If Kamala Harris wins the White House, one of her first fights may be over the future of Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan.

Why it matters: FTC chairs aren't usually well-known outside the Beltway, but Khan has become a trustbusting hero to progressive Democrats and even some MAGA Republicans like JD Vance.

• She's also roused the ire of business leaders, including notable Harris supporters like Reid Hoffman and Mark Cuban.
• And those are just the ones who've said something on the record. I was at a private event in LA earlier this week, during which a big-name CEO and Democratic donor said that dumping Khan would be one of the best things Harris could do.

What to know: Khan's three-year term expired in late September, but she can remain in the job as acting chair until or if she's replaced.

• To get another official term, she'd need to be renominated and confirmed by the Senate.
• Harris hasn't taken a public position on Khan's future. Nor has Trump.

The big picture: Khan has a much broader view of antitrust law than did her predecessors, taking things like labor competition into account when deciding to challenge a potential merger.

• She's lost several large cases, such as a challenge to Microsoft's acquisition of videogame maker Activision, but also has several wins (e.g., Nvidia/Arm) and incompletes (e.g., Amazon).
• Perhaps most importantly, Khan's hawkishness has scared off potential acquisitions, including by Big Tech, as companies don't want to risk the time and cost of litigation.

The bottom line: Harris would have to choose sides within her own coalition.

Uber (NYSE: UBER) is weighing a takeover offer for online travel booker Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE), per the FT.

Why it's the BFD: This would supercharge Uber's efforts to become a superapp.

• It also would be a homecoming for Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who led Expedia for more than a decade before joining the ride-hail giant in 2017.

By the numbers: Uber shares are up around 86% over the past year, giving it a $168 billion market cap.

• Expedia stock is up around 60% over the same period, including a big bounce on the FT news, giving it a $20.6 billion market cap (which isn't too different from where it was when Dara left).

The bottom line: Khosrowshahi was a protégé of Barry Diller, who was known for dealmaking, but hasn't struck too many large acquisitions in his time running Uber. The largest was buying Middle Eastern ride-hailer Careem for $3.1 billion, which it later unloaded for just $400 million.

• Eruditus, an Indian startup that partners with universities to provide executive education programs to businesses and individuals, raised $150m in Series E funding at a $3b valuation. TPG led, and was joined by insiders SoftBank, Leeds Illuminate, Accel, CPP Investments, and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. BFD flashback

🚑 Terray Therapeutics, a Monrovia, Calif., biotech that uses gen AI to discover small molecule drugs, raised $120m in Series B funding. NVentures and Bedford Ridge co-led, and were joined by Madrona, Maverick Capital, Goldcrest Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, XTX Ventures, Digitalis Ventures, and Alexandria Ventures. axios.link/4eSzeUv

• Agrolend, a Brazilian digital bank for agrobusinesses, raised $53m in Series C funding. Creation Investments and Syngenta Group Ventures co-led, and were joined by Valor Capital, Lightrock, Yara Growth Ventures, Provence Capital, SP Ventures, and Barn. agrolend.agr.br

• Dottxt, a platform for interacting with LLMs, raised $11.9m from EQT Ventures, Elaia, Seedcamp, Common Magic, Kima, and FSJ. axios.link/3YrW7rY

• Kick, an SMB bookkeeping automation startup, raised $9m in seed funding co-led by General Catalyst and OpenAI Startup Fund, as first reported by Axios Pro. axios.link/4dMjbWR

🚑 Ikerian, a health care data workflow with offices in Boston and Switzerland, raised $8m in Series B funding led by Sanoptis. ikerian.com

🚑 Legion Health, an Austin, Texas-based digital health operations company, raised $6.3m in seed funding from Alumni Ventures, YC, Acequia Capital, and Soma Capital. axios.link/3Yo8OEh

🚑 Minze Health, a Belgian urology digital health startup, raised $5.3m from White Fund, Capricorn Digital Growth Fund and PMV, and Imec.istart Future Fund. minzehealth.com

• Live Aware, a Seattle-based game developer feedback company, raised $4.8m in seed funding. Transcend led, and was joined by a16z, and Lifelike Capital. axios.link/3YrHVzd

• Drop Protocol, a liquid staking protocol for Interchain assets, raised $4m in seed funding. CoinFund led, and was joined by CMS Holdings, Anagram, Interop Ventures, and Cosmostation. axios.link/4faoyk2

🚑 Audax Private Equity completed its $650m carveout of the clinical services business of Avantor (NYSE: AVTR). axios.link/4fLem2n

• Orchestra (fka BerlinRosen), a PR firm backed by O2 Investment Partners, acquired Small Girls PR. axios.link/3Ua2C08

🚑 Thomas H. Lee Partners acquired life sciences communications firm Red Nucleus from Riverside Co. for more than $750m, as first reported by Axios Pro. axios.link/3Y7MMUV

• Pony AI, a Chinese developer of self-driving systems, filed for an IPO that Renaissance Capital estimates could raise around $300m. It reports a $210m net loss on $100m in revenue for the first half of 2024, and plans to list on the Nasdaq (PONY).

• It has raised around $1.2b in VC funding, including at an $8.5b valuation in 2023 from NEOM Investment Fund. Backers include Toyota (13.4% pre-IPO stake), HongShan (10.2%), Ontario Teachers' (6.8%), IDG (5.8%), and 5Y Capital (5.7%).

• Gateway Partners of Dubai hired BNP Paribas to explore a sale of its 40% stake in the Gulf franchise of coffee chain Tim Hortons, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3UfdEkP

• Stripe reportedly is in "advanced talks" to acquire crypto payments startup Bridge for around $1b. Bridge has raised nearly $60m Sequoia Capital, Ribbit, Haun Ventures, Bedrock, Index Ventures, and 1confirmation. axios.link/4f4Q7Lp

• Xerox (Nasdaq: XRX) acquired ITsavvy, an Oak Brook, Ill., provider of IT products, for $400m from GenNx360 Capital Partners. axios.link/4dP8Rxs

• Boohoo (LSE: BOO), a British fast-fashion company with a £376m market cap, launched a strategic review that could lead to a sale or split. Its CEO also resigned. axios.link/4frYnp9

• Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is seeking to sell at least a minority stake in its Altera unit, which could be valued at around $17b, per CNBC. axios.link/4haHosL

🚑 Otsuka Holdings (Tokyo: 4578) is weighing a sale of its 21% stake in Chinese medical device maker MicroPort Scientific (HK: 853), which would be valued at around $300m, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4dQl4lE

• Emergence Capital Partners is closing in on around $1b for its seventh fund, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4f6lmWq

• Alex Constantinople joined VC firm Greycroft as a partner and chief marketing officer. She's the former CMO of Zendesk and CEO of Outcast. axios.link/3Ns8U7A

• Brian Crandall joined TSG Consumer Partners as a managing director of the firm's portfolio operations group. He previously was chief client officer for Accenture's global PE group. axios.link/3A6KU6X

Harvard University's endowment gained 9.6% during during fiscal 2024, topping its 8% targeted return and well above its meager 2.9% gain during fiscal 2023.

Why it matters: Harvard is America's oldest college and the richest, with an endowment valued at $53.2 billion through the end of June.

By the numbers: Private equity remains the endowment's largest asset class with a 39% allocation, but underperformed Harvard's public equity investments for the second straight year.

• Donations to the endowment were down, likely owing to controversies over Gaza war protests, antisemitism, and former college president Claudine Gay.
• Current-use donations, however, were the second-largest in the school's 388-year history.
• Overall, Harvard reported a $45 million operating surplus on $6.5 billion in revenue.