Ferrari shares fell as much as 3% in Milan after first-quarter results showed stronger-than-expected profit and cash flow, but the beat was overshadowed by a plunge in deliveries in the Middle East, as the U.S.-Iran conflict disrupted shipments to one of the luxury automaker’s key markets.

Ferrari’s first-quarter results were broadly ahead of expectations on profit, revenue, and cash flow, but deliveries across EMEA, which includes Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, were the clear outlier.

Regional shipments fell to 1,458 units, down 14% year over year and well below the Bloomberg consensus estimate of 1,651, underscoring a wartime-disrupted supercar market.

Here’s a snapshot of the first quarter (courtesy of Bloomberg):

Ebitda EU722 million, +4.2% y/y, estimate EU710 million (Bloomberg Consensus)

• Ebitda margin 39.1%, estimate 39.3%

Ebit EU548 million, +1.1% y/y, estimate EU541.5 million Ebit margin 29.7% vs. 30.3% y/y, estimate 29.7%

Net income EU413 million, +0.2% y/y, estimate EU405.7 million

Industrial free cash flow EU653 million, estimate EU516.1 million

Diluted EPS EU2.33 vs. EU2.30 y/y, estimate EU2.30

Revenue EU1.85 billion, +3.2% y/y, estimate EU1.82 billion

• Cars and spare parts revenue EU1.56 billion, +1.3% y/y, estimate EU1.54 billion

• Sponsorship, commercial and brand revenue EU218 million, +14% y/y, estimate EU203.9 million

• Other revenue EU74 million, +16% y/y, estimate EU70.6 million

Deliveries 3,436, -4.4% y/y, estimate 3,520

• EMEA deliveries 1,458 units, -14% y/y, estimate 1,651 (2 estimates)

• Americas Deliveries 1,030 units, +0.8% y/y, estimate 1,043 (2 estimates)

• Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan 255 units, +7.6% y/y, estimate 253.18 (2 estimates)

• Rest of APAC deliveries 693 units, +9.5% y/y, estimate 630.23 (2 estimates)

Ferrari confirmed its 2026 guidance, citing strong order-book visibility toward the end of next year.

Goldman analyst Christian Frenes commented on the guidance, noting:

2026 guidance confirmed with room for upgrades: Ferrari confirmed its guidance for FY26 revenues of ~€7.5bn (cons €7.57bn, GSe €7.89bn), adj. EBIT of >=€2.22bn (€2.25bn, GSe €2.32bn) and ind. FCF >€1.5bn (cons €1.56bn, GSe €1.61mn). We continue to expect Ferrari to upgrade its conservative 2026 guidance in 2Q/3Q26 as we expect mix to continue to accelerate towards 2H26 supported by the ramp-up of the F80 supercar and the 296 Versione Speciale. On current guidance, the FY26-30 CAGR to FY30 targets is in line with CMD guidance of 5% on revenue as well as the EPS level, with any upgrades implying management’s willingness to grow above the medium-term growth floor.

Other analyst commentary (courtsey of Bloomberg):

Jefferies (buy)

• Analysts led by James Grzinic say group has managed to limit margin unwind despite major FX headwinds and a quarterly trough in shipments

• Say there “should be no surprise from today’s reiteration of 2026 guidance”

JPMorgan (overweight)

• Analysts led by Jose Asumendi write that it was overall a strong quarter

• Say want to better understand how firm plans to offset some FX and fixed cost headwinds during conference call

Oddo BHF (neutral)

• Analysts say the results are broadly in line with expectations

• This may be a “slight disappointment” as Ferrari is usually expected to beat and messaging was “quite bullish” in a pre- close call

• Focus will shift to any commentary in the call around effects of Middle East crisis

• “Order book is described as ‘further extending towards the end of 2027,’ vs ‘towards 2027’ at the time of the FY25 results report,” they note

Bloomberg data show that 77.4% of Wall Street analysts covering Ferrari have a “Buy” rating, while 22.6% are “Neutral” and 0% are “Sell.”

Ferrari shares…

Ferrari is set to unveil its fully electric supercar, the Luce, later this month. As we noted last week, sports car buyers are shunning hybrids and chasing V-8s and V-12s.

Two months ago, the BLS reported that January job openings unexpectedly soared by 400K, the biggest increase since November 2024, to 6.946MM, the highest since last October. Then, one month later it turned out the jump was even higher than that when the BLS published the February JOLTS print, when we learned that the January job print was revised massively higher by another 300K to 7.240MM from 6.946MM, a surge of 690K and the biggest since 2022; February job openings however promptly tumbled back to 6.882MM, or just shy of the 6.890MM estimate. Fast forward to today when we just got the latest, March, job openings print which saw another modest drop, sliding from the upward revised February print of 6.922MM to 6.866MM, or practically in line with estimates of 6.850MM. 

According to the BLS, the number of job openings plunged in professional and business services (-318,000) but increased in finance and insurance (+98,000). There were also increases in Private Education and Health services, Construction and Manufacturing jobs, offset by a modest drop in Leisure and Hospitality. 

Meanwhile, the slid in government and federal job openings continues.

The modest drop in March job openings, coupled with the bigger drop in unemployed workers means that there were 373K fewer job openings than unemployed workers in March, an improvement from the 649K in February.

It also means that after rising back to 1.0x in January, in March the ratio of job openings to unemployed dropped back to 0.9x where it has generally been since last summer.

But while the job openings number was largely in line with expectations, recent revision gimmicks notwithstanding, the real surprise in this month’s print was the number of Quits and Hires, both of which surged from 6 year lows. 

The number of hires soared to 5.554 million (+655,000) and the rate increased to 3.5% in March, more than offsetting decreases in those measures the previous month. The number of hires increased in transportation, warehousing, and utilities (+108,000), and edged up in professional and business services (+165,000) and in accommodation and food services (+124,000). Hires decreased in federal government (-7,000).

As for quits, in March the number of quits also jumped, if less forcefully, by 125K to 3.171MM, led by quits in real estate and rental and leasing (+19,000). 

Putting the hiring surge in context, the 655K increase in March hires was the best month since +4.1 million print recorded in April 2020 in the aftermath of the covid crisis, and the second highest ever. Stripping away the one-time covid shock, March was a record month for hiring which in light of everything else in the economy, does not really make much sense.

Since this number feeds directly into the payrolls calculations (after netting out separations) this explains why the March payrolls report was so much stronger (178K) than expected.

Overall, this was a solid JOLTS report and shows that after some significant weakness in late 2025, US labor market has managed to stabilize in early 2026. Of course, the report also lags the payrolls report by a month, which is why it gives us little insight into what Friday’s jobs report will be. 

Anyone has been in the bond markets for more than a minute remembers the fall of 2022 when UK PM Liz Truss was unceremoniously dumped by her own party after serving 45 days in office as the Gilts market collapsed at unprecedented speed amid economic chaos triggered by her ‘mini-budget’ (and multiple ministerial resignations).

The reason we reminisce is that this morning – after a long-weekend closed – UK Gilt yields are soaring once again… to their highest level since 1998 (and are a stunning 80bps above the Trussian highs) as worries intensified over local government elections and the impact of soaring energy prices on the economy.

While bond investors around the world have signaled their discontent with faster inflation and potentially higher interest rates, the UK stands out as the most extreme example.

As Bloomberg reports, the combination of Britain’s messy political landscape, with unpopular Prime Minister Keir Starmer likely to face a leadership challenge, feeble economy and strained government finances have made it a target for traders looking for a weak link.

“The market has one eye on the fact that Starmer’s days are numbered, and if not numbered then a further move to the left of the political spectrum is inevitable in an attempt to head off support for the Green party,” said Lloyd Harris, head of fixed income at Miton Group.

The UK 10-year yield has jumped 70 basis points since the start of the war, the biggest increase among a basket of developed markets tracked by Bloomberg over that period.

The UK’s problems are both domestic and foreign.

This coming Thursday’s May local elections should keep focus high on the lingering risks of a flare-up in UK political or fiscal premium.

Goldman Sachs traders believe that options markets are right to price-in relatively limited vol premium for the day itself.

The larger risks are likely in the form of either leadership challenges to the PM, or a shift in focus back to a constrained fiscal position on account of the evolution of energy prices and Gilt yields throughout the energy shock, and both of these are likely less immediate.

And even if these risks do materialise, we expect the impact on Sterling to come as bouts of currency underperformance rather than a more concerted trend lower, consistent with the pattern over the past year.

However, in the minds of investors, big losses at the ballot box raise the chances that either Starmer or his replacement would have to boost government spending to win back disaffected voters, which would further pressure the UK’s finances.

On top of that, the UK’s reliance on imported energy has left it vulnerable to an economic shock from the war in the Middle East.

With oil prices stuck above $100, the fear is that faster inflation will force the central bank to hike interest rates even further.

Markets are now pricing in three quarter-point rate hikes this year, up from two last week.

Additionally, Bloomberg reports that some have speculated that the traditional buyers of UK bonds, like pension funds, aren’t as active in the market as they used to be, which is also helping to drive up yields.

For decades, British defined-benefit pension funds bought long-dated bonds to match against their liabilities, allowing the UK to extend the average maturity of its issuance well beyond peers. Many of those programs are now winding down.

While Starmer has outlasted Truss stay in office, the bond market appears to be demanding/predicting/fearing his fate may well be the same… and soon (for better or worse).

Despite Manufacturing surveys solid (and US factory orders surging), expectations are for the Services sector surveys today to show stagflationary signals (weak growth, surging prices).

S&P Global’s Services PMI disappointed in April (final), falling from its flash print of 51.3 to 51.0, but still up from multi-year lows below 50 in March, showing just marginal activity growth despite weak drop in sales volumes.

ISM Services PMI also disappointed in April, falling from 54.0 to 53.6 (vs 53.7 exp) amid tumbling new orders and high prices.

Source: Bloomberg

Under the hood it was not a pretty picture at all with new orders slowing dramatically, Prices Paid holding near cycle highs, and employment contracting for the second month in a row…

“Although business activity returned to growth after a small decline in March, it’s clear the pace of growth has kicked down a couple of gears since the start of the year,” said Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The survey data are indicative of GDP growing at a modest 1% annualized rate.

“Growth may weaken further,” warns Williamson, as service providers are reporting lower inflows of new business for the first time in two years, reflecting an intensifying hit to demand from the war in the Middle East.

“The direct impact of the war has been most evident in consumer-facing services, as high prices have led to a pull-back in discretionary spending on activities such as holidays and recreation, though transport has also been curbed by high fuel prices and travel disruptions.” 

However, a secondary additional driver of renewed weakness is a drop in demand for financial services, in part linked to heightened uncertainty about market outlooks but also reflecting expectations of higher inflation and interest rates, which has hit real estate and lending activity.

But it’s not just weak growth/orders, prices are surging too… broadly.

“A further increase in input cost inflation reflected not just higher fuel prices but a widening spread of goods and services rising in price, as well as higher wages, which will feed through to consumer price inflation in the coming months.”

The scale of the price rises will put pressure on the Fed to prevent higher inflation becoming entrenched, but the smell of stagflation remains in the air – central bankers’ arch-nemesis.

With oil prices soaring to multi-year highs, it was only a matter of time: Diamondback Energy, one of the largest shale oil producers, announced it is boosting crude output in response to rising prices caused by the Iran war.

The company that operates in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico is pumping more than 520,000 barrels a day, 3% more than its original full-year guidance, and plans to sustains those levels, Chief Executive Officer Kaes Van’t Hof wrote in a letter to shareholders on Monday.

“We believe there is a legitimate supply-demand imbalance and that the associated price signal is the catalyst to begin to grow production,” he wrote. “Because of our positioning, our preparation and this price signal, we are bringing incremental barrels to the market immediately.”

Van’t Hof’s comments come just days after supermajors Exxon Mobil and Chevron told investors they wouldn’t significantly alter production plans in response to the unprecedented war-drive disruption to Persian Gulf energy supplies. Exxon’s plan to raise Permian Basin output by 12% this year pre-dated the Iran war, while Chevron is sticking to plans to keep production from the region essentially flat. 

However, now that one company has broken the seal, expect a rush to hike output across the US E&P sector.

As Bloomberg notes, Diamondback isn’t the first shale specialist to see the Middle East conflict as an opportunity to bolster production. Billionaire Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources made a similar pledge last month. And who can blame them: crude futures are up by more than 50% since the war in Iran began in late February, and after all, when it comes to commodities, the age-old saying is that “the cure for high prices is high prices.”

Of course, with more output comes more capex: Diamondback is also is raising spending guidance by 4% this year to about $3.9 billion, with plans to add as many as three additional drilling rigs and run a handful of frack crews for the rest of this year, Van’t Hof wrote.

Diamondback’s CEO made waves exactly one year ago when he warned markets that the US is “at a tipping point” saying the US shale output has peaked, and slashed his capex. What a difference a year makes. 

The company is also working through its backlog of ready-made wells that have already been drilled and await fracking as a way to unleash more oil more quickly.

After using a stoplight analogy in investor letters over the past year to describe his thinking on whether to accelerate or hit the brakes on output, Van’t Hof said Monday that “the light has turned green, and Diamondback is well-positioned to respond to the current macro environment.”

Ford Motor Company posted a sharp sales decline in April as demand for new vehicles cooled across much of the auto industry, with the company reporting a 14.4% drop year over year to 178,667 vehicles sold, according to Autoevolution.

The weaker month pushed Ford’s year-to-date total to roughly 636,000 deliveries — still ahead of Hyundai Motor Company and Kia Corporation, but well behind Toyota Motor North America.

Autoevolution writes that the slowdown comes as automakers face softer demand after last year’s buying rush, when consumers moved quickly to purchase cars ahead of potential tariff increases. Higher gas prices tied to geopolitical tensions and persistently expensive vehicle prices have also made buyers more cautious.

While General Motors has yet to release April results, several rivals have already reported weaker numbers. Toyota’s U.S. sales fell 4.6% last month to just over 222,000 vehicles, bringing its year-to-date total to nearly 792,000. American Honda Motor Co. was nearly flat, while Hyundai and Kia also slipped slightly after a strong start to the year, though their combined sales still topped 565,000 through April.

Ford’s weakness was broad-based. EV sales dropped nearly 25%, hybrid sales plunged 32.5%, and traditional gas-powered vehicles fell 11.8%. Truck sales declined more than 14%, SUVs were down 16.6%, and the company’s bread-and-butter Ford F-Series slid nearly 14% to just over 61,000 units. Sales at Lincoln were even worse, falling more than 21%.

There were a few bright spots. The Ford Mustang climbed more than 18% in April, while the Ford Bronco rose more than 18% to around 17,000 sales. The Ford Explorer and Ford’s heavy-duty truck lineup also posted gains. On a year-to-date basis, Mustang remains Ford’s strongest performer with sales up roughly 39%, followed by the Explorer, Transit van, Ranger pickup, and Bronco. At Lincoln, the Lincoln Aviator remains one of the few bright spots, with sales up nearly 10% so far this year.

Lawmakers toppled Romanian Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan’s pro-EU ​government in a no-confidence vote on Tuesday, putting at risk the country’s sovereign debt ratings, its access to ‌EU funds and the stability of its currency. Of the valid votes cast in the parliament, 285 voted for the motion of censure and four against, exceeds the 251 signatures collected last week for the motion and above the 233 needed to pass, the official parliamentary count showed.

Bolojan has led a minority government since late April when the Social Democrats – the largest party in parliament – called for his resignation and then walked out of the four-party coalition and teamed up with the far-right opposition to file a no-confidence vote.

Although a snap election looks unlikely, financial markets are concerned that ​the turbulence could mean Bucharest wavers in its commitment to narrowing the European Union’s biggest budget deficit. Romania’s leu ⁠currency fell to a record low against the euro ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

The current coalition came to power 10 months ago with a ​view to containing the gains of the far right after a series of polarizing elections, and it had begun to reduce the deficit, narrowly ​avoiding a ratings downgrade from the last rung of investment grade. But the Social Democrats – without whom a pro-EU majority cannot be achieved – have repeatedly clashed with Bolojan as his austerity measures have hit their voters and patronage networks, while their popular support has bled away to the far right.

Nevertheless, opinion polls still show Bolojan is ​the most popular politician in the ruling coalition. Bolojan will stay on as interim premier with limited powers until a new government is approved by ⁠parliament. 

“Can anyone say how Romania will function from tomorrow, do ​you have a plan?” Bolojan asked lawmakers before the vote. “Romanians will understand that you can govern differently, with respect for public money, and you cannot undo that.”

Romania’s ‌next ⁠parliamentary election is not due until 2028. It has never held an early election and analysts say the likelihood of one now is small as the opposition hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians (AUR) leads in opinion polls.

Centrist President Nicusor Dan, who nominates the prime minister, is now expected to invite parties for negotiations and attempt to rebuild the four-party pro-EU coalition under a different member of Bolojan’s Liberals or perhaps a technocrat as prime minister. The Social Democrats (PSD) have often said ​they would rejoin a pro-EU coalition ​under a different premier.

Bolojan’s party ⁠has so far ruled out collaborating with the Social Democrats again, though some senior party members have pushed for reconciliation.

There is life after the no-confidence vote,” PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu told reporters. “We want to ​keep broadly this coalition.”

A Romanian Liberal member of the European Parliament, Siegfried Muresan, called the alliance between the ​leftists and AUR ⁠in support of the no-confidence motion “anti-European”.

“The formation of a new government will become their responsibility,” he told Reuters. However, Liberal deputy prime minister Catalin Predoiu said his party “must leave its options open”.

Romania must continue to shrink ​its deficit as well as implement reforms in order to tap some 10 ​billion euros worth of EU recovery and resilience funds before an August cutoff date. The deficit is expected to narrow to 6.2% of economic output this year from ​more than 9% in 2024.

Authored by Aldgra Fredly via The Epoch Times,

Tech billionaire Elon Musk on May 4 agreed to pay $1.5 million to resolve a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit alleging he violated securities laws over the delayed disclosure of his Twitter stake.

A filing dated May 4 states that Musk’s revocable trust will pay a civil penalty of $1.5 million to the commission as part of the settlement, subject to approval by the court.

According to the filing, once the proposed settlement is approved by the court, the SEC will “file a stipulated dismissal of Elon Musk in his personal capacity, which will resolve this case in its entirety.”

The SEC filed the lawsuit in January 2025, alleging that Musk violated federal securities laws by delaying disclosure of his stake in Twitter before his bid to buy the platform in 2022.

The regulator said Musk crossed the 5 percent ownership threshold in March 2022, triggering a 10-day deadline to make the holding public. Musk did not disclose his holdings until April 2022, when he had already acquired a more than 9 percent stake in Twitter, according to the filing.

The SEC said the delay had allowed Musk to buy shares at “artificially low prices” and enabled him to underpay by at least $150 million for his shares after his beneficial ownership report was due.

Musk had previously sought to have the SEC suit dismissed. In August 2025, his lawyers argued that the SEC targeted Musk over his outspoken criticism of the regulator and “government overreach.”

Separately, in March, a federal jury held Musk liable for misleading Twitter shareholders by driving down the social media platform’s stock price months before acquiring it. The decision followed a civil class action lawsuit filed by Twitter investors in October 2022.

Musk agreed to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share in April 2022 but later sought to back out of the deal, prompting the company to take legal action to enforce the deal. He ultimately completed the acquisition in October 2022 and rebranded Twitter as X.

In a verdict on March 20, jurors found Musk liable for misleading investors through two social media posts he shared in 2022. The first post said the deal was “temporarily on hold” pending verification that bots accounted for less than 5 percent of users on the social media platform.

In the second post, Musk suggested that the percentage of bots could exceed 20 percent and said the buyout of Twitter could not ​go forward until he received confirmation that it was less ⁠than 5 percent. Musk’s legal team has said they plan to appeal the verdict.

The fight for control of the Strait of Hormuz flared up Monday and into the overnight hours, with IRGC forces reportedly striking multiple commercial vessels and a UAE oil refinery.

The one positive development: with U.S. forces on heightened alert, two U.S.-flagged merchant ships successfully transited the maritime chokepoint as Project Freedom began, marking the first visible move by the U.S. Navy to unfreeze the world’s most critical energy corridor.

U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, said its aerial assets in the Hormuz area were busy on Monday, with helicopters and other aircraft combating IRGC forces to ensure the safe transit of the two ships.

Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 reported early Tuesday that a U.S. Air Force Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker, a military aerial-refueling aircraft, squawked “7700” after operating in a tight pattern near the Hormuz chokepoint.

“A U.S. Air Force KC-135 is squawking 7700, flying in the direction of Doha,” Flightradar24 wrote on X.

A US Air Force KC-135 is squawking 7700 flying in the direction of Doha. https://t.co/wxldcwLX1g

For more information on ‘Squawking 7700’ please see https://t.co/nW7vZ4JgMF pic.twitter.com/AYffNcZGKt

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) May 5, 2026

Flightradar24 had no additional information on why the KC-135 crew squawked 7700. Some possible reasons include:

• Mechanical failure

• Engine problems

• Fire or smoke

• Medical emergency

• Loss of pressurization

• Fuel emergency

• Other serious onboard problems

Separate but notable, UBS analyst Dominic Ellis provided clients with energy market commentary following the overnight Hormuz chaos:

Brent Down From Intraday Highs, Though Up 7% Relative To Monday’s Low The fragile ceasefire in the Persian Gulf seems to be on the verge of collapse after Iran responded to Project Freedom, the US effort to restart transit through the Strait of Hormuz, by launching attacks on commercial vessels and energy infrastructure in the region.

Brent is down from the intraday high over $114/b but remains close to $113/b, up almost 7% relative to Monday’s low.

The US denies Iranian claims that a US navy vessel was hit, but acknowledges damage to a South Korean cargo vessel. The UAE blamed an Iranian drone attack for a fire in the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone, concerning given the role Fujairah plays in allowing some regional oil exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.

Maersk said on Tuesday that one of its vessels, the US-flagged Alliance Fairfax, was successfully escorted through the Strait of Hormuz by US military assets, part of a US convoy involving at least one other US-flagged merchant vessel according to US Central Command.

It remains to be seen whether this was a one-off or evidence that the Iranian ability to disrupt flows via the Strait has been seriously degraded.

Oil could rapidly retreat below $100/b if it appears that the Iranian stranglehold on the Strait has been weakened, but even intermittent attacks on shipping would keep the geopolitical risk premium elevated and the volume of tanker traffic well below the level required for the oil S/D balance to normalise.

The next few days will be crucial – keep an eye on shipping data in the UBS Hormuz Tracker.

CENTCOM and U.S. officials have not provided any details so far on the KC-135’s emergency or what caused it.

Dell Technologies’ Board of Directors unanimously approved a proposal to move the company’s state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas. This adds to the growing trend of redomiciliation, with companies such as Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, Coinbase, Affirm, TripAdvisor, eXp World Holdings, and others moving from Delaware to business-friendly states.

Shareholders will vote on the redomiciliation at Dell’s upcoming 2026 annual meeting on June 25. “The proposed redomestication would align Dell Technologies’ state of incorporation with its roots and long-standing center of operations,” the company wrote in a press release.

Dell said the move would align its legal home with its corporate origin story: Michael Dell founded the company in Austin in 1984, and today Dell’s headquarters, CEO, and largest concentration of U.S. employees are all based in Texas.

“From my dorm room at the University of Texas in 1984 to our headquarters today in Round Rock, Texas, has given Dell what every great company needs to grow — extraordinary talent, world-class research universities, and a business environment that lets us build for the long term,” said Dell CEO Michael Dell. “Texas is where Dell has innovated, expanded, and invested for more than four decades, and bringing our legal home to Texas reflects what we’ve been building here all along.”

If shareholders approve the move, the company plans to opt into Texas provisions that would require investors to own at least 3% of shares or $1 million of stock, whichever is lower, to submit shareholder proposals.

A separate Texas rule would require shareholders to hold a 3% ownership stake to bring derivative lawsuits against management.

The exodus from Delaware all began when a left-wing Delaware judge challenged Elon Musk over his Tesla compensation package.

Delaware Court of Chancery’s January 2024 decision voiding Musk’s roughly $56 billion 2018 pay package, after a shareholder lawsuit argued Tesla’s board process was flawed and too controlled by Musk.

After that ruling, Musk publicly urged Tesla to reincorporate in Texas and asked shareholders to approve the move.

This is what followed next:

Lefty activism in courts is bad for business. FAFO.