Business and Boardrooms

Disney+ and Hulu just signed six iHeart podcasts, starting with the Jonas Brothers this Thursday, timed to a Camp Rock premiere — and if you still think of a podcast as an audio file in an open RSS feed, the Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

July inflation landed at 3.4 per cent this morning and one of America's best-known economists called the report benign — while energy prices are up nearly fifteen per cent in a year and the average pay packet has now Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hadrian just raised one point three seven billion dollars at a seven point eight seven billion valuation to build highly automated defence factories — part of a single week in which five startups raised over Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

OpenAI bought a slide-deck startup that is barely a year old, folded the team into ChatGPT, and disclosed no price — and inside that tiny, quiet deal is the whole uncomfortable truth about building a company on top of Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The chairman of India's most consequential business house resigned this morning, six days before the annual general meeting, after six months of deadlock over his own reappointment — and the real story is not the man Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Spotify is testing a button that lets listeners skip podcast advertisements — but only the ones Spotify did not sell — and that single design decision quietly reprices every independent show on the Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cracker Barrel hands the keys to a sixty-nine-year-old retired chief executive today — and the boards of America are quietly doing the same thing everywhere, which tells you something uncomfortable about the Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

America shed twenty-three thousand jobs in July when forecasters expected to add eighty-three thousand — and the stock market rose, because corporate profits are having the best quarter since 2021, and Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Starboard Value took a stake worth hundreds of millions in Shake Shack and the shares jumped about nine per cent before a single demand was made — and the fact that it arrived after a good quarter, not a bad one, Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sequoia led a one billion dollar round into a nuclear reactor startup at a six billion dollar valuation, and attached a two hundred million dollar credit facility — and the debt is the more interesting half of Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Activists have almost stopped fighting proxy battles and started demanding something far more final — that boards sell the whole business — and the votes that used to settle these fights are being replaced by Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The S&P 500 fell in July for the first time since 2014 — while most of the companies inside it went up, which means the number everyone quoted last week described almost nobody's business. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On Friday, Copart's chief executive walked out of the building and the executive chairman walked back into the job — and if your company has a founder-figure sitting above the CEO, this is the episode you cannot Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Forbes says the top podcaster earned eighty-two million dollars last year and a two-year-old tech show earned seventy — but the most valuable business lesson of the week belongs to the operator who says he will Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nvidia has reportedly put five billion dollars into an AI lab with no product and no revenue — and the main thing that lab will do with the money is buy Nvidia chips. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Starboard Value took a stake worth hundreds of millions in Shake Shack and the shares jumped about nine per cent before a single demand was made — and the fact that it arrived after a good quarter, not a bad one, Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sequoia led a one billion dollar round into a nuclear reactor startup at a six billion dollar valuation, and attached a two hundred million dollar credit facility — and the debt is the more interesting half of Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Activists have almost stopped fighting proxy battles and started demanding something far more final — that boards sell the whole business — and the votes that used to settle these fights are being replaced by Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Barclays grew quarterly profit by nearly a third and raised its full-year guidance — and the market cut the shares by seven per cent anyway, because investors have stopped applauding growth stories and Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The $1.5 billion Anthropic settlement, the six authors who turned it down, and the week the market started putting a price on the written word. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Apple just touched five trillion dollars by spending less on AI than anyone else at the table — and the market's sudden crush on restraint is a lesson, a trap, and a seventy-two-hour test all at once. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cracker Barrel's turnaround was finally working — so why did the CEO who built it just hand over the keys, and why might the board be right? Here is a corporate announcement so unremarkable that you could read the Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

PayPal turned down $53.4 billion, then two weeks later posted an earnings beat and raised its guidance — this is what a negotiation looks like when it happens in public. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Fed will almost certainly do nothing on Wednesday — while a third of the S&P 500 reports, GDP and inflation data land, and markets price an 82 per cent chance of a September hike. The quietest headline of the Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Four former DOGE staffers raised $160 million at a $1.4 billion valuation for a weeks-old AI military cyber startup — and the deal is a masterclass in what venture capital is actually pricing in 2026. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.