Audio By Carbonatix
The Water Coolest is a free daily business news and professional advice email newsletter created for weekday warriors that is delivered fresh daily at 7 AM EST. You can subscribe at thewatercoolest.com.
THE HEADLINES
Don’t have 3 minutes and 48 seconds to read The Water Coolest? Listen on all of your favorite podcast outlets in 2 minutes or less.
PRIME-TIME
On one of its biggest shopping days of the year, Prime Day, Amazon’s website suffered outages and major glitches that re-routed users to pictures of cute dogs. Well played, customer service.
The 36-hour sale is estimated to bring in $3.4B for Amazon, and investors see this as a big test for Amazon’s budding trucking and shipping divisions. No word on when Jeff Bezos plans to hold the public tarring and feathering of the responsible parties.
All the hoopla resulted in a 1.2% drop in AMZN’s stock price after-hours, but the site appears to operational as of last night. And have no fear, despite the stock drop, Jeff Bezos is still the richest person in modern history.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “Something tells me that Amazon will bounce back from this one …”
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF … BASS DROPS
It may not be the headliner gig DJ D-Sol dreams about, but David Solomon will have the top billing on today’s internal conference call which will officially announce him as Lloyd Blankfein’s replacement.
The move doesn’t come as much of a surprise, with the glow-stick toting exec ascending to heir apparent status (President on LinkedIn) earlier this year. This, of course, coincided with the departure of Harvey Schwartz.
An announcement wasn’t expected until the Fall … but maybe Lloyd got asked to go in on a share house with some of his Harvard buddies? Lloyd will stay on for a transition period.
Speaking of Lloyd Blankfein … his reign will come to an end after a tumultuous 12-year run that will forever be marred by the financial crisis. The only big bank CEO with a longer tenure? Jamie Dimon.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “David Solomon is either an incredibly gifted banker and executive who just so happens to DJ … or this is the worst experiment in attracting bright, young talent of all time. Also, DJ D-Sol’s Fleetwood Mac remix doesn’t suck.”
LET ME BE, FCC
Ajit Pai pumped the brakes on Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed acquisition of Tribune Media. The deal, worth $3.9B, would allow the US’s largest TV channel owner, Sinclair, to buy 42 Tribune networks in major markets like Chicago and NY.
An addition of that size to Sinclair’s already sizeable portfolio of over 170 stations would give the company access to over three-quarters of US households. Ajit says that the deal is concerning to him and the FCC due to divestitures that would, in theory, allow Sinclair to remain in charge of those networks.
One such example would be Sinclair’s dealing of WGN to a Maryland business associate of Sinclair chairman David Smith. Smith is also attempting to sell channels in Texas to a company with close ties to his family.
Water Cooler Talking Point: “Ahh, the oldest trick in the book. David Smith is trying to pull the wool over the FCC’s eyes by divesting television channels to his barber, pool boy, and ex-wife.”
IN OTHER NEWS
- Not to be outdone, Elon Musk is going all “hold my beer” after Papa John’s latest gaffe. Still bent out of shape over experts questioning the suitability of his mini-submarine for use in the Thain cave rescue, Musk called a British diver involved in the mission a pedophile on Twitter.
- Netflix shares tumbled almost 14% yesterday on news that the streaming service missed the mark on domestic signup expectations (674k vs. 1.23M subscribers estimated) and international signup expectations (4.47M vs. 5.11M subscribers estimated). Define bloodbath.
- PE shop General Atlantic will invest $250M in supply-chain finance provider Greensill, a deal which will value the company at $1.64B.
- Yesterday Bank of America reported better than expected earnings due in large part to loan, deposit and trading revenue growth. Big Bank earnings continue to trickle in …