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Good Morning,

Spotify cut 17% of its staff, OpenAI rival Mistral is close to raising ~$500M, US Bank is issuing $2.5B of auto credit-linked notes, the US leads a coalition to triple nuclear power by 2050, Birkenstock topped its IPO price, Virgin Galactic shares plunged on news that Branson would not invest more, and Starbucks shares are headed for a record losing streak.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks pulled back across the board after five straight winning weeks 

  • The Nasdaq led indices with a 0.84% decline

• Gold prices hit an all-time high before falling midday 

• Bitcoin prices briefly surpassed $42,000 to reach a 20-month high

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: Nio, AutoZone, MongoDB, SentinelOne

  • Wednesday: C3.ai, GameStop, Chewy

  • Thursday: Broadcom, Lululemon, Dollar General, DocuSign

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Birkenstock finally tops IPO price while other entrants struggle (BBG)

• Spotify to lay off 17% of staff, its third round of job cuts this year (WSJ)

• US Bank plans to issue $2.5B of auto credit-linked notes (BBG)

• US leads coalition to triple nuclear power by 2050 in effort to address climate change (CNBC)

• Exxon focuses on oil output in Guyana border dispute, CEO says (BBG)

• Alaska-Hawaiian merger faces a Justice Department that has been skeptical of airline deals (CNBC)

• Supreme Court weighs Purdue Pharma’s $6B opioid settlement (WSJ)

• Virgin Galactic shares plunge after Branson rules out further investment (CNBC)

• Panama chaos grows as US diesel shippers bypass canal (BBG)

• Swiss bank Banque Pictet admits hiding $5.6B of Americans’ money from IRS (CNBC)

• Carbon trading opens loophole in Paris climate accord (WSJ)

• Starbucks shares head for record losing streak as sales concerns build (BBG)

• 23andMe says health data was included in hack that compromised 6.9M users (BBG)

• Gen Z women spend more on TikTok as app ‘drives consumption,’ analyst says (CNBC)

• India’s garbage pile is climbing. The solution is equally messy (BBG)

• Israel to back its technology industry through war, agency heads says (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Origin Energy rejected a $12.8B Brookfield Asset Management-led takeover after only 69% of investors supported the deal, below the 75% threshold (BBG) 

• The Premier League sold four years of UK broadcast rights for $8.4B, mostly to its biggest existing partners Sky Sports and TNT Sports (BBG) 

• Call center software provider Five9, which has a market cap of $6.2B, is exploring a potential sale (BBG) 

• Roche Holding agreed to pay as much as $3.1B for Carmot Therapeutics, a developer of the new type of weight-loss treatments that have taken the market by storm (BBG)

• Blackstone is exploring a sale of Anthos Therapeutics, a developer of a new generation of blood thinners, which could be worth several billion dollars in a potential sale (RT) 

• Saudi Arabia's PIF sovereign wealth fund will buy a 49% stake in luxury hotel group Rocco Forte Hotels at a $1.8B EV (RT) 

• The Barclay family regained control of UK’s Telegraph newspaper on Monday after Abu Dhabi-backed RedBird IMI helped repay its $1.5B debt to Lloyds Bank; the British government is investigating whether the takeover would impact freedom of speech (RT) 

• Qatar Holding is looking to sell around $644M worth of shares in Barclays (RT) 

• Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC is in talks to invest in Atlas SP Partners, the securitization business that Apollo Global Management bought from Credit Suisse(BBG)

VC

• energyRe, an independent US clean energy developer, raised $1.2B in financing led by Glentra Capital with participation from Novo Holdings and Denmark’s PKA (FN)

• GPU cloud provider CoreWeave closed a $642M minority investment led by Fidelity (FN)

• OpenAI rival Mistral is in the final stages of raising $487M in an investing round led by a16z, with participation from Nvidia, Salesforce, and others (BBG)

• Seismic Therapeutic, a machine learning immunology company, raised a $121M Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners (BW)

• mylight150, a French cleantech startup focused on energy transition, raised a $108.3M round from Eiffel Investment Group, Azora Capital, and Andera Partners (FN)

• AssemblyAI, a startup building and serving AI speech models, raised a $50M round led by Accel (TC)

• Nth Cycle, a Boston-based critical metals refining company, raised a $44M Series B led by VoLo Earth Ventures and a $7M non-dilutive round led by MassMutual, MM Catalyst Fund I, Caterpillar Venture Capital, and Equinor Ventures (FN)

• Houston-based medtech startup EndoQuest Robotics raised a $42M C-1 round led by CE Ventures and McNair Interests (FN)

• ArmorCode, a cybersecurity platform that gathers vulnerability data from connected apps and software infrastructure, raised a $40M Series B led by HighlandX (TC)

• AM Batteries, a lithium-ion battery startup, raised a $30M Series B led by Toyota Ventures (PRN)

• Wakeo, a startup providing a SaaS platform to bring real-time visibility on intercontinental multimodal freight transport flows, raised a $19.5M round led by Statkraft Ventures (EU)

• Atomic Industries, a startup automating tool and die manufacturing, raised a $17M seed round led by Narya (TC)

• Enterprise generative AI startup Rohirrim raised a $15M Series A led by Insight Partners (BW)

• Gravel, an Indonesian construction platform, raised $14M in funding from NEA (TC)

• January, a fintech company helping Americans get out of debt, raised a $12M Series B led by IA Ventures (BW)

• Cytonus, a biotechnology startup focused on discovering and advancing novel medicines enabled by its proprietary Cargocyte drug delivery platform, raised an $11.7M Series A led by Partners Investment (FN)

• Chicago biotech startup Clever Carnivore raised a $7M seed round led by Lever VC (BW)

• Palo Alto-based Chat AI platform Chai received an undisclosed investment from CoreWeave, placing the company at a $450M valuation (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• US energy firm Southwest Gas Holdings plans to separate its utility infrastructure services business Centuri through an IPO next year (RT) 

• Italian stationery maker FILA’s Indian unit DOMS Industries filed an IPO prospectus; its offering will open on December 13 (RT)

Debt

• GM will raise $3B through a two-part bond sale after signing a term loan agreement last week (BBG) 

• The US International Development Finance is weighing a $500M loan to EV maker VinFast Auto to build a lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in Vietnam (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Canadian real estate developer and manager Groupe Mach will acquire ~2,000 residential units as part of a deal to take over $415M of mortgages from Groupe Huot, a Quebec-based diversified company facing a liquidity crisis (BBG) 

Fundraising

• Brad Jacobs, the billionaire who founded XPO Logistics, is creating a public company designed for multiple acquisitions and funded with $1B, mostly from Jacobs himself (BBG) 

• VC Intuitive Ventures raised $150M for its second healthcare startup fund, which will invest in early-stage medical startups across a variety of fields (FN)

Crypto Corner

• Pando Asset, a digital asset management firm based in Switzerland, became the 13th filer for a spot bitcoin ETF (RT) 

• The IRS’s crime unit is seeing a surge in cases involving crypto-related tax evasion (BBG)

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• More and more VC firms are running out of time, while still holding on to their investments, according to the Financial Times.

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