Raphael Stevens

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    Does motherhood hurt women’s pay?

    Returning from his paternity leave last week, your columnist was keen to get writing. After all, numerous studies say parents’ careers can suffer after they have children. Best to immediately dispel any notion that his might do so. But then he remembered that he is a man, and went to get a coffee. For the child penalty, as the career hit is known by economists, is commonly believed to affect mothers alone.In fact, it might be that women returning to work after childbirth can afford to relax, too. It is true that their immediate earnings are likely to fall, and perhaps infuriating that those of new fathers are not. Yet two new studies suggest that, in the long run, compared with women who do not have children, the motherhood penalty may vanish—or even turn into a premium. More

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    Has private credit’s golden age already ended?

    The HISTORY of leveraged finance—the business of lending to risky, indebted companies—is best told in three acts. High-yield (or “junk”) bonds were the subject of the first. That ended in 1990 when Michael Milken, the godfather of this sort of debt, was sent to prison for fraud. In the second act, the extraordinary growth of private equity was financed by both junk bonds and leveraged loans, which require companies to pay a floating rate of interest rather than the fixed coupons on most bonds. Private-credit investors are now supplying the third wave of money. Since 2020 such firms, which often also run private-equity funds, have raised more than $1trn. When interest rates rose in 2022 and banks stopped underwriting new risky loans, private credit became the only game in town. Wall Street chattered that its “golden age” had begun.America’s $4trn leveraged-finance market now comprises junk bonds, leveraged loans and assets managed by private-credit firms, in roughly equal proportions. Yet owing to fierce competition to refinance debt and fund scarce new deals, private credit’s prospects may no longer dazzle. The industry’s fondness for ancient Greece (two big lenders are called Apollo and Ares) seems not to extend to the work of Hesiod. If it did, fund managers would know that what follows a golden age is not a platinum one, as with American Express cards, but the descent into a grim iron age. More

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    Fintech has hit a bottom after plunge in valuations and squeeze on funding, execs and VCs say

    Fintech executives and investors at the Money20/20 event in Amsterdam last week told CNBC that valuations have corrected from unsustainable highs from the industry’s heyday in 2020 and 2021.
    Iana Dimitrova, CEO of embedded finance startup OpenPayd, told CNBC in an interview at the firm’s booth that the market has “recalibrated.”
    The bruising impact of higher interest rates means that, for even the hottest and fastest-growing players, funding is either hard to come by — or being done at a lower prices than before.

    Long gone are the days when venture capital was flowing into fintech startups with bold ideas — and little to show in terms of business metrics and fundamentals.
    Bloomberg | Getty Images

    AMSTERDAM — The financial technology industry is embracing a new normal — with some industry executives and investors believing the sector has reached a “bottom.”
    Executives and investors at the Money20/20 event in Amsterdam last week told CNBC that valuations have corrected from unsustainable highs from the industry’s heyday in 2020 and 2021.

    Long gone are the days when venture capital was flowing into startups with bold ideas and little to show in terms of business metrics and fundamentals.
    Iana Dimitrova, CEO of embedded finance startup OpenPayd, told CNBC in an interview at the firm’s booth that the market has “recalibrated.”

    Embedded finance refers to the trend of technology companies selling financial services software to other companies — even if those companies don’t offer financial products themselves.
    “Value is now ascribed to businesses that manage to prove there is a solid use case, solid business model,” Dimitrova told CNBC.
    “That is recognised by the market, because three, four years ago, that was not necessarily the case anymore, with crazy ideas of domination and hundreds of millions of dollars in VC funding.”

    Iana Dimitrova, CEO of OpenPayd, talking onstage at Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.
    Horacio Villalobos | Getty Images

    “I think the market is now more sensible,” she added.

    Lighter footfall, talks happen on the fringes 

    Around the show floor of the RAI conference venue last week, banks, payment companies and big technology firms showed off their wares, hoping to reignite conversations with prospective clients after a tough few years for the sector.

    Many attendees CNBC spoke with mentioned that the conference hall was a lot lighter in terms of conferencegoers and the pitter-patter of delegates flocking to various stands and booths around the RAI.
    Many of the most productive conversations, some attendees CNBC spoke with say, actually happened on the fringes of the event — at bars, restaurants and even boat parties held around Amsterdam once the day on the show floor was over.
    In 2021, global fintech funding reached an all-time peak of $238.9 billion, according to KPMG. Companies such as Block, Affirm, Klarna, and Revolut had hit seismically high multibillion-dollar valuations.
    But by 2022, investment levels sank sharply and fintechs globally raised just $164.1 billion. In 2023, funding sank even further to $113.7 billion, a five-year low.

    Have we reached the bottom?

    That’s despite the massive growth of many companies. 
    The bruising impact of higher interest rates means that, for even the hottest and fastest-growing players, funding is either hard to come by — or being offered at a lower prices than before.

    Nium, the Singaporean payments unicorn, said in an announcement Wednesday that its valuation had fallen to $1.4 billion in a new $50 million funding round.
    Prajit Nanu, CEO of Nium, told CNBC that investors have at times been too distracted with artificial intelligence to pay attention to innovative products and growth stories happening in the world of fintech.
    “Investors are now in the AI mindset,” he told CNBC. “Like, whatever it costs. I want in on AI. They’re going to burn a lot of money.”
    Nanu added that the trend mimics the “craziness” fintech saw in terms of frothy valuations in 2020 and 2021.
    Today, he believes we have now reached a “bottom” when it comes to fintech market values.
    “I believe that this is the lowest end of the fintech cycle,” Nanu said, adding that “this is the right time to make it in fintech.”
    Consolidation will be key moving forward, Nanu said, adding that Nium is eyeing several startups for acquisition opportunities.
    OpenPayd’s Dimitrova said she isn’t considering tapping external investors for fundraising at the moment.

    But, she said, if OpenPayd were to look to accelerate its annual recurring revenue past the $100 million mark, venture capital investment would come more firmly under consideration.

    Crypto comeback?

    Crypto also made something of a comeback in terms of hype and interest at this year’s event.
    Dotted around the RAI venue were stands from some of the industry’s major players. Ripple, Fireblocks, Token8 and BVNK, a crypto-focused payments firm, all had a big presence with notable booths around.
    CoinW, a crypto exchange endorsed by Italian soccer star Andrea Pirlo, had advertising flowing through a bridge connecting two of the main halls of the conference.

    Fintech execs and investors CNBC spoke with at this year’s edition of Money20/20 said they’re finally seeing a real use case for cryptocurrencies after years of bulls touting them as the future of finance.
    Despite the huge promise of AI around changing how we manage our money, for instance, “there’s no new AI for moving money,” according to James Black, partner at VC firm IVP — in other words, AI isn’t changing the infrastructure behind payments. 
    However, stablecoins, tokens that match the value of real-world assets like the U.S. dollar, he said, are changing the game.
    “We’ve seen the crypto wave, and I do think that stablecoins is the next wave of crypto that will gain more mass adoption,” Black said.
    “If you think about the most exciting payment rails, you have real-time payments — I think that’s exciting, too. And it fits in with stablecoins.”

    Charles McManus, CEO of ClearBank, speaks at the Innovate Finance Global Summit in April 2023.
    Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    ClearBank, the U.K. embedded finance startup, is working on launching a stablecoin underpinned by the British pound that it is expecting to receive a provisional blessing from the Bank of England soon.
    Emma Hagen, CEO of ClearBank, and Charles McManus, the firm’s chair, told CNBC at its booth at Money20/20 that the stablecoin it’s working on would be sufficiently backed by a matching number of reserves.
    “We’re in the early days as we learn with our partners,” Hagen told CNBC. “It’s about doing it in a way that gives people that trust and safety that there is going to be practical issuance.”
    ClearBank is also working with other crypto companies on offering the ability to earn high yield on uninvested cash, McManus said.
    He declined to disclose the identity of which firm, or firms, ClearBank was in talks with. More

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    Here’s what’s next for Paramount after Skydance deal is stopped in its tracks

    Shari Redstone’s National Amusements stopped deal talks for the proposed merger of Paramount Global and Skydance in the eleventh hour and after weeks of negotiations.
    Paramount Global is now left under the direction of the so-called Office of the CEO — made up of three leaders who replaced Bob Bakish when he stepped down in April.
    On top of a nearly $15 billion debt load, the media giant is facing a competitive streaming environment, a slowdown in advertising, and rapidly shrinking cable bundle. What’s next for Paramount now?

    A view of Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, Sept. 26, 2023.
    Mario Anzuoni | Reuters

    National Amusements stopped merger discussions between Paramount Global and Skydance this week — throwing into question what’s next for the legacy media giant during a tumultuous period for the industry.
    Paramount, like many of its peers, is grappling with how to make streaming a profitable business as it faces peak competition, a rapidly shrinking universe of cable-TV customers and a slowdown in the advertising market that has especially weighed on the bundle.

    Now it’s up to the three leaders at the helm of Paramount to figure out the company’s best path forward.
    Bob Bakish stepped down from the top post in April and was replaced by the so-called Office of the CEO: CBS CEO George Cheeks, Paramount Media Networks CEO Chris McCarthy and Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins. The executives are trying to steer Paramount out of a rocky period while working under a structure that few companies have tried.
    “It’s very difficult for a trio of CEOs to work on a long term basis. It’s almost unheard of. How will they make decisions on allocating capital and strategic priorities?” said Jessica Reif-Ehrlich, an analyst at BofA Securities.
    On Wednesday, the leaders sent a memo to Paramount employees saying they would focus on their plan to turn the company around after the proposed deal didn’t move forward.
    “So, what does this mean for Paramount? While the Board will always remain open to exploring strategic alternatives that create value for shareholders, we continue to focus on executing the strategic plan we unveiled last week during the Annual Shareholder Meeting, which we are confident will set the stage for growth for Paramount,” the trio said in the memo that CNBC obtained Wednesday.

    No deal

    After months of negotiations in a sale process that included various twists, National Amusements informed Paramount’s special committee and the buying consortium that included Skydance and private equity firms RedBird Capital and KKR minutes before a vote that it was stopping the sale process.
    The move came a little more than a week after Skydance and Paramount had agreed to financial terms of a merger that would have been valued at $8 billion.
    The deal had been awaiting signoff from Redstone, who owns National Amusements, the controlling shareholder of 77% of class A Paramount shares.
    In a statement Tuesday, National Amusements said that while it had “agreed to the economic terms that Skydance offered, there were other outstanding terms on which they could not come to agreement.” National Amusements also voiced its support for Paramount’s current leadership.
    While those near the deal have offered conflicting reasons for why it was called off, a person familiar with the matter said Redstone turned down the offer after Skydance lowered the amount of money she would receive with the altered bid in order to shift some of it to the class B shareholders.
    In the last iteration of the deal, Redstone would have received $2 billion for National Amusements and Skydance would have bought out roughly 50% of class B shares at $15 apiece, or $4.5 billion, leaving the holders with equity in the new company.
    In recent days, other potential bidders for National Amusements emerged, according to reports. Redstone plans to explore selling her controlling stake in Paramount Global without an associated transaction involving merging studio assets, as Skydance had proposed.
    While Apollo Global Management and Sony had formally expressed interest in “a full acquisition” of the company for $26 billion, Redstone favored a deal that kept Paramount whole, which was not the plan for these bidders, CNBC previously reported.

    Path forward

    Paramount’s Office of the CEO acknowledged the company faces more uncertainty after the deal dissolved.
    “We recognize that the last several months have not been easy as we manage through ongoing change and speculation,” the leadership trio said in Wednesday’s memo to employees. “And, we should all expect some of this to undoubtedly continue as the media industry and our business continue to evolve.”
    Though the company reached financial terms on the proposed deal with Skydance, Paramount’s new leadership team outlined a plan at last week’s shareholder meeting in the event a transaction didn’t take place.
    The strategic priorities that were highlighted included exploring streaming joint venture opportunities with other media companies, eliminating $500 million in costs through measures such as layoffs and divesting noncore assets.
    The memo noted more would be discussed at a company town hall June 25. The leaders are also expected to flesh out more details of the plan during August’s earnings call.
    The executives set those priorities with an eye toward lowering Paramount’s debt load and returning the company to investment grade status after it was downgraded earlier this year. Paramount has $14.6 billion in debt.
    In the memo to employees Wednesday, Paramount’s leadership team said it would focus on executing this plan.
    “Work is already underway, as we focus on three pillars: Transforming our streaming strategy to accelerate its path to profitability; Streamlining the organization and reducing non-content costs; Optimizing our asset mix, by divesting some of our businesses to help pay down our debt,” the leaders said in the memo.
    Redstone has backed the trio of CEOs since they took over in late April, and voiced that support before introducing them during the shareholders’ meeting presentation.
    In Wednesday’s memo, the leadership once again emphasized growing content and franchises while also focusing on slashing costs and lowering debt, a priority the executives outlined during their presentations.
    But the unorthodox nature of the CEO office — which Redstone acknowledged during the shareholders call — has industry analysts wondering if the plan can succeed.
    “The company needs to focus on a couple of things, like fixing the balance sheet so it gets flexibility back and focus on the businesses that really profits. Also, possibly selling assets or changing the asset mix,” said Reif-Ehrlich. “But this is a very difficult situation. Uncertainty is the worst thing.”
    Whether it’s these CEOs putting this plan to work, or an acquirer that takes over, they have to contend with various challenges, said Robert Fishman, an analyst at MoffettNathanson, in a research note.
    Among those, Paramount’s earnings are driven by its traditional TV networks, which are primarily general entertainment — possibly the most challenged content in media, as Disney’s Bob Iger said last year. A weak advertising market could also weigh on the company in the coming months. More

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    Robotics startup cofounded by Synapse CEO is raising funds with exaggerated claims about GM ties

    A humanoid robotics startup cofounded by the CEO of bankrupt fintech firm Synapse has canvassed Silicon Valley investors for funds by claiming close ties and an imminent investment from General Motors — claims rejected by the automaker.
    The company, called Foundation Robotics Labs, is seeking the last $1 million in funds for an $11 million seed round, according to documents obtained by CNBC. The investor pitch claimed GM had already committed to an investment, along with the Menlo Park-based VC firm Tribe Capital.
    But, according to GM and one of the startup’s founders, most of Foundation’s claims related to the automaker are exaggerated or untrue.

    3alexd | E+ | Getty Images

    A humanoid robotics startup cofounded by the CEO of bankrupt fintech firm Synapse has canvassed Silicon Valley investors for funds by claiming close ties and an imminent investment from General Motors — claims rejected by the automaker.
    The company, called Foundation Robotics Labs, is seeking the last $1 million in funds for an $11 million seed round, according to documents obtained by CNBC. The investor pitch claimed GM had already committed to an investment, along with the Menlo Park-based VC firm Tribe Capital.

    “Foundation is building humanoid robots to take over work that humans do in factories, warehouses and eventually homes,” the startup declared.
    On top of the seed investment, the fundraising document said GM was set to be Foundation’s first customer, with a targeted $300 million purchase order, and had also provided access to its factories to help them train its robots.
    “GM agreed to let us collect the ground truth data in their factories,” Foundation said in the document. “Our team is in their Mexico factory this week to start the collection process. We would probably be the only company in this space with a dataset like this.”

    ‘Fabricated’ claims

    But, according to GM and one of the startup’s founders, most of Foundation’s claims related to the automaker are exaggerated or untrue.
    While GM met with Foundation executives a few times, it hasn’t allowed data collection from its factories, has no agreements for robot orders and isn’t planning an investment, according to a GM spokesman.

    “GM has never invested in Foundation Robotics and has no plans to do so,” spokesman Darryll Harrison said in an emailed statement. “In fact, GM has never had an agreement of any kind with the company. Any claims to the contrary are fabricated.”
    In a phone interview with CNBC, one of Foundation’s cofounders, Mike LeBlanc, confirmed GM’s points and said he was embarrassed that marketing materials existed that overstated their relationship.
    “The engineering stuff we’ve done is really incredible, and it’s the bedrock of what this company will be,” LeBlanc said. “That, to me is what Foundation Robotics is.”

    New Foundation

    Foundation was started in April by Synapse CEO Sankaet Pathak, Tribe Capital CEO Arjun Sethi, and LeBlanc, cofounder of Cobalt Robotics, a maker of autonomous security guards, according to the company’s fundraising pitch.
    It’s raising money at a time when American corporations look to automate more of their labor: 25% of capital spending by industrial companies in the coming years will be on automated systems, according to McKinsey.
    The misleading fundraising pitch was shared in an email group with about 1,500 startup executives and investors this month, according to one of the recipients. The contents of the document were confirmed by someone with direct knowledge of Tribe Capital.
    Tribe Capital and its cofounder Sethi declined to comment, while Pathak didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.

    Fintech meltdown

    The robotics startup finds itself in the spotlight after the implosion of Pathak’s other company, Synapse, which enabled fintech brands like Mercury and Dave to offer banking services by connecting them to FDIC-backed banks.
    Cofounded by Pathak in 2014, Synapse went bankrupt earlier this year after some of its largest clients, including Mercury, left its platform amid disagreements over customer balances.
    The mess has left more than 100,000 Americans with a combined $265 million in deposits locked out of their accounts for more than a month, according to a trustee appointed to oversee the firm’s bankruptcy proceedings.
    Making matters worse, there is an $85 million shortfall between what partner banks of Synapse are holding and what depositors are owed, and no answers yet on what happened to the missing funds, according to the trustee.
    Pathak’s move to his next venture, coming on the heels of the still-ongoing Synapse failure, has raised eyebrows among some founders and investors in the startup community. More

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    GameStop tanks with huge volume in the call options owned by ‘Roaring Kitty’

    A sell-off in GameStop shares intensified in afternoon trading Wednesday.
    The last time “Roaring Kitty,” whose legal name is Keith Gill, disclosed his portfolio was Monday night, showing he still owned 120,000 call options contracts with a strike price of $20 and an expiration date of June 21.
    GameStop calls with the exact strike price and expiration traded a whopping 93,266 contracts Wednesday.

    A holding page for Keith Gill, a Reddit user credited with inspiring GameStop’s rally, before a YouTube livestream arranged on a laptop at the New York Stock Exchange on June 7, 2024.
    Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    A sell-off in GameStop shares intensified in afternoon trading Wednesday, and that coincided with a spike in trading volume in the call options that meme stock leader “Roaring Kitty” owns.
    The last time Roaring Kitty, whose legal name is Keith Gill, disclosed his portfolio was Monday night, showing he still owned 120,000 call options contracts with a strike price of $20 and an expiration date of June 21.

    GameStop calls with the exact strike price and expiration traded a whopping 93,266 contracts Wednesday, more than nine times its 30-day average volume of 10,233 contracts. The price of these contracts dropped more than 40% during the session, while the stock plunged 16.5%.
    It is unclear if it was indeed Roaring Kitty behind the large volume, but options traders said he could be involved given he is such a large holder of those contracts.

    Stock chart icon

    GameStop, 1 day

    Options traders have speculated that Gill would have to sell his calls prior to expiration or roll the position into another call option to avoid having to raise a huge amount of cash to exercise them on June 21.
    Wall Street has been watching for hints he was unloading the position because it could knock the price of the stock.
    For Gill to exercise the calls, he would need to have $240 million to take custody of the stock — 12 million shares bought at $20 apiece — which is more than he has shown publicly in his E-Trade account.
    CNBC’s “Fast Money” will be discussing the GameStop move at 5 p.m. ET.

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    Here’s what changed in the new Fed statement

    This is a comparison of Wednesday’s Federal Open Market Committee statement with the one issued after the Fed’s previous policymaking meeting that concluded May 1.
    Text removed from the prior statement is in red with a horizontal line through the middle.

    Text appearing for the first time in the June statement is in red and underlined.
    Black text appears in both statements.

    Arrows pointing outwards More

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    Sony Pictures is buying Alamo Drafthouse, becoming the first studio in 75 years to own a theater chain

    Sony Pictures has acquired Alamo Drafthouse, the seventh-largest movie theater chain in North America.
    This is the first time in more than 75 years that a major Hollywood studio will own a movie theater chain.
    The company’s 35 cinemas will continue to be operated by Alamo Drafthouse and its headquarters will remain in Austin, Texas.

    Interior of an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema theater.
    Alamo Drafthouse

    For the first time in more than 75 years, a major Hollywood studio will own a movie theater chain.
    Sony Pictures has acquired Alamo Drafthouse, the seventh-largest movie theater chain in North America, the company announced Wednesday. The cinema company was purchased from owners Altamont Capital Partners, Fortress Investment Group and founder Tim League.

    Between 1948 and 2020, film distributors were prohibited from owning an exhibition company under what was known as the Paramount Consent Decrees. While studios were permitted to own individual theater locations — Disney owns the El Capitan Theatre and Netflix owns The Egyptian Theatre and New York’s Paris Theater, for example — the U.S. Department of Justice disallowed ownership of a chain of cinemas.
    The decrees were abolished in 2020. Now, some four years later, Sony is the first to invest in a theatrical company.
    Alamo Drafthouse CEO Michael Kustermann will remain at the helm of the dine-in movie theater chain and will report to Ravi Ahuja, president and CEO of the newly formed Sony Pictures Experiences division.
    The company’s 35 cinemas will continue to be operated by Alamo Drafthouse and its headquarters will remain in Austin, Texas.
    “We look forward to building upon the innovations that have made Alamo Drafthouse successful and will, of course, continue to welcome content from all studios and distributors,” Ahuja said in a statement.

    The acquisition comes after Alamo Drafthouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic disruptions. It was rescued by a private equity firm. However, just last week, five North Texas locations closed after a franchisee filed for bankruptcy.
    “We are excited to make history with Sony Pictures Entertainment and have found the right home and partner for Alamo Drafthouse Cinema,” said Kustermann. “We were created by film lovers for film lovers. We know how important this is to Sony, and it serves as further evidence of their commitment to the theatrical experience. Together we will continue to innovate and bring exciting new opportunities for our teammates and moviegoers alike.”

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