The Financial Times: Activist Starboard Targets Honeywell Spin-Off Solstice After Failed Megadeal
Starboard is pushing Solstice to cut about $100 million in overhead and refocus on its core refrigerants and nuclear businesses, after investors lost confidence following its failed $14.5 billion bid for Element Solution. Read More

The Wall Street Journal: Mattel Adds Board Member As Activist Investor Pressure Mounts
After a busy couple of weeks that saw a CEO succession announced and lots of talk regarding a potential sale, the toy company announced that it entered a cooperation agreement with EdgePoint Investment Group, one of the company’s largest shareholders, that would appointment EdgePoint partner Lee Matheson to the board. Read More

The Financial Times: SpaceX and Tesla Boards Explore Potential Merger
After multiple partnerships between the two companies and in the next potential merger of Elon Musk-led companies, Musk said on Tuesday that both companies had formed special committees, which the billionaire is not a part of and cannot participate in, to explore the possibility of a combination that could be valued at more than $3 trillion. Bloomberg’s Matt Levine explored some of the potential challenges in an insightful piece on the topic. Read More

Apollo Daily Spark: M&A Is Booming Because Rapid Change Is Forcing Firms to Rethink Their Business
Apollo partners Torsten Slok and Huw van Steenis posit that M&A is on pace for a near-record year as AI-driven upheaval pushes corporates into the lead while private equity holds back due to doubts surrounding software business models. The report counted 42 megadeals above $10 billion in the first nine months of 2026. Read More

WSJ Leadership Institute: Jamie Dimon on the Biggest Risks Facing the Global Economy
In a fireside chat with President of the WSJ Leadership Institute Alan Murray, Dimon cites AI-driven cyber threats, sticky inflation, government deficits and supply-chain vulnerabilities in rare earths and semiconductors as the biggest risks to the global economy. He also reflects on the first year of the bank’s $1.5 trillion Security and Resiliency Initiative in the wide-ranging discussion. Watch Here

Governance Intelligence: Glass Lewis Ditches One-Size-Fits-All Proxy Voting in Favor of Four-Pronged Approach
As the governance environment continues to evolve, the proxy advisor is launching four voting frameworks ranging from business fundamentals to sustainability-focused to replace its single benchmark policy. Read More

Coin Desk: The Coinbase allegations expose Bitcoin’s corporate governance gap
Onramp CEO Michael Tanguma argues the allegations by BlockTower Capital founder Ari Paul that Coinbase lost client assets and concealed security breaches highlight a broader weakness in corporate bitcoin custody: lack of independent verification of holdings, clear withdrawal approvals and safeguards against reliance on a single custodian. Read More

The Wall Street Journal: Anthropic S-1 Shows Red-Hot Growth, Risks and Massive Computing Costs
Anthropic’s draft IPO prospectus reveals $16.3 billion in first-half 2026 revenue, an $80.7 billion net loss largely driven by accounting charges, and more than $600 billion in future infrastructure commitments. As the company prepares for a potential $2 trillion IPO and plans to contribute 5% of its shares to a new philanthropic fund, DealBook reports on the charitable initiative, while Reuters reports that OpenAI is accelerating a roughly $30 billion fundraising round at a potential valuation above $1.4 trillion to secure investor commitments ahead of Anthropic’s expected public debut. Read More

Bloomberg: AI Firm Nscale Faces Investor Pushback Over IPO Valuation
The data center developer, which is backed by Nvidia, is targeting a valuation of around $30 billion, causing investor pushback from those who favor a $16-$19 billion range amid borrowing costs and weakening sentiment. Read More

This week, the GPP team went down the Village to eat at one of our favorite Italian restaurants Morandi. Located on fabled Waverly Place, this spot was the Italian debut for restauranteur Keith McNally who had cut his teeth as the king of the pseudo-French eatery with restaurants Pastis and Balthazar.

The lively restaurant, which is a staple of the neighbor, provides a cozy and vibrant experience while making you feel as if it is an Italian trattoria. It is perfect for groups of any size while providing an energy that makes you at home.

The restaurant has a spectacular drinks menu and so that we covered all of our bases, we began with the Morandi Negroni and the Balthazar’s French Martini. Once the entrees were served, we moved on to a carafe of the 2024 Cesanese del Piglio Marcella Giuliani that absolutely transported us to ancient Lazio and made us feel as if we were drinking in the hills of Rome.

For our meal, we decided there were too many delicious options to not share everything, so we began with a perfect Margherita focaccia before diving into the Crocchette al Prosciutto and the delectable Duetto di Crudo di Salmone e Tonno. Of course, no meal would be complete without pasta and meatballs and we devoured with the flavorful Polpettine alla Siciliana. The pastas, which are all house-made every day, were the Pici al Limone and the Cavatelli con Ragù D’Agnello.

Finally, even though we were quite full, our erudite waiter suggested the Tiramisù which paired nicely with our espresso martinis.

• Four Years of Semafor
• Bloomberg: The Saxophone Is No Longer Pop Music’s Punchline
• The New Yorker: The New Age of Reading
• The New York Times: It’s Sliced Cheese on Bread. And It’s Rocking Copenhagen’s World.
• The New York Times: Australian Zoo Plays Matchmaker for Giant Birds, and Big Green Eggs Are Proof
• The Associated Press: Need a Smile? This Livestream Features 6 Puppies All Day Long

• October 29: Knight-Bagehot Annual Dinner, New York, NY
• November 10: Sportico Invest New York, New York, NY
• November 18: DealBook Summit, New York, NY