'I support Jack': Elon Musk defends Twitter's CEO as activist investor seeks to oust him - CNBC

Elon Musk speaks onstage during the E3 conference in Los Angeles on June 13, 2019.

Charley Gallay | Getty Images

Elon Musk jumped to the defense of fellow tech billionaire Jack Dorsey late Monday, as the latter faces pressure from an activist investor to step down as the CEO of Twitter.

"Just want to say that I support @Jack as Twitter CEO," Musk, the chief of Tesla and SpaceX, said in a tweet. He added that he thinks Dorsey has a good heart, using the heart emoji.

Musk's comments arrive after Paul Singer, the billionaire founder of hedge fund Elliott Management, built a stake in the microblogging platform in a bid to push for changes — including the removal of its boss.

CNBC has learned Elliott has a more than $1 billion stake in Twitter and has nominated four new board members. The company is known to often buy shares in large companies to have a say on issues like governance and strategy.

For example, Singer's activist fund recently bought into SoftBank, the Japanese tech investing juggernaut, seeking to have it repurchase up to $20 billion in stock and improve its governance practices. That was after the failed initial public offering of WeWork and amid general worries over SoftBank's bets on heavily lossmaking tech companies.

In Twitter's case, Singer is concerned by Dorsey splitting his time between running both Twitter and his financial technology firm Square. Dorsey's desire to move temporarily to Africa — which has already divided opinion among analysts — is another issue at hand in Elliott's aim to oust him.

Twitter shares rose nearly 8% on Monday as investors reacted to news of Elliott's stake in the company. The rally added more than $2 billion to Twitter's market capitalization, lifting it to $28 billion.

In its most recent quarterly earnings, Twitter reported its biggest-ever quarterly growth in users, but missed analysts' profit expectations.

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2020-03-03 09:03:00Z
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Live updates: Trump calls for Fed rate cut as U.S. coronavirus deaths rise; markets eye economic rescue - The Washington Post

As the novel coronavirus raged in Hubei province earlier this year, the Chinese government imposed strict measures designed to limit the spread of the virus throughout the country.

However, as the coronavirus spreads throughout the world, China is finding new problems arising from new epicenters outside its borders.

Local media reported Monday that all seven new cases confirmed in Zhejiang province had been imported from Italy, where there are now 2,036 cases and 52 deaths.

A coastal area in China’s east, Zhejiang had grown to become one of China’s wealthiest provinces. Some 30 million people live in the province and Xi Jinping, China’s president, was the province’s party secretary from 2002 until 2007.

The province, and in particular the port and industrial city of Wenzhou, has links with northern Italy. In 2016, China Daily reported that most of the 321,000 Chinese living in Italy were from Zhejiang, and one in five owns a business, with prominent figures such as Zhou Xiaoyan, owner of the communications company Milan Huaxia Group.

According to more recent accounts in Chinese media, there were about 200,000 Chinese citizens from Wenzhou and another county, Qingtian, living in Italy. Most worked in the restaurant industry, Zhejiang Daily reported.

The seven imported cases announced Tuesday were found in Qingtian, a county in the city of Lishui. Their discovery came two days after a 31-year-old woman from Lishui had tested positive for the outbreak on Sunday, two days after she had arrived from Italy.

All eight cases had worked at the same restaurant in Bergamo, Lombardy, Qingtian county announced in a statement. Italian authorities have identified a number of cases of novel coronavirus linked to the city, which lies in the greater Milan area.

None of the eight had been to Hubei, the statement said.

The shifting lines of transmission show how quickly the nature of the outbreak has changed. As the coronavirus had first spread across China and Zhejiang was placed on lockdown on Feb. 2, state media reported that Chinese citizens living in Italy had donated 10,000 masks, 300 protective suits and 240 goggles to Wenzhou.

But on Feb. 27, Qingtian county asked those living abroad to suspend China-bound trips unless there were exceptional circumstances, advising those who had to come that they would be placed under medical observation for 14 days.

Last Sunday, 2,600 surgical masks donated by Wenzhou Eyewear Industry Association were flown to Italy. A poster for the aid action reads “Wenzhou for Italy” in Chinese, Italian and English.

As the total number of new cases has declined, nine Chinese provinces have lowered their emergency response level as they push to return to economic activity after an extended lull due to coronavirus. Zhejiang, which has reported 155 cases and one death from the outbreak, lowered its level from the highest to second highest on Monday.

Taylor reported from Hong Kong and Yuan reported from Beijing. Liu Yang in Beijing also contributed to this report.

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2020-03-03 08:35:00Z
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Breaking: G7 central bankers to join call on coronavirus, markets, EUR/USD leap - FXStreet

Finance chiefs including central bankers are set to join a teleconference on the coronavirus outbreaks, raising hopes for a coordinated response that includes rate cuts and perhaps new bond-buying schemes. 

Markets have extended their gains. The S&P 500 is up nearly 2%. The US dollar is sliding across the board, with EUR/USD extending its gains above 1.1150. 

The Federal Reserve vowed to act in a special message it released late on Friday as markets were crashing. The Bank of Japan and the Bank of England also joined in with similar promises. While the European Central Bank hesitated, it is part of the coordination and is ready to act. 

Coronavirus has already taken the lives of over 3,000 people and has infected nearly 90,000. 

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2020-03-02 16:16:00Z
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Why Elliott Management wants to remove Jack Dorsey as Twitter CEO - Yahoo Finance

There’s a new boardroom battle in tech: activist investor Paul Singer vs. the enigmatic CEO of Twitter and Square Jack Dorsey.

Elliott Management, the activist hedge fund run by billionaire Singer, has taken a nearly 5% stake in Twitter valued at about $1 billion, people familiar with the matter tell Yahoo Finance. The firm is now pushing for the ouster of Dorsey as CEO, and has nominated four members to Twitter’s board, sources say.

Bloomberg News first reported on Friday night a “sizable” stake taken by Elliott and the firm’s desire to send Dorsey packing.

Elliott is not agitating for a sale of Twitter, sources tell Yahoo Finance. (Twitter did hold talks to sell itself in 2016 to Google or Salesforce, and came very close to a sale to Disney, Bob Iger confirmed in his book last year.)

Rather, sources say Elliott believes Dorsey isn’t running the company correctly and that the board has been complacent. Elliott thinks Twitter could be worth significantly more with a full-time CEO running the ship and focusing on growing its ad revenue, sources say.

A decision on Dorsey’s fate may come quickly, as the two sides are already in talks, sources say.

A spokesperson for Twitter declined to comment to Yahoo Finance on the situation. Twitter shares (TWTR) jumped about 8% in trading Monday morning.

Paul Singer, founder, CEO, and co-chief investment officer for Elliott Management Corporation, speaks during the Skybridge Alternatives (SALT) Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada May, 9, 2012. REUTERS/Steve Marcus/File Photo

Elliott Management is hardly the first to question Dorsey’s ability to pull the double-duty of running both Twitter and Square, two publicly traded companies.

Over the past two years, the fortunes of those two tech players have diverged. While Twitter has taken heat for its failure to cut down on trolls and hate speech, Square has made strides in point-of-sale hardware and peer-to-peer mobile payments. Square was Yahoo Finance’s Company of the Year for 2018. Twitter stock is down 6% in the past two years, while Square shares is up 58%.

The criticism of Dorsey grew louder toward the end of 2019 when Dorsey announced last November that he plans to live in Africa for three to six months in 2020. Dorsey tweeted: “Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!).” Dorsey’s obsession with bitcoin is no secret, and he has launched multiple bitcoin initiatives at Square, leading some to call it a distraction.

Jason Kint, CEO of the nonprofit trade group Digital Content Next, tweeted after Dorsey’s announcement, “This is the CEO of company mentioned 74x in [the] Mueller Report investigating Russia’s interference in 2016 US election. He’s moving to another continent for much of 2020 election??? And we’re [shrugging emoji] with this? WTF.”

In December, NYU Stern School of Business professor Scott Galloway, a Twitter shareholder and prominent voice in tech criticism, wrote an open letter to Twitter board chairman Omid Kordestani seeking for Dorsey to step down as CEO. 

“A part-time CEO who is relocating to Africa? Enough already,” Galloway’s letter declared. “Twitter has, on every metric, underperformed peers for several years… This decline is despite the fact... that Twitter has become an iconic brand and the global heartbeat for our information age.”

Twitter, Facebook, Alphabet, and S&P 500 performance during Jack Dorsey's current tenure as Twitter CEO.

Since June 2015, when Dorsey returned to be CEO of the company he cofounded, Twitter stock has severely underperformed its competitors.

Twitter stock is down 7.5% in that time, while competitors Facebook is up 136%, Google is up 151%, and the S&P 500 has risen 41%. Square, Dorsey’s other company, is up 374%.

Elliott Management is sure to cite stock performance, among some more abstract recent headlines and events, to make its case with Twitter’s board.

—

Daniel Roberts is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance and co-anchor of The First Trade. Follow him on Twitter at @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

Read more about Dorsey’s leadership of Twitter and Square:

Jack Dorsey will face more pressure in 2020 to step down as CEO of Twitter or Square

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Twitter account gets hacked

Jack Dorsey’s love of bitcoin could cause problems for Square

Why Square’s embrace of bitcoin was ‘brilliant’

Square is Yahoo Finance’s 2018 Company of the Year

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit.

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2020-03-02 15:09:00Z
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Dow Jones Today, Futures Slide As Coronavirus Hits Global Growth; Twitter, Apple, JD.com Climb - Investor's Business Daily

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1. Dow Jones Today, Futures Slide As Coronavirus Hits Global Growth; Twitter, Apple, JD.com Climb  Investor's Business Daily
2. Dow futures rise 180 points after volatile overnight session as market struggles to rebound  CNBC
3. Global Stocks Rebound On Bet Central Banks Will Offer Coronavirus Relief  Forbes
4. Asia shares bounce back as BOJ promises suppo...  Taiwan News
5. Dow futures drop as coronavirus fears continue  WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland
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2020-03-02 13:22:00Z
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Coronavirus is plunging the global economy into its worst crisis since 2009 - CNN

Global gross domestic product would grow by just 1.5% in 2020 if the coronavirus spreads widely throughout Asia, Europe and North America, the OECD said. That's roughly half the 2.9% growth rate the group projected for 2020 before the outbreak, and severe enough to push Japan and Europe into recession.

Policymakers around the world must act now to prevent such a scenario, the OECD said. It called for a coordinated global response to contain the outbreak, recommending that governments increase spending and central banks implement policies to help cushion the blow from the virus.

Even in the best-case scenario, in which the epidemic peaks in China during the first quarter and only mild outbreaks develop in other countries, the OECD predicts that the global economy would grow only 2.4%. That somewhat more optimistic forecast would still be the weakest level of growth since the global financial crisis in 2009. Global growth was about 3% last year.

"The virus risks giving a further blow to a global economy that was already weakened by trade and political tensions. Governments need to act immediately to contain the epidemic, support the health care system, protect people, shore up demand and provide a financial lifeline to households and businesses that are most affected," said OECD chief economist Laurence Boone.

There have now been more than 88,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide, with infections on every continent except Antarctica. The virus has killed over 3,000 people as it continues to spread. South Korea now has over 4,200 cases and 26 deaths. A second patient has died in the United States, and new cases have been reported in Florida, New York and Rhode Island.

Many of the world's biggest companies have issued profit and sales warnings in recent weeks, reflecting changes to consumer behavior that are causing disruption even in markets where relatively few cases have been identified. Some businesses are also having trouble keeping their factories open due to travel restrictions and supply chain problems.

Central banks are already trying to reassure investors that they'll step in to limit the economic fallout.

Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda promised Monday that the country's central bank would provide "ample liquidity" to ensure stability in financial markets. On Friday, US Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell said the central bank would "act as appropriate to support the economy," suggesting that an interest rate may be coming soon.

The world's central banks may take even more dramatic actions, according to Bill Nelson, executive vice president and chief economist at the Bank Policy Institute. In a note this weekend, he predicted a "coordinated easing across the major central banks," possibly including the People's Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, as early as this week.

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2020-03-02 12:46:00Z
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Wendy's breakfast launches nationwide. Here's how it's trying to steal McDonald's customers - CNBC

A customer exits a Wendy's Co. fast food restaurant in San Antonio, Texas.

Callaghan O'Hare | Bloomberg | Getty Images

DUBLIN, OHIO -- In a crowded field of competition, Wendy's strategy to win over breakfast customers includes spending big on advertising and poking fun at rivals.

Within the fast-food industry, breakfast is the only meal that is seeing more customers return to restaurants compared to a year ago. For chains like McDonald's and Dunkin', the early morning meal plays an important role in their overall business. Breakfast accounted for 16% of fast-food chains' traffic in the 12 months ended Nov. 2019, according to data from the NPD Group.

"As restaurants, and especially when you talk about a breakfast war, you tend to be competing for consumers that are already breakfast consumers. The challenge is to expand that pie," Technomic senior principal David Henkes said.

Wendy's is betting that breakfast will eventually account for 10% of its U.S. sales. To drive those sales, Wendy's will use national advertising campaigns to promote the meal for the first time, starting Monday to coincide with the nationwide launch. Its past attempts at breakfast never expanded beyond regional tests, which meant it could only use local advertising to draw in customers.

Wendy's CFO Gunther Plosch told analysts on Wednesday that the chain plans to spend between $70 million to $80 million in 2020 on advertising for breakfast, increasing its total media spend by about 30%. The company will contribute between $40 million to $50 million. The chain is not planning on pulling any advertising dollars for lunch or dinner.

Other fast-food chains that serve breakfast are expected to step up their own marketing to compete with Wendy's.

"There's clearly a renewed vigor in defending each restaurant chain's turf," Henkes said.

McDonald's, which has been trying to reverse weak breakfast traffic trends, started offering a national 2 for $4 promotion Feb. 24 on several of its breakfast sandwiches. The Chicago-based company has declared Monday "National Egg McMuffin Day" and plans to give away free Egg McMuffins.

"We have to win at breakfast," McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski told analysts in late January. "There's obviously a lot of focus and attention that we're going to be putting on that in 2020."

Wendy's anticipates that more breakfast rivals will discount their food and coffee to stave off competition from the new entry.

Kurt Kane, Wendy's U.S. President and Chief Commercial Officer, in the Wendy's Innovation Center.

Source: CNBC

"We fully expect our competitors to start discounting," Wendy's U.S. President and Chief Commercial Officer Kurt Kane said in an interview. "The good thing for us is that every discount they offer takes profitability out of their franchisees' pockets and out of their own restaurants."

Henkes said that McDonald's price promotions will put certain limitations on what Wendy's or other breakfast players will be able to charge for their items.

"If things turn into a price war, McDonald's is able to compete on price better than anybody," he said.

Competition from newcomer Wendy's could also spur on more new breakfast items from other chains.

Wendy's own plan to win over consumers includes stealing away customers from other fast-food chains. Earlier in February, the chain tweeted several videos that featured McDonald's former corporate chef Mike Haracz trying — and raving about — new Wendy's breakfast items. Wendy's began running a TV commercial this week featuring Haracz.

"We love whenever we get a convert from McDonald's that comes over to support our food because they know it's so much better than what the Frozen Arches might be selling everyday," Kane said.

Wendy's is using its cheeky social media presence to promote breakfast in other ways. The company's Twitter account went private on Wednesday. Followers gained access to an exclusive deal for a free Breakfast Baconator delivered by DoorDash with any $5 order.

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2020-03-02 13:25:00Z
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