Catch up on the weekend’s top five stories with this list compiled by The Fly:
1. Harris (HRS) and L3 Technologies (LLL) have agreed to combine in an all stock merger of equals. Under the terms of the merger agreement, which was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, L3 shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 1.30 shares of Harris common stock for each share of L3 common stock, consistent with the 60-trading day average exchange ratio of the two companies. Upon completion of the merger, Harris shareholders will own approximately 54% and L3 shareholders will own approximately 46% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis. For calendar year 2018, the combined company, L3 Harris Technologies, is expected to generate net revenue of approximately $16B, EBIT of $2.4B and free cash flow of $1.9B.
2. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has set a new launch day record as the biggest day one digital release in Activision (ATVI) history. Digital sales for the first day of release broke the franchise record set in 2017 by Call of Duty: WWII. Released Friday, Black Ops 4 also set a new PlayStation (SNE) record for day one digital full game sales on PlayStation Store, globally. The title also quickly became the best-selling Activision Xbox One (MSFT) digital game on day one, globally. The first Call of Duty release ever on Blizzard’s Battle.net, the PC version of Black Ops 4 also delivered a new franchise high in which launch day PC digital sales more than doubled year on year. In its first day of availability, the total number of people who connected online to play Black Ops 4 increased from last year’s release.
3. Elon Musk has obsessed about shorts as Tesla (TSLA) shares bounced down from last year’s peak of $384 to a Friday close of $259, and one should expect an entrepreneur to hate short sellers as they want his stock to drop, Bill Alpert wrote in this week’s edition of Barron’s. The bet against Tesla is sizable but still one cannot blame the shorts for the slide in the stock, the publication argued. There are always way more longs than shorts, and while some shorts make bogus statements, so do many longs and none more prominently than Musk himself, the report added.
