Did Blackrock make Fox fire Tucker Carlson?
by HedgeFollow
This theory has been making rounds on social media, and we received many emails asking about our take on the situation.
First, we stress that HedgeFollow is politically neutral. We track Hedge Funds and provide the data for the public, that's about it.
So we'll just give a brief apolitical unbiased analysis of this theory.
As explained on our Hedge Fund tracker, whenever a fund buys a large stake in a company with the intention of influencing the management, they have to file a 13D to the SEC. If they just intend to invest passively, WITHOUT influencing management, they can submit another type of filing.
BlackRock never submitted a 13D for Fox stock. Now you might think: "So what? Maybe BlackRock influenced Fox to fire Tucker Carlson without submitting a 13D. Hedge Funds don't follow the rules!".
That is highly unlikely, not because BlackRock are angels by any means, but because a gross violation of law like that would definitely leak out and lead to a legal+PR nightmare. For such an influence to happen, communication will have to flow through several layers in the companies, and all it takes is one individual to spill the beans.
Hedge Funds are not stupid. When they do something shady, they make sure to cover the legal side, the PR side, etc. For now, the details of what really happened are only known to the top executives at Fox. Over time, people talk, and details will emerge and shed light on what really went down.
Want to vent about something shady the big three funds have done? For a very long time, BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard voted using their clients' shares, effectively hoarding enormous voting power over large corporations. This only started to change recently when the issue began receiving intense public scrutiny.
PS. For those asking where to see BlackRock's stake in Fox, visit Fox stock, scroll down and sort the funds by value. BlackRock will appear near the top. The reason Fox is not listed on BlackRock's portfolio is because we only list the top 50 holdings for each fund, and Fox makes up less than 0.01% of the fund's portfolio.
As explained on our Hedge Fund tracker, whenever a fund buys a large stake in a company with the intention of influencing the management, they have to file a 13D to the SEC. If they just intend to invest passively, WITHOUT influencing management, they can submit another type of filing.
BlackRock never submitted a 13D for Fox stock. Now you might think: "So what? Maybe BlackRock influenced Fox to fire Tucker Carlson without submitting a 13D. Hedge Funds don't follow the rules!".
That is highly unlikely, not because BlackRock are angels by any means, but because a gross violation of law like that would definitely leak out and lead to a legal+PR nightmare. For such an influence to happen, communication will have to flow through several layers in the companies, and all it takes is one individual to spill the beans.
Hedge Funds are not stupid. When they do something shady, they make sure to cover the legal side, the PR side, etc. For now, the details of what really happened are only known to the top executives at Fox. Over time, people talk, and details will emerge and shed light on what really went down.
Want to vent about something shady the big three funds have done? For a very long time, BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard voted using their clients' shares, effectively hoarding enormous voting power over large corporations. This only started to change recently when the issue began receiving intense public scrutiny.
PS. For those asking where to see BlackRock's stake in Fox, visit Fox stock, scroll down and sort the funds by value. BlackRock will appear near the top. The reason Fox is not listed on BlackRock's portfolio is because we only list the top 50 holdings for each fund, and Fox makes up less than 0.01% of the fund's portfolio.