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Michael de la Merced

@mdelamerced.bsky.social
4.2K followers 279 following 117 posts

Distractible business reporter for The New York Times and DealBook. Tell me stuff. linktr.ee/mdelamerced

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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Rewatching "The Incredibles" for the first time in a while is a reminder that the opening bits include an ongoing bit about denying insurance claims ... and it hits very weirdly these days.
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 11/06/2025
It's always a bit difficult but fascinating to write an obit, and the most recent one was especially informative: Dick Beattie, the NYC legal legend who helped pioneer leveraged buyouts and featured heavily in "Barbarians at the Gate" www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/b...
nytimes.com
Richard Beattie, Who Helped Pioneer Private Equity Takeovers, Dies at 86
A top Wall Street lawyer, he worked on some of the biggest corporate mergers in history, including KKR’s takeover of Nabisco in 1989. He also served in the Carter administration and in city government...
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 06/06/2025
on.ft.com/4jB6PUs Top Paul Weiss lawyer defects from firm after its capitulation to Donald Trump
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Does it feel like there are a lot of crypto physical attacks — ie, kidnappings, assaults, &c — these days? (Hard to escape that feeling with the latest arrests in NYC.) @bwarner.bsky.social finds that we could be heading toward a record this year in today's DealBook www.nytimes.com/2025/05/28/b...
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Feels like this could be said of most memoirs these days, but yes, business moguls especially www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general...
hollywoodreporter.com
Barry Diller and the Twilight of the Hollywood Tell-All
The juicy "Who Knew" reads like a last-of-the-Mohicans memoir for a business no longer defined by the big personalities and singular tastes of its iconoclasts.
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
Terrific story — and a blast from my SF past. Haven't thought about the coyotes since we used to walk our (then-puppy) dog in Bernal Heights in the mid-2010s, and owners of small canines were hypervigilant about coyotes www.nytimes.com/2025/05/19/u...
nytimes.com
The Coyotes of San Francisco
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Ouch www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/b...
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
As an American Catholic — with all the internal contradictions and emotional baggage that entails — it’s still kind of amazing to see an American pope
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 04/05/2025
Capitalists the world over are still reckoning with Warren Buffett finally announcing that he would seek to step down as Berkshire Hathaway's CEO. But why was this so affecting — to both average investors and moguls like Bill Ackman and Jamie Dimon? 🧵
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
What's kept me busy today: Warren Buffett finally announcing that he plans to retire, by year end. Greg Abel will be his successor — and appeared shocked to hear Buffett's plans, announced in front of tens of thousands in Omaha For @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/b...
nytimes.com
Warren Buffett Plans to Step Down as Berkshire Hathaway CEO by End of 2025
Mr. Buffett said at the annual shareholders’ meeting that he wanted to turn over the reins to Greg Abel at the end of the year. Earlier, he criticized Trump’s trade policies.
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 03/05/2025
Everything is local eu.amestrib.com/story/news/2...
eu.amestrib.com
Des Moines resident to become Berkshire Hathaway CEO by end of year, Warren Buffett says
Warren Buffett said Saturday he will step down by year’s end, paving the way for Des Moines man Greg Abel to take over the conglomerate.
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 29/04/2025
Thrive Capital, Josh Kushner's VC firm, has long invested in AI companies like OpenAI. But now it's betting on a different kind of strategy: buying and building AI start-ups — largely in unsexy sectors like, um, IT. Yes, others are trying to do that too. But Thrive is doing something else 🧵
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
This is the content I want, having just rewatched "Conclave" again www.vulture.com/article/conc...
vulture.com
Which Papal Candidate Is Which Guy From Conclave?
We made a (holy) spirited effort.
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
I wrote about how this underscores Chobani's growth ambitions and a potential future attempt at an IPO. But another interesting thing that Ulukaya spoke about was Chobani's commitment to hiring refugees, even in this moment. “We cannot operate any other way,” he said. “To me, anybody is welcome.”
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
ICYMI: I got a jump on Chobani announcing that it plans to spend more than $1bn on a huge new factory in Rome, NY, in what it says will the largest dairy products plant in the nation. Why? The company insists it expects to keep growing hugely. 🧵
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Jesus, it's been a while, longer than I could have ever dreamed of. Also, perhaps a sign that I've been here so long I forgot when my work anniversary was
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
Our pain is real. (But seriously, Jonny Kim's résumé is as gold-plated as it gets.) www.wsj.com/lifestyle/jo...
wsj.com
Navy SEAL. Harvard Doctor. NASA Astronaut. Don’t Tell Mom About This Overachiever.
Jonny Kim’s achievements at age 41 have been a global source of inspiration—and mild dismay; ‘Every Asian kid’s worst nightmare.’
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
Rippling says Keith O'Brien, the payroll employee whom it accuses of spying for archrival Deel, has confessed in Irish court — and that his handler was Deel cofounder and CEO Alex Bouaziz. O'Brien says he was paid thousands, with codewords straight from a spy novel. More TK shortly
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vaggab0nd.bsky.social @vaggab0nd.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Its gone to the Irish High Court this morning! This chap is in big trouble!! www.irishtimes.com/business/202...
irishtimes.com
Dublin office employee used by rival company to obtain trade secrets, global HR firm claims
Employee locked himself in toilet after being asked to hand over phone, High Court told
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
This is one of the stranger, and more gripping, tales of a software rivalry I've heard of recently: accusations of a mole, a "honeypot" trap and the alleged spy fleeing to a bathroom when confronted. (It's in today's DealBook newsletter) Oh, and it involves two HR providers, Rippling and Deel 🧵
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
What a description
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Spicing up the Tulane M&A law conference this morning
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Does anyone have an opinion on Bluetooth keyboards? Am specifically curious about how, say, the Satechi X1/X2 stack up to the Apple Magic Keyboard. (Am potentially open to mechanical keybs as well, but the noise during Zoom calls might be a dealbreaker)
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Getting on a flight, which of course means “watch blockbusters on a sub-iPad-quality screen” time
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Alex Clavel, the head of SoftBank's Vision Funds, told me that yes, the Japanese tech investor is being mindful of AI valuations — but it feels like it has to pay for entry. “Valuing world-beating companies in revolutionary times is not an easy thing to pinpoint,” he told me for today's DealBook
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
It's based on a single use case, but I was surprisingly impressed by how good Grok 3's DeepSearch was. (That use case being an extremely nerdy question about a discontinued watch model.)
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/202...
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Just learned that J. Crew no longer makes perhaps their best-ever shirt, the selvedge chambray work shirt (www.jcrew.com/uk/p/mens/ca...), and it bums me out to no end
jcrew.com
Selvedge Japanese chambray utility shirt
Shop J.CREW JEANS for the Selvedge Japanese chambray utility shirt for men. Find the best selection of men mens-categories-clothing-shirts-chambray-and-denim-shirts available in-stores and on line.
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
In today's DealBook newsletter, I wrote up the results of a fun little experiment I did: How would DeepSeek R1 and ChatGPT o1 (ie, the reasoning models), solve the growing tension over Trump's pressure on Denmark over Greenland?
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Have been playing around with DeepSeek and, while this is super-surface-level and probably addressable if you modified your own version of DS, this is kinda interesting
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
When you think about sleek W hotel lobbies or the Heavenly Bed, among other ways hotels work now, that was because of what Barry Sternlicht did at Starwood, which he left 20 years ago. Well, guess what? I report first in @nytimes.com that he's back in hotels — with the Starwood name. 🧵
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Ryan Mac 🙃 @rmac.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Altadena's demographics were already shifting with gentrification. The fire likely accelerated that and may lead to the erasure of a Black community. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/u...
nytimes.com
L.A. Fire Devastates Historic Black Community in Altadena
For Black residents, Altadena represented something more than suburban living. It was a foothold in generational prosperity.
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Kismet is wanting to watch "Master and Commander" and, lo, there it is for free on iPlayer
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Brian Stelter @brianstelter.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
L.A. news choppers are better able to survey the damage today vs. yesterday. KABC is flying over parts of the Palisades right now. Block after block is gone. abc7.com/watch/live/
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Ryan Mac 🙃 @rmac.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
I’ve driven from Hollywood to Eagle Rock to Mar Vista to Brentwood to Atwater to Runyon to Studio City for emergency stuff and reporting and just got home for the day. All I can say is love this city.
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
I know the cost of making triple-A games has outstripped that of Hollywood blockbusters for some time, but this, to a video game now-dilettante, is jaw-dropping
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
And two days before Christmas someone gave to me: some norovirus for the whole family
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Anna Kitanaka @onlyanna100.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Exclusive here from Bloomberg News, which asked 84 of the biggest listed US companies to share their demographics data with us. We found that Black workers are losing share, all but erasing the progress they made after the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020. www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
bloomberg.com
Corporate America Hired More Black Workers. Then It Stopped.
Black workers are losing share in corporate America as the conservative push for anti-DEI policies gathers steam ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.
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Erin Griffith @ering.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
A rare and shocking glimpse into a Hollywood smear campaign www.nytimes.com/2024/12/21/b...
nytimes.com
Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni and a Smear Campaign After ‘It Ends With Us’
Private messages detail an alleged campaign to smear Blake Lively after she accused Justin Baldoni of misconduct on the set of “It Ends With Us.”
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Scott Bryan @scottygb.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Last Christmas by Wham! Is the official Christmas Number 1 for the 2nd year in a row, and 40 years after the song originally debuted.
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Encyclopaedia Britannica said in 2012 that it would stop publishing its namesake hefty tomes in print. But the company hasn't faded away — and instead remade itself for the digital era. 🧵
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
You get the sense from this great WSJ piece on fighting over the James Bond franchise that Barbara Broccoli, the woman with the keys to the 007 kingdom, doesn't like Amazon, which owns the franchise otherwise: • "Don’t have temporary people make permanent decisions.” • “These people are f— idiots.”
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Paul Mozur @paulmozur.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Probably not many remember Chinese chip investor Canyon Bridge, but it made waves with a bid for Lattice Semiconductor 7 years ago. The US blocked the deal. So Canyon Bridge bought UK based Imagination. US seems to have been justified. Knowledge transfer programs sent key IP to China AI chip firms.
theguardian.com
Chinese AI chip firms blacklisted over weapons concerns gained access to UK technology
Imagination Technologies had licences with two Chinese firms – but said it had not ‘implemented transactions’ that would enable the use of technology for military purposes
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Databricks's huge new round — $8.6 billion so far of a $10 billion round — could have been bigger, its cofounder and CEO, Ali Ghodsi told me for today's DealBook newsletter. Follow along, it's🧵 time:
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Today wasn't supposed to be an occasion for buying stuff for myself — I was picking up other shopping — but when a bottle of Johnnie Green Label is available for just £30, well ... you have to do what you have to do
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
I'm rewatching "Top Gun: Maverick," and there's a way to tell that Mav and Iceman are old. They end texts with periods.
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
Shot: "Hey honey, isn't this a sick burn? 'feels like a spoof documentary designed to play on screens in the background of episodes of Succession' www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio... Chaser: "Hey, let's put it on!" :-/
theguardian.com
Polo review – Prince Harry’s unintentionally hilarious profile of the world’s stupidest sport
Fixtures are chosen by popping confetti-filled balloons, obnoxiously privileged players weep in darkened rooms when they lose … this documentary about the royal’s hobby is like a spoof
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Michael de la Merced @mdelamerced.bsky.social · 15/12/2024
I still find it curious that Brits unironically refer to holiday shindigs as “fayres” like Medieval Times does
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Dustin Volz @dustinvolz.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
EVAN GERSHKOVICH IS BACK WHERE HE BELONGS — on the byline of a WSJ article. So great to see Evan publishing stories again. www.wsj.com/world/russia...
wsj.com
Tracking Putin’s Most Feared Secret Agency—From Inside a Russian Prison and Beyond
The spy unit that arrested a Wall Street Journal reporter is leading the biggest campaign of internal repression since Stalin. era.
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Edmund Lee @edmundlee.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Murdoch's next move: www.nytimes.com/2024/12/10/b...
nytimes.com
How Rupert Murdoch Could Fight Back After a Big Legal Defeat
Rupert Murdoch lost a bid to rewrite a family trust to give his son Lachlan control of his empire after he dies. But the nonagenarian media titan plans to appeal.
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