Musk Bids on the Bird With $43 Billion Offer
Plus inflation continues to rise at light speed, a fluctuating price for fueling up at Krispy Kreme, and more
April 20th, 2022
While most of us were winding down our schedules for the Easter holiday weekend, the ongoing Elon Musk/Twitter takeover saga took an unexpected turn when the world’s richest person made a formal offer to purchase the company and take it private. And that was just the beginning of the drama. Here’s a quick recap of what happened and what else investors need to know this week.
Clint, Editor-in-Chief
What Everyone's Been Buzzing About
Musk has put the full-court press on Twitter’s board: Just days after taking a 9.2% stake in Twitter, Elon Musk made an offer to purchase the company for $43 billion. Twitter’s board responded by adopting a shareholders rights program, which is often referred to as a “poison pill.” Musk then countered with a Tweet that hinted at him making a tender offer directly to shareholders. And so the entertaining back and forth continues… keep your popcorn handy.
Inflation continues to rise at a blistering pace: Official inflation numbers for March were released last week…and they were really bad. The Consumer Price Index rose another 1.2%, meaning that it’s now risen 8.5% over the past 12 months. That’s the fastest increase that we’ve seen since 1981. Learn how to find inflation-resistant investments.
Krispy Kreme is putting a hot glaze on high gas prices: Frustrated by rising fuel costs? Krispy Kreme’s newest promotion offers a silver lining. Every Wednesday from April 13th – May 4th, a dozen doughnuts at the popular franchise will be priced at the U.S. average price of gas per gallon. For this week, that’s $4.087…please try to finish reading this newsletter before you rush out the door to your local store.
North Korea tied to massive crypto heist: Researchers have linked Lazarus, a state-backed hacking group in North Korea, to one of the largest crypto heists in history. Approximately $615 billion of Ether and USDC was stolen from players of Axie Infinity, a popular blockchain-based metaverse game. The event again highlights the importance of keeping as much of your crypto as possible off of public platforms (that are big hacking targets) and in your own crypto wallet.
Sale of Jack Dorsey’s “original Tweet” NFT falls flat: In March 2021, Sina Estavi paid $2.9 million to purchase an NFT of the Twitter founder’s first-ever Tweet. Then on April 6th, Estavi announced that he would be selling it on OpenSea with an auction list price of $43 million. Unfortunately, he’s yet to receive an offer higher than $14,000. This is yet another reminder that investing in digital art and collectible NFTs is risky, just like with tangible art and collectibles.
What to Keep Your Eye on This Week
Is the housing market still ablaze…or is it cooling?: Sales of existing-homes dipped in February by 7.2% to 6.02 million homes. They’re expected to sink even lower to 5.78 million when March sales numbers are released this Wednesday. But an even bigger pullback could be a sign that the combo of rising interest rates + rising inflation are finally beginning to negatively affect the real estate market.
How’s that other company that Elon Musk runs doing?: Tesla announces their Q1 2022 earnings on Wednesday. The company’s stock is notorious for making heap leaps or suffering dramatic drops after earning calls, so buckle up if you’re a shareholder.
Staff Favorites
Here are two articles and one podcast episode from last week that our team found interesting:
- Income-Driven Repayment of Student Loans: Problems and Options for Addressing Them (Brookings Institute)
- This Is What Living With Long-Term High Inflation Feels Like (Bloomberg)
- A Feminist Takes on Money (HerMoney podcast)
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