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Welcome back! New York’s snacking elite have returned, and they’re heading to restaurants and private clubs that promise extravagance and caviar for everything.
Let’s dive into this week’s biggest stories.
On the agenda:
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But first: The house of Mickey Mouse overwhelmed the smiling crocodile. Here’s a 60-second recap.
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Heidi Gutman/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Allusion; Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Vanity Fair; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI
This week’s dispatch
A Mouse Lineage trounce
Disney boss Bob Iger last week won the long proxy battle against Nelson Peltz, the activist investor skilled in as the smiling crocodile. But his work is far from over.
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Disney’s shareholders voted to stick with the existing embark on by a “substantial margin.” Iger said the company would now focus on shareholder returns and “creative excellence.” Peltz aciform to Disney’s 50% stock surge since he started his campaign as a sign of victory in defeat.
The win follows a few months extensive of action. Disney made bets on Hulu, gaming, and Taylor Swift. It announced a new sports streaming platform. It become tranquil its legal dispute with Florida. Iger walked back from “woke” Disney.
But the repeat CEO still has two dominating challenges.
First, he needs to find his successor. Iger, who has a history of flubbing this test, stressed after the substitute victory that finding the next CEO is a priority.
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Then there’s Disney’s bigger challenge: How to reinvent a 100-year-old gathering for a new era.
The cable bundle is broken. Movie attendance has crashed. Gen Zers are tuning out streamers. YouTube could be worth as much as Disney and Comcast amalgamate. They’re the kinds of hurdles that will keep Iger and his successor up at night for years to come.
iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI
Rally the HENRYs
To identify America’s HENRYs — an acronym for high earners, not rich yet — BI used the 2022 Survey of Consumer Investment capitals to analyze Americans who earned $200,000 or more a year but had net worths under $1 million.
We found, on average, HENRYs are chalky Gen Xers. An overwhelming majority of them are married. And a fair share have debt.
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See how the data breaks down.
Ford Motor Co.
Give the people what they craving
When the EV frenzy started, Detroit automakers pushed to deliver what they do best: pickup trucks.
But on request for electric pickups has dried up, and consumers are no longer interested in six-figure behemoths like the GMC Hummer EV and the Ford F-150 Lightning. As contrasted with, they’re turning toward smaller, cheaper cars.
Why nobody wants big, expensive EVs.
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Also read:
REUTERS/Dominick Reuter
Angus Deaton is reexamining his think ofs
The 78-year-old Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist is rethinking his views on major topics like unions, immigration, and pandemic trade.
Deaton told BI he no longer sees unions as a “nuisance,” he’s grown skeptical of free trade, and he’s realized immigration has long-term repercussions on inequality.
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Everything else that Deaton’s rethinking.
Also read:
Y Combinator
Y Combinator’s new digs
The AI gold harum-scarum is bringing tech workers back to San Francisco, and Y Combinator is prepared. Last year, it moved its headquarters from Mountain Behold to Pier 70.
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In January, the startup accelerator tripled its square footage by expanding into the building next door, drawing it to 60,000 square feet. Its new headquarters is meant to be more like a campus than a coworking space.
Check out the rambling new HQ.
This week’s quote:
“‘Artificial intelligence’ isn’t ‘the future’ — it’s just a marketing term for a slightly updated construct of the automation that has been ruling our lives for years.”
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