Tropical Storm Hector Public Advisory

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…HECTOR FORECAST TO WEAKEN SOON AS IT HEADS WESTWARD…
As of 5:00 AM HST Wed Aug 28
the center of Hector was located near 18.3, -132.9
with movement W at 10 mph.
The minimum central pressure was 1002 mb
with maximum sustained winds of about 50 mph.

Super Micro Shares Plunge 15% After Company Delays 10-K, One Day After Hindenburg Alleges Accounting Manipulation

Super Micro Shares Plunge 15% After Company Delays 10-K, One Day After Hindenburg Alleges Accounting Manipulation

Shares of Super Micro Computer are down over 15% heading into the cash open after the server company said it would be delaying its 10-K filing for FY 2024. The delay comes one day after short seller Hindenburg Research alleged “fresh evidence” of accounting manipulation at the company. 

“Additional time is needed for SMCI’s management to complete its assessment of the design and operating effectiveness of its internal controls over financial reporting as of June 30, 2024,” a filing from the company read. 

Yesterday shares plunged as much as 8% but finished the session only down 2%. Will they repeat the BTFD trend today…

In a report released on its website Tuesday morning, the short seller alleged that the semiconductor/server company, which has seen its stock skyrocket over the last few years during the AI bubble, could be engaged in accounting manipulation and self dealing among family members.

Among other points, Hindenburg wrote:

  • Our 3-month investigation, which included interviews with former senior employees and industry experts as well as a review of litigation records, international corporate and customs records, found glaring accounting red flags, evidence of undisclosed related party transactions, sanctions and export control failures, and customer issues.

  • Less than 3 months after paying a $17.5 million SEC settlement, Super Micro began re-hiring top executives that were directly involved in the accounting scandal, per litigation records and interviews with former employees.

  • A former salesperson told us: “Almost all of them are back. Almost all of the people that were let go that were the cause of this malfeasance.”

  • According to a lawsuit filed in April 2024, Super Micro waited only 3 months after the SEC settlement before restarting “improper revenue recognition,” “recognizing incomplete sales,” and “circumvention of internal accounting controls”.

  • Even after the SEC settlement, pressure to meet quotas pushed salespeople to stuff the channel with distributors using “partial shipments” or by shipping defective products around quarter-end, per our interviews with former employees and customers.

  • One former salesperson described pushing products to distributors based on made-up demand forecasts, completing a partial shipment, then later coming up with an excuse for why the rest didn’t happen. “And now you have a problem. Accounting problem maybe.”

“Beyond fresh questions around its revenue accounting, we found that Super Micro’s relationships with both disclosed and undisclosed related parties serve as fertile ground for dubious accounting,” the report says.

“For example, disclosed related party suppliers Ablecom and Compuware, controlled by Super Micro CEO Charles Liang’s brothers, have been paid $983 million in the last 3 years. Ablecom is also partly owned by Super Micro CEO Charles Liang and his wife.”

It continues: “The relationships seem oddly circular. Super Micro provides components to the entities which assemble them and sell them back to Super Micro. They also rent warehousing and factory space to Super Micro even though it has its own sprawling factory.”

“Multiple former employees and channel partners confirmed that after-sales service is undermining Super Micro’s ability to retain customers. One former salesperson said: ‘It’s their Achilles heel. It’s just horrible.’,” Hindenburg wrote.

“All told, we believe Super Micro is a serial recidivist. It benefitted as an early mover but still faces significant accounting, governance and compliance issues and offers an inferior product and service now being eroded away by more credible competition,” the report says.

You can read the full report here. 

Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/28/2024 – 09:35

Censorship

Covid censorship was wrong and I wish I’d fought it, Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook founder claims White House ‘repeatedly pressured’ his social media giant to censor posts

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/27/covid-censorship-was-wrong-i-wish-id-fought-it-zuckerberg/

Headline from BBC

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czxlpjlgdzjo

Zuckerberg regrets bowing to Biden 'pressure' over Covid

Headline from Politico

Zuckerberg says he regrets caving to White House pressure on content

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/26/zuckerberg-meta-white-house-pressure-00176399

Headline from Washington Post

Zuckerberg expresses regrets over covid misinformation crackdown

Link to the letter

https://x.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1828201780544504064

Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook and Instagram were wrong to censor posts about Covid during the pandemic,

and that the company should have fought pressure from the Biden administration.

During the pandemic

Facebook added misinformation alerts

It also deleted posts criticising the Covid vaccine, or Lab leak thinking

House Judiciary Committee

Mr Zuckerberg’s admissions a “big win for free speech”.

How Zuckerberg censored Covid on Facebook

Social media giant regularly bowed to White House pressure to remove anti-vaccine posts

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/27/how-zuckerberg-censored-covid-on-facebook/

In Britain and America, government departments,

had privately put pressure on Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/01/09/white-house-pressured-facebook-censor-sceptical-covid-vaccine/

to limit the spread of anti-vaccine posts or messages questioning Covid’s origins.

July 2021, Mr. Biden

“They’re killing people,”

“The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they’re killing people.”

Sir Nick Clegg

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/11/08/zuckerberg-ignored-nick-clegg-online-safety-concerns-meta/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/27/how-zuckerberg-censored-covid-on-facebook/

“The behaviour of the [White House] over the last 24 hours has been highly cynical and dishonest.”

Sir Nick refused to take down a meme featuring Leonardo DiCaprio joking that in 10 years those who had taken the vaccine could be entitled to compensation.

August 2020

Facebook removes Donald Trump post in which he claims that children are “almost immune” to illness from Covid-19

February 2021

Robert F Kennedy Jr's Instagram account is removed for “sharing debunked claims” about Covid

April 2021

Under pressure from White House, Facebook demotes video in which Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson questioned the effectiveness of Covid vaccines despite the post not breaking rules

Matt Hancock
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/lockdown-files/
sent Sir Nick a WhatsApp:

“Your team have been working really well with the department and the advertising ban is great – but we need to have a timeframe for removal of anti-vax material and how to demonetise.”

UK

The Counter-Disinformation Unit

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/08/07/secretive-government-agency-brought-monitor-riots/

A secretive government agency used to “spy on” anti-lockdown campaigners during the Covid pandemic

The Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU)

Set up in March 2020 to combat “false coronavirus information online”

now named,

National Security Online Information Team (NSOIT)
Big Brother Watch

https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk

Described the Counter Disinformation Unit

“one of the most opaque units in Government outside the security services” and accused it of “spying on” free speech.

On PDF

https://files.libcom.org/files/1984.pdf

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

But actually, he thought as he re-adjusted the Ministry of Plenty’s figures, it was not even forgery. It was merely the substitution of one piece of nonsense for another.

NewsWare’s Trade Talk: Wednesday, August 28 | NewsWare‘s Trade Talk

S&P Futures are slightly higher this morning as the markets await earnings results from NVDA due out after the bell. BOX, JWN & S are higher after earning releases last night. After the bell today, CRM, CRWD, HPW, VEEV, PSTG & FIVE are scheduled to report. The economic calendar is light today, Bostic of the Atlanta Fed is speaking after the close. In Europe, markets mostly higher and oil continues to weaken.