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Good Morning,

Ukraine is ready to discuss neutrality, Biden is proposing a new tax on wealthy Americans, Germany is considering a missile-defense shield, Biden's approval rating hit an all-time low, and Instacart's valuation got insta-cut.

Oh, and Will Smith punched Chris Rock during the Oscars last night; don't think that one was scripted.

We have a big week ahead with lots of economic data coming out, buckle up fam.

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 and S&P 500 rose Friday to close out their second consecutive positive weeks, while the Nasdaq ended its green week with a red Friday

• These market moves came as investors continued to monitor both Russia’s war against Ukraine and expectations about the Fed's plans to hike interest rates

• It’s a big week for economic data - we’ll be getting Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) numbers, ADP private payroll data, and the monthly jobs report

• On the crypto front, Bitcoin quietly rallied past $45k over the weekend (with a high of $47,583 in HK trading), erasing losses for the year

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week: 

  • Mon: Jefferies

  • Tues: Lululemon

  • Wed: BioNTech

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US companies buy back shares in record volumes (FT)

• Russia seizes rare Swiss watches in sanctions reprisal (BBG)

• NortonLifeLock, Avast’s $8.6B deal faces UK probe (BBG)

• Instacart slashes its valuation by almost 40% to $24B (BBG)

• Biden to propose new minimum tax on the wealthiest Americans (WSJ)

• Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J face shareholder pressure to broaden Covid-19 vaccine access (WSJ)

• Zelenskyy says Ukraine ready to discuss neutrality status; Blinken says US not seeking regime change (CNBC)

• Biden’s job approval rating hits lowest point of his presidency as Americans think the US headed in the wrong direction (CNBC)

• Biden says Putin ‘cannot remain in power’ in sweeping speech on Russian invasion of Ukraine (CNBC)

• HubSpot announces ‘HubSpot Creators’ initiative, where the company will give creators money and a platform to produce and deliver podcasts on the HubSpot website (TC)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• A consortium that includes Macquarie agreed to buy 60% of National Grid’s gas transmission business at a $12.7B valuation (BBG)

• US firm Caerus Oil and Gas is exploring a sale at a potential $2.5B+ valuation (RT)

• InPost, a Polish operator of self-service lockers for e-commerce, is attracting potential takeover interest from PE firms such as CVC and Hellman & Friedman (BBG)

• Brookfield Asset Management agreed to buy Hibernia REIT in a $1.2B deal (BBG)

• CVC Capital Partners made a non-binding offer for a 49% stake in Telecom Italia’s new enterprise services unit (BBG)

• Carlyle and PAI Partners are nearing a deal to buy women’s health business Theramex in a ~$1.4B deal (BBG)

• STG Logistics agreed to buy XPO Logistics’ North America intermodal business for $710M (BBG)

• Crypto exchange Coinbase is in talks to acquire 2TM, owner of Mercado Bitcoin, Brazil's largest crypto exchange (CD)

• UK specialty-chemical company Elementis is exploring a sale of its Chromium unit (BBG)

• Saudi Arabian grocery chain BinDawood agreed to buy a majority stake in e-commerce app manager and developer International Applications Trading for an initial payment of $28.7M that could increase subject to future profitability milestones (BBG)

VC

• India’s Mohalla Tech, the startup behind social media platform ShareChat and short-video app Moj, is seeking to raise funding at a $5B valuation (BBG)

• Chinese autonomous driving startup Zongmu raised a $157M+ Series E from state-backed funds Dongyang State-Owned Assets Investment Co. and Zhejiang Caitong Capital Investment Co. (BBG)

• Employee experience management platform Firstbase raised a $50M Series B led by Kleiner Perkins (BW)

• D2C order fulfillment service Bigblue raised a $15M Series A led by Runa Capital (TC)

• Pakistani coworking space startup Colabs raised a $3M seed round led by Indus Valley Capital, Zayn Capital, and Fatima Gobi Ventures (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Mercedes-backed solid-state battery developer ProLogium is weighing an IPO (BBG)

• Manuel Villar, the Philippines’ richest person, is seeking to raise up to $176M in an IPO of the office and mall REIT VistaREIT (BBG)

Debt

• Greenidge plans to triple its US bitcoin mining capacity after securing $100M in new financing: an $81.4M loan from an affiliate of NYDIG and a $26.5M promissory note with an affiliate of B. Riley Financial, Inc. (TBC)

Crypto Corner

• India passes stiff crypto tax laws despite industry uproar (CD)

• White House wants public comments on crypto’s energy use and environmental impact (CD)

• Avalanche launches $100M creator fund with Grimes and web3 platform Op3n (TBC)

Exec's Picks

• Rolfe Winkler and Joseph Walker wrote a great piece in the WSJ about the problem with startups overselling ADHD medication to customers. Check out their article 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'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.

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