Morgan Stanley: Last News

Twitter and Elon Musk are said to be close to clinching a sale of the social media giant to Elon Musk after the Tesla CEO came through with finanancing late last week.

Naman Ramachandran The 11-member Twitter board met on Sunday to consider billionaire Elon Musk’s $43 billion takeover offer for the social media company, according to reports.Musk “wooed many of the social media company’s shareholders with financing details on his $43 billion acquisition offer,” according to Reuters which quoted people familiar with the matter. “The company’s decision to engage with Musk… does not mean that it will accept his $54.20 per share bid,” according to Reuters.

Elon Musk is serious about that offer.

Elon Musk has assembled financial commitments worth $46.5 billion to buy Twitter and said he is considering a tender offer – or going over management’s head to make his bid directly to shareholders — “but has not determined whether to do so at this time.”

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorTech billionaire Elon Musk is moving forward with his potential bid to acquire Twitter, revealing that he has lined up $46.5 billion in financing for a possible tender offer for the company.The financing was disclosed in an SEC filing Thursday. Musk’s financing includes commitments from Morgan Stanley and “certain other financial institutions.”According to the filing, Musk has not yet determined whether he will make a tender offer for Twitter or whether he will take other steps to further the proposal.Last week, Musk — the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX who is the wealthiest person on the planet — proposed to buy Twitter for about $43 billion in a hostile takeover, offering $54.20 per share for the social media company.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefChinese TV producer Linmon Media has filed an application for an initial public offering in Hong Kong. It is the third time that the eight-year-old company has sought a stock market flotation.The heavily-redacted draft prospectus, sponsored by Morgan Stanley and CICC, does not reveal how much fresh capital the company aims to raise, nor the company’s anticipated valuation.

Two business stories converged as Elon Musk took a Twitter kick at Netflix after the streamer’s stock sank on subscribers losses.

Billionaire Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter for about US$41 billion in cash, saying the social media company he has often criticized needs to go private to see effective changes.

Rihanna took her baby bump on another glamorous night out this weekend and it looked like both had a blast. The Work singer attended an event for her Fenty Beauty brand in Los Angeles, California on Saturday to celebrate the launch of its Icon Lipsticks at Ulta Beauty. Leaving boyfriend A$AP Rocky elsewhere for the night, Rihanna, 34, rocked up solo looking like a goddess in a silver strappy bandeau top which left her baby bump on show, teamed with a glittery silver maxi skirt. The cosmetics mogul was glowing as she smiled sweetly while cradling her bare bump, which was decorated with a silver chain across the middle. At one point, the Diamonds hitmaker was seen posing with excited fans who had shopped the make-up line. Rihanna had extra reasons to smile as it was recently reported her lingerie brand, Savage X Fenty, could be valued at $3billion (£2.3b) amid plans for the company to go public. According to Bloomberg, sources have said the firm is working with banks like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to determine its worth and get an idea of the demand.Although a listing could take place as soon as this year, the company is yet to make an official call on when – or even if – it plans to go public.An initial public offering (IPO) sees a company go from private to public ownership with stocks issued to the public, which lets the firm raise funds and grow.In January, Savage X Fenty – which launched in 2018 as an online-only brand – raised $125m (£96m) in a fundraising round which was led by Neuberger Berman.

Rihanna is reportedly working with advisers to take her Savage X Fenty lingerie brand public.The fashion star and Diamond hitmaker – who is absolutely slaying her pregnancy style lately – could make the move with an initial offering potentially valuing the company at $3 billion – that’s NINE zeros.As reported by Bloomberg, sources have said the firm is working with banks like Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs to determine its worth and get an idea of the demand.Although a listing could take place as soon as this year, the company is yet to make an official call on when – or even if – it plans to go public.An initial public offering (IPO) sees a company go from private to public ownership with stocks issued to the public, which lets the firm raise funds and grow.Back in January, Savage X Fenty – which launched in 2018 as an online-only brand – raised $125 million in a fundraising round which was led by Neuberger Berman.This reportedly included previous investors including L Catterton, Avenir Growth Capital, Sunley House Capital Management and Jay Z’s Marcy Venture Partners.RiRi herself is reportedly worth $1.7 billion, with around $1.4 billion of that coming Fenty Beauty, of which Forbes reports she owns 50%.To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 videoShe has taken over the cosmetics and fashion world with her own empire, ranging from Fenty Beauty and Fenty Skin to Savage x Fenty and luxury fashion house Fenty.The latter was opened under French conglomerate LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton in 2019, but last month Vuitton announced it had ‘jointly made the decision to put on hold the ready-to-wear activity, based in Europe, pending better conditions’.Back in

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorSpotify has suspended premium service in Russia after the country launched its war on Ukraine — a move that the audio streaming powerhouse expects to result in a loss of about 1.5 million paying customers in the first quarter of 2022.That’s according to Spotify CFO Paul Vogel, who spoke at Morgan Stanley’s 2022 Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on Wednesday. According to a Spotify spokesperson, the loss of its business in Russia is not material: The country represents less than 1% of total revenue.Vogel also alluded to the recent controversy over podcaster Joe Rogan, which has spurred calls to boycott the streamer (but Vogel didn’t identify Rogan by name).Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Vogel, Spotify was trending ahead of its Q1 guidance of adding a net 8 million total users, including 3 million paying customers.

After a conversation covering broadband, wireless spectrum, DOCSIS and other “wonky” corners of Charter Communications’ business, CEO Tom Rutledge saved his pay-TV punches for the closing stretch.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorNetflix execs have regularly insisted that there’s no way the company would introduce an ad-supported service.Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann, speaking Tuesday at an investor conference, took a slightly more open tone: He noted that the subscription streamer doesn’t currently have any plans right now to introduce an ad-supported VOD plan, but he didn’t rule it out at some point in the future.“It’s not like we have religion against advertising, to be clear,” said Neumann, speaking Tuesday at Morgan Stanley’s 2022 Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. “But that’s not something that’s in our plans right now… We have a really nice scalable subscription model, and again, never say never, but it’s not in our plan.” During the session, Neumann was asked about Netflix’s thinking about a cheaper, ad-based tier after Disney announced plans to rollout an AVOD plan for Disney Plus starting late in 2022 in the U.S.

Bob Bakish, CEO of Paramount Global, took the floor for the first time publicly since the renamed company’s recent and not well-received Investor Day, touting streaming prospects but acknowledging, “We are going to have to prove that to you over time” – referring to Wall Street.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterParamount Global CEO Bob Bakish says Disney Plus’ decision to launch a cheaper, ad-supported version later this year is “validation of the strategy,” which Paramount (recently rebranded from ViacomCBS) itself uses for a tier of its streaming service Paramount Plus.“They’re 100% right,” Bakish said during Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference Tuesday, when asked about Disney’s announcement last week to roll out an ad-supported subscription plan for Disney Plus, to launch first in the U.S. in late 2022.

Netflix CFO Spencer Neumann addressed the decision to pull out of Russia and pushed back ever-so-slightly less firmly than the notion of advertising being introduced to the service.

Walt Disney CFO Christine McCarthy said the entertainment giant’s total exposure to Russia and Ukraine combined is about 2% of its total operating income — with Ukraine about 10% of that 2%.

Todd Spangler NY Digital EditorDisney CFO Christine McCarthy insisted that media giant’s move to introduce a cheaper, ad-supported version of Disney Plus later this year is not a “hail Mary” to try to hit aggressive streaming-acquisition goals with a lower entry price.The goal of Disney Plus with ads is to provide consumers an additional choice for how they want to subscribe to the service, according to McCarthy, speaking Monday at Morgan Stanley’s 2022 Technology, Media & Telecom Conference.“We had some preconceived notions of what consumers wanted” before the company launched Disney Plus, she said — in other words, the assumption was that people generally wanted zero advertising. McCarthy said Disney did some additional research and found that some consumers viewed ad-supported streaming services more favorably than ad-free services.

Jennifer Maas TV Business WriterJennifer Lopez’s “Marry Me” is the most-streamed day-and-date movie on Peacock and Will Smith’s gritty “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” reboot “Bel-Air,” which debuted after the Super Bowl last month, is the platform’s top series, Comcast CEO and chairman Brian Roberts said during a Morgan Stanley conference Monday.More to come…

A post shared by Vena Brykalin (@venabrykalin)Chanel, which also closed its stores late on Friday, faced a similar backlash in the days before it made the decision, not least because it called the invasion a “conflict” when it said it would donate €2 million to refugee relief. Instagram users immediately demanded that the brand - which employs 320 people in Russia and has five boutiques in Moscow and St Petersburg - stop selling goods in the territory. Notably, luxury brands kept their stores open long after mid-range international brands shut down their Russian operations.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefBlackOps Studios Asia from the Philippines, Story Arch Pictures from the U.S. and Agog Film from Hong Kong have joined forces to develop, produce and finance a slate of genre movies that target the streaming marketplace.The 16-title slate comprises nine films and seven series in the action, horror and sci-fi genres, with 11 flowing from BlackOps, two from Story Arch and three from Agog.