Vivek Ramaswamy and BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti recently met for more than an hour, to discuss the former presidential candidate's activist campaign against the media company, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Ramaswamy announced his BuzzFeed stake with an incendiary letter, but the virtual confab was amicable and ended with the two sides agreeing to sit down in person later this summer or in early fall.

State of play: BuzzFeed stock climbed above $3 per share upon Ramaswamy's initial disclosure of a 7.7% ownership position, but it's since sunk closer to $2 per share — imparting the former unicorn with a market cap below $80 million.

• Ramaswamy has continued to increase his stake, this morning disclosing that it's risen to 8.9%.

Behind the scenes: Last Thursday's meeting, which Peretti requested in his initial response to Ramaswamy, also included a BuzzFeed director and two of the three individuals that Ramaswamy wants to be added to the company's board: Chris Balfe (Red Seat Ventures) and podcaster Patrick Bet-David.

• Ramaswamy's third director pick, OutKick founder Clay Travis, did not attend but was briefed. All three proposed directors, who hadn't been publicly identified until now, are veterans of conservative media.
• Ramaswamy claimed in the meeting that several former BuzzFeed employees and early investors reached out to him, saying that the company needed change.
• He also got reminded that shareholders would likely need to vote on any major change to board construction. Particularly given that Ramaswamy is a 9% owner asking for a 37.5% piece of the board (currently five directors, with his request expanding it to eight).

What they're saying: Ramaswamy tells Axios that the meeting was "constructive"

• A BuzzFeed spokesperson tells Axios: "We appreciate Vivek Ramaswamy's recommendations, and they will be sent to governance as per the formal process that he is no doubt aware of."

Elsewhere: Bloomberg today reports that BuzzFeed has spent months seeking to sell First We Feast, owner of the "Hot Ones" show that Ramaswamy praised in his letter. The initial asking price was $70 million.

The bottom line: Tensions have cooled, but the core disagreements over company mission and model remain far from resolved. Don't be surprised to see fireworks later this year.

KPS Capital Partners agreed to sell Eviosys, a Swiss cans and closures manufacturer, for $3.9 billion to South Carolina's Sonoco Products (NYSE: SON).

Why it's the BFD: This appears to be the largest strategic acquisition ever of a PE-owned packaging company and comes amid a packaging deals boom.

Details: The sale represents a 3.2x cash-on-cash return and 54% IRR for KPS, which carved Eviosys out of Crown Holdings in 2021, per a source familiar with the situation.

The bottom line: "[It is] one of the first big private equity windfalls from a wave of dealmaking seen in 2021, when interest rates were near zero and valuations high." — The Financial Times

🚑 BillionToOne, a Menlo Park, Calif., precision diagnostics company, raised $130m in Series D funding at a $1b valuation. Premji Invest led, and was joined by Neuberger Berman and insiders Adams Street Partners, Baillie Gifford, Hummingbird Ventures, Civilization Ventures, Libertus Capital, and Fifty Years. axios.link/4bexgLx

⚡ Char.gy, a British EV charging network, raised £100m from CIIF, a U.K. public-private investment partnership managed by Zouk Capital. axios.link/4baIYqw

• Particle Network, a modular blockchain developer, raised $15m in Series A funding co-led by The Spartan Group and Gumi Cryptos Capital. axios.link/3xo7hUb

• Materia, a generative AI platform for public accounting firms, raised $6.3m. Spark Capital led, and was joined by Haystack Ventures, Thomson Reuters Ventures, Exponential Founders Capital, and the Allen Institute for AI. axios.link/3Xtsuql

🌎 Net Zero Co., a Swedish carbon removal startup, raised $5.5m in seed funding from Oilinvest, VARO Energy, and SilviCarbon. axios.link/4caDOMs

• The Lasso, a platform for dealerships to bid on cars, raised $5m in new seed funding led by Manresa Ventures, per Axios Pro. axios.link/3XHz2lr

• Trampoline, a British home décor brand, raised $5m in seed funding. Matrix Partners India and WaterBridge Ventures co-led, and were joined by Alteria Capital. axios.link/3xxPJF8

• Skynopy, a French low-orbit satellite connectivity startup, raised $3.1m from Heartcore Capital, Kima Ventures, Better Angle, and BPI France. axios.link/4c8HUES

🚑 Altaris Capital Partners agreed to buy Atlanta-based digital health platform Sharecare (Nasdaq: SHCR) for around $518m, or $1.43 per share (85% premium over last Thursday's closing price). axios.link/3VDaEP3

• EQT agreed to acquire Constellation Cold Logistics, owner and operator of 26 large cold storage facilities in Europe, from Arcus Infrastructure Partners. axios.link/4cc7ysd

• KKR acquired Superstruct, owner and operator of over 80 music festivals across 10 countries in Europe and Australia, from Providence Equity Partners for a reported €1.3b. axios.link/3VVzzyw

• Macquarie Capital acquired Kalkomey, a Richardson, Texas-based provider of online recreational safety education, from Cove Hill Partners. kalkomey.com

• MoviePass received an investment from Forecast Labs, a Comcast-owned investment group, per Variety. axios.link/3KTDwNY

🚑 Strive Medical, an Irving, Texas-based portfolio company of NMS Capital, acquired ProMed DME, a Stuart, Fla., maker of diabetic continuous glucose monitoring supplies. strivemedical.com

• TPG and CDPQ agreed to buy the Aareon software unit of German lender Aareal Bank at a €3.9b enterprise value. axios.link/3xrUyzR

• Trive Capital and 808 Capital Partners invested in JF Fitness, a Crunch Fitness franchisee focused on the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern U.S. axios.link/3VVj85B

Three U.S. IPOs are on this week's calendar: LandBridge, Webtoon, and Tamboran Resources. axios.link/4cd3yYG

🚑 Alumis, a South SF-based precision immunology company, set IPO terms to 17.65m shares at $16-$18. It would have a $1b fully diluted market value, were it to price in the middle, and plans to list on the Nasdaq (ALMS). Alumis has raised over $630m from firms like AyurMaya, Baker Bros, Foresite Capital, Samsara BioCapital, venBio Partners, Lilly Asia Ventures, Cormorant Asset Management, SR One, Nextech, Ally Bridge, HBM Healthcare Investments, Omega Funds, and Piper Heartland Healthcare. axios.link/3zdljbR

🚑 Ardent Health, a Nashville-based operator of acute care hospitals, filed for an IPO. The company, whose backers include Ventas (NYSE: VTR) and Equity Group Investments, previously filed for an IPO in 2018 but ended the effort in 2020. It plans to list on the NYSE (ARDT) and reports $129m of net income on $5.4b in revenue for 2023. axios.link/45AaTyZ

• Black Spade Acquisition II, an entertainment and tech SPAC, filed for a $150m IPO. The initial Black Spade SPAC merged with Vietnamese EV maker VinFast. axios.link/4ey665b

• Shein, the Singapore-based fast-fashion giant, filed confidentially for a London IPO, per multiple reports. axios.link/3XUxPaz

• Klarna, a Swedish payments firm valued by VCs at nearly $8b, agreed to sell its checkout unit for $520m to a group led by entrepreneur Kamjar Hajabdolahi, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4cdMAJM

⚡ Nextracker (Nasdaq: NXT) acquired Ojjo, a San Rafael, Calif., solar foundation system maker, for $119m in cash. Ojjo had raised around $66m from firms like GP Energy Technology Partners and Ajax Strategies. nexttracker.com

• OpenAI acquired Rockset, a San Mateo, Calif-based provider of tools for real-time search and data analytics. Rockset had raised over $100m from Icon Ventures, Glynn Capital, Four River Partners, K5 Global, HP, Sequoia Capital, and Greylock. axios.link/4cvs3Qw

• Serent Capital is seeking to sell Kore, a provider of engagement marketing software for the sports and entertainment industries, per Sportico. axios.link/3KSzBRL

• American Express (NYSE: AXP) acquired Tock, a Chicago-based reservations and event management platform, from Squarespace(NYSE: SQSP). It also bought hospitality payments app Rooam. axios.link/3VEJPKa

• Ant Group reportedly is in talks to sell its 8% stake in Chinese credit reporting company Baihang Credit to Tencent. axios.link/4cuo1bg

• BitFlyer, a Japanese crypto exchange, is in talks to acquire FTX Japan, per NHK. axios.link/3XxZoWX

• Czechoslovak Group of Prague raised its bid for the firearms and ammo division of Vista Outdoors (NYSE: VSTO) to $2b from $1.96b. axios.link/3VAEELC

• PepsiCo (Nasdaq: PEP) agreed to waive a clause in its bottling agreement with Britvic (LSE: BVIC), a British maker of cocktail mixers and other uncarbonated soft drinks, which could lead Danish brewer Carlsberg to increase its previously-rejected takeover offer.

⚡ Covestro, a listed German chemicals company, said it will enter formal talks with Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) about a possible €11.7b takeover. axios.link/45DhAAe

• Engine Capital, an activist investor, announced that it's acquired just under a 5% stake in C&C Group (LSE: CCR) and called on Magners Irish Cider maker to launch a sale process. axios.link/3RKuSFp

• Frasers Group (LSE: FRAS) agreed to buy the luxury goods portfolio of British e-commerce firm THG (LSE: THG). axios.link/3xxZvHf

🚑 Kaiser Permanente agreed to buy Cone Health, a North Carolina hospital system with $2.7b in annual revenue, per the WSJ. axios.link/3xsRTWA

⚡ Paladin Energy (ASX: PDN), an Australian miner, agreed to buy Canada's Fission Uranium (TSX: FCU) for C$1.14b. axios.link/45A2xaB

• United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) agreed to sell Coyote Logistics to RXO (NYSE: RXO) for just over $1b. UPS paid $1.8b to buy Chicago-based Coyote in 2015 from Warburg Pincus. axios.link/4ctVna2

• Holly Ventures, a new firm led by cybersecurity investor John Brennan (ex-YL Ventures), is raising up to $30m for its debut fund, per an SEC filing.

• Telstra Ventures, which spun out of Australian telco Telstra in 2018, changed its name to Titanium Ventures. Telstra also is exploring the sale of its current investments in Telstra Ventures funds. telstraventures.com

• Trive Capital, a Dallas-based PE firm, has secured $1.5b for its fifth fund, per SEC filings. It reportedly is targeting a total of $2.5b.

• Neil Cunha-Gomes stepped down as a director of EMEA for SoftBank Vision Fund, in order to focus on crypto investments, per Axios Pro. axios.link/4esu8yq

• Lane MacDonald joined SCS Financial Services, a wealth and investment management unit of Focus Financial Partners, as chief investment officer. He previously led the family office of Fidelity's owners, and before that ran private equity investing for Harvard's endowment. axios.link/4eCt5fy

• Tamsin Webster joined ECI Partners as head of people. She previously was with Fulcrum Asset Management. ecipartners.com

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