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Good Morning,

The PGA Tour is tossing out suspensions left and right, Janet Yellen answers Cardi B's question about a possible recession (you read that right), Target bumped up its dividend, Manhattan rent is insane, Twitter is voting on Musk's takeover in August, and Citadel is boosting its in-person footprint in NYC.

Looking forward to a sports heavy weekend with NBA finals, NHL conference finals, F1's Azerbaijan grand prix, LIV Golf and more.

See y'all tomorrow AM with the second edition of our Saturday opinion pieces by Jack Raines.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 6/9/2022 market close.

If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

  • All three major indexes fell sharply on Thursday

    • This morning we’ll receive the May CPI report at 8:30am EST, with Wall Street expecting a 0.7% increase from April

    • The Fed meets next Thursday and is expected to once again increase interest rates by a half-percentage point

  • The European Central Bank said they will raise interest rates in July for the first time since 2011 to combat mounting inflation

  • The dollar index rose for a second straight day while the Euro declined

Earnings

  • DocuSign fell more than 21% in extended trading on Thursday after greatly missing Q1 earnings projections (CNBC)

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • PGA Tour suspends players in Saudi-backed league including Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson (BBG)

  • China takes steps to ease up on regulatory crackdown as economy slows (RT)

  • Inflation tops 10% on key items that Americans can't do without (BBG)

  • Citadel to boost office presence on Manhattan’s Park Avenue (BBG)

  • Volkswagen plans to sell first electric car in India in 2023 (BBG)

  • US prepares to distribute Covid-19 shots to children under 5 (WSJ)

  • Disney fired one of its top TV executives for not being a team player (WSJ)

  • Target boosts quarterly dividend by 20% (WSJ)

  • Weekly jobless claims hit 229K, the highest level since January (CNBC)

  • Manhattan median apartment rent hits $4,000 for the first time on record (BBG)

  • Twitter plans to have shareholder vote by August on sale to Elon Musk (RT)

  • Carlos Slim sold $358M worth of stake in PBF Energy amid the US oil refiner's 600% post-pandemic recovery (BBG)

A Message From FranShares

Franchises Are Hotter Than Ever – And For Good Reason

Last fall, Los Angeles Lakers superstar Lebron James passed $1B in career earnings, but only $330M of that came from his NBA salary. The rest? His endorsements, media company, and investments. One of James’ biggest investments? Franchises. Lebron owns 19 Blaze Pizza franchises across the country. The industrial logic of franchises is crystal clear — skip the whole “product-market fit” question and get to the “making money” part. Plus, you don’t have to try to day trade WWIII and inflation headlines to generate profits.

The only issue? With an average startup cost between $100,000-$300,000, franchises require some serious commitment to get involved with – until now.

Thanks to FranShares, investing in the franchise game is now accessible to savvy investors everywhere.

Want to invest like Lebron? Get the full scoop on FranShares here.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries and Apollo made a $6.25B binding offer to acquire Boots, a UK pharmacy and beauty retailer (BBG)

  • Hospitals group Mediclinic rejected a $4.25B takeover bid from a consortium that included its biggest shareholder (FT)

  • British insurance firm Howden agreed to buy US reinsurance broker TigerRisk for $1.6B (RT)

  • British bus and train operator FirstGroup rejected a $1.5B takeover bid from I Squared Capital Advisors (BBG)

  • Natural gas driller Laredo Energy VI is exploring a ~$1B sale of the company (BBG)

  • Devon Energy agreed to buy RimRock's Williston basin assets in North Dakota for $865M (FT)

  • Carlos Slim and Germán Larrea join Santander Bank in bid to acquire Citigroup's Mexican arm, Banamex (BBG)

  • Baring PE Asia is in talks to buy Indian outsourcing firm iEnergizer (BBG)

  • China's Didi is in talks with state-backed Sinomach Automobile to buy a third of its electric-vehicle unit (RT)

  • Recover, a materials science company producing sustainable cotton fiber, received a $100M minority equity investment led by STORY3CapitalPartners (BW)

VC

  • Juni, a startup helping e-commerce merchants manage their money, raised $206M in funding: a $100M Series B led by Mubadala Capital and a $106M debt facility from TriplePoint Capital (TC)

  • Shield AI, a defense tech startup, raised $165M: $123M in debt and $90M in equity, at a $2.3B valuation led by Snowpoint Ventures (PRN)

  • Indian fintech startup CRED raised a $140M Series F at a $6.4B valuation led by GIC (TC)

  • Backbase, a startup providing a platform for banks to better structure and leverage their data, raised a $120M round at a $2.6B valuation led by Motive Partners (TC)

  • LUSIX, a producer of lab-grown diamonds, raised $90M in funding from LVMH Luxury Ventures, Ragnar Crossover Fund, and more (BW)

  • Mexican digital bank Klar raised a $70M round at a $500M valuation led by General Atlantic (TC)

  • Middesk, a platform designed to automate business verification and underwriting decisions, raised a $57M Series B round led by Insight Partners and Canapi Ventures (TC)

  • Ever Body, a female-lead beauty and wellness startup, raised $55.5M in a Series C led by Addition (PRN)

  • Residential energy flexibility platform OhmConnect raised a $55M Series D led by ClearSky, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, and TELUS Ventures (PRN)

  • Maze, a startup helping facilitate software product research, raised a $40M Series B led by Felicis (TC)

  • Behavioral cybersecurity platform CybSafe raised a $28M Series B led by Evolution Equity Partners (TC)

  • AI-powered dubbing startup Papercup raised a $20M Series A led by Octopus Ventures (TC)

  • Haptic touchpad startup Sensel raised an $18.8M Series B led by Global Lighting Technologies (PRN)

  • Customer support startup Luminai raised a $16M Series A led by General Catalyst (TC)

  • Pepper Content, a content marketplace that connects global brands with creators via companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon, and Adobe, raised a $14.3M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners (TC)

  • Automated coaching platform Cloverleaf raised a $9M Series A led by Origin Ventures (PRN)

  • Floor, a token-gated NFT portfolio tracking platform, raised an $8M seed round led by 6th Man Ventures (DC)

  • Flare, a digital footprint monitoring platform, raised a $7.5M Series A led by Inovia Capital (PRN)

  • Tatsumeeko, an “MMORPG-lite” game on Ethereum and Solana, raised a $7.5M seed round led by DeFiance Capital, Delphi Ventures and BITKRAFT Ventures (TC)

  • Web3 enterprise crypto payments startup Request Finance raised a $5.5M seed round led by Animoca Brands, Balderton Capital, and XAnge (PRN)

  • Ping, a voice platform for commercial drivers, raised a $5M seed round led by Valor Siren Ventures (PRN)

  • E-commerce platform Gander raised a $4.2M seed round led by Harlem Capital and Crossbeam Venture Partners (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Brazil is set to give up its controlling stake in Electrobras, Latin America’s biggest power utility, through a share sale that could raise ~$7B (BBG)

  • Chinese financial regulators have started early-stage discussions on a potential revival of fintech Ant’s IPO (BBG)

  • Dubai plans to IPO a 12.5% stake in business park operator Tecom (BBG)

  • Carlyle is looking to sell its 42% stake in Middle East Domino’s pizza franchise operator Alamar Foods, in a Saudi IPO (BBG)

Crypto Corner

  • Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey are launching a free Bitcoin Academy to uplift NYC public housing residents (BBG)

  • Mattel to release ‘Cryptotoys’ NFTs on Flow blockchain (DC)

  • The SEC is investigating Terra’s UST stablecoin collapse (DC)

Exec's Picks

  • Join the Marco team in celebrating Pride and the LGBTQIA+ community for an evening of drag shows, bingo, beverages, and delights with our friends at EBBS Brewing in Williamsburg on 6/15 from 6:30-11pm ET. Link 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.

If you'd like to feature your job listings on the newsletter, all you gotta do is head over to our job board and hit the "post job" button for the list of options.

Meme Cleanser

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