The New York Stock Exchange reverses course, Nintendo acquires a game studio and an Indian electronics and lifestyle startup raises $100 million. This is your Daily Crunch for January 5, 2021.
The big story: NYSE won’t delist Chinese telcos
The New York Stock Exchange is reversing a recent decision to delist China’s three major telecom operators — China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom — which was supposed to be part of a Trump administration policy to block investment in companies that supply and support China’s military.
The exchange said the reversal is taking place “in light of further consultation with relevant regulatory authorities,” and that shares will be traded while NYSE officials evaluate how the executive order applies.
If the delisting does occur, it would be largely symbolic, since only a small percentage of the telecoms’ total shares are traded in New York.
The tech giants
Nintendo buys Canadian game studio in rare acquisition — Nintendo is acquiring Canada-based Next Level Games, which developed Luigi’s Mansion 3.
Jack Ma’s absence from public eye sparks Twitter discussions — The world’s attention is on Jack Ma’s whereabouts after reports noted the billionaire founder of Alibaba and Ant Group had been absent from public view since late October.
Startups, funding and venture capital
P&G terminates plan to acquire razor startup Billie following FTC lawsuit — In December, the FTC sued to block P&G’s acquisition of Billie.
Indian electronics and lifestyle brand Boat raises $100M from Warburg Pincus — The round gives Boat a post-money valuation of about $300 million.
Divvy raises $165M as the spend management space stays red-hot — Divvy’s market (corporate cards and software that help firms manage and limit expenses) is incredibly active.
Advice and analysis from Extra Crunch
Affirm targets up to $38 per share in IPO, pushing its valuation above $9B — The new S-1 follows a late-December filing of a similar nature.
8 investors discuss social gaming’s biggest opportunities — Investors expressed excitement around the widening entertainment ambitions of social platforms.
How Segment redesigned its core systems to solve an existential scaling crisis — Segment was just beginning to take off in 2015 when it ran into a scaling problem.
(Extra Crunch is our membership program, which aims to democratize information about startups. You can sign up here.)
Everything else
FBI, NSA say ongoing hacks at US federal agencies ‘likely Russian in origin’ — The U.S. government says hackers “likely Russian in origin” are responsible for breaching the networks of at least 10 federal agencies and several major tech companies.
C by GE gets rebranded under new ownership, expands beyond lighting — Back in May, General Electric sold off its more than 100-year-old GE Lighting division to smart home company Savant.
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