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Good morning!
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It feels like the final dance for controversial billionaire Elon Musk, in his bid to take over Twitter. But it might be too early to call. The Telsa CEO said last week that he is terminating his deal to buy Twitter.
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But knowing the billionaire who had retreated then advanced over and over again in the course of the three months that he said he wants to buy the whole of Twitter, he might have something up his sleeves.
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Below are the tech stories and news you need to know to start your day, carefully curated by Technext.
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Summary of the news
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- Elon Musk said he is retreating finally from buying Twitter
- MTN Nigeria report says it boosts its SWOOTs capitalisation by N6.11 billion
- Embattled crypto lender Celsius is a ‘fraud’ and ‘Ponzi scheme,’ lawsuit alleges
- Nigerian startup, CreditChek, has raised $240,000 in pre-seed round
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Elon Musk in full retreat from Twitter
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Elon Musk, the Telsa CEO is in final retreat from his bid to take over Twitter.
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Less than three months ago, the billionaire struck a blockbuster $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. He proclaimed that the company had “tremendous potential.”
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Since then, Musk has changed his tune. He sniped at Twitter’s top executives. He unleashed tweets taunting the company’s board. He complained that the social media service had too many spam accounts and that he could not get insight into the issue. He tweeted a poop emoji to express his displeasure.
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And on Friday, Musk tried to back out of the acquisition altogether.
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In a regulatory filing prepared by his lawyers, Musk said he was terminating the Twitter deal because of a continuing disagreement over the number of spam accounts on the platform.
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“Twitter is in material breach of multiple provisions” of the deal agreement, Musk’s lawyers said in the filing, and the company “appears to have made false and misleading representations.”
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Following Elon Musk’s notice to Twitter that he wants out of his $44 billion deal to purchase the company, employees have been instructed to not publicly comment on the deal. An internal memo by Twitter’s general counsel and obtained by The Verge says that staffers should “refrain from Tweeting, Slacking, or sharing any commentary about the merger agreement.”
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The note, which you can read in full below, cites the fact that the merger is an ongoing legal matter. Musk’s team alleges that the company “failed or refused to provide” information about the number of bots on its platform,” and Twitter’s board has announced that it’s suing Musk to ensure that the deal goes through as originally agreed.
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Twitter’s message to Elon Musk after his attempt to bail on his $44 billion agreement to buy the company: we’ll see you in court.
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“The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement,” tweeted Twitter’s chairman, Bret Taylor, less than an hour after Musk’s legal team said he wanted out of the deal in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.”
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MTN Nigeria boosts SWOOTs capitalization by N6.11 billion
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The combined market capitalization of stocks worth over one trillion (SWOOTs) appreciated by 0.03% to close at N20.42 trillion from N20.41 trillion the previous week, reflecting a gain of N6.11 billion. Stocks included in this classification are AIRTELAFRICA, BUA CEMENT, DANGOTE CEMENT, NESTLE and MTNN Plc.
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MTNN Plc – N230.30
MTNN Plc’s share price, at the end of the trading week, appreciated by 0.13% to close at N230.30 per share, taking its market capitalization to N4.69 trillion at the end of the trading sessions of the week. The communications company, a competitor of Airtel Nig Plc, has a total market capitalization of N4.69 trillion, N1.82 trillion lower than Airtel Africa’s current market value.
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MTNN Plc ended the week as the third-most capitalized company on the exchange.
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MTNN Plc is the second-highest in market value on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX). The company released its Q1 2022 financial result, reflecting a 22.23% growth in revenue for the period, while profit after tax grew significantly by 31.28% from N73.75 billion in Q1 2021 to N96.82 billion in the current period.
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Lawsuit brands crypto lender Celsius as "fraud" and "Ponzi scheme"
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Crypto lender Celsius artificially inflated the price of its own digital coin, failed to hedge risk and engaged in activities that amounted to fraud, a lawsuit alleges, according to CNBC.
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Celsius last week was sued by former investment manager Jason Stone, as pressure continues to mount on the firm amid a crash in cryptocurrency prices. The lawsuit in New York state court comes after Celsius, which offers customers interest for depositing their crypto, was forced to pause withdrawals for its users as it faces a liquidity crisis.
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Celsius acts like a bank in that it offers customers yield, sometimes as high as nearly 19% if they deposit their crypto with the company. The firm then lends that crypto out to others willing to pay a high-interest rate to borrow. Then it tries to pocket that money in order to give the yield back to customers.
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Nigerian startup, CreditChek, raises $240,000 in pre-seed round
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Nigeria’s credit assessment startup, CreditChek said it has raised $240,000 in pre-seed funding round, Nairametrics reports. This funding, the company said will be used to drive its vision of becoming the most reliable credit infrastructure in Africa in the next 5 years, fostering trust between lenders and borrowers.
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The funding was led by Atom Capital with participation from Aidi Ventures, Ham Serunjogi of Chippercash, Olumide Ogunsanwo of Adamantium Fund, Damola Adegboyega of Assembly Investors, Isaac Ewaleifoh of Launch Africa Ventures, and Ogundiran Kayode.
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CreditChek uses structured, user-permissioned data from multiple sources to create powerful Identity, credit and verification services that empower fintechs, banks, microfinance institutions, retail businesses and mobile money operators to build better financial products for the underserved.
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Announcing the fundraising, CreditCheck co-founder, Kingsley Ibe, said:
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In April 2022, we launched our MVP in beta, testing with a few businesses and making iterations. While in Beta, we onboarded 30 businesses, processed thousands of API calls, and eventually came out of Beta in June 2021.
As coconut heads; we continue to be stubborn on our vision as financial inclusion advocates but flexible on our mission. Our vision is to be the most reliable credit infrastructure in Africa in the next 5 years, fostering trust between lenders and borrowers. In furtherance of that vision, we are pleased to announce that we’ve raised $240,000 in pre-seed funding led by Atom.
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Latest in funding
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Other stories we are following
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