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Good Morning,

Goldman is facing a CFTC probe, Tucker Carlson interviewed Putin in Moscow, Einhorn said markets are ‘fundamentally broken,’ top US venture firms funded blacklisted Chinese companies, Sam Altman wants trillions to reshape the chip industry, and Google rebranded Bard AI to Gemini.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks slightly rose, with the S&P briefly breaking the 5,000 milestone for the first time

  • The Nasdaq led indices with a 0.24% gain

• Asian stocks mostly rose, as Chinese stocks capped off their best week in over a year ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays

Earnings

• Pinterest shares fell ~9% after issuing a weaker-than-expected Q1 forecast and reporting disappointing Q4 revenue (CNBC) 

• Cloudflare shares jumped ~20% after beating Q4 earnings and revenue expectations and issuing a stronger-than-expected Q1 forecast (CNBC) 

• What we're watching this week:  

  • Today: PepsiCo 

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Goldman is facing CFTC probe over fees charged for futures trading (BBG)

• Putin takes hard line on Ukraine in Tucker Carlson interview (BBG)

• Einhorn says markets ‘fundamentally broken’ by passive, quant investing (BBG)

• Top US venture firms funded blacklisted Chinese companies, House Committee says (WSJ)

• Huawei’s French offices searched by financial prosecutors (BBG)

• Sam Altman seeks trillions of dollars to reshape business of chips and AI (WSJ)

• Google rebrands Bard AI to Gemini and launches a new app and subscription (CNBC)

• Activision had planned layoffs before merger, Microsoft says (BBG)

• Disney’s investment in Epic Games signals the company has to ‘be there’ (RT)

• States crack down on social media for teens: “There are no guardrails” (WSJ)

• Big Tech’s $140B cash haul points to shareholders returns (BBG)

• J&J accused of mismanaging its employees’ drug benefits (WSJ)

• Astra CEO says UK must do more to boost pharma investment (BBG)

• Mark Zuckerberg’s dividend could solve his Meta control dilemma (BBG)

• Biden’s age back in spotlight after special counsel report, verbal flubs (WSJ)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• UAE is in advanced talks to buy and develop a $22B beach strip on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast (BBG) 

• London-listed paper and packaging group Mondi is exploring the acquisition of its UK rival DS Smith that would create an industry heavyweight worth over $12.6B (FT) 

• SoftBank-backed US data security software firm Cohesity agreed to acquire Veritas' data protection business in a cash-and-stock deal that values the combined entity at $7B (RT) 

• Flynn Group, the world's largest franchisee operator of restaurants and fitness clubs, is exploring a majority stake sale that could value the company at over $5B, including debt (RT) 

• Apollo Global is in talks to acquire acquire a ~30% stake in the Middle East, North Africa and central Asia Starbucks franchise operated by Kuwait's AlShaya Group, which operates ~2,000 outlets; The Starbucks unit was valued at $4B-$5B in 2022 before exiting Russia (RT) 

• US oil and gas producer Devon Energy approached peer Enerplus, which has a ~$3.2B market cap, with an acquisition offer (RT) 

• Hollysys Automation Technologies shareholders voted in favor of a $1.7B takeover proposal from PE firm Ascendent Capital Partners (BBG) 

• Chinese conglomerate Fosun International revived a plan to sell Hong Kong-based Peak Reinsurance at a potential valuation of ~$1B (BBG) 

• UK’s competition watchdog launched an investigation into Aviva's $580M acquisition of AIG’s UK life insurance business, AIG Life UK (RT) 

• General Atlantic agreed to buy a minority stake in Partners Capital, a $50B asset manager (BBG) 

• UK’s antitrust regulator provisionally cleared Turkish domestic appliances maker Arcelik's acquisition of Whirlpool's European appliances business (RT) 

  American telecom Sinclair is exploring options for its Tennis Channel network after potential buyers expressed interest (BBG)

VC

• Unlearn, a startup creating digital twins of clinical trial participants, raised a $50M Series C led by Altimeter Capital (BW)

• Accounting software startup Pennylane raised a $43M round at a $1B+ valuation led by Sequoia Capital and DST Global (TC)

• Daedalus, a startup building precision-manufacturing factories powered by AI, raised a $21M Series A led by NGP Capital (TC)

• Ezra, a healthcare AI company, raised a $21M round led by Healthier Capital (BW)

• Thea Energy, a startup using software to build reliable and inexpensive fusion power plants, raised a $20M Series A led by Prelude Ventures (TC)

• Aizon, a pharmaceutical manufacturing AI platform, raised a $20M Series C led by NewVale Capital (BW)

• Formlogic, a provider of autonomous precision manufacturing services for space companies, received $20M in funding from Trinity Capital (FN)

• Headlight, a mental health startup, raised $18M in funding led by Matrix and EPIC Ventures (PRN)

• Pixee Medical, a startup building augmented reality navigation technologies for orthopedic surgery, raised $15M in funding led by Relyens Innovation Santé, UI Investissement, Innovacom, Angelor, and Bpifrance (BW)

• Closinglock, a startup helping prevent real estate fraud, raised a $12M Series A led by Headline (TC)

• LimaCharlie, a cloud-based security operations platform, raised a $10.2M Series A led by Sands Capital (PRN)

• Serverless data platform Upstash raised a $10M Series A led by a16z (TC)

• Glass, a startup looking to improve smartphone cameras, raised a $9.3M seed extension led by GV (TC)

• UK-based lifestyle monitoring startup Lilli raised a $10.5M Series A led by West Hill Capital (EU)

• Attentive.ai, a startup building vertical software for landscaping and construction services, raised a $7M Series A led by Vertex Ventures (TC)

• Code, a Canadian payments startup, raised a $6.5M seed round led by M13 and Union Square Ventures (FN)

• Truflation, an economic data field company, raised $6M in funding from Laser Digital, Red Beard Ventures, and more (FN)

• Flood, a startup providing a protocol for order routing, management, and settlement, raised a $5.2M seed round led by Bain Capital Crypto (FN)

• Perigon, a startup organizing web data for the age of AI, raised a $5M seed round led by LiveOak Ventures (BW)

• Vocode, a San Francisco-based open source developer platform for conversational AI, raised a $3.3M seed round from Gradient, Accel, Liquid2, and angels (FN)

• Crux, a startup building AI-powered business intelligence tools, raised a $2.6M round from Emergent Ventures, Y Combinator, and angels (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Saudi Arabia is set to hire banks including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and HSBC for a secondary share sale in Aramco that would raise ~$20B (BBG)

• Shares of Kyverna Therapeutics rose 36% in their debut day of trading after the biotech’s $319M IPO (BBG) 

• Mexican discount retailer BBB Foods boosted its IPO to as much as $589M amid high investor demand (BBG) 

• Angola is planning an 2024 IPO for Unitel, the country’s largest telecom (BBG) 

• Temperature-controlled storage and logistics giant Lineage Logistics, marketing firm Ibotta, and ticket platform SeatGeek are among companies weighing a US IPO as soon as Q2 (BBG) 

Debt

• State-owned mineral-resources company Mining Industry Indonesia is seeking bids for a $2B loan (BBG) 

• Spirit Airlines is working with advisors to explore ways to address ~$1.6B of debt maturing in 2025 and 2026 (WSJ) 

Fundraising

• PE firm Warburg Pincus plans to raise ~$2.5B for WP Financial Sector III, which is dedicated to deals in the financial sector (BBG)

• Chinese VC MSA Capital, which is backed by Saudi Arabia’s PIF, is planning to raise $1B to invest in technology startups in the Middle East (BBG) 

Crypto Corner

• Payments from crypto-related ransom attacks nearly doubled to $1B in 2023 (RT) 

• BlackRock iShares Bitcoin Trust became one of the top five ETFs of 2024 based on inflows (CD)

Exec’s Picks

• Wired explained how Slack changed business forever over the last decade.

• The Economist discussed whether Meta’s dividend will mark a return to dividend dominance.

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