Elon Musk is now suing Twitter

The Musk Twitter saga is entering the next round. Also, Intel and Roku stocks are plummeting, and Swvl’s takeover of Zeelo has failed.

Good morning! Even during the weekend, work in the digital scene continued in many places.

The top topics:

Elon Musk has on Friday to offensive against Twitter scheduled: The Tesla boss, who wanted to buy the short message service but later withdrew his offer, has now also filed a lawsuit himself. It’s unclear what Musk is accusing the social media company of, as the lawsuit hasn’t been made public yet. That Musk has ordered the court to keep details of his counterclaim confidential is surprising given the billionaire has been vocal in his criticism of Twitter on social media and in press interviews in recent months.

Twitter and Musk announced on April 25, 2022 that Musk would like to buy the company for $44 billion. But soon after the deal was made public, a market downturn caused tech stocks, including Tesla and Twitter, to fall. Musk eventually accused Twitter of lying about the number of spam and bot accounts on the platform and ultimately canceled the agreement altogether. Twitter then filed a lawsuit against him to force him to go through with the deal after all. [Mehr bei The Guardian, Wall Street Journal und CNBC]

on Founder Scene: That Neun-Euro-Ticket is a colossal success. Around 31 million tickets have been sold since the launch of the local transport ticket, which is valid throughout Germany. It is therefore rightly demanded that the offer be extended or even offered permanently. Much too expensive, say skeptics. In his new torque column, mobility expert Don Dahlmann shows how the project could be financed – with two measures. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

And here are the other headlines of the night and the past few days:

Die Intelshares closed another eight percent lower on Friday. Investors had already expressed disappointment the day before after the company reported weak quarterly figures. Intel revenue fell 22 percent year over year. The chipmaker ended the past quarter with a net loss of $454 million, compared to a net income of $5 billion in the same quarter last year. The company also lowered its expectations for the full year. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Year also had a rough day on the stock market on Friday: the equipment seller’s shares were 23 percent lower at the end of trading. Also in the case of the Californian company, the results for the second quarter were responsible for the plunge in its shares. The results fell short of analysts’ expectations. The company reported a loss of 82 US cents per share and sales of 764 million US dollars, both below analysts’ estimates. [Mehr bei CNBC]

Swvls acquisition of the British bus platform Zeelo has failed according to a media report. The Dubai-based ridesharing service, which just acquired German competitor Door2door in March, was planning a $100 million deal. Swvl, originally founded in Egypt, previously went public via a Spac IPO. Zeelo cited general market conditions and the slump in technology stocks as the reason for the collapse of the deal. Another mobility company where things are not going smoothly at the moment is Bolt Mobility, the Miami-based startup co-founded by Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt. According to a report by Techcrunch, the company seems to have disappeared from at least five of its US markets without a trace. [Mehr bei Techcrunch und Techcrunch]

Lemonade has about 60 employees from To Metro fired, an auto insurance company that the insurtech recently acquired. A Lemonade spokesperson told Techcrunch that the company is able to offer “about 80 percent of the Metromile team a role at Lemonade.” Metromile went public through a Spac IPO in February 2021 and was valued at over $1 billion at the time. Before the takeover at the end of July, the company was worth just under $137 million. Lemonade itself went public in July 2020 as part of a traditional IPO. [Mehr bei Techcrunch]

Death Lab, a Chinese crypto investment firm backed by some prominent Chinese tech investors, has just launched a new $90 million cryptocurrency fund. The investment is based on a continuous increase in the prices of tokens such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, which have fallen by more than 60 percent this year. Just last year, Smrti Lab launched a separate fund that bets both on and against specific crypto assets. “The crypto market is in a Lehman moment,” said Smrti co-founder Wang Bowen. “Nobody knows who’s in trouble or who’s insolvent.” [Mehr bei The Information]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: According to media reports, the Berlin food delivery service Gorillas soon to close another round of financing – but has to accept a down-round in the process. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

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