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Musk’s Coup Complete With $44B Buyout of Twitter

Elon Musk is buying Twitter (TWTR, $51.70) for $44 billion and taking the social media platform private.

Twitter’s board of directors accepted the Tesla (TSLA) CEO’s offer of $54.20 a share late Monday. Thus marks the likely end to a three-week drama that at times appeared to veer between comedy and even farce. 

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After all, with Musk, it can sometimes be difficult to tell the difference. But once the world’s richest person lined up more than $46 billion in financing over the past few days, it became clear that his buyout bid was no joke.

And make no mistake, it’s a seriously good deal for TWTR shareholders. 

Elon Musk’s Buyout Deal for Twitter: The Basics

At $44 billion, Musk is paying a premium of 21% to Twitter’s enterprise value, or its theoretical takeout price that accounts for both debt and cash. 

The deal looks even better when you consider what the market thought about Twitter prior to Musk’s interest – which is to say, not much. 

Musk is paying a 38% premium to where TWTR stock traded before the mercurial billionaire disclosed his original 9.1% ownership stake in early April. Even more impressively, Musk’s Twitter buyout equals a whopping 54% premium to what he paid when he first began building the position in late January.

The fact is that the market has been very down on Twitter stock for a very long time. Analysts’ consensus recommendation has been stuck at Hold for more than 18 months, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

And with good reason.

Twitter Is Great, But TWTR … Not So Much

Twitter is a classic example of a company with a great product and a fantastic brand – but a bad business. The advertising model that works so well for passive, lean-back screen experiences like television doesn’t translate to the active, lean-in engagement process of scrolling and tweeting. 

“Twitter does $3.5 billion a year in revenue, a business roughly the size of the Olive Garden,” tweeted Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management. “You have to admit today is hilarious.”

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That disconnect between product and business explains why Twitter stock has been such a disappointment for much of its relatively short life in the public market. 

TWTR’s initial public offering (IPO) priced at $26 a share on Nov. 7, 2013. Musk’s takeout price means anyone still hanging around on the IPO cost basis is sitting on a gain of 108%. That’s pretty weak, considering the S&P 500 has booked a price gain of 141% over the same period. 

Musk’s Twitter buyout price is also of little solace to anyone who bought the stock when it was hitting all-time highs in early 2021. TWTR once topped out above $77 a pop. Selling to Musk at $54-and-change means taking a loss of 30%. 

If nothing else, Musk’s involvement in TWTR stock gave it a catalyst analysts had been praying for – and were grateful to receive.

Plenty of them were rooting for Musk to prevail. Some even viewed a potential loss for him as an eventual win for shareholders. As CFRA Research analyst Angelo Zino (Hold) told clients last week:

“We do believe Musk’s recent endeavors ultimately ends up being a positive for long-term shareholders even if a deal is thwarted, as it likely lights a fire under the management team (something will need to fundamentally change).” 

The ink isn’t dry; the deal is far from closed. But the way things look right now, Twitter shareholders won’t have to worry about Twitter stock for much longer.

Twitter – all of it – will be Elon Musk’s problem, and his alone. 

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Assumable Mortgages: A Little Known Tool You Can Use Now That Interest Rates Have Surged Higher

Everyone knows mortgage rates are no longer super cheap. The popular 30-year fixed was in the 2% range just last year and today is closer to 5.5%. And it’s possible mortgage rates could move higher before they move lower, though they could be close to peaking. For existing homeowners, this has created a strange dynamic… Read More »Assumable Mortgages: A Little Known Tool You Can Use Now That Interest Rates Have Surged Higher

The post Assumable Mortgages: A Little Known Tool You Can Use Now That Interest Rates Have Surged Higher appeared first on The Truth About Mortgage.

GreenSky Loans Review 2022

GreenSky Loans is a Goldman Sachs company that works exclusively with its GreenSky Pro contractors, meaning in order to get a home improvement loan you must be working with a contractor who uses GreenSky financing services. GreenSky Loans itself is not a lender, but instead works as a go-between connecting you, the homeowner, and federally […]

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

Harness the Power of Your Anxiety with Dr. Chloe Carmichael

If you have days or moments (or years) during which you feel like your anxiety is in charge, or you’re stuck in patterns of self-criticism, double and triple-checking yourself, worrying about the future… then today’s interview is for you. 
 
I talked to Dr. Chloe Carmichael, author of the new book Nervous Energy: Harness the Power of Your Anxiety. With her doctorate in clinical psychology from Long Island University and her years of private practice in New York City focusing on issues including stress management and self-esteem, Dr. Chloe delivers a great piece of news: anxiety and nervous energy can be your superpowers when you learn to harness them for good.
 
In this interview, we discuss what our anxiety may be trying to tell us, and what strategies we might use in the moment to harness its power for good.
 
Listen to the full conversation on Apple, Spotify, your favorite podcast platform, or just click the audio player above.

So, what is anxiety?

“I really think anxiety gets kind of a bad rap sometimes,” Dr. Chloe began. “People will often come and say, ‘Hey, Dr. Chloe, how do I get rid of my anxiety?’ And I want to explain that the goal is not to get rid of it. It’s a gift from mother nature. We get it for a reason… It’s actually a big source of energy. We just have to learn how to point [our anxiety] in the right direction. So, I think of it as that kind of heightened sense of awareness that we have when we realize that there’s some kind of a challenge or a situation that we don’t yet have fully resolved. And it’s that little tickle from mother nature saying, ‘Hey, let’s see how we can figure this out.”
 
In other words, anxiety isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s offering us insight and information that’s ours to pay attention to and make sense of. 

How might a mental shortlist soothe an overactive mind?

Dr. Chloe describes the “mental shortlist” as a great strategy for calming the mind.
 
“Having an active and tenacious mind can be a great thing until it starts to get in our own way,” she explains. She goes on to describe a case from her book in which a man was trying to prepare for an important meeting at work.
 
Once he had done all he could to prepare, he couldn’t seem to quiet his mind.
 
“He reached a point where he was just spinning his wheels, but he [couldn’t stop] thinking about it. And when you have a strong, powerful mind, your cognitive habits can be pretty hard and strong. So to help divert himself and use that mental energy for something better…What we do is we come up with a new mental shortlist… we think of five things in advance that we know are going to be much better in productive uses of our mental energy. And I encourage people to have the mental shortlist… It could be getting a jump on your birthday and holiday shopping.”
 
Telling your mind to stop thinking about something only causes you to think about it more. Instead, the mental shortlist redirects your mind to something else—something more neutral and productive.
 
What might you put on your mental shortlist?

What can a mind map do for an anxious mind?

Dr. Chloe also shares the story of “a stressed-out lawyer named Matt.” He realized at one point he had invested so much of himself in his job and his family that he had let go of taking great care of himself. 
 
“He was frustrated because he felt like he wasn’t living the life he intended when he became a lawyer… and he started to find himself really resenting his job.” So Dr. Chloe invited him to make a mind map about his career and what it really meant for him.  
 
The technique is described in more detail in the book. But it helps you organize—and see the connectivity between—the different moving pieces of your life. 
 
Through this technique, Dr. Chloe helped Matt to recognize “because of this income that you have, you could actually have a personal trainer come to your office and help you to train right there… And maybe we need to build your communication skills so that you and your wife can…make sure it’s clear to the children that dad is working in order to take care of us. That his time at work is not in competition with our family, [but rather] in support of our family. “
 
So with this mind map, he was able to “streamline his energy and use it to do things like workout or plan family vacations instead of just criticizing himself.” 
 
We discussed these tools—and several others from the book—in our interview. There’s something so empowering about recognizing you don’t need to conquer your nervous energy—you just need to hear and then harness it. It’s an essential part of what’s made you successful to date.
 
There is much more wisdom to be discovered in the book. Listen to our interview for more great insights. And then pick up your copy of Nervous Energy: Harness the Power of Your Anxiety.
 

What To Do If a Tenant is Late on Their Rent

These steps will help you recover your money.

The post What To Do If a Tenant is Late on Their Rent appeared first on The Rent.com Blog : A Renter’s Guide for Tips & Advice.