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Good morning,

Bitcoin (like every other currency) set a new ATH against the Turkish lira. Peloton's stock has given back all of its pandemic gains. Musk's tax bill will roughly equal Madagascar's GDP. Markets got smoked.

US equity markets are closed are Friday and so is the LitCapital office. With that said, no email on Friday. (Karl is still gonna be working on a mundane project though)

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

To see the LitCap Yolo Fund's portfolio holdings, download the Iris Social Stock app here and give Litquidity a follow. If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

• A widespread Covid resurgence driven by the new omicron variant had all three major US averages falling yesterday, with the S&P 500 having its worst three-day span since September

  • Reopening stocks were the biggest losers of the day, with energy and financial stocks coming in just behind

  • The uncertainty of how omicron will impact the future of the economy has investors worried and it’s showing

• Electric vehicle stocks tumbled after Sen. Manchin rejected Biden's Build Back Better plan

• As Christmas approaches quickly, we’ll be waiting to see if another Santa Claus rally takes us into the year end despite what’s going on

Earnings

• Carnival shares rose after the company said it expects to be profitable in the second half of next year, countering worse-than-expected Q4 performance, and easing worries over the future impact of Covid on the cruise industry (BBG)

• Blade shares rose after they reported stronger than expected growth vs 2020 and 2019, and plans to launch additional routes in 2022 (Capital)

• Micron shares surged AH after posting better-than-expected forecast and earnings numbers, with data-center sales being the company’s strongest growth sector (MW)

• Nike rose AH after to better-than-expected Q2 earnings and revenue numbers as consumer demand in North America, their biggest market, continued to be strong (CNBC)

• What we’re watching today: General Mills, Rite Aid, BlackBerry

Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• S&P 500 has biggest three day drop since September (BBG)

• Turkey's borrowing costs soar as crisis enters new phase and lira plunges (WSJ)

• Omicron becomes dominant US strain 73% of Covid cases (BBG)

• Tesla loses all the gains from 35% rally stoked by Hertz electric vehicle deal (BBG)

• US sets 55-mile-a-gallon fuel-efficiency standard for 2026 models (WSJ)

• Biogen cuts price for Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm by half (WSJ)

• Roche licenses rights to experimental eye cell therapy (WSJ)

• World Economic Forum postpones January Davos meeting on omicron (BBG)

• Christie's sells $7.1B in art, the highest in five years (WSJ)

• Chile's stock market and currency fall after Boric wins presidency (FT)

• Trump booed in Dallas after revealing he received a Covid booster shot (BBG)

A Message From Kalshi

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Deal Flow

M&A

• Business software maker Oracle agreed to buy healthcare IT firm Cerner for $28.3B (RT)

• BMO agreed to buy BNP Paribas’ Bank of the West for $21.1B (BBG)

• Swiss-Italian container shipping line MSC Group offered to buy the African assets of logistics unit of Bollore Group in a potential $6.4B deal (BBG)

• Blackstone agreed to buy Bluerock Residential Growth REIT in a $3.6B deal (BBG)

• Chinese RE developer RiseSun is considering a potential sale of its unit that makes EV batteries that could fetch up to $1.6B (BBG)

• Carlyle Group is nearing a deal to sell a ~49% stake in PurposeBuilt Brands, a specialty cleaning and disinfection products company valued at $1.6B, to PE firm Rock Mountain Capital (BBG)

• Packaging products provider Sonoco agreed to buy sustainable metal packaging manufacturer Ball Metalpack for $1.35B (RT)

• Mortgage, real estate, and financial services firm Rocket agreed to buy personal finance app Truebill for $1.3B (RT)

• Blackstone’s growth fund agreed to buy a majority stake in sunscreen brand Supergoop! at a $600-700M valuation (BBG)

• Lundin Mining agreed to buy sister firm Josemaria Resources in a $483M deal (RT)

• Apollo’s Athene Holding agreed to buy Petros Pace Finance, a firm that originates commercial property loans (BBG)

• Presidia Petroleum is in advanced talks to buy ~5,000 shale gas wells from US oil producer Exxon (RT)

• Former Walt Disney Co. executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs are close to buying Israeli TV producer Faraway Road Productions for ~$50M (BBG)

• Elliott Investment Management and Vista Equity Partners are considering a joint bid for software-maker Citrix Systems (BBG)

VC

• Future Meat Technologies, a startup developing technology to produce cultivated meat, raised a $347M Series B led by ADM Ventures (PRN)

• Used vehicle sales platform Cars24 raised a $300M Series G and $100M in debt at a $3.3B valuation led by Alpha Wave Global (TC)

• OfBusiness, a New Delhi startup selling industrial goods and providing small businesses with credit, raised a $325M Series G at a ~$5B valuation led by Alpha Wave Global, Tiger Global, and SoftBank (TC)

• Korean online grocery startup Kurly raised a $210M pre-IPO round at a $3.3B valuation led by Anchor Equity Partners (TC)

• Social gaming platform for user generated content Rec Room raised $145M in funding at a $3.5B valuation led by Coatue (PRN)

• Figment, a blockchain infrastructure and services providers, raised a $110M Series C at a $1.4B valuation led by Thoma Bravo (BW)

• Zepto, a Mumbai based 10-minute grocery delivery service, raised a $100M Series C at a $570M valuation led by Y Combinator (TC)

• Cross border money transfer platform Taptap Send raised $65M in funding led by Spark Capital (TC) 

• Dental AI platform Overjet raised a $42.5M Series B led by General Catalyst and Insight Partners (PRN)

• Nigerian mobility startup Metro Africa Xpress raised a $31M Series B led by Lightrock and Global Ventures (TC)

• Kneron, an semiconductor designer focussed on chips that optimize machine learning for autonomous driving, raised $25M in funding led by Lite-On Technology (TC)

• Edtech startup Vivi raised $20M in funding led by Quad Partners (TC)

• Stenon, an agtech startup focussing on a real-time soil-sensing solution, raised a $20M Series A led by Founders Fund (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• China Mobile, the country’s largest wireless carrier by revenue, is aiming to raise $7.64B in a Shanghai IPO (BBG)

• Ferreti, the Italian luxury yacht builder partly owned by the Ferrari family, is considering a Hong Kong IPO that could raise ~$100M (BBG)

• Open English, an online English school targeting Spanish speakers, confidentially filed for a US IPO (BBG)

• Snapdeal, the Indian ecommerce startup backed by SoftBank, filed preliminary documents for an IPO and plans to raise ~$165M (BBG)

• Hong Kong-based insurer FWD withdrew its US IPO amid tightening a Chinese grip on overseas listings (BBG)

SPAC

• Cybersecurity company ZeroFox agreed to buy digital privacy protection platform IDX and will merge with L&F Acquisition Corp in a $1.4B deal (RT)

• US travel software maker Mondee agreed to merger with ITHAX Acquisition Corp in a $1B deal (RT)

• Biotech company Senti Biosciences agreed to merge with Dynamics Special Purpose Corp in a $601M deal (RT)

• Allwyn, a European lottery operator involved with sports betting and digital gaming, is in discussions with Cohn Robbins Holdings Corp around a potential merger (BBG)

Exec's Pick

• ATTN: LAST MINUTE - Still don’t have a Christmas gift for your miserable family? La Aurora’s got you covered. They offer a variety of cigar sampler packs that combine different blends, strengths, and tasting notes together. See why Santa loves 'em.

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 50+ 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.

If you're looking to hire candidates and want to post a job, all you have to do is hit "+ Hire Talent" on the top right of the job board. If you want the role to be featured on Exec Sum, check out our "Featured" and "Premium" tiers.

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