FT's Peter Campbell (left), founder and CEO of Redwood Materials JB Straubel (middle), Tesla CEO Elon Musk (right) During an appearance at the Financial Times Future of the Car Summit on Tuesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he would reverse Twitter’s decision to permanently ban former President Donald Trump. Musk made the statements as he discussed changes he would make to the social media platform if his buyout offer is successful. Musk called Twitter’s decision to remove Trump from the platform following the Jan. 6 riots a mistake. More: - Musk said he had spoken to Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey, who agreed that the platform should not have permanent bans for users who violate its content policies.
- Musk added that by removing Trump from the platform, Twitter alienated a large part of the country.
- Musk noted that Trump’s removal from Twitter did not end Trump’s voice; it only amplified it among the right. He described the action as “morally wrong and outright stupid.”
- Musk also said it would be important to reduce what he called Twitter’s left-leaning bias as it fails to build trust in parts of the U.S. and the world.
- Musk also discussed Tesla’s early founding and shared his thoughts on flying cars.
Zoom out: - Last month following news of Musk's Twitter buyout offer, Trump said he would not return to Twitter even if his ban were lifted.
- Trump launched his own social media platform called Truth Social in February.
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Tiger Global has lost roughly $17B so far this year during the market sell-off. According to LCH Investments, the losses have wiped out about two-thirds of the hedge fund’s gains since its launch in 2001, marking one of the biggest dollar declines for a hedge fund in history. More: - The fund made $10.4B in gains, or a return of 48% for investors, in 2020 on big bets on fast-growing tech companies.
- By the end of 2020, the fund had brought in a record $26.5B since its launch.
- Tiger’s hedge fund lost about 43% in the first four months of this year.
- Tiger Global was founded by Chase Coleman, one of the “Tiger cubs” who had worked for investor Julian Robertson in the late 1990s.
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Actors Zendaya and Tom Holland in 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' | Matt Kennedy/Sony Pictures Sony Group released its earnings for its fiscal year 2021 ended March 31, 2022, reporting a significant jump in operating income for its Sony Pictures Entertainment unit. The Japanese conglomerate reported total revenue of 9.92T yen ($76B), up 10% YoY. Operating income came in at 1.2T yen ($9.2B), up 26% YoY, and net income was 705B yen ($5.41B), down 14% YoY. More: - Sony Pictures generated 1.24T yen ($9.5B) in revenues, up 55% YoY.
- Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home grossed $1.89B in worldwide box office sales.
- Operating income was 217.4B yen ($1.67B), up over 170% YoY.
- Sony Games and Network Services unit, which houses its PlayStation gaming console, reported 2.74T yen (~$21B), up 3% YoY.
- Sony sold 11.5 million units of its PlayStation 5 console in the fiscal year, up from 7.8 million units sold the previous year.
- Sony Music generated 1.1T yen ($8.6B), up 19% YoY.
- The company plans to buy back 200B yen ($1.54B) worth of shares between May 2022 and May 2023.
- Sony shares closed at $82.10 on Tuesday, up ~1.6% for the day.
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Nintendo announced a 10-for-1 stock split on Tuesday. The Japanese video game company is behind popular games like Super Mario Bros., Donkey Kong, and the Switch game console. Nintendo shareholders will receive nine additional shares for each one they hold. The stock split will occur on Oct. 1. Nintendo’s NTDOF ADR closed at $430.80 on Tuesday, up ~1.4% for the day. More: - The company said it expects a 29% YoY decline in net profit for the current fiscal year citing supply chain issues due to the ongoing global chip shortage.
- Nintendo expects to sell about 21 million Switch consoles for the current fiscal year ending March 2023, down from 23 million units sold in the previous year.
- The company is projecting a 6% drop in total revenue for the fiscal year.
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A message from EQUITYBEE What would you do if your workplace gave you the option to trade your year-end bonus for extra untraded stocks? That’s what happened at ByteDance (TikTok’s parent company) last month. While we don’t know if employees danced when hearing the news (excuse the pun), understanding your employee stock options and what you can do with them is important for any startup employee with an options grant. Equitybee helps you understand your options and find out if you’re a good fit to receive funding in order to exercise them. Get a free funding offer | |
Image Credit: Peloton Peloton shares fell over 10% on Tuesday morning following its Q3 FY 2022 earnings report. The company reported a significant drop in sales, citing a drop in consumer demand as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes. Its connected fitness products, including its bikes and treadmills, brought in $594.4M in revenue, down ~42% YoY. Its Subscription revenue was $369.9M, up 54.5% YoY. Total revenue was $964.3M, down 23.6% YoY. More: - Net loss widened to $757.1M, or $2.27 a share, from $8.6M reported at the same time last year.
- CEO Barry McCarthy said the company’s excess inventory forced it to rethink its capital structure.
- Peloton reported $879M in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents for Q3.
- McCarthy said the company is focused on stabilizing its cash flow. He is confident Peloton will return to cash flow positive by fiscal 2023, regardless of what happens in the economy.
- Peloton recently signed a binding commitment letter with JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs to borrow $750M in five-year term debt.
- The company is exploring different ways to grow revenue, including testing a new pricing model where customers pay a single monthly fee for the exercise equipment and access to Peloton’s on-demand fitness classes.
- Peloton ended the quarter with 2.96 million connected fitness subscribers.
- Peloton shares closed at $12.90 on Tuesday, down 8.7% for the day.
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Pfizer has agreed to buy biotech firm Biohaven Pharmaceuticals for $11.6B. Pfizer will pay $148.50 per share for the company, a 78% premium on Biohaven’s closing price on Monday. This is Pfizer’s largest acquisition since it purchased Medivation for $14.3B in 2016. More: - Biohaven was founded in 2013; it specializes in medications that target neurological diseases and rare disorders.
- Biohaven is the maker of migraine medication Nurtec ODT, Rimegepant, and intranasal migraine therapy Zavegepant.
- As part of the deal, Biohaven shareholders will receive 0.5 shares of the new public company that will be created called New Biohaven for each share of Biohaven they currently own.
- Last year, Pfizer bought a 2.6% stake in Biohaven for $350M.
- Shares of Biohaven jumped almost 70% on Tuesday following news of the acquisition.
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The original iPod, introduced on October 23, 2001. | Image Credit: Apple Quick Hits - From 5x to 10x, VC growth stage revenue multiples have doubled in the past year, according to the 2022 Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Report.*
- Andy Warhol’s 1964 pop-art portrait of Marilyn Monroe called “Shot Sage Blue Marilyn” sold for $195M at Christie’s auction in New York on Monday, setting a new record for U.S. artwork at auction.
- Citadel founder Ken Griffin placed the $8M winning bid in an auction on Monday for a seat on a spaceflight with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Blue Origin donated the two seats as part of a “buy one, give one” charity auction for the Robin Hood Foundation. Griffin donated the seats to two New York City educators.
- Apple is discontinuing the iPod touch, the last version of the portable music player. Apple launched the first iPod more than two decades ago on Oct. 23, 2001. It revolutionized the MP3 player market with its 1,000-song capacity and 10-hour battery life. Over the years, the company introduced various versions of the device, including the iPod nano and the iPod touch, which would eventually lead to the launch of Apple’s iPhone.
- NFL star quarterback Tom Brady will join Fox Sports as lead NFL game day analyst whenever he chooses to retire. Earlier this year, Brady announced he was retiring but changed his mind 40 days later.
- Same old marketing automation not cutting it these days? Get our eBook and power up your customer experiences.*
*This is a sponsored post. | |
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| | Vanessa Omeokachie is a Researcher at Inside. Her interests include finance, tech, and startups. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending music festivals, and traveling. Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or through email at vanessa@inside.com | | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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