Who will back Elon Musk?
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 20 April 2022
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elon Musk’s $43bn bid to take Twitter private is struggling to draw interest from private equity groups, Netflix shares tumbled on Tuesday after its first quarter earnings report, and the International Monetary Fund has cut its global growth forecast. Plus, the journalist Neri Zilber explains how Israel is handling an influx of immigrants leaving their countries because of the war in Ukraine.
Mentioned in this podcast:
Big buyout groups rule out writing equity cheque for Musk’s $43bn Twitter bid
Netflix sheds subscribers for the first time in a decade
IMF cuts global growth forecast to 3.6% as Ukraine war hits neighbours hard
Ukraine conflict sparks biggest influx of immigrants to Israel in decades
The FT News Briefing is produced by Fiona Symon and Marc Filippino. The show’s editor is Jess Smith. Additional help by Peter Barber, Michael Lello, David da Silva, and Gavin Kallmann. The show’s theme song is by Metaphor Music. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The FT News Briefing is supported by Equinole, the UK's energy partner. |
| 0:06.3 | Learn more at equinole.co.uk |
| 0:10.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. |
| 0:11.7 | Today is Wednesday, April 20th, and this is your FT News Briefing. |
| 0:19.1 | Elon Musk still wants to buy Twitter, but it's not clear who will back his $43 billion bit. |
| 0:26.1 | Netflix had a miserable first quarter. |
| 0:29.0 | The next one could be even worse. |
| 0:31.0 | The International Monetary Fund slashed its forecast for global growth. |
| 0:35.0 | Plus, we'll find out how Israel is managing its biggest influx of immigrants in 30 years. |
| 0:40.9 | I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:50.5 | Elon Musk has been causing quite the stir with his attempt to buy the social media site Twitter. |
| 0:55.5 | The problem is, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX can't pay for it at all, |
| 0:59.7 | and the firms that have the financial firepower to help him don't seem that interested. |
| 1:04.8 | The FT's Antoine Gare explains why private equity giants like Blackstone are hesitant. |
| 1:10.4 | I think overall Twitter is a fairly challenging company to underwrite. |
| 1:16.7 | For years, we've been talking about how hard it has been for Twitter to make the kind of profits |
| 1:21.8 | that we've seen out of Facebook and even linked in after Microsoft's bought it. |
| 1:26.4 | So it's a fairly tough company to underwrite just because it's just not reached the level of |
| 1:31.4 | profitability as some of the ubiquitous social media peers that are out there. |
| 1:37.0 | So Antoine, does this mean a deal is dead if Musk can't get PE backers? |
| 1:42.4 | Well, with Elon, it seems like anything is possible. He still has a stake in Tesla |
| 1:49.0 | with hundreds of billions of dollars. He has credit with a number of banks. |
... |
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