Good Morning! Delta is still reeling from the CrowdStrike outage, offering crew extra pay to pick up shifts. Elon Musk revised his robot timeline - predicting we could have genuinely useful robots by 2026. L Catterton reportedly approached Mattel with an acquisition offer. Warner Bros will match Amazon’s NBA media rights deal and Deutsche has lofty ambitions. Plus McKinsey’s 2024 annual book recommendations, and 30% of the population has a stock portfolio of over $500k.

Looking for niche private market opportunities led by a Wall Street veteran with skin in the game? Check out today’s sponsor, 10 East.

_{SQUEEZ OF THE DAY}

Short Sellers Having a Field Day

It's been a solid couple of days if you're short CrowdStrike. Ever since the global IT outage on Friday, short sellers have made almost $978 million in paper profits from the company's 23% two-day drop.

Bets against CrowdStrike have surged by $12 billion this year, marking the second-largest increase in short selling within the tech sector, with Microsoft at number one. Short interest currently stands at 5.53%, representing the proportion of the company's publicly available shares that are shorted.

The selloff was enough to swing CrowdStrike short sellers to gains year to date. Despite the two-day nose dive, $CRWD shares are still up 7% YTD.

Wall Street still remains bullish on CrowdStrike - the average price target is around $390, more than a 40% upside from where the stock is currently trading. The stock has 41 buy ratings, 8 holds, and just 2 sells. But analysts are starting to revise their ratings and price targets after Friday’s fiasco.

Takeaway: Guggenheim downgraded shares to neutral from buy, citing near term struggles but analyst John DiFucci noted “that the company will eventually become even stronger as a result of this incident, and if investors have a multi-year horizon, they can ride it out.” According to my intern, this stock is either going to zero or represents a generational buying opportunity.

_{PRESENTED BY 10 EAST}

Where Sophisticated Investors Access Private Markets

10 East, led by Michael Leffell, allows qualified individuals to invest alongside private market veterans in vetted deals across private credit, real estate, niche venture/private equity, and other one-off investments that aren’t typically available through traditional channels.   

Benefits of 10 East membership include:    

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• Institutional resources – a dedicated investment team that sources, monitors, and diligences each offering.   

10 East is where founders, executives, and portfolio managers from industry-leading firms diversify their personal portfolios.  

There are no upfront costs or minimum commitments associated with joining 10 East.

_HEADLINES

Top Reads

• Delta cancels hundreds of flights recovering from Microsoft outage (CNBC)

• Musk revises his robot timeline (Reuters)

• Warner Bros. to match Amazon’s NBA offer (CNBC)

• L Catterton approaches Mattel with acquisition offer (FN)

• Deutsche aims to become Wall Street’s most powerful European rival (Fortune)

• Berkshire has eliminated 10% of outstanding shares as Buffett values buybacks (CNBC)

• Biden’s exit could spur a Trump trade unwind (YF)

• Even AppleTV+ is on a budget (Verge)

• Disneyland workers brace for strike (BBC)

• As rates fall, European banks can still rise (Reuters)

• Nvidia preparing AI chip for Chinese market (YF)

_{CAPITAL PULSE}

Markets Rundown

Stocks roared back as companies gear up to report earnings.

Movers & Shakers

• (+) Mattel ($MAT) +15% after L Catterton reportedly made an acquisition offer for the Barbie maker.

• (+) Tesla ($TSLA) +5% ahead of the EV maker reporting earnings.

• (–) CrowdStrike ($CRWD) -13% because of the continued fallout from Friday’s outage.

Private Dealmaking

• Thyme Care, a cancer care enabler, raised $95 million

• Hero Software, a SaaS for trade businesses, raised $44 million

• Octagos Health, a cardiac device monitoring tools developer, raised $43 million 

• Armada, a satellite connectivity computing startup, raised $40 million

• TBC Bank Uzbekistan, a mobile-only bank, raised $38.2 million

• Vantem Global, an energy-efficient modular homes maker, raised $30 million

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

_{BOOK OF THE DAY}

Surviving The Daily Grind

We spend a lot of our time at work and would be depressed with nothing to do. But when it gets to Monday, many of us are already longing for the weekend and the prospect of escape. How did work become so tedious and stressful? And is there anything we can do to make it better?

Based on his popular Economist Bartleby column, Philip Coggan rewrites the rules of work to help us survive the daily grind. Ranging widely, he encourages us to cut through mindless jargon, pointless bureaucracy and endless meetings to find a new, more creative - and less frustrating - way to get by and get on at work.

Incisive, original, and endlessly droll, this is the guide for beleaguered underlings and harried higher-ups alike. As Rousseau might have said: "Man was born free, but is everywhere stuck in a meeting." If you've ever thought there must be a better way, this is the book for you.

“Coggan is one of the best financial journalists of his generation."

_{DAILY VISUAL}

Americans are Rich

_{PRESENTED BY PUCK}

Unveiling Wall Street's Black Box

Anybody even loosely connected to the capital markets should be reading Bill Cohan's private Wall Street newsletter, Dry Powder. As a former investment banker, Bill has unparalleled access delivering inside chatter on Shari Redstone to David Solomon. Check it all out here.

_{DAILY ACUMEN}

Vulnerability

In a world that often equates vulnerability with weakness, true strength lies in being open and authentic.

Brené Brown's research shows that vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change.

What walls could you lower today?

Think of great leaders who showed vulnerability: Martin Luther King Jr. sharing his fears, Oprah Winfrey opening up about her struggles.

Their openness didn't diminish their strength; it amplified their impact.

Embrace your imperfections.

Share your struggles.

Ask for help when you need it.

Remember, vulnerability is not winning or losing; it's having the courage to show up and be seen.

_{ENLIGHTENMENT}

Short Squeez Picks

• McKinsey’s 2024 annual book recommendations

• How to define success on your own terms

• How to tell if a relationship is moving too fast

• Five ways to give your small bathroom more space

• How to maximize every hour of your day for unstoppable productivity 

_{MEME-A-PALOOZA}

Memes of the Day