Good Morning,
Yellen finally ditched team "transitory inflation," Citadel Securities is getting into the crypto game, Netflix joined the Formula 1 streaming rights race, Dustin Johnson resigned his PGA Tour membership for Saudi Arabia's LIV Golf Tour, and Musk says that a Starlink IPO is still 3-4 years away.
Big Swinging Decks is back! This week, Lit and Mark interviewed Eric Langan, the President & CEO of RCI Hospitality Holdings (NASDAQ: RICK) and rising FinTwit legend. Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast, presented by CoinFLEX.US, on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube 🤝
Big week at Litquidity HQ with two new interns, Aadil Khan and Jack Watson, joining the newsletter team. Let's make 'em feel welcome!
Let's dive in.
Before The Bell
As of 6/7/2022 market close.
If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.
Markets
US stocks edged higher with all three major averages closing in the green ahead of key inflation data
The May CPI will release on Friday; a crucial read for whether the Fed will continue to raise rates in 50 basis point increments
Earnings
Smartsheet fell 7% after hours following a lower than expected Q1 earnings report that included disappointing revenue guidance (MW)
What we’re watching today: Five Below
Thursday: DocuSign
Full calendar here
Headline Roundup
US Treasury bans US investors from purchasing Russian sovereign and corporate debt (WSJ)
Janet Yellen tells lawmakers she expects inflation to remain high (WSJ)
Netflix joins ESPN, Amazon, and NBCUniversal in competition for US Formula 1 streaming rights (TC)
Wells Fargo pauses diversity rules for hiring after sham-interviews report (BBG)
South Korea truckers go on strike at ports as fuel costs soar (BBG)
US trading firm Jane Street sues LME for nickel trade chaos (FT)
Target warns of weaker profit as it faces overstuffed stores, inflation-weary shoppers (WSJ)
Elon Musk says an IPO of SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet business is still three or four years away (CNBC)
Sarah Guo is stepping down from her GP role at Greylock to start her own venture fund (Axios)
Dustin Johnson becomes latest player to resign PGA Tour membership for Saudi's controversial LIV Golf tour (YHOO)
Amazon spent $198M on twelve acres of Arlington land in another key development for its HQ2 plans (BJ)
Shared micromobility company Bird plans to layoff 23% of its staff (TC)
Turkey's Lira slide accelerates as Erdogan vows to continue slashing rates (FT)
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Deal Flow
M&A / Investments
EIG is in early talks to buy up to 25% of Spanish energy company Repsol’s oil & gas exploration and production business, which could be worth $15B-$19B (RT)
Retail holding company Franchise Group is in exclusive talks to buy department-store chain Kohl’s in a potential ~$8B deal (WSJ)
Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and OMERS Infrastructure are looking to sell their Chicago Skyway lease at a potential $4B valuation (BBG)
EQT and Mubadala Investment Company agreed to purchase Swedish medical freight company Envirotainer for ~$3B (BBG)
Energy Capital Partners offered to buy UK management company Biffa in a potential $1.7B deal, sending shares up 29% (FT)
IFM Investors is considering a non-binding bid for 7% of toll roads owner Atlas Arteria in a potential ~$391M deal (BBG)
Ted Baker shares dropped 24% after Authentic Brands, their first preference bidder, decided against making an offer to acquire them (RT)
ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, is considering selling a < 10% stake in online sneaker marketplace Poison (BBG)
Fleet management company G7 Connect agreed to merge with smaller competitor E6 (BBG)
VC
Indonesian crypto trading app Pintu raised a $113M Series B led by Intudo Ventures, Lightspeed, Northstar Group and Pantera Capital (TC)
Ecuadorian payments infrastructure company Kushki raised $100M in an extension to its Series B at a $1.5B valuation, led by Kaszek Ventures, Clocktower Ventures, SoftBank Latin America Fund, and DILA Capital (TC)
E-commerce product visualization platform Nfinite raised a $100M Series B led by Insight Partners (TC)
Online messaging platform Take Blip raised $70M in a Series B led by Warburg Pincus (TC)
Microcontroller maker Arduino raised a $32M Series B from Robert Bosch VC, Renesas, Anzu Partners, and Arm (TC)
Data catalog startup Castor raised a $23.5M Series A led by Blossom and First (TC)
Delivery software company Onfleet raised a $23M Series B led by Kayne Partners and Savant Growth (TC)
Child care startup Kinside raised a $12M Series A led entirely by mothers from a variety of VCs (TC)
IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades
Middle East Pizza Hut operator Americana adds Morgan Stanley to its planned $1B IPO (BBG)
Amazon's 20-for-1 stock split went into effect Monday, its first since 1999 (YHOO)
SPAC
AI-enabled robotics automation company Symbotic began trading as a public company after completing its business combination with SoftBank-affiliate SVF Investment Corp. 3 (YHOO)
Intercity transportation technology platform Rally agreed to merge with Americas Technology Acquisition Corp in a $208M deal (GNW)
Fundraising
Binance's venture arm Binance Labs raised $500M for a fund dedicated to investing in Web3 startups (CNBC)
Solana Ventures launched a $100M investment and grant fund to support crypto projects in South Korea in the wake of the Terra blockchain collapse (BBG)
Crypto Corner
Citadel Securities is building a crypto trading platform with help from Fidelity, Charles Schwab, and ‘a couple of VC’ firms (BBG)
Binance US launches high-yield crypto staking for Solana, Avalanche, and more (DC)
Grayscale hires Obama's former Supreme Court lawyer for legal push against SEC (TBC)
DeFi venture funding deal activity fell in May (TBC)
Exec's Picks
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Earlier this week, The New Yorker's Patrick Keefe dropped a wild piece about a former CIA coder that leaked two billion pages worth of top-secret data in 2017. Check out Patrick's piece here.
Big Swinging Decks Podcast
🚨BIG SWINGING DECKS IS BACK🚨
This week, Lit & Mark interviewed Eric Langan, the President & CEO of RCI Hospitality Holdings ($RICK)
Eric sat down for his first podcast interview ever and discussed:
📈 How he transformed one strip club into a $500M market cap business
💰 His views on capital allocation
🧠 His insights into a business that many do not fully understand
This is an epic and hilarious episode. Check it out on Spotify and Apple 🤝
The BSD pod is proudly presented by CoinFLEX.US, home of the first interest-bearing stablecoin. Check 'em out here.
📺 Subscribe to our YouTube channel for video versions of the full episodes and the best clips.
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.
💼 Today's highlighted job 💼
Fractal Software is a venture studio launching the next generation of vertical SaaS startups, and the studio is currently investing out of a $350M seed fund backed by 8VC, Bienville, and Menlo Ventures. They are looking for a Founder & CEO who will launch, build and run one of our next vertical SaaS investments. Fractal will provide a vetted business idea, pair you with a talented CTO, and fund you with $1M of capital on Day 1. Interested? Check out the role on our job board here!
Meme Cleanser
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Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast, presented by CoinFLEX.US, on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube 🤝
