What we’re reading (4/28)
“Venture Firms Bask In a Surge of Blockbuster Profits” (Wall Street Journal). “The venture sector has long been defined by big wins on disruptive tech companies, balanced by far more numerous losing bets. But in recent months, an unusually large number of venture investments have logged multibillion-dollar profits, setting many firms up for their greatest returns since the dot-com boom of the late 1990s.”
“Samsung Family Announces Plans To Pay Off More Than $10 Billion Of Inheritance Tax” (CNBC). “The family of Samsung Electronics’ late chairman announced Wednesday they will be paying off a massive inheritance tax bill of more 12 trillion Korean won (about $10.78 billion). The inheritance tax payment is one of the largest in the history of South Korea and globally — ‘equivalent to three to four times the Korean government’s total estate tax revenue last year,’ Lee Kun-hee’s family said in a statement.”
“Small Business Demand Lifts UPS Q1 Profit, Revenue Up 27%” (ABC News). “UPS is one of the few companies that benefited from the pandemic as demand for delivery rose as more people stayed home and shopped online. But even with more people getting vaccinated and heading out, the company said it expects delivery demand to continue this year as more businesses open up and need to ship goods. Plus, consumers have more money in their pocket to spend from government stimulus checks. UPS said daily volume jumped more than 14% in the first three months of the year from the same period a year ago.”
“Hedge Fund Manager Spent Legitimate Earnings On Race Cars, Allegedly Needed To Commit Fraud To Buy A Place To Keep Them” (Dealbreaker). “[B]efore his indictment for allegedly lying to investors about how he was investing their money and how those investments were doing, among other things, Franzone told The Wall Street Journal just how he used his disposal income: the 1965 Daytona 500-winning ride, Toyota’s first-ever NASCAR-winning entrant, etc.”
“Record-Breaking Digital Artist Beeple Says The NFT Craze Is Just Like The Dotcom Bubble Of The Late 1990s” (Business Insider). “Record-breaking digital artist Beeple, who sold a piece of digital art for a record-breaking $69 million, thinks the non-fungible token (NFT) market will evolve in the same way the internet did during the dotcom bubble of the late 1990s.”
