The Federal Trade Commission yesterday asked a court for extra time before proceeding on a case against Amazon, claiming its resources are too constrained, before reversing course just hours later.

Why it matters: This suggests that the FTC may struggle to meet its responsibilities, including enforcing antitrust law, or at least could become more selective.

Catch up quick: The FTC in 2023 sued Amazon for allegedly enrolling customers in its Prime program without consent and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions. In short, a deceptive practices case, as Axios' Ashley Gold and I report.

• Yesterday, an FTC attorney named Jonathan Cohen told the judge overseeing the case: "Our resource constraints are severe and really unique to this moment. We have lost employees in the agency, in our division and on the case team."
• Later in the case, after media coverage of Cohen's request for a trial delay, he fell on his sword, saying: "The commission does not have resource constraints and we are fully prepared to litigate this case."

Behind the scenes: A senior FTC official tells Axios that Cohen was "going rogue," and that his supervisors were unaware of his delay request before it was made. The agency is said to be investigating what happened.

• At the same time, however, the FTC — which already had a reputation for being under-resourced — has lost some personnel from DOGE's "fork in the road" resignation offer and cut a dozen staffers on its own.
• It's unclear if DOGE itself has been inside the FTC, but Elon Musk has directed FTC staff to soon move into USAID offices, while also rendering government-issued credit cards ineffective.

The bottom line: Trump's FTC is widely expected to keep Big Tech's feet to the fire, including by continuing to pursue its case against Microsoft, so this episode likely reflects internal strife more than a directional change.

GSR Ventures tells Axios that it has formally separated its U.S. business from its China business, and renamed the U.S. effort as Informed Ventures.

Why it's the BFD: GSR was one of several VC firms rebuked last year by Congress for its cross-border investing activities, and has decided that its 20-year history as a global firm is no longer worth the political pain.

The bottom line: "We set up a U.S.-based subsidiary in 2019 because it was quite apparent even back then that you needed a U.S. fund to be able to invest effectively in early-stage ventures here. We made a decision then to call it GSR Ventures U.S., and it turned out to be a mistake. There was massive confusion." — Richard Lim, founder of Informed Ventures and co-founder of GSR Ventures

🚑 Insilico Medicine, a Hong Kong-based AI drug design startup, raised $110m in Series E funding. Value Partners led, and was joined by insiders like Warburg Pincus and Qiming Venture Partners. axios.link/3R6etKI

• Lumafield, a developer of industrial CT tech for medical device companies, raised a $75 million Series C funding, per Axios Pro. IVP led, and was joined by G2 Venture Partners, Wellington Management and insiders Spark Capital, DCVC, Kleiner Perkins, Lux Capital, and Matter Venture Partners. axios.link/4bNJ0Xc

• Blackwall, an Estonian provider of cybersecurity solutions for SMBs, raised €45m in Series B funding led by Dawn Capital. axios.link/422Ybsj

• Bria, an enterprise visual gen AI platform built on licensed data, raised $40m in Series B funding. Red Dot Capital led, and was joined by Maor Investment, Entrée Capital, GFT Ventures, Intel Capital, and In-Venture. bria.ai

• Fixated, a content creator management startup, raised $12.8m led by Eldridge Industries. axios.link/4bM6N9X

• Augmenta, a Toronto-based autonomous design platform for the built environment, raised $10m in new seed funding. Prelude Ventures led, and was joined by Montage Ventures. augmenta.ai

• Onyx, an internal enterprise search tool, raised $10m in seed funding co-led by Khosla Ventures and First Round Capital. axios.link/3FnIVNL

🚑 AdvocateMH, a behavioral health triaging startup, raised $6.2m in seed funding led by Morningside. axios.link/3XM1Rw0

🚑 Flowww, a Spanish provider of business management software for beauty medicine, raised €4m in Series A funding. Swanlaab Venture Factory and Bonsai Partners co-led, and were joined by Sabadell Venture Capital. axios.link/3DQXCse

• Wolf Games, a developer of generative cinematic games, raised $4m in seed funding from Dick Wolf, Jimmy Iovine, and Paul Wachter. axios.link/41HUlU5

• PvX Partners, a platform that helps founders scale consumer apps, raised $3.8m in seed funding from Play Ventures and General Catalyst. axios.link/4bLqzCs

• Argosy Private Equity formed Endura Services to acquire chimney and hearth services, and made its first deals for Chim Chimney (Tennessee) and A Merrie Sweepe (New Hampshire). argosycapital.com

🚑 DOCS Dermatology Group, backed by SkyKnight Capital, acquired Charlotte Dermatology, which has eight locations. docsdermgroup.com

• Gulmohar Capital Partners acquired CurrentWare, a Canadian provider of employee productivity and monitoring solutions. currentware.com

• IK Partners agreed to buy a minority stake in Seventeen Group, a U.K. independent insurance and risk management firm. seventeengroup.co.uk

• Industrial Networking Solutions, a Richardson, Texas-based portfolio company of CIVC Partners, acquired Source, a Lenexa, Kan., provider of wireless networking, IoT, and POTS replacement solutions. industrialnetworking.com

🚑 InTandem Capital Partners invested in Clinilabs, an Eatontown, N.J., contract research organization. axios.link/4kLlvlB

🚑 KKR and Warburg Pincus are in talks to buy Gerresheimer, a listed German medical packaging firm with around a $3b market cap, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3Ft6R2r

• Owen, a specialty equipment platform owned by Wynnchurch Capital, acquired Oklahoma City-based J&R Equipment. axios.link/3XPJarh

🔥 Permira acquired Encore Fire Protection, a Pawtucket, R.I.-based provider of provider of fire protection services, from Levine Leichtman Capital Partners. No financial terms were disclosed, but a source puts the price at $1.8b. axios.link/3FuX1gE

• RWS Global, a New York-based portfolio company of Bluestone Equity Partners, acquired vocal practice app Harmony Helper. axios.link/3R3WRz8

🚑 Bluejay Therapeutics, a San Mateo, Calif., biotech whose lead candidate is focused on chronic hepatitis D, is weighing an IPO that could price as early as April, per Bloomberg. The company has raised around $240m in VC funding. axios.link/421O3Qx

• Advent International is weighing a sale of Ultra PCS, a Kansas defense tech company that could fetch around $1b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3R6vSTv

• Clearwater Analytics (NYSE: CWAN) agreed to acquire Bistro, a portfolio visualization software developed by Blackstone, for $125m in cash and stock. Clearwater also will pay $560m to buy Beacon, a provider of cross-asset class modeling and risk analytics that had raised around $140m from firms like Centana Growth, Blackstone, Warburg Pincus, PIMCO and Plug & Play Tech Center. axios.link/4iIrOVm

• CVC Capital Partners agreed to sell its 90% stake in Greek insurer Ethniki to Piraeus Financial. axios.link/4hzxDDA

• Pollen Street Group is weighing a sale of Pair Finance, a German digital debt collector, that could fetch around €300m, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3R80eFa

• Tempus AI (Nasdaq: TEM) acquired Deep 6 AI, a Pasadena, Calif., clinical trial matching and optimization company that had raised over $20m from firms like Point72 Ventures. axios.link/4kMpBdl

• UiPath (NYSE: PATH) acquired Peak, a British platform for optimizing product inventory and pricing. Peak had raised over $120m from firms like Oxx, MMC Ventures, and SoftBank. axios.link/3DrElxD

• Wonder, a cloud kitchen group founded by Marc Lore, paid $90m to acquire Tastemade, a food-focused content studio that had raised $130m from firms like Raine Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Comcast Ventures, Amazon, and Liberty Media. Wonder has raised around $1.8 from VCs, while Tastemade's last VC valuation was around $420m. axios.link/4hxNrXo

• Archer-Daniels-Midland (NYSE: ADM) is weighing a sale of its futures brokerage arm, per Bloomberg. axios.link/41MjtJh

🏀 Bill Chisholm, managing partner of Symphony Technology Group, has emerged as a new bidder for The Boston Celtics, per Sportico. axios.link/3Fv69BN

🚑 Endo and Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals agreed to merge in a deal that values the combined drugmaker at $6.7b. axios.link/4iJVeCp

🚑 Wysa, a mental health chatbot that's raised $30m in VC funding, acquired Durham, N.C.-based telepsychiatry provider April Health. axios.link/3DDvRn2

• Banner Ridge Partners is targeting $3.2b for a secondaries fund focused on private credit and special situations vehicles, per the WSJ. axios.link/4bMMzwS

• Project Europe raised $10m for its debut VC fund from founders and tech execs. axios.link/41Xj8F3

• Soul Street Ventures, the VC arm of Soul Street Asset Management, raised $22.5m for its debut fund. axios.link/4hpg8FT

• TPG is planning to launch its first open-ended PE product. axios.link/4iNMyLk

• Vento, an Italian early-stage VC firm, raised €75m for its second fund. axios.link/3DHoQS9

• Lip-Bu Tan, who founded VC firms Celesta Capital and Walden International, was named Intel's new CEO. axios.link/41NS0a7

• Jay Harris left BofA to rejoin JPMorgan Chase to focus on midcap M&A. axios.link/43KTMeT

• Andy Pickens left Apollo to join Abu Dhabi's MGX as a managing director and AI product lead, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3FE67Yb

🎵 Jeff Bunder (ex-Edgelight Capital) and James King (Cavendish) joined Round Hill Music Royalty Partners as CFO and chief capital officer, respectively. roundhillmusic.com

iRobot yesterday warned that it may not survive on its own, and that it's considering a sale or other strategic transaction.

• This comes more than a year after the collapse of its $1.4 billion takeover by Amazon, amidst opposition from European antitrust regulators.