A week filled with liberal horror at the parade of prospective Trump cabinet members were trotted out in front of Congress culminated with that one, biggest piece of liberal horror that we all took part in scheduling in early November as the new President was sworn in. However, even as the new President officially takes the oath of office, the so-called “Trump Rally” appears to be winding down to a close with the Dow remaining frustratingly close to the tantalizing 20,000 figure
Russell 2000 This Week: -19 (1.39%) to 1,351.85
S&P 500 Same Period: -3.34 (0.15%) to 2,271.31
Top Reads of the Week:
- Can These Trump Rally Winners Keep Paying Off for Investors? by Joel Anderson
- Analyst Interview: What Wedbush Thinks of the Trump Trade by Henry Truc
- Dow 20,000: A New Beginning… or the Beginning of the End? by Cliff Droke
- Women Empowerment Through Crowdfunding: Fractionalizing Institutionalized Discrimination by Joshua Shepard
- How Reg A+ Could Bring Back the Small-Cap IPO by Henry Truc
- Vator SplashX LA Finds Los Angeles at the Center of the Next Startup Boom by Joel Anderson
Deals Recap:
- Indian med tech company Practo raised $55 million in a series D round led by Tencent Holdings.
- Consumer subscription management system OrderGroove raised $20 million in a series C round led by National Securities Corporation.
- Provider of video conferencing services Zoom raised $100 million in a series D round led by Sequoia Capital.
- Italian eyewear brand Luxottica Group (LUX) was acquired by Essilor (ESLOY) for $24 billion in stock. Personally, I’ve never spent more than $20 on a pair of sunglasses, but whatever floats your boat.
- Derek Jeter’s athlete blogging platform The Players’ Tribune raised $40 million in a series C round led by Institutional Venture Partners. The thing is, if you dig deeper into advanced metrics, it becomes clear that The Players’ Tribune is a below-average defensive website.
- Workforce management solution Deputy raised $25 million in a series A round led by OpenView.
- Sales acceleration platform InsideSales.com raised $50 million in a series E round led by Polar Capital Management.
- Provider of cloud-based product content management solutions Salsify raised $30 million in a series C round led by _Underscore.VC.
- Automated data management company Colilbra raised $50 million in a series C round led by ICONIQ Capital.
- Biotech company CoLucid Pharmaceuticals (CLCD) was acquired by Eli Lilly (LLY) for $960 million in cash.
- Independent oil & gas company Clayton Williams Energy (CWEI) was acquired by Noble Energy (NBL) for $2.7 billion in cash and stock.
- Cigarette manufacturer Reynolds American (RAI) was acquired by British American Tobacco (BTI) for $49 billion. Looks like it’s Nigel Camel from here on out.
- IT infrastructure company SimpliVity was acquired by Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) for $650 million in cash.
- Video game crowdfunding company Fig Publishing raised $7.84 million in a series A round led by Spark Capital and Greycroft.
Emerging Growth News:
- Shares in clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Forward Pharma (FWP) gained more than two-thirds this week, spiking hard on Tuesday on news of a settlement and licensing agreement with Biogen (BIIB) that saw the company grabbing $1.25 billion in cash and royalties on future sales of Biogen drugs that treat Multiple Sclerosis using Forward Pharma patents.
- Networking company Gigamon (GIMO) shaved off almost a quarter of their value after the company released its preliminary Q4 earnings and they failed to impress.
- Rent-to-own company Rent-a-Center (RCII) dropped nearly 20% this week after a preliminary earnings report showed comparable sales in its core U.S. business declined over 14%.
- Provider of optical components for data centers Oclaro saw shares bounce more than 15% on Thursday after a release of preliminary Q2 results had revenue reaching the high end of the company’s previous guidance. So, third time’s the charm for these preliminary earnings results, huh?
- Indiegogo’s decision to join the ranks of crowdfunding platforms offering equity crowdfunding under reg. D of the JOBS Act was one that resonated across the crowdfunding industry. This week on Thursday, the platform announced that its partnership with MicroVentures had raised some $1.4 million from 2,600 investors in its first two months of operation alone.
