DOJ's Google Breakup Plan, Nvidia's Earnings, and Comcast's Cable Spin-off

Summary

Pivot Podcast Summary: DOJ's Google Breakup Plan, Nvidia's Earnings, and Comcast's Cable Spin-off
Release Date: November 22, 2024
Hosts: Kara Swisher & Scott Galloway

---

Introduction

In this episode of Pivot, hosts Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway delve into some of the most pressing issues in the tech and business world. Skipping past the initial advertisements, the conversation swiftly moves into analyzing major corporate strategies and governmental interventions shaping the industry landscape.

---

Nvidia's Stellar Performance and Market Concerns

Nvidia recently reported impressive earnings, showcasing a 94% revenue jump year-over-year and a 106% profit increase from the last quarter. The company's forward-looking statements predict a 70% revenue rise in the current quarter, bolstered by its new Blackwell chip.

Scott Galloway (13:46): "The stock over the last 24 months is up over nine fold… Nvidia itself is worth more than the entire German, French, UK stock markets."

Despite these robust figures, Nvidia shares experienced a slight dip in after-hours trading, signaling minor investor apprehensions. Scott emphasizes Nvidia's dominant position in the AI sector, noting its critical role in powering AI applications through its hardware.

Scott Galloway (14:33): "Its stock is basically flat… the company's like, quintupled and its earnings have only tripled."

He draws parallels to the Wintel duopoly, expressing concerns over Nvidia's potentially monopolistic control in AI processing, which could stifle competition and innovation.

---

DOJ's Ambitious Google Breakup Proposal

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has proposed a significant antitrust move against Google, aiming to dismantle its dominant position in the search engine market. The proposal includes:

• Forcing Google to sell its Chrome browser, which holds approximately 67% of the global market share and is valued at up to $20 billion.
• Preventing Google from entering paid agreements with companies like Apple to remain the default search engine on browsers and phones.

Kara Swisher (16:21): "Do you call this good bank, bad bank, but what do you imagine is going to happen here?"

Scott views the DOJ's proposal positively, arguing that separating Chrome from Google's core search operations could enhance competition and reduce monopolistic tendencies.

Scott Galloway (17:41): "I like this… you get competition."

They discuss the complexities surrounding the potential breakup, including the integration of such actions with ongoing political dynamics involving the Trump administration.

Kara Swisher (19:47): "...there are all these different competing power centers happening here."

Scott underscores the historical effectiveness of antitrust actions in fostering innovation and reducing market dominance by single entities.

Scott Galloway (22:52): "It's always better… more innovative… more competition."

---

Comcast's Strategic Spin-off: Creating Spinco

Comcast announced the spin-off of its cable networks into a new entity named Spinco, which will encompass networks like MSNBC and CNBC. The move aims to position both Comcast and Spinco for long-term growth and enhanced stakeholder value.

Kara Swisher (23:01): "And what's the plus for the bad bank, which is the cable assets?"

Scott explains this as a classic good bank, bad bank strategy, separating profitable growth assets from mature or declining ones. Spinco will focus on the latter, allowing the core Comcast businesses to thrive without the drag of less profitable units.

Scott Galloway (24:54): "Businesses that have a different business model or different life stages of maturity… go good bank, bad bank."

He further elaborates on the operational efficiencies Spinco could achieve by consolidating back-end functions and cutting costs, while still maintaining profitability through strategic management.

Scott Galloway (27:29): "We take on ABC, we take on CNN… cut costs and manage the company efficiently."

---

Trump Administration's New Picks and Their Implications

The conversation shifts to the Trump administration's recent appointments:

• Dr. Mehmet Oz appointed to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
• Linda McMahon, former Small Business Administration head, named Secretary of Education.
• Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, chosen as Commerce Secretary.

Kara and Scott discuss the qualifications and controversies surrounding these picks, expressing skepticism about their effectiveness given their backgrounds.

Kara Swisher (38:42): "If confirmed by the Senate, RFK Jr. Both were confirmed would be Oz's boss, which seems should be flipped."

Scott critiques the appointments, highlighting potential conflicts and the administrative challenges these individuals might face.

Scott Galloway (39:22): "What issues is Gabbard good on? Like, literally, what issue do you think they get right."

---

CEO Compensation and Corporate Culture: The Elon Musk Phenomenon

A significant portion of the discussion centers on CEO compensation and corporate culture, especially in the context of Elon Musk's unconventional behavior.

Kara presents listener mail questioning whether CEO salaries justify the extensive time commitments, citing Elon Musk's multifaceted roles and public persona.

Scott Galloway (50:42): "CEO compensation has gotten just totally fucking out of control."

Scott analyzes the systemic issues driving CEO pay inflation, attributing it to board compensation committees that often favor the CEO's interests, leading to exponential salary increases over time.

Scott Galloway (53:51): "CEO compensation… it's gone from about 40 times the average compensation of the worker at that company to three or 400 times."

They debate the uniqueness of Elon's behavior, with Scott suggesting that most CEOs lack the personality or support to emulate Musk's public antics without repercussions.

Scott Galloway (54:03): "No, no… If you make a lot of money, you can act like a douche nozzle…"

Kara shares her perspective on the broader implications of such compensation trends, advocating for more equitable value distribution within companies.

Kara Swisher (56:25): "If you make a lot of money, you can act like a douche nozzle…"

---

Comedic Relief and Social Commentary

Amidst serious discussions, Kara and Scott inject humor and personal anecdotes. They touch upon cultural topics like the Netflix movie "Hot Frosty", blending personal opinions with broader media analysis.

Kara Swisher (65:35): "I predict the Christmas rom com Hot Frosty… about a fuckable Frosty."

They also briefly discuss social issues, including debates around transgender rights and the problematic behavior of certain political figures, reinforcing their commitment to progressive values.

Kara Swisher (59:54): "That's vile… Nancy Mace, you're an attention-seeking, heinous, cruel person."

---

Predictions for 2025: Leveraged Buyouts and Private Equity Moves

In their predictions segment, Kara forecasts the continued dominance of "Hot Frosty" on Netflix, while Scott anticipates significant leveraged buyouts (LBOs) in 2025, particularly targeting struggling retail giants like Target.

Scott Galloway (67:06): "I think private equity is getting its jets kind of fired up again… Target is trading at like 12."

Scott suggests that private equity firms will capitalize on Target's undervaluation and operational inefficiencies to orchestrate large-scale buyouts, marking some of the biggest deals in history.

---

Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts

As the episode wraps up, Kara and Scott reflect on the interconnectedness of corporate strategies, government policies, and individual leadership styles. They emphasize the importance of sustained competition and equitable business practices to foster innovation and societal progress.

Scott Galloway (60:00): "There is nothing you can do about it on the compensation side… an alternative minimum tax."

Kara underscores the role of media and public discourse in shaping corporate accountability, advocating for meaningful conversations over superficial debates.

Kara Swisher (58:48): "We're not all woke… We contain multitudes."

The hosts sign off with a mix of humor and earnestness, inviting listeners to engage with future episodes for deeper analyses of tech and business trends.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Scott Galloway (14:33): "Its stock is basically flat… the company's like, quintupled and its earnings have only tripled."
• Kara Swisher (16:21): "Do you call this good bank, bad bank, but what do you imagine is going to happen here?"
• Scott Galloway (17:41): "I like this… you get competition."
• Scott Galloway (24:54): "Businesses that have a different business model or different life stages of maturity… go good bank, bad bank."
• Kara Swisher (38:42): "If confirmed by the Senate, RFK Jr. Both were confirmed would be Oz's boss, which seems should be flipped."
• Scott Galloway (53:51): "CEO compensation… it's gone from about 40 times the average compensation of the worker at that company to three or 400 times."
• Scott Galloway (67:06): "I think private equity is getting its jets kind of fired up again… Target is trading at like 12."

---

Conclusion

This episode of Pivot offers a comprehensive look into pivotal moments affecting the tech and business sectors. From Nvidia's explosive growth and the DOJ's aggressive stance against Google's monopoly to Comcast's strategic spin-off and the unsettling trends in CEO compensation, Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway provide insightful analyses backed by market data and personal opinions. Their discussions emphasize the need for balanced competition, equitable business practices, and thoughtful governmental policies to navigate the evolving corporate landscape.

For those keen on understanding the intricate dynamics of today's business world, this episode serves as an invaluable resource, blending expert insights with engaging dialogue.

Transcript

[Scott Galloway]

Support for the show comes from Betterment. Do you want your money to be motivated? Do you want your money to rise and grind? Do you think your money should get up and work? Don't worry, Betterment is here to help. Betterment is the automated investing and savings app that makes your money hustle. Their automated technology is built to help maximize returns, meaning when you invest with Betterment, your money can auto adjust as you get closer to your goal rebalance. If your portfolio gets too far out of line and your dividends are automatically reinvested, that can increase the potential for compound returns. In other words, your money is working like a dog while you can be sleeping like one and snoring like one too. You'll never picture your money the same way again. Betterment, the automated investing and savings app that makes your money hustle. Visit betterment.com to get started. Investing involves risk. Performance is not guaranteed.

[Kara Swisher]

Support for this show comes from arm. There's only one company at the heart of all the technology that makes podcasts like this one possible. It's the same company that powered the smartphone revolution and is helping define the AI revolution. The company is called arm. ARM designs compute platforms for the biggest companies in the world so they can create silicon and solutions to power global technology. Arm became a Nasdaq 100 company in less than a year of its IPO and is proudly NASDAQ listed. AI enabled ARM CPUs are able to provide the compute platform for the global AI revolution in the years to come. Visit arm.com discover to learn more.

[Scott Galloway]

Support for Pivot comes from Huntress. Huntress is one of today's fastest growing cybersecurity companies. Its platform is designed from the ground up to work for small to medium sized businesses and promises enterprise grade security driven by the technology, services and expertise you need to defend against today's cyber threats. All at a price that makes some sense. Today it seems like even the most sophomoric hackers can still do a ton of damage to your small business. That's why Huntress built a fully managed, highly sophisticated security platform for its customers to guard against potentially devastating threats. Plus, you can rest assured knowing that the elite human threat hunters running their 247 security operations center will offer real protection all day, every day. So if you want cutting edge cybersecurity backed by experts who monitor, investigate and respond to threats with unmatched precision, you can visit Huntress.com to learn more and start your free trial. I need to get home and get my colonic and take my edible watch. Murder she Wrote and go to sleep.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, I love that scene. That's a beautiful scene to think about. Hi everyone, this is Pivot from New York Magazine and the Vox Media Podcast network. I'm Kara Swisher.

[Scott Galloway]

And I'm Scott Galloway.

[Kara Swisher]

Where are you? Where are you, Scott?

[Scott Galloway]

I am at my favorite second home. I'm at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Yeah, yeah, and I was showing before you showed up, so a few minutes late, I might ask.

[Kara Swisher]

Thank you. I know, I know.

[Scott Galloway]

I was showing Taylor, our 14 year old producer, something called See this thing? We used to print news on dead trees in day old news.

[Kara Swisher]

You're reading.

[Scott Galloway]

I just want to read everything on the front page from what is arguably the champion of the reflection or the ultimate reflection of Western values. The lead story.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Wildfire risk only growing for Northeast. The next one, debating role of trans rights in Harris's loss. Then we go on to Republic Republicans eye Medicaid slashes and work rules. Oh, better yet, grieving Israeli parents weigh freezing dead soldier sperm. And finally, just to lighten things up, Wicked fans beg seatmates. Shush, please. So we're freezing dead sperm, we're cutting Medicaid and we can't even enjoy Wicked. No wonder you asked me why I eat Xanax like they're fucking Skittles. Look at this. But how am I supposed to respond after reading this every month? This is the world, literally.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, it's called the news. What do you want a good newspaper? What do you have? A plane landed in Chicago today and everybody got their suitcases.

[Scott Galloway]

The fish tacos at the pool are awesome. F1 is this weekend somewhere in the world. It's beautiful out.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, I'm in the Equinox right now here in New York, and I have to say, I don't dislike it.

[Scott Galloway]

The Equinox Hotel.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, at Hudson Beach.

[Scott Galloway]

That means you're your top shelf CNN guest.

[Kara Swisher]

That's correct.

[Scott Galloway]

I found out that you get put up at like the fucking Westin or some Joey.

[Kara Swisher]

No, the Sheraton.

[Scott Galloway]

Sheraton, yeah. But if you're top shelf, you get to stay at the Equinox.

[Kara Swisher]

That's correct.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm sure the egos at CNN don't even, don't even register little things like that.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, no, because I am doing something with cnn. I'm doing several things here. One secret project and the other I'm going to be on the news show with Roy Wood Jr. And Amber Ruff.

[Scott Galloway]

And I don't know any of them.

[Kara Swisher]

Don'T know any of their comics.

[Scott Galloway]

I just know they're about to get an 80% pay cut.

[Kara Swisher]

I've seen it.

[Scott Galloway]

No, no.

[Kara Swisher]

This show is doing okay. They put me here and I mentioned it to a CNN person, and they're like, the Equinox. They, like, knew. They knew it was so funny. They're like, oh, you got the Equinox.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. Most people, I don't know what the one is like in Hudson Yards, but generally speaking, the most beautiful gay men in the world hang out at Equinox.

[Kara Swisher]

Beautiful. I'm very loving it. And I slept the whole night. Yeah, it's interesting. It's interesting. I like that you like going to F1 and everything else. You're going to have a good time. You'll have a great time.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I like that you like it because I'm going to continue to do it.

[Kara Swisher]

I'm going to Miami on Saturday. My jammie. I'm going to Miami to do the.

[Scott Galloway]

What are you doing to Miami?

[Kara Swisher]

Miami Book fair. You're the one that got somehow got picked up.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I was going to go, but I don't like that smart stuff.

[Kara Swisher]

I know, I know, I know. But I'm selling some books. I'm selling some books. I'm going to my jammie for a minute. So what else?

[Scott Galloway]

Is that where you're staying?

[Kara Swisher]

I'm leaving. I'm going down and coming back the same night because Amanda's going to divorce me if I travel anymore. Yeah. So I'm coming back. I'm coming back.

[Scott Galloway]

Number three. How old will number three be? And how new will the Subaru be? That's what I want to know.

[Kara Swisher]

I do not have a Subaru anymore. I had one. I loved my Subaru.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, yeah, it's. You have, like, a Nissan, which is like a mini Subaru.

[Kara Swisher]

No, I have a Kia. Try to keep it straight. I have a Kia hybrid and I have a Chevy bolt.

[Scott Galloway]

There's so nothing hybrid about you. I know. Hybrid is sort of in the middle. A little of this, little of that. That just isn't you. You really shouldn't own a hybrid.

[Kara Swisher]

And yet I do. What cars are you going to see at F1?

[Scott Galloway]

Really fast ones.

[Kara Swisher]

You really love this F1 thing. Almost more than the soccer stuff.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. It's not about the race. I only go for an hour. It's about being in Vegas with friends, and it's fabulous and it's fun. We go to the race. Just, you know, just an excuse. But the thing that's unique about. I'm actually in my newsletter. No mercy, no mouse. I'm writing about F1, they take over a city, and it's an interesting thing. It's typically a franchise model where they license F1 to a city. The city pays a lot of money to bring in tourism, and then the teams pay a licensing. It's a great business model.

[Kara Swisher]

Right.

[Scott Galloway]

And for the first time, they decided to go vertical and own a race. And they decided to pick Vegas. And you think Vegas, F1, it would be just an enormous win. I can see why they've decided to own it themselves.

[Kara Swisher]

It's like McDonald's. They, like, have franchises in the. In the cities. They have to be. Or Teds or what?

[Scott Galloway]

No, what it's like is the majority of the hotel companies are no longer hotel owners. They have a flag or reservation system, standards, branding. That way, a guy like Michael Dell, who wants to have, you know, a Four Seasons hotel in Hawaii, underwrites all the capital costs, and then they just take 8 to 12% and they have standards. So the hotel flags now got out of the business of taking capital risk because one bad hotel can sink everything.

[Kara Swisher]

Sure.

[Scott Galloway]

And they're just in the business of the flag and the reservations and the standards and the HR and the marketing. And F1 was effectively the same way. They made the money no matter what, whether the thing was successful in a city. And last year was the first F1 in Vegas. And a couple things happened. One, they vastly overestimated demand. The F1 customer in the US is not the same kind of fabulous, wealthy F1 customer in Europe and all over the world. And they overestimated. They were able to sell about 40% of the tickets they initially planned. So you had entire grandstands empty because supposedly they just priced it too high. And they just underestimated how difficult it is to fill Las Vegas. Las Vegas has just so many hotel rooms, and if you don't aren't coming for F1, you're not going to come that weekend. Because one of the cool things about the race is it's. It's. It's. The race is done at night, and it's on.

[Kara Swisher]

On the streets.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, it's on the strip. And so there's great parties, and it's fun to watch the race, but in terms of an actual economic model, it's been a bit of a disaster. So therefore, I just thought I'd provide a little insight.

[Kara Swisher]

I understand. But it's growing, correct? I can't tell. I don't know. I wouldn't ever go to an F.1 thing. I don't know.

[Scott Galloway]

F1 has hit. I Don't say it's hit a wall, but it had a huge surge because of the. What's it called? Drive to Survive Netflix show.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, the shows. Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

But there's a lot of competition, and it's sort of. It's hit a bit of a speed bump this year. It's not growing the way it used to. And it's the one driver. It's kind of always like a race for second now, because the one driver wins every time. It's like when Pete Sampras was dominating tennis and we tried to pretend it wasn't really fucking boring and that he wasn't boring, so. But, yeah, I'm excited. It's Vegas. It'll be a ton of fun. I have friends coming to parties with cars. 100%. Okay. They start too late, though. That's the problem.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, they start too late. I need to get home and get my colonic and take my edible watch Murder She Wrote and go to sleep.

[Kara Swisher]

I love that scene. That's a beautiful scene to think about. We're going to move to something else.

[Scott Galloway]

That's good Segue. Outstanding Segue. That's.

[Kara Swisher]

Hey, I just, you know, I have to think about it. That's why.

[Scott Galloway]

That's why they put you up at the Equinox.

[Kara Swisher]

Equinox.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm at the segues like that, you saucy little news anchor.

[Kara Swisher]

I'll go down to Soul Cycle and take a. You know the same owner owns all those things. The guy that developer who developed Hudson Yards. Hudson Yards, by the way, is, like, lively. It was lively last night.

[Scott Galloway]

It's doing well.

[Kara Swisher]

It seemed like everyone thought it was sort of a wasteland, but I gotta say, I don't know. It's hard to get to very lively over here. Lots of restaurants and everything.

[Scott Galloway]

I kind of like that place. Freaks me out. It is so modern. It feels like one of those places where if a supercomputer gets something wrong and end up in the wrong elevator, you get off and you wake up without your liver.

[Kara Swisher]

Yes, exactly.

[Scott Galloway]

And it gets sold to some wealthy Indian business man. And they're like a mall.

[Kara Swisher]

It feels like a mall in Hong Kong or Dubai. That's what it feels like. That's my favorite.

[Scott Galloway]

The two anchor tenants over there when they opened were Neiman Marcus and Brooks Brothers, which Both went chapter 11 within a year.

[Kara Swisher]

But they seem to have.

[Scott Galloway]

I figured out if it works over there.

[Kara Swisher]

I can't either. But I have to say there's a lot more people because I think a lot more people are coming Back to work. And there's a lot of law firms here. It feels. It felt very lively when I got here. Felt very lively when I went out last night.

[Scott Galloway]

CNN's there, KKR is there. Tapestry. The owners of Coach and Suit. There's quite a few.

[Kara Swisher]

There's a lot going on here.

[Scott Galloway]

Companies over there. And they have Milos, that kind of cool, Greek, fabulous restaurant.

[Kara Swisher]

Yes, I like Milos. You know who I went to that with many years ago? Ariana Huffington.

[Scott Galloway]

Are you in love?

[Kara Swisher]

Yes. When you go to Milas with Ariana, it's really fun because they Greek out on you.

[Scott Galloway]

Joanna Coles had a party, invited me over, and they introduced me to Ariana. She's like, scott, are you in love? And I'm like, what? What? She immediately went there. Are you in love?

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, no.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm like, come on.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, that was. That would be an awkward question for Scott Calloway. Yeah, that's very. A little too warm. It's a little too.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, it's a little too. I'm sorry, who are you? Greek lady.

[Kara Swisher]

Who are you?

[Scott Galloway]

Greek lady with a website.

[Kara Swisher]

Hey, I have a new person to join your posse. I have a new famous guy to join.

[Scott Galloway]

I mean, I'm always looking for new friends.

[Kara Swisher]

Do they drink?

[Scott Galloway]

First off, do they drink?

[Kara Swisher]

I think so.

[Scott Galloway]

Never mind. It's like when I'm looking, when I'm hitting on a girl at a bar, I. Just one question. What's your relationship like with your father? Anything remotely positive, move along.

[Kara Swisher]

Well, I went to dinner with them.

[Scott Galloway]

Do they drink?

[Kara Swisher]

Yes, I think so. Yes, I believe so.

[Scott Galloway]

Are they better looking than me?

[Kara Swisher]

Much. Much. Both of them.

[Scott Galloway]

Are they famous?

[Kara Swisher]

Yes. Yes.

[Scott Galloway]

Check, check, check, check, check. They're in. Come to F1. Wheels up. 4:40 on Friday.

[Kara Swisher]

He's going to kill me for mentioning it, but I went to dinner last night with Tim Daly and Te Leone, who I love from. Ooh. I like both of them. I know. And he want. He. They're both Pivot fans and wonderful. They're so lovely as people. And he was like, can I meet Scott? When we were leaving the restaurant, I.

[Scott Galloway]

Was going to say, they're using you to get to me. I get a lot.

[Kara Swisher]

Not. Well, I doubt that. But he's like, can I meet Scott sometime? And so I volunteered your apartment for a dinner party at some point. So just a. Funny.

[Scott Galloway]

You mean what you do every week when I'm not there?

[Kara Swisher]

That's correct. That's correct. But he wants. I think he wants to be part of your posse. I get the sense. I Get the sense. Anyway, he's a great guy. Tim is great.

[Scott Galloway]

Tim. F1, we're rolling.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay, Tim, you're in. And Tay is amazing. They're just lovely people. And I feel like. Very good looking a good. Yes. You're gonna be very intimidated.

[Scott Galloway]

Very good looking, very talented.

[Kara Swisher]

Again, it's a low bar when it comes. Oh, did I just say that out loud? I want you to have a posse of friends that you roam. I need that you roam the urban landscape with.

[Scott Galloway]

I like that.

[Kara Swisher]

We've got a lot to get to today, including Comcast spinoff plans. And Trump's reality show administration gets some new cast members first. Nvidia's domination continues with another blockbuster earnings report. The company reported on Wednesday that revenue jumped 94% from a year ago, a profit increased by 106% from the last quarter. Nvidia also projected revenue in the current quarter would rise by 70% from a year ago with sales of its new Blackwell chip. Despite all the good news, Nvidia shares slipped after hours trading, signaling the results were not quite as spectacular as investors had hoped. This is still going, but people have a little bit of. And then there's the tariff issue with Trump, which is going to, I think hang over everything because the stock market is starting to really see worries about that. The continued focus of Trump on picking a tariff loving treasury secretary or head of commerce, like he just picked. Thoughts on Nvidia?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, I mean, similar to a media that says people are freezing dead soldiers sperm and there's wildfires. This is not a glass half empty kind of story. It's actually the stock is basically flat. Today it was down a little bit. But here you have a company, I mean, the stock, its profit doubled in the last quarter, quarter on quarter. Its stock is a. I mean, it's insane how much the stock is up over the last several years. It now accounts for one fifth of the S&P 500 gains. That's more than the rest of the Magnificent Seven combined. I mean, think about that. 20% of the gains have been driven by one company and the stock over the last 24 months is up over nine fold.

[Kara Swisher]

Right. Jesus.

[Scott Galloway]

The expectations now are that you blow away expectations, but this company, and it says it's sold out of Blackwell for the next several quarters. Yeah. This thing is nothing short of remarkable. And Nvidia itself is worth more than the entire German, French, UK stock markets.

[Kara Swisher]

Right. And you assume it will keep up.

[Scott Galloway]

So that's a request for stock advice. And what I would tell anyone is the following and One of the most frequent emails I get is asking me, is it too late to buy Nvidia? And what I say is, I don't know. I can see it doubling. I can see it getting cut by 50, 60, 70%. So what you do is you don't try and buy the needle in the haystack. You buy the whole haystack. Go buy everything. Go buy an index fund. But this company is. I mean, the difference here versus people often equate it to Cisco in 1999 is that the company's earnings and revenues are exploding. And so while its PE has gone up, its valuation has gone up relative to its earnings, it hasn't gone up, up nearly as much as, say, Cisco did. Cisco's stock price tripled, but its earnings didn't triple, whereas this company's like, quintupled and its earnings have only tripled, but its earnings have tripled. So this I believe, and unfortunately, I think it warrants scrutiny because effectively what you have is just as we had the Wintel duopoly, you definitely have the formation of a new duopoly. Openvidea. About 88% of all traffic to AI goes through OpenAI and is queried on a processor that has been sold into them by Nvidia. So I don't even think Microsoft or Intel had this dominance.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, for now, for now, for now. I think that's what people are worried about and that's probably what they're, I think, don't know, is a really disturbing thing for a lot of people. I think you're sort of hitting the nail on the head on that. Speaking of things people we do know about, the DOJ is asking a judge in the Google search monopoly case to force the company to sell its Chrome browser as part of the remedy. Chrome has about 67% of the global market and could go for as much as 20 billion, according to some estimates. The government also wants to stop Google from getting into paid agreements with Apple and others to be the default search engine on phones and browsers. The DOJ stopped short of requesting a full divestiture of Android. Google called the DOJ proposal extreme and is set to file its own suggestions by December 20th. Remedy hearings will be held in April and the judge is expected to rule over the summer. I know all these agencies are sort of waiting for what happens with Trump, although you just never know because he's had some anti Google statements and everything else. And there'll be a new head of antitrust at the Justice Department, and it's not clear who that's gonna be. What do you think of this remedy? It seems like an unusual thing. Tech writer Jon Gruber noted Chrome and Android are not standalone businesses. They're appendages to Google. It's like saying I have to sell my left foot. It's very valuable to me, but of no value to anyone else. And if a buyer of Chrome is a company like OpenAI or Microsoft, could they be accused of creating, as you just, you know, another monopoly with this purchase?

[Scott Galloway]

So I like this. The potential remedies were a fine. You can't come up with fines big enough. Some sort of administrator from the government bureaucrat that had to. They got to go into any meeting and tell them why they shouldn't do something which they basically can ignore. Stick the. Stick the fat, ugly, weird kid in the corner. And then two, and then finally a breakup. So I was happy to see this now, whether it holds or not. But I'm not sure I agree with the writer because. Because chrome has about 2/3 global share, I think, of the browser market that so much attention. That's so much attention that a lot of different people could monetize that. So it would have no shortage of bidders. It would immediately stop this default steering everyone towards their search engine. It'd be more of a competition. So I like this. I generally find that the ofTC and the DOJ, and this is because they bring in a lot of my colleagues from business schools, are pretty smart about trying to come up with solutions that grow the total market. So I like this. I hope it goes true. I don't know if it'll hold.

[Kara Swisher]

There's so much uncertainty because as I said, Cantors will be leaving, John Cantor and Lena Khan's tenure may be over or maybe not. It's very unclear. You might get someone like Brandon Carr, who's making a grab for power at the FCC of which it didn't have, but maybe trying to do so. There's all kinds of uncertainty on who's going to be able to run this and then who is going to be the antitrust head. And it is all in the hands of a single judge, which then can be appealed, et cetera. And the government can stop trying. Right? The government can go a different direction depending. It'll be interesting because Sundar Pichai, the head of Google met Alphabet, was on the phone with Trump and of course, guess who was on the phone with him. There's the whole Elon element. Elon was on a phone call with the CEO of Alphabet with Trump. I mean, there's all these different competing power centers happening here. So I agree with you. I think something should be cleaved off of these companies. That's to me the only.

[Scott Galloway]

The key question is, where was Omarosa? I want her back. She actually seems quite credible now.

[Kara Swisher]

No, she does. I can't believe it, but she is. You're right. I mean, it'll be interesting to see what the remedy is, but I think the only remedy is the start to breaking up of parts of their businesses and then creating whole new vibrant businesses from them.

[Scott Galloway]

Right. 100%.

[Kara Swisher]

It just seems healthier in so many ways. A fine's not gonna work. Threatening prison's not going to work. You know, it's just they should just cut them up and create new businesses and see what could be made. I mean having 67% of the global market and it does help their other businesses. I can't tell you how many times I open Chrome and it says, don't you want to make this your default browser? Right. I unsign out from Google because it's constantly trying to get me sucked into their system for no good reason. So it seems like I would rather it be owned by more people. That's my favorite.

[Scott Galloway]

Search is arguably, I bet on a gross dollar volume basis it. Search may be the biggest business in the world. I think it's 150. I think it's like a quarter of a trillion dollar business. But I bet it's got gross margins of 80 or 90 points and that makes even the iPhone look like a distant. Not a great business. So. And essentially all of this accretes to one player. And if you didn't have this incredible data advantage of looking what everyone is doing on the Internet two thirds of the time and then be able to steer them towards your search engine and then extract all sorts of payments to be the default, you would just have a lot more. All of a sudden the biggest market in the world wouldn't be a monopoly, which would ultimately lower rents on everyone that has to pay the toll.

[Kara Swisher]

And search would be better as a product.

[Scott Galloway]

Search 100% and they'd be forced to innovate. They might, who knows, someone might pop up and say this is search. That is not going to give this information more reach. We're not going to let computers create content. I had Eric Schmidt on and he said something I thought was really insightful.

[Kara Swisher]

This is the former. Just for people who know the former.

[Scott Galloway]

Google head, former CEO of Alphabet. Yeah, yeah.

[Kara Swisher]

Who I think he never was Alphabet, but Google, but go ahead.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh you're right. Excuse me. But he said something really interesting. He said humans should have absolutely very strong First Amendment free speech rights. But he said computers should not. And that really struck me as insightful because I think a lot of the misinformation, a lot of the incendiary content that polarizes us is not generated by a human.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

And I thought that was really an interesting place to start around all of this. But back to breakups in antitrust. Ask any economist or ask any lawyer trying to fight against this. What breakup in US history did not end up being a good idea? Every time we have broken up companies, you end up with more powerful, more valuable companies. You end up with more choice, you end up with lower rents, you end up with more innovation. The only person that loses is the person who has the controlling shareholders or the super voting majority shares, who wants to sit on the iron throne of not just Westeros, but all seven realms, but everybody else, every other stakeholder, the community, the tax base, employees. They then have more companies vying to rent their labor.

[Kara Swisher]

It's always better. It's always better. Look at what's happening even over in social media. Blue sky, that's that choice. That's, you know, whether you like threads or not. That's that choice. It feels so much.

[Scott Galloway]

People, people kept texting me blue sky stuff.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, everyone's moving over there, but it's different. They have a different, like, this is how our place is gonna be. It's not gonna be mean and it's not like that's the whole point of different things is you get to choose what you want. And that's the true free speech. That's my feeling is you get to, you know, everyone's like, you have to be, you know, Elon and his gang are pushing like you have to be on Twitter, like, no, I don't. I can do whatever I fucking want. And if I want to be in a bubble, great. If I don't, great. Like the ability to make and choose your own adventure to me is, is the. Is freedom. That's my feeling anyway. Speaking of shifts going on, Comcast is spinning off its cable networks. We've discussed this before, including MSNBC and CNBC into a separate company. Comcast said the new company, dubbed Spinco, how original for now. Will be better positioned to achieve long term growth and create value for stakeholders. The transaction will be structured as a tax free spin to shareholders and will take a year to complete. Mark Lazarus, I know him a little bit. He's very smart. The current chairman of NBCUniversal's media group will be spinning Co's CEO, the NBC broadcast Network, NBC News, Sports, Bravo, Peacock and the Universal theme parks remain part of Comcast. That means the entertainment stuff, all the entertainment and the main news, NBC News. Staying there is interesting because I don't understand that one. That's only because I don't, because they share MSNBC and NBC. They share a lot of people. I get all the others and Peacock and everything else. And then they may have to rename msnbc by the way, for people who don't know, it's Microsoft, NBC when they did. People don't. No one remembers that. And so anyway, thoughts? You would call this good bank, bad bank, but what do you imagine is going to happen here? And what's the plus for the bad bank, which is the cable assets?

[Scott Galloway]

So we've been predicting this for a long time and that is when you have businesses that have a different business model or different life stages of maturity. So you could argue that still that Peacock for example, and the theme parks are still growing businesses and they get a certain valuation because they're seen as more strategic and they're growing and they're about the future. USA Network, cnbc, MSNBC are not the future, they're the past. And that is they're flat to declining and mostly declining. And so these companies get an entirely different multiple, a much lower multiple. They're still very profitable, they're good businesses, but they're shrinking. So they might get a multiple on EBITDA of 5 to 7, whereas the Bravo or the Peacock or the theme park's getting much higher multiple because there's a lot more potential for growth there. The problem is when you shove companies and businesses of different points in the life cycle together, investors go, generally speaking, the market goes. I'm confused. I don't like this. So I'm going to find the shittiest business in your portfolio, cmv, cnbc, and I'm going to assign the same multiple to the entire business. So, so what you do, and this makes sense is you go good bank, bad bank. Simon Properties did this. Simon Properties has a ton of malls. The best malls probably in America are probably Simon, but they also have a lot of B class malls that are dying. So they took all the shit that was still profitable and stuck it into a different company, a Spinco. And that way you get to decide if you want the growth high end stuff or if you want Spinco is will trade at a much lower valuation, but it'll still attract investors. And in Addition, the cultural shift is dramatic because what you have with the SpendCo is the following. They're going to go to ABC or Disney and say, hey, abc, or hey, espn, or hey, even maybe cnn. You're like us, you're these shitty assets. But there's a good business model in distressed assets. And that is the following. We take on ABC, we take on CNN, and your business is declining 10 to 12% a year. But through consolidation, we're going to cut costs 14% a year because we only need one CFO. And we're going to clear out all the salespeople except for the top 10%. We're going to clear out all the back office, and we're going to consolidate and cut costs. And as long as we recognize that this is no longer a teenager, but an aging senior, and we can cut costs faster than the revenues decline, you make more money. And these are good businesses. They're just in different points of the life cycle. And the market likes that. The market wants.

[Kara Swisher]

Companies also come up with good things. Too separate in a way. You could figure new things out for yourself. Your business, presumably. They don't just have to be a. You're describing AOL Dial up here, right? It's still a good business, even if it's.

[Scott Galloway]

I've said this before. Probably the second best investment I ever made was in a Yellow Pages company. And the guy, a guy named Joe Walsh, really outstanding operator. And it was Paulson in there, and my buddy Jason Mudrick from Mudrick Capital put me on the board. And basically the strategy was very simple. Businesses, we all know Yellow Pages are going out of business, except these businesses typically go out of business more slowly than you think. And so we projected the company was going to decline. There are still a ton of rural households that want that big fat fucking book on their porch every year to call a lawyer or someone to put up their fence or something like that. There are still a lot of people. You referenced a decent analogy, AOL Dial Up. And there are a lot of different Yellow Pages companies. So what you do, quite frankly, is you go buy them at two to three times profits because everybody knows it's a declining business. And then you consolidate the back end and operate and you print money. And every year our EBITDA went up because we went to the biggest Yellow Pages company in the Southeast and said, hey, we know it sucks, but we can make this easier for everybody and consolidate the back end and save a lot of money and increase profits. Bad bank of all the different asset classes, whether it's angel, which is the worst part of the asset class venture, which is very difficult. Small number of VCs and a small number of partners. Partners at those, small number of VCs get all the deal flow. IPOs, growth companies mature, companies distressed. In my view, the best asset class is distressed because it's like the best small business in the world with a 90 plus percent success rate.

[Kara Swisher]

I'm going to give you another challenge though. How could they grow? You just assume they're old and going to die someday and we're going to keep Grampy who has the wallet it good or make it more efficient or feed him less or whatever. Could they grow? Could this bad bank become not a bad bank kind of thing?

[Scott Galloway]

Well, okay, a couple things. One, the way they grow. They will. The way they grow, the top line is by going and finding the other cable orphans that are also fucking up the valuation for the larger enterprise. Disney plus would trade at an enormous valuation multiple on revenues. ABC does not. So at some point Bob's going to give up and just throw his assets into this company. Who can pay stock for these other declining cable assets? Warner Discovery or Warner Brothers Discovery? Excuse me. They'll do the same thing. They'll put their shitty cable assets into this new company. So they'll grow the top line, but they will dramatically cut costs. And what's dangerous in the gestalt in these companies, it kind of fucks them up, is they always bring in someone with fresh legs who has visions of growth and rejuvenation. And the reality is what they should do is do a good job operating, present a good product. But quite frankly, their job is to cut costs and manage the company efficiently through acquisition and consolidation and cutting costs on the back end. And what they usually do, private equity will usually bring in a player that knows how to do that. And that's okay, they make money. But to believe that they can pump this thing up with Botox and they start looking freakish again, believing that, oh no, CNN's going to grow again now CNN, CNN might. They might be able to staunch or cauterize the bleeding. They might be able to come up with some sort of interesting, but be clear, these companies are not going to be growth companies again. Or I find it unlikely. And that's not the right strategy for shareholder growth. There's a ton of little assets that need a home and need one back end.

[Kara Swisher]

Right, right, right. Interesting. And so they could all be one. They could all be one bunch of cable assets together. Would there be any pushback from the Government if, say, you combined. Because there's all the talk of what Paramount's going to throw in here, what Warner's going to throw in here, that it could be a problem. If you decide to merge, there's all these talks, you're going to merge this with Warner Brothers or David Zaslav's going to do this or Paramount's going to do this. Can they all be in one? Can all the networks be in one company, for example?

[Scott Galloway]

So I would be shocked if it didn't fall under DOJ review. But here's the data the lawyers trying to get through the acquisitions would argue, and that is in 2017, 73% are three in four households had cable television. Okay. Just a scant seven years later, it's down to 42%. They could rightfully get in front and say this isn't about dominance, this is about survival and everyone's watching. None of these assets get nearly the viewership of Netflix or YouTube or name your digital growth property or Instagram. And you want to block us, folks, we're just trying to survive. Now there's, you could argue, some sort of a security risk because it's so important what people see, or news, but I don't even think they'll be able to. I don't think the government would be able to make that risk. And also with the Trump administration, the general view is that they're going to let these guys start acquiring and cutting costs. And you want to talk about a department of government efficiency, you know, let the guys who are getting the shit kicked out of them by TikTok and Meta and Alphabet consolidate and bulk up this. These guys, CNN Yellow Pages, all of these companies are great businesses. They just need to be smaller, maybe with lower costs.

[Kara Swisher]

New York Times should buy the Washington Post, for example.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't think they want to buy another newspaper based on what you've told me. That culture is, what's the term, a clusterfuck. Yeah, I don't think the New York Times should get near it.

[Kara Swisher]

I'm just trying to think of different things you could put together.

[Scott Galloway]

You could roll up. Well, Gannett, for example. Gannett rolled up every local newspaper. Yeah, and. But there's a lot of instances where you can make really good money doing.

[Kara Swisher]

This and sometimes it doesn't work and then it's just bad bank all the way down, essentially. But yeah, you're right, it's efficiencies. Roll ups are very interesting things. So I find them. I'm studying them lately. Anyway, let's go on a quick break. When we come back, we'll talk about the latest TV personality added to the Trump administration and more.

Support for this show comes from arm. Have you ever thought about the technology that makes this podcast possible? Whether you're listening on your phone, in your car or via a laptop, there's also the data centers that make it all work. One company is at the heart of it all. It's the same company that powered the smartphone revolution and is helping define the AI revolution. That company is called arm. ARM designs compute platforms for the biggest companies in the world so they can create silicon solutions to power global technology. Arm became a Nasdaq 100 company in less than a year of its IPO and is proudly NASDAQ listed. ARM touches nearly 100% of the globally connected population. 99% of smartphones are built on ARM. Major clouds run on ARM as well as all major mobile and PC apps. Now their engineers are tackling the insatiable demand for compute and power efficiency that AI is creating. AI enabled ARM CPUs are able to provide the compute platform for the global AI revolution in the years to come. But for now, relax and enjoy this podcast. It's very likely running on your very own ARM powered device. Visit arm.comdiscover to learn more.

[Scott Galloway]

Support for Pivot comes from Solidigm the opportunity of AI brings a multitude of challenges associated with rapid growth and expansion. Solidym makes sure your data storage can keep up with your AI ambitions. Energy usage challenges and physical space limits are only going to increase as AI scales. Outdated storage infrastructure based on spinning disks, also known as hard drives, which are decades old technology, simply can't keep up. Solidigm offers power efficient solid state storage spanning from the highest capacities to the highest performance. It's storage optimized for the AI era, meaning you can finally scale your AI with fewer limitations. Growing AI ambitions requires a different approach to storage. Solidigm Solid state Storage can help you bring your AI ambitions to life. Learn [e-mail] support for the show comes from Smartsheet. Attention project managers. Are you on the brink of burnout? Is your company going through a transformational change and expecting you to somehow figure out how to execute new programs and processes and guide everyone to success? It's not easy, so why don't you do yourself a favor and try out smartsheet? Smartsheet is an enterprise work management platform that empowers project and portfolio managers to connect strategy with execution. Used by 90% of Fortune 100 companies, Smartsheet is the platform of choice for big names including Iron Mountain, Autodesk, HP and more. That's because whatever your aim, whether it's department initiatives or organization wide goals, smartsheet can streamline processes and unite teams to deliver more impactful work. You can track projects, prioritize tasks and visualize data all on a flexible, scalable platform. Smartsheet powers the shift from reactive to proactive by helping organizations plan, capture, automate and report all in one place, which ultimately means teams can move faster, drive innovation and achieve more. Learn how Smartsheet can help your business at smartsheet.com pivot that's smartsheet.com pivot Smartsheet work better at scale.

[Kara Swisher]

Scott we're back with more news. Well, Trump has named some more people, including someone you know well, Dr. Oz, to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Oz is a former heart surgeon but has no experience running a government bureaucracy and has repeatedly drawn criticism from some medical professionals. That said, he looks good compared to some of the choices. As a reminder, Oz lost to John fetterman in the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate ran. In a statement, Trump said Oz would cut waste and fraud within our country's most expensive government agency. There is a lot of waste and fraud in those areas for sure. If confirmed by the Senate, RFK Jr. Both were confirmed would be Oz's boss, which seems should be flipped. Honestly if I had to pick in other Trump picks, former professional Wrestling executive Linda McMahon has been chosen to serve as the secretary of education. McMahon is a longtime Trump ally and ran the Small Business Administration for much of his first term. In fact, I think I interviewed her when she was that that seemed more appropriate for her as a job. Trump has said he wants to dismantle the Department of Education, which would require congressional approval. So I'm really not clear what's going on there. And last but not least, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick is Trump's pick for Commerce Secretary. He wanted to be Treasury Secretary and he instead got Commerce, trump said. Lutnick, who is a co chair of his transition team, will lead on tariffs and Trade. That seems more appropriate I guess for him. But you know, he engendered a lot of dislike in that, you know, in that climb up the greasy pole of Trump world. People thought he was a little too thirsty for that job. What do you think about that?

[Scott Galloway]

So I think Linda, Dr. Oz and Howard Lutnick are fucking Henry Kissinger compared to Tulsi Gabbard and Matt. I think all three of these people look, the winner gets to pick their Friends or gets to pick who they want. Sometimes people surprise you. I think all three of these folks, you could argue are incredible, reasonable picks. And then you have an apologist for Assad who went over there and didn't disclose it. And by the way, is everyone's favorite pick for this job in Russia. Can you imagine how demoralized you would be if you're an asset who has spent your life risking your life.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

To protect us against enemies. And then you have someone show up who seems to have more empathy for the enemy than for the risks and the commitment you've made to your own country.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

So, you know, even I have a really. A lot of us have a real issue around RFK in terms of vaccines, but he's also very good on some issues. What issues is Gabbard good on? Like, literally, what issue do you think they get right. That being apologist for a guy who killed 400,000 of his own citizens, being an apologize for Putin. Anyway, I am totally down with these three picks. Well done. They got my vote.

[Kara Swisher]

I thought the most interesting thing was Nikki Haley, who's now decided again to get back to her what I think is her real personality, honestly. She went after Gabbard saying she opposed ending the Iran nuclear deal. She opposed sanctions on Iran. She opposed designating the Iran military as terrorists who say death to America every single day. She said that Donald Trump turned the US Into a Saudi Arabia's prostitute. This is going to be a future head of national intelligence. She added that it was disgusting that Gabbard went for a photo op with Bashar Al Assad. Now here is what she said about Kennedy, which I would agree with. She says he's not a health guy, despite having years of stuff she should face. Hard question, he's a liberal Democrat, environmental attorney, lawyer, who's now overseeing 25% of our federal budget and has no background in healthcare. Now, some of you, and this is you, Scott, may think RFK is cool with some of the things you may like that he questions what's in our food and what's in our vaccines. But we don't know when he's given reigns the agency, what decisions he's going to make behind the scenes. I think she's right. If you like a couple, like we can all agree we need healthier food. That doesn't mean his crazy conspiracy theories should qualify. You should get someone who says that and doesn't have crazy conspiracy theories on earth.

[Scott Galloway]

I have a problem with that.

[Kara Swisher]

Like, who doesn't? Who can. Like I'm for oxygen. Like, okay. Like that kind of thing. So it's interesting. There's a lot of inter. Fighting going on in the right in many ways. Carl Rove wrote quite a piece about saying, this is a fucking clown show. He had all this opportunity the first week was all these very qualified and reasonable enough people, depending on whether you liked Republicans or not. Right. And he said. And then it degenerated into a clown show. And that Trump is frittering away all his political advantage by doing it. And that he's actually a lame duck president, as you have noted, and that he will. That he's. When you're in your second term, you don't have as much political power. So he doesn't know why he's using up this political capital that he has built up. And he also noted again, that the win wasn't so big that it gives him the right to behave like this. So anyway, it was interesting.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah.

[Kara Swisher]

In fighting, infighting. I like when they fight with each other over there and leaves us not to fight with them. Anyway, we'll see what happens.

[Scott Galloway]

Maybe they should freeze their semen or go to the Wicked show. Jesus Christ. No wonder everyone's so depressed.

[Kara Swisher]

You seem to be upset by reading a paper newspaper. A paper newspaper has triggered you, by the way. Go to the Wicked show. It's great. I took Clara this week. She loved it.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, you did?

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, she loved it. I saw it the second time. It's wonderful. It's very long. Everybody, let me be clear. It's a super long movie, but it's just wonderful. The second time is the first time.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah. I want to see it. Won't see it, but I know you won't.

[Kara Swisher]

But you should. You should. It's better than Barbie. How about that? Better than Barbie.

[Scott Galloway]

There's a lot I don't do that I should care about. Yeah, that's a long list.

[Kara Swisher]

You know what? I think you would tear up at the end.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, I do.

[Kara Swisher]

Wants to defy gravity. You're like, I want to defy gravity. Scott Galloway wants to defy gravity. Anyway, one quick thing. Podcast alert. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who never met at microphone they didn't want to chatter into, are starting a podcast or dogecast to document their work with the Department of Government Officials. Be full of like. It's like Beavis and Butthead, as far as I can tell. The pair detailed their plans to cut spending in the Wall Street Journal op ed, which will be focused on three types of regulatory cuts, administration reductions, and Cost savings. They also plan to recommend a return to office and early retirement policies and will take aim at funding of things like public media and Planned Parenthood. Should we have them to promote the new show?

[Scott Galloway]

Have them on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what we need to do. Yeah. I gotta be honest with you, Kara, There's a part of me that likes this.

[Kara Swisher]

What, the return to work or what?

[Scott Galloway]

No, just the whole. The whole. Try and shake things up. I don't think they're gonna get anywhere. I mean, it's just hilarious to have a Department of Government Efficiency that has absolutely no power. Most of the cuts they wanna make would require congressional approval. And the thing that kind of says it all is that there are two heads of the Department of Government Efficiency. But I do like the idea of a little bit of shock therapy, everyone. So. I mean, the problem with the government is that they're not subject to market dynamics the same way the private sector is. So you can imagine there's a lot of fatty deposits to build up.

[Kara Swisher]

Sure, I get it. So are the companies they run. Had those things. Fine, I get it. Here's the thing.

[Scott Galloway]

There's a lot more scrutiny on the private sector.

[Kara Swisher]

I would agree. I would agree. But the way they're doing it is cruel. And it's not in good faith. It's not in good faith, and that's what it is. They don't care. They want. They want to have a podcast. They want to make their stupid jokes. They want to say, look at me. This is not. This is. They're offended. Like, especially Ramaswamy. He's like, this whole thing has to go. I'm like, are you fucking kidding me? Like, really? Like, do you. It's just.

[Scott Galloway]

It's all Head Start in school lunches.

[Kara Swisher]

It's all hat and no fucking cattle. And it's on another. It's on a serious topic. And the same thing with rfk. Yes, we need healthier foods, but what the fuck are you doing over here? Like, it's just. This is all. This is a Look at me. Administration staffed by people who didn't get hugged enough as children. And that's my issue with them. And they don't. They're not in good faith doing things that matter to people. And they're not. Like, they just. Let's cut. And that's Elon's way. Let's fire everyone and sort out the rest. And I just don't think I get the shock to the system. But this is not a. You know, this is not a frat. This is not. I don't know, it has this feel of.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, I think it is, Kara.

[Kara Swisher]

It is. You're right. It is a frat.

[Scott Galloway]

I think it is. It's a very rape grouping. Dropping dead, bears in the park, wrestling.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, it's a very rapey. It's a very rapey group of people. You're right. It's like, you know, grabby. You know, brush the boob, make obnoxious things. Yes, it's brush the boob. Brush the boob. There's levels of rapey. Just so you know, my trainer was mad at you about your comments about Pete. I got several of. From.

[Scott Galloway]

About who? About what?

[Kara Swisher]

Pete Hegseth. That you were saying he was on a different scale than Matt Gaetz. You know, I'm just saying I got a lot of pushback.

[Scott Galloway]

Let me ask. So you're.

[Kara Swisher]

No, this is a man. This is a manly man who puts.

[Scott Galloway]

Next thing I know, you're going to be telling me I shouldn't refer to my assistant as jiggles. Come on. Come on.

[Kara Swisher]

He was right. Shall I read you the text I got? No, I wouldn't.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, that's what we need. That's what I. That's.

[Kara Swisher]

You.

[Scott Galloway]

Usually you don't read them to me. You send them to me at night and say, cheryl says you're being unfair and.

[Kara Swisher]

No, this were. These were straight men that came to me. I'm just telling you, I would. Yeah, yeah. I'm just saying.

[Scott Galloway]

He wrote, I'm dying to know. Kara. I like to dictate. I like to dictate my thoughts around what your trainer and your DJ think.

[Kara Swisher]

I'm just telling you, I'm just. He's a very smart guy. I'm just. Why do you have to pull him down? He's just as smart as you are.

[Scott Galloway]

Pull him down.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, yeah. He goes. I feel like Scott would compliment Dahmer on his fashion choices. He treats everyone like they're completely genuine in their state statements.

[Scott Galloway]

I was dumber on his fashion choices.

[Kara Swisher]

I think he's funny. He says the glorious middle we need to reach. Kind or rapey. He's funny. Kind of is funny. He is funny. You're going to learn to take Feedback, Scott. This was not from a lesbian.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, I'm sorry. Hold on, hold on. I need to learn to take feedback.

[Kara Swisher]

It's feedback. Yeah, yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

We should call this show Estrogen and Scott. And Scott and Feedback.

[Kara Swisher]

It's true.

[Scott Galloway]

Learn. Come on. Take that back. I need to learn to take feedback.

[Kara Swisher]

Is it true?

[Scott Galloway]

We could call this Podcast feedback for Scott.

[Kara Swisher]

Feedback for Scott. But that's why it's brilliant. That's why it's brilliant. It's Scott's Journey. It's Scott's Journey. It should be called Scott's Journey. Maybe we'll change it to that. It's pivot. It's called pivot. You're pivoting, Scott. We're getting you to pivot and then.

[Scott Galloway]

You'Re going to courtesy of your training trainer.

[Kara Swisher]

And then he's really smart. I'm gonna meet him.

[Scott Galloway]

I know.

[Kara Swisher]

He's, he's, he's, he's. He gave you some recommendations in London for your show so you can do pull ups also. I'll send you that. Yeah, yeah. He was wearing a pull up bar.

[Scott Galloway]

Crazy.

[Kara Swisher]

You said you wanted to do pull ups. He gave me a recommendation in London of really good. And it's. She's a very comely woman trainer there. I think you would like it.

[Scott Galloway]

I am. That's what I had me at. Comely.

[Kara Swisher]

They're pluses and minuses of insults from trainers. Anyway, let's. Jay, you're wonderful by the way. Jay, I appreciate your text to me. Anyway, let's pivot. Speaking of which, to a listener, mail. This one comes from bj. Oh, I love that name. Let's listen.

[Listener]

Hi, Scott and Kara. Whenever the topic of huge CEO salaries comes up, we're told that CEOs deserve their pay because of the huge time commitment and tremendous responsibility of the position. Elon is the CEO of two companies and CEO and all but title of a third. Yet he has time to shitpost on Twitter, appear at political rallies, father, but admittedly not parent kids, show up at raves, do drugs and so on. Doesn't this give lie to the concept that CEOs earn their pay? And do other CEOs ever think or tell you that they wished Elon would cut this shit out because he makes them all look bad? That. Thanks for all the content, BJ Wick.

[Kara Swisher]

Bj. Well, Elon has created value in the companies. I think he's a sort of a different unicorn situation. I think he has created value at Spuddy Sex and Tesla and et cetera. Some of it's memey and it's certainly not in line with the economics of some of the companies, like Tesla for example. But he has created. He's a different kind of CEO. He's a founder CEO in that regard. So he may be worth the money he's paid. I think it's a mixed bet on that. I think CEOs actually are split that I talk to. They wish they could behave like that. Actually they prefer, they would like to be assholes. They just can't pull it off. It's sort of like a lot of politicians sort of want to behave like Trump and they can't. They fall on hard times when they behave like Trump and only Trump can behave like Trump. And they're very comparable in that regard. Other CEOs really don't like it. They are like, this is making us all look bad. And eventually it will, the karma will fall into place here with this particular person. I do think CEOs get paid too much. I just think other people should be paid more and value should be more evenly distributed across companies. But we have the CEO, love the CEO culture and as Scott says, the obsession with innovators. So I don't think that's going to change.

[Scott Galloway]

Scott so I'll talk a little bit about, about CEO compensation and not specific to Musk we live in. We've decided in terms of wages it's supply and demand. And at some point we realize supply and demand isn't healthy. So we have federal minimum wage and if it had only kept up with productivity and inflation would be 23 bucks an hour, not 725. So that's a problem at the other end. You're talking about CEO compensation, where it's gone from about 40 years, 40 times the average compensation of the worker at that company to three or 400 times. And this is how it's happened. The person or the group that decides co compensation is the compensation committee of the board. And it's three or four people. Generally speaking. The CEO will figure out a way to get his golfing buddies on that committee because they get to decide how much he or she makes. And this is what happens. We don't like to do actual work on boards. We want to get paid a quarter to a half million dollars a year to show up for free lunch or free dinner every three months and think big thoughts and then go back to our formerly important person law life. And what we decide on the compensation committee is that we hire Towers Perrin, we pay them 100 or 300 grand to come back with a CEO compensation survey. And it's the following. It looks at the size of the company and the performance of the company and it says the lowest paid at 0 made this. And the highest paid at 100 made this. And generally speaking what you do is you say, well, Bob and Lisa, who are always the former sorority or fraternity rush chairman and are exceptionally likable. They're doing their level best. They're good people. Maybe the company's not doing great, but it's doing okay, all things considered. So we're not going to pay them at a 5, the average. We're going to pay them just above at a six. So slightly above average for a company in that sector of that size and that performance, you might think, well, that's innocuous. The problem is when you are raising someone's compensation, the CEO at 10% a year, which sounds reasonable, that's not bad. Give Bob 10% more this year. That means every 21 years, the compensation of the CEO goes up eight fold relative to other employees. And so what we have is CEO compensation that has gotten just totally fucking out of control. And the CEO says, okay, whether it's out of control or not, if you don't pay me market, which is out of control, I'm going to go next door and get more out of control compensation. So we agree to do it. Now the next question is, what can you do about it? And I don't think there's anything you can do about it on the compensation side. What you need to do do is have an alternative minimum tax such that if a CEO is making 60 million bucks a year, they don't pay a lower tax rate than their assistant because there are all sorts of goodies and loopholes. How folks that exercise options get long term capital gains, how they can defer their compensation, all sorts of shit. They can go beg for a bailout after paying themselves $120 million over five years. The CEOs of the biggest airlines, there's all sorts of ways that the top guy or gal can avoid paying their fair share. So my feeling is there is nothing you can do, do, or should do. I don't like the idea of a socialist contract around limiting compensation. What you can do is say, all right, if you make over a million bucks a year, we have an alternative minimum tax and that is take advantage of every loophole. But if you go below 20%, we're rounding up to 20%.

[Kara Swisher]

All right. And get to the other part of his question.

[Scott Galloway]

What was the other part?

[Kara Swisher]

It's that, you know, do people want to be like this from your perspective, Be like Elon? Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, yeah.

[Kara Swisher]

Some of them do. Not all of them, I would say.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, I don't know. I think the majority of people in business who are on this hamster wheel and see the kind of love and generosity America affords you, if you have a lot of money. If they finally get to that point of CEO compensation, they all want to be the overpaid guy or gal. No one at your funeral says, you.

[Kara Swisher]

Know, no, no, not that, that they want to behave. I'm talking about like doing whatever you feel like.

[Scott Galloway]

Right? Oh, Elon. Elon has channeled and actualized his inner 8 year old. And there's a health, healthy market that seems to appreciate it because CEOs have been told the decorum is to act like an adult in a grown, A grown man or a grown woman. And then he comes in and just scratches everybody's I.D. and you know, no one can, no one can look away. And in an attention economy, as long as you're famous, you know, that's a, that's a success story in itself. I not only do most CEOs not want to be this guy, they couldn't be this guy. They just, their decorum, the way they were raised, they could never, they could never do it. They just, they would refuse to. They can quit those.

[Kara Swisher]

So what I get is either, well, it's kind of cool, he gets to say what he wants. This is what I get. And then the others give a face. You can see a face before they say anything. They're like, ugh, like. But at the same time, they can't believe it's happening. I think he's a very Trump like figure. He's unusual. There won't be another one like him for a long time. I guess the equivalent before was Steve Jobs, but Steve Jobs looks like the best behaved boy in America.

[Scott Galloway]

See above Henry Kissinger, right?

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, exactly. And he actually, he would have hated this. This is he, this is not. He did everything to sell phones. This was not about personal, like putting his personal life in front of everybody. It was to sell more.

[Scott Galloway]

There are 500 CEOs in the S&P. 500, 499 of them. If they put out a tweet saying that I'm taking the company private at a massive premium, the funding is secured, they would have been fired within a week. The board would have said, I either need, need to see direct evidence of this right now, or we're doing an emergency board call and we're firing you.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

I mean, CEOs of S&P 500 every week, right. Are fired every day for much less or at least, at least emoted them or something. He's the fault here is not Elon Musk. The fault is the board of these companies. And I can see how they've decided this because They've said okay. At least they rationalize it. This guy's singular. He's pushing, putting. I mean, he's just accomplishing. No other individual seems to be accomplishing. And we're all making a ton of money.

[Kara Swisher]

That's right.

[Scott Galloway]

You know, much money. The people on the board.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, I read in the. There's a great Wall Street Journal story about this. It makes perfect. Everything's. Everybody. Let me just explain to you. Everything comes down to the money. If you make a lot of money, you can act like a. Like a douche nozzle. That's pretty much this. Pretty much the situation. What do you think we could do to get fired? What would we do? What could we. How far could we push it? I wonder.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, I don't. Jeez. I don't. I think I feel like I'm well. Well on the way. That's. I mean, that's.

[Kara Swisher]

You, honestly. No, I don't think so. I think you have a great latitude.

[Scott Galloway]

Oh, thanks for saying that. I'm just saying you're. You're a protected class, and I think people. You don't. You don't think you're a protected class because.

[Kara Swisher]

Why?

[Scott Galloway]

Because you're a lesbian journalist, Kara.

[Kara Swisher]

No, that's not at all. That's. I've never. I've never trotted that thing out, ever. I've never used it.

[Scott Galloway]

You don't need to trot it out. Everyone knows you. You're powerful. You're a leader, an advocate in your community. No one.

[Kara Swisher]

I don't think it's because of.

[Scott Galloway]

People think. People think. Got to think twice about canceling you. You're also very good at what you do, which helps.

[Kara Swisher]

I think that's really it. Thank you for saying that. But I think the gay card is a lot less strong than you think. I think. It's not that. I think both of us have an attitude of, we'll go somewhere else. We don't care. Right. I think that's more power, and we're good at what we do. And that's what. It's very hard to attack us because we don't care. Care as much.

[Scott Galloway]

I had dinner with one of my role models last night, Sam Harris, and he said something profound to me about 10 years ago. He said, if you have economic security and people who love you unconditionally, you have a moral obligation to speak your mind. Because in a society where everyone has a narrative and pressure to go up to sign up for the narrative, which a lot of people need to do because they want to Put food on the table when we all start barking up the same tree, as my colleague Jonathan Haidt said, we get. And so that's something I try to remember. And also we say, or I say, I should say a lot of borderline inappropriate things that some people, a lot of people might find offensive. And there's, I just want you to know, and I've said this before, there's a strategy here. And that is I want to see progressives take back power of our government. I refuse to normalize the notion that sexual abuse, inciting an insurrection, or a convicted felon should be present. I don't care if he got 49 or 99% of the vote. And one of the ways progressives take pack power is we prove to the world that we are not fucking humorless.

[Kara Swisher]

Right? Yeah.

[Scott Galloway]

And if you look back in history, the people, the comedians really made social change. They were progressives and they were incredibly profane. Carlin, Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce. So when I go out there and we go out there and I make off color jokes about your sexuality or I say inappropriate things or things that might trigger people, you know, a, it's me. I think it's funny. I think a lot of people think this way. But also I think part of progress will be when we get to a post.

[Kara Swisher]

Agreed.

[Scott Galloway]

Post, I don't know, bigoted era where we appreciate and rib and a little bit of mockery of each other's differences. But it's okay. We recognize we're different. That's okay. That's what makes us beautiful. And we can have a sense of humor about these things.

[Kara Swisher]

I would utterly agree with you. It's actually. Jon Stewart had a good riff on this this week on the Daily show and his Monday appearance. It was, it was, it was along these lines. The only place I'm gonna draw the line is the, the attacks on trans people right now are getting really ugly and it's not funny. And there's no like the Nancy Mace. And let me tell you, Nancy Mace, you're a heinous, heinous person.

[Scott Galloway]

That's really vile.

[Kara Swisher]

It's vile. I get you can have a debate about bathrooms.

[Scott Galloway]

You mean the legislation that's targeted at one person?

[Kara Swisher]

One person. And this woman. Can I just tell you, Sarah McBride is handling herself with such class and grace. She goes, I'm here to work for the constituents of my, of my district in Delaware. And I'm about prices and the economy and helping them have a better life. Where I go to the bathroom doesn't matter. She doesn't 100%. She had so much class. And Nancy Mace, honestly, what is wrong with you? You are an attention. And by the way her staff talks about this, she wanted apparently to get punched in the face during, during the insurrection so she could get attention. You are an attention seeking, heinous, cruel person.

[Scott Galloway]

And it's working. Look at what we're talking about.

[Kara Swisher]

I get it. I know we're talking about her, but not in a good way. And Sarah McBride, good for you for rising above it. But that's the one place where it's gotten. It's turned in a very ugly direction and it's not funny. But I agree with you. I would recommend watching John Stewart to have the same exact idea of like, let's start playing the loophole game like they do and the rule breaking and you shouldn't behave like the class monitor so much and maybe we can make some gains.

[Scott Galloway]

I was at a urinal yesterday and this guy came up to the urinal next to me and said, he said, looked over and he said, circumcise. I'm like, nope, that's just the wear and tear.

[Kara Swisher]

I don't even understand that. I don't understand why it's funny. I don't understand.

[Scott Galloway]

So just so you know, anytime if someone asks if you know a guy, do the following. Go, wait, five, ten, dark hair, circumcised. That, that's a great conversation starter.

[Kara Swisher]

I feel like I'm not going to do that.

[Scott Galloway]

And two, my favorite is that Republican senator who was soliciting blowjobs in the men's room at Minneapolis airport. And he was a total homophobe in the Senate.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, of course.

[Scott Galloway]

Wide Stance. I'm starting a boys band called. He just said, I just have a wide stance.

[Kara Swisher]

Wide stance. Wide stance.

[Scott Galloway]

I'm starting a boy band called Wide Stance.

[Kara Swisher]

Anyone who is so anti gay, you know what's happening. Let me just give you that piece of information.

[Scott Galloway]

I think there's a lot of truth to that.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh my God.

[Scott Galloway]

It's like a lot of truth to that.

[Kara Swisher]

It's like, calm the fuck down. What do you care? I was at a. This is my last story. I was at a dinner party with all these VCs a couple years ago and this guy, and he's a well known venture capitalist starts going. He goes. He was. He goes. He made. First, he made the typical lesbian jokes. There was a law about gay marriage. And he said, I don't like. I don't like gay sex. I like a lesbian sex. Ha ha ha. Did that one, which is like, oh, good God. And I knew it was coming next. And he goes, but I don't like. I don't like this gay sex thing. And so the room didn't know what to do. And I said, you know what? If you don't like gay sex, you have to stop having it. And he goes, what? And I said, well, if you don't like gay sex, you just said, you don't like it, don't have it. I don't like this zucchini. And I put it over to the side of the plate here, because I don't like it. And I'm not going. And he's like, I'm not having gay sex. I said, why did you say you don't like it? Because you just said you don't like it. Are you lying about having gay sex? That's weird. It was the most wonderful moment of my life. I have to say. This guy doesn't like me anymore.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, you know how many LGBTQ supporters it takes to change a light bulb? Oh, no, the light bulb is fine, Kara. The way it is. It's society that needs to change the way it looks at the light bulb.

[Kara Swisher]

You know what? We're not all woke by the way. We contain multitudes. We have plenty of conservatives and plenty of.

[Scott Galloway]

I don't get that, though. I don't understand the weird.

[Kara Swisher]

Just saying there's plenty of different gays of all kinds now. Same thing with everybody. Anyway, I agree, gented politics can get a little tiresome, but we're not all the same in any group. Anyway, if you've got a question of your own that you'd like answered, send it our way. Go to nymag.com pivot to submit a question for the show, or call 85551, pivot. By the way, Pivot is now on Blue Sky. Cause everybody else is. And we seek. We're a thirsty group of people, so send us a message there. We're gonna be on all the platforms. We're not really engaged on Twitter that much. Cause it's, again, a Nazi porn part, and it doesn't really help us. That's really the point. All right, Scott, one more quick break. We'll be back for predictions.

[Scott Galloway]

Support for the show comes from HubSpot. Picture this. You're at a party and someone asks you what you do as a marketer. How do you even begin to describe it? You have to generate leads, score them, contact them, create content, gather data, and to tomorrow do it all again and wonder if it's Even working marketers are spread way too thin. But HubSpot has a better way. With the help of Breez and tools including Content Remix, now you can turn up one piece of content into a suite of assets. Pinpoint the best prospects with predictive lead scoring and level up your campaign's KPIs with a new analytics suite so your day to day becomes less busy work and more driving revenue through the roof. And most importantly, you'll have a way easier time describing what you do at parties. Visit HubSpot.com marketers to learn more.

[E]

Support for Pivot comes from Lingo by Abbott when it comes to healthy habits, you can spend a lifetime cycling through wellness trends, diets and workouts. But the hard part is figuring out what actually works for you and sticking to it. That's where Lingo comes in.

[Kara Swisher]

Lingo is a biowarable, an app that.

[E]

Tracks your glucose in real time. That means you can get personal insights and recommendations that help you learn how to eat in a way that works for you. I'm about to try out Lingo myself and I'm very interested to see what happens when I eat something in the morning and what it really means is that oatmeal actually good for you? Or should you try eating an egg? It'll be interesting to track my unique glucose patterns, optimizing my nutrition and understanding the impact of that cookie at 11pm at night, it's water resistant. No more chasing wellness trends. When you use Lingo, your body can tell you what works for you. The Lingo glucose system is for users 18 years of age and older, not on insulin. It is not intended for diagnosis of diseases, including diabetes. For more information, please visit hello lingo.com.

[Scott Galloway]

Support for this episode comes from AWS. With the power of AWS Generative AI, teams can get relevant, fast answers to pressing questions and use data to drive real results, power your business and generate real impact with the most experienced cloud.

[Kara Swisher]

Okay Scott, we're going to do a prediction. I'm going to give one very quickly. I predict the Christmas rom com Hot Frosty, which is already number one movie on Netflix, will continue to dominate this weekend. The movie stars Lacey Chabert as a widow who falls in love with a snowman she brought to life. Who's really hot. He's hot. Frosty it's so sick. It is so sick. For those who have seen Frosty the Snowman, the thing to think about a fuckable Frosty. But that's what it's about. It's about a fuckable Frosty and she falls in love with him. And he has a really nice set of abs. I think you'll appreciate them. Scott. So that's my prediction.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, what does your trainer think?

[Kara Swisher]

He's going to beat you up. That's what's going to happen. Anyway, let's hear your prediction.

[Scott Galloway]

I think that. So with the antitrust scrutiny probably being dialed down and the election over, I think private equity is getting its jets kind of fired up again. And we're going to see in 2025 a lot of M and A and take private activity. There's like a quarter of a trillion dollars in dry powder on the line or the private equity has a master raise and needs to deploy. And I think a decent Target, if you will, right now is now Target. Walmart reported great earnings. Target terrible earnings. Walmart's now trading at I think 33 or 34 times earnings. And Target is trading at like 12. It's not doing really well.

[Kara Swisher]

No, it had a bad quarter. Right.

[Scott Galloway]

60% of Walmart's U.S. sales were in grocery and it was less than 25% for Target. And that kind of essential business is more, if you will, more consistent. Target's business model relies on consumers who are willing to spend on non essentials such as clothing and beauty. And it's lost a little bit of that differentiation and potential. NASH Even if Target could match or beat Walmart's prices, experts believe that Target would still be perceived as more expensive. And generally what happens in these kinds of business, everyone is compensated or focused on share. And I think Target is an example of a business that needs to shrink to become much more profitable. And that's just so counter to the DNA of every manager there. But I think Target is now at a price level and would benefit from making difficult hard cost cutting changes ranges outside of the public eye. This strikes me that there's probably quite a few PE folks sharpening their pencils and looking at Target because it still has a great brand. It still has, I think really outstanding real estate. I love the super Target in Boca Raton. I think it's a wonderful experience.

[Kara Swisher]

Brian Cornell is the CEO. I know him pretty well.

[Scott Galloway]

Really?

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, he's had a tough. The Stock fell at 21%.

[Scott Galloway]

I mean, yeah, yeah, well, they own, they. Target operates 1900 stores and generates sales of 107 billion. And their current debt is 19 billion on a market cap of 56. So it's got about a $75 billion. I think you're going to see some of the biggest LBOs in history and I think Target is probably getting eyed right now because this is a company that probably at 1500 stores versus 1900, get rid of the 400 least profitable, bring in a new, you know, freshen up the merchandise, if you will. I think this is. I think this is the kind of deal that PE loves. And these guys have so much capital, they've got it put to work. This would be a club deal, but it's a great brand. It's ubiquitous.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, you hope it doesn't go the way of. I'm trying to think of another. Because it was not trendy.

[Scott Galloway]

Pennies.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah, it was not trendy and then it got really trendy. Target got really kind of fun to shop that. And now it's really struggling. The issue is inflation, wary shoppers. And the CEO said that shoppers are waiting or stretched and waiting till the last minute to buy items. So I think it's gotten a little. Not fresh, I would say.

[Scott Galloway]

Well, exactly. But this would be so what I'm predicting. And these deals are hard to pull off, but I believe this would be the biggest LBO in history. TXU Now Energy Future holdings was 45 billion in 2007. HCA Healthcare was 33 billion in 06. RJR Nabisco was 31 billion all the way way back in 1989. So maybe a better prediction because it's more likely to happen is we're going to have the biggest LBO in history in 2025. And I think a decent idea.

[Kara Swisher]

Interesting.

[Scott Galloway]

Two decent ideas we've mentioned over the last three weeks. One is intel and one now I'm adding to the list. Target.

[Kara Swisher]

Are you involved, may I ask?

[Scott Galloway]

I'm not. I'm choosing my words carefully here. I talk. I talk to a lot of PE guys all the time, I'll say that.

[Kara Swisher]

Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, that's actually a great idea. It's a great idea, an excellent one. But I feel my Frost, hot, frosty prediction was better. Hosties. What are they going to do next? They're going to take a cartoon and make them fuckable. I don't like this. I just don't like this term. But I did watch it and I liked it anyway. By the way, watch the Diplomat also. Second season. Amazing.

[Scott Galloway]

People love it.

[Kara Swisher]

Love, Fantastic. So smart. It's like West Wingy kind of, but it's really smart. And the two main stars are fantastic elsewhere in the Kara and Scott universe, as you mentioned, you spoke with Google's former CEO Eric Schmidt on the Profg podcast, by the way, running up the charts Mr. Podcast, maybe the doge cache will catch you, but probably not. And discuss the threats and opportunities of artificial intelligence. Let's listen to what Eric Schmidt is most worried about. If we don't get a grip on this technology.

[Scott Galloway]

Remember that it was the horror of nuclear war that got people to the table and it still took 15 years. I don't want us to go through an analogous bad introduction incident involving an evil actor in North Korea. Again, I'm just using them as bad examples. Or even Russia today we obviously don't trust. I don't want to run that experiment and have all that harm and then say, hey, we should have foreseen this.

[Kara Swisher]

Oh, Eriks is being very careful. That's interesting. He's an interesting guy, very smart. I covered when he got that job. I think I broke that story. When he got that job at Google many moons ago, he was way out in Utah working.

[Scott Galloway]

Yeah, he was running Oracle or something. No, not God.

[Kara Swisher]

Blanket.

[Scott Galloway]

What's it called?

[Kara Swisher]

Novel. Novel, yeah. He was at Nova. So Eric was at. Before that he was at Sun. He was at where he got famous and he went to Novell and then of course got that Google job where he did pretty well. But he's a very thoughtful person. I'm glad you talked to him.

[Scott Galloway]

PhD from Berkeley.

[Kara Swisher]

No, yeah, I don't know. He's just really smart. Very smart guy. Great, great moment of talk about getting the best job in history. That was when he went to Google and he kind of cleaned it up. But please listen to Prof. G and listen to Scott's discussion with Eric Schmidt. It's quite good. All right, Scott, that's the show. We'll be back on Tuesday with more Pivot. Why don't you read us out?

[Scott Galloway]

Today's show was produced by Larry Naiman, Zoe Marcus, Taylor Griffin and Christine Driscoll. Ernie Intertide engineered this episode. Thanks also to Drew Burrows, Mia Saverio and Dan Schulon. Nishat Kirwa is Vox Media's executive producer of audio. Make sure you subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening to Pivot from New York Magazine and Vox Media Media. You can subscribe to the [e-mail] pod we'll be back next week for another breakdown of all things tech and business. Have a great rest of the week and weekend. Kara.

[E]

Support for Pivot comes from Lingo by Abbott. Lingo is a new science backed system that powers healthy habitat change. It's biowearable and has an app that tracks your glucose in real time. And you don't just get data, you get a plan too. It gives personal insights and science backed recommendations so you can learn how your body responds to your habits and learn.

[Kara Swisher]

To eat what works for you.

[E]

The Lingo Glucose System is for users 18 years of age and older not on insulin. It is not intended for diagnosis of diseases, including diabetes. For more information, please visit. Hello.

[Scott Galloway]

Support for this episode comes from aws. AWS Generative AI gives you the tools to power your business forward with the security and speed of the world's most experienced cloud.