First Citizens acquires SVB assets, Twitter values itself at ~$20B; CFTC sues Binance and CZ

First Citizens has agreed to acquire ~$72B of Silicon Valley Bank’s assets at a discount of ~$16.5B, leaving ~$90B in securities and other SVB assets with the FDIC - Link

The Information sources: Twitter management offered employees stock grants at a ~$20B valuation, down >50% since the company was taken private; the company plans to have liquidity events every six months, based on a third-party valuation, where employees can sell their equity for cash - Link

The CFTC has sued Binance, CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, and former Chief Compliance Officer Samuel Lim, accusing the firm of avoiding federal law and operating an illegal digital asset exchange - Link

Reuters sources: Alibaba Co-Founder Jack Ma has returned to China after more than a year of living abroad; China’s premier Li Qiang recognized that Ma’s return could boost business confidence in the country’s private sector - Link

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Acquired co-hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal join Jason to discuss the state of the VC market (6:20), industries that benefitted from ZIRP (26:35), and which social apps they want to own and why (45:29). Then, Ben and Jason wrap up the show by discussing the future of Amazon and a new space startup called Starfish Space (1:11:48). - Link

Sensor Tower data: Twitter Blue has generated $11M in revenue and gained 385K global subscribers on mobile since relaunching three months ago - Link

France’s government banned all recreational apps, including TikTok, from all state-issued devices, citing data security risks; some exceptions will be permitted, such as apps used for communication - Link

NYT sources: Eight “current and former” Apple employees are skeptical about the company’s push towards XR as it prepares to launch its first headset in June; concerns include the $3K price tag and an unproven market - Link

Zoom partnered with OpenAI to bolster its ZoomIQ AI assistant, which offers AI-generated meeting summaries, message drafts, and more - Link

This Week in Startups

E1706: Acquired’s Ben Gilbert & David Rosenthal on private markets, ZIRP impact, future of Amazon

E1705: TikTok CEO grilled in front of Congress, Coinbase's Wells Notice & Do Kwon arrested

E1704: ANGEL: Freestyle’s Jenny Lefcourt on nailing non-consensus bets and avoiding hype

E1703: Startup pitch competition! Jason invests $25K into one of four founders

E1702: Balaji’s $1M Bitcoin bet, banking crisis update, OpenAI launches GPT-4, and Jay Trading!

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