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Dec. 08, 2024 10:04PM EST
Jun. 08, 2021 04:18PM EST
Senate confirms Biden's first judicial nominee as Schumer vows to restore "balance" to courts
The Senate voted 66-33 on Tuesday to confirm Julien Xavier Neals to be U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey.
Why it matters: Neals is President Biden's first judicial nominee to be confirmed, as Democrats begin a push to "restore the balance" of the courts after the GOP-led Senate confirmed a record number of conservative judges under former President Trump.
- Trump's aggressive judicial appointments were his most lasting, substantive legacy, as he appointed 234 judges to the federal bench — including three Supreme Court justices — in just one term.
- Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)pledged that Senate Democrats would bring "balance, experience and diversity back to the judiciary" with Biden's nominees.
Background: Neals was previously nominated to serve on the district court by former President Obama in 2015, but his nomination expired after then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to bring it for a vote.
What to watch: There are currently 71 district-court vacancies and nine appeals-court vacancies, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Liberal activists have pushed for 82-year-old Justice Stephen Breyer to retire while Democrats still have control of the Senate.
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Feb. 12, 2021 04:16PM EST
How Softbank's VisionFund rode the pandemic to an $8 billion net profit last quarter
SoftBank's Vision Fund went from being in the red, with an annual operating loss of $18 billion at one point, to an $8 billion net profit in its most recent quarter — thanks in no small part to the past year's unexpected events.
Why it matters: While the Vision Fund's bet on a global shift to digital services is likely correct, it's hard to believe its financial performance would have rebounded so quickly had 2020 gone differently.
The pandemic...
- It's been a huge accelerant for trends central to Vision Fund's thesis and many of its portfolio companies — food delivery, online education, e-commerce, and so on.
- SoftBank's defensive moves in the spring, including stock buybacks and writing down more poorly performing companies, put it a position to benefit even more from the surprising boom on the stock market that followed.
- Even WeWork—which fell so hard, so fast when it tried to go public in 2019 — could be the one office co-working company left standing after the pandemic. Regus properties have been filing for bankruptcy (and its parent company just acquired a majority stake in embattled women-focused clubhouse The Wing), as has Knotel, another venture-backed rival that was once valued at $1.6 billion.
The stock market...
- It didn't get the memo that there's a global pandemic and massive economic hit — it just kept going up and to the right.
- 11 of SoftBank's portfolio companies have gone public since the pandemic began, helping to contribute to the Vision Fund's $13 billion in investment gains just in the last quarter.
- Even portfolio companies that were already public performed well, adding to the fund's recent success.
The other side:
- For one, luck isn't everything — the fund's performance is tied to CEO Masayoshi Son's fundamental investment thesis staying focused on digital technologies.
- A great market won't do very much for a portfolio of weak companies that won't be able to go public or continue to grow in value. In short: SoftBank did well in picking eventual winners.
- And now, three-and-a-half years into the Vision Fund, SoftBank is past the trough of the expected J-curve, which is par for the course in venture investing. As they say: things get worse before they get better.
The bottom line: "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity," Roman philosopher Seneca once wrote.
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Dec. 08, 2024 06:16PM EST



