Linked List: November 21, 2022

Monday, 21 November 2022

Bob Iger Returning as Disney CEO; Bob Chapek Fired by Board 

Alex Weprin, reporting for The Hollywood Reporter:

In a stunning turn of events, The Walt Disney Co. says that Bob Chapek will step down as CEO, with Bob Iger returning to lead the company. Disney’s board of directors announced the decision Sunday night.

Not just Sunday night, late Sunday night. There was some Succession-style drama going on behind the scenes at Disney this weekend. “Effective immediately” is not a phrase major corporations apply lightly.

Chapek had just signed a new multi-year contract in June, after speculation following the ouster of TV chief Peter Rice earlier that month prompted the board to issue a notable public statement backing the CEO after the move.

Iger even acknowledged in an email to Disney employees Sunday that he is returning “with an incredible sense of gratitude and humility — and, I must admit, a bit of amazement.”

Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings, in a tweet after the news broke last night:

Ugh. I had been hoping Iger would run for President. He is amazing.

That, my friends, is a how a CEO should wield humor on Twitter. Deftly, and with class.

TSMC Planning 3-Nanometer Chip Production in Arizona 

Sarah Wu, reporting for Reuters:

Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC is planning to produce chips with advanced 3-nanometer technology at its new factory in the U.S. state of Arizona but the plans are not completely finalised yet, the company’s founder Morris Chang said on Monday. [...]

Chang, speaking to reporters in Taipei after returning from the APEC summit in Thailand, said the 3-nanometer plant would be located at the same Arizona site as the 5-nanometre plant. “Three-nanometer, TSMC right now has a plan, but it has not been completely finalised,” said Chang, who has retired from TSMC but remains influential in the company and the broader chip industry. “It has almost been finalised — in the same Arizona site, phase two. Five-nanometer is phase one, 3-nanometer is phase two.”

Would be a big win in all sorts of ways if this comes to pass.

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, Largest Traded Cryptocurrency Fund, Hits Record Lows 

Web3 continues to go just great too. Molly White:

Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the largest publicly traded crypto fund, hit record lows in the wake of the FTX collapse. The fund was trading at nearly a 50% discount on the underlying Bitcoin asset, as holders rushed to sell off their GBTC holdings.

This was not helped by Grayscale’s response to those in crypto who were pushing Grayscale to follow suit with some other crypto platforms and publish proof of reserves. Grayscale announced that “due to security concerns, we do not make such on-chain wallet information and confirmation information publicly available through a cryptographic Proof-of-Reserve, or other advanced cryptographic accounting procedure”. They did not elaborate on what these “security concerns” might be, and stoked fears in some that the company might not have the backing they ought to have.

This is totally normal, on the up-the-up, and doesn’t sound at all like a scam about to fall apart. Just like the rest of the cryptocurrency world.

England, Other Teams Drop Plans to Wear Antidiscrimination Armbands at Qatar World Cup 

The Wall Street Journal:

Hours before their opening games of the 2022 World Cup, England and Wales abandoned plans to wear rainbow armbands after FIFA threatened to sanction players for breaking tournament rules.

In one of the early flashpoints of the tournament, FIFA on Sunday notified seven European teams that players would be subject to sporting sanctions, including automatic yellow cards, for wearing the “One Love” armbands, which were designed to send a message against discrimination. The target was widely understood to be anti-homosexuality laws in Qatar.

Like I wrote over the weekend, choosing to host the World Cup in a repressive right-wing religious dictatorship is going just great.