Technology, Capital Markets, Corporate Governance, Leadership, Entrepreneurship
Tag: Corporate Governance
It is disappointing that Boeing was not forced to purge CEO David Calhoun and its Board as part of yesterday's $2.5 billion DOJ settlement. We most recently wrote about the fact that Boeing needed to purge is CEO and Board in September 2020. Boeing's Board deserves an "F" for its handling of the 737 Max … Continue reading Where Is The Accountability At Boeing?
Yesterday Qualcomm (tkr: QCOM) announced that Cristiano Amon - an engineer - would become the company's next CEO in June. Current QCOM CEO Steven Mollenkopf is also an engineer. This contrasts sharply with Intel (tkr: INTC), CEO Bob Swan - a career CFO. If you regularly read these pages and listen to our TEK2day Podcast … Continue reading Technology CEOs Who Lack Technology Chops
Cyberbreaches do not receive enough attention. The last time we railed against a company related to a Cyberbreach was the Equifax (tkr: EFX), hack of 2017. That breach was disclosed in September 2017 despite the fact that the company had knowledge of the hack for months. EFX executives sold stock ahead of the disclosure. SolarWinds … Continue reading Is There Another Leg To Drop In The SolarWinds Cyberbreach?
From time to time we have written about CEO Personality and its impact on corporate operations and stock returns. Earlier this week we spoke with Dr. Joseph Harrison of TCU. Dr. Harrison and his team recently performed an Advanced Analytics exercise that analyzed 2,880 CEOs regarding their personality traits and related company stock returns. Click … Continue reading Cult of Personality – A Deep Dive On CEO Personality Research
The "Pretender" auto companies will likely fail because they don't have Elon Musk. While we have been critical of Tesla's corporate governance, there is no denying Elon Musk's persistence. Musk's level of persistence is rare. It is highly unlikely that the Pretenders (NKLA, NIO, RIDE, WKHS) have an Elon Musk among their senior ranks. The … Continue reading There Is Only One Elon Musk
Technology companies are accelerating share repurchase activity in the face of economic uncertainty and record high share prices. This runs counter to our preference which is to invest for long-term growth. Apple (AAPL) spent $72 billion on share repurchases in the fiscal year ended September 30th, up from $67 billion last year. AAPL cash flows. … Continue reading Share Repurchase Activity Is Accelerating at The Expense of Investing for Growth
Innovation is the name of the game and I am unable to think of a major bank that has innovated or disrupted the market over the past 20-30 years. Goldman probably comes closest. Goldman's biggest "innovation" was attaching itself to Apple's coat tails. JPMorgan has leveraged AI and other advanced technologies internally. However, JPM has … Continue reading Most Banking CEOs Fail To Innovate. New Citi CEO Jane Fraser May Have Better Luck.
CEO's need to be comfortable with some level of diversification to keep their companies relevant over the long-term. Long-time Anheuser-Busch InBev (ticker: BUD) CEO Carlos Brito was not afraid of big acquisitions. However, his most notable large acquisitions (Anheuser-Busch and SABMiller) failed to add new beverage categories to the tired product portfolio while weighting it … Continue reading Carlos Brito Is On His Way Out as BUD CEO. Did BUD’s Board Try To Help Brito?
We are approximately 6 months away from announcing our CEORater 2020 Technology CEOs of The Year. Selecting this small group of winners will be difficult as a number of Technology CEOs have successfully navigated COVID's stormy seas while delivering strong operating results. 2020 will also mark the inaugural class to the CEORater CEO Hall of … Continue reading Looking Forward to Announcing CEORater’s 2020 Technology CEOs of the Year
Over the past year Moderna (ticker: MRNA) insiders have sold equity worth approximately $292 million as of July 27th 2020. This includes CEO Stéphane Bancel whom has sold equity worth approximately $33 million and Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks whom has sold equity worth approximately $55 million over the same period. MRNA insider sales. Click … Continue reading Moderna Insider Sales Raise Corporate Governance Flags
