Musk may take Tesla private
Trading in Tesla stock was halted Tuesday after Chief Executive Elon Musk said via Twitter that he’s “considering” taking the company private at $420 a share and has the funding to do it.
Such a deal would be worth about $71 billion, a $13-billion premium over the company’s market value when U.S. stock markets opened Tuesday. A few hours after markets opened, Musk tweeted: “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.”
The news had jaws dropping all over Wall Street.
A tweet like Musk’s is “definitely abnormal,” said Efraim Levy, stock analyst at CFRA Research. “This is the Elon Musk universe and the Donald Trump universe. Tweets have taken on a new role.”
“If this is true,” Levy said, “it would be an incredibly surprising development.”
Shares were up 7.4 percent at $367.25 shortly after 11 a.m. Pacific time, when trading was halted. Earlier it was up as much as 8.5 percent.
CBL shares drop nearly 6 percent
Shares of the Chattanooga-based CBL Properties Inc. dropped more than 5.7 percent Tuesday after BTIG analyst James Sullivan wrote in a note that CBL may have to cut its dividend by 30 to 50 percent and reduced his pice target to only $2.50, according to Bloomberg. CBL was one the biggest losers on the New York Stock Exchange in an overall up day on Wall Street.
CBL, which warned last week that it may reduce its dividend in response to store closings and changing leases at its shopping malls, declined Tuesday by 27 cents per share to close at $4.42 per share in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.- it lowest price in nearly three months. But the company traded higher in trading after the market closed Tuesday.
Disney streaming differs from Netflix
Disney’s upcoming streaming service won’t try to compete directly with Netflix and Amazon, but will focus instead on quality – namely original programs from Disney’s “Star Wars,” Pixar and Marvel brands.
The details from Disney CEO Bob Iger came as Disney reported a growth in earnings for the latest quarter, though results missed expectations.
With Comcast out of the bidding war, Disney is planning to move forward with its $71.3 billion purchase of Fox’s entertainment assets, in part to boost a Disney-branded streaming service set to launch in late 2019. Disney’s shareholders and U.S. regulators have approved the Fox bid. Disney is awaiting regulatory approval overseas.
In a statement, Iger said he was excited about “opportunities ahead for continued growth.”
Disney is building the streaming service as more people switch from traditional cable TV bundles to streaming online though services like Amazon and Netflix.
Disney just launched a $5-a-month ESPN Plus streaming service with sports. If the Fox deal closes, it will have a controlling stake in Hulu, which offers a broad array of programming starting at $8 a month. With the Disney-branded entertainment service, Disney will have more control over its movies and TV shows from creation to distribution. That ultimately gives Disney more data to gauge its audience.
SeaWorld cuts 125 positions
SeaWorld Entertainment is eliminating 125 positions, despite recent increases in attendance and revenue.
Interim CEO John Reilly noted in the company’s earnings report that the company had identified $50 million of “additional cost reductions.”
SeaWorld spokesman Travis Claytor says the restructuring affects all of the company’s theme parks as well as corporate offices in Orlando, Florida.
Besides SeaWorld parks, the company has Sesame Place and Busch Gardens parks.