Big techs cut costs, why fake accounts stop Twitter purchases and what matters in the market

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Wave of layoffs at tech companies

The sentiment of risk aversion in the markets that stops the flow of money and sends down tech stocks has led companies in the sector here and abroad to have a new priority: cutting costs.

In many of them, the first hit are the employees.

What explains: the excess liquidity in the markets seen in recent years ceased to be a reality with the beginning of the cycle of high interest rates in the US to fight inflation.

in numbers: the big techs Apple –which lost the position of the most valuable company in the world–, Amazon, Alphabet (owner of Google) and Meta (controller of Facebook) lost about $2 trillion of market value in the accumulated of the year until the last Friday (13).

• In the startup world, global venture capital funding has dropped 19% in the first quarter of the year compared to the previous three months. It was the biggest drop since 2012, points out CB Insights.

With less money available in the market, companies large and small recalculate the route.

• The largest companies have cut investments in areas where the return is not certain, as is the case with Meta and the metaverse area. Hiring at the companies has been frozen and there are terminations, as Netflix did when it laid off 150 employees this Tuesday.

• In the smaller ones, the impact mainly affects startups in which the next step would be the IPO (public offering of shares). In Brazil, the Sheet showed that unicorns (startups valued at $1 billion or more) like Loft, QuintoAndar and Facily have recently made mass layoffs.

More on the job market:

Robot accounts crash Twitter trading

Billionaire Elon Musk said this Tuesday that he will only proceed with the purchase of Twitter if the social network proves that the number of bots (robots) on the platform is actually less than 5%, as she claims.

Understand the roll: Tesla’s owner said last Friday that the business was on hold for that reason.

• On Monday (16), Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal reaffirmed in a series of tweets that the platform suspends more than half a million accounts that appear to be fake every day and that bots represent “well under 5%” of the total of daily active users.

Why data matters: fake accounts decrease the indicator of daily active users, a very important metric for social networks. It is used by companies as a criterion for advertising on platforms.

Musk gave up? Market analysts say that independent research already pointed out that 9% to 15% of Twitter users were bots and that everyone had known this for some time.

• On Tuesday, Twitter said in a filing that it intends to require the purchase to be settled under the terms of the $54.20 a share offer, or $44 billion (R$ 220 billion).

Senate approves end of baggage charges

After the Chamber of Deputies, it was the turn of the Senate to approve this Tuesday the ban on charging for checking baggage on national and international flights.

The MP (provisional measure) in which the section is included had changes and therefore it will need to go through the Chamber again before going to sanction.

Remember: the device that vetoes the collection of baggage was included by the deputies in the MP that makes the rules of the air sector more flexible. The charge has been in effect since 2016, when Anac (National Civil Aviation Agency) issued a resolution on the subject.

Articulation: the version of the draftsman of the proposal in the Senate, Carlos Fávaro (PL-MG), resumed the charge, but the senators returned to insert the prohibition in a “prominence” to the text.

• Fávaro is from the government base and a pre-candidate for the government of Minas by the party of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

Reaction: the charge for checking bags of up to 23 kg on domestic flights can mean an increase between BRL 90 and BRL 350 per segment, depending on the company and destination. Airlines say the move goes against an international agreement.

The PM: the text approved this Tuesday allows the construction of airfields without prior authorization and authorizes companies to bar undisciplined passengers for up to one year.

• The measure also simplifies the authorization for the operation of foreign companies and with the requirement of CNPJ and branch in Brazilian territory.

Dollar has biggest daily fall in 9 months

Global markets began to breathe again this Tuesday with the drop in Covid cases in China. Here, the dollar closed the BRL 4.94in a retreat of 2.19%the biggest daily low since August 2021.

The Ibovespa had its fifth consecutive positive session and advanced 0.51%, at 108,789 points. The rise was lower than that of the US indices, which rebounded after falling in recent trading sessions.

What explains: Shanghai, China’s financial hub that has been under a strict lockdown for more than six weeks, said on Tuesday it had reached the “zero Covid” target, indicating that restrictions should be eased soon.

On the Brazilian stock exchange, the negative highlights were the shares of Hapvida (-17%) and Magazine Luiza (-11%), which plummeted after companies released their first-quarter results.