One important thing:  Twitter 2.0 begins tomorrow and the company's new owner Elon Musk has an ultimatum to employees in an email: Commit to "extremely hardcore" work or take three months' severance. (P.S. It's strange that this is an opt-in question and not an opt-out. Also, two minutes of silence for those who missed this email)

"Twitter will be much more engineering-driven... Those writing great code will constitute the majority of our team and have the greatest sway." Musk said.

In today’s newsletter: 

• SoftBank to sell shares worth $215 mn in Paytm
• PM Modi says red carpet, not red tape for investors
• Anand Lunia is not happy with edtech founders

Also, the FIFA World Cup 2022 is just around the corner. Thirty-two teams, 64 matches, and 29 days. 

Do check our special microsite that will bring you full coverage of all live matches in the tournament, including the latest news, analysis and a comprehensive fan guide.

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Paytm may be shouting from the rooftops about its business turning a corner, but it appears that SoftBank won't buy. Rather, the Japanese investor is looking to sell a quarter of its 17.45 percent stake in the fintech firm for $215 million.

As Paytm completes a year of listing this week, the lock-in period for its pre-IPO investors is coming to an end.

• SoftBank, Berkshire Hathaway, Elevation Capital and Alibaba are now free to sell their shares in the open market

• SoftBank appears to be the first to approach the door as it has proposed to sell 29 million shares at a discount of up to 7.7 percent to Paytm's current share price

The Masayoshi Son-led company had invested a total of $1.2 billion in Paytm before its IPO. 

• That entire investment is now worth $900 million, or 25 percent lower 

• SoftBank would incur a 37 percent loss in selling the 29 million shares at the lower end of the price range, i.e. Rs 555 per share.

However, SoftBank may still be a winner because the cumulative $1.8 billion in shares it owns in three companies whose lock-in period ends this month is not in the red.

• This is because of the 2X gains it has made on Policybazaar and Delhivery

• SoftBank invested approximately $199 million in Policybazaar, sold shares worth $250 million in its IPO last year, and its remaining 10-11 percent stake is valued at approximately $220 million

• It invested around $380 million in Delhivery, offloaded $75 million in shares in its IPO, and its current stake in the logistics company is worth around $670 million

At the opening of the Bengaluru Tech Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi boasted that India is now known for rolling out the "red carpet," rather than the "red tape," for investors.

The Prime Minister said that technology was once seen as an exclusive domain only for the high and mighty, but India has demonstrated how to democratise it and give it a human touch.

• The future will be even bigger because of India's "innovative youth and increasing tech access," Modi said.

At the Tech Summit, Karnataka IT Minister Ashwathnarayan CN set a target of $300 billion in IT and biotechnology exports from the state by 2025, up from $135 billion currently.

• To drive the next stage of growth, the state also intends to establish six new high-tech cities as well as a startup park.

India’s edtech space is going through a churn. Smaller start-ups and unicorns like Unacademy and Byju's have all laid off large numbers of employees since early this year.

• Edtechs have been accused of mis-selling to customers, burning large amounts of cash and not building stable business models.

Anand Lunia, the founding partner of India Quotient, told us in an interview that edtechs need a complete reset and should be mission-driven.

Lunia called the ongoing funding winter ‘weird’ as both startups and VCs are sitting on a lot of dry powder.

• While downturns generally mean that weaker companies shut in six to twelve months, this time they will linger on for a couple of years before shutting shop

• The fund did not invest much last year as ‘mercenaries’ and ‘gold-diggers’ were starting companies, according to Lunia

At a time when there are stories abound of startup investors losing money, venture capital firm India Quotient’s first fund has returned 5.9X the investment to its limited partners.

• Four portfolio winners—IIMJobs, Sugar Cosmetics, LendingKart, and 91mobiles—provided returns ranging between 3.2x and 117x

• With a corpus of Rs 32 crore, it delivered gross returns of 7.1x and counts Ronnie Screwvala, Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, MakeMyTrip's Deep Kalra among its LPs

On this day, November 16, 2012, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 earned a staggering $500 million within the first 24 hours of its release, surpassing the previous franchise record of $400 million set by Modern Warfare 3 the year prior.

It was the biggest entertainment opening of the year.

• Authorities in the US and the Bahamas have been discussing the possibility of bringing Sam Bankman-Fried to the US for questioning, according to a Bloomberg report. No one has been arrested or detained in connection with the matter, the report said.
  
  
• The Bank of International Settlements said that a study of retail investors' use of cryptocurrency exchange apps indicates that approximately three-quarters have lost money on Bitcoin. If each new user purchased $100 worth of Bitcoin in the month they installed the app and each month thereafter, according to the analysis, 81% would have lost money. The study raises “questions about the implications of greater crypto adoption for the economy and consumer welfare,” according to the authors of the paper.
  
  
• BlockFi, a crypto lender, is preparing to file for bankruptcy due to its "significant exposure" to the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, the Wall Street Journal reported. Last week, BlockFi paused withdrawals and limited activity on its platform, citing the uncertainty surrounding FTX as the reason.

The unmanned Artemis I mission, which had been in the works for months, finally lifted off on Wednesday to begin its 25-day trip around the moon and back to Earth. 

• On December 11, the Orion capsule is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean.

The historic event marked the beginning of a mission to orbit the moon by an unmanned spacecraft, setting the stage for NASA to send humans back to the moon for the first time in 50 years.

This mission, named after the Greek Moon goddess Artemis, will (if successful) accomplish what Apollo could not: it will send a woman to the Moon for the first time.

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