Together with

Good Morning,

Adiós flight mask mandates, corn is getting expensive, Abramovich heads back to Kyiv, Rivian's CEO warns of a battery shortage, Amazon workers in NJ will vote on unionizing, Apollo wants to get in on the Twitter action, and we have a big earnings lineup today.

I didn't have a potential Apollo-Twitter buyout on 2022's bingo card, but here we are.

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

• US stocks seesawed on Monday, eventually closing slightly in the red as the 10-yr yield crested 2.88%, its highest level since late 2018 

• Inflation continues to be at the forefront of investors’ minds, with rising commodity prices heightening concerns

• Investors will also be closely monitoring a large slate of earnings reports that kick off tomorrow in order to see how companies will deal with rising costs in forward guidance

Earnings

• Bank of America posted better-than-expected top- and bottom-line numbers but Q1 profit still fell 12% YoY as banks continue to deal with decreased mortgage lending and deal fee revenue (WSJ)

• What we’re watching today: Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, Netflix, IBM

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Goldman’s youngest black partner leaving to start his own fund (BBG)

• Sri Lanka credit rating cut by Moody’s as looming default to bring losses (BBG)

• Corn hits $8 a bushel for first time since 2012 on supply woes (BBG)

• Abramovich visits Kyiv, seeks to revive Ukraine-Russia talks (BBG)

• Infowars files for bankruptcy amid Sandy Hook lawsuits (BBG)

• Activision says it is cooperating with federal insider trading probes (RT)

• Seven killed in Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s Lviv (WSJ)

• Rivian CEO warns of looming EV battery shortage (WSJ)

• Walgreens CEO Roz Brewer was the highest paid female CEO in 2021 (CNBC)

• Mask mandate for planes, trains, overturned by federal judge (BBG)

• Amazon workers in NJ to vote on unionizing (WSJ)

A Message From FarmTogether

Hedge Against Inflation With Farmland

With inflation reaching a 40-year high, investors are looking toward real assets to help safeguard their portfolio. Many are turning to farmland.

Farmland, a recently accessible asset class through platforms like FarmTogether, has consistently provided returns more than double the inflation rate since before 1992; this is due to the fact that farmland’s value is underpinned by its critical role in the global economy: the country’s growing population needs to eat. 

This makes farmland well-positioned to maintain its value over time – no matter the economic condition. As the supply of arable land in the United States shrinks each year, high-quality farmland should only become that much more valuable in the long run.

Interested in adding farmland to your portfolio?

Invest today

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Apollo is considering participating in a bid for Twitter by backing Elon Musk’s $43B offer or another bid (WSJ)

• Conglomerate Larsen & Toubro is weighing a merger between two of its publicly traded software firms Mindtree and Larsen & Toubro Infotech, in what could be a $22B deal (BBG)

• A group of investors led by Bain Capital PE agreed to buy Qatari trading firm Mannai’s stake in French IT services provider Inetum in a $2B deal (BBG)

• American Securities is considering a sale of its ingredients company Milk Specialties at a potential $1.5B+ valuation (BBG)

• Healthcare-focused investment firm ArchiMed agreed to buy medical device maker Natus Medical for $1.2B, taking the company private (RT)

• Bahrain’s government confirmed that Investcorp is in talks to buy Italian soccer team AC Milan for $1.1B (BBG)

• Utility firm Southwest Gas said it would evaluate selling itself, among other alternatives, after an unnamed potential buyer proposed another acquisition bid (RT)

• Brazilian autoparts company Tupy agreed to buy motor maker MWM in a $184.2M deal (RT)

VC

• Clipboard Health, a startup matching nurses with shifts at nearby healthcare facilities, raised $80M in two unannounced rounds: a $50M Series B led by Sequoia Capital and a $30M Series C at a $1.3B valuation led by IVP (TC)

• UrbanPiper, a restaurant management platform, raised a $24M Series B led by Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global, and Pankaj Chaddah (TC)

• Zambian card issuing startup Union54 raised a $12M seed extension led by Tiger Global (TC)

• Virtual shared metaverse platform Mytaverse raised a $7.6M seed round led by Blumberg Capital (PRN)

• Ellis, a startup paving the way for international students to open a bank account before moving to the U.S, raised a $5.6M seed round led by Kindred Ventures (TC)

• Vietnamese NFT project Aura Network raised a $2.5M seed round from Coin98 Ventures, GBV Capital, Impossible Finance, Kucoin Labs, Kyber Ventures, and more (BW)

• Japanese laser nuclear fusion startup EX Fusion raised a $1M+ pre-seed round led by ANRI (PRN)

SPAC

• Music streaming platform Deezer agreed to merge with billionaire Francois Pinault’s I2PO SPAC in a $1B+ deal (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• MetaMask advises users to disable automatic iCloud backups of its wallet data to prevent hacks (TBC)

• Rhode Island lawmakers introduce ‘green coin’ in housing bill (TBC)

• Ethereum DeFi protocol Beanstalk hacked for $182M (DC)

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 40+ 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.

Meme Cleanser

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