Jack Dorsey Says Adieu

Jack Dorsey resigned from his role as the CEO of Twitter today. He will be succeeded by the company’s CTO, Parag Agrawal.

In an announcement this morning, Jack indicated that he has “worked hard to ensure [Twitter] can break away from its founding and founders” and that “now is the right time” to make that break. 👋 👋

Dorsey’s departure marks the conclusion to a decade-long term as CEO. Dorsey was one of the company’s co-founders, and he’s been an active player since Twitter’s founding in 2006. In many ways, Dorsey represented the soul of Twitter. 😢

However, Dorsey’s resignation is no surprise to people who have been carefully tracking $TWTR‘s share price. The social media giant has been assailed by activist investors who complain of disappointing revenue growth.

Investors have also complained that Dorsey has his hands full with other ventures, including his role as the CEO of payments giant Square.

Fortunately, Jack is likely to move on to greener pastures (namely, crypto and his ongoing role at Square.) Given his enormous passion for payments, creative spaces, and crypto, it’s likely his talents won’t be misplaced.

$TWTR fell 2.6% today.

After decisively defeating a union drive in Alabama earlier this year, Amazon will have to fight again.

The National Labor Relations Board ordered a second union election at the same Amazon facility in Bessemer, AL, alleging that the company interfered with the first election. Keep in mind, Amazon overwhelmingly won the first one — 1,798 of the Bessemer facility’s 2,536 employees voted against a union. 

This means Amazon’s worst fears might once again come true. If just one Amazon facility unionized, it could definitely lead to a domino effect where many Amazon facilities — and their thousands of employees — follow suit. That would be extremely costly for the retail giant. 😬

There’s a lot to be concerned about, too. Given changing attitudes about work, the labor shortage, and successful labor-driven campaigns, Amazon might have an uphill battle to fight in order to defeat a renewed unionization campaign.

$AMZN marched 1.6% higher today. We’ll be watching this story.

We all know yoga and biking hardos take their leggings seriously… but seriously, has this gone too far? 😅

Lululemon filed a lawsuit against Peloton today, claiming the bike brand’s latest activewear line infringes on Lulu’s patented clothing designs. Specifically, Peloton’s “strappy bra, high neck bra, cadent peak bra, cadent laser dot bra and cadent laser dot leggings” irked the yoga brand for bearing resemblance to Lulu items. 

On November 26, Peloton sued Lululemon — Peloton requested an official court declaration stating the bike maker did not violate Lululemon’s clothing patents. And November 26’s lawsuit came just weeks after Lululemon threatened to sue Peloton over its clothing designs on November 11. 

Sheesh, talk about tit for tat. A Peloton spokesperson commented:

“On top of the numerous clear and obvious differences in design, Peloton and Lululemon’s brands and logos are also distinctive and well-recognized, making confusion between products a virtual impossibility.” Lululemon responded “We will defend our proprietary rights, to protect the integrity of our brand, and to safeguard our intellectual property.”

All this drama over two companies that used to collaborate on designs. Don’t mess with yoga pants. 🤷

Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, sold half of his stake in the company last week. WHAT. Is there a stake-selling fever going around in the billionaire community?? This is the second time this month a major CEO has liquidated a sizable share of their company. 

Or maybe the selloffs have something to do with Washington’s instatement of a 7% tax on long-term capital gains for amounts larger than $250K? 🤔 The tax starts in Jan 2022… a coincidence? 

Whatever the reason, Nadella sold 838,584 shares of Microsoft last week worth about $285 million. He previously held 1.7 million shares. 

Despite the insider selling, $MSFT has risen 52.3% YTD and broken through the $300 level to $336.54.