OpenAI's new GPT-4o model prompted parallels to the 2013 movie "Her" and jokes about society moving closer to normalizing 100% digital companions.
Matthias Balk/picture alliance via Getty Images
OpenAI on Monday announced its new chatbot model, GPT-4o, with voice and vision abilities.
The reveal quickly prompted jokes about digital girlfriends, and parallels to the movie "Her."
Some sex workers are embracing AI as a way to make their jobs easier and safer.
OpenAI's new GPT-4o model sounded more than a little flirty in its demo released Monday.
The announcement of the new chatbot, which boasts voice and vision abilities, quickly prompted parallels to the 2013 movie "Her" — in which Scarlett Johannson voices the artificially intelligent love interest of Joaquin Pheonix — and jokes about society coming a step closer to normalizing 100% digital companions.
"OpenAI wants you to want to bang your smartphone," Scott Woods, the blogger behind Whole Mars Catalogue, quipped on X in response to a post-demonstration post by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that read, simply: "her."
While some speculate that the opportunity to flirt with a chatbot could change how the world views romance and relationships and potentially alter how the sex work industry operates, some in that line of work are enjoying innovations in AI that they say make their jobs both easier and safer.
Linda, a phone sex operator, told Business Insider that artificial intelligence is being adopted by some in the sex work community, and she now regularly sees AI-generated images on profiles of fellow phone sex workers.
Linda was granted anonymity to speak freely about her work and maintain her privacy. Her identity has been verified by BI.
"I kinda want a chatbot sometimes to deal with timewasters," Linda said, adding that slow conversations often begin with simple hellos and other pleasantries she'd rather skip. A chatbot, she said, would help her "make that $15-20 in chat fees just doing boring small talk without the boredom or loathing."
Major creators like OnlyFans titan Kaitlyn "Amouranth" Siragusa have already embraced the power of AI bots. Last summer, Siragusa launched her own chatbot for fans to interact with for $1 a minute, offering an artificial version of her voice to indulge in explicit conversation. Following the launch, she told Polygon the tech would simplify her job and protect her from overly-attached fans.
Others have adopted the tech to boost customer satisfaction by creating a log of personal preferences and details from past conversations, and The New York Post reported earlier this year on a brothel in Berlin run entirely using AI, virtual reality, and robotic sex dolls.
"It's not for everyone, but, honestly, I think it's great — like you want a sex robot, guys — here ya go! " Linda said.
Representatives for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Along with axing jobs, the retail giant is directing workers in small offices in Dallas, Atlanta, and Toronto to move to central hubs like Walmart's corporate headquarters in Arkansas, New Jersey, or Southern California, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.
Previously-remote staff can work hybrid schedules, the Journal reported.
Walmart did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment sent outside standard business hours.
Last week, the retailer announced it will close two more stores, bringing the number of closures this year to eight. The company quietly reduced its US store count by more than 100 locations between January and August last year — a repositioning celebrated by Wall Street.The company operated 4,615 US stores as of January 31, according to its website.
Walmart, the country's largest employer, has 1.6 million workers in the US. It is one of several companies that have been pushing a return to office mandate — a tactic career experts say is a way of getting rid of employees without conducting mass layoffs.
The move has been called quiet firing. It's a subtle way to make roles less appealing, motivating workers to quit rather than slashing jobs only through layoffs, BI previously reported.
Major companies across the US have enforced RTO mandates in the past year, including Meta, Google, and Salesforce.
Sergey Brin is a billionaire and one half of the duo that founded Google.
Lionel Hahn/Getty Images
Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded and launched Google from a dorm room near Stanford University.
Since then, Google has become the world's most popular search engine and the company has evolved.
Here's everything you need to know about Brin, who is now worth about $134 billion.
Sergey Brin has amassed a multi-billion-dollar fortune after co-founding Google.
Brin teamed up with Larry Page at university in 1998 to launch what would become one of the world's most powerful search engines. Brin also spearheaded many of Google's innovative projects beyond search before stepping down from Alphabet, Google's parent company, in 2019.
But his influence is still clear. Sundar Pichai, Alphabet's current CEO, reportedly began meeting with Brin and Page throughout 2023 to strategize the development of Google's Gemini to rival OpenAI's chatGPT.
Outside his career, Brin enjoys extreme sports and attending music festival Burning Man. He has been married twice; he filed for divorce from his second wife in January 2022.
Brin's early life
Sergey Brin's father is a former math professor at the University of Maryland.
Edwin Remsberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Brin might have a sizable net worth now, valued at $134 billion, per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, but the tech mogul comes from humble beginnings. He was born in the Soviet Union during the summer of 1973.
Brin's father was an economist who had bigger aspirations than the USSR allowed at that time. His father dreamed of being an astrophysicist, but his Jewish background and the USSR's antisemitism kept him from those ambitions.
Brin's family managed to get exit visas and flee the country when Brin was 6. But his family's stressful, troubled experience left him with a lasting appreciation for democracy and freedom.
The Brin family ended up in Maryland, where the Google cofounder was enrolled in a Montessori school — like Larry Page — that emphasized independence and fostering creativity.
Brin didn't revisit Moscow until he was 17, during a class trip led by his father. "Thank you for taking us all out of Russia," Brin told his dad, a former math professor at the University of Maryland.
Spurred on by a blossoming defiant streak, he threw pebbles at a police car while in Russia and almost got in serious trouble when the officers inside noticed.
Brin and Larry Page create Google
Brin met Page at Stanford University before the pair dropped out to focus on Google.
Randi Lynn Beach/Associated Press
Brin earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science at the University of Maryland and a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford.
There, his love of high-adrenaline exercise flourished: he tried out skating, skiing, gymnastics, and even trapeze.
Brin met Google cofounder Larry Page at Stanford in 1995.
The two reportedly found each other "obnoxious" at first, but they later became classmates and close friends who geeked out about computer science.
Brin and Page started collaborating in 1996 on a search engine they initially called BackRub.
Before Google, Brin was more focused on making an algorithm for personalized movie recommendations or finding a way to automatically detect copyright infringement cases.
Brin's résumé from back in 1996, as he was working toward his Ph.D. at Stanford, is still available online.
The pair registered the domain Google.com in September 1997. Brin and Page had a mission to organize the world's information and dropped out of Stanford the following year to work on their search engine. The rest, as we now know, is history.
That same year, the pair created the first Google Doodle.
Both Brin and Page are "burners," meaning they're devout fans and attendees of Burning Man, the freewheeling art festival in the middle of the Nevada desert. They made the first Google Doodle to let people know they weren't around to do damage control if the site broke while they were at the event.
When the time came to find an outside CEO for Google, they approved the hire of Eric Schmidt in 2001 after learning he had attended the festival. They then brought Schmidt to Burning Man to "see how he would do."
Brin led Google's ambitious moonshot projects
Brin has overseen an array of futuristic projects that didn't always land.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Some of Brin's projects at Google include self-driving cars now known as Waymo, smart contact lenses, and smart glasses.
As Google ballooned from simply a search engine to a massive corporation with dozens of diverse projects, Brin became the mastermind behind some of its most ambitious ones as the head of Google X, the company's innovative moonshot factory.
Brin was a big proponent of Google Glass — Google's failed attempt at launching smart glasses.
For a long time, you couldn't spot Brin without the computerized Google Glass smart glasses.
Brin reportedly played a big role in the product's rocky launch in 2012, but famously, it was rushed into the world before it was ready for public scrutiny.
Brin also worked on Google's now-dismantled social network, Google Plus.
He admitted onstage in 2014 that he should have never worked on it because he's "kind of a weirdo" and not very social.
"It was probably a mistake for me to be working on anything tangentially related to social to begin with," Brin said in 2014.
He has maintained an eclectic presence at Google since its beginning.
Brin's fashion style is well-known around the Google campus
Brin was often seen around the Google campus in activewear.
Brooks Kraft/Getty Images
Even as Google grew into a multibillion-dollar company, Brin maintained the freewheeling spirit of the early days. Around Googleplex, Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California, Brin typically wore workout clothes and Vibram barefoot shoes, and he was frequently seen zipping around the office on Rollerblades, doing yoga stretches during meetings, or walking around on his hands for fun.
The Economist once dubbed Brin the "Enlightenment Man" for his dedication to using reason and science to solve huge world problems.
Brin's personal life
Anne Wojcicki and Sergey Brin have two children together, whose last names are Wojin.
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
In 2007, Brin married Anne Wojcicki, the CEO of the genetics company 23andMe.
She's the sister of early Google employee — and former YouTube CEO — Susan Wojcicki. For the wedding, the couple invited guests to a secret location in the Bahamas and wore bathing suits for the ceremony, which reportedly took place on a sandbar.
Brin and Wojcicki have two children together. Both kids have the last name Wojin, a portmanteau of their parents' last names.
Parkinson's runs in Brin's family, so he does what he can to lower his likelihood of getting the disease. Brin and Wojcicki donated hundreds of millions of dollars to charity, including to Parkinson's research. A test through 23andMe revealed that Brin has a genetic mutation that makes him predisposed to the disease.
To lower his chances of developing it, Brin started exercising even more intensely and drinking green tea twice a day. Due to his health regimen and scientific progress, he estimated in 2010 that he now has only about a 10% chance of getting the disease.
Brin's marriage to Wojcicki hit the rocks in 2013, and the couple separated. Around the time of his separation with Wojcicki, Brin had reportedly started an affair with a Google employee who was also in a relationship with another high-level Google executive at the same time.
Brin and Wojcicki officially finalized their divorce in June 2015 after eight years of marriage.
The 2018 book "Valley of Genius" described Brin as "the Google playboy" during the company's early days.
"He was known for getting his fingers caught in the cookie jar with employees that worked for the company in the masseuse room," a former employee said. "He got around."
In 2018, Brin married Nicole Shanahan, a lawyer and the founder of a legal-tech startup. The couple met in 2015 at a yoga retreat. They had a baby girl together the same year they wed.
Brin's divorce from Shanahan was finalized in September 2023.
Kimberly White/Getty Images
Four years later, Brin filed for divorce from Shanahan. The filing came after rumors swirled that his wife at the time was having an affair with Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO.
Their divorce was finalized in 2023. Both Musk and Shanahan have denied the cheating allegations.
Brin stepped down from his role as Alphabet president in 2019
Google laid off hundreds of staff.
SOPA Images
In August 2015, Brin's title got a major upgrade when Google underwent a major restructuring.
Brin transitioned from director of special projects at the moonshot division, Google X, to become the president of Alphabet, Google's new parent company. Page was named Alphabet's CEO.
Then, in December 2019, Brin and Page shocked the world: They announced in a joint statement that they were stepping down from their respective roles at Alphabet.
Since leaving, Brin has stayed busy with exercising, philanthropy, and an airship startup.
"We've never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there's a better way to run the company," they wrote. Both Page and Brin remain members of Alphabet's board of directors.
Brin's life outside Alphabet
Brin's company LTA Research got clearance to begin test flights for its Pathfinder 1 airship.
LTA Research via LinkedIn
Meanwhile, Brin and Page had become billionaires several times over.
In 2005, they bought a 50-person plane together.
Brin owns real estate in both New York City and California.
He's invested a lot of money in Los Altos, where he owns property, through a real estate investment firm called Passerelle Investment Co. The investments reportedly went toward helping mom-and-pop, kid-friendly stores and cafés spring up or stay in business.
Brin has tried to learn several Olympic sports, runs a family foundation supporting Parkinson's research and education, and has been working on an airship startup called LTA Research.
In 2023, the company received an airworthiness certificate for its Pathfinder 1 airship to begin test flights. The massive vessel is almost 400 feet long and about 66 feet wide at its widest point.
And Brin is no stranger to flashy modes of transportation. The mogul owns a collection of watercraft that his friends call the "Fly Fleet." It includes a 40-meter superyacht called Butterfly and 73-meter megayacht known as Dragonfly. He bought Dragonfly in 2011 for $80 million.
Brin was also been rumored to be writing a physics textbook in 2022, but there's no sign it's been published yet.
Brin and Page's return to Google
Google's Gemini drew criticism for its images and text generation.
SOPA Images/Getty Images
At the beginning of 2023, reports emerged that Alphabet tapped Brin and Page to help Google compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT in the race to dominate the artificial intelligence space.
By the end of the year, Google confirmed that Brin was a key factor in bringing its AI model Gemini to fruition. In the white paper explaining Gemini's capabilities, Brin is listed as a "core contributor."
When he spoke at San Francisco's AGI House in March, Brin said he "kind of came out of retirement just because the trajectory of AI is so exciting."
He also addressed criticism of Gemini by defending the text generation feature but conceding that Google "definitely messed up on the image generation."
A trade ban on enriched uranium could further fuel the explosive run witnessed across ASX uranium shares over the past year.
While Australia continues to squabble over whether nuclear energy is viable, the United States is taking steps to secure the energy source domestically.
A glance at ASX uranium shares today may not show it, but the land of the free implemented a major sanction on enriched uranium supply overnight. Despite the tempered reaction, the decision is a major one that will affect 24% of the uranium used by nuclear power stations in the United States.
Biden takes action on Russian reliance
United States President Joe Biden signed the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act last night.
As per the White House statement, the act aims to bolster the country’s energy and economic security. To do this, the United States will reduce — and eventually eliminate — its dependence on Russia for the inputs needed for nuclear power.
Unpacking the magnitude of the decision further, U.S. National Security advisor Jake Sullivan wrote:
This new law reestablishes America’s leadership in the nuclear sector. It will help secure our energy sector for generations to come. Andâbuilding off the unprecedented $2.72 billion in federal funding that Congress recently appropriated at the President’s requestâit will jumpstart new enrichment capacity in the United States and send a clear message to industry that we are committed to long-term growth in our nuclear sector.
The ban on Russian enriched uranium imports into the United States will take effect 90 days from today.
Shifting away from Russian supply will be a major undertaking. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, nuclear energy accounted for 18.6% of all electricity generation in the country last year.
This might explain why the government is allowing exceptions until 2028 when the absence of Russian supply would result in a reactor shutting down.
What could it mean for ASX uranium shares?
Aussie investors aren’t making much of the news today. At the time of writing, some of the most prominent ASX uranium shares are skating lower:
Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX: PDN) down 1.49% to $16.225
There’s always a chance the market had already ‘factored in’ the sanction before today. Hence, the common phrase, ‘buy the rumour, sell the news’ among traders.
Alternatively, some may see this move as a negative for all uranium producers outside the United States. The country is actively pouring billions into making a local industry, which may present a risk to all foreign demand.
Nevertheless, the price of uranium is still perched near its 17-year-high of US$100 per pound.
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The first ASX 300 share getting re-rated is Credit Corp Group Ltd (ASX: CCP)
The Credit Corp share price is up 4.0% in intraday trading at $15.47 a share. That sees the stock up more than 23% over six months.
And Macquarie believes it’s still undervalued after that strong run. The broker raised Credit Corp to an ‘outperform’ rating with an $18.32 price target. That represents a 19% potential upside from current levels.
Credit Corp shares also have a strong history of delivering reliable passive income. Over the past 12 months, the company has paid out 62 cents a share in fully franked dividends. That equates to a current trailing yield of 4.0%.
Which brings us to the second ASX 300 share getting a broker re-rate today, Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: NEU).
The Neuren Pharmaceuticals share price is up 6.1% in intraday trading at $20.22 a share. Shares are now up a whopping 42% over six months.
And according to JP Morgan it still looks like a bargain at these levels.
The broker gave Neuren an ‘overweight’ rating and a $23.60 price target, representing a potential 17% upside from current levels. The company does not pay dividends at this time.
Also getting re-rated
Also getting re-rated today is ASX 300 share FleetPartners Group Ltd (ASX: FPR).
The FleetPartners share price is down 4.1% today at $3.31 a share. However, shares remain up 19% over six months.
And Morgan Stanley thinks today’s sell-down is likely misguided. The broker increased its price target for FleetPartners by 22% to $3.90 a share and maintained its ‘overweight’ rating. That represents a potential 18% upside from current levels.
FleetPartners shares last delivered dividends in 2018.
Rounding off the list, the fourth ASX 300 share getting re-rated today is Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX: FBU).
(Did you guess all four?)
The Fletcher Building share price is down 3.0% today at $2.79 a share. The stock has tumbled 35% over six months.
Fortunately, Morgan Stanley believes the worst of the pain should be over.
While the broker cut its price target by 23% to $2.84 a share, Morgan Stanley maintained its ‘equal-weight’ rating.
Fletcher Buildings suspended its interim dividend payment for FY 2024 due to challenging trading conditions.
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JPMorgan Chase is an advertising partner of The Ascent, a Motley Fool company. Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended JPMorgan Chase and Macquarie Group. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Macquarie Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
One of my personal investing mottos is “the market is straight up kooky dooks“.
Not only did I think of this saying again today, I also felt it fitting that it was paraphrased from a movie â in this case the Disney (NYSE: DIS) animated movie Moana.
That is because, as I woke up this morning and checked the overnight news, I saw that the share price of American cinema company, AMC Entertainment (NYSE: AMC), increased by over 78% overnight.
On a whim, I then looked at the share price of GameStop (NYSE: GME), a company whose story is now intrinsically linked with AMC Entertainment. Yep, it too saw its share price rise dramatically overnight. In this case 75%.
It appears the “meme stock” days are back.
My first feeling was one of sadness.
I hoped that this was a saga that we left back in the dark days of the COVID pandemic. Whilst many saw it as an entertaining side show, or even a David vs Goliath story, I saw it differently. I knew that a lot of regular people were going to lose a lot of money that they couldn’t afford to lose.
I watched with horror as people, many who were entering the markets for the very first time, piled into, what I believed to be, “bad” companies.
I’ve seen this film before. I know how it ends and I don’t like it.
Unsurprisingly, fast forward a few years later, and the share price of AMC Cinemas is down over 99% and GameStop down 59% from their 2021 peaks. I am sure many of those who were wiped out will never trust the share market again despite it being, overall, a great tool for people looking to build wealth.
So, it is again I feel my stomach churn seeing the potential sequel with people piling into companies which, in my opinion, have really bad fundamentals and are suffering from an enormous list of structural headwinds that they will struggle to overcome.
I could go on and on about the various tips, techniques and lessons that I have learned to become the investor I am today. I could also go on for pages highlighting why I personally wouldn’t touch the shares of the above businesses with a 100-foot pole. However, in this case, I feel there is only one thing to remind you allâ¦
Whilst the share market can, and will, do almost anything in the short term. Over the long term, share prices tend to, almost always, track the fundamentals of the underlying business. Some meme stockers will tell you that fundamentals don’t matter. They are playing a different game. They’ll tell you to just trust them. That I am part of the enormous Wall Street conspiracy looking to keep the regular folk down.
But fundamentals do matter. In fact, if you plan on holding for years, you can argue that they are the only thing that matter.
So, if you find yourself looking at the recent share price rise of companies like AMC Entertainment and GameStop and getting tempted to press “Buy”, ask yourself, do I think these companies have good fundamentals? Do I think these companies are going to be earning significantly more revenue and profits in 2, 3, 5, 10 years’ time than they are today?
If you, like a lot of others, think the answer is no. Then don’t buy.
There are countless other opportunities (both from listed companies and passive investment vehicles like ETFs) that offer high quality, growing and profitable opportunities. So, don’t waste your time trying to ride a wave of what many consider to be irrationality.
This is also the best way to make a short seller‘s life miserable, much better than trying to outsmart them by trying to fight them directly when the fundamentals are against you.
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Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) shares are changing hands for $6.24, up 0.24% at the time of writing.
The share price of the ASX travel stock is up 16.45% in the year to date but down 2.3% over 12 months.
Following many dramas for the company over the past year, it seems some professional traders have lost faith in Qantas, with an increasing amount of short selling going on of late.
This means traders are placing bets that the Qantas share price will fall.
Let’s look at what’s happening.
More short sellers betting against Qantas shares
The beleaguered airline has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past year.
The Australian Financial Review (AFR) reports today that hedge funds are once again targeting Qantas shares and driving short selling back to multi-year highs.
The AFR reported that short bets peaked at 2.69% of Qantas shares on 6 May, which was the highest level since late 2020 when a once-in-a-century pandemic had essentially shut global travel down.
On 6 May, that short interest was worth $258.8 million based on the closing Qantas share price that day.
On the same day, Qantas announced it would pay a civil penalty of $100 million plus $20 million to more than 86,000 customers in a settlement with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over those cancelled flights.
That news appears to have sparked some trading, with some short sellers closing their positions.
By the next day, the short interest in Qantas shares had fallen from 2.69% to 2.58%, according to the daily short position report published by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
That’s the equivalent of 1,813,143 shares no longer being shorted.
Australian Eagle Trust, a long-short fund, told clients that it was still shorting Qantas shares but had reduced its short position in March.
In a recent quarterly update (courtesy AFR), the fund said:
Despite a clean-out of top executives and an aggressive public relations campaign, the company has been forced to decrease airfares due to increasing flights from competitors while cost inflation and fuel prices have put further pressure on margins.
Should you invest $1,000 in Qantas Airways Limited right now?
Before you buy Qantas Airways Limited shares, consider this:
Motley Fool investing expert Scott Phillips just revealed what he believes are the 5 best stocks for investors to buy right now… and Qantas Airways Limited wasn’t one of them.
The online investing service heâs run for over a decade, Motley Fool Share Advisor, has provided thousands of paying members with stock picks that have doubled, tripled or even more.*
And right now, Scott thinks there are 5 stocks that may be better buys…
Motley Fool contributor Bronwyn Allen has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
Mark Zuckerberg has been linked to the superyacht Launchpad for months.
Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images; Ruben Griffeon/SuperYacht Times
It seems as if Mark Zuckerberg will celebrate his 40th birthday on the megayacht, Launchpad.
The yachting world has speculated for months that the Meta CEO is the owner of the vessel.
Now, both the boat and Zuckerberg's private jet have landed in Panama.
All signs point to Mark Zuckerberg celebrating his 40th birthday on what many speculate is his brand-new superyacht Launchpad.
The boating world has been buzzing about Launchpad — a 118-meter yacht built by the Dutch shipyard Feadship — for months, with rumors swirling that her owner is none other than the Meta CEO. But in the yachting world, where privacy is paramount, no party would confirm her owner.
"It is Feadship's standard policy to never divulge any information about our yachts with reference to ownership, costs, or delivery, etc," Feadship, the ship's builder, wrote to Business Insider in March. "Whether it is an 18-meter Feadship from the 1960s or a 118-meter Feadship from the 21st century, we do not share private information."
Representatives for Zuckerberg did not respond to requests for comment from BI.
Now there's even more evidence: The megayacht arrived in Panama on Monday, making her way there from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where she's predominantly been moored since she made her maiden voyage across the Atlantic in March, according to public ship-tracking data. Wingman, the support superyacht that he is suspected to have purchased with Launchpad, made the journey with her.
Zuckerberg's plane also landed in Panama on Monday, per a private jet tracker, and if his Instagram is any indication, he was on board.
Putting two and two together — along with the many other clues linking Zuckerberg to the yacht — we can surmise that the Meta CEO is likely kicking off his new decade aboard his new toy.
Aerial shots of the yacht seem to show a pool on its main deck and a helipad.
Ruben Griffioen/SuperYachtTimes
Little is known about the luxury vessel, which was said to have been built for a sanctioned Russian businessman before it was handed over to the Dutch government, which served as a middleman for the purchase. Her final purchase price is unknown, but it's safe to say a yacht of that size from that shipyard would cost nine figures upfront and six figures a year to maintain.
The few photos of Launchpad available on the industry site SuperYacht Times show there appears to be a helipad and a swimming pool on her main deck.
A vessel of her size can typically sleep dozens of guests and crewmembers and likely has an expansive gym (where Zuckerberg could practice his jiu-jitsu), a spa, a movie room, and a garage to fit plenty of toys like his viral hydrofoil.
Zuckerberg's name was first connected to Launchpad in December when reports swirled that he visited Feadship's shipyard in the Netherlands. In March, yachting bloggers like eSysman SuperYachts and Autoevolution suggested he officially snagged the boat. Launchpad also bears the flag of the Marshall Islands, a US territory that is commonplace for American buyers to register their ships.
We will never know for sure whose name is on her title, so unless Zuckerberg confirms he's Launchpad's owner, we will have to wait for an invitation to Zuck's birthday party to confirm.
A Red Lobster restaurant in Rohnert Park, California — one of the dozens of locations listed for auction.
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
Red Lobster is closing over 50 US locations, a restaurant liquidator confirmed.
TAGeX Brands will auction off furniture and kitchen items from the closing locations.
Bloomberg previously reported that the seafood restaurant chain is considering a bankruptcy filing.
Red Lobster, the seafood restaurant chain considering a bankruptcy filing, is shutting down over 50 locations across the US.
TAGeX Brands, a restaurant liquidator, confirmed to Business Insider on Monday that it would be auctioning off kitchen items and furniture from the locations that would be shut down. The auction began Monday and will end Thursday. Neal Sherman at TAGeX Brands told BI that four sales were completed on Monday.
"TAGeX Brands is conducting the largest restaurant equipment auction event ever, auctioning off the contents of 50+ former Red Lobster locations across the country that were closed as part of Red Lobster's footprint rationalization," the company wrote in a statement to BI.
Red Lobster has not made a public statement about the restaurant closures and did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Per the Red Lobster website, locations TageX Brands lists as part of their liquidation auction appear to be closed for the rest of the week. Local outlets from Orlando to Buffalo reported that locations had been listed as "temporarily closed" on the website.
States that will see Red Lobster closures include California, Colorado, Florida, New York, and Texas. The company has over 700 locations, although it's unclear if the total was updated to reflect the restaurant closures.
Red Lobsterhas seen its share of financial struggles over the years.
The 56-year-old chain founded in Florida recently blamed $11 million in losses in the third quarter of 2023 on its all-you-can-eat shrimp promotion.
The restaurant also reported losing billions in sales in March 2020 during the start of Covid-19 lockdowns.
Retail experts who previously spoke to Business Insider said some of the company's troubles are due to the private equity firm Golden Gate Capital, which took over the struggling business in 2014.
Golden Gate Capital sold Red Lobster's real-estateholdings that same year to a separate company to help finance the deal and later leased those restaurants back, which has costthe brand.
In the past two years, the company has also faced unsteady leadership, with multiple Red Lobster executives leaving roles.
S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) stock GUD Holdings Ltd (ASX: GUD) is off to the races on Tuesday.
Shares in the diversified automotive market products company closed yesterday trading for $9.77. At the time of writing in late morning trade today, shares are changing hands for $10.71 apiece, up 9.6%.
For some context, the ASX 200 is down 0.2% at this same time.
Here’s what’s piquing investor interest.
ASX 200 stock soars on confirmed earnings guidance
Investors are bidding up the GUD Holdings share price after the company confirmed that its full 2024 financial year (FY 2024) underlying earnings before interest, taxes and amortisation (EBITA) is forecast to be at least $193.5 million.
That’s in line with management’s prior expectations, and based on updated April 2024 unaudited, management estimates.
Excluding its AutoPacific Group (APG) segment, the ASX 200 stock’s automotive was reported to be continuing to trade well across all its key business units.
Management said this reflects the ongoing execution of its diversification strategy and the resilience of the aftermarket. They added that the end user workshop demand also remains positive.
As for APG, the company now expects this business, which it acquired in November 2021, to deliver approximately $63 million in underlying EBITA for the full financial year. That’s $3 million below what was expected when GUD reported on its half-year results (H1 FY 2024).
The ASX 200 stock cited various headwinds impacting APG’s earnings.
Among those is the New Zealand market’s slower-than-expected recovery. The New Zealand market was reported to be operating “marginally above breakeven to date” in FY 2024. However, the NZ business has delivered some $10 million less in EBITA in FY 2024 to date than management’s base case assumptions.
APG was also impacted by lower Toyota volumes, with second-half volumes declining, along with “emerging consumer-related softness in the trailering market”.
Despite that weak caravan market, management said earnings from Cruisemaster are in line with FY 2023, “reflecting market share gains”.
Looking ahead, the company expects revenue and EBITA growth from APG in FY 2025 “as headwinds partially moderate and new business wins begin to contribute”.
GUD Holdings’ corporate costs, cash conversion and leverage were also said to be tracking in line with management’s expectations.
As for passive income
The ASX 200 stock is also popular among passive income investors for its long-term track record of paying two fully franked dividends per year.
GUD Holdings paid a final dividend of 22 cents per share on 14 September and an interim dividend of 18.5 cents per share on 8 March.
That works out to a full-year payout of 40.5 cents per share.
At the current share price of $10.71, this ASX 200 stock trades on a fully franked trailing yield of 3.8%.
The GUD Holdings share price is up 16% over 12 months.
Should you invest $1,000 in Gud Holdings Limited right now?
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Motley Fool contributor Bernd Struben has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.
One of my personal investing mottos is “the market is straight up kooky dooks“.
