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Good Morning (and Happy Valentine's Day),

A football game (and 20 crypto commercials) were played yesterday, the Pentagon told US troops to leave Ukraine, Oil keeps on climbing, BlockFi paid $100M to the SEC, the Canadian border protest continues, Cisco wants to buy Splunk, the US is paying Eli Lilly $720M for covid treatments, and a CryptoPunk sold for $24M.

The Monday after the Super Bowl should 100% be a national holiday, nobody's getting anything done at 8 AM today.

Also, yesterday I wrote about how one of my portfolio companies, BallStreet, is changing the game in the sports betting world. Check out BallStreet: Money Never Sleeps.

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

• Major indexes lost momentum on Friday, all losing at least 1.4% on the day as a hot CPI reading on Thursday and major geopolitical news on Friday added to volatility in the markets

• Oil prices jumped Friday as the White House warned that Russia could invade Ukraine during the Olympics

• Monetary policy continues to be a major theme in the markets as investors await potential rate hikes

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week: 

  • Tues: Roblox, Airbnb

  • Weds: Shopify, Nvidia

  • Thurs: Palantir, Walmart

  • Fri: DraftKings

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Rams beat Bengals to win the Super Bowl (WSJ)

• Pentagon orders departure of US troops from Ukraine (CNBC)

• Canada police, protest deadlocked at border bridge (CNBC)

• Russian invasion peril pushes oil prices near $100 (WSJ)

• Saudi Arabia moves $80B Aramco stake to wealth fund (BBG)

• Legion is said to prepare board fight at SurveyMonkey parent (BBG)

• US agrees to pay Lilly $720M for new covid treatment (BBG)

• Takeaway.com CEO: US delisting does not indicate plan to sell Grubhub (RT)

• Baseball’s spring training will be delayed as labor talks stall (WSJ)

• NYC’s Adams endorses James for re-election as attorney general (BBG)

• Crypto lender BlockFi to pay $100M in settlement with SEC (​​BBG)

• FDA's plan to fast-track Pfizer vaccine for kids under 5 fails to deliver, leaving parents waiting until April (CNBC)

A Message From LEX

INFLATION AND INTEREST RATES AND COVID AND WORLD WAR 3!

There are a million headlines making the stock market unpredictable, and you need somewhere to diversify your money.

Commercial real estate is your answer. That’s why we're excited about LEX. 

Truth is, the best deals in real estate are hard to find, unless you traded $GME and DOGE all the way to accreditation (you’re my hero) and now you have access. Even then, you’ve got scarce deals, crowdfunding, or REITs to pick from…until LEX. 

LEX IPOs buildings so you can get in the game. 

By taking buildings public, LEX has created a way for you to invest in marquee commercial real estate. Build a portfolio by picking the buildings you want to invest in. Each building gets a ticker and trades like your other stocks.

The best part?

As a shareholder, you get paid dividends flowing from the rent paid by the tenants. You also earn tax advantaged passive income and trade without lockups.

Check out LEX’s live assets in New York City and upcoming IPO in Seattle. 

Sign up for free and get a $50 bonus when you deposit at least $500.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Network gear maker Cisco Systems made a $20B+ offer for software company Splunk (RT)

• A unit of Shell offered to buy the rest of its pipeline affiliate, Shell Midstream Partners, for ~$1.6B (BBG)

• North American energy explorer ConocoPhillips is considering a sale of $1B+ of assets in the Permian Basin (BBG)

• Waldorf Production is in exclusive talks to buy the assets of Dutch oil and gas company ONE-Dyas in a potential $1B+ deal (BBG)

• Ullico’s infrastructure fund agreed to buy Dominion Energy’s West Virginia natural gas utility for $690M (BBG)

• US media executive Paul Conway said he’s looking to buy a minority stake in a football club with an enterprise value of $250-$500M in one of Europe’s top five leagues (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, or France) (BBG)

• Spanish banking group Banco de Sabadell is exploring a sale of its payments business that could fetch $285M+ (BBG)

• Insurer Allianz agreed to buy Greek insurer European Reliance for $235M (RT)

• Centerbridge Partners agreed to buy a 25% stake in theme park operator Cedar Fair, who is facing takeover interests from rival SeaWorld Entertainment (BBG)

• Shares of Spain’s largest natural gas distributor, Naturgy, fell after the company announced plans to split into two listed companies, separating the infrastructure business from its energy operations (BBG)

VC

• UK digital lender Starling Bank is weighing plans to raise funding at a potential ~$3.4B valuation (BBG)

• Retail beauty brand HARMAY raised a combined $200M in a Series C and D, with the Series C being led by General Atlantic and D by QY Capital (BW)

• Northspyre, a financial tracking and project delivery automation platform for real estate developers, raised a $25M Series B led by CRV (BW)

• App based mental health startup Atommerce raised a $16.7M Series B led by Hashed (TC)

• AgotAI, a startup using computer vision to confirm order accuracy for the ‘quick service restaurant’ industry raised $12M in funding from Conti Ventures, the KitchenFund, GritVentures and Yum!Brands (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• India plans to sell a 5% stake in the IPO of state-run Life Insurance Corporation of India in what’s set to be the country’s largest sale (​​BBG)

• Malaysian dairy producer Farm Fresh has attracted ~30 cornerstone investors including Aberdeen Standard and AIA in a planned IPO that is expected to raise ~$239M (BBG)

SPAC

• Maritime Launch Services, a Canadian startup that owns a spaceport for commercial rocket launches, is in talks to merge with Ceres Acquisition Corp. in a potential $530M deal (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• US Treasury reiterates that the IRS won't consider crypto miners, stakers or coders to be brokers (TBC)

• CoinBase's 'free bitcoin' Super Bowl ad causes site to briefly crash (Decrypt)

• CryptoPunk NFT sells for nearly $24M, doubling previous record price (Decrypt)

Exec's Picks

• FranShares - where anyone can earn passive income, diversify their portfolio, and hedge against inflation through franchise investing with target returns of 16.00% - 21.86%. More than 9,000 investors are already on the waitlist. Don’t miss your chance to get in on this investment opportunity – join the waitlist and secure your spot today!

• Last week, you probably heard about the $4.5B Bitcoin heist. Trung Phan broke down everything that you need to know about this crazy story. Check out his piece.

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've got 40+ jobs spanning IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

Meme Cleanser

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