☕️ Foul Call

Good morning.

Just days after it was revealed that the interpreter for the LA Dodger’s US$700 million ($1.07 billion) man, Shoshei Ohtani, stole millions from Ohtani to repay his own sports gambling debts, another baseball wagering syndicate has caught the eye of regulators.

The SEC has charged four minor league baseball players with insider trading on the US$575 million purchase of Del Taco Restaurants chain by Jack in the Box Inc. The SEC alleges one of the men was told about the upcoming deal by a former teammate, who notified the others before they each bought out-of-the-money call options on Del Taco stock, netting the foursome around US$190,000, and a strike out from the SEC.

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Market movers

Shares in Platinum Asset Management tumbled over 21% to close at $1.03 yesterday, after the troubled investment manager flagged a hefty funds outflow late on Tuesday. Platinum said a large institutional client is set to redeem $1.4 billion in mandated funds as part of efforts to rebalance exposure away from benchmark agnostic global equity managers, which would result in around $18 million in lost fees annually. The outflows come just weeks after Platinum announced a 12-month ‘reset and growth’ turnaround plan, and that company has said it expects to find at least $25 million in annual savings through cost reductions.

The quick sync

• Institutional investors are calling for change at Afterpay’s VC fund, Touch Ventures, following the departure of CEO Hein Vogel this week. (Capital Brief)

• Shares in Reddit tumbled after Hedgeye Risk Management published a report which names the social media stock as a short idea. (Bloomberg)

• Databricks’ VP of generative AI, Naveen Rao, has called Sam Altman’s position on open-source artificial intelligence “hogwash,” as the OpenAI challenger launches its own open-source AI model, DBRX. (Capital Brief)

• ANZ boss Shayne Elliott warns that rate cuts could be pushed into 2025 as the RBA awaits impact of tax cuts on inflation. (The Australian)

• Canva plans to expand into enterprise sales, and hopes that its purchase of Affinity earlier this week will “accelerate” corporate business. (The Information)

M&A

• CVC Asia Pacific has withdrawn its $1.83b acquisition offer for APM Human Services. (AFR)

• Takeover bid for MMA Offshore this week could boost the anticipated IPO of Bhagwan Marine. (The Australian)

• IFM Investors plans to avoid investments in nuclear projects due to waste management concerns. (AFR)

Capital Markets

• Tasmea's existing shareholders aim to retain at least 83% of shares post-IPO next month. (The Australian)

• BlinkLab plans to raise $7m through new shares at 20c each, targeting an April 4 listing. (The Australian)

• Shares in Donald Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. climbed 18% during trading on Wednesday, following a strong Nasdaq debut. (Bloomberg)

VC

• Illuvium secures US$12m ($18.4m) Series A funding from crypto investors amid blockchain business resurgence. (Capital Brief)

• AnteoTech secures $1.4m state government funding for silicon-based battery technology. (Capital Brief)

People moves

• The retirement of chair and director of Southern Cross Media Group, Rob Murray, was brought forward to yesterday. The board will not appoint any new directors this financial year. (Capital Brief)

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The watercooler