The Onion has finally peeled off its private equity layer, with Great Hill Partners portfolio company G/O Media selling the satirical site to a group led by ex-Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson.

Why it matters: There aren't too many content brands that are still widely adored. The Onion is one of them, and now gets a legitimate chance at financial viability.

Behind the scenes: Adweek reported in January that G/O Media was seeking to sell many of its individual titles, after failing to find a buyer for the whole portfolio.

• Ben Collins, then a reporter on the disinformation beat for NBC News, was among those who took notice.
• "I'm not someone who buys things, beyond a Mazda Miata once, and don't know how these things work. So I put a message on Bluesky asking how we could buy The Onion, which I've been a fan of since I was a kid."
• Leila Brillson, a former social exec with Bumble and TikTok, took notice. "I pulled the ultimate millennial move and messaged Ben on LinkedIn ... Plus, my sister is an IP lawyer who specializes in M&A."
• The motley crew soon also included Danielle Strle, a Collins pal who once led product at Tumblr.
• "I'm a reporter, so I began asking how 'for sale' it really was, and learned that Jeff Lawson was among those most seriously circling it, so we got connected."

In the weeds: Deal terms aren't being disclosed, except that the buyers will continue to honor a three-year union contract that was recently signed with G/O.

• Also, all of The Onion's dozen or so employees will be part of a revenue-share plan (albeit won't get equity).
• It's unclear if the rev-share will be extended to the site's large network of contributors, who submit ideas into a Google Doc that then gets anonymized before Onion staff makes its picks (they then go back to figure out who submitted the winners).
• Collins will serve as CEO, while Brillson will be CMO, and Strle will be CPO. Lawson is listing himself as "owner," with Brillson saying that "he's not interested in making this about him or a Jeff-centric venture."

Look ahead: The business plan is to eschew a click model favored by G/O, as evidenced by slideshows, in favor of subscriptions that will be driven by a much more robust social presence.

• There also will be an effort to build out merch offerings and strategic, humor-based partnerships with brand advertisers. Mothballed products like The Onion News Network and print newspaper even could make comebacks.
• "We want to unleash the staff who've spent the past few years being asked to appease the Taboola gods," Collins says.

Thoma Bravo agreed to buy Darktrace (LSE: DARK), a British cybersecurity firm, for around $5.3 billion.

Why it's the BFD: The shorts just got squeezed very, very hard.

• Darktrace has long been a popular target of the naysayers, largely because it was co-founded and initially funded by Mike Lynch, the former Autonomy CEO who's on trial in the U.S. for fraud.
• Lynch no longer served on Darktrace's board, but he does remain one of its largest shareholders. But several top Darktrace execs previously worked for Autonomy, including CEO Poppy Gustafsson.

Details: The 620 pence per share offer represents around a 20% premium to where Darktrace shares closed on Thursday.

• Thoma Bravo previously held takeover talks with Darktrace in 2022, but then walked away.

The bottom line: "[Darktrace's] move private will be seen as a major blow to the London Stock Exchange, where it listed in 2021. The company was seen as a welcome dynamic addition to a market often characterized as less appealing to technology firms than those in the U.S. or Asia." — Jenni Reid, CNBC

• Movement Labs, an SF-based Layer 2 blockchain development firm, raised $38m in Series A funding. Polychain Capital led, and was joined by Hack VC, Placeholder, Archetype, Maven 11, Robot Ventures, Figment Capital, Nomad Capital, Bankless Ventures, OKX Ventures, dao5, and Aptos Labs. axios.link/3Uf01Bi

• FinQuery, an Atlanta-based spend management provider, raised $25m led by Periphas Capital with participation from Lavelle Capital. axios.link/4dg8AEw

• HappySignals, a Helsinki-based IT management startup, raised €12m. Mandatum Asset Management led, and was joined by insiders Nauta and Vendep Capital. axios.link/4bb3bNs

• RevenueCat, a Brandon, Fla.-based subscription management platform for apps, raised $12m in Series C funding led by Adjacent. axios.link/4b8tvYq

• Fintoc, a Chilean instant payments API startup, raised $7m in Series A funding. Propel led, and was joined by Monashees. axios.link/4bayqbh

• Vixtra, a provider of credit for Latin American importers, raised $6m from Valor Capital, QED Investors, NXTP, Endeavor Scale-Up Ventures, and Actyus. It also secured $30m in debt. vixtra.com

🌎 Goodcarbon, a German carbon credits startup, raised €5.3m. Ocean 14 Capital led, and was joined by Silverstrand Capital and insiders Planet A Ventures, 468 Capital, and Greenfield Capital. axios.link/49T6RlT

🌎 Bioform Technologies, a Canadian developer of bio-based alternatives to single-use plastic bags, raised C$5m in seed funding from Suzano Ventures. axios.link/44hLoSq

• Radical, a Seattle-based developer of solar-powered, autonomous aircraft, raised $4.5m in seed funding. Scout Ventures led, and was joined by Inflection Mercury Fund, and YC. axios.link/3UcRqiI

🚑 Roclub, a German medical device tele-operations startup, raised €4m in seed funding. Speedinvest and FJ Labs co-led, and were joined by Better Ventures. axios.link/3Qiiagz

🚑 FlashAid, an Indian health insurtech, raised $2.5m co-led by Piper Serica Angel Fund and SOSV. axios.link/49Sgp0j

⚡ Apollo Global Management agreed to buy frack-sand provider US Silica (NYSE: SLCA) for $1.21b, or $15.50 per share (18.7% premium to yesterday's closing price). axios.link/4bgIT5f

• Century Park Capital Partners acquired Total Access Elevator, a Santa Fe Springs, Calif.-based commercial elevator modernization, maintenance, and repair services. totalaccesselevator.com

• FCA, a Moline, Ill.-based portfolio company of Wynnchurch Capital, acquired Greentree, a Fort Worth, Texas-based maker of custom wood packaging and a lumber distributor. fcapackaging.com

• L Catterton agreed to buy a majority stake in Italian beauty brand and retailer Kiko. axios.link/3QHYzXp

• Serent Capital invested in Medical Informatics Engineering, a Fort Wayne, Ind.-based developer of EHR and health IT software. serentcapital.com

• Shoreline Equity Partners invested in Prime Meats, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based protein processor and distributor. primemeats.com

• CVC Capital Partners priced its IPO at €14 per share (within €13-15 range), and then saw shares rise more than 20% in its Amsterdam debut.

• Marex Group, a British commodities broker, raised $292m in its IPO. It priced at $19 compared to an $18-$21 range, reports $121m in 2023 net income on $1.24b in revenue, and listed on the Nasdaq (MRX). axios.link/3VAxsR7

• Solera, a Westlake, Texas-based auto software firm owned by Vista Equity Partners, has picked IPO bankers, per Bloomberg. The offering could aim to raise more than $1b. axios.link/3QlDQYX

• Paystand, a B2B payment company that's raised $85m, acquired Teampay, a spend management software startup that had raised around $96m from firms like Fin VC, Mastercard, Proof Ventures, Trestle, and Espresso Capital. axios.link/49Tzv6p

• OpenGate Capital sold SMAC, a French provider of waterproofing and building envelope systems, to Compagnie Financière Jousset. mac-sa.com

• Anglo American (LSE: AAL) rejected the nearly $39 billion all-stock takeover bid from mining rival BHP Group (ASX: BHP). Meanwhile, activist investor Elliott Management reportedly has built around a $1b stake in Anglo American.

• Hawaiian Electric Industries (NYSE: HE) is considering a sale of American Savings Bank, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3QlC7mt

• T-Mobile US (Nasdaq: TMUS) received FCC approval for its $1.35b purchase of Mint Mobile, the Fountain Valley, Calif.-based budget wireless provider owned by actor Ryan Reynolds. axios.link/3Uy7jkT

• Founders Fund took a minority stake in crypto accelerator Alliance. axios.link/3WfFu25

• Global Founders Capital, a Berlin-based VC firm, will become the venture arm of Rocket Internet and will invest off Rocket's balance sheet instead of raising new funds. axios.link/3Wh5ryn

• Newton Investment Partners, a Japan-focused PE firm co-founded by Carlyle vet Hiroyuki Otsuka, raised around $960m for its debut fund, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4dgzHQ4

Crypto prices keep going strong, even as some industry execs are at risk of going up river.

• Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) next week will be sentenced by a federal judge in Seattle for violating the Bank Secrecy Act and for failing to implement an effective anti-money laundering program. DOJ is asking for three years in prison, which is much more than had been expected.
• Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged the founders of Samourai Wallet, a crypto-mixing service, with conspiracy to commit money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitter business. Samourai had raised money from New York-based VC firm Ten31.

We'll go deeper on all things crypto at the Axios BFD event on May 14 in San Francisco, during my conversation with Haun Ventures founder and CEO Katie Haun. Request your invite.