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Good morning.
Remember this name: Whitney Wolfe Herd. At age 31, she yesterday became the newest member of the billionaire’s club…for a moment, at least. She also became the latest evidence that the stock market is on an irrational tear.
Herd founded Bumble, a dating app whose special sauce is allowing women to make the first move—a kind of digital Sadie Hawkins dance. She took it public yesterday, making her the youngest woman ever to lead a company to IPO. (She was not, however, the youngest woman to become a self-made billionaire. Kylie Jenner holds that honor.) Bumble’s share price soared more than 70% after it opened yesterday, and closed up 63%, giving the company a value of around $8 billion. Herd owns a 11.6% stake.
Herd spoke yesterday to Fortune’s Emma Hinchliffe, shortly after (virtually) ringing the NASDAQ opening bell. Asked what it felt like to be the youngest woman to lead an IPO, she responded:
“It’s pretty surreal. And it really is a moment to celebrate. We’re excited to hopefully have this record be broken soon; we are very excited to cheer on the next woman who beats this record.”
Herd spoke at Fortune’s Most Powerful Woman Next Gen conference in 2017 and made quite an impression on the audience. Among the advice she gave to the others there at the time:
“People thought this idea was crazy. Very few people early on believed in the mission. But I think it’s a really good sign if people tell you your idea is not going to work, because it is a sign that it is something new unique and interesting.”
Herd also told the Next Gen group that money was “not the number one thing” in driving her to build Bumble. But clearly, it has turned out to be remunerative.
More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
Editor’s note: Monday is President’s Day in the U.S., so CEO Daily will next appear on Tuesday.
TOP NEWS
Stonk probes
Last month's WallStreetBets/GameStop/AMC/Robinhood frenzy is now the subject of a federal probe, with prosecutors looking for evidence of market manipulation or other types of criminal misconduct. Apart from that Justice Department investigation, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is also looking into the matter as regards silver trading. Wall Street Journal
KPMG leadership
KPMG UK chairman and senior partner Bill Michael has quit after he told staff to "stop moaning" during the pandemic and called unconscious bias "complete crap." He had already temporarily stepped aside while an investigation takes place, with Bina Mehta assuming the chair and Mary O'Connor acting as senior partner. The firm, which has never had female leaders before, will also overhaul an unpopular performance rating system that demands someone in each team much always get the worst possible rating. Financial Times
Disney+ success
Disney returned to profit in the latest quarter, boosted by lower losses at its pandemic-battered theme parks, along with a greater-than-expected surge in Disney+ subscriber numbers. There are now around 95 million Disney+ subscribers, with over 21 million having signed up during the quarter. Fortune
BNY Mellon crypto
Bank of New York Mellon, the U.S.'s oldest bank, said it will become the first global bank to provide an integrated service for digital assets, i.e. cryptocurrencies, i.e. Bitcoin. Here's the bank's asset servicing CEO, Roman Regelman: "Growing client demand for digital assets, maturity of advanced solutions, and improving regulatory clarity present a tremendous opportunity for us to extend our current service offerings to this emerging field." CNBC
AROUND THE WATER COOLER
Racist finance
Fortune interviewed New York Times journalist Emily Flitter about her upcoming book on racism at all levels of America's financial system. Flitter: "There’s no question that the Jim Crow–era behavior by these institutions was bad, and they’ve cleaned up their act, and now they want to be good corporate citizens and do whatever they can around the margins to make things better. But in their own backyards, and in their own companies, they feel they’re fine, that they’ve solved the problems. And my book is about how none of it’s in the past." Fortune
Russia vs EU
The diplomatic situation between Russia and the EU is worsening, following Russia's humiliation of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell when he visited the country. Borrell came back talking about sanctions; now Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov has said Russia would react badly to that. Lavrov: "We don’t want to isolate ourselves from global life, but we have to be ready for that. If you want peace then prepare for war." Deutsche Welle
Haven't you herd?
The herd-immunity-by-infection-rather-than-vaccination debate is apparently looming again in the U.K., where government advisers are reportedly considering allowing a "big wave of infection" once over-50s have all been vaccinated. Possible problems with that path include allowing the virus to mutate further, and the unknown effects of "long COVID"—but on the other hand, the approach could allow the U.K. to export vaccines to low-income countries sooner rather than later. Financial Times
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This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.
