Free Republic

Elon Musk said Twitter was still losing money, blaming a "heavy debt load" and sliding advertising revenue.In a tweet replying to a user who suggested Musk get a consortium together to buy Twitter's debt, he bemoaned the company's uncomfortable financial position."We're still negative cash flow, due to ~50% drop in advertising revenue plus heavy debt load," Musk tweeted. "Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else." Musk's made sweeping changes to Twitter since paying $44 billion to buy it last October, including cutting about 90% of the workforce.Still, Musk faces a steep uphill battle...

The Dutch government launched its long-anticipated Great Reset-style farmer buyout scheme on Monday, which could potentially see upwards of ten thousand farms shut down forever to fall in line with the green agenda of the European Union. Following years of political wrangling, the government of The Netherlands has launched its programme for buying out farms that do not comply with the EU’s Natura 2000 scheme supposedly meant to protect environmentally sensitive areas. The buyout programme will initially impact approximately 3,000 privately-owned farms which are deemed to emit too much nitrogen.

DETROIT – General Motors will offer voluntary buyouts to a “majority” of its 58,000 U.S. white-collar employees, as it aims to cut $2 billion in structural costs over the next two years, according to a letter sent to workers Thursday from CEO Mary Barra. The “Voluntary Separation Program,” or VSP, will be offered to all U.S. salaried employees who have spent five or more years at the company as of June 30. Outside of the U.S., the automaker will offer buyouts to executives with at least two years of time at the company. GM expects to take a pretax charge...

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Twitter over Elon Musk’s plan to sack thousands of staffers, alleging that employees weren’t given enough notice of the mass layoffs in violation of federal and California law. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in San Francisco federal court after the company notified employees it would eliminate some 3,700 jobs, half its workforce, Bloomberg News reported. It seeks an order requiring the social media platform to obey the WARN Act — the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, a federal law requiring companies with 100 or more workers to give 60 days’ notice of...

Major job cuts are coming to Twitter whether or not Elon Musk acquires the social media company. Musk has told prospective investors that he plans to cut nearly 75% of staff at Twitter, The Washington Post reported Thursday. That would bring Twitter’s staff down from 7,500 employees to around 2,000. Over time, he would hire new people to increase the staff again, however. And even if he doesn’t close, Twitter’s existing management planned to cut the workforce by about a quarter, the Post reported. The company also plans to make cuts to infrastructure like data centers. Musk previously hinted at...

Twitter announced on Tuesday that it has sued Elon Musk to force him to complete the $44 billion acquisition of the social media company, The Associated Press reports. The chair of Twitter's board, Bret Taylor, tweeted that the board has filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery "to hold Elon Musk accountable to his contractual obligations." Twitter's lawsuit opens with a sharply-worded accusation that "Musk refuses to honor his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests." .....

In a proposed class action filed in Delaware Chancery Court, the Orlando Police Pension Fund said Delaware law forbade a quick merger because Musk had agreements with other big Twitter shareholders, including his financial adviser Morgan Stanley and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, to support the buyout.

WORLD—According to sources, an eccentric immigrant entrepreneur from South Africa just accomplished more for free speech than Republicans have in decades of controlling the government, wielding Federal power, and spending trillions of dollars. "Wow! Who is this guy? He's really making us look bad here," said one Republican Senator. "This Twitter deal is such a huge step forward for freedom of expression! Wow! Imagine if other conservative wealthy people did stuff like that instead of funding our reelection campaigns? Um, wait—I didn't mean that. Scratch that. Are you recording this?" Experts concur that Twitter being purchased by a private entity...

* Twitter’s board accepted billionaire Elon Musk’s offer to buy the social media company and take it private, the company confirmed. * The announcement ends a weeks-long saga Musk kicked off when he offered to buy the company at $54.20 per share, his “best and final.” * Twitter’s board sought to fend off a hostile takeover by adopting a so-called poison pill. In this article TWTR +2.83 (+5.77%) WATCH NOW VIDEO03:05 Board approves Twitter sale to Elon Musk for approx. $44B Twitter’s board has accepted an offer from billionaire Elon Musk to buy the social media company and take it...

Twitter Inc. is in discussions to sell itself to Elon Musk and could finalize a deal as soon as this week, people familiar with the matter said, a dramatic turn of events just 10 days after the billionaire unveiled his $43 billion bid for the social-media company. The two sides met Sunday to discuss Mr. Musk’s proposal and were making progress, though still had issues to hash out, the people said. There is no guarantee they will reach a deal.

Sure enough, Elon Musk pulled the trigger, handed Twitter a fat offer of a buyout, and it's been nothing but bonkersville ever since.According to CBS News:Elon Musk is offering to buy Twitter for $43 billion, saying the social media company "needs to be transformed as a private company."The billionaire and founder of electric car maker Tesla, who earlier this month disclosed he owns a 9.2% stake in Twitter, proposed in a regulatory filing on Thursday to buy all of the company's outstanding common stock for $54.20 per share. "I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be...

Bill Gates' Cascade Investment LLC is taking control of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts by buying about half of Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's stake for $2.21 billion, the hotel operator said on Wednesday. Cascade will acquire half of the billionaire prince's stake in Four Seasons, raising its ownership to 71.3% and valuing the hotel chain at $10 billion on an enterprise basis. Prince Alwaleed, through investment vehicle Kingdom Holding Co (4280.SE), will continue to own the remaining stake, Four Seasons said in a statement.

Democratic presidential contender and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg lamented that “the $400 million I’ve had to spend on my campaign shows how inefficient the process is. Not only am I out a huge chunk of change, but TV viewers across America are having their homes flooded with my ads. There has to be a better way.” What a better way might look like, according to Bloomberg, is “like we do it in the business world. When a man with resources sees a company being run ineffectively he buys the owners out. Both sides benefit. The incompetent owners...

Patricia Kambach couldn’t bear to watch a crew demolish her longtime neighbor’s home this month, so she went inside her own house in Woodbridge, New Jersey, where she has lived since John F. Kennedy was president. “I lived here 56 years, and it’s hard,” said Kambach. Hard but not rare. The state has bought and torn down 145 homes since 2013 in Woodbridge, with eight homes demolished this month alone. Dozens more are slated to be torn down in the near future. It’s all part of an effort to get ahead of climate change. Some neighborhoods in this town of...

As President-elect Trump readies to take control of Washington where he has promised a hiring freeze or worse, worried are federal workers are looking to a new $40,000 buyout program set up at the Pentagon but expected to be expanded to other departments. Several trade publications that cover federal workers and legislation said that the buyout, increased in legislation from $25,000, will likely be a hit in the Defense Department as the Pentagon moves to cut headquarters staff. The cash is available to civilian bureaucrats. It was included in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2017. Some federal...

Lawmakers urged France on Thursday to cancel the sale of two advanced helicopter carrier ships to Russia and suggested that NATO buy or lease them instead. "The purchase would send a strong signal to (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin that the NATO allies will not tolerate or in any way enable his reckless moves," they said in a letter to NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen obtained by Reuters. France has said it would press ahead with the deal because cancelling would do more damage to Paris than to Moscow. The contract, worth $1.66 billion, has created about 1,000 jobs and includes...

For many, it was a period of financial turmoil as banks failed, stock markets tumbled and millions lost their jobs. However, billionaire Warren Buffett kept on doing what he does best and began investing in a handful of blue-chip companies during the financial crisis. Five years on and the value of those deals are clear for all to see, America’s second-richest man earning another $10 billion thanks to his choice investments. … The fall of 2008, when the market was shaky and confidence was low, a number of stocks of companies that had decent reputations were at record lows, including...

<p>The New York Stock Exchange will be acquired by IntercontinentalExchange of Atlanta in a deal valued at about $8.2 billion, the two rivals confirmed Thursday morning.</p> <p>In matching press releases, they say the sale "combines two leading exchange groups to create a premier global exchange operator diversified across markets including agricultural and energy commodities, credit derivatives, equities and equity derivatives, foreign exchange and interest rates."</p>

The Justice Department is blocking AT&T’s $39 billion deal to buy T-Mobile USA, saying the acquisition of the No. 4 wireless carrier in the country by No. 2 AT&T would reduce competition and raise prices. The deal has faced tough opposition from consumer groups and No. 3 carrier Sprint since it was announced in March. AT&T could challenge the Justice Department’s action in court.

CNSNews.com) - The announcement early Monday morning that America Online (AOL) is buying Arianna Huffington’s liberal Web site, The Huffington Post, for $315 million -- $300 million in cash -- left at least one conservative outraged. “This proves AOL News has lost its mind,” said L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Media Research Center. “They must be in such dire straits that they’ve been blinded by the millions and think an acquisition of The Huffington Post is worth sacrificing credibility and objectivity,” Bozell said. "AOL News is fooling only itself in thinking there is no journalistic conflict in merging...