Gm. We recently stumbled across a GPT-3-powered Ouija spirit board that answers any question you ask of it. 

So of course we asked if Elon will actually buy Twitter, to which it responded, "think again."

Sorry, Elon. The Ouija board has spoken. No Twitter for you.  

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three funds that recently topped up their coffers. 

TECH

Elon makes his final offer

Just days after Twitter’s favorite shitposter bought a majority stake in the company and almost joined the board, Elon is now coming for the whole enchilada. Yesterday, the world's richest man tweeted that he had submitted an offer to Twitter’s board to buy out 100% of the company at a price of $54.20 per share, or roughly $43 billion. 

The details: The offer represents a 38% premium over the share price on April 1, the last trading day before Musk revealed his ownership stake. 

What does Elon want with Twitter?

In his SEC filing for the bid, Musk said that his interest in taking the social media company private is, ironically, related to the protection of “free speech.”  

• Later in the day, in an onstage interview at a TED conference, Musk clarified his ambitions: "This isn't a way to make money. My strong intuitive sense is that having a public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive is extremely important to the future of civilization.”

Can he actually pull this off?

There are a multitude of factors stacked against Musk completing the purchase. Chief among them is the fact that he doesn’t even have the financing lined up. He said that he “could” pay for it but doesn’t want to (flex). And even if he can pull $43 billion together, the board can still flat out reject the offer. Even if it may be in the company's best financial interests to accept this deal, there are other stakeholders like employees and users to consider. 

Bottom line: One option that Twitter is reportedly considering: a poison pill defense. It’s a commonly used tactic to prevent a hostile takeover attempt that would involve Twitter issuing more shares in order to dilute Elon’s stake, making the deal less financially viable.

DISNEY 

Crying in the club

On Tuesday, London police apprehended some of the Commonwealth’s most dangerous criminals: the ringleaders of Club Penguin Rewritten, a fan-developed illegal remake of Disney’s much-beloved MMO, Club Penguin. They also took over the illicit game’s website, confirming something we’ve known: dread it, run from it, The Mouse™ still arrives.

Gone in a puffle of smoke

The individuals were arrested for distributing copyrighted materials, but they’ve since been released. As of yesterday, Rewritten’s website still shows a police notice of the site’s seizure.

The backstory: During the early stages of the pandemic, around 30,000 new users flocked to the knockoff game each day to relive fond memories of sledding, surfing, and saying bad words in the penguin night club. And as of this month, its Discord server was still 150,000-strong. 

• So why did Disney come for it now? One factor might be the developers’ recent decision to put ads in the game. That’s an easy way to get on Mickey’s bad side.

Bottom line: Disney is known for defending its IP tooth-and-tail, so it’s no surprise that an exact remake of its dead game is the latest casualty in the company’s reign of terror. The Mouse gets what The Mouse wants.

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: Startups have been buying up other startups at a record pace, but public companies have seemingly lost their appetite. In the first three months of this year, 124 VC-backed companies were acquired by other VC-backed companies, more than any other first quarter within the past decade. On the other hand, only 99 startups were acquired by public companies in Q1, a huge drop from 150 in the same span last year.

Startup: Jack Dorsey’s tweet was listed at an auction for $48 million. It sold for just $280. 

Rabbit hole: As inflation soars, how is AriZona iced tea still 99 cents? (LA Times)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• Andy Jassy published his first annual shareholder letter since taking over from Bezos as Amazon CEO. 

• Clubhouse began rolling out a dark mode setting to Android and iOS users. 

• Amazon added a 5% fuel and inflation fee to the price it charges third-party sellers to distribute their goods, the first time it’s ever done so in company history. 

• The ETH merge was delayed yet again. The move to proof-of-stake was slated for June, but it’s been postponed until some point later this year.

TRIVIA

Spot the fake clickbait CNBC headline:

• This famous CEO spends 300 hours a year on his daily commute—the reason will surprise you

• How this dad made $1.5 million off a simple Fiverr side hustle 

• Mark Cuban: Advice I got from a mentor at 22 years old that I still use today

• This is the morning routine Kevin O’Leary says sets him up for success each day

FUNDRAISING FRIDAY

The state of venture capital, according to 90 VCs across 70 different firms. 

FOUNDERS CORNER

The best resources we came across this week that will help you become a better founder, builder, or investor.

🔮 Future released its third Marketplace 100, a ranking of the top consumer marketplace startups

🔓 Facebook open-sourced Lexical, an extensible text editor library

📈 Li Jin studied 50+ startups on TikTok and put together a fantastic organic growth guide

TRIVIA ANSWER

The 300-hour commute headline is fake, but a million and a half on Fiverr sounds even less plausible.