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Good Morning,

Bill Ackman wants Jamie Dimon to run for president, the US debt ceiling bill passed House voting, American Airlines is appealing a court ruling that opposed its deal with JetBlue, Musk is the world’s richest person again, and Meta threatened to yank news content from California.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks slid as investors awaited House voting on the debt ceiling deal

  • The S&P 500, Dow, and Nasdaq all declined, along with US bond yields

• Job openings in April rose to 10.1M from 9.8M in March, which is the highest level since January

• US oil prices dropped below $70 per barrel on reports of tensions between Saudi Arabia and Russia ahead of a key OPEC+ meeting

Earnings

• Salesforce beat Q1 expectations and raised FY earnings guidance, but capital costs were higher than analysts expected; the stock dropped 6% (CNBC)

• Chewy beat Q1 expectations with a surprise profit of $0.20 per share driven by improved gross margins and record levels of net sales per active customer, their stock rose by 13% AH (BN)

• CrowdStrike beat top and bottom-line Q1 estimates thanks to cost-cutting initiatives such as slowed hiring, but investors weren’t impressed by slowing revenue growth; the stock fell 11% (CNBC)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Broadcom, Macy’s, Dollar General, Lululemon, Dell

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US debt ceiling bill passes House with broad bipartisan support (RT)

• Treasury cash pile hits new low as debt wrangling persists (BBG)

• US stocks declined as labor data spurs rate hike jitters before debt ceiling vote (RT)

• American Airlines to appeal ruling to break up JetBlue deal (YF)

• US seeks to curb investment in Chinese chips, AI and quantum computing (RT)

• Meta threatens to yank news content from California over payments bill (RT)

• Texas battery rush: Oil state's power woes fuel energy storage boom (RT)

• ECB warns that rate hikes are putting market stability at risk (BBG)

• Boeing says certification of 737 MAX 7 is taking 'considerable amount of time' (RT)

• Musk is once again the world’s richest person as Arnault’s LVMH sinks (BBG)

• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says other bank execs could have booted Epstein as customer (CNBC)

• Default wave imminent, will peak in 2024, Deutsche Bank says (RT)

• Bill Ackman calls on JPMorgan CEO Dimon to run for US president (RT)

• Amazon workers walk out over ‘lack of trust’ in leadership (CNBC)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and DigitalBridge are in a bidding war to acquire Compass Datacenters for more than $5.5B, including debt (RT)

• Jaime Gilinski and the Abu Dhabi Royal Family acquired a controlling stake worth $5.2B in Colombian foodmaker Grupo Nutresa (BBG)

• Brookfield Asset Management emerged as the frontrunner to acquire Network International Holdings after its April offer of $2.6B for the company topped other bids (BBG)

• PE firm Triton is holding talks with potential buyers of its $1.5B UK specialty pharma business Pharmanovia (BBG)

• Finnish banks S-Bank and Oma Savings Bank and insurance company Fennia are buying Swedish lender Svenska Handelsbanken’s Finnish operations for $1.4B (BBG)

• Mexican Coke bottler Femsa reached a definitive agreement to sell its stake in Jetro Restaurant Depot for $1.4B (RT)

• Liberty Global and Warner Bros Discovery are exploring options, including cashing out, for their $1.26B joint venture All3Media, Britain’s largest independent TV producer (RT)

• Franklin Resources is planning to acquire asset manager Putnam Investments from Great-West LifeCo for almost $925M in stock and cash (RT)

• British autocatalyst maker Johnson Matthey is planning to sell its medical device components business for ‘several hundred million dollars’ (RT)

• UK investment manager Lansdowne Partners is acquiring $1.1B UK equities manager CRUX Asset Management (RT)

• China’s Bytedance is in preliminary talks with Dalian Wanda Group to purchase its digital payments unit for up to $144M (RT)

VC

• GPU-focused cloud provider CoreWeave raised a $200M Series B extension led by Magnetar Capital (BW)

• Vacation rental management platform Hostaway raised a $175M equity round led by PSG Equity (TC)

• Strive Health, a value-based care startup for chronic kidney disease, raised a $166M Series C led by NEA and others (TC)

• Lightmatter, a startup building photonic products for customers, raised a $154M Series C from SIP Global, Fidelity, Viking Global Investors, and more (BW)

• Biotech company Carmot Therapeutics raised a $150M Series E led by Deep Track Capital (FN)

• Measurabl, a provider of an ESG tech platform for real estate, raised a $93M Series D led by Energy Impact Partners and Sway Ventures (FN)

• E-commerce roll-up startup SellerX raised $64M in financing at a $1B+ valuation led by Sofina (TC)

• Magic, a wallet-as-a-service provider, raised a $52M strategic funding round led by PayPal Ventures (PRN)

• CleanJoule, a startup aiming to produce sustainable aviation fuel, received a $50M investment from Indigo Partners (FN)

• Anocca, a startup developing cell therapies for cancer, raised a $36.58M round led by AMF and Mellby Gard (FN)

• Cortex, a startup building an internal developer portal, raised a $35M Series B led by IVP (TC)

• Sana, an AI-powered learning and knowledge platform, raised a $28M round led by NEA (PRN)

• Vartana, a B2B sales closing and financing platform, raised a $20M Series B led by Activant Capital (TC)

• Deep Sentinel, a security provider with 24/7 live video monitoring, raised $15M in funding led by Intel Capital (PRN)

• Predibase, an end-to-end learning platform, raised a $12.2M round led by Felicis (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• EV maker Lucid plans to raise ~$3B through stock offerings, nearly two-thirds of which will come from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (RT)

• Indonesian copper and gold miner Amman Mineral Internasional is eyeing an IPO in Southeast Asia to raise $881M (RT)

• WE Soda, the largest producer of natural soda ash, plans to IPO in the UK at a $7.5B valuation to raise at least $800M for parent company Ciner Group (BBG)

• Dubai’s transport regulator is exploring strategic options for its assets, including a possible IPO of its taxi business, Dubai Taxi Corporation (RT)

• Italian pencil maker F.I.L.A is exploring options to support its Indian subsidiary, DOMS Industries, including an option for a domestic IPO likely worth ~$100M (RT)

SPAC

• German advanced electronics company Schmid Group is going public through a merger with Pegasus Digital Mobility Acquisition Corp. in a $640M deal (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• An Irish court ordered the wind-up of two sanction-hit Russian state-owned aircraft lessors, GTLK Europe and GTLK Europe Capital, which have a $1.6B net deficit (RT)

• Failed owner of dozens of UK solar farms Toucan Energy Holdings has begun a formal sales process; the business owes the Thurrock Council in Essex $857M (BBG)

• Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani and partner Matteo Manfredi are taking over troubled Italian soccer club Sampdoria through a shareholder-approved restructuring plan that includes a cash injection of $44M (RT)

Fundraising

• Early Doordash-backer Pear VC closed a $432M fund for seed ventures (BBG)

• Baidu is creating a $140M fund to invest in Chinese generative AI startups (BBG)

• LA VC Selva Ventures closed a $34M second fund to invest in consumer brands that promote healthy living (TC)

• Former Brazilian economy minister Paulo Guedes and other members of former President Jair Bolsonaro's government plan to launch a renewable energy investment fund in July (RT)

Crypto Corner

• USDC issuer Circle no longer holds any treasuries in its $24B USDC backing reserves to protect from potential fallout from the US debt ceiling showdown (CD)

• A newly introduced House bill will make it harder for the SEC to argue that cryptocurrencies are unregistered securities (CD)

• EU officials have signed Markets in Crypto-Assets, a long-anticipated crypto regulatory framework in EU member states, into law (CT)

Exec’s Picks

• The New York Times shared how entrepreneurs at a hot San Francisco startup accelerator are riding the AI wave.

• Kyle Harrison wrote a good guest piece in Newcomer discussing whether or not the venture capital industry is killing itself.

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