Elon Musk’s Twitter announced a new CEO and Larry Fink’s BlackRock (tkr: BLK), is working to identify Fink’s replacement. So long as Messrs. Musk and Fink are involved with Twitter and BlackRock respectively, they will be setting strategy and keeping their finger on the pulse if not involved with the day-to-day minutiae.
Musk named NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino as Twitter CEO. Perhaps Ms. Yaccarino will have success driving Ad revenue growth, perhaps not. It would be in her best interest to act fast as the greatest difference between Twitter under Musk and NBC Universal / Comcast (tkr: CMCSA) is speed. Twitter is run like a scrappy startup while Comcast operates much like corporate America – which is to say decisions by consensus, slow and plodding culture. Here is Musk’s comment on his hiring of Ms. Yaccarino:
It is unclear how Mr. Fink will adjust to not holding the CEO title of the firm he founded. Fink is a huge advocate for ESG investing which is a marketing sham in my view as well as a way to use Assets Under Management as a blunt instrument to further one’s political views. Fink wishes to use ESG to force his politics on the masses. The truth is that the only letter in “ESG” investing that matters is the “G” – “Governance”. After all, lack of good governance is why Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic no longer exist.