Toil and trouble and… startup acquisitions!

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I think it took maybe three days after roasting our rather dry M&A season for the news cycle to prove me wrong. This week, we've seen Naver acquire Poshmark, Duolingo buy its first company, Spotify acquire content moderation technology company Kinzen, and, uh, Twitter has come ever closer to closing a deal with Musk.

When we see high-level acquisitions happening nearby, the human response is to think that a trend is emerging. Eh. I prefer to ask questions: the acquisition of Poshmark is slightly lower, so what does this tell us about the state of the startups in the market and their valuations? Duolingo is finally becoming an acquisition-friendly company; what does this tell us about their priorities and expansion efforts? How does the acquisition of Spotify play a role, if any, in its recent layoffs and the closure of some original podcasts? Musk is about to buy Twitter, after saying he wants to buy Twitter, but that's kind of news because, wait, does anyone know what's going on?

Bloomberg tells me that I'm not entirely wrong to think that things have slowed down. Mergers and acquisitions in the United States have fallen over the past five quarters. The same report states that “approximately $212 billion in deals were announced in the past three months, the lightest period since the second quarter of 2020.” At the same time, technology is a bright spot. Despite the slowdown in deals, the technology sector's total deal value rose 39% year-over-year, according to data from Bloomberg. It's the big ones that weigh in, like Adobe's $20 billion acquisition of Figma.

I'm always here to bring nuance, especially after a particularly hectic week. Let me know what you think by tweeting me or replying to this post. If you missed last week's newsletter, read it here: "Welcome to spooky startup season."

In today's newsletter, I'm going to tell you about Liquid Death and crypto advertising.

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Your favorite tech podcast

On Equity this week, your favorite podcast trio talked about the numbers and nuances behind tech headlines. I mean, we're biased, but who doesn't love a weekly dive into major news? Don't forget that we have three podcasts a week: Equity Monday is best accompanied by a cup of coffee and a catch-up on the week ahead; Equity Wednesday is a deep dive into a question or thought; and Equity Friday is a look back at what happened this week.

Here's why it matters: This week, the highlight of the podcast for me was our discussion of Liquid Death's $700 million valuation. This is especially interesting when you consider recent news that Haus, a low ABV alternative to traditional alcohol, is going on sale due to a collapsing funding round. Listen to our whole conversation here, come for the Liquid Death, stay if Alex wants to get a Substack for his future baby.