Twitter Reportedly Considering Musk Offer, Verizon on 5G Transition, FTC Investigating Broadcom

April 25, 2022 – In the latest twist to Elon Musk’s attempt to purchase Twitter, the social media company is reportedly ready to accept Musk’s original offer of $43 billion despite its board’s initial rejection of the deal, the New York Times reported Monday.

As part of the deal, the Tesla and SpaceX head would pay $54.20 per share, the report said. Premarket trading saw Twitter’s stock price rise 5 percent on Monday to $51.50.

Though no deal has been publicly reached, this only represents the latest chapter in Musk’s attempts to acquire the company.

Musk has long maintained that the site does not adhere to the free speech principals that it ought to, and in early April, became the single largest shareholder of the company, purchasing 9.2 percent of its stock in an apparent effort to influence its content moderation policies.

Following his purchase, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal offered Musk a seat on Twitter’s board, an offer that Musk accepted before quickly reversing his decision. The offer was conditional and would have disallowed Musk from purchasing the company. Musk’s reversal raised suspicions that he was considering purchasing Twitter, which were confirmed less than a week later, when Musk made his offer of $43 billion in cash.

Verizon’s Q1 report touted speedy transition from 4G to 5G

During its first quarter earnings call on Friday, Verizon leadership stated that the company’s transition from 4G to 5G has undergone a smoother process than the previous transition from 3G to 4G.

“5G adoption is already much faster than what we saw when we changed from 3G to 4G,” Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg said during the call. “A year after 4G launched, less than 10 percent of the users had a compatible device. A year after the launch of 5G dynamic spectrum sharing, about 24 percent of our customers were on 5G devices.”

Vestberg added that he expected that 40 percent of the company’s wireless customers will be using 5G devices by first quarter 2023, and 60 percent by the end of the fourth quarter of 2023.

Vestberg also stated that Verizon is striving for a single, “fiberized” network for most Verizon customers. “And then at the edge of the network, we can do different solutions for different type of customer groups. This is going to pay off big time the next 5 to 10 years.”

Verizon Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis stated that fiber would also play a crucial role in improving penetration for Verizon’s wireless customers.

“The continued build-out of One Fiber and our investment to support growth of traffic on our 4G LTE network while expanding the reach and capacity of our 5G Ultra-Wideband network greatly extends our opportunity to effectively compete in all of our businesses.”

FTC reportedly investigation Broadcom, again

The Register reported Monday that chipset manufacturer Broadcom is in the sites of antitrust regulators once more.

Broadcom, which the Federal Trade Commission has referred to as a monopolist in the past, is being investigated by the agency for anticompetitive practices associated with customer exclusivity agreements used by the company.

In October of 2019, the EU accused Broadcom of anticompetitive practices and issued an interim order to suspend exclusivity agreements for deals relating to TV set-top boxes and internet modems.

Broadcom technology hardware can be found in the devices of some of the largest companies in the world, including Apple, Cisco, Comcast, IBM and Verizon.