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Good Morning,

Banker bonuses were big and meal stipends (for some) were small in 2021, Joe Biden and Boris Johnson announced sanctions on Russia, Slack was down, Trump's social media app had glitches, Meta is going global with Reels, Nord Stream 2 is dead for now, and stocks just keep going lower.

🚨SALARY DATA ANNOUNCEMENT🚨

We compiled the most detailed survey of Wall Street salaries ever, and we're sharing the results with you. From Goldman Sachs to Credit Suisse, check out the total dataset here. Our data has also been picked up and published by the New York Post (peep the top two links in the Headline Roundup #yeet)

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

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

Markets

• The intensifying Russia and Ukraine crisis dragged stocks down again yesterday, with the Dow falling for its fourth straight session and all three major US averages closing in the red

  • Biden announced sanctions on Russia’s VEB and military banks, Russian sovereign debt, and certain wealthy Russian individuals and their families

  • The UK started targeted economic sanctions against five Russian banks and three wealthy individuals

  • The VanEck Russia ETF, a US traded security which invests in top Russian companies, dropped 8.3%

• Traders are betting that there is a 100% chance of a Fed rate hike after the March 15-16 meeting, with expectations tilting toward a 0.25 percentage point move

  • Expectations of tighter monetary policy have pressured stocks and pushed the 10Y Treasury higher to start the year

Earnings

• Home Depot beat expectations after sales grew 11% in Q4; they projected growth in 2022 as contractors buy more supplies for new projects, but shares after they attributed some of Q4's revenue gains to rising prices (CNBC)

• Macy’s posted better-than-expected Q4 earnings numbers after the holiday period helped them overcome Covid-19 and supply-chain disruptions; they also announced that a strategic review has prompted the retailer to accelerate its turnaround plans (CNBC)

• What we’re watching today: Lowe’s, eBay, Hertz

• Thurs: Moderna, Etsy, Beyond Meat

• Fri: Foot Locker

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Goldman Sachs hands out biggest bonuses on Wall Street as talent shortage rages (NYP)

• Goldman Sachs bankers gripe that their dinner stipends won’t even cover Chipotle (NYP)

• Biden says US will sanction Russian financial firms, sovereign debt, and individuals after Ukraine incursion (CNBC)

• Peloton, Microsoft’s Github and Slack faced online outages (BBG)

• Myanmar upheaval prompts Axiata to delay listing towers unit (BBG)

• Telecom Italia to decide on KKR approach by mid-March (RT)

• Trump’s Truth Social launched on Apple’s App Store, with glitches (WSJ)

• Meta’s Facebook escalates TikTok rivalry, launches reels globally (WSJ)

• Biden halts oil permits just as gasoline prices surge on Ukraine (BBG)

• Russia’s contentious Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is dead for now (BBG)

• Airbus plans to test a hydrogen engine on an A380 jumbo jet by mid-decade (CNBC)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• KKR agreed to buy a majority stake in bottling company Refresco from PAI Partners and BCI at a $7.8B valuation (BBG)

• Standard General agreed to buy US TV station operator Tegna in a $5.4B deal (RT)

• Veritas Capital agreed to buy educational materials and research publisher Houghton Mifflin for $2.8B (BBG)

• Industrial company Cummins agreed to buy commercial vehicle solutions company Meritor for $2.58B (BBG)

• The founder of German health-care technology provider Stratec is exploring options, including a sale of the firm, which has a current market value of ~$1.5B (BBG)

• Personal finance company SoFi agreed to buy banking-software maker Technisys for ~$1.1B (WSJ)

• Brookfield Asset Management is in talks to buy the payments business of First Abu Dhabi Bank, the UAE’s largest lender, in a potential $1B+ deal (BBG)

• Technology-focused investment firm Battery Ventures is considering a sale of UK life science firm SPT Labtech that could fetch ~$680M (BBG)

• A consortium backed by Airbus and aerospace company Safran agreed to buy superalloys supplier Aubert & Duval in a $107.3M deal (RT)

• EQT agreed to buy British EV charging firm InstaVolt (BBG)

• Australian investment platform Bitpanda agreed to buy British crypto and DeFi custodian Trustology (TBC)

VC

• Data center operator Princeton Digital raised $500M+ at a $2B+ valuation in a round led by Mubadala Investment (BBG)

• ANDION Global, a startup delivering waste-to-energy solutions, raised $270M: $250M in a project development equity facility from Spring Lane Capital and Equitix and $20M in equity financing (BW)

• European VC fund Backed raised $170M: $85M for its seed fund and $85M for its later-stage fund (TC)

• Ibex Investors closed its first fund at $113M (PRN)

• Timescale, the creator of TimescaleDB - a relational database for time series data, raised a $110M Series C at a $1B+ valuation led by Tiger Global (BW)

• Wildtype, a startup developing lab cultured salmon cells, raised a $100M Series B from L Catterton, Cargill, Leonardo DiCaprio, and more (TC)

• GraphQL developer Hasura raised a $100M Series C at a $1B valuation led by Greenoaks (TC)

• Clickatell, a mobile messaging platform that helps businesses communicate with customers via chat, raised a $91M Series C led by Arrowroot Capital (TC)

• H2scan, a hydrogen sensor company, raised a $70M round led by LetterOne (BW)

• Robotics lab automation startup Automata raised a $50M Series B led by Octopus Ventures (TC)

• Weavr, a London-based startup enabling businessowners to access plug-and-play financial solutions, raised a $40M Series A led by Tiger Global (BW)

• Renter-centric leasing platform Funnel Leasing raised a $36.5M Series B led by RET Ventures (BW)

• Facilio, a property operations platform, raised a $35M Series B led by Dragoneer (PRN)

• Grata, a private company intelligence engine, raised a $25M Series A led by Craft Ventures (PRN)

• Minded, a telehealth company specialized in mental health medication, raised a $25M seed round led by Streamlined Ventures, Link Ventures, The Tiger Fund, and more (TC)

• AI-powered synthetic avatar platform Neosapience raised a $21.5M Series B led by BRV Capital Management (TC)

• Brazilian crypto exchage Foxbit raised a $21M Series A led by Chinese blockchain company OK Group (TBC)

• E-commerce automation startup Alloy Automation raised a $20M Series A led by a16z (TC)

• Vector search database developer SeMI Technologies raised a $16M Series A led by New Enterprise Associates and Cortical Ventures (PRN)

• Zebec, a startup building a continuous programmable cash flow protocol on Solana, raised $15M financing led by Solana Ventures and Distributed Global (BW)

• Trubify, a live streaming app, raised a $12M Series A (PRN)

• PerchPeek, a startup helping relocate employees, raised a $11M Series A led by Stage 2 Capital and AlbionVC (TC)

• AI-powered cyber intelligence company Cyble raised a $10M Series A led by Blackbird (BW)

• Fama, a social media screening company, raised a $10M Series B led by Silverton Partners (BW)

• SkyFi, a startup developing a satellite imagery app, raised a $7.25M round with participation from J2 Ventures, Moving Capital, Capital Factory, and Bill Perkins (Payload)

• Oncology biotech startup Cumulus Oncology raised a $5.6M round led by Eos Advisory (BW)

• Plinqit, a savings platform that pays its users to learn about personal finance, raised a $5M Series A led by Fintop Capital and JAM FINTOP (BW)

• Place, a startup helping early-stage software companies operate their business, raised $3.25M in funding led by Geekdom Fund (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Volkswagen is preparing an IPO for its subsidiary Porsche; VW hopes a listing of its most profitable asset can boost the parent’s valuation and fund the push into EVs (BBG)

• Thai Beverage is set to revive the IPO of brewery unit BeerCo that could raise ~$2B (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• DAO treasuries have lost $3.1B over the last month (Decrypt)

• Luna Foundation Guard raises $1B to form bitcoin reserve for UST stablecoin (TBC)

• Bitfury launches 28mw Canadian mining facility (CD)

• A former Bored Ape owner is suing OpenSea for $1M, but his lawsuit is riddled with errors (CD)

• JP Morgan crypto executive Christine Moy is leaving the firm (TBC)

Exec's Picks

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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've got 20+ jobs spanning IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

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