Welcome to our quick hits irl Media NEWSLETTER. This is a shortened version of our regular Wednesday long-form newsletter, except a whole lot shorter, less wordy, and we’ll be delivering it to your inbox every Monday & Friday.
Still the same newsletter that brings you the business behind the news with a healthy dose of sarcasm, but now bite-sized.
In today’s newsletter we discuss how the Walton family who founded Walmart are now the wealthiest family in the world, Donald Trump has transferred all his shares in DJT to a revocable trust before assuming the presidency for a second time, father and son plead guilty to a $100 million stock dollar NJ deli stock scheme, you can now call OpenAi’s ChatGPT at 1-800-CHATGPT, The new trailer for Superman just dropped, NASA gets a new billionaire administrator, Sergio Perez is out at Formula 1’s Red Bull Racing team, and people are sleeping on Ripple’s new RLUSD stablecoin.
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WHAT WE’RE READING
Walmart’s Founding Walton Family Surpasses Gulf State Dynasties To Take Top Place Of World’s Wealthiest Families
Alice and Jim Walton are once again members of the world’s wealthiest family. REUTERS/Rick Wilking
While Elon Musk may be the wealthiest individual, with a net worth north of $400 billion dollars, he’s actually comparatively poor when you stack his wealth up against the world’s wealthiest families. I’m talking about the royal families of Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the heirs to Waltons.
The who?
The Waltons. You know, the family that founded Walmart and Sam’s Club, who have a combined net worth of $432 billion dollars based on Walmart’s stock price, and their 50% ownership of the company.
The family patriarchs are Sam Walton (the better known of the two brothers, and often referred to as the sole founder of Walmart), and his younger and lesser known (but still a co-founder) James Lawrence “Bud” Walton, or just Bud as his family and friends called him.
How does the family stack up?
With the Walton family ranking #1 on the chart of wealthiest family dynasties, they are in pretty good company.
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Abu Dhabi’s ruling family, the Al Nahyans, have a net worth of $324 billion
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Qatar’s ruling dynasty, the Al Thanis, comes in at third place with $173 billion
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The heirs to the luxury Hermès fortune come in at fourth place with $171 billion
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And in fifth place the conservative U.S. industrialists the Kochs are worth $149 billion
Why did they jump to 1st place this year?
The short answer is Walmart’s stock has surged around 80% this year, boosting the family’s fortunes, and it isn’t even an AI tech stock. Go figure!
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💰 Business
Ahead of assuming the office of the President of the United States for a second time, Donald Trump has transferred all his shares in DJT, the company that owns his Truth Social company, into a revocable trust, of which he is the sole beneficiary. Sorry Eric.
📈 Finance / Economy
In proof that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, the father and son behind a $100 million stock scheme have pleaded guilty to manipulating the stock price, of parent company Hometown, whose only asset was their small family owned New Jersey deli, to make it look like it was a bigger company than it really was. They also created a shell company called E-Waste that wasn’t anything more than a complete fraud. The two will be sentenced in 2025, and 82-year old father could face 0-2 years in prison, and the 56-year old son could get between 30-50 months. Good!
🗨️ Tech
You’ve heard of dialing a friend for help, like in the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”, but now there’s a much smarter bet if you ever need an answer – you can now call OpenAi’s ChatGPT at 1-800-CHATGPT.
🦸 Entertainment
The new trailer for Superman just dropped, and WoW does it ever look good! I’m most excited about the universe this new Superman is building, which people will inevitably compare to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), and they wouldn’t be wrong. The new movie is directed by James Gunn, who directed all (3) of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. I’m most excited to learn more about Superdog!
🚀 Space
It sounds like NASA is about to get a new administrator who’s not only a billionaire, but is also a private astronaut who’s financed his own series of flights aboard SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. Donald Trump has nominated Jared Isaacman, the CEO of Shift4, to become the next head of NASA
🏎️ Sports
Sergio Perez is out at Formula 1’s Red Bull Racing team, having agreed to part ways after a disastrous 2024 season, but not before the team must have agreed to a sweet severance package. Halfway through the 2024 season Christian Horner, head of Red Bull’s Formula 1 team, signed a 2-year contract extension with Sergio Perez in the hope that it would reassure the driver and help him close the gap on the points to his teammate Max Verstappen. That didn’t happen, and Red Bull lost the Constructor’s Cup to rival McLaren.
🏦 Crypto
I’m a big proponent of Ripple’s XRP, and the debut of their RLUSD stablecoin this week has largely gone unnoticed by the press, and I’m not the only one to think that. Sleep on this news at your own peril.
So much news, so little time. Until next time I’m signing out.
— Chris Thompson
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