Daniel Ives: Celebs Rumors

Shares of Twitter are up 13% Tuesday as investors took heart that Elon Musk will move ahead with his tortured acquisition of the social media platform. The billionaire Tesla founder has proposed going forward with the deal for its original pricetag of $54.20 a share, or $44 billion. according to a Bloomberg report.

With sports now a “golden goose” begetting streaming progress for Apple, it would be a “no-brainer” for the tech giant to partner with or even fully acquire ESPN.

Apple stock fell 3% today as it was hit by two headwinds — protests in China threatening iPhone production and claims of “censorship” lodged by new Twitter owner Elon Musk.

Geoff Mayfield Continued growth in streaming is delivering another upbeat year for the music business, both in the U.S. and globally, according to Luminate’s 2022 Midyear Report. The study also shows Latin and country continuing to gain ground in streaming, with Bad Bunny proving a catalyst for the former.

Shares of Twitter dipped in late trading Thursday, reversing earlier gains, on fresh speculation that its acquisition by Elon Musk is at risk.

Elon Musk said overnight that his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter can’t move ahead unless the company backs up statements about the number of fake accounts on the platform, which the company has put at under 5%.

Elon Musk in a deal that values the company at $44 billion, the board announced Monday afternoon.«The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter's stockholders,» Bret Taylor, the company's independent board chair, said in a statement.Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, reiterated his plans to remake Twitter as a forum dedicated to promoting free speech.«Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated,» he said in a statement.Musk also said he plans on «making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans» on the platform.It's the largest deal to take a company private in at least two decades, reported.The board voted unanimously in favor of the acquisition. The deal is expected to close this year, subject to the approval of Twitter's shareholders.The official acquisition caps off a drama worth of a soap opera between the famously mercurial Musk and one of the world's most prominent social networks.The billionaire disclosed earlier this month that he had become Twitter's largest shareholder, and soon after proposed to buy the company outright and take it private.

AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron said there’s room for both cinemas and streamers in the current marketplace and the latter would benefit from wider theatrical release of films. He made the comments to CNBC after Apple made history last night with Coda’s Best Picture Oscar win.

Jill Goldsmith Co-Business EditorWall Street is warming to a TikTok deal despite a continued lack of clarity, happy to keep a popular, fast-growing advertising platform humming along and skirt a brewing tech cold war between the U.S. and China.“This will be a relief to technology investors to have this high drama soap opera now in the rear view mirror,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities.