Business

By Greg Roumeliotis and Sheila Dang

(Reuters) -Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that his $44-billion cash deal for Twitter Inc was “temporarily on hold” while he waits for the social media company to provide data on the proportion of its fake accounts.

Twitter shares initially fell more than 20% in premarket trading, but after Musk, the chief executive of electric car market Tesla Inc, sent a second tweet saying he remained committed to the deal, they regained some ground.

The shares were down 9.6% to $40.71 in trading on Friday, a steep discount to the $54.20 per share acquisition price.

Musk, the world’s richest person, decided to waive due diligence when he agreed to buy Twitter on April 25, in an effort to get the San Francisco-based company to accept his “best and final offer.” This could make it harder for him to argue that Twitter somehow misled him.

Since Musk inked his deal to acquire Twitter, technology stocks have plunged amid investor concerns over inflation and a potential economic slowdown.

The spread between the offer price and the value of Twitter shares had widened in recent days, implying less than a 50% chance of completion, as investors speculated that the downturn would prompt Musk to walk away or seek a lower price.

“Twitter deal temporarily on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed represent less than 5% of users,” Musk told his more than 92 million Twitter followers.

Under the terms of Musk’s contract with Twitter, he is entitled to ask the company for information on its operations following the signing of the deal. But this is meant to help him prepare for his ownership of Twitter, not to carry out due diligence and reopen negotiations.

Twitter is planning no immediate action against Musk as a result of Musk’s comment, people familiar with the matter said. The company considered the comment disparaging and a violation of the terms of their deal contract, but was encouraged by Musk subsequently tweeting he was committing to the acquisition, the sources added.

Musk came to Twitter’s office for a meeting on May 6 as part of the transaction planning process, a Twitter spokesperson said.

Twitter’s Chief Executive Parag Agrawal also weighed in, tweeting “While I expect the deal to close, we need to be prepared for all scenarios.” On Thursday, Agrawal announced leadership changes and a hiring freeze.

REAL OR FAKE?

Spam or fake accounts are designed to manipulate or artificially boost activity on services like Twitter. Some create an impression that something or someone is more popular than they actually are.

Musk tweeted a Reuters story from ten days ago that cited the fake account figures. Twitter has said that the figures were an estimate and that the actual number may be higher.

The estimated number of spam accounts on the microblogging site has held steady below 5% since 2013, according to regulatory filings from Twitter, prompting some analysts to question why Musk was raising it now.

“This 5% metric has been out for some time. He clearly would have already seen it… So it may well be more part of the strategy to lower the price,” said Susannah Streeter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

Representatives for Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.

Tesla’s stock rose 5% on Friday. The shares have lost about a quarter of their value since Musk disclosed a stake in Twitter of April 4, amid concerns he will get distracted as Tesla’s chief executive and that he may have to sell more Tesla shares to fund the deal.

There is plenty of precedent for a potential renegotiation of the price following a market downturn. Several companies repriced agreed acquisitions when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in 2020 and delivered a global economic shock.

For example, French retailer LVMH threatened to walk away from a deal with Tiffany & Co. The U.S. jewelry retailer agreed to lower the price by $425 million to $15.8 billion.

Acquirers seeking a get out sometimes turn to “material adverse effect” clauses in their merger agreement, arguing the target company has been significantly damaged.

But the language in the Twitter deal agreement, as in many recent mergers, does not allow Musk to walk away because of a deteriorating business environment, such as a drop in demand for advertising or because Twitter’s shares have plunged.

Musk is contractually obligated to pay Twitter a $1 billion break-up fee if he does not complete the deal. But the contract also contains a “specific performance” clause that a judge can cite to force Musk to complete the deal.

In practice, acquirers who lose a specific performance case are almost never forced to complete an acquisition and typically negotiate a monetary settlement with their targets.

DEFEAT THE BOTS

Musk has said that if he buys Twitter he “will defeat the spam bots or die trying” and has blamed the company’s reliance on advertising for why it has let spam bots proliferate.

He has also been critical of Twitter’s moderation policy and has said he wants Twitter’s algorithm to prioritize tweets to be public.

Earlier this week, Musk said he would reverse Twitter’s ban on former U.S. President Donald Trump when he buys the social media platform, signaling his intention to cut moderation.

Trump, who started a rival social media app called Truth Social, took to his platform on Friday to weigh in.

“There is no way Elon Musk is going to buy Twitter at such a ridiculous price, especially since realizing it is a company largely based on bots or spam accounts,” Trump wrote in a post, adding that his site is much better.

(Additonal reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru, Ken Li in New York and Katie Paul in San FranciscoWriting by Anna Driver and Editing by Alexander Smith, Nick Zieminski and Alistair Bell)

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By Elizabeth Dilts Marshall

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Global shares rose on Friday as Wall Street rallied to end a volatile week of trading, while oil jumped 4% on the back of record-high U.S. gas prices.

Global markets and U.S. stocks were down sharply most of this week as investors grew anxious about the possibility of recession. The S&P 500 index is off nearly 20% from its all-time high in January and was close to a bear market on Thursday. [.N]

But investors’ fears over whether U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell can accomplish a “soft landing” – bringing inflation down while keeping the U.S. economy growing – appeared to ease at least temporarily on Friday.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 2.30% at 4:07 p.m. ET (2007 GMT), after hitting its lowest since November 2020 on Thursday. The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 2.14%.

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 94.57 points, or 2.41%, to end at 4,024.65 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 436.61 points, or 3.84%, to 11,807.57. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 466.43 points, or 1.47%, to 32,196.73.

Despite Friday’s gains, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq posted their sixth consecutive weekly loss, and the Dow notched its seventh consecutive weekly dip.

Emerging market stocks rose 1.83%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rallied 2.01% from Thursday’s 22-month closing low. Japan’s Nikkei rose 2.64%.

“Stocks were ready to rebound as some investors remain hopeful the Fed will deliver a soft landing, while others are ready to buy the dip,” said Edward Moya, analyst at OANDA.

Cryptocurrencies steadied on Friday, with bitcoin recovering from a 16-month low after a volatile week dominated by the collapse in value of TerraUSD, a so-called stablecoin.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, rose 3.5% to $29,884, rebounding from a December 2020 low of $25,400 hit on Thursday. Bitcoin remains far below week-earlier levels of around $40,000 and is on track for a record seventh consecutive weekly loss.

Oil prices jumped 4% as U.S. gasoline prices jumped to a record high and China looked ready to ease pandemic restrictions.

Brent futures rose $4.10, or 3.8%, to settle at $111.55 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $4.36, or 4.1%, to settle at $110.49.

GRAPHIC: S&P 500 set for a sixth straight week of falls (https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/zdpxoglxgvx/stx1305.PNG)

Markets are likely to experience a short-term rebound before resuming the sell-off which has sent Wall Street’s Nasdaq tech index down over 25% since the beginning of the year, BofA analysts wrote in a weekly strategy note.

Investors liquidated global equity funds worth $10.53 billion in the week ended May 11, compared with $1.65 billion of net selling in the previous week, according to Refinitiv Lipper.

In an interview late on Thursday, Powell said the battle to control inflation would “include some pain,” and he repeated his expectation of half-percentage-point interest rate rises at each of the Fed’s next two policy meetings.

Headline inflation in the euro zone will fall in the second half of the year but so-called core prices, which strip out food and energy, will keep rising, the European Central Bank’s vice-president Luis de Guindos said on Friday.

The dollar was lower on Friday but remained on track for a weekly gain. The dollar index fell 0.2%, with the euro up 0.21% to $1.0401.

The Japanese yen weakened 0.77% versus the greenback at 129.32 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.2232, up 0.27% on the day.

The moves higher in equities were mirrored in U.S. Treasuries, with the benchmark U.S. 10-year yield edging up to 2.9367% from a close of 2.817% on Thursday.

The policy-sensitive 2-year yield was 2.5986%, from a close of 2.522%.

Gold fell more than 1% on Friday and is set for its fourth straight weekly decline, as the dollar’s strength sapped appetite for bullion. Spot gold dropped 0.8% to $1,807.79 an ounce. U.S. gold futures fell 0.59% to $1,807.40 an ounce.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Dilts Marshall; Additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn in London and Andrew Galbraith in Shanghai and Dhara Ranasinghe in London; Editing by Jane Merriman, Nick Zieminski and Richard Chang)

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(Reuters) – The organizer of the Golden Globe awards is exploring strategic options including a takeover offer from interim Chief Executive Todd Boehly, the non-profit organization said on Friday.

Boehly’s proposal comes a week after a consortium led by the U.S. business tycoon clinched a $5.2 billion deal to buy Premier League club Chelsea.

The LA Dodgers part-owner’s investment vehicle Eldridge Industries LLC has worked out a term sheet with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) that allows the organization to solicit other offers and consider alternative deals.

“At least one other entity has already indicated interest in making a proposal,” the association said in a statement.

The HFPA, which hands out the annual Golden Globe awards for television and film, has formed a special committee to determine “potential outside strategic interest”, it said.

The offer comes at a time when the HFPA struggles to repair its reputation after Hollywood backlash over its ethics and lack of diversity, which led U.S. television network NBC to drop the Golden Globes ceremony in 2022.

(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Soaring inflation will trigger an automatic increase in California’s minimum wage next year, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration announced Thursday.

The minimum wage will jump to $15.50 per hour on Jan. 1, the highest of any state. That’s an increase from $15 per hour for companies with more than 25 employees and $14 per hour for companies with 25 workers or less.

California lawmakers voted to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour in 2016, but the increase was phased in over several years. The law says the minimum wage must increase to $15.50 per hour for everyone if increased by more than 7%. Thursday, the California Department of Finance said they project inflation for the 2022 fiscal year — which ends June 30 — will be 7.6% higher than the year before, triggering the increase.

Official inflation figures won’t be final until this summer. But the Newsom administration believes the growth will be more than enough to trigger the automatic increase.

Inflation has been a problem everywhere, as consumer prices jumped 8.3% last month from a year ago and diluted the purchasing power of the U.S. consumer. A labor shortage throughout the pandemic has prompted many companies to increase pay sometimes beyond the minimum wage just to attract and retain workers.

California has about 3 million minimum wage workers, according to a conservative estimate from the state Department of Finance. The increase in the minimum wage will be about $3 billion, or less than 0.1% of the $3.3 trillion in personal income Californians are projected to earn.

Bosler said the increase could cause prices to jump for restaurants, which have low profit margins. But overall, she said the minimum wage increase is “expected to have a very minimal impact on overall inflation in the state’s economy.”

The minimum wage increase is only a portion of the extra money that could land in taxpayers’ pockets this year. Thursday, the governor doubled down on a proposal to send $800 checks to Californians who own cars to help offset high gas prices. The proposal would cost $11.5 billion and would also include spending $750 million to give everyone free rides on public transit for up to three months.

Newsom proposed that in March, but Democrats in the Legislature have rejected it. Instead, they want to send $200 checks to low-to-moderate income California taxpayers and their dependents, regardless of whether they own a car.

Bosler said the Newsom administration believes their proposal is better because they would hire an outside company to distribute the checks faster than the government could.

“I think they have their points, I think we have our reasons for wanting to stick with our proposal,” Bosler said. “We’ll keep working with them.”

Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins said they are working on a plan that is “not just passing a one-size-fits-all windfall that benefits millionaires.”

“Senate Democrats do not believe a rebate tied to car ownership does the job,” Atkins said. “That plan leaves out non-car owners, including low income and elderly Californians, who are also impacted by the current high costs of consumer goods and are also deserving of relief.”

While that proposal has stalled, Newsom revealed a new plan on Thursday that would send $1,000 checks to workers in hospitals and nursing homes in recognition of their dangerous work during the pandemic. About 600,000 workers would be eligible for the money, which would go to anyone who works inside a hospital or a nursing home — including doctors, nurses and other support staff.

Workers would be guaranteed a $1,000 check. But if companies agree to add in another $500, the state will match it for a total of $2,000.

“These workers have been on the front lines throughout the COVID pandemic,” Bosler said. “They also are suffering very critical retention issues and shortages and we hope that additional payment will help to address those issues.”

Dave Regan, president of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, said staffing problems at hospitals and nursing homes have only worsened as workers left the industry in droves during the pandemic “because of increased health risks, emotional and mental stress, and overwork.”

“With this investment in keeping skilled health care workers on the job, the governor’s proposal moves us one step closer to a future where every Californian has access to care provided by valued and respected caregivers,” Regan said.

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By Sheila Dang

(Reuters) -Two senior Twitter leaders who oversee the consumer and revenue divisions will depart the social media company, Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal told employees in a memo on Thursday, in one of the biggest shake-ups at the company since billionaire Elon Musk announced he would buy it for $44 billion.

Agrawal also said in the memo, which was seen by Reuters, that Twitter would pause most hiring and review all existing job offers to determine whether any “should be pulled back.”

He attributed the decision in part because Twitter was not able to hit user growth and revenue milestones to maintain confidence that it could reach aggressive growth targets it had set in 2020.

“We need to continue to be intentional about our teams, hiring and costs,” Agrawal wrote.

The company was targeting $7.5 billion in annual revenue and 315 million daily users by the end of 2023, but withdrew those goals in its recent earnings report.

Kayvon Beykpour, who led Twitter’s consumer division, and Bruce Falck, who oversaw revenue, both tweeted on Thursday that the departures were not their decisions.

“Parag asked me to leave after letting me know that he wants to take the team in a different direction,” Beykpour tweeted, adding he was still on paternity leave from Twitter.

“I’ll clarify that I too was fired by (Parag),” Falck said, though he appeared to later delete the tweet.

Falck thanked his team in a tweet thread and updated his bio to say “unemployed.”

“We were able to achieve the results we did through your hard work – quarterly revenue does not lie. Google it,” he said.

Jay Sullivan, who was leading the consumer unit during Beykpour’s leave, will become permanent head of the division. He will also oversee the revenue team until a new leader is named, Agrawal said in the memo.

While no layoffs are planned, Agrawal said Twitter will reduce its spending on contractors, travel and marketing as well as its real estate footprint.

(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; additional reporting by Katie PaulEditing by Chizu Nomiyama, Will Dunham, Nick Zieminski and Bernard Orr)

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TOKYO (Reuters) – More than 10 investment funds are considering making strategic proposals, including a potential buyout, to Toshiba Corp after the Japanese conglomerate said it would solicit deal offers, national broadcaster NHK reported on Friday.

Those investment funds, which include both Japanese and overseas-based funds, have already signed initial contracts, the report said.

Toshiba, which has been locked in a years-long battle with some of its major shareholders over its direction, said last month it would solicit potential buyout offers, bolstering hopes of a lucrative exit for its hedge fund investors.

(Reporting by Mariko Katsumura; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

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By Chris Taylor

NEW YORK (Reuters) – As TikTok accounts focused on money gain huge followings, stodgy financial firms are wedging themselves into youth-oriented social media platforms for a piece of the action.

Independent “FinTok” influencers like Mark Tilbury (@marktilbury, 7 million followers), Humphrey Yang (@humphreytalks, 3.3 million), Tori Dunlap (@herfirst100k, 2.1 million) and Erika Kullberg (@erikakullberg, 8.4 million) have audiences that billion-dollar asset managers can only dream of.

For staid financial companies that means learning a new language from scratch: speaking in bite-sized clips with a high-quality visual style to share lessons in a lively and engaging way.

That is quite a challenge with investing concepts that are not ‘fun,’ like retirement, diversification and compound interest.

Boston-based money manager Fidelity is among the first financial giants to dip its toes into TikTok. Since setting up its account @fidelity in June 2021, it has since amassed over 14,000 followers and almost half a million likes.

“You have a very short period of time to engage people on complex topics, and that is a challenge,” said Kelly Lannan, Fidelity’s senior vice president for emerging customers.

“But TikTok has been great, because we know that’s where the next generation of customers is. So many individuals, especially younger audiences, go there for information – even before they go to their own family members.”

Indeed, when Wells Fargo & Co asked kids where they learned to handle money, 35% said social media. That could be good or bad: It can spark their interest and curiosity, but the lessons may not be right.

When investment managers T. Rowe Price queried kids about assets they would invest in, 57% chose cryptocurrency, 38% selected traditional stocks, 22% meme stocks, and 21% NFTs.

That likely reflects the headlines they are seeing, which may present a skewed reality.

BLACKROCK ENTERS THE FRAY

Money managers can show young investors rational money behaviors and how to build long-term portfolios.

BlackRock, the first public money manager to hit $10 trillion in assets, is working on winning their trust and @blackrock has gained around 2,300 followers so far.

“TikTok is the opposite end of spectrum from the 20-page whitepapers that we are very good at producing,” laughed Rich Latour, BlackRock’s global head of content.

“But we need to target that next generation of investors, with the production values they are used to seeing, and help them wade through all the financial misinformation out there.”

Since FinTok is like its own language, BlackRock and Fidelity have put forward a few personalities who already know the lingo – younger staffers, some of whom have personal TikTok accounts, and are familiar with what content clicks with users.

Typical BlackRock fare includes popular issues like “3 Tips For Retirement,” “High Inflation,” “Why Pay Taxes?” and “ETFs Explained.”

Fidelity uses a lot of food metaphors, since everyone seems to have an appetite for that. One of its most popular posts, with over 12.6 million views: a description of how fractional investing works, using the visual of a pie.

Since Fidelity and BlackRock are TikTok newbies, both are working on establishing partnerships with FinTok influencers with massive built-in audiences. Many other financial institutions seem less certain.

But the eyeballs are convincing: Posts with the hashtag #investing have already garnered 6.5 billion views, according to a TikTok spokesperson.

Even the platform’s youngest users will eventually become working adults with investment accounts, and the nation’s biggest money managers may have no choice but to enter the FinTok world.

“Not only do I think that more companies will start to get on board, I think we all have a responsibility to be there,” Fidelity’s Lannan said.

(Editing by Lauren Young and Richard Chang; Follow us @ReutersMoney or at http://www.reuters.com/finance/personal-finance.)

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By Sinéad Carew and Medha Singh

(Reuters) – Trading in shares of AMC Entertainment and GameStop was volatile on Thursday as the so-called meme stocks pared gains after rallying sharply earlier in the day as some investors looked for bargains following several days of losses.

Both companies, which released no new announcements on their websites on Thursday, have a large following among retail investors who pushed them to record levels last year when they clubbed together to force out short sellers.

Trading in the pair was anything but consistent on Thursday with cinema operator AMC closing up 8.0% at $11.20 after rising as high as $13.71. Video game retailer GameStop shares finished up 10.1% at $89.57, compared with the stock’s session high of $108.06.

Despite a blistering sell-off in equities overall recently, Thursday’s meme stock trading appeared to highlight some investors were still using a “buy-the-dip” strategy. [.N] GameStop lost 36% of its value in the last five sessions, while AMC fell 34% in the same timeframe.

“There are plenty of customers out there who continue to look for places to buy dips using very aggressive products to do so. That’s why with AMC and GME, when there’s a little kindling out there, the fire gets lit,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. “The true believers in meme stocks still have not been fully washed out.”

And the rally likely lost steam as the session wore on because some traders stepped away because the stocks in the past have been prone to such huge rallies and declines, he said.

Interactive Brokers’ clients, which include retail investors and smaller institutions, continued to be net buyers of stocks throughout the recent declines though “they have backed off memes for the most part,” Sosnick said.

GameStop is down about 40% so far in 2022 compared with a 687% gain for 2021, with the stock rising more than 2,463% at its peak last year. AMC shares are down 60.6% year-to-date compared with a 1,183% gain in 2021 and a 3,624% jump at their highest point last year.

Anthony Denier, chief executive of trading platform Webull noted that retail investors who started trading in the last few years have never experienced a bear market.

“We are now in a bear market where rallies are more akin to a ‘dead-cat bounce’,” he said. “Finding the bottom is often tried, and very rarely achieved and as a result, retail investors are feeling the fatigue of catching the falling knife.”

On the surface, Thursday’s action appeared to diverge from recent days with retail traders selling $1.9 billion worth of shares in the last two days, for the largest two-day outflow in 14 months, according to research released by JPMorgan late on Wednesday.

Cheng Peng, a quantitative and derivatives strategist at JPMorgan, said he saw no “significant directional bias by retail traders” in either AMC or GameStop on Thursday.

“Instead the buying seems to be driven by institutional investors,” said Peng, citing public order flow data.

(Reporting By Sinéad Carew and Medha Singh; editing by Bernard Orr)

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By Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Calling stable prices the “bedrock” of the economy, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Thursday that the U.S. central bank’s battle to control inflation would “include some pain” as the impact of higher interest rates is felt, but that the worse outcome would be for prices to continue speeding ahead.

“We fully understand and appreciate how painful inflation is,” Powell said in an interview with the Marketplace national radio program, repeating his expectation that the Fed will raise interest rates by half a percentage point at each of its next two policy meetings while pledging that if data turn the wrong way “we’re prepared to do more.”

“Nothing in the economy works, the economy doesn’t work for anybody without price stability,” Powell said. “We went through periods in our history where inflation was quite high … The process of getting inflation down to 2% will also include some pain, but ultimately the most painful thing would be if we were to fail to deal with it and inflation were to get entrenched in the economy at high levels, and we know what that’s like. And that’s just people losing the value of their paycheck.”

The U.S. economy is facing its toughest inflation problem since the 1970s and early 1980s, when prices at one point rose at an annual rate of 14.5% and then-Fed chief Paul Volcker used punishing interest rates to twice throw the economy into recession. The unemployment rate climbed above 10%.

Powell, who was confirmed earlier on Thursday to a second four-year term as Fed chief on a bipartisan 80-19 vote in the U.S. Senate, has paid frequent homage to Volcker’s commitment to beating inflation, while also saying he believes the U.S. central bank this time can navigate the economy to a “soft landing” where inflation falls without a downturn or significant increase in joblessness.

Interest rates are rising sharply as a result of the policy steps engineered by Powell. While neither inflation nor borrowing costs are approaching Volcker-era levels, the quick run-up in the cost of food, gas, housing and other daily staples has become a politically explosive issue for President Joe Biden’s administration. Consumer prices in April were 8.3% higher than a year ago.

Biden now has filled the top two Fed jobs and seen two of his other appointees confirmed to the central bank’s seven-seat Board of Governors. The president made clear this week he was giving them full sway to try to lower inflation.

“Tackling inflation is my top domestic priority,” Biden said following Powell’s confirmation by the Senate. The Fed “will bring the skill and knowledge needed at this critical time for our economy and families across the country.”

Powell, who opened a news conference after last week’s policy meeting by saying he wanted to “restore price stability on behalf of American families,” used the radio interview on Thursday to amplify that broad message to the public.

(Reporting by Howard Schneider; Editing by Paul Simao)

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(Reuters) – Brookfield Asset Management Inc said on Thursday it will separate and list 25% of the stake in its asset management unit, months after the Toronto-based company said it was considering the move to open up growth options.

The company will initially hold a 75% stake in the new entity, with the rest distributed to its current shareholders by the year end, Brookfield said.

Both the parent company and the separated unit will trade on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange, the company said.

In February, Brookfield Asset Management Chief Executive Officer Bruce Flatt wrote in a letter to shareholders the company was “asset-heavy” compared to most of its peers, and that dimmed its appeal to some.

The split could also potentially attract interest from investors who do not want exposure to Brookfield’s other units, such as the reinsurance business launched last year, Flatt wrote at the time.

Last year, Wells Fargo & Co also streamlined operations by selling its asset management arm to private equity firms GTCR LLC and Reverence Capital Partners for $2.1 billion.

(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Shinjini Ganguli)

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