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LPs are wary of PE continuation funds, FTC is probing 'dynamic pricing' practices, US home prices hit a record-high, insurers are set to lose billions from CrowdStrike's glitch, and early Big Tech earnings came in mixed.

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Before The Bell

Markets

• Major US stock indexes slipped yesterday as investors swapped for small caps ahead of Big Tech earnings 

• Oil fell to a six-week low

Earnings

• Tesla fell 10% after missing Q2 EPS estimates on a 7% drop in auto revenue (CNBC) 

• Alphabet beat Q2 Wall Street estimates on strength in search and cloud (CNBC)  

• Visa beat Q3 EPS estimates but reported a rare revenue miss as payments volume growth slows (RT)

• Spotify surged 12% after reporting record Q2 profit, gross margin, and FCF thanks to its recent 'efficiency' strategy (YH)

• UPS plunged 12% after missing Q2 EPS and revenue estimates and cutting revenue guidance due to weak freight demand and soft pricing (CNBC)  

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Chipotle, Ford, AT&T, IBM

  • Thursday: American Airlines

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US 2Y Treasury auction drew record demand (FT)

• PE is getting creative in efforts to buy time (BBG)

• US blue-chip bond sales hit a six-year high (BBG)

• Small caps rally ignited a record options trading frenzy (RT)

• Chinese firms raised a record $14B in offshore convertibles YTD (RT)

• Singapore's GIC is eying Chinese units of MNCs who exit China (FT)

• BofA named insider Kevin Brunner as head of TMT IB (RT)

• Julius Baer named Goldman partner Stefan Bollinger as CEO (RT)

• Insurers are set to lose billions from the CrowdStrike IT outage (FT)

• FTC is probing dynamic pricing practices (TV)

• Meta released Llama 3.1 to rival GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 (AX)

• Ike Perlmutter sold his entire Disney stake after losing proxy fight (WSJ)

• US home prices hit a record-high (WSJ)

• Younger boomers are facing a cash crunch (WSJ)

• Earth logged the hottest day on record (CNBC)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• KKR is in talks to acquire a 25% stake in Eni's biofuel arm at a ~$13B valuation, including debt (FT) 

• German engineering firm Bosch agreed to acquire Johnson Controls' and Hitachi's residential HVAC businesses for $8B (RT) 

• UK events group Informa is in advanced talks to take private rival Ascential for over $1.4B (FT) 

• Medical supplies distributor Owens & Minor will acquire peer Rotech Healthcare for ~$1.4B cash (RT) 

• SWF ADIA is considering a $1.1B investment in Nestle's ice cream JV (BBG) 

• Industrial equipment maker IDEX will acquire filtration products maker Mott for $1B cash (RT) 

• Singaporean delivery app Grab acquired dining reservation platform Chope (RT) 

• SkyLake Equity Partners agreed to acquire a 71% stake in Korean SaaS firm BusinessOn (BBG) 

• DeFi exchange DYdX is in talks to sell its derivatives trading software (BBG)

• Credit firm Crestline is exploring options including a sale (BBG)

VC

• Legal tech startup Clio raised a $900M Series F at a $3B valuation led by NEA (TC)

• Retirement tech startup Human Interest raised a $267M round at a $1.33B valuation led by Marshall Wace and Baillie Gifford (BBG)

• GenAI legaltech startup Harvey raised a $100M Series C at a $1.5B valuation led by GV (TC)

• Headway, a mental healthcare system, raised a $100M Series D at a $2.3B valuation led by Spark Capital (PRN)

• Gcore, an AI cloud solutions provider, raised a $60M Series A led by Wargaming (EU)

• Mytra, a robotics startup for warehouse automation, raised a $50M Series B led by Greenoaks and Eclipse (TC)

• Level AI, a suite of AI-powered tools to automate customer service tasks, raised a $39.4M Series C led by Adams Street Partners (TC)

• QA Wolf, an app QA-testing suite, raised a $36M Series B led by Scale Venture Partners (TC)

• Strive, an asset management platform, raised a $30M Series B led by Cantor Fitzgerald (PRN)

• TigerBeetle, a database optimized for financial transactions, raised a $24M Series A led by Spark Capital (TC)

• NPC Labs, a developer of gaming tech for blockchain networks, raised an $18M seed round led by Pantera Capital (FN)

• UK fintech Plum raised a $16.4M Series B led by Ventura Capital and more (EU)

• Code Metal, an AI-powered development workflows for the edge, raised a $16.5M pre-seed / seed round led by J2 Ventures and Shield Capital (BW)

• Customer intelligence platform Momentum raised a $13M Series A led by FirstMark Capital (PRN)

• Bitlayer, a Bitcoin layer 2 platform, raised an $11M Series A led by Franklin Templeton and ABCDE (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Medical supplies firm Medline Industries is exploring a 2025 IPO at a $50B valuation (BBG) 

• Wiz rejected a $23B Google acquisition deal and will IPO instead (BBG)

• Toyota will buy back $5.2B of stock from from major Japanese investors (BBG) 

• Fintech Revolut is nearing a deal to sell $500M of shares at a $45B valuation (WSJ) 

• KKR-backed financial software maker OneStream priced its IPO above its range to raise $490M (RT)

• South Korea's OCI is considering listing its Malaysian polysilicon unit in a $320M IPO (BBG)

Debt

• Occidental Petroleum is planning a $5B bond sale to help fund its takeover of shale driller CrownRock (BBG) 

• UK pub operator Stonegate Pubs is nearing a $3.9B refinancing agreement and a $258M cash injection from PE owner TDR Capital (BBG) 

• Ares and HPS will lend $3B to finance Carlyle's potential LBO of Baxter International's kidney-care division (BBG)

• Funds including Davidson Kempner will lend $600M to finance a Golden Energy and Resources-led acquisition of an Australian coal mine (BBG) 

• Cameroon sold $550M in dollar bonds (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Fortress Investment Group is close to acquiring Red Lobster out of bankruptcy (BBG)

• Austrian real estate developer Imfarr Beteiligungs filed for insolvency (BBG) 

Fundraising

• Blackstone raised $1.2B for its first-ever Japanese PE fund (BBG) 

• LMM PE firm NewSpring raised $390M for its fifth mezzanine fund (FN) 

Crypto Corner

• Swiss banks aim to plug crypto payments gap left by US collapses (BBG)

• The SEC officially approved 9 spot ETH ETF applications (CD)

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