Did CNBC finally cut formal ties with Kevin O'Leary?

As ubiquitous as he is for a Septuagenarian, it seems as though things have finally gone dark at CNBC for our man Terence Kevin O’Leary. It’s been over a year since we checked-in on his status at America’s premiere business news network (see prior post Kevin O'Leary is down, but not out, at CNBC Nov 13-23), and our worst fears appear to have been confirmed.

At some point circa 2023, it looked as though our man KO had been dropped to the bottom of its otherwise alphabetical list of 81 different “CNBC Contributors.” As you can see for yourself, O’Leary now seems to have fallen off the list altogether. What gives?

If this apparent formal severing of ties has finally come to pass, credit likely goes to CNBC Tech correspondent Deirdre Bosa (a McGill U grad!) and the three CNBC Squawk Box anchors (Joe Kernen, Becky Quick & Andrew Ross Sorkin) for realizing during O’Leary’s extended FTX meltdown (see prior post “America discovers the mirage that is Kevin O'Leary's investment prowess” Apr 2-23) what we’ve been warning retail investors of for more than 16 years (see representative prior posts “O'Leary "Global" Equity fund loads up on old Canadian favourites” Feb 13-09, O'Leary: "We have never dipped into the principal" June 7-11 and “24 of 25 O'Leary Funds lost money in 2011” May 27-12): KO has many talents, but there’s no evidence that public market investing is on that list.

That’s not to say that KO doesn’t have allies at the network.

In March, CNBC Asia couldn’t resist having O’Leary on to discuss his audacious (Editor’s note: Ludicrous, no?) US$20-30 billion putative bid for TikTok. For me, the highlight of that interview was O’Leary’s on-air concern that “I have to build a new algorithm.” Impressive skills to have picked up as a University of Waterloo Environmental Studies grad. You can’t make this stuff up, as the late John Honderich loved to howl.

More recently, Anchor Brian Sullivan invited KO on his supper hour business show “Last Call” on June 28th, only to have CNBC cancel Sullivan’s program outright less than three weeks later. Surely there’s no connection!? That said, as I think about it, O’Leary’s former CBC co-host Amanda Lang did tell the Globe and Mail that her audience numbers went up when he finally left her side in 2014 for a stint at CTV.

Poor guy — everyone’s a critic.

Fortunately, KO has found a new home at Fox Business, his fifth network in a just over a decade’s time. As they say, you can’t keep a good man down!

MRM

(this post, like all blogs, is an Opinion Piece reflecting a personal view)