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Good Morning,

AMC invested in a gold mine (literally), oil prices continue to pull back from highs, a permanent daylight saving time bill passed in the Senate, New Zealand reopened its borders, Saudi Arabia considers accepting the yuan over dollars for China oil sales, and Amazon won EU approval to buy MGM.

New Big Swinging Decks episode is out now. Tune in to hear Lit and Mark answer some of their shareholders' biggest questions. Check out BSD on Spotify and Apple Podcasts 🤝

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

• As oil prices continued to fall and core PPI came in lower-than-expected (0.2% vs. 0.6%), all three major US averages closed in the green yesterday with the S&P 500 posting its first gain in four days

  • Investors are expecting the Fed to raise rates for the first time since 2018 at the end of their meeting today

  • Falling oil prices helped airlines and other travel stocks outperform yesterday

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week: 

  • Today: Williams Sonoma

  • Thurs: Accenture, GameStop, FedEx, Warby Parker 

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Most US companies aren’t disclosing gender pay gap analysis (BBG)

• Russia bombards Kyiv as European leaders arrive in Ukraine’s capital (WSJ)

• Russia is spiraling toward a $150B default nightmare (BBG)

• Spotify paid $310M for the naming rights to FC Barcelona's stadium (BBG)

• Big Four accounting firms come under SEC’s scrutiny (WSJ)

• New Zealand opens borders to vaccinated travelers (BBG)

• Daylight saving time would be permanent under senate-passed bill (BBG)

• Pfizer asks FDA to clear another booster for older adults (BBG)

• Saudi Arabia considers accepting yuan instead of dollars for Chinese oil sales (WSJ)

• US life insurance sales rise on Covid-19 fears (WSJ)

• Intel plans $36B in European chip plant investments (WSJ)

• GM will begin production next week on the Cadillac Lyric, the brand’s first EV model (CNBC)

• Biden signs government funding bill that includes $13.6B in Ukraine aid (CNBC)

A Message From Masterworks

Karl Stuns the Office with His “Double Down” Bracket

I told Karl to make an investment bracket to kick off tournament season. And this is what he gave me…. What on Earth was he thinking? He goes right to the final four and most of his picks are absolute dogs.

• Dogecoin is down -35% YTD

• The market cap of JPEGs dropped from $23.3 billion to $10 billion in the last 3 months. 

• And if you're buying AMC calls in 2022, you're just delusional.

There's only one prediction here I can get behind— contemporary art winning it all. 

After all, contemporary art prices outpaced the S&P 500 by over 2x from 1995-2021. Plus, when inflation's above 3% like it is this second, it appreciates by 23.2% annually. And what's more incredible, Deloitte predicts that the global value of art will grow by $1 trillion by 2026. 

Of course, all of this is amazing if you have $5,000,000 on hand to buy Picassos and Warhols— for the rest of us, there's Masterworks. 

They're the $1B investing platform that files paintings with the SEC and take them public on their platform. In other words, you can diversify your portfolio with literal masterpieces for less than the cost of a yearly Bloomberg Terminal subscription. 

I'm a massive fan of masterworks and have personally invested in several of their paintings. And, I wouldn't hype them up if I didn't think they were the real deal.

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Brookfield Asset Management is working with Elliot Investment Management on a potential purchase of information services company Nielsen that could be worth $15B (BBG)

• Amazon won unconditional approval from the EU for its plan to buy movie company MGM for $8.45B (BBG)

• Italian broadcaster MediaForEurope approved a voluntary offer to buy the stake it does not already own in its Spanish unit Mediaset España at a $1.93B valuation (RT)

• Beijing Infrastructure Investment is considering a bid for automation technology firm Hollysys that could be worth up to $1.9B (BBG)

• Korea's National Pension Service agreed to acquire UBS's London headquarters from CK Asset Holdings, a company owned by a Hong Kong tycoon, for $1.6B (BBG)

• JPMorgan agreed to buy Global Shares, a provider of cloud-based software for managing employee share plans (BBG)

• Fintech giant Ant sold its entire stake in tech news service 36Kr as part of its bid to comply with demands by China’s regulators (BBG)

• French luxury resale platform Vestiaire Collective agreed to buy rival Tradesy (BBG)

• Indoor agriculture company Local Bounti agreed to buy Hollandia Produce, the owner of farming peer Pete’s, for $122.5M (BBG)

• AMC Entertainment agreed to buy a 22% stake in Hycroft Mining Holding Corporation for $27.9M; will also receive 23.4M warrants at $1.07 per share (AMC)

• Delta Air Lines is working with Air France as they consider joining the bidding for Italy’s state-owned carrier ITA (BBG)

VC

• French healthcare tech platform Doctolib raised a $549M equity / debt round at a $6.4B valuation led by Eurazeo (TC)

• MetaMask’s parent company and blockchain development studio ConsenSys raised a $450M Series D at a $7B valuation led by ParaFi Capital (TC)

• Knock, a fintech company empowering homebuyers, raised $220M led by Foundry Group: $70M in equity and $150M in debt (PRN)

• Aptos, a blockchain startup founded by ex-Meta employees, raised $200M at a $1B+ valuation led by a16z crypto (BBG)

• Bengaluru-based D2C meat and seafood startup Licious raised a $150M round led by Amansa Capital, Kotak PE, and Axis Growth Avenues (TC)

• Internal communications platform Staffbase raised a $115M Series E at a $1.1B valuation led by General Atlantic (TC)

• Cowbell, a cyber insurance provider for SMEs, raised a $100M round led by Anthemis Group (TC)

• Amplience, a commerce experience platform, raised a $100M Series D led by Farview Equity Partners and Sixth Street (PRN)

• Asia-focused crypto custody provider Hex Trust raised an $88M Series B co-led by Animoca Brands and Liberty City Ventures (CD)

• Kymeta, a flat-panel antenna maker, raised an $84M funding round led by Bill Gates (BW)

• Bear Robotics, a startup building robots to deliver food in restaurants, raised an $81M Series B led by SoftBank (TC)

• Run:ai, a startup helping developers manage and optimize AI infrastructure, raised a $75M Series C led by Tiger Global and Insight Partners (TC)

• Bazaar, a startup aiming to digitize Pakistan’s retail market with e-commerce / fintech / last-mile supply chain solutions, raised a $70M Series B led by Tiger Global and Dragoneer Investment Group (TC)

• Organic infant formula startup Bobbie raised a $50M Series B led by Park West (TC)

• Perlego, a startup building a subscription based platform for students to access textbooks, raised a $50M Series B led by Mediahuis Ventures (TC)

• ChannelEngine, a startup helping connect retailers to 200+ marketplaces, raised a $50M round led by Atomico (TC)

• PrognomiQ, a startup using multi-omics data to detect / treat diseases quickly, raised a $46M round led by Bruker Corporation (PRN)

• Validere, a commodity management platform for the energy industry, raised a $43M Series B led by Mercuria Energy and BlackRock (BW)

• Selector, a provider of network-aware AIOps, raised a $33M Series A led by Two Bear Capital, SineWave Ventures, and Atlantic Bridge (BW)

• Stellar Development Foundation launched a $30M fund which will match lead investor funding up to $500K for pre-seed - Series B companies looking to build on the Stellar blockchain (PRN)

• Rutter, a startup building a universal commerce API, raised a $27M Series A led by a16z (PRN)

• Autonomous cloud management company Sedai raised a $15M Series A led by Norwest Venture Partners (PRN)

• anywell, a Workspace-as-a-Service company reimagining the hybrid work model, raised $15M: a $10M Series A and $5M seed round, both were led by Pitango and Viola Ventures (PRN)

• Compete, a SaaS platform for real-time compensation and benefits benchmarking, raised a $15M Series A led by Tiger Global (BW)

• Synthetaic, a startup helping companies build an end-to-end AI pipeline without the need for manually labeled data, raised a $13M Series A led by Lupa Systems (BW)

• inFeedo, a startup helping companies measure employee sentiment via a chatbot, raised a $12M Series A led by Jungle Ventures (TC)

• OpenLoop, a startup providing full-stack clinical support, raised an $8M Series A led by SpringTide Ventures (PRN)

• In-home product testing platform Highlight raised a $7M seed round led by First Round Capital (PRN)

• New Era ADR, a virtual mediation and arbitration platform for the litigation and dispute resolution industry, raised a $4.6M seed round led by Nextview Ventures (BW)

• Logistics marketplace and digital-leasing platform REPOWR raised a $4.2M seed round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (PRN)

• Cambium Carbon, a startup building a regenerative wood supply chain, raised a $3.2M seed round led by MaC Venture Capital (PRN)

• Agxio, low-code platform replacing the role of data scientists / ML engineers in the agricultural industry, raised a $2.74M pre-Series A led by the Development Bank of Wales (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Sany Heavy Industries, one of China’s largest construction machinery makers, is planning a Switzerland IPO; they have a current market value of ~$22B in Shanghai (BBG)

SPAC

• Shareholders approved the merger of online real estate marketplace PropertyGuru and Bridgetown 2 Holdings, the combined entity will list on the NYSE under ‘PGRU’ (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• American Express files trademark applications for metaverse and NFT logos (DC)

• After noise complaints, Tennessee judge rules that a bitcoin mine violates zoning laws (TBC)

• Mark Zuckerberg says NFTs are coming soon to Instagram (CD)

• Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Apes, plans virtual land sales and APECoin token to kickstart metaverse gaming project (TBC)

Exec's Picks

• Recent tech IPOs have been getting clapped in public markets, with many now trading below their last private round valuations. Michael Batnick explained how the cracks are beginning to show in private markets here.

Big Swinging Decks Podcast

🚨 NEW BIG SWINGING DECKS JUST DROPPED 🚨

Today's episode: Outside-in-Analysis: Shareholder’s Questions Answered

This week, Lit & Mark answer their shareholder’s burning questions on everything from the value of an MBA in today’s economy to “non-target” vs. “target” cheeks for clappin'. Drop your HP-12C, pick up your AirPods, and tune in to the most entertaining podcast in finance. Check out BSD on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

As always, shoutout to CoinFLEX.US for making this podcast possible. Remember that we are hosting a Twitter spaces with CoinFLEX this Friday at 8 PM EST! We'll discuss our partnership with CoinFLEX, their US launch, and will be giving out prizes.  

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've got 40+ jobs spanning IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

• William Hood & Co is hiring for an experienced investment banking analyst / first year associate role located in New York City. The ideal candidate will have 1-2 years of investment banking, business development, or operational finance experience. Experience in Consumer is a plus. Also worth noting the months of August and December are also fully remote. Click here to apply

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