This Week in 30 Minutes
September 12th, 2020
Hi there! We are two economists-to-be sharing + one Business & Law major sharing with you, every Saturday, what we believe are the most relevant and interesting news of the week. The newsletter will be divided between all of our LinkedIn profiles. Please share, like, and comment all your thoughts and suggestions. Enjoy!
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Legal news
LVMH to counter sue Tiffany in fight over troubled takeover
Luxury goods group LVMH said on Thursday it would counter-sue Tiffany, accusing it of mismanagement through the coronavirus crisis after the U.S. jeweller accused the French group of trying to bow out of a $16 billion acquisition deal. The owner of brands such as Louis Vuitton, led by billionaire Bernard Arnault, said on Wednesday it could not complete its Tiffany purchase after the French government requested a delay on closing the transaction. Tiffany has filed a lawsuit against LVMH in Delaware - the U.S. state in which the New York-based company is registered - to force it to complete the deal as agreed last year, before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold. The spread of the virus has dealt a big blow to the luxury sector and raised questions about whether LVMH was overpaying with its $135 a share offer. “LVMH was surprised by the lawsuit filed by Tiffany against the group,” the French group said in a statement, calling it unfounded. “LVMH will defend itself vigorously.” Read more here.
U.S. bankruptcy judge rejects LATAM Airlines proposed $2.4 billion financing deal
A U.S. bankruptcy judge on Thursday rejected a $2.4 billion financing plan for struggling LATAM Airlines LTM.SN on the grounds that a convertible loan included as part of the package would amount to "improper" treatment of other shareholders. The move is a setback for LATAM, which needs short-term liquidity. But in a lengthy court decision, the judge left the door open for the Chilean carrier to introduce a similar financing plan in the future, this time without the possibility of converting part of the loan into equity. Read more here.
Brussels threatens legal action over UK Brexit treaty breach
EU hands Britain end-of-September deadline to withdraw internal market bill. Brussels has issued Boris Johnson with an ultimatum to scrap his plans to override the UK’s Brexit treaty by the end of the month, warning the move had “seriously damaged trust between the EU and the UK”. In a sharp escalation of tensions, which threaten the future of trade talks between the two sides, the European Commission on Thursday threatened legal action unless the British prime minister withdrew controversial clauses in the UK’s internal market bill. Read more here.
Trump says deadline for TikTok sale won’t be extended
The United States government will not extend the September 20 deadline for Beijing-based ByteDance to sell TikTok, President Donald Trump said on Thursday. This adds urgency to negotiations because TikTok may be banned in the United States if it can’t reach an agreement with a buyer. “We’ll see what happens. It’ll either be closed up or they’ll sell it,” Trump said before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews. Some analysts had predicted that the deadline would be extended because of the sale’s complexity. Read more here.
EU lawmakers say it’s time to go further on tackling disinformation
A major European Commission review of a Code of Practice aimed at combating the spread of disinformation online has concluded the self-regulatory instrument is failing to deliver enough transparency or accountability from the tech platforms and advertisers signed up to it. EU lawmakers suggested today that a swathe of shortcomings identified with the current approach won’t be fixed without legally binding rules. Although how exactly they will seek to tackle disinformation in forthcoming legislative packages, such as the Digital Services Act or the European Democracy Action Plan, remains to be seen. Signatories to the Code of Practice on Disinformation include: Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, TikTok and Twitter, along with the trade association representing online platforms (EDIMA). Read more here.
Facebook seeks fresh legal delay to block order to suspend its transatlantic data transfers
Facebook is firing up its lawyers to try to block EU regulators from forcing it to suspend transatlantic data transfers in the wake of a landmark ruling by Europe’s top court this summer. The tech giant has applied to judges in Ireland to seek a judicial review of a preliminary suspension order, it has emerged. Earlier this week Facebook confirmed it had received a preliminary order from its lead EU data regulator — Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) — ordering it to suspend transfers. Read more here.
Freshfields, Jingtian and Clifford Chance advise on $1B Hong Kong IPO
There has been $12.8 billion worth of equity capital markets deals in Hong Kong so far this year. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Clifford Chance and Chinese firm Jingtian & Gongcheng have advised Chinese packaged water and beverage maker Nongfu Spring Co. Ltd. on its US$1.08 billion Hong Kong initial public offering. Read more here.
Start-up & Tech news
Santander spins out its $400M fintech venture capital arm, now called Mouro Capital
Santander, the Spanish multinational banking giant, is announcing that its fintech venture arm is to be spun out and will be managed more autonomously going forward. Previously known as Santander Innoventures and first established in 2014, the VC (which has $400 million in allotted funds) is being re-branded to Mouro Capital. It will continue to be headed up by general partner Manuel Silva Martínez, who joined Innoventures five years ago and has led the fund since 2018, and senior advisor Chris Gottschalk, who joined from Blumberg Capital last year. Read more here.
India’s Zomato raises $100M from Tiger Global, says it is planning to file for IPO next year
Indian food delivery startup Zomato has raised $100 million from Tiger Global and is preparing for the next phase of its journey: an IPO. Tiger Global financed the capital through its investment vehicle Internet Fund VI, according to a regulatory filing. Info Edge, a major investor in Zomato, confirmed the development Thursday evening, adding that the new round valued Zomato at $3.3 billion post-money. Zomato co-founder and chief executive Deepinder Goyal said the startup had about $250 million cash in the bank and several more “big name” investors would be joining the current round to increase its cash reserve to about $600 million “very soon.” Read more here.
DCM has already made nearly $1 billion off its $26 million bet on Bill.com
David Chao, the cofounder of the cross-border venture firm DCM, speaks English, Japanese, and Mandarin. But he also knows how to talk to founders. It’s worth a lot. Consider that DCM should see more than $1 billion from the $26.4 million it invested across 14 years in the cloud-based business-to-business payments company Bill.com, starting with its A round. Indeed, by the time Bill.com went public last December, when its shares priced at $22 apiece, DCM’s stake — which was 16% sailing into the IPO — was worth a not-so-small fortune. Read more here.
China may kill TikTok’s US operations rather than see them sold
The controversial push to force Chinese tech unicorn ByteDance to divest part or all of its smash-hit TikTok social media service to a U.S.-based company could be in doubt after a report today indicated that China’s government may oppose the transaction. According to reporting by Reuters, the Chinese government may prefer TikTok to simply shutter its U.S. operations instead of allowing it to be sold to an American company. The potential divestment of TikTok is not a regular business transaction. Instead, the deal is being demanded by the U.S. government, as President Donald Trump directs foreign and economic policymaking via executive fiat. Leaning on his own fabled business acumen, the American premier has also demanded that his government receive a portion of any final sale price. It is not clear if that concept is legal. Read more here.
Toucan raises $3M to teach you new languages as you browse the web
Toucan has developed a Chrome browser extension designed for anyone who wants to learn a new language but hasn’t found the motivation or the time. Once installed, the extension scans the text of any (English-language) website you’re visiting and will automatically translate some of the words into the language you’re trying to learn. If you mouse over the word, you’ll see the original English word. Think of it as a browser-based version of language flashcards. The startup was founded by CEO Taylor Nieman, CTO Shaun Merritt and CPO Brandon Dietz. Today, it’s announcing that it has raised $3 million in seed funding led by GSV Ventures. Read more here.
Podcast analytics and attribution startup Chartable raises $2.25M
Chartable, a startup known for its authoritative podcast download charts, is announcing that it has raised $2.25 million in seed funding. Founders Dave Zohrob and Harish Agarwal previously worked together at AngelList, and they also created Hacker Daily, a podcast recapping the headlines from Hacker News. Zohrob (Chartable’s CEO) told me their experience hosting a podcast convinced the pair to create an analytics product. “Podcasting is a weird market,” he said. “One day, our downloads went from 4,000 a day to 5,000 a day. Why did that happen? We had no idea.” Read more here.
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- For Economics, Finance, & Corporate news click here.
See you next week!