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Good Morning,

Meta down bad as rebranding to the metaverse isn't good for earnings, Spotify also crashes after failing to impress investors, CNN president Zucker resigns after failing to disclose office relationship (bad day to be a ZUCK), Washington Football Team is now the Washington Commanders, and SpaceX rolls out a premium Starlink satellite.

If your stocks crash in real life, do they crash in the metaverse? Guess we'll find out soon.

We're refreshing our Wall Street Comp Survey and would like robust data to provide y'all with good insight. If you're working on the street, we'd really appreciate your participation by filling out this very short survey. The more info we have, the more we can share, and the more leverage y'all have when it's time to negotiate your compensation. We'll be circling back next week with results. Forward to your friends / colleagues as well!

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 2/2/2022 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 were positive for the fourth straight day with all three major averages closing in the green; however, poor reactions to META and SPOT earnings turned the indexes negative after hours

  • ADP reported this morning that private payrolls fell by 301K in January (vs an expected 200K gain), a huge miss which was likely fueled by surging omicron cases, as the leisure and hospitality industry was hit hardest

Earnings

  • Meta shares tumbled 22%+ AH after weaker-than-expected earnings numbers and a disappointing forecast (CNBC)

  • Spotify beats earnings with lower Q4 Loss (€0.21) vs. (€0.43) Est. and higher Q4 Revs. €2.69B vs. €2.65B Est than expected, but stock still drops 16% after hours

  • What we’re watching today: Amazon, Ford

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • CNN President Jeff Zucker resigns after revealing that he failed to disclose office relationship (CNBC)

  • BallStreet Trading Adds $50,000 Prize Pool and Partnerships with Sporttrade, Litquidity, and ESE Entertainment for its Super Bowl Markets (PRN

  • Private companies cut 301K jobs in January as omicron slammed labor market (CNBC)

  • Biden admin moving to revise regulations around TikTok and other foreign-owned apps (WSJ)

  • US orders 3,000 troops to bolster European allies in Russia-Ukraine crisis (WSJ)

  • Vodafone CEO focusing on deals in UK, Italy, Spain, and Portugal (BBG)

  • PayPal’s stock tanks 25% in post-earnings selloff (BBG)

  • Oil-trading giant Vitol eyes shale expansion with new venture (BBG)

  • DE Shaw seeks $500M for first PE fund (BBG)

  • Washington Football Team officially renamed Washington Commanders (CNBC)

  • Growth hedge funds suffer worst rout in years (WSJ)

  • Melinda French Gates no longer pledges bulk of her wealth to Gates Foundation (WSJ)

  • SpaceX rolls outs ‘premium’ Starlink satellite internet tier at $500 per month (CNBC)

  • GitHub introduces sponsor-only repositories (TC)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Carlyle agreed to buy iStar’s net lease business in a ~$3B deal (BBG)

  • The shareholders of gambling software company Playtech rejected a $2.84B offer from Australian gaming company Aristocrat (RT)

  • German online car dealer MeinAuto is preparing to put itself up for sale in a potential $1.13B deal (RT)

  • Cryptocurrency exchange FTX agreed to buy Japanese rival Liquid (CNBC)

  • Relaxation app Calm agreed to buy Ripple Health, which works to connect people with proper healthcare (CNBC)

  • Food and drink company Nestle is in talks to buy a majority stake in protein powder maker Orgain (BBG)

  • French defense company Thales is discussing teaming up with a PE company on a potential acquisition of technology services provider Atos (BBG)

  • Banco Santander expects to be among lenders exploring potential bids for Citigroup’s retail banking operations in Mexico (BBG)

  • Software company Canva agreed to buy data visualization platform Flourish (BBG)

  • Chatbot developer Gupshup agreed to buy cloud communications startup Knowlarity Communications for ~$100M (BBG)

  • Fortress Investment Group is exploring a sale of British plane-leasing firm Falko Regional Aircraft (BBG)

VC

  • 10x, a banking technology startup, raised a $187M Series C led by BlackRock and CPP Investments (PRN)

  • Product-management software business Productboard raised $125M at a $1.7B valuation in a financing round led by Dragoneer Investment Group (BBG)

  • Pixel Vault, a superhero themed NFT collection, raised a $100M round from 01 Advisors and Velvet Sea Ventures (TC)

  • Electric carbon capture and removal company Verdox raised $80M in funding from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Prelude Ventures, and Lowercarbon Capital (BW)

  • PlexTrac, a cybersecurity company, raised a $70M Series B led by Insight Partners (PRN)

  • Crypto analytics platform Dune raised $69.42M at a $1B valuation in a Series B led by Coatue (yes, that's $69 million and $420,000) (TBC)

  • Pecan AI, an AI startup building predictive analytics for business users, raised a $66M Series C led by Insight Partners (BW)

  • Customer data platform RudderStack raised a $56M Series B led by Insight Partners (TC)

  • Property management tech startup PURE raised a $50M round at a $300M valuation led by Level Equity (PRN)

  • Torii, a SaaS management platform, raised a $50M Series B led by Tiger Global (BW)

  • Zero Acre Farms, a food startup seeking to replace seed oils with healthy, sustainable oils & fats made by fermentation, raised a $37M Series A co-led by Lowercarbon Capital and Fifty Years (PRN)

  • Insurtech company 180 Seguros raised a $31.4M Series A led by 8VC (PRN)

  • Miami-based financing platform for business acquisitions Boopos raised a $30M seed round led by Fasanara (PRN)

  • Hiretual, an global talent platform, raised $26M in funding led by Conductive Ventures (PRN)

  • E-commerce enablement startup Melonn raised a $20M Series A led by QED Investors (TC)

  • AI-powered enterprise search engine raffle.ai raised an $18M Series A led by K1 Investment Management (PRN)

  • Waldo, a no-code test automation platform for mobile apps, raised a $15M Series A led by Insight Partners (PRN)

  • Real estate securities marketplace LEX raised a $15M Series A led by PEAK6 Strategic Capital (BW)

  • Learning amplification platform Continu raised a $13.5M Series A led by Five Elms Capital (BW)

  • Data lake storage & processing startup Onehouse raised $8M in seed funding from Greylock and Addition (TC)

  • Biosynthetic Technologies, a manufacturer of alternative petroleum products, raised a $7.5M Series A-1 led by HG Ventures (PRN)

  • Crypto currency and Web3 tax software provider CoinLedger raised $6M led by CMT Digital, DRW Venture Capital, FinTech Collective, and others (PRN)

  • Formus Labs, a startup automating orthopedic surgery planning, raised $5M led by GD1 (PRN)

  • Nigerian insurance startup Casava raised a $4M pre-seed round led by Target Global (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Money transfer firm Zepz is considering seeking an up to $6B valuation in a US IPO (BBG)

Debt

  • AMC Entertainment received investor commitments for a new $950M bond deal that it will use to pay down maturing debt. The new bond will carry an interest rate of ~7.5% and extends the maturity by four years to 2029 (CNBC)

Crypto Corner

  • Crypto miner Riot Blockchain shut down most of its huge Bitcoin-mining operation in Texas ahead of an upcoming winter storm (BBG)

  • South African regulator FSCA cautions consumers against FTX, ByBit (DC)

  • Ethereum beats Bitcoin as most donated cryptocurrency in 2021 (DC)

  • Grayscale debuts ETF to track digital asset-based equities index (TB)

  • Federal Reserve Bank of NY lays out possible stablecoin scenarios (CD)

  • $323 million in ETH was stolen from Wormhole, a cross-chain protocol that serves as a bridge between the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. This is one of the largest exploits of a DeFi protocol to date (TB)

Exec's Picks

  • One of our writers, Jack, has a weekly newsletter called Young Money. On Monday, he wrote a great piece about how our collective dopamine problem is killing our productivity. Give Dopamine a read.

  • Crypto has been on an insane rollercoaster lately. Our bois over at Foot Guns know how to really break it down. They're the crypto degens who eat, sleep, breathe DeFi protocols and are in the right discords soaking it all in. You can sub to the free newsletter here if you wanna stay up to speed.

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.

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