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Good Morning,

Binance is poised to buy rival FTX (wild story), US natural gas supply and demand is hitting all-time highs, investment banking layoffs are ramping up, Meta is beginning widespread job cuts today, Netflix is exploring opportunities in live sports, and US consumer confidence is at a decade low.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• All three major US averages rose modestly on Tuesday as investors anticipated midterm election results

• The dollar continued to slip as German bond yields strengthened the euro

• Major cryptocurrencies tumbled, with Bitcoin briefly hitting ~$17,300 on news of FTX's liquidity crunch, before bouncing back up above $18,000

Earnings

• Walt Disney missed Q4 profit and key revenue estimates on struggling D2C and theatrical businesses and warned that Disney+ streaming growth may taper going forward; their stock fell 6.8% in AH trading (CNBC)

• Carlyle Q3 AUM fell 2% to $369B, fundraising slowed by 40% to $6B, and available capital for investment dropped ~9% to $74B on market volatility; their stock fell 7.7% yesterday (FT)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Roblox, Rivian, Beyond Meat, Bumble

  • Thursday: WeWork, Six Flags

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Ukraine's Zelensky sets conditions for "genuine" peace talks with Russia (WSJ)

• 16 major corporate US employers have, or plan to, cut jobs amid recession fears (RT)

• US consumer confidence remains near its lowest level in over a decade (CNBC)

• US natural gas supply and demand will hit record highs in 2022 (RT)

• Citigroup cut dozens of jobs across IBD amid dealflow slump (BBG)

• Barclays also cut jobs across corporate and investment banking division (RT)

• Salesforce cut hundreds of employees on Monday (CNBC)

• Intel may lay off employees in cost-cutting plan starting Q4 (RT)

• Warner Bros. Pictures will reduce headcount by 5-10% (RT)

• Seagate will reduce worldwide headcount by ~8% or 3k employees (BW)

• Space company Astra laid off 16% of workforce (CNBC)

• Meta will begin widespread job cuts today morning (BBG)

• Netflix is exploring investments in live sports, and placed bids for streaming rights (WSJ)

• 23 states back FTC in blocking Meta's acquisition of Within Unlimited (RT)

• German authorities searched UBS branches linked to Russian oligarch Usmanov (RT)

• Mondelez pulled ads off Twitter, citing hate speech (RT)

• Musk sold $3.95B of Tesla stock after buying Twitter (BBG)

• Nvidia is offering a new advanced chip for China that meets US export controls (RT)

• Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass will join Levi Strauss as CEO in waiting (CNBC)

• Puma CEO Bjorn Gulden will join Adidas as CEO (RT)

• Anheuser-Busch is the first Fortune 500 company to purchase a Major League Pickleball team (CNBC)

• A sole California ticket won the $2.04B Powerball jackpot in the world's biggest ever lottery prize (AX)

A Message From Affinity

Volatile market conditions have forced both sides of M&A transactions to rethink their sourcing strategies.

In this webinar, we’ll speak to Eden Global Partners and Solganick & Co about the strategies they’re using to maintain momentum throughout the end of 2022—and how they’re planning to source the best deals into 2023 and beyond.

Save my seat

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Microsoft’s proposed $69B purchase of video game developer Activision Blizzard will face an in-depth EU probe on concerns that Microsoft may block access to franchises like Call of Duty (BBG)

• Crypto exchange Binance agreed to buy troubled rival FTX.com (BBG)

• France's Renault and China's Geely will launch an equally held JV to supply gasoline engines and hybrid tech to a range of automakers (RT)

• Italian government officials are reviewing options for troubled phone carrier Telecom Italia including a state-backed takeover bid (RT)

• Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn bought $170M of Lordstown Motors common / preferred shares and received two board seats (TC)

• Citigroup agreed to buy Deutsche Bank’s Mexican bank license amid plans to set up a local unit as the latter exits retailer operations in the country (BBG)

• Fashion and homeware retailer Next is planning to buy struggling online furniture company Made.com (BBG)

• Swedish semiconductor maker Silex Microsystems’ ~$85M purchase of German chipmaker Elmos Semiconductor’s wafer facility is likely to be blocked by the German economy ministry (BBG)

VC

• Agriconomie, a European e-commerce company for farmers, raised a $60.5M Series B led by Tres Group, Temasek, and Aliment Capital (PRN)

• Automated security compliance platform Laika raised a $50M Series C led by Fin Capital (TC)

• Juvena Therapeutics, a computational drug discovery platform, raised a $41M Series A led by Mubadala Capital and Horizons Ventures (BW)

• Eliyan, a startup building chiplet interconnects, raised $40M from Intel and Micron (TC)

• Infinitum, a sustainable manufacturer of air core motors, raised $30M in funding from Riverstone Holdings, Alliance Resource Partners, and more (BW)

• Southwest Asian health tech platform Speedoc raised a $28M pre-Series B led by Bertelsmann Investments, Shinhan Venture Investment, and Mars Growth (TC)

• Security infrastructure startup Veriti raised $18.5M in funding: a $12M round led by Insight Partners and $6.5M round led by NFX and Amiti (PRN)

• Wib, a cybersecurity startup focused on API security, raised a $16M round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (PRN)

• MOV.AI, a startup developing autonomous mobile robot software, raised an $8.2M round led by Bowe Group (PRN)

• Doola, a fintech startup helping founders form companies in the US, raised $8M in funding led by Nexus Venture Partners (BW)

• Wesper, a startup building a clinical-grade sleep analysis platform, raised a $7.5M Series A (PRN)

• Teamraderie, a B2B MasterClass-style platform focused on team building, raised a $7M round led by Founders Fund (TC)

• YonaLink, a clinical trial software provider, raised a $6M round led by Debiopharm Innovation Fund (BW)

• Israeli digital health startup Agamon Health raised $5M from eHealth Ventures (PRN)

• Nammu21, a platform deconstructing loan documents, raised a $5M Series A led by XBTO Humla Ventures (PRN)

• Payments startup KodyPay raised a $5M pre-Series A round led by pre-existing shareholders and strategic investors (PRN)

• BuildWithin, a software platform helping manage apprenticeship and workplace training programs, raised a $2.4M pre-seed round led by Dundee Venture Capital (BW)

• Manscaped, a mens grooming startup, raised an undisclosed Series B led by Banner Ventures and Smash Ventures (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Renault will split into five businesses, deepen ties with China's Geely, and spin off its EV unit in a 2023 IPO (RT)

• Southeast Asia grocery retailer Big C is considering raising $500M+ in an IPO, after delisting in 2017 (BBG)

• Connected fitness company Forme is seeking to raise ~$50M at a $200M+ valuation in a US IPO (BBG)

• Portuguese lender Novo Banco is considering an IPO amid plans to stay independent (RT)

Fundraising

• Quona Capital, a VC firm focused on emerging markets startups that accelerate financial inclusion, raised a $332M Fund III (TC)

• Biomedical tech-focused Catalio Capital Management raised an $85M Catalio Credit Opportunities Fund I to continue investing in biomedical technology firms (BW)

Crypto Corner

• Crypto exchange FTX saw $6B in withdrawals in 72 hours (RT)

• Sam Bankman-Fried's $16B fortune was eviscerated in days following the FTX bank run and sharp decline in FTT token price (BBG)

• US Treasury broadened justification for sanctioning virtual currency mixing service Tornado Cash alleging it supports North Korea (RT)

Exec's Picks

• The Information broke down everything that you need to know about SBF, FTX, and their pending deal with Binance here.

• Reuters published a piece showing where Wall Street's biggest players have made their political donations here.

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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