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Welcome back everyone today on 
the Joseph Carlson Show. 

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My Portfolio is back to all time
highs, reaching a value of 

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728,000 in total, with 241,000 
of that being gains. 

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I own a concentrated portfolio 
of carefully selected stocks, 

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most of which are doing quite 
well this year. 

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In the financial category, my 
largest holding, S&P Global's up

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14% year to date. 
MasterCard is up 11%, Intuit is 

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up 9% and Moody's is up 23%. 
In my tech category, Microsoft 

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is up 13%. 
Salesforce is is up 3% and 

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Apple's up over 20%. 
In the consumer category has 

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been one of my biggest winners 
of the year, which is Costco. 

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This company is up currently 
33.7% year to date. 

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So Costco has been a massive 
outperformer and the gains have 

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really come in for this company.
Now, we also have a new holding 

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booking holdings, which we'll go
into later, but the performance 

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of this one's basically flat so 
far. 

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In the restaurant category, we 
have another massive winner. 

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This is the stock that has gone 
up the most this year aside from

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Chipotle, which I sold out of. 
So Chipotle I sold, I locked in 

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the gains. 
Texas Roadhouse is my next best 

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performing stock this year and 
it's currently up 45% year to 

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date. 
Now in the real estate category,

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I only have one holding. 
This one has had a bit of a 

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recovery over the past month. 
VICI has underperformed so far 

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this year, but there's reason to
be bullish on this stock. 

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And then finally in the 
railroads, we have another 

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underperformer which is Canadian
Pacific. 

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This company is flat year to 
date. 

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Overall, the performance of this
portfolio has been strong with 

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every company either flat or 
moving up into the green. 

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Every company has been growing 
their earnings and free cash 

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flow per share. 
And with the portfolio moving up

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again to all time highs, I think
it's time to look at the 

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valuation and the investment 
case of each company and go over

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three different companies that 
I'm actively buying. 

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So we'll be reviewing all of 
that in today's episode. 

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Now we also have some news to 
get into. 

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This story from Disney is one of
the most absurd, ridiculous, 

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unreal things that Disney has 
done. 

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They're trying to throw out a 
lawsuit of a wrongful death in 

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one of their parks because the 
plaintiff agreed to Disney Plus 

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streaming services terms and 
conditions. 

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That's right, The Associated 
Press is saying that the 

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wrongful death suit against 
Disney serves as a warning to 

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consumers when clicking. 
I agree. 

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We'll be looking at the details 
of this case, looking at 

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Disney's defense, and seeing why
this is unlikely to hold up in 

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court. 
Now we also know that Bill 

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Ackman is a little happy today 
because his arch nemesis Carl 

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Icahn has reportedly agreed to 
pay $2,000,000 to settle an SEC 

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investigation for not having 
proper closures with the amount 

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of money he owed different 
parties. 

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We'll be looking into what crime
Carl Icahn specifically 

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committed and how his business 
has been faring over the past 

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year. 
Now finally, we also have news 

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that Bloomberg is reporting 
MasterCard is planning to cut 3%

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of its staff worldwide. 
So MasterCard is cutting down on

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staff. 
A lot of people have been 

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posting on Twitter, posting 
online that this isn't good for 

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the company. 
It shows that things must be 

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slowing down for MasterCard. 
We'll be giving some proper 

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context here with the amount of 
employees MasterCard has hired, 

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how fast the growth rate has 
been, and what this actually 

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means for the company. 
So we have a lot to get to. 

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Let's go ahead and jump in. 
Before I go into the three that 

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I'm buying, I want to go into 
one of the ones I'm currently 

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trimming. 
And yes, that stock I'm trimming

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currently is still Apple. 
Apple historically has been one 

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of the largest holdings in My 
Portfolio, but now it's 

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currently one of the smallest. 
In fact, Apple is the second to 

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smallest holding in My 
Portfolio, the current value of 

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which is 35, $1400.00 with 
31,600 in the green. 

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Apple has been a massive winner 
for the past five years, but I 

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don't believe Apple will have 
the same success over the next 

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five years. 
The valuation is much higher 

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than it was five years ago, so 
the starting point for the stock

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requires even greater growth 
than the past five years to 

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obtain the same results it had 
previously. 

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But not only is the valuation 
starting much higher, but the 

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growth is expected to be much 
slower. 

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The total revenue of Apple has 
been at a standstill for the 

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past two years. 
You can see the enormous spike 

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in growth in Apple. 
During COVID. 

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There was a big amount of pull 
forward in demand, and then you 

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see the flattening of demand 
where Apple is having a tough 

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time growing at all. 
The exuberance in the stock 

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price of Apple is primarily due 
to their AI story. 

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Investors are now buying into 
the idea that Apple's going to 

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be a massive AI win and that 
will encourage a new massive 

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upgrade cycle for their phones. 
The problem is, even if Apple 

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does have a great upgrade cycle,
a lot of that upgrade cycle is 

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already being priced into the 
stock. 

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And this is something that the 
analyst Craig Moffett pointed 

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out when they introduced their 
coverage of Apple. 

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What's been interesting to us as
we we have have dug into this 

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over the last few months is. 
Once the. 

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The, the, the, the strategy 
around AI and the contextual 

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awareness strategy was built in.
It was largely confirmatory for 

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the market that has real value. 
But certain risks like the one 

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you point out, the, the risk to 
the Google tag, as it's called, 

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the revenues for search was was 
largely brushed off by the 

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market. 
And So what we highlight in this

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report is that and a number of 
other risks that I would say, 

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look, don't, don't change the 
fact that we are relatively 

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bullish about the AI strategy. 
But that there are a lot of 

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issues that that, that make it 
difficult to see how the stock 

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meaningfully outperforms not 
just the the broader market, but

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in particular it's, it's core, 
the rest of the Magnificent 7 

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that to which it is so often 
compared. 

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So I likewise, I'm not bearish 
on Apple. 

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I don't believe the stock is 
going to go down. 

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But I agree that at this point 
it's difficult to see how Apple 

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meaningfully outperforms the 
rest of the Magnificent 7. 

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There's other companies that I 
think have a higher chance of 

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outperforming. 
There's three companies in 

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particular that I believe have a
good chance of outperforming and

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I've put a significant amount of
money behind each of these. 

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The first one is in the consumer
category. 

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Booking Holdings is a company 
that I believe could 

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significantly outerform, and 
I've bought a large osition into

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this company over just the past 
two months. 

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Now it's traded up and down. 
I've bought it high and low to 

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average out my buys over the 
past couple of months. 

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Right now, the holding is flat. 
We are down $70.00 on a $46,000 

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position, so it's down .22%. 
This is trading around by the 

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minute, ebbing and flowing from 
green to red. 

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Booking Holdings is the dominant
online travel agency. 

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It has significant demand for 
restaurants, hotels, and taxis. 

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So this company's a partner with
a lot of other companies and 

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they stand as a digital platform
that has a large concentrated 

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leadership, a position in this 
industry. 

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Now some people are concerned 
about the potential of going 

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into recession. 
At some point we will enter into

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a recession and when we go into 
recessions, some people will 

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cancel their vacations. 
That happens every single time. 

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Most of the customers that use 
Booking Holdings make above 

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$80,000 per year. 
Their income is more resilient. 

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They're actually less affected 
by recessions than people think.

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So this company still can do 
well and be profitable during a 

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recession. 
And overall, recessions are 

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temporary. 
Recessions are short term in 

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nature and over the fullness of 
time they make little difference

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in businesses like Booking. 
Revenue has been climbing 

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steadily for this company at a 
rate above 15% per year. 

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Even in the most recent quarter,
the gross bookings by merchant 

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and agency, the amount of 
revenue this company is making 

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by their bookings has reached an
all time high, which means now 

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more people are planning 
vacations than anytime in 

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history. 
And this isn't just because of 

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an increase in prices. 
This isn't just price 

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increasing. 
We also have volume increasing. 

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The amount of room nights sold 
has also increased to an all 

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time high. 
I'm betting on booking because 

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it's a strong consistent 
generator of free cash flow. 

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Looking at the chart over time, 
it shows a very consistent 

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grower. 
The only time this company's 

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really been materially affected 
is by the pandemic, but that's 

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because travel was restricted by
a one time event unlikely to 

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repeat itself and they did not 
have to take on debt to fund 

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themselves through the pandemic.
Now the free cash flow is 

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reaching an all time high. 
When we adjust this by the of 

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free cash flow per share, it 
shows even steadier growth 

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because the company does 
significant share buybacks. 

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One share of Booking generates 
$218 of free cash flow over the 

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course of a year. 
So I've put some money behind 

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this holding. 
It's now flat. 

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We get to see what direction it 
trades over the next couple of 

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years. 
I don't judge my buys on how 

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they do in the first year. 
That's too short of a time 

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period, but I will be judging 
this holding over the next four 

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to five years. 
The second holding that I'm 

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still buying into is Salesforce.
I haven't forgotten about this 

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company and even though I'm in 
the red on this company and it 

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traded down after their most 
recent quarter, I'm still very 

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bullish on Salesforce. 
It's currently a $56,000 

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position with $3000 in the red. 
I believe that Salesforce was 

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unfairly sold off after the most
recent quarter. 

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The company's fundamental 
performance was great. 

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They did exactly what they told 
investors they were going to do.

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They told investors that they're
going to focus on efficiency, 

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they're going to focus on 
profits, and they're going to 

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focus strong on free cash flow. 
That's exactly what they told 

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investors a couple quarters ago.
And sales force delivered on 

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those promises. 
The stock price after the 

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quarter had an abrupt fall. 
It went from $278 per share down

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to 218. 
So we had this huge fall in 

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stock price and slowly it's 
recovered over the past quarter,

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but I don't believe the stock 
deserved to trade down at all. 

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Salesforce put up strong revenue
growth. 

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It grew 11% year over year on a 
trailing 12 month basis. 

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Every segment of the business is
growing the sales cloud, 

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service, cloud platform, 
marketing integration and 

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analytics. 
The most confusing part of this 

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report was why investors were 
disappointed after they reported

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the numbers they did in their 
free cash flow. 

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If we look at their free cash 
flow on a trailing 12 month 

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basis, this is the picture it 
paints. 

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You can see a very strong 
consistent growth and free cash 

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00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:54,000
flow over the past 10 years. 
Now, a lot of people point out 

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that Salesforce does a lot of 
stock based COM. 

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So a lot of this free cash flow 
is eaten up by dilution, but you

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can even see with the stock 
based comp that that's trending 

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in the right direction. 
The stock based comp has 

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actually gone down since 2022 as
the free cash flow has exploded 

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to the upside. 
If we look at the free cash flow

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per share, it shows this trend, 
the rapid growth and free cash 

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flow per share in the most 
recent quarter. 

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This was a massive spike over 
the previous quarter. 

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So investors were selling out of
this stock as they were growing 

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their free cash flow per share 
by 62 percent year over year. 

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Now to me, on a simple 
observation, when a company's 

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growing it's free cash flow per 
share by 62% year over year, 

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typically that means the stock 
should move up, unless of course

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the company is dramatically 
overpriced and Salesforce is not

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dramatically overpriced. 
In fact, right now the company 

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trades at a 26 Ford PE ratio, 
which is very low to moderate 

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for company growing this 
quickly. 

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And it trades at a free cash 
flow yield of 3.3%, which is 

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much higher than most companies 
growing this quickly. 

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So by the metrics, Salesforce is
not an overvalued company. 

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The only argument to make that 
this company isn't a good buy is

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if it's going to go into 
decline. 

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So if you believe that 
Salesforce is a company of the 

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past, it's antiquated technology
and it's going to be disrupted 

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by competitors, then of course 
this company is not a buy. 

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00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:17,960
But I don't believe that's the 
case for this company. 

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00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:20,840
Even though this is now the only
company that I'm in the red on, 

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it's still one that I'm bullish 
on. 

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And I think given enough time, 
it's only a matter of time until

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Salesforce goes back into the 
green. 

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Now, the third company that I'm 
buying is Intuit. 

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Intuit had a fantastic 2023. 
The stock price raised up 

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dramatically. 
If we look at the past five 

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years, we can see the stock 
price racing up all of 2023. 

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I bought into it at a decent 
point. 

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I got a good deal on it and the 
stock price raised up 

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immediately. 
Intuit was the fastest company 

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I've ever had $10,000 in gains 
in. 

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But as you can see, after 2023, 
the stock price has settled down

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a little bit. 
I realize that Intuit's a more 

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volatile stock. 
It trades around more 

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aggressively than most 
companies, so a lot of investors

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are wary about buying this one. 
But based on my research, I 

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think Intuit will still 
outperform the market by a large

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00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:07,920
extent over the next 5 to 10 
years. 

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Intuit's about as solid as it 
gets all around. 

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For a tech company, the company 
has incredibly strong revenue 

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growth, quality of the revenues 
getting stronger as the majority

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00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:19,760
of it moves from one time 
purchases to ongoing 

250
00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:21,960
subscriptions. 
They're continually moving more 

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and more customers from their 
desktop applications to their 

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web applications where they can 
apply more continual updates and

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have more of the product 
strategy that Adobe has shown 

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over the past decade. 
The free cash flow growth of 

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Intuit is one of the most 
impressive lines that I've seen 

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00:12:36,880 --> 00:12:38,960
growing continually every single
year. 

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00:12:39,160 --> 00:12:42,680
When you put this on a free cash
flow per share basis, it looks 

258
00:12:42,680 --> 00:12:45,640
even stronger as they've done 
significant buybacks. 

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00:12:45,920 --> 00:12:50,120
The company has grown its free 
cash flow per share by 19% year 

260
00:12:50,120 --> 00:12:54,200
over year and over the past five
years it's averaged 15% and 

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into. 
It's another one that's 

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extremely volatile around 
earnings. 

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So I wouldn't be surprised if 
they give some metric or some 

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number that investors don't like
causing the stock to sell off. 

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00:13:03,960 --> 00:13:08,080
We've seen that before, even as 
recent as just last quarter into

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it dropped a full $100 per share
after giving their last 

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00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:13,840
quarterly report. 
So this type of volatility is 

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something you need to expect 
going into this holding, but I 

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00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:18,760
don't concern myself with that. 
I pay attention to the free cash

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00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:21,640
flow growth of the company. 
So I'm trimming a little Apple. 

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00:13:21,640 --> 00:13:24,280
I'm buying into booking 
Salesforce and into it three 

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companies that I believe have a 
strong predictability of beating

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the market. 
I'll never know fully what's 

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00:13:28,480 --> 00:13:30,800
going to happen with any 
company, but sticking to an 

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00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:34,080
investing strategy with the 
diversified portfolio, all with 

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00:13:34,080 --> 00:13:37,240
very strong companies eliminates
most of the risks and sets it up

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00:13:37,240 --> 00:13:38,720
for a high probability of 
success. 

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So I'll continue to follow this 
and give you updates as we see 

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what happens. 
Now moving on, we get to a story

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00:13:43,760 --> 00:13:46,520
that's more and more frustrating
and aggravating the more that 

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you read and learn about it. 
And the story reveals the dark 

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00:13:49,400 --> 00:13:52,920
and ugly side of Disney. 
The story is about a lawsuit by 

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00:13:52,920 --> 00:13:55,840
the family of the New York woman
who died after eating at a 

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restaurant in Disney Springs and
outdoor dining, shopping and 

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00:13:59,320 --> 00:14:02,320
entertainment complex in Florida
owned by Disney. 

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00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:06,320
The Tang Swan family says in a 
lawsuit that the 42 year old New

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00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:10,520
York Dr. had a fatal allergic 
reaction after eating at an 

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00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:13,520
Irish pub in Disney Springs. 
The lawsuit claims that Tang 

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00:14:13,520 --> 00:14:17,360
Swan and her husband Jeffrey 
Piccolo and his mother decided 

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00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:21,080
to eat at the Raglan Rd. in 
October 23rd because it was 

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00:14:21,080 --> 00:14:24,040
billed on Disney's website as 
having allergen free food. 

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00:14:24,480 --> 00:14:27,840
The suit alleges that Tank Swan 
informed the server numerous 

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00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:31,000
times that she had severe 
allergies to nuts and dairy 

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products. 
Nuts and dairy products are the 

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00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:36,800
most common allergies for foods.
They say that they didn't just 

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00:14:36,800 --> 00:14:40,000
mention this once or even twice 
to the server. 

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00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:42,160
They mentioned it numerous 
times. 

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00:14:42,160 --> 00:14:45,240
They even told them to go check 
with the chefs to make sure and 

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00:14:45,240 --> 00:14:48,560
absolutely verify that it didn't
have these foods and what they 

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00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:52,360
were serving, and the waiter 
guaranteed that it didn't have 

301
00:14:52,360 --> 00:14:54,800
those foods. 
About 45 minutes after finishing

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00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:57,360
their dinner, Tung Swan had 
difficulty breathing while out 

303
00:14:57,360 --> 00:15:00,080
shopping, collapsed, and died at
the hospital. 

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00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:02,880
According to the lawsuit, the 
medical examiner determined that

305
00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:06,440
she died as a result of having 
anaphylaxis due to elevated 

306
00:15:06,440 --> 00:15:08,280
levels of nut and dairy in her 
system. 

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00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:10,640
Now, of course, after this 
happened, Disney released a 

308
00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:13,240
statement saying that this is an
unfortunate event and should 

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00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:16,000
have been avoided and that they 
will compensate the victims for 

310
00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:19,840
any liability that they had. 
Just kidding, Disney didn't 

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00:15:19,840 --> 00:15:23,000
release such a statement. 
In fact, Disney released the 

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00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:25,200
opposite statement. 
Disney said that they didn't 

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00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:27,800
want to take any responsibility 
whatsoever. 

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00:15:27,880 --> 00:15:30,600
Disney said in a statement this 
week that they were deeply 

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00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:34,320
saddened by the families lost, 
but stressed that the Irish pub,

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00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:37,920
which also is being sued, is 
neither owned nor operated by 

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00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:41,160
the company. 
Now this Irish pub is in the 

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00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:45,480
Disney park, so it's literally 
in their park when you go in and

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00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:48,640
experience Disney World. 
But now Disney's saying that we 

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00:15:48,640 --> 00:15:51,400
have nothing to do with him, we 
don't run it, we don't operate 

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00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:54,760
it, we're not liable at all. 
So that's their excuse, and 

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00:15:54,760 --> 00:15:58,200
that's one excuse being used for
Disney to avoid liability here. 

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00:15:58,600 --> 00:16:01,800
Obviously they should vet who's 
in their park and they should 

324
00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:04,680
share some liability, but that's
a whole different argument in 

325
00:16:04,680 --> 00:16:06,680
and of itself. 
The really infuriating part of 

326
00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:10,920
this lawsuit is Disney's arguing
that Piccolo, the husband in 

327
00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:15,400
this case, had agreed to settle 
any lawsuit against Disney out 

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00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:18,800
of court and through arbitration
when he signed up for a one 

329
00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:22,680
month free trial of Disney Plus 
back in 2019. 

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00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:27,240
Now, on a side note, he also 
signed up for Disney Plus on a 

331
00:16:27,240 --> 00:16:30,360
PlayStation. 
So the husband of the victim 

332
00:16:30,800 --> 00:16:35,360
back in 2019 signed up for 
Disney Plus on a PlayStation and

333
00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:38,760
they're using those terms of 
service as an agreement that 

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00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:42,880
they can't sue because of the 
wrongful death of their wife in 

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00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:44,320
the park. 
That's correct. 

336
00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:47,280
You're hearing this correctly. 
The first page of the subscriber

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00:16:47,280 --> 00:16:51,240
agreement states in all capital 
letters that any dispute between

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00:16:51,240 --> 00:16:54,200
you and us, except for small 
claims, is subject to class 

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00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:57,400
action waiver and must be 
resolved by an individual 

340
00:16:57,400 --> 00:17:00,000
binding arbitration. 
That's what you're signing up 

341
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:02,600
for when you sign Disney Plus. 
Now, if you think it's 

342
00:17:02,600 --> 00:17:05,800
outrageous that signing an 
agreement for a streaming 

343
00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:09,160
service means that you can't sue
for wrongful death in a park 

344
00:17:09,359 --> 00:17:11,800
four years later, then of course
you're correct. 

345
00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:14,760
And that's the exact same thing 
that the lawyers are saying for 

346
00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:17,000
Piccolo. 
They've slammed Disney, calling 

347
00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:21,000
it preposterous, saying it's on 
the borderline of being surreal.

348
00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:23,920
They say that it's quote, 
fatally flawed for numerous 

349
00:17:23,920 --> 00:17:26,839
independent reasons. 
The lawyers are aghast that 

350
00:17:26,839 --> 00:17:29,600
Disney would even propose this 
as a defense. 

351
00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:31,960
I realize there's a lot of 
hardcore Disney fans, and in 

352
00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:35,480
some cases they'll even try to 
spin this in defense of Disney, 

353
00:17:35,960 --> 00:17:37,440
but there's really no defense 
here. 

354
00:17:37,440 --> 00:17:40,240
This is just despicable behavior
by the company. 

355
00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:43,840
The fact that they're using a 
terms of service agreement from 

356
00:17:43,840 --> 00:17:48,640
a streaming service in 2019 on a
PlayStation to try to say that 

357
00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:52,160
you can't sue when they fed you 
food that killed you in your 

358
00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:54,200
park? 
That is beyond absurd and 

359
00:17:54,200 --> 00:17:57,280
frankly, Disney should be 
ashamed and embarrassed by this 

360
00:17:57,280 --> 00:17:59,840
attempted defense. 
And one more thing, just on a 

361
00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:02,360
side note of the story, it 
wasn't even Tung Swan that 

362
00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:05,240
signed up for Disney Plus. 
So the person that was actually 

363
00:18:05,240 --> 00:18:08,760
victimized wasn't the one that 
actually agreed to the terms of 

364
00:18:08,760 --> 00:18:10,520
service. 
We get to see what happens with 

365
00:18:10,520 --> 00:18:13,360
this case over the upcoming 
years, but if the judge has any 

366
00:18:13,360 --> 00:18:15,160
sense, they'll throw out this 
defence. 

367
00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:18,440
Now we get to the story of Carl 
Icahn running into more trouble.

368
00:18:18,760 --> 00:18:22,080
We know that a couple years ago,
Hindenburg Research released a 

369
00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:26,240
report showing that Carl Icahn 
may be doing some dubious things

370
00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:28,640
with his financials. 
Carl Icahn's company agreed to 

371
00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:31,640
to pay $2,000,000 to settle 
civil charges from the 

372
00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:33,920
Securities and Exchange 
Commission that he failed to 

373
00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:37,280
disclose extensive borrowing 
against the company's shares. 

374
00:18:37,400 --> 00:18:40,320
The settlement is modest in the 
damage done to his company 

375
00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:42,200
compared to the short seller 
report. 

376
00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:46,120
Since that report, shares of the
company are down 68%. 

377
00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:49,560
It slashed its dividend by half 
and was forced to renegotiate 

378
00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:52,600
terms of his loan. 
Now, he hasn't omitted any 

379
00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:54,280
wrong. 
This is something that they do 

380
00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:56,080
when they settle. 
They settle and say, we'll pay 

381
00:18:56,080 --> 00:18:59,240
this much if we can get this 
case behind us, but we're not 

382
00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:02,240
going to admit any fault. 
And Carl Icahn has said, quote, 

383
00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:05,040
we are glad to put this matter 
behind us and we'll continue to 

384
00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:07,720
focus on operating the business 
for the benefit of the 

385
00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:09,960
unitholders. 
Overall, this individual fine. 

386
00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:11,680
It's not a big deal for Carl 
Icahn. 

387
00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:14,800
The bigger deal is the damage 
done to his company over the 

388
00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:17,120
past year and a half. 
And if there's one person that's

389
00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:19,640
been happy to read this article,
it's been Bill Ackman. 

390
00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:22,080
Now, moving on, we finally get 
to the news that MasterCard is 

391
00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:24,280
cutting back on 3% of its 
workforce. 

392
00:19:24,360 --> 00:19:26,920
In a lot of cases, this can mean
trouble for the company. 

393
00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:30,720
It's symbolic of a slowdown, but
that's not the case here with 

394
00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:32,280
MasterCard. 
We can first look at their 

395
00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:35,040
reasons for doing these cuts. 
They say, quote, as these 

396
00:19:35,040 --> 00:19:38,400
changes are made, we plan on 
redeploying resources into 

397
00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:41,160
growth areas. 
These changes will reinforce our

398
00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:44,160
strategy and competitive 
advantage to drive a long term 

399
00:19:44,160 --> 00:19:47,320
growth diversifier revenue 
streams and differentiate our 

400
00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:49,880
product and solutions. 
The employee count of MasterCard

401
00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:51,680
has been growing steadily over 
time. 

402
00:19:52,040 --> 00:19:56,000
In fact, firing 1000 employees 
wouldn't even put the company 

403
00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:00,160
back a single year. 
From 2022 to 2023, they hired an

404
00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:04,160
additional 3000 employees. 
So this is not an indication 

405
00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:07,080
that Mastercard's slowing down. 
They're still hiring people like

406
00:20:07,080 --> 00:20:09,360
crazy. 
If anything, this is a slight 

407
00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:11,000
moderate. 
In their hiring. 

408
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:12,480
Now that's going to be it for 
this episode. 

409
00:20:12,480 --> 00:20:14,840
If you want to see more 
exclusive content and get access

410
00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:17,320
to quantrum.com, you can check 
out the Patreon. 

411
00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:19,280
Other than that, I'll see you in
the next one.