Podcasts about public investment fund

After news broke that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund would cease backing LIV Golf beyond this season, putting its future in doubt, Jon Rahm was asked in May about the status of his contract with the tour. “I don't see many ways out,” the 31-year-old Spaniard answered pragmatically. Rahm's next steps appear dependent on whether LIV can secure external funding to continue operating beyond this year—if its 2026 schedule can even be completed—but in the meantime, his golden handcuffs haven't been so bad. Rahm's contract, which reportedly guaranteed him at least $300 million when the former world No. 1 left the PGA Tour in December 2023 to sign with LIV, has made him the world's highest-paid golfer for the third consecutive year. Forbes estimates Rahm hauled in $111 million over the last 12 months before taxes and agent fees, sending his total pay for the past three years north of $400 million. His compensation since last June includes an estimated $101 million in prize money and on-course bonuses as well as $10 million in off-course earnings from brand partnerships, appearance fees and licensing income. In addition to his contractual guarantee with LIV, which Forbes estimates to be worth $50 million for the past year, Rahm pulled in an $18 million bonus in 2025 as LIV's individual champion for the second year in a row, and he has won two tournaments so far this season, helping push his total up 9% from the estimated $102 million he pocketed in the 12 months that ended in June 2025. By Hank Tucker, Forbes Staff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do not adjust your sets - this is not your typical episode of The bunkered Podcast! Instead, this is something brand-new from the TBP Universe. Introducing episode one of bunkered Business, a spin-off show focusing on the companies and commerce that power the game at all levels. Presented by Owen Wyatt, the chief growth officer of DC Thomson, and your regular bunkered Podcast host Michael McEwan, this is the podcast for golf entrepreneurs, innovators and decision-makers. To kick us off, a closer look under the bonnet of LIV Golf and where that investment went wrong for Saudi Arabia and its Public Investment Fund. FOR MORE GOLF CONTENT       • Subscribe to the bunkered YouTube account for FREE here for all the latest golf tips and video content -  / bunkered       • 'Like' us on Facebook -  / bunkeredonline  • Follow us on Twitter -  / bunkeredgolf  • Follow us on Instagram - / bunkeredgolfonline        EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BUNKERED    bunkered is your home for golf. With a distinctly Scottish edge, our magazine offers something for everyone with features, interviews, equipment, tuition, travel, competitions and much more besides. Meanwhile, our website, https://www.bunkered.co.uk, is the place to find all of the latest news and views from across the whole cross-spectrum of the game of golf. Stick us in your bookmarks? https://www.bunkered.co.uk/  Filmed at DC Thomson HQ, Dundee

Good overall earnings season – still going strong Economic reports show a mixed picture – but still good enough Semi-annual earnings report option gaining steam Saying goodbye to Spirit Airlines Markets PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter Warm-Up - Good overall earnings season - still going strong - Economic reports show a mixed picture - but still good enough - Semi-annual earnings report option gaining steam - Saying goodbye to Spirit Airlines - EGGS - Breaking News! Markets - Are markets riding tariff refund wave? - Oil shoots up then slips back after Iran tensions rise and fall - New Highs - NAZ100 powering ahead - Huge Capex and OBBBA NEED A NEW CTP - CMG (last time was 2017) Ship Sailing - Seems that under the protection of the USA - a Maersk ship passed through the Strait - But how many can they do a day like this? - Oil down after a huge spike yesterday due to IRAN striking UAE Big Shakeup - US transportation stocks plunged after Amazon announced expanded logistics offerings that will turn it into a major competitor for parcel carriers and air freight companies. - The move is a threat not just to other couriers' grasp on e-commerce, but potentially to more profitable areas such as healthcare, which UPS and FedEx have made a central part of their strategies. - Amazon will offer freight, distribution and fulfillment, and parcel shipping to standalone customers, and its announcement "could be a watershed moment for North American freight transportation companies," according to Morgan Stanley analyst Ravi Shanker. - FedEx Corp. shares fell 9.1% in their worst day in more than a year, while rival United Parcel Service Inc. dropped more than 10%. -- Logistics firms Forward Air Corp. and GXO Logistics Inc. suffered double-digit declines. Old Dominion Freight Line Inc., among other truckers, slid almost 7%. --- FYI - Did you know... last year there was a total of 23.9 BILLION packages shipped in the US. 25% was delivered by Amazon, Fed and UPS delivered a third. Off the Hook - Chump Change - Elon Musk agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that he cheated Twitter shareholders by failing to properly disclose his growing stake in the social media company. - An Elon Musk revocable trust would pay the penalty to end the SEC's lawsuit, which is still subject to court approval, and Musk didn't admit to the regulator's allegations. - The SEC said the deal would be the largest penalty the agency has levied against an entity or individual for allegedly failing to file a beneficial ownership report on time, but Musk's attorney called it a “small fine”. - Musk didn't admit to the regulator's allegations, according to a filing on Monday. This could be something... - Sonos Inc. shares climbed after reporting revenue that jumped 8% and said that it is filing for tariff refunds totaling $40 million. - The company reported second quarter revenue of $282 million, up 8% year over year, and strong growth in international markets. - Sonos is forecasting adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization between $20 million and $48 million for the current quarter - Are markets riding higher also on the tariff refunds? ---- The US government is paying back up to $166 billion in revenue it collected through sweeping global tariffs that were struck down by the Supreme Court in February, with the first payments set to go out on May 11. AND - General Motors raised its 2026 guidance after significantly beating Wall Street's first-quarter earnings expectations following a roughly $500 million benefit from the U.S. Supreme Court decision to terminate and refund certain levies AKA - tariffs. OPEC? - In an unexpected announcement - The United Arab Emirates will exit OPEC on May 1, in a major blow to the cartel that coordinates production among many of the world's largest oil producers, particularly those in the Middle East. - OPEC+ to raise June output quotas by 188,000 bpd - Most members cannot meet targets due to Hormuz closure - Quota increase removes UAE share after it left OPEC+ and OPEC (so just a make-up) - Meanwhile, they cannot meet the iutput as no place to put the oil.... --- This all looks and sounds good but there is no substance. ---- Saudi Arabia produces 10 million barrels a day (Biggest in OPEC). USA produces 13 Million .... Spirit Airlines - Goodbye - shutdown Saturday night at 3PM - The administration had floated a last-ditch bailout that would have given the federal government a controlling stake in the airline, but the proposal stalled amid resistance from key creditors, whose approval would have been required for the deal to go through. - Meanwhile, most ticket holders will get refunds. --- Already Jetblue and others are looking to fill the void by offering more flights from airports that Spirit serviced. -- Takes a low cost alternative off the market and potentially will be a negative for consumers - less competition - WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT BIDEN ADMINISTRATION DID NOT WANT BY BLOCKING JETBLUE MERGER JC - are you listening?? - Duolingo beats Q1 revenue estimates, driven by 21% growth in paid subscribers - CFO Gillian Munson says investments target long-term user retention - Duolingo aims for 100 million daily active users by 2028 - Guided a bit lower and a strategy shift toward prioritizing user experience and long-term retention over near-term monetization, as it invests in product quality and engagement to build a larger base of paying subscribers. (DUMB?) - Share down 8% CHIPS - Samsung Electronics reported an over eightfold increase in first-quarter operating profits on Thursday, hitting a new record and beating analysts' estimates on the explosive growth of its chip business. -  Revenue: 133.9 trillion Korean won ($89.96 billion) vs. 132.69 trillion won expected - Operating profit: 57.2 trillion won vs. 55.28 trillion won expected - The South Korean technology giant's quarterly profit climbed more than 750% from a year earlier to a fresh record. - The company also posted record revenue, up about 70% year over year. AMD Reports Conf Call: AMD paired strong current-quarter execution with a more ambitious long-term AI and server CPU outlook. The biggest positives were the stronger EPYC trajectory, rising confidence in MI450/Helios demand, and the upgraded server CPU TAM view. - The company now sees the server CPU TAM growing more than 35% annually to over $120 billion by 2030, up from its prior long-term view. - The main caution points were second-half PC and Gaming demand pressure from higher memory and component costs. - Margins 55% - Stock up 15% AH Apple Chips Deal? - Apple Inc. has held exploratory discussions with Intel Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. about producing main processors for its devices in the US, as a secondary option beyond Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. - The discussions with Intel and Samsung are preliminary and have not resulted in any orders, with Apple having concerns about using non-TSMC technology. - Apple is considering additional suppliers due to supply-chain disruptions, including recent shortages driven by the build-out of AI data centers and higher demand for Macs, with CEO Tim Cook saying the company has less flexibility in the supply chain than normal. - Discussions - yet Intel up 14% on the  news (after a 100% run in April) Flashback - 2 weeks - Remember when OpenAi came out with some news that they missed revenue and user growth goals? - Took down tech for a day a couple of weeks ago.... Tech earnings - Overall tech earnings were solid. - Bbig takeaway is that the group (MAG7) are still spending a buttload on expansion into AI etc. Capex $$$$ - Meta was hit on theor outlook (which is why they came back and announced further layoffs) AI Layoffs - Recall - "AI will not take jobs" - More announced this week - Coinbase today - How long until the robots take over? - Recent Announcements AI Job Cuts EGGS - Consumption of eggs is associated with a lower risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease for those 65 years and older, according to researchers at Loma Linda University Health - Eating one egg per day for at least five days a week reduces risk of Alzheimer's by up to 27%, researchers found. --- More: Eggs are known to be a source of key nutrients that support brain health. Sabaté said. Eggs provide choline, a precursor to acetylcholine and phosphatidylcholine, both of which are critical for memory and synaptic function, the study stated. Eggs also contain lutein and zeaxanthin—carotenoids that accumulate in brain tissue and are associated with improved cognitive performance and reduced oxidative stress. Eggs also contain key omega-3 fatty acids, and yolks are particularly rich in phospholipids, which constitute nearly 30% of total egg lipids and are essential for neurotransmitter receptor function. LIV Losing Saudi Arabia - LIV Golf will lose its financial backing from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund after the 2026 season, the fund announced Thursday. - "PIF has made the decision to fund LIV Golf only for the remainder of the 2026 season," a representative for the PIF, Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told ABC News on Thursday. - "The substantial investment required by LIV Golf over a longer term is no longer consistent with the current phase of PIF's investment strategy," the statement continued. "This decision has been made in light of PIF's investment priorities and current macro dynamics. - Looking for Private Equity to step in Cars - The Beijing Auto Show that opened to the public this week is a showcase for how hypercompetition in China has driven new car prices in the world's largest car market to ?a fraction of the level of the next-largest market, the U.S. - In China, there are more than 200 battery-powered models, including hybrids, for sale at less than the equivalent of $25,000, according to DCar, an information and trading platform. - Plenty at the $10k - $12k level Death Squads - Friday, The White house announced plans to add firing squads, electrocution and gas asphyxiation as alternative methods of executing people convicted of the gravest federal crimes - Only THREE federal executions in the last 50 years Weekly Picks Ideas Worst Stocks this Year Worst Stocks   Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? THE WINNER OF THE CLOSEST TO THE PIN for NETGEAR   Winners will be getting great stuff like the new "OFFICIAL" DHUnplugged Shirt!     FED AND CRYPTO LIMERICKS   See this week's stock picks HERE Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter

On this week's episode, Nathan, Chris, and Luke have a merry old time discussing cheery news from a normal week. For example: A video game CEO casually said the quiet part out loud by opining during a routine interview that “We've been a little bit too romantic about the idea that we should have employees and give people long-term job security,” suggesting that it's time to instead rely heavily on a merry-go-round of beleaguered contractors. And this CEO is also the head of the head of the UK trade body for the games industry. Great! We also discuss Saudi Arabia's divestment from LIV Golf, the first of many dominoes apparently to fall as its soft-power-hungry Public Investment Fund runs low on money. Is the games industry next? According to early reports, it sounds like at least some part of it is! Lastly, we talk about something that's actually cool—the new Steam controller, which Chris is loving—before envisioning the darkest possible special interest: Mario Party historian.Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, and Luke Plunkett- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that's too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris' frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don't know what else to tell you; it's a great time. Simply by reading this description, you're already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

LIV Golf, the competitor to the PGA Tour bankrolled by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, is losing its funding from the Gulf state, according to The Wall Street Journal. This follows weeks of speculation surrounding the upstart's potential shutdown. LIV intends to tell staff and players, some of whom were among the PGA Tour's most popular when they were poached, on Thursday that the league will lose funding after the conclusion of this season. LIV is in discussions with outside investors to keep the league operating, the Journal reported, though it noted maintaining its current form would be QUOTE “nearly impossible,” as the league has incurred mounting losses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the news that the Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is pulling out of funding LIV golf, many are questioning if this spells the endSports writer Kieran Cunningham joins Matt to discussHit Play on this page to listen now

LIV Golf's future could finally come to a head overnight. The Wall Street Journal report that LIV will tell players in the coming hours that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund will stop backing the circuit after this season. Reports first emerged a fortnight ago, but LIV pushed back on those claims at the time. Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Reports from the Wall St Journal suggest the Saudi Arabian investment in LIV is over, so what now? We speak to the man who broke the story to understand what it means for the rebel golf league, players like Cameron Smith and events like LIV Adelaide.Featured: Andrew Beaton, Wall St Journal.To catch up on everything that's making sports headlines recently, listen to more episodes of ABC Sport Daily,' hosted by Patrick Stack on ABC listen or wherever you get your podcasts, and get in touch with them on social media via @abc_sport. In the episodes we will cover big sporting personalities and all sports, including cricket, soccer, F1, NBA, AFL, AFLW to NRLW & NRL news, to covering competitions like the Olympics, the World Cup, The Ashes, Grand Prix and Grand Finals and more.

LIV Golf's financial backer is pulling its funding after the current season. Plays and staff will reportedly find out the decision today to axe the funding by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. It's reportedly cost PIF over US$5 billion to operate the series so far. NZ Open Tournament Director Michael Glading told Ryan Bridge that the model was flawed from the get-go – you can't just create teams out of nowhere. He says if something sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Is LIV Golf really on the brink of collapse—or did one report send the entire golf world into a panic over something far more complicated? In this week's episode of The Golf Podcast we dig into the wild rumors surrounding LIV Golf and separate the speculation from what's actually happening. After reports and social media chatter suggested Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund could pull the plug on LIV immediately, we break down where those claims came from, why the expected “big announcement” never arrived, and what LIV CEO Scott O'Neil's response really did and didn't say. We also look at the league's current financial picture, including reports of rising sponsorships, ticket sales, and YouTube revenue, and ask whether LIV could realistically survive if PIF funding is reduced or eventually disappears. From Bryson DeChambeau's reported contract situation to rumors of behind-the-scenes talks with the PGA Tour, we explore what this could mean for the biggest stars, the future of merger discussions, and whether the PGA Tour now holds all the leverage. Most importantly, we discuss who would actually be hurt the most if LIV were forced to scale back or shut down, and why it may not be the names most fans expect. If you've been trying to figure out what's rumor, what's real, and what could happen next, this episode breaks it all down.   Listen to This Week’s Show Download on iTunes here Listen on Spotify here Thanks to this Week’s Sponsors Titleist is committed to ensuring that every golf ball delivers superior quality and consistency.  From ball to ball, dozen to dozen we should expect our golf ball to perform exactly the same way, shot after shot. That's why Titleist owns the design, the technology and the manufacturing to make sure consistency spot on every time. They even conduct all the testing and quality checks to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.  Titleist is the #1 ball for every player and the #1 ball in golf.  Choose the best for your game and find out more at Titleist.com. Trust your golf game to FootJoy, the number one Shoe in Golf. Shop now at FootJoy.com. Thanks for tuning to The Golf Podcast! Cover Image via X

In dieser Folge von „Grün & saftig“ diskutieren Hinnerk Baumgarten, Julius Allzeit, Sven Hanft und Bene Staben über die große Frage, die gerade über LIV Golf schwebt: Wie belastbar ist das Projekt noch wirklich? Ausgangspunkt sind Berichte über die Rolle des saudischen Public Investment Fund und Aussagen von CEO Scott O'Neil, der die Finanzierung für die Saison 2026 bekräftigt hat – ohne die Zeit danach wirklich aufzulösen. Im Podcast geht es um mögliche Folgen für Spieler wie Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau, Cameron Smith oder Paul Casey und um die Frage, wie ein sportlicher Rückweg auf PGA Tour oder DP World Tour überhaupt aussehen könnte. Außerdem richtet die Runde den Blick auf das Amundi German Masters powered by VcG, das vom 14. bis 17. Mai 2026 auf dem Nord Course der Green Eagle Golf Courses ausgetragen wird. Besprochen werden die deutsche Präsenz im Feld, darunter Esther Henseleit, die Atmosphäre rund um das erste Tee und die besondere Aktion für Hörerinnen und Hörer: Gesucht wird ein Tee Announcer für das Turnier. Dazu kommen Eindrücke von der Ladies European Tour, ein Blick auf Selina Sattelkau und der übliche Schlenker zu Tops, Flops und den kleinen Absurditäten des Golfalltags. Die im Gespräch genannte LET-Siegerin heißt korrekt Agathe Laisné, Olivia Cowan war beste Deutsche. Highlights: LIV Golf unter Druck: Reicht die gesicherte Finanzierung nur bis Ende 2026? Diskussion über mögliche Rückwege von LIV-Spielern auf PGA Tour und DP World Tour LET-Update mit Agathe Laisné als Siegerin und Olivia Cowan als bester Deutscher Eure Chance beim Amundi German Masters: Gesucht wird ein Tee Announcer Hinter den Kulissen von Green Eagle: Platzvorbereitung, T-Boxen, Turnier-Set-up Tops & Flops der Woche von Miguel Ángel Jiménez bis AK-50-Ligastart Chapters: 00:00 Begrüßung und Themenüberblick 02:35 LIV Golf: Steht das Projekt vor einer Zäsur? 16:40 Brooks, Bryson und die Folgen für Rückkehrer 20:30 LET-Update mit Selina Sattelkau und Agathe Laisné 22:30 Amundi German Masters: Tee-Announcer gesucht 29:00 Vatertagsaktion und Atmosphäre am ersten Tee 34:20 Green Eagle aus Sicht der Platzvorbereitung 37:10 Tops, Flops und Hole-in-One-Geschichten

Sports funding has been in the spotlight this week with reports that Saudia Arabia's Public Investment Fund is slowing down their spending in the sector. Over the last five years the kingdom has outlayed more than 10 billion dollars to prop up traditional sports and launch new events. LIV Golf is facing funding concerns for next season and two New Zealand players could find their careers in limbo. Sports reporter Felicity Reid spoke to Lisa Owen.

Mr. PJ finds himself in the "Big Chair" once again with Andy, Brendan, and KVV in Scotland this week! He's joined by Fried Egg Golf's Garrett Morrison, also known as his Golf Architecture 101 professor, for a deep dive into the last 48 hours of LIV Golf's existence. Starting late Tuesday night, rumors began swirling that LIV would be shutting down after the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia decided to pull its funding from the tour. PJ and Garrett run through a detailed timeline of the last two days, parsing through various reports to drill down to the facts as we currently know them. They then discuss some of the various questions that come with the PIF potentially shutting off the unlimited money faucet, such as will LIV Golf exist moving forward and how will they keep up with high-dollar purses and guaranteed contracts? These reports are a winding journey, featuring some of golf's preeminent journalists, a former ESPN NFL anchor, and even Rich Lerner dipping his toe into the prediction market sector. To end this Friday episode on a lighter note, PJ shares an unsubstantiated rumor with Garrett about the golf course "renovations" underway at the site of this fall's Good Good Championship. Find details and store location information at perfectpractice.com/costco or shop at perfectpractice.com and use promo code SGS for 20% off! Use our code FRIEDEGG at eightsleep.com/friedegg for up to $350 off the Pod 5.

Start your morning with Buzzcast with Austin Karp, Rachel Axon, Chris Smith, and Joe Lemire:  The future of LIV Golf amid reports of the Public Investment Fund cutting financial support and what's next for Live Nation after a jury finds that it acted as an illegal monopoly. Also, the group discusses their biggest takeaways from Day 1 of CAA World Congress of Sports as well as a look ahead to Day 2.  Sign up for SBJ 360, our free, daily newsletter. SBJ 360 delivers a concise, high-level overview of the most important stories shaping the sports industry. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mike Johnson, Ali Mac, and Beau Morgan react to the rumors and reports that LIV Golf could be going away amid the reports that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund might be on the verge of pulling its funding for the league, explain why they think LIV Golf is simply going away because it's not making money, and explain why they think LIV Golf going away is ultimately best for the game of golf.

HR1 - Falcons would be lucky to get Christen Miller, Lee Hunter or Caleb Banks at 48 In hour one Mike Johnson, Ali Mac, and Beau Morgan quickly touch on some of the biggest headlines around the local and national sports scene, recap and react to the Atlanta Braves beating the Miami Marlins 6-3 last night, talk about how the Braves' win last night keeps them as the only team in Major League Baseball that have yet to lose a series this season, let you hear Braves third baseman Austin Riley talk about how hitting his first home run of the season last night did feel like a weight being lifted off of his shoulders, react to what Riley had to say, talk about how Austin's hard hit balls are finally starting to turn into home runs, talk about Georgia's bi-polar weather, react to who NFL Draft Analyst for The Athletic Dane Brugler has the Atlanta Falcons drafting in his full seven round mock draft that he put out yesterday, explain why they think Washington offensive lineman Carver Willis is tailor made to be a center in the Falcons offense with his elite run blocking ability, react to the rumors and reports that LIV Golf could be going away amid the reports that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund might be on the verge of pulling its funding for the league, explain why they think LIV Golf is simply going away because it's not making money, explain why they think LIV Golf going away is ultimately best for the sport of golf, and then close out hour one by diving into the life of Beau “Squidbilly” Morgan in The Life of Squid!

Arsenal are into the Champions League semi finals after a goalless draw with Sporting meant they won the tie 1-0 on aggregate - they'll face Atletico Madrid in the last four.Mikel Arteta is not concerned about the state of the Arsenal squad, despite injury and fatigue concerns.Bayern Munich win a dramatic quarter final second leg against Real Madrid, setting up a semi final tie with PSG.Harry Maguire's suspension for Manchester United has been extended to include this Saturday's Premier League match against Chelsea.Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund is reportedly planning to cut funding to the LIV Golf Tour.KSI rejects an offer for Ally McCoist to commentate on the Sidemen Charity Match.England cricket captain Ben Stokes admits he's lucky to be alive after a training ground incident in pre-season with Durham.Hit follow on this podcast for a daily roundup of the biggest sports stories you need to know about every morning and read more at talkSPORT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ralph spends the whole hour with progressive activist, Corbin Trent, former communications director for Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to discuss the lack of vision and the spineless leadership in the corporate Democratic Party.Corbin Trent is a co-founder of Brand New Congress and former co-director of Justice Democrats, two grassroots organizations working to elect progressive Democrats to Congress. He was the National Campaign Coordinator for the Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign, and recently served as the Communications Director for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He writes about rebuilding America at AmericasUndoing.com.This is a [Democratic] Party that is led by sinecurists and apparatchiks who never look at themselves in the mirror after they lose to the most vicious, cruel, ignorant, anti-worker, anti-women, anti-environment, anti-small taxpayer, pro-war Republican Party. They never look into it. It's always: they blame the Greens or they blame some third party or Independent candidate. And they never ask themselves why as a national party did they abandon half the country, which are now called red states?Ralph NaderThe Democratic Party I think, ultimately, is leaderless because it's visionless. It doesn't really see. I don't think the Democratic Party as an entity or as an ideology has a real vision for how to go forward differently. And, therefore, it's hard to be led. It's hard to lead if you don't have a direction.Corbin TrentThe Democratic Party—like your Chuck Schumers, like your Hakeem Jeffries, and like most of the people that are elected there and in leadership positions at all, look at this system, the system of neoliberalism, and they think that somehow it's going to magically start working again. And the fact is that it's not. They have been unable so far to internalize the depth of the brokenness of this system. And then really unable to, I think, really internalize why Trump was powerful, why his messages were powerful. They want to look at it through this extremely narrow and negative lens of racism, bigotry and fear. As opposed to a complete and utter disdain for the system which is sucking from their lives and extracting from their communities. And I think that spells trouble.Corbin TrentIt's not my job as a voter to inspire myself to vote for you. It's your job as a candidate or as a party or as somebody to build a vision that inspires me to vote.Corbin TrentNews 3/13/26* This week, the New York City Council held a hearing on proposed legislation to carry out Mayor Zohran Mamdani's pledge to repossess property from “landlords who have racked up housing code violations and debt from unpaid taxes and fines.” This bill would empower the city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development to turn these buildings over to owners they deem “more responsible.” This would be an update of a program the city has tried to implement before, called “third-party transfer.” However, the council is hesitant to take this step, worrying that it could disproportionately affect small landlords that simply lack the resources to fix code violations or pay fees, as opposed to venture capital backed corporate landlords. Rosa Kelly, chief of staff to the housing commissioner, said the department “views the program as a key part of [their] broader enforcement and preservation toolkit to ensure that housing remains safe and livable for New Yorkers.” This from Gothamist.* In more local news, this week Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser released a long-awaited report on congestion traffic pricing in the District of Columbia. According to the Washington Examiner, the study was conducted in 2021 and the Mayor has delayed the release until now. Along with the release of the study, Mayor Bowser sent a letter to D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, wherein the Mayor described the “congestion pricing tax scheme,” which includes a proposed $10 charge for people entering the city, as a “bad idea,” and argued that D.C. could not be compared to Midtown Manhattan, which recently implemented a successful congestion pricing system. Democratic Socialist Councilwoman and leading Mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis-George refused to dismiss the study out of hand, writing “Now that the report is public, the Council has an opportunity to dig into the findings & explore what they could mean for the District—including opportunities to reduce congestion, improve air quality & public health, & strengthen public transit for residents across the city.”* Meanwhile, on the West Coast, a new poll shows incumbent Mayor Karen Bass drawing under 20% of the vote in the upcoming primary for her reelection campaign. While this still puts Bass in the lead, it is clearly a weak showing and would be far below the 50% threshold she would need to win to avoid a November runoff. This poll also finds former reality television star Spencer Pratt in second place with around 10% support, and councilmember Nithya Raman – who has been both endorsed and censured by DSA LA in the past – in third with just over 9%, per KTLA. The LA Mayoral race mirrors the California gubernatorial race, which features ten candidates, none of whom draws over 20% in the polls. At some point, the party will have to step in to pressure underperforming candidates to drop out and endorse more viable alternatives, but June is quickly approaching with little sign of party unity.* Speaking of the Democrats, POLITICO is out with a new story on how red state Democratic parties are undermining their best chances of toppling incumbent Republican Senators – independent populist left candidates. In Montana, former University of Montana President Seth Bodnar has launched an independent bid for Senate, with the backing of former longtime Montana Democratic Senator Jon Tester. Bodnar filed on the final day candidates could get on the ballot in the state, and on that same day, three-term incumbent Republican Senator Steve Daines announced he would not run for reelection. POLITICO describes this as “an explicit effort to keep Democrats from fielding a strong candidate of their own.” The state party however shows no interest in stepping aside to clear a path for Bodnar. A similar dynamic is unfolding in South Dakota, with the state party feuding with independent candidate Brian Bengs – who has “raised more than five times his Democratic opponent and more than any non-Republican candidate in the state in 16 years” – while in Idaho, former Democratic state lawmaker Todd Achilles is running as an independent and the state party has played their strategy close to the vest. Only in Nebraska has the state party fully thrown their weight behind the popular independent candidate Dan Osborn, who came within approximately 60,000 votes of longtime incumbent Deb Fischer in 2024 and is polling within a single point of Senator Pete Ricketts this cycle.* In Congress, Republicans have independent problems of their own. Last week, Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley announced he would register as “no party preference,” instead of as a Republican, as he seeks reelection to Congress in his newly redrawn California congressional district. Axios quotes a Kiley spokesperson who said it is “not official yet” whether he will leave the party or the conference, adding: “For now, he's just filing as an independent for his reelection campaign.” If Kiley did leave the Republican conference, it would further imperil the Republicans' razor-thin House majority, which has been continuously whittled down over the course of the 119th Congress.* Turning to foreign affairs, Reuters reports that on Sunday, Colombia held congressional elections which saw the leftist Historic Pact win the most seats in the Senate, but with only 25 out of 102 seats, the Pact will have to compete against the right-wing Democratic Center in order to form a coalition government. Democratic Center, led by ⁠former President Alvaro Uribe, won 17 seats. Ivan Cepeda, the presidential candidate of Historic Pact, called the election results a “categorical ​victory.” In the House, Democratic Center won 32 out of 182 seats, followed by the ‌Liberal ⁠Party with 31, and the Historic Pact with 29. Colombia will choose a new president in May, but according to Ariel Avila, a re-elected senator from the Green Alliance, whether that president is left or right they will likely face a “vetocracy” where “lawmakers block parties ​simply because they come from the opposing side.”* In more news from Latin America, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) reports the right-wing government of Daniel Noboa in Ecuador has suspended the largest opposition party – the leftist Citizens' Revolution or RC – for nine months. If carried out, RC, led by former leftist president Rafael Correa, will effectively be barred from registering candidates for the 2027 local elections. CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot is quoted saying “The government of President Daniel Noboa, who is strongly backed by President Trump, is trying to accelerate the destruction of what is left of democracy in Ecuador.” CEPR Director of International Policy Alex Main added “Democracy has been under attack since the presidency of Lenín Moreno (2017–2021), with not only the exclusion of political parties, but with persecution by lawfare, the imprisonment or forced exile of political opponents, and Noboa's repeated assumption of ‘emergency' powers and other abuses that have gutted civil liberties.” Recently, President Noboa has been closely collaborating with Trump and the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) to carry out joint “lethal kinetic operations” in Ecuador.* Turning to the Middle East, NBC reports Iran is launching its ‘most intense' strikes of the war, firing some of its most advanced ballistic missiles toward Tel Aviv and Haifa and attacking multiple ships attempting passage through the blockaded Straits of Hormuz. Additionally, reports are trickling out through the Israeli press, which operates under military censorship, about high-profile targets being hit inside the country. The Jewish Chronicle confirms Binyah Hevron, son of Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich was wounded by a Hezbollah rocket, with shrapnel penetrating his back and abdomen, while Yahoo News has debunked rumors that an Iranian missile strike killed Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Officially, over 1,200 have been killed by Israeli and American strikes in Iran, according to the Iranian Red Crescent Society, while 570 have been killed in Lebanon. Retlatiatory strikes by Iran have killed 13 in Israel.* Meanwhile, a new wrinkle has emerged in the Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery deal. Last week, Variety reported that Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal have been raising the alarm about financing for this deal coming from Gulf states, including the Qatar Investment Authority, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. This duo have called for the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States – an interagency body that reviews foreign investments in American businesses for potential national security risks – to review the deal. Warren told the industry trade publication, “Given the cloud of corruption surrounding the Trump administration's review of this deal from Day One, it's no surprise that Trump's Treasury Department is sticking its head in the sand instead of investigating the national security risks of $24 billion from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds apparently flooding this deal. It's American consumers who will pay the price. Thanks to Donald Trump, a Paramount-Warner Bros. merger could mean higher prices and fewer choices, and might allow foreign actors to control what's on our screens or access our private viewing information.” Ironically, the Trump administration's warlike actions in Iran may have inadvertently solved this problem. Gizmodo reports that the Gulf states are now “reviewing current and future investment commitments in order to alleviate some of the anticipated economic strain from the current war.” It is unclear what would happen if the Gulf states rescinded their financing of this deal, seeing as Paramount is the buyer preferred by the Trump administration and has already paid the $2.8 billion “break-up” fee to Netflix stipulated by their previous agreement with WBD.* Finally, a new Pew poll reveals a troubling reality of contemporary American life. According to the poll, which asked people around the world to rate the morality and ethics of others in their country, 53% of U.S. adults say their fellow Americans have bad morals and ethics. While that may not sound so stark, Pew notes that the United States is the only country they surveyed where more adults described the morality and ethics of others living in the country as bad rather than good, with only 47% saying the latter. Turkey came up second, with 51% saying good and 49% saying bad. Pew is careful to state that they have never conducted a poll on this question before, meaning they cannot say whether this is a reflection of long-held beliefs among Americans or a new phenomenon, but it could be the result of long-term trends related to political polarization and the decline in interpersonal trust over the past several decades. Whatever the reasons behind this fact, it presents a formidable problem for political leaders. How can one unify a country wherein the people do not trust one another or even believe that their neighbors are morally and ethically upstanding individuals? Surely there must be a way forward, but what that is I cannot say.This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven't Heard. Get full access to Ralph Nader Radio Hour at www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/subscribe

LIV Golf is spending billions and losing millions every month — so is this a failing experiment or the beginning of a completely different future for professional golf? In this week's episode of The Golf Podcast we'll break down the latest developments surrounding LIV Golf's finances, including a new $267 million funding injection from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and reports that the league is losing nearly $100 million per month. We take a closer look at what these numbers really mean, separating headlines from reality as LIV's total investment approaches $6 billion. Is the league simply burning cash, or is there a long-term strategy unfolding behind the scenes? We explore how LIV is shifting its focus toward team competition, increasing payouts across all 13 teams, and potentially positioning itself more like Formula 1 with franchise-style ownership and long-term valuation in mind. We also discuss growing sponsorship revenue, the significance of new partners like Rolex, and whether these moves signal progress toward financial sustainability. Plus, we examine the looming impact of Bryson DeChambeau's potential contract extension and why his future could reveal LIV's true long-term plans. Is LIV Golf building the foundation for a global sports league, or just buying time while operating at a loss? Join us as we analyze the business strategy, economics, and future direction of one of golf's most debated leagues and ask the big question: is LIV Golf about to change course?   Listen to This Week’s Show Download on iTunes here Listen on Spotify here Thanks to this Week’s Sponsors Titleist is committed to ensuring that every golf ball delivers superior quality and consistency.  From ball to ball, dozen to dozen we should expect our golf ball to perform exactly the same way, shot after shot. That's why Titleist owns the design, the technology and the manufacturing to make sure consistency spot on every time. They even conduct all the testing and quality checks to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.  Titleist is the #1 ball for every player and the #1 ball in golf.  Choose the best for your game and find out more at Titleist.com. Trust your golf game to FootJoy, the number one Shoe in Golf. Shop now at FootJoy.com. Thanks for tuning to The Golf Podcast! Cover Image via X

Cristiano Ronaldo Biography Flash a weekly Biography.Hey folks, Tyler Tye Morgan here, your AI-powered host for Cristiano Ronaldo Biography Flash—yeah, Im an AI, and thats a good thing cause I crunch every headline faster than CR7 sprints past defenders, no sleep required, ha. Lets dive into the past few days chaos thats got the soccer world buzzing.Cristiano Ronaldo, the 41-year-old goal machine, just ended his three-game boycott at Al-Nassr after clashing with the Public Investment Fund over January transfers—frustrated they let Karim Benzema bolt to rivals Al-Hilal while his squad starved for signings, Fox Sports reports. He skipped league wins and Wednesdays AFC Champions League Two victory over Arkadag, where Abdullah Al-Hamdan netted the lone goal, per ESPN. But hes back, locked in training, and Fabrizio Romano confirms hell likely suit up today against Al-Fateh—could vault Al-Nassr to second, one point off leaders Al-Hilal.Social media lit up: Ronaldo posted photos in a sleek Gucci tee, flashing a peace-or-victory emoji, captioned Locked in on Instagram and X, Marca and AS detail, with fans crowning him GOAT and king aging backwards. Al-Nassrs feeds hyped his return Friday. Toni Kroos backed him hard, slamming the Saudi league as a Ronaldo creation theyre now disrespecting, Goal quotes. The league fired back, insisting no one dictates beyond their club.No public appearances or business moves popped, but this power play—Portuguese outlet A Bola calls it CR7 winning the battle after salary fixes—hints at his iron will, maybe eyeing a summer exit with that 50-million-euro release clause, Sky Sports News speculates. Hes at 961 career goals, chasing 1000. Teammate Nawaf Al-Aqidi might dip for playtime, a potential blow, World Soccer Talk notes—unconfirmed for now.In the last 24 hours, major headlines scream Ronaldo returns, protest over, from Fox Sports and Goal.Thanks for tuning in, listeners—subscribe to never miss an update on Cristiano Ronaldo and search Biography Flash for more great biographies. Catch you next time.And that is it for today. Make sure you hit the subscribe button and never miss an update on Cristiano Ronaldo. Thanks for listening. This has been a Quiet Please production."Get the best deals https://amzn.to/42YoQGIThis content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI

Cristiano Ronaldo Biography Flash a weekly Biography.Hey folks, Tyler Tye Morgan here, your ex-athlete turned sports storyteller, powered by AI for that lightning-fast scoop on the legendsand yeah, being AI means I pull verified facts from everywhere without missing a beat, keeping it real and raw like a locker room chat. Cristiano Ronaldo, the GOAT at 41, just turned that age on Thursday, and the Saudis drama is explodingmans on strike or what?Sky Sports reports Ronaldo missed his second straight Al Nassr game Friday night against Al Ittihad, a huge clash they won 2-0 without him thanks to Sadio Mane and Angelo Gabriel, climbing to second, just one point behind leaders Al Hilal. Hes back training this week, but coach Jorge Jesus left him out amid his one-man protest over Al Nassrs quiet January transfershe feels the Public Investment Fund favors rivals like Al Hilal, who snagged Karim Benzema, who dropped a hat-trick debut Thursday. SPL fired back in a statement, saying no player calls shots beyond their club, and the leagues balanced and competitive. Sky News echoes this, noting officials urged him to play, worried hes hurting the SPLs image despite his 500k-a-day payday and 18 months left, with a 43 million release clause kicking in summer.But hold upRonaldo hit social media midweek, posting a training pic with Al Nassr heart emojis, per OneFootball and Goal.com, signaling hes not quitting, maybe ending the boycott? No public appearances or business moves confirmed, though Portuguese outlet Record via Sportbible speculates Saudi bosses eye a new king like Mohamed Salah if he bolts, with Sporting CP odds-on favorites. Unconfirmed buzz on Real Madrid skipping his birthday post has fans salty, per Tribuna, but thats fan chatter, not fact.This strike could reshape his Saudi legacyhes 17 goals from 1000 career tallies, chasing that first SPL trophy. Wild times for CR7.Thanks for tuning into Cristiano Ronaldo Biography Flash, listenerssubscribe now to never miss an update on Cristiano Ronaldo, and search Biography Flash for more great biographies. Catch you next time!And that is it for today. Make sure you hit the subscribe button and never miss an update on Cristiano Ronaldo. Thanks for listening. This has been a Quiet Please production."Get the best deals https://amzn.to/42YoQGIThis content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI

The world's top tennis have been barred from wearing Whoop wearables at the Australian Open, reigniting a debate over who owns personal performance data.James Emmett is on the ground in Melbourne for this week's show, with David Cushnan back in the UK, to examine the various cases for ‘owning' that data.They also reflect on recent events in Saudi Arabia, as well as the Public Investment Fund's global sponsorship strategy, laid out in David's conversation with PIF's Director and Head of Sponsorship and Events, Alanoud Althonayan.And as British Cycling's Jon Dutton is appointed as the next CEO of the British Olympic Association, what will the next period of leadership look like for British Olympic sport and its many governing bodies.- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We'll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek

Alanoud Althonayan, Director and Head of Events and Sponsorship at Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, joins the podcast to explain PIF's sponsorship strategy and dig into its current key partnerships. In the first episode of a new series exploring PIF's growing sponsorship portfolio, Alnothayan sits down with David Cushnan in Riyadh for an extended conversation, outlining what PIF looks for in partners, and the ways it is striving to help solve societal and sporting challenges across its portfolio. She explains the rationale behind the new PIF WTA Maternity Fund programme, which provides WTA players up to 12 month of paid leave; how the AI powered PIF TennisIQ platform is revolutionising and democratising data for players and coaches on the ATP Tour; how the Electric 360 initiative co-developed with Formula E, Extreme E and E1 is supporting the growth of electric transportation; how the appeal of golf is being unlocked for locals through work with Golf Saudi; and how partnerships in football, notably with CONCACAF, are giving PIF a platform in the world's most popular sport. Leaders Week London is moving to Stamford Bridge, home of Chelsea FC. We'll see you on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October. For more details visit leadersinsport.com/leadersweek

This week, Niki, John, and Lotus confront the biggest gaming stories of the week, including:Ubisoft's major reorg, including game cancelations and new structuresTencent getting into podcasts, which we're sure will go greatMarathon gets a release date and a surprising collector's editionCapcom experiments with generative AI to stop being creativeFable takes a baffling stance on morality in the year 2026Highguard is out so very soonWe played:Animal Crossing: New HorizonsSéance at Blake ManorPocoTR-49Also, we answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS from our lovely Discord.

Dr. Ashby Monk is the Executive and Research Director of the Stanford Research Initiative on Long-Term Investing. Over the last two decades, Ashby has worked closely with some of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds and pension funds on governance, organizational design, technology, and investment strategy. He is also a co-founder of KDX Management, a venture capital firm focused on investech, a co-founder of several startups in the space, and a repeat past guest on the show. His first and most recent appearances are replayed in the feed.   Our conversation explores the increasingly popular Total Portfolio Approach, Ashby's perspective on the role of AI and data in the investment office of the future, including his work with Hoopit AI, a very cool relationship intelligence platform, and examples of innovation at Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and the New Mexico State Investment Council. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership   Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠)

In this episode, Frosty and Wavey chat about the 3 way split EA buyout between Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's firm Affinity Partners. We chat about some of the stats and what this could mean for EA and the gaming industry.Check out more of our content on all social media platforms at “Phucaname”, along with our website, phucaname.com Website Facebook Instagram Twitter Tiktok

Esteve Calzada, CEO of Saudi Pro League giant Al Hilal, assesses the evolution of football in the Kingdom, as he welcomes Leaders' Content Director David Cushnan to the club's corporate office in Riyadh. Al-Hilal SC is Saudi Arabia's most successful football team, and has clubs in over 20 sports. In a wide-ranging conversation, the former City Football Club executive offers his advice to sports industry leaders thinking of making a move to Saudi Arabia; what life is like working and living in fast-developing Riyadh; and the challenge of managing a team of 300 made up of a mix of international and local executive talent. He also explains how football fandom plays out in Saudi Arabia; why he can't go out to dinner with his counterpart at rival club Al-Nassr; the professionalisation process underway in the Saudi Pro League that saw the Public Investment Fund take majority ownership of Al-Hilal; and the private sector opportunities for sponsorship and commercial growth in the Kingdom.

The video game industry has had a turbulent few years. The pandemic made people play more and caused a small boom, which then subsided, resulting in wave after wave of massive layoffs. Microsoft, one of the major console manufacturers, is shifting its strategy for Xbox as the company shifts its focus to AI. And now, Electronic Arts, once a load-bearing publisher for the industry with brands like The Sims and Madden, is going private via a leveraged buyout in a deal involving Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner. Video games are more popular than ever, but many of the biggest companies in the business seem like they are struggling to adapt and convert that popularity into stability and sustainability. To try and understand what the hell is going on, this week we have a conversation between Emanuel and Jason Schreier, who reports about video games for Bloomberg and one of the best journalists on this beat. Jason helps us unpack why Microsoft is now aiming for higher-than-average profit margins at Xbox and why the company is seemingly bowing out of the console business despite a massive acquisition spree. We also talk about what the EA deal tells us about other game publishers, and what all these problems tell us about changing player habits and the future of big budget video games. YouTube Version: https://youtu.be/6ydF7hD6cFI Subscribe at 404media.co for bonus content. Microsoft Pushes Xbox Division to Hit Higher Profit Margins EA's Deal to Go Private Could Be Good for Investors, Bad for Employees EA Buyout Highlights Gaming Struggles as Growth Slows The Video-Game Industry Has a Problem: There Are Too Many Games Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WNBA legend and Project B co-founder and Chief Basketball Officer Alana Beard joins Sarah to discuss the origins of the Project B women's basketball league, how Alana’s international experience as a player informs her new gig, the league’s much-talked-about partnership with a company owned by the Saudi-owned Public Investment Fund, and when we can expect to get more player announcements. Plus, DC vs. NYC, the Rise of Vancouver, and will the real SC please stand up? SHOW NOTES: Follow Alana Beard on Instagram @alanabeard Follow Project B on Instagram @projectb_global Leave us a voicemail at 872-204-5070 or send us a note at goodgame@wondermedianetwork.com Follow Sarah on social! Bluesky: @sarahspain.com Instagram: @Spain2323 Follow producer Alex Azzi! Bluesky: @byalexazzi.bsky.social Instagram: @AzziArtwork See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund just closed the largest gaming acquisition in history—$55 billion for Electronic Arts. But this isn't the typical private equity playbook.In this episode, host Joseph Kim sits down with two M&A experts who break down what's really happening:- Chris Petrovic - Board Chairman & CBO at FunPlus, former President of Publishing at Zynga where he orchestrated their transformative acquisition strategy- Matthew Kanterman, CFA - Gaming industry analyst specializing in M&A and financial analysisWe uncover the hidden truths behind the deal:→ Why EA's "operational bloat" narrative is based on an accounting myth→ The real reason EA chose to sell now (hostile takeovers? portfolio pressure?)→ Why Silver Lake's involvement is primarily "for optics"→ What "patient capital" means for EA's studios and the broader gaming industry→ The mobile strategy question: Will EA and Scopely actually integrate?→ Growth opportunities in sports, Asia, and transmedia→ Who really controls gaming's attention economy nowThis isn't about short-term cost-cutting. It's about sovereign wealth rewriting the rules of gaming M&A—and what that means for developers, studios, and the industry's future.Key Takeaways:- At 17-18x forward EBITDA, EA sold at a discount to Activision's 20x—why?- With Take-Two now the only major independent US publisher, what happens to exit opportunities?- EA's conservative accounting makes them look less efficient than they actually are- This deal is measured in decades, not the typical 5-7 year PE timeline

This week we talk about Electronic Arts, 3DO, and the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.We also discuss Jared Kushner, leveraged buyouts, and loot boxes.Recommended Book: Bandwidth by Dan CarusoTranscriptElectronic Arts, often shorthanded as EA, was founded in 1982 in California by a former Apple employee named Trip Hawkins, who also went on to found the ill-fated 3DO company, which made video game hardware, and the somewhat more prolific, but also ultimately ill-fated casual game developer Digital Chocolate.EA, though, has been an absolutely astounding success. It's business model was predicated on the premise of selling video games directly to retailers, rather than going through intermediaries. This allowed them to gain more market share than their competitors right off the bat, and it helped them glean higher margins than their competitors from each direct sale, too.EA also established an early reputation for treating its developers really well. They were the first gaming company to feature their developers in advertising and to give them platforms, promoting them as video game artists, basically, and it shared the profits netted from those direct sales with these develops—which in turn meant all the best developers really wanted to work for EA, which led to a beneficial cycle where they created better and better, and more and more financially successful games.In the late-80s, they started deviating from this model somewhat, scooping up a collection of successful independent game development studios and deviating, at times, from the creative lead's vision when releasing their games. They also refocused a fair bit of their resources on franchises, like the immensely successful, as it turned out, Madden NFL series, and they branched out into producing games for the console market, including the still-new Nintendo Entertainment System, in 1990.That same year, EA went public on the NASDAQ, the company got new leadership when Hawkins decided to refocus on his far less successful 3DO hardware startup, and in an interesting twist, the arrival of the Sony Playstation in North America caused EA to drop support for 3DO hardware in the mid-90s so it could refocus on Playstation games, which were a lot more lucrative.By the mid-90s, EA had an astonishingly large and successful software library, including franchises like the aforementioned Madden games and the FIFA soccer games, but also celebrity-tied games like Shaq Fu, and military shooters like Jungle and Urban Strike.By the early-2000s, EA was making exclusive licensing deals with the NFL and ESPN, in order to stave off newfound sports game competitors, and it was the only video game company to consistently make a profit, most others experiencing feast and famine cycles, with periodic wins, but a whole lot of losses they had to cover with the profits from those wins. EA, in contrast, had a reliable stable of profit-sources, and it thus had a whole lot of leverage in terms of attracting and retaining talent, but also getting big names and brands on board, for collaborative projects.What I'd like to talk about today is what happened to EA during and following the 2008 economic crisis, and how and why it recently became an acquisition target for Saudi Arabia.—In 2008, when the global economy was collapsing, EA suffered a bad holiday sales season and fired 1,100 employees and closed 12 of their facilities early the following year. Later in 2009, the company announced the firing of another 1,500 employees, which was about 17% of their total workforce at the time, and in 2010 they acquired a gaming company that focused on mobile games, which were becoming increasingly popular, now that many people had touch-capable smartphones, which brought hot new franchises like Angry Birds under their brand umbrella.On the strength of that acquisition and all those downsizings, in early 2011, EA announced that it hit $3.8 billion in revenue in the financial year for the first time, and in early 2012, it announced it surpassed $1 billion in digital revenue during the previous year, which was a huge figure that early in the digital media landscape. It used some of those profits to scoop up another mobile-first gaming company, adding properties like Plants vs Zombies and Peggle to their library.EA completed another mass-firing in 2013, dismissing 10% of their employees under what they called a reorganization, around the same time they announced an exclusive license with Disney that would allow them to develop Star Wars games.Their stock value boomed in the following years, as a result of those cost-savings measures, and those new relationships, and emboldened by record-high stock valuations, in the mid-20-teens, the company started releasing big-name games, like Star Wars Battlefront 2, with random-content loot boxes and other sorts of microtransactions.This did not go over well with players, who decried these in-game purchasing options as ‘pay to win' mechanics, as players could pay more money to get better characters and equipment, and a lot of the content, even after paying for the expensive games, was still locked behind paywalls, requiring more payments to unlock that content. A bunch of gaming journalists cried foul on this shift as the game careened toward its full release, as did a whole lot of early players, and Disney complained, too, so by the time it hit shelves, the game's loot system was substantially changed, but that whole controversy spooked investors, and led to an 8.5% stock value drop in just a single month, knocking $3.1 billion from the company's valuation. As a result of that controversy, EA also became the face for a larger legal and legislative debate about in-game purchases and how it's kinda sorta like gambling, from that point forward.Soon after, EA experienced a series of bad quarters, including a huge drop of 13.3% to its valuation when a major entry in one of their larger franchises, Battlefield V, was released late, and received very mixed reviews when it was released, which led to a million fewer sold copies than anticipated. The game was also lagging in terms of gameplay behind smaller, nimbler competitors, including then-burgeoning Fortnite.The company saw an overall boost with the surprise success of Apex Legends, and the COVID-19 pandemic boosted sales dramatically for a while, since everyone was staying home, which allowed EA to gobble up a few more competing companies with successful franchises, and they knocked out a few more successful Star Wars games, as well.In early 2021, Saudi Arabia's public investment funds bought 7.4 million shares of EA for about $1.1 billion, which flew under the radar for most gamers, but that'll be important in a moment.Later that year, the company experienced a massive hack, a lot of its data, including the source code for games, stolen and sold on the dark web. EA bought some more competitors, but word on the street in 2022 was the the higher ups at EA were quietly shopping the company around, themselves looking to be acquired by a larger entity, on the scale of Apple or Disney.In early 2023, the company announced more mass-layoffs and launched another internal reorganization. It gutted several of its most popular gaming sub-brands, including BioWare, it cancelled an upcoming Star Wars game, and it announced that it would be shifting away from licensing agreements and refocusing on EA-owned IP.The pattern of layoffs leading to better financial fortunes didn't pay off this time, though. In early 2025, EA divulged that it expected to underperform in the coming year, several of its big-name titles not doing as well as expected; the company cast blame on the market, but players and journalists pointed at the company's gutting of its big-name studios, and the firing of many of its veteran developers to explain the reduced sales.EA had another mass-firing in April of this year, and followed by another in May, which paralleled an announcement that they would no longer be moving forward with a big, planned Black Panther game.In late September of 2025, EA announced that it had reached a deal, worth $55 billion, to go private, no longer selling shares on the stock market, with the financial assistance of a group of investors, which included Affinity Partners, which is led by Jared Kushner, US President Trump's son-in-law, Silver Lake, which is a US-based private equity firm that helps make these sorts of big sales happen, and the aforementioned Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.This deal isn't done yet, it still needs to get regulatory approval and a successful vote by stockholders, but it seems likely to go through, since the US regulatory environment is pretty lax at the moment, and because Kushner is involved, it's unlikely President Trump will take a personal disliking to it.But the big story here seems to be that Saudi Arabia is buying up not just a video game company, but one of the biggest and most successful video gaming companies in the world, which, although it's lost a lot of fan-credibility over the years, still owns some massively influential intellectual property and has just a stunning number of relationships and connections throughout the media world, alongside its huge valuation.If the sale does go through, and we should know for sure by sometime around June 2026, it would be the largest-ever leveraged buyout, which means the purchase was completed by using borrowed money that was borrowed against the asset being purchased; so those investors have taken out debt against EA itself, which is an increasingly common means of buying a large asset on the cheap, but it also typically burdens that asset with a simply astounding amount of debt which must then be recouped, often by selling off undervalued assets.When this happens to a newspaper, for instance, the buyer will often sell off the paper's real estate and fire all their employees, to make money and pay off that debt, and in this case, there's a chance that debt will be paid by throwing up a bunch of new paywalls and really leaning into those in-game transactions that nobody really liked, including politicians, back in the day, but which in this current regulatory environment would probably be allowed, and they would probably make some serious bank off of it initially, before players started getting wise and moving on to other games released by less predatory companies.The really interesting facet of this story, though, is the question of why Saudi Arabia wants a video game company.And to understand that, it's important to understand that, first, the country's Public Investment Fund is meant to help its economy shift away from purely extractive resources, like oil, and it has thus invested in all sorts of things, including luxury beach resorts, minority stakes in financial service companies like Citigroup, stakes in companies like Disney and Boeing and Meta, and increasingly, investments in companies run by allies of President Trump, like the aforementioned Affinity Partners, which was formed by Jared Kushner.So this is an economic play, but also a political play, almost certainly, by the Saudis, to get in good with the people who are in good with the US government.It's also been alleged that this might be an attempt by the Saudis to engage in what's being called game-washing, which is similar to greenwashing, but instead of trying to make a company seem green and sustainable by doing kinda sorta green things, but only as a veneer to cover up the opposite, in this case it means using sports and video games and the like to increase a nation's reputation with humanistic seeming things, despite, well, the truth being much more complicated.Just as when the Fund participated in buying a Premier League football, a soccer team, back in 2021, then, alongside their concomitant establishment of LIV Gold, a golf league meant to compete with the PGA, this investment in EA, and other investments it's made in video game companies like Capcom and Nexon, might be part of a larger effort to diversify the nation's brand, not just its economics. It's human rights record is abysmal, and it's possible they're trying to cover that up, make people forget about it, by creating more connections between Saudi Arabia and more positive things, like sports and games and the like.There are additional concerns about this purchase of EA, too, by the way, because Saudi Arabia's cultural values are very anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-liberal, democratic values. So there are fears that we might see less representation and fewer what we might call western values portrayed in the games released by these studios, as a result of this ownership.The folks running EA have said their core values will remain unchanged by the buyout, but it's expected, bare-minimum, that this will lead to another several restructurings and mass-layoffs throughout the company in the coming years, to help recoup all that debt, at the end of which even the people making those promises might be long gone.Show Noteshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Investment_Fundhttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/29/business/dealbook/electronic-arts-buyout-jared-kushner.htmlhttps://www.wsj.com/business/deals/ea-private-deal-buyout-video-game-maker-808aefechttps://www.ft.com/content/61cef75e-ceba-43ee-80e3-040756c6154f?accessToken=zwAGQAMTiJKIkc9hzvdezrpD7tOA4wQHVsYVTw.MEUCIHND3WOT4rS4frIMIOoeXHQeil_Ma1yGrwOqUD2m306DAiEAtA_QLvpyObai9zoo_9GZSljJuJyTKxJgFHpQDcCcVsE&sharetype=gift&token=03dd6ca5-c34f-4925-8a3d-a89f4058ee80https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/ea-silver-lake-deal-jared-kushner-c145cd55?st=eZghQHhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Arts This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit letsknowthings.substack.com/subscribe

This week: Felix Salmon finally gets to nerd out on Argentina's economy as Trump goes against the GOP playbook by bailing the country out to the tune of $20 billion. Felix, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck break down why this is such an unusual move, how it shows Trump's favoritism, and what it means for America's soy farmers. Then, the US government has officially shut down but stocks are soaring. The hosts talk about who, if not Wall Street, is economically impacted by the shutdown. And finally, Jared Kushner helped broker a record-breaking $55 billion private equity deal for Electronic Arts that includes Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Do we care if the Saudis own a controlling stake of the gaming giant? In the Slate Plus episode: What number is Felix thinking of?  Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Slate Money show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/moneyplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Jessamine Molli, Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at ⁠www.monarchmoney.com/SLATE⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Left and the Right Deserve Each Other https://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/23694/2025-10-03/left-right-deserve-each-other.html Bill Burr Destroys His Reputation https://youtu.be/PECQihXJb_g?si=kFBcglMmm1tWs4c8 00:00:00 – Cold Open, CB Radio Day & Show Plans Kicks off with loose banter about “National CB Day” vs. truckers, old-school CB culture, travel plans, and lining up guest co-hosts; sets a playful tone before hinting at heavier news. 00:10:00 – “Escaping the Simulation” Article They dissect a Popular Mechanics piece (and Roman Yampolskiy's ideas) on whether we can exit a simulated reality, poke holes in the write-up, and riff on paradoxes, mass meditation, and overloading “the system” with AI fluff. 00:20:00 – Books & Models of Reality Bringing in My Big TOE (Tom Campbell), The Holographic Universe (Talbot), and The Simulation Hypothesis (Virk), Mike contrasts “level 2” takes with richer frameworks—e.g., distributed-mind generation of reality vs. a Linux-in-the-sky overseer. 00:30:00 – Can You Really Get Out? They argue escape likely requires death or radical detachment (no attachments, near-Zen), invoke “life review,” karma/progression RPG mechanics, and conclude there's no cheap hack—only becoming a better human. 00:40:00 – Mind Power, NPCs & Inner Monologue Into consciousness: people without inner monologues/mental imagery, social-cue humor, and how thought quality affects health and “the sim.” They chew on whether offloading thinking to AI weakens individual processing and spawns weirder glitches. 00:50:00 – Headlines: Drones, War Talk & Odd Death Quick hits: NATO-airspace drone incursions; skepticism about Venezuela “seize the airfields” stories; and a troubling Texas case (GOP staffer death by self-immolation) with sealed records that fuels speculation. 01:00:00 – Transparency & Global Gen-Z Protests On sealed files, political ties, and why Gen-Z is protesting globally—social-media chain reactions from Madagascar to Nepal; digital natives demanding change in the streets. 01:10:00 – Libya, UK Digital IDs & BoBo Craze Libya headlines resurface; talk turns to rumored UK digital ID rollouts (timing, pushback), then a detour into BoBo collectible toys, pop-culture virality, and retail charts going bonkers. 01:20:00 – Saudi Soft Power: EA & Entertainment Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund keeps buying influence—EA deal talk, AI plays, and mega-city “The Line”; frames the Riyadh comedy festival as part of a broader rebrand. 01:30:00 – Riyadh Comedy Festival: Burr & Chappelle Bill Burr gets roasted for cashing a $1.5M+ gig and praising KSA after slamming billionaires; Chappelle says it's “easier to talk here than in America.” They wonder who was invited, who wasn't, and whether any set will be released. 01:40:00 – Pitmaster… Deodorant?! Cratchet corner: Progresso launches BBQ-smoke “Pitmaster” deodorant to pair with its soup line; sold-out “Pit Kits” spur jokes about meme products and manufactured scarcity. 01:50:00 – “Jetpack Man” over LAX: Files Drop FOIA'd FBI docs muddy the mystery: pilots describe a humanoid-looking object with no visible propulsion; not a balloon, maybe not a person—just more questions and withheld pages. Cue wild “monkey suit goblin” punchlines. 02:00:00 – AI Music & Wrap They debut/talk AI-assisted songs (“Peg Your Jeans…”, “Chubby Puppy”), muse on 90s-grunge vibes, and plug Patreon/next shows. Nostalgic music talk closes the loop. Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research ▀▄▀▄▀ CONTACT LINKS ▀▄▀▄▀ ► Website: http://obdmpod.com ► Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/obdmpod ► Full Videos at Odysee: https://odysee.com/@obdm:0 ► Twitter: https://twitter.com/obdmpod ► Instagram: obdmpod ► Email: ourbigdumbmouth at gmail ► RSS: http://ourbigdumbmouth.libsyn.com/rss ► iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/our-big-dumb-mouth/id261189509?mt=2  

This week: Felix Salmon finally gets to nerd out on Argentina's economy as Trump goes against the GOP playbook by bailing the country out to the tune of $20 billion. Felix, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck break down why this is such an unusual move, how it shows Trump's favoritism, and what it means for America's soy farmers. Then, the US government has officially shut down but stocks are soaring. The hosts talk about who, if not Wall Street, is economically impacted by the shutdown. And finally, Jared Kushner helped broker a record-breaking $55 billion private equity deal for Electronic Arts that includes Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Do we care if the Saudis own a controlling stake of the gaming giant? In the Slate Plus episode: What number is Felix thinking of?  Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Slate Money show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/moneyplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Jessamine Molli, Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at ⁠www.monarchmoney.com/SLATE⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week: Felix Salmon finally gets to nerd out on Argentina's economy as Trump goes against the GOP playbook by bailing the country out to the tune of $20 billion. Felix, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck break down why this is such an unusual move, how it shows Trump's favoritism, and what it means for America's soy farmers. Then, the US government has officially shut down but stocks are soaring. The hosts talk about who, if not Wall Street, is economically impacted by the shutdown. And finally, Jared Kushner helped broker a record-breaking $55 billion private equity deal for Electronic Arts that includes Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Do we care if the Saudis own a controlling stake of the gaming giant? In the Slate Plus episode: What number is Felix thinking of?  Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Slate Money show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/moneyplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Jessamine Molli, Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at ⁠www.monarchmoney.com/SLATE⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week: Felix Salmon finally gets to nerd out on Argentina's economy as Trump goes against the GOP playbook by bailing the country out to the tune of $20 billion. Felix, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck break down why this is such an unusual move, how it shows Trump's favoritism, and what it means for America's soy farmers. Then, the US government has officially shut down but stocks are soaring. The hosts talk about who, if not Wall Street, is economically impacted by the shutdown. And finally, Jared Kushner helped broker a record-breaking $55 billion private equity deal for Electronic Arts that includes Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Do we care if the Saudis own a controlling stake of the gaming giant? In the Slate Plus episode: What number is Felix thinking of?  Want to hear that discussion and hear more Slate Money? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes. Plus, you'll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Slate Money show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/moneyplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Jessamine Molli, Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at ⁠www.monarchmoney.com/SLATE⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A group of investors including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner's investment firm are acquiring videogame maker Electronic Arts. The $55 billion deal is the largest leveraged buyout of all time. WSJ's Lauren Thomas takes us inside the historic buyout, exploring the company's fandom and legacy. Ryan Knutson hosts. Further Listening:  Camp Swamp Road Series Why Microsoft Is Paying $75 Billion for Activision Blizzard Sign up for WSJ's free What's News newsletter.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textIn this episode...--> Electronic Arts is being acquired for $55 billion by an investor consortium consisting of the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners.--> Microsoft has announced another Xbox Game Pass price hike, with the Ultimate tier increasing 50% to $30/month.-->  Resident Evil: Requiem's devs say they can't tell if the game is actually scary anymore.--> Also: Top 3 New Releases, Not-So-Gaming History 101We love our sponsors! Please help us support those who support us!- Check out the Retro Game Club Podcast at linktr.ee/retrogameclub- Connect with CafeBTW at linktr.ee/cafebtw- Get creative with Pixel Pond production company at pixelpondllc.com- Visit Absolutely the Best Podcast: A Work in Progress at linktr.ee/absolutelythebest**Use this link to get a $20 credit when you upgrade to a paid podcast hosting plan on Buzzsprout! buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1884378Hosts: donniegretro, retrogamebrews, wrytersviewOpening theme: "Gamers Week Theme" by Akseli TakanenPatron theme: "Chiptune Boss" by donniegretroClosing theme: "Gamers Week Full-Length Theme" by Akseli TakanenSupport the show

This week, there's a lot of discussion about the Tokyo Game Show, Epic pulling controversial Peacemaker dance emote, and Minecraft entering The Copper Age. News: EA to be acquired by Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for $55bn Halo Studios revealing more on next projects at next month's World Championship event Let us know what you think.

This week, the Punching Up crew discuss EA being sold, rumors of a new Lord of the Rings game, Doug Bowser's retirement, DS memories and more! Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement. Timestamps:  0:00:00 - Intro0:18:08 - EA to be acquired by Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners0:31:37 - New Lord of the Rings game0:45:48 - Must Play Rereleases this week0:55:10 - What We're Playing1:21:47 - Doug Bowser retired1:29:23 - Switch 2 Editions of some LEGO games could be comin1:31:50 - Looking back at the launch of the Nintendo DS1:47:58 - Closing Questions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

SUBSCRIBE NOW!!!! on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher & Audible. This week on the Press X to Start Gamer's Digest: DJ & Sean talk about the launches for Ghost of Yotei & Hades 2, EA being acquired with oil money; PlayStation's 30th anniversary, Doug Bowser leaving Nintendo and much more!  Gaming News - Time code: 1:59 We look at the review roundups for Ghost Of Yotei & Hades 2; EA confirms 55 billion dollar acquisition from the Legion of Doom aka Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund; PlayStation celebrates its' 30 year anniversary; PS5 has ended up as Sony's most successful console generation by a wide margin; Battlefield 6 surprisingly taking cues from FPS's from the PS3 & PS4 era; A Parasite Eve-esque RPG is coming to PS5 & PC in 2026; Arc Raiders drops some news on pre-orders and an Open test; Forza Horizon 6 not coming to PS5 at launch; Doug Bowser vacates the Nintendo throne to make way for the company's first female president. What Have We Been Playing - Time code: 50:09 DJ & Sean race to the finish of Donkey Kong Bananza If you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate/review it on whatever service you're using. Every little bit helps!  Want to ask a question, ask us at PressX2start.com/Questions Join/Follow Us: Youtube: Press X To Start TV Twitch: pressxtostarttv Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pressx2start Twitter: @PressX2S  Instagram: @PressX2Start TikTok: @pressx2start You can find more info about the Press X and who we are at www.PressX2start.com. If you have any questions or just want to tell us how great (or just slightly okay) we're doing or how we can be better, be a friend and reach out and email us at pressxtostartpodcast@gmail.com End music by @maztrshots on SoundCloud Be good to each other, Peace!

This week, there's a lot of discussion about the Tokyo Game Show, Epic pulling controversial Peacemaker dance emote, and Minecraft entering The Copper Age. News: EA to be acquired by Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners for $55bn Halo Studios revealing more on next projects at next month's World Championship event Let us […] The post Episode 764: EA Goes Private first appeared on .

Crypto pulling back October - one of the toughest months Day traders - some good news Intel's new growth model PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter Warm-Up - Crypto pulling back - REMINDER - NEW CTP  for Lithium Americas (LAC) stock! - October - one of the toughest months - Day traders - some good news Markets - New Tariffs announced - Drugs, trucks, kitchen cabinets - Intel's new growth model - Quantum stocks rallying - Powell setting the stage RYDER CUP - What a finish! Friday Jobs Report Labor Dept - may - or may not release jobs report Friday - Fearing that a government shutdown will be problematic - Convenient US to take stake in Lithium Americas - Up 29% - Where are we coming up with all of this $ Red October? -9 of the 20 largest single-day drops in the Dow Jones occurred in October. - 1907 Bank Panic - 1929 Crash (Black Tuesday) - 1987 Crash (Black Monday, -22.6% in one day) - 2008 Financial Crisis (S&P 500 fell ~17% in October alone) - Since 1950, the S&P 500 has averaged a gain of ~0.91% in October -Over the past 20 years, October has been relatively favorable, with average gains between 0.8% and 1.5% for the S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq. -October is 35% more volatile than the average month. Saudi Arabia for the Win! - Electronic Arts rallied on Friday following a report by the Wall Street Journal that the video game company is nearing a roughly $50 billion deal to go private. - The deal would likely be the largest leverage buyout of all time, according to the Journal. - Investors including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Silver Lake could announce the deal as soon as next week, the report said - Also in n the TikTok Deal - what is up with that? - Oh - Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners is another participating investor, according to a source familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. On the Other hand - Shares of CarMax fell to an all-time low on Thursday, as investors disposed of positions after disappointing second-quarter earnings results. - This followed surprisingly disappointing financial and operating results, with retail used unit sales declining 5.4 percent, and comparable same-store sales decreasing 6.3 percent. - Net income declined by 28.16 percent to $95.4 million from $132.8 million in the same period last year, while net sales and operating revenues dropped by 6 percent to $6.59 billion from $7.013 billion year-on-year. - Carvana next or reason why KMX doing poorly? Ponzi Accusations - The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is accusing the men who bought bankrupt chains RadioShack, Modell's Sporting Goods, and Pier 1 Imports of running a Ponzi scheme that duped investors out of tens of millions of dollars. - A complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Tuesday, alleges the co-founders of Miami-based Retail Ecommerce Ventures, Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez, together with the company's Chief Operating Officer Maya Burkenroad, raised approximately $112 million combined from hundreds of U.S. investors by selling investments in eight companies they created and controlled under Retail Ecommerce Ventures. - Between April 2020 through Nov. 2022, they raised money by selling two types of investments. They sold unsecured notes that promised returns of up to 25% a year, and ownership shares that offered monthly payouts as high as 2%, according to the complaint.| - To pay interest, dividends and maturing note payments, Mehr and Lopez resorted to using a combination of loans from outside lenders, merchant cash advances, money raised from new and existing investors,

Electronic Arts is set to go private in a record-breaking $55 billion buyout, led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake. The deal, which is the largest corporate buyout in history, raises big questions about national security, foreign investment, and the future of one of gaming's biggest publishers.Featured Guest: Aidan Gold, investor, Ensemble VC

EA is going private in a $55 Billion deal. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, and Silver Lake will own the company after the deal closes in Q1 FY27. We discuss what that means, explained how leveraged buyouts work, and share our concerns for the future of EA's workforce and identity. You can support Virtual Economy's growth via our Ko-Fi and also purchase Virtual Economy merchandise!

In today's Daily Fix:Electronic Arts has announced plans to sell itself to a consortium of investors led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners (formed by President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner). The deal is worth about $55 billion and will be the largest take-private investment in history. Once finalized, EA will no longer be listed on any stock exchange, and stockholders will receive $210 per share in cash. In other news, IGN spoke with Rockstar Games co-founder Dan houser at LA Comic-Con, and he confirmed he had nothing to do with GTA 6. Houser also explained why they never made Bully 2, among other topics discussed. Houser wrote almost every GTA game, including Red Dead Redemption 2, and left Rockstar in 2020. And finally, Fortnite is disabling a Peacemaker emote following the massive plot twist of the recent HBO Peacemaker episode.

H.E. Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Governor of Public Investment Fund (PIF) & Chairman of Saudi Aramco, spoke with Economic Club Chairman David M. Rubenstein and discussed the impact of PIF's investments in the U.S. as well as its role in advancing Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 and more!

Catch The Full Episode on Youtubehttps://bit.ly/4o7fn8Z Tareq Amin is the Chief Executive Officer of HUMAIN, Saudi Arabia's pioneering artificial intelligence company established under the Public Investment Fund. Officially launched on May 12th, 2025 by HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, HUMAIN serves as a cornerstone of the Kingdom's national AI strategy aimed at positioning Saudi Arabia as a global leader in artificial intelligence innovation and infrastructure. With a proven track record in leading transformative technology ventures, Tareq brings visionary leadership and deep expertise in telecom, cloud, and AI ecosystems to HUMAIN. Under his stewardship, the company is focused on building sovereign AI capabilities, fostering innovation, and accelerating the Kingdom's digital and economic transformation. Backed by the strategic power of PIF and driven by a strong commitment to ethical and applied AI, Saudi Arabia aims to become a global hub for AI development transforming industries and reshaping the future. 0:00 Intro2:00 Humaine Origin6:00 Six-Month “Miracle” Launch10:00 Unified AI Stack Vision17:00 Connectivity as a Right22:00 Data Centers Chips31:00 Saudi Culture Heritage38:00 Integrating Five Entities41:00 The Next Step in AI49:00 Fund Partnerships51:00 Scaling with “Bite-Sized” Wins1:04:00 Core Values Culture1:10:00 Saudi as AI Hub1:17:00 Closing Tarek AminInstagram https://bit.ly/4febN9mLinkedIn https://bit.ly/44VVwRmX https://bit.ly/4lgUrdn HumainInstagram https://bit.ly/4kWox5CLinkedIn https://bit.ly/40DKWNMWebsite https://bit.ly/4f488dQLaunch article https://bit.ly/44ZTJuM The Mo ShowYoutube https://bit.ly/3nDwsZvApple Podcast https://apple.co/3J9ScX4Spotify https://spoti.fi/33dzsC2Anghami https://bit.ly/3mRo1uyInstagram https://bit.ly/2KAwq5vX https://bit.ly/3KanEnJTikTok https://bit.ly/43L92poWebsite https://bit.ly/3H2DhMMEmail info@themopodcast.com Presented By KAFD App https://apple.co/4e9BdU0Website https://bit.ly/3YktQUIInstagram https://bit.ly/3YFpWGnX https://bit.ly/3LMJOziLinkedIn https://bit.ly/3A0b2QJ Saudia Website https://bit.ly/495n6fBInstagram https://bit.ly/3UgTTdAX https://bit.ly/4beIQY8 Noon Instagram https://bit.ly/3XRScUYWebsite https://bit.ly/44lnA1S WhoopInstagram https://bit.ly/4fbqeuPhttps://join.whoop.com/gb/en/moshow/ IWC Instagram https://bit.ly/44dxbFWWebsite https://bit.ly/43K8JMk Pizza Hut JeddahInstagram https://bit.ly/3T87mjtWebsite http://bit.ly/3UtnkWq CreditsTareq Amin | GuestMo Islam | Host FounderRyan Ismail | COOFaisal Nejaim | Show ManagerGregoris Kalai | Head of StrategyTito | Creative DirectorYoussef Hamieh | Production ManagerPowered by "STUCK?" | TranslationThe Mo Show Theme Song by Saud Al-Turki  

Catherine, David and Matt are back to discuss the best of the action so far in Indian Wells. Part one - ATP Results. Matt Futterman checks in from on site at Indian Wells to set the scene and we get some insight from Paul Haarhuis on the marvel that is Botic van de Zandschulp after his victory over Novak Djokovic. We also chat about what that defeat might mean for Djokovic, the iconic return of Lance Davis, the court surface dividing opinion, yet another defeat for Alexander Zverev, a nice win for Jack Draper over Joao Fonseca, and the fun run of Yosuke Watanuki. Part two (from 36mins) - WTA Results. We talk about how Iga Swiatek is barely dropping games, the bottom half Last 16 is stacked with great matches, Coco Gauff is winning ugly again, Naomi Osaka playing ‘the worst match of her life', and a clash between the two best backhands in the world. Part three (from 49m14s) - News. The WTA announces a new maternity fund, but at what cost as its paid for by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund? And we pay tribute to Australian great Fred Stolle who died last week at the age of 86. Become a Friend of the Tennis Podcast to receive exclusive access to bonus podcasts, including Tennis Re-Lived episodes, Grand Slam Review Shows, and monthly Live Shows on YouTube. Friends also get access to The Barge, Hannah's Column, and an ad-free listening experience to all episodes of The Tennis Podcast. Talk tennis with Friends on The Barge! Sign up to receive our free Newsletter (daily at Slams and weekly the rest of the year, featuring Matt's Stat, mascot photos, predictions, and more)Follow us on Instagram (@thetennispodcast)Subscribe to our YouTube channel.Check out our Shop - We have recently launched a range of caps! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tesla, and its CEO Elon Musk, are the big names in electric vehicles, but a lot of competitors are nipping at their heels, including one led by a former top Tesla engineer. Peter Rawlinson is the CEO of Lucid, a billion-dollar auto startup he says has better technology than its rivals. The company recently completed a $1.75 billion stock offering, and has backing from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund. Now, as major automakers such as Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford pull back on their EV ambitions, find out why Rawlinson says Lucid's all-in on luxury vehicles with a high price tag and, eventually, smaller batteries. Plus, why he says he won't be building a $20,000 EV any time soon. He speaks to WSJ's Tim Higgins and Christopher Mims in episode one of our interview series Bold Names. Let us know what you think of the show. Email us at BoldNames@wsj.com Sign up for the WSJ's free Technology newsletter.  Further Reading The Withering Dream of a Cheap American Electric Car Elon Musk Plays a Familiar Song: Robot Cars Are Coming  Ultralong-Range Electric Cars Are Arriving. Say Goodbye to Charging Stops.  Used EVs Sell for Bargain Prices Now, Putting Owners and Dealers in a Bind  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices