Friday’s edition of Forbes Daily covers Trump Media’s post-verdict decline, a Salesforce selloff, OpenAI’s robotics team, Thailand’s relaxed visa program and more.
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Good morning,
This was anything but a normal commencement season, as students walked out of ceremonies in protest of the war in Gaza, and some speakers made controversial comments. But many speakers also gave powerful career advice to new graduates that we could all heed.
Actress Quinta Brunson told Temple University graduates that there’s power in your connections from college when looking for your next opportunity. Thasunda Brown Duckett, the first female president of financial services firm TIAA, told Howard University’s graduating class not to look in your rearview mirror, but to focus on the present and future.
And billionaire telecom entrepreneur Robert Hale, who donated $1,000 in cash to each graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, reminded the class not to fear failure.FIRST UP
Former President Donald Trump was convicted on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records Thursday, becoming the first former or sitting president to ever be convicted on criminal charges. Each of the 34 counts Trump was convicted on is punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 per offense and/or up to four years in prison—but legal experts believe it’s unlikely, but not out of the question, that he’ll be sentenced to prison as a first-time offender.
Those 34 counts could be the first of many, as Trump still faces an additional 54 felony charges against him in his three remaining criminal cases. Trump has pleaded not guilty in all of the criminal cases against him, insisting that the charges are all “witch hunts” designed to harm his presidential campaign.BUSINESS + FINANCE
The Dow Jones Industrial Average faltered Thursday thanks in large part to a massive selloff for software giant Salesforce, as the business software platform’s earnings report included weaker revenue forecasts than expected. The Salesforce malaise is indicative of the investor angst about turning AI hype into earnings growth—for pretty much every technology company other than Microsoft and Nvidia.
When wildly popular drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy first took off, there were dire predictions for the food industry, but Nestlé’s CEO said Thursday that the nutritional needs of customers on the drugs are “just shifting.” That’s created an opportunity for companies like Nestlé to respond to their needs by promoting healthier “companion products,” he said, including the company’s upcoming frozen food line, Vital Pursuit, which is geared toward GLP-1 drug users.TECH + INNOVATION
Elon Musk has agreed to testify in the SEC’s investigation into his $44 billion purchase of X—formerly known as Twitter—in 2022, according to court documents filed Thursday. In October 2023, the SEC filed a lawsuit against Tesla’s centibillionaire CEO for allegedly refusing to testify in its investigation into whether Musk violated securities laws when he began buying shares of Twitter leading up to his purchase of the entire company.
