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☆ Hedge funds bought the dip in Chinese stocks — here are their favorite ADRs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Hedge funds bought the dip in Chinese stocks last quarter after many technology names sold off amid political uncertainty, according to Goldman Sachs. U.S. hedge fund ownership of Chinese ADRs increased modestly during the third quarter after declining for four straight quarters, according to Goldman. At the start of the fourth quarter, 20% of equity hedge funds had a long position in at least one Chinese stock, the firm said. Alibaba remained the most popular China ADR among U.S. hedge funds, and it's the only Chinese stock to be included in Goldman's Hedge Fund VIP list . Brad Gerstner's hedge fund Altimeter Capital bought $69 million worth of Pinduoduo last quarter, according to a filing.

☆ Tech's reality check: How the industry lost $7.4 trillion in one year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +14 min

Not one of the 15 most valuable U.S. tech companies has generated positive returns in 2021. In total, investors have lost roughly $7.4 trillion, based on the 12-month drop in the Nasdaq. In the war for talent and the free flow of capital, tech pay reached new heights. Loading chart...SPACs allowed companies that didn't quite have the profile to satisfy traditional IPO investors to backdoor their way onto the public market. A slowing IPO market informs how earlier-stage investors behave, said David Golden, managing partner at Revolution Ventures in San Francisco.

☆ Wall Street activism is proving its influence on corporations. Just look at Disney's Bob Iger.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Investors are still digesting the news that Bob Iger will reprise his role as the chief executive of Disney. Bob Iger, CEO of Disney Charley Gallay/Stringer/Getty Images1. On Sunday, Disney announced legendary leader Bob Iger would return to his post as CEO and replace Bob Chapek, even though Chapek just months ago signed a contract extension. Disney stock had plunged 21% since Chapek's appointment in February 2020. As long as these headwinds batter the stock market, investors are likely not going to sit idly by and watch what they believe to be mismanagement by corporate leaders.

☆ Disney's Bob Iger shocker is the latest sign that Wall Street is calling the shots at major companies. Here are 3 other titans that have felt activist pressure this year.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Wall Street has increased its pressure on companies to get more efficient amid the ongoing stock market decline. Bob Iger's abrupt return to Disney as CEO this week is the latest example that investors are calling the shots. Corporate titans like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Alphabet's Sundar Pichai have not been immune to the pressure from Wall Street. Now, Disney is facing new pressure from Trian Fund Management's Nelson Peltz, according to the Wall Street Journal. These are three other companies that have faced pressure from investors recently as their stock prices suffer.

☆ Wall Street ignored Big Tech's bloat during boom times. Now it's ready to slice and dice.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Jake Swearingen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

As tech companies' stock has slumped, Wall Street now has leverage over companies. One reason for those layoffs: Wall Street is increasingly getting a say in how the tech giants are run. But 2022's slumping tech stocks and dismal revenue forecasts mean Wall Street suddenly has leverage. The more open question is whether tech companies are truly bloated regarding headcount. Wall Street will want to see companies cut costs, which will mean more layoffs.

☆ Alphabet must cut headcount and trim costs, activist investor TCI says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

TCI's stake represents 0.27% of outstanding Alphabet shares, according to Factset data, a position that the hedge fund has steadily accumulated since 2017. TCI noted that headcount has "increased at an annual rate of 20% since 2017," the year that TCI first disclosed their Alphabet position. TCI argued for an increase in share buybacks and the establishment of an EBIT margin target for Google Services. Significantly, TCI argued that Google's "Other Bets" category – their Moonshot division – demanded immediate attention, singling out self-driving vertical Waymo as a unit that failed to justify "its excessive investment." Alphabet shares are down more than 30% year-to-date.

☆ A top investor is now taking aim at Alphabet, saying it has too many employees, pays them too much, and it’s burning money on bad bets.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Major Alphabet investor TCI sent a letter to Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday. It also called for losses to be "reduced dramatically" in Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car unit. The letter noted that "the cost base of Alphabet is too high and management needs to take aggressive action." Over that time, Alphabet's employees have more than doubled from just above 80,000 to close to 190,000. TCI was not only vexed by Alphabet's headcount, but also by the company's above-market compensation rates.

☆ FTX's bankruptcy caps off a brutal period for the tech industry, which laid off more than 20,000 people in the last 2 weeks alone
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The tech industry is in a period of intense turbulence amid mass firings and FTX's downfall. More than 20,000 tech workers have been fired in just the last two weeks, according to calculations by Insider. In a recent letter to Mark Zuckerberg, one investor called for layoffs, saying workers will "quickly" find replacement jobs. Insider calculates that at least 20,000 tech workers were either fired or learned they were being fired in the last two weeks. However, other companies' layoffs in the last 14 days, like Lyft, Coinbase, Salesforce, and Stripe, received less attention from the general public.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg's giant middle finger to Wall Street backfired for Meta. Welcome to the 'biggest two week pivot' analysts have ever seen.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Alistair Barr | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The move went stunningly wrong, crushing the shares of Facebook parent company Meta. What really surprised Wall Street were the other steps Zuckerberg is taking:Meta extended its hiring freeze through the first quarter of 2023. This one by Zuckerberg ranks at or near the top, with the analyst calling it "the biggest two week pivot we've ever seen." For Zuckerberg, Meta and even Silicon Valley, this is another sign that the eras of abundance and founder-friendly investing are ending. For Wall Street, this all came about two weeks too late.

☆ Cramer: Meta layoffs show Mark Zuckerberg 'got religion' on costs, but he must cut more
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

Jim had been calling on Meta and other tech companies for months to recognize the severity of the global macro headwinds and to reduce their costs. As a knock-on effect, this capex reduction from Meta may be causing some of the pressure we're seeing in semiconductor stocks, an area that caught a bid following Meta's initial expense guide. Reduction of annual capex by at least $5 billion; instead management guided for a $2 billion 2023 capex reduction at the high-end of its previous range, as mentioned this in more detail earlier. Management initially guided for total expenses in 2022 to be in the range of $91 billion to $97 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., speaks during the virtual Meta Connect event in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022.

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☆ Meta investors reportedly 'got more disgusted' with Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse plans after he doubled down in the company's earnings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta shareholders are becoming frustrated with Mark Zuckerberg's plans, Financial Times reported. Investors expressed their anger in meetings with Meta executives over the past week, per FT.Meta's shares plunged after its quarterly earnings report showed Zuckerberg was doubling down. Last week, Meta shares plummeted 24% after the company missed earnings targets and Zuckerberg said he intents to spend billions more on the metaverse project in the coming year. Investors have expressed their ire and frustration in meetings with Meta executives, including some with Zuckerberg over the past week, FT reported. Financial Times' recent report came after another investor published an open letter ahead of the company's quarterly earnings report, saying Meta has "lost the confidence of investors."

One year and billions of dollars later, the so-called metaverse still feels years away, if it ever manifests at all. And Meta’s flagship social VR app Horizon Worlds can feel like a ghost town (albeit a ghost town with laser tag). Meta’s latest headset, the Quest Pro, is its first effort at combining the immersiveness of VR with the real world. The VR headset market is still tiny compared to, say, an established gadget market like console video games. A visitor to the 2022 Tokyo Game Show tests the Meta Quest 2 VR headset.

☆ Josh Brown buys Meta shares, betting Zuckerberg 'doesn't want to burn his own house down'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Ritholtz Wealth Management CEO Josh Brown is taking advantage of Meta's stock plunge. He bought shares before the open Thursday, although it is not a substantial position, he said on CNBC's " Halftime Report ." Brown's move isn't necessarily an endorsement of the company or its CEO Mark Zuckerberg . "I can come in today and make the bet that this guy doesn't want to burn his own house down," Brown said. "The issues with Meta — the spending, the lack of focus, the lack of clarity — all of that stuff I think is fixable," Brown said.

☆ Zuck refuses to let his metaverse dream die. Wall Street has finally had enough.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta shares slumped nearly 20% in after-hours trade to $104.30 on Wednesday. The drop in Meta's share price this year has shaved off 61% off Mark Zuckerberg's net worth. The share price slide is also chipping a chunk off CEO Mark Zuckerberg's rapidly shrinking fortune. Following Wednesday's earnings announcement, Meta shares slumped nearly 20% in after-hours trade to $104.30. However, the metaverse is likely "the most potent headwind" to Meta's share price, he added.

☆ Young Silicon Valley workers are in for a rude awakening as industry giants make major job cuts and ditch ambitious projects for the first time in their careers
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Samantha Delouya | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Workers now fear layoffs after tech companies that hired thousands of workers with high pay face a slowing economy. For years, Big Tech companies have competed on pay and perks to lure workers in a tight labor market. It's a first for many tech workers, an entire generation of whom have known nothing but non-stop growth and a bull market. Earlier, the company told managers not to approve employee travel and team offsites unless they are "business critical." Younger tech workers don't just have to fear losing perks.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg says he's 'pretty confident' Meta is heading in a 'good direction' as stock crashes 20% after huge earnings miss
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Mark Zuckerberg said Wednesday he was "pretty confident" Meta is heading "in a good direction." He spoke after Meta's third-quarter earnings missed Wall Street's forecasts and its stock crashed 20%. Meta's third-quarter net income crashed 52% year-on-year, to $4.4 billion, as R&D costs jumped 45% largely because of the company's investments in the metaverse. The scale of Meta's metaverse investments are being closely scrutinized by investors who are concerned they're detracting from the company's core social-media businesses, such as Facebook and Instagram. Reality Labs, which handles Oculus and everything metaverse-related, reported third-quarter revenue of just $285 million – a drop of almost half compared with the same period in 2021.

☆ Meta and Alphabet are too big to avoid a global advertising slowdown, says Ritholtz's Brown
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | 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 EmailMeta and Alphabet are too big to avoid a global advertising slowdown, says Ritholtz's BrownCNBC's Halftime Report Investment Committee discusses Josh Brown's purchase of Meta stock, what's fixable for the company and Brad Gerstner's comments on Meta's quarterly earnings results.

☆ Facebook workers say they are being told to give '200%' yet warned to prepare for layoffs as the company's reorganization gets under way
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Teams and managers are being moved around and some managers are being forced out amid an ongoing reorganization, three employees told Insider. Snap, which recently did a mass layoff, earlier in the year told managers to select 10% of their teams as underperforming. The company previously looked to "manage out" underperformers on a case by case basis, the people added. Some teams in engineering and the Communities team, previously Facebook Groups, have been reorganized in recent weeks, one employee said. The person added that new managers coming onto new teams are being told "to ruthlessly monitor our performance until January."

☆ Mark Zuckerberg in 2012: 'We don’t build services to make money; we make money to build better services.'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Matt Rosoff | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Revenue generally tracked to operating income growth. For instance, in that troubling mid-2018 earnings report, annualized quarterly revenue growth of 42% translated into operating income growth of 33%. For the full year of 2021, revenue growth of 37% translated into operating income growth of 43%. That translated to a shocking 46% decline in operating income. Simply put: we don't build services to make money; we make money to build better services.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg vows to spend billions more on the metaverse next year despite burning a whopping $4 billion on it this quarter
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Meta currently faces a number of headwinds, including a potential recession and a slowdown in the advertising market. The decision comes just days after a prominent tech investor wrote an open letter urging Mark Zuckerberg to curb spending. Meta's Reality Labs unit, which is central to the company's metaverse effort, saw revenue fall 49% to $285 million. Meta's increase in spending also goes against the wishes of at least one of its prominent investors. Brad Gerstner, an investor at Altimeter Capital, wrote an open letter to the company earlier this week urging Mark Zuckerberg to cut the company's expenses.

☆ Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg knows his metaverse pivot isn't popular with everyone, but said 'people are going to look back decades from now' and realize its importance
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Mark Zuckerberg took a shot at those who doubt his metaverse investment. "People are going to look back decades from now" and discuss the project's importance, he said. Meta has reported nearly $20 billion in losses since last year from to its metaverse project, more than the GDP of many countries. I think people are going to look back on decades from now and talk about the importance of the work that was done here," he added. So far, Meta's metaverse investment, which it calls 'Reality Labs,' has reported losses greater than the GDP of many small countries.

☆ Meet the wealthy ex-Goldman Sachs junior banker and hedge-fund manager taking over as the UK's new prime minister
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

We've got famous authors yelling at Jamie Dimon, rich Russians heading to your favorite all-inclusive, and more people complaining about Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse infatuation. The UK has a new prime minister — no, it's not the head of lettuce — and he comes from the world of Wall Street! Rishi Sunak, a former finance minister, officially became prime minister on Tuesday after meeting with King Charles. Sunak's early career reads like a typical Wall Street mogul:-Spend three years working as a junior analyst at a bank (Goldman Sachs). Grenada is proving to be an effective loophole for wealthy Russians looking to get US visas.

☆ Meta shareholder wants Facebook parent to cut jobs, spending
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 24 (Reuters) - Facebook-parent Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) needs to streamline by cutting jobs and capital expenditure, its shareholder Altimeter Capital Management said on Monday in an open letter to Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg. But the company's dreams have fallen short as the Reality Labs unit, which works on augmented and virtual reality, has continuously reported staggering losses. Meta Platforms, which is set to report third-quarter results on Wednesday after markets close, declined to comment. The social media company had in June cut plans to hire engineers by at least 30%, with Zuckerberg warning employees to brace for an economic downturn. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Anil D'SilvaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Meta Investor Urges CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Slash Staff and Cut Costs
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Meghan Bobrowsky | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg spoke during the virtual Meta Connect event in New York this month. An investment firm said in an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg on Monday that Meta Platforms Inc. should slash staff and pare back its metaverse ambitions, in a sign of rising discontent among shareholders. Altimeter Capital Chief Executive Brad Gerstner wrote that Mr. Zuckerberg needs to take drastic steps to streamline Meta’s operations and address a steep drop in the share price.

☆ Investor calls on Meta to slash headcount, slow metaverse spending
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Kif Leswing | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The letter is the latest sign that Meta investors are starting to express reservations about the company's recent performance. "In addition, people are confused by what the metaverse even means," Gerstner wrote. "An estimated $100B+ investment in an unknown future is super-sized and terrifying, even by Silicon Valley standards," Gerstner wrote. Ultimately, Gerstner believes that Meta has too many people and is spending too much on capital expenditures. In the letter, Gerstner says that Altimeter Capital doesn't have demands and simply wants to engage with Meta management.

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