(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk is expected to take over as the temporary CEO of Twitter once his $44 billion deal to take over the social media platform is complete, CNBC’s David Faber reported on Thursday morning.
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(Bloomberg) — Cathie Wood’s fans are pouring cash back into her flagship ARK Innovation ETF, the growth-stock fund that is starting to rebound from the steep losses seen this year.
The ARK Innovation ETF pulled in $366.7 million on Tuesday, the biggest inflow in a year. The fund has gained 11% this week, double the rally in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 and nearly triple the advance of the benchmark S&P 500.
Investors have poured in $447.4 million into the fund this week, extending three straight weeks of inflows.
The influx follows the fund’s worst month ever in April, when it tumbled nearly 29% as rising interest rates pummeled technology stocks. The fund has declined almost 70% from its all-time high in February 2021 after top holdings such as Zoom Video Communications Inc. and Teladoc Health Inc. dropped from their pandemic highs.
“This definitely feels like a buy the dip,” said Athanasios Psarofagis, an ETF analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence. “The sentiment has been so bearish on ARKK and equities in general. I think investors think they are low enough to go long if even for just a short while.”
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(Bloomberg) — China urged more support for internet platforms, small businesses and companies in foreign trade, as the economy reels from measures to contain its worst Covid-19 outbreak since 2020.
The government will ensure stable production and logistics for foreign trade, relieve congestion at ports and encourage banks to lend to firms in the sector, state-run CCTV reported Thursday, citing a State Council meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang. The cabinet also vowed to keep the yuan exchange rate basically stable.
Measures to support the healthy development of online platform companies should be rolled out as soon as possible, according to the meeting. Local governments should set up funds to provide subsidies to “struggling” small businesses to pay rent and interest on loans, they said.
The comments follow remarks from top leaders last week to boost stimulus and contain Covid outbreaks. Lockdown measures to curb infections have taken a significant toll on the economy, with both manufacturing and services activity plunging to their worst level since February 2020.
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(Bloomberg) — The Covid-19 death toll probably climbed to almost 15 million in its first two years — about one out of every 500 people globally — according to a new World Health Organization estimate.
The figure, far higher than the official numbers for 2020 and 2021, includes deaths directly due to Covid infection and those indirectly caused by pandemic disruptions, the Geneva-based health agency said Thursday. The WHO’s new estimate is more than twice the figures from individual governments’ reports showing about 6.2 million Covid deaths.
“These sobering data not only point to the impact of the pandemic but also to the need for all countries to invest in more resilient health systems that can sustain essential health services during crises,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
The toll was found by calculating the difference between all deaths that occurred and those that would have been expected to occur under normal circumstances. More than one-third of the additional 9 million deaths are estimated to have occurred in India, which has disputed the WHO’s new figure and delayed the release of the report, according to the New York Times. Narendra Modi’s government has stood by its own count of 523,900 deaths.
The estimate is lower than one from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which calculated in March that the pandemic had killed 18.2 million people, calling it the biggest “mortality shock” since the Spanish flu. Deaths from the 1918-1919 outbreak have been estimated as high as 50 million, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Of the total, 9.5 million pandemic deaths were estimated to be directly caused by Covid infections, according to the WHO report. Ten countries, including Brazil, Egypt, India, the U.S. and Russia, accounted for 68% of the excess fatalities.
About 70 countries don’t record causes of death among their populations.
Read more: Covid May Have Claimed as Many as 5 Million Lives in India
The number of deaths was most likely to be 14.9 million, the WHO said, though it could have been as low as 13.3 million or as high as 16.6 million. Many deaths occurred as the pandemic overwhelmed health systems, hampering access to treatment for other health conditions, the report said. Men accounted for 57% for the deaths, and most were among people over 60.
“Measurement of excess mortality is an essential component to understand the impact of the pandemic,” Samira Asma, assistant director for data, analytics and delivery at the WHO, said in the statement. “Because of limited investments in data systems in many countries, the true extent of excess mortality often remains hidden.”
India provided estimates for 2020 deaths in recent days and the WHO is continuing consultations with the government on the matter, Asma said. The WHO plans to update its estimate as more data emerge and the next update will include more Indian data, she said.
Covid surpassed tuberculosis as the biggest infectious-disease killer in the world. The lung illness killed 1.5 million people in 2020, according to the WHO. Seasonal flu kills from 290,000 to 650,000 people each year, according to the agency.
(Updates with estimate of direct Covid deaths in fifth paragraph)
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(Bloomberg) — An arm of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. led a $175 million equity funding round for Material Bank, Chief Executive Officer Adam Sandow said in an interview.
New and existing investors including Fifth Wall also participated, he said. The round values the design materials marketplace at almost $1.9 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The transaction, by Brookfield Growth, marks an almost doubling of the $975 million valuation that the Boca Raton, Florida-based startup reached last April, according to data compiled by PitchBook. At the time, the company said it raised $100 million from investors led by General Catalyst and Henry Ellenbogen’s Durable Capital Partners, with participation from Bond, Lead Edge Capital, Bain Capital Ventures and Raine Ventures.
Material Bank operates a marketplace for sampling of architectural, design and construction materials, such as paints and wood panelings, with next-day delivery. While the platform is free to use for design professionals, Material Bank earns revenue by charging its brand partners, and expects to eclipse $100 million in revenue by the end of 2022.
“Material Bank is reinventing the way in which architects, designers and corporate users search and sample,” said Josh Raffaelli, a managing partner at Brookfield. “This instantly connects hundreds of suppliers with target customers and streamlines a historically lengthy selection process. As one of the largest developers in the world, Brookfield is a proponent for standardizing the sampling and specification process to build beautiful spaces in a sustainable and efficient manner.”
The funding will be spent in part on developing new tools, fueling international expansion — initially in Europe — and for strategic acquisitions, Sandow said. Already, it has snapped up U.K. procurement platform Clippings and software-development company Amber Engine.
“As we enter an uncertain economy, it’s important to have a fortress balance sheet,” said Sandow, adding that the fresh funding will also be used to further automate Material Bank’s logistics center in Memphis, Tennessee. The center provides next-day delivery of material samples in a single box, an effort that the startup says promotes sustainability and decreases packaging waste.
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(Bloomberg) — MaxLinear Inc., a maker of chips for broadband communications, agreed to acquire Silicon Motion Technology Corp. in a cash-and-stock deal valuing the Taiwanese semiconductor firm at $3.8 billion.
Carlsbad, California-based MaxLinear is offering the equivalent of $114.34 for each of Silicon Motion’s American depositary shares, the companies said in a statement Thursday. The proposal includes $93.54 in cash and 0.388 MaxLinear shares. Bloomberg News reported earlier that MaxLinear was in talks to acquire the company.
The bid represents a 48% premium to Silicon Motion’s closing price on April 22, the last trading day before Bloomberg News first reported the company was exploring a sale. The deal will create a company valued at about $8 billion including debt, according to the statement.
Silicon Motion’s American depositary shares jumped as much as 30% in pre-market trading Thursday in New York.
Silicon Motion makes NAND flash controllers for solid-state storage devices. It also supplies data center and specialized industrial and automotive solid-state drives. The company had also attracted interest from Taiwan-based MediaTek Inc., people with knowledge of the matter have said.
The acquisition will be the largest to date for MaxLinear, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. MaxLinear shareholders will own about 86% of the combined company, it said in the statement. The deal is expected to close by the first half of 2023, subject to regulatory clearance and approval of Silicon Motion investors.
The transaction will generate annual run-rate synergies of about $100 million within 18 months after closing and provide an immediate material boost to MaxLinear’s earnings per share and cash flow, according to the statement.
Bank of Montreal was exclusive financial adviser to MaxLinear, while Wells Fargo & Co. is providing committed debt financing. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. acted as exclusive financial adviser to Silicon Motion.
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(Bloomberg) — Spain’s Economy Minister Nadia Calvino, who is also deputy prime minister, criticized an unnamed utility for not disclosing information needed to gauge inflation.
“There is one electricity company that hasn’t delivered the data” that has been requested for months by the national statistics agency, Calvino said in an interview with state-owned radio broadcaster RNE Thursday, declining to identify the firm.
The statistics agency is reviewing the way it accounts for energy prices in its inflation estimates, particularly the outsize impact of natural gas on the forecasts. Spain, along with Portugal, is working on a plan to cap gas prices used for power generation to contain the surge in electricity costs and, consequently, inflation.
The government has already been in touch with the Spanish competition authority, which is “studying any behavior that may be blocking a decrease in power prices,” Calvino said.
Read more: Spain Is Working on Details of Plan to Cap Natural Gas Price
A number of utility executives and industry groups have in recent weeks criticized the government’s plan to cap gas prices, a move that has been approved by the European Union. The stand-off is the latest in a series of tussles that started last year, when the government unsuccessfully tried to clamp down on the windfall profits utilities made from soaring energy prices.
One of the most vocal critics of the government moves, both last year and with the gas caps this year, has been Ignacio Galan, chairman of Iberdrola SA, the country’s largest utility and a global leader in clean-energy generation. Like other critics, Galan argues that setting a cap for gas only in Spain and Portugal will hurt Europe’s single power market and set a precedent for other countries to do the same.
Currently, the price of power traded on the Spanish wholesale market is set by the most expensive type of energy of the day, which is currently gas.
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(Bloomberg) — Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal gave a strong endorsement for Elon Musk’s bid for Twitter Inc. after last month questioning the Tesla Inc. billionaire’s proposed takeover.
“I believe you will be an excellent leader for @Twitter to propel & maximise its great potential,” Prince Alwaleed tweeted. “@Kingdom_KHC & I look forward to roll our ~$1.9bn in the “new” @Twitter and join you on this exciting journey”.
The prince, one of the richest individuals in Saudi Arabia, last month said Musk’s bid to acquire Twitter for $54.20 per share doesn’t “come close to the intrinsic value” of the popular social media platform.
Alwaleed, chairman of the board at Kingdom Holding Co. and one of Twitter’s largest backers, has now agreed to roll over his current investment.
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(Bloomberg) — Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is seeking to boost his media investments in an ambitious expansion plan, according to people familiar with the matter, as he diversifies his conglomerate from its shipping and coal-mining roots.
The Adani group is exploring buying stakes in some local television and print news outlets while a few have approached the conglomerate also to study potential deals, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Deliberations are preliminary and there’s no certainty they will result in a transaction, the people said.
A representative for the Adani group declined to comment.
Media is the latest frontier for Adani, 59, in a simmering rivalry with compatriot Mukesh Ambani, 65, as the two compete to dominate India’s $2.7 trillion economy. Just weeks ago, the younger tycoon dethroned the latter as Asia’s richest man. Like Ambani, who expanded from oil refining and petrochemicals into telecommunications, retail, technology and media, Adani is also widening his footprint by adding airports, data centers and other businesses to his empire. Both have unveiled a combined investment of about $146 billion in green energy over the next few decades.
Just last month, Adani Enterprises Ltd. established AMG Media Networks, an arm it said would be in the business of “publishing, advertising, broadcasting, distribution of content over different types of media networks.” In March, Adani Media Ventures Ltd. agreed to buy a stake in Quintillion Business Media Pvt., according to a statement. Quintillion was an Indian partner of Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News.
Adani Enterprises’s shares have surged almost 32% this year while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex has slipped 4.4%, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The Adani Group will focus on acquisitions to expand rapidly rather than starting outlets from the ground up, the people said. While approaching prospective targets, it has offered to remain a financial investor and refrain from interfering in the editorial decisions of the organizations, two of the people said. The conglomerate hired Sanjay Pugalia last year to head Adani Media Ventures as it sharpened the focus on the sector.
Scaling up the business will give Adani a meaningful presence in an industry where Ambani has already made his mark through his Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. The Adani conglomerate is interested in media assets with the right fit, no matter the size, one person said.
Adani’s foray into the nation’s media space also heats up the race for a market of almost 1.4 billion people, which is already crowded with domestic and global giants ranging from Sony Group Corp. to Netflix Inc. and James Murdoch.
Sony will be combining with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., a local network founded by Subhash Chandra, to create a $10 billion giant by the end of 2022. In April, a firm set up by Murdoch and a former executive of the Walt Disney Co. announced a plan to invest $1.8 billion in a venture backed by Ambani.
The net worth of Adani, a shy first-generation entrepreneur, is about $118 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, while Ambani’s fortune is pegged at $100 billion.
(Updates with Adani Enterprises shares in the sixth paragraph.)
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(Bloomberg) — Fanatics Inc. has added two new board members as it looks for acquisitions and expands beyond its core business of sports merchandise.
The company is bringing on Lydia Jett, who is head of global e-commerce at SoftBank Investment Advisers and the first woman to be a managing partner at the firm’s private equity fund. SoftBank first invested in Fanatics in 2017.
Jonathan Mildenhall, a former Airbnb Inc. chief marketing officer who now runs a marketing consultancy, will also join the Fanatics board. He joins several other independent members on the 11-person board, including Gerald Storch, a former Hudson’s Bay Co. chief executive officer; former WW International Inc. CEO Mindy Grossman; and NBA legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, who now runs an investment firm.
“The deep expertise and insight that Lydia and Jonathan both bring to the board will be vital,” Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin said in a statement. Both will focus on “uncovering and amplifying opportunities” for growth.
Rubin has widened operations from the company’s origins in licensed sportswear and collectibles, shaking up the trading-card industry by acquiring Topps Co. and working its way into sports betting.
Fanatics is seen as a possible IPO candidate and was last valued at $27 billion in March, when the company raised $1.5 billion in funding. Rubin said in April that the company would use the fresh capital to seek more deals.
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