Good morning. Elon Musk proposed — and Twitter said yes. Today we're breaking down how it all unfolded.
Here we go.
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1. Elon Musk's Twitter takeover is official. The company finalized a deal with the Tesla CEO Monday, less than two weeks after the billionaire unveiled his $43 billion bid.
The official price tag for Twitter comes out to $54.20 per share, or about $44 billion. It is the biggest social media deal since Microsoft bought LinkedIn in 2016.
As news of the deal trickled out Monday, Digital World Acquisition Corp., the SPAC planning to merge with former President Trump's social media company, fell 15%. Under Musk's leadership, the "free speech" focused Truth Social could be less appealing to investors and users.
Meanwhile, dogecoin spiked as much as 26% late in the day, as speculation leading up to the Twitter deal included the possibility that Musk could incorporate dogecoin into the platform somehow.
On April 14, when Musk first made the offer, it wasn't clear how he'd pay for it, and Twitter implemented a "poison pill" to block the acquisition. In the past week, however, the board warmed to the offer as Musk secured funds and opened the door for negotiations.
In a statement, Musk said his vision for Twitter includes:
- Adding new features to enhance the product;
- Make the Twitter algorithms open source;
- "Defeat" spam bots;
- Authenticate all human users.
In other news:
2. Global shares are looking a little steadier today. Investors are going into this week's Big Tech earnings on a slightly less pessimistic footing. Take a look at what's happening on markets today.
3. Earnings on deck: 3M co, Alphabet Inc, and JetBlue Airways, all reporting.
4. Check out Insider's guide to the Metaverse. Our reporters cover how to play, how to make money, and where to party across the most popular virtual worlds. See our best recommendations.
5. The stock market is poised to rebound this week, according to JPMorgan's quant guru. To position for upside in the stock market, Marko Kolanovic recommends investors take a barbell approach to their portfolio. Here's what you want to know.
6. Tech stocks are facing a "perfect storm" as competition ramps up. The era of cheap debt-fueled growth is coming to an end, Bank of America analysts said. Tech companies are set to face big challenges ahead, and steeper costs for growing their businesses.
7. Beijing is moving to halt the yuan's slide as China's currency hit a 17-month low against the dollar. Financial institutions in China will soon be able to lower the required ratio of foreign-currency holdings as a way to curb the plunging yuan. Last week, a top China official had said the yuan was basically "stable."
8. Jefferies recommended buying these stocks to get solid growth at safe prices before earnings reports give them an extra boost of returns. This batch of companies, according to strategist Steven DeSanctis, is based on stock momentum, earnings, and reasonable prices. See his 20 stock picks.
9. Home asking prices appear to be returning back to earth in many major metro areas despite record-low inventory. That could signal overvaluation, or sellers trying to time the market. Here are the 15 cities seeing the biggest price cuts — and why it could signal the top of the market.
10. Earnings season shows that companies are raking in massive profits. And that suggests the economy may not be barreling toward a recession, as some predict. Here are two other charts that show the current strength of the US economic recovery.
Sponsored event invite: Join PayPal and best-selling author David Allison on Tuesday, May 3, at noon ET, to learn how values impact consumer expectations — and how to leverage them. Register here.
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Curated by Phil Rosen in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email prosen@insider.com or tweet @philrosenn.)