WATCH: Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary BLASTS Target Amid Boycott - 'Market Has Proven Itself To Really, Really Punish You'

Kevin O'Leary of O'Leary Ventures, a Canadian investor known for his appearances on Shark Tank, broke the bad news to Target and other 'woke' corporations in a Monday interview with Fox News' Jesse Watters. He explained that corporate boards of directors hold a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders and are now closely examining how the retail giant managed to pridefully virtue signal its way into a near $15 billion stock market bloodbath.

In the wake of a torrent of social media backlash from consumers angry that the chain was leveraging pride month marketing toward children, the company's market value toppled, and O'Leary offered his after-action assessment of Target's "unprecedented" and precipitous plunge.

"On one hand, companies want to show their support of diversity in all the mandates that society is discussing openly," he told Watters on his primetime show.
 

"On the other hand, the job of a business -- particularly from the perspective of an investor -- and those that are retired, for example, that own the S&P 500 or own Target stock – are concerned that maybe they're losing their way in terms of what the prime objective is: your customers, your employees, and your shareholders."

The venture capitalist emphasized, "If you start to get too distant or too far away from the primary mandate, the market has proven itself to really, really punish you. And it's woken up all kinds of boards."

 

According to Fox News, the situation at Target was made far worse when reports revealed that a corporate treasurer "funded an entity seeking to cede United States territory including Mount Rushmore, over claims it is a symbol of White supremacy, and sought to demilitarize the armed forces due to concerns of its 'violen[ce]'"

O'Leary observed that though a lot of the anger toward Target was amplified by social media, corporate boards frequently don't take into account its power.

"When you can't control the message anymore through social media, which is clearly obvious, you better figure out what message you're putting out before it ever gets out there," he said, adding, "We almost need a new committee on boards. We have committees for risk… compensation -- We've got compliance committees. We need a communications/media committee to advise the rest of the board who don't even have Twitter accounts or don't have Facebook or don't use LinkedIn."

O'Leary explained these boards often don't understand the "risks inherent" with the age of instant communications, pointing to Anheuser-Busch which dealt itself mortal damage through a partnership with transgender creator Dylan Mulvaney within a mere "32 hours."

"I don't think you're going to find a lot of people saying, 'Oh, let's not have diversity officers'. I think that boat sailed. But what they do with their budgets now really matters and the risks they're putting the company into because of the power of uncontrolled social media is obviously measurable," he said.

 O'Leary concluded, "When you lose $11 billion of market cap, there're a lot of unhappy cowboys out there. They're called your investors."

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