In The Money: Midsummer edition 🌸
Welcome to Nº 30 of In The Money, your weekly newsletter on keeping up with all things finance, tech, and startups. As always, this week’s newsletter is filled with all the financy things. You are probably wondering why ITM is dropping in your inbox already today. This week we are celebrating Midsummer in Scandinavia so currently, I’m on a boat on my way to an island. If you are not familiar with Midsummer, here’s a Forbes article that explains how Midsummer is celebrated in Scandinavia. This week Bumble gave its employees the week off as paid vacation to recover from pandemic burnout. The EU announced a formal investigation into Google’s advertising business. With Bitcoin mines closed in China the world’s largest cryptocurrency tumbled below $30,000. Also, in this edition, a brief history of the stock market, ITM’s Midsummer tips, and much more. I hope you enjoy this edition and Happy Midsummer 🌸
A break from swiping 🐝
Bumble, the dating and relationship app, CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd gave the company’s about 700 employees this week off as paid vacation and “much needed break” in an effort to recover from pandemic burnout. In a statement Bumble said that like most people, “our global team has had a very challenging time during the pandemic. As vaccination rates have increased and restrictions have begun to ease, we wanted to give our teams around the world and opportunity to shut off and focus on themselves for a week.” In a tweet, which is no longer available, Bumble’s Head of Editorial Content Clare O’Connor said Wolfe Herd had “correctly intuited our collective burnout.” Bumble had already announced its plans to give all staff the “fully offline” week-long vacation on Twitter in April. With the pandemic, dating apps had to quickly pivot to keep users engaged as people isolated and quarantined at home. At the same time, fears over employee burnout emerged as the boundary between work and home vanished. While many businesses have thrived, workers are on the edge of throwing in the towel. A Microsoft study this spring found that 41% of workers may quit this year. With employers at risk of losing employees, workers are in a position to demand change. And the paid vacation for Bumble employees comes amid a trend of companies trying to persuade employees that they have their best interests at heart and to stay. With pandemic-induced restrictions now largely lifted across the US, companies are taking different approaches to retain staff and boost productivity. Some expect a full return to the office while others are offering a more flexible approach. Corporations such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are requiring all vaccinated employees to come back to the office, whereas tech companies like Apple will pursue a hybrid work-from-home strategy and Twitter has announced employees will be able to work from home indefinitely.
“Have a dream, chase it down, jump over every single hurdle, and run through fire and ice to get there.” - Whitney Wolfe Herd
You can read more about Whitney Wolfe Herd, how she founded Bumble and eventually took it public as the youngest female founder in history in a previous edition of ITM.
First female managing partner at Swiss wealth manager 👩💼
On Monday the Swiss wealth and asset manager Pictet Group appointed Elif Aktug as managing partner, the first woman to hold that position in the private bank's 216-year history. In addition to Aktug, Francois Pictet will also become a managing partner from September pending regulatory approval for the two, which would expand the number of partners to nine, Geneva-based Pictet said in a statement. The Pictet Group is a partnership of owner-managers, with principles of succession and transfer of ownership that have not changed since its foundation in 1805. At the end of 2020, it had 609 billion Swiss francs ($661.09 billion) under management or custody. Aktug has been with Pictet since 2011 as the lead fund manager of Pictet Asset Management's Agora, a 2.5 billion euro ($2.97 billion) European equity strategy. Prior to that, she was a managing director with Goldman Sachs in London.
The inventor gender gap 👩🔬
The inventor gender gap is well established and a new study by researchers from Harvard Business School, IESE Business School, and McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management examined both how many patents are awarded to men and women and what those patents are for. The study used text analysis of all US biomedical patents filed from 1976 through 2010 and found that patents with all-female inventor teams are 35% more likely than all-male teams to focus on women’s health. The research also confirmed that female researchers are more likely to discover female-focused ideas. The study begins by pointing out that: “Although progress has been made, women are still less likely to enter STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) occupations, less likely to continue in scientific careers, and less likely to become inventors. Even today, only 35% of STEM scientists and 13% of US patent inventors are women, suggesting that there are many “lost Curies,” talented girls who never grow up to discover and invent.” The gap in itself is cause for concern, but its consequences are more concerning as they extend beyond the labor market. Women engage in less commercial patenting and invention than do men. This affects what is invented, which means society is likely missing out on inventions that could improve women’s health and lives. The findings imply that many promising female-focused discoveries have yet to be commercialized because women are less likely to obtain patents. The researchers made rough calculations that suggested that if all the patents invented between 1976 and 2010 had been produced by men and women equally, then there would have been around 6,500 more female-focused inventions. Also, if research articles were produced equally by men and women, then from 2002 to 2020 there would have potentially been 40,000 more female-focused discoveries. The consequence of the bias is pretty clear, thousands of missed opportunities, and that’s only in biomedicine.
Run for yourself 👟
After breaking up with Nike in 2019 and landing a sponsorship deal with Gap’s Athleta, the brand’s first, the track and field star Allyson Felix is launching her own shoe business. Felix debuted Saysh, on Wednesday which she pitches as a lifestyle brand designed with women in mind. Saysh’s first product, the Saysh One sneaker, retails for $150 and is currently available for preorder in three colors. According to the company’s website, other products are in the works. In addition to shoes, customers are also able to buy a membership to the “Saysh Collective,” which comes with workout videos and occasional interactions with Felix. The annual membership costs $150, while a monthly pass is $10. The announcement of Saysh comes after Felix finished second in the 400 meters at the US Olympic Track and Field trials last weekend, clinching her spot in the Tokyo Olympics. Felix is the most decorated female track and field star in US history. In an interview with Time magazine, Felix said the women’s footwear market is underserved, and that the mentality has often been to “shrink it and pink it.” Felix departed a deal with Nike in 2019 after she said the company wanted to pay her 70% less after her pregnancy. She has since been invested in raising awareness around healthcare inequities facing Black mothers. Felix serves as Saysh president, while her brother and business partner Wes is the CEO. The company has raised $3 million in seed money from a broad range of venture investors.
Revolut revenue rise 💸
In 2020, the London-based fintech startup Revolut reported $361 million in revenue (£261 million), a 57% increase compared to 2019 revenue of $229 million (£166 million). Those revenue figures have been adjusted to include fair value gains on cryptocurrency assets. This means that Revolut holds some crypto assets on its balance sheet. The company reported that it made $54 million (£39 million) in fair value gains on cryptocurrency assets. Revolut’s gross profit reached $170 million (£123 million) last year. Gross profit is the profit a company makes after deducting the costs associated with making and selling its products, or the costs associated with providing its services. At the same time, the company still reports operating losses. For example, Q1 2020 was a particularly bad quarter with $76 million (£55 million) in adjusted operating loss. In 2020, total non-adjusted operating loss reached $277 million (£200.6 million). As for many tech companies, administrative expenses are responsible for this loss. With a staff of 2,200 people, the company spent $367 million (£266 million) on administrative costs alone. If you compare Q1 2020 to Q1 2021, things are radically different for the fintech company: revenue increased by 130% year-over-year, and gross profit grew by 300% between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021. Recently, Revolut has been launching a ton of products to diversify its sources of revenue. It is increasingly becoming a financial super app with current accounts, debit cards, trading services, insurance products, premium subscriptions, cryptocurrency trading, and more. Interchange revenue from card transactions represents a good chunk of the company’s revenue. In 2020, cards and interchange generated $131 million (£95 million) in revenue. This comes from every time a Revolut customer makes a card purchase, the card scheme (Visa or Mastercard) gives back some fees to Revolut. It’s an incredibly small percentage-based fee, but it can add up when you generate millions of purchases. Another big one is foreign exchange and wealth which generated $111 million (£80 million) in revenue. And finally, subscriptions, such as Revolut Plus, Revolut Premium, and Revolut Metal, accounted for $104 million (£75 million) in revenue. The three are strong pillars that all contribute to the company’s bottom line. They all represent a bit less or a bit more than a third of the company’s overall revenue. While the company has expanded aggressively over the years, the UK is still by far its biggest market. 88.4% of the company’s (non-adjusted) revenue in 2020 was related to its activities in the UK. The European Economic Area without the UK represented 10.2% of revenue. The US, Japan, Australia, and other markets were nearly negligible. In 2020 Revolut also raised a mega-round of funding of a $500 million Series D round that was extended to $580 million in total.
Investigated 🕵️♀️
On Tuesday the EU announced a formal investigation into Google’s advertising business. With the investigation, the EU wants to establish whether Google has harmed competition by restricting or excluding its rivals from data and services. Google, which earned roughly $147 billion in advertising revenues last year, dominates the market and operates the leading tools for buying and selling ads, as well as the biggest market where online ad deals are struck. Specifically, the probe will examine how Google insists that advertisers can only buy display ads on YouTube by using its own tools. The investigation is also looking if Google’s tools favor the company’s ad exchange, the marketplace where deals are made, and whether rival services can access data on how users react to the ads traded on Google’s exchange. “Google is present at almost all levels of the supply chain for online display advertising. “We are concerned that Google has made it harder for rival online advertising services to compete in the so-called ad tech stack,” said Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s executive vice-president in charge of competition policy. Vestager added that the investigation would also look into Google’s policies on tracking users “to make sure they are in line with fair competition”. The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, said it would consider “the need to protect user privacy” in line with the General Data Protection Regulation, and that “competition law and data protection laws must work hand in hand to ensure that display advertising markets operate on a level playing field in which all market participants protect user privacy in the same manner.” The probe comes at a time when regulators in Europe and elsewhere are opening investigations into the crossover between privacy and competition concerns. For instance, the French competition authority opened a probe into Apple’s update to its privacy standards last year. And the EU’s probe into Google comes days after France fined the company €220 million for abusing its dominant position in the advertising sector. Contrary to the three ongoing appeals Google has against the EU before the courts, Google said it would not appeal and agreed to some changes globally. The probe also comes at a time when draft legislation to tame the power of Big Tech is being debated in the EU. Expected rules that are to be enacted during the first half of 2022, will include legal requirements for tech companies to share their data with rivals to enable competition.
Bitcoin ban ✋
As of last Sunday, many Bitcoin mines in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, one of China's largest cryptocurrency mining bases were closed. Bitcoin mining is the process by which new Bitcoins are entered into circulation. It is performed using very sophisticated computers that solve extremely complex computational math problems. This came after local authorities ordered a halt to mining in the region on Friday amid an intensified nationwide crackdown against cryptocurrency mining. The ban also means that more than 90% of China's Bitcoin mining capacity is estimated to be shut down as regulators in other key mining hubs in China's north and southwest regions have taken similar harsh steps. The world’s largest cryptocurrency sank 7% on Monday on the reports that China has intensified its crackdown on cryptocurrency mining. Smaller cryptocurrency rivals like Ether and XRP also tumbled, down 8% and 7% respectively. Separately on Monday, China’s central bank said it had summoned Alipay, the payments service run by Alibaba affiliate Ant Group, and some major banks urging them to crack down on crypto trading. Already previously, China had banned financial institutions from providing crypto-related services. China banned local cryptocurrency exchanges in 2017 forcing them to move offshore. That did not stop Chinese traders from buying and selling digital coins, though it added a layer of complexity to crypto trading. China’s crackdown appears to have led to a significant decline in Bitcoin’s hash rate (or processing power) which has fallen sharply in the last month. According to data from the Block, Bitcoin’s hashrate, or the total computational power to mine the cryptocurrency, has dropped by nearly 50% in over a month. From about 168,000 petahashes per second (PH/s) on May 15, the Bitcoin hashrate has dropped to nearly 86,000 PH/s as of June 23. An estimated 65% of global Bitcoin mining is done in China. At the same time, the renewed crackdown on the cryptocurrency industry in China has wiped off nearly $300 billion in value from the total digital currency market since Friday. The slump for Bitcoin intensified on Tuesday as the cryptocurrency fell below the key $30,000 level and turned negative for 2021.
In last week’s ITM we learned that Microstrategy offered corporate bonds to purchase more Bitcoin. On Monday the company said it now owns more than 100,000 Bitcoins after completing another purchase round, this time spending roughly $489 million on 13,005 tokens. Shares of the enterprise software company were down more than 6% in premarket trading, mirroring a similarly sized slide in the price of Bitcoin Monday morning. MicroStrategy said the average purchase price of its 105,085 Bitcoins is $26,080 apiece, including fees and other expenses. As of Monday, the company’s holdings were worth more than $3 billion.
ITM fun fact: A brief history of the stock market 💹
When people talk stocks, they are usually talking about companies listed on major stock exchanges like the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the Nasdaq. But, of course, it wasn't always this way. Trading goods dates back to the earliest civilizations. Early businesses would combine their funds to take ships across the sea to other countries. For thousands of years, these transactions were either implemented by trading groups or individuals. Throughout the Middle Ages, merchants assembled in the middle of a town to exchange and trade goods from countries worldwide. Since these merchants were from different countries, it was necessary to establish a money exchange, so that trading transactions were fair. The first modern stock trading was created in Amsterdam when the Dutch East India Company was the first publicly-traded company. To raise capital, the company decided to sell stock and pay dividends of the shares to investors. Then in 1611, the Amsterdam stock exchange was created. For many years, the only trading activity on the exchange was trading shares of the Dutch East India Company. At this point, other countries began creating similar companies. The excitement of buying and selling shared blinded most investors and they bought into any company that began available without investigating the organization. This resulted in financial instability, and eventually, in 1720, investors became fearful and tried to sell all their shares in a hurry. No one was buying, however, so the market crashed. Another financial scandal followed in England shortly after: the South Sea Bubble. Although the first stock market began in Amsterdam in 1611, the US didn’t get into the stock market game until the late 1700s when a small group of merchants made the Buttonwood Tree Agreement. This group of men met daily to buy and sell stocks and bonds, which became the origin of what we know today as the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Although the Buttonwood traders are considered the inventors of the largest stock exchange in the US, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange was the US’s first stock exchange, founded in 1790. In 1971, trading began on another stock exchange in America, the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations or otherwise known as the NASDAQ. In 1992, it joined forces with the International Stock Exchange based in London (The first stock exchange in London was officially formed in 1773, a scant 19 years before the New York Stock Exchange). This linkage became the first intercontinental securities market. Unlike the NYSE, a physical stock exchange, the Nasdaq allowed investors to buy and sell stocks on a network of computers, as opposed to in-person trading. In addition to the NYSE and the NASDAQ, investors were able to buy and sell stocks on the American Stock Exchange or other regional exchanges such as the ones in Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.
Hyundai goes robotics 🤖
On Monday, Hyundai announced that it has completed its acquisition of Boston Dynamics. The deal values the innovative robotics company at $1.1 billion. The companies have not disclosed any future financial details. The South Korean automotive giant now owns a controlling interest in Boston Dynamics, which previously belonged to SoftBank. Softbank, the Japanese investment company was a transitional owner, as it purchased Boston Dynamics from Google, which owned the company for just over three years. While its time with Softbank wasn’t much longer than its stint under Google/Alphabet X, Boston Dynamics saw the commercialization of its first two products since launching nearly 30 years ago. The company brought its quadrupedal robot Spot to market and this year announced the launch of Stretch, an updated version of its warehouse robot, Handle. Previously, Hyundai’s New Horizon Studios has previewed multiple “walking” car concepts that look poised to build on decades of Boston Dynamics research.
DNUT 🍩
According to a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Krispy Kreme is looking to raise between $560 million to $640 million through an initial public offering later this year. If we take a look back at the history of the doughnut chain, it first went public 21 years ago during the dotcom bubble. In 2016, JAB Holding, the investment arm of the Reimann family, took Krispy Kreme private after buying it for $1.35 billion. JAB owns a number of other restaurant businesses, including Panera Bread and Caribou Coffee. This time around, amid another hot market for IPOs, Krispy Kreme is looking to sell its stock for $21 to $24 a share. This share price would give it an implied valuation of $2.82 billion to $3.22 billion. Remember that market capitalization gives the equity valuation of a company by taking the share price times the number of shares outstanding. In fiscal 2020, Krispy Kreme’s revenue rose 17% to $1.12 billion, but the chain reported a net loss of $60.9 million. The stock would trade on the Nasdaq under the proposed ticker “DNUT.” About 16.6% of Krispy Kreme’s total common shares would be available through the IPO. The rest of the shares would remain in JAB’s hands. The investment firm is also looking to buy between $50 million to $100 million of additional shares from the offering. Krispy Kreme said in the filing that it intends to use the net proceeds to repay debts, repurchase shares of stock from some of its executives and make payments on tax withholdings related to some restricted stock units.
Netflix and Spielberg 🍿
On Monday Steven Spielberg, the filmmaker synonymous with big-screen enchantment announced that his production company, Amblin Partners, has made a new deal with Netflix and will make multiple feature films per year for the streaming giant. The partnership is a major get for Netflix that, amid increasing competition, brings perhaps the most beloved film director more officially into the streaming fold. However, the deal doesn’t specifically include any movies to be directed by Spielberg. This December, Spielberg will release “West Side Story” theatrically with Disney’s 20th Century Studios and Amblin has a separate deal with Universal Pictures for theatrical releases.
Xpeng’s dual-listing 👯♀️
The US-listed Chinese electric carmaker Xpeng Motors got the green light to carry out an IPO in Hong Kong. The listing could raise between $1 billion to $2 billion and comes at a time as China’s electric vehicle market is becoming increasingly competitive. Xpeng is already listed in New York. The initial public offering in Hong Kong will be slightly unusual. Whereas Chinese companies already listed in the US like Alibaba and JD com have come to Hong Kong to do so-called secondary listings, Xpeng will be carrying out a dual primary listing. That means Xpeng will be subject to the rules and oversight of both US and Hong Kong regulators, which isn’t the case with a secondary listing.
Definitions
Dual listing refers to a listing of any security on two or more different exchanges. Companies use dual listing because of its benefits such as additional liquidity, increased access to capital, and the ability for its shares to trade for longer periods if the exchanges on which its shares are listed are in different time zones outweigh the costs of a second listing. Some exchanges have a number of listing categories for companies that seek a dual listing, each with different requirements and benefits. A popular way for non-US companies to dual list in the US is by using ADRs, or American Depository Receipts. Considering exchange rates and other complications, stock prices should remain the same on both exchanges. If not, an arbiter will bring them together.
Arbitrage is the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same asset in different markets in order to profit from tiny differences in the asset's listed price. It exploits short-lived variations in the price of identical or similar financial instruments in different markets or in different forms. Arbitrage exists as a result of market inefficiencies and it both exploits those inefficiencies and resolves them.
Victoria’s Secret loan 👙
In an earlier ITM edition it was reported that Victoria’s Secret parent company L Brands announced the spin-off that would separate the two brands into independent, publicly traded companies by August. Now the lingerie retailer is taking out a $500 million loan to finance its split. The loan is due 2028 and could pay interest that’s 300 to 325 basis points above Libor. JPMorgan Chase is overseeing the sale, with investor orders due by June 30. Last month, L Brands reported quarterly numbers that beat analyst expectations. The company said its results were driven by more customers paying full price for products and strong momentum across its different divisions.
Another split 🧬
On Wednesday British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline was faced with a crunch meeting with investors after announcing a new strategy for the next decade centered on the splitting off of the company’s substantial consumer products arm. The new core drug and vaccine division, which CEO Emma Walmsley (you can read more about Walmsley in a previous edition of ITM where she was featured as the Woman of the Week) has dubbed “New GSK,” has set targets of 5% sales growth and 10% profit growth between now and 2026. The split is expected to take effect in mid-2022. Furthermore, GSK is aiming for more than £33 billion ($46.2 billion) worth of sales by the end of the decade. It hopes these sales will offset the loss of exclusivity over HIV medication dolutegravir in 2028. The market has reacted positively to the plans so far. GSK shares were up 1.1% by mid-afternoon trade in Europe. However, Walmsley still needs the backing of investors at the company’s Capital Markets Day, having been under pressure of late from US activist investor Elliott Management.
Plus ➕
Audio rooms: Facebook rolled out Live Audio Rooms, which is now available to verified public figures and select Groups, and its podcast service, available to select partners, in the US
Self-drive: Amazon ordered 1,000 autonomous driving systems from self-driving truck startup Plus and simultaneously acquired the option to buy up to a 20% stake in the startup
Sweet: On Monday Axios reported that Sweetgreen, one of the earliest quick-serve salad restaurant chains, has filed confidentially for an IPO
Diversify: A survey by Fast Company of 37 tech giants showed that collectively they committed $3.8 billion to diversity efforts in 2020 and 2021 and approximately 2/3 had made some kind of DEI policy change after the summer 2020 protests
Swipe right: Tinder announced a slate of new features coming to Match Group’s (Tinder’s parent company) largest dating app, including the option to add videos into profiles. Tinder is also releasing an Explore section on the app and a social feature called “Hot Takes”
GameStop: GameStop shares climbed after the video game retailer said it sold 5 million additional shares, raising $1.13 billion in capital to accelerate growth
2 trillion club: Microsoft joined an exclusive club becoming only the second US public company (Apple was the first) to reach a market capitalization of $2 trillion. The milestone comes two years after the company surpassed the $1 trillion market cap mark
Buffett: Warren Buffett said he will donate $4.1 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway shares to five foundations, and that he will resign as the trustee at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Buffett’s resignation as Gates Foundation trustee comes as the charitable organization faces a tumultuous time with the divorce of its two founders. Bill Gates, co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft, and his wife, Melinda French Gates, announced their divorce in May
ITM’s Midsummer Tips:
Here’s a list of things I’ve enjoyed reading, listening to, and watching during the past weeks
🎧 Listen: Invest Like The Best podcast episode with Howard Marks, the co-founder of Oaktree Capital on the psychology of investing and much more
🎧 Listen: Big Technology podcast with Andrew Ross Sorkin on meme stocks, Bitcoin, SPACs, and Elon Musk
📖 Read: Mother of Invention: How Good Ideas Get Ignored In An Economy Built For Men by Katrine Marçal
📖 Read: VC firm Andreessen Horowitz launched its media property, called Future that explores how technology is changing our world
🎬 Watch: StartUp on Netflix, a series that follows the emergence of GenCoin, a digital currency, an idea that gets incubated on the wrong side of the tracks by three strangers who don't necessarily fit the mold of tech entrepreneurs and a crooked FBI agent who will go to any lengths to take them down
💻 Do: If you are a female founder, join Female Founders and Antler on Tuesday, June 29th at 12pm CET (11am BST) for an online event on mental wellbeing and resilience. You can sign up here.
Woman of the week
Jennifer Morgan
Jennifer Morgan is the Global Head of Portfolio Transformation and Talent of the Blackstone Group. She is also the former co-CEO of SAP. She was the first female CEO of SAP and the first female CEO of a company on the DAX index.
Morgan was born and raised in Northern Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC. She holds a BA in Business Administration from James Madison University. Upon her graduation, Morgan began to work at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) where she also met her husband, Michael. Following her employment at Andersen Consulting, Morgan served in a business development role at Siebel Systems from 2000 to 2004. In 2004, Morgan joined SAP as part of the company's public sector business. Morgan rose quickly within SAP leadership. In just five years, Morgan went from President of SAP Regulated Industries to the President of the Americas & Asia Pacific Japan. In 2017, Morgan was appointed to the SAP executive board and in April 2019 she became President of the SAP Cloud Business Group. In October 2019, Morgan and fellow SAP Executive Board member, Christian Klein were named Co-Chief Executive Officers of SAP following the departure of CEO Bill McDermott. Simultaneously she became SAP’s first female CEO and the first female CEO of a DAX company. The DAX is a stock market index consisting of the 30 major German blue-chip companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Beginning in 2015, while she was President of SAP North America, Morgan led efforts to close the gender pay gap at SAP. After independent audits of Morgan's initiative, SAP raised salaries by over $1 million across the company, which resulted in 99% of all men and women being paid equally. With her emphasis on developing a diverse workforce, SAP North America has been recognized as a leader in gender equality by the World Economic Forum. In January 2019, Morgan launched her podcast, A Call to Lead. The podcast targets mid-career professionals and discusses leadership and career advancement. Morgan's podcast guests have included academics, business professionals, and government officials including the first Lady Jill Biden, Simon Sinek, and others. On April 30, 2020, Morgan stepped down from her position as co-CEO citing a mutual decision with the company board. In November 2020, Blackstone Group announced that Morgan joined the firm as its first Global Head of Portfolio Transformation and Talent. She and her team are responsible for helping the firm’s portfolio companies drive growth and digital transformation coupled with identifying and recruiting best-in-class leadership and talent across the portfolio. She is also a key operating partner with a particular focus on the technology companies in which Blackstone invests. Morgan also sits on the Board of Directors of Bumble and UKG
In 2017, the New York Hall of Science honored Morgan with the Distinguished Leadership Award. Morgan ranked No. 43 on Fortune Magazine's list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2019. The same year, Morgan was also ranked 49th on Forbes' list of Most Powerful Women in the World.
Thank you so much for reading In The Money. I would love to hear your feedback and please share this with a few friends you think would find this interesting. Have a lovely weekend and Happy Midsummer 🌸
I’m Marianne, an early-stage VC based in Stockholm. You can reach me by replying to this email, or find me on Twitter or LinkedIn.