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The pop star reportedly caused a "chaotic" and "kind of sad" scene at the Blue Dog Tavern in Sherman Oaks, California, Wednesday night.

It's been 20 years since the Newlyweds stars finalized their divorce.

Cisco Surges Most Since Dot-Com On Raised Outlook, AI-Focused Job Cuts

Cisco Systems shares posted their biggest gain since the Dot-Com boom-and-bust era after the networking giant delivered third-quarter results that beat analysts' estimates. The company also announced a workforce restructuring, aligning with a broader hyperscaler playbook that cuts labor costs and redirects capital toward AI infrastructure and data-center buildouts.

Cisco raised its fiscal 2026 outlook, guiding for $62.8 billion to $63 billion in revenue and $4.27 to $4.29 in adjusted EPS, while also issuing a stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter sales forecast.

The catalyst that sent shares into a parabolic move early in the U.S. cash session was demand for AI. Cisco boosted its expected fiscal 2026 hyperscaler AI orders to $9 billion from $5 billion, signaling stronger traction in supplying the networking infrastructure needed for data center buildouts. Shares surged more than 16%, marking their best day since May 2002.

Stock is at a record high.

UBS analyst Simon Penn summed up third-quarter results and guidance:

They reported EPS and revenue beat and Q4 guided EPS and revenue was upgraded.

Q3 EPS was $1.06 versus forecasts of $1.04 and Q3 revenue was $15.8 bn versus forecasts of $15.5 bn.

Looking forward, they increased Q4 EPS guidance to $1.16-1.18, above forecasts of $1.07. Q4 revenue guidance also beat, at $16.7-$16.9bn versus estimations of $15.82.

Cisco reported FY2026 orders from hyperscalers $9 bn, up from prior $5 bn.

CEO Chuck Robbins wrote in a blog, "The companies that will win in the AI era will be those with focus, urgency, and the discipline to continuously shift investment toward the areas where demand and long-term value creation are strongest."

"While we are reducing roles in some areas, we are making clear, strategic investments," Robbins added. That includes spending on chips, fiber optics, security, and the use of AI by its own employees, he noted.

Robbins said the company will undergo a workforce restructuring and shed fewer than 4,000 jobs, or less than 5% of the total employee base. This restructuring comes as it pivots toward data center buildouts.

Here's analyst commentary from Goldman's Nelson Armbrust:

Cisco Earnings Validate Networking is an AI Bottleneck

Drivers of the Earnings Beat : Cisco +15% pre mkt, the primary catalyst was a massive acceleration in AI infrastructure orders, which reached $1.9 billion in the quarter alone. Year-to-date AI orders hit $5.3 billion, prompting management to nearly double its full-year AI order guidance from $5 billion to $9 billion. Beyond AI, the beat was supported by a 50% year-over-year surge in networking product orders and a multi-billion-dollar campus networking refresh cycle. Additionally, Cisco announced a strategic restructuring to cut approximately 4,000 jobs (5% of its workforce) to reallocate capital toward high-growth areas like silicon, optics, and AI.

Broader Market and AI Infrastructure Implications

• Validation of Hyperscaler Capex: Cisco's results provide a "clean" data point confirming that AI spending by hyperscalers (Meta, Microsoft, Google) is not just sustained but accelerating. This reduces fears of an imminent "AI air pocket" in capital expenditures.

• Networking as the New AI Bottleneck: The shift in demand toward Cisco's Silicon One and Acacia optics suggests that the market is moving from a "compute-first" phase (Nvidia GPUs) to a "connectivity-first" phase, where high-speed networking is critical to prevent data bottlenecks in massive AI clusters.

Goldman's Delta One desk noted:

Cisco delivered strong guidance while continuing to cut heads… effectively reinforcing the "AI replacing labor while driving infrastructure demand" story.

Across the major hyperscalers, white-collar workers remain on edge as layoffs accelerate - from Meta's plan to cut roughly 10% of its workforce to Oracle's elimination of thousands. The pattern of behavior among hyperscalers is capital reallocation by slashing labor costs to free up more spending for AI infrastructure, with capex estimates approaching $700 billion this year. That AI-driven 

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/14/2026 - 10:15

Oliver Stark looks back at some of Buck's most memorable Season 9 moments.

The rapper's new book, "Renaissance of a Boss," is out now.

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US Govt Settles With Former NYT Reporter In Biden/Twitter Censorship Case

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

The U.S. government has reached a settlement with a former New York Times reporter who was kicked off Twitter during the COVID-19 pandemic for posts about vaccines.

Officials in a settlement agreement dated May 11 and obtained by The Epoch Times said that the government “did in fact violate the First Amendment by exerting substantial coercive pressure on social media companies such as Twitter to suppress disfavored speech like Plaintiff’s,” referring to former New York reporter Alex Berenson.

Officials said they were paying Berenson $150,000 to settle the case, which was filed in 2023 against then-President Joe Biden, Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb, and others. In exchange, Berenson moved to dismiss the case.

“I'd like to thank the Trump administration for acknowledging the government’s unconstitutional actions against me in 2021 and standing for my First Amendment rights as a journalist and American,” Berenson told The Epoch Times in an email.

The government under President Donald Trump already settled a case raising similar issues and involving multiple states, agreeing not to take actions “to threaten Social-Media Companies with some form of punishment (i.e., an adverse legal, regulatory, or economic government sanction) unless they remove, delete, suppress, or reduce, including through altering their algorithms, posted social-media content containing protected free speech.”

Twitter banned Berenson in 2021 after he wrote in opposition to mandating COVID-19 vaccination because “it doesn’t stop infection or transmission.”

Berenson and Twitter settled a different lawsuit arising from the same incidents, with Twitter acknowledging that it should not have banned the journalist.

Emails disclosed in other litigation showed that U.S. officials during the Biden administration, as well as Gottlieb, who is also a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, communicated to Twitter executives their view that Berenson’s posts violated Twitter rules and that he should be punished.

Berenson said in his lawsuit that the actions violated his First Amendment rights.

A federal judge in 2025 dismissed the suit against Gottlieb, a former White House adviser named Andrew Slavitt, and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, concluding that Berenson had not alleged “discriminatory animus” by the individuals. She later threw out the litigation against the government, finding that Berenson did not have standing to bring a First Amendment claim against federal officials.

Berenson, in an appeal, said that Twitter’s permanent suspension violated company policy, which required leadership approval, noting internal emails that showed top Twitter executives did not approve the ban.

He also said the case should not have been dismissed because he had adequately alleged discrimination.

“Defendants targeted Berenson’s speech by reason of his status as a representative speaking for and to unvaccinated Americans,” the appeal stated.

Berenson told The Epoch Times, “I look forward to continuing to pursue Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb and chairman Dr. Albert Bourla for their role in the conspiracy to deplatform and silence me.”

Lawyers for Gottlieb and Bourla said in a May 11 brief to the appeals court that Berenson’s claims fail in part because unvaccinated Americans do not constitute a recognizable class, undercutting the discrimination allegations. They also said Gottlieb’s communications with Twitter were “noncoercive expressions of opinion on matters of public concern,” and thus protected by the First Amendment.

Tyler Durden Thu, 05/14/2026 - 09:30