Several big-name investors have recently come out in support of Donald Trump as America's next president. And yesterday's 34-count felony conviction for falsifying business records is unlikely to stem the small but strengthening tide.

• Some of the investors, such as Steve Schwarzman and David Sacks, had previously said they wouldn't support his candidacy.

The big picture: It's the taxes, stupid.

• Everyone has their own pet issues, and I'm not suggesting that Trump (or Biden) backers are single-issue donors/voters.
• But tax policy is something that does bind them, and it comes up quickly in conversation. Sacks, for example, went straight to taxes when I asked him on stage about the biggest policy issue facing Silicon Valley and the business world at large.

State of play: Many of Trump's 2017 tax cuts expire at the end of 2025. This includes marginal rates for top earners and several business-related provisions (albeit not the 21% corporate rate).

• Neither party wants them to expire in their entirety, but whoever sits in the White House will have enormous influence over what stays and what goes.
• Biden, for example, has proposed increases to the corporate rate (to 28% from 21%) and a tax on unrealized gains for the wealthiest Americans.
• Trump hasn't gotten too granular, except that he supports the status quo he ushered in.
• Both candidates support taxing carried interest as ordinary income, although neither got it done.

Reality check: Big business and private-market investors did very well during the Trump presidency, until the pandemic, and have done even better under the Biden presidency.

• Most of that has happened under the current tax scheme.
• Biden hasn't pushed too hard on changes, including when Democrats held both houses of Congress, but the tax cut expirations could give him a greater opportunity. Including on areas like capital gains rates, which weren't part of the Trump tax cuts. Thus the investor worries.

Go deeper: Next year's battle over tax policy

Vista Equity Partners has written off the entire value of its investment in tech learning platform Pluralsight, three years after taking it private for $3.5 billion, Axios has learned from multiple sources.

Why it's the BFD: This is an example of leverage catching up with a leveraged buyout.

• One source says that the Utah-based company's financials have improved, with a around 26% EBITDA margins in 2023, but not enough to service nearly $1.3 billion of debt that was issued when interest rates were lower.
• It's also a company whose future could be dimmed by advances in artificial intelligence, since some of the developer skills it teaches are becoming automated.

Catch up quick: Vista agreed to buy the company in late 2020 for $20.26 per share, representing a 25% premium to its 30-day trading average, despite a lack of profits.

• Pluralsight has since gone through multiple rounds of layoffs, and last month replaced co-founder and CEO Aaron Skonnard with former Avantax CEO Chris Walters.

What to watch: Vista's negotiations with lenders, including Blue Owl and BlackRock, and if it results in the firm retaining any equity in Pluralsight going forward.

• Babylon, a Bitcoin staking protocol, raised $70m. Paradigm led, and was joined by Bullish and Polychain Capital. axios.link/3R6nbsY

🌎 Doconomy, a Swedish climate fintech startup, raised €34m in Series B funding. UBS Next and CommerzVentures co-led, and were joined by S&P Global, Motive Ventures, and PostFinance. axios.link/3wSHpj1

• Reibus, an Atlanta-based metals marketplace, raised $30m in equity and debt from Canaan Partners, Nosara, and HSBC. reibus.com

• Relay, a Canadian business banking platform, raised US$32.2m in Series B funding led by Bain Capital Ventures. axios.link/3V0tS0N

🚑 Valar Labs, a Palo Alto, Calif., developer of cancer care prediction tools, raised $22m in Series A funding. DCVC and a16z co-led, and were joined by Pear VC. axios.link/4bFBZ9Y

🚑 Ifeel, a Spanish mental health insurance startup, raised $20m in Series B funding co-led by FinTLV Ventures and Korelya Capital. axios.link/3V23p2P

• Forward, an Austin, Texas-based integrated payments startup, raised $16m in seed funding from Commerce Ventures, Elefund and Fiserv. axios.link/3KnO0VC

🌎 WindBorne Systems, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based smart weather balloon maker, raised $15m led by Khosla Ventures. axios.link/3Knsv7r

🚑 Rhea, an IVF startup, raised $10m. Thiel Capital led, and was joined by LifeX Ventures, Blue Lion Global, and FJ Labs axios.link/3X49qii

🚑 Weave, a life sciences regulatory automation startup, raised $10m in seed funding co-led by Innovation Endeavors and Magnetic Ventures. weave.bio

• Fortunafi, a real-world asset tokenization platform, raised $9.5m from Shima Capital and Manifold. axios.link/3yJ2w7V

• YoLa Fresh, a Moroccan marketplace that connects farmers with food retailers, raised $7m led by Al Mada Ventures. axios.link/3ViN4Im

• Vegapay, an Indian digital lending and card management platform, raised $5.5m in seed funding. Elevation Capital led, and was joined by Eximius Ventures. axios.link/3KklEeW

🚀 Basalt, a provider of software for satellite operators, raised $3.5m in seed funding led by Initialized Capital. basalt.space

⚡ Plural, a provider of on-chain investment solutions for renewable energy developers, raised $2.3m co-led by Necessary Ventures and Compound. axios.link/3Kot5BW

• Slingshot, a creator bookkeeping and payments startup, raised $2.2m in pre-seed funding from Dorm Room Fund, 1916 Enterprises, and Key Partners Group. axios.link/4e3mU3G

• 11th Estate, a startup targeting claim payouts from investment-related settlements and fines, raised $2m in seed funding led by Social Leverage. axios.link/3V5RktC

• Light Frame, a Providence, R.I., wealthtech startup, raised $1.7m in pre-seed financing co-led by ATX Venture Partners and New Stack Ventures. lightframe.tech

⚡ Clean Energy Terminals, a Valencia, Calif., port infrastructure developer for offshore wind terminals, raised $50m from Homecoming Capital. axios.link/3yCyLFL

• Blackstone agreed to buy a 55% stake in Japanese e-comics provider Infocom (Tokyo: 4348), beating out KKR and Sony Music, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3Ko5qkZ

• Cerberus Capital Management agreed to buy the Calspan hypersonic and defense test systems businesses from TransDigm (NYSE: TDG), and will rename them North Wind. north-wind.com

•Dalton Investments, a California-based activist investor, is seeking to sponsor a management buyout of Japanese broadcaster Fuji Media (Tokyo: 4676). axios.link/3X3LOu1

• KKR agreed to buy Agiloft, a Redwood City, Calif., contract lifecycle management platform that in 2020 raised $45m from FTV Capital (which retains a minority stake, alongside new backer JMI Equity). axios.link/3R9g2bk

• KKR received unconditional EU approval for its €22b purchase of Telecom Italia's (Milan: TLIT) landline network. axios.link/453pPWa

🚑 Precision for Medicine, a Bethesda, Md.-based CRO backed by Blackstone, acquired biometrics services provider Algorics. precisionformedicine.com

• Shore Capital Partners bought Pritzlaff, a meat distribution and processor in Illinois and Wisconsin. pritzlaffmeats.com

• Skydance Media, backed by KKR and RedBird Capital Partners, submitted a sweetened offer to buy Paramount Global (Nasdaq: PARA). axios.link/4e3XnHF

🚑 Solis Mammography, a portfolio company of Madison Dearborn, acquired Gainesville, Fla.-based imaging center MUSIC. solismammo.com

🌎 Tennaxia, a French portfolio company of Marlin Equity Partners, acquired Traace, a Paris-based carbon accounting SaaS. teenaxia.com

• Trivest Partners acquired Star Shuttle, a San Antonio provider of passenger transportation services to schools and other groups. starshuttle.com

• Guzman y Gomez, an Australian fast food chain, said it plans to raise A$243m in a local IPO. Backers include Cooper Investors, Hyperion Asset Management, Firetrail Investments, and QVG Capital. axios.link/4e5PaD4

• Pershing Square Capital Management, the hedge fund led by Bill Ackman, is selling a stake in his firm to outside investors at around a $10.5b valuation, as a precursor to an IPO, per the WSJ. axios.link/3V6qUrp

⚡ Saudi Aramco, the state-owned energy giant, on Sunday will begin taking orders for around $11.5b in stock. axios.link/451Z6Jv

• Talos, a crypto trading software provider backed by Citi and a16z, acquired Skolem, a Canadian decentralized finance access platform that had raised over US$20m from firms like Galaxy Digital. axios.link/4bZPjWM

• Asylum Entertainment Group acquired a minority stake in Ladywell Films, an independent production house founded by the "Tinder Swindler" filmmakers. axios.link/3wJCO2E

• Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE:BR) acquired AdvisorTarget, a Coral Gables, Fla., provider of data to asset management and wealth management firms. broadridge.com

• Cansortium (CSE: TIUM), a multistate cannabis company operating under the Fluent brand, agreed to merge with RIV Capital(CSE: RIB), which operates under the Etain brand in New York. axios.link/4bG9rx6

• Redpanda, an SF data streaming startup valued by VCs at over $500m, acquired stream-processing platform Benthos. axios.link/3X21YUQ

🚑 Stout, a Chicago midmarket investment bank, acquired health-care valuation and consulting company HealthCare Appraisers. stout.com

• Counterpart Ventures of SF is raising up to $125m for its fourth fund, per an SEC filing.

• Zetta Venture Partners of SF is raising up to $180m for its fourth fund, per an SEC filing.

• Littlejohn & Co. promoted Tony Miranda and Steven Raich to managing partners, alongside existing managing partners Michael Klein and Brian Ramsay. littlejohnllc.com

Donald Trump's social media company began preparing for a felony conviction long before he had even been indicted for falsifying business records in New York.

• In its original merger agreement with a blank-check company, Trump Media & Technology Group identified two "material disruptive events."
• One was if Trump announced his candidacy for public office, and the other was the former President being "personally convicted of a felony criminal offense."
• Both have now happened.

What the merger agreement says: "[Trump's] ownership and position in the company shall be structured in such a way as to eliminate the need for restructuring of ownership or changes in position were a Material Disruptive Event to occur."

• No further details were disclosed on what that means, and a TMTG spokesperson hasn't responded to a request for comment.

Investor reax: TMTG shares fell sharply in the aftermarket yesterday, when the verdicts were announced, but by this morning's open had largely recovered.

• They're down around 5% as of this writing.