Republican mega-donor buys stake in Twitter and seeks to oust Jack Dorsey – report

theguardian ^ | 2/29/2020 | martin pengelly

[semimojo]

I thought there were some types of laws against cornering a market?

You have to buy an awful lot of a company’s stock to have a sizable stake.

Not exactly my area of expertise but there aren't laws restricting how much of the stock of a public company you can buy.

I think there are some reporting requirements if you exceed 10% or so, but that's it.

As a practical matter it's very hard to buy enough this way to gain control, but as an activist investor if you own 10% and team up with other like-minded investors who also hold a material stake you can bring real pressure and probably get a position on the board.

In this case it will depend on how loyal the board is.

[dp0622]

I’m more familiar with VIG, but I haven’t used that in a long time.

It’s a form of predatory lending :)

I actually don’t know who Mr 50 cent guy is.

[bIlluminati]

About $TSLAD - there’s still timee.

[RummyChick]

on twitter he is referenced as 50 cent . There are news articles on him. been around for years.

not always successful..but has been every time I have seen his trades.

And I am familiar with Vig (not the loan kind)...I call it juice that Bookies in Vegas get on my bets. Bookies are a constant source of amazement to me at how often they can screw you over by 1/2 point on the spread..somehow they just know

The guy that runs Southpoint Jimmy Vaccaro looks like he could be a mob movie.

https://twitter.com/JimmyVaccaro

[dp0622]

Wow thanks.

I have a much clearer picture now.

It’s amazing how you can do certain things for 30 years or so and then not be able to answer what seem like relatively easy questions about the field.

But then my $$ doesn’t allow for being activist investor :)

[bIlluminati]

Chinese oligarchs move a lot of markets around the world. With the coronavirus situation, the big businesses in China are cash flow negative. Governments can print more, but businesses, not so much. Since most big businesses in China are government-owned, that makes things a bit more complicated, but bottom line: when you need cash, you sell the assets most likely not to get trashed in the process. Right now, for China, that’s gold. And gold futures.

In related news, China has ordered businesses to run more electricity, whether the factories are running or not, so outsiders can’t look at electricity/coal usage to determine economic damage. New car sales were down 92% in one week in China, and most recently 83% down. So, car sales in China doubled in just one week. But that’s not strongly good news, especially for companies like $TSLAD.

[dp0622]

Wow. That was chock full of things I did not know.

thanks.

communist governments with a dab of capitalism are odd creatures.

[bIlluminati]

Once an entity gets to 5% or more of a stock, the buyer must state within a prescribed amount of time, whether this is an investment, or whether the buyer intends to go for control. After that, there are specific rules that apply. See Warren Buffet. Berkshire Hathaway controls many companies, and has extremely large positions in many more. Coca Cola, Dairy Queen, Wells Fargo, several insurance companies.

Maximum positions do apply to commodities, where one entity (1980 it was the Hunt brothers) cannot own more than x futures in commodity y (the Hunt brothers went way over, and were forced to sell, causing silver to drop from $50/ounce to around $10/ounce in a few days). You can own physical silver and physical gold, just not too many futures.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Bloomberg News first reported that Elliott Management has taken a “sizable stake” and “and plans to push for changes at the social media company, including replacing Dorsey

Elliott Management has a history of activist investing - they seek management changes to drive up share prices. May not necessarily be a change for the better in terms of Twitter policies, but we'll see.

[GnuThere]

That would be amazing.
Jack is a POS full-blown weirdo.

[Steven Scharf]

Elliott Management wants to oust Dorsey as Twitter CEO: Bloomberg

Published: Feb 29, 2020
RACHEL KONING BEALS
NEWS EDITOR
MarketWatch

Activist investor Elliott Management is seeking to replace Twitter TWTR, +0.58% CEO Jack Dorsey, Bloomberg News reported late Friday. The $40.2 billion hedge fund run by Paul Singer has taken a large stake in the social-media company and wants major changes, people familiar with the matter reportedly told the news outlet. Twitter declined to comment on the report when reached by MarketWatch. According to Bloomberg News, Elliott Management has nominated four directors to Twitter’s board. Dorsey has been scrutinized for running two publicly traded companies simultaneously: Twitter and the payments processor Square SQ, +5.07%. Twitter shares did gain about 7% in after-hours trading Friday. The stock is up 3.5% in the year to date and more than 8% over the past year.

Twitter was at a high of 39.22 on Feb 6th, but has been dropping since Feb 21. Closed on Friday at 33.20, $19 cents above Thursday’s close.

At $33.20 it is an accessible stock. Meaning you can buy 100 shares $3,320 vs Microsoft at $162 per share of $16,200 for 100 shares.

[samtheman]

Ok

[samtheman]

I agree the Guardian can have good content.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Getting rid of Dorsey will greatly improve the chances of America surviving the surging Left and their corrupt media companions (Twitter is part of this, as is Facebook).

[joma89]

Looking forward to seeing the outcome of this move.

JoMa

[semimojo]

Ping to 48 and someone who knows more than me.

[Svartalfiar]

I thought there were some types of laws against cornering a market?

You have to buy an awful lot of a company’s stock to have a sizable stake.

Buying a company's stock does not 'corner the market' in any way, unless you also own all the competition. Which is why when companies like ATT/Time Warner, Disney/every other movie company, stuff like that ends up needing approval. But you as a citizen, buying up a single company, doesn't mean anything really. And yup, gotta buy a lot, and it's difficult if people know you're buying a lot and trying to get 50% or something - their stock in now more 'valuable', so it'll be more expensive. The hard part, I assume, would be finding enough people willing to sell, without going too overboard.