The U.S. Justice Department yesterday sued to block Visa's proposed $5.3 billion purchase of Plaid, which was first announced in January.

• Why it matters: DOJ is alleging that the deal would "eliminate a nascent competitive threat" within the online debit services market. That is a much higher legal bar to clear than would be a typical antitrust argument about consolidating existing market share.

Primary source: Read the complaint

What is Plaid? The San Francisco-based company is sometimes referred to as the fintech market's "plumbing" — kind of like Stripe, but a bit further down the payments infrastructure stack, effectively connecting your bank to your fintech apps.

What Plaid is not: Consumer-facing, nor a company that "touches the money," which is sure to be part of Visa's defense. DOJ will counter by saying that Plaid, by virtue of its relationships and tech, has a clear pathway into lanes it hasn't yet entered.

Thought bubble: DOJ claims that Visa is already a "monopolist," as evidenced by Mastercard's alleged inability to capture more than 25% of the online debt services market. But it also argues that Plaid is poised to threaten Visa, thus raising some doubt as to how strong Visa's stranglehold really is in the first place.

• On the other hand: DOJ obtained communications from a top Visa executive who said that Plaid "threatens Visa" in terms of debut, analogizing it to an underwater volcano that has explosive potential despite being barely visible.

Bottom line: The sale process for Plaid was highly competitive because Plaid doesn't really have any scaled rivals. This means no "Plan B" for Visa, so expect it to fight hard.

KuaiShou, a Chinese short-video and livestreaming app, filed for a Hong Kong IPO that reportedly will seek to raise $5 billion.

• Why it's the BFD: This reflects the booming market for TikTok-style services in China, as KuaiShou claims to have over 300 million daily users. Its rivals include Douyin (ByteDance's Chinese version of TikTok) and Nasdaq-listed Bilibili (which, like KuaiShou, includes Tencent and Alibaba as shareholders).

• VC history: KuaiShou has raised over $4 billion from firms like Sequoia Capital China, DCM, Morningside VC, DST Global, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Temasek, Boyu Capital, and Shunwei Capital.
• Meanwhile... ByteDance is seeking to raise $2 billion in pre-IPO funding at a $180 billion valuation, even though the TikTok situation remains unresolved, per Bloomberg.
• Bottom line: "Kuaishou often prides itself on user engagement; indeed, over a quarter of its 776 million monthly users are creators themselves. That makes Kuaishou more of a social app where the viewers and creators interact frequently through means like live streaming and gifting." — Rita Liao, TechCrunch

• Pony.ai, a self-driving car startup with offices in California and China, raised $267 million in new funding led by Ontario Teachers' at a $5.3 billion valuation. Existing backers include Toyota. http://axios.link/BHeT

• Vimeo, a video platform owned by IAC (Nasdaq IAC), raised $150 million from Thrive Capital and GIC at a $2.75 billion valuation. IAC also said in an earnings call that it may spin off Vimeo. http://axios.link/UZRp

• Ayar Labs, a Santa Clara, California-based optical I/O startup, raised $35 million in Series B funding. Downing Ventures and BlueSky Capital co-led, and were joined by Applied Ventures, Castor Ventures, Downing Ventures, SGInnovate, and return backers Founders Fund, GlobalFoundries, Intel Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, and Playground Global. www.ayerlabs.com

• ColdQuanta, a Boulder, Colorado-based quantum atomics startup, raised $32 million in Series A funding. Global Frontier Investments and LCP Quantum Partners co-led, and were joined by Foundry Group. http://axios.link/lXVr

• Usher, a no-code platform for customer communication flows, raised $25 million in Series B funding. Third Point Ventures led, and was joined by seed backer 8VC. http://axios.link/lWxW

• Edgard & Cooper, a Belgian fresh pet food company, raised €22 million in Series B funding. The Craftory led, and was joined by DLF Ventures. http://axios.link/qPZq

• Riverside.fm, an Israeli video podcasting platform, raised $2.5 million led by Oren Zeev. http://axios.link/QoCm

• Cado Security, a London-based cyber forensics and response platform, raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by Ten Eleven Ventures. www.cadoseurity.com

• Starling, a British challenger bank that’s raised £263 million in VC funding, hired Rothschild to help it raise another £200 million, per TechCrunch. http://axios.link/1j52

• Apollo Global Management no longer is seeking to buy all of British bookmaker William Hill (LSE: WMH), instead now focusing on its non-U.S. operations, per the Daily Telegraph. William Hill agreed in September to be acquired, in its entirety, for £2.9 billion by Caesars Entertainment (Nasdaq: CZR). http://axios.link/KPki

• Bilfinger, a listed German industrial services provider with a market cap over €750 million, is considering a sale after receiving buyout interest from such firms as Clayton Dubilier & Rice and Triton Partners, per Bloomberg. http://axios.link/oTrc

• The Carlyle Group re-acquired a majority stake in Manna Pro, a St. Louis-based maker of pet care products, from Morgan Stanley Capital Partners. http://axios.link/Ecz0

• Pacific Defense, an El Segundo, California-based portfolio company of Emerald Lake Capital Management and HCI Equity Partners, acquired Spear Research, a Nashua, New Hampshire-based tech company focused on electronic warfare and signals intelligence. www.pacific-defense.com

• Upstart, a San Mateo, California-based consumer lending platform, filed for a $100 million IPO. It plans to list on the Nasdaq (UPST) with Goldman Sachs as lead underwriter, and reports $147 million in revenue for the first nine months of 2020. It had raised nearly $650 million in VC funding from firms like Third Point Ventures (19.5% pre-IPO stake), Khosla Ventures (8.4%), Rakuten (5.3%), and First Round Capital (5.2%). http://axios.link/xnl9

• Natural Order Acquisition, a SPAC focused on tech and products related to plant-based foods, cut its IPO size from $250 million to $200 million. http://axios.link/MIEE

• Roman DBDR Tech Acquisition, a TMT-focused SPAC co-led by Don Basile (ex-CEO of Violin Memory and FusionIO) and Dixon Doll Jr. (CEO of DBM Cloud Systems), raised $220 million in its downsized IPO. http://axios.link/O7WJ

• Lone Star Funds is seeking a buyer for Stark Group, a Denmark-based building materials retailer that could fetch around €2.5 billion, per Bloomberg. http://axios.link/9CNd

• Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Richemont (Swiss: CFR) agreed to invest $1.1 billion in Farfetch (NYSE: FTCH), a London-based e-commerce marketplace for independent boutiques, as part of a new strategic partnership. http://axios.link/LyFJ

• CI Financial (TSX: CIX) agreed to buy St. Petersburg, Florida-based registered advisory firm Doyle Wealth Management. http://axios.link/8haX

• GoPuff, a Philadelphia-based delivery startup for convenience store items, agreed to buy California liquor store chain BevMo for around $350 million. GoPuff recently raised VC funding at a $3.9 billion valuation from Accel, D1 Capital Partners, Luxor Capital, and SoftBank Vision Fund. http://axios.link/5CcJ

• Intact Financial (TSX: IFC) and Tryg (CPSE: TRYG) offered to buy British insurer RSA Insurance Group (LSE: RSA) for £7.2 billion, in what would be the year’s largest acquisition of a London-listed company. http://axios.link/5fhD

• Moody's (NYSE: MCO) acquired a minority stake in MioTech, a Hong Kong-based provider of data and analytics to the Chinese ESG and NYC markets. http://axios.link/IuDG

🚑 Novo Nordisk (CPSE: NOVO) agreed to buy Emisphere Technologies (OTC: EMIS), a Roseland, New Jersey-based oral drug delivery company, for upwards of $1.8 billion ($1.3B upfront). http://axios.link/4GBf

• All Iron Ventures, a Spanish VC firm focused on ecommerce, raised €66.5 million for its debut fund. http://axios.link/z7hi

• Hony Capital, a Chinese private equity firm, raised $130 million for its first VC fund. http://axios.link/5FpV

🚑 MBF Healthcare Partners promoted Josh Weber to managing director. www.mbfhp.com

• Meghan Reynolds has joined Jazz Venture Partners as a partner. She previously was a fundraising partner with TPG. www.jzzzvp.com

The U.S. added 638k jobs in October, while the unemployment rate fell from 7.9% to 6.9%.

• The biggest drag continues to be state and local governments, which have been forced to shed staff (and cut wages) because of slashed tax revenue.
• Per Axios' Courtenay Brown: "The pace of job gains is slowing on the back of rising coronavirus cases and expired stimulus measures."