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Claire Yubin Oh4h

Papa John’s jumps on Apollo’s fresh take-private bid at $64 per share

Papa John’s is up more than 10% in premarket trading on Wednesday, following reports that Apollo Global Management submitted a renewed bid last week to take the chain private at $64 per share.

Before Apollo’s fresh offer was first reported by StreetInsider on Monday and confirmed by sources cited by Reuters yesterday, the stock was hovering at just under $42 per share.

Still, “the situation is fluid and no deal is guaranteed,” according to people familiar with the matter, Reuters reported.

Apollo’s latest bid is a jump from the joint offer it reportedly made with Irth Capital Management for the pizza chain in June, then said to be worth a little above $60 per share. If a deal materializes, Papa John’s would be the latest restaurant chain to be picked up by a private equity firm, following in the footsteps of Subway, Dave’s Hot Chicken, and Jersey Mike’s.

Multiple other activists are still looking to take over Papa John’s, per Reuters’ sources.

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J. Edward Moreno

Hims & Hers rises after launching menopause and perimenopause treatments

The company will offer pills, patches, and creams and said it expects to add more treatments next year.

An estradiol patch. (Hims & Hers)

Four pebbles

Critical Metals is now worth more than $3 billion. It only had four full-time employees at the end of June, but investors are wagering that US government involvement in rare earths will continue.

The rare earth trade has been heating up, even in tiny stocks with very few employees.

David Crowther40m

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Max Knoblauch40m

Archer outbids Joby and other rivals to acquire patents of bankrupt competitor Lilium for $21 million

Shares of air taxi maker Archer Aviation climbed after the company won a bidding war for the patents of German rival Lilium, which filed for insolvency earlier this year. Archer announced it paid about $21 million for the assets.

The stock was up 3.1% in recent premarket trading.

Archer beat out Joby Aviation, which also reportedly made an offer on the patent portfolio. Archer’s win nets it about 300 patents in advanced air mobility.

Over its decade of existence, Lilium invested $1.5 billion to develop or acquire the patents, which Archer said “could unlock future development.”

Lilium isn’t the only electric vertical takeoff and landing company to face headwinds: Hyundai’s Supernal reportedly paused work following the departure of its CEO and CTO last month.

markets

Claire Yubin Oh3h

ASML rises after Q3 bookings came in 10% ahead of estimates, offsetting a weak outlook in its China business

ASML shares are up over 4% in European trading on Wednesday after the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker reported 5.4 billion euros ($6.3 billion) in bookings in the third quarter, roughly ~10% ahead of the 4.9 billion euros expected by analysts (Bloomberg consensus estimates).

After striking a much more cautious tone in July, the company’s strong outlook for the remaining year helped reassure investors, despite realized revenues actually coming in a touch light relative to expectations in the quarter.

In Q3, the company has “seen continued positive momentum around investments in AI, and have also seen this extending to more customers,” ASML President and CEO Christophe Fouquet said in the press release. He added, “We do not expect 2026 total net sales to be below 2025.”

Europe’s largest company now expects fourth-quarter sales between 9.2 billion and 9.8 billion euros, with a gross margin of 51% to 53%, finishing the full year with 15% growth in total net sales. The lithography systems maker is also now targeting 60 billion euros of revenue in 2030, up from 28.3 billion euros last year.

The only significant blemish in the report was China. Responsible for ~42% of its net system sales this quarter, revenue from China will “decline significantly compared to our very strong business there in 2024 and 2025,” Fouquet said.

ASML has seen its stock rally nearly 30% this year as the dominant supplier of extreme ultraviolet lithography machines needed to produce sophisticated chips.

Tasha Matsumoto, Luke Kawa

Stocks lose steam after trade tensions reignite

Tech dragged down the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100, but the Russell 2000 posted a new record-high close.

Toronto Zoo born giant panda cub in its enclosure for the first time in the day.

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