Business

The Washington Post reports: Facebook said Monday that it’s opening its first physical retail space — its latest gambit to transform itself from a social media platform into a hardware giant inventing the “metaverse.” In the store, customers will be able to test out Facebook’s growing line of smart hardware devices including its virtual reality headset Quest 2, its smart …

Bloomberg News reports: Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to prohibit the LGBTQ-rights flag from being flown on the corporate flagpole outside its offices during Pride month in June, prompting a furious backlash from Houston-based employees. Exxon updated company guidance on what flags can be displayed outside its offices, banning “external position flags” such as PRIDE and Black Lives Matter, according to …

The New York Times reports: Twitter is nearing a deal to sell itself to Elon Musk, two people with knowledge of the situation said, a move that would unite the world’s richest man with the influential social networking service. Twitter’s board was negotiating with Mr. Musk into the early hours of Monday over his unsolicited bid to buy the company, …

CNBC reports: Twitter could be becoming more receptive to a takeover bid from Elon Musk after the billionaire disclosed he has secured $46.5 billion in financing, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The social media company had been expected to shoot down the offer and had adopted a so-called poison pill to fend off a potential hostile takeover. But executives …

Bloomberg News reports: Anheuser-Busch InBev will sell its stake in a Russian joint venture, taking a $1.1 billion hit as the world’s largest brewer joins the global move to exit operations following the country’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Leuven, Belgium-based AB InBev said it will dispose of its holding in the AB InBev Efes venture, adding that it’s already in …

The New York Post reports: Thousands of happy stoners flocked to pot shops in New Jersey Thursday — forming lines that snaked around the block at some locations — on the state’s first day of legal marijuana sales. More than 2,000 people snapped up pre-rolled joints, flowers and edibles within hours at Ascend, a luxury cannabis shop in Rochelle Park, …

The Hill reports: Koch Industries is working on an “exit strategy” for its business in Russia, after previously saying that employees at its glass factories in the country faced personal risks if it pulled out. The company, headed by political mega-donor Charles Koch, would join hundreds of other multinationals, many that halted operations in Russia early on during its war …

Bloomberg News reports: Barack and Michelle Obama’s time with Spotify Technology SA is coming to an end. The former first family’s production company, Higher Ground, won’t be signing a new deal with the audio platform, according to people familiar with the negotiations. The company is instead talking to other distributors about a deal worth tens of millions of dollars, among …

The Daily Beast reports: Elon Musk has secured commitments totaling about $46.5 billion for a possible takeover of Twitter, according to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There is still no assurance the deal will go through, though the filing firms up Musk’s earlier $43 billion proposal and the possibility that he could pursue a hostile takeover …

The Orlando Sentinel reports: The Republican-controlled Florida Senate quickly voted Wednesday to dissolve Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District. The Senate voted 23-16 to dissolve Reedy Creek, with Sen. Jeff Brandes the only Republican to vote against Sen. Jennifer Bradley’s bill. The Senate voted along party lines to approve Bradley’s bill retracting the Disney carveout. Democrats assailed their Republican colleagues …

The New York Times reports: Elon Musk is racing to secure funding for his $43 billion bid to buy Twitter. Morgan Stanley, the investment bank working with Mr. Musk on the potential deal, has been calling banks and other potential investors to shore up financing for the offer, four people with knowledge of the situation said. Mr. Musk is first …

NPR reports: Delta Airlines has updated its announcement about the end of the federal mask mandate after igniting a firestorm of criticism from public health experts who said it used inaccurate and misleading language to describe COVID-19. “We are relieved to see the U.S. mask mandate lift to facilitate global travel as COVID-19 has transitioned to an ordinary seasonal virus,” …

Reuters reports: A federal judge has ruled that Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s 2018 tweets about having secured financing to take the company private were false, according to court filings by Tesla investors suing the billionaire over the tweets. The filing said that the court ruled April 1 that Musk’s 2018 tweets were “false and misleading.” The court “held that he …

CNBC reports: Twitter adopted a limited duration shareholder rights plan, often called a “poison pill,” a day after billionaire Elon Musk offered to buy the company for $43 billion, the company announced Friday. The board voted unanimously to adopt the plan. Under the new structure, if any person or group acquires beneficial ownership of at least 15% of Twitter’s outstanding …

Mediaite reports: Mark Cuban said Tesla CEO Elon Musk offering to buy Twitter is a way of “fucking with” the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cuban tweeted on Thursday he thinks that Musk is messing with the SEC by purchasing a huge stake in Twitter and hyping a faux takeover in an effort to goose the stock price before selling. Cuban …

Deadline reports: Twitter is said to be weighing a poison pill to prevent Elon Musk from increasing his stake in the company significantly, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the situation. The defensive strategy, also called a shareholders rights plan, make hostile takeovers more expensive and complicated for a buyer. They allow existing shareholders the right …

The Associated Press reports: Elon Musk is offering to buy Twitter, just days after the Tesla CEO said he would no longer be joining the social media company’s board of directors. Twitter Inc. said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that Musk provided a letter to the company on Wednesday that contained a proposal to buy the remaining shares of …

CNBC reports: A group of Twitter shareholders are suing Elon Musk for allegedly failing to disclose he had bought a significant stake in the social media company in the right timeframe. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO revealed on April 4 that he had amassed a 9.2% stake in Twitter, leading shares to soar as investors viewed the move as a …

USA Today reports: Soon there will be only three open Kmart stores in the U.S. The Kmart store in Avenel, New Jersey, 15 miles south of New York City, is the latest store scheduled to permanently close on April 16. Once it shutters, the number of Kmarts in the U.S. – once well over 2,000 – will be down to …

Reuters reports: Orlando cracked a list of the world’s top 10 busiest airports by passengers for the first time last year, as the home of the Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Florida theme parks joined mostly American hubs as soaring leisure travel underpins a recovery in traffic. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport topped the rankings by passenger traffic published Monday …