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Good morning,
Many of us spend our working years with the goal of retiring, but there are a number of reasons why complete retirement shouldn’t necessarily be the goal.
Retirement is equivalent to about one-third of a person’s adult life. Consider life after work as a new phase of life: discover and experiment with things that will give you purpose. Consider part-time work, volunteering or even becoming an entrepreneur.
Lastly, join organizations or clubs to avoid feeling disconnected from others.
Let’s get into the headlines,
FIRST UP
Malicious code is taking over accounts on TikTok, and has already compromised the official accounts of celebrities and brands, including the official account of CNN, according to sources inside the company. The malware is transmitted through DMs within the TikTok app, and does not require a download, click, response or any other act from users beyond opening a message. A TikTok spokesperson told Forbes they’ve taken measures to stop the attack, adding that the number of accounts affected was “very small.”
The Israeli government mounted an influence campaign to target U.S. lawmakers and the general public with messaging to gain their support for its conduct in the war in Gaza, the New York Times reported Wednesday. The campaign reportedly relied on “hundreds of fake accounts posing as real Americans,” which posted pro-Israel content on multiple social media platforms including X, Facebook and Instagram.
BUSINESS + FINANCE
Shares of Berkshire Hathaway nearly registered their worst day this year Tuesday, a loss not likely connected to Monday’s bizarre issue that caused the New York Stock Exchange to show Berkshire shares down almost 100%, but still coming as a steep selloff that confounded Wall Street analysts. Warren Buffett’s net worth shrank by $3 billion Tuesday as Berkshire shares slumped, with Buffett’s $135 billion fortune declining by the most of any billionaire outside of India, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires tracker.
Keith Gill, better known as “Roaring Kitty,” spearheaded the GameStop frenzy of 2021, and has made a dramatic comeback. But with his notoriety, has he crossed the line into stock manipulation? When you ask securities lawyers if Gill has broken any rules, their opinions vary.
TECH + INNOVATION
Few early-stage investors can rival Boldstart Ventures founder Ed Sim’s record at picking founders before they even have a business plan, and it’s earned him a spot on the Midas Seed List for a third year. Sim, who started writing early checks in 2010 long before the boom in seed funds, specialized in backing enterprise and infrastructure startups from New York when “Silicon Alley” was more of a digital desert. He left the city in 2022 for Miami, where he’s now become one of the few investors to have stuck around after the pandemic-era Techxodus ended.
Apple stock sits within 1% of hitting a $3 trillion market capitalization for the first time since January, as the iPhone maker’s Worldwide Developers Conference next week will shed light on whether the company’s artificial intelligence status is indeed up to par with its more in-vogue Silicon Valley peers, JPMorgan analysts argued in a Tuesday note. The past year has been an unusually cool stretch for Apple investors, and iPhone sales are expected to be the weakest since 2020 during the current quarter, according to consensus analyst forecasts compiled by FactSet.
SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT
Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 tennis player in the world and highest-paid tennis player of 2023, withdrew from the French Open ahead of the quarterfinals after hurting his knee in Monday’s round of 16 win. It’s unclear whether Djokovic, who has won 24 Grand Slams, will be able to recover in time for Wimbledon, which is scheduled to begin July 1, or the Olympics, which kick off later in July.
SCIENCE + HEALTHCARE
Merck and Moderna released “extremely impressive” positive data from a mid-stage trial of the world’s first personalized mRNA cancer vaccine for melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, which halved the risk of death or the cancer returning when used alongside another Merck treatment. The trial is one of a growing number of collaborations testing how mRNA vaccines—the technology behind Covid-19 shots from Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna—can be turned against different types of cancer.
An advisory panel for the FDA voted Tuesday against the approval of MDMA, also known as ecstacy, for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, marking a possible loss for the first-of-its-kind proposal. If the FDA were to approve the proposal, MDMA would become the first Schedule I psychedelic drug approved for medical use and the first new treatment for PTSD in more than 20 years. The FDA will make a final decision on the proposal on August 11.
DAILY COVER STORY
Free Electricity Is Coming To Texas, Thanks To A British Unicorn Backed By Al Gore
You know the future of the power grid has arrived when your electricity provider wants to pay you to use less of the stuff they are ostensibly selling. That’s effectively the pitch to customers from London’s $16.6 billion (revenues) Octopus Energy.
Octopus cofounder and CEO Greg Jackson stresses that at the center of the future grid will be a new relationship, based on incentivized nudging.
For example, Octopus signed up 1.4 million customers for a program that sends them a message three hours before an expected peak in power demand, urging them to cut usage and earn three times their average power price for the electricity they didn't use. It works. Last year, says Jackson, Octopus paid customers $10 million to prevent the U.K. grid from having to burn up $200 million of coal and diesel.
The complexity is not scaring away customers. Since its founding eight years ago, Octopus has already grown to 8 million accounts, becoming the largest electricity provider in the U.K. and second biggest in Europe—and now they’re launching in the U.S., specifically Texas, one of the few states where electric market regulations allow location-specific variable power pricing.
In electric industry jargon, the term for the dynamic when a customer agrees in advance to curtail power usage at times of tight supplies is called demand response. If, like Octopus, you’ve aggregated enough customers who have willingly handed you the ability to remotely control their home thermostats and electric vehicle battery chargers, then you have what’s known as a virtual power plant.
In 2020, Michael Lee sold the company he founded, Evolve Energy, to Octopus for $5 million. He is now focused on penetrating the Texas market, which fosters competition among retail electric providers, many of whom have gone bankrupt after weather emergencies cause violent spikes in power prices, like during winter storm Uri in 2021. Lee, the president of Octopus’ U.S. based operation, expects brisk signups for an offering called Zero Bills where Octopus promises that you will pay nothing for electricity, as long as you give them control over all your power hungry appliances, HVAC system and electric vehicle battery.
WHY IT MATTERS “Twenty years after we started hearing about ‘smart meters,’ innovative electric providers like Octopus are finally figuring out how to slice and dice electricity products in ways that ease the transition to low-carbon energy sources and encourage people to be more mindful of how they use the resource,” says Forbes senior editor Chris Helman.
MORE Texas Wildcatter Hits Gusher In $26 Billion Sale Of Oil Company
FACTS + COMMENTS
Saturday’s WNBA game between the Chicago Sky and Indiana Fever—which was highlighted by a flagrant foul committed against the Fever’s Caitlin Clark and led to heated dialogue about the No. 1 draft pick—averaged 1.53 million viewers, ESPN said Tuesday. It’s the latest viewership boon for women’s basketball:
2.19 million: The peak viewership of the game, the most viewed program of the day on cable
Fourth: Saturday’s game had the fourth-highest viewership of a WNBA game in the last 22 years, according to SportsMediaWatch
$338,056: The value of Caitlin Clark’s four-year deal with the Fever
STRATEGY + SUCCESS
A recent Fidelity study found the number of participants with more than $1 million in assets within their Fidelity 401(k) account has increased by 15% in the first quarter of 2024. These 401(k) millionaires are seeing benefits of a healthy stock market first-hand, and you too can take advantage of future market gains: Be sure to utilize any employer 401(k) match, prioritize savings before you budget the rest of your money, and even automate contributions to your 401(k) or another retirement account.
QUIZ
A Major League Baseball player received a lifetime ban from the league on Tuesday, after an investigation determined he bet thousands of dollars on baseball games, including some involving his own team. Which team does he play for?
A. San Francisco Giants
B. New York Mets
C. San Diego Padres
D. Atlanta Braves
Check your answer.
ACROSS THE NEWSROOM
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