Financial Daily Dose 11.30.2021 | Top Story: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Resigns

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is stepping down, effectively immediately, from the site he co-founded in 2006. He was replaced by company CTO Parag Agrawal, “who has recently been working on technologies associated with cryptocurrencies.” Dorsey’s departure “marks a significant shift at the company, which has navigated years of pressure from investors who thought it did not make enough money and criticism from Washington” over decisions to silence users spreading misinformation - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch and TechCrunch

Markets bounced back on Monday, as investors “contemplated more carefully the knowns and unknowns of a new Covid-19 variant” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch

Still, the uncertainty associated with Omicron was enough for Fed Chair Powell to discuss its emergence and potential impact on inflation in his written remarks released ahead of planned testimony later today before the Senate Banking Committee (alongside Treasury Secretary Yellen) - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg

Oh, and don’t bank on the volatility ending any time soon with this many Omicron questions still unanswered - WSJ and Bloomberg

Recent, well-publicized supply-chain issues have prompted the Federal Trade Commission to ask for information from major U.S. corporations—including Amazon, P&G, Walmart, Kroger, and KraftHeinz—as “part of a study into whether the problems have led to anticompetitive behavior and higher prices.” The inquiry’s not currently linked to any law-enforcement action - WSJ

And with that in mind, why not spend a little time getting to know the FTC’s Lina Khan a bit better - NewYorker

Also, how some small businesses have turned to hoarding to deal with those supply-chain woes - NYTimes

The UK’s independent data privacy authority, the ICO, has fined facial recognition company Clearview AI  just over $22.5 million on Monday for “failing to comply with the nation’s data protection laws” when it didn’t inform “British residents that it was collecting billions of photos from sites including Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to build its facial recognition software.” In addition to the fine, the ICO has “ordered the company to stop processing the personal data of people in Britain and to delete their existing information” - NYTimes

Meanwhile, the country’s top antitrust regulator has ordered Meta to offload Giphy, the animated-images company it acquired in May 2020 for $315 million, after finding the deal “removed Giphy as a potential challenger in the display-advertising market” - WSJ and MarketWatch and TechCrunch

Schick owner Edgewell Personal Care has capitalized on the FTC blocking P&G’s planned acquisition of direct-to-consumer razor company Billie Inc., announcing a new deal to buy the company in a $310 million transaction that has “cleared antitrust requirements and has already been closed” - Bloomberg and WSJ

Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama are closer to a new unionization vote thanks to a regional NLRB office’s order confirming a hearing officer’s August recommendation that the results of spring 2021 vote “be thrown out and that a new election take place” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and Mashable

The latest on Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos criminal fraud trial, including the former CEO’s fourth day testifying in her own defense - NYTimes and WSJ and Law360

“The whole thing sounds like a Chico Marx convention.” That and much more from Anthony Lane on the trainwreck that is “House of Gucci” - NewYorker

Stay safe, and get boosted,

MDR