Billionaire Michael Milken had earlier said that if a company appoints an Indian-origin CEO in place of an American CEO, he buys its stock.
Indian-origin tech leader Deddy (Debarghya Das) shares what billionaire Michael Milken said about Indian-origin CEOs replacing US-born CEOs in American companies and presents the results, sparking a huge social media debate. Milken had earlier said that if an American company replaced an American-born CEO with an Indian-born CEO, he would buy the stock. Das said he supported the idea. “Over the last 15 years, this would have grown your money 50x: 7.5x more $$ and >2x IRR vs. S&P500: 30% vs. 14%!” Das concluded.As the findings sparked debate over Indian-origin leadership of tech companies, Das said it was just a correlation he observed and did not establish that stocks rose because of Indian-origin leaders.Reactions to the post were mixed as many claimed it was just a coincidence and that one should also look at companies founded by Indian-origin tech leaders.One wrote, “The Indian-born/immigrant executives who run major American companies are usually the ones who had to overcome awkward hurdles at every level, from school, to jobs, to immigration, to promotion. The insight is very simple: If America lets the best people in from everywhere come, American companies win.”Another wrote, “The first thing they start doing is cutting American jobs and offshoring or automating them. Good for the company but this has been going on for 50 years. How long will this be allowed to happen before businesses realize that when Americans don’t have money, they don’t buy anything.”A third user wrote, “The stock price did not rise through innovation but because they did massive layoffs, outsourcing and salary cuts. It’s been 2 decades now. All those companies have been producing waste and dying because of their inefficiency.”Another wrote, “Now the companies are started by Indians. Not companies whose monopoly has been created by the previous CEO. Monkeys could have run the companies mentioned when they reached the size after the CEO took over.”