What we’re reading (12/12)
“Pfizer And Moderna Could Score $32 Billion In Covid-19 Vaccine Sales — In 2021 Alone” (CNN Business). “Wall Street analysts are projecting Pfizer and Moderna will generate $32 billion in Covid-19 vaccine revenue -- next year alone. That doesn't take into account the goodwill boost these companies will receive by helping to end the worst pandemic in a century. That boost is magnified for Moderna (MRNA), a young biotech company that few people had heard of before 2020 that could now be on the cusp of getting its own FDA authorization.”
“‘Facebook Has Destroyed This F--king Town’: Facing A Legal Onslaught, Mark Zuckerberg Gets Ready To Fight Back” (Vanity Fair). “You would think that Facebook’s stock would have taken a vertiginous fall on Wednesday. That the company’s valuation would have been cut by double- or even triple-digit billions of dollars. That the sky over Facebook would have fallen, and it would have felt as if the end of the world was nigh…[a]nd yet, while Facebook’s valuation fell by a couple of percentage points on Wednesday, its stock didn’t look much different than it would on any typical day on Wall Street for the social network. That’s because Wall Street doesn’t believe that the FTC and 48 state attorneys general will, and can, break up Facebook.”
“AstraZeneca Agrees To Buy Alexion For $39 Billion” (Wall Street Journal). “The deal comes at a pivotal time for AstraZeneca, which is in late-stage development of a leading Covid-19 vaccine developed in partnership with the University of Oxford. The vaccine is being reviewed by U.K. and European drug regulators, and could be authorized for emergency use in the U.K. within weeks, scientists involved in it have said.”
“Three Of The 10 Biggest Tech IPOs Have Happened In 2020—Including Two In The Last Week” (CNBC). “[DoorDash, Airbnb, and Snowflake] each raised over $3 billion and have market caps between $55 billion and $100 billion, putting them among the 30 most valuable U.S. tech companies. Before going public they commanded valuations in the double-digit billions, attracting large checks along the way from private equity firms, fund managers, strategic investors and sovereign wealth funds.”
“Ex-Hedge Fund Manager Better Hope The Next Judge He Sees Doesn’t Think He’s A Thief And A Liar” (Dealbreaker). “When last we checked in with Dan Kamensky, he was begging his bank ‘not to put me in jail’ on account of having allegedly bullied said bank into not bidding for a thing he wanted, which higher bid would have been very good for the Neiman Marcus creditors committee on which he served, closing down that hedge fund—Marble Ridge Capital—as a result, forcing that hedge fund into the awkward position of arguing that doing so didn’t actually hurt the bankrupt retailer, and oh yea getting arrested and sued by the SEC. So, uh, how much worse can things get for the disgraced hedge fund manager? Well, quite a bit worse, actually.”
