It’s Finally Friday 🍻

The U.S. just announced that all Americans in Ukraine should leave the country in the next 48 hours — Russia’s building military presence at Ukraine’s border is making it look like Russia could invade at any time.

A PBS report announced that the United States believes Vladimir Putin has given the green light to the Russian military to invade Ukraine. The U.S.’s national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, shared “It is the time to leave now. We are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time should [Russian President] Vladimir Putin decide to order it.” It’s possible that Russia could even choose to invade during the Winter Olympics.

There could be real consequences globally if Russia chooses to invade Ukraine, and we’ve covered those before in our Jan. 24 edition of The Daily Rip. A Russian invasion of Ukraine could signal a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which could be devastating for the U.S. (Taiwan produces the vast majority of semiconductors in the world, and we’re already experiencing a massive semi shortage.) A potential invasion could also impact Europe’s natural gas pipeline. In the end, though, a Russian invasion would just be… not fun to deal with after a 2-year-long pandemic. 🌎

In a press briefing, defense secretary Jake Sullivan also shared “If a Russian attack on Ukraine proceeds, it is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill civilians without regard to their nationality.”

We’ll be keeping up with this situation closely.

In October, CRM company Zendesk announced its decision to acquire Momentive Global, the parent company of Survey Monkey, in a $4 billion all-cash deal… and investors weren’t about it. Today, advisory firms strongly recommended that Zendesk investors vote against the Momentive deal. ❌

After Zendesk announced the deal in October, its stock promptly tanked 14% and analysts commented “…we are skeptical, given SurveyMonkey’s largely down market presence versus Zendesk, increasingly moving into the enterprise. Also, Momentive’s 20% growth rate is well below Zendesk’s 30%+.”

Now, almost 4 months later, Glass, Lewis & Co advisers emphasized: “We believe Zendesk’s proposed acquisition of Momentive could readily be characterized as a case of, ‘ready, fire, aim. we recommend shareholders vote AGAINST this proposal.” Institutional advisers claim the deal is too risky, especially in light of the company’s earnings results yesterday. Zendesk revenue grew 32% YoY and the company offered strong guidance for 2022, but announced its rejection of several private equity takeover offers worth $17 billion (yeah, what?!) — analysts think the company’s somewhat irrational takeover rejection combined with its tenacity towards Momentive Global could be a recipe for disaster. 🤦‍♀️

$ZEN closed up 1.83% today. Should be interesting to see if Zendesk goes rogue from its investors in this Momentive situation… only time will tell. ⏳