As we navigate 2024, the Intellizence newsletter brings you key business signals and trends discovered by the Intellizence platform -? largest Funding,? mega Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), billion-dollar Business Expansions, major CEO Changes, Layoffs, and Bankruptcy data.
STARTUP/VENTURE CAPITAL /PRIVATE EQUITY FUNDING DEALS
Major Venture Capital & Private Equity funding deals announced during the year were:?
- xAI secured $6 billion in May (Series B) and $5 billion in November, a total of $11 billion.
- Databricks raised $10 billion in a Series J round, increasing its valuation to $62 billion.
- Vantage Data Centers completed a $9.2 billion equity investment, oversubscribed by $2.8 billion.
- Anthropic secured $2.75 billion in funding in March and an additional $4 billion from Amazon in November, bringing its total funding to $6.75 billion.
- OpenAI secured $6.6 billion, boosting its valuation to $157 billion.
- Veeam Software closed a $2 billion equity offering, increasing its valuation to $15 billion.
- Anduril Industries raised $1.5 billion in a Series F round, achieving a $14 billion valuation.
- CoreWeave raised $1.1 billion in Series C funding.
- Safe Superintelligence (SSI) raised $1 billion to advance safe AI systems surpassing human capabilities.
- Waymo closed a $5.6 billion funding round to stay ahead in the robotaxi race.
Major Mergers & Acquisitions and Divestments announced and terminated during the year were:?
- Mars, a global leader in pet care, snacking, and food, has acquired Kellanova, a leading company in snacking and related categories, for? $35.9 billion.??
- Capital One Financial Corporation has acquired Discover Financial Services in an all-stock deal valued at $35.3 billion.
- Synopsys has acquired Ansys in a deal valued at approximately $35 billion.?
- Diamondback Energy has acquired Endeavor Energy Partners in a $26 billion deal.
- ConocoPhillips has acquired Marathon Oil in an all-stock transaction with an enterprise value of $22.5 billion.
- Verizon Communications has acquired Frontier Communications Parent in a deal valued at $20 billion.
- Amazon called off its $1.7 billion bid to buy vacuum maker iRobot amid scrutiny in Europe and the U.S.
- Sony ended its $10 billion merger with India’s Zee Entertainment, setting the stage for a legal spat.
- Albertsons Companies has terminated its merger agreement with Kroger following injunctions issued by the U.S. District Court in Oregon and the King County Superior Court in Washington, which blocked the proposed merger.
CEO APPOINTMENTS & CHANGES
CEO appointments and changes in leading companies during the year were:
- Brian Niccol has joined Starbucks as Chairman & CEO, replacing Laxman Narasimhan, who stepped down.
- Michael Kors has appointed John D. Idol as Chief Executive Officer.
- Kohl’s has appointed former Walmart executive Ashley Buchanan as Chief Executive.
- Mark van Dyck has been named the new CEO of Domino's Pizza, succeeding Don Meij, who is retiring after a long tenure.
- David Joyner has been appointed as the new CEO of CVS, succeeding Karen Lynch.
- Nike's CEO, John Donahoe, abruptly resigned amid declining sales. Elliott Hill, who left the company, will return as CEO.
- Accenture has appointed Arundhati Chakraborty as Group Chief Executive of its operations.
- Victoria’s Secret has appointed Hillary Super as its new CEO to accelerate growth, succeeding Martin Waters.
- John Santora is WeWork's new CEO, succeeding David Tolley, who stepped down following the workspace provider's emergence from bankruptcy.
INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERINGS (IPOs)
The top Ten IPOs for the year 2024 are:
- Largest cold food storage REIT - Lineage ($4.4B)
- Provider of home and community-based health services - BrightSpring Health ($1B)
- Aviation services company - StandardAero ($1.4B)
- Healthcare payments software maker - Waystar ($968M)
- A safety verification and testing company - UL Solutions ($946M)
- Healthcare platform - BrightSpring Health Services ($880M)
- A cloud data management company - Rubrik ($752M)
- A social news aggregation, web content rating, & discussion platform - Reddit ($748M)
- Innovative semiconductor solutions company - Astera Labs ($713M)
Major business expansions announced during the year were:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) plans to invest over $73 billion globally to expand its cloud computing infrastructure to enhance data centers, strengthen AI capabilities, and grow cloud infrastructure across established and emerging markets.
- Telus plans to invest C$24 billion ($17.62 billion) to upgrade and improve its network infrastructure and operations in Ontario and another C$17.5 billion in network infrastructure, operations, and spectrum in British Columbia.
- Microsoft has announced over $39 billion in investments to expand its global cloud and AI infrastructure, emphasizing AI innovation, enhanced cloud services, and sustainable data center operations.
- Blackstone is investing $25 billion to develop data centers in Phoenix to address the growing demand for cloud services. The firm will also invest ￡10 billion ($13.4 billion) in the U.K. to construct one of Europe’s largest AI data centers.
- Temasek Holdings,? a state-owned investment company from Singapore, plans to invest S$38 billion (USD$30 billion) in the United States market over the next five years.
- Google plans to invest over $22 billion to expand its data center and cloud infrastructure, focusing on enhancing technical capacity and supporting cloud computing across key regions.
- Oracle plans to invest over $15.5 billion to support digital transformation and meet the growing demand for cloud services and AI technologies across Japan, Malaysia, and Spain.?
- Air Products will invest $15 billion to expand its global operations, focusing on hydrogen and renewable energy initiatives to accelerate the transition.
- Honda Motor Co. plans to construct a C$13.83 billion electric vehicle mega-plant in Canada and invest an additional C$11 billion in Ontario. It will collaborate with yet-to-be-named joint venture partners to establish a comprehensive EV value chain.
- Compass Datacenters, in partnership with the Village of Hoffman Estates and ComEd, will invest $10 billion to construct five hyperscale data centers on the former Sears Headquarters site.
Get the latest business expansion data - Intellizence Business Expansion Dataset.
MAJOR LAYOFFS/HIRING FREEZES
Major layoffs announced during the year were:
- Deutsche Bahn will slash 30,000 jobs after a billion-euro first-half loss.
- Citigroup plans to cut 20,000 jobs.
- BSNL, the Indian government-run telecom service provider, cut 18,000 to 19,000 jobs to improve its financial balance.
- Boeing to cut 17,000 jobs, delay first 777X jet as strike hits finances.
- Chipmaker Intel will cut 15,000 jobs as it tries to revive its business.
- Amazon plans massive layoffs to cut 14,000 manager positions by 2025.
- German auto parts supplier ZF will lay off around 14,000 jobs by 2028.
- UPS is cutting 12,000 jobs, citing softer demand and higher costs.
- ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe plans to reduce its workforce by 11,000.
- The high-end retail group John Lewis is cutting 11,000 jobs to improve efficiency.
Get the latest Layoff & Hiring Freeze data - Intellizence Layoff Dataset.
BANKRUPTCIES AND BUSINESS CLOSURES
Major bankruptcies and business closures announced during the year were:
- Tupperware, known for its plastic food storage containers, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- TGIF, the American casual dining chain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- Spirit Airlines filed for bankruptcy protection because of mounting losses, unaffordable debt, and increased competition.
- Ted Baker Canada first filed for insolvency proceedings in Toronto, followed by the US-based Ted Baker Limited filing a Chapter 15 motion in New York bankruptcy court.
- The Body Shop shut down its U.S. operations after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in New York.
- US bus company Coach files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will sell its business.
- Tommy's Boats, a boat company with locations in Colorado, filed for bankruptcy protection.
- CVC Capital-backed ConvergeOne files for bankruptcy to cut $1.6 billion in debt.
- Canada Jetlines files for bankruptcy after ceasing operations in August 2024.
- Party City will close its stores as the company files for bankruptcy.
- LL Flooring files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and will close 94 stores.
