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☆ Elon Musk’s Twitter Tells Staff Layoffs Will Be Announced Friday
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Alexa Corse | Robert Mcmillan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Twitter Inc. has told employees it would notify them about head-count reductions on Friday, a move that comes about a week after billionaire Elon Musk acquired the social-media company. The company, in a message sent to staff on Thursday, didn’t spell out the extent of the cuts. Twitter had more than 7,500 employees at the start of this year, according to a regulatory filing.

☆ Starbucks waits stubbornly in China queue
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Howard Schultz is patiently sipping on a salted caramel Americano while he stubbornly waits for the slow drip in Shanghai. The Starbucks (SBUX.O) boss on Thursday unveiled 3% revenue growth, to $8.4 billion, for the three months through Oct. 2 despite the top line falling 20% in China because of the country’s zero-Covid policy. North America generated nearly all of Starbucks’ operating income, helping bridge what Schultz calls the “nonlinear” recovery in China. Shareholders seem ready to bide their time, too, imputing a healthy multiple of 25 times expected earnings at Starbucks. With limited growth options elsewhere, Starbucks may have little choice but to double down there.

☆ Elon Musk’s Twitter informs staff layoffs are set to begin
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Donie O'Sullivan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ Uniper’s gory details point to bigger German bill
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The stricken energy group on Thursday announced a 40 billion euro net loss for the first nine months of the year. The key component: a 31 billion euro hit reflecting the future costs arising from replacing curtailed Russian gas with extremely expensive alternatives. This is way north of the 8 billion euro capital injection from the German state announced in September. The upshot for Uniper is that its balance sheet equity has sunk from 6 billion euros as of December to minus 30 billion euros. The scale of the expanded hole explains why JPMorgan analysts reckon Uniper might need another 28 billion euros.

☆ Celebrities including Lynda Carter and Josh Gad are criticizing Elon Musk for saying he would make Twitter users pay for a blue tick
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Kate Duffy | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Elon Musk has announced that Twitter would introduce an $8 monthly verification fee for users who want to keep their blue tick. Elon Musk’s Twitter account is displayed on the screen of an iPhone on April 26, 2022 in Paris, France. Chesnot/Getty ImagesDespite criticism, Musk has doubled down on his plans to charge users who want to remain verified on the platform. The $8 subscription fee is cheaper than what The Verge reported, which was $20 monthly. Users who pay for the subscription will not only get the blue tick, but also the ability to long-form videos, fewer ads, and priority in search, according to Musk.

☆ Elon Musk’s Twitter runs into subscription fatigue
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Elon Musk is on a mission for some much-needed revenue at Twitter. The social-media company’s new owner tweeted, appropriately enough, that he would start charging users $8 a month for a blue check, the symbol that affirms a user’s authenticity. Strapped consumers are already rethinking the litany of fees they pay regularly to everyone from Walmart (WMT.N) to Spotify Technology (SPOT.N). As Musk noted, though, he has his own bills to pay after larding $13 billion of debt onto the company. Even if everyone with a blue check forks over $96 annually, it would only add up to around $41 million.

☆ Elon Musk idea to charge for Twitter verification draws critics
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Eli M. Rosenberg | Eli Rosenberg Is An Investigative Tech Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Critics of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover say any plan to charge users for identity verification could make information on the site less trustworthy and more vulnerable to manipulation — devaluing the company. The idea of a monthly fee for the blue verification checkmark by users' names was reported Sunday by Casey Newton’s tech-focused newsletter Platformer. Musk hasn't confirmed a charge will be added but on Sunday tweeted, “The whole verification process is being revamped right now,” on his own verified account. Jeff Jarvis, a prolific Twitter user and journalism professor who studies how information travels in the digital age, worries such a plan could backfire. “Twitter has had many, many people working on issues like user interface design and innovation, testing it with user groups, and people who specialize in working with VITs — very important Twitter users,” she said.

☆ Twitter founder Jack Dorsey to remain invested in the company under Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN Business —Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down from the company’s board earlier this year, but he’s staying involved with the social platform following its takeover by Elon Musk. Almost immediately after taking over the company, Musk dissolved Twitter’s board of directors. Later that year, Musk defended Dorsey when he was facing pressure from an activist investor, saying on Twitter, “I support @Jack as Twitter CEO. Dorsey stepped down as Twitter CEO last November and left its board of directors in May. In April, after Musk agreed to buy the company, Dorsey pledged his support for the takeover.

Twitter’s new “Chief Twit” spent the weekend tweeting — and it’s still not much clearer what Elon Musk will do with his new company. He denied a report from The New York Times that he planned to make major layoffs Monday ahead of a date when many Twitter employees receive stock grants. Musk has surrounded himself with Silicon Valley veterans, some of whom have criticized Twitter’s moderation work. Later, he appeared to poke fun at his deleted tweet while also taking a swipe at The New York Times. “This is fake — I did *not* tweet out a link to The New York Times!” Musk wrote alongside a screenshot of the Times’ coverage of his deleted tweet.

☆ Premarket stocks: A spooky forecast for the future of interest rates
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

New York CNN Business —When will central banks stop raising interest rates? This week, the Federal Reserve is expected to increase rates by 75 basis points for the fourth time in a row. For some time, it was thought that 2023 would bring lower interest rates and a return to dovish monetary policy. Even the Federal Reserve appears confused about when it will stop rate hikes. A possible answer: Wall Street tends to favor big events, but the future of central bank policy may be more nuanced.

☆ Welcome to Elon Musk’s Twitter Free Speech Zone
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Fixing Twitter might be Elon Musk’s biggest challenge yet, and this is a guy who hopes to die on Mars. After a long, tempestuous takeover process, this week Mr. Musk closed the $44 billion deal, marched into Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, and promptly cleared out the C-suite. Users now await Mr. Musk’s plans for the social site, which are hard to distill into 140 characters. A good first step would be to emphasize that dissenting views on political topics like Covid-19 or climate change won’t be throttled as “disinformation.” Mr. Musk could move the company to Texas, as he did for Tesla . Simply getting the site’s employees out of the San Francisco bubble might help.

Banks have started to send $13 billion in cash backing Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter according to people familiar with the matter, the latest sign the $44 billion deal for the social-media company is on track to close by the end of the week after months of twists and turns. Mr. Musk late Tuesday sent a so-called borrowing notice to the banks that agreed to provide him with the debt for the purchase, one of the people said. That kicked off a process that is currently under way by which banks will deposit funds they are on the hook for into an escrow account after hammering out final details of the debt contracts, the people said.

☆ Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Seen Swelling the Company’s Debt
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Alexa Corse | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Twitter has struggled for most of its history to make a profit. If Elon Musk completes his $44 billion acquisition of the social-media platform, one factor will make that harder: the money he borrowed to fund the transaction. As part of the deal, Twitter will add about $13 billion of debt. Analysts estimate, based on terms previously laid out in documents related to the transaction, that Twitter would be on the hook for annual interest payments of more than $1 billion, compared with some $51 million in 2021. Twitter has posted average annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of about $700 million over the past five years.

☆ The Elon Musk-Twitter saga could finally be coming to end
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Elon Musk’s Twitter account is displayed on the screen of an iPhone on April 26, 2022 in Paris, France. The end of the line for Elon and TwitterWhat a long strange trip it's been. That might be the best way to sum up the Elon Musk-Twitter saga that has played out over the past six-plus months. It finally appears an end is in sight*, or at least the closing of a transaction. The main issue remains how Musk will come up with the $44 billion needed to actually buy Twitter.

☆ Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover Debt to Be Held by Banks Amid Turbulent Markets
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Laura Cooper | Alexander Saeedy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Banks that committed to help finance Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter Inc. plan to hold all $13 billion of debt backing the deal rather than syndicate it out, according to people familiar with the matter, in another blow to a market that serves as a crucial source of corporate funding. The banks decided to park the debt on their balance sheets to avoid selling it at a loss to bond and loan fund managers, who have grown increasingly skittish amid rising market turmoil, the people said.

☆ Buyout Deals Like Twitter Won’t Come Cheap for Banks
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Telis Demos | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Banks working on the debt package involved in Elon Musk’s Twitter deal face a possible loss of $500 million. Providing debt to finance Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter won’t be easy. But it isn’t impossible. These days, banks are facing a double whammy when it comes to leveraged financing like Mr. Musk’s looming potential deal—for which a group of banks had previously agreed to arrange some $13 billion in debt financing: The market stinks, and lenders’ balance sheets are often pretty full up.

CNN —Tesla CEO Elon Musk has denied a claim that he spoke directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent weeks about the war in Ukraine and a proposed “peace plan” to end the conflict. Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, American political scientist Ian Bremmer, president of political consulting firm Eurasia Group, claimed Musk told him directly about his conversation with Putin last month. “Elon Musk told me he had spoken with Putin and the Kremlin directly about Ukraine. “My recommendation…would be to figure out a special administrative zone for Taiwan that is reasonably palatable, probably won’t make everyone happy,” Musk told the Financial Times in an interview published last week. “Musk also appeared concerned about more direct threats from Putin,” Bremmer wrote.

☆ Premarket stocks: Markets are starting to act super strange
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-06 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

A weakening labor market puts downward pressure on wages and inflation. The labor market is still tight with about 1.7 job openings for every unemployed worker in the US. New private employment data on Wednesday by payroll services firm ADP suggested that the labor market isn’t losing any steam. The rise in oil gave a lift to energy stocks, helping to boost the overall market, reports Paul R. La Monica. Plus: US Department of Labor reports weekly jobless claims at 8:30 a.m.

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