Insider Today: LinkedIn ghostwriter boom

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Hello! Apparently, wealthy corporate climbers have a new obsession: a $7,000 chair. The Herman Miller Eames lounge chair and accompanying ottoman have become the pinnacle of status for a certain group of rich, young American men.

Now, onto the rest of this week's top stories.

On the agenda:

• Want to buy a sports team? Call these bankers.

• The Queen of Airbnb promised an easy windfall. Then it all came crashing down.

• How private equity sees profit in the business of educating autistic kids.

• Your favorite LinkedIn influencer might actually be a PR ghostwriter.

But first: Making sense of a big week of first-quarter results.

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This week's dispatch

Big Tech takeaways

Tesla, Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet reported earnings last week. Here are the takeaways in 60 seconds.

Tesla: Q1 results were worse than expected, with the company missing both its profit and revenue estimates. But plans for a robo-taxi service and a more affordable model got investors excited for the future. That's a big bet that there are lots of drivers who want a Tesla but can't afford one.

Meta: Wall Street may have shown Tesla leniency, but Meta didn't enjoy the same leeway. Despite reporting better-than-expected first-quarter earnings, weak guidance for the second quarter and outsized AI investments spooked investors. Mark Zuckerberg preached patience.

Microsoft: AI spend was also the name of the game at Microsoft. The tech giant pledged to keep investing in the tech as demand for its AI and cloud services continued to rise.

Alphabet: Q1 results blew past expectations, notching a 15% year-over-year revenue bump. Alphabet also issued a $0.20 per share dividend — its first ever — joining its Big Tech peers like Microsoft, Apple, and Meta, in the dividend club.

How to buy a sports team

Thanks to a rush of billionaires looking to buy teams, investment banks up and down Wall Street are tripping over each other to work on sports deals.

With sports dealmaking on the rise, BI mapped out the top investment bankers — from the bulge brackets to the boutiques — helping steer these deals. The list includes top banks like Goldman Sachs, as well as smaller firms like The Raine Group.

Meet the top sports bankers.

Also read:

• 20 private-equity firms making big moves in sports as teams embrace outside investors

The cautionary tale of Tulsa's Queen of Airbnb

Post-pandemic, property manager Dani Widell promised investors an easy windfall from what was supposed to be Tulsa's Airbnb gold rush.

Instead, her Airbnb empire came crashing down — and her subjects were left to pick up the pieces.

Where things went wrong.

PE firm. New Story has purchased other local school chains, creating what it calls one of the largest special-education companies in the US.

To some, private equity's business model appears antithetical to special education. It's a concept that has former staff, researchers, and US senators worried.

How private equity is reshaping special education.

LinkedIn ghostwriting is booming

LinkedIn influencers are becoming more popular, with some amassing followings of millions of people. The platform's shift from uncool to in-demand has created a unique opportunity for crafty PR firms.

Some firms are offering executives — or "thought leaders" — ghostwriting and editorial services. In some cases, PR pros manage all aspects of an exec's LinkedIn presence, from writing to analytics.

Inside the world of LinkedIn ghostwriting.

This week's quote:

"I make it a point to visibly leave the office toward the end of the working day and to enforce strict rules around maximum working hours so that employees can enjoy work-life balance."

— Finnish CEO Samu Hällfors on running a company in the happiest country on earth.

More of this week's top reads:

• People who relocated and regretted it share the biggest mistakes they made.

• The "peak boomer" crisis might only get worse.

• A homebuyer's guide to the real-estate revolution.

• America's men are working at much lower rates than they used to.

• Jamie Dimon thinks he knows why people are so gloomy about the economy.

• China stopped taking our plastic. Now America is drowning in it.

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  The Insider Today team: Matt Turner, deputy editor-in-chief, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York.