Good Morning! The U.S. sued to break up the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly, in a bid to reduce ticket prices. Nvidia shares surged 9% to a record high, driven by strong demand forecasts for AI chips. TikTok employees are bracing for layoffs, and a Citi banker said she was fired after refusing to lie to regulators. The NFL punted on new private equity ownership rules, and it’s getting harder for builders to sell new homes. Plus how introversion leads to more self-confidence and strategies to prevent burnout.

Ready to save hours on your expense reports (automatically)? Request a demo of BILL and get a free YETI cooler.

We’ll be taking Memorial Day Monday off but wish you a wonderful long weekend!

_{SQUEEZ OF THE DAY}

Investment Banking WFH Days are Over

Barclays wants its bankers back in the office 5 days a week. And the bank is blaming it all on FINRA.

The majority of Wall Street isn’t in every day, every week - especially at the more senior levels. Last year, a survey showed just 20% of financial-services companies required full-time attendance. 

But Barclays is blaming the return to full-time work on new FINRA regulations that crack down on supervising work at home. FINRA loosened its rules on remote work during the pandemic, when bankers had no choice but to work from home.

Some banks like Barclays and Truist don’t want to deal with the new compliance rules - so they’re saving themselves the headache by cracking down and mandating in-office attendance. 

But other firms like Deutsche Bank say the new rules won’t change the bank’s work-from-home protocols. But then again… DB isn’t known to necessarily be the most FINRA-compliant bank on the street. 

Takeaway: For analysts and associates at firms like Barclays, this likely means being in the office close to five days a week. Although the new FINRA rules aim to provide more flexibility for remote work, some firms see the path of least resistance as bringing employees back to the office full-time. Something tells us that Barclays job applications are going to be down bad once these rules go into effect.

_{PRESENTED BY BILL}

Automate Expense Reports, Score A Free YETI Cooler

Why is BILL giving you a free YETI cooler just for demoing its Spend & Expense tool?

‘Cause when you automate your expense reports + save hours of work, you’ll finally be able to take that beach vacay–all while growing your business.

Quit sweating over spreadsheets. Use BILL to… 

• Streamline business spend and budgeting

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Demo BILL by the end of the month and get a YETI cooler on the house.

_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Justice Department sues to break up Live Nation, parent of Ticketmaster (CNBC)

• TikTok employees bracing for layoffs (CNN)

• Ex-Citi banker says she was fired for refusing to give false data to regulator (YF)

• NFL punts on private equity ownership (Axios)

• Sales of newly built homes tank in April, as prices and interest rates rise (CNBC)

• Will the future of private equity be tokenized? (Axios)

• DuPont plans a three-way split in return to CEO’s playbook (YF)

• Private equity interest in communications firms is growing (Axios)

• US economic output hits 2-year high (YF)

• Boeing expects negative free cash flow, and slow recovery (CNBC)

• Nvidia's astonishing profitability (Axios)

_{CAPITAL PULSE}

Markets Rundown

Stocks closed lower even after the Nvidia rally because of higher-rates-for-longer concerns.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Nvidia ($NVDA) +9% after announcing an earnings beat, 10-1 stock split.

• (–) Boeing ($BA) -8% after the airline experts negative free cash flow, slow recovery.

• (–) Live Nation Entertainment ($LYV) -8% after the US says it is ‘time to break up’ Ticketmaster parent Live Nation.

Private Dealmaking

• DeepL, a language translation AI, raised $300 million

• Suno, an AI music startup, raised $125 million

• Anton Capital Entertainment, a film and TV studio, raised $108 million

• Colendi, a Turkish fintech, raised $65 million

• Tuesday Health, a hospice care startup, raised $60 million

• 280 Earth, a direct air capture startup, raised $50 million

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

_{BOOK OF THE DAY}

Effortless

Do you feel like quitting your job because of burnout? You’re not alone.

In the book, Effortless, the author (Greg McKeown) shows us how to make the most essential activities the easiest to do. He breaks the book down to 3 sections.

The effortless state section answers the question “How can we make it easier to focus?” The second section, effortless action, talks about how we can make essential work easier to do. The last section, effortless results, teaches us how to get the highest return on the least amount of effort.

We recommend it to anyone that wants to turn mind-numbing tasks into enjoyable rituals.

“To avoid diminishing returns on your time and effort, establish clear conditions for what “done” looks like, get there, then stop.”

_{DAILY VISUAL}

Nvidia Earnings Keep the Party Going

_{DAILY ACUMEN}

Pygmalion Effect

Do expectations affect our achievements?

Back in 1968, a psychologist (Robert Rosenthal) and school principal (Lenore Jacobson) explored how our expectations affected our success with a group of students. They told teachers that some of their students were designated as high achievers even though they haven’t showed any superior academic success. Within days, the teachers started treating those students differently than the other kids.

Those “high achieving” kids started thinking of themselves as superior and in the end, they actually performed significantly better than the other students. They were transformed by the teachers’ positive expectations. This is called the Pygmalion Effect.

The same goes for your expectations of yourself. High expectations create positive results, low expectations decrease performance and motivation. Your high expectations will empower your goals and motivate you to accomplish them.

_{ENLIGHTENMENT}

Short Squeez Picks

• 4 secrets that will improve your memory

• Why introversion leads to more self-confidence

• The simple relationship hack for burnout resilience

• How to be a proactive leader in a reactive work environment 

• “What if” thinking could improve our choices

_{MEME-A-PALOOZA}

Memes of the Day