In the reversal heard around the tech world on Monday, Elon Musk announced that he would not be joining Twitter’s Board of Directors after all. The social media company had extended the invite to Musk after news broke that he had amassed a 9.2% stake in Twitter. Neither Musk nor Twitter gave a reason for the about face, though it came after “Musk had been tweeting erratically throughout the weekend, polling his followers with barbed questions about the future of the social media company.” By opting out of Board service, Musk is free of the “standstill” agreement he signed last week that would have kept him from purchasing more than 14.9% of Twitter’s stock or trying to take over the company - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
Today’s coming CPI figures, which are expected to show still-booming inflation, were enough to preemptively send stocks down and bond yields up to start off the week of trading. Tech stocks led others down - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
Recent disclosures help give financial context to the groundswell of global companies that have decamped from Russia in the weeks since the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Energy companies and financial institutions appear to be leading the way in anticipated losses so far - NYTimes
Meanwhile, the Journal introduces us to Elvira Nabiullina, the Russian Central Bank governor now scrambling to keep the Russian economy afloat by undoing her previous eight years of work spent “modernizing Russian monetary policy and forging bonds with global markets” - WSJ
Epic Games, the “Fortnite” maker that recently battled Apple over its app store practices, just wrapped a $2B funding round involving Sony Group and Kirkbi A/S that values the company at some $31.5 billion. Epic says it will use the cash infusion to “advance the company’s aims to build the metaverse . . . and its continued growth” - WSJ and Bloomberg
Amazon has completed a $12.75 billion bond sale “for general corporate purposes that may include repaying debt as well as funding acquisitions and share buybacks in its first note sale in about a year” - Bloomberg
Federal prosecutors are pushing back against an effort by convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes’ “oral, nonbriefed motion for acquittal,” asserting that “the evidence presented at her criminal fraud trial ‘overwhelmingly’ supported a jury’s January conviction on four counts” – Law360
Remember that whole “states are the laboratories of democracy” lesson from social studies? Yeah, well that’s all fine and good in Mr. Johnson’s A.P. U.S. Government class, but in practice, it means that in the vacuum created by an absence of federal cryptocurrency regulations, an “emerging national strategy by the crypto industry” is working “state by state to engineer a more friendly legal system” mean to “clear the way for the continued explosive growth of cryptocurrency companies.” Truly, what could go wrong . . . - NYTimes
Fascinating weekend read from the Times on MacKenzie Scott’s massive fortune and her torrid pace of giving it away over the past year - NYTimes
On the emergence of “multistory mass-timber buildings,” which have boomed in popularity in the U.S. and around the world in recent years thanks to “potential environmental benefits,” lower building costs, and, well, that awesome forest smell - WSJ
Stay safe,
MDR
