Don’t cross Xi Jinping; TikTok lives; Warren Buffett really bummed Bill Ackman out; the Mooch hits a grand slam; and more!

China’s President Xi Jinping Personally Scuttled Jack Ma’s Ant IPO [WSJ]
The rebuke was the culmination of years of tense relations between China’s most celebrated entrepreneur and a government uneasy about his influence and the rapid growth of the digital-payments behemoth he controlled….
Mr. Ma bluntly criticized the government’s increasingly tight financial regulation for holding back technology development, part of a long-running battle between Ant and its overseers…. Mr. Xi, who read government reports about the speech, and other senior leaders were furious, according to the officials familiar with the decision-making. Mr. Xi ordered Chinese regulators to investigate and all but shut down Ant’s initial public offering, the officials said….

DoorDash, Wish and Affirm Join Airbnb to Fuel Year-End IPO Boom [Bloomberg]
That would add billions of dollars to the record total of more than $140 billion raised on U.S. exchanges this year…. San Francisco-based DoorDash is racing ahead with its plans after it helped pass a California ballot proposition that allows it and other gig economy companies to treat drivers and delivery workers as independent contractors rather than employees. The company, which said in February that it had confidentially filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO, could flip its listing plans as soon as this week….

TikTok can continue to operate in the U.S., Commerce Department says [CNBC]
The Commerce Department said Thursday it will abide by an Oct. 30 temporary injunction that prevented the government from effectively shutting down TikTok…. The Commerce Department order doesn’t address the CFIUS mandate demanding TikTok sell its U.S. assets. Rather, it reaffirms TikTok can continue to operate in the U.S.

Judy Shelton appears headed for confirmation to a Federal Reserve seat [CNBC]
“Her ideas are so wacky and outdated, giving her authority over the dollar would be like putting a medieval barber in charge of the” Centers for Disease Control, [Sen. Ron] Wyden said in a statement. “Shelton’s views are so extreme, Senate Republicans have long refused to confirm her.”

Billionaire investor Bill Ackman likely lost more money on Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway than 'anyone in the world' [BI]
"We were expecting Buffett to be super aggressive as markets came in, and we were surprised that he was not more so," the hedge-fund manager said, according to AFR…. Pershing sold its entire Berkshire position shortly after, stomaching a roughly 10% loss, Ackman said at the conference, according to AFR.

Aecom Could Face Repeat Board Fight With Activist Starboard [Bloomberg]
The New York-based hedge fund, which owns a roughly 3.7% stake in Aecom, butted heads with the company in June over the appointment of new Chief Executive Officer Troy Rudd. The dispute resulted in Starboard Managing Member Peter Feld resigning from the board in protest.
Feld, who led the search committee for a new CEO, said in his resignation letter he wasn’t informed of the decision to promote Rudd….

Elon Musk Says He May Have Covid-19, Attacks Testing As He Gets Both Positive And Negative Results [Forbes]
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk claimed Friday that “something extremely bogus is going on” after four rapid antigen Covid-19 tests he took came back with different results — two positive and two negative…. Musk on Friday said he has the “symptoms of a typical cold…”

Bill Maher, Anthony Scaramucci stand to cash in big on Mets sale [Thornton/N.Y. Post]
Bailout investors now stand to divvy up payouts of roughly $60 million each, for a profit of $40 million, in just eight years, which no-one thought possible at the time, sources said…. By 2018, when the compounding interest clause expired, some limited partners jumped at the chance to sell their stakes as the team’s financial situation remained poor. But the groups that included Maher, Lerer and Scaramucci stuck it out, holding onto their shares in the team…. “Steve is taking care of business,” said the insider. “Those big checks will get cut pretty soon.”