Latest news with #Loeb
Hamilton Spectator
6 days ago
- Health
- Hamilton Spectator
How to stop measles spread? Follow the work of a Hamilton researcher
As measles continue to spread across Ontario, a Hamilton researcher is getting a lifetime achievement award for proving that vaccinating kids against infectious disease protects the entire community. It was just over 15 years ago that McMaster University Professor Dr. Mark Loeb upended public policy by showing that giving kids the flu shot protects unvaccinated adults around them from influenza as much as if they'd been immunized themselves. 'You can say, 'It's my choice I don't want to be vaccinated,'' Loeb said. 'But it's affecting other people. That's why it's so important to get vaccinated.' The herd immunity finding that changed flu vaccination campaigns in Canada, the United States, Australia, and elsewhere is a big part of the reason Loeb is being honoured this year by the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada. The award comes at the same time measles has gone from being eliminated in Ontario to having a multi-jurisdictional outbreak that reached 2,083 infections as of June 10. 'It's very frustrating because it is something that's totally preventable,' Loeb said. 'This is not a situation we want to be in, particularly not in Ontario.' Loeb's work showing the effectiveness of herd immunity applies as much to the current measles outbreak as it does to influenza. 'It's readily transferable to measles and to other respiratory viruses,' said Loeb, who is a member of McMaster's Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research. 'The whole point of herd immunity effect is that the more people who are immune, the less likely it is that a virus will pass through that population. By being vaccinated, you are protecting yourself, but you're also protecting others, particularly those at high risk of complications.' Most of the cases in Ontario's outbreak have been babies , children and teens and almost all of them were unvaccinated. The spread among unimmunized kids puts 'a lot of people at risk,' said Loeb. So far, 144 people have been hospitalized during the outbreak, reports Public Health Ontario . Nine of them were admitted to the intensive care unit. Ontario's first measles death in more than a decade was an unvaccinated Hamilton child under the age of five in May 2024. The current outbreak's first death was identified June 5 as a premature baby who contracted the virus before birth from the unimmunized mother. The infant from southwestern Ontario also faced other serious medical complications. Areas surrounding Hamilton have been particularly hard hit with 283 measles cases as of June 10 reported in Grand Erie Public Health, which includes Brantford and Brant, Haldimand and Norfolk counties. Hamilton has had one case in the current outbreak. 'Prevention is pretty simple,' Loeb said. 'It's straightforward. It's vaccination.' Mennonites have been one of the biggest groups affected by the Ontario outbreak, which is linked to a gathering of the community in New Brunswick. In stark contrast, Loeb's work showing the benefits of herd immunity was done with another Anabaptist community — Hutterite colonies in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba that were isolated enough to determine if vaccinating kids stopped the spread to the rest of the population. 'An old-fashioned phone call,' was how Loeb started the conversation with members of the colonies about vaccinating their kids. 'We'd speak to leaders in the community one by one,' Loeb said. He thinks it's going to take strong education programs to now reverse a trend that has seen thousands of Hamilton kids suspended from school in March and April because of missing vaccine records . 'There's sometimes complacency about vaccines when people aren't familiar with the very severe complications that occur (from the infection),' Loeb said. 'They become complacent because of the prevalence of misinformation on social media.' Loeb's work to prevent the spread of infectious disease is far from done. He has now turned his attention to testing whether the smallpox vaccine can prevent mpox and is exploring research into vaccination for Lyme disease . He's looking to do further research with the Hutterite communities to inform the global response to H5N1 as well as looking at COVID, RSV and other respiratory infections. He's also been creating antibiotic prescribing protocols to fight against antimicrobial resistance. In addition, the lifetime achievement award recognized his work examining what happens to people over time when they become infected with West Nile , as well as genetic predisposition to the virus. Another major discovery being honoured was research linking the flu shot to a dramatic reduction in heart attacks, stroke and cardiac death. 'It's really important for people with heart disease to get their flu shot,' Loeb said. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
New York Post
31-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Nicholas Loeb, Sofia Vergara's ex, claims director conned him over failed Mona Lisa flick
Sofia Vergara's ex — who spent years feuding with the 'Modern Family' actress over custody rights of their frozen embryos — was allegedly scammed by a German director into shelling out nearly $40,000 on a movie project that went nowhere. Nicholas Loeb, an actor and entrepreneur, was hoping to snag Robert Schwentke to helm a flick called the 'Art of the Con,' which he described in a lawsuit against the director as 'a historically inspired heist film dramatizing the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in the early 20th century.' Schwentke, 57, who directed the 2017 film 'The Captain,' allegedly agreed to take the project on in 2022 but only if his preferred writer, Matthew Wilder, took a crack at the screenplay, Loeb claimed in a Manhattan Supreme Court filing. Loeb has fought with ex-Sofia Vergara for years in court over their embryos. Getty Images Loeb shelled out $25,000 to Wilder to rewrite the script, based on Schwentke's promise, then another $12,500 in January 2023 after the director demanded a second rewrite. Even though he didn't want to hire the screenwriter, Loeb 'agreed to retain Wilder solely for the purpose of securing Schwentke as director,' according to the litigation. Schwentke even voiced enthusiasm for the project, Loeb alleged. He imagined that 'directing a Lubitsch-style elegant heist-comedy … would be one of the great joys of [his] career,' he told Loeb, according to the lawsuit. The director allegedly stopped responding for months, then 'resurfaced' in August 2023?]] demanding a third rewrite 'again to be performed by Wilder and again for a $25,000 fee,' Loeb claimed. Director Robert Schwentke allegedly claimed he would sign on to help Loeb's project, then backed out. dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images Schwentke then ditched the project in March, leaving Loeb on the hook for more than $37,000 in expenses, he claimed. 'Mr. Loeb believes he was swindled by Schwentke in collusion with his friend, costing him millions,' said attorney Andrew B. Smith, who reps Loeb. Loeb is seeking unspecified damages 'in an amount sufficient to punish' the pair for their 'willful, malicious, and fraudulent conduct.' The Westchester-based Loeb spent nearly a decade in a high-profile legal battle with Vergara over the fate of their remaining embryos created by in vitro fertilization, after their bid to have children failed. Vergara won in court, preventing Loeb from bringing their embryos to term using a surrogate. Wilder and Schwentke did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
CNBC
30-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Daniel Loeb's next task as his hedge fund turns 30: Avoiding becoming 'AI roadkill'
Daniel Loeb has found himself a new goal as his hedge fund Third Point entered its milestone 30th year: To be a true winner in the red-hot artificial intelligence boom and not run over by it. "Change is happening at an ever accelerating and increasing rate and it's just going to require us to continue to be even more nimble, and to use AI as your own tool to stay on top of what's going on," Loeb told CNBC's Scott Wapner at Third Point's investor day Thursday. "You'll either be a beneficiary of AI or AI roadkill. So I think we all need to do our best to not be the latter." AI has dominated Wall Street's investing theme over the past two years as investors left and right seek to hit home runs in the space, from chipmakers to hardware producers to car companies and utilities. Loeb, once known for his sharp brand of activism, has emerged as a big AI bull in recent years, increasing his fund's AI exposure to nearly half of its equity portfolio in 2024. Ways Loeb is playing AI The hedge-fund investor not only owns "legacy" companies like Meta , Nvidia , Microsoft and Amazon — which he said have built enormous competitive advantages — but he is also betting on AI beneficiary London Stock Exchange Group and chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing . "It's a pervasive component of our research process... It's a variable in which we benchmark all of the companies that we invest in, both in terms of how they're using it… whether it's cloud companies or Amazons or Microsofts and how they're directly benefiting from it," Loeb said. Three decades ago, Loeb started Third Point with $3.2 million cobbled together from friends and family. Today, the hedge fund touts over $20 billion assets under management and net returns of 15% since inception, weathering the dotcom crash, the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid pandemic. Known for being one of the best activist investors ever, he's grown the firm to include a significant credit and venture business. On today's market environment, Loeb believes the short-term uncertainty will start to fade by next year and investors picking quality, growth stocks with fair prices will be rewarded in the long run. "I think it will be ok.. I think we'll start looking towards a better, more predictable 2026," Loeb said. "I think there will definitely be winners and losers. The economy will grow at about a one-percent rate unless something comes out of left field, so I think it's a good environment for investing in growthy companies at good valuations." He also revealed that Third Point got back into US Steel a month or so ago in the $30s range in a bet that its path to a deal with Nippon Steel would materialize. CNBC reported this week that Nippon is expected to close acquisition of U.S. Steel at $55 per share.
Business Mayor
25-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Daniel Loeb's Third Point Investors in deal to create London-listed insurer
Unlock the Editor's Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Billionaire activist Daniel Loeb's Third Point Investors Limited plans to acquire a reinsurance company, in a move that would lead to the creation of a new London-listed insurer for the first time since 2020. London-listed TPIL said on Wednesday that it would acquire Malibu Life Reinsurance, a Cayman Islands-based life and annuity reinsurer that Loeb's New York-based hedge fund Third Point launched last year. The Guernsey-based closed-end fund plans to acquire Malibu in an all-share deal that values Malibu at about $68mn. If the deal is approved by shareholders, TPIL said it would acquire Malibu Life Re from another Loeb vehicle in exchange for the issue of new shares, in what amounted to a reverse takeover. But the stock-for-stock deal has already been hit by opposition from Asset Value Investors Limited, which has a 7 per cent stake in TPIL and which said it planned to vote against the proposal. AVI, a specialist investor in closed-end funds, said in a statement that the planned transaction 'cemented' Third Point Investors' status as 'the poster child for appalling corporate governance'. Third Point declined to comment on the statement from AVI. The UK insurance market has not been immune to the broader dwindling of listings on London's stock market. The takeover would create the first new London-listed insurer created since Bermuda-based reinsurer Conduit Re's initial public offering in late 2020. Rupert Dorey, chair of TPIL, said in a statement that Malibu Life was 'a high-potential reinsurance platform with a robust pipeline of reinsurance and other origination opportunities that will enable it to achieve scale in the near-term'. Saba Capital Management, which had an approximately 1 per cent stake in TPIL, according to TPIL's Wednesday stock exchange filing, said it planned to support the transaction. Saba founder Boaz Weinstein said in a statement: 'We're pleased to see a board of directors responding to the inherent challenges within the UK investment trust market.' TPIL said the deal would give UK investors access to the booming US fixed-annuity market, which has been buoyed by broader market volatility. Athene, the annuity business wholly owned by US private capital group Apollo, has a so-called 'sidecar' reinsurance vehicle in Bermuda that has helped it raise equity capital offshore. JPMorgan said in a recent investor note that the strategy had helped build the insurer into 'the gorilla in the room' in private equity-backed retirement products. Athene earlier this month reported record quarterly inflows of $26bn. TPIL said that Malibu Life had access to a 'robust pipeline' of deals in the sector, including through a reinsurance agreement with a 'blue-chip' US life reinsurer covering about $3bn of premiums. A market participant familiar with the transaction said the US business was Aspida, which is backed by US private credit group Ares Management. Aspida declined to comment. The deal comes as reinsurers in the Cayman Islands, where Malibu Life is based, face growing scrutiny from regulators as well as criticism from US- and Bermuda-based rivals. 'Some companies are now looking to pivot to the Cayman Islands, where the regulatory framework is much less robust, capital requirements are much less defined and there's much more flexibility that companies have,' Marty Klein, Athene's senior adviser and former chief financial officer, told investors on a February call. Read More City watchdog raises concerns over £4bn life insurance market 'We don't think that's healthy for the industry. We think it's actually quite detrimental', he added.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Billionaire Dan Loeb Sold His Fund's Entire Stake in Tesla and Is Piling Into Wall Street's Preeminent Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock
Form 13Fs offer a way for professional and everyday investors to track which stocks Wall Street's smartest money managers purchased and sold in the most recent quarter. Third Point's billionaire chief dumped his fund's entire stake in Tesla in the first quarter -- and it may have to do with more than just profit-taking. Meanwhile, Loeb loaded up on the most direct beneficiary of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution. These 10 stocks could mint the next wave of millionaires › The month of May has been packed with pivotal data releases. We've had no shortage of earnings reports from influential businesses, a Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting, and countless updates on tariff and trade policy from President Donald Trump and his administration. But amid this sea of data, perhaps nothing has been more telling than the filing of Form 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). No later than 45 calendar days following the end to a quarter, institutional investors overseeing at least $100 million in assets under management (AUM) are required to file a 13F with the SEC. This filing allows professional and everyday investors to see which stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) Wall Street's leading asset managers bought and sold in the most recent quarter. May 15 marked the filing deadline for 13Fs detailing trading activity for the March-ended quarter. Though Warren Buffett is the most-popular of all money managers, he's far from the only billionaire fund manager known for outsized investment returns. Third Point's billionaire chief Dan Loeb also has quite the following on Wall Street. Loeb closed out the first frame of 2025 with $6.55 billion in AUM which was spread across 45 stocks. But what's particularly noteworthy about Loeb's investing style is his penchant for buying and selling high-growth and widely owned companies. Based on Third Point's latest 13F, Dan Loeb completely kicked North America's electric-vehicle (EV) kingpin Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) to the curb and chose to pile into Wall Street's preeminent artificial intelligence (AI) stock. Although Dan Loeb completely exited nine positions at Third Point during the first quarter, including social media colossus Meta Platforms, the sale of 500,000 shares of Tesla is what stands out most. The reason? Loeb initially purchased 400,000 shares of Tesla during the third quarter of 2024 and tacked on an additional 100,000 shares in the December-ended quarter. Between Jan. 1 and March 31, something changed. This "something" could very well be Tesla's soaring share price. In the wake of President Donald Trump's victory in November and CEO Elon Musk being designated as a "special government employee" for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Tesla stock very briefly doubled. The average stock in Loeb's portfolio has an average hold time of a little over 13 months, so he's not shy about locking in profits. But there may be more to this selling activity than meets the eye. To begin with, there's growing concern that Musk's involvement with DOGE and his numerous other companies and projects are detracting from Tesla's growth potential. Despite continued sales growth from Tesla's energy generation and storage operations, EV revenue plunged 20% in the first quarter from the prior-year period. Moreover, Tesla's vehicle margin has been trending lower for the last two years. Musk noted during his company's 2023 annual meeting that EV demand dictates pricing. A slew of sweeping price cuts for Tesla's fleet (Model's 3, S, X, and Y) confirms that competition is picking up and/or demand for EVs has waned. Even with steep price cuts, Tesla has struggled to keep its EV inventory levels from rising. Another concern is that Tesla's earnings quality is poor. Companies with first-mover advantages should be generating their profits from their products and services. More than half of Tesla's pre-tax income can be traced to automotive regulatory credits, which are given to it for free by governments, and interest income earned on its cash. Without automotive regulatory credits, Tesla would have reported a pre-tax loss in the March-ended quarter. Lastly, Dan Loeb might be out due to Elon Musk's numerous unfulfilled promises. For instance, Tesla's chief has claimed that Level 5 full self-driving is "one year away" for the last 11 years. He also expected 1 million robotaxis on American roadways "next year" in 2019. The cherry on top is that demand for Cybertruck has been well below the initial hype. If these unfulfilled promises are backed out of Tesla's valuation, its stock could have a long way to fall. On the other end of the spectrum, Third Point's 13F shows that Loeb opened 10 new positions during the first quarter. Though he did add a handful of high-yield dividend stocks, such as telecom titan AT&T and consumer health products company Kenvue, which isn't unexpected given the volatility we began witnessing in the stock market late in the first quarter, Loeb's eyebrow-raising purchase is premier AI stock Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA). The last time Third Point's billionaire investor held shares of Nvidia for his fund was the second quarter of 2023. He then sold what's now the equivalent of 5,000,000 shares of Nvidia during the third quarter of 2023, which takes into account Nvidia's 10-for-1 stock split in June 2024. During the first quarter of 2025, Loeb scooped up 1,450,000 shares, which are currently valued at almost $196 million. No company has been a more direct beneficiary of the AI revolution than Nvidia. Its Hopper graphics processing units (GPUs) and Blackwell GPU architecture are the undisputed preferred choice by businesses operating AI-accelerated data centers. Essentially, Nvidia's hardware is the brains behind generative AI solutions and the training of many large language models (LLMs). Nvidia has also been able to take full advantage of AI-GPU scarcity. Even with world-leading chip fabrication company Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing ramping up its chip-on-wafer-on-substrate capacity, Nvidia can't come close to meeting the full demand for its hardware. When demand for a good overwhelms supply, it's perfectly normal the price of that good to climb. Both Nvidia's Hopper and Blackwell GPUs are commanding a premium to competing chips, which has been a benefit to the company's gross margin. Even the CUDA software platform is doing its part to make Nvidia one of Wall Street's most-influential businesses. CUDA is the toolkit developers use to maximize the compute potential of their Nvidia GPUs, as well as build LLMs. More importantly, it's an anchoring tool that's helping to keep clients loyal to Nvidia's ecosystem of products and services. The final piece of the puzzle for Loeb looks to be Nvidia's valuation, which has become considerably more palatable. During the tail-end of March, Nvidia's forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio dipped to around 19, which appears quite inexpensive given the growth rate it's been able to sustain. But Nvidia stock isn't guaranteed to head higher. Every next-big-thing trend for more than three decades has worked its way through a bubble-bursting event early in its expansion. The simple fact that most businesses lack a well-defined AI game plan and aren't generating a profit on their AI investments signals that investors have, once again, overestimated the adoption rate and utility of another game-changing technology. Competition is a genuine concern, as well. As both external and internal competition ramps up, AI-GPU scarcity will diminish. Ultimately, this is bad news for Nvidia's AI-GPU pricing power and its margins. Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you'll want to hear this. On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a 'Double Down' stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you're worried you've already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it's too late. And the numbers speak for themselves: Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you'd have $341,791!* Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you'd have $38,365!* Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you'd have $644,254!* Right now, we're issuing 'Double Down' alerts for three incredible companies, available when you join , and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.*Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Sean Williams has positions in AT&T and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Kenvue, Meta Platforms, Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, and Tesla. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $13 calls on Kenvue. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Billionaire Dan Loeb Sold His Fund's Entire Stake in Tesla and Is Piling Into Wall Street's Preeminent Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
