New York Post - USA (2020-12-03)

New York Post, Thursday, December 3, 2020

nypost.com

TV breaks are the new coffee

breaks as more Americans are

working from home, a new Nielsen

market-research survey shows.

The amount of time professionals

spent in front of their TVs during

the weekday hours of 9 a.m. to

4 p.m. jumped by 21 percent on av-

erage, or 26 minutes a day, in Octo-

ber compared to last year, thanks to

the pandemic-fueled boom in

remote work, Nielsen found.

That means onetime office work-

ers have their sets on for two hours

and 10 minutes longer during the

typical workweek than they did a

year ago, the survey released Tues-

day says. That includes time spent

watching live and delayed TV

shows, streaming videos and play-

ing video game consoles.

“After living in a pandemic for

nine months, daytime has become a

second primetime for total TV con-

sumption among many former of-

fice professionals and managers,”

Nielsen’s study reported.

The firm said its research has also

shown that TV has become a “work

companion” for many consumers —

65 percent of those surveyed earlier

this year said they watched shows

or streamed video during breaks,

and about half said they kept their

screens on while actively working.

In contrast, non-professional

workers and unemployed people

have largely decreased their day-

time TV use despite the uptick

among professionals, who typically

live in higher-earning households,

Nielsen reported.

Kids also ramped up their day-

time viewing as many attended

school remotely during the pan-

demic, according to Nielsen.

Total TV usage between 9 a.m.

and 4 p.m. jumped 41 percent

among 12-to-17-year-olds and 56

percent among 6-to-11-year-olds in

October, the survey found.

Noah Manskar

By ThorNToN McENEry

It has been six weeks since

Goldman Sachs clawed back

millions of dollars from top

executives over the com-

pany’s involvement in the

Malaysian corruption scan-

dal — but one high-profile

holdout remains.

Former Goldman president

and operating chief Gary

Cohn — who left the firm in

2017 to join the White House

for a stint as Trump’s top eco-

nomic adviser — still stub-

bornly refuses to say whether

he’ll pay back his share of the

$174 million his old firm is

collecting from current and

former leadership who prof-

ited from the megabank’s Ma-

laysian misadventure.

Executives who are ponying

up include Chief Executive

David Solomon and his prede-

cessor Lloyd Blankfein. But

Cohn, 60 — who pocketed

more than $100 million in cash

and stock awards when he left

the firm — is playing coy as

Goldman is looking to claw

back an estimated $10 million,

sources told The Post.

A spokeswoman for Cohn

on Wednesday declined to

comment. In an interview

with Bloomberg this week,

Cohn would only say that he

is “having very constructive

conversations with Goldman

Sachs on that.”

Cohn’s nine-digit payout in

early 2017 was made to cut

ties between Goldman’s per-

formance and Cohn’s per-

sonal wealth, avoiding any

possible conflict of interest

during what turned out to be

a 15-month government gig.

It also severed a financial

connection with the bank

that still exists between the

other former execs in the

wake of Goldman’s $2.9 bil-

lion 1MDB settlement.

Having risen in the ranks

over a decade to become the

No. 2 exec at the megabank,

Cohn was at his most power-

ful in late 2015 and early 2016

when Blankfein was being

treated for lymphoma. That

was also when Goldman’s role

in the 1MDB scandal — in

which fraudsters siphoned

away billions of dollars that

were meant to develop Ma-

laysia’s economy — first

started being probed by anti-

corruption officials in Malay-

sia and US law enforcement.

Cohn has not been person-

ally been accused of any

wrongdoing in the scandal.

Cohn’s dithering has con-

founded Wall Street and Gold-

man insiders who assumed he

would want to put the mess

behind him as he charts a new

career chapter. He recently

launched a $600 million

“blank-check” special-purpose

acquisition company (SPAC)

with investor Cliff Robbins.

“What is he doing?” asked

one Wall Street insider famil-

iar with Cohn.

“He doesn’t want to talk

about this, clearly, so why is

he talking to Bloomberg and

expecting no one to ask him

about it? If he just cuts a deal

for a few million, this will all

be over for everybody.”

Solomon, Chief Operating

Officer John Waldron, and

Chief Financial Officer Ste-

phen Scherr have all agreed to

take a pay cut for 2020 that

will return $31 million to the

bank’s coffers. Goldman is also

planning to claw back a com-

bined $67 million from Blank-

fein, retired CFO David Viniar

and Cohn. Blankfein and Vin-

iar have paid back their share.

Goldman declined to com-

ment but a source close to the

bank said Cohn’s reluctance

to pay has left Goldman’s de-

cision-makers feeling “disap-

pointed and confused.”

“He must be delusional,” an

ex-Goldman insider said of

Cohn. “Maybe he thinks he can

cut a better deal if he lets this

go on, but I would think he’d be

looking to focus on his SPAC.”

‘Remote’ workers in daytime TV binge

Post photo illustration

Keepin’ it up

US stocks on Wednes-

day registered a record

high for a second con-

secutive day amid re-

newed optimism over

US stimulus talks and a

rebound in crude oil.

The S&P 500 edged up

0.2 percent, closing at

an all-time high of

3,669.01. The Dow

climbed 0.2 percent to

29,883.79, while the Nas-

daq was little changed

at 12,349.37.

‘Flake ache

Snowflake, the War-

ren Buffett-backed data-

warehouse firm, re-

ported a bigger third-

quarter loss in its first

quarterly results after a

blockbuster market de-

but in September. Net

losses widened to $168.9

million from $88.1 mil-

lion a year earlier.

Shares fell more than

5 percent after the bell.

Apple ‘charge’

Apple is facing law-

suits throughout the EU,

seeking about $217 mil-

lion, over complaints

that claims about the

battery life of older

iPhones are misleading.

Lyft lowdown

Lyft lowered its outlook

for Q4 growth after de-

mand for rides plunged

50 percent in November

due to COVID.

Tik, tik, tik...

TikToks may soon be

getting a little longer.

The app, famous for its

short, funny clips, is ex-

perimenting with allow-

ing users to post videos

as long as 3 minutes.

Sources: AP, Dow

Jones and Reuters

Business

Briefs

Follow us on

@NYPOSTBIZ

New York Post, Thursday, October 29, 2020

nypost.com

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Post photo composite: Alamy; Getty images

Silence is Goldman

David Solomon (left) and Lloyd Blankfein (center)

are paying up over the 1MDB scandal, but Gary

Cohn, who left to work for President Trump, so far

isn’t saying what he’ll do with his barrel of bucks.

Cohn sTill Cling$

Gary keeps resisting scandal clawback

Business

As The Post reported in October, Goldman Sachs bigs David Solomon and

Lloyd Blankfein are paying for 1MDB scandal, but not ex-chief Gary Cohn.

$pinning his wheels

Dow

Jones

Indust.

Avg.

Up

59.87

29,883.79

Nasdaq

Comp.

Down

5.74

12,349.37