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Good morning,

Omicron and delta have a hot M&A deal in Cyprus, Britain is "beyond covid" (whatever that means), NYT paid a lot of money for The Athletic, a16z raised another $9B, interest rates keep going up, tech stocks keep going down, Nasdaq down 4.5% on the week (or 234% annualized), crypto has a rough start to 2022 (NFT holders sweatin big), Reddit taps the big banks for its IPO, unemployment rate is low, Chamath might have another SPAC deal, and the UK has one expensive power bill.

New CPI print on Wednesday, can we hit 6.9% inflation?

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

• Stocks fell again on Friday due to rising interest rates with the tech-heavy and interest-rate sensitive Nasdaq ending the week down 4.5%

• The 10-year Treasury yield hit 1.8% on Friday, tanking shares of tech stocks such as Microchip Technology, Nvidia, Netflix, and others

• The December jobs report came out on Friday and showed a nonfarm payrolls increase of 199K and an unemployment rate of of 3.9%

  • Compared to the expected 422K increase and 4.2% unemployment rate

• Investors will be keeping an eye on JPow’s Senate panel testimony tomorrow, CPI data on Wednesday, PPI data on Thursday, as well as big bank earnings on Friday kicking off Q4 earnings szn

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week:

  • Wed: Jefferies

  • Thurs: Delta, TSMC

  • Fri: JPMorgan Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, BlackRock

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Clock ticks for UK to ease $24B jump in energy bills (BBG)

• China vows to ensure daily food supply in Covid-hit Xi’An city (BBG)

• BMW tops Lexus, Mercedes in US luxury sales for third year (BBG)

• Andreessen Horowitz raises $9B for investments in startups (BBG)

• Sanofi forms potential $5.2B AI deal with Exscientia (BBG)

• Blackstone invests $3B in Invenergy for clean energy (BBG)

• New EU nuclear plants need $568B investment, Breton says (BBG)

• US mulls technology restrictions on Russia to stymie Putin (BBG)

• Omicron absenteeism could cause $48B hit to UK economy (BBG)

• Italians warn culture’s for sale in $533M villa auction (BBG)

• New York Times shares slump over Athletic deal’s expected hit to profit (BBG)

• US to spend $10B to boost small businesses (WSJ)

• Cyprus reportedly discovers a Covid variant that combines omicron and delta (CNBC)

• At least 6 dead after a massive wall of rock falls on boaters in a Brazilian lake (CNBC)

• FDA shortens Moderna booster waiting period to 5 months for adults (CNBC)

• UK minister says Britain is moving beyond the pandemic (BBG)

A Message From KEDM

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• Spin-offs (when 1 company splits into 2, value can be created)

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Deal Flow

M&A

• KKR and PAG are among preliminary bidders for Indian call-center business IGT Solutions in a potential $700M+ deal (BBG)

• Brazil’s largest brokerage XP agreed to buy lender Banco Modal in a ~$528M deal (BBG)

• BayernLB, one of Germany’s biggest regional lenders, is in the early stages of exploring strategic options for its retail bank Deutsche Kreditbank that could include a sale (BBG)

• Healthcare company Shockwave Medical is weighing a potential deal after receiving takeover interest (BBG)

• An alliance of KKR and BMG agreed to buy a John Legend catalog dating back to his first album (BBG)

• BPER Banca approved its offer for ailing peer Carige to prevail over rival suitor Credit Agricole Italia (BBG)

• Ad group M&C Saatchi rejected a possible takeover by a vehicle associated with its biggest investor, software entrepreneur Vin Murria (RT)

VC

• Renewable energy developer Invenergy received a $3B equity investment from Blackstone Infrastructure Partners (BW)

• Southeast Asian used-car online marketplace Carsome raised almost $300M in a financing round lede by 65 Equity Partners, SeaTown Holdings and Qatar Investment Authority (BBG)

• ZenBusiness, a startup helping founders launch and grow businesses, raised a $200M Series C at a $1B+ valuation led by Oak HC/FT and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (BW)

• Remilk, a food startup reimagining the dairy industry, raised a $120M Series B led by Hanaco Ventures (PRN)

• AN2 Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on treating rare and chronic diseases, raised an $80M Series B led by RA Capital Management (PRN)

• Avataar, a startup helping consumers visualize products in 3D, raised a $45M Series B from a16z, 9th Wall, and more (BW)

• Crypto startup Goldfinch raised a $25M round from a16z Crypto (TC)

• Conservative social media platform Parler disclosed on the January 6th anniversary in an SEC filing that it had raised a $20M funding round (TC)

• Virtual events platform Zuddl raised a $13.35M Series A led by Alpha Wave and Qualcomm Ventures (TC)

• Spanish fantasy sports app Draftea raised a $13.2M round led by Kaszek (TC)

• Regenerative medicine startup Cellusion raised a ~$9.5M funding round led by DBJ Capital, Keio Innovation Initiative, and SMBC Venture Capital (BW)

• Social narrative management startup Pendulum raised a $5.9M seed round led by Madrona Venture Group (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Social media company Reddit is working with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs on its potential $15B IPO (BBG)

SPAC

• Medical technology company ProKidney is in talks to merge with Chamath Palihapitiya- and Suvretta Capital-backed SPAC Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp. III (BBG)

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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.

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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