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Read It And Eat 16/01

Welcome to ‘Read it and Eat’ — your go-to for bite-sized updates on corporate actions in finance, AI and anything I consider newsworthy. Join me twice a week for quick reads, where I serve up the latest insights that matter in the world of business.


Major Headlines


  • Microsoft is now the most valuable Company; dethroning Apple

  • Surprisingly, Microsoft has dethroned Apple as the most valuable company with a market cap of $2.89tn which is more than Apple’s $2.87t. Apple was famously known as the first company in the world to be valued at above $1tn. This success is due to the rise of and its success in the space of generative artificial intelligence when they acquired a majority stake in OpenAI the founders of ChatGPT. [www.cnn.com]

  • EY taking unconventional methods to weather the storm:

  • EY after having their subsequent round of layoffs late last year is still not in the clear as their advisory services have still slowed down, as such they are offering to pay their consultants who are not deployed on a project between March and August of 2024, the option to take a 12-week paid leave AND have a 25% salary bonus when they do return. [https://www.fnlondon.com]

  • HBO’s ‘Succession’ Props Auction Fetches $627,825

  • Heritage Auctions launched an auction to diehard fans of the HBO show ‘Succession’ a few props from the show. From the “ludicrously capacious” Burberry Bag (that fetched $18,750) to the scorpion paperweight (which sold for $10,000) and the blue Walmart shirt worn by Roman Roy (which cost $13 and sold for $1,850). All 200 items sold on auction fetched a combined whopping $627,825.

  • Boeing to add FURTHER quality inspections for the 737MAX

  • After the insane mid-air blowout of a cabin panel in an Alaskan Airlines flight earlier this year and other plane crashes due to mechanical faults that occurred on Boeing planes last year, the aeroplane manufacturer Head of its Commercial aeroplanes said on Monday, January 15th that it would deploy a team to establish further inspections for the 737Max planes to approve of those parts before they are supplied. [https://www.reuters.com]

Minor Headlines

  • CoinShares to acquire Valkyrie Funds after US spot Bitcoin ETF approval. [https://www.reuters.com]

  • Business onboarding platform Detected raised a $2.5m round from Thomson Reuters Ventures and others. [https://tech.eu]

  • Africa Focused Infrastructure fund, The Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund, raised $294m in debt to invest in projects on the continent and to diversify into Asia. [https://www.bloomberg.com]

  • $6 Trillion in taxes are at stake in the United States elections this year. [https://www.wsj.com/]

  • Citigroup reported a $1.8B Q4 loss and further announced its reduction of headcount by 20,000 incurring a further $1B in additional severance costs. [https://www.cnbc.com/]

  • Elon Musk seeks additional voting power of Tesla, he wants an additional 12% more of the controlling vote of the company.[https://www.cnbc.com]

  • United States SEC willing to delay Terraform Labs trial in order to wait for Do Kwon’s Extradition. [https://www.reuters.com/]

  • Chinese fast Fashion Retailer Shein awaits permission from China for a US IPO. [https://www.reuters.com/]


NEWS OF THE DAY


BlackRock to buy Global Infrastructure Partners

BlackRock has struck a deal to buy Global Infrastructure Partners for more than $12.5bn in cash and stock, a move that will substantially boost the $10tn money manager’s footprint in alternative assets and shake up the landscape for private market investing.GIP’s prime assets include Sydney Airport and London Gatwick Airport, the Port of Melbourne and the Suez Water group, extensive green energy holdings and a stake in a big shale oil pipeline. The reason this is the news of the day is the national pride that comes when I realise that the founder, Adebayo Ogunlesi, is Nigerian. To see the excellence that comes with having $106B in AUM so well that it is considered the crown jewel platform in the alternatives industry by Larry Fink himself. Nigerians are known worldwide as excellent in whatever field we are in, from sports, athletics, business and now investment banking. [https://www.ft.com]


Gen-Z Word of the Day:

Text Neck

This is the cramp in your neck from crying your neck too much to text and email etc on your mobile device. It is it the cramp that is a result of bad posture while using your mobile devices.

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