APX Capital details $276m US-Italian fund after buying Music World Entertainment (TBI Vision)
Investment fund APX Capital Group has unveiled details of a €250m ($276m) TV and film production fund, following its acquisition of Mathew Knowles’ Music World Entertainment Group. Knowles, the father of popstar Beyoncé and ex-manager of Destiny’s Child, will oversee the new division – to be known as Music World Films & TV (MWFT) – and will focus its coproduction efforts primarily on the US and Italy.
Grayscale, World’s Biggest Bitcoin Fund, Says it Faces ‘Unfair’ Hurdle in ETF Plan (Financial News)
The world’s largest bitcoin fund is trading at 73 cents on the dollar. That may look like a bargain if you want crypto in your portfolio. But nothing is really free on Wall Street, including a cut-rate deal on bitcoin. Holding $26.2bn in assets, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust owns more of the cryptocurrency than any other fund. A private-placement trust that trades like a stock, GBT has become a popular vehicle to access bitcoin in equity form. Institutional investors like Morgan Stanley and ARK Invest hold it in funds for clients…
Qualcomm Bets on the Metaverse with a New $100 Million Investment Fund (The San Diegounion Tribune)
Qualcomm has set up a $100 million fund to invest in virtual and augmented reality technologies in a bid to help jumpstart the metaverse. The San Diego wireless technology firm announced the initiative, called the Snapdragon Metaverse Fund, Monday. It mirrors other funds that Qualcomm has created over the years to advance emerging technologies where it has a footprint. An example is the $100 million Qualcomm Ventures Artificial Intelligence Fund created in 2018.
Source: pexels
VC-Backed NirogStreet Ropes in Fund Manager Ashutosh Sinha to Head Strategy (VCCircle.com)
NirogStreet, a platform that promotes Ayurveda, said it has onboarded veteran fund manager Ashutosh Sinha as its chief strategy officer (CSO). In his new role, Sinha will work closely with NirogStreet’s chief executive officer Ram N Kumar in expanding the Ayurveda tech platform globally.
Investor ETFS and Activist Hedge Fund Lion Point Ask for Change of Directors and CEO at WisdomTree (Opalesque)
ETFS Capital and Lion Point Capital nominated three candidates to WisdomTree Investment’s board of directors on Friday, in their latest attempt to create sweeping changes within the underperforming ETF asset manager. Failure to reach an agreement, they said, means they will reveal all details of WisdomTree’s mismanagement to all concerned. ETFS and Lion Point currently own about 13.5% of the outstanding common stock of WisdomTree, and 21.4% of the company upon conversion of their Series A non-voting convertible preferred stock, making them the company’s largest economic holder.
Andurand Floats Idea of 100% Tax for Squeezing Russian Oil Cash (Bloomberg)
For Europe, the biggest barrier to sanctioning Russian oil is the economic pain the continent would need to suffer. But one star hedge fund trader sees a way to soften the blow. Pierre Andurand, whose commodity fund made 109% in the first three months of the year, said on Twitter that instead of banning Russian barrels outright, European governments could impose a tax of 100%.
Goldman Sachs, Galaxy Digital Announce Milestone Over-The-Counter Crypto Trade (CNBC)
Goldman is the first major U.S. bank to trade crypto over the counter, CNBC was first to report. The bank traded a bitcoin-linked instrument called a non-deliverable option with crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, the firms said. The move is seen as a notable step in the development of crypto markets for institutional investors. Compared with the exchange-based CME Group bitcoin products Goldman began trading last year, the bank is taking on greater risk by acting as a principal in the transactions, according to the firms. “This trade represents the first step that banks have taken to offer direct, customizable exposures to the crypto market on behalf of their clients,” said Galaxy co-President Damien Vanderwilt.
Anaplan Activists Are Quickly Rewarded (Institutional Investor)
A sizable number of hedge funds are poised to benefit from the cloud computing company’s deal with Thoma Bravo. Well, that was quick.Just a few days after a pair of prominent activist hedge funds teamed up to threaten a proxy fight against cloud-based business planning software company Anaplan, private equity firm Thoma Bravo reached a deal to acquire the company for $66 per share, in an all-cash transaction valued…
Only Time will Tell if Billionaire Ken Griffin will be ‘All in’ for the Rest of the So-Called ‘Griffin Slate’ (Chicago Sun Times)
SPRINGFIELD — They have been dubbed “The Griffin Slate,” based on the expectation that the Republicans running together for some of the state’s top offices will enjoy the financial backing of Ken Griffin, the richest person in Illinois. But other than GOP candidate for governor Richard Irvin, none of the others on the slate has reported receiving any contributions from the hedge-fund billionaire — or many large donations from anyone else in the two months they’ve been running for statewide office.
Insider Trading: March 21, 2022 (BIV.com)
Insider: Daniel Joseph Daviau, officer. Company: Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. (TSX:CF). Shares owned: 242,860. Trade date: March 7. Trade total: $1,175,000. Trade: Acquisition of 100,000 shares at a price of $11.75 per share. Insider: Graham Campbell Thody, director. Company: SilverCrest Metals Inc. (TSX:SIL). Shares owned: 218,571. Trade date: March 4. Trade total: $1,505,000. Trade: Sale of 125,000 shares at a price of $12.04 per share.
Monday 3/21 Insider Buying Report: NTRA, BMBL (Nasdaq.com)
On Wednesday, Natera’s Director, Roelof Botha, made a $5.01M buy of NTRA, purchasing 153,000 shares at a cost of $32.72 each. Botha was up about 25.8% on the purchase at the high point of today’s trading session, with NTRA trading as high as $41.16 in trading on Monday. Natera is trading off about 0.9% on the day Monday. And on Thursday, Director Amy Griffin bought $998,624 worth of Bumble, buying 35,200 shares at a cost of $28.37 a piece. Before this latest buy, Griffin made one other buy in the past twelve months, purchasing $5.03M shares at a cost of $42.81 a piece. Bumble is trading off about 2.1% on the day Monday.
Intel’s CEO Bought His Own Stock—Should You? (Forbes)
Semiconductor chips are a strategic commodity. For the past few years, people have been saying that Intel (INTC) is at a disadvantage because most of its fabs (fabrication plants) are in the U.S. Chips can be produced more cheaply in Asia. Based in Santa Clara, California, Intel is the largest U.S. chip maker.
