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Nvidia is worth more than Amazon, Temu spent millions on their Super Bowl ads, disinflation is kicking in, X wants to lure more creators to the platform with different ad payouts, Arm’s stock rally keeps going, and Franklin Templeton filed a spot ethereum ETF.

Want to keep up with the biggest stories in finance and tech? Check out and subscribe to The Information.

Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks closed mixed, with the Dow hitting a new high, as investors awaited fresh CPI data and digested corporate earnings

  • The Dow rose 0.33%, while the Nasdaq fell 0.3%

• European stocks rose ahead of Tuesday’s US inflation data

• Bitcoin prices reached $50,000 for the first time since 2021 thanks to ETF demand

  • Bitcoin is poised for its seventh straight daily gain, its longest streak since January 2023

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Airbnb, Shopify, Coca-Cola, Datadog

  • Wednesday: Sony, Cisco Systems, Kraft Heinz

  • Thursday: Coinbase, DraftKings, John Deere, Applied Materials

  • Friday: Cinemark

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US CPI data to show disinflation handoff from goods and services (BBG)

• Nvidia overtakes Amazon in market value (BBG)

• X hopes to lure creators, take on YouTube with new ad targeting (BBG)

• Great inflation hedge unwind sees TIPS ETFs lose $43B (BBG)

• Microsoft’s AI growth is helping its cloud business weaken Amazon’s lead (CNBC)

• Raising trillions of dollars might be the easy part of Altman’s chip plan (WSJ)

• Bolt, once worth $11B, slashes share price 97% in buyback (TI)

• Arm holdings extends blistering rally in wake of earnings (BBG)

• US shale production growth seen sputtering after last year’s boom (BBG)

• Spirit Airlines uncertainty has some pilots dusting off their resumes (RT)

• Cash-flush buyers dip into distressed commercial real estate (WSJ)

• JetBlue resets with new CEO, industry veterans to run airline on time, and profitably (CNBC)

• Temu spent millions on six Super Bowl ads is it tries to win back US shoppers (BBG)

• Jeff Bezos will save over $600M in taxes by moving to Miami (CNBC)

• AI is starting to threaten white-collar jobs, few industries are immune (WSJ)

A Message From The Information

Every single day we are bombarded with hundreds of stories across tech and finance, and it’s tough to separate the signal from the noise. My favorite source to cut through the noise is The Information.

In just the last week, reporters from The Information broke news on how Amazon is coping with Temu, Disney’s latest investment in Epic Games, and Bolt’s 97% valuation drop.

The Information consistently publishes exclusive, quality content that can’t be found anywhere else, and Exec Sum readers can start reading The Information by clicking below:

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Diamondback Energy agreed to acquire Permian rival Endeavor Energy Resources in a cash-and-stock $26B deal (FT) 

• US drugmaker Gilead Sciences agreed to purchase liver disease treatment developer CymaBay Therapeutics for $4.3B (RT) 

• Dutch insurer Achmea is weighing the sale of its life insurance division, which could yield $3.2B (RT) 

• PE firm EQT is exploring a sale of Spanish property website Idealista, which could be valued at ~$2.7B in a sale, including debt (RT)  

• Building material supplier Martin Marietta will acquire 20 active aggregates operations of Blue Water Industries for ~$2.1B cash (RT) 

• ​​Believe’s founder Denis Ladegaillerie, investment firm TCV, and PE firm EQT partnered for a take-private offer for Believe that values the French record label at $1.6B (BBG) 

• Warehouse owner Tritax Big Box agreed to acquire smaller-rival UK Commercial Property Reit in a $1.2B all-share merger to create the UK’s fourth-largest listed landlord (FT) 

• KAP is considering a sale of the logistics operations of its Unitrans unit and is seeking as much as $317M (BBG) 

• Singaporean e-commerce company Qoo10 will acquire the assets and liabilities of ContextLogic, including discount online retailer Wish, for $173M (BBG)

• Malaysia’s biggest port operator, Westports Holdings, is considering external strategic investors to help fund an $8.3B expansion (BBG) 

• Blackstone plans to merge a pair of warehouse landlords it owns, St Modwen and Industrials REIT, to create Indurent, which will be one of the UK’s largest owners of industrial property (BBG)

VC

• Bugcrowd, a startup that helps organizations run bug bounty programs, raised a $102M round led by General Catalyst (TC)

• Immunodermatology-focused company Alys Pharmaceuticals raised a $100M round led by Medicxi (FN)

• Nucleus Security, a developer of a risk-based vulnerability management platform, raised a $43M Series B led by Arthur Ventures and Lead Edge Capital (PRN)

• Leolabs, a startup that helps the US track space junk and adversarial satellite launches, raised a $29M Series B extension led by GP Bullhound (TC)

• Jow, a French startup providing a grocery shopping and menu recommendation app, raised $13M in funding from Northzone and Eurazeo (FN)

• AI waste analytics startup Greyparrot raised a $12.8M round led by Bollegraaf (FN)

• AI and cybersecurity startup Reken raised a $10M seed round led by Greycroft and FPV Ventures (FN)

• Artificial Labs, an algorithmic underwriting insurtech company, raised an $8M Series A+ led by Augmentum Fintech (FN)

• MediConCen, a Hong Kong-based insurtech startup automating insurance claims using AI and blockchain, raised a $6.9M Series A led by HSBC Asset Management (FN)

• Motif Analytics, a startup specializing in sequence analytics for growth teams, raised a $5.7M seed round led by Felicis and Amplify Partners (TC)

• BRIJ Medical, a startup building an incision and scar management system, raised a $5.5M round led by Vidant Capital (VC)

• Kenyan healthtech startup Ilara Health raised a $4.2M pre-Series A round: a $2.5M equity round led by DOB Equity and $1.7M in debt from Kiva Capital, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Alphamundi (TC)

• Khyaal, an Indian app for senior citizens, raised a $4.2M seed round led by 62Ventures, SVQuad, and Inventus Capital (PRN)

• Travel planning and booking startup Nicer raised a $2M pre-seed round led by Trip Ventures (FN)

• Prosal, a provider of a Request for Proposals (RFPs) platform for agencies, raised a $1.6M seed round led by Fusen Fund (FN)

• Swirl, a live shopping mobile SaaS platform provider, raised a $1.1M seed round led by Shastra VC (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• MTS Bank, the fintech unit of Russia's largest mobile operator MTS, is planning a spring IPO that could raise up to $165M (RT)

• FrontView REIT, a landlord that targets what it calls “e-commerce resistant” tenants is discussing an IPO for as soon as this year (BBG) 

• SoftBank-backed Indian edtech firm Eruditus is planning to shift its domicile from Singapore to India for a stock market listing (RT)

Debt

• Sixth Street Partners is leading a group of private credit lenders providing $2B of debt for the buyout of software developer Alteryx by Clearlake Capital and Insight Partners (BBG) 

• Canadian telecom BCE raised ~$1.5B from the US bond market to refinance debt (BBG) 

• Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings is negotiating with bankers to refinance ~$1.4B of near-term liabilities (BBG) 

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Apparel retailer Express is preparing a debt restructuring for ~$280M of debt that could involve a bankruptcy filing within weeks (WSJ)

Crypto Corner

• Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund made a $200M investment in crypto before the latest bull run (RT)

• Investment firm Franklin Templeton filed for a spot ethereum ETF (RT)

• Spot bitcoin ETFs saw $1.1B of inflows last week (TB)

Exec’s Picks

• Intelligencer published a detailed profile on Bill Ackman, covering his fight against Harvard.

• Byrne Hobart explained why the threat of an AI-centric disinformation campaign is probably overhyped.

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