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Good Morning,

Tech firms are leading the charge with job layoffs, the amount of global negative-yielding bonds has been reduced to ~$0, the FTC proposed banning non-compete clauses in employment contracts, Canada banned foreigners from buying homes in the country, Citadel posted record revenues, Southwest is facing a $1B revenue hit, hackers stole the email addresses of 200M+ Twitter users, and Putin ordered a temporary ceasefire to observe Orthodox Christmas.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• All three major US indexes shed over 1% as strong jobs data reignited fears of a hawkish Fed 

• The dollar index soared 0.84% to a four-week high

Earnings

• Walgreens Boots Alliance fell 6.1% despite topping Q1 EPS and revenue estimates after its $5.2B opioid-related settlement resulted in a $3.7B unadjusted loss; they will also pause M&A activity and focus on their newer healthcare business (CNBC)

• Constellation Brands fell 9.7% after the alcohol-maker reported ongoing supply chain costs that offset Q3 sales growth in their core beer portfolio (CNBC)

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US private payrolls rose by 235k in December, more than the expected 153k (CNBC)

• Tech firms led US companies in December job cuts (RT)

• UK equity funds saw record $10B in outflows in 2022 (RT)

• Global negative-yielding debt wiped out by Japan policy shift (FT)

• Standard Chartered became the first foreign bank to trade bond futures in China (RT)

• FTC proposed a ban on non-compete clauses in employment contracts (BBG)

• Canada banned foreigners from buying homes in the country (BBC)

• Top 5% of HF managers are expected to take 90% of investor inflows in 2023 (RT)

• Citadel posted record revenues in its HF and securities businesses in 2022 (RT)

• BlackRock and M&G delayed withdrawals from UK property funds (RT)

• Mercedes will launch a global EV-charging network, starting in North America (RT)

• Southwest is facing a ~$1B revenue hit amid no-solution holiday debacle (RT)

• WhatsApp launched proxy support to enable usage where app is blocked (RT)

• Real estate broker Compass will cut jobs for a third time in a year (RT)

• Stitch Fix will cut 20% of salaried jobs, as CEO steps down (WSJ)

• New drugs approved by FDA in 2022 cost a median $222k (RT)

• Hackers leaked email addresses of over 200M Twitter users (RT)

• Macy's will close 4 stores in 2022 as part of three-year plan to close 1/5th of all stores (AX)

• Deutsche Bank named ex-Morgan Stanley exec Michael Heaney as chairman of US arm (RT)

• Putin ordered a 36-hour ceasefire to observe Orthodox Christmas (AX)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• PE firm Lone Star Funds is in talks to buy military contractor Titan Acquisition Holdings at a potential ~$2B valuation (BBG)

• Aerospace and defense company Raytheon is considering the sale of a unit that makes products, including flight controls, that could fetch ~$1B (BBG)

• The SEC objected to crypto exchange Binance.US’s plan to buy bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital in a potential $1B deal (RT)

• VC firms Thrive Capital and Founders Fund are in talks to buy up to $300M of existing shares from ChatGPT-creator OpenAI at a $29B valuation (WSJ)

• Memory chip maker Western Digital and Japanese peer Kioxia restarted potential merger talks (RT)

• Swiss cement maker Holcim will buy Chrono Chape, a French independent provider of on-site self-leveling screeds (RT)

VC

• HighTide, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on metabolic and digestive diseases, raised a $107M Series C/C+ led by the TCM Healthcare Fund of Guangdong (PRN)

• Gene editing company Metagenomi raised a $100M Series B extension led by Novo Holdings, Catalio Capital Management, and SymBiosis (BW)

• Ensoma, a genomic medicines company developing one-time treatments for complex diseases, raised $85M in funding led by Arix Bioscience and 5AM Ventures (BW)

• Ophirex, a biotech company developing a broad spectrum treatment for snakebites, raised a $37M Series B led by the AXA IM Prime Impact Master Fund I (BW)

• Perspectum, a medical imaging startup, raised a $36M Series C led by Oppenheimer (BW)

• Cardiac Dimensions, a developer of minimally invasive treatments for heart failure and related cardiovascular conditions, raised a $35M Series D led by Horizon 3 Healthcare and an undisclosed strategic investor (BW)

• Blues Wireless, an embedded connectivity startup, raised a $32M Series A-1 led by Positive Sum (PRN)

• Virtual care platform KeyCare raised a $27M Series A led by Ziegler and two additional health systems (PRN)

• Immune-Onc, a company developing cancer immunotherapies, raised a $25M Series B extension led by Triwise Capital (BW)

• Onc.AI, a medtech startup developing a digital clinical management system focused on immuno-oncology, raised a $25M Series A led by MassMutual and Action Potential Venture Capital (BW)

• AVS, a startup aiming to treat calcified peripheral arterial disease, raised a $20M Series B led by BioStar Capital (BW)

• Forj, a member experience platform, raised a $15M Series A led by Plymouth Growth (PRN)

• PreAct Technologies, a startup building near-field software-definable flash LiDAR tech, raised a $14M Series B led by I Squared Capital (PRN)

• Herself Health, a healthcare startup helping women aged 65+ receive primary care, raised a $7M seed round led by Juxtapose (PRN)

• Liberate, a platform enabling P&C insurers to fully automate claims and underwriting journeys, raised a $7M seed round led by Eclipse (BW)

• Profet AI, a Taiwanese developer of auto machine learning solutions, raised a $5.6M Series A led by Darwin Ventures (PRN)

• MSafe, a startup building a multi-sig wallet solution on the Aptos / Move ecosystem, raised a $5M seed round led by Jump Crypto (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Indonesian state fertilizer firm Pupuk Kaltim plans to raise $500M in a Jakarta IPO (RT)

• Johnson & Johnson submitted plans to spin off its consumer health business Kenvue in a US IPO (BBG)

Debt

• Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala and UAE-based conglomerate Alpha Dhabi plan to deploy up to $2.5B in credit markets through a new 80/20 JV (RT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Bed Bath & Beyond is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks (WSJ)

Fundraising

• Andros Capital Partners, an energy focused investment firm, raised a $750M second fund (BW)

• Churchill Asset Management raised $737M for its second junior capital opportunities fund which aims to invest in junior debt of private equity sponsor-backed US middle market companies (BW)

• Seaside EquityPartners, a lower middle market PE firm focused on the Western US, raised a $325M second fund (BW)

Crypto Corner

• New York sued Celsius Network founder Alex Mashinsky on fraud allegations (RT)

• FTX's former regulatory chief Daniel Friedberg cooperated with US prosecutors (RT)

• A US judge ruled that most customer deposits in Celsius Network are owned by the firm (RT)

• Silvergate Capital plunged 41% on a reported $8.1B drop in crypto deposits; the crypto-focused bank will also cut 40% of workforce (FT)

• Crypto lender Genesis cut 30% of its workforce in second layoff in six months and is considering bankruptcy (WSJ)

• Viral Solana-based memecoin bonk Is up 2,500% despite crypto collapse (FRB)

Exec's Picks

• This Bloomberg piece highlights how temporary Covid-price surges are reducing across the board.

• The House of Representatives is in a gridlock as Kevin McCarthy's speakership bid has now failed 11 times. The New York Times is tracking the story here.

• Want to invest in early-stage startups? The Litquidity Syndicate is accepting accredited investors to invest alongside us via SPVs. All you need to do is fill out this form to be considered.

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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