRESTORMBarely 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) away, Italy's main centre-left group, the Democratic Party (PD), wrapped up what critics say has been an underwhelming campaign, accusing the right of looking to isolate the country in Europe. Voting runs from 7 a.m to 11 p.m. (0500-2100 GMT) on Sunday, with exit polls released when balloting ends. The complex calculations required by a hybrid proportional/first-past-the-post electoral law mean it may be many hours before a precise count of parliamentary seats is available.

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