Demystifying the Trillion Dollar Debate Over Share Buybacks

Tick Tock for TikTok. The Chinese short video app introduced a one-hour time limit for users who are under 18. The move was announced days after the Biden administration, Canada and the European Union banned the social media powerhouse from government phones over concerns that the company may put sensitive information in the hands of the Chinese government.

Salesforce discovers its profit motive. The software group, grappling with six activist investors, reported better-than-expected earnings, sending its share price soaring. Marc Benioff, the C.E.O., was joyful in a round of interviews with journalists and on a call with analysts. He said Salesforce was now putting a priority on profits and efficiency over growth. (A nonchalant admission that raises the question: What took it so long?)

The newsmaker: Nir Bar Dea

Bridgewater’s C.E.O., Nir Bar Dea, unveiled a long-awaited revamp of the world’s biggest hedge fund this week, five months after its founder, Ray Dalio, ceded control. The sweeping changes include expanding in Asia, cutting nearly 8 percent of its work force and capping the size of its flagship Pure Alpha fund to $70 billion.

A new C.E.O. for a new era. “I know for a lot of people — I’m not necessarily what they would be expecting,” Bar Dea told Bloomberg last year. “I don’t sound like it, look like it, the role of the C.E.O. of Bridgewater.” In 2020, Fortune named Mr. Bar Dea one of its “40 Under 40” in finance.

Mr. Bar Dea’s grandparents are from Libya, Poland and Hungary. He grew up in Israel and says the country’s transformation underpins his own ambition. “I saw a nation be built almost from the ground up in my lifetime,” he told Forbes.

Previous experience: the army, diplomacy and start-ups. Mr. Bar Dea was a platoon leader in the Israeli Defense Forces. He later founded a drone company and has said shutting it down was one of the most formative events of his career. Mr. Bar Dea later ran real estate for a restaurant company called Dishes, and in 2014 he took a role as adviser and speechwriter to the Israeli mission to the United Nations. He has an M.B.A. from Wharton.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/04/business/biden-buffett-debate-share-buybacks.html