• Len Blavatnik Gets $6.6 Billion Richer After Contrarian Music Bet

    Len Blavatnik Gets $6.6 Billion Richer After Contrarian Music Bet(Bloomberg) — Len Blavatnik bought Warner Music Group Corp. for $3.3 billion in 2011, as the global music industry was grappling with plummeting record sales and a transition to digital listening dominated by piracy.He took the company public Wednesday with the stock pricing at $25, valuing Warner Music at $12.8 billion. The shares opened at $27 at 11:52 a.m. in New York and advanced to $28.50 by noon.Entities controlled by Blavatnik, 62, sold about 77 million shares and Warner Music won’t receive any of the proceeds, according to a regulatory filing. He will retain almost all of the voting power. A spokeswoman for Blavatnik declined to comment.Warner Music Shareholders Raise $1.9 Billion in Upsized IPOThe pricing was delayed to avoid clashing with Black Tuesday, when the music industry halted business to support protests against police brutality in the U.S, people familiar with the matter said.Its public debut, at almost four times more than what Blavatnik paid for it, underscores the music industry’s resurgence. Warner, whose vast roster of artists includes Lizzo, Ed Sheeran, Bruno Mars and Cardi B, now gets more than 60% of its recorded music revenue from digital sales, helping to insulate it from pandemic-induced lockdowns. Shares of streaming giant Spotify Technology SA have surged 27% this year.Warner Music IPO Aims to Strike Chord in ‘Six Feet Apart’ EraThe IPO boosted Blavatnik’s net worth by $6.6 billion to $30.3 billion, based on the listing price, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Ukraine-born American was No. 41 on the ranking of the world’s 500 richest people through Tuesday.He began to amass his fortune with the purchase of oilfields and factories after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but the deal for Warner Music was his boldest gambit en route to becoming one of the world’s richest people.Blavatnik’s Contrarian Wagers Forge $26 Billion Global FortuneGlobal recorded music sales were $15 billion when he made the deal, with just a tiny fraction of that coming from streaming. By 2019, total sales had jumped to $20.2 billion, and the share from streaming had soared more than 900%.(Updates with share price in second paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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  • Snapchat Demotes Donald Trump’s Account, Citing Comments Inciting ‘Racial Violence and Injustice’

    Snapchat Demotes Donald Trump’s Account, Citing Comments Inciting ‘Racial Violence and Injustice’Click here to read the full article. Snap, the parent company of social app Snapchat, said that Donald Trump's account is no longer being promoted on its Discover media platform. The company cited Trump's comments regarding "racial violence and injustice" for the decision.Trump's Snapchat account remains public, available to any users who subscribe to it or search for it. But Snap has stopped featuring the president's on Discover as it has previously.“We are not currently promoting the President’s content on Snapchat’s Discover platform," a Snap spokeswoman said. "We will not amplify voices who incite racial violence and injustice by giving them free promotion on Discover. Racial violence and injustice have no place in our society and we stand together with all who seek peace, love, equality, and justice in America."Snap execs made the decision to pull the president's account from the Discover page over the weekend. The news was first reported by the New York Times.That was in response to Trump's messages posted on Twitter and Facebook saying that if protesters in Washington, D.C., had gotten too close to the White House, “vicious dogs” and “ominous weapons” would have been used against them.Trump also last Friday, in posts on social media platforms, suggested Minneapolis rioters would be shot at. Twitter added a warning label to the tweet, saying it violated the policy against glorifying violence, while Facebook left it up — a decision that has caused a backlash among Facebook employees against CEO Mark Zuckerberg.In that comment, Trump called people protesting the death of George Floyd protesters “THUGS" and said, "Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!” (The "looting and shooting" comment did not appear on Trump's Snapchat account.)The phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” has a racist legacy: It was used in the late 1960s by Miami’s police chief in speaking about violently suppressing civil unrest in black neighborhoods and by segregationist George Wallace. Trump later claimed he was ignorant of the phrase’s racist implications.It's unknown how many Snapchat users follow Trump's account on the app. Unlike other social platforms, Snapchat doesn't publish number of followers.

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  • Trump administration to bar Chinese passenger carriers from flying to U.S.

    Trump administration to bar Chinese passenger carriers from flying to U.S.President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday barred Chinese passenger carriers from flying to the United States starting on June 16 as it pressures Beijing to let U.S. air carriers resume flights amid simmering tensions between the world’s two largest economies. The move, announced by the U.S. Department of Transportation, penalizes China for failing to comply with an existing agreement on flights between the two countries. The order applies to Air China, China Eastern Airlines Corp, China Southern Airlines Co and Hainan Airlines Holding Co, as well as smaller Sichuan Airlines Co and Xiamen Airlines Co.

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  • Zoom’s stock surges on Q1 earnings, Warner Music Group returns to IPO markets

    Zoom's stock surges on Q1 earnings, Warner Music Group returns to IPO marketsWarner Music Group priced its IPO at $25 a share on Wednesday. Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel discusses. Meanwhile, Zoom’s shares skyrocketed after the company released its first quarter earnings report. Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel weighs in.

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  • Warner Music shares soar in public debut

    Warner Music shares soar in public debutWarner Music Group shares jump in public debut. Yahoo Finance’s Jared Blikre shares the latest.

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  • Hedge Funds Are Warming Up To Alcoa Corporation (AA)

    Hedge Funds Are Warming Up To Alcoa Corporation (AA)The latest 13F reporting period has come and gone, and Insider Monkey is again at the forefront when it comes to making use of this gold mine of data. We at Insider Monkey have plowed through 821 13F filings that hedge funds and well-known value investors are required to file by the SEC. The 13F […]

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  • Hedge Funds Are Nibbling On Apache Corporation (APA)

    Hedge Funds Are Nibbling On Apache Corporation (APA)In this article you are going to find out whether hedge funds think Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) is a good investment right now. We like to check what the smart money thinks first before doing extensive research on a given stock. Although there have been several high profile failed hedge fund picks, the consensus picks among […]

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  • Apple must face U.S. shareholder lawsuit over CEO’s iPhone, China comments

    Apple must face U.S. shareholder lawsuit over CEO's iPhone, China commentsWhile dismissing most claims, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled late Tuesday that shareholders can sue over Chief Executive Tim Cook’s comments touting strong iPhone demand on a Nov. 1, 2018 analyst call, only a few days before Apple told its largest manufacturers to curb production. “Absent some natural disaster or other intervening reason, it is simply implausible that Cook would not have known that iPhone demand in China was falling mere days before cutting production lines,” Rogers wrote.

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  • Oil Drops With Swelling Fuel Stockpiles Signaling Weak Demand

    Oil Drops With Swelling Fuel Stockpiles Signaling Weak Demand(Bloomberg) — Oil turned lower after U.S. government data showed fuel demand isn’t recovering as quickly as first believed.American gasoline supplies rose to the highest level in more than a month and distillate inventories jumped by the most since January 2019, according to the Energy Information Administation. Those increased offset a larger-than-expected decline in crude stockpiles, dragging West Texas Intermediate crude futures down by 1%.Production curbs by OPEC and its allies have helped the market move toward balance, after the massive demand destruction at the height of the virus pandemic in April. But the recovery remains tenuous, with U.S. producers signaling they’re already prepared to re-open wells and oil consumption still soft in most of the world. OPEC+’s commitment to its output-cut deal has also been thrown into question as concerns over cheating prompts Saudi Arabia to propose delaying the alliance’s June meeting.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

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