Read It And Eat 19/12

David Abam
Apr 8, 2024
3 min read

Welcome to ‘Read it and Eat’ — your go-to for bite-sized updates on corporate actions in finance, AI and anything I consider newsworthy. Join me twice a week for quick reads, where I serve up the latest insights that matter in the world of business.

Major Headlines:

Adobe scrapped its $20B acquisition attempt of the cloud-based platform for designers, Figma, due to regulatory issues in the UK and within the EU. [https://www.bloomberg.com/]
Adobe has abandoned its intended acquisition of Figma citing that there was “no clear path to receive the necessary regulatory approvals.” There were anti-trust regulatory concerns and Adobe refused divestment saying that it would be wholly disproportionate. As such it has agreed to pay the $1B termination fee as agreed to in the terms of the merger agreement.
Docusign a $12B electronic signatures software company is considering a sale via a Leveraged Buyout (LBO) [https://www.entrepreneur.com]
This comes as a surprise as the company has averaged a 9% rate of growth and has captured the majority of market share within this space. As it is in the early days, this can be considered to be a call for interest from interested parties.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX will sell between $500M and $750M of private shares through a tender offer at a new whopping valuation of $180B [https://www.bloomberg.com]
SpaceX plans to offer insider shares at $97 apiece in a tender offer, marking a significant price increase, according to a Bloomberg News report citing sources. This price surge elevates the space and satellite company’s value to nearly $180 billion. This makes the company one of the most valuable privately held startups globally.
Nikola founder, Trevor Milton was sentenced to four years in prison for Fraud. [https://www.cnbc.com/]
Nikola founder Trevor Milton was sentenced Monday to four years in prison in connection to defrauding investors of the embattled electric- and hydrogen-powered truck maker. Milton also was fined $1 million and could later be forced to forfeit property as part of his sentence. The judge however allowed Milton to remain free on bail while he appealed his conviction.

Minor Headlines:

Coinbase to begin offering spot crypto trading on its international exchange from today. [https://www.reuters.com]
AI-driven drug discovery startup, Deep Apple Therapeutics raised an impressive $52M Series A round led by Apple Tree Partners, a venture capital firm. [https://www.prnewswire.com]
A startup aimed at reducing the risk of AI through testing and evaluation of raised a remarkable $11M seed round by A16z (Andreessen Horowitz). [https://techcrunch.com]
Tetra, a home services startup based out of NYC that helps homeowners transition form fossil fuels to clean energy raised a $10.5M seed round led by Greycroft Capital, Gutter Capital, Lerer Hippeau and 1Sharpe Capital. [https://www.prnewswire.com]
Private Equity firm Are Partners raised $2.8B for its third fund which is focused on investing in startups in the decarbonisation sector [https://www.axios.com]
Bain Capital agreed to acquire a controlling g stake in Eleda in a deal that values the Swedish infrastructure projects and services firm at around $1.6B. [https://www.bloomberg.com]
Britain’s biggest pub chain, Stonegate to be provided a loan of $789M by Apollo Global Management [https://www.bloomberg.com]
Argentina moves forward with plans to dollarise after the further devaluation of its own currency does not positively impact its economy. [https://www.bloomberg.com]

News of the Week:

Alex Batty Found in France

Alex Batty, the 10-year-old who went missing in October 2017 at a family holiday in Marbella Spain, was found by a student delivery driver. He was found walking alone on a country road in Toulouse, France. He had returned to the UK on Saturday the 16th of December 2023, 6 years after going missing and has said that he is happy to be home in time for Christmas. [https://www.reuters.com]

GenZ Word of the Day:

Omnishambles: A mix between the prefix Omni and the word Shambles. It means a person or situation that is in shambles from every angle.