Together with

Good Morning,

Epic weekend at SXSW. Kicked it with Doing Things Media, Friday Beers, and hundreds of others in Austin. Nursing a fat hangover rn.

Tom Brady is back after a brief two month retirement, France might nationalize one of its biggest energy producers, Russian missiles hit a Ukrainian military base near the Polish border, Uber adds new fees to account for rising fuel costs, and Friday Beers raised a seed round.

Mark your calendars for this Friday at 8 PM EST, as we cohost a Twitter spaces event with CoinFLEX, our sponsor for the BSD podcast! We'll discuss our partnership with CoinFLEX, their US launch, and will be giving out prizes. Follow @CoinFLEX_US on Twitter so you don't miss this event. 🤝

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

• The Dow closed down 2% last week for its fifth consecutive week in the red, as the Nasdaq and S&P dropped 3.5% and 2.9%, respectively

• Investors will continue watching both the Russia-Ukraine war and fallout from continued economic sanctions 

• The Federal Reserve is expected to raise its target fed funds rate by a quarter basis point at the end of its two-day meeting on Wednesday, so investors will be watching closely and listening in on clues about the economy and inflation

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week:

  • Wed: Williams Sonoma

  • Thurs: Accenture, GameStop, FedEx, Warby Parker 

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Tom Brady announces that he is returning to play for the Bucs in 2022 (Tom Brady)

• Qatar’s foreign minister to visit Moscow over Iran, Ukraine (BBG)

• France weighs fresh move to nationalize $30B power giant EDF (BBG)

• Russian energy company’s $222M London office sale unravels (BBG)

• Premier League bars Chelsea’s Abramovich as buyers encircle (BBG)

• Russian missiles strike Ukrainian military training base near Polish border (WSJ)

• US won’t negotiate Ukraine-related sanctions with Russia to save Iran nuclear deal (WSJ)

• Uber imposes new customer fees to offset gas prices (WSJ)

• China leads the way with private 5G networks at industrial factories (WSJ)

• US, China aides to meet as tensions mount over Russia (AP)

• Puff Bar, other e-cigarette makers to get more scrutiny under spending bill (BBG)

A Message From Ledger

Are Your Apes Running Wild?

Picture this: You just bought Bored Ape #1289 – you know, the one with the gold teeth and the captain’s hat, iconic – when suddenly, your combo of clumsy fingers and tiny screen come together to accidentally send it off to parts unknown. 

There goes $500,000 down the drain. Whoopsie!

Okay, so that scenario is a bit dramatic. But when you’re dealing with assets worth a cool half a mil, it pays to be careful – and that’s where the new Ledger Nano S Plus comes into play.

This upgraded version of the world’s most popular digital wallet works overtime to give you everything you need to manage your crypto, NFTs, and tokens. 

• More memory lets you handle over 5,500 digital assets and have over 100 apps installed simultaneously

• Larger screen enables a smoother user experience and makes it easier to navigate and verify transactions

• The Nano S Plus ensures the same level of security than the other Ledger devices and keeps your coins & NFTs offline and protected

• Send and sign your NFT transactions with full transparency in Ledger Live: what you see is what you sign

Say it with us: I will spare no cost when it comes to securing my crypto, NFTs, and tokens because I don’t want to move into mom’s basement. Again.

Pick up the Ledger Nano S Plus right here.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Discovery shareholders approve $43B merger with WarnerMedia (RT)

• Education and publishing company Pearsons said Apollo’s offer of ~$8.48B ‘undervalues the business’ (BBG)

• EnCap Investments is exploring a sale of US oil producer Ameredev II in a potential $4B+ deal (RT)

• China’s JD Logistics agreed to buy domestic courier Deppon Logistics for ~$1.42B (RT)

• Carlyle agreed to buy Italian motorcycle clothing brand Dainese in a $691M deal (BBG)

• Italy’s Banco BPM is considering a possible sale or partnership for its payments unit (BBG)

• Danish transport company Maersk plans to sell its holdings in Russian ports due to the war in Ukraine (BBG)

• Yuga Labs, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, agreed to buy the IP of the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections from Larva Labs in an estimated $100M+ deal (BBG)

• 777 Partners agreed to buy Belgian soccer club Standard Liege (BBG)

• US Hotel REIT Watermark Lodging Trust is exploring options including a sale of itself (BBG)

VC

• Indian edtech startup Byju’s raised an $800M round at a ~$22B valuation from Byju Raveendran, Sumeru Ventures, Vitruvian Partners, and BlackRock (TC)

• Enterprise startup investor Sorenson Ventures closed a $150M fund aimed at early and seed-stage startups (TC)

• Autonomous shopping solutions platform AiFi raised a $65M Series B from ALDI South Group, Żabka Group, REWE, Verizon Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures (PRN)

• Mori, a startup aiming to extend the shelf-life of food to reduce waste and create more sustainable supply chains, raised a $50M Series B1 led by Prelude Ventures (BW)

• Live video infrastructure startup 100ms raised a $20M Series A led by Falcon Edge (TC)

• AI-powered legal platform Justpoint raised a $6.9M seed extension round led by Divergent Capital and Charge Ventures (PRN)

• Instagram comedy breakout Friday Beers raises $6M seed round led by former AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and investment banker Robert Greenhill. The company also rebranded to Almost Friday Media (BI)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Singer Rihanna’s lingerie company Savage X Fenty is working with advisors on a potential $3B+ IPO (BBG)

• Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda put a hold on its planned $3B IPO for its shopping mall unit (BBG)

• Indian fintech startup Navi filed initial documents for a potential $440M IPO (BBG) 

• Ride-hailing company Didi plunged 44% on Friday after halting their planned Hong Kong stock listing (BBG)

Debt

• UK software business The Access Group is seeking to borrow ~$3.95B to refinance existing debt and to facilitate acquisitions (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• LootLARP is ‘embedding’ NFTs into physical objects for a real-life role-playing game (TBC)

• Ukraine minister calls on Tether to bar Russians from using its stablecoin (TBC)

• CryptoPunks Ethereum NFT sales surge 1200% after Bored Ape creators acquire IP (DC)

Exec's Picks

• If you want to invest in alternative assets and don’t know where to look, try Alts. Alts is a newsletter that provides marketing-leading information on dozens of alternative investments, from islands, to domain names, to watches. Check it out.

• In case you missed it - we published a deep dive on FTX yesterday. While it's already a crypto trading juggernaut, the company is expanding globally and into other business verticals, including stocks, payments, NFTs, gaming, venture capital, and so much more. Check out our write up here. And if you want to check out their US platform, you can download it here and use referral code 'litquidity' at sign up.

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.

• William Hood & Co is hiring for an experienced investment banking analyst / first year associate role located in New York City. The ideal candidate will have 1-2 years of investment banking, business development, or operational finance experience. Experience in Consumer is a plus. Also worth noting the months of August and December are also fully remote. Click here to apply

Meme Cleanser

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