Episode 132: Oracle Flies and Ellison the World's Richest Person (Briefly), Amex Devalues, Adir's Booking Fail, ANZ's Cashback Retreat and Adam's Bike Stolen

The guys discuss Oracle's Ascent and Larry Ellison overtaking Elon, Amex crushes frequent flier junkies (again), Adir's torrid Booking.com experience, ANZ closes Cashrewards and Adam the victim.

The Contrarians catchup

• Adir comes out of the gates with some wise advice: “Don’t plant potatoes. Once you plant them, then eventually your neighbours will have potatoes. They’ll spread across the neighbourhood.”

• Adam encourages Adir to disparage Luxury Escapes’ competitors after Adir had a poor experience booking a flight through Booking.com, the world’s largest online travel booking platform with over 3.4M properties.

• Adam locked his $1500 bike outside the Luxury Escapes office in South Melbourne and had it stolen in broad daylight, opening a discussion about the aptitude of the Victorian government.

• Adir is fascinated with a change to Google Translate that has introduced games to help you learn a new language, perhaps showing signs of competing with Duolingo.

• Adam on the new iPhone 17 release: “My view on Apple is they’re post-growth. These guys are finished as a company, it’s just a question of how long they last for.”

• Oyo, founded by billionaire Ritesh Agarwal, acquired Australian short-term rental platform MadeComfy for over $50M. Founders Sabrina and Quirin Schwaighofer remain co-CEOs, expanding Oyo into Australia and New Zealand.

Amex membership rewards devaluation

American Express will devalue its Australian Membership Rewards point‐transfer rates from 15 December 2025, making your next month-long European trip less fruitful.

Several airline partners will see worse exchange rates (e.g. British Airways, Cathay, Emirates, etc.), Thai Airways will be dropped entirely. Everyday Rewards will be added, letting non-Platinum Amex cards feed into Qantas via a 5:4 conversion, offering an indirect alternative.

Adam: “The best value card in the market by a long way, points-wise, will be a Luxury Escapes card, so you better watch this space.”

Larry Ellison (briefly) the world's richest person

Larry Ellison briefly became the world’s richest person after Oracle shares surged (more than 40%) on strong cloud and AI-business prospects. His net worth jumped to US$393B, surpassing Elon Musk’s US$385B, largely thanks to Ellison's 41% Oracle stake and large AI/cloud contracts.

In case you’re wondering, the top 10 world’s richest people currently: Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Steve Ballmer, Bernard Arnault, Jensen Huang, Warren Buffett.

Adir: “He’s a very interesting guy. He’s half crazy mogul, competing in the America’s Cup and everything, and then half uber nerd. But I think he’s actually a good person, that’s what I like about him. But Oracle’s share price rocketed based on saying over the next four years, this is what we think our revenue is going to do. Do you not find that completely ludicrous?”

The future of Tesla

Elon Musk is steering Tesla’s future around its humanoid robot, Optimus. He predicts 80% of Tesla’s value will come from it, aiming for a US$25T market cap. Thousands will work in Tesla factories by 2025, scaling to a million annually by 2030, with ever more agile robot generations.

Adir: “Your ambition should look like a long way in the distance, but not over the horizon. I think the dreams of Tesla’s car business being amazing is now over the horizon, and so hence the need for something new for people to focus on. This is just the next shiny thing to keep investors excited.”

Adir: “You talk about SpaceX, the fact they had rockets shoot up into space and come back down and land on their ends to be reused again. The electric car you could conceive of, but that I couldn’t conceive - that’s true science fiction. I think SpaceX and Starlink are truly unbelievable.”

ANZ closes Cashrewards

Cashrewards, Australia’s pioneering cashback platform, abruptly shut down on 8 September 2025 after 11 years. For its 2M members, transactions pending by 11 September will be approved, and users can withdraw funds or gift cards until 24 October. The final deadline for all claims is 12 December.

Did you know Adir started and sold a cash rewards business pre-COVID?

Adir: “The average that companies are prepared to pay is 5% of the price of the purchase. So the question is what do you do with that 5%? The smartest thing was to fund a lending business, which is what Afterpay did. And another thing you could do is give it to the customer, but if you give the whole 5% to the customer, that's not a good business.”

Five other stories worth following:

1. Danish retailer Salling Group is preparing for catastrophe with 50 “emergency stores” that can run three days without power or internet. Stocked with survival goods and offline payment systems, they’ll cover most of Denmark by 2028, ensuring access to essentials during disasters from cyberattacks to extreme weather - or even a LEGO ban.

2. David Ellison, with backing from his father Larry, is reportedly preparing a cash bid for Warner Bros. Discovery just weeks after acquiring Paramount. The move could reshape Hollywood, pitting their wealth against Netflix, Amazon, and Apple. Buying both profitable studios and struggling cable assets may preempt rivals and cement Ellison’s movie mogul ambitions.

3. Utah governor Spencer Cox denounced social media as “evil” and a “cancer,” blaming it for fuelling recent assassinations and attempts. He criticised executives as “conflict entrepreneurs” exploiting harmful algorithms. Despite Utah passing laws to protect minors online, enforcement remains stalled after a federal judge blocked them. Cox’s remarks reignited debate over regulation.

4. Apple TV+’s The Studio won 13 Emmys, including best comedy and Seth Rogen’s first acting award. HBO Max’s The Pitt took best drama. Both shows reflect “chaotic workplace” storytelling, resonating with audiences and industry insiders. While The Studio draws from Hollywood stress, The Pitt’s ER realism unsettles medical professionals watching their work mirrored onscreen.

5. EV sales surged in August, hitting a record 146,000 in the US, boosted by a $7,500 federal tax credit expiring September 30. Used EV sales also climbed, though Tesla lagged. Without incentives, projections for EV market share by 2029 dropped from 25% to 12%, raising doubts about long-term adoption momentum.