CNBC.com’s Pippa Stevens brings you the day’s top business news headline. On today’s show, Lora Kolodny breaks down the news that Michael Burry’s regulatory filings revealed a short position against Tesla. Plus, Alex Sherman explains how the WarnerMedia merger with Discovery puts NBCUniversal and ViacomCBS on notice.
Michael Burry of ‘The Big Short’ reveals a $530 million bet against Tesla
Famed investor Michael Burry on Monday revealed in a regulatory filing a short position against Tesla worth more than half a billion.
Burry, one of the first investors to call and profit from the subprime mortgage crisis, is long puts against 800,100 shares of Tesla or $534 million by the end of the first quarter, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Investors profit from puts when the underlying securities fall in prices. As of March 31, Burry owned 8,001 put contracts, with unknown value, strike price, or expiry, according to the filing.
The WarnerMedia-Discovery deal was structured to make a future sale easier
Long-time employees of WarnerMedia have been through so many spinoffs and mergers that Monday’s announcement of its impending separation from AT&T and combination with Discovery amounted to gallows humor.
“You just have to laugh,” said one veteran employee.
Given that context, it may not be surprising that WarnerDiscovery — the leading candidate for a name, according to a person familiar with the matter — is structuring itself for a future sale.
The key indicator that future chief executive David Zaslav is already considering a sale down the road — assuming the merger passes regulatory approval — is John Malone’s decision to give up his Discovery super-voting shares to merge with WarnerMedia.
Home Depot crushes estimates, its sales jump 32.7% as customers rang up bigger purchases
Home Depot on Tuesday crushed Wall Street’s earnings estimates as consumers’ splurging on their homes lingers more than a year into the coronavirus pandemic.
Shares of Home Depot rose more than 2% in premarket trading but fell less than 1% after the market opened. The stock has risen more than 20% this year, giving it a market value of $344 billion as of Monday’s close.
