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Good Morning,

Amazon abandoned its iRobot acquisition due to regulatory issues, Senator Warren wants J Pow to cut rates, Musk’s Neuralink just completed its first brain tech implant, Tencent says its gaming business is under threat, Ark is buying Tesla stock, and Toyota was the world’s best-selling automaker in 2023.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks rose and the S&P closed at a fresh high ahead of this week’s big tech earnings and the Fed’s rate decision

  • The Nasdaq led indices with a 1.12% gain

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Microsoft, Alphabet, AMD, Starbucks, GM, UPS, JetBlue

  • Wednesday: Qualcomm, Boeing, Novo Nordisk

  • Thursday: Apple, Amazon, Meta, Royal Caribbean, Altria

  • Friday: Exxon, Chevron, Bristol Myers Squibb, AbbVie, Cigna

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Oil steady as market waits for US response to deadly attack (BBG)

• Senator Elizabeth Warren pushes Fed Chair Powell to cut ‘astronomical’ rates, ease housing pressure (CNBC)

• Bank mergers face tougher, slower process under OCC proposal (BBG)

• Amazon is now charging prime members extra for ad-free streaming (WSJ)

• Elon Musk’s Neuralink implants brain tech in human patient for the first time (CNBC)

• Top Goldman Sachs executive to depart (WSJ)

• Tencent chief says gaming business under threat, catching up in AI (RT)

• Singapore says it got $9.5B in investment pledges in 2023 (BBG)

• JPMorgan’s Kolanovic sees tech earnings testing rich valuations (BBG)

• NASCAR president talks new streaming deal, says Amazon is ‘here to stay’ in sports (CNBC)

• Cathie Wood buys Tesla stock as stock tumbles 25% this year (BBG)

• Treasury cuts quarterly borrowing estimate to $760B (BBG)

• Toyota keeps crown as world’s top-selling automaker in 2023 (RT)

• FanDuel parent Flutter plans to move primary listing from London to the NYSE (RT)

• Netflix co-founder gives $1.1B in shares to Silicon Valley Charity favored by billionaires (WSJ)

• Inflation in UK shops drops to lowest rate in more than a year (BBG)

• Alaska Airlines plane appears to have left Boeing factory without critical bolts (WSJ)

• Japan job market remains tight, keeping hopes for wage hikes (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Sony Group scrapped the $10B merger of its Indian arm with Zee Entertainment because Zee failed to meet some financial terms of the deal (RT) 

• Space solutions company WillScot Mobile Mini Holdings will acquire McGrath RentCorp, which rents and sells modular offices, in a $3.8B deal (BBG) 

• The PGA Tour is close to finalizing a $3B investment from US consortium Strategic Sports Group, which may value PGA Tour Enterprises at ~$12B (BBG) 

• Travel and leisure investor KSL Capital Partners closed a single-asset continuation vehicle for its hospitality company Alterra Mountain Company at over $3B (PRNW)

• PE firm Advent International is considering options, including a potential sale, for its British parcel delivery service Evri, which could be valued at ~$2.6B, including debt (RT) 

• Irish aircraft leasing company SMBC Aviation Capital and Canadian pension fund manager CDPQ will create a $1.5B aircraft financing and leasing firm (RT) 

• Amazon abandoned its $1.4B acquisition of Roomba maker iRobot due to regulatory issues (BBG) 

• Chinese medical device company Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics planned a $927M deal to gain control of APT Medical to expand in cardiovascular disease-related businesses (RT) 

• Brynwood Partners, the PE owner of Hometown Food Company, is exploring a sale that could value the maker of Pillsbury's shelf-stable baking products at ~$800M (RT) 

• French billionaire Xavier Niel agreed to acquire Turkish telecom Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri’s Ukrainian arm for at least $500M (BBG)

VC

• Transmutex, a Swiss nuclear engineering company, raised a ~$22M Series A extension led by Union Square Ventures and Steel Atlas (FN)

• Carbon credit insurance startup CarbonPool raised a $12M round led by Heartcore Capital and Vorwerk Ventures (FN)

• Compensation market data provider Compa raised a $10M Series A led by Storm Ventures (TC)

• Hatch Africa, a poultry supplier targeting underserved rural households across Africa, raised a $9.5M round from AgDevCo and IDH Farmfit Fund (FN)

• Carcinotech, an Edinburgh-based 3D printed micro-tumour manufacturer, raised a $5.3M round led by Eos Advisory (FN)

• Akirolabs, a Berlin-based procuretech startup, raised a $5M seed round from HTGF, OTB Ventures, D11Z Ventures, and Serpentine Ventures (EU)

• Coxwave, a provider of an analytics infrastructure for builders to create AI-native products, raised $3.5M in funding from KB Investment, Danal, and Seoul Techno Holdings (FN)

• Wondercraft, a London-based AI audio content company, raised a $3M seed round led by Will Ventures (FN)

• Chipmetrics, an atomic layer deposition technology company, raised a $2.6M seed round led by High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) and OCCIDENT (FN)

• Yume, a startup helping manufacturers turn potential food waste into money, raised a $1.3M seed round led by Investible’s Climate Tech Fund (TC)

• Mobile GIS Services, a UK-based provider of geospital software for utility companies, raised ~$783K in funding from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• French automaker Renault scrapped plans to IPO its EV business Ampere, which it said could be worth up to $10.8B, due to sluggish market conditions (RT)  

• American Healthcare REIT is seeking to raise $840M in its US IPO (RT) 

• Kazakhstan's Air Astana is seeking a $770M-$962M valuation through its joint stock exchange listings in the UK and its home market (RT) 

• Obesity and diabetes drug developer Fractyl Health is seeking a $762M market value in its US IPO (RT) 

• Insurer Fortegra Group, which is backed by PE firm Warburg Pincus, is seeking to raise up to $324M at a $1.5B valuation for its US IPO (RT) 

• Britannica Group, the company behind Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Merriam-Webster dictionary, confidentially filed for a US IPO (RT) 

• Personal computer maker Raspberry Pi is in the early stages of preparing for a London IPO (BBG)

Debt

• Bank of China plans to sell up to $21B of loss-absorbing bonds to comply with global capital requirements (RT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• A Hong Kong court ordered the liquidation of property giant China Evergrande Group, which has over $300B of total liabilities (RT) 

• The troubled European Signa holding company is facing insolvency claims totaling $9.3B (RT)

• Brazilian airline Gol received bankruptcy court approval to borrow the first $350M of its bankruptcy financing (RT) 

• Department store operator KaDeWe Group filed for insolvency to escape the high rents it pays to troubled landlord Signa (BBG)

Fundraising

• Asset manager GLP Capital Partners raised $1.4B for its China Income Fund XII, which will own Chinese logistics and business parks (RT) 

Crypto Corner

• Invesco and Galaxy Asset Management cut their spot Bitcoin ETF expense ratio from 0.39% to 0.25% (BBG) 

• Global crypto funds saw ~$500M in outflows last week (BBG)

Exec’s Picks

• Byrne Hobart wrote about the reality of being “not-a-tech company” in a world full of “tech companies.”

• Corry Wang resurfaced an internal memo published by Microsoft’s Nathan Myhrvold in the 90s with some wildly accurate predictions about industries that would be disrupted by the internet.

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