Business

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes must soon report to prison after losing her final bid to remain free

Elizabeth Holmes lost her final request to remain free on bail while she appeals her fraud conviction.

The ruling Tuesday by the US Court of Appeals in San Francisco means the Theranos Inc. founder will soon have to report to prison to begin her 11 1/4-year sentence after she was convicted by a jury last year of defrauding investors in the blood-testing startup.

Holmes had won a brief pause delaying the start of her prison term while the appeals court considered her request. The appeals panel upheld the lower-court judge who presided over Holmess trial and denied her request for bail. She can still pursue her appeal of her conviction, but must do so from prison.

Former Theranos President Ramesh Sunny Balwanis similar request was also denied. He reported to prison last month to begin his 13-year sentence.

Being a leader everywhere is not sustainable for most young women, says a millennial expert

Were putting too much pressure on aspiring Gen Z and millennial leaders.

Thats according to Kristen Soltis Anderson, founding partner of research institute Echelon Insights and author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America. Anderson spoke on a panel hosted by the Walton Family Foundation at Fortunes Most Powerful Women: Next Gen conference in San Diego on Tuesday.

Alongside panelists Shannon-Janean Currie, vice president of Benenson Strategy Group, and Layla Zaidane, President and CEO of the Millennial Action Project, Anderson unpacked and redefined the common narrative women across industries face to do it all.

The message we send to young women is that its great to be a leader, but leadership is hard, Anderson said. Its a burden, and it requires a lot of work and support.

While some might suggest that theres never been a better time to be a woman leader breaking glass ceilings, we know women are facing incredible challenges, Anderson added.

According to research from Benenson Strategy Group and Echelon Insights, which Anderson and Currie presented, 81% of women feel that childcare and domestic responsibilities fall primarily to them. Naturally, that dampens their abilities to climb the corporate ladder. But theyre not too worried. Only one in six female respondents in the study said they think women are at a great disadvantage to men and will never rise to leadership roles.

In any case, women across generations agreed that the biggest thing holding them back from career success is gender bias and discrimination.

The next generation of women in leadership need a stronger support system, Currie said. Gen Zers, much more so than millennials, Gen Xers, and boomers feel they dont have community in their companies. The research found that nearly a third of Gen Z women feel unsupported by their peers. These are bad signs; as Currie pointed out, the higher you rise in your career, the more female peers you loseyoull generally find fewer women at the top.

Women cant rely on the current systemic hierarchy to think in that inclusive and equal way, she said, so its up to women to proactively make womens empowerment part of their mission. As women leaders, we need to be conscious of trying to create that space, she added. Its important, when you dont have those peers at the table, that you create the seats for them and thus youll have peers.

Its especially important considering the line between work life and personal life is exceedingly blurry among younger women, said Anderson, the Echelon Partners founder.

In order to be a company that really allows for flexibility and work-life balance, you need to understand that women are not necessarily able to just leave their whole home life at home, she said. Younger women are not segmenting things as much, so you need to give them the flexibility to be who they are.

This is particularly true of working moms, Anderson, who has a ten-month-old baby. Its why she always tries to model good work-life balance at Echelon, even in small ways, like by firmly leaving at 5 p.m. each day. As a small business owner, I was the first person at my company to have a baby while working, so I had to establish a maternity leave policy that Id be the first beneficiary of, she recounted.

She has also proudly shifted her mindset on perfectionism to set an example.

Ive accepted that Im not going to be an A-plus at everything, all the time, she said. Ive had to realize that maybe Im type A-minus, and thats okay. Its okay to not get an A-plus in everything all the time.

AAmericans need $5 million to join the 1%. But it requires a lot more money in several other countries

If you want to join Monacos richest 1%, youll need an eight-figure fortune.

It takes $12.4 million to make the cut in the tiny Mediterranean principality, according to research from Knight Frank, where billionaire residents such as UK industrialist Jim Ratcliffe and Walgreens Boots Alliance chairman Stefano Pessina typically dont face income or capital gains taxes.

Switzerland and Australia have the next highest entry points to the 1%, requiring net worth of $6.6 million and $5.5 million, respectively, according to data released Wednesday as part of the property brokers 2023 Wealth Report. In the US, $5.1 million will get you over the threshold.

The findings underscore how the pandemic and surging living costs are widening the gap between rich and poor nations. The entry point for Monacos richest is more than 200 times greater than the $57,000 needed to join the 1% in the Philippines, which is one of the lowest ranked of 25 locations in Knight Franks study.

Lower-income households worldwide are feeling the burden of inflation, which has forced them to spend a far larger share of their income on food and housing, according to the World Bank. Meanwhile, the worlds 500 richest people have added almost $600 billion to their combined fortunes this year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with Meta Platforms Inc. founder Mark Zuckerberg gaining the most.

Growing inequality globally could see a greater focus on this group particularly in the sights for greater taxation on assets and even emissions, Flora Harley, a partner in Knight Franks research team, said in a statement.

Elon Musk has gotten over his aversion to advertising Tesla's cars and plans to finally dabble 'and see how it goes'

Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said the electric-car maker will dabble in advertisements, a major departure for the 20-year-old company.

Well try a little advertising and see how it goes, Musk said Tuesday at Teslas annual shareholder meeting in response to an investors question.

Tesla has long prided itself on word-of-mouth among its fan base to market its vehicles. It has built a formidable brand without paying for traditional advertising on television, radio or in newspapers or magazines.

Musk said in a subsequent interview with CNBC that paying for ads could be a way to expand beyond its existing user base as the company grows.

Its worth a try and well see how effective it is, he said. I only just agreed to it so its not a fully formed strategy.

Musk has used Twitter, which he now owns, as a marketing tool for Tesla. The social media site depends on advertising as its primary source of revenue, something newly appointed CEO Linda Yaccarino is expected to focus on.

Musk told CNBC that some companies had pulled ads from Twitter after facing criticism from the social media sites own crowdsourced fact-checking feature known as community notes. He didnt name the advertisers, but said it cost Twitter $40 million.

The U.K. economist who told Brits to 'accept' being poorer apologizeskind of

Huw Pill, the Bank of Englands chief economist, took a tactless approach last month to explaining lifes realities amid high inflation, saying that people should simply accept that they are now worse off than they used to be. But after resounding criticism, Pill apologized for his remarks this weekkind of.

Pill was slammed by other economists, trade unions, and even his own boss last month after he called inflation a game of pass the parcel during a podcast interview produced by Columbia Law School. He explained that companies raising their prices or individuals asking for higher wages were passing on the effects of inflation to the wider economy, instead of just coming to terms with the fact that they were poorer than before.

If the cost of what youre buying has gone up compared to what youre selling, youre going to be worse off, he said. So somehow in the U.K., someone needs to accept that theyre worse off and stop trying to maintain their real spending power by bidding up prices.

Pill attempted to make amends during a virtual Q&A session Monday evening, where he conceded his word choice was less than ideal. But while he took responsibility for his inflammatory remarks, he also painted himself as a messenger with the difficult task of relaying a reality that is almost impossible to sugarcoat.

If I had the chance again to use different words I would use somewhat different words to describe the challenges we all face, he said.

Although we have some difficult messages to bring. I will try and bring those messages in a way that is perhaps less inflammatory than maybe I managed in the past.

Annual inflation in the U.K. is currently 10.1%, with food and drink prices especially high at 19%, so its unsurprising that Pills comments last month largely fell on flat ears. Even Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey stepped up last week to reassure Brits that the central bank was very sensitive to the position of people, all people, but particularly people on lower incomes. He also admitted Pills choice of words was not the right one.

I have to be honest and I think he would agree with me, Bailey said.

In his apology on Monday, Pill said he and the central bank were well-aware we live in difficult and challenging times, while acknowledging that the problems of high inflation are particularly acute for some parts of society.

But he also reiterated that part of his job was to break these hard truths to the public. Pill insisted it was important to deliver messages on the realities of inflation in a coherent and robust way, while also suggesting the viral response to his earlier response had not been helpful in managing the central banks communication of inflation.

Pills comments highlighted an ongoing debate in both the U.K. and the U.S. over how central banks are tackling inflation. While Pill and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell have pointed to rising wages as a key reason behind inflation, some detractors are pointing to excess corporate profits as a more primary cause, a phenomenon known as greedflation.

The greedflation argument goes that companies use existing inflation and other factors such as the pandemic and the war in Ukraine as cover for raising their prices and increasing their profit margins. Catherine Mann, a senior Bank of England official, warned in March that U.K. companies could be exploiting the cost of living crisis to raise profits, while a March study by Unite, the countrys largest private sector trade union, found that average profit margins in the U.K. had increased to 10.7% in the first half of 2022 from 5.7% in the first half of 2019.

Other British economists have pushed back against the greedflation narrative, however. Michael Saunders, a senior economic adviser at Oxford Economics and former rate-setter at the central bank, shared a corporate profit analysis of his in a note to clients this week that suggested most corporations were seeing profits dip. Outside of oil and gas companies, share of company profits in GDP has fallen markedly, Saunders wrote, adding that the recent surge in food inflation was likely due to usual lags rather than profiteering.

Kim Kardashian's investment firm hopes to raise $1 billion and leverage her 'cultural relevance' with 432 million social media followers

Kim Kardashians debut private equity fund aims to raise at least $1 billion as buyout firms grapple with one of the toughest fundraising environments in years.

The firm, SKKY Partners, has a unique asset to elevate its profile as it tries to raise that cash the millions of fans and followers who watch Kardashians every move on social media.

In a fundraising pitch seen by Bloomberg, SKKY flags Kardashians social reach as one of the reasons it will win. The 42-year-old reality TV star and entrepreneur has 432 million followers on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok as well as a demonstrated ability to identify and define culture, the pitch says.

SKKY Partners, co-founded by Kardashian and former Carlyle Group Inc. executive Jay Sammons, is targeting 10-12 investments related to consumer and media, requiring anywhere from $100 million to $500 million of equity each, according to an investor presentation seen by Bloomberg. The firm is asking for a minimum $10 million commitment from limited partners, with documents showing an expected return of 8% compounded annually.

SKKY hasnt set a close date for the launch, and it could change the target, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private fundraising plans.

The funds debut comes during a challenging time for raising cash due to rising interest rates, recession predictions and a pullback in private equity investing from pensions and endowments. Even buyout giants such as Apollo Global Management Inc. and Carlyle have acknowledged that fundraising has gone more slowly than expected.

Cultural Relevance

Boston-based SKKY aims to capitalize on Kardashians fame, which helped transform her from a reality TV star to a cultural icon and entrepreneur whose shapewear company, Skims, was valued at $3.2 billion last year. Kardashian is an integral figure in using social media to reach consumers, according to the presentation.

To demonstrate its cultural relevance credentials, SKKY intends to tap into a network of actors, musicians, artists and athletes. The firm also plans to scrape social media to glean consumers attitudes about brands.

SKKY recently added a spate of professionals from across Wall Street, expecting to bring the current team of about a dozen people to beyond 15 by the end of the year.

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So few people are willing to relocate for a new job that it just hit a record low. Hybrid work and high mortgage rates are to blame

Cant move, wont move. Thats increasingly the approach of Americans who are in the market for a new job.

The share of job seekers who relocated to take up a new position fell to 1.6%, the lowest level on record, in the first quarter of 2023, according to a quarterly survey thats been carried out by executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc. for decades.

Behind the shift in attitudes lies a post-pandemic surge in remote and hybrid positions, which has made it possible for more workers to stay where theyre living even as they change jobs. Whats more, higher interest rates have made buying a house somewhere else more expensive especially when it also requires people to sell an existing home thats financed with a mortgage locked in at low costs.

And all of that comes on top of longer-term trends that have seen US workers grow steadily more reluctant to relocate perhaps because diminishing job security has made the costs of moving house seem like less of a safe investment.

In the 1980s and 90s, nearly a third of job seekers would move for new positions, said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president at Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Now, remote and hybrid positions are keeping workers at home.

About one-third of US companies say most of their workers are in the office, according to Challenger up from just 13% last fall. Still, many workers are digging in their heels and refusing to come back.

Fewer than half of workers went to the office in 10 of the largest US business districts in the week ended May 10, according to data from Kastle Systems, a office key-fob firm.

The Challenger data comes from a survey of over 3,000 job seekers across the country.