Good Morning,

UK inflation topped 10%, SPACs are dead, Turkey and Israel restored diplomatic relations, sports betting companies are cutting back on ad spend, Lebron and Matt Damon crypto ads have disappeared, and Ryan Cohen is selling his Bed Bath & Beyond shares.

Also, shout out to Jake Freeman, the 20-year-old kid who made $110M on BBBY and actually sold. Legend 🤝

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

• Stocks fell on Wednesday as investors reacted to minutes from the Fed’s July meeting and a new batch of retail earnings data

  • The minutes showed that the Fed is still committed to raising interest rates and holding them at a high level until there is clear evidence that inflation is falling

  • The Commerce Department reported that overall retail sales were flat in July

  • Oil stopped its three-day skid

Earnings

• Target saw Q2 profit fall 90% YoY as the retailer cut costs on discretionary items in order to clear inventory, but overall revenue rose and it maintained its full-year forecasts; its stock fell 2.7% on the day (CNBC)

• Lowe’s beat earnings estimates for the fourth consecutive quarter but came up short on revenue; its stock rose 0.5% (YHOO)

• Performance Food Group exceeded estimates for both the top and bottom line, recording revenue of $14.59B, but its stock fell 1.6% on the day (NSDQ)

• Cisco Systems reported Q2 results after hours that beat revenue estimates as a Covid-19 recovery in China eased supply chain pressures and helped the company meet demand for its networking hardware (YHOO)

• Tencent Holdings’ nearly two-decade growth streak ended after the company posted its first quarterly revenue decline since it went public in 2004 (WSJ)

• What we’re watching this week:

  • Today: Kohl’s, Ross Stores, Arco

  • Friday: John Deere

• Full calendar here 

Headline Roundup

• 20 year old student makes $110M trading meme stock Bed Bath & Beyond (FT)

• US retail spending was steady in July and rose 0.7% when excluding autos and gasoline (WSJ)

• UK inflation rose to 10.1% in July, up from 9.4% in June (WSJ)

• SPAC activity in July reached its lowest level in five years (WSJ)

• Janet Yellen directed the IRS to produce an $80B spending plan by March 2023 (RT)

• Turkey and Israel restored full diplomatic relations (AX)

• Clogged ports across the globe are putting fall and holiday shipments in doubt (WSJ)

• UAE conglomerate IHC plans to invest up to $5B in Israel, Indonesia, Colombia, Turkey and India each (BBG)

• CVS, Walmart and Walgreens were ordered to pay $650.6M to Ohio counties in an opioid case (RT)

• China will discourage abortions to boost birthrates (WP)

• Amazon is testing a TikTok-like feature to show shoppers products in video format (WSJ)

• Betting companies will scale back on advertising spending to become profitable (WSJ)

A Message From Blendid

Invest in a Fresh Take on the $4B Food Robotics Market

But before you furiously strap a toaster to your Roomba (hey, we appreciate the ingenuity), slow your roll – there’s a far better way to cash in on this market.

It’s called Blendid.

Businesses are struggling to meet demand for affordable healthy food due to worker shortages, high overhead costs, and profit margins slimmer than Kate Moss in the 90’s (throwback alert!!!).

While that’s not great news for quick-service restaurants, it’s a huge opportunity for Blendid’s autonomous robotic food kiosks.

Each and every Blendid kiosk is…

• Powered by advanced tech that allows them to prepare and serve healthy food customized to diner’s preferences on the spot

• An opportunity for greater profit margins due to lower operating costs

• Run by robots, and therefore not affected by human labor shortages

And with 500+ kiosk orders under contract right now, the future of Blendid looks bright.

The best part? They’re still open for investments.

Join the future of healthy food by investing in Blendid right here, and get up to 10% bonus shares when you invest $50K or more.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• US refiner Phillips 66 offered to acquire the public units of petroleum services company DCP Midstream at a $7.2B valuation (RT)

• The Glazer family may consider selling a minority stake in Manchester United FC, which could be valued at ~$6B (BBG)

• PE group Five Arrows Principal Investments is launching the sale of a majority stake in French automotive software firm A2Mac1, in a deal valued up to $1.5B (RT)

• Canadian pension manager OTTP is competing with Asian PE firm FountainVest Partners for a stake in specialty packaging company GPA Global, which could be valued at up to $800M (BBG)

• Snowboard maker Burton is exploring a sale at a potential ~$800M valuation (BBG)

• PE firm Apollo acquired an 11.1%, $400M stake in a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi developer Aldar Properties (RT)

• Blackstone is seeking to raise up to $400M in a share sale of Indian automotive component maker Sona Comstar (BBG)

• A consortium led by Skip Essential Infrastructure Fund sweetened their takeover offering for renewable energy developer Genex Power to ~$243M (RT)

• Activist firm RC Ventures, led by Ryan Cohen, intends to sell his ~12% stake worth ~$121M in retail-store company Bed, Bath and Beyond (CNBC)

• Social investment platform eToro will acquire fintech startup Gatsby for $50M (TC)

• Indian asset manager Rare Investments acquired 8% of appliance maker Singer India, which has a $50M+ valuation (BBG)

• Penn Entertainment has agreed to acquire the remaining shares of Barstool Sports that it doesn't already own (BBG)

• British online fashion retailer Boohoo acquired a 7.1% stake in beauty product maker Revolution Beauty Group (RT)

• Elliott Investment Management acquired a 3.7% stake in aerospace and defense company Aerojet Rocketdyne (BBG)

• British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe is interested in buying Manchester United FC (RT)

VC

• DriveNets, a provider of cloud-native networking solutions, raised a $262M Series C led by D2 Investments (PRN)

• HiBob, a cloud-based HR platform, raised a $150M Series D at a $2.45B valuation led by General Atlantic (TC)

• Incredible Health, a career marketplace for healthcare workers, raised an $80M Series B led by Base10 Partners (PRN)

• Pomelo, the first financial technology platform to combine consumer credit and remittance transfer, raised a $70M seed round: $20M in venture capital and a $50M credit facility, from Keith Rabois, Kevin Hartz, and others (CO)

• Arine, a medication intelligence company, raised a $29M Series B led by 111° West Capital (FSMS)

• Fintech startup Super Payments raised ~$27M in a funding round led by Accel (TC)

• HyperTrack, a startup offering APIs for freight order planning and tracking, raised a $25M Series A led by Westbridge Capital (TC)

• BigPanda, a startup developing AI to audit changes in IT environments, raised a $20M Series E from UBS Next and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital (TC)

• Agora, a real estate investment management platform, raised a $20M Series A led by Insight Partners (PRN)

• Exponent Energy, a fast-charging EV startup, raised a $13M Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners (ET)

• QuotaBook, a South Korea-based equity management platform, raised an $11M Series A led by Elefund (TC)

• Highbeam, a neobank for e-commerce brands, raised a $7M seed round co-led by FirstMark and Mayfield (TC)

• IsoTalent, a global hiring marketplace, raised a $5M seed round co-led by Crocker Ventures and Ad Ventures (PRN)

• Venue, a video conferencing platform, raised a $4M seed round led by Accel (TC)

• MetaMorphoSys, a B2B SaaS insurtech startup, raised a $3M seed round led by Capital2B (ET)

• LiSA, a Berlin-based social shopping SaaS platform, raised a ~$2.7M seed round led by TechVision Fund (TEU)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• PAG, an Asia-focused PE firm with $50B AUM, may delay its planned Hong Kong IPO amid market volatility (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Drugmaker Endo International filed for chapter 11 protection as it struggles with $8B+ in debt and thousands of opioid-related lawsuits (WSJ)

Fundraising

• Global VC firm Shima Capital launched its debut Fund I and has raised $200M thus far to invest in early-stage blockchain companies (PRN)

• VC firm Stage 2 Capital raised a $150M Fund III to invest in early stage B2B software and marketplaces (PRN)

• VC firm Contrarian Ventures is targeting $100M for its second seed-stage fund to invest in climate tech (TC)

Crypto Corner

• Troubled crypto lender Celsius got court approval to sell mined Bitcoin to pay for operations (DC)

• Crypto broker Genesis slashed 20% of its workforce and will replace its CEO (CNBC)

• Crypto ads starring LeBron James and Matt Damon have vanished from TV (BBG)

Exec's Picks

• Bloomberg's Bailey Lipschultz wrote a banger piece on Chamath's crumbling SPAC empire. Catch his latest here.

• DeFi enables anyone to perform jobs that were previously reserved for banks, but investing in DeFi is complex. Exponential is fixing this through their multichain platform that makes it incredibly easy to find, assess, and invest in DeFi yield opportunities. Check out Exponential 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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