Who Was `Party A’ and Exit Bumble: Investment Bankers Have a Busy Austin Run

Welcome to Bloomberg’s Texas Edition — covering all the industries and people driving America’s second-largest economy, from finance and oil to tech and sports. Join us each week for an inside look at Texas through a Bloomberg lens. Sign up here if you’re not already on the list.

This week it’s Austin’s turn for an M&A run. Exit Bumble, and take the wraps off “Party A.”

After a busy spell for oil-patch companies and Dallas-based businesses, the investment-banking spotlight shifted to central Texas with the takeover of Bumble by investment firm Ithaca Holdings after more than 5 and a half years in public markets.

Bumble is the dating app that became famous for its women-make-the-first-move approach. Founder Whitney Wolfe Herd will “remain actively involved,” and the company will stay based in Austin. The new CEOs will be the two CEO-founders of Ithaca — Sequoia Capital partner Ravi Gupta and Meta Platforms veteran John Hegeman.

At $6.05 a share, Ithaca’s offer was a 138% premium over Friday’s close, before Bloomberg and other news outlets reported that Bumble was close to a deal. But the $1.3 billion valuation is down more than 90% from its peak as Bumble got swept up in the industrywide slump attributed to online-dating fatigue.

The other i-banking news was less conclusive but arguably a bit more dramatic.

Austin-based Cirrus Logic is “Party A.” That’s how Synaptics described an unidentified, unsolicited bidder in a regulatory filing, creating a sense of mystery on Wall Street and in tech circles. The existence of such a suitor was news, because Synaptics had agreed earlier this year to On Semiconductor’s buyout offer. Then Bloomberg’s Liana Baker and Yiqin Shen broke the news that Cirrus was the company trying to horn in on the deal.

Synaptics’ board gave a serious look at Cirrus’s cash-and-stock offer, according to the filing, and Onsemi shifted its offer to an all-cash proposal of $5.7 billion from all stock.

The saga ended quietly this week. “The company confirms that it made acquisition proposals,” Cirrus said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. “The company is not currently pursuing a transaction with Synaptics and will not be providing any further comment on this matter at this time.”

The Fine Line

Speaking of Austin, construction-technology startup ICON wrapped up a $200 million financing round co-led by Baillie Gifford and BlackRock.“This Series D raise with two solid co-leads is going to allow us to get our newest robot, what we call Titan, in the hands of actual builders,” said Will Hurd, the former Texas congressman who is now president of ICON Prime, the company’s government-contracting arm.

Hurd joined me to talk about the business of using 3D printing and robotics in construction. The company says it has $360 million in government contracts and built 10 military barracks at Fort Bliss in El Paso.

“We’re using really large robots, advanced materials and AI enabled software to build structures — homes, buildings, barracks — faster, cheaper and at a better quality,” said Hurd, whose resume includes service as a CIA officer, three-term Republican congressman and a short-lived run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

“There is not enough people to meet the existing demands and so we’re getting a tool into the hands of current builders so they can be able to build more,” he added.

I couldn’t let him go without getting his take on the Texas Senate race. Watch the rest of the interview here.

Capital, Code & Crude

A plea for unity. A nod to recent history. With early voting starting next week, Alex Latcham, executive director of the Senate Leadership Fund, urged Republicans to bury the hatchet after their bitter primary. Speaking at the same Bloomberg.com subscriber event in Washington, Senate Majority PAC President JB Poersch sought to temper early optimism among Democrats, whose breakthrough hopes have been dashed repeatedly. The dream is alive again thanks to James Talarico’s narrow-but-consistent polling edge over Republican Ken Paxton, which continued this week in the latest Marist poll.

An East Texas refinery, a Cold War-era law and Vice President JD Vance converged the other day in Tyler. Making a campaign stop for Republicans in Tyler, Vance said the Trump administration plans to help expand a nearby Delek US Holdings refinery to boost gasoline production under the auspices of the 1950 Defense Production Act. It’s part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump to expand energy projects after the Iran war triggered a historic oil shock.

Howdy, WNBA! The reborn Houston Comets, the league’s first dynasty, start play next season after moving to Texas and dropping their identity as the Connecticut Sun. Bloomberg’s Megan Greenwell examines the WBNA’s recent upswing — on and off the court — and zeros in on the Comets’ new era under Tilman Fertitta, the billionaire owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets. The original Comets failed in 2008. But the rechristened team arrives in a WNBA far different than the one it exited. Collective team values have soared almost 380% in just two years. The Comets contributed to that surge: Bloomberg has reported that Fertitta paid $300 million.

Elon Musk’s dream for a Texas-based chip empire is starting from scratch. Over the weekend, he said he had “no idea how to make microchips.” But Musk has defined his career by delivering on bold dreams, and he told customers and investors at Tesla’s Austin factory that “probably we’ll figure out how to make chips better than anyone.” His take: His companies know how to make customized equipment, and he’ll put that knowledge to use as his Terafab plant in Grimes County gets underway. His Tesla and SpaceX are working with Intel on the project.

Regional Roundup

Dallas-Based AT&T Sells Mexico Business for $2 BillionSchwab Tops Estimates as Client Assets Grow Amid Market SurgeDrones Help Tackle Shell’s Million-Dollar Hurricane ProblemMusk’s Bigger Test After Airwaves Is Building Costly NetworkOracle Moves Gas by Trucks to Avoid Data Center Power DelaysUS Grids Strain Under Heat During Peak Repair Season

Opinion

Dallas Federal Reserve President Lorie Logan is among central bankers who have suggested that markets’ demand for higher interest rates can create a self-healing cycle. Jonathan Levin isn’t buying it. He cited Logan’s 2023 comment that rising term premiums “could do some of the work of cooling the economy for us, leaving less need for additional monetary policy tightening.” Levin asks, “How did that turn out?” The 10-year Treasury yield tumbled, but inflation failed to reach the Fed’s 2% target, he writes, adding: “Oops.” He chides Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh and other central bankers finding comfort in markets. “Market rates are a poor substitute for tighter monetary policy,” Levin writes, “and central bankers put their credibility at risk if they use it as an excuse for inaction.”

The Big Number

456/912That’s the new maximum number of launches and landings that SpaceX is proposing for its Texas facility each year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The US government is reviewing the plan. And about that math: SpaceX envisions two touchdowns for each takeoff, because the Starship spacecraft and its Super Heavy booster return separately.

Totally Texas

Nothing says “State Fair of Texas” like fried food on sticks, Texas-OU, Big Texas and ... architecture? As the fair winds down its run on Sunday in Dallas, Bloomberg Pursuits focuses on the “Lone Star modernism” of Fair Park’s iconic buildings with excerpts from Welcome to Paradox City: A Critical History of Dallas as Told Through Its Architecture. The author is Mark Lamster, the Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic for the Dallas Morning News. He recounts Dallas’ shock win to host the 1936 Texas Centennial and the history of the Hall of State, the still-stunning anchor of that celebration. “It was designed to provoke awe,” he writes, “and it does — unfailingly.”

Bloomberg Invest

Calling all senior executives across capital markets, institutional investment, private equity and emerging growth companies. Bloomberg Invest is coming to Dallas on Oct. 27. Join us for exclusive conversations with TXSE CEO Jim Lee and the NYSE and Nasdaq, Carlyle’s David Rubenstein alongside Ross Perot Jr. discussing real estate, and Texas’ most prominent financial leaders, including JPMorgan’s Elaine Agather, Arctos’ Ian Charles, and Goldman Sachs’ Aasem Khalil. Space is limited — register your interest to attend here.

More From Bloomberg

Like Texas Edition? Check out these newsletters:

Energy Daily for a daily guide to the energy and commodities markets that power the global economyGreen Daily for the latest in climate news, zero-emission tech and green financeBusiness of Space for inside stories of investments beyond Earth

Explore all Bloomberg newsletters.