What we’re reading (7/14)
“Stripe Cuts Internal Valuation By 28%” (Wall Street Journal). “Payments giant Stripe last valued by private investors at $95 billion, cut the internal value of its shares by 28%, people familiar with the matter said. Stripe told employees in an email Friday that the internal share price was about $29, compared with $40 in the most previous internal valuation, known as a 409A valuation, the people said. The move lowered the implied valuation of those shares to $74 billion, according to one of the people, which is calculated separately from the stock owned by” major shareholders.”
“The Inflation Numbers Are Bad — But How Bad Are They?” (Vox). “Although many economists say inflation will stay at high levels at least through the end of the year, there are some signs that prices could be moderating. Gas prices are already starting to fall from their recent peak of $5 a gallon and are now averaging about $4.63, which could be reflected in future CPI data, and the cost of home goods and apparel could come down as more retailers like Target slash prices on excess inventory. But economists say it’s difficult to tell whether inflation peaked in June, given the volatility of energy prices.”
“What The Bored Ape Yacht Club And Quontic’s Pool Party In The Metaverse Means For Your Company” (Forbes). “Investments in the metaverse surged to $12 billion in 2021 from $5.9 billion in 2020 to more than$5.9 billion in 2020 to more than. The metaverse could grow to $13 trillion – more than half the size of the entire U.S. 2022 economy – by 2030, according to Citi Bank estimates.”
“Average Rent In Manhattan Was A Record $5,000 Last Month” (CNBC). “The average apartment rent in June was $5,058, the highest on record, according to a report from Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman. Average rental prices were up 29% over last year, while median rent was up by 25% to $4,050 a month.”
“Elon Musk Is a ‘Nightmare Client’” (The Atlantic). “Twitter’s lawsuit is an extraordinary and odd document. It paints Musk as a dishonest and unserious hypocrite, the sort of person you would never want running your company. But because this same dishonest and unserious hypocrite has signed a document offering to pay a huge premium to shareholders, Twitter’s board is bound by its fiduciary duty to enforce a merger neither Musk nor Twitter’s employees seem to want. It’s an awfully strange twist to the marriage-plot genre: I hate your guts, now marry me! This is shareholder capitalism as romantic comedy.”
