We’ve got numbers for Bayer’s unsolicited bid to buy Monsanto—a cash offer of $62 billion, representing a 37% premium on Monsanto’s May 9 closing price – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
Once again, newly released documents are giving us a better idea of what was really going on behind the scenes with the government’s bailout of Fannie & Freddie. More specifically, as Fair Game explores, the docs show that the Treasury changed the rules of the GSEs’ paybacks as part of plan to essentially turn F&F into “wards of the state” right as they were entering their “golden years” of profitability – NYTimes and WSJ
Even as Lending Club’s recent struggles have prompted some to question the much-touted disruptive potential of online lenders, Social Finance Inc. (SoFi) is claiming a major victory with a AAA rating from Moody’s for its most recent securitization bond—a “$380 million offering backed by online student loans” – WSJ
New on the venture capital scene is the mysterious Decentralized Autonomous Organization—a fund that’s “come out of nowhere” in May, attracted $152 million in crowdfunded capital, “is difficult to describe, and . . . may not be legal.” We’re talking digital currencies (Ether), no human execs, polling shareholders for investment decisions—you’re going to need to get into the weeds on this one – NYTimes
Fresh details from the class action battle over the recent credit-card-company-initiated shift from magnetic stripe cards to chip payment cards in which retailers alleged that card issues have conspired to shift credit card risk to merchants during the EMV rollout – Law360
New Treasury Department inversion rules have cratered a potential $8 billion deal between fertilizer maker CF Industries and a handful of European and North American operations from the Netherlands’ OCI – NYTimes and WSJ
Start-ups are working A LOT harder these days to track down capital—a definite side effect of the shifting sands in a tech world in which outsized pre-IPO valuations have led to major disappointment for investors – NYTimes
Citibank’s skirted allegations that it “covertly scored over $20 million by illegally marking up the forex spot orders of two foreign exchange traders from Mexico without their knowledge or consent” after SDNY Judge Robert Sweet kicked the complaint for lack of requisite detail – Law360
Big Breakfast’s marketing geniuses may need to come up with a new strategy after new data that throws some cold water on the “most important meal of the day” theory – NYTimes
Little better in sports than playoff hockey. And little nastier on the ice than this pass from San Jose’s Joe Thornton (except maybe his playoff beard) – Deadspin