TikTok is Here to Stay

Author

Litquidity Capital
September 17, 2025

Together with

Good Morning,

US and China agreed to a TikTok deal, PE is pouring billions into failing firms, private markets exposure is rising at top pension funds, BlackRock named twenty members to its top executive committee, and Swiss National Bank has quietly become one of the world's biggest tech investors.

The same VCs who invested in eBay, Uber, and Venmo before they got big are now backing another up-and-comer: Pacaso. Founded by a former Zillow exec, Pacaso brings co-ownership to the $1.3T vacation home market. And you can invest in Pacaso as a private company today. Check out the offering.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 9/16/2025 market close.

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Markets

  • US stocks eased from ATHs yesterday as traders awaited a crucial Fed rate decision

  • MSCI all-country index hit an ATH ahead of major global central bank rate decisions

    • Europe's Stoxx 600 slid over 1% to a one-week low 

  • Gold's 40% YTD rally is its best in forty-five years

  • Dollar fell to a four-year low vs euro

Earnings

  • What we're watching this week:  

    • Today: General Mills, Cracker Barrel, Bullish

    • Thursday: FedEx, Darden Restaurants

  • Full calendar here

Prediction Markets

  • Wonder what the breakup fees looks like for the TikTok US deal.

  • Trade your predictions on a range of events, only on Kalshi. Sign up with code LIT and get a $20 bonus when you trade $100.

Headline Roundup

  • Switzerland's central bank is one of the world's biggest tech investors (FT)

  • US again extended TikTok sale deadline with deal terms in place (BBG)

  • US begins review of USMCA trade deal with Canada and Mexico (FT)

  • PE is pouring billions into troubled firms that fail (BBG)

  • Private markets exposure rises at top pension funds (BBG)

  • Europe's PE-owned staffing firms are getting squeezed (BBG)

  • Trump's SEC is tilting balance of power from investors to CEOs (FT)

  • Hedge funds asked SEC to ease short seller rule on public offerings (BBG)

  • US firms' euro bond sales hit a record $100B YTD (RT)

  • US retail sales rose for third-straight month (BBG)

  • BlackRock named 20 new members to global exec committee (FT)

  • Texas is investigating proxy advisers amid ESG backlash (RT)

  • Barclays is planning a $1B revamp of trading floors at its NYC HQ (BBG)

  • OpenAI hired xAI's ex-CFO Mike Liberatore (BBG)

  • Goldman and Morgan Stanley defeated Archegos insider trading appeals (RT)

  • Nestlé chair Paul Bulcke stepped down amid CEO turmoil (FT) 

  • US is seeking 12 years for Charlie Javice in JPMorgan fraud case (BBG)

  • Augusta National added Amazon Prime to broadcast 2026 Masters (BBG)

  • Trump sued New York Times for $15B (FT)

  • US mortgage rates dropped to a three-year low (CNBC)

  • NY indicted five RCI Hospitality execs in fraud and bribery scheme (CNBC)

A Message from Pacaso

Major investors bet big on this "unlisted" stock

When the former Zillow exec who sold his last company for $120M starts a new venture, people notice. Take some of the early investors in Uber, Venmo, and eBay. They're each investing in Pacaso.

Disrupting the real estate industry once again, Pacaso's streamlined platform offers co-ownership of premier properties, revamping the $1.3 trillion vacation home market.

And it works. By handing keys to 2,000+ happy homeowners, Pacaso has already made $110m+ in gross profits in less than 5 years. They even recently reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO & secured a $100M private credit facility. 

And you can join them as an investor for just $2.90/share. But there's no time to waste. 

This is a paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving the ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the Nasdaq is subject to approvals.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • A consortium of Oracle, VC firm a16z, and PE firm Silver Lake are in talks to acquire an 80% stake in TikTok US from Chinese-owner ByteDance under a US-China framework where the app will retain its Chinese algorithm

  • French telecoms tycoon Patrick Drahi is set to relaunch a sale of his 50.01% stake in French broadband network XpFibre at a potential $12B valuation with KKR, BlackRock's GIP, French PE firm Ardian, Australian infrastructure investor IFM, and Canada's La Caisse as interested parties

  • Abu Dhabi AI investment firm MGX joined PE firm Silver Lake's buyout group in acquiring a 51% stake in Intel's programmable chip business Altera for $8.75B

  • Japan's top power generator JERA is in advanced talks to acquire US natural gas production assets from a JV between Blackstone-backed GeoSouthern Energy and Williams Companies for $1.7B

  • Apollo is exploring a sale of internet pioneer AOL at a $1.5B valuation

  • HR software firm Workday agreed to acquire workplace AI firm Sana for $1.1B

  • Australia's Macquarie, Manila Electric Company and Stonepeak Partners are exploring a sale of telecoms tower firm PhilTower at a $1B valuation

  • File-sharing website LimeWire acquired infamous festival brand Fyre Festival for $250k 

  • Rithm Capital is nearing an acquisition of NYC and San Francisco office landlord Paramount Group

  • Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri is in talks to acquire some robotics and underwater assets from Italian O&G services firm Saipem ahead of its merger with Norway peer Subsea7

  • India's Jindal Steel submitted a non-binding offer to acquire German industrial engineering group Thyssenkrupp's European steel operations

VC

  • Robotics startup Figure AI raised a $1B Series C at a $39B post-money valuation led by Parkway Venture Capital

  • Smartphone startup Nothing raised a $200M Series C at a $1.3B valuation led by Tiger Global

  • Chestnut Carbon, a nature-based carbon removal developer, raised a $90M Series B extension from Canada's CPPIB

  • SEON, an AI platform to prevent fraud and money laundering, raised an $80M Series C led by Sixth Street Growth

  • CodeRabbit, an AI code review platform, raised a $60M Series B led by Scale Venture Partners

  • Energy management solutions startup ENTOUCH raised a $50M round led by Respida Capital

  • PayNearMe, a payment experience management fintech, raised a $50M Series E from AVP

  • Conceivable Life Sciences, an AI-powered IVF lab, raised a $50M Series A led by Advance Venture Partners

  • Modern Animal, a veterinary startup reimagining pet care, raised $46M in funding led by Addition, True Ventures, and Upfront Ventures

  • WorkFusion, a startup using AI agents to help financial compliance, raised $45M in funding led by Georgian

  • AI-native restaurant management platform Nory raised a $37M Series B led by Kinnevik

  • Virtual fencing agritech Nofence raised a $35M Series B led by European Circular Bioeconomy Fund

  • DRUID AI, a Romanian AI 'agentic' platform, raised a $31M Series C led by Cipio Partners

  • Battery storage startup Sympower raised a $22.5M Series B-1 led by PGGM

  • Fourth Power, a startup building thermal batteries for energy storage, raised a $20M Series A+ led by Munich Re Ventures

  • Spara, a startup combining voice, chat, and email into a single platform, raised a $15M seed round led by Radical Ventures and Inspired Capitalt

  • Metalbear, a startup allowing developers to run local code in cloud environments, raised a $12.5M seed round led by TLV Partners

  • Nutrium, an all-in-one corporate nutrition solution, raised a $12M Series A led by Vesalius Biocapital

  • Noble Mobile, a mobile virtual network operator that resells wireless service, raised a $10.3M seed round led by Corazon Capital

  • Plumerai, a UK startup developing AI solutions for cameras, raised an $8.7M Series A led by Partech and OTB Ventures

  • AI-powered crypto wallet Senpi raised a $4M seed round led by Lemniscap and Coinbase Ventures

  • LatAm data and AI consultancy Indicium raised a minority investment from Databricks Ventures

IPOs / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Malaysia's MMC Port Holdings is in talks to raise $2B at a $7B valuation in what could be Malaysia's biggestIPO since 2012

  • China's Chery Automobile is seeking to raise $1.2B in a Hong Kong IPO

  • China's medical devices giant Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics picked banks for a $1B Hong Kong listing

  • Cybersecurity firm Netskope raised its IPO offering to $908M at a $7.3B valuation

  • Indonesian gold miner Merdeka Gold Resources is seeking to raise $284M in what could be Indonesia's largest IPO this year

  • Carlyle-backed Japanese beer maker Orion Breweries is set to raise $183M in an IPO priced at the top of the range

  • Fertilizer producer Oman India Fertilizer begun preparing for an Oman IPO

SPAC / SPV

  • AI cloud infrastructure firm Boost Run agreed to merge with Willow Lane Acquisition Corp. at a $614M valuation

Debt 

  • Chemicals giant DuPont plans to buy back $2.16B of debt with its bond exchange

  • Honeywell's specialty materials business Solstice raised $2B in high yield debt ahead of its spinoff

  • Chinese tech giant Tencent raised $1.3B in its first Dim Sum bond sale in four years

  • German auto parts maker ZF Friedrichschafen upsized its bond sale to $1.25B

  • HPS Investment Partners and Blue Owl Capital are providing $1.2B in private credit to support GTCR's $2.5B acquisition of residential security company SimpliSafe from H&F

  • JPMorgan and Nomura led a $588M debt financing package for Canada's OTPP's $1.2B acquisition of Spanish dental provider Donte Group

  • SoftBank-backed rewards startup Fetch raised its private credit facility with Morgan Stanley to $110M

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

  • US International Development Finance Corp. is in talks with Orion Resource Partners to establish a $5B JV fund  to invest in mining and critical minerals

  • Creditors in a US court began examining experts, advisers, and an Elliott exec as its Elliott-affiliate Amber Energy leads bidding at $5.9B for Citgo Petroleum's parent

  • Liquidators of collapsed Chinese developer Evergrande were appointed to identify and preserve assets of founder Hui Ka Yan

Fundraising / Secondaries

  • A Hong Kong real estate industry group is urging Hong Kong to set up a $2.5B distressed properties fund to help prevent systemic financial risks

  • UK private credit firm Pemberton raised $1.7B for a debut NAV fund 

  • Greece's new innovation and infrastructure fund is seeking to invest $1.2B over next four years

  • Aspire11, an investment platform for pension fund LPs, launched a $593M debut Europe-focused VC fund

  • Abu Dhabi AI investment firm MGX is looking to raise a debut fund with minimum $500M commitments

  • European PE firm EQT launched a new private markets fund for retail investors

Crypto Sum Snapshot

  • US-UAE mega investment deal involved crypto riches for Trump family

  • UK crypto market maker LMAX will offer 100x-leveraged crypto bets for institutions

  • DeFi firm Centrifuge tokenized Apollo's private credit fund

  • Santander’s online bank Openbank started offering retail crypto trading

Subscribe to our dedicated Crypto Sum newsletter for the most important stories on everything crypto.

Exec’s Picks

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