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Good Morning,
Apple awarded CEO John Ternus a $58M pay package, Anthropic patched relations with the White House, Google will avoid a breakup of its ad tech business, private credit firms are marking down more loans, and Messi is quietly building his VC firm as he retires from international soccer.
As you already know, Fundable's data helps to power our VC section. Outside of Exec Sum, my favorite Fundable feature is their MCP. It connects their entire startup and investor dataset directly to my Claude chat, bringing the data we write about into the same chat as the docs and inboxes we write in, without ever touching a filter. Try a free trial.
Let's dive in.
Before The Bell
As of 9/2/2026 market close.
Learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*
Markets
US stocks rose yesterday to recover some ground from this week's earlier pullback
S&P broke a three-day losing streak
Oil touched a five-week high
European natural gas prices hit their highest since 2023
Earnings
Broadcom beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates but gave a disappointed Q3 forecast as exponential demand growth for custom AI chips failed to meet a high investor bar (CNBC)
HPE issued a Q2 beat-and-raise on surging AI-related demand across networking and servers (RT)
What we're watching this week:
Today: lululemon, Victoria's Secret, DocuSign
Full calendar here
Prediction Markets
Not really following the women's side of things but I'm willing to go all in on whoever is American. Can't see foreigners winning on US soil🙅♂️❌
Deposit $10 and get a $20 bonus with code LIT on signup, only on the Polymarket US app
Headline Roundup
Zoom named ex-Oracle CFO Jeffrey Epstein to its board (GNW)
Rising yields could rattle US stocks as earnings season ends (RT)
US private credit firms are marking down more loans (RT)
US tech firms may crowd out euro bond market and raise credit risk (RT)
Netherlands moved gold bars out of New York over 'geopolitical unrest' (FT)
China bond sales are set to accelerate (BBG)
Minimax is China's new favorite stock (BBG)
John Overdeck says control of Two Sigma is a concern in divorce (BBG)
Apple awards new CEO John Ternus $58M annual pay package (FT)
Anthropic patched relations with White House (BBG)
White House backs OpenAI in copyright fight with publishers (WSJ)
OpenAI is building 'automated shutdown' capabilities for AI tools (RT)
Google avoids breakup of dominant ad tech business (WSJ)
Uber will cut 10% of staff in biggest layoffs since Covid (RT)
India raised $127B of dollar deposits via a special diaspora program (BBG)
College M&A tool helps schools connect in grim higher ed era (BBG)
High-end credit card holders find it harder to get their money's worth (WSJ)
Messi quietly builds VC portfolio amid international retirement (ENT)
A Message from Fundable
Datasets are getting a new front door
Work is moving to agents, and agents are only as good as the tools they can reach. Fundable is the private market dataset you can plug directly into Claude, via MCP, without paying enterprise prices.
Some common workflows:
A daily brief in Slack. Set a recurring task to notify you and the team when a notable round hits, whether it's a portfolio company, a competitor, or a rival fund.
Outreach that drafts itself. Pull the founders or investors behind a raise, then write them from the same conversation, with all the company background already in context.
Sector analysis. Chart deal flow in defense tech over the last eight quarters and see where valuations went, without opening a spreadsheet.
And you're never stuck with the fields the dataset ships with. Ask Claude to score every company on whatever actually matters to your thesis and it adds the column.
Most providers keep their data locked to their interface. We think the future of work is a connected workspace, so ours plugs into yours.
Deal Flow
M&A / Strategic
Thoma Bravo-backed cybersecurity software company Proofpoint is in talks to acquire $4.7B-listed peer Varonis Systems
Carlyle, Bain Capital, Oaktree, and Nextalia are preparing to bid for a 10%-20% stake in the international media rights of Italian soccer league Serie A, which could fetch a $4.6B valuation
Bain Capital and Lone Star Funds are considering second round bids for $4.5B-listed Japanese logistics group NIKKON
Italian betting firm Lottomatica agreed to buy Spanish rival Cirsa Enterprises in a $3.2B deal to create one of the world's largest gaming and sports betting operators
Data center infrastructure firm Vertiv Holdings will acquire micro grid and advanced power controls company Utility Innovation Group in an up to $2.6B deal
KKR agreed to buy A1 Garage Door Service for $2B
Thoma Bravo is exploring a $2B sale of construction software company Foundation Software
Canada's La Caisse will take a 24% stake in Brookfield-backed Indian telecom tower operator Altius Telecom Infrastructure Trust for $1.3B
Wren House, the direct infrastructure investment arm of Kuwait SWF KIA, is nearing a deal to buy 80% of Singapore SWF GIC's stake in a European data center JV for $810M
Oak Hill Capital acquired Guild Garage Group for over $800M earlier this year
Advent agreed to acquire a controlling stake in New Zealand Clinical Research from Waterman Capital at a $715M valuation
Aurora Cannabis urged shareholders to reject an unsolicited $272M hostile takeover bid from Curaleaf
Shell will acquire a 30% stake in the BP's Conifer exploration in the Gulf of America and a 50% stake in BP's Tupinamba exploration in Brazil
Bridgepoint-owned restructuring group Interpath is seeking to buy a US professional services firm
South Korea will merge Korea National Oil Corp. and Korea Gas Corp., five units of utility Korea Electric Power Corp., and four regional port authorities
VC
Healthy snack maker Medici Brands raised a $250M Series B at a $2.25B valuation co-led by Greenoaks and Valor Equity Partners
Capacity, an agentic support automation platform, raised a $54M Series E led by Kathy Ireland
Aitan, a defense technology company building robotic sovereignty capabilities, raised a $41M funding round co-led by Deep33 and Dell Technologies Capital
Aslan, a defense technology and cyber intelligence startup, raised a $20.8M seed round co-led by Khosla Ventures and XYZ Venture Capital
Pearler, a wealth management and investing platform, raised a $16M Series A backed by Charlie Gearside and Partners Horizon Fund
Aranya, an AI-native cluster management software company, raised $11M across seed and pre-seed rounds led by First Round Capital and Asylum Ventures
Access the complete VC deal flow and data on Fundable
IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades
Activist Elliott built a stake in Deutsche Telekom and is opposing a $200B merger with T-Mobile US
TPG-backed Asia OneHealthcare confidentially filed for a $2.5B Malaysia IPO
African reinsurer Continental Reinsurance plans to raise $155M in Botswana's first IPO since 2017
Canada's Barrick Mining is considering delaying IPO plans for its North American gold business until next year
SoftBank-backed Nigerian fintech Opay Digital Services is considering a secondary listing in Nigeria after a US IPO
Azzas 2154, one of Brazil's largest apparel exporters, will split into two: Arezzo&Co and an entity comprising Soma's fashion brands
SPAC / SPV
Self-driving firm PlusAI will merge with Yorkville-backed Texas Ventures Acquisition III Corp at an $800M pre-money equity valuation
Data security firm Data443 Risk Mitigation will merge with Four Leaf Acquisition Corporation
Debt
Waymo is in advanced talks for a debut $3B debt raise from PIMCO, Blackstone, and Sixth Street Partners
Bankers are lining up $1.2B of debt to back Apax Partners' $1.7B purchase of Primary Packaging Plastics and Centor US Holding from German packaging firm Gerresheimer
Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup is in talks to raise $300M in a debut Korean won bond sale after shares hit a record
Bankruptcy / Distressed / Restructuring
Korea Coal Corp. which has closed all its mines, will be liquidated
Funds / Secondaries
Mutual health company Australian Unity will shut down its equities funds management business Platypus Asset Management
Apptopia's Chart of the Week
YouTube viewers are increasingly skipping Netflix
It was recently reported YouTube is paying creators handsomly not to work with Netflix as Netflix tries to mimic its features and content
Generate alpha from mobile consumer signals with Apptopia.
Crypto Sum Snapshot
G20 agreed to develop a regulatory framework for crypto and stablecoins
SEC chair Paul Atkins expects the Clarity Act to pass this month
Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.
Exec’s Picks
Every AI tool promises answers. AlphaSense is putting that to the test. Join them in New York for a one-day event built around real questions, a live podcast recording of 'How I Invest' with David Weisburd and SVP Product Chris Ackerson, a Research & Strategy breakfast briefing and 1:1 time with a product expert. No script, no pitch. Just signal.
WSJ published some interesting highlights from the messy divorce trial of Two Sigma co-founder John Overdeck.
FT shared some of the best, worst and strangest ways AI is being used at work.
Meme Cleanser
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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.