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Good Morning,

Twitter is relaunching Twitter Blue, Thoma Bravo is nearing another large software LBO, US 30-year mortgages fell for the fourth straight week, US equity funds are still seeing huge outflows, Saudi Arabia is on pace to be the fastest growing G-20 country, EY scrapped holiday bonuses, and Airbnb is banning NYE parties.

Good to be back in the US, though it would've been insane to be in Paris one more day to watch France beat England! Thx all for the recommendations btw. Shoutout to Ledger for hosting an excellent conference.

Speaking of the World Cup, there have been some crazy upsets over the past week. If you want to bet on the action, check out Sporttrade's platform and trade the World Cup like you'd trade $AAPL stock.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks fell on Friday on higher-than-expected producer inflation data

  • All three major US indexes snapped two week winning streaks, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq posting their biggest weekly declines in over a month

• The pan-european Stoxx 600 snapped a seven-week winning streak

• Canada's TSX posted its biggest weekly decline since September as oil tumbled

• We have a hot week of data, with November's CPI releasing on Tuesday followed by the Fed's latest interest rate decision on Wednesday

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Oracle

  • Wednesday: Lennar

  • Thursday: Adobe

  • Friday: Accenture

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US financial conditions have eased (RT)

• Average 30-year mortgage rate fell for a fourth straight week to 6.33% (AX)

• US PPI rose by a higher-than-expected 0.3% in November, but it's down 7.4% YoY (CNBC)

• US equity funds registered biggest weekly outflow in over 1.5 years (RT)

• Global equity funds record biggest weekly outflows in 3 months (RT)

• Nasdaq and NYSE are set to ease rules on direct-listing capital raises (BBG)

• Bond investors are swapping mutual funds for ETFs at record pace (WSJ)

• Interest-rate paths for US and Europe are set to diverge (WSJ)

• Saudi Arabia is on track to be fastest-growing G-20 economy (BBG)

• Booming Chinese family offices are recruiting top bankers in Singapore (FT)

• Major oil pipeline outage is expected to hit US stockpiles (RT)

• Fidelity secured approval to enter China's $3.7T mutual fund industry (RT)

• EY scrapped US holiday bonuses (FT)

• Goldman Sachs will open an office in Germany (BBG)

• Twitter will relaunch Twitter Blue at higher price for Apple users (RT)

• Walmart plans to offer Buy Now, Pay Later loans through its fintech venture (TI)

• Airbnb will ban New Year's Eve bashes (CBS)

A Message From Sporttrade

Trade the World Cup Like You Trade $AAPL

Sporttrade is not like other sportsbooks. It was built for people like us in mind. It’s the only regulated sports trading exchange that lets you trade in and out of your sports bets at any time - just like stocks or options.

They’re not in the business of betting against you. They are not the “house”. As an exchange they match buyers and sellers, just like a stock market. But instead of listing stocks, they list sports outcomes called “contracts” like “Croatia to win the World Cup”, or “Eagles to beat the Giants.” A “contract” is simply a bet that settles at $100 if the outcome occurs, and $0 if the outcome doesn’t occur.

So, even if you're taking a break trading securities to watch some soccer, you can still use those trading skills to buy and sell outcomes of the tournament instead. Croatia upset Brazil to advance and could win the whole thing. They are currently trading at $9.5 to win (meaning they have a 9.5% chance to hoist the trophy), according to the market on Sporttrade. That is a lot easier to understand than +900 odds given on a traditional sportsbook. And you don’t have to wait for the final outcome of a game to watch that value rise & fall as they play in the Semi-Finals.

Now is the time to use your trading skills while you watch the sports you love!

Download on iOS anywhere. If you are in NJ or travel to NJ you can start trading today.

Pricing subject to change. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ) 21+

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• US biotech Amgen is in advanced talks to acquire drug firm Horizon Therapeutics, which currently has a ~$22B market cap (WSJ)

• Thoma Bravo is in advanced talks to buy Coupa Software, a provider of business-spend management software, after outbidding Vista Equity Partners. The company currently has a market cap of ~$4.7B (BBG)

• VC investors Jack Selby and Jason Pressman offered to buy the Phoenix Suns and Mercury basketball teams for $3B (BBG)

• Quick-ecommerce platform Getir agreed to buy rival Gorilla Technologies in a $1.2B deal (BBG)

• Chinese property tycoon Yang Huiyan is seeking to raise ~$650M by selling her stake in Chinese developer Country Garden Services (BBG)

• Bahrain-based Investcorp acquired US private credit manager Marble Point for ~$200M (FT)

• French media conglomerate Mediawan agreed to buy a 60% stake in Plan B Entertainment, Brad Pitt’s production company, for “a few hundred million” (CNBC)

VC

• Sonde Health, a voice-based health monitoring platform, raised a $19.25M Series B led by Partners Investment (BW)

• BiomeBank, a biotech startup developing a pipeline of microbiome-based therapies, raised a $10M round led by Ellerston Capital and the South Australian Venture Capital Fund (BW)

• Outdefine, a startup building a decentralized hiring community for web3 talent, raised a $2.5M round led by TCG Crypto and Jump Crypto (BW)

• Akros Technologies, an AI-powered asset management platform, raised a $2.3M round from Z Venture Capital (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Chinese lender Xiamen International Bank is considering a Hong Kong IPO that could raise ~$1.3B (BBG)

SPAC

• Metaverse experience company Infinite Reality is in advanced talks to merge with Newbury Street Acquisition Corp. (BBG)

Fundraising

• PE firm Sentinel Capital Partners raised $4.3B for its Capital Partners VII fund and $835M for its Sentinel Junior Capital II fund to continue acquiring mid-caps with up to $65M of EBITDA (PEW)

• Union Square Ventures raised $200M for its second fund focused on early investments in climate tech startups (TI)

• Korean VC firm Daesung Private Equity launched an $83.5M metaverse fund to invest in VR and digital twins-related businesses (BCN)

• Blackstone may slow the launch of its Blackstone Private Equity Strategies Fund after investor withdrawals in its BREIT and private credit funds (FT)

Crypto Corne

• Rivals accused SBF of trying to destabilize crypto market to save FTX (WSJ)

• SBF secretly funded 'independent' crypto news site The Block (AX)

• Crypto.com CEO has history of bankruptcy and quick exits (CNBC)

• Investors are withdrawing record levels of coins from crypto exchanges (FT)

• SCOTUS agreed to hear Coinbase arbitration dispute (RT)

• SBF will testify before the House Committee on Financial Services next Tuesday (AX)

Exec's Picks

• 🖥️ 💻 Wall Street Prep has some of the best online training courses for those looking to break into investment banking or private equity. Their courses range from basic financial modeling, restructuring, oil & gas, and other advance topics. They're also used by the world's top investment banks to train their new analyst classes in person. Check them out here!

• In case you missed it, we dropped our annual Last Minute Holiday Gift Guide for those looking for some quality gift ideas. Check out clothes, accessories, crypto wallets, Airpods, and more on our list. Read it here.

• Binance is trying to calm worried investors by disclosing more data, but The Wall Street Journal thinks that the crypto exchange has a long way to go to satisfy concerns.

• The Information published a recap of how a CoinDesk article questioning FTX's business model eventually led to the crypto blow up this past month. It may also singe CoinDesk's owner next, given the deep contagion in the industry (TI)

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:

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