Twitter’s board is said to seriously consider Elon Musk’s bid
The board of Twitter met Sunday to discuss Elon Musk’s unsolicited $46.5 billion bid to buy the social media service, after he began lining up financing for his offer last week, two people with knowledge of the situation said. The financing was a turning point for how Twitter’s 11 board members viewed Musk’s bid of $54.20 a share, the people said. Any deal remains far from certain; other details to be discussed include a timeline to close any potential deal and any fees that would be paid if an agreement was signed and then fell apart.
Why the road is getting even rockier for first-time homebuyers
Nationwide, large investment companies remain a small fraction of America’s homebuyers. But their share is growing: Real estate investors bought a record 18.4% of the homes that were sold in the United States in the fourth quarter of 2021, up from 12.6% a year earlier, according to realty company Redfin. And in some markets, especially in the relatively affordable Sun Belt metro areas, their share is far higher. In cities like Charlotte, North Carolina, that trend is exacerbating the shortage of houses for sale, driving up prices and putting homeownership out of reach for many first-time buyers.
Pfizer’s COVID pill poised to be among the fastest-selling treatments
Demand for COVID pills is set to make Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid among the fastest-selling treatments of all time, with revenue of almost $24 billion expected in 2022, according to a forecast from analytics group Airfinity Ltd. Overall sales of COVID pills are expected to hit $32.5 billion this year, up from a previous estimate of $19.5 billion, London-based Airfinity said Friday. Sales of pills from Merck & Co. and Shionogi & Co. are also set to rise as cases increase and earlier treatments are rendered ineffective by new variants.
US jobless claims eased week ending April 9, showing tight labor market
Applications for state unemployment insurance fell slightly last week to a level that’s consistent with an exceptionally tight labor market. Initial unemployment claims decreased by 2,000 to 184,000 in the week ended April 16, Labor Department data showed Thursday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for 180,000 initial applications. Continuing claims for state benefits dropped to 1.42 million in the week ended April 9, the lowest since 1970.
County grants approval for Amazon’s helix-shaped HQ tower
The Arlington County Board has given unanimous approval to Amazon’s plans to build a unique, helix-shaped tower as the centerpiece of its emerging second headquarters in northern Virginia. Amazon announced plans last year for the 350-foot tower. It will support a second headquarters for Amazon that is expected to welcome more than 25,000 workers when it’s complete. The helix stands out among several office towers granted approval in the redevelopment plans. The spiral design features a walkable ramp wrapping around the building with trees and greenery planted to resemble a mountain hike. The County Board approved the project at its Saturday meeting.
Twitter bans ads that contradict science on climate change
Twitter says it will no longer allow advertisers on its site who deny the scientific consensus on climate change. The company said in a statement outlining its new policy that “ads shouldn’t detract from important conversations about the climate crisis.” The announcement coinciding with Earth Day came hours before the European Union agreed upon a deal requiring big tech companies to vet their sites more closely for hate speech, disinformation and other harmful content. Twitter said it would provide more information in the coming months on how it plans to provide “reliable, authoritative context to the climate conversations” its users engage in. Twitter already has a dedicated climate topic on its site.
Stocks tumble for a third week as jitters over the Fed persist
Stocks slid Friday, with the S&P 500 capping a third consecutive weekly decline as Wall Street quickly changed its expectation for how aggressively the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates. The S&P 500 fell 2.8%, its worst day since early March. The index is down 5.7% for April so far, and more than 10% for the year. The latest swing lower for stocks began Thursday, after the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, sealed expectations that the central bank would raise interest rates by half a percentage point when it meets next month.
EU takes aim at social media’s harms with landmark new law
The European Union reached a deal Saturday on landmark legislation that would force Facebook, YouTube and other internet services to combat misinformation, disclose how their services amplify divisive content and stop targeting online ads based on a person’s ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation. The law, called the Digital Services Act, is intended to address social media’s societal harms by requiring companies to more aggressively police their platforms for illicit content or risk billions of dollars in fines. Tech companies would be compelled to set up new policies and procedures to remove flagged hate speech, terrorist propaganda and other material defined as illegal.
Musk details plan to pay for $46.5B takeover of Twitter
Elon Musk said Thursday that he had commitments worth $46.5 billion to finance his bid for Twitter and was exploring whether to launch a hostile takeover. In documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated Wednesday, the world’s richest man said he planned to finance the bid with a mix of debt and cash. The investment bank Morgan Stanley and a group of other lenders are offering $13 billion in debt financing and another $12.5 billion in loans against Musk’s stock in Tesla. He is expected to add about $21 billion in equity financing. The financial commitments put pressure on Twitter’s board to take his advances seriously.
CNN+ streaming service will shut down weeks after its start
In a move that stunned the media and tech worlds, Warner Bros. Discovery said Thursday that it will abruptly shut down CNN+ on April 30. “While today’s decision is incredibly difficult, it is the right one for the long-term success of CNN,” Chris Licht, the network’s incoming president, told staff. The shutdown is an ignominious end to an operation into which CNN sank tens of millions of dollars: from a nationwide marketing campaign to hundreds of newly hired employees to big contracts for name-brand anchors, including former “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace and former NPR co-host Audie Cornish.
Muslim dating site loses trademark case against an industry giant
A Muslim dating and marriage app, Muzmatch, lost a legal battle Wednesday against the owners of Tinder after a British court ruled that the startup had infringed on the multibillion-dollar company’s trademarks. Match Group — a dating site conglomerate that owns Match.com, OKCupid and Hinge as well as Tinder — sued Muzmatch for infringing on its trademarked logo, the use of “match” in its name and for “unfairly benefiting” from the company’s reputation and investment in its brand. The ruling, from the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court in London, could mean that Muzmatch, which says it has 6 million users around the world, must change its name and pay damages.
By wire sources
