Top finance news from week of Jan 11: Bonus season, Morgan Stanley MDs

Hi there, readers!

Completely satisfied Saturday, and welcome to Insider Finance. Here is a rundown of the must-know tales from the previous week:

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Robinhood has beefed up its legal firepower with these 11 lawyers, including SEC veterans and a Goldman Sachs in-house counsel

Over the previous 12 months, red-hot buying and selling app Robinhood has employed legal professionals and a number of the most well-connected regulation companies within the US to barter offers, scale up its compliance efforts, and spar with regulators.

The corporate can also be seeking to make extra hires, together with lobbyists and legal professionals who can advise on transactions, fundraising and the method of going public, job listings present.

Here’s who Robinhood has tapped as it gears up for a potential blockbuster IPO

Morgan Stanley MD promotions

Morgan Stanley simply named 171 new managing administrators, its largest pool of promotions in recent times.

On the agency, MD is essentially the most senior designation beneath the C-suite, and among the many most elite designations on all of Wall Avenue. Members of the brand new MD class this 12 months have a median tenure of 10 years with Morgan Stanley.

Here’s the full list of names

Inside Roblox’s direct listing pivot

Roblox stated earlier this month that it will go public via a direct itemizing after massive first-day stock pops for Airbnb and DoorDash in December prompted it to scrap a conventional IPO.

After a evaluate that lasted via the vacations, the gaming startup raised $520 million in a personal share sale this month and commenced discussions with the SEC to shift its transaction right into a direct itemizing. It is also tapped GTS to function the designated market maker.

Here’s how the abrupt U-turn is shaking things up

Vista Equity Partners is folding alt-data shop 7Park into another one of its portfolio companies just 2 years after buying it for $100 million

7Park Information is shutting off its data streams to traders, its CEO knowledgeable shoppers on Friday, a day after Insider reported the firm would be absorbed by a fellow Vista Equity Partners portfolio firm.

The corporate, which offered an array of novel knowledge units to outstanding hedge funds, stated it will shift its focus to “accelerating our acquirer’s core product roadmap” and would wind down or divest merchandise that did not match with that mission, in keeping with a memo to shoppers from CEO Brian Lichtenberger.

“Efficient at present, 7Park Information will discontinue merchandise we ship to shoppers within the funding vertical,” Lichtenberger wrote. “I acknowledge that this can be disruptive info for you, your workflow, and your group.”

Read more on the deal and what this means for 7Park’s current customers

5 big revelations in SoFi’s plans to go public, including how the fintech is thinking about the future of student debt and the importance of a bank charter

You’ll be able to add one other deal to the rising SPAC frenzy.

Private finance app SoFi introduced plans in early January to go public through a merger with a SPAC backed by Social Capital head and billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya. The deal would worth SoFi at practically $9 billion.

SCH analyzed over 100 potential enterprise mixture targets, connecting with 33 of them to debate a possible deal, a submitting famous. 

Here’s a rundown of other key revelations from the paperwork

Different tales readers cherished this week:

• Theranos ‘dumped’ a ineffective, double-encrypted blood-test database on prosecutors, then destroyed the original, Feds say
• Billionaire Seth Klarman’s Baupost returned lower than 5% in 2020, failing to interrupt double-digits returns in what’s been referred to as one of the best 12 months for hedge funds since 2009
• JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon wants to win the battle in opposition to fintechs, anticipating ‘robust, brutal’ competitors within the subsequent 10 years
• George Soros-backed fintech dv01 simply raised more cash and made a key acquisition. Here is the way it’s seeking to shed light on the murky securities on the coronary heart of the final monetary disaster.