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Good morning, Term Sheet readers. I’m glad to be back from Thanksgiving break, when I finally gave up trying to like turkey and opted for lasagna.
Much like lasagna (forgive the pun), the news layered on over the long U.S. holiday as investors continued to take advantage of these strange market conditions to IPO or merge with other businesses.
Here are five things you need to know to jumpstart your week:
(FINANCIAL) DATA IS EVERYTHING: In a mega Monday merger, S&P Global agreed to acquire market data provider IHS Markit for an eye-popping $44 billion, including $4.8 billion in debt. The transaction will be completed entirely in S&P Global stock. Meanwhile, the London Stock Exchange is seeking clearance for its plans to acquire data provider Refinitiv for $27 billion.
AIRBNB AND DOORDASH SEEK EVEN HIGHER VALUATIONS: Airbnb, which was valued at $31 billion in 2017 before succumbing to the pandemic with an $18 billion tag earlier this year, has recovered surprisingly quickly and may be seeking a valuation of $30 billion to $33 billion in its roadshow this week, the Wall Street Journal reports. And DoorDash is now seeking a valuation of $25 to $28 billion, after being last valued at $16 billion in private markets. Read more.
OH, COINBASE: On Sunday, the New York Times published an article based on conversations and documents from 23 current and former Coinbase employees alleging racism and discrimination against Black employees. Coinbase sought to get ahead of the story, releasing a statement saying, “We expect the story will paint an inaccurate picture that lacks complete information and context.” But it is worth noting: About 3% of the company’s employees are Black—less than half the average of the rest of the tech industry. Read more.
SALESFORCE-SLACK TALKS: Late last week, reports emerged that Salesforce was in talks to acquire Slack for over $17 billion. Salesforce shares have soared this year—making for valuable M&A currency—while Slack’s work-from-home boost teetered in recent months as investors worried about competition from Microsoft. A deal could come as soon as this week.
TONY HSIEH DIES AT 46: On Friday, Tony Hsieh, the former CEO of Zappos.com, died after being injured from a house fire in Connecticut. The Harvard graduate joined the online shoe company in 1999 and saw it through its sale to Amazon in 2009 for $1.2 billion and only retired as its CEO earlier this year. He was known for his management experiments that were hailed both wacky and visionary.
Lowercase Capital’s Chris Sacca wrote on Twitter, “Tony Hsieh might be the most original thinker I’ve ever been friends with. He questioned every assumption and shared everything he learned along the way. He genuinely delighted in making anyone and everyone happy. The earth has lost a beautifully weird and helpful person. RIP.”
“My favorite Tony Hsieh memory was watching him beat us all breezily in poker and then give our money to the dealers and servers as tips,” tweeted Mark Pincus, co-founder of Zynga. “I will miss his quiet smiling confidence.”
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- SpaceX, the space travel company, previously said it raised $1.9 billion. That round was led the round by Sequoia, per The Information. Read more.
- Empower Education Online, a Chinese provider of edtech software, raised $265 million in Series C funding. Hillhouse Capital led the round. Read more.
- Cars24, an India-based platform for buying and selling pre-owned vehicles, raised $200 million in Series E funding. DST Global led the round.
- HungryPanda, a London-based maker of a food delivery app for Chinese consumers outside of China, raised $70 million in Series C funding. Kinnevik led the round and was joined by investors including 83North and Felix Capital.
- Aurora Solar, a San Francisco-based company developing tools for solar professionals to design and sell solar remotely, raised $50 million in Series B funding. ICONIQ Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Energize Ventures, Fifth Wall, and Pear VC.
- Materialize, a New York-based database streaming company, raised $40 million in funding. Kleiner Perkins led a $32 million Series B round. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the Series A investment in 2019.
- Mursion, a San Francisco-based VR interpersonal training company, raised $20 million in funding from Leeds Illuminate. Read more.
- Primer, a U.K.-based fintech focused on consolidating payments for merchants, raised £14 million ($18.7 million) in Series A funding. Accel led the round. Read more.
- Elevian, an Allston, Mass.-based biotech company developing medicines for age-related diseases, raised $15 million and includes conversion of prior notes. Prime Movers Lab led the round and was joined by investors including Bold Capital Partners, For Good Ventures, Kizoo Ventures, Lauder Partners, Longevity Fund, SavEarth Fund, and WTI.
- Hypr, a self-driving car startup founded by former Zoox CEO Tim Kentley Kaly, raised $10 million in seed funding. R7 Ventures led the round. Read more.
- Cast.ai, a Miami, Fla.-based cloud management software provider, raised $7.7 million in seed funding. Investors included TA Ventures, DNX, and Florida Funders. Read more.
- Homeppl, a London-based tenant referencing system startup, raised $2 million. Investors include Ascension Ventures, Fair By Design, and JLR Star.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Abris Capital Partners agreed to acquire Scanmed S.A., a Poland-based healthcare network operator, from Life Healthcare Group Holdings. The deal gives Scanmed an enterprise value of about 340 million zloty ($90.7 million).
- Sycamore Partners is finalizing plans to buy assets of retailer Ascena Retail Group Inc., including the Ann Taylor and Loft brands, per Bloomberg citing sources. Read more.
EXITS
- Unilever agreed to acquire SmartyPants Vitamins, a Los Angeles-based vitamin, mineral and supplement company. Investors including Morgan Stanley and North Castle backed SmartyPants.
- Advent International is planning to revive sales talks of Unit4, a Netherlands-based software company that could be valued at above $2.3 billion, per Bloomberg citing sources. Read more.
OTHER
- Suning.com, the Chinese home goods retailer, is considering selling a stake in its e-commerce business that could value the segment at about $6 billion. Read more.
- Intuit’s (Nasdaq: INTU) $7 billion bid to acquire Credit Karma, a fintech company, received Department of Justice approval for their union with the divestiture of Credit Karma’s tax business. Square (NYSE: SQ) will acquire the tax business for $50 million.
- Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB) plans to take a $650 million stake in Sage Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SAGE), a Cambridge, Mass.-based biopharmaceutical company, and pay $875 million to jointly develop treatments for depression and other disorders.
- Alibaba and Tencent’s separate talks to acquire a controlling stake in iQIYI (Nasdaq: IQ) from Baidu, though those conversations have stalled over valuation and regulatory concerns, per Reuters. Read more.
- General Motors (NYSE: GM) is forgoing a potential 11% equity stake in Nikola (Nasdaq: NKLA) and dropped plans to make the electric truck maker’s pickup, the Badger. Read more.
IPO
- 17 Education & Technology Group, a Chinese provider of K-12 tutoring services, says it plans to raise $288 million with China Pinnacle Equity Management planning to acquire some $80 million worth in ADSs in the offering. Read more.
SPAC
- Perella Weinberg Partners is in talks to go public via merger with FinTech Acquisition Corporation IV, a SPAC set up by Betsy Cohen. Read more.
- CBRE Acquisition Holdings, a SPAC formed by CBRE, lowered the size of its raise and now plans to raise $350 million. Read more.
- Marquee Raine Acquisition, a blank check company formed by The Raine Group seeking a target in the TMT industry, filed to raise $325 million. Read more.
F+FS
- Firstminute Capital, a London-based fund, raised $111 million (£87 million) for its second early-stage venture fund.
