World Street | Google to invest $2 bn in Malaysia; Nelson Peltz exits Disney; BHP scraps bid to takeover Anglo American, and more

World Street offers a sneak peek into the world of business and the economy.

Google commits $2 billion to Malaysia for its first data center and cloud efforts. Salesforce shares plummet due to weak revenue. Nelson Peltz exits Disney, selling $1 billion in stock. BHP Group won't bid for Anglo American. Tesla disputes Glass Lewis's advice against Musk's $56 billion pay package. Helen Toner reveals board issues at OpenAI leading to Sam Altman's firing. All this and more on this edition of World Street.

Cloud Cash

Google has committed to making $2 billion in investments in Malaysia, including its first data center and Google Cloud effort in the region. The pledge marks Google’s largest planned investment in the Southeast Asian nation, said Alphabet Inc. Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ruth Porat in a statement.

Revenue Rut

Salesforce shares plummeted as much as 17 percent on Wednesday after the cloud software vendor reported weaker-than-expected revenue and issued guidance that trailed Wall Street’s expectations. It is the first time since 2006 that Salesforce fell short on revenue, according to LSEG data.

Disney Departure

Activist investor Nelson Peltz has sold his entire stake in Disney, reported CNBC. Peltz sold all of his Disney stock at roughly $120 a share making about $1 billion on the position.

The exit comes weeks after Peltz’s Trian Partners lost a proxy battle at Disney in April as shareholders reelected the company’s full slate of board nominees. Peltz had been seeking to elect himself and former Disney finance chief Jay Rasulo to the company’s board.

Hammack Handoff

A Goldman Sachs executive and finance industry veteran will take over as the new president of the Cleveland Federal Reserve. The central bank district announced Wednesday that Beth M. Hammack will be the next leader of the central bank district when Loretta Mester steps down June 30. Hammack assumes the office officially on August 21.

Deal Dead

Mining giant BHP Group on Wednesday said it would not be making a firm offer for Anglo American, shortly after the latter rejected a request to extend takeover talks. In a statement on Wednesday, BHP CEO Mike Henry said that the firm did not intend to make a formal offer for its London-listed rival.

Shareholder Showdown

Tesla Inc blasted Glass Lewis in a letter to shareholders, days after the proxy adviser urged investors to reject a proposed $56 billion pay package for CEO Elon Musk. In the letter titled “What Glass Lewis Got Wrong About Tesla,” the EV maker said the adviser “omits key considerations, uses faulty logic, and relies on speculation and hypotheticals.”

The company urged shareholders to ignore Glass Lewis’s advice, and vote in favor of Musk’s compensation package and a company proposal to reincorporate in Texas, from Delaware.

Altman Ambush

Former OpenAI board member Helen Toner, who helped oust CEO Sam Altman in November, broke her silence when she spoke on a podcast released Tuesday about events inside the company leading up to Altman’s firing.

She said, "When OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, the board was not informed in advance and found out about it on Twitter." Toner also said Altman did not tell the board he owned the OpenAI startup fund.

Altman gave the board “inaccurate information about the small number of formal safety processes that the company did have in place” on multiple occasions, Toner revealed on the podcast.

Credit Cache

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has put together $21 billion for private credit wagers, its biggest war chest yet for Wall Street’s buzziest asset class, reported Bloomberg.

The firm just closed the latest variant of its direct-lending fund, drumming up firepower that includes fresh capital, borrowed funds and co-investments. That along with separately managed accounts will be put to use making more directly negotiated senior loans, the report said.