Tootfinder

Sources: Amazon and OpenAI are discussing a deal that could require OpenAI to dedicate researchers and engineers to developing customized models for Amazon (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/amazon-discusses-getting-special-a…

Amazon Discusses Getting Special Access to OpenAI Tech
As Amazon weighs an equity investment of tens of billions of dollars in OpenAI, the companies are also discussing a commercial agreement that could require OpenAI to dedicate its own researchers and engineers to developing customized models for powering Amazon’s own AI products, according to a ...

Universal Music India acquires a 30% equity stake in Mumbai-based Excel Entertainment in a deal valuing the Indian production house at $290M (Patrick Brzeski/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

Universal Music Acquires 30 Percent Stake in India’s Excel Entertainment
As part of the deal, which values Excel at $290 million, Universal Music Group will receive global rights to all future original soundtracks attached to projects produced by the fast-growing Indian company.

Buyout von Electronic Arts: Saudi-Arabien stemmt über 90 Prozent
EA wird von einem Private-Equity-Konsortium gekauft, zu dem drei Firmen gehören. Nun werden die neuen Kräfteverhältnisse bekannt – sie sind wohl sehr einseitig.

Global fintech VC funding rose 27% YoY in 2025 to $51.8B; Y Combinator was the most active investor in the space, participating in 151 deals, up 24.8% YoY (Mary Ann Azevedo/Crunchbase News)
https://news.crunchbase.com/venture/most-active-fintech-inve…

Y Combinator Was By Far The Most-Active Fintech Investor in 2025, Data Shows
All told, global venture funding to financial technology startups totaled $51.8 billion for 2025 compared to $40.8 billion in 2024, per Crunchbase data. The investors who provided all that capital included a mix of private equity and alternative investors, with venture capital firms and accelerators next in line.

The State Leadership Initiative (SLI),
is a policy-focused organization that investigates and counters the influence of progressive ideologies
—specifically Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards
and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies
—within state-level bureaucracies and government,
particularly in conservative "red" states. 
🔸Focus on Policy Influence: SLI investigates how national associations and "shadow gov…

Jenny Cohn (@jennycohn.bsky.social)
New pro-Trump group, the State Leadership Initiative (SLI), is “writing the blueprint for dismantling bureaucracy in every red state.” Nate Fischer—a founder of New Founding, which is backed by DOGE advisor Marc Andreessen—is an SLI co-founder. The board includes Heritage president Kevin Roberts. 1/ https://thefederalist.com/2025/02/19/meet-the-group-writing-the-blueprint-for-dismantling-bureaucracy-in-every-red-state/

The University of Alabama suspends two student-run magazines, one focused on Black students and another on women's issues, citing federal anti-DEI guidance (Kim Chandler/Associated Press)
https://apnews.com/article/university-of-alabama-dei-tru…

University of Alabama closes student magazines for women, Black students
The University of Alabama has suspended the publication of two student-run magazines — one primarily focused on Black students and another on women’s issues — citing federal guidance against diversity, equity and inclusion programs on college campuses. A university official informed the editors of Nineteen Fifty-Six and Alice magazines on Monday of the decision. A spokeswoman for the university said in a statement that the university is committed to helping all students but “must also c…

Now that the Vondelkerk has burned down, they can finally bulldoze the site and build high-rise luxury housing in central Amsterdam to sell to foreign investors and private equity. It's a great opportunity for the market!

I'm not saying there isn't any problem, but I am saying that thatcherism/reaganism is absolutely how everyone dies. How about we stop American private equity from draining the economy, ignore all US laws against reverse engineering, stop paying copy levy to the US, and legalize squatting again to make it so giant corporations can't hold all the housing stock? Maybe we can check in after that.

Reliance's Jio Studios acquires a 50.1% equity stake in Sikhya Entertainment for ~$16.7M, uniting India's largest studio with the Oscar-winning production house (Hannah Abraham/Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hannahab…

Jio Studios Acquires $16.7 Million Majority Stake In Oscar-Winning Sikhya Entertainment
The Reliance subsidiary has secured 50.1% equity in production house behind 'The Elephant Whisperers' and 'Period. End of Sentence.

Vista Equity-backed infrastructure software company LogicMonitor acquires Catchpoint, which monitors user experiences across the internet, for $250M in cash (Liana Baker/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-1…

Vista-Backed LogicMonitor Buys Monitoring Startup Catchpoint
Vista Equity Partners-backed infrastructure software company LogicMonitor is acquiring the startup Catchpoint for more than $250 million in cash.

"Private equity believes Americans will pay anything to save their pets."
- The rise of Big Vet
▶️ Wall Street's Shocking Plan For America's Pets - More Perfect Union
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Po6muzvQgEk&si=LGhx3dY2u6Yw2kEt

Brookfield is launching a cloud company called Radiant and a new $10B AI fund, and plans to acquire up to $100B in land, data centers, and power assets for AI (Miles Kruppa/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/brookfield-start-cloud-b…

Brookfield to Start Cloud Business to Lower Cost of AI
Private-equity firm Brookfield is starting its own cloud business, going up against tech giants like Amazon by arguing it can bring down the costs of developing AI. The firm, which has long invested in infrastructure and energy, is becoming the first major investment firm to try to lease chips ...

Germany just committed €3 billion to help lower-income families afford electric vehicles. This is a game-changer for EV accessibility—making clean transportation a reality for people who've been priced out of the electric transition. It's not just about climate goals anymore; it's about equity.

Germany agrees €3 billion support scheme to make EVs affordable for lower income groups
German government has agreed to spend three billion euros ($A5.3 billion) on a new scheme to support electric mobility adoption among low- and middle-income groups.

Dutch government has let all messages within the judicial system run via Solvinity, a company now about to be sold by a UK-based private equity firm to US-based Kyndryl. Which brings the data within reach of the Trump regime.

Niet alleen DigiD: ook geheime info rechtspraak en Justitie in geding bij overname IT-bedrijf
Er is onrust ontstaan over de aangekondigde overname van IT-dienstverlener Solvinity – leverancier van DigiD – door een Amerikaans bedrijf. Door de systemen van Solvinity lopen uiterst gevoelige data van onder meer het ministerie van Justitie en Veiligheid, het Openbaar Ministerie en de rechtspraak. Die dreigen binnen het bereik van de Amerikaanse regering te komen.

I guess the Internet Archive is now a for-Proffitt...
https://mastodon.archive.org/@internetarchive/115611174274779543

internetarchive (@internetarchive@mastodon.archive.org)
Attached: 1 image The Internet Archive welcomes Merrilee Proffitt as director of Democracy’s Library, US! With decades in digital libraries & open knowledge, she’ll expand free, online access to government research, supporting transparency, equity, and democratic engagement. Learn more at our blog ⤵️ https://blog.archive.org/2025/11/18/meet-merrilee-proffitt-director-of-democracys-library-us/ @internetarchive

Disney says ESPN is valued at ~$30B and the NFL's 10% equity stake in ESPN valued at ~$3B; Disney has the right to buy back NFL's stake in 2034, per a filing (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter)
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business

ESPN Valued at $30 Billion As Disney Reveals New Details on NFL Deal
Disney has the right to buy back the NFL's stake beginning in July 2034, with the league holding an option to acquire more of ESPN.

The Trump administration agrees to inject up to $150M in xLight, which develops lasers for EUV machines and has Pat Gelsinger on its board, for an equity stake (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/trump-administration-to…

Sanders Slams Private Equity Scrooges Ending Paid Holidays for Walgreens Workers | Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-walgreen-workers

Why donate to SEEC PAC?
The Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition Political Action Committee
exists to support SEEC members in Congress and candidates who fight for clean energy, climate change solutions, environmental justice, and protection of our nation’s clean air, water, wildlife, and natural environment.
https://seecpac.org/<…

Home – Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition Political Action Committee
Join the movement Elect environmental champions to Congress. SEEC PAC Members of Congress Congressman Connolly has always prioritized the environment in his public service, and as the Chair Emeritus of SEEC, he understands the importance of environmental justice to social equity and the success of future generations. Rep. Gerry ConnollyVA-11 Congressman Jared Huffman represents the […]

Oracle says it plans to raise $45B to $50B in 2026 to build additional capacity for its cloud infrastructure through a combination of debt and equity sales (Vincent Lee/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-…

How Private Equity Made Piracy Great Again
#culture #media

Slice, which uses AI agents to encode tax policies and legal rules across 60 countries, raised a $25M Series A led by Insight, taking its total funding to $32M (Mary Ann Azevedo/This Week in Fintech)
https://www.thisweekinfintech.com/slice-ra

Slice Raises $25M Series A Led By Insight Partners For AI-Powered Global Equity Compliance
Slice Global Equity, an equity compliance and management startup, announced Wednesday that it has raised $25 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the financing, which included participation from Fenwick and Cooley LLP and existing backers TLV Partners, R-Squared Ventures, and Jibe Ventures. The round brings Slice’s total

Profitmaschine Pflegeheime
Senevita gehört Tertianum. Tertianum gehört Capvis AG. Die Private-Equity-Firma Capvis in Baar macht mit der #Altenpflege Geld.
#Pflege #Kapital

Tertianum übernimmt Senevita
Elefantenhochzeit bei Langzeitpflege und Alterswohnen: Die beiden grössten Anbieter in der Schweiz schliessen sich zusammen. Damit entsteht ein Milliardenkonzern mit rund 11'000 Angestellten.

The US SEC clarifies its tokenized stock rules, saying they are subject to securities and derivatives rules and issuer approval is required for true ownership (Sam Reynolds/CoinDesk)
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/01/29

SEC clarifies rules for tokenized stocks, tightening scrutiny on synthetic equity
The agency says issuer approval is required for true tokenized ownership, warning that many stock tokens sold to retail investors provide only indirect or synthetic exposure.

UK-based Octopus Energy reaches a deal to sell about $1B of equity in Kraken Technologies, its tech spin-off, at an $8.65B valuation to a syndicate of investors (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/eaad78f4-b52c-4116-ad1b-3e79694ebeed

Sources: SoftBank is in advanced talks to buy NYSE-listed DigitalBridge, a private equity firm that invests in data centers and digital infrastructure operators (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-29…

Members of UK performing arts union Equity vote overwhelmingly in favor of refusing to be scanned while on set to prevent their likeness being used by AI (Lanre Bakare/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2

EU member states agree a position on draft child protection legislation without forcing Big Tech to find and remove CSAM; states now negotiate with EU lawmakers (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/soc

Cubby, which makes software for self-storage operators, raised a $63M Series A led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives (Allie Garfinkle/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2026/01/22/exclusive-cubby-raises-63-million…

Exclusive: Cubby raises $63 million in Goldman Sachs-led funding to scale self-storage software
Cubby just raised a $63 million Series A, led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Fortune has exclusively learned.

Israel-based Chargeflow, whose AI tech automates chargeback disputes for online merchants, raised a $25M Series A led by Viola Growth, and a $10M debt round (Meir Orbach/CTech)
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/bk00v9g9e11g

Chargeflow raises $35 million to fight the surge in transaction denials
Fintech startup secures equity and debt funding as e-commerce fraud grows to $100B a year. 

Oracle says final negotiations on an equity deal for its Michigan data center project are "on schedule" and Related Digital will be its development partner (Lynn Doan/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Oracle Says Equity Deal on Michigan Data Center ‘On Schedule’
Oracle Corp. said final negotiations on an equity deal for the company’s data center project in Michigan is “on schedule” and going according to plan.

RedBird Capital drops its £500M bid for the Telegraph Media Group, after intense pressure from the Telegraph newsroom and allies over the group's links to China (Mark Sweney/The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/nov/14/redbird-ca…

Sources: OneTrust, which sells privacy and compliance software and was last valued at $4.5B in 2023, is exploring a sale, possibly to private equity buyers (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/onetrus…

OneTrust, Privacy Startup Last Valued at $4.5 Billion, Discusses Private Equity Sale
OneTrust, a nine-year-old startup that benefited from a wave of European and U.S. laws regulating how companies collect and share website data, is exploring a sale—possibly to private equity buyers, according to people familiar with the discussions. The Atlanta-based startup, which sells privacy ...

Samba TV raised up to $60M in venture debt to scale through acquisitions and new AI-powered measurement tools; Samba previously raised $69M in equity funding (Kerry Flynn/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2025/12/08/samba-tv-measurement-venture-debt

Exclusive: Samba TV raises up to $60M venture debt
The firm plans to boost AI-powered media measurement and pursue acquisitions.

General Atlantic purchases a $96M minority stake in Japanese HR software unicorn SmartHR, marking the PE firm's first growth equity investment in Japan (Lisa Du/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-…

US volunteer fire departments are scrambling to find software amid shrinking options and higher costs, as companies backed by private equity dominate the market (Mike Baker/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/14/us/fire-department-software-priva…

Rural Fire Departments Squeezed By Software Prices As Investors Profit
Rural departments have long relied on cheap software solutions to keep their operations running. But fire chiefs report sharp price increases as investors have entered the market.

Sources: DMGT has locked down funding for its £500M acquisition of the Telegraph, in a funding package expected to comprise equity and debt (Daniel Thomas/Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/beff1427-c291-496b-8823-457f01e293f8

Marketing tech startup Applecart raised $100M in a minority funding round led by Blackstone's growth equity business, a source says at a ~$700M valuation (Myles Miller/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-0…

Sources and US tax lawyers: the IRS's planned audit of private equity and VC firms is faltering under President Trump, as many senior leaders leave the agency (Jesse Drucker/New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/business/irs-private…

Push to Audit Private Equity and Venture Capital Falters Under Trump
Specialists have left the I.R.S. and audits have been abandoned since the president returned to office.

Filing: Berkshire Hathaway discloses a $4.3B stake in Alphabet in Q3, a surprising move given Warren Buffett's reluctance toward high-growth, tech-driven stocks (Yun Li/CNBC)
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/14/warren-buffetts-berkshir…

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway reveals new position in Alphabet
Berkshire disclosed a $4.3 billion stake in Alphabet at the end of the third quarter, making the Google parent the conglomerate's 10th largest equity holding.

Snap announces a deal to distribute Perplexity's search engine to Snapchat users; Perplexity will pay Snap $400M through a combination of cash and equity (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-05/snap-…

OpenAI acquires Torch, a one-year-old AI healthcare app that aggregates and analyzes medical records; source: OpenAI is paying $100M in equity (Laura Mandaro/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-agrees-buy-ai-healthcare-app-1…

OpenAI Agrees to Buy AI Healthcare App For About $100 Million
OpenAI has agreed to buy Torch, a one-year-old AI healthcare app, for about $100 million in equity, according to a person with direct knowledge of the acquisition. Torch enables customers to view and analyze their health data from health systems such as Kaiser Permanente, medical scanning firms ...

Blockchain-based lender Figure unveils the On-Chain Public Equity Network to issue, trade, and lend stocks natively on a blockchain, not as tokenized replicas (Kyle Baird/The Block)
https://www.theblock.co/post/385595/figure-onchain-equi…

Tebra, which offers practice management tools for private healthcare providers, raised $250M led by Hildred, mostly in equity, to accelerate its AI capabilities (FinSMEs)
https://www.finsmes.com/2025/12/tebra-receives-250m-in-funding.html

Source: OpenEvidence, which offers an AI chatbot for doctors, is raising $250M at a $12B valuation, up from $6B in Oct., and has $150M in annualized ad revenue (Stephanie Palazzolo/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/ch

‘ChatGPT for Doctors’ Startup Doubles Valuation to $12 Billion as Revenue Surges
OpenEvidence, which operates a ChatGPT-like product for doctors to find health information from medical journals and other trusted sources, is raising $250 million in equity financing that will value the three-year-old startup at $12 billion after the investment, doubling its last private ...

Hong Kong-based WeLab, which operates two digital banks in Hong Kong and Indonesia, raised $220M in equity and debt from HSBC, Prudential Hong Kong, and others (Denise Wee/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-…

Sources: OpenAI told staff it was ending the six-month "vesting cliff" that required new employees to work for at least six months before their equity vests (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tec…

Sources: OpenAI last fall set aside RSUs worth 10% of the company, which was valued in October at $500B; it has already awarded about $80B in vested equity (Sri Muppidi/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/openai-reserves-50-billion-sto…

OpenAI Reserves $50 Billion for Stock Grant Pool
OpenAI last fall set aside an employee stock grant pool worth 10% of the company, which was valued in October at $500 billion, according to two people with knowledge of the plans. The $50 billion pool of restricted stock units should last for roughly five years and should rise in value as the ...

Crypto infrastructure provider Fireblocks agrees to acquire accounting platform TRES Finance, sources say for $130M in cash and equity; TRES raised $11M in 2023 (Ben Weiss/Fortune)
https://fortune.com/2026/01/07/fireblocks-tres-finance-acquisition-130-million/…

Exclusive: Fireblocks acquires crypto accounting platform TRES Finance for $130 million
This is the crypto infrastructure firm’s second acquisition over the past year.

Tel Aviv-based Sweet Security, which helps spot abnormal cloud infrastructure behavior, raised $75M led by Evolution Equity, taking its total funding to $120M (Marissa Newman/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Sources: the US is working on a settlement that could see ZTE pay $1B over alleged foreign bribery from 2018 and earlier; a deal would require China's approval (Reuters)
https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/soc

Snap announces a deal to distribute Perplexity's search engine to Snapchat users; Perplexity will pay Snap $400M through a combination of cash and equity (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-05/snap-…