Who Owns Hollywood Next Week?

Hi, and welcome to a new edition of The Daily Dealflow — the 5-minute briefing that gives you clear context on capital flows and market-moving trends across the Americas, from Silicon Valley to Buenos Aires. Let's dive in.

🏆 Deal of the Day

Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín in Oakland approved a settlement between Paramount and 12 state attorneys general, lifting the injunction that had delayed Paramount's $110B merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. The deal could close within a week, and Paramount plans to delist from Nasdaq on October 5 and list on the New York Stock Exchange on October 6.

Why This?: This deal fixes who controls two of the biggest studio and news libraries in the Americas. Paramount is funding it with $44.4B in bonds plus $7.5B in loans, so the U.S. credit market is part of the story too – Bloomberg.

Positive Context:

• The settlement commits Paramount to invest at least $300M a year for five years ($1.5B total) in U.S. film and TV production and to release at least 30 films in theaters each year – TheWrap.
• Paramount shares rose about 4% after the ruling.

Yes, but:

• Missing the theatrical target costs $30M per film, and breaches can force divestitures of Miramax (49% stake), BET, Comedy Central, VH1 and other channels.
• A coalition opposing the deal says that merging without meaningful structural remedies "will cost jobs, mute creativity, weaken independent journalism".

The comment: The judge called the consent decree "fair, reasonable, and good faith," said Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín in TheWrap.

💰 Venture Capital

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ElevenLabs (UK/US) – $300M, employee tender offer, AI voice-generation and voice-agent platform; co-founded by Mati Staniszewski and Piotr Dabkowski. Wellington and T. Rowe Price co-led, with new investors including EQT, GIC, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Sapphire Ventures. The sale gives employees liquidity without putting new cash into the company—and doubles its valuation since February – The Investor Society.

Jeeves (US) – $110M, growth round, corporate payments platform covering cards, accounts payable, treasury payments and expense management for multinationals. CoinFund led, with AllianceBernstein, Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, CRV, GIC, Vista and Y Combinator also in. Revenue quadrupled in 14 months, annualized stablecoin volume hit $1.5B, and clients include BMW, H&M, Lululemon, Burger King and Kavak. The money funds a stablecoin wallet for 190 countries and a Madrid office – Bloomberg.

Stay (Brazil) – $7.67M, Series A, private pension products that companies offer as workplace retirement benefits. Citrino, an asset manager and multi-family office, led, with Norte, 17Sigma and BTV participating. Corporate pension fintech is still an early niche in Brazil, and family offices are among the first to bet on it – Latam Republic.

Brodie (US) – $3.6M, seed round, adult recreational basketball leagues. The money pays for expansion into four more U.S. markets, on top of 50,000+ athletes already playing in 20 cities, which proves that weeknight pickup games can be a venture-backed category – Complex.

Flow Engineering (US) – $50M, Series B at a $750M valuation, AI platform that keeps hardware requirements, CAD designs, simulations and test results in sync; founded by CEO Pari Singh. Valor Equity Partners and Atreides Management co-led, with Sequoia Capital, EQT and others participating. Customers include Anduril, Rivian and Joby Aviation; Flow says Rivian grew from 40 to 1,500 users on the platform in seven months – The Investor Society.

🏛️ Private Equity

Blackstone (US) launches Falcata (US) – undisclosed value, platform formed by acquiring and combining TSC and Applied Systems Engineering (ASEI) to make interceptor technologies. Falcata combines seekers, radar, guidance electronics, GPS-denied navigation and control actuation, aimed at producing lower-cost interceptors at scale against drone and missile threats. Brandon Wolfson is CEO and Jonathan Moneymaker is chairman. Blackstone's David Kaden pointed to "supply chain chokepoints that our national defense increasingly requires," and Goldman Sachs and Simpson Thacher advised – Financial Content.

Thoma Bravo and 7Ridge's Trading Technologies (US) to acquire TRAFiX (US) – undisclosed value, add-on acquisition of an equities trading platform. TRAFiX was founded in 2014 in Mineola, New York, and provides order and execution management systems and FIX connectivity for equities and equity options trading – PE Hub.

ERCO (Colombia) – $33M, equity financing from Finnfund and Proparco in a round led by Augment Infrastructure Managers, integrated solar platform covering development, construction, generation and energy retail. ERCO has completed more than 2,000 solar projects, leads Colombia's commercial and industrial solar market and plans about 1 GWp of added capacity by 2030. CEO Juan Camilo López says the funds go to solar assets and battery storage – Latam Republic.

KKR (US) completes a majority stake deal for Thomson Reuters' print business (US) – undisclosed value, carve-out of a print operation that serves legal and tax professionals in 13 countries and prints for book publishers. The business is now called Westbridge Print, which gives the old print shop a fresh name and a standalone life – PE Hub.

📈 Public & Capital Markets

Synopsys (US, Nasdaq: SNPS) – chip design software. The stock rose 12.3% after the company announced a multiyear Amazon Web Services agreement valued at more than $1B and a partnership with OpenAI – TheStreet.

Anthropic (US) – planned IPO, artificial intelligence. Bloomberg reports the company plans to start its roadshow the week of November 9 and could list before Thanksgiving (November 26), targeting a valuation of $1.8T to $2T. It generated $4.6B in revenue in 2025, up from $386M in 2024, with a net loss of about $42B tied largely to fair value adjustments on liabilities. The timeline could shift, with year-end as a backup – Bloomberg.

Nike (US, NYSE: NKE) – earnings report, athletic footwear and apparel. Nike beat earnings expectations while revenue fell year over year, and the stock is down 44% year to date. The new Caitlin 1s signature shoe sold out in under two hours – TheStreet.

Paramount Skydance (US, Nasdaq: PSKY) – exchange transfer and debt financing, media. Paramount plans to delist from Nasdaq on October 5 and list on the New York Stock Exchange on October 6, while raising $44.4B in bonds plus $7.5B in loans to fund the Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition – Bloomberg.

📅 ICYMI

On Oct. 2, 1950, Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts debuted in seven newspapers and went on to appear in more than 2,600 publications. He almost named Charlie Brown's dog Sniffy, but another comic dog already had that name.

AI insurance company Corgi — which was valued at $4B despite being accused of repackaging open-source software — is laying off employees and nixing plans to open 100 coffee shops in six months across San Francisco. 

New dating app Rivet gives all the power to… complete strangers. The platform enables a community of volunteer matchmakers to decide whether two people are compatible and present users with their selections. 

See you monday,

Jose Kont
The human behind The Investor Society.