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☆ UK-based IT firm Noventiq to list in U.S. through SPAC deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 9 (Reuters) - London-listed IT company Noventiq (SFTLq.L) said on Thursday it will combine with California-based blank-check firm Corner Growth Acquisition Corp for a Nasdaq listing. Noventiq said the current price of its listed global depository receipts (GDRs) was not a fair reflection of the value of the group and there continued to be very limited trading volume of its GDRs on the London Stock Exchange. Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are listed but have no business operations, except hunting for a private company to take public and allowing it to bypass the scrutiny that comes with a traditional IPO. Noventiq, which provides digital solutions, hardware and cloud services, said the parties expected to finalise the agreement in the coming weeks. Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Shounak DasguptaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ AI is the latest Wall Street craze. Is it also the next bubble?
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

All of this AI news has helped boost shares of Baidu (BIDU), Microsoft (MSFT) and Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL) this year. Shares of the artificial intelligence software company have more than doubled this year, to about $26. SoundHound AI, which makes speech- and other audio-recognition software, has also seen its stock more than double this year. The fact that many of the world’s largest tech companies are embracing artificial intelligence is evidence of that. “We believe tech companies and tech equities will continue to face headwinds, as long as the Fed keeps its foot on the brake,” Siebel said in December.

☆ Tesla's stock is getting trounced by EV challenger Lucid, which is leading techs' 2023 rally thanks to Saudi takeover rumors
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Shares in electric-vehicle manufacturer Lucid Motors have jumped 69% in 2023. Speculation of a takeover by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund has fueled Lucid's recent rally. Lucid is even beating rival EV manufacturer Tesla, which is up just under 60% so far this year at $196.81, despite analysts' fears. Lucid shares have also risen thanks to rumors of a looming takeover by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which invests on behalf of the government and already owns over 60% of the carmaker. The stock jumped 43% on January 27 alone, after the deals website Betaville reported the Saudi PIF could be close to finalizing a full takeover.

☆ Japan startup selling $550,000 Star Wars-inspired hoverbike to list on NASDAQ
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A.L.I technology's Xturismo air-mobility hover bike is displayed at the Tokyo Motor Show, in Tokyo, Japan October 24, 2019. REUTERS/Edgar SuFeb 3 (Reuters) - Japanese startup Aerwins Technologies, which is selling a Star Wars-inspired $555,000 hoverbike, has received approval to list on the NASDAQ in a merger with blank-check firm Pono Capital Corp (PONO.O), the manufacturer said on Friday. Aerwins, which is taking orders for the XTurismo hoverbike with a motorcycle-like body on top of propellers that it unveiled last year, estimates it will be valued at $600 million in the transaction. Started as ALI Technologies in Tokyo, the company said in a statement to Reuters that NASDAQ had approved its listing on Thursday, with trading to begin on Monday. Aikawa's company, SBC Medical Group, which operates cosmetic medical centres in Japan, is going public through a merger with another Pono-related blank check company, Pono Capital Two (PTWO.O).

REUTERS/Phil NobleCOVENTRY, England, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Developing fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) that can go everywhere has proven harder and more expensive than expected, but investors are continuing to fund startups that target simpler self-driving vehicle solutions far removed from pedestrians and other vehicles operated by unpredictable humans. Earlier promises made by robotaxi companies of operating fleets of vehicles by the early 2020s have fallen well short. BMW iVentures has also invested in AV truck technology firm Kodiak Robotics, which managing partner Sage said has adopted a simpler approach to areas like mapping. Construction and agricultural equipment - used off-road in low-traffic environments - has been another growth area for AV startups. U.S. agricultural equipment maker AGCO Corp (AGCO.N), for instance, is using the Palo Alto, California-based startup's software for an experimental automated electric planter.

The business has been valued at as much as 3 billion pounds ($3.7 billion), according to analysts. "But we do see a pathway whereby, via consolidation, ITV may be able to simultaneously both demonstrate and create value from ITV Studios," they said. ITV built up its Studios production business in the last decade to reduce its reliance on the British advertising market and tap into rising global demand for content. Revenue in the nine months to end-September rose 16% to 1.39 billion pounds ($1.71 billion). That would imply a valuation of about 3 billion pounds, in line with analysts' calculations and nearly as much as ITV's total market value of 3.27 billion pounds.

☆ EV maker Lotus Tech to go public in the U.S. via deal with L Catterton SPAC
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Brenda Goh | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Lotus Tech is the luxury electric vehicle maker division of sports car brand Group Lotus, which is in turn owned jointly by Chinese automaker Geely (GEELY.UL) and Malaysia's Etika Automotive. The unit is headquartered in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and produces cars through a partnership with Geely. Lotus Tech's existing shareholders, including Geely, Etika and NIO Capital, an investment firm founded by the CEO of Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio Inc , will retain their interests in the company and own 89.7% of it following the deal, it said. The company plans to use the proceeds from the combination of the businesses for product innovation and to expand its global distribution network. "We expect the partnership to provide significant support as Lotus Tech expands globally, with promising brand collaboration and strategic partnership potential worldwide," Lotus Tech's Chief Executive Officer Feng Qingfeng said.

☆ ChatGPT is about to write BuzzFeed content - and investors are loving it
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

BuzzFeed's part of that group too — but it's come up with a peculiar idea to ramp up business (and stock). Similar to other companies, BuzzFeed laid off 12% of its workforce last month, citing a worsening economic environment. The stock also got a boost from news of the media company's partnership with Meta, which will see BuzzFeed bring more content to Facebook and Instagram. It's unclear how ChatGPT's parent, OpenAI, ties into Meta's multi-million dollar deal with BuzzFeed, if at all, but the agreement is meant to boost creator content for Facebook and Instagram. It was the king of viral content and quirky listicles — and Facebook of course had a hand in getting eyeballs on BuzzFeed.

☆ BuzzFeed soars on reports of Meta deal, plans to use OpenAI
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 26 (Reuters) - Shares of BuzzFeed Inc (BZFD.O) jumped on Thursday on reports of a deal with Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) and plans to use artificial intelligence to personalize and enhance the digital media firm's online quizzes and content. Buzzfeed, in an emailed response to Reuters, said "we are not using ChatGPT - we are using OpenAI's publicly available API (application programming interface)." Earlier in the day, the stock had jumped 50% on a separate report by the Journal that said Meta was paying BuzzFeed millions of dollars to bring more creators to Facebook and Instagram. Indicating interest from retail traders, BuzzFeed shares were among the top three orders on Fidelity's platform on Thursday. Its third-quarter net loss had widened to $27 million from $3.6 million a year ago.

☆ Shipping Platform Freightos Goes Public in SPAC Deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Paul Berger | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

Online freight booking platform Freightos Ltd. started trading shares publicly on Thursday through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company, just as the booming shipping demand that helped fuel the digital startup’s growth shows signs of weakening. The company has seen booming business during the pandemic for its platform as shipping demand skyrocketed while tight capacity and supply-chain disruptions sent freight rates soaring. The Freightos platform operates like an Expedia or Travelocity for freight, allowing companies with goods to ship to compare prices and book space on planes and ships. In a note to new shareholders on Freightos’ website Thursday, Zvi Schreiber, the company’s chief executive and chairman, recommended that investors view Freightos as a long-term investment. Ezra Gardner, Gesher’s chief executive and a Freightos board member, said the SPAC gave Freightos more control than an IPO over whom the company’s main investors would be.

☆ Battered BuzzFeed shares rally after report of multi-million dollar Meta deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 26 (Reuters) - Shares of BuzzFeed Inc (BZFD.O) jumped over 50% in early trading after a report said Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) was paying the digital media firm millions of dollars to bring more creators to Facebook, Instagram. About 30 million shares changed hands by 9:50 a.m. The $132 million company has seen its shares tank over 90% to just under $1 since going public via a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in December 2021. SPACs typically sell shares for $10 each, put the cash in a trust account and then search for a company to buy. Its third-quarter net loss had widened to $27 million from $3.6 million a year ago.

☆ Now that Trump can return to Facebook, Truth Social could be all but doomed
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

If Trump is no longer exclusively on Truth Social, it could reduce the platform's appeal for many. Shunned from mainstream platforms, Trump founded and launched Truth Social in February 2022. Matt Navarra, a social-media consultant, said it was "inevitable" that Trump's return to Facebook or Instagram would negatively affect Truth Social. Trump evangelists may lose faith"For most people, Donald Trump is the face of Truth Social," Navarra said. Navarra added that Truth Social would likely still be of value to many users, however, because of its lighter approach to content moderation.

☆ SEC Scrutiny Blocks Some Crypto Firms From Going Public
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Dave Michaels | Peter Rudegeair | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Crypto companies seeking to go public over the past year have faced increased scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission, as financial distress and failures spread across the volatile industry. Crypto-focused companies including Bullish Global, Circle Internet Financial and eToro Group Ltd. have failed to secure the SEC approvals that are required of companies going public. The firms were seeking stock-exchange listings through mergers with special-purpose acquisition companies, an alternative path to going public that thrived in 2020 and 2021 before heightened regulatory checks and market turbulence ended the SPAC boom.

☆ In 2022, UWM became the top US mortgage lender and its CEO bought an NBA team. Against the odds, it expects to grow more.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

United Wholesale Mortgage became the country's largest originator in 2022. Mortgage rates soared at their fastest rate in decades, halting refinances and slowing home purchases to a crawl. In a way, UWM's strategy is much more old-fashioned than other mortgage players, including Rocket Mortgage. "The idea that you can go on a computer, click a button, and there's your mortgage, that's foolish," he said. To Rocket Mortgage, that's a fundamental misunderstanding of its business.

☆ SPAC Deals Shrink After Speculation Wanes
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Amrith Ramkumar | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Some of Wall Street’s most speculative investors are scaling back their ambitions, doing deals that are a 10th the size of their flashy, top-of-market acquisitions. Creators of special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, are valuing companies they seek to take public at the lowest levels since the boom began nearly three years ago, figures from Dealogic show. The average announced SPAC merger value has fallen to about $200 million so far in January, down from more than $2 billion for much of 2021 during the sector’s peak.

☆ EQRx promised to deliver cutting-edge drugs at half the cost of rivals. A cofounder shares why the once buzzy biotech is walking away from that mission
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

After years of touting the idea of radically lower drug prices, EQRx has walked away from that plan. Cofounder Alexis Borisy said it was due to the FDA not OK'ing drugs based only on Chinese data. EQRx suddenly sounded like a typical biotech company, talking of "market-based pricing" that would "maximize value for shareholders." EQRx's stock is down over 75% since its record-breaking SPACAlexis Borisy, EQRx Chairman, and CEO Melanie Nallicheri. An unclear future for 'radically lower drug prices'EQRx CEO Melanie Nallicheri EQRxIn November, EQRx said it wouldn't pursue radically lower pricing for its first two drug candidates, both cancer therapies.

☆ Let the consolidation begin: With venture markets frozen and profitability tenuous, proptechs turn to one another
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The co-living operators Common and Habyt merged; Pagaya brought the property manager Darwin Homes. The proptech companies that sprang up by the dozens in the past few years are now looking to one another for help. A massive consolidation among companies that seek to make real-estate transactions and services more efficient and profitable is underway. Cushman & Wakefield reported 90% occupancy rates for co-living companies at the end of the third quarter of 2022, and traditional real-estate firms like Cushman and Greystar are now offering their own co-living brands. In property management, the consolidation phase is already well underway, said Paul Stanton, the other founding partner at Proptech Bankers.

☆ Andrew Tate's deal with Rumble is worth millions, he has privately said
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Andrew Tate has been lining his pockets via right-wing social media. Tate has privately boasted that his deal with Rumble, the video-based social media site popular with conservatives that markets itself as “immune to cancel culture,” was worth a staggering $9 million. The distribution agreements underscore how profitable it can be to work as an influencer in right-wing media. Despite being banned by the vast majority of mainstream social media platforms, Tate remains influential among young men. But with Tate in custody facing serious charges, the fate of his lucrative deal with Rumble remains to be seen.

Jan 11 (Reuters) - Lucid Group Inc (LCID.O) on Wednesday won the dismissal of a lawsuit accusing the luxury electric car maker of defrauding investors in the special-purpose acquisition company that helped take it public, by significantly overstating its production outlook. Rogers said the Churchill shareholders had standing to sue over statements made by a different company, Lucid, because they alleged a "discernible" loss from "specific alleged misconduct." In Dec. 2021, Lucid received a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission subpoena for documents related to the merger. Lawyers for Churchill shareholders did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The case is In re CCIV/Lucid Motors Securities Litigation, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No.

Proptech customers, employees, and investors said they went from delighted to disillusioned. Proptech investors eager to capture these trends pumped $32 billion into the industry in 2021. As markets deteriorated, disillusionment set in among proptech customers, investors, and employees. Some customers say they were disappointed buying homes via proptech startupsReal-estate startups like Divvy Homes and Better launched under the auspices of helping customers afford quality homes. Investors in proptech firms are taking financial hitsYou don't need to ask proptech investors whether they're disappointed in the sector's performance — just look at share prices.

☆ 2023 will make or break Tesla wannabes like Rivian and Lucid. Here's what they need to do if they want to survive.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Alexa St. John | Nora Naughton | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

"As the pressure on the supply chain eases, investors can point to a General Motors and say, 'They're building without a problem, why can't you?'" During quarterly earnings calls, executives at Rivian and Lucid cautioned investors of more trouble heading into 2023 as they raced to ramp up production and their logistics processes in hand. Accordingly, stock prices have been sinking from blockbuster IPO and SPAC highs, with many EV startups' shares down as much as 80% from earlier last year. Rivian reported Tuesday it fell a few hundred vehicles short of its goal to build 25,000 electric cars in 2022. If the startups want to succeed and regain investor faith, they have to get closer to meeting their numbers in 2023.

☆ 'Everything is going down': A hedge fund manager who returned 163% in 2022 says stock-market pain is only beginning
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Neal Berger's hedge fund returned 163% in 2022 betting on the end of the easy money era, according to a Bloomberg report. Berger said more pain is still to come for global markets and everything will continue to decline. "The reason why I started the fund was that central bank flows were going to change 180 degrees. Per the report, Eagle's View has about $700 million in assets under management, and roughly $200 million in the Contrarian Macro Fund. In particular, his Contrarian Macro Fund is mostly betting against Europen and American assets, though it also has hedges that will pay returns in upswings.

☆ Former SPAC exec pleads guilty to defrauding people of $5 million to trade crypto and meme stocks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Brian Evans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The former chief financial officer for two SPACs pleaded guilty to wire fraud, the DOJ said Wednesday. Cooper Morgenthau was charged with embezzling $5 million to trade crypto and meme stocks. Morgenthau falsified bank statements to shield his losses to accountants and auditors, the DOJ said. Cooper Morgenthau used the funds to trade cryptocurrencies and meme stocks and later falsified bank statements to hide his losses of nearly the entire sum. Wire fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and Morgenthau agreed to make restitution on $5,111,335.

☆ BuzzFeed's $300M purchase of Complex promised to grow both brands, but insiders say strategies have clashed and Complex's culture is being 'completely gutted'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Complex insiders worry that the cuts threaten their brand's culture and future. Clashing video strategies as some fear Complex culture is being 'completely gutted'Kevin Hart appeared on Complex's "Hot Ones" series. Before joining with BuzzFeed, Complex's then-CEO Rich Antoniello had conversations with Vice Media and Vox Media. But Complex insiders felt especially aggrieved when, this fall, BuzzFeed announced a global expansion for ComplexCon. To Complex insiders, BuzzFeed's plan to take the event to Australia, Europe, and Asia simultaneously was unrealistic and under-resourced.

☆ Some Truth Social fans don't want Trump back on Twitter. It's just one of several reasons why he might not return.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Per reports, Trump has chosen to prioritize Truth Social, which he founded and launched in February. Twitter is a Truth Social competitorTwitter is a direct competitor to Truth Social, which has a similar structure to Elon Musk's platform. Many Truth Social users want him to stay putData shows that many Truth Social users are keen for Trump to steer clear of other social networks. Last month, a poll posted on Truth Social asked: "Now that Trump is unbanned, should he get back on Twitter?" 'Star of the show'Naturally, a large percentage of Truth Social users are Trump aficionados who want to hear directly from the former president.

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