Together with

Good Morning,

Wordle is getting acquired by the New York Times (shout out to the founder for securing bag 🤝), Cathie bought the Robinhood dip, ARKK has been ripping since Cramer turned bearish, Sony is buying Bungie (no Halo tho), the Superbowl is an underdog matchup, tech stocks are so back, and a big week of earnings starts today.

We just dropped a new episode of our podcast where we talk with Suman Siva, CEO of Marco Experiences, about the "Future of Work" and how companies can help retain talent in this new hybrid / remote environment. Check it out on Spotify and Apple. Drop us a 5-star review if you're feeling generous. 🤝

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 1/31/2022 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 indices rallied for the second trading session in a row on Monday but still ended January by posting their worst months since March 2020

  • The tech-heavy Nasdaq led yesterday’s gains, ending the day up ~3.5%

  • Another big week of earnings starts today, with big companies such as Alphabet and PayPal reporting

  • Investors will also be watching Friday’s release of nonfarm payrolls data and the unemployment rate for January

Earnings

  • What we’re watching today: Alphabet, PayPal, Starbucks, ExxonMobil, AMD

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • US, Russia square off in UN Security Council debate over Ukraine (WSJ)

  • Biden to host Qatar’s leader in bid for Europe energy security (BBG)

  • EPA moves to restore Obama-era power plant regulations (WSJ)

  • Cathie Wood boosts Robinhood buying with stock at record low (BBG)

  • Newly built homes make up record share of US housing supply (BBG)

  • Starbucks employees are now petitioning to unionize at 50 US stores (BBG)

  • Boris Johnson vows to overhaul top team after ‘Partygate’ criticism (BBG)

  • Exxon to move headquarters to Houston (WSJ)

  • Following his fiery Twitter tirades calling out the "Silicon Valley Mob", Bolt founder Ryan Breslow is no longer CEO, and he says it’s his choice (TC)

  • The UAE introduces its first-ever corporate taxes, set to start in 2023 (CNBC)

  • Super Bowl IVI will the lowest-seeded matchup in history (YHOO)

A Message From Crescent

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Make your money work for you and say goodbye to those low-yielding accounts.

Click the link to join the waitlist for early access to the beta app.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • VGI Partners agreed to merge with Regal Funds Management and the combined company will manage about ~$4.2B (BBG)

  • Sony agreed to buy Bungie, the video game maker which made the Halo and Destiny franchises, in a $3.6B deal (WSJ)

  • Gambling software company Playtech's shares fell 5% yesterday amid pessimism about whether or not investors will approve Australian slot machine maker Aristocrat Leisure’s $2.8B takeover bid (BBG)

  • KKR and Permira are preparing preliminary bids for Spanish fertility company IVI-RMA that could be worth up to $2.24B (RT)

  • Tata Steel agreed buy Indian state-run steel mill Neelachal Ispat Nigam for $1.6B in bidding war (BBG)

  • Earthstone Energy agreed to buy oil & gas producer Bighorn Permian Resources for $860M (BBG)

  • British housebuilder Barrat agreed to buy land promoter Gladman for $336.1M (RT)

  • Infinity Logistics and Transport Ventures agreed to purchase commodity trading and mining company Glencore’s metals warehousing business for $176.7M (BBG)

  • The New York Times is buying viral online game Wordle for somewhere in the ‘low-seven figures’ (CNBC)

VC

  • Growth equity firm TCV raised a $460M fund to focus on smaller, earlier-stage companies (WSJ)

  • Crypto exchange FTX raised a $400M Series C at a $32B valuation from SoftBank, Paradigm, Tiger Global, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, and more (TBC)

  • Cyara, a provider of automated customer experience and assurance solutions, raised $339M from K1 Investment Management (BW)

  • Remote patient monitoring technology company Athelas raised $132M at a $1.5B valuation in two consecutive rounds led by General Catalyst and Tribe Capital (BBG)

  • Solana wallet Phantom raised a $109M round at a $1.2B valuation led by Paradigm (TC)

  • Inspectorio, a cloud-based AI solution aimed at helping businesses manage quality and compliance, raised a $50M Series B led by Insight Partners (PRN)

  • Nutritious breakfast food brand Purely Elizabeth raised a $50M Series B led by SEMCAP (PRN)

  • Drug discovery startup Gandeeva Therapeutics raised a $40M Series A led by Lux Capital and Bayer (TC)

  • Deepnote, a startup building a data science platform on top of Jupyter notebooks, raised a $20M Series A led by Index Ventures and Accel (TC)

  • DNA synthesis startup Ribbon Biolabs raised an $20.2M Series A led by Hadean Ventures (BW)

  • The Desire Company, a content media platform featuring video reviews and how-to classes from professionals, raised an $8M Series A at a $78M valuation from Valor Equity Partners and Cleveland Avenue (PRN)

  • Appcues, a low-code onboarding solutions startup, received $7M in venture debt from Bridge Bank (BW)

  • No-code mobile app building platform Lumavate raised $6M in funding led by Gutbrain Ventures and PBJ Capital (BW)

SPAC

  • Indian online education provider Byju is in negotiations with at least 3 SPACs and is planning to unveil merger plans with one of them in 3-4 weeks (BBG)

Debt

  • Cybersecurity software maker McAfee Corp came forward with a $3.3B two-part bond deal to help finance its LBO by a group of PE firms that includes Advent International and Permira. McAfee is selling $1B of 7-year secured notes and $2.32B 8-year unsecured notes (BBG)

  • Israeli furniture maker Keter Group has postponed its plan to raise $1.32B in Europe’s leveraged loan market because the company’s biggest owner, BC Partners, deemed the price too high (BBG)

The Crypto Corner

  • The US Senate slated a hearing on stablecoins for February 15th, with the witness list including CEOs of crypto firms like Circle, FTX, Coinbase, and Bitfury (The Block)

  • Coinbase lists Solana-based project tokens for the first time (CD)

  • Coinbase added Shopify CEO Toby Lutke to its board of directors (Decrypt)

  • Kanye West is ABSOLUTELY NOT doing an NFT drop "for now" (Decrypt)

  • Anchorage is closing in on a FDIC crypto custodian deal (CD)

  • The Wonderland DAO community voted to keep the DeFi project going after the scandal that unfolded last week (BBG)

Exec's Picks

  • We've got some exclusive Litquidity x Yellow Label gear for sale on the Yellow Label's website. Choose from the softest polar fleeces you'll ever get your hands on, long sleeve crewnecks, hats, and more. Cop a piece here.

  • "Bro you should mint that as an NFT and sell it. You'll make bank dude". We've all heard it. If you want to know how to actually go about minting your first NFT, check out this guide from CoinDesk. Can't guarantee it'll see tho.

Big Swinging Decks Podcast

Big Swinging Decks

Listen to Big Swinging Decks on Spotify. Litquidity and Mark Moran get granular without spinning their wheels to give you the industry-leading, mission-critical, official podcast of Wall Street. The former bankers take a bottoms-up approach and boil the ocean while still keeping it high level. Through their unfiltered analyses, the duo open up the kimonos on Wall Street and unveil the industry's juiciest news, rumors, and trends. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

🚨NEW BIG SWINGING DECKS DROPPED🚨

This week, Litquidity and Mark Moran chat with Suman Siva, the cofounder and CEO of Marco Experiences, about the future of culture and the workplace. 

Suman dives into his background in consulting and investing, as well as his tenure at SoftBank's Vision Fund – all experiences that culminated in his founding of a company that has set out to change the way we view work. You might recognize Marco as one of the special investment opportunities brought to you by Litquidity recently. So tune out your VP’s third round of comments and tune into Big Swinging Decks on Spotify and Apple rn.

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.

Take me to the job board

Meme Cleanser

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Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast on Spotify and Apple Music 🤝