Together with

Good Morning,

The Fed raised rates by 0.75% again, the market got clapped, Biden has shrunk the petroleum reserves to a 40-year low, Russia's economy contracted 5% in September, Elon is expected to slash ~50% of Twitter's workforce, Meta is adding NFTs to Instagram, Goldman expects a wave of private tech M&A next year, and there might be a turkey shortage this Thanksgiving thanks to a bird flu.

If you're interested in (or currently work in) crypto / web3, TechCrunch is holding its first official crypto conference on November 17th in Miami. More details below. You can cop tickets here.

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

• US stocks reversed initial gains yesterday and tumbled to close the day as the Fed raised rates by 75 bps

  • The S&P 500 suffered its worst rout on a Fed decision day since Jan 2021

  • The dollar regained strength on the same news

• A few takeaways from the FOMC statement:

  • Powell indicated that rate hikes will continue but may consider slowing the pace of increases "as soon as the next meeting or the one after that"

  • The move lifted the Fed's benchmark to a 3.75-4% range (up from nearly 0% in March)

  • Investors now are shifting focus away from the size of the next rate hike and onto the Fed's peak interest rate level

Earnings

• Qualcomm met Q4 profit and revenue estimates but offered poor Q1 guidance on macroeconomic uncertainty and also implemented a hiring freeze; their stock fell 11.6% yesterday with a ~7% drop coming in AH trading (CNBC)

• Robinhood beat Q3 EPS and revenue estimates on higher income earned from rising rates and achieved adjusted EBITDA profitability earlier than planned, but lost 1.8M or 12.8% of monthly active users; their stock rose 4.1% in AH trading to erase yesterday's sell-off (YH)

• Estée Lauder beat Q1 earnings estimates but issued weaker-than-expected outlook on higher costs, a strong dollar, and Covid lockdowns in China; their stock fell 8.1% yesterday (BBG)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Peloton, Nikola, Coinbase, Starbucks

  • Friday: DraftKings

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• The Fed raised rates by 0.75% for a fourth consecutive time to a 3.75% to 4% target (AX)

• Private payrolls rose by a better-than-expected 239k in October (CNBC)

• Biden has shrunk strategic petroleum reserve to lowest level since 1984 (AX)

• Russia's economy shrank 5% YoY in September (RT)

• UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Qatar raised rates by 75 bps following Fed's latest rate hike (RT)

• US Treasury will continue to assess bond buybacks to improve market liquidity (RT)

• SEC raked in a record-high $6.4B in monetary sanctions in the year ended Sept. 30 (WSJ)

• SEC proposed new liquidity and pricing rules for mutual funds (RT)

• White House announced $13.5B in funding to help households with energy bills (RT)

• Moody's cut outlook for numerous European banks on credit and energy woes (RT)

• CVS, Walgreens and Walmart will pay ~$13.8B total to settle opioid-related lawsuits (RT)

• Washington state sued to block Albertsons from paying dividends to shareholders before closure of its merger with Kroger (AX)

• Goldman Sachs bankers expect a big wave of private tech M&A in 2023, as the market turns and startups abandon hopes of going public (TI)

• Elon Musk plans to eliminate half of Twitter jobs to cut costs (BBG)

• S&P cut Credit Suisse's rating to one step above junk status (RT)

• Wells Fargo mortgage staff brace for layoffs as US loan volumes collapse (CNBC)

• Russia will rejoin Ukraine grain shipment deal (AX)

• Parts of US may experience 20lb turkey shortage this Thanksgiving (AX)

• Former boxer Goran Gogic was charged with trafficking $1B+ worth of cocaine through US ports (CNBC)

A Message From TechCrunch

Looking to heat up in the Crypto cold? HODL together and join TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17

Find crypto camaraderie in person and online. Discover your next moonshot investment among the up-and-coming startups exhibiting at the show.

Leading web3 industry movers and shakers hit the stage and turn up the heat in sessions like:

• “A Non-Fungible Empire” — Devin Finzer (OpenSea)

• “Fundraising in a Crypto Winter” — Flori Marquez (BlockFi), John Wu (Ava Labs) and Nikil Viswanathan (Alchemy)

• “Keeping the Web3 Dream Funded” — Chris Ahn (Haun Ventures), Michelle Bailhe Fradin (Sequoia Capital) and Tom Schmidt (Dragonfly)

If anyone knows how to survive a crypto winter, it's Changpeng “CZ” Zhao (Binance). He’s joining virtually to discuss “Building a Blockchain Behemoth.”

Claim a special 30% discount on a General Admission pass by registering here just for being an Exec Sum reader 🤝

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• A KKR-led consortium is the leading party in line to buy a stake in telecom company Vodafone’s ~$14B towers unit (BBG)

• Marathon Oil agreed to buy Ensign Natural Resources’ Eagle Ford Shale assets for $3B (RT)

• Automotive equipment company Garrett Motion is exploring strategic options, including a sale; it has a current market value of ~$479M (BBG)

• India is considering a $242M capital infusion into state-run lender IFCI and merging it with its unit, Stock Holding Corp. of India, in an attempt to rescue the loss-making lender (BBG)

• Specialty food and ingredients maker The Chefs’ Warehouse agreed to buy food-service distributor Chef Middle East for ~$100M (BBG)

• Axiata, Malaysia’s biggest wireless company, is exploring options for its Indonesia business, including combining its broadband and mobile services in the country (BBG)

• The owners of the NFL’s Washington Commanders hired Bank of America to help explore strategic options for the team, including a sale (BBG)

• Mobile-phone provider Veon started a sales process for its operations in Russia (BBG)

• UAE-based investor Saif Bin Markhan Alketbi agreed to buy a 43% stake in Croatian food producer and retailer Fortenova from Sberbank (RT)

• Trump Media named video platform Rumble and social network platform Parler as possible merger partners (CNBC)

VC

• Solugen, a startup manufacturing chemical building blocks without fossil fuels, raised a $200M+ Series D at a $2B+ valuation led by Kennivik, Lowercarbon Capital, and Refactor Capital (PRN)

• Alation, a startup building data cataloging software, raised a $123M Series E at a $1.7B valuation led by Thoma Bravo, Sanabil Investments, and Costanoa Ventures (TC)

• Digital family office platform Arta Finance raised $90M across seed and Series A rounds from Sequoia Capital India, Ribbit Capital, Coatue, and 140 founders (TC)

• Lusaris Therapeutics, a biotech company developing serotonergic neuroplastogens to treat depression and other neuropsychiatric ills, raised a $60M Series A led by RA Capital Management (BW)

• Game developer and web3 innovator Wemade raised $46M from Microsoft, Shinhan Asset Management, and Kiwoom Securities (TC)

• Binary Defense, a managed detection and response platform, raised a $36M round led by Invictus Growth Partners (BW)

• Biopharmaceutical company Alterome Therapeutics raised a $35M+ Series A-2 led by Colt Ventures and OrbiMed (BW)

• Concerto Biosciences, a microbiome restoration startup, raised a $23M Series A led by Safar Partners (BW)

• Orum, a startup building a live conversation platform for sales reps, raised a $22M Series B led by Tribe Capital (TC)

• Carta Healthcare, a clinical data analytics startup, raised a $20M Series B led by Paramark Ventures, Frist Cressey Ventures, and more (BW)

• Memento, a serverless cache startup, raised a $15M seed round led by Bain Capital Ventures (TC)

• GoCo.io, a provider of flexible software solutions for HR benefits and payroll, raised $15M in funding led by ATX Venture Partners (BW)

• Data-centric elder care startup Intus Care raised a $14.1M Series A led by Deerfield Management (TC)

• modl.ai, a startup using AI to automate and speed up game development, raised an $8.35M Series A led by Griffin Gaming Partners and M12 (BW)

• Courtyard, a physically-backed NFT platform, raised a $7M seed round led by NEA (PRN)

• Early and Good, a diagnostic solutions startup focused on renal disease, raised a $4M seed round led by Social Capital (BW)

• Flowers Software, an organizational management system, raised a $3.2M seed round led by La Famiglia VC (PRN)

• Developer tools startup Kosli raised a $3.1M seed round led by Heavybit (PRN)

• Tiger Woods' and Rory McIlroy's sports startup TMRW Sports, announced an investment group that includes the likes of Stephen Curry, Lewis Hamilton, Alex Morgan, Josh Allen, Justin Timberlake, Serena Williams and several professional team sports owners; its first project will be a new golf league in partnership with the PGA Tour (CNBC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Americana Restaurants, the Middle Eastern operator of KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants, is seeking to raise $2B+ in its upcoming Saudi IPO (BBG)

• UK oil and gas producer Ithaca Energy is seeking up to $357M at a $3.56B valuation in what could be London's biggest IPO this year (BBG)

• Qatar Investment Authority plans to raise its stake in Credit Suisse by investing in a share sale alongside Saudi National Bank, which will result in up to 25% of Credit Suisse being owned by Middle East investors (FT)

SPAC

• Food security-focused company African Agriculture is nearing a deal to merge with 10X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp II at a combined $450M valuation (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Germany’s biggest department store Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof filed for bankruptcy protection again (FT)

Fundraising

• Mozilla launched a $35M VC fund aimed at early-stage startups (TC)

• Double Down, a VC firm founded by ex-Bain investor Magdalena Kala, launched a ~$30M Fund I focused on early-stage consumer startups in the web3 space (TC)

Crypto Corner

• Crypto exchange Huobi plans to move HQ to the Caribbean (FT)

• Three crypto ETFs will be delisted in Australia as crypto winter continues (CT)

• Dapper Labs laid of 22% of its staff (TB)

• 97%+ of uniswap tokens are ‘rug pulls': report (DC)

• Meta plans to let Instagram influencers mint and sell Polygon-powered NFTs (FT)

Exec's Picks

• Football season is back, and it's time to place that ridiculous 10-leg Sunday afternoon parlay on BetMGM's online sportsbook here! Place a $10 bet to score some free merch from Friday Beers, too.

• On the Not Investment Advice Podcast, Jack Raines joined Trung Phan, Jack Butcher, and Bilal Zaidi to discuss the fake laid off Twitter employees Ligma Johnson + ways that Musk can fix Twitter. Check it out here.

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 aim to curate jobs across IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We'll sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

If you're a company looking to hire candidates and want to list a job opening on our board and feature on Exec Sum, click the button below:

Meme Cleanser

Advertise with us // Visit our merch store // Invest alongside Lit Ventures

Thinking of starting your own newsletter? Beehiiv is the best platform for creators, period. Click here to get started building your own audience.