Welcome to Axisprorata, where we take just 10 minutes to get you smarter on the

collision of tech, business, and politics.

Brought to you by America's beverage companies.

I'm Dan Pramak.

On today's show, America's uncarrier gets a new boss and the legal fight over California's

new rules on board diversity.

But first, when the biggest isn't big enough.

So for several years now, global, financial, and energy markets have been waiting for Saudi Arabia

to take its state oil company, called a Ramco public.

The idea was that it would be the largest IPO of all time.

With Saudi Crown Prince Ben-Sleman

talking about selling around 5% of the business at an eye-popping $2 trillion valuation,

that means the IPO could have raised around $100 billion or more than four times larger

than what was raised by the current record holder, Alibaba. But then there was delay after delay after delay.

And finally, about a month or so ago, it looked like this thing was starting. And when the

Saudis published preliminary pricing terms over the weekend, it showed that while it would still

probably be bigger than anything that's come before, it won't be by nearly so much. The current

plan is to sell just around one and a half percent of a

Ramco, at a valuation of between $1.6 and $1.7 trillion. Moreover, the Saudis will make this

almost entirely a local affair, canceling investor presentations in Europe, Japan, and North America,

and just to strengthen the in-country demand a bit, the Saudi central bank has

relaxed lending limits. Now, for global financial markets, the value drop is possibly a big

...