Tough Week For These Four Tech Titans

The Forrest Four-Cast: November 16, 2016

More than a week after November 8, half of the US electorate continues to process their shock and grief with regards to the unexpected Trump victory. As for the tech industry, stocks of several longtime stalwarts have fallen in anticipation of an administration that won’t embrace the same geek-friendly approach of President Obama. The post-election experience has been particularly unpleasant for these four industry leaders:

1. Nate Silver. During the campaign, Mr. 538 offered plenty of disclaimers about the accuracy of his predictions. However, like so many aspects related to the November 8 debacle, few people listened to Silver’s words of caution. The resulting feelings of betrayal won’t kill his brand. But, he will likely never re-gain the same level of god-like trust he enjoyed after Decision Day 2012.
2. Mark Zuckerberg. His non-committal answers about how his company will potentially address fake news stories in the future have done little to quiet his many critics. More recent stories about how the Trump campaign poured so much money into FB advertising campaigns have increased user frustrations that this social network bears some level of responsibility for last week’s outcome.
3. Jack Dorsey. Sure, Wall Street liked hearing about a large round of layoffs at Twitter shortly before the election. But Red State users can’t be too happy to hear this week’s analysis from Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff: “Without Twitter, you wouldn’t have President-elect Trump.” Damning soundbites like this one don’t help the company’s ongoing problem with attracting new users.
4. Arthur Gregg Sulzberger. The newly anointed Deputy Publisher of the New York Times made his mark at the newspaper by creating the “2020 Report,” a blueprint for reconfiguring the company for a digital and mobile future. Who anticipated that in his first three weeks of taking this position, his digital media empire would face the full social media furry of the incoming leader of the free world?