Insider Today: Nike’s airball

Welcome back to our Sunday edition. This is Matt Turner, back in your inbox after a fulfilling and exhausting period of parental leave.

What a week to return to work: I started back just in time for a big RTO announcement from Amazon, a new crypto venture from former President Donald Trump, a jumbo rate cut from the Fed, a major shakeup at Nike, and a new iPhone launch. There’s now just 43 days until the US election.

You can keep up to date with all the latest business news (and get your Dan DeFrancesco fix) in our weekday edition, or check out our homepage or download our app.

I’ll be here on the weekend to break down some of the biggest stories in business and help you get ahead.

On the agenda today:

• Meet the enigmatic manager who oversees Larry Page’s Google fortune.
• Amazon just dropped the hammer on remote work.
• The Alexander brothers acted like they could “do whatever they wanted.”
• Welcome to a new era of work: The portfolio career.

But first: How Nike lost its footing.

This week’s dispatch

Nike’s airball

It’s been a rough few years for the home of the Swoosh.

The sports giant has seen declining sales, cost cutting, and a stock price that’s down sharply from its 2021 highs. Attempts to go direct to consumers rather than via retailers showed mixed results, while it’s faced more competition in China.

Arguably worse than that, Nike lost its role as chief purveyor of cool. Asics, New Balance, Hoka, On, and others have stolen a stride in the sneaker business. And Nike’s efforts to expand its lifestyle business have missed the mark.

Now it’s hoping a new CEO can help get it back on track. The Oregon-based company last week announced Elliott Hill would return to the company as CEO, replacing John Donahue. One analyst said his appointment would drive an “immediate morale boost.”

Nike’s stock price popped on the news. Investors are hoping for a change in form.

Larry Page’s money man

Wayne Osborne has guarded the Google founder’s fortune since 2012. For years, Osborne has kept his employer shrouded in secrecy. “Wayne operates in the shadows,” as one industry peer put it.

Now, he’s stepping out. Osborne is seeking to promote his new company, Way2B1, whose software can put his trade secrets to work for other investors.

There’s just one catch: How does he maintain Page’s privacy while hawking the secrets to his success?

RIP, remote work

Amazon officially put the kibosh on remote work, announcing that all corporate workers must return to the office five days a week starting in January. In a memo, CEO Andy Jassy said the company was returning to how “we were before the onset of COVID.”

An internal “Frequently Asked Questions” document, obtained by B-17, outlined how the RTO plan will work. According to the brief, Amazon also ended a policy that gave employees the option to work up to four weeks per year fully remote.

See all the details from the internal doc.

Also read:

• Amazon employees blast new RTO policy in internal messages: ‘Can I negotiate my manager to PIP me?’
• Amazon’s strict new RTO rule creates an awkward situation for One Medical
• I work at Amazon, and I plan on ‘coffee badging’ instead of working from the office 5 days a week

The Alexander brothers’ reign of terror

The brothers were rich. They were powerful. They were handsome. They were not so secretly terrorizing women.

In the past three months, more than a dozen women have said they were raped or assaulted by Oren, Alon, and Tal Alexander, whose family made a fortune in real estate and private security. Concerns about their behavior stretch back decades — and yet they got away with decades of alleged abuse.

“They are a menace.”

A new way to work

Overemployment and side gigs are nothing new. But as demand for full-time workers slows, more and more people could be looking for a change. Enter: the portfolio career.

The term refers to holding down a collection of gigs, whether or not you keep a 9-to-5 job. Diversifying your income stream can help protect you from the whims of the job market, and can offer more flexibility — but it does have some downsides.

How to make a portfolio career work.

Also read:

• Why finding a job is so awful right now
• Gen Z college grads are bearing the brunt of today’s tricky job market

This week’s quote:

“But you can’t. That’s not available to you.”

— Mark Zuckerberg, after his daughter said she wanted to be like Taylor Swift when she grows up.

More of this week’s top reads:

• Inside Amazon’s new AI-sales machine: More pressure, more pay, more speed.
• Introducing the hottest new dating app: Instagram?
• How stretch limos went from cool to Craigslist junk.
• Silicon Valley is giving 2021 vibes, with AI startups raising back-to-back funding rounds.
• OpenAI and Anthropic AI bots wreak havoc and raise costs for websites.
• Trump’s crypto allies boast lavish lifestyles amid a trail of debts.
• The illegal maneuvers the rich use to get richer.
• Go behind the scenes with the reporter who uncovered the RFK Jr./Olivia Nuzzi story.