Activist investor TCI Fund Management has asked Google’s parent, Alphabet, to take “aggressive action” by reducing its headcount and cutting the salaries paid to non-engineers. The hedge fund owns about $6B worth of Alphabet shares and wants the tech company to cut back investments in its self-driving car technology and increase share buybacks. More: - The call to action comes a day after reports said Amazon plans to lay off about 10,000 employees, or ~3% of its workforce.
- Last week, Meta announced it was laying off 11,000 employees, or about 13% of its workforce.
- Alphabet added more than 36,000 employees in the last year, and its median salary, according to TCI, is nearly $300,000.
- In July, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees the company would slow hiring for the rest of the year.
- Google shares closed at $98.44 on Tuesday, up ~3% for the day; the company is down more than 30% YTD.
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Walmart released its Q3 fiscal 2023 earnings on Tuesday beating analysts’ expectations. The retail giant posted revenue of $152.8B, up ~9% YoY. Walmart’s operating income was $2.7B, down ~54% YoY, due partly to a ~$3.33B opioid legal charge. Walmart agreed to pay $3.1B to settle opioid-crisis lawsuits brought by several U.S. states and municipalities. More: - Walmart reported a net loss of $1.8B, or 66 cents a share, down from a net income of $3.1B reported during the same period last year.
- Walmart’s U.S. net sales were $104.8B; comp sales grew 8.2% YoY and 17.4% over two years.
- U.S. e-commerce sales grew 16% YoY and 24% over two years.
- Walmart International posted $25.3B in net sales, up ~7% YoY.
- Sam’s Club earned $21.4B in net sales, up ~13% YoY.
- Walmart’s global ad business grew 30% YoY.
- Walmart shares rose more than 6% on Tuesday, closing at $147.44.
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Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway acquired a $4.1B stake in Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC. Berkshire purchased 60 million U.S.-listed shares of TSMC, or 1.2% of the company. TMSC is the 10th largest holding of Berkshire Hathaway as of September. More: - On the investment news, TSMC shares jumped more than 10% on Tuesday, closing at $80.46.
- The company is down ~38% YTD.
- Berkshire also increased its holdings in Paramount Global to $1.7B.
- Paramount shares closed at $19.44 on Tuesday, up 5%.
- Berkshire increased its position in Occidental Petroleum, now owning 21.4% of the oil company, worth about $11.9B.
- In August, Berkshire received regulatory approval to acquire as much as 50% of Occidental.
- Berkshire reduced its position in Activision Blizzard, but the video game company remains the conglomerate’s ninth -argest holding.
- Apple is still Berkshire’s top stock holding, with a position worth about $123.7B.
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Twitter fired a group of engineers who reportedly criticized Elon Musk on the platform and in the company’s Slack channels. According to sources, as many as 20 Twitter employees were let go for openly rebuking the new CEO. More: - Twitter engineer Eric Frohnhoefer, who worked on the social media’s Android mobile operating system, was let go after reposting one of Musk’s tweets saying the CEO was wrong about his assessment of Twitter’s performance on Android.
- On Monday, while responding to a user’s tweet, Musk confirmed that Frohnhoefer had been fired.
- Twitter engineer Ben Leib also lost his job following a tweet criticizing Musk’s post on load times on Twitter.
- Leib was the tech lead for timelines infrastructure at Twitter.
- An email sent to terminated employees said their recent behavior violated the company’s policy.
In related news: - Musk said Twitter would postpone the re-launch of its $8 verification program to Nov. 29 to ensure “it is rock solid.”
- Twitter paused the rollout of the new feature after several users who received the verification badge began impersonating lawmakers, athletes, and brands.
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U.S. household debt increased by $351B for the July-September period, bringing total household debt in the U.S. to a record $16.5T. According to the Federal Reserve, this is the fastest debt increase in 15 years. More: - Total household debt increased by 8.3% compared to last year and 2.2% compared to the previous quarter.
- The largest contributor to the debt total was mortgage balances, which rose $1T from a year ago to $11.7T.
- Credit card debt rose to $930B, up 15% from last year, its largest increase in over 20 years.
- Auto loan balances rose to $1.52T, up 5.6% YoY, and student loan debt decreased to $1.57T.
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The NFL is partnering with Skydance Media to create sports-related content. The NFL’s investment arm, 32 Equity, and Skydance Media are co-investing in Skydance Sports, the unit of the production company that will house the joint venture. The terms of the partnership were not disclosed. More: - NFL Chief Media and Business head Brian Rolapp said the partnership would allow the football league to make more content by leveraging each other’s expertise.
- Skydance is one of Hollywood’s largest independent production companies.
- Some of Skydance’s credits include the movie “Top Gun: Maverick” and Amazon Prime Video shows “Jack Ryan” and “Reacher.”
- Last month, Skydance raised $400M in new capital, valuing the production company at more than $4B.
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Quick Hits - Apis Cor holds the current Guinness World Record for the largest 3D-printed building on Earth. Invest in the future of construction.*
- Tyson Foods' board of directors has launched a review of the conduct of the company's new CFO, John Randal Tyson, after he was arrested on charges of public intoxication and trespassing. John Randal Tyson is the 32-year-old son of Tyson chair John H. Tyson and the great-grandson of the company's founder, John W. Tyson.
- Credit Suisse is selling its securitized products group to private equity group Apollo. Last month the Swiss bank announced a major restructuring plan which included spinning off its investment bank, cutting thousands of jobs, and raising $4B in new capital.
- Ticketmaster extended the presales for tickets to Taylor Swift's upcoming "Eras" tour after fans flooded the website, causing disruptions and delays. Eras Tour tickets are priced from $49 to $450, with VIP packages starting at $199 and reaching $899.
- During an interview with CNBC, Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Charlie Munger said he was surprised Tesla did as well as it did, referring to what Tesla did in the car industry as a minor miracle.
*This is a sponsored listing.
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 |  | Vanessa Omeokachie is a writer for Inside.com; she writes the daily Inside Business newsletter. Her interests include finance, technology, and entrepreneurship. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending concerts and music festivals, traveling, and exploring. Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or on LinkedIn. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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