Zuck Is Worth $211 Billion

In Today’s (7th) Edition of “Element, by Arsh“ -

• Mark Zuckerberg Is Now The 2nd Richest Person In The World…

• A Giant Strike By Workers Started & Ended In A Week…

• Spirit Airlines Faces Major Turbulence…

MARK ZUCKERBURG + META

Zuck Is Now Richer Than Jeff Bezos…

Meta’s Rebirth. Even the name “Meta“ is a massive marketing campaign, and according to Mark, was necessary for changing the mindset of all the employees of the company. As virtually everyone knows, Meta’s old name was “Facebook“, and Mark thought that the name was pigeonholing the employees into thinking of the company as just a social media company. Mark had bigger plans for the company and he said that the decision to change the name to Meta and the focus on Metaverse was the best plan to change the culture. I would say that it has more than worked.

Wall Street Doesn’t Like Change. As soon as Mark announced the name change of the company and diverted the company’s focus on the Metaverse, big investors got scared and made sure that Meta’s stock dropped 70% in late 2022 (About the same as what the stock was worth in 2015). In almost two years since then, the company’s stock has grown 6 times, from close to $90/share in late 2022 to almost $600/share today.

Zuck’s Net Worth. Naturally, with Meta’s stock falling in late 2022, Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth struggled significantly too. Mark currently owns 13.6% of Meta and a majority of his net worth is tied to the company’s fate. With Meta’s stock growing 6 times its value in late 2022, Mark is back near the very top of the world’s richest people. According to Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, Zuck’s current net worth is $211 Billion and is only ~$50 Billion less than Elon Musk's. A more fascinating fact about Mark’s new position as the second richest person in the world is that Zuck has gained more net worth than any other person on the planet in the last year - a whopping $82.6 Billion! This even beats Jensen Huang of Nvidia, who has gained only $65 Billion this year…

PORT WORKER’S STRIKE

Port Workers’ Strike That Threatened The Supply Chain Ended In A Week (Kinda)…

There Was A Strike? Apparently, yes! The International Longshoreman Association (ILA) is the largest port worker’s union in North America, with over 85,000 members. Their primary goal is to ensure that the people who work in the ports and are an integral part of the global supply chain are well-paid and fairly treated. This strike started about a week ago when the union put forth its demands.

What were its demands? The ILA wanted an almost 80% wage hike for the port workers and assurances that automation on the port would not become a reality. I agree that port workers should be adequately paid for their important role in the global supply chain, but I would not say that protection against port automation is a practical demand. This would reduce the productivity of the ports and would cause consistently higher shipping costs, even though it could’ve been lower.

Port Automation? It is exactly as it sounds like. Many ports in countries like China are using giant robots to move around shipping containers, which work 24 hours a day and can therefore reduce the cost to run these ports, and hence reduce shipping costs. If you ever thought about why products from China are so cheap, lower shipping costs are one of the reasons. Reducing costs with the help of technology gives Chinese companies a monetary advantage over anyone else in the world. If U.S. ports don’t innovate, American businesses will get hurt in the process.

SPIRIT AIRLINES

Spirit Airlines Faces Major Turbulence & Considers Bankruptcy…

Spirit’s Stock Plunges. Spirit Airlines’s stock lost a quarter of its value this week when news broke that the company might be considering bankruptcy. To the uninitiated, Spirit is an ultra-low-cost airline carrier that primarily serves the eastern coast of the US mainland. Over the years the company has attracted A LOT of bad press because of its sub-par customer experience, which is reflected in its extremely low customer satisfaction scores.

But, it’s a budget airline. Yes! You are correct, and people shouldn’t expect much from the airline. But, when everyone around you is badmouthing a company, people often board the aircraft already disgruntled. This is the worst kind of customer to have, since these customers are often the loudest (when talking about their negative experiences), and will make the experience of the other passengers worse too. That is why a lot of companies focus on customer satisfaction and ensuring the customer has a great experience.

Bankruptcy might not be bad. Bankruptcy is often seen as a bad thing, but to tackle its debt problems, it might be the best decision to declare bankruptcy and rebuild the company from the ground up. Some of the other airlines have also declared bankruptcy in the past and rebuilt themselves. An example of this is Delta Airlines which declared Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in 2005 and has worked towards becoming the biggest airline in the US, a position it still holds today.