Axios Closer

May 12, 2023
Welcome to a special edition of Closer, dedicated to BFDs of the week.
Today's newsletter is 694 words, a 2.5-minute read.
🔔 The dashboard: The S&P 500 closed down 0.2%.
- Biggest gainer? First Solar (+26.5%), announced it is acquiring Evolar for up to $80 million, to advance its perovskite solar cell technology.
- Biggest decliner? Gen Digital (-5.5%), the cybersecurity firm, as its reported bookings for the fourth quarter came in below expectations.
1 big thing: Elon's Twitter successor
Linda Yaccarino speaks onstage during the Seat At The Table event in March. Photo: Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Elon Musk vaulted Linda Yaccarino into one of the most visible leadership positions in the world Friday when he named her Twitter's new CEO, Hope writes.
Why it matters: While the appointment of the former NBCUniversal ad chief reflects continued progress in gender representation at the corporate top, experts also see the move as thrusting another woman onto a "glass cliff."
Context: Similar to the "glass ceiling," a metaphor for the invisible social barrier that limits women's upward mobility, the glass cliff is a metaphor for women and other underrepresented groups being asked to transform a faltering firm — facing a high likelihood of failure.
- An oft-cited study in the Harvard Business Review reveals that women are preferred to take over when a male-led company is in crisis.
State of play: Yaccarino is inheriting a company that's shed roughly 80% of its workers since Musk took over last October.
- Outages, user discontent and advertiser skepticism have plagued the platform since.
The other side: It takes a great deal of cynicism to believe that Musk set it up to prove that women can’t lead, Jennifer Chatman, professor of management at the Haas School of Business, tells Axios.
- After all, Musk has taken the risk himself, Chatman adds.
What to watch: How dominant Musk will remain, while he works on product design and new technology. Yaccarino will be responsible for business operations primarily.
- “She should get out quick” if Musk remains dominant, Chatman says.
2. Achieving longevity
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
If Twitter is to survive and thrive beyond its current phase of flux, it may need to reexamine its values, Hope continues.
The big picture: Consumers now demand more from companies than just products — they're increasingly supporting firms that stand for the consumers' own beliefs.
- Such "purpose-driven consumers" accounted for 44% of shoppers across all major products, up from 40% in 2020, according to a 2022 report from the National Retail Federation.
The bottom line: That's now a larger share than those driven by convenience and products that will simplify their lives (37%), and those prioritizing product functionality and price value (4%).
Go deeper.
3. What's happening
✂️ Netflix plans to cut $300 million in spending this year to improve profitability. (WSJ)
👀 From Axios BFD: Alto Pharmacy, a $1 billion revenue company, told Erin Brodwin the company is “actively” in fundraising talks as it will "absolutely" remain acquisitive.
4. What you missed from our San Francisco BFD
Marcie Frost, Cathie Wood and Alicia Boler Davis. Photo: Chris Constantine for Axios
Over coffee and some of the best hash browns and corned beef hash they ever had, Axios’ Dan Primack, Kia Kokalitcheva, Claire Rychlewski and Hope voted on their top moments and takeaways from Axios’ inaugural BFD summit in SF.
Our verdict: Marcie Frost, CEO of CalPERS, told Dan that America’s largest pension fund is ready to buy or become the majority owner of a company within the next “two to three years."
- That's an atypical move for a U.S. pension fund, but in line with how Frost now wants to mimic the Canadian model after toying with the idea for several years.
Separately, Cathie Wood, CEO of ARK Invest, who doesn’t think Twitter has “skipped a beat” under “Renaissance man” Elon Musk, confessed to Kia: “Everybody thinks I talk to Elon every day. I don’t. He’ll often bless one of my tweets, but we really don’t talk.”
- Wood also said she’s “thrilled … to see in the midst of the banking crisis, day to day, inflows” of $20,000, $30,000, $100,000.
What to watch: Axios BFD NY. Save the date — Oct. 12.
5. Life's BFD
Hope's mom at the New York Stock Exchange. Photo: Hope King/Axios
Whenever someone asks "Where's home for you?" I say, wherever my mom is, Hope writes.
- During the first seven or eight years of our life in the U.S., we called four states — Missouri, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey — our home.
- Through each tumultuous move and transition, she kept our lives grounded by taking jobs that enabled her to keep an eye on me in the afternoons and summers, with home-cooked meals of multiple traditional Chinese dishes every night, and with her boundless perseverance.
State of play: I am who I am because of the example she set.
Worth keeping in mind: Mother's Day isn't easy for everyone. And for that reason, I hope that this weekend brings whatever you might need.
Today's newsletter was edited by Pete Gannon and copy edited by Carlos Cunha.
✏️ Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get Axios Closer in your inbox.
Sign up for Axios Closer

Catch up on the day's biggest business stories and look ahead to important trends. Led by Nathan Bomey.



