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An “irrevocable” trust? Rupert Murdoch is showing yet again that real life can be more fascinating than fiction. It’s about control of a global media business with extraordinary political power, one that’s still trying to preserve its influence in America and elsewhere. The context: When Murdoch dies, control of the family’s companies, including the broadcaster Fox and the newspaper publisher News Corp, will be shared among his four eldest children via the trust. Under the arrangement, Prudence, Lachlan, James and Elisabeth will each get an equal say in how the businesses are run.

Persons: Rupert Murdoch, —, Jim Rutenberg, Jonathan Mahler, isn’t, Murdoch, Prudence, Lachlan, James, Elisabeth Organizations: Fox, News Corp Locations: Nevada, America

But all that attention isn’t translating into success at Musk’s core business, as Tesla reported another sharp drop in quarterly profit that has spooked investors. Shares in Tesla are down sharply premarket on the company’s results. That’s despite Tesla cutting costs and laying off more than 10 percent of its global work force. Among the troubles bedeviling the company are sluggish consumer demand and a price war with competitors that has dented profits. Tesla sold $890 million worth in the quarter, three times the figure in 2023.)

Persons: Tesla’s doldrums Elon Musk, Donald Trump —, Tesla

Why some big money is holding out for nowAfter just one full day of campaigning, Vice President Kamala Harris has a glide path to the Democratic presidential nomination. The Harris campaign also said it had raised more than $100 million between Sunday afternoon and Monday evening. But some major Democratic donors, including Mike Bloomberg and the venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, have yet to endorse her. The concern is that if they support Harris too soon, they would appear to be anointing their party’s presidential candidate, rather than her earning it through a full democratic process. And Khosla posted on X, “An open process will allow everyone a chance to make their case and express their views.

Persons: Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Harris, Mike Bloomberg, Vinod Khosla, DealBook, don’t, Khosla, ” Organizations: Democratic, Bloomberg Locations: Chicago

Follow the moneyThe shock waves from President Biden ending his re-election bid, after weeks of pressure to step aside, are still reverberating around the world. Many Democratic officials and financial backers have followed his lead and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor in the race. But the conspicuous silence of some senior party leaders and warnings from prominent donors suggest that the party’s ticket isn’t a done deal. The latest: Biden’s withdrawal opened a flood of Democratic donations, with more than $50 million pouring in on Sunday, in what one strategist said might be “the greatest fund-raising moment in Democratic Party history.”Wall Street and Hollywood donors came back in force, while stalwart Biden backers, including the tech billionaire Reid Hoffman and the hedge fund scion Alex Soros, pledged their support to Harris.

Persons: Biden, Kamala Harris, Reid Hoffman, Alex Soros, Harris Organizations: Democratic, Democratic Party

How did the Democrats lose Silicon Valley? The loudest donors in Silicon Valley are promoting Trump at a time when the tech world as a whole is ascending in Washington, with billionaires using their ballooning wealth and media foothold to exert influence. Their voices are made all the more prominent amid the conspicuous neutrality of Big Tech leaders like the Google C.E.O. Sundar Pichai and the Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, who are possibly afraid of invoking Trump’s ire and employee backlash. Musk was brushed off by President Biden over his anti-union stance and excluded from an electric vehicle event at the White House in 2021.

Persons: Elon Musk, David Sacks, Marc Andreessen, Trump’s, Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg, Biden, Tesla Organizations: Elon, Trump, Big Tech, Google, White House Locations: Silicon Valley, Washington

“This outage is historic in scale,” Mikko Hypponen, a research specialist at the software company WithSecure and a cybercrime adviser to Europol, told DealBook. It issued a software update that is causing Microsoft systems, including its Azure cloud service, to crash or not function properly. Long queues of airline passengers could be seen at airports around the world, with some resorting to manual check-in. In France, the television networks TF1 and Canal+ told the public on X that they could not go on the air on Friday morning. The incident points to how reliant the global economy is on a handful of major tech companies to run vital infrastructure.

Persons: ” Mikko Hypponen, Europol, DealBook, George Kurtz, CrowdStrike, ” Organizations: Microsoft, United, Delta, Airlines, Air France, KLM, Japan Airlines, TF1, Sky Locations: Europe, Asia, France

How Musk could influence Trump’s policiesElon Musk has given Donald Trump his endorsement, and perhaps soon, millions of dollars to help his re-election campaign. A big question now is what Musk would most likely push for if the former president prevails in November. DealBook spoke with Musk watchers to figure out how the Tesla and SpaceX chief could influence a potential second Trump administration. The short of it: Much of the policies he wants would benefit his companies, but some would just line up with his ideology. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Trumpdiscussed offering Musk an advisory role if he is re-elected.

Persons: Elon Musk, Donald Trump, DealBook, Trump Organizations: SpaceX, Trump, PAC, Street

Trumponomics and the FedOne of the hot debates on Wall Street this election cycle is how Donald Trump would deal with the Fed if he is re-elected and, in particular, if he would fire or demote Jay Powell as chair, The Times’s Jeanna Smialek writes for DealBook. In an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek conducted before last weekend’s assassination attempt, Trump said that he did not plan to fire Powell, allowing him to serve out his term. Trump appointed Powell, but turned on him over interest rate policy. The former president was displeased when the central banker refused to cut rates to bolster economic growth. President Biden reappointed Powell to a new four-year term that started in 2022.

Persons: Donald Trump, Jay Powell, Smialek, Trump, Powell, it’s, Biden Organizations: Bloomberg Businessweek, Trump

Vance as his running mate and a possible successor to lead the “Make America Great Again” movement. The 39-year-old served in Iraq and later went to Yale Law School, where he met his wife, Usha Vance. (She resigned from her role as a trial lawyer at Munger Tolles & Olson after Vance joined the ticket.) Vance rose to national prominence after publishing the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” He worked at Mithril Capital Management, a venture capital firm co-founded by Peter Thiel, and Steve Case’s Revolution. Vance is close to the libertarian wing of the tech industry.

Persons: Donald Trump, Vance, He’s, ”, he’s, Usha Vance, Olson, Peter Thiel, Steve Case’s, Thiel, Eric Schmidt, Marc Andreessen, David Sacks Organizations: Trump, Yale Law School, Mithril Capital Management, Ohio Senate, Republican National Convention Locations: Iraq, Munger, Silicon, Ohio

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has reverberated around the world. The question for business and policy leaders, beyond the immediate implications for the election, is how to halt the increasing political violence in this nation. America’s economy and innovation may be the envy of the world, but our politics and polarized culture are not. Business leaders and donors are not doing enough to tamp it down; most won’t speak out, afraid of potential blowback, giving outsize influence to a handful of voices on social media. A shooting changes the electionTwenty-four hours after surviving an assassination attempt, Donald Trump arrived in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention, while President Biden and political and business leaders continue to denounce the incident.

Persons: Andrew, Donald Trump, Biden Organizations: Business, Republican National Convention Locations: American, Milwaukee

☆ What if the A.I. Boosters Are Wrong?
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-13 | by ( Bernhard Warner | Sarah Kessler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

would contribute only “modest” improvement to worker productivity, and that it would add no more than 1 percent to U.S. economic output over the next decade. That pales in comparison to estimates by Goldman Sachs economists, who predicted last year that generative A.I. The bullish camp has great hopes for A.I. Sam Altman of the ChatGPT maker OpenAI sees A.I. of Nvidia, the dominant maker of the chips used to power A.I., says the technology has ushered in “the next industrial revolution.”

Persons: Daron Acemoglu, Acemoglu, Goldman Sachs, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Jensen Huang, ” Organizations: A.I, Nvidia Locations: O.E.C.D

The takeaway was a split decision: Biden rambled and misspoke several times, but also displayed the confidence and depth of knowledge that his supporters had hoped to hear. Yet for many donors and Democratic officials, the performance wasn’t enough to settle the debate over whether he should stay in the race. Biden demonstrated his command of foreign policy at the news conference. Biden made two headline-making flubs: calling Vice President Kamala Harris “Vice President Trump,” and saying he followed the advice of his “commander in chief” — his own title — about military aid to Ukraine. (Earlier in the day, he introduced President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine as “President Putin” before quickly correcting himself.)

Persons: Biden’s, Biden rambled, Biden, Kamala Harris “, Trump, ” —, Volodymyr Zelensky, Putin ” Organizations: NATO, Democratic Locations: Russia, China, Ukraine, Gaza

A brutal 24 hoursPresident Biden and his allies may have thought they had stemmed a rebellion by fellow Democrats and donors after his debate debacle. Some Democratic lawmakers made clear that they weren’t falling into line behind Biden. She said she would back whatever decision he takes, but the equivocal comments were seen as offering other Democrats space to speak up. Hours later, Peter Welch of Vermont became the first Democratic senator to call on Biden to withdraw. “We can’t unsee what we saw” at the debate, Welch told The Times, adding that Donald Trump’s returning to power would be a “catastrophe.”

Persons: Biden, Nancy Pelosi, MSNBC’s, Joe ”, Peter Welch of, Welch, Donald Trump’s Organizations: NATO, Democratic, White, The Times, Peter Welch of Vermont, Times

Powell’s balancing actThe S&P 500 is on a six-day winning streak and closed at another record on Tuesday, as investors grow more confident that the Fed could cut interest rates soon. The market rally came after Jay Powell, the Fed chair, made encouraging comments about inflation and the labor market in his first of two days of testimony on Capitol Hill. Lowering rates prematurely could risk reigniting inflation, and doing so too slowly could undermine growth. “We’re very much balancing those two risks, and that’s really the essence of what we’re thinking about these days,” Powell told the Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday. In something of a rarity in recent months, financial services stocks led the way on Tuesday.

Persons: Jay Powell, that’s, ” Powell, Powell Organizations: Capitol, Senate, Wall

Making them waitPresident Biden hasn’t let up on his aggressive defense against calls to step aside: Over the past 24 hours, he pushed back against Democratic lawmakers, the news media and top fund-raisers. But an attempt to mollify some of his biggest donors in a hastily arranged call started off poorly: It began more than 30 minutes late. For the Biden campaign, that may not be a big concern, given its highlighting of small-dollar fund-raising and attacking of corporate greed. Biden started the day lashing out at elite critics. After a weekend of campaigning in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, he sent a defiant letter to congressional Democrats pledging to stay in the race.

Persons: Biden hasn’t, Biden, DealBook’s Lauren Hirsch Organizations: Democratic Locations: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin

Wall Street’s game theoryAs more leading Democrats say privately that President Biden should withdraw from the presidential race, some of the party’s most prominent backers on Wall Street spent the holiday weekend debating what to do next. If they favor calling for him to step back, they discussed what their next moves should be. Wall Street is taking a different approach than Hollywood. (Many are also reportedly irate at Jeffrey Katzenberg, Biden’s campaign co-chair.) And many donors want to maintain their influence within the Democratic Party.

Persons: Biden, Larry Fink, BlackRock, Robert Rubin, Jon Gray, Blackstone, Peter Orszag, Lazard, Blair Effron, Robert Wolf, Barack Obama —, DealBook, Reed Hastings, Barry Diller, Rob Reiner, Abigail Disney, Jeffrey Katzenberg Organizations: Wall, Treasury, Centerview Partners, UBS, Hollywood, Netflix, IAC, Democratic Party

Plan B talks get louderThe Biden campaign’s attempts to soothe panicked Democrats and donors after the president’s calamitous debate appear to have cratered. One Democratic lawmaker has openly called on President Biden to withdraw from the race, while others are sharply criticizing his campaign’s response. And many party backers remain as nervous about sticking with him as they were last week — but also worry about the alternatives. The latest: Representative Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first sitting Democrat to demand that Biden step aside. Democrats and foreign allies worry that Biden has increasingly seemed confused or listless, The Times reports.

Persons: Biden, Lloyd Doggett, Jim Clyburn, “, ” Barack Obama Organizations: Biden, Democratic, South Carolina, The Washington Post, Times Locations: Texas, South, NewsNation

Donors still on edgeThe shock waves from last week’s presidential debate are still reverberating, as President Biden and his aides sought to allay concerns from despondent Democrats and wealthy donors about his age and fitness for office. Donors are increasingly becoming reconciled to Biden remaining the Democratic nominee even after Biden’s disastrous performance. But some in the party, and in the markets, are increasingly expecting Donald Trump to win in November. Seventy-two percent of registered voters don’t believe Biden has the mental and cognitive health to serve as president, according to a CBS News poll published Sunday, compared with 65 percent in early June. With the odds for a Trump win rising after the debate, Wall Street analysts are recalculating what that could mean for the economy and the markets.

Persons: Biden, Donald Trump, don’t, Trump Organizations: Democratic, CBS, Trump, Wall Street

☆ Biden? Trump? The Politics of Talking About It at the Office.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-29 | by ( Sarah Kessler | Ravi Mattu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Offices across the nation — and Slack channels, the modern water cooler — were abuzz Friday morning with voluble opinions about the presidential debate from the night before. Should Biden step aside? How many times did Trump lie? Did Biden lie, too? For most chief executives, presidential elections are a nightmare — they create division inside teams, take up valuable time and can turn into a big distraction.

Persons: Biden, Kim Scott, ”, it’s Organizations: Google

Post-debate panicAfter a bruising 90-minute debate that underscored President Biden’s single-biggest weakness — concern about his age — Democratic donors exchanged panicked texts and emails with one question: What’s Plan B? The 81-year-old Biden’s halting, shaky performance against a confident (if sometimes misleading) showing by Donald Trump has set off alarm among Democrats with just seven weeks before the Democratic National Convention and four months before the November election. Some party faithful who were suppressing their doubts about Biden are now privately lobbying Democratic leaders and scouring rule books to figure out how to change the presidential ticket. “Disaster,” one unnamed Democratic donor told CNBC after the debate, reflecting the mood among the party’s moneyed class. Other reactions included “absolute train wreck” and “game over.” “Do we have time to put somebody else in there?” Mark Buell, a well-known Democratic donor, told The Times.

Persons: Biden’s, Donald Trump, Biden, ”, ” Mark Buell Organizations: Democratic National Convention, Democratic, CNBC, Times

Talking pointsAll eyes will be on CNN at 9 p.m. Eastern, when President Biden and Donald Trump face off in their first debate since 2020. Among the keenest watchers will be executives and investors looking for signs about how the candidates might handle the economy and business in a second term. There will be plenty to scrutinize in the 90-minute, audience-free debate, including what the candidates say and how they say it. What will Biden and Trump say about some of the key issues? In Thursday night’s debate, “markets probably care more about presentation than policy pledges,” Paul Donovan, an economist at UBS, wrote in a client note.

Persons: Biden, Donald Trump, Trump, ” David Bahnsen, DealBook, ” Paul Donovan, Elon Musk, There’s, J.D, Vance of, Doug Burgum, Marco Rubio Organizations: CNN, Bahnsen, UBS, Biden, Trump, Times, Gov Locations: Atlanta, Vance of Ohio, North Dakota, Marco Rubio of Florida

Quiet in the C-suiteThree years ago, corporate leaders openly spoke out against Donald Trump over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. But as the former president leads in many polls this time around, most in the C-suite are staying quiet. In 2021, C.E.O.s including Mary Barra of General Motors and Doug McMillon of Walmart publicly urged a peaceful transition of power. Only a handful of executives have publicly supported Trump, who was willing to go after perceived enemies in corporate American when he was in office. It’s highly unlikely that tally will reach 902, the number of times the topics were mentioned in 2020 during the same period.

Persons: Donald Trump, Mary Barra, Doug McMillon, Trump, Biden, It’s Organizations: Capitol, General Motors, Walmart

Nvidia’s fall to earthIt looks like another volatile day for Nvidia shareholders. And given the company’s enormous influence on the entire S&P 500, they may not be the only investors facing big swings. It closed Monday down roughly 16 percent from its intraday high on Thursday, shedding more than $550 billion in value — roughly the size of Tesla’s market capitalization — offering the markets a tough reminder that the A.I. Mary Daly, the president of the San Francisco Fed, warned Monday of a slowdown in the labor market hitting the U.S. economy. Another big piece of data comes out on Tuesday: The Conference Board is set to release its monthly consumer confidence index.

Persons: Mary Daly, San Francisco Fed, ” Organizations: Nvidia, San Francisco

The $3 trillion company is the first to be charged under the Digital Markets Act, a landmark 2022 E.U. Here are the E.U.’s accusations against Apple:The App Store violates so-called steering rules. Regulators say that app developers cannot easily inform their customers about new offerings, including cheaper deals, within Apple’s ecosystem. The fees Apple charges are excessive. products and services in Europe because of “regulatory uncertainties.”And the company already faces a $2 billion E.U.

Persons: Apple Organizations: Apple, European Union, Digital Markets, Google, Financial Times, Microsoft Locations: Apple’s, Europe

☆ Going After the Middleman
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-22 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | Sarah Kessler | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

They’ve zeroed in on what may sound like a nerdy legal theory, but one that could have huge implications: the tyranny of the intermediary, middleman companies that abuse their role by squeezing out competition or creating artificially expensive moats. The Justice Department has already made one high-profile strike along these lines, suing to break up Ticketmaster and Live Nation. It is reportedly investigating at least two others. One is RealPage, a property management company that uses artificial intelligence to suggest prices and has already been sued by renters accusing it of facilitating a new type of collusion. The second is UnitedHealth Group, the health care conglomerate that owns a cobweb of businesses that include an insurer and another unit that employs about 10,000 physicians in the United States.

Persons: Lina Khan, Jonathan Kanter, They’ve Organizations: Biden, Federal Trade Commission, Ticketmaster, UnitedHealth Locations: United States

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