Daily Crunch: Elon Musk sets sights on Twitter with unsolicited $43B takeover bid

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On Thursday, April 14, 2022, the Daily Crunch will be here.

We are listening to an interview with Chris Anderson about the attempt by Musk to buy the company. There will be many opinions on this. One example is Taylor's hot take, which can be summarized as face-palming so hard that we're a little worried she might need medical attention. We don't know if Musk's takeover bid will succeed or not, but he has a Plan B.

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The TechCrunch Top 3

• ‘How is Twitter doing?’: That was one of Alex’s questions today as he examined the social media giant’s performance and stock prices in light of Elon Musk’s unsolicited bid — can we keep calling it that even though it probably surprised no one? Anyway, the company is doing “pretty well,” Alex reports, but as to Musk’s bid of a “38% premium over the day before [his] investment was publicly announced”? Alex says that “what we should care about is not precisely the sheer premium between pre-Musk and post-Musk Twitter value; instead, we should consider the company’s worth, and then stack that against the Musk figure.” What might explain some of that is something we also learned during the Musk interview: He “doesn’t care about the economics” of buying Twitter. However, Alex still thinks “the offer doesn’t seem quite large enough to be serious. Throw another $10 billion on it and then let’s talk.”
• WhatsApp throwing its weight into communities: We’re sure a lot of people are already using WhatsApp to connect with a bigger community, but now the Meta-owned service is formalizing that a bit more with its new “Communities” feature that includes more support for sharing files, the ability to get on a group call with 31 others, admin tools and moderation controls. The beauty is that you can link an existing group instead of starting over.
• Zaraye inks small round from some big players: It’s been an interesting couple of years for anyone needing raw materials, and no country is immune to the shortages, it seems. Pakistan’s Zaraye wants to change that with its platform that connects manufacturers directly with suppliers. Tiger Global (making its first pre-seed investment in a Pakistani startup, we report) and Zayn are hitching their wagons to this one, so we are eager to follow along.

Startups and VC

If there wasn't a lot of movement in mobility, would it be called immobility? The World Car Awards have electric vehicles in attendance. Rebecca wondered if Vinfast's plan to sell its cars but rent out the battery packs would work. The Chrysler brand is starting its transition to EV-dom with the Airflow EV concept.

We are passing a lot of parcels around from our desk. Backbone wants to make package delivery more like wi-fi mesh networks and it sounds like a recipe for utter chaos. It would be very clever if they could get it to work. You have to give Amazon cred for having their supply chain tech sewn up tight. Shipium wants to give other retailers access to the same tools.

Let's do a cannonball into the pond.

8 cannabis investors share their outlook on the European market in H1 2022

There is a cannabis leaf on a traffic light.

The U.S. is set to lose its position as the world's biggest cannabis market to Europe as countries like the U.K. and Germany consider legalization.

The regulatory landscape on both sides of the pond is similar to that of the U.S., with companies having to navigate a complex framework of laws.

Because cannabis isn't illegal at a federal level across the EU, companies are free to sell their products across borders.

Eight investors are signing checks for cannabis tech companies. Beyond sharing their investment thesis, they also told us what they were looking for, how they measure success, and the best way to get their attention.

We spoke with someone.

• Todd Harrison, founding partner and CIO, CB1 Capital Management
• Yoni Meyer, partner, Casa Verde Capital
• Viken Douzdjian, managing partner and co-founder, Argonautic Ventures
• David Bonnier, founding partner, Enexis AB
• Will Gibbs, principal, Octopus Ventures
• Oliver Lamb, co-founder and investment manager, Óskare Capital
• Leah Fletcher, founder and director, Arbutus Innovation Centre
• will.i.am, investor, Sanity Group

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8 cannabis investors share their outlook on the European market in H1 2022

Big Tech Inc.

Today's theme of mobility feels like it's happening again, as evidenced by the suspension of its Tanzania operations.

Festival Mode is a new feature that allows users to connect with each other before a big concert or a festival. The dating app is partnering with Live Nation and event producers, which will cast a wide net.

In the comments section, both TikTok and Reddit have new features that make it easier to find threads you are interested in. TikTok is testing a feature that will allow users to dislike a comment and make it private.

We think you might enjoy some of the others.