Catch up on the weekend’s top five stories with this list compiled by The Fly: 1. Twitter (TWTR) is re-examining Elon Musk’s $43 billion takeover offer after the billionaire lined up financing for the bid, in a sign the social-media company could be more receptive to a deal, The Wall Street Journal’s Cara Lombardo reported. Twitter had been expected to rebuff the offer, which Mr. Musk made earlier this month without saying how he would pay for it. But after he disclosed last week that he now has $46.5 billion in financing, Twitter is taking a fresh look at the offer and is more likely than before to seek to negotiate, people familiar with the matter said. The two sides are meeting Sunday to discuss Mr. Musk’s proposal, the people said. Meanwhile, Reuters’ Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Greg Roumeliotis reported that Twitter is coming under increasing pressure from its shareholders to negotiate with Elon Musk even though the world’s richest person has called his $43 billion bid for the social media platform his best and final offer. While the views of Twitter shareholders vary over what a fair price for a deal would be, many reached out to the company after Musk outlined his acquisition financing plan on Thursday and urged it not to let the opportunity for a deal slip away, sources told the publication. 2. Alphabet (GOOGL) unit Google, Meta (FB) and other large online platforms will have to do more to tackle illegal content or risk hefty fines under new internet rules agreed between European Union countries and EU lawmakers on Saturday, Reuters’ Foo Yun Chee reported. Under the Digital Services Act, the companies face fines up to 6% of their global turnover for violating the rules while repeated breaches could see them banned from doing business in the EU, the publication added. The new rules ban targeted advertising aimed at children or based on sensitive data such as religion, gender, race and political opinions. Dark patterns, which are tactics that mislead people into giving personal data to companies online, will also be prohibited, the author noted. 3. Meta Platforms, the former Facebook, has come under heavy fire from Congress, regulators, and even its own users, but there has been nothing like the crisis it now faces, with its core business decelerating, and investors questioning whether Meta can ever get back its money-minting mojo, Eric J. Savitz wrote in this edition of Barron’s. Nearly one out of every four dollars spent on digital ads is on a Meta site. Only Alphabet ‘s Google is bigger. But Apple’s (AAPL) changes, Meta has said, will mean that 2022 revenue will shrink by about $10B, or about 9% of 2021’s revenue. Barron’s spoke at length to top Meta executives who are helping spearhead the company’s responses to the ad changes, the threat from TikTok, and the megabet on the metaverse. While the stock looks statistically cheap, addressing these issues will take time, the TikTok threat is considerable, and the payoff from the metaverse is many years away, the author noted. 4. DreamWorks Animation and Comcast (CMCSA) subsidiary Universal’s “The Bad Guys” won this weekend’s domestic box office with a $24M debut. Overseas, the action-comedy has earned $63M for a worldwide total of $87M. The movie has an A CinemaScore. 5. Under Armour (UA; UAA), JPMorgan (JPM), Broadcom (AVGO), Caterpillar (CAT), CVS Health (CVS), Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB), HP Inc. (HPQ), Merck (MRK), and LVMH (LVMUY) saw positive mentions in this week’s edition of Barron’s.
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