Tag: mergers

Elon Musk wants to move forward with his purchase of Twitter. Here’s how some Twitter users reacted.

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Elon Musk sent a letter to Twitter
TWTR,
+22.24%
indicating he intends to move forward with his original proposal that he acquire the company for $54.20 a share, according to a filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Tesla Inc.
TSLA,
+2.90%
CEO agreed to buy the social media company back in April for $44 billion, but in recent months said he wanted to terminate the deal, publicly citing concerns about bots on the platform. The two sides had been entrenched in a legal battle over the past few months, and a Delaware Chancery Court judge was scheduled to hear arguments on the case in October, a case Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said Musk was “highly unlikely” to win.

See also: College students who got low grades complained about their ‘dismissive’ professor. Then NYU fired him.

Twitter users reacted to the news on Tuesday afternoon, many of them joking about a potential resolution to the seemingly never-ending Elon Musk Twitter saga.

One Twitter user said she believes Musk will look to reinstate the account of former President Donald Trump, which was banned shortly after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has claimed he won’t return to Twitter even if the Musk deal is executed, and he’ll continue to post on his platform, Truth Social.

See also: Trump’s Facebook ban may end as soon as January 2023, Meta executive says

“We’re doing a big platform right now, so I probably wouldn’t have any interest,” the former president said.

Another user tweeted that supporters of the meme crypto dogecoin
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+1.11%
are excited by Musk’s move to proceed with the deal. Musk has touted dogecoin on several occasions in the past few years.

Similar to bitcoin, dogecoin is a peer-to-peer, open-source cryptocurrency. It trades under the ticker symbol “DOGE” and features the face of the shiba inu from the popular Doge meme as its logo. Dogecoin was up as much as 9.16% after the Bloomberg news was published.

Musk has not publicly commented on the report, but one Twitter user pointed out that he tweeted about his satellite internet project Starlink after the news broke, but did not mention Twitter in any way.

A report from The Wall Street Journal stated Musk’s legal team relayed the proposal to Twitter’s team “overnight Monday.”

Shares of Tesla Inc. dipped after the news, and are now up just 1.31% during Tuesday’s trading. Shares of the EV maker were up as much as 5.65% on the day before the Musk news.

See also: SPAC backing Trump’s Truth Social hit by news Musk is again offering to acquire Twitter at original price

The news comes a few days after hundreds of text messages from Musk’s phone were made public as evidence in Twitter’s lawsuit.

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October 4, 2022
Twitter stock surges 22% after Elon Musk gives up bot battle and commits to $44 billion deal

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Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk now plans to close his proposed $44 billion deal for Twitter Inc., according to a Tuesday filing that arrived less than two weeks before a judge was scheduled to hear a case on the disputed acquisition.

Musk’s lawyers sent a letter to Twitter’s management team indicating that he was proposing to move forward with the original acquisition terms late Monday, and that letter was released as a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday afternoon. A Twitter spokesperson later confirmed to MarketWatch that the company intended to proceed with the deal for $54.20 a share.

Twitter
TWTR,
+22.24%
shares jumped 22.2% to $52 in Tuesday’s session, after an hours-long trading halt that started after Bloomberg News first reported the move around noon Eastern time, suggesting a possible end to the legal saga between the two parties. The increase is the second best daily percentage gain on record for Twitter stock, behind only the 27.1% gain experienced when Musk disclosed his initial ownership stake in Twitter in April. Twitter was the best performing stock Tuesday in the S&P 500 index
SPX,
+3.06%,
and is now up 20.3% on the year.

The two sides have been locked in a legal battle for months, and a Delaware Chancery Court judge was expected to hear from both sides in a five-day trial slated to begin Oct. 17. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the Delaware judge asked the two sides to come up with a plan by the end of the day that could bring about an end to the litigation.

“Musk could see the writing on the wall that he was going to lose the trial,” said Josh White, an assistant finance professor at Vanderbilt University, in an email to MarketWatch. “By doing this, he can save legal costs, time and ultimately losing in a very public trial.”

See also: Here’s how Twitter’s users reacted to Musk agreeing to buy the platform

Musk agreed in April to buy Twitter in a deal that valued the company at roughly $44 billion, but he later said that he was terminating the deal. The Tesla
TSLA,
+2.90%
CEO cited concerns about bot activity on Twitter and said he believed the company’s management team wasn’t accurate in its public disclosures about the extent of spam activity on the platform.

White noted that text messages released in conjunction with the case showed that Musk was aware of Twitter’s bot issue before going forward with his original deal offer, and he doubted that Musk would be able to show that “something really changed” after that point.

“If he offered less than $54.20, Twitter might have proceeded with the trial, and he would be deposed,” White continued. “By offering the original price, he maximizes the chance that Twitter accepts and the trial ends. I expect Twitter’s board to accept the deal and for it to close rather quickly.”

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives agreed that the Tesla leader’s latest move marked a “clear sign that Musk recognized heading into Delaware Court that the chances of winning vs. Twitter board was highly unlikely and this $44 billion deal was going to be completed one way or another,” he wrote in a note to clients. “Being forced to do the deal after a long and ugly court battle in Delaware was not an ideal scenario and instead accepting this path and moving forward with the deal will save a massive legal headache.”

Opinion: Twitter stood up to Elon Musk and won, but will it feel like a win once he owns it?

Vanderbilt’s White noted that a deal at the original price would be a “big” win for Twitter shareholders.

“The stock price of Snap
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+8.42%
and Twitter seemed to trade around the same price level before the offer,” he told MarketWatch. “Snap is now a ~$10 stock with a $17 billion market cap. So Twitter’s shareholders win by getting $54.20 rather than having the price drop to $10-20 per share.”

Additionally, he deemed Delaware business law another winner: “This deal shows that even the richest man in the world cannot overcome well-written contracts enforced in a neutral and fair way by the Delaware courts.”

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October 4, 2022
Buffett’s Likely Successor Buys $68 Million of Berkshire Stock

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Berkshire Hathaway

Vice Chairman Greg Abel, the likely successor to CEO Warren Buffett, bought about $68 million of the company’s shares last Thursday in what appears to be his first purchases of Berkshire stock since he assumed the position in 2018.

In several Form 4 filings Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Abel disclosed that he purchased 168 Berkshire Hathaway (ticker: BRK/A, BRK/B) Class A shares through the Gregory Abel Revocable Trust on behalf of his wife, children, and other family members.

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October 3, 2022
Poshmark to be bought by South Korean internet company Naver in $1.2 billion deal

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Online secondhand-fashion marketplace Poshmark Inc. has agreed to be bought by South Korean internet company Naver in a $1.2 billion deal, the companies announced Monday, a move that executives said would help both brands expand internationally.

Shares of Poshmark
POSH,
-0.64%
jumped 11.8% in after-hours trading on the news.

Under the terms of the deal, Naver
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-8.79%
will acquire Poshmark’s outstanding shares for $17.90 in cash, representing a 15% upside to Poshmark’s Monday closing price of $15.57. The transaction is set to close by the first quarter of next year, pending Poshmark shareholders’ approval.

Poshmark went public in late 2020, pricing shares at $42 a share, and ended its first day of trading at more than $100 a share, but has never approached those heights again. It last traded for more than the acquisition price Naver has agreed to pay late last year.

For more: Five things to know about Poshmark

In a statement, executives from both companies talked up the potential to combine Naver’s array of search, e-commerce, AI and social-media technology with Poshmark’s social and shopping platforms. Poshmark, the companies said, would also embark on a bigger international expansion strategy, including into other markets in Asia, in the “medium-term.”

They also talked about the potential for the combined company to save around $30 million annually within two years after the deal’s closing through “rationalization of public company costs” and higher operating leverage, along with the potential for more than 20% yearly sales growth by harnessing Naver’s advertising resources.

Naver, which runs large search and e-commerce platforms, said the move would broaden its e-commerce platform, bring younger users into the company’s fold and allow it to “capitalize on the global online fashion re-commerce and sustainable economy opportunity.”

“Naver’s leading technology in search, AI recommendation and e-commerce tools will help power the next phase of Poshmark’s global growth,” Choi Soo-Yeon, Naver’s chief executive, said in a statement, which also said that Naver hosted a large number of digital content creators in Korea.

Naver owns companies like Wattpad, a social-media platform, and runs Webtoon, a site for digital comics, along with a metaverse platform called Zepeto, and also has joint ownership of an internet service group in Japan. Naver said its online community in Korea consists of more than 36 million monthly users, who use its search engine and other services.

Poshmark Chief Executive Manish Chandra said the deal would also give Poshmark opportunities to grow.

“Longer term, as part of Naver, we will benefit from their financial resources, significant technology capabilities, and leading presence across Asia to expand our platform, elevate our product and user experiences, and enter new and large markets,” he said in the statement.

Naver said the acquisition would also help give it a bigger foothold in the U.S. And it said the deal would allow it to broaden the appeal of so-called live-stream shopping.

“Live-stream shopping is a key driver of e-commerce in China and Korea (and increasingly in the U.S.) today, allowing shoppers to buy products in real-time through live video broadcasts, enabling greater insights and more clarity around purchasing decisions,” the statement said.

Once the deal closes, Poshmark will be a standalone subsidiary of Naver, with the same management team, brand and headquarters in Redwood City, Calif., the companies revealed.

At the close of Monday’s trading, shares of Poshmark were down around 9% year-to-date. The S&P 500 index
SPX,
+2.59%,
by comparison, has slid 23% over that time.

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October 3, 2022
FutureLearn and the New York Institute of Finance Partner to Deliver Wall Street’s Online Training Program in Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
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NYIF offers professional training in mergers and acquisitions to equip learners with the skills needed to advance in their careers.

Press Release
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updated: Oct 3, 2017
NEW YORK, October 3, 2017 (Newswire.com)
–
FutureLearn, the leading social learning platform, is announcing its partnership with the New York Institute of Finance (NYIF), a global leader in skills-based training for the investment banking industry and related financial services.

The partnership will see NYIF host a set of paid-for courses that lead up to a professional certificate in mergers and acquisitions aimed at financial analysts, associates as well as directors and managers who have transitioned, or hope to transition, to mergers and acquisitions from other areas, such as equities or fixed income.

Many of our learners are particularly interested in courses that will enhance their professional development so we expect this set to be popular with not only those already in the financial space but also those looking to expand their professional horizons or even entrepreneurs who want to prepare for their eventual exit strategy.

Nigel Smith, Head of Content at FutureLearn

“We’re delighted to welcome the New York Institute of Finance as our latest U.S. partner. They have a fantastic reputation as a global leader in training for financial services and related industries and it’s great to be able to offer that expertise to our six million learners through their set of courses on Mergers and Acquisitions. Many of our learners are particularly interested in courses that will enhance their professional development so we expect this set to be popular with not only those already in the financial space but also those looking to expand their professional horizons or even entrepreneurs who want to prepare for their eventual exit strategy,” said Nigel Smith, Head of Content at FutureLearn.

The Mergers & Acquisitions Professional Certificate Program is comprised of five online courses plus an exam. The Program is part of FutureLearn’s suite of credit-bearing courses, specifically aimed at offering learners the opportunity to gain credits for degrees, MBAs and professional qualifications. The first course in the Program, Mergers and Acquisitions: Concepts and Theories, is open for enrollment now and starts this week.

The program is taught by, Jeffrey Hooke and Steve Literati, two industry-leading finance professionals with decades of experience on Wall Street. In the first course of the Program, Mergers and Acquisitions: Concepts and Theories, learners will get an intensive overview of the major aspects of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) industry including the theories and concepts that underpin mergers and acquisitions, and learn the skills involved in executing transactions, from a deal’s inception to post-merger integration.

Upon completion of this first course, learners will be able to:
- Identify common motivations for acquisitions and the reasons why many are unsuccessful
- Identify public companies, comparable companies, comparable acquisitions, and leverage buyout valuations
- Explore the key risks associated with the acquisition process
- Discuss the characteristics of a successful deal
- Summarize the top ten buyer motivations for M&A
Additional courses include Mergers and Acquisitions: Advanced Theory, starting on 23rd October, Mergers and Acquisitions: Structuring The Deal, starting on 6th Nov., Mergers and Acquisitions: Free Cash Flow Modeling, starting on 27th Nov., and Mergers and Acquisitions: Accounting Principles, starting on 4th Dec.. Once learners complete this set of courses, they then have the option to go on to complete an examination to earn a Professional Certificate in Mergers and Acquisitions from the New York Institute of Finance, a sought-after credential that leading financial services employers around the world know and trust.

Anton Theunissen, the Managing Director of NYIF, said: “We are extremely pleased to offer our course on Mergers and Acquisitions to the FutureLearn community. The New York Institute of Finance has been a leading provider of financial training since 1922 and our Professional Certificate is for ambitious, career-focused professionals who understand the value of having a complete set of real-world skills, a natural fit for FutureLearners. We look forward to working closely with FutureLearn to offer more courses in the near future to enhance the career opportunities of their learners with desk-ready skills in core areas of finance.”

Learners who complete the Mergers and Acquisitions program on the FutureLearn platform will also benefit from the social learning pedagogy that underpins the design of the platform, built from over 50 years of experience of digital storytelling and distance learning. Like all courses on the platform, this will incorporate the distinctive FutureLearn storytelling techniques, guiding learners through a compelling narrative composed of videos, articles, case studies, and rich media features. Learners can engage in curated conversations throughout the educational material to enhance their understanding and to allow them to learn from each other in any location or time zone.

Paid-for courses at FutureLearn: Whilst the majority of FutureLearn courses are offered with an option to learn for free, some are only offered on a paid-for basis. These courses are designed for professionals looking to advance their careers and learn with a smaller group of like-minded individuals.

About FutureLearn (www.FutureLearn.com)
Founded by The Open University in 2012, FutureLearn is a leading social learning platform, enabling online learning through conversation. With over 6.5 million people from over 200 countries across the globe — a community that is continuously growing — it offers free and paid for online courses from world-leading U.K. and international universities, as well as organisations such as the European Space Agency, the British Council, and Cancer Research UK. FutureLearn’s course portfolio covers a wealth of areas to promote lifelong learning for a range of applications including general interest, an introduction to university studies, continuing professional development and fully online postgraduate degrees.

About New York Institute of Finance (www.nyif.com)
The New York Institute of Finance (NYIF) is a global leader in professional training for financial services and related industries. NYIF courses cover everything from investment banking, asset pricing, insurance and market structure to financial modeling, treasury operations, and accounting. The New York Institute of Finance has a faculty of industry leaders and offers a range of program delivery options, including self-study, online courses, and in-person classes. Founded by the New York Stock Exchange in 1922, NYIF has trained over 250,000 professionals online and in class, in over 120 countries. NYIF trains leading global institutions and finance professionals, some of NYIF’s US customers include the SEC, the Treasury, Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and most leading worldwide banks. In 2017, NYIF launched two financial designations, the Chartered Financial Risk Engineer™ and the Chartered Investment Banking Analyst™. The Mergers & Acquisitions Professional Certificate offered on FutureLearn is a component of the Chartered Investment Banking Analyst™ professional designation. See all of NYIF’s training and qualifications here.

Join the conversation on Twitter: @NYFinance #FLMergers

For further press information, please contact:
New York Institute of Finance
+1 347-842-2501
customerservice@nyif.com

FutureLearn
Niamh O’Grady, Head of Communications
comms@futurelearn.com

Source: New York Institute of Finance
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October 3, 2017