A Bay Street sign in Toronto’s financial district.© Mark Blinch / Reuters
Here are the top reads,
Mega deal: With a US$17-billion deal to join forces with Thomson Reuters Corp., private equity giant Blackstone Group LP has thrust itself into the hot seat of a battle for supremacy in market data. Story (James Bradshaw, for subscribers)
Transformational deals: There is some fortuitous timing that allows Thomson Reuters Corp. to extract a tidy sum from its steady, yet unspectacular, financial data business. But for the 88-year-old Thomson media dynasty, led by chairman David Thomson, it also follows a pattern of rewriting the script every once in a while with a major deal. Story (Jeffrey Jones, for subscribers)
Pot mania: Redwood Asset Management, a subsidiary of Purpose Investments – the company formed by Canadian ETF pioneer Som Seif in 2013 – will begin trading the Marijuana Opportunities Fund on Thursday morning. Story (Clare O'Hara, for subscribers)
Venture financing: Canadian startup Platterz Inc. is announcing on Thursday that it has raised US$15-million in venture financing after securing some of the top tech companies operating in the Toronto-Waterloo corridor as regular customers. Story (Sean Silcoff, for subscribers)
FINANCIAL SERVICES WRAP
Mortgage industry: An Ontario regulator has revoked the mortgage broker licences of five companies and individuals associated with the Tier 1 group of companies after an investigation into syndicated mortgage investment pools they were promoting to investors. Story (Janet McFarland)
A Canadian angle to Kodak's cryptocurrency move: Cameron Chell, a lead adviser to the KodakCoin project, said the initial offering represented a "seminal moment" for Kodak, and that the company's interest in blockchain technology was a savvy long-term investment. "The real story is that it's about to be a renaissance," he said. But Chell, a Canadian entrepreneur and motivational speaker who once opened for Tony Robbins, has a troubled track record. Story
Insurance industry: An insurance company that played litigation hardball with an elderly car-accident victim has been ordered to pay $237,000 to cover the legal costs she incurred in winning a $20,000 settlement. Story
DEAL WRAP
Real estate sector: Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Canada's largest alternative-asset manager, is in talks to acquire Forest City Realty Trust Inc., people familiar with the matter said. Story
Canadian venture financing: Bench Accounting Inc. has officially announced the closing of its Series B-1 round with US$18 million in funding led by new investor iNovia Capital with participation from existing investors Bain Capital Ventures, Altos Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, and Canadian, US and international private investors. Private Capital Journal
Tech deal: Red Hat announced today that it reached an agreement to acquire CoreOS, a startup that's one of the biggest independent players in the Kubernetes ecosystem. The deal is worth US$250 million and is expected to close next month. VentureBeat
U.S. venture financing: Productivity-focused task-management startup Asana has announced a fresh US$75 million round of funding led by Generation Investment Management (GIM), the London-based investment firm co-founded by Al Gore. VentureBeat
Copier consolidation: Japan's Fujifilm Holdings is set to take over Xerox Corp in a $6.1-billion deal, combining the U.S. company into their existing joint venture to gain scale and cut costs amid declining demand for office printing. Story
WHAT WE'RE READING ELSEWHERE
PE Q&A: TriWest Capital Partners had an eventful 2017. The Calgary private equity firm made two new platform investments, did a handful of add-on deals, and closed full or partial exits from three portfolio companies, one of them in a high-profile initial public offering. PE Hub
Repatriated: Imagine going from an 800-person engineering team at one of the five most valuable private companies in the US to an early-stage startup with a 30-person headcount. That's exactly what Ian Logan did. Late last year, Logan left his position as head of engineering at Airbnb to become the VP of engineering at Drop, a fintech startup in his hometown of Toronto. PitchBook