The Weekly: AMD’s $1tn month, Warner Bros CEO drama & The Curve Fund is now on Sharesies

0:00Coming up in today's episode, Vic Harris gives perhaps the world's best metaphor when it comes to AMD and NVIDIA, two of the world's biggest AI businesses. We talk about why, when the whole market in September was struggling, did one business go up by 30 %? And finally, what on earth is a golden parachute and how can we all get one ASAP? AKA a$600 million payout.

0:25Vic: This is The Curve Weekly, where we read the finance news so that you don't have to. I'm Vic Harris, a finance professional who's made a career making money for other people. And I'm Sophie Hallwright, ex-TV and radio producer who was sick and tired of not understanding the economy, how to invest or build my wealth, so we started this podcast. But before we dive into the headlines, here's a word from today's sponsor.

0:45This episode of The Curve Weekly is made possible thanks to Pathfinder's KiwiSaver plan, helping you invest alongside your values. If you have any tricky ethical investing questions percolating around and you want an expert to answer, submit it via the ethical hotline via the link in the podcast show notes. Pathfinder Asset Management Limited is the issuer of the Pathfinder KiwiSaver plan. A product disclosure statement is available at pathfinder.kiwi.

1:10Vic: Hello, it's Victoria. Hello from Tamaki, Dakota. She made it. Bottom of the world. Oh my God, how is it to be home? Strange. Is it? In a good way. It's just like, It's been not even a week. So, yeah, feeling still adjusting. But so good. Yeah, so good to be back here. Staying with my parents, which is an adjustment in itself. The couch is looking like your old couch from your old house. And all of a sudden I was like. They stole my. Yeah. Oh, it is. Yeah. Stop. That's so funny. I was like, oh, this is my platter. Oh, and these are my cups. Oh.

1:55Vic: I don't know what's going to happen when I move back into my house. They'll have an empty house. No, it's good to be back. And yeah, it's getting sunny. It's getting warm. Me just chasing the sun. Were there any big moments or any in-flight dramas, lost luggage, altercations with a flight attendants? Do you have any updates on that from me? No, it was really sad leaving London, to be honest. I think it was just such a whirlwind and had so much life admin. And yeah, it wasn't till I was at the airport and I was sitting there replying to messages, like beautiful messages from friends. Just bawling, like inconsolable.

2:35Vic: People probably thought someone had died. Like I honestly was just tissue after tissue. And you know when you're trying to be real subtle? What was the setting? Were you on the plane at this point? No, just in the lounge, just replying to beautiful messages. And honestly, it was just waterworks, waterworks. Yeah. And then I got on the plane and just absolutely conked out. But also leaving my flat in London, like closing the door. And it sounds very like movie scene, but, you know, like closing the door. And it was like so empty. And I was like, oh, my goodness. Wow. End of an era. It's so emotional.

3:08Vic: You built a whole life over here. Being back here, I'm like, oh, okay. This is my new home, you know. And everyone's going about their day and you're like, hi, hi. hey hey you know it's funny when such a massive thing changes in your life and yet everything else is just as normal it's like why are there not banners and signs everywhere like welcome home Vic oh first time back in the supermarket you know like you just you sort of expect people to revolve around your big news I went to this Pilates studio and I was like hi and they're like hi you knew you knew here I was like yeah I just moved back from London

3:48Vic: oh gosh anyway no it's good to be back we have a new office for the camera investments which is awesome and got like first week with the team it's yeah it's it's feeling really good and honestly I feel like I'll blink and I'll be like what London you know no I won't I've got two homes now it's great I'm like I don't want to start the waterworks again but yeah because there's so many good things and so many exciting reasons why you're in New Zealand oh totally and I moved back on my own accord you know it wasn't because I lost my job my visa was up like you know something disastrous happened with family like it was because I I wanted to and so I keep telling myself that I speak to friends that it took me a year to adjust being back in New Zealand from London you know like and when I moved to Sydney it took a year to kind of find my groove so I'm yeah it's we've got exciting things around the corner you've got Christmas you've got New Year's you've got summer you know like it's it's gonna be a fun time before I know it I'll be back over there and you'll be like what hang on this is so soon I do think there's something weird about Auckland and London where it's and I don't know if you've always felt this with London London to me has always kind of felt like home even before I lived here I and I think it's similar for you because your dad's British and there's, I mean, you have a passport.

5:10It is technically, you could live here forever if you wanted to. But at the same time, New Zealand is so different in so many ways. It's so different, but it's so similar. Like it's one of those weird things to your head around

5:22Vic: because it is a massive change and it's a huge shift and moving home. I think it was the taxi back from the airport on Thursday night and I was like, there's not a mouse in sight. There is nothing open. the streets are so quiet and it was great because we got back from the airport super quick but I was like wow if you're driving back from the airport in an uber in London on a Thursday night it'd be like a very sirens and like people on the road I had a beautiful message from someone that was like nothing's permanent and this is just a moment in your life and I know it was just like yeah it's so true this is just a phase it's not forever and I think that's something that I've kind of been trying to harness this is just a phase for sure I think the thing for you and for anyone who missed the end of our last episode not to get into too much detail but I would say a huge amount of emotion is because New Zealand has always felt like home to you you always planned on moving home at some stage probably just under different circumstances and I that combined with a swift pack up and off you go you know there's so much going on with the curve which is such a good thing and it's really exciting for the business for you to be in New Zealand there's just a few moving parts that aren't happening necessarily at the same time and I think that that is an overwhelming feeling in itself it's so me though right like right okay need to move back to New Zealand cool there is nothing more you than how this whole thing played out actually and and and I won't even go there with some of the more personal things but I'm like I just it's so Victoria Harris and you know what in the same way you made the decision like right got to do it off I go you can make the same decision to go anywhere at any time and just like that message well you know you can change your life so quickly it's good to be reminded of that when you see people like you that just get shit done and do it I was actually thinking about that so if when you were like we need to move to London and I was like absolutely not I was like I've got my dog here I've got my house I was dating in absolute tool at the time and and I was like no this is my this is my life like this is what do you mean I'm 35 I'm not moving to London at 35 you know like I was so and then now I'm like thank goodness I listened to you and thank goodness we did because even if we moved over there and it was a complete disaster you can move home you can move somewhere else you know like give it a go I think it's just for anyone who is like listening who's like oh should I should not like moving countries is one of the most for me personally the most rewarding things you make new friends you adjust to a new lifestyle you become you know immersed in a new environment different culture it's so so it's hard but it's so so great in so many ways as well yeah I'm proud I'm proud of the three years I'm proud of what you did in London the life that you built but also the courage to know when it's time to mix it up and to go and and take new opportunities and feel excited by yeah what what is next

8:34we have an incredible announcement

8:39Vic: the curve fund is on shares ease which is so can we just pause to explain what this actually means because yeah for anyone listening unfortunately if you're in australia or new zealand for this one so sorry about that if you're listening from somewhere else in the world however the curve fund so if you would like to invest with us you can now do it through shares ease which is so amazing it's a trading platform most people in New Zealand and Australia use shares ease it for me very happy about this it's just so much easier so much easier everyone's familiar with how to use shares and you can literally now search the curve fund like you would a stock like you'd search Amazon or you know Tesla and buy shares you can do exactly the same but with the curve fund so super easy super seamless and huge milestone for us because they don't just put anyone on there you know the best part about this is for anyone that already is automatically investing which we're hoping most people who listen to this are it's an easy place to if you would if there's any investments that you want to like redirect or you are interested in even just having a look at what we invest in or allocating your entire portfolio to yeah not giving you advice we're not giving you advice we've had so many people be like when you're on sharesies when you're on sharesies which is so great because they've obviously like you said so like got automatic recurring investments that are investing into lots of different things and so they're just adding the curve fund into that each month or each fortnight whatever it is um and so i mean i was actually out for coffee with a girl and she got a notification and it was like the curve investments is now on shares and she was like hey cool that's so fun god i love that it would be great vic for a second for anyone wondering and I'm saying this because we've had lots of questions quite similar through to DMs emails etc are the fees the same there's been quite a few common questions so let's just answer those for anyone that's wondering yes so the fees are exactly the same so if you do an investment through sharesies into the curve fund you pay 1.5 percent if you do it through the curve investments website into the Curve Fund, then you pay 1.5%.

10:54Vic: So it is exactly the same no matter what. If you go through SharesEase though, you don't get access to like our client portal and things like that. It will all just show up on the SharesEase platform. And so if you have any issues or anything, it's through SharesEase. We kind of, I guess, don't have the direct relationship with you because you've done it through the SharesEase platform, if that makes sense. but we had an incredible response in like the first hour it was crazy and I want to update you once I know like the first day and first week numbers but like nearly a hundred grand in the first hour which is wild we were meant to do a update on performance last week but obviously you were relocating your life to New Zealand so yes if we could do a quick sort of what's been happening in the fund updates.

11:43I know we put some things on socials, but can we just go through some

11:47Vic: of the top results? Yes. So the Curve Fund had its first negative month in September, which don't worry, not a bad thing. Remember, markets go up and down, so do funds. And we're still up about 1.4 % for the last three months. June, July, August were really good months. Then September was down. So you take the unit price at the end of September and you put it over the unit price at the end of August and that is the return for the month. And so it went down in September. When you're looking at yearly return, you'd be taking, we haven't had the fund for a year, but when you're taking the yearly return, you would have taken it from the end of September last year and compared it to the end of September this year.

12:32Vic: And what was that return? It might be 5 % it might be 10%. So whenever you're looking at a return really look at like what period are you looking at and that's why we always say with investing in funds look at the longest period of performance you can you know if you've been around for 10 years what's the 10 year annual yearly performance? I was just wanting to explain because I do remember when I first started learning about investing the idea of a return or like is it up or down or the market's up the market's down it's off this it's you know it's just there's lots of lingo and clarifying what you're talking about when you say we're up one percent or down one percent is really really helpful and when you talk about stocks like amazon's up 30 i will always say you know in a day or for this month or over the week it was up you know 30 like because it is you're kind of okay cool because the up 30 over five years is actually really shit up 30 in a day is freaking great so You know, it's like you really need that context.

13:30When we're reporting the Curve Fund or any fund, whether it's KiwiSave or Super, whatever it is that someone's investing in, what would be the way that they could compare the after fees performance on what the market is doing? Because I think there can be a lot of overwhelm when it comes to picking your Super or your KiwiSave or your pension or picking a fund. And you can get really confused with after fees, before fees, all of that jazz. and then you layer on top everyone talking about, ah, well, you could just invest in the index, you know.

14:02Vic: Yes, but you've got to make sure that that is also after fees. Okay. You know, like if I just Googled S &P 500 return right now and it gave me a return for September, let's say, it wouldn't be after fees because that's just the price, but then I need to find some kind of vehicle that I can invest into the S &P through, which is usually an ETF and there's fees associated with that. So you just need to make sure whatever you're looking at or what comparing apples with apples are comparing after fees and after fees. Also, the thing is, each fund will have its own benchmark that it's benchmarking itself against.

14:36Vic: Some might be the S &P 500. Some might be more of a global index. It really depends. You can't just compare every fund with S &P 500 because not every fund purely invests in the U.S. Like we invest all over the world. So, yeah, if we're a pure US fund that invested on in US companies, yes, the S &P 500 index would be appropriate benchmark for our fund. But that's not. Yeah, can we talk about some of the investments and what's going on? Because the idea of it being down might be kind of alarming to people. The best stock in the portfolio in September was AMD. We've spoken about this briefly. Was it last week?

15:15Vic: Like the week before. And so AMD is, and it makes computer chips, it designs computer chips, which are much needed for AI. It's the second player, I guess, behind NVIDIA. And it's got a female CEO. It's just reached$1 trillion in terms of its market cap, so its size. And it had an absolute incredible September. It was up 30 % when it was a really tough month, you know, across the world in terms of share prices. So September is actually a, it's always a bit of a difficult month. And the reason is everyone goes on holiday in August. And August is a really good month. People come back from holiday.

16:04Vic: They're like, right, I'm going to rejig my portfolio. you know you've got brokers you've got fund managers like myself and they're like okay cool I'm back I'm like what am I going to invest and so September is usually historically been a tough month so I'm sitting here I'm like this is no surprise it's like it is what it is we also had you know concerns about bond yields which we can link the podcast to explain what that was we explained in a lot of detail inflation uh oil prices went back up so there was a lot going on you know in the world but then you also overlay this like human behavior of people coming back on from holiday and being like i'm gonna rejig my portfolio so isn't that just so classic though when we talk about the idea of women being less volatile less emotional less reactive investors why is it that people feel like they need to make a decision after holiday is it almost like the start of the year where you think right now i've got to be in action and i need to make decisions It's almost like that same thing.

17:02Vic: And you see it around tax times as well. Like you see it around, you see it in Australia and around June, June, July. So you do see it. There's these little pockets of this kind of behavior in different regions. But yeah, this is kind of why September is usually a bit all over the show. Yeah. Yeah. Can we talk about AMD and why was it up so enormously in a month that you would expect the performance to be kind of shit? The whole AI space has obviously been absolutely booming. Nvidia has had an incredible run and it was kind of AMD's turn. It had been a bit of a laggard in terms of its performance versus Nvidia for many, many years.

17:38Vic: And now people are like, you know what? I kind of want to diversify. So that's why AMD had done so well. A really great analogy that I thought of when it comes to, you know, how does AMD and Nvidia fit in the space? AMD, it's like the fashion designer. So it designs what we call these CPUs and GPUs. There's almost like different strengths. So CPUs, they're like the brain chips that are in laptops and PCs and servers. And that's what we've used for many, many, many, many years. Computer processing units. They handle generally one task after another very quickly. Then you've got these GPUs, which are graphic processing units.

18:22Vic: They were originally built for gamers. so they're a lot more visual and now they are effectively like the workhorse for AI because they do thousands of calculations at once so they're just kind of like the big dogs they're better they're more efficient they're more powerful were both of these chips NVIDIA and AMD's products like have they both done both chips and do they both still distribute and create both styles so this is where i'm getting at they only design them so taiwan semiconductor manufacturing company tsmc why are they oh my god the lingo it's too many acronyms they are the biggest chip maker in the world so they're like the manufacturer and they manufacture for amd apple and video like pretty much everywhere like if if that company fell over or if that and And it's in Taiwan, which is quite a geopolitical, like high-risk country right now.

19:24Vic: If anything happened to that company, that would absolutely cause a massive global recession, in my opinion. We talk about NVIDIA, you know, and all its tentacles that it's invested in, in lots of different companies. And if that fell over, you know, what would that mean? It's like, no, no, no, no, no. We're looking at the wrong thing here. TSMC is the company that everyone should be focusing on that effectively holds the power for most of AI across the world. How on earth is there one major factory? That makes no sense. I know. I know. I think an analogy is really good. So AMD is like the fashion designer.

20:04Vic: So they design the clothes. They don't make the clothes. They then get someone else to make the clothes. So it designs the dress. It hands the pattern to the manufacturer, which in this case is TSMC, and they make the clothes, and then it sells the finished product under its own label. You lost me at that they sell it under their own label. Who sells what under their own label? So AMD designs this jumper. It designs it in red and oversized, and then it goes, cool, I want it to be made. I don't own a manufacturing facility to make these clothes. I outsource. I get someone to make it. They give it back to me, and then I sell it like any fashion designer would.

20:42Vic: Can you invest in TMC or whatever that company is? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you can and I'm looking at it.

20:53Vic: But I thought that was a really great analogy. Sorry, you're right. Stunning analogy. It was really good. I also thought this whole time that AMD and NVIDIA actually created the chips. They don't. They're just the designers. I'm so glad you told me that. And just wrapping up on the fund, we actually made three new investments in the month, which is very exciting. Eli Lilly, a healthcare company, so they are the leaders in the GLP-1 manufacturing. So really think that's going to be an absolute growth space. And we haven't even scratched the surface of what that medication, what those drugs, that protein can do.

21:28Vic, last Monday when we had our brilliant lead investor, Nicole, filling in for you on the podcast, we were talking about peptides. we talked about Eli Lilly. Can you elaborate on why you see the space as growth?

21:43Vic: Yeah, look, I mean, Eli Lilly has had a fantastic run in terms of its share price and people have cottoned onto this. We've only scratched the surface. Eli Lilly is the dominant player in terms of producing GLP-1s. And yes, they've got bad connotations with weight loss, but I think the impacts that they're having on diabetes is only scratching the surface. I think there's so many other ways that the GLP-1 protein can be used to combat so many other things from alcohol addiction to there's just, we haven't even scratched the surface. And I genuinely think it's one of the fastest growing areas of healthcare.

22:25Vic: And we didn't have a lot of healthcare stocks in the portfolio. So when I was looking at kind of diversifying across different sectors and looking at healthcare, this was the standout. We've also got a bit of Novo Nordisk, which hasn't done very well. So we've kind of got both of the key players in that space because I do think that it's just going to go from strength to strength as we get an aging population, as people want to extend their life. And for anyone that's listening to that and thinks, I thought you guys talk about future focused companies that have a positive impact, etc. and feel a bit of a bee in their bonnet around the idea of GLP-1s being used in a negative way.

23:05Vic: I feel like with any drug, you know, there is people that use it for what it's not supposed to be used for. And that overshadows the incredible benefits that it does have for people that do need that medication and the impacts it has on society in terms of way less spend on healthcare because we are targeting kind of obesity-related illnesses a lot earlier and therefore keeping people out of hospital. Therefore, there's more healthcare budgets keeping spent on other things. Like there's so many positive impacts of new medications. I think we should do a deep dive because we touched on it last week and we did talk about, in general, the fact that peptides are starting to be used or seen as longevity tools.

23:47Vic: We also actually added AstraZeneca, which is a UK-based healthcare company. Very, very high quality global medicine company. It treats such a range of conditions. And you've probably had some kind of medication from AstraZeneca across your life. They treat cancer. They treat asthma. So we are getting more invested in healthcare in general. And so these two stocks were added in the portfolio this month. Coming up after the break, we talk about a big pay packet that a Warner Brothers executive has just gotten. Okay, very exciting. I can't wait to hear. but first we have a quick word from today's sponsor.

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24:58Why do I feel like Warner Brothers have not been in the news lately? And am I right in thinking Warner Brothers we spoke about with regards to the Netflix Paramount saga? Or was Warner Brothers not involved in the big love triangle that happened six months ago?

25:15Vic: Yes, it was. Can we recap? Yeah. For anyone that's missed that. Netflix made a bid for Warner Brothers. By that, it means it said, hey, we want to buy you and take you over and you will become part of the Netflix business. And they were progressing that, going back and forward on price. And then along came Paramount. They were like, hang on a second. We want Warner Brothers. So they made a bid. Anyway, there was a bit of a bidding war. Netflix's price, they went a bit higher. Then Paramount went higher. Anyway, and then there's all these other kind of sweetenings of the deal. So anyway, Paramount won and the deal was essentially closed.

25:55Vic: Warner Brothers is now part of Paramount, which has been renamed Skydance. And now it's been announced that the CEO of Warner Brothers. So this is the company that owns HBO, Harry Potter, Friends, Looney Tunes, like so many iconic series and movies. Anyway, the CEO has just been paid over$600 million US dollars as kind of an exit package for this deal closing. Wait, wait,$600 million to leave? $600 million because now he's a CEO of a redundant company. Warner Brothers is now part of Paramount. Warner Brothers doesn't exist. So they're like, thank you very much. Here's$600 million. We'll see you later.

26:42So it's like his exit package in the same way that if someone was getting paid up three months of gardening leave and we're like, woo, we get three grand, he's getting 600 million. Yes. Yeah.

26:53Vic: And the biggest chunk of that came from stock options. So I want to kind of explain this. And he also had a golden parachute attached to his contract, which I'm going to explain as well. Oh, my God, a golden parachute. So you must just, when you're researching this at this point, be like, soap's going to love this. The golden parachute. This is so good. So options is the right but not the obligation to buy a company's shares at a fixed price in the future. And that fixed price is called a strike price. So for many CEOs, their package, their enumeration package is made up of a salary. They get paid each year to fund their day-to-day expenses.

27:37Vic: And then a lot of it is what we call stock options, where it's an incentive for the CEO to make the company do really well and the share price do really well. And so what happens is that a CEO will be offered stock options and it's essentially saying, look, we're going to offer you these options at a pretty minimal price. It might be like a dollar a share. And let's say the current share price is maybe$1.50. So they get a discount on the current share price. They get a discount on the current share price, yeah. But they don't have to buy it, right? No, it's just a contract. It's almost like buy their name.

28:12Vic: Yeah, and it's a right to buy the shares in the future. It's not an obligation. So you don't have to do anything except say, yeah, cool, I'll sign, I'll agree. Let's say we fast forward five years and the share price is now$5. It's gone from$1.50 to$5. You would be sitting there as a CEO going, I want to exercise my right to these options because my options have gone from, you know, on paper for a dollar to$5 and I want to realize that gain. So options for anyone that's like, what? Why? Why? What? What? What? It's like, it's literally just shares. It's just shares. It's not, there's no, there's not like a new thing.

28:54It's just the option to buy the shares and it's the stupid lingo that they always say your options rather than your shares. It's basically like saying, here is your pay packet of however much million and here is your stock from the business. And at a time in the future, you'll have the option to buy them for the agreed amount that we started. So say it was a dollar and then they've gone up by 10 times. You still get the option to buy them at a dollar. At that price, original price.

29:20Vic: That time period is called the vesting period. So like your vesting period might be a year, it might be two years, three years, whatever it is. And the whole thing is to incentivize CEOs to grow the business. Because on the flip side, Like if you genuinely believed you could grow the business, you would be like, yeah, sure. I'll sign that. And because I don't have to put down any money, it's an option to buy them in the future. I don't have to buy them in the future. And also the flip side is, in some cases, you might be offered options at a dollar. And then in five years time, the share price is actually 50 cents.

29:54Vic: You would not buy those shares because it's a negative. You've had to pay a dollar, but the share price is 50 cents. you'd be like no thank you yeah it's like it's such a great way to incentivize CEOs or anyone in a business staff you know you can do it with staff and so yeah there's just you'd be like no no I actually don't want those options anymore because they're they're worth less than what was the agreed value so they just kind of disappear it would also be a ginormous red flag if a CEO said I don't want options because the whole point of their job leading the business especially if they're a public company actually it doesn't even matter if they're public or not if they're able to increase the value of that business they would want a piece of the pie they want to be involved they want to get the upside beyond just a salary it's almost like you know how we talk a lot about how amazing it is if you can own your salary or you can own your future earning and it's almost like a hybrid of being employed but being a founder because you're operating in a way like you own the business because you have quite a significant way that you can make wealth if the if the stock price goes up I just want to say for anyone that's listening a really really great thing to keep in mind when you are negotiating salary and getting involved in a business obviously it's different depending on what your role is but if you're in a fast growing startup a lot of people make a lot of wealth by getting options and we actually have an episode coming out in a few weeks time on Vic's money story and how she really got that first kind of leg up financially and it came from stock options and we go into detail on her own personal money story but it's just a good reminder that you can still be an employee you don't have to go and start your own business to be able to see the upside of a fast growing business you can be involved in a different capacity and and actually a lot of businesses like google a lot of big ones that aren't even small startups offer this and so many people have made a lot of money this way yeah so with the warner brothers ceo so warner brothers issued a whole lot of stock options when the share price was absolutely beaten down in 2024 so a large chunk of the warner brothers CEO's pay packet was these stock options.

32:17Vic: So$382 million of the$600 million that we were talking about before was stock options for the Warner Brothers CEO. Holy shit. So well over half was stock options. And with stock options, there is, I briefly mentioned this vesting period. Say these kind of these stock options vest or kind of become shares in two years time and you left in 18 months, you don't get them. You know that most cases it's like if you leave before these these options turn into shares, then you don't get them. And that's pretty standard. What happened with the Warner Brothers CEO is that there's a golden parachute. And what that means is that.

33:03Vic: Can I guess? Yeah. Is it because he's forced out, so he's not in a position where he's choosing to leave or sell his stocks, he automatically jumps the queue, doesn't have to worry about vesting and gets access to all of the stock? Yeah, all at once. So even if it was in five years time and you got taken over six months into that five years, it automatically kind of gets brought forward and converts into shares and you get it. He must have been sitting there absolutely stoked with the takeover thinking, okay, genius. And you've got two companies. You're like, well, either way, I'm going to walk away with about 600 billion.

33:42Vic: So I don't really care. Absolute win. And also like, look, I get it. As a CEO, if there's a takeover, you know, your job is going to be redundant. And you want the CEO to encourage a takeover if it's good for shareholders, not prevent it because they're going to lose their job. So there is kind of merit in having these golden parachutes. I mean, this is an absolute ridiculous amount,$600 million that they have to pay. So anyway, yeah, you can make a lot of money with options. There's literally no downside. It's all upside because you have the right, not the obligation. You have the choice, not the obligation of whether you take up those options and convert them into shares.

34:20Vic: If you are talking about it with your employer as part of your overall remuneration package, it should be considered that they can go down and be worth nothing. But they can also go up and be worth lots. But, you know, there is that risk that they could be worthless, essentially. Can we talk about why Paramount wanted Warner Brothers? For scale. And why did Warner Brothers sell? Warner Brothers had a ton of debt. It was like drowning. It had this cable TV business that was, you know, obviously nobody's watching television anymore. And it effectively was quite desperate. in terms of its survival, it needed to be a part of a bigger business that has scale, that has growth.

35:08Vic: And Netflix could see that and so could Paramount. It's also got some really, really great franchises. God, imagine if one day as CEOs, we were earning 600 million. I cannot imagine earning that much money or actually having the confidence to think that I deserve that much money. but that's a conversation I can have with my therapist so this is really awkward I actually have to wrap this podcast episode up by myself because Vic's laptop has just died so she's not here to say goodbye uh this has never happened before Vic is normally the most organized person you'll ever meet but thank you so much for listening and yeah we've got a couple of really interesting stories we'll be covering on Wednesday's Curve Weekly one being is luxury fashion dead and is Zara, ASOS, etc.

35:57the new way to shop? We're going to dive into that as well as Bumble is going private. What does this mean? It's a huge story, quite a fun one, and I'm looking forward to unpacking that. But finally, for anyone listening who is interested in the Curve Fund, we will link that in the podcast show notes. But have a great week and yeah, we'll see you on Wednesday. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Curve. Feel free to leave a comment to let us know what you thought. We always love hearing your feedback. New episodes are out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so make sure you're subscribed to be notified whenever a new episode drops.

36:28In the meantime, we're around on social so you can find all the links in the show notes. Hope you have a great week and we will see you for the next episode. Okay, quickly, the Curve was created to empower and educate you about investing,

36:39Vic: but we are not financial advisors. Our platform exists for educational purposes only and it doesn't provide personalized investing advice for your individual needs and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. and always remember to do your own research before making any investment or financial decision we're here for any knowledge and support you need but the final call is always yours and thanks for being here you got this yeah we know you got this