Andrew Ross Sorkin (born February 19, 1977) is an American journalist and author. He is a financial columnist for The New York Times and a co-anchor of CNBC's Squawk Box. He is also the founder and editor of DealBook, a financial news service published by The New York Times. He wrote the bestselling book Too Big to Fail and co-produced a movie adaptation of the book for HBO Films. He is also a co-creator of the Showtime series Billions.[1][2]
Sorkin first joined The New York Times as a student intern during his senior year in high school. He also worked for the paper while he was in college, with 71 articles published before he graduated. He began by writing media and technology articles while assisting the advertising columnist, Stuart Elliott. Sorkin spent the summer of 1996 working for Businessweek, before returning to The New York Times. He moved to London for part of 1998. While there, he wrote about European business and technology for The New York Times and then returned to Cornell to complete his studies. At Cornell, he was vice president of the Sigma Pi fraternity.
Mergers and acquisitions reporter
Sorkin joined The New York Times full-time in 1999 as the newspaper's European mergers and acquisitions reporter, and was based in London. In 2000, Sorkin became the paper's chief mergers and acquisitions reporter, based in New York, a position he still holds. In 2001, Sorkin founded "DealBook," an online daily financial report published by the Times. As Editor-at-Large of "DealBook," Sorkin writes a weekly column of the same name. Sorkin is also an assistant editor of business and finance news for the paper.[8]
In 2007, Sorkin was one of the first journalists to identify and criticize "carried interest," a tax loophole for private equity firms and hedge funds.[9] He first wrote about the topic in a column in March 2007, calling the tax treatment a "charade",[10] and later wrote about it on the front page of The New York Times.[11] He has written at least a half dozen articles critiquing the tax practice by private equity firms and advocated for the government to end the loophole.[12]
In 2014, Sorkin wrote a series of columns criticizing American corporations for trying to lower their US tax bill by merging with smaller foreign companies in a transaction known as an "inversion".[13] He also criticized the Wall Street banks that advised US companies to pursue such deals, describing the banks as "corporate co-conspirators".[14] Sorkin called on the government to end the practice. On September 22, 2014, the Obama administration changed the tax laws to make it more difficult for US companies to merge to avoid taxes.[15]
On the PRISM surveillance program and Edward Snowden situation, Sorkin said, "I would arrest him and now I'd almost arrest Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who seems to be out there, he wants to help him get to Ecuador."[16] The next day, Sorkin apologized for the comment; Greenwald accepted, tweeting "Thank you: accepted & appreciated".[17]
DealBook
In October 2001, while a journalist at The New York Times, Sorkin started DealBook, a newsletter about deal-making and Wall Street.[18]DealBook was one of the first financial news aggregation services on the Internet.[18] In March 2006, Sorkin introduced a companion website published on The New York Times, with updated news and original analysis throughout the day.[19] In 2007, DealBook won a Webby Award for Best Business Blog[20] and it won a SABEW award for overall excellence.[21] In 2008, the site won an EPpy Award for Best Business Blog.[22]
Sorkin appeared in a cameo on the 35th season of The Simpsons in a parody on Silicon Valley where Sorkin interviews Mr. Burns and Persephone in an episode first aired on 29 October 2023.[26]
In the penultimate episode of Breaking Bad, called "Granite State," Sorkin is briefly referenced.[35] He is said to have written an op-ed in The New York Times accusing fictional entrepreneurs Gretchen and Elliott Schwartz of making donations to drug rehabilitation centers in the hopes of cleansing their company's image after the Walter White scandal.[35] Sorkin later wrote the entire fictional article.[35][36]
Personal life
Sorkin married Pilar Jenny Queen on June 9, 2007.[37]
^Sorkin, Andrew Ross; Mattu, Ravi; Warner, Bernhard; Kessler, Sarah; Merced, Michael J. de la; Hirsch, Lauren; Livni, Ephrat (July 24, 2023). "Why Elon Musk Bid Twitter Goodbye". The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
^Sorkin, Andrew Ross (December 25, 2016). "Andrew Ross Sorkin tweet". Twitter. Retrieved October 6, 2021. I am! A Christmas loving Jew! We did Chanukah last night and we will again tonight and the night after...
^Silicon Alley Insider (November 8, 2007). "23. Andrew Ross Sorkin". Businessinsider.com. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved May 22, 2010.
