A colourful selection of news items this week seem to have a central thread. Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the Theranos fake blood-test venture once valued at $9 billion, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for fraud. Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, the collapsed crypto exchange once valued at $32 billion, was holed up in the Bahamas awaiting extradition to face US justice. Despite continuing crypto mayhem, Binance – the Cayman-based rival exchange that declined to rescue FTX – announced the auction of ‘seven animated NFT statues’ celebrating the triumphs of footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.
Also still making headlines, Elon Musk appears set on destroying his $44 billion Twitter purchase – and former shareholders must think themselves lucky to have been bought out at a 38 per cent premium to the last traded price before he came over the horizon. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq-100 tech stock index is down 40 per cent from its peak, and the Cambridge-based semi-conductor designer Arm Holdings has deferred flotation for fear of not achieving the $40 billion-plus valuation sought by its Japanese owner, Softbank.
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