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Good Morning,

US corporate profits surged to a record high in Q4, DOJ launched a deregulatory task force, CoreWeave's IPO underwhelmed, and MBA applications rebounded after years of declines.

Bitcoin Depot, the biggest Bitcoin ATM network in North America, has its eyes set on global expansion and wants the key retail trader segment to stay involved. Check out their investor insights.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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Markets

• US stocks slipped further yesterday as investors digested new US auto tariffs 

• Japan's Nikkei 225 slid to a two-week low on auto tariffs 

• US 10Y and 30Y yields hit one-month highs

  • 30Y-5Y yield spread hit 63 bps, the widest in three years

• Gold hit a new ATH, its seventeenth YTD

• Canadian crude is trading at its highest in four years

• Euro is up 4% YTD on track for its best quarter in a year

Earnings

• Lululemon fell 10% despite beating Q4 earnings and revenue estimates as it missed on FY guidance, citing a pullback in US consumer spending (CNBC) 

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US Q4 GDP growth was revised up to 2.4% YoY (BBG)

• US corporate profits hit a record high in Q4 (RT)

• Hedge funds are scooping up cyclical stocks as tariff fears swirl (BBG)

• Fee-starved banks are chasing $38B in junk LBO deals (BBG)

• US debt burden is expected to top WWII peak in five years (FT)

• Experts urge Fed to create bailout tool for risky hedge fund bond bets (BBG)

• US DOJ launched a deregulatory task force (RT)

• Vanguard explores private markets product with Blackstone, Carlyle (BBG)

• Mercuria takes on Trafigura and Glencore in metals trading drive (FT)

• Ex-Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman will join General Atlantic as strategic adviser ahead of highly anticipated IPO (FT)

• Three Intel board members will retire amid historic turnaround effort (RT)

• BofA mortgage applications jumped 80% in Q1 (RT)

• ChatGPT's new image-generation AI is melting OpenAI's GPUs (CNBC)

• MBA applications rebounded 19% after years of declines (BBG)

A Message from Bitcoin Depot

The Bitcoin Company That Still Has Huge Growth Potential

Now that crypto has gone mainstream, how can companies capitalize on the growth of cryptocurrency? One company already has: Bitcoin Depot, founded in 2016, has led the way in making Bitcoin part of everyday life, enabling customers to acquire nearly $3 billion in Bitcoin to date. 

With $573.7 million in FY 2024 revenue, Bitcoin Depot is the largest Bitcoin ATM operator in the world, with more than 8,400 across the US, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Australia. Currently, the worldwide Bitcoin ATM count represents only 1.2% of the worldwide cash ATM count, suggesting potential opportunities for growth in an industry Bitcoin Depot already leads. What’s better: The company's revenue isn't tied to the volatility of the price of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Depot is listed on the Nasdaq (ticker: BTM) and is poised for continued global expansion — this is your pick-and-shovel play in crypto. Now's your chance to join the movement and start investing.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Blackstone-backed compliance tech firm ISN Software is weighing a sale at a $6B valuation, including debt

• Chinese tech giant Tencent will take a 25% stake in a deal with video game developer Ubisoft that carves out a unit, including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, into a subsidiary with a ~$4.3B EV

• Energy trader Vitol is exploring a $3B sale of its US shale business VTX Energy Partners

• I Squared began the sale of Irish power producer Energia, expecting to fetch a ~$2.2B valuation

• Healthcare-backer Paulus agreed to acquire Softbank-backed digital pharmaceutical startup Alto Pharmacy for $1B-$1.5B

• Morgan Stanley is exploring a sale of its majority stake in German renewable project developer PNE, which has a ~$600M market cap

• Global Eggs, controlled by Brazilian entrepreneur Ricardo Faria, agreed to purchase US egg producer Hillandale Farms for $1.1B

• LNG infrastructure provider Excelerate Energy agreed to acquire New Fortress Energy's Jamaica assets for $1.06B in cash

• Ex-Endeavour chairman Patrick Whitesell acquired a 10% stake in Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions at a $750M valuation

• Kentucky Foods Chile will acquire a 58% stake in Brazilian restaurant franchise operator IMC's KFC Brazil operations for $35M to form a JV

• BP plans to sell over 260 gas stations in Austria, including EV charging assets

• British Airways-owner IAG will consider selling its 20% stake in Spain's Air Europa 

VC

• Fusion energy startup Marvel Fusion raised a $54M Series B extension led by EQT Ventures, Siemens Energy, and the EIC

• MemryX, a provider of edge AI semiconductor solutions, raised a $44M Series B led by HarbourVest, M Ventures, and others

• Nanoprecise, an AI-powered energy centered predictive maintenance solution startup, raised a $38M Series C led by Yaletown Partners and BDC

• CADDi, an AI data platform for manufacturing companies, raised a $38M Series C extension led by Atomico

• Mexican corporate spend management platform Mendel raised a $35M Series B led by Base10 Partners

• AI-native security startup Straiker raised a $21M round led by Lightspeed Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures

• Yutori, a startup building personal AI assistants, raised a $15M seed round led by Radical Ventures

• Energy drink company Lucky Energy raised a $14.2M Series A1 led by Maveron

• AI-powered physical security monitoring startup Hakimo raised $10.5M in funding led by Vertex Ventures and Zigg Capital

• Construction procurement platform BuildVision raised a $10M Series A led by Norwest Venture Partners

• Warlock Labs, a startup using on-chain data for responsible order flow processing, raised an $8M round led by Polychain Capital

• WunderGraph, an open-source alternative to GraphQL, raised a $7.5M Series A from eBay Ventures, Karma Ventures, and Aspenwood Ventures

• Chord, a customer data platform for commerce, raised $5.5M in funding led by M13

• Taxo, a data extraction and reasoning engine for healthcare administration, raised a $5M seed round led by YC, General Catalyst, and Character

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• AI cloud computing startup CoreWeave raised ~$1.5B at a $23B valuation in a significantly downsized IPO and below its target price

• PE-backed Swedish healthcare company Asker Healthcare surged 25% after raising $887M in Europe's largest IPO YTD

• Nigeria's state-owned oil giant NNPC is tapping advisors for a long-delayed IPO

Debt

• Namibia will raise funds locally to repay a $750M Eurobond

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• Pappas Restaurants is preparing to acquire bankrupt Tex-Mex chain On The Border out of bankruptcy

• Distressed Hong Kong developer New World Development proposed using its most valuable asset, Victoria Dockside, as collateral for an additional $2B loan as liquidity pressures mount

Fundraising

• BC Partners' private credit arm is set to raise $1.4B for its third special opportunities fund

• Orkun Kilic will relaunch multi-strat hedge fund Berry Street Capital with $200M from quant fund Qube Research & Technologies and another SMA

• Crypto VC Maven 11 raised $107M for its third fund

Crypto Sum Snapshot

• New SEC chair Paul Atkins promised new crypto stance

• US seized Hamas crypto meant to finance terrorism

• EU will set punitive capital rules for insurers holding crypto

• Check out our Crypto Sum newsletter for the full stories on everything crypto!

Exec’s Picks

• BOXABL is the home construction company bringing assembly line automation to the home industry. With patented technology and 53 patent filings, BOXABL is disrupting a massive and outdated trillion dollar building construction market. And they just reserved the ticker symbol NASDAQ: BXBL.* Tomorrow is the last day to invest in BOXABL on StartEngine! Join 40,000 investors and invest at $0.80 per share now.

  This is a paid advertisement for Boxabl's Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular here. This is a message from Boxabl. Reserving a Nasdaq ticker does not guarantee a future listing on Nasdaq or indicate that BOXABL meets any of Nasdaq's listing criteria to do so.

• WSJ did a deep dive on MLB's wealth gap, which has reached a tipping point and has teams, execs and fans alike questioning the way to go forward.

Financial Services Recruiting 💼

If you're a junior banker looking for your next career move, check out Litney Partners, a recruiting firm established by Litquidity and Whitney Partners (the oldest purely financial services executive search and consulting firm).

We aim to place strong candidates across private equity, hedge funds, venture capital, growth equity, credit, and investment banking.

We're currently seeking talent for some incredible roles. Head over to Litney Partners to drop your resume / create your profile and we'd love to get in touch!

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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.