What You Need To Know This Week — October 26th, 2019
What You Need To Know This Week
A weekly recap to keep you informed on the most important events this week impacting markets, business, tech and the global economy.
SOFTBANK BAILS OUT NEAR-BANKRUPT WEWORK AS ITS VALUATION TUMBLES FROM $47 BILLION TO $8 BILLION
SoftBank, the Japanese conglomerate and manager of the $100 billion Vision Fund, has agreed to fund a $9.5 billion bailout of struggling co-working startup WeWork. The bailout package values the company at $8 billion, an -83% drop from its last funding round. Adam Neumann, the company’s co-founder and former CEO, will exit with a $1.7 billion windfall.
HUDSON’S BAY STRIKES A FRIENDLY GO-PRIVATE DEAL AS INSIDERS BUMP THEIR BID BY 9%
The board of directors at Hudson’s Bay Company have agreed to a friendly acquisition by a group led by its Chairman Richard Baker at a price of $10.30 per share. The $1.9 billion deal is a slight improvement to the group’s first unsolicited $9.45 offer. The offer remains subject to the approval of minority shareholders, who have been unwelcoming of the takeover attempt.
PENSION FUNDS ACQUIRE ALTAGAS CANADA FOR $1.7 BILLION, MORE THAN DOUBLE THE IPO PRICE A YEAR AGO
Two Canadian pension funds, Public Sector Pension Investment Board and Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund Board, are teaming up to buy infrastructure company AltaGas Canada. The $1.7 billion deal, inclusive of debt, was struck at $33.50 cash, representing a premium of 31.4% and over double its IPO price last year.
Recommended Articles, Podcasts, Books and Tweets
“A culture is not a set of beliefs, it’s a set of actions.” Listen to venture capitalist Ben Horowitz on how to build company culture on the Tim Ferriss Show.
Google has built a quantum computer that has performed a computation in 200 seconds that would take the fastest supercomputers 10,000 years.
Twitter stock plunged -20% after its quarterly revenue came in below investor expectations. The company blamed the underperformance on problems with its advertising platform.
Amazon shares declined as much as -9% as it suffered a drop in third quarter operating income,
Tesla shares rose 20% after the electric care maker reported an unexpected quarterly profit. Shortsellers betting gainst the stock lost $1.5 billion on the day.
The European Central Bank stated it intends to keep interest rates at record lows until inflation perks up to near 2%.
“Advisors are most focused on providing their clients with downside risk protection (57%) and portfolio diversification (55%) — objectives in which alternative investments can play an important role.”
Merger arbitrage funds deliver 0.43% of alpha on average, but the level of alpha ebbs and flows with total capital committed to the strategy.
The rise and fall of Neil Woodford, the last of a breed of human stockpickers.
RS Energy found success in the oil patch by drilling for data instead of oil.
Calgary-based benefits startup Benevity raised $40 million in venture capital funding.
Odd-lot trades (trades for fewer than 100 shares) account for nearly 50% of U.S. equity trading, up from less than 20% five years ago.
-The Accelerate Team
