For months now, the world watched as the world’s wealthiest man went to bat with social media giant Twitter (TWTR).

First Elon Musk – the owner of Tesla (TSLA), SpaceX, and the Boring Company – wanted to buy it. But the social media giant didn’t want to be bought.

Then it tried to placate him with a seat on its board, but he didn’t want that.

Then it caved and signed an agreement with him.

Then he accused them of withholding key information about important metrics.

Then…

Need I go on?

In the beginning, Musk promised to unlock Twitter’s full potential to promote free speech and profits. But the tech titan has apparently given up on that intent and is now in the process of terminating the deal.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

“Elon Musk said he is seeking to terminate his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter Inc. nearly two months after saying the deal was ‘on hold’ over his questions about the number of spam and fake accounts on the platform.

“Twitter ‘is in material breach of multiple provisions of that agreement,’ according to a letter from Mr. Musk’s lawyer filed with securities regulators. The letter also accused the company of making ‘false and misleading representations’ when entering into the agreement.”

In a regulatory filing last Friday, Elon claimed Twitter hadn’t delivered the crucial data necessary to assess fake account occurrences. Plus, the filing accused it of making material changes to Twitter without Musk’s consent, such as cutting staff and freezing new hires.

He clearly wasn’t playing around about wanting to verify the authenticity of Twitter’s user base. And I tend to agree with him there.

Investing in any company should always be based on sound fundamentals. So I applaud Musk for demanding a full spectrum account of what his money is really purchasing.

Twitter does not share that opinion, however. It says it will sue if Musk does indeed back out. And it’s “confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery,” as Bret Taylor, chairman of the board, tweeted.

This leaves one absolute conclusion amidst a sea of questions…

Whatever happens from here, it will undoubtedly be interesting to watch.

More Non-REIT News to Know About  

Jean Madar, founder, and chairman of Inter Parfums (IPAR) says he’s done dealing with China.

After spending several months with millions of dollars of his designer perfumes on lockdown in Shanghai, the cologne mogul has made it clear he wants to cut the world’s largest manufacturer  out of his earnings equation.

“We’re doing this even though China is way cheaper,” Madar said. “How good is it to have cheaper components when you cannot get them? For a consumer-products company like us, you need to have super stability in supply.”

And it seems more and more companies are coming to the same conclusion according to a recent McKinsey & Co. survey. It indicated that nearly 20% of supply-chain executives returned significant production back to a closer proximity in the past year – double the number from 2021.

Meanwhile, over 30% claimed they added new suppliers in nearby countries, a 15% increase from a year earlier.

At this rate, we might see sweeping changes to the infrastructure of American commerce. In fact, we might see sweeping changes in how the world operates at large.

Could China’s influence be waning? More and more people are saying the answer to that is yes.

The World According to REITs 

Plymouth Industrial REIT (PLYM) is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns single- and multi-tenant industrial properties. I know I write about it a good bit in this blog, but I’d say there’s good reason for that.

I’ve always admired this Boston-based blue-chip as a power player among the main U.S. industrial, distribution, and logistics corridors. Its fundamentals are rock solid, its performance is steady, and its acquisitions are incredibly strong.

The company just released its Q2 earnings today, including how it acquired five industrial buildings – in Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and St. Louis – totaling 464,449 square feet for a total of $48.9 million. That’s a weighted average price of $105 per square foot and a weighted average initial yield of 5.7%.

To quote CEO Jeff Witherell:

“The second quarter has closed out as one of the most active leasing periods we have ever had. Throughout our markets, our strategy has been to acquire assets that are well below replacement cost and have significant embedded rent growth. The strong demand we are experiencing for our industrial space, the rent spreads we are achieving, and the record levels of space we are leasing speak to how successful our strategy has been to date.”

This REIT has seen some pretty nice trading activity, up about 2.40% in the last five days. Then again, that does mean it’s about $0.40 over our Buy price.

But if you want to put it on your watchlist, I can’t say I blame you one bit!

Author’s Note: If you do determine this stock is right for you, make sure to purchase it at a smart entry point. Even the best of companies can burn you badly by buying in at inflated prices.

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