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Buy 1, Get 20 Amazon Shares

Retail investors can finally afford one share of Amazon, Poland wants to send fighter jets to Ukraine via the US, Sony suspends Playstation sales in Russia, the US and UK resist calls for a Russia "no-fly zone", lost ship Endurance was found off the coast of Antarctica, and LimeWire is back with an NFT rebrand.

Together with

Good Morning,

Retail investors can finally afford one full share of Amazon, Poland wants to send fighter jets to Ukraine via the US, Sony suspends Playstation sales in Russia, the US and UK resist calls for a"no-fly zone", and LimeWire is back with an NFT rebrand.

Can't wait for the Web3 kids to download blockchain viruses on their parents' computers.

If you guys need a caffeine boost to get through another long work week, check out today's sponsor, Cometeer, and their flash-frozen coffee here.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 3/9/2022 market close.

If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out ourĀ Foot GunsĀ newsletter.

Markets

  • US markets rebounded with the three major averages closing in the green and the S&P 500 having its best day since June 2020

  • Despite the continuous developments on the war in Ukraine, commodity prices (namely oil) cooled off and gave investors some relief

  • Treasury prices fell and yields climbed as investors began pivoting from risk-off to risk-on assets

  • Februaryā€™s CPI releases today at 8:30 am ET

Earnings

  • What weā€™re watching today: DocuSignĀ 

  • Full calendarĀ here

Headline Roundup

  • Amazon announces 20:1 stock split, $10B buyback (CNBC)

  • Poland pushes fighter jet issue to NATO to decide (BBG)

  • Russiaā€™s VTB offering up to 8% interest rate for Yuan deposits (BBG)

  • NATO members mount huge operation to resupply Ukrainian fighters (WSJ)

  • Sanctioned Russians cast $3B shadow over PE firm Pamplona (BBG)

  • Amazon flagged to Justice Department for possible criminal obstruction of Congress (WSJ)

  • Sony suspends all PlayStation sales in Russia over Ukraine war (CNBC)

  • Tesla will pay Ukrainian employees for up to 3 months if they are conscripted to fight (CNBC)

  • US, UK resist calls for no-fly zone over Ukraineā€™s pleas: ā€˜Our goal is to end the war, not to expand itā€™ (CNBC)

  • Shackletonā€™s lost ship Endurance found 107 years after sinking off Antarctica (BBG)

  • RBC Capital plans aggressive hiring amid fierce competition (BBG)

A Message From Cometeer

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Just add water or milk to enjoy countless recipes. And when it comes to partnerships, Cometeer has blue-chip coffee roaster logos to fill a page: Onyx, Joe Coffee, Equator, and many more.Ā 

No need to hop on a last-minute MBA class trip to South America to sample local coffees. Cometeer lets you experience beans sourced everywhere from Colombia to Ethiopia.Ā 

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Want more assurance? Trust a special message from Litquidity himself:Ā 

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • XPO Logistics plans to split its freight brokerage and North American trucking operations into two publicly traded companies (BBG)

  • CVC Capital Partners is weighing options for funeral service provider Nirvana Asia at a potential $2B valuation (BBG)

  • Carlyle agreed to buy investment shop CBAM Partners for $787.2M (BBG)

  • Infrastructure fund Inframobility UK agreed to buy bus and rail operator StageCoach in a ~$780M deal (RT)

  • Edly, a student loan platform offering income-based repayment, raised $175M in future flow financing commitments (PRN)

  • Hedge fund Third Point is pushing senior care company Cano Health to put itself up for sale after buying a 6.4% stake in the firm for $106M (RT)

  • American Nitrile, a disposable glove manufacturer, raised $105M in strategic capital from Orion Infrastructure Capital (BW)

  • Spectris, a UK maker of precision and testing equipment, is exploring the sale of its Omega Engineering unit (BBG)

  • Social investing platform Public acquired Otis, a fractional investing company that focuses on NFTs, art, and other collectibles (TBC)

  • MTN will look for minority investors in its African fintech unit after separating the division from the carrierā€™s traditional telecom business (BBG)

  • Oaktree Capital Management agreed to buy a majority stake in 17Capital, a specialist lender that offers financing to private equity companies (BBG)

  • Citiā€™s sale of its Russian consumer unit stalls as war escalates (BBG)

  • PepsiCoĀ is exploring options, including writing off its value, for its Russia business (BBG)

VC

  • Savings & investing app Acorns raised a $300M Series F at a ~$2B valuation led by TPG (TC)

  • Forto, a digitized freight forwarding and supply chain solutions startup, raised a $250M Series D led by Disruptive (PRN)

  • S3 Ventures raised a $250M Fund VII focused on Texas-based startups (BW)

  • Amazon aggregator Society Brands raised $204M in equity / debt led by i80 Group (PRN)

  • Menlo Micro, a company reinventing the electronic switch, raised a $150M Series C led by Vertical Venture Partners and Future Shape (BW)

  • Enterprise architecture startup Ardoq raised a $125M Series D at a $300M+ valuation led by EQT Growth (TC)

  • Gravie, a health benefits startup, raised a $75M Series E led by Georgian (PRN)

  • Branch, a startup helping speed up payments to contract workers,Ā raised a $75M Series C led by Addition (TC)

  • Nothing, a consumer tech startup, raised a $70M Series B led by EQT Ventures and C Ventures (BW)

  • Colossal Biosciences, a genetic engineering and de-extinction startup, raised a $60M Series A led by Thomas Tull and At One Ventures (BW)

  • App-based low-code / no-code automation platform JIFFY.ai raised a $53M Series B led by Eight Roads Ventures (BW)

  • Atlan, a startup building a collaboration hub for data teams, raised a $50M Series B at a $450M valuation led by Salesforce Ventures, Insight Partners, and Sequoia Capital India (BW)

  • Cloud operations management startup Blink raised $26M from a $20M Series A and a $6M seed / pre-seed round led by Lightspeed Venture PartnersĀ (TC)

  • Apparel manufacturing startup Silq raised a $17.6M Series A led by F-Prime Capital and Flexport Ventures (PRN)

  • Milo, a fintech startup providing financial solutions to the crypto consumer market, raised a $17M Series A led by M13 (PRN)

  • Upstream, a no-code platform allowing anyone to create their own DAO, raised a $12.5M Series A led by boldstart ventures (BW)

  • Construction financing startup CoFi raised a $7M seed round led by Blackhorn Ventures, Metaprop, and Tenacity (PRN)

  • Ponder, a startup developing scalable, enterprise-ready and easy-to-use machine learning and analytics tools, raised a $7M seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners (BW)

  • Clean Crop Technologies, a startup using electricity to decarbonize the way we grow food, raised a $6M Series A led by ReGen Ventures, Trailhead Capital, and MassMutualĀ CatalystĀ Fund (PRN)

  • Canadian PropTech startup iRestify raised a $6M round co-led by Gutbrain Ventures and PBJ Capital (PRN)

  • Sneaker e-commerce platform Kicks Crew raised a $6M Series A led by Gobi Partners and Pacific Century Group (TC)

  • LatAm grocery shopping startup Mara raised a $6M round led by Canary and Caffeinated Capital (TC)

  • Clinia, a personalized health navigation platform, raised a $3.9M seed round led by AQC Capital (PRN)

  • HELIXintel, a startup building a platform to manage equipment maintenance, raised a $4M seed round led by MunichĀ ReĀ Ventures, Stellifi, LabĀ Ventures, and more (PRN)

  • Donde,Ā a ā€˜time-offā€™ platform for employees, raised a $3.3M seed round led by Kickstart Fund (PRN)

  • Workbounce, a platform-agnostic ā€˜Google-meets-Slackā€™ product for sales teams, raised a $2.7M seed round from Index Ventures (TC)

  • Legion Health,Ā a startup building a B2B mental health marketplace, raised a $2M seed round from angel investors (BW)

  • Nigerian digital bank Yep! raised a $1.5M pre-seed round led by Greenhouse Capital (TC)

  • Smart addressing startupĀ OkHiĀ raised a $1.5M seed extension led byĀ FoundersFactoryAfrica,Ā Betatron, andĀ InterswitchGroupĀ (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Energy giant China Three Gorges is exploring an IPO of its Brazilian unit that could raise ~$2B (BBG)

  • EV battery maker China Lithium plans for a Hong Kong IPO that could raise up to $1.5B (BBG)

  • Clearlake Capital-backed pet-food maker Wellness Pet is preparing for a US IPO that could raise $600M+ (BBG)

  • Clothing and maternal products online marketplace PatPat is exploring an IPO that could raise ~$500M at a ~$3B valuation (BBG)

  • Agora Digital Holdings, owner ofĀ Bitstream Mining, to list on Nasdaq at a $53M valuation (CD)

SPAC

  • Online gaming company Games Global is in talks to merge with Tailwind International Acquisition Corp in a potential $3B deal (BBG)

Debt

  • AT&T and Discovery are selling $30B of bonds as they seek to fund their media business combination (BBG)

  • Turkey is set to borrow ~$1.6B from a consortium of banks to finance a planned buyout of the countryā€™s telecom giant Turk Telekom (BBG)

  • Kobalt Music Group raised $550M in debt financing for the acquisition of music copyrights (BBG)

Crypto Corner

  • Bidenā€™s executive order on digital assets splits crypto industry and bitcoin idealists (DC)

  • Goldman Sachs is connecting clients to Galaxy Digital's ETH Fund (TBC)

  • Adobe taps Polygon to scale NFT functionality in Behance social platform (DC)

  • LimeWire announces comeback as Web3 NFT marketplace (TBC)

  • Slim JimĀ trademark filings reveal metaverse plans (CD)

  • StarkWare, an Ethereum Layer 2 developer, is in the early stages of raising funds at a $6B valuation (TBC)

  • Dubai creates agency for virtual asset regulation (TBC)

  • Cake DeFi launched a new $100M corporate venture arm to invest in web3, gaming and fintech (TBC)

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The Hiring Block

If you're looking to break into finance, lateral, or move out, check out ourĀ job boardĀ on Pallet, where we curate highly relevant roles for you. We've got 20+ jobsĀ spanning IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDevĀ and more. We sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

Meme Cleanser

Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast onĀ SpotifyĀ andĀ Apple MusicĀ šŸ¤

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