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Forbes December/January 2024 (Digital)

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23 Articles

1 min.

Community Capitalism

One of the wonderful parts about the Forbes brand: its ubiquity in song lyrics—specifically, lyrics of Black artists, from Jay-Z to Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé to Bruno Mars to 50 Cent to the Weeknd. Forbes serves as handy one-word shorthand for success, yes. But more specifically, it’s a self-determinant strand appealing to anyone who feels societal roadblocks to achievement. As A$AP Rocky sings, “The sum of my performances/Just put me on the Forbes list.” That empowerment message transcends music and explains the physical line, literally two city blocks long, in early November, as more than 800 Black entrepreneurs and leaders flocked to Atlanta for the first-ever ForbesBLK Summit. “You don’t have to explain impact when you can feel it,” says Ayisha Mendez, who manages ForbesBLK, which has surged to more than 33,000…

9 min.

Eerie Echoes of Pre–World War II

“With all thy getting, get understanding” The ugly outbreaks of antisemitism around the world since October 7 are a frightening warning of the firestorms to come—if we don’t pull ourselves together. Not since the 1930s, during the lead up to World War II, has there been as much open antisemitism as there has been in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. What’s particularly shocking is the unprecedented outbreak of it in the United States and the cowardly, see-no-evil reaction of so many of our academic and civic institutions. These attacks assault core American values that have made this country so unique and successful. There is growing alarm that our very institutional foundations are rotting. People sense that things are unraveling here and abroad. We haven’t experienced such a dangerous drift since…

5 min.

THE POWER ERA (TAYLOR’S VERSION)

“You’re making me feel phenomenal,” Taylor Swift likes to tell the sold-out stadium of fans at each stop on her Eras Tour, right before she performs her feminist anthem “The Man.” Basking in the applause, the 34-year-old pop star then flexes her biceps and kisses the muscle, all of which whips the audience into a bigger frenzy. “You’re making me feel,” she says, as a smile spreads across her face, “powerful.” It’s brilliant theatrics, but Swiftie Nation knows that she is, and has always been, the true source of her own power—and 17 years into her remarkable career, Swift has never had more economic, cultural and political clout. All this has caused her to soar up the ranks of Forbes’ World’s 100 Most Powerful Women, from No. 79 in 2022 to…

3 min.

MAGIC’S MOMENT

If Earvin Johnson wanted to realize his bold business ambitions, he was going to need a little magic. During the peak years of the Showtime-era Lakers in the 1980s, there was little reason to believe that an athlete would ever be taken seriously in the boardroom. But over the last 30 years, Johnson has been a major player in movie theaters, fast food franchises, real estate and health care. The 64-year-old basketball Hall of Famer also owns small stakes in sports teams including the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Commanders. Most significantly for Johnson, in 2015, he bought a controlling stake in the Chicago-based life insurance provider EquiTrust, which makes up the majority of a personal net worth that Forbes estimates to be $1.2 billion. That makes Johnson just the fourth…

6 min.

WORLD OF FORBES

COLOMBIA Forbes Colombia highlights 15 of the nation’s top chief information Officers. Among those who made the cover: Alejandro Comisario of e-commerce unicorn Rappi and Biviana Bautista Oróstegui of Accenture in Colombia. FRANCE Since taking over his father’s masonry business 30 years ago in the eastern suburbs of Paris, Marc Verrecchia has expanded into real estate development, using limestone in 2,500 luxury residences in 40 buildings in France. COSTA RICA With new commitments north of $1 billion by chip-maker Intel and the U.S. government, Costa Rica and Panama hope to emerge as key players in big tech by establishing a “semiconductor hub” in Central America. GEORGIA In an interview with Forbes Georgia, Tbilisi-based BK Construction’s managing partner, Irakli Burdiladze, says it has 9 million–plus square feet of floor space in the works. Two-thirds, approaching $300 million in…

1 min.

METAMORPHOSIS

Mark Zuckerberg will turn 40 in May, and the suddenly middle-aged Silicon Valley veteran gave us an exclusive sit-down for our October/November Forbes 400 issue, in which he ranked No. 8 among the wealthiest Americans. (“So 40 is the new age to become grown up,” cracked Eliecer Guerra on LinkedIn, regarding our cover headline.) The famously intense Meta CEO is mellowing some—he’ll have no choice but to chill out a bit after wrecking his left knee doing mixed martial arts this fall—yet remains brimming with exuberance over the still-unrealized potential of the metaverse. Even a more relaxed Zuck is a divisive figure, of course. “Moving fast and breaking things can have disastrous consequences,” @LethalKali posted on X (formerly Twitter), citing the Burmese military junta’s use of Facebook to incite genocide…

7 min.

Bunny Money

It’s 11:30 p.m. on October 12, and the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is packed. More than 16,000 Bad Bunny superfans have gathered to become the first people on the planet to hear their hometown hero’s new album. Nobody knows what to expect. Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is a boundary-defying artist whose previous four studio albums have spanned hip-hop, reggaeton, Latin pop, Puerto Rican trap and Mexican country music. Tonight’s crowd embodies that vast spectrum: Hundreds are dressed in the white T-shirts and flat-brimmed blue caps from his recent song “Un Preview.” Others sport the cowboy hats from “Where She Goes.” Many simply wear bunny ears. “I listened to a lot of salsa on my dad’s side, lots of ballads and merengue on my mom’s…

1 min.

HOW TO PLAY IT

Bad Bunny is hardly the only act selling out his shows. This year has been one for the books for Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and other big names in live entertainment. Chicago-based ticket exchange Vivid Seats is minting money on the upsurge in attendance, expecting revenue this year to rise 15%, to $690.4 million, and earnings to jump 42%, to $0.51 per share, giving Vivid a modest forward P/E ratio of 14.9 times earnings. With a market capitalization of $1.6 billion, Vivid is less than 8% of the size of Live Nation, the Ticketmaster owner and industry Leviathan, but it has demonstrated an ability to operate deftly as an underdog for selling tickets to concerts, theater and sports. John Dobosz is editor of Forbes Billionaire Investor, Forbes Dividend Investor and Forbes Premium…

5 min.

Mr. Tea

Nearly every inch of Don Vultaggio’s factory in Edison, New Jersey, roars with machinery pumping out the sweet smell of tea. But a conference room on the second floor is a quiet sanctum, and that’s where, on a warm Wednesday afternoon, the AriZona Beverages cofounder is hosting his company’s quarterly sales meeting. Vultaggio, sporting a long-sleeve AriZona shirt and white cargo shorts, wanders among his employees as they sip samples out of tiny paper cups. They’re comparing AriZona’s lemon and peach hard teas to those of market leader Twisted Tea. “When I tried Twisted Tea, I was amazed how bad it was,” Vultaggio, 71, declares. “On our worst day, we couldn’t hope to make it taste that bad.” Hard tea has overtaken hard seltzer as the fastestgrowing malt-based “beer alternative,” a…

1 min.

HOW TO PLAY IT

Does temperance threaten booze vendors? Probably not, as per capita alcohol consumption is rising. But there is plenty of risk in this business. The effervescent price/earnings multiples of companies like Molson Coors and Boston Beer are hard to justify, given that even a brand as well-entrenched as Bud Light can suffer an overnight collapse. Look for low P/Es and buy a blend of producers. Consider these: Heineken, the Dutch brewer; Duckhorn Portfolio, the California vintner; Pernod Ricard, which has Chivas Regal and Absolut; and MGP Ingredients (née Midwest Grain Products), which distills ethanol for both cocktails and gas tanks. William Baldwin is Forbes’ Investment Strategies columnist.…

8 min.

Wheeler-Deeler

It’s a sweltering September day in Washington, D.C., and Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz has a pressing question for his staffers, who are packed tightly into a nondescript gray sedan driving around Capitol Hill. “What is the one thing I really need to know about U.S. politics before meeting all these congressmen and congresswomen?” the 30-year-old Frenchman asks from the back seat. “I really don’t want to look too stupid.” One executive is quick to offer up a truism, a minor variation on “money is everything.” But Bouaziz already knows that. Deel, his San Francisco–based startup, has been challenging the recondite world of international labor law compliance since launching in 2019, splashing around its $675 million pile of VC cash to help other companies handle legal and HR operations in 100-plus countries. In…

1 min.

HOW TO PLAY IT

Human resources is becoming increasingly digital. The best way to play this trend is Workday Inc., an enterprise resource planning company based in Pleasanton, California. Workday makes software to help companies manage their financial planning, internal analytics and human resources. These tools are in high demand. Executives at Workday reported in August that the existing customer base has reached 65 million users. Second quarter revenue grew to $1.79 billion, an increase of 16.3% year-over-year. Workday shares could rally to $275 during the next 18 months, a gain of 18.5% from current levels. Jon D. Markman is president of Markman Capital Insight and editor of Fast Forward Investing.…

6 min.

The First National Bank Of Grandma

Ever since the Federal Reserve started fighting inflation by driving up interest rates, banks’ prime rate, on which so much adjustable and short-term loan pricing hinges, has climbed from 3.5% in March 2022 to 8.5% now. That has pushed unsecured personal loans above 12% and average credit card interest above 21%. Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates have been flirting with 8%, up from under 3% in 2021. Those unpleasant numbers, combined with favorable tax rules governing intrafamily loans, make borrowing from the Bank of Grandma a savvy option for many well-off families, particularly if the older generation is sitting on gobs of cash. In addition to a healthy family dynamic, the keys to making these loans work are planning, paperwork and, most importantly, insisting that Grandma charge the current “applicable federal rate”…

5 min.

High Rates, Higher Returns

With interest rates at heights not seen in nearly two decades and traditional lenders still shell-shocked from this past spring’s bank runs, private credit, or nonbank direct lending, is booming on Wall Street. Yield-chasing institutions have poured into the sector, which now amounts to $1.5 trillion globally. But pension funds, endowments and other big players need not be the only investors feasting on high yields. A great way retail investors can partake in private credit’s spoils is by buying the stocks of business development companies (BDCs). These outfits are required to lend to small or medium-sized businesses, which usually don’t have access to public debt markets. There are more than 130 BDCs, according to the Small Business Investor Alliance. The largest is the $48 billion Blackstone Private Credit Fund (BCRED), which…

3 min.

Old Roth, New Tricks

Tax rates are going up. Do your conversions now. That’s a starting point in the complex game of IRA manipulation. But the general rule must be accompanied by footnotes and provisos. For these subtleties we turn to Robert S. Keebler, an accountant in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who has elevated tax bracket management into an art form. Large sums are at stake. Keebler’s firm has had occasion to advise on eight-figure IRAs, with potential savings into the millions of dollars. For a prosperous but not wealthy uppermiddle-class client, the difference between doing nothing and making the optimal moves could be a few hundred grand. Roth conversion means the prepayment of income tax on some portion of your retirement account, leaving that sum immune to future tax. The time to think hardest about converting…

13 min.

A Fighter’s Chance.

At his ranch on the southwestern outskirts of Guadalajara, Mexico, Saúl Álvarez, the country’s most famous boxer, settles into a leather chair next to a zebra-skin rug. Behind him is a floor-to-ceiling window offering a view of a dirt paddock where he can ride his 30-odd horses, stabled next to a towering horse sculpture and the peacocks that greet visitors through the property’s front gate. The back entrance is plenty impressive as well, with a Mercedes-AMG G 65 waiting to whisk him away to a nearby golf course—through a colossal metal door straight out of Jurassic Park—as members of his staff zip in and out in cars emblazoned with the nickname by which he is universally known: Canelo. Álvarez was No. 5 on Forbes’ 2023 list of the world’s highest-paid athletes, with…

39 min.

30 UNDER 30

ART & STYLE KENDALL JENNER Age: 28 • Founder, 818 Tequila While scores of celebs lean on their famous names to hawk expensive spirits, Jenner started her tequila brand, 818, incognito. Before publicly launching in 2021, the model and member of the Kardashian-Jenner clan anonymously submitted her reposado to the 2020 World Tequila Awards—and took home the category’s top prize. “I wanted the liquid and the brand to stand on their own and for people to love it without me even having to be a part of it,” she says. The award—and her 300 million followers on TikTok and Instagram—helped her sell more than 123,000 cases of 818 in 2022. Bottles start at $30, with Eight Reserve añejo retailing for about $150. Forbes estimates 2022 sales were around $25 million. Beyond 818, this…

14 min.

SOLAR BURST

SITTING at a mostly empty 20-person conference table in his Houston head-quarters, William “John” Berger, CEO of Sunnova Energy International, looks relaxed and confident. The top of his crisp white shirt is unbuttoned, and no strands of gray yet spoil his shock of black hair. At 50, this Texas-born Aggie engineer with a Harvard MBA has built Sunnova into the nation’s second-largest residential solar power developer, with 2,000 megawatts of generation on the rooftops of 390,000 homes. And yet, he quips, if you like cliffhangers, “you’ve come to the right place.” Sunnova has lost $330 million on $722 million in revenue in the last 12 months. Its shares are trading around $10, off 80% from their 2021 high. Wall Street is nervous about its bonds: Its $400 million 2021 senior unsecured…

2 min.

Experience

Suite Success October 15, 1950 When Conrad Hilton founded his eponymous hotel brand in 1925, the entrepreneur was more suited to bargaining behind the counter of his father’s general store than satisfying weary travelers. But what the young hotelier lacked in experience he made up for in dealmaking from years of bartering with silver prospectors at his dad’s store. “I had to find out what factors will make a man willing to sell,” he told Forbes. That knowledge served him well when buying his first hotel for $40,000 (nearly $700,000 today). “I had a hotel employing 20 people on my inexperienced hands,” he told us. “It was no place to learn the fine points of hotelkeeping.” Over time, Hilton learned that a customer, whether asking for a suite upgrade or negotiating the…

2 min.

A DASHING DASHBOARD

Most car buyers don’t consider the dashboard clock when purchasing a new vehicle, but for the $30 million it reportedly cost to commission the Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail, you’d be forgiven for expecting something fancier than a digital display. Unveiled at Monterey Car Week in August, the custom Rolls-Royce is a tribute to the Baccara rose, a favorite flower of the unnamed owner of the vehicle. Near the center of the intricate parquet dashboard is a pièce unique worthy of a one-of-a-kind car—a custom Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Split-Seconds Chronograph GMT. The 43mm case is made of titanium, and the self-winding movement has about 70 hours of power reserve. The watch itself has a red inner bezel and other design elements that complement the car’s colorway. Best of all,…

5 min.

MAN OF THE HOURS

When he was 12 years old at boarding school in Switzerland, Patrick Getreide would walk past a local watch store, dreaming of one of the expensive Omega timepieces in the window. One day in 1966, he offered to pay the owner 10 francs per week (about $2 at the time) from the pocket money his parents sent him. The owner agreed, but months later, Getreide called his father and begged him to buy the watch for him. His father, who owned a tannery outside Toulouse, France, agreed. That first CHF400 Omega (about $1,400 today) began a collection that now contains some 600 timepieces and is valued by Christie’s at more than $300 million. A few years after that first purchase, Getreide left school because his father was too sick to run…

1 min.

EYE CANDY LAND

Among the buzziest releases at Watches and Wonders earlier this year was a Rolex Day-Date with a jigsaw puzzle–inspired enamel dial. Rolex then dialed up the playfulness by replacing the words in the day window with inspirational terms—including Gratitude, Love and Eternity — and using 31 emojis in the traditional date window. (Oris also made the leap to emojis this year with a Kermit-colored dial on its ProPilot watch—the beloved Muppet frog hops into the date window on the first of every month.) The biggest puzzle, of course, is how to actually purchase the Rolex jigsaw watch—but since Tom Brady and John Mayer have theirs, it may be a little easier. Many brands are now infusing a sense of joy—including candy-colored dials and other artful embellishments—on some of their new releases…

1 min.

THE ALL-TIMERS

When Lionel Messi accepted FIFA’s Best Men’s Player award in 2022, the Argentine soccer star wore a platinum Patek Philippe Ref. 5270P Perpetual Calendar Chronograph that retails for $218,000. Call it a well-earned wrist flex for the world’s second-highest-paid athlete, who earned $130 million last year. Or, Messi’s watch could have been sending a simpler message: I’m the greatest of all time. Despite its name, the perpetual calendar has not been around forever. Patek Philippe patented the movement for a pocket watch in 1889 and the venerable Swiss watch brand introduced the first wristwatch with the complication in 1925. Unlike its chronometric cousin, the annual calendar—which displays the day, date and month for an entire year, calculating which months have 30 or 31 days—the perpetual calendar is built to go the…

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