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How Musk Rescued X From the Brink; Clifford Chance Hires Gibson Dunn Vet
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Good day and welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Wednesday, April 9. In today's briefing, a behind-the-scenes look at how Elon Musk turned his purchase of X from a money-loser into a winner. And Clifford Chance continued building out its U.S. bankruptcy presence.
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Photo: Patrick Pleul/Associated Press
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How Elon Musk rescued X from the brink. The billionaire has famously said he never lost money for investors, but for a long time, it looked like he was going to with X.
Then, late last month, Musk posted on X that he was combining the company with xAI in a deal that valued the newly combined company at more than $100 billion. Folding X into a larger company competing in a global race to develop sophisticated generative AI tools could open the door to raising money at a valuation considered impossible just a few years ago.
The merger caps a string of events—some strategic, others fortuitous—that helped Musk announce a deal before Trump’s tariffs effectively closed the market for deals.
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Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images
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Airlines' dreams of a banner year are over. Just about everything is going wrong for U.S. airlines.
Consumers started putting off travel bookings as they’ve grown uneasy about the prospect of rising prices and economic weakness. Government travel plummeted amid a cost-cutting drive and lucrative corporate bookings appear to be slowing, too. Carriers have lost pricing power and fares have started coming down, aiming to nudge people into seats from the sidelines.
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Clifford Chance hires Gibson Dunn partner to expand U.S. restructuring practice. Clifford Chance brought a new partner on board to co-lead its global restructuring and insolvency practice based in New York, hiring the co-chair of the restructuring practice at law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher.
David Feldman has more than 30 years of experience in restructuring and insolvency law, representing banks, hedge funds, private-equity firms, companies in bankruptcy cases and out-of-court restructurings, and transactions of distressed assets and debts.
Feldman’s recent work includes advising Macquarie Asset Management in connection with the restructuring and sale of its real-estate investments related to Steward Health Care. He also represented Fortress Investment Group as the creditor in the chapter 11 bankruptcy case of Vice Media.
Feldman said Clifford Chance’s global platform enables him to “better serve the international needs of my distressed investing and restructuring clients in the U.S.” —Akiko Matsuda
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23andMe unveils privacy-protection plan in bankruptcy. 23andMe won’t appoint a consumer privacy ombudsman—but the company still wants to make it clear that it cares about its customers' data. On Monday, the genetic testing company asked Missouri bankruptcy Judge Brian Walsh to allow it to appoint an independent customer data representative to ensure that 23andMe’s customer data remains safe and secure through the company’s sale. The representative would also review security controls and work with the company’s stakeholders during the process.
The company said it recognizes that how its customer data is treated is “an issue of paramount importance to its customers, regulators, and other stakeholders.”
According to 23andMe, the company does not need to appoint a consumer privacy ombudsman, an official that oversees the sale of personal information in bankruptcy. A CPO is only required when a company plans to violate its own privacy policy through a bankruptcy sale. 23andMe’s privacy policy, which its customers are required to sign, permits the sale of customer data. —Alicia McElhaney
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Pantheon raises $5.2 billion for private-credit secondaries. Pantheon Ventures has raised $5.2 billion in committed capital for secondary investments of private-credit assets, one of the largest fundraising hauls for the strategy to date. Pantheon plans to invest its latest investment pool in secondary investments of senior secured, floating-rate and sponsor-backed investments across both fund investments and general partner-led deals.
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