Together with

Good morning,

Lots of story lines from yesterday but here's the TL;DR (the Exec Sum of Exec Sum):

• Jack Dorsey apparently left his CEO role at Twitter to roast VCs 24/7

• Markets forgot about omicron, and indices all turned green yesterday

• Cruise lines and reopening stocks led the recovery

• Biden is putting free Covid tests in all of our stockings this year

• Home sales data coming in hot this morning

Reminder: US equity markets are closed on Friday and so is the LitCapital office. With that said, no email on Friday. 

LASTLY, we're excited to reintroduce our referral program with new links for y'all to use. Test it out by referring your friends with the link below. All we're asking for this Christmas is at least one referral from all y'all and we'll continue to deliver the news and the memes 🙏 

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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Markets

• In contrast to yesterday, all three major US major averages rallied into the green at the end of the day, riding on the backs of ‘re-opening’ stocks as investors put Covid-related fears to the side

  • The Biden administration plans to deploy military to back up hospitals facing a surge of Covid patients and will purchase at-home tests to distribute free to Americans in 2022

• This morning we’ll be looking forward to home purchase data, existing home sales, GDP numbers, and consumer confidence numbers

Earnings

• General Mills traded lower after lower-than-expected earnings numbers as higher prices are not enough to offset the cost of inflation (SA)

• Rite Aid shares rose after they announced plans to close underperforming stores in a plan to increase profits and growth in the future (YHOO)

• BlackBerry shares rose AH after posting better-than-expected Q3 numbers driven by stronger-than-expected growth in their IoT QNX business (MW)

• What we’re watching today: Carmax, Cintas

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• FDA expected to authorize Pfizer and Merck Covid pills this week (BBG)

• US population grows at lowest rate on record during pandemic (BBG)

• Microsoft, Apple suppliers exposed in Australia anti-slavery law (BBG)

• Redpoint Ventures is launching a media operations - and embracing TikTok (TI)

• SpaceX headquarters hit by Covid outbreak with 132 infected (BBG)

• China hits top influencer with $210M fine over taxes (BBG)

• UPS to buy $1.5B of Boeing freighters as air cargo booms (BBG)

• BAE to explore military version of Embraer’s Eve flying taxi (BBG)

• US to distribute at-home Covid-19 test kits to combat omicron (WSJ)

• Nikola to pay $125M in SEC settlement (WSJ)

• Criminals have stolen nearly $100B in Covid relief funds, Secret Service says (CNBC)

• Delta asks CDC to cut quarantine guidelines for breakthrough Covid, citing workforce impact (CNBC)

• Biden says fully vaccinated people can still safely celebrate the holidays as omicron spreads (CNBC)

• Jack Dorsey stirs uproar by dismissing web3 as a VC plaything (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A

• Petroleum company Aker BP agreed to buy the oil and gas business of Lundin Energy in a $10B deal (BBG)

• MSC, the world’s second-biggest container line, offered to buy the African transport and logistics business of Bollore for $6.4B (BBG)

• Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping line by capacity, is nearing a deal to buy LF Logistics for ~$3B, in a move that would give it a network of warehouses (WSJ)

• Dye & Durham, a Canadian provider of software for legal professionals, agreed to buy Australian data services firm Link Administration Holdings for ~$2.5B (BBG)

• Abu Dhabi Investment Authority agreed to buy a 10% in energy infrastructure company Sempra’s business platform Sempra Infrastructure Partners for $1.79B (RT)

• French drugmaker Sanofi agreed to buy cancer medicine-maker Amunix Pharmaceuticals for up to $1.2B (BBG)

• Microsoft agreed to buy AT&T’s digital advertising division Xandr in a ~$1B deal (BBG)

• Alpargatas, the Brazilian owner of flip-flop sandal maker Havaianas, agreed to buy up to 49.9% of US D2C footwear brand Rothy’s at a $1B valuation (BBG)

• Mining company Rio Tinto agreed to buy a lithium mine in Argentina for $825M (BBG)

• Investment firm GSV is working on a bid to buy Forbes Media in a potential $620M deal as an alternative to their announced SPAC merger (AXIOS)

• Mastercard agreed to buy AI startup Dynamic Yield from McDonald’s for $300M+ (BBG)

• Vulcan Minerals agreed to buy Brazilian iron ore company Vale’s coal mine and export railway in Mozambique for $270M plus a 10-year royalty deal (BBG)

• KKR and music company BMG agreed to buy all of Texas blues-rock trio ZZ Top’s music interests in a ~$50M deal (WSJ)

• Rap mogul Diddy won a bidding war to buy back his Sean John fashion line out of bankruptcy for $7.5M (BB)

• Financial services company Canaccord agreed to buy consumer-focused US M&A firm Sawaya (BBG)

• Francisco Partners agreed to buy healthcare clearinghouse and software solutions company Office Ally (BW)

VC

• Veho, a startup enabling personalized next-day package delivery, raised a $125M Series A at a $1B valuation led by General Catalyst (PRN)

• European e-scooter startup Voi raised a $115M Series D led by The Raine Group and VNV Global (TC)

• Tackle.io, a startup helping software providers sell their products in cloud marketplaces, raised a $100M Series C at a $1.25B valuation led by Coatue and Andreessen Horowitz (PRN)

• 21st.BIO, a Danish bioindustrial scaling startup, raised $97M in funding led by Novo Holdings (PRN)

• Cybersecurity, authorization, and identity access management provider PlainID raised a $75M Series C led by Insight Partners (PRN)

• Ambys Medicines, a startup working on cell-based therapies for liver diseases, raised $47M in an extension to an existing Series A led by Third Rock Ventures (BW)

• Ampla Technologies, a startup that provides financing to small-to-medium sized consumer-facing businesses, raised a $40M Series A led by VMG Partners and Forerunner Ventures (TC)

• Apella, a startup working on improving surgery, raised a $21M Series A led by Casdin Capital (BW)

• Carats & Cake, an integrated marketing and point-of-sale financing solution for venues and property groups, raised $19.3M in funding led by Acrew Capital and Founders Fund (BW)

• Runwise, a startup helping buildings produce less greenhouse gasses, raised $11M in funding led by Initialized Capital, Susa Ventures, and Notation Capital (TC)

• Latin American real-time claims processing and e-prescription platform Osigu raised $7.5M in funding led by IDC Ventures (PRN)

• South African car subscription startup Planet42 raised a $6M equity round led by Naspers and $24M in debt (TC)

• GreenSpark Software, a metal recycling software platform, raised a $5M Series A led by Tiger Global (BW)

• Fintech startup LiveFlow raised a $3.5M seed round led by Moonfire Ventures (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Indian spirits manufacturer Allied Blenders & Distillers is considering an IPO that could raise up to $300M (BBG)

• Digital mapping company MapMyIndia surgered 50%+ on its first day of trading post-IPO (BBG)

• Indian e-commerce startup Snapdeal filed preliminary documents for an IPO that could raise $165M (BBG)

• Data-management software company Cohesity has confidentially for a US IPO (BBG)

• Transportation-tech startup Via confidentially filed for a US IPO (BBG)

SPAC

• Brazilian planemaker Embraer agreed to merge its electric aircraft subsidiary Eve with Zanite Acquisition Corp in a $2.9B deal (RT)

Debt

• SoftBank is finalizing a $4B loan from Apollo backed by SoftBank’s stable of tech startup stakes. The loan would be secured by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (WSJ)

Exec's Pick

• Sharing an article written yesterday by Jack, a new contributor to Exec Sum. Good piece about why getting rich fast usually means you won't stay rich long. Check it out here.

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 50+ 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.

If you're looking to hire candidates and want to post a job, all you have to do is hit "+ Hire Talent" on the top right of the job board. If you want the role to be featured on Exec Sum, check out our "Featured" and "Premium" tiers.

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