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OpenAI unveiled a search engine to rival Google, Bill Ackman's newest fund may raise ~90% less than he planned, WhatsApp hit 100M active US users, and David Rubenstein's daughter resigned a top job after cronyism claims.

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Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 07/25/2024 market close.

Markets

Major US stocks ended lower as investors continued to cozy to small caps
- S&P and Nasdaq fell for a third-straight day
- VIX hit a fourteen-week high
US 2Y-10Y yield curve inversion hit -11 bps, the lowest since October

Earnings

American Airlines rose ~4% after beating Q2 EPS estimates despite a 46% YoY decline and a slashed FY guidance due to an industry supply glut (CNBC)
Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

US GDP blasts pasts estimates for 2.8% YoY growth in Q2 (CNBC)
China cut rates in a surprise move (WSJ)
Macro hedge funds are expected to dump a record $45B in stocks (RT)
Barclays prime brokerage is beating out Wall Street rivals (RT)
Markets tear up popular trades as 'everything rally' comes to a halt (RT)
OpenAI unveiled SearchGPT to rival Google (WSJ)
GenAI VC investments show no signs of slowing (TC)
David Rubenstein's daughter resigned from Alaska's SWF after cronyism claims (FT)
Temasek-backed EvolutionX shifted focus to India from China (BBG)
Citi's error-riddled loan reports led to a $136M fine (FT)
BofA corporate payments app CashPro handled record $500B in H1 (RT)
Uber won a California ruling to treat drivers as contractors (WSJ)
Canadian miners test grey area of anti-China M&A rules (BBG)
Revolut secured a UK banking license (FT)
WhatsApp hit 100M active US users (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

KKR agreed to acquire edtech Instructure for $4.8B, including debt (BBG)
Hedge fund Standard General will acquire casino and gaming company Bally's Corporation in a $4.6B deal, including debt (RT)
Apollo agreed to acquire UK parcel delivery company Evri from PE owner Advent International for ~$3.5B (FT)
Oilfield services firm Helmerich & Payne will acquire UK peer KCA Deutag International for $1.97B cash (RT)
Indian drugmaker Mankind Pharma will acquire Bharat Serums and Vaccines in a $1.6B deal, including debt (RT)
Non-bank mortgage originator Mr. Cooper agreed to acquire NYCB's residential mortgage servicing business for $1.4B (PRN)
Oil company Permian Resources is in talks to acquire Occidental Petroleum's assets in the Barilla Draw region of Texas for ~$1B (RT)
Singaporean offshore wind farm operator Cyan Renewable acquired MMA Offshore for $726M cash (RT)
French advertising giant Publicis Groupe will acquire marketing brokerage Influential for$500M (WSJ)

Musk will discuss Tesla's potential $5B investment in xAI with Tesla's board (RT)
Autonomous vehicle software startup Applied Intuition raised a $300M Series E at a $1.25B valuation led by Fidelity (TC)
IntelePeer, an AI-based communications automation platform, raised a $140M round led by Savant Growth and Vector Capital (BW)
Software security startup Chainguard raised a $140M Series C at a $1.12B valuation led by Redpoint Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and IVP (FN)
Financial SaaS startup Payt raised $59M from Partech (EU)
Addionics, a startup reducing lithium-ion battery costs, raised a $39M Series B led by GM Ventures and Deep Insight (TC)
GeoWealth, a turnkey asset management platform, raised $18M in growth funding led by BlackRock (BW)
Cloud cost management platform Archera raised a $17M Series B led by Highsage Ventures (TC)
bunch, a platform simplifying investment management, raised a $15.5M Series A led by FinTech Collective (TC)
DocketAI, an AI sales engineer, raised a $15M Series A led by Mayfield and Foundation Capital (TC)
Hash AI, a UK crypto mining startup specializing in AI-optimized operations, raised a $10M round led by Bolt's Capital (FN)
SirenOpt, a manufacturing intelligence company, raised a $6.6M seed round led by Voyager Ventures and TOMORROW (FN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

Adani Energy Solutions is considering raising $597M through a share sale (BBG)
Concentra, Select Medical’s occupational health services provider, fell 6% in its trading debut after its $529M IPO (RT)
Latam Airlines raised $456M in its US IPO (BBG)

Debt

Bohai Leasing is in talks to refinance $2B of debt with Asian PE firms RRJ Capital and MBK Partners (BBG)
JPMorgan is assessing interest for a potential junk bond sale by Walgreens Boots Alliance to address ~$1.5B of near-term debt maturities (BBG)
Singapore data center upstart Sustainable Metal Cloud is raising $950M in debt and equity (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

India will guarantee all future bond payments for state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, which has $5.1B of debt and faces a liquidity crisis (BBG)
2U, the owner of education platform edX, filed for bankruptcy with a creditor-approved deal to take the business private (BBG)
A Chinese court is weighing a restructuring proposal for global steel giant Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry (BBG)

Fundraising

Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square's IPO of a closed-end fund is poised to raise $2.5B-$4B, less than the original $25B planned (BBG)
Galaxy Asset Management raised $113M for a new crypto VC fund (BBG)

Crypto Corner

Coinbase added three board members, including an OpenAI exec (RT)
Trump has raised over $4M in crypto (CNBC)

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