Twitter whistleblower Peiter “Mudge” Zatko’s testimony on Capitol Hill Tuesday may result in increased regulation on the tech industry but is unlikely to move the needle in the Musk vs. Twitter trial. Mudge elaborated on security shortfalls and questionable data practices outlined in his whistleblower complaint while giving little insight into the number of bots on the platform – Musk's central argument for breaking the merger agreement. Ultimately, Tulane Business Law Professor Ann Lipton, whose own tweets on this are a must read, believes Musk gained very little from the testimony.
As a result, Wall Street hedge funds are making bets that Twitter will win in court and Musk will be forced to pay the agreement price of $54.20 a share or perhaps negotiate a settlement on the courtroom steps. One investor wrote, “it would be a dangerous precedent if the most prominent business court lets Musk off the hook based off his arguments.”
In San Francisco, many CEOs and heads of IR were walking the halls of Goldman’s Communacopia and Technology conference at the Palace Hotel, where GPP was in attendance.
The mood among executives such as John Stankey (AT&T), Bob Chapek (The Walt Disney Company) and Bob Bakish (Paramount Global) was generally upbeat. Brian Sozzi of Yahoo! Finance captured much of the conversation in his takeaways on dealmaking heading into 2023, overall market sentiment and state of the consumer.
Chapek was a keynote Wednesday and, among other things, articulated why ESPN was a core part of its business. He cemented this viewpoint in an interview with CNBC’s David Faber following the keynote that the best place for ESPN is within Disney and that there is growth potential for sports betting and a more “frictionless” sports experience.
Have a great weekend,
GPP Team
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