Hi,
Two fun things happened last week: Microsoft became a trillion USD company again, and Bernard Arnault became the richest man, bypassing Musk (unrelated events).
Let’s begin.
AstraZeneca Bought a Chinese Company for $1.2bn
AstraZeneca (a lot of you got vaccines from this company during COVID) recently bought a Chinese company, Gracell, for $1.2bn.
This is a big deal because you don’t see companies buying another for over a billion dollars every day.
Why are they doing it?
One word: Cancer.
The Chinese company focuses on cancer research, and it seems like AstraZeneca’s focus is the same.
About a third of AstraZeneca’s operations now focus on cancer, making it the company with the highest potential to find a cancer cure.
Will they be able to do it?
Time will tell.
No, Adobe Will Not Buy Figma After All
Remember last year when we all got super excited because Adobe announced they were buying Figma?
Turns out, they’re not. The $20bn Figma deal fell through.
The deal was fine until UK and EU regulations kicked in. Citing concerns about creating a monopoly, regulators are now restricting Adobe from buying Figma.
It’s a pure loss for Adobe, as they will now have to pay a $1bn termination fee to Figma.
Evergrande Is Selling All Their Assets
If you don’t know who Evergrande is, sit tight. It’s a long one (that’s what she said).
Evergrande is a Chinese real estate company that used an MLM-like model to build a huge portfolio of real estate around China during COVID.
It turned out that people didn’t really want to buy half-done apartments, so Evergrande ended up with hundreds of ghost apartments.
Once people stopped buying and banks stopped loaning more money, the whole thing fell apart, and Evergrande became one of China’s biggest real estate scandals.
Evergrande’s chairman is now in jail, and the company has been ordered to liquidate all its assets by a court in Hong Kong.
Titas Doubled the Price of Prepaid Gas Meters
Titas, the subsidized national gas network, has increased the price of prepaid gas meters from 100 BDT to 200 BDT—a 100% increase.
Titas installs these meters in your home at a loss (they claim it costs up to 25k BDT to buy and install a meter). The goal is to offset this cost by charging a monthly meter fee, which was 100 BDT/month until now.
Information We Found Interesting Today
- Reddit is planning its IPO at a $5bn valuation.
- The FDA approved the first AI doctor. More here.
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