Also: Vaccines for under-5s, Alphabet surge, and PayPal plunge.
Good morning.
Our annual list of the World’s Most Admired Companies is out this morning, and the top three won’t surprise anyone: Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. They’ve led the list for three years straight. Apple has held the top spot for 15 years straight. Kudos to all.
But next up is a pandemic surprise: Pfizer. The company suffered like all the pharma companies from public displeasure over pricing policies before the pandemic. This year, it made it back to the all-star list for the first time in 16 years, jumping all the way to number four. Let’s see if it can hold that. Another deserving new arrival: Danaher. You can see the full list here.
Meanwhile, the other big news yesterday is that Tom Brady is changing careers, from ageless quarterback to early mogul of the NFT world, promising to spend more time with the company he co-founded, @autograph.io. The company raised $170 million last month from venture funders like Andreesen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins for its plans to create and sell digital collectibles from sports icons like Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, Wayne Gretsky, Naomi Osaka, and of course, the GOAT himself. You can read more here.
Other news below. And apologies yesterday for wiping out three zeroes from Volkswagen’s investment plans: it’s $180 billion over the next four years.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
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Vaccines for under-5s
Pfizer and BioNTech have, at the FDA's request, begun the process of requesting FDA emergency use authorization for their COVID vaccines for under-5s. The drug companies are still testing the third dose they see as crucial to a complete course, but in the meantime the agency would like to get the ball rolling with the first two doses. Fortune
Ad surge
Alphabet beat analyst estimates for its Q4 revenue, with a 32% rise fueled by a surge in search advertising. That, and a rare stock split, helped its share price jump 9%. Financial Times
PayPal plunge
PayPal's shares fell more than 17% in after-hours trading, after disappointing Wall Street analysts with both its predictions for the current quarter and earnings per share for the last. Chief executive Dan Schulman claims revenues will pick up later in the year. CNBC
Indian crypto
India's central bank will launch a digital currency in the year starting April 1, and the government plans to tax the income from the transfer of virtual assets at 30%. Darshan Bathija, CEO of crypto exchange Vauld: "Imposing the tax rate makes crypto trading official now and any concern of a ban is off the table." (Bonus read: Turns out Russia holds about an eighth of the global cryptocurrency total.) Fortune
Climate change and the C-suite In a recent Deloitte Global survey of more than 2,000 CxOs across 21 countries, 89% of executives agreed there is a global climate emergency. Deloitte’s 2022 CxO Sustainability Report explores some of the disconnects between ambition, action, and impact, as well as steps CxOs can take to start to bridge the gaps. Read the report
U.S./NATO's offer
Spain's El País got hold of confidential documents sent by the U.S. and NATO to Moscow last week, detailing the West's proposals for deescalating the potential-Ukraine-reinvasion crisis. The U.S. and NATO refused to rule out Ukraine's potential incorporation into NATO one day, but offered disarmament negotiations and other trust-building exercises. El País
Sea heat
Extreme heat has since 2014 become normal in the world's oceans, scientists now reckon. This has a huge impact on marine ecosystems. Researcher Kyle Van Houtan: "Extreme climate change is here, it’s in the ocean, and the ocean underpins all life on Earth." Guardian
NFT fad
UBS, asset manager to the ultra-wealthy, says it sees no institutional demand for NFTs. Chief executive Ralph Hamers: "It seems to be for the moment still a retail thing. We are very careful in that business." Fortune
Sorrell vs WPP
Martin Sorrell still wants to take down WPP, the ad giant he built and that kicked him out after a misconduct probe, with his new baby, S4 Capital. Wall Street Journal
This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.
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