Funding Secured

Musk secured funding for his Twitter bid, CNN+ is shutting down, Amazon is extending some Prime services to other sites, Disney and DeSantis have beef, the 10Y yield keeps climbing, and J Pow said another rate hike might be right around the corner.

Together with

Good Morning,

Musk secured funding for his Twitter bid, CNN+ is shutting down, Amazon is extending some Prime services to other sites, Disney and DeSantis have beef, the 10Y yield keeps climbing, and J Pow said another rate hike might be right around the corner.

Big weekend coming up in Miami to cap off tech week! Slide into the DMs if you're in town and looking to network (read: get lit af). Happy Friday to all, have a good weekend 🤝

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 4/21/2022 market close.

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

Markets

  • The three major averages fell yesterday after a jump in the 10Y Treasury offset corporate earnings optimism

    • The 10Y traded above 2.9% for most of yesterday’s session, near its highest level since late 2018

    • The move in rates came as J Pow signaled that bigger rate hikes may be coming next month 

  • Despite the broad sell off, airline stocks are continuing to rise with this earnings season showing that companies expect a strong Q2 for the sector

Earnings

  • American Airlines posted better-than-expected revenue despite a Q1 loss, and the airline forecasted a big Q2 amid a resurgence in summer travel (YHOO)

  • AT&T reported core wireless revenue growth of 2.5% thanks to its aggressive expansion of fiber internet and 5G services, but overall revenue was down 14%, reflecting the impact of its divested satellite TV business and weakness in its business wireless unit (CNBC)

  • Snap posted worse-than-expected top- and bottom-line numbers and forecasted disappointing revenue growth in the current quarter, but daily users grew 18% annually (better-than-expected) (CNBC)

  • What we’re watching today: American Express, Verizon 

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • Putin calls off storm of Mariupol with Ukraine troops surrounded (BBG)

  • Disney District reassures investors on bonds in DeSantis fight (BBG)

  • Musk lines up $46.5B for Twitter bid from banks, himself (BBG)

  • CNN+ streaming service is set to shut down (NYT)

  • Activision Blizzard plans to add two women to its board (WSJ)

  • Supreme Court denies federal disability benefits to residents of Puerto Rico (CNBC)

  • Chicago Fed President Charles Evans to retire in early 2023 (CNBC)

  • Biden says US will send $1.3B in additional military aid and economic support to Ukraine (CNBC)

  • Amazon Prime coming to other online sites (WSJ)

  • Florida taxpayers could face a $1B Disney debt bomb if its special district status is revoked (CNBC)

A Message From 800º GO

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Invest before the raise ends on 5/4 and get up to 20% bonus shares now.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is among investors in a consortium led by KKR seeking to buy Australia’s Ramsay Health Care for $15B (BBG)

  • KKR has been named the preferred bidder to buy ~90% of Hitachi’s transportation unit for $4.7B+ (BBG)

  • China’s key state-run energy companies, Cnooc, CNPC, and Sinopec, are in joint discussions to buy Shell’s 27.5% stake in Sakhalin-2, a major Russian gas export project (BBG)

  • CD&R agreed to buy 60% of health insurer Humana’s Kindred at Home hospice and personal-care divisions for $2.8B (BBG)

  • Canadian petrochemical group Nova Chemicals is considering a sale of its majority stake in a Geismar, Louisiana cracker plant that could be worth ~$2B (BBG)

  • Baring PE Asia Fund VIII is in early stages of considering an offer for language services and software firm RWS which has a current market value of ~$1.78B (RT)

  • Bain Capital is considering a deal to buy European technology services provider Solutions 30 which has a market value of ~$768M (BBG)

  • Brookfield Asset Management is in talks about a possible offer to buy home repair services firm HomeServe (RT)

  • Jefferies is exploring a sale of its minority sake in Oak Hill Capital Partners (BBG)

  • Pharmacy chain Rite Aid rejected a proposal by Spear Point Capital Management to buy all of its shares (RT)

  • Olympique Lyonnais, the French Ligue 1 football club, has received at least six offers for a stake in the team which has a current market value of ~$125M (BBG)

  • Activist investor Clearway Capital agreed to buy a stake in food and nutritional products company Glanbia (BBG)

VC

  • Supermarket chain CR Vanguard raised ~$400M in a private funding round led by Country Garden Holdings ahead of its Hong Kong IPO (BBG)

  • UPSIDE Foods, a startup creating cultivated meat / seafood / poultry from cells, raised a $400M Series C at a $1B+ valuation led by Temasek and Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (PRN)

  • Crusoe Energy Systems, a climate technology startup, raised a $350M Series C led by G2 Venture Partners (BW)

  • Digital freight network startup Convoy raised $260M: a $160M Series E led at a $3.8B valuation led by Baillie Gifford and T. Rowe Price and $100M in venture debt from Hercules Capital (TC)

  • Reify Health, a startup improving the clinical trial ecosystem, raised a $220M Series D at a $4.8B valuation led by Altimeter Capital and Coatue (BW)

  • Travel and entertainment tech startup Pollen raised a $150M Series C from Kindred, Lansdowne Partners, Northzone, Sienna Capital, Backed, and Molton Ventures (BW)

  • Octant, a startup developing programmable biology and chemistry solutions to build medicines, raised an $80M Series B led by Catalio Capital Management (BW)

  • Clinical AI platform Mendel raised a $40M Series B led by Oak HC/FT (PRN)

  • Smart kitchen platform Fresco raised a $20M Series B led by Instant Brands, Vorwerk, and an undisclosed third strategic investor (PRN)

  • No-code app builder Glide raised a $20M Series A led by Benchmark (TC)

  • LiDAR startup LuminWave raised a $20M Series B led by Anxin Capital (BW)

  • Pillar, an immigrant credit fintech startup, raised a $16.9M pre-seed round led by Global Founders Capital and Backed VC (TC)

  • AI-powered personalization platform Jarvis ML raised a $16M seed round led by Dell Technologies Capital (TC)

  • Kindred, a home swapping network, raised a $7.8M seed round led by a16z (TC)

  • Singapore-based Telehealth startup Ordinary Folk raised a $5M pre-Series A led by Monk’s Hill Ventures (TC)

  • Dassana, a cloud logging platform separating storage and compute, raised a $5M seed round led by Dell Technologies Capital (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Private school operator Taaleem has picked EFG-Hermes and Emirates NBD to lead their planned Dubai IPO (BBG)

Debt

  • Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and Credit Suisse are financing the $871M debt package backing KKR’s purchase of fertility treatment provider Ivirma (BBG)

  • Elon Musk has arranged financing to fund his Twitter bid. The $46.5B in financing committed by Morgan Stanley and Elon Musk is broken down as follows: $500M revolving credit facility, $6.5B term loan, $3B secured bridge loan, $3B unsecured bridge loan, $12.5B margin loan, and a $21B equity commitment from Elon Musk (ES)

Crypto Corner

  • Ethereum earned global investors $76.3B in realized gains in 2021 thanks to DeFi (DC)

  • British department store Harvey Nichols opens NFT space in Hong Kong (DC)

Exec's Picks

  • Yesterday, Jack Raines wrote a great piece on the opportunity cost of achieving "alpha" with your portfolio, and why you need to think about more than just the financial returns. Check out "A New Definition of Alpha" 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. If you're a firm looking to hire from our audience, you can easily post a job on the site!

Meme Cleanser

Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast, presented by CoinFLEX.US, on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube 🤝 

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