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Good Morning,

Epic weekend of tennis, golf, and football. America is back, baby.

Inflation is easing across multiple industries, US household wealth was down $6T in Q2, the EU may want tech giants to pay for telecom networks, Disney rejected Dan Loeb's activist call to spin off ESPN, and Burger King is trying to revive US sales.

If you're looking for a great book about investing written by a legendary financier, check out David Rubenstein's latest book: How To Invest.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• Ahead of this week’s inflation update, all three major averages broke three-week losing streaks and closed higher for the week

  • We’ll receive the August CPI numbers tomorrow (a 0.3% increase is expected), which is one of the latest data points on inflation that the Fed will receive before their September meeting

• Looking ahead, the retail sales and industrial production reports will be released Thursday

Earnings

• Kroger beat Q2 earnings expectations and raised its full year sales and profit forecasts; their stock rose ~5.5% on the day (YH)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Oracle

  • Thursday: Adobe

  • Friday: Manchester United

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Inflation showed signs of easing in several industries in August (WSJ)

• Fed officials are backing another 0.75% rate increase this month (WSJ)

• US household wealth fell by a record $6.1T in Q2 to its lowest level in a year (RT)

• US wholesale inventories rose 0.6%, 0.2% less than originally estimated, in July (RT)

• ECB may have to raise rates to 2% to curb inflation (RT)

• France, Germany and other EU countries pledge to advance 15% minimum tax on large companies (WSJ)

• EU will consult in early 2023 on whether tech giants should bear some costs of Europe's telecoms network (RT)

• Instant-delivery startups are running out of options (TI)

• Canada is experiencing a Great Retirement (RT)

• Big banks are set to make a record-total $20B profit from commodities this year (RT)

• US lawmakers are seeking a probe on airline handling of Covid funds (RT)

• Disney's CEO rejected activist Loeb's call to spin off ESPN (FT)

• Visa, Mastercard and Amex will implement a new merchant category code for US gun retailers (RT)

• Burger King unveiled a $400M plan to revive US sales through renovations and advertising (CNBC)

• Netflix reportedly wants to move away from binge model releases and test more weekly releases for some shows (SR)

• Max Verstappen took his 11th 2022 victory at an uneventful Italian GP (F1)

A Message From Simon & Schuster

What do the most successful investors have in common?

David M. Rubenstein, cofounder of one of the world’s largest investment firms, has spent years interviewing the greatest investors in the world to discover the time-tested principles, hard-earned wisdom, and indispensable tools that guide their practice.

Rubenstein, who has spent more than three decades in the hyper-competitive world of private equity, now distills everything he’s learned about the art and craft of investing, from venture capital, real estate, private equity, hedge funds, to crypto, endowments, SPACs, ESG, and more.

• How did Stan Druckenmiller short the British pound in one trade for a profit of $1 billion dollars?

• What made Sam Zell the smartest, toughest investor the world of real estate has ever seen?

• How did Mike Novogratz make $250 million from crypto in one year?

• How did Larry Fink build BlackRock from scratch into a firm that manages more than $10 trillion?

With unprecedented access to global leaders in finance, Rubenstein has assembled the most authoritative book of its kind. Whether you’re brand-new to investing or a seasoned professional, this book will transform the way you approach investing forever.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Bain Capital is exploring strategic options for HR software firm Works Human Intelligence at an up to $2B valuation (BBG)

• Payments company Bolt scrapped a $1.5B deal to buy crypto firm Wyre (RT)

• Vista Equity Partners and Elliott Investment Management plan to explore selling Wrike, a product management service and division of Citrix Systems, to help pay back preferred equity financing from their purchase of Citrix (BBG)

• The VC arm of crypto exchange platform FTX agreed to buy a 30% stake in SkyBridge Capital, the investment firm founded by Anthony Scaramucci (TI)

• Mental health company Headspace Health agreed to buy mental health and wellness app Shine (TC)

VC

• Verily, the life sciences business under Alphabet, raised $1B in a round led by Alphabet (TC)

• Home fitness business Tonal is raising $100M+ in financing at a ~$1.9B valuation (BBG)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• China EV maker Leapmotor has shelved their $1.5B Hong Kong IPO plans (RT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• PE firm Apollo was cleared to lend $700M to bankrupt airline SAS in an 'unusual’ deal (BBG)

Fundraising

• Bay Pine, a PE firm founded by Silver Lake and Blackstone veterans, raised $2.2B from institutional investors for its first fund (BBG)

• Pharma giant Eli Lilly invested $30M in Unseen Capital Health Fund, a VC fund aimed at supporting underrepresented founders of early-stage healthcare companies (FBT)

Crypto Corner

• The SEC will set up a new office for crypto filings (RT)

• Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius agreed to DOJ demand for independent examiner review (RT)

• Ethereum upgrade’s perks include crypto deflation (BBG)

Exec's Picks

• Billionaire investor David M. Rubenstein discusses philosophies for successful investing plus shares advice from some of the titans of private equity, crypto, real estate, and more in his latest book: How to Invest.

• In with the employees, out with the free coffee. The New York Post's Lydia Moynihan covered the latest "coffeegate" news from Goldman Sachs (first broken by Litquidity 😤). Check it out 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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