• Netflix is quietly searching for an exec to lead its video podcast efforts.
• The streamer is chasing YouTube, which has cemented itself as a video podcast titan.
• Podcast listening and advertising are on the rise, and media giants are investing.

Netflix is quietly searching for a podcast leader as it looks to bring video pods onto the streaming platform, two people close to the company told Business Insider.

Netflix had previously explored potential deals with podcasters as it sought new areas of growth, as BI first reported. The hunt for an exec to lead a video podcasting effort shows how seriously Netflix is taking the space.

The streamer's interest comes as rival YouTube has cemented itself as a living-room fixture and video podcasting powerhouse.

Netflix has also shown interest in creator content more broadly.

"We're really excited about 'The Sidemen' and 'Pop the Balloon' and a wide variety of creators and video podcasters that might be a good fit for us, and particularly if they're doing great work and looking for different ways to connect with audiences," co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on the company's second-quarter earnings call this month. "The Sidemen" and "Pop the Balloon" are two Netflix shows that began in the creator realm.

Netflix has not publicized a podcast lead job opening and declined to comment for this story.

One person who had conversations with Netflix said the company wanted someone who could make video-first podcasts for a big audience.

Many of today's biggest podcasts started as audio-only endeavors and later added video as audience habits changed and YouTube gained prominence. The lines between video talk shows and podcasts have increasingly blurred, and newer podcasts often now start with video in mind.

It's not clear where the podcast role would sit inside Netflix.

A second person who had conversations with the company said they believed it would sit in Netflix's TV and film licensing arm under Lori Conkling rather than the original content side. That could signal that Netflix might look to license existing shows, as it's done with some YouTube creators like preschool entertainer Ms. Rachel, as well as make original shows with hosts. Separate content-side hires could follow.

Edison Research has charted the continued rise of podcast listening. In a new report out this week, the firm said 73% of people ages 12 and over in the US listen to or watch podcasts, up from 55% in 2020.

Video is on the rise, too, with 51% of people 12 and up saying they've watched a podcast, according to Edison.

Podcast advertising grew 26.4% to $2.4 billion in 2024, according to the IAB. EMARKETER projects it will top $2.5 billion in 2025.

Other media heavyweights have made big moves to chase the podcast-listening audience and the advertising that can come with it.

In February, Fox acquired Red Seat Ventures, which produces Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, and others. Amazon paid $300 million for podcast company Wondery in 2020, The New York Times reported at the time, after snapping up audiobook company Audible in 2008.

• Some staff questioned Satya Nadella's memo on job cuts amid huge earnings.
• Microsoft has shed thousands of employees this year, as it spends $80 billion on AI.
• Employees speculated about the memo's intent, and whether it presages more cuts.

Microsoft employees are reacting to a memo from CEO Satya Nadella that attempted to explain why the company has cut jobs while generating huge profits and spending billions on AI.

Microsoft has shed thousands of employees this year. The company has earned $75 billion in profit over the past three fiscal quarters, and plans to spend $80 billion on AI infrastructure in 2025. The stock also hit a record earlier this month.

Nadella sent a memo to employees on Thursday describing this "seeming incongruence" as the "enigma of success." The company expects total headcount to remain roughly flat.

Inside Microsoft, some staff speculated about what may have driven Nadella to write the memo: Are more job cuts coming? Is he feeling guilty about earnings, which the company is due to report next week? Was this just a message to Wall Street?

Nadella knows employees are stressed out

Nadella wrote the letter because he knows employees are stressed about increased performance pressure, AI competition, and job cuts, a person familiar with the matter said. Microsoft's last big employee "Signals" survey came out before the recent job cuts, but the company still gauges employee sentiment through daily and weekly "pulse" surveys.

Microsoft has about 220,000 employees, so it's hard to externally gauge the sentiment across the workforce broadly.

"With a company our size, you can imagine we have a variety of reactions internally that range from positive to constructive," Microsoft spokesman Frank Shaw said. "Satya heard directly back from a number of employees who appreciated his leadership as well as the content and tone of his message."

Criticism from some workers

Reactions from some employees, shared directly with Business Insider and on an employee message board, provide a partial window into how Nadella's memo was received internally.

One employee told BI that they couldn't tell if the CEO was trying to mend feelings or prepare people for more pain.

Another said Microsoft was prioritizing KPIs over people. (KPIs, or key performance indicators, is a common way for businesses to measure how they're doing.)

Handling jobs cuts is never easy, as ousted workers often feel aggrieved and remaining staff can be demoralized.

Another Microsoft staffer told BI that Nadella's memo was tone deaf. This person compared the company to a coal mine and said the CEO is focused on getting more coal and doesn't care how he gets it.

Blind suspicion

Some users in a Blind message board, which requires a Microsoft.com email address to sign up, blasted Nadella's message.

One user posted a parody of Nadella's letter, titled "A quick memo on your continued utility."

Pretending to speak as Nadella, this person said constant chaos, shifting teams, and cancelled projects are not a bug, but a feature designed to keep workers anxious, compliant, and too scared to question leadership decisions. The person also advised colleagues to stay useful, or they risk being replaced.

Another post was an apparent critique of Nadella's email, attributed to Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant. It argued that the rationale behind the layoffs was not fully explained, and didn't directly acknowledge the emotional toll of ongoing change or support mechanisms.

Another user on the Microsoft Blind message board speculated that Nadella was sending a signal to Wall Street. (This is a common technique for most public companies, which exist to serve shareholders, along with customers and employees.)

Microsoft likely understood that the CEO memo would be leaked to BI, suggesting it was crafted as a reminder to investors that layoffs have been happening, there are more to come, business is strong, this person wrote.

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• Otter Rock is the latest member of the extended Tiger Management family tree.
• The long-short equity fund is a great-grandcub, as its founder worked at Tom Purcell's Alua Capital.
• Alix Karlan previously worked for Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global as well.

Alix Karlan is taking advantage of the renewed appetite for old-school stock pickers.

The former technology sector head for Tom Purcell's $3 billion hedge fund Alua Capital is planning to launch Otter Rock in the fourth quarter of this year, a person close to the firm told Business Insider. The fund's commingled vehicle is expected to raise $300 million before launch, and there's a chance the firm might take on additional capital via a separately managed account, the person said.

Karlan declined to comment.

The new fund will invest in stocks across different sectors, with a focus on companies undergoing technological disruption, the person said. It will be based in Stamford, the Connecticut town that is also the headquarters for Steve Cohen's Point72 and Paul Tudor Jones' long-running investment manager.

So far, the firm has hired Dan Beckham as chief operating officer. Beckham, according to his LinkedIn profile, has worked in various executive roles in asset management for decades, most recently as the head of investor relations and business development at private equity firm Saturn V Capital.

Karlan started as an analyst at Andreas Halvorsen's Viking Global before going to Stanford Business School. He joined Purcell's firm in 2015 and worked there until the start of 2024, when he began trading his own capital using the strategy he plans to deploy at Otter Rock.

He's the latest addition to the extended Tiger Management family tree, which includes big-name managers known as Tiger Cubs, such as Tiger Global, Coatue, Lone Pine, and the aforementioned Viking, as well as funds started by former employees of these managers. Alua, for example, is run by Purcell, a former executive at Viking, and Marco Tablada, a onetime Lone Pine investor.

Despite Julian Robertson, the billionaire founder of the legendary firm, passing away in 2022, his firm is still active and continues his legacy of backing external managers. The Tiger Cubs, started by former analysts of Robertson's, have spawned the next generation of stockpicking hedge funds, led by Viking in particular.

Former Viking investors who have become founders include Purcell, D1 founder Dan Sundheim, Avala Global founder Divya Nettimi, and Voyager Global founder Grant Wonders. The industry is also closely tracking the progress of former Viking executive Ning Jin's soon-to-launch firm, Avantyr Capital.

• Michael Shvo and partners purchased three Miami Beach hotels in 2019.
• Plans to turn them into a luxury destination were never finished, and the site remains empty.
• A new buyer is lined up, but Shvo could still match the roughly $275 million offer.

The Raleigh, a prominent condo and hotel project along the glitzy Miami Beach waterfront, could soon change hands after six years of stalled development.

Two people with direct knowledge of sales discussions said Nahla Capital, a New York City-based residential builder, has won a bidding process to purchase the property. One of those people said Nahla agreed to pay around $275 million for the project.

They requested anonymity because the sales discussions are confidential.

Real estate developer Michael Shvo, who acquired in the Art Deco district of Miami Beach in 2019 for roughly $243 million, is attempting to match Nahla's offer and retain control of the project, the two people said. They cited a provision that gives Shvo a first right of refusal on bids. To proceed, he would have to raise fresh capital to pay off his partners in the project and also potentially arrange new debt or extend his current loan.

The Raleigh development consists of three adjacent hotels in the Art Deco district of Miami Beach: the Richmond, the South Seas, and the 80-year-old namesake property, the Raleigh.

Among Shvo's chief financial backers was Bayerische Versorgungskammer, a large German pension system known as BVK that has invested in several US real estate deals with Shvo.

"BVK generally does not comment on market rumors and speculation about transactions," a BVK spokesman wrote in an emailed statement.

A deal could herald a new chapter for the project, which for years has consisted of little more than the derelict remains of the three hotels and a vacant dirt lot.

Shvo has said he would restore and redevelop the hotel properties, build an exclusive beach club and restaurant abutting a famous historic pool at the site, and raise a new ultra-high-end condo tower designed by the star architect Peter Marino.

But aside from preliminary site work, including demolition of existing structures, the development never got off the ground. In January, a team from the commercial real estate brokerage and services firm Newmark was hired by an undisclosed partner in the project to shop it to interested takers, as Business Insider has previously reported.

Helping to push a sale is the project's $190 million of debt, which was due to expire on July 16. BH3, the Miami-based commercial lender and developer that provided the loan, recently agreed to a three-month extension to allow the Nahla, or Shvo, to arrange an acquisition, one of the people with knowledge of the deal said.

Holding the property has saddled the current owners with considerable costs. As Business Insider previously reported, the group paid nearly $20 million in interest on the project's loan in 2023 alone and millions of dollars more in taxes, insurance, and other charges.

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• Palmer Luckey teased the idea of Auduril manufacturing American-made computers.
• Luckey joined the Reindustrialize Summit in Detroit virtually.
• The Anduril founder also emphasized the importance of working with partners to build tools.

Palmer Luckey, the founder of Anduril, the defense tech giant that makes weapons and military products, announced that it could produce American-made computers at the Reindustrialize Summit, a conference about modernizing American manufacturing, in Detroit on Thursday.

"This is one of those things where I started talking to companies years ago about this," Luckey said. "I think there's a chance that it's going to be Anduril."

Luckey added that Anduril has held conversations with "everyone you would need to have to do that," including people "on the chip side, on the assembly side, on the manufacturing side."

Anduril doesn't yet make computers, and Luckey isn't completely sold on the effort. He told the crowd: "There are some things Anduril has to do," he said. "There are other things we'd rather have other people do. This is something I'd rather have other people do."

American-made computers aren't a novel concept. PC-maker Dell had several manufacturing plants throughout the US, but in 2009, it closed its North Carolina plant and announced a change to its international manufacturing partner, moving from Ireland to Poland.

Luckey, who addressed the crowd virtually and with a humanoid robot from Foundation, also added that Anduril will not build its own humanoid robot: "We're going to partner with other companies where it makes sense," he said.

Anduril, which was cofounded by Luckey in 2017, makes hardware for the US military, including drones and underwater submersibles, and an AI-powered software platform, Lattice. The company is also working on extended reality headsets and other wearables for the military in a partnership with Meta, which the companies announced in May.

Luckey declined to share what he would name the computer if he were to make it, but hinted that "it's pro-American, and also a gambling reference, but I'll leave it at that."