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Good Morning,

Reporting live from the Ledger Op3n conference in Paris today! If anyone has any food / bar recs, pls lmk.

US exports hit a seven-month low, Wall Street execs are increasingly saying 2023 will be ugly, EY sees other big-four firms copying its proposed split, the Israeli VC sector is hot, Microsoft is eyeing a 'super app' to compete with Google and Apple, BuzzFeed is laying off employees, Neuralink is under federal investigation for animal-welfare violations, and Trump Organization was convicted of defrauding tax authorities.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• All three major US indexes closed sharply lower yesterday to extend Monday's losses as fears of a recession gripped Wall Street

  • The S&P 500 closed lower for a fourth straight day

  • Media and bank stocks, which tend to suffer during recessions, led the losses

• Crude oil fell to its lowest level since January

• The dollar inched higher after jumping on Monday

Earnings

• AutoZone beat Q1 EPS estimates on 8.6% YoY sales growth and 5.6% increase in domestic same-store sales; their stock is down 4.7% from its peak (YH)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: GameStop

  • Thursday: Broadcom, Costco, lululemon

  • Friday: Oracle

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US exports fell to a seven-month low (RT)

• Dealmakers face pressure to clinch M&A quickly in volatile markets (RT)

• Wall Street CEOs and strategists are increasingly voicing warnings that 2023 will be ugly (BBG)

• EY sees other Big Four firms copying its proposed split (RT)

• Georgia democrat Raphael Warnock wins runoff against Herschel Walker, re-elected to Senate (WSJ)

• London overtook San Francisco and New York for fintech funding (ES)

• Israel-based VC funds saw an increase in capital commitments for 2022, unlike Europe's biggest markets (PB)

• Microsoft is eyeing a 'super app' to compete with Google and Apple (TI)

• TSMC will raise Arizona chip plant investment to $40B (WSJ)

• Meta cannot run ads based on personal data: EU (RT)

• Morgan Stanley cut 2% or ~1.6k employees from its workforce (CNBC)

• BuzzFeed will cut 12% of its workforce (CNBC)

• Michelin will cut 1.6k jobs in France (RT)

• Microsoft offered Sony a 10-year contract to release 'Call of Duty' on PlayStation (TV)

• Trump Organization was convicted of defrauding tax authorities for over 15 years (RT)

• General Electric bought out entire NYT print paper for ads in historic first (AX)

• Musk’s Neuralink is under federal investigation for animal-welfare violations (RT)

• Ransomware gangs overwhelmingly targeted US organizations in H1 '22 (AX)

• Beijing no longer requires negative Covid tests to enter many public spaces (AX)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Sovereign wealth fund ADQ and real estate developer Aldar Properties are among the investors exploring a joint bid for private school operator GEMS, which could be valued at up to $6B (BBG)

• China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) is considering a revived take-private offer for China Traditional Chinese Medicine Holdings that could value the drugmaker at ~$4B (BBG)

• Shipping company CMA CGM is in advanced talks to buy Global Container Terminals’ operations in Staten Island, New York, and Bayonne, New Jersey, in a potential ~$3B deal (BBG)

• American energy company NRG agreed to buy smart household device maker Vivint Smart Home for $2.8B (BBG)

• Eight Portuguese and foreign entities expressed interest in buying a 71.7% stake in Portugal-owned engineering firm Efacec (RT)

• New York-based fashion brand Vince is exploring options including a sale (BBG)

VC

• Sports-merchandising company Fanatics raised a ~$700M round at a $31B valuation led by Clearlake Capital Group (WSJ)

• Norwegian grocery delivery startup Oda raised a $151M round at a $353M valuation led by Kinnevik, Verdane, and Summa Equity (TC)

• GPU-centric cloud provider CoreWeave raised $100M in funding from Magnetar Capital (BW)

• Entact Bio, a startup developing medicine to enhance the function of beneficial proteins, raised an $81M Series A led by Qiming Venture Partners and venBio Partners (BW)

• ZincFive, a startup building nickel-zinc batteries for immediate power applications, raised a $54M Series D led by Helios Climate Ventures (BW)

• GameOn, a conversational chat platform, raised a $35M Series B led by Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Mighty Capital, and B3 Capital (PRN)

• Medical device startup ABK Biomedical raised a $30M Series C led by Santé Ventures and an undisclosed MedTech strategic investor (PRN)

• OMNY Health, a startup creating compliant data platforms to connect healthcare stakeholders, raised a $17M Series B led by Chicago Pacific Founders (PRN)

• MetalSoft, a startup automating the management of hardware devices across data centers, raised a $16M Series A led by DNS Capital (BW)

• Archive, a startup building a resale operating system for brands, raised a $15M Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners (PRN)

• Bitwave, an enterprise-focused digital asset finance platform, raised a $15M Series A led by Hack VC and Blockchain Capital (BW)

• Privileged access management (“PAM”) solution provider senhasegura raised a $13M Series A from Graphene Ventures (BW)

• Antibody drug discovery startup Infinimmune raised a $12M seed round led by Playground Global (BW)

• Railway logistics software startup Telegraph raised a $10.1M Series A led by Crosslink Capital (PRN)

• Cacheflow, a startup building tools for the software sales closing process, raised a $10M seed+ round led by GV (TC)

• Syncfy, a Latin America-based open finance platform, raised a $10M seed round led by Point72 (PRN)

• Plant-based milk brand MALK Organics raised a $9M+ Series B led by Benvolio Group and Rotor Capital (PRN)

• Tea, an open-source package management platform, raised an $8.9M seed round led by Acuitas Group Holdings (TC)

• Cloud identity protection platform Rezonate raised an $8.7M round led by State of Mind Ventures and Flybridge (BW)

• Invent Analytics, a global retail planning solutions provider, raised a $7.5M Series A led by EBRD (PRN)

• Amplio, a supply chain management startup, raised a $6M seed round led by Construct Capital, Slow Ventures, and Koch Disruptive Technologies (PRN)

• Protopia.AI, a startup helping enterprises access data needed for AI models, raised a $6M seed round led by ATX Venture Partners (BW)

• Get Covered, an insurance technology provider for the multifamily industry, raised a $6M Series A-2 from RET Ventures, State Farm Ventures, WISE Ventures, and LeFrak (PRN)

• Fortius Metals, a startup developing metal 3D printing for the aerospace industry, raised a $2M seed round from AM Ventures (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Chinese ride-hailing firm Cao Cao Mobility picked banks for its Hong Kong IPO that plans to raise “a few hundred million dollars” (BBG)

• Vietnamese EV maker VinFast filed for a US IPO (BBG)

SPAC

• X-energy, which develops modular nuclear reactors and fuel technology for clean energy generation, agreed to merge with Ares Acquisition Corporation in a $2B deal (RT)

• Vic Properties, the Portuguese unit of German real estate firm Aggregate, agreed to merge with BurTech Acquisition Corp (BBG)

Debt

• Commodity trading house Trafigura raised a four-year $3B loan facility co-led by Deutsche Bank and an unnamed arranger to help supply natural gas to Germany's quasi-nationalized energy business Sefe (FT)

Fundraising

• One Peak, an investor focused on growth stage B2B software startups in Europe and Israel, raised a $1B third fund (BW)

• New Zealand VC firm Movac is targeting $95M for Movac Growth Fund VI to invest in fast-growing local tech firms on behalf of sovereign fund New Zealand Super Fund (AI)

• UK-based early-stage VC firm Jenson Funding Partners launched a $73M fund to invest in startups developing net-zero transition solutions (EUS)

• Lagos-based VC firm Future Africa is planning on launching a $25M venture debt fund with the aid of London-based open-ended credit fund TLG Capital (TC)

Crypto Corner

• Goldman Sachs plans to spend tens of millions of dollars to buy or invest in crypto firms amid lowered valuations triggered by FTX collapse (RT)

• Crypto wallet maker Ledger partnered with iPod inventor Tony Fadell to develop a hardware wallet to store cryptocurrency offline (TC)

• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon likened crypto tokens to 'pet rocks’ (BBG)

• Signature Bank plans to offload up to $10B in deposits tied to crypto (FT)

• Ethereum merge reduced crypto emissions (GZ)

• Sam Bankman-Fried hired white collar defense attorney Mark Cohen (RT)

• Gemini created a page on their website to provide users with transparency around status of their Gemini Earn funds (G)

Exec's Picks

• Christmas is coming up quickly, and there's no better gift than a new pair of kicks from Amberjack! From dress shoes, to Chelsea boots, to classic loafers, Amberjack has a pair that fits everyone's style. Get yours here! 

• Financial Times broke down Alameda's venture investments here.

• Seth Wickersham's Andrew Luck piece is excellent.

• Jack Raines wrote a piece about the psychology behind why investors fall for bad actors such as SBF.

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 aim to curate jobs across IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We'll sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

If you're a company looking to hire candidates and want to list a job opening on our board and feature on Exec Sum, click the button below:

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