This week, Axios caught up with Thoma Bravo managing partner Seth Boro, to chat about the cybersecurity sector's opportunities and challenges.
The big picture: Like other areas of software, venture-backed cybersecurity startups that raised funding at inflated valuations during the pandemic are now great acquisition targets, says Boro, who helps run the firm's cybersecurity investment efforts.
Widening geopolitical divides are disrupting global trade flows, creating spillover effects that are dividing the world's economies into competing blocs, a top International Monetary Fund official warned this week.
Driving the news: At a speech at Stanford University on Tuesday, IMF First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath said that global economic ties are shifting in ways that have not been seen since the Cold War's conclusion.
There's a new set of influencers on TikTok and Instagram: the baby-name consultant who helps parents workshop standout names for their kids with an eye toward cultivating their child's future persona.
Real-time payments are one of the fastest-growing areas of the global financial architecture — and the U.S. remains far behind, per a new report from ACI Worldwide.
Why it matters: Real-time payments, where money can be sent straight into the recipient's account within seconds, "are faster, cheaper, and more accessible and convenient — they reduce costs and improve liquidity for businesses and help banks achieve greater efficiency," per the ACI report.
The National Basketball Association is just weeks away from inking its giant media rights deal, which now is expected to fetch more than $75 billion.
What we don't know: If the windfall will significantly increase the prices paid for both majority and minority stakes in NBA team, or the near-term prevalence of such deals.
Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has agreed to sell the East Africa tea gardens it acquired in 2022, as part of its €4.5 billion purchase of Unilever's tea business, to Sri Lanka's Browns Group.
Why it matters: This includes the controversial Kericho site in Kenya, where workers were sexually abused, according to a BBC investigation filmed just before Unilever turned over control.
ArkeaBio, a Boston developer of a vaccine to reduce livestock methane emissions, raised $26.5 million in venture capital funding led by an investment fund founded by Bill Gates.
Why it matters: Caring about cow farts (or burps) has become a political punchline, but they're estimated to create more than 5% of global greenhouse gasses.
As the artificial intelligence community hunts for solutions to meet its ever-growing energy needs, there are lessons to be learned from a controversial sub-category of the data-center market: Bitcoin miners.
When FTX went bankrupt in November 2022, the world thought that more than $10 billion had disappeared forever. Now, it has reappeared.
Why it matters: About 40% of the recovered money isn't going to the victims, but to investors who were willing to take a bet on a solid recovery by buying their claims from the original creditors in the secondary market.
Why it matters: In certain states — particularly Florida, California and Louisiana — private insurers are fleeing areas considered at high risk. It's leaving so-called "residual," or last resort plans, to pick up the tab.
A harsh grilling awaits FDIC chair Martin Gruenberg on Capitol Hill next week when lawmakers are expected to question him over a bombshell 234-page investigation that found a longstanding toxic culture at the agency.
Why it matters: Gruenberg's fate hangs in the balance — along with the prospects for the Biden administration's financial regulatory agenda.
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