#7 Trump prohibits Broadcom’s takeover

On Monday, president Trump issues an executive order hence blocking Broadcom, a global semiconductor leader, from acquiring Qualcomm. The president followed a recommendation from the Committee on Foreign Investment saying the acquisition of Qualcomm could be a threat to national security. 


#6 Wall Street still loves Broadcom

Even if Trump doesn’t. According to a Tweet by Bloomberg Technology on Tuesday, Broadcom is still a great investment. The company could start looking for smaller acquisition targets and continue its growth that way.

Bloomberg Technology didn’t seem to be the only one still believing in Broadcom; the company’s shares went up as much as 4.2% on Tuesday. Qualcomm, on the other hand, fell 5.9%.



#5 Stephen Hawking passes away

No financial news of course, but something that we thought deserved to be mentioned nevertheless.

Wednesday marked the passing of one of the world’s most brilliant minds, Stephen Hawking. At 76 years of age, the physicist and author died in his home in Cambridge.

Hawking’s first major breakthrough came in 1970 when he and Roger Penrose applied the mathematics of black holes to the universe. His book A Brief History of Time sold 10 million copies and was translated in 40 different languages.


#4 Google’s Crypto Ban

It’s been a while since we had some crypto news in our weekly round-up of financial Tweets. Bitcoin dropped to its lowest level in over a month this week after Google announced it will ban online advertisements that promote cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings starting from June this year.

As a result, the number one digital currency dropped as much as 9.1% to $8,238.


Related: Blockchain, Mining, Satoshi: 15 Cryptocurrency Terms You Need to Know


#3 Unilever goes Dutch

This week’s decision form the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate puts an end to the speculations and confirms what many thought already: on Wednesday the company Tweeted that it will pick a single HQ in the Netherlands, abandoning a British base it’s had for nearly a century.

CFO Graeme Pitkethly said that the move gives Unilever more strategic flexibility to undertake major M&A. Needless to say, the company’s decisions is yet another setback for Theresa May in her vision for a post-Brexit Britain.


#2 A Big Bonus for BlackBerry’s CEO

On Thursday there was news from BlackBerry. The company’s CEO John Chen signed a new contract worth at least $128 million to stay on the job for at least another five years.

Part of this package will pay out if the share-price goals of $16 to $20 dollar are reached. Chen will also receive a performance-based cash award when the stock hits $30.


For a more in-depth read about BlackBerry read our analysis: BlackBerry - A Highly Speculative Bet 


#1 EU poverty risk

Less joyful stats on Friday. Eurostat – the statistical office of the European Union – issued information on in-work poverty. Nearly one-tenth (9.6%) of employed persons aged over 18 in the European Union were at risk of poverty after social transfers in 2016.

The risk for those working in part-time jobs is about twice as high (15.8%) than for those people who work full time (7.8%). For those with a temporary job the risk is almost three times bigger (16.2%) than for those with permanent jobs (5.8%).


Voila, that’s another week captured in Tweets. As always, we’ll continue to track Twitter and bring you the top financial micro-messages from the web. See you back here next week!