Scott and Ed open the show by discussing Disney’s latest round of layoffs, why a private equity firm is taking Walgreens private, and Ontario’s decision to cancel its Starlink contract. They then analyze BlackRock’s decision to buy the ports on either side of the Panama Canal, breaking down why it could be a highly profitable move. They also discuss what Apple’s newest product launches reveal about the state of the company. Scott explains why he’s begun offloading his Apple stock, while Ed makes a prediction about where shares are headed in the next six months. Subscribe to the Prof G Markets newsletter Join us for a live recording at SXSW Order "The Algebra of Wealth," out now Follow the podcast across socials @profgpod: Instagram Threads X Reddit Follow Scott on Instagram Follow Ed on Instagram and X Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Why is Aspiration's founder under arrest?
Today's number, $145 million. The co-founder of fintech startup Aspiration was arrested last week for allegedly conspiring to defraud his investors of $145 million. By the way, we call bullshit on this company. Four years ago. Speaking of climate change, Ed, what do climate change deniers and pedophiles have in common? What's that? They're both fucking the next generation. Ah, that's good.
Great joke. Yeah, the pedophile stuff never gets old. What's going on with you? What are you up to?
I'm doing very well. I'm in New York. I'm excited for South by Southwest. We're going to be heading over this weekend. Of course, this episode will be out by the time we're there, but I think it's going to be great. You know what I'm really excited for, though, is the flight back. Why is that? Flying with you. Oh, I'm sorry. I meant to tell you that there's just not enough... Not enough seats.
There's only seven seats on the plane. How many seats are on the plane?
I don't know. I haven't counted. I can't go here. There's no way I don't come across as the world's biggest douchebag talking about the number of seats.
You're right. I'm setting you up for failure. How about let's set you up for success here and just talk about this aspiration situation. Because you wrote about this... four years ago.
This is, by the way, one of my first jobs at Prof G Media, was you were talking about this company, Aspiration, and it was my job to go in and do the research because you had this feeling that this company, which was selling credit cards, but also positioned itself as helping with climate change, you said, this is definitely a bullshit company. You had the team look into it.
I looked into it and we determined, yes, this company is fake. We have a clip from what you said about this company on the Prof G pod.
One example, one example of reaching too far into the barrel, Aspiration, a finance firm that claims its products can, open quote, change climate change, end quote. In August, the company announced it was going public via SPAC at a $2.3 billion valuation. Change climate change. That would be awesome. Except there's a catch. This is a fucking debit card. He's so good.
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Chapter 2: How did Disney's layoffs impact the media industry?
I can't wait. Let's get into our weekly review of MarketVitals. The S&P 500 declined, the dollar slid, Bitcoin was volatile, and the yield on 10-year treasuries climbed. Shifting to the headlines. Disney is laying off nearly 200 employees, or 6%, of its workforce in its ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks divisions.
As part of the cuts, the company is also shutting down political and data journalism site FiveThirtyEight, which it acquired in 2013. Walgreens is officially going private after closing a $10 billion deal with Sycamore Partners, The private equity firm is expected to keep Walgreen's core US retail business while potentially selling off or spinning out other parts of the company.
And finally, Ontario canceled a Starlink contract worth 100 million Canadian dollars after US tariffs on Canadian imports took effect. Scott, let's get your thoughts, starting with Disney deciding to lay off 200 employees, nearly 6% of the workforce, at ABC and their entertainment networks.
It just makes sense. This is part of capitalism, and that is they need to consolidate, bulk up, and then cut costs. These companies should have one back end as far as news, and if they have different front-facing... brands that appeal to different audiences, that's fine. But last year, Disney's linear networks revenue declined 9% and operating income was down 16%. They're not alone here. U.S.
linear TV advertising will decrease an estimated 4% annually through 2030, which doesn't seem like a lot. But when it's going for another Five years, 4%, it means it's going to lose a quarter of its revenue or a fifth. And that means, you know, that's just real pain because some of those costs are fixed.
So you're talking probably, they're probably going to shed another 20 or 30% of their workforce over the next five years. I just had lunch with a fairly famous news anchor who is fantastic at what she does. And she's one of the lucky ones. She's still making a lot of money, but I think her salary got cut by 30%. And you're seeing cuts across the most famous anchors of like 20% to 80%.
Joy Reid, Chuck Todd, Jim Acosta, and Lester Holt, all fantastic at what they do or did, all too expensive. And George Stephanopoulos, his contract's been renewed, though he had to take a pay cut from his previous $20 million deal. He's lucky he got his deal a few months ago. I think it'd even be less now. Rachel Maddow renegotiated. She is the friends or the anchor of MSNBC.
She had to reduce her pay from $30 to $25 million. Yeah, cry me a river. That's not too much. Anyway, so look, the market is doing what it's supposed to do. It's reshaping. the winners and the losers. You're going to see, I think, private equity come in here. You're going to see a lot of consolidation.
I think Disney is a survivor because of this unique singular positioning around family and just the incredible IP they have. I also wonder if this is an interesting take private opportunity. But anyways, what are your thoughts?
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Chapter 3: What are the reasons behind Walgreens going private?
And I remember calling her. This is probably why Walgreens failed. They lost her.
They lost her. And I remember calling her. I'm like, look, we have an issue here. You are clearly addicted to something. There's $120,000 on charges on my card. And not only that, I'm like, she's like, oh, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm like... And you've signed for this shit at your address. Your signature's on this stuff.
You decided to have someone drop it off at your apartment, which wasn't like, you know, you're not exactly what I'd call a very, you know, this is disorganized crime. And she immediately went into rehab, claimed disability, and tried to sue us for the options that we owed her. She dropped the case when I said I was going to turn it over to the Manhattan DA if she didn't drop the case.
But anyways, that was my last assistant, Ed. That was my last assistant.
I'm glad we learned that. Yeah, we learned a lot about hiring decisions on this show. Let's talk about Ontario and their decision to cancel the contract with Starlink. I think you predicted something like this would happen, or you at least kind of warned about it, that Starlink, you know, one big problem for Elon Musk would be if people start canceling Starlink contracts. Kind of...
an incredible move. The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, had some interesting things to say about this, and we've got a clip. So let's take a listen.
US-based businesses will now lose out on tens of billions of dollars in revenues. They only have President Trump to blame. I'm also urging all 444 municipalities to do the same. And I'm thrilled to see some are already stepping up, For example, Mayor Patrick Brown in the city of Brampton and many other cities. As part of this government-wide procurement ban, we're going one step further.
We're ripping up Ontario's contract with Starlink. It's done. It's gone. We won't award contracts to people who enable and encourage economic attacks on our province and our country.
Your reaction, Scott?
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Chapter 4: What challenges does private equity face in retail?
And because there is about to be a big gap in the marketplace for this type of broadband provider.
It's what happened with Twitter. And then you saw all those Twitter competitors rise up and now Threads is... Threads, Blue Sky, Post.
Yeah, that's right.
I mean, some of them...
kind of failed. You're the one I invested in, but is that what you're saying, Ed? Is that what you're saying, the one I invested in? The one I managed to pick?
That was what I was hinting at.
Yeah, okay.
Okay. We'll be right back after the break with a look at BlackRock's investment in the Panama Canal. If you're enjoying the show so far, be sure to give Profiteer Markets a follow wherever you get your podcasts.
President Trump on Truth Social has been suggesting that he's open to deals to end the trade war that he started by levying tariffs on U.S. trading partners. The administration says these Liberation Day tariffs will bring manufacturing jobs back to America. Why is that so important? There are some really dumb ways to answer that question.
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