🦢Black Swan Street Weekly Stock Market Summary (Nov. 20th - Nov. 24th 2023)

Welcome to Black Swan Street!

Kim Kardashian's first private equity deal, Sam Altman vs OpenAI, earnings, Citigroup restructuring, the Napoleon hype is real, man sues baby mama after winning the lottery.

It was an action-packed week, so let’s get into it:

• Kim Kardashian’s First Private Equity Deal🌶️

• Sam Altman vs OpenAI vs Microsoft🤖

• Earnings Summary💰

• Headline Roundup🗞

• Next Week In The Stock Market🔮

Read time: 8 minutes

Kim Kardashian’s First Private Equity Deal🌶️

How the h*ll Kim Kardashian get into private equity?

Kardashian started Skyy Partners in 2022 with Jay Sammons, a 16-year veteran of global private equity firm Carlyle.

However, up until now, Skyy Partners hadn’t made any investments and had remained relatively quiet.

That is until… Truffle-infused hot sauce came along.

Skyy Partners acquires stake in bougie condiment maker.

Kim Kardashian’s investment firm, Skky Partners LP, acquired a significant minority stake in the bougie condiment maker ‘Truff’.

So, if you’re looking for $20 truffle-infused hot sauce, Kim K is now your girl.

The details of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Skyy Partners said in a release that the firm’s “primary focus is on identifying culturally relevant brands that forge deep emotional connections with their target consumers and offer those consumers coveted products and services”.

Sam Altman vs OpenAI vs Microsoft🤖

In a year of wild, unforgettable stories in tech, this new one might take the cake: The Sam Altman and Open AI drama.

This whole story is confusing and hard to follow, so let’s make it as simple as possible.

Who is Sam Altman?

Sam Altman is viewed as arguably the most influential person in tech. He was previously the president at Y Combinator, a startup accelerator that’s helped launch companies such as Airbnb, Stripe, Doordash, Coinbase, and countless others.

However in 2019, Altman left Y Combinator to join OpenAI as CEO.

Until this week, where OpenAI’s board announced the decision to remove Altman as CEO - just wait, there’s more.

Timeline of OpenAI vs Sam Altman.

Last Friday: OpenAI’s board fires Altman as CEO of OpenAI. Within the next half hour, the board also informs Greg Brockman, another co-founder and OpenAI president, he would be removed from the board.

OpenAI publicly announces it fired Altman over concerns that he was not always truthful with the board. The board says Mira Murati, the company’s CTO, would become interim CEO.

Saturday: Reports emerge that ex-OpenAI loyalists were mulling plans for their own venture.

More reports start to emerge that OpenAI’s board was having second thoughts and considering asking the ousted CEO to return.

Sunday: News breaks that Brockman and Altman will be joining Microsoft to run a new AI research group.

At OpenAI, Murati returns to her role as CTO and Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, will step-up as the new interim CEO of OpenAI.

Monday: OpenAI’s employees being to revolt. More than 500 employees sign an open letter calling on the company’s board to resign and reinstate Altman and Brockman. Then to top it off, they also threaten to follow the co-founders to Microsoft if their demands were not met. Wild stuff.

Tuesday: OpenAI folds. Altman gets reinstated as OpenAI’s CEO, as well as, Brockman will also be returning to OpenAI.

Now tell me that wasn’t a crazy story. OpenAI went through 3 CEOs in ~72 hours.

Our team at Black Swan Street will continue to be uncovering this story as details keep coming out…

So, follow us on Twitter for real time analysis as this develops ⬇

Earnings Summary💰

In-Depth Earnings Dive:

Headline Roundup🗞

• Crypto exchange ‘Bullish’ acquires CoinDesk in undisclosed all-cash deal - TV

• Sam Altman joins Microsoft as ‘Head of artificial intelligence research’ after leaving OpenAI - YF

• OPEC+ to consider whether more oil cuts needed - RT

• British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe is nearing a deal to acquire a 25% stake in Manchester United from the Glazer Family that would value the Premier League team at $5.4B - FT

• Blackstone is the frontrunner to win a ~$17B portfolio of commercial-property loans from the FDIC’s sale of Signature Bank debt - BBG

• Citigroup cuts over 300 senior manager roles in latest restructuring - BBG

• Amazon to launch free program to train millions of workers in artificial-intelligence skills as they seek to gain an edge in a battle for talent - BBG

• OpenAI employees threaten to quit unless board resigns - WSJ

• Uber will raise $1.2 billion through a five-year convertible bond issuance - BBG

• Europe multinationals doing business abroad suffer $5.7 billion loss in worst FX pain since 2020 - BBG

• Broadcom and VMware $69 billion deal wins approval - RT

• Warren Buffett donates another 900,000 Class B shares of Berkshire stock - RT

• U.S. Existing Home Sales: 3.79M, from previous 3.95M, and below 3.9M forecast

• Barclays working on $1.25 billion cost-saving plan, could cut up to 2,000 jobs - RT

• Nvidia delays launch of new China-focused AI chips - RT

• EU to put forward plan for $636 billion overhaul of power grids - BBG

Next Week in the Stock Market🔮

Earnings Calendar Next Week:

What the Swan is watching:

Tuesday: Workday, Crowdstrike, Pinduoduo, Intuit

Wednesday: Dollar Tree, Salesforce, Snowflake, Petco, Footlocker, Victoria’s Secret

Thursday: Kroger, Ulta, TD Bank, Marvell Tech, Dell Tech, Royal Bank of Canada

Friday: Bank of Montreal

Economic Calendar Next Week:

The Swan’s Picks🦢

🤼‍♂️The UFC has some competition: Fight fans, it’s about to get crazy. The Professional Fighters League (PFL) acquired Bellator MMA in a historic deal for combat sports. What now? Bellator will still run as a separate “reimagined” product in 2024, but all Bellator-signed athletes will be available to compete on PFL platforms. No exclusivity.

💰Man sues baby mama after winning $1.35 billion jackpot: A man from Maine won the $1.35 billion ‘Mega Millions’ jackpot is now suing his daughter’s mother because she decided to tell the rest of the family against his wishes. First the jackpot money and now lawsuit money - big come up for the boy.

🎩The Napoleon hype is fully here: Napoleon has been in the spotlight lately. Why? The new Napoleon movie was released on November 22nd and now a hat that was worn by Napoleon Bonaparte was just sold for over $2 million at auction. Who has this type of money and how do I get them to invest in Black Swan Street?

The Wrap-Up🔄

That’s all we got this week!

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