The Haley rationale for backing Trump
After months of speculation, Nikki Haley said — in her first appearance since dropping out of the Republican presidential primary — that she would vote for Donald Trump, the man against whom she waged a sometimes scathing campaign.
The news appeared to disappoint some supporters who explicitly endorsed her as an anti-Trump candidate. But it may provide cover to prominent donors like Ken Griffin who in recent weeks has suggested that he might come in from the cold and donate to Trump.
Deep-pocketed Republicans flocked to Haley during the primary. Among them: Griffin, who gave $5 million to her super PAC in December; Paul Singer of Elliott Management; Henry Kravis of KKR; Barry Sternlicht of Starwood Capital Group; Cliff Asness of AQR Capital Management; Stanley Druckenmiller; and Ken Langone. (Reid Hoffman, the Democratic venture capitalist and LinkedIn co-founder, also kicked in millions for her campaign.)
The draw was that she wasn’t Trump:
“I’m supporting Nikki because I think the nation needs to move on from the divisiveness and fear-mongering of the far left and right,” Sternlicht told The Times.
“I think she is just what we need right now,” Langone said on Fox News. “What Trump put this country through the last three months of his presidency was disgraceful.”
But donors are rethinking their aversion to Trump, who handily beat Haley and other rivals and is now leading President Biden in some polls. Many say they oppose Biden’s economic and immigration policies and are dismayed by White House criticism of Israel in the war in Gaza.
Griffin — who months ago said he was focusing more on Republican state and local candidates — has increasingly suggested he was open to giving to Trump. “It’s a question I’m giving serious consideration to,” he told The Times recently, and his camp has told Trump’s that he was waiting to see whether the former president would pick a traditional Republican as a running mate. Will Haley’s endorsement, such as it was, be enough justification?
The big picture: While Trump has trailed Biden in fund-raising, he significantly out-raised the sitting president last month. An outpouring from megadonors could help close the cash gap — which could be especially critical as Trump’s legal bills mount.
In other 2024 election news: why some prominent Silicon Valley donors have shifted rightward. And here’s a close look at Nicole Shanahan, the lawyer and ex-wife of the Google founder Sergey Brin. She’s now Robert Kennedy Jr.’s running mate.
HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING
Nvidia’s stock soars after a blockbuster earnings report. The tech giant at the heart of the artificial intelligence boom reported quarterly revenue and profit that far exceeded analyst estimates, fueled by surging demand for its semiconductors. It also announced a 10-for-1 stock split. Its shares are up nearly 7 percent in premarket trading, helping to boost the S&P 500. The benchmark index fell on Wednesday following the release of Fed minutes showing policymakers were willing to raise interest rates if high inflation persisted.
Amazon reportedly plans to charge for a more capable Alexa. The tech company is considering a monthly subscription fee to access a new generative A.I.-powered version of its voice assistant, to offset its costs, CNBC reports.
Harvard’s governing body won’t let 13 pro-Palestinian student protesters graduate. The Harvard Corporation rejected a bid by faculty to award degrees to the students, who face disciplinary action for participating in a protest encampment. In related news, the hedge fund mogul Ken Griffin, an alumnus who paused his financial support for the school over its handling of antisemitism on campus, urged graduates to “constructively debate ideas even in moments of heated disagreement.”
The case for an antitrust fight against Live Nation
The Justice Department and several states plan to sue Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, as soon as Thursday, The Times reports. The antitrust investigation has taken more than a year — and follows an even longer period of frustration at the company’s dominance of live event ticketing.
Here’s what the case is likely to focus on, according to The Times:
The government plans to argue in a lawsuit that Live Nation shored up its power through Ticketmaster’s exclusive ticketing contracts with concert venues, as well as the company’s dominance over concert tours and other businesses like venue management, said two of the people, who declined to be named because the lawsuit was still private. That helped the company maintain a monopoly, raising prices and fees for consumers, limiting innovation in the ticket industry and hurting competition, the people said.
The government will argue that tours promoted by the company were more likely to play venues where Ticketmaster was the exclusive ticket service, one of the people said, and that Live Nation’s artists played venues that it owns.
Bloomberg News, which first reported the lawsuit’s timing, added that the Justice Department may seek to break up the company, which was formed by the 2010 union of Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
Live Nation has sought to head off such a lawsuit for some time, denying that it sets high prices and fees and arguing that it faces increased competition. Last year, it agreed to be more transparent about the fees that are added to ticket sales, signing onto the Biden administration’s fight against so-called junk fees.
Last month, Live Nation co-hosted a party in Washington ahead of the annual White House Correspondents’ Association dinner to press its case. Attendees took in a performance by the country singer Jelly Roll — and were greeted by cocktail napkins promoting positive facts about the company’s impact on the economy.
The N.F.L. inches ahead on private equity deals
In the end, N.F.L. owners didn’t vote on the big question hanging over their annual meeting in Nashville: whether to permit private equity firms to take stakes in teams as franchise valuations soar.
But they did make some progress, The Times’s Ken Belson and DealBook’s Lauren Hirsch report.
A policy could be in place by the end of the year, Roger Goodell, the N.F.L. commissioner, said. That’s after owners agreed to a framework for private equity funding similar to that in other pro sports leagues, Clark Hunt, the owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, who heads the special committee on ownership policy, told DealBook.
The N.F.L. would probably put limits on such investments, including capping the number of teams in which a firm could invest and the size of the stake. The final figures are likely to be more conservative than what other leagues allow.
“When we started on this project — you can go back a year ago — there were a number of owners who were very concerned,” Hunt said. Now, he added, “pretty much everybody in the room is on board with the conversations proceeding.”
The lack of a vote suggests some owner hesitation. “We’re pretty proud of the way we govern the N.F.L. at this particular time,” said Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys. “These things are certainly a part of any consideration.”
Goodell, the commissioner, said the league was only considering working with private equity investors for the moment. (Jones said not to rule out other future possibilities, including sovereign wealth funds.)
The league approved other important deal-making considerations. Investors can use up to $700 million in debt to finance a deal, up from $500 million. That was probably spurred by the challenges that Josh Harris and his investor group had last year in financing its $6 billion deal for the Washington Commanders.
What will Ramaswamy do with BuzzFeed?
Vivek Ramaswamy is getting into the digital media business.
Shares in BuzzFeed soared on Wednesday after Ramaswamy, a wealthy investor and a former Republican presidential hopeful, revealed that he had acquired a 7.7 percent stake in the struggling web publisher. Ramaswamy, the author of “Woke, Inc.,” is known as a culture warrior, which raises questions about his plans for the company.
BuzzFeed has fallen far. It grew quickly from a site known for games and quizzes to a Pulitzer Prize–winning news outlet that landed big scoops, including publishing the dossier that contained unverified reports of connections between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
But in recent years, it has struggled amid a declining ad market and plummeting reader referrals from social networks. Its stock has fallen more than 90 percent since it went public in 2021 and the company has shut down its news division to save money.
Will Ramaswamy push BuzzFeed rightward? The investor, now the company’s fourth-largest shareholder, declined to comment on his goals, telling DealBook, “Stay tuned.”
But his history of railing against the “mainstream media” suggests he could try to influence the company’s editorial and ideological direction. In a security filing disclosing his holding, Ramaswamy said he saw “numerous operational and strategic opportunities.”
It’s unclear whether he can fix the company. BuzzFeed’s troubles are shared by much of the media industry. Its publisher has warned that things could get tougher.
And Ramaswamy doesn’t have a media background: He made his fortune in biotech and his name fighting Wall Street’s embrace of E.S.G., investing strategies that prioritize environmental, social and governance issues.
In other media news: The Murdoch family’s News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post, struck a licensing deal with OpenAI that allows the tech company to train its artificial intelligence software on the publishers’ content.
THE SPEED READ
Deals
DuPont will break itself into three companies. (CNN Business)
Oaktree Capital seized control of F.C. Inter Milan, after the champion Italian soccer club’s Chinese owners defaulted on a loan by the investment firm. (WSJ)
Artificial intelligence
OpenAI didn’t seek to copy Scarlett Johansson’s voice for its latest ChatGPT update, according to documents and interviews, but its C.E.O. muddied the waters with his actions. (WaPo)
The F.C.C. is moving toward possible new rules requiring political ads to disclose any use of A.I. (CNN Business)
Best of the rest
Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX founder convicted of fraud, is being moved from a Brooklyn jail. (NYT)
“Hodinkee Built a $100 Million Watch Empire. Then the Market Tanked.” (WSJ)
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