Author: arthursheikin@gmail.com

[ad_1] Warren Buffett speaks during the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 3, 2025.CNBCWarren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is closing in on a deal to buy Occidental Petroleum’s petrochemical unit OxyChem for roughly $10 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The potential deal, which could finalize within days per the Journal, could be Berkshire’s largest since 2022 when it bought insurer Alleghany for $11.6 billion. That deal was announced in March of that year and completed in October 2022. Berkshire is sitting on a record cash hoard of $344 billion.Buffett, 95, is stepping down as Berkshire…

[ad_1] The publicly traded marketing tech firm Zeta Global is making its biggest-ever acquisition.Zeta is best-known as a platform that helps big companies organize their customer data and find new customers using its own dataset and adtech tools. Now, it’s looking to double down on helping brands improve their customer loyalty.On Tuesday, Zeta told Business Insider exclusively that it had entered an agreement to acquire martech company Marigold’s enterprise software business for $325 million. The assets include Marigold’s Loyalty brand, the email platforms Cheetah Digital and Sailthru, and the marketing automation platform Selligent. Marigold will continue to operate its business…

[ad_1] Corner offices are getting more crowded.In little over a week, Oracle, Comcast, and Spotify have rolled out org charts with not one, but two CEOs.The percentage of companies led by co-CEOs hasn’t changed much over the past five years, data firm Equilar found. It hovers around 1.2% of the Russell 3000 index, a broad measure of the US stock market.Yet more companies could adopt this structure, even temporarily, as forces like AI create a dizzying pace of change for leaders and prompt companies to rethink operations.”It is an arrow that more boards, I think, will keep in their quiver,”…

[ad_1] Federal employees’ inboxes are dinging — it’s yet another email about their jobs.Employees of multiple departments shared with Business Insider an email they received on Tuesday warning of a government shutdown and potential furloughs at midnight tonight. We spoke with 18 government workers, who used words like “confusion,” “uncertainty,” and “chaos” to describe the mood inside their agencies.Several at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Social Security Administration, Department of the Interior, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Office of Personnel Management confirmed they received the email from their leadership. It outlines what is expected to happen if…

[ad_1] As MSNBC prepares to be hived off from NBCUniversal and reintroduce itself as MS NOW, it’s making sure its audience knows who it is — live and in person. The cable network aims to triple its events next year from three in an effort to diversify its business.Leading the expansion is Marcus Mabry, who joined from CNN four months ago as SVP of content strategy. He envisions a range of events — big and small, virtual and live, open and invite-only — supported by a mix of sponsors and ticket sales. Possible topics include health, particularly mental health, and…

[ad_1] Nice catalog of stories, characters, and intellectual property you have there.We’ll be taking it now.That appears to be what OpenAI is saying to Hollywood: The Wall Street Journal reports that the company behind ChatGPT has been telling studios and talent agencies that a new version of its Sora video creator will produce work based on Hollywood characters and other copyrighted work — without getting explicit permission from the rights holders.If studios or other copyright owners have a problem with that, they can go ahead and tell OpenAI that they want to opt out, WSJ reports. But they’ll have to…

[ad_1] Periodic Labs came out of stealth on Tuesday with a war chest of $300 million as a seed round, backed by a tech industry who’s who: Andreessen Horowitz, DST, Nvidia, Accel, Elad Gil, Jeff Dean, Eric Schmidt, and Jeff Bezos. Periodic Labs was founded by Ekin Dogus Cubuk and Liam Fedus. Cubuk led the materials and chemistry team at Google Brain and DeepMind, where one of his projects was, for instance, an AI tool called GNoME. That tool discovered over 2 million new crystals in 2023, materials that could one day be used to power new generations of technology,…

[ad_1] On Tuesday, OpenAI announced the release of Sora 2, an audio and video generator to succeed last year’s Sora. Along with the model, the company also launched a linked social app called Sora, where users can generate videos of themselves and their friends to share on a TikTok-style algorithmic feed. OpenAI’s work on a new social platform was previously reported by Wired. While we haven’t been able to test the invite-only app and Sora 2 model ourselves yet, OpenAI has shared impressive examples. In particular, Sora 2 is better at following the laws of physics, making the videos more…

[ad_1] Spotify made the rare move of naming two CEOs to share its top job. Netflix may have the playbook for making it a success.Founder Daniel Ek said Tuesday that he’s stepping down as CEO of Spotify and into an executive chairman role. Co-presidents Gustav Söderström and Alex Norström are set to take his place as co-CEOs in 2026, reporting to Ek.Dual executives aren’t the norm, but there are prominent examples of companies that have adopted the model. In 2023, for example, Netflix named Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos co-CEOs, replacing cofounder and former CEO Reed Hastings. Online eyewear retailer…

[ad_1] Doordash is starting to look like more than just a food delivery app. The company’s fundamentals and technicals are lining up to set the stage for a break to new all-time highs, as the company is dashing into artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicle delivery. These new vehicles, pictured as inset on the monthly chart below could expand the company’s total addressable market and improve operating leverage over time. We increased our holdings in DASH in our Tactical Alpha Growth (TAG) portfolio from 2% to 3% last week. In our “fast money” account Active Opps, we hold a 3.6% allocation but…