Retail and e-commerce startups, funding rounds, founder stories, and business strategy.
Yum! Brands has agreed to sell Pizza Hut for about $2.7 billion, splitting the chain between private equity firm LongRange Capital and Yum China Holdings. The exit lets Yum concentrate on KFC and Taco Bell after years of US share losses to Domino’s.
Nuvei has agreed to acquire Payoneer for about $2.75 billion in cash, pairing payment acceptance with cross-border payouts. The combined fintech would process more than $500 billion a year for over 2.4 million customers.
Fox Corporation has agreed to buy Roku for $160 a share, about $22 billion in enterprise value, in a cash-and-stock deal pairing Tubi and Fox sports with Roku’s connected-TV platform. The transaction hands Fox one of the largest shoppable-TV and retail-media advertising operations in streaming, with closing expected in the first half of 2027.
Sleep Number filed for Chapter 11 on June 12 with a $415 million stalking-horse sale to Canada’s Sleep Country. Here is what the deal, the $260m financing, and the wipeout mean for the mattress market.
The June tape, a loaded fintech and commerce pipeline, and a disciplined aftermarket point to a fresh cluster of US IPOs pricing before the end of Q3 2026. Expect the cohort to skew toward payments and infrastructure names over consumer DTC brands.
Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has launched a EUR 38-per-share cash takeover offer for Hugo Boss. The unsolicited bid values the stock it does not own at about USD 2.3 billion.
Three recent signals point to Instacart re-rating as a grocery-technology and advertising platform rather than a delivery app. The shift likely becomes the dominant valuation narrative by its Q3 2026 report in early November.
Starbucks has held early talks with banks about selling a stake in its roughly 2,100-store Japan business, Bloomberg reported. A deal could value the unit at 400 to 500 billion yen and extend the asset-light retreat that began with April’s China disposal.
GameStop’s $125 eBay bid was rejected on 12 May, but a 9% stake and 3 June antitrust clearance point to escalation, not retreat. Our base case: accumulation and a shareholder campaign through Q4 2026.
Blackstone-backed Liftoff Mobile raised $437 million in its Nasdaq debut, pricing shares at $23 for a valuation of about $3.83 billion. The mobile advertising and app-monetization specialist became one of 2026 most closely watched ad-tech listings.