M&A, Restructuring & Buybacks/Cancellations
GE Vernova ($GEV ): Announced the acquisition of high-voltage equipment maker Trench Group for $9 billion (13x 2028 EBITDA; expected to close by the end of 2027); also doubled its share buyback plan from $10 billion to $20 billion (15.6 million shares repurchased at an average price of about $635). Q3 cash: about $17 billion.
Affle (India) to acquire Perion (PERI): Acquiring Nasdaq- and TASE-dual-listed Perion for about $420 million in cash ($11.70/share). Upon completion, Perion will be delisted from Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Expected to close in early 2027.
Black Swan: Binance’s roughly $6.3 billion security incident
Binance experienced a security incident on 10/29, with roughly $6.3 billion in tokens stolen. The platform said it had recovered 95% of the stolen assets and resumed withdrawals of BTC, ETH, and some stablecoins on 11/1 (Sunday).
Binance transferred 7,499 BTC (about $581 million) from its SAFU insurance fund to an address, saying it had recovered about 90% of the affected assets.
Trump said the U.S. is investigating whether North Korean hackers were responsible. The incident rocked crypto markets, with more than $1.5 billion in derivatives positions liquidated market-wide.
AI Capital Spending and Financing Developments
OpenAI: According to the FT, amid a sell-off in AI stocks and as rival Anthropic approaches its IPO, OpenAI cut its fundraising target by $10 billion. CEO Sam Altman met with Samsung executives on 10/31 to deepen cooperation on memory chips and AI infrastructure.
Anthropic IPO (ticker: $ANT): Plans to list on Nasdaq during the week of 11/16. Its S-1 shows first-half 2026 revenue of about $16.286 billion (up roughly 13x year over year), with adjusted operating profit turning positive, but a net loss of about $80.7 billion (including more than $70 billion in non-cash fair-value changes) and hundreds of billions in firm computing-capacity purchase commitments. The market sees it as an “AI valuation stress test.”
Amazon ($AMZN ): Established a supplier financing facility of up to $80 billion to preserve financial flexibility for AI infrastructure spending.
Intel ($INTC ): Suffered its worst single-day plunge in more than four decades after weak guidance, falling 28.58% this week.
GE Vernova ($GEV ): Announced the acquisition of high-voltage equipment maker Trench Group for $9 billion (13x 2028 EBITDA; expected to close by the end of 2027); also doubled its share buyback plan from $10 billion to $20 billion (15.6 million shares repurchased at an average price of about $635). Q3 cash: about $17 billion.
Affle (India) to acquire Perion (PERI): Acquiring Nasdaq- and TASE-dual-listed Perion for about $420 million in cash ($11.70/share). Upon completion, Perion will be delisted from Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. Expected to close in early 2027.
Black Swan: Binance’s roughly $6.3 billion security incident
Binance experienced a security incident on 10/29, with roughly $6.3 billion in tokens stolen. The platform said it had recovered 95% of the stolen assets and resumed withdrawals of BTC, ETH, and some stablecoins on 11/1 (Sunday).
Binance transferred 7,499 BTC (about $581 million) from its SAFU insurance fund to an address, saying it had recovered about 90% of the affected assets.
Trump said the U.S. is investigating whether North Korean hackers were responsible. The incident rocked crypto markets, with more than $1.5 billion in derivatives positions liquidated market-wide.
AI Capital Spending and Financing Developments
OpenAI: According to the FT, amid a sell-off in AI stocks and as rival Anthropic approaches its IPO, OpenAI cut its fundraising target by $10 billion. CEO Sam Altman met with Samsung executives on 10/31 to deepen cooperation on memory chips and AI infrastructure.
Anthropic IPO (ticker: $ANT): Plans to list on Nasdaq during the week of 11/16. Its S-1 shows first-half 2026 revenue of about $16.286 billion (up roughly 13x year over year), with adjusted operating profit turning positive, but a net loss of about $80.7 billion (including more than $70 billion in non-cash fair-value changes) and hundreds of billions in firm computing-capacity purchase commitments. The market sees it as an “AI valuation stress test.”
Amazon ($AMZN ): Established a supplier financing facility of up to $80 billion to preserve financial flexibility for AI infrastructure spending.
Intel ($INTC ): Suffered its worst single-day plunge in more than four decades after weak guidance, falling 28.58% this week.