Levi Strauss is expected to price its IPO on Wednesday night, kicking off what should be a banner year for mega-listings.
Buzz: Reports are that the denim giant has strong investor interest that could push above its $14–$16 indicative range, the top end of which would raise around $586 million at an initial market cap of nearly $6.2 billion.
The big picture: The Levi's IPO is a big test of investor appetite or distaste for dual-class share listings. If fund managers will accept it for a company whose founder died 116 years ago, then they'll accept it for tech unicorns whose founders are still in charge (no matter how much Paul Singer objects).
What's next? Next week's big issuer, Lyft, reportedly is also oversubscribed after just two days of its nine-day roadshow.
Inmarsat, a British satellite company, said it received a non-binding $3.3 billion takeover offer from a private equity consortium that includes Apax Partners, Warburg Pincus and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.
Why it matters: This is yet another big-money example of buyout firms returning to a familiar well, as Apax had helped buy Inmarsat in 2003 before later taking it public. It also comes about a year after Inmarsat turned down a $3.2 billion takeover bid from Echostar.
Price talk: The $7.21 per share bid represents a 24% premium to yesterday's closing stock price, and a 47% premium based on where Inmarsat shares were trading when the bid was (quietly) made on Jan. 31.
The bottom line: "While Inmarsat’s sales of satellite connection services to core maritime and government clients were flat in 2018, it posted strong growth in its aviation group thanks to booming demand for passenger internet connectivity from the world’s airlines, according to its annual report," writes Thomas Seal at Bloomberg.
Bumble, the female-first dating app, is in talks to raise what would be its first round of traditional VC funding, Axios has learned from multiple sources.
Details: One potential investor is said to be Accel Growth. Bumble is controlled by a Russian company called Badoo, which we're told originally sought the funding before VCs expressed more interest in Bumble specifically. No comment from Bumble or Accel.
