• Shares of semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries were down more than 2% this afternoon during their first day of trading on the Nasdaq, continuing a week of chilly receptions for high-profile IPOs. Based in Malta, N.Y., the company priced its debut at $47 per share, at the top of its expected range. GlobalFoundries sold 30.25 million shares itself, generating $1.42 billion in proceeds, and longtime owner Mubadala offloaded another 24.75 million shares, raising $1.16 billion. GlobalFoundries' share price is $45.75 as of this writing, which equates to a $24.5 billion valuation. Before GlobalFoundries locked into its IPO plans, Intel had reportedly tried to buy the company for some $30 billion.
• The public was more receptive to Solo Brands, another company that debuted today. The direct-to-consumer retailer of fire pits, grills, kayaks and other outdoor gear raised $219 million by selling 12.9 million shares on the NYSE for $17 apiece. Its stock opened 31% higher, at $22.36. That figure declined as the afternoon progressed, returning to $19 as of this writing, but that's still good for a 12% pop. And that's good news for Summit Partners, which has backed Solo since last year and retains a 46% post-IPO stake.
• It's been a year full of gambling-influenced takeovers. This is among the biggest yet. Brookfield Business Partners (a publicly traded entity that handles much of Brookfield Asset Management's private equity investing) inked a pact to purchase the global lottery business of Scientific Games for $5.8 billion in cash, plus the potential for a $225 million earnout based on future earnings. Media reports from earlier this month had indicated that Scientific Games was also mulling a potential IPO for the unit, which provides gaming products and services through partnerships with lotteries in more than 50 countries. Headquartered in Las Vegas, Scientific Games makes slot machines, electronic card shufflers and other gambling products. Its stock fell 10% today, dropping its market cap below $8 billion.
• FirstCash, an operator of more than 2,800 pawn shops across the U.S. and Latin America, agreed today to pay $1.17 billion to acquire American First Finance, a provider of lease-to-own retail payments services for what it describes as "credit constrained consumers." The move continues a string of high-profile deals in the world of installment loans—or what we are apparently all now calling the "buy now, pay later" space—as financial services companies aim to offer more online buying flexibility for customers of all kinds. Square, PayPal and Goldman Sachs have all also lined up multibillion-dollar acquisitions in the space over the past several months.
• Antitrust regulators from the European Union have opened a full four-month investigation into Nvidia's agreement to buy chip designer Arm, throwing up a significant obstacle to a $54 billion takeover that, if completed, could reshape the semiconductor industry. Nvidia offered unspecified concessions to help get the deal through, but they weren't enough to alleviate regulatory concerns about potential higher prices and reduced innovation in an industry that continues to grow increasingly critical in both geopolitics and just about every sector of the business world. The commission set itself a March 15 deadline for a final ruling. Here are the European Commission's full initial findings.
• For nearly 75 years, until spinning off as its own company in 1994, Eastman Chemical operated as a subsidiary of Eastman Kodak. Now, it is a much bigger company than its former parent, with more than $8 billion in annual revenue and a market cap of nearly $15 billion. (As for Kodak: Well, it's been a rough decade to be in the camera business.) But Eastman Chemical is about to get a bit smaller: The company announced plans to sell its portfolio of adhesive resin assets to Synthomer for $1 billion in cash, with the price representing an 11x multiple on the division's EBITDA over the past 12 months. Synthomer is a British business that makes polymers for a wide range of end-markets.
• A trio of private equity backers are continuing their work to build Insightsoftware into a powerhouse. The developer of financial reporting software struck a pact today to buy Magnitude Software from 3i Group, with the deal generating $477 million in proceeds for the British investor. Earlier this year, fellow U.K.-based firm Hg invested $1 billion into Insightsoftware to acquire joint control of the company alongside TA Associates. Genstar Capital also owns a minority stake. 3i said it will generate a 2.6x return on the sale of Magnitude, having invested $179 million in the company in 2019.
• In a deal reflecting the global nature of the content wars currently unfolding among Hollywood heavyweights, ViacomCBS agreed to buy a majority stake in Spanish-language content producer Fox TeleColombia & Estudios TeleMexico from Disney and the company's founding family. Founder and chief executive Samuel Duque Rozo and president Samuel Duque Duque (great name) will remain atop the company and run its studio operations in partnership with ViacomCBS Networks International. Fox TeleColombia & Estudios TeleMexico will produce TV shows, films, live sports and other content for the various streaming platforms that reside within the ViacomCBS umbrella, including Paramount+ and Pluto TV.
• It only took Nautic Partners two years to double the size of its flagship buyout fund. The Providence, R.I.-based firm closed its 10th flagship effort today with $3 billion in commitments from LPs, an impressive follow-up to a ninth fund that closed on $1.5 billion in 2019. Nautic is a middle-market investor that operates in the healthcare, industrial and services sectors, with a preference for buying platform companies and building them out through add-ons. In conjunction with the new fund, the firm also announced several new hires and promotions, including the appointment of four new managing directors.
• Nearly five months after announcing plans to go public through a $2.2 billion SPAC deal, flying taxi maker Vertical Aerospace said it has raised $200 million in convertible debt funding from Mudrick Capital Management, which specializes in special situations and distressed assets. The investment is conditional on Vertical Aerospace's SPAC deal closing. That SPAC transaction involves a committed $94 million PIPE investment from blue-chip backers including American Airlines, Honeywell, Rolls-Royce and M12, the venture arm of Microsoft. In unveiling the blank-check merger in June, Vertical Aerospace also announced that it had received "up to" 1,000 pre-orders for its electric vehicles worth as much as $4 billion from American Airlines, Avolon and Virgin Atlantic.
• Software developer Ensemble Health Partners is the latest company to call off an IPO due to "adverse market conditions." The Cincinnati-based developer of tools for managing healthcare revenue updated its plans after the market closed on Wednesday, walking away from a listing on the Nasdaq it hoped would raise as much as $649 million. Golden Gate Capital has owned Ensemble since 2019, when it bought a 51% stake from hospital operator Bon Secours Mercy Health for a reported $1.2 billion.
• Swedish private equity investor Procuritas announced an investment in Strandberg Guitars, a maker of headless guitars. I don't know enough about guitars to properly describe what a headless guitar is, other than to say that it doesn't have a head, which seems a bit reductive, so I'm just going to throw in a link to Strandberg's website and let you look for yourself. The deal was conducted in partnership with founder Ola Strandberg, reflecting Procuritas's preference of investing in founder-led companies. This appears to be Strandberg's first significant outside funding.
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