An internal update from Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar on Russia’s unfolding war with Ukraine has left employees at the tech giant unsettled and concerned that the billionaires have failed to strongly condemn Vladimir Putin’s invasion of the east European nation.
The memo, sent to all staff on Sunday and seen by Margin Call, was criticised by some Atlassian staff as being too cautious and soft in its language around Putin’s bloody invasion and silent on the company’s plans concerning its business links into Russia.
“We have contractors based in Ukraine, as well as many teammates either directly impacted or with friends and family impacted, particularly in Ukraine, Poland and EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa),” the usually outspoken Farquhar and Cannon-Brookes wrote in A Founder Update note.
Cannon-Brookes, of course, has in recent days been busy elsewhere – spruiking his and Brookfield’s $5bn bid for AGL.
“We also have Russian employees who are also feeling distressed. The situation is also hard on them,” the co-bosses went on.
“This is a complex geopolitical situation and everyone is trying to process it.
“It’s important we all speak with kindness and lead with heart,” the pair concluded, signing off Scott and Mike (and a sweet blue heart emoji).
Microsoft on Tuesday said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “tragic, unlawful and unjustified” and vowed to continue protecting the country from cyberattacks and state-sponsored disinformation campaigns.
While some Atlassian staff responded to the founders’ note with smiley faces and their own love hearts, others were disappointed with the note from the billionaires, who they demanded voice unequivocal support for Ukraine and ensure the company is not working with the Russian government or state-owned enterprises where Atlassian products may be being used as part of the Russian war capability.
From Ukraine there have also been questions on Atlassian’s developer community chat site.
One Atlassian local small business user called on the company to “block access to your products at the service level for customers from Russia and block technical support for customers from Russia”.
The Ukraine developer also asked the $US78bn ($108bn) company “to revoke existing licences and prohibit the sale of new licences for customers from Russia”.
Margin Call understands that the Atlassian co-CEOs will today send a further, more strongly worded internal note to staff on the unfolding conflict, with actions from the company to also include cancelling access to its products by Russian state-owned enterprises.
We will keep you posted.
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Carnegies keep busy
Family gatherings have been dialled up a notch as ANZ golden girl Maile Carnegie – this week named the $72bn bank’s new head of retail – edges ever closer to the top office.
While bank CEO Shayne Elliott looks to be sticking around at least a bit longer, it’s Carnegie who is being touted as a potential replacement, along with institutional boss Mark Whelan.
Carnegie’s husband is executive consultant and investor Charles Carnegie. His brothers are venture capitalist Mark Carnegie and the lower-profile James Carnegie, who runs the Australian arm of international investment giant Blackstone.
That’s the same Blackstone that is bidding $8.9bn for the James Packer-backed Crown Resorts, which Crown’s board, chaired by Ziggy Switkowski, has recommended shareholders accept.
You’d think ANZ retail chief Carnegie would have plenty to swap notes about at family get-togethers when it comes to Crown, with her Melbourne-based big four bank a key player in evidence heard at various inquiries into the casino’s affairs, in particular around potential money laundering at the gaming giant.
Crown moved to Matt Comyn’s Commonwealth Bank after ANZ shut down key accounts held by the gaming giant over concerns about money laundering at the casino.
But ANZ remains connected to the under-takeover group, at the very least as the provider of an overdraft facility which, along with other less public financial ties, may soon be in the commanding hands of ANZ Carnegie’s brother-in-law James.
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Crown break fee
Still on Crown Resorts, its bevy of lawyers are now pawing over reams of paper relating to the just filed civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court by Austrac against the casino giant for alleged serious and systemic breaches of Australia’s anti-money-laundering laws.
The potential scale of fines to Crown, which has co-operated fully with Austrac’s long investigation, is now a real and big concern to the market, with Crown shares closing on Wednesday at $12.38 compared with Blackstone’s $13.10-a-share deal for the Steve McCann-led gaming empire.
Previous court actions by Austrac boss Nicole Rose – who is arguably Australia’s most effective regulator – have seen civil penalties of $45m (ordered in 2017 against Tabcorp); $700m (ordered in 2018 against CBA); and $1.3bn (ordered in 2020 against Westpac).
A big penalty against Crown for its alleged 550 breaches that tops the $750m threshold to trigger a material adverse change clause in Blackstone’s deal doesn’t just have the potential to scuttle the takeover.
It also has the potential to trigger the deal’s $89m break fee that Crown has negotiated with Blackstone, which would come straight off Crown’s bottom line – along with the Austrac penalty and other costs of negotiating the deal, such as advisory fees to UBS and Gresham.
Crown has already negotiated a grab bag of conditions and waivers with its lenders relating to breaches of lending covenants to allow its accounts to be prepared on a going concern basis.
A dead takeover, a big Austrac fine and the potential for more than $100m in failed deal costs would make a potent cocktail for Crown’s accountants to mix and auditors to sign off on.
On the bright side, at least the budget’s consolidated revenue looks like getting a decent one-off boost.
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