Wall Street wants to lend to Hollywood, and that could be bad news for the rest of us
Almost Friday! Dan DeFrancesco in NYC, and my head starts to hurt every time I read this story about an "ultramassive" black hole. The only black hole I enjoy is the one Chris Cornell (RIP) sings about.
Today, we've got stories on an upheaval within BlackRock's communications department, a debate over the merits of the man bun on Wall Street, and why I'm not intimidated by Gen Z anymore.
But first, we've just got a couple notes to run by you about the script.
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1. Hollywood's newest lender has some thoughts.
If you're hoping for a creative renaissance in Hollywood, one that doesn't include comic books or remakes, I've got bad news for you. The newest underwriters for Hollywood are here, and they're not the type to take chances.
Insider's Rebecca Ungarino and Reed Alexander have a story on private lenders looking to make investments in media and entertainment.
If you're unfamiliar with what private credit is, it's basically an alternative lender (i.e. not a bank). Here's a good refresher on private credit, along with a list of the biggest players in the space.
Hollywood has long represented an interesting investment opportunity for Wall Street, but lending to the industry is an interesting twist. And it could even end up impacting the type of movies and TV shows we see in the future.
See, it's one thing to own an actual stake in a media or entertainment industry. Those types of deals, generally, have a long-term view on the market. A loan is a different story. The expectation is that money will be paid back in a somewhat timely fashion.
With that in mind, it'll be interesting to see if these loans come with a caveat for the type of movies and TV shows for which they can be used. As Rebecca and Reed point out in their story, some lenders are already skeptical of backing individual scripted projects. Basically, don't bother taking a moonshot if it's on Wall Street's dime.
To be sure, Hollywood has always considered its bottom line (they don't make new "Fast & Furious" movies for the plot). But having such risk-averse lenders holding the purse strings for new projects seems like a creative killer.
You can already see where we are headed with this. As Reed pointed out in a follow-up story, Wall Street is keen to apply artificial-intelligence tools to identify projects worth greenlighting.
Ah, yes, nothing gets the creative juices flowing like an algorithm telling you how you should write your script.
Look, I'm not a hipster snob who turns their nose up at box-office hits. I enjoyed "Top Gun: Maverick" as much as the next person.
But I don't want to live in a world where the requisite for a movie to get made is the main character being in Spandex.
Click here to learn more about private credit lending a hand to Hollywood.
And here's more on why Wall Street is so high on the entertainment industry leveraging AI.
In other news:
2. BlackRock's comms conundrum. The world's largest asset manager has seen its corporate comms team upended over the past year, with at least eight people having left the firm and another on his way out the door. The shakeup comes as all eyes are on what CEO Larry Fink is, or isn't, saying these days. Get all the deets here.
3. PMs are in ChatGPT's crosshairs. A new academic paper suggests ChatGPT could serve as an effective assistant for helping portfolio managers. More on how the AI chatbot can be a "copilot" to investors.
4. Your cheat sheet for applying to Y Combinator. Stephanie Simon, the startup accelerator's head of admissions, shares advice for founders applying. Here's what she's looking for.
5. Back to the office or buh-bye. More employers are pushing to get their employees back to their desks, and the fight is turning messy. It's about to get really ugly.
6. Long hair, kinda care. If you've got a man bun and are planning on working at a hedge fund, you better think twice. Users on the website Blind, a tech-career community, debated whether having some flow is acceptable on the buy side, per eFinancialCareers. This is where they landed.
7. For AQR's Cliff Asness, boring is just fine. The billionaire investor continues his victory lap after a massive 2022 for his firm by discussing why the value remains in value stocks, Forbes reports. More here.
8. Quick! Forward this story on the four-day workweek to your boss. Employees from a recent trial were all about the switch, with one telling Insider it "honestly changed my life." Read more about why five-day workweeks are for suckers.
9. Before you get some ink, give this a think. A tattoo artist shares some helpful tips for first-timers (and potentially veterans who need a refresher) about best practices for getting ink. Here are nine mistakes to avoid. (I'll offer another: Skip the couple's tattoo.)
10. I've got the tea on how to sound like a Gen Zer, but I won't be a gatekeeper. I'll be honest, trying to keep up with my younger colleagues was living rent free in my mind for a while. But then I read this lit story on Gen-Z slang, and now I'm just living my best life in my main character era. Get some rizz and read up on Gen-Z slang terms, fam.
Curated by Dan DeFrancesco in New York. Feedback or tips? Email ddefrancesco@insider.com, tweet @dandefrancesco, or connect on LinkedIn. Edited by Jeffrey Cane (tweet @jeffrey_cane) in New York and Jack Sommers (tweet @jack_sommers) in London.