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Jamie Dimon is looking to spend $20B on M&A, Samsung factory workers will get ~$400k bonuses after a labor union deal, a Google developer was charged with insider trading on Polymarket, and Trump said economic costs and political backlash will not force him into a hasty Iran deal.

"They thought they were going to outwait me. 'He's got the midterms,' they thought. I don't care about the midterms. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I'm doing that for the world, I'm not doing it just for us." -Trump

The deadline for the Wharton Online-Wall Street Prep Restructuring & Distressed Investing Certificate Program ends soon! Enroll today and save $300 with our LITQUIDITY discount.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 5/27/2206 market close.

Learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*

Markets

  • US stocks closed mostly flat yesterday as traders digested ongoing US-Iran talks 

    • Dow hit a new ATH

  • US bond market volatility returned to pre-war and YTD lows

Earnings

  • Salesforce beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimates as Agentforce annualized revenue topped $1B but missed on FY guidance on worsening performance in Tableau bookings and renewals and higher license revenue volatility following its acquisition of Informatica (CNBC)

  • DICK'S Sporting Goods beat Q1 revenue estimates but missed on earnings as a costly turnaround at  Foot Locker continues to weigh on bottom line (CNBC)

  • HP beat Q2 earnings and revenue estimates but cut its FY profit forecast due to a memory chip shortage (WSJ)

  • Marvell Technology beat Q1 earnings and revenue estimate and gave a strong Q2 forecast on institutional momentum tied to AI hardware infrastructure (WSJ)

  • What we're watching this week:  

    • Today: Dell, Best Buy, Costco, Kohl's, Gap

  • Full calendar here 

Prediction Markets

  • Where's Mistral AI?

  • Trade event contracts on Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market

Headline Roundup

  • Fired JPMorgan employee who claimed wrongful termination over $642 'Super Bowl' deli platter awarded $4M (NYP)

  • Trump doesn't 'care about midterms' when it comes to making Iran deal (WSJ)

  • Deregulation hands top US and UK banks $1.3T (FT)

  • Jamie Dimon is 'on the lookout' for JPMorgan's next big deal (BBG)

  • Big bank CEOs predict new round of trading windfalls (BBG)

  • KKR co-CEO says trading private credit Is 'likely to happen' (BBG)

  • 'Trump Accounts' app will launch today (WSJ)

  • Eurozone issuers turn to non-euro debt in hunt for new investors (FT)

  • Hong Kong overtook Switzerland as hub for global offshore wealth (FT)

  • Samsung workers are set for $400k bonuses after labor union deal (FT) 

  • Robinhood will let users use AI to trade stocks (WSJ)

  • Prediction markets look to institutional investors for growth (RT)

  • lululemon settled a proxy fight with founder Chip Wilson (WSJ)

  • Perella Weinberg cut 10% of staff including a dozen partners (BBG)

  • Google developer charged with insider trading on Polymarket (WSJ)

  • Singapore sentenced fallen Indian edtech billionaire Byju Raveendran to jail for contempt (BBG)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Strategic

  • Musk is reportedly weighing a ~$3.5T merger of SpaceX and Tesla following SpaceX's IPO

  • Bollore family, the biggest shareholder of $42B Europe-listed Universal Music Group, urged UMG to reject Bill Ackman's Pershing Square's $64B takeover proposal as too low

  • Dutch paints firm AkzoNobel rejected a $14.6B cash offer from global peers Nippon Paint and Sherwin-Williams that would break up the business and will press on with a $25B merger with Axalta Coating Systems

  • Alpine Investors-backed home services company Apex Service Partners is nearing a minority stake sale at a $10B valuation, including debt

  • SoftBank-backed data center investor DigitalBridge will acquire infrastructure investor ArcLight for up to $1.05B

  • CRE data firm CoStar Group is ​nearing a deal to acquire housing‑market data provider ‌Zonda from MidOcean Partners for $800M

  • UK software PE firm Hg agreed to buy California rights and royalties management company Rightsline for $500M, including debt

  • Sixth Street acquired the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek Resort & Spa in Colorado from Braemar Hotels & Resorts for $176M 

  • Chinese firm Wonderful Group of Companies will acquire a 55% stake in a lime and cement venture from Zambia's state-controlled mining investment company ZCCM Investments Holdings for $25M

  • Brazil may relaunch a privatization process for water utility Copasa after two bids for a 30% stake came in below the minimum price

VC

  • AI coding startup Cognition raised a $1B at $25B pre-money valuation led by Lux Capital and General Catalyst

  • Focused Energy, the world's leading laser fusion company, raised a $240M Series A from RWE, EIC, and others

  • WeRoad, an Italian group travel startup, raised a $58M in a Series C led by Airbnb

  • Pace, an AI insurance operations platform, raised $46 million in a Series B co-led by Thrive Capital and Sequoia

  • Airis Labs, an AI defense technology company, raised $60M including a $31M Series B led by PSG Equity

  • NavigateAI, an AI copilot service for field workers, raised $25M in funding led by Elad Gil 

  • Tensormesh, a caching-accelerated inference optimization startup, raised a $20M extended seed round from AMD Ventures, CoreWeave, NVentures, and others

  • RevEng.AI, a European cybersecurity company focused on software supply chain verification, raised a $15M Series A led by NATO Innovation Fund 

  • Slamcore, a spatial intelligence company, raised a $14M funding round led by ROKStar Ventures

  • Itera, a real-time hardware prototyping company, raised a $12M seed round led by Upfront Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, and Colle Capital

Access the complete VC deal flow and data on Fundable

IPOs / Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Uber bought out Aspex Management's stake in German peer Delivery Hero at an $11.6B valuation at market price to boost its stake to 37%; Uber is pursuing a takeover of Delivery Hero

  • Chinese memory chip maker ChangXin Memory Technologies received approval to raise $5B in China's biggest IPO since 2022

  • India is set to begin formal marketing for a planned $1B share sale in Life Insurance Corporation of India at a $50B valuation

  • Shareholders of Swedish appliances maker Electrolux approved a $1B share issue to fund a tie-up in North ​America ​with ⁠China's Midea

  • Copper startup Quilla Resources is in talks for a Canada IPO as it weighs expansion plans in Peru

SPAC / SPV

  • Taiwan-based solid state battery firm ProLogium Technology agreed to merge with Translational Development Acquisition Corp in a $3.8B deal

  • Nuclear power startup Newcleo will merge with NewHold ​Investment Corp III at a $2.4B pre-money valuation

Debt

  • Warner Bros. Discovery sold $15B of investment grade loans to refinance debt ahead of its $110B acquisition by Paramount Skydance

  • Mumbai is planning a $1B munis sale

  • H.I.G. Capital-backed European data center operator PolarDC sold $930M of high-yield bonds in the biggest such deal in the Nordic market

  • Paramount CEO David Ellison privately promised ratings agencies that the Ellison family would step in to tame leverage following the Warner Bros. takeover

Funds / Secondaries

  • CE Industries, the family office of European defense giant CSG's founder, is seeking to raise $230M to expand its industrial empire

  • UK climate VC Transition Ventures raised a new $150M fund to focus on power, AI, robotics, and critical materials

  • Carlyle launched a dedicated MM aerospace, defense, and industrials investment platform

Crypto Sum Snapshot

  • JPMorgan is hiring a Global Research Crypto Analyst

  • Central banks complete successful tests of cross-border blockchain payments

  • Banca Sella becomes the first Italian bank to offer crypto

  • Someone built an algorithm to find inactive Bitcoin wallets, reported them to NYPD as 'lost property,' and is now suing to own them

Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.

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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.