Market Loop - UAE telecom giant buys 10% of Vodafone

View this email in your browser

16th May 2022

Bite-sized business news from the UK and beyond

Good morning Congratulations to the UK’s Sam Ryder who finished second at the Eurovision Song Contest behind Ukraine on Saturday. This was the UK’s best result since 1998 and comes after two consecutive years of the dreaded ‘nul points’.

Today's stories

Dialling in – UAE telecom giant buys 10% of Vodafone
Social standstill – Elon Musk pauses Twitter takeover

TELECOM
UAE telecom giant buys 10% of Vodafone

What happened?
Over the weekend Etisalat, the telecoms giant owned by the UAE government, announced it had bought a 9.8% stake in Vodafone for £3.6bn.

What’s behind the move?
Founded in 1976, Etisalat provides mobile services in 16 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In recent years it’s been looking to expand into Europe and an investment in Vodafone fits the bill. Vodafone is Britain’s third biggest mobile provider. In total it has 300m customers spread across more than 20 countries including Germany, Italy and Spain. The company is also a major player in Africa and has a joint venture in India.

Could a 100% takeover be on the cards?
Etisalat has played down a full-blown takeover saying instead that it was looking to build a “mutually beneficial strategic partnership” and was supportive of Vodafone’s management.

But the move puts more pressure on Vodafone to increase the scale of the business i.e. buy up other telecoms firms, in order to improve shareholder returns.

Vodafone is not the only UK telecoms company getting interest from overseas
A year ago Altice, France’s second largest telecoms operator, bought a 12% stake in BT for £2bn, becoming BT’s largest shareholder. Since then, it’s steadily built up the position to 18%.

Analysts say that Etisalat could look to emulate Altice by slowing building up its ownership in Vodafone.

Other stories to keep you in the loop

Government pushes back against ethnicity pay gap reporting
Premier League weighs ban on debt-fuelled club takeovers
Ban on buy-one-get-one-free junk food deals delayed for a year
Saudi Aramco: Oil giant sees profits jump as prices surge
Food shortages could force 'a third' of fish and chips shops to close
Goldman Sachs says bosses can take unlimited time off
EasyJet offers £1,000 bonus as airlines battle to recruit staff

TECH
Elon Musk pauses Twitter takeover

What happened?
On Friday Elon Musk announced that his deal to buy Twitter was “temporarily on hold” sending shares in the social media platform down by as much as 25% on the day.

Why the hold up?
Less than a month ago Twitter’s board of directors agreed to Elon Musk’s offer to buy the company for $44bn to take it private.

But now the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX says he wants more details on the platform's disclosure that spam and fake accounts comprise less than 5% of its 229m daily users. He later tweeted he is still committed to the acquisition.

Could he really walk away from the deal?
Musk's announcement comes two weeks after Twitter disclosed its user figures as part of its quarterly financial results. Twitter itself had cast doubt on the total figure of spam and fake accounts, saying the figure is likely to be higher. Musk has been vocal about wanting to clean up spam bots on Twitter that mimic real people. If he were to cancel the deal—depending on the details—he may potentially owe Twitter a $1bn breakup fee.

Whatever happens talk of the deal has already sent shockwaves through the company
On Thursday, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced several big shakeups within the company in an email to staff, including firing two top executives. The company is also pausing most hiring and pulling back on spending in most areas, though it’s not currently planning any layoffs.

Stat of the day

The world’s richest 500 people have lost more than $1 trillion in net worth this year

Interesting links from around the web

The website with over 100,000 alternatives for popular apps and software
The easy way to give a killer speech for any occasion
How to be a better listener, according to science

Forward to Friend

Not a subscriber? Join free

How did you like today's email?
Get in touch with any feedback or even just to say hi
hello@marketloop.co

Copyright © 2022 Market Loop, All rights reserved.

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

This email was sent to you
why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences
Market Loop · 16 Great Chapel St · London, London W1F 8FL · United Kingdom

Market Loop - UAE telecom giant buys 10% of Vodafone

Older messages

UK economy shrinks as consumers cut back

British Gas owner raises expectations amid rising energy prices

British holidaymakers lead the way as Tui hails the return of travel

Bitcoin slumps

New owners agreed for Chelsea

You Might Also Like

An easier way to share emails with friends

$25,000/mo from a boring niche news website

Your "golden ticket in a chocolate bar" moment

The Productize course is 48% off for the next 48 hours!

🌁#77: Amid Big Model Chaos: Small Models and Embeddings Steal the Spotlight

🦅 Masterclass with Jose Rosado - Confirmation

🛍️ Advise.so Black Friday DEAL IS LIVE

$1 Million Blog (without Google) + Best Early Black Friday Deals!

The #1 Reason You’re Struggling on LinkedIn

Big, sexy, expensive... and great for your next product launch [Roundup]