Cynical-C

Oh Elon….

Elon Musk can’t just walk away from his deal to acquire Twitter by paying an agreed-upon $1 billion breakup fee. It’s not that simple.

Musk tweeted Friday that he has decided to put his acquisition of Twitter “on hold” as he researches whether the amount of fake/spam accounts on Twitter is actually just 5%, as the company has long claimed.

He followed that tweet with another reiterating that he is still committed to the acquisition.

But he risks a lawsuit from Twitter for breach of contract that could cost the world’s wealthiest person many billions of dollars.
More than a breakup fee

Musk and Twitter agreed to a so-called reverse termination fee of $1 billion when the two sides reached a deal last month. Still, the breakup fee isn’t an option payment that allows Musk to bail without consequence.

A reverse breakup fee paid from a buyer to a target applies when there is an outside reason a deal can’t close, such as regulatory intermediation or third-party financing concerns. A buyer can also walk if there’s fraud, assuming the discovery of incorrect information has a so-called “material adverse effect.” A market dip, like the current sell-off that has caused Twitter to lose more than $9 billion in market cap, wouldn’t count as a valid reason for Musk to cut loose — breakup fee or no breakup fee — according to a senior M&A lawyer familiar with the matter.

Probably the best thing I have done over the past year was to delete my facebook account and remove twitter from my phone. I still have a Twitter account that’s tied to this blog (posts from here get an automatic tweet) but I rarely look at the timeline. I used to think that my Instagram feed was just fairly innocuous food and travel photos but I’m being fed so many ads now that I think I may just abandon that also.

The algorithms are just designed to make you outraged and keep you clicking. And they are so addictive. I realized that I could actually not check Twitter and not being “in the know” on every topic is liberating. So this study isn’t too surprising at all.

The present study aimed to understand the effects of a 1-week break from social media (SM) (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok) on well-being, depression, and anxiety compared with using SM as usual. We also aimed to understand whether time spent on different SM platforms mediates the relationship between SM cessation and well-being, depression, and anxiety. We randomly allocated 154 participants (mean age of 29.6 years) to either stop using SM (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok) for 1 week or continue to use SM as usual. At a 1-week follow-up, significant between-group differences in well-being (mean difference [MD] 4.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.0–6.8), depression (MD ?2.2, 95% CI ?3.3 to ?1.1), and anxiety (MD ?1.7, 95% CI ?2.8 to ?0.6) in favor of the intervention group were observed, after controlling for baseline scores, age, and gender. The intervention effect on well-being was partially mediated by a reduction in total weekly self-reported minutes on SM. The intervention effect on depression and anxiety was partially mediated by a reduction in total weekly self-reported minutes on Twitter and TikTok, and TikTok alone, respectively. The present study shows that asking people to stop using SM for 1 week leads to significant improvements in well-being, depression, and anxiety. Future research should extend this to clinical populations and examine effects over the longer term.

Elon Musk

I was on vacation last week so I am catching up on some of the news and I am shocked, shocked, that the world’s richest man, who has decided to use his influence to be the world’s biggest troll, is doing everything he can to soak up attention. (No, he won’t end up buying it, but he’ll squeeze every bit of attention he can out of it and part of that will be playing around with the intrigue of him bringing Trump back. This was just about attention, not about actually doing any work.)

Musk, the world’s richest person, decided to waive due diligence when he agreed to buy Twitter on April 25, in an effort to get the San Francisco-based company to accept his “best and final offer.” This could make it harder for him to argue that Twitter somehow misled him.

Since Musk inked his deal to acquire Twitter, technology stocks have plunged amid investor concerns over inflation and a potential economic slowdown.

The spread between the offer price and the value of Twitter shares had widened in recent days, implying less than a 50% chance of completion, as investors speculated that the downturn would prompt Musk to walk away or seek a lower price. read more

“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” Musk told his more than 92 million Twitter followers.

BREAKING: President Joe Biden says the “stability of our law” requires that the Supreme Court doesn’t overrule Roe v. Wade and that he will work to codify the right to abortion following an apparent leak from the high court. https://t.co/jo63ev57lG

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 3, 2022

May be a good day to think about doing away with the filibuster first?

I remember late 2016 having to defend why I was voting for “that woman” for President, not to conservatives, but to many liberals who were outraged at how Bernie was treated by the DNC (despite Bernie himself, not being a Democrat). “Yes, well, the alternative is Trump. Historically, most of my votes have not gone to my preferred candidate, but to the candidate who is not the worst case scenario who may get the chance to put in one or two Justices that would completely fuck everything up.” I didn’t expect Trump to get 3 picks to really solidify his fascist legacy. But here we are.

(Also, at the time of her death, a lot of people were defending RBG’s decision to not retire during Obama’s term. Yes, she was a great woman in every respect. And she done fucked up something special in trying to extend her term for as long as she did.)

The Supreme Court has voted to strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, according to an initial draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito circulated inside the court and obtained by POLITICO.

The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito writes.

A lot of women are going to pay a terrible price now. There’s something fundamentally wrong with a country who cares more about gun rights than the rights of women (and the LGBTQ community, and people of color. Because, we all know what will be the next targets for this monstrous court and political party.)

Insert Popcorn Gif Here:

April 26 (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) lost $126 billion in value on Tuesday amid investor concerns that Chief Executive Elon Musk may have to sell shares to fund his $21 billion equity contribution to his $44 billion buyout of Twitter Inc (TWTR.N).

Tesla is not involved in the Twitter deal, yet its shares have been targeted by speculators after Musk declined to disclose publicly where his cash for the acquisition is coming from. The 12.2% drop in Tesla’s shares on Tuesday equated to a $21 billion drop in the value of his Tesla stake, the same as the $21 billion in cash he committed to the Twitter deal.

Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives said that worries about upcoming stock sales by Musk and the possibility that he is becoming distracted by Twitter weighed on Tesla shares. “This (is) causing a bear festival on the name,” he said.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

So the TL:DR version. DeSantis wanting to punish Disney for not bending the knee to his shitty anti-LGBTQ laws will hurt his own state.

Getting rid of Disney World’s government isn’t likely going to hurt the Mouse, Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in a new research note published Tuesday.

“We don’t see a material negative outcome from this situation for Disney; and financially speaking, we think it could end up being a positive development,” analysts Bryan Kraft, Benjamin Soff and Connor Murphy wrote.

Last week, the Legislature voted to eliminate the special tax district which allows Disney’s government to provide its own roads, utilities, fire services and other infrastructure needs at the massive theme parks and resorts. Reedy Creek is set to be eliminated by June 2023.

State Republicans wanted to punish Disney after company CEO Bob Chapek voiced opposition to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education measure, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by critics. Disney also announced the company was pausing campaign donations in Florida. Chapek was already under pressure from the Left and LGBTQ+ activists for not speaking out against the controversial bill sooner.

Now, Orange County property owners could face tax increases of 15% to 20% on average, and the county would need to absorb Reedy Creek’s financial obligations, including a $1 billion bond, the note said.