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Good Morning,

US gas prices fell to $3.29/gal, Exxon and Chevron will invest $38B in oil projects, Google plans to combine Google Maps and Waze teams, VC deals are screeching to a halt, Amazon is working on a TikTok-like shopping experience, average Manhattan rent topped $5k, and NYT employees went on strike yesterday.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

• All three major US indexes finished in the green yesterday as investors interpreted increasing jobless claims as a sign of lower future rate hikes

  • The S&P 500 snapped a five-day losing streak

• The dollar index slipped 0.3%

Earnings

• Broadcom beat Q4 EPS and revenue estimates on strong demand for chips used in data centers, while forecasting better than expected Q1 revenue; their stock jumped 3.2% AH (RT)

• Costco missed Q1 revenue estimates amid consumer spending cutbacks on discretionary items such as jewelry and electronics (YH)

• lululemon beat Q3 EPS and revenue estimates but forecasted worse than expected holiday-quarter numbers amid a 'challenging' sales environment; their stock fell 5.7% AH (CNBC)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Oracle

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US online good prices fell ~2% YoY in November (RT)

• US continuing jobless claims rose to a 10-month high in late November (RT)

• US gas prices fell to $3.29/gal, below last year’s average (WSJ)

• Foreign investments in emerging markets in November was highest since June 2021 (RT)

• Exxon and Chevron plan to spend up to $38B combined on oil projects in 2023 (RT)

• EU's gas price cap scheme could backfire and raise volatility: ECB (RT)

• Employee stock options of private tech firms are trading at steep discounts to firm valuations (AX)

• Google plans to combine its Google Maps and Waze teams amid pressure to cut costs (WSJ)

• VC deals are on track for sharpest drop in over twenty years (BBG)

• DoJ will offer better enforcement deals for bankers who confess misconduct (CNBC)

• Barclays' new IB MD class is reportedly 85% male (RT)

• Google must remove data from search results if proven to be inaccurate: EU (RT)

• Amazon will roll out TikTok-like shopping experience in social commerce push (RT)

• Blackrock shut its Asia Pacific Equity Income fund amid shrinking assets (IW)

• Foxconn pushed China to ease Covid curbs (WSJ)

• Slack named Lidiane Jones as new CEO (TC)

• Airtable laid off 254 employees (TC)

• Average Manhattan monthly rent topped $5k (CNBC)

• Over 1k New York Times staffers went on strike yesterday (WSJ)

• College financial aid letters are often misleading (WSJ)

• Theranos ex-president and COO Ramesh Balwani received ~13 years in prison (WP)

• UAE president and Saudi crown prince led mediation to release Griner from Russia (RT)

A Message From Ledger

Good morning from a quaint flat in Paris –

I’ve spent the last few days stuffing my face with beef tartare and increasing shareholder value at this year’s Ledger Op3n Keynote.

Outside of hosting killer after-parties and dinners, Ledger just announced the release of their new hardware wallet, Stax, with the help of iPod creator Tony Fadell.

Stax makes your crypto journey more intuitive than ever. It is a credit-card-sized device enabling you to manage over 500 digital assets, bringing a first of its kind curved touch screen to hardware wallets.

Ledger is taking pre-orders now for Exec Sum readers. Check it out for yourself.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• China Aircraft Leasing Group is considering selling some of its assets outside greater China that could raise ~$3B in a deal (BBG)

• UK consumer goods giant Unilever is considering the sale of some US ice cream brands that could be valued at ~$3B (RT)

• Beverage company Keurig Dr Pepper agreed to invest $863M in Nutrabolt, the maker of C4 and Xtend energy drinks (BBG)

• Australian data manager Link Administration stopped talks with Dye & Durham over a potential $854M deal for parts of its business (BBG)

• Zurich Insurance Group is the frontrunner to buy a majority stake in the Malaysian insurance business of US insurer MetLife at a potential ~$400M valuation (BBG)

• Potential Capital offered to buy Australia’s Nitro Software for ~$335M, matching a previous bid from software firm Alludo; this bid would likely face fewer regulatory hurdles and would be available for shareholders to accept almost immediately (RT)

• US PE firm Sun Capital Partners is in advanced talks to buy British professional services firm K3 Capital in a $314M deal (RT)

• Masayoshi Son, the founder of Japanese technology investor SoftBank, increased his stake in SoftBank to 34% as he edges closer to the point where he could bid to take the firm he founded private (BBG)

• A group of Brazilian education company Argo Platform shareholders is urging the firm to reject a take-private bid from Dragoneer Investment Group and General Atlantic, calling accepting it a “callous mistreatment of minority shareholders” (BBG)

• French soccer team Olympique Lyonnais said there is a “sufficient probability” that US investor John Textor and his investment vehicle Eagle Football Holdings will buy the team once they secure necessary approvals to proceed (BBG)

VC

• Walmart-owned digital payments startup PhonePe is seeking to raise up to $1B from General Atlantic and existing investors including Tiger Global Management, Qatar Investment Authority and Microsoft (BBG)

• Customcells, a startup developing batteries for electric planes, raised a $63M Series A led by World Fund (TC)

• UnaBiz, an IoT service provider, raised a $25M extension round led by SPARX Group, bringing their total Series B to $50M (TC)

• 9fin, a platform for debt and capital markets analytics, raised a $23M Series A+ led by Spark Capital (BW)

• Uolo, an Indian edtech platform, raised a $22.5M round led by Winter Capital (TC)

• Pactum, a software startup helping companies digitally conduct personalized commercial negotiations, raised a $20M round led by 3VC (BW)

• Japanese healthcare startup Ubie raised a $19M extension for their Series C (bringing the total round to $45M) from SOGO MEDICAL, AAIC Investment, Japan Impact Investment II, and Rakuten Capital (PRN)

• CardioSense, a digital health startup focused on cardiovascular disease, raised a $15.1M Series A led by Broadview Ventures and Hatteras Venture Partners (PRN)

• MOON Ultra, a startup offering ultra-portable lighting devices for creators, raised a $15M Series B from producer L.A. Reid, singer Burna Boy, and other sports / entertainment stars (BW)

• Black Sheep Foods, a plant-based meat startup, raised a $12.3M Series A led by Unovis (TC)

• Vevo Therapeutics, an in vivo drug discovery platform, raised a $12M seed round led by Wing Venture Capital and General Catalyst (PRN)

• Eigen Therapeutics, a biotech startup aiming to make cancer easier to find and eliminate, raised a $7M seed round led by First Round Capital (BW)

• Uplinq, a SMB-focused automated bookkeeping startup, raised a $5.6M seed round led by AZ-VC (PRN)

• Komi, a landing page tool for creators, raised a $5M seed round led by Contour Venture Partners (TC)

• Metagood, a for-profit social impact NFT startup, raised a $5M pre-seed round from Animoca Brands, Morgan Creek Capital founder / CEO Mark Yucko, and others (TC)

• eQ8, an end-to-end workforce planning platform, raised a $4M Series A from OIF Ventures (PRN)

• Odie Pet Insurance, a full-service pet health insurance company, raised $3M in funding led by RedBird (PRN)

• Cabana, a mobile hospitality startup with a fleet of camper vans, raised $3M in funding led by TechNexus Venture Collaborative (BW)

• Kenyan edtech startup Zeraki raised a $1.8M seed round led by Acumen Fund (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• ExxonMobil announced a three-year $50B share buyback program (FT)

• Credit Suisse raised $2.39B as part of a 4B franc cash call; shareholders exercised 98.4% of their subscription rights (RT)

• Saudi Aramco Base Oil, a refining unit of state-owned Aramco, plans to price its Saudi IPO at the top of a marketed range to raise up to $1.32B (BBG)

• Ride-hailing firm Ruqi Mobility picked banks, including ABC International, for its planned Hong Kong IPO (BBG)

Debt

• Elliott Investment Management and Sona Asset Management are among firms that purchased $1.58B worth of debt used to help finance CVC Capital’s purchase of Unilever’s tea business (BBG)

Fundraising

• BlackRock raised $438M for their second European Long-Term Investments Fund, bringing total fundraising for its ELTIFs to almost ~$1B; they intend to bring two more PE focused ELTIFs to market in 2023 (IW)

• UK-based Aliter Capital launched a $164M PE fund targeting support services (IW)

• France’s IRIS Capital raised ~$116M for its new $158M IRIS Venture IV fund to make seed and Series A investments across Europe (TC)

Crypto Corner

• FTX's new CEO met with US prosecutors investigating firm's collapse (RT)

• FTX bankruptcy managers hired forensic investigators AlixPartners to trace missing billions (WSJ)

• Celsius was ordered to return $50M worth of crypto assets to customers (BBG)

• US prosecutors are investigating whether SBF and Alameda Research manipulated crypto markets in May (NYT)

• Two US senators asked the Fed, FDIC and OCC for accounting of banks' cryptocurrency activity (RT)

Exec's Picks

• Ready to find the perfect holiday gift? Get up to 40% off on the Ridge Wallet and other essential gear. This gift is not only practical but stylish – perfect for anyone who wants to declutter and look good doing it. Shop now for free shipping & 99-day returns 

• The Atlantic's Derek Thompson wrote about 10 breakthroughs from this year.

• Bari Weiss released a list of Twitter's secret blacklists, as Elon Musk aims to increase transparency around Twitter’s previous internal policies and protocols.

The Hiring Block 💼

If you're looking to break into finance, lateral, or move out, check out our job board on Pallet, where we curate highly relevant roles for you. We aim to curate jobs across IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We'll sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

If you're a company looking to hire candidates and want to list a job opening on our board and feature on Exec Sum, click the button below:

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