₦airaland Forum

Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully or write poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That's how I get my kicks.

Please add graphic to the headline

grandstar:
They aren't identical

Yesterday, China issued Retaliatory Tariffs of 34%, on top of their already record setting Tariffs, Non-Monetary Tariffs, Illegal Subsidization of companies, and massive long term Currency Manipulation, despite my warning that any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs, above and beyond their already existing long term Tariff abuse of our Nation, will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs, over and above those initially set.

Therefore, if China does not withdraw its 34% increase above their already long term trading abuses by tomorrow, April 8th, 2025, the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th. Additionally, all talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated! Negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

These Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack. Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis!

They will never sink our ships again!

China has been hit much harder than the USA, not even close. They, and many other nations, have treated us unsustainably badly. We have been the dumb and helpless "whipping post," but not any longer. We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before. Already, more than FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS OF INVESTMENT, and rising fast! THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won't be easy, but the end result will be historic. We will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!

To elevate her life, Devyn Aiken went under the knife — and cutting away her “biggest insecurity” gave her the strength to cut out of an “unhappy” marriage.

“I feel extremely sexy,” a newly single and sliced Aiken, 30, from Philadelphia, raved to The Post. “My new nose is what motivated me to choose myself and finally end my miserable marriage.”

She underwent an $11,000 rhinoplasty in November, chopping her standout schnoz down to size. The pricey yet pivotal procedure empowered the brunette to demand a divorce from her husband of seven years in December.

Eye-popping footage of her jaw-dropping transformation has sniffed in over 4.5 million TikTok views from awestruck fans.

Xisnin:
There is no best response.
Each country responded based on how hard it hit them and how much power they have to retaliate.
Nigeria didn't even respond at all because they tariff will minimal effect on us.

caye:
Fools don't know what BlackRock is.
One of your enslavers.
They own Dangote refinery.
They brought Ukraine to it's current miserable position.
Jews own BlackRock. They are not our friends.
Ogunlesi is just an employee , obeying orders.

FreeStuffsNG:
<sup>This Is incredibly huge and loud! Congratulations to Chief Bayo Ogunlesi for making us proud once again.

Chief Bayo Ogunlesi keeps disrupting himself and raising the bar in multi-billion dollar deals with huge impact.


May God bless Nigeria for ever!

Here are some facts about him.

Adebayo "Bayo" O. Ogunlesi (born December 20, 1953) is a Nigerian-born lawyer and investment banker. Ogunlesi is currently Chairman and Managing Partner at the private equity firm, Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP). Ogunlesi was the former head of Global Investment Banking at Credit Suisse First Boston before being promoted to Chief Client Officer and Executive Vice Chairman.

Ogunlesi is from Makun, Sagamu, Ogun State in Nigeria. He is the son of Theophilus O. Ogunlesi, the first Nigerian professor of medicine at the University of Ibadan. His family is of Yoruba origin.

Ogunlesi went to King's College, Lagos, a secondary school in Lagos, Nigeria. He received a B.A. with first class honors in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University in England. In 1979, he received a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, which he pursued at the same time. During his time at Harvard, he was on the Harvard Law Review.</sup>

March 28 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's xAI has acquired X in a deal that values the social media platform at $33 billion and allows the value of his artificial intelligence firm to be shared with his co-investors in the company formerly known as Twitter.
The deal could also help xAI's ability to train its chatbot known as Grok.

"xAI and X's futures are intertwined," Musk, who also heads automaker Tesla and SpaceX, wrote in a post on X, opens new tab: "Today, we officially take the step to combine the data, models, compute, distribution and talent."

He said the combination values "xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion ($45B less $12B debt)".

Representatives for X and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Much of the deal's specifics remain unclear, such as how X's leaders would be integrated in the new firm or whether there would be regulatory scrutiny.

Musk, the world's wealthiest man, is also a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and heads the Department of Government Efficiency.

Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who owns the investment company Kingdom Holding, said he had requested the development.

He noted his companies are the second-largest investors in X and xAI. "After this deal, the value of our investments is expected to reach between $4-$5 billion... and the meter is running," he said in a post on X.

D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said the price tag for X of $45 billion when debt was included was not a coincidence. "It is $1 billion higher than the take-private transaction for Twitter in 2022."

An investor in xAI who declined to be identified said they were not surprised by the deal, viewing it as Musk consolidating his leadership and management at his own companies.

Musk did not ask investors for approval but told them that the two companies had been collaborating closely and the deal would drive deeper integration with Grok, the investor said.

OPENAI RIVALRY

Musk's xAI startup was launched less than two years ago and recently raised $10 billion in a funding round that valued the company at $75 billion, according to a media report.

It competes with the likes of Microsoft-backed OpenAI as well as with Chinese startup DeepSeek.

In February, Musk, 53, made a $97.4 billion bid with a consortium for OpenAI, which was rejected and he has sued to prevent the ChatGPT maker from converting from a non-profit to a for-profit business. A judge this month denied Musk's request for a preliminary injunction that would prevent the changeover.

As competition in AI intensifies, xAI has been ramping up its data center capacity to train more advanced models, and its supercomputer cluster in Memphis, Tennessee, called "Colossus," is touted as the largest in the world.

xAI introduced Grok-3, the latest iteration of its chatbot, in February.

The X platform could serve to further distribute xAI products, while also providing a real-time feed of users' musings, screenshots and other data.

After buying Twitter, Musk gutted the company's workforce, prompting advertisers to flee the platform and a rapid decline in revenue. Recently, brands have been returning to X as Musk's influence in the Trump administration grows.

The seven banks that extended $13 billion in loans to Musk to buy X kept the debt on their books for two years until they were able to sell it all at once last month, according to a source familiar with the transactions.

This was made possible after a surge in investor interest for exposure to AI companies along with X's improved operating performance over the previous two quarters, among other factors, according to two people familiar with the matter.

After the merger, investors who bought the debt from the banks will profit, said Espen Robak, founder of Pluris Valuation Advisors, which specializes in illiquid assets. "For sure the debt is worth more now, if not fully paid off."

Separately, a U.S. judge on Friday rejected a bid by Musk to dismiss a lawsuit claiming he had defrauded former Twitter shareholders by waiting too long to disclose his initial investment in the company.

GENEVA, March 27 (Reuters) - The United States has paused contributions to the World Trade Organization, three trade sources told Reuters, as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration ramps up efforts to cut government spending.
The Trump administration is retreating from global institutions it sees as at odds with his "America First" economic policies. It plans to quit some, such as the World Health Organization, and has cut contributions to others as part of a broad review of federal spending.

The WTO has already been hobbled by a U.S. move in 2019 during Trump's first term to block new judge appointments to its top appeals court, which left its key dispute settlement system only partially functional. Washington had accused the WTO Appellate Body of judicial overreach in trade disputes.
The Geneva-based trade watchdog had an annual budget of 205 million Swiss francs ($232.06 million) in 2024. The United States was due to contribute about 11% of that based on a fees system that is proportionate to its share of global trade, according to public WTO documents.

A U.S. delegate told a March 4 WTO budget meeting that its payments to the 2024 and 2025 budgets were on hold pending a review of contributions to international organisations and that it would inform the WTO of the outcome at an unspecified date, two trade sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said.
A third trade source confirmed their account and said the WTO was coming up with a "Plan B" in case of a prolonged funding pause, without elaborating.

All three sources asked for confidentiality because the budget meeting was private and the U.S. funding pause has not been formally announced.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A State Department spokesperson said Trump last month signed an executive order directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review within 180 days all international organizations the U.S. is a member of "to determine if they are contrary to U.S. interests."

"Funding for the WTO, along with other international organizations, is currently under review," the spokesperson said.

WTO spokesperson Ismaila Dieng said that U.S. contributions had been on the way but "got caught up in the pause of all payments to international agencies".

"Generally, arrears can impact the operational capacity of the WTO Secretariat. But the Secretariat continues to manage its resources prudently and has plans in place to enable it to operate within the financial limitations imposed by any arrears," he said, referring further questions to U.S. authorities.


As of end-December 2024, the United States had arrears of 22.7 million Swiss francs ($25.70 million), according to a WTO document obtained by Reuters marked "RESTRICTED" and dated February 21.

Under WTO rules, any member that fails to pay its dues after more than a year is subject to "administrative measures" - a series of punitive steps that get progressively stricter the longer the fees go unpaid.
The country is now classified as being in the first of three such categories, two of the trade sources confirmed to Reuters, which means its representatives can no longer preside over WTO bodies nor receive formal documentation.


Reuters could not immediately establish if the WTO was already applying these measures to the United States.

William Reinsch, a former U.S. Commerce official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he thought the U.S. would eventually pay its WTO bill. He said the Trump administration had nominated a U.S. ambassador to the institution, which indicated some desire to remain engaged.

WTO spokesperson Dieng confirmed the chair of the budget committee had informed WTO members that the United States was currently in "Category 1 arrears", along with other countries.

"It remains the responsibility of WTO Members to implement the consequences associated with arrears," he said.
As of end-2024, five other member countries - Bolivia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Gabon and Gambia - were in that category, the WTO restricted document showed.
A total 38.4 million Swiss francs of contributions were outstanding, including unpaid fees from 2024 and prior, it showed.

Antwan99:
Who com capture for camera