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Twitter users vote for Elon Musk to step down from his role as the head of social platform

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

Twitter Inc. users voted for Elon Musk to step down from his role as head of the social platform in a poll the billionaire entrepreneur said he would respect, potentially leaving the company devoid of senior leadership.

About 58% of the 17.5 million votes cast were in favour of Musk stepping back from the leadership role. If Musk heeds the results, it would mark the end of 53 chaotic days at the helm, which has involved dismissing top executives, eliminating roughly half of its employees and spooking advertisers.

Musk, who’s also chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has dedicated much of his time since acquiring Twitter on Oct. 27 to the social media service, drawing criticism for his abrupt policy changes and neglect of his other businesses. The stock of Tesla, his most valuable holding, has sunk by about a third since the acquisition.

It is not the first time Musk has put major corporate decisions to Twitter users. He recently conducted a poll of his followers on whether to reinstate Donald Trump’s Twitter account, and allowed him back the following day.

There is no clear replacement at Twitter, with almost all of the top rank executives having been fired or resigned over the past few months. Musk added in later tweets that “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor,” and “and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May.”The threat that Twitter might veer into financial difficulties has been constant during Musk’s tenure, who in his first address to employees in November said bankruptcy was a possibility if it doesn’t start generating more cash. The company has almost $13 billion of debt that’s now in the hands of seven Wall Street banks that have been unable to offload it to investors.

Musk was in Qatar to watch the World Cup final match between Argentina and France and tweeted out his poll after the game’s conclusion. The billionaire has been looking for new investors at $54.20 a share, the same price he paid when he took the company private for $44 billion in October.Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud is the second largest investor in Twitter behind Musk, while the Qatar Investment Authority invested $375 million in the social media platform.

Musk originally agreed to acquire Twitter in April but then spent months trying unsuccessfully to get out of the deal. After taking the top role, he indicated that he’d only be in charge of Twitter for a limited time to complete the organizational overhaul he thought it needed to prosper, and complained of having “too much work” and sleeping at Twitter’s San Francisco office while enforcing his radical changes.

Tesla shares gained 4.8% in US premarket trading on Monday. Shares in the carmaker have slumped 57% this year amid concerns the chaotic takeover of Twitter has distracted Musk from the firm that propelled him to the richest person in the world — a title he lost last week to luxury titan Bernard Arnault.

SOURCE: News 24

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AgricultureBusinessEconomyFood ProductionKenya NewsUncategorized

Former Jumia Executives launches a New E-Commerce Platform

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

 Former Jumia Kenya figureheads have formally launched a new e-commerce platform dubbed, Kapu, that will help consumers cut spend on their everyday groceries.

Kapu’s model is designed to allow customers to buy products in the quantities they want offering a larger range than a kiosk.

The platform will offer a variety of products including quality fresh produce from Kenyan farms, at wholesale prices.

Goods will then be delivered for free the next day, to a Kapu Agent collection center near their homes. “We think it’s unfair that consumers in Kenya spend 40 per cent of their income on food, when Americans spend 6 per cent. This is a huge blocker to social mobility. Our goal at Kapu is to build the most relevant model of e-commerce for the majority of urban consumers in Africa,” said Kapu CEO Sam Chappatte.

Kapu’s model relies on reducing the cost burden on consumers by sourcing products directly from manufacturers and farms. With a large range, buyers get to choose what they need and in the quantity that suits their pockets.

ALSO READ: Cost Of Exporting Fresh And Dry Produces Drops 62 Per Cent

Through the platform, customers can access lower prices if they place the order as a group. “By working with existing community groups and local entrepreneurs, we believe we can play a part in reducing the costs of goods, and unlocking opportunities for millions of people,” said Chappatte.

Kapu agents include mama mbogas, salons, and individuals such as stay-at-home-mums and students, who are able to earn an extra income – whilst helping their communities save more.

Customers who want to try the service can dial *789*8# to register and get Sh50 cash back on their first order. Once registered, they can place an order with a KAPU-branded agent in their neighborhood.

SOURCE: Capital business

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Global NewsSpotlightTrending TodayUncategorized

Twitter defeats Musk with trial fixed for October.

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

Twitter was in a bid to fast-track its lawsuit against Tesla CEO Elon Musk over his buyout of the social media platform Twitter at a $44 billion deal. 

Kathaleen St. J. McCormick, Delaware Chancery Court Chief Judge on Tuesday ruled that a five-day trial should take place in October. The decision wan early victory for Twitter, in a case in which many legal experts have said Musk will be an underdog. 

Lawyers for San Francisco-based Twitter had said they needed only four days to prove the world’s richest person must honor his agreement and pay $54.20 a share for the company. Twitter filed suit last week, requesting a Sept. 19 start for the non-jury trial.  

In Tuesday’s hearing, held remotely to accommodate the judge’s case of Covid, a lawyer for Twitter argued that Musk was “contractually obligated to use his best efforts to close deal.” Instead, he is “doing the exact opposite,” attorney William Savitt told the judge. “He’s engaging in sabotage.” 

Under the buyout agreement, Musk is obligated to finalize the deal within two days of all the closing conditions being met, Savitt said. Those conditions will be met in early September, he said. 

“Mr. Musk has no intention of keeping any of his promises,” the lawyer said.

The judge said that in asking for a February trial, Musk’s lawyers “underestimate the ability of this court to quickly process” complex legal disputes over merger-and- acquisition cases.

The dispute over the teetering transaction is “creating a cloud of uncertainty” over Twitter that is harming the company, McCormick concluded after hearing arguments on whether the case should be fast-tracked.

Twitter shares jumped as much as 5.4% after the ruling. They were trading at $39.63, up 3.2%, at 1:56 p.m. in New York. From the day Musk tweeted that the deal was “on hold” in mid-May, the stock had fallen as much as 22%. It hasn’t traded near the deal price since the first two weeks after the acquisition was announced.

‘Warp speed’

Musk’s legal team has said Twitter was unfairly pushing for a ”warp speed” trial. Musk said Twitter violated the terms of the buyout deal by not turning over detailed information about so-called spam bot accounts within its system. The case requires a “forensic review and analysis of large swaths of data” about the bots along with other legal issues, Musk’s lawyers said in the filing, seeking a trial date in February or later. 

In the hearing Tuesday, Andrew Rossman, a lawyer for Musk, argued there was no need to rush a trial to meet an October deadline specified in the deal. The important date is when the financing commitments for the purchase expire, near the end of April of next year, he told the judge. A February trial would give the court enough time to decide the case and leave room for an appeal, Rossman said.

“The idea of running this case in 60 days” was “extraordinary,” he said of Twitter’s proposed Sept. 19 trial start. “It’s a preposterous time frame.”

Rossman rejected Twitter’s assertion that Musk is trying to run out the clock so the financing commitments lapse. His client “continued to use his best efforts to do the deal” by lining up financing and having his lawyers stay in communication with Twitter on the details right up to the day the company filed suit, he said.

“Mr. Musk has no motivation to harm Twitter,” given that he’s its second-largest shareholder, Rossman said.

In the end, he failed to persuade McCormick to deny Twitter an expedited schedule.

Chancery judges in Delaware – the corporate home to more than half of U.S. public companies – are known for being able to parse legal thickets of complex merger-and-acquisition disputes more quickly than many other US courts. Unlike in some states where it can take several years to get a case to trial, Delaware Chancery Court generally moves quicker, with cases often argued within five or six months of being filed. 

Musk backed out of the deal to buy the platform on July 8, saying in a regulatory filing that Twitter had made “misleading representations” over the number of bot accounts. Twitter also hasn’t “complied with its contractual obligations” to provide information about how to assess how prevalent the bots are on the social media service, Musk said.

Twitter countered that Musk is asking for information that “does not exist, has already been provided, or is the subject of requests only made recently.” The billionaire “refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests,” Twitter said in its suit. 

Source: News 24

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Global NewsSpotlightTechnologyTelecommunicationsTrending Today

Elon Musk pulls out of $44 billion deal, Twitter vows legal fight.

by Radarr Africa
written by Radarr Africa

Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of Tesla and the world’s richest person, said on Friday he was terminating his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter because the social media company had breached multiple provisions of the merger agreement.

“The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk…,” Twitter’s chairman, Bret Taylor wrote.

In a filing, Musk’s lawyers said Twitter had failed or refused to respond to multiple requests for information on fake or spam accounts on the platform, which is fundamental to the company’s business performance.

“Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions of that Agreement, appears to have made false and misleading representations upon which Mr. Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement,” the filing said.

Musk also said he was walking away because Twitter fired high-ranking executives and one-third of the talent acquisition team, breaching Twitter’s obligation to “preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organization.”

LEGAL BATTLE

Musk’s decision is likely to result in a protracted legal tussle between the billionaire and the 16-year-old San Francisco-based company.

Disputed mergers and acquisitions that land in Delaware courts more often than not end up with the companies re-negotiating deals or the acquirer paying the target a settlement to walk away, rather than a judge ordering that a transaction be completed. That is because target companies are often keen to resolve the uncertainty around their future and move on.

Twitter, however, is hoping that court proceedings will start in a few weeks and be resolved in a few months, according to a person familiar with the matter.

There is plenty of precedent for a deal renegotiation. Several companies repriced agreed acquisitions when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020 and delivered a global economic shock.

In one instance, French retailer LVMH threatened to walk away from a deal with Tiffany & Co. The US jewelry retailer agreed to lower the acquisition price by $425 million to $15.8 billion.

“I’d say Twitter is well-positioned legally to argue that it provided him with all the necessary information and this is a pretext to looking for any excuse to get out of the deal,” said Ann Lipton, associate dean for faculty research at Tulane Law School.

Shares of Twitter were down 6% at $34.58 in extended trading. That is 36% below the $54.20 per share Musk agreed to buy Twitter for in April.

Twitter’s shares surged after Musk took a stake in the company in early April, shielding it from a deep stock market sell-off that slammed other social media platforms.

But after he agreed on April 25 to buy Twitter, the stock within a matter of days began to fall as investors speculated Musk might walk away from the deal. With its tumble after the bell on Friday, Twitter was trading at its lowest since March.

The announcement is another twist in a will-he-won’t-he saga after Musk clinched the deal to purchase Twitter in April but then put the buyout on hold until the social media company proved that spam bots account for less than 5% of its total users.

The contract calls for Musk to pay Twitter a $1 billion break-up if he cannot complete the deal for reasons such as the acquisition financing falling through or regulators blocking the deal. The break-up fee would not be applicable, however, if Musk terminates the deal on his own.

ALSO READ: Twitter stock drops by 4% after report says Elon Musk’s deal to buy company is in danger

Some employees expressed disbelief and exhaustion on Friday, publicly posting memes on Twitter, such as of a rollercoaster ride and a baby screaming into a phone, in apparent commentary on the breakup. Employees have worried about the deal will mean for their jobs, pay and ability to work remotely, and many have expressed skepticism about Musk’s plans to loosen content moderation.

DIGITAL AD WOES

Musk’s abandonment of the deal and Twitter’s promise to vigorously fight to complete it casts a pall of uncertainty over the company’s future and its stock price during a time when worries about rising interest rates and a potential recession have hammered Wall Street.

Shares of online advertising rivals Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Snap and Pinterest have seen their stocks tumble 45% on average in 2022, while Twitter’s stock has declined just 15% in that time, buoyed in recent months by the Musk deal.

Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush, said Musk’s filing was bad news for Twitter.

“This is a disaster scenario for Twitter and its Board as now the company will battle Musk in an elongated court battle to recoup the deal and/or the breakup fee of $1 billion at a minimum,” he wrote in a note to clients.

Source: News 24

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