Grand sham finals, Ackman edition

One thing to start: Law firm Quinn Emanuel has sued a listed 3D printing company, claiming it was short-changed on a $30mn fee for winning a legal battle over a troubled merger.

More BCG fallout: Two top Boston Consulting Group executives will leave their leadership roles in the wake of revelations about the firm’s work in Gaza.

And harsh words from Jamie Dimon: The JPMorgan Chase chief executive warned European leaders they had a competitiveness problem and are “losing” the battle to rivals the US and China. 

In today’s newsletter:

• Ackman tries pro tennis, loses

• Short seller goes long

• Revolut’s $65bn valuation

A master of the universe double faults

It was a scene that could have come straight out of The Gilded Age, the popular TV adaptation of Edith Wharton’s writing.

Bill Ackman, the silver-haired Wall Street master of the universe, tested his mettle on Wednesday against two professional tennis players on a grass court in Newport, Rhode Island, the famed summer vacation spot at the turn of the 20th century. 

The 59-year-old financier best known for his tussles with corporate icons such as Procter & Gamble and epic multibillion-dollar windfalls and losses, snagged a wild card in a professional tournament held at tennis’s global hall of fame.

While a pro tennis court is new terrain for the billionaire, the conviction that got him there wasn’t so out of the ordinary. Ackman has long been known in finance for his bags of confidence and willingness to duel with challengers in various arenas. 

In recent years he’s prognosticated with varying degrees of success on Wall Street — and far beyond.

He’s fought Harvard and helped to oust its first African-American president. And he’s threatened a legal war with Business Insider.

A dozen years ago, Wall Street was gripped by his battle with fellow billionaires on a trade in Herbalife. The denouement included a 40-mile bike ride he was unable to complete due to lack of practice, and a $1bn loss.

Tennis has always been one of Ackman’s passions outside of the high-stakes investment world. He has backed professional players such as Francis Tiafoe, is regularly seen courtside at the US Open and has signalled his game is top notch. 

This week he was gifted a wild card slot in the International Tennis Hall of Fame Open, whose organiser he has backed financially, to play in a professional doubles match.

Ackman’s bravado was high.

He said in a post on X he was “playing the best tennis of [his] life” and that he might be the oldest person to win professional points, if he won.

So the scene was set for Ackman to prove his master of the universe stripes as Wharton herself might have written it. Could the gun-slinging investor and Harvard man prove himself on the tennis court?

The answer on Wednesday was a resounding double-fault. 

The broadcast captured Ackman serving about half as fast as professionals and struggling to get his serve over the net. He and his playing partner lost in straight sets.

A fascination with finance has increasingly seeped into popular culture in recent years with shows such as Billions, Succession and Industry.

But under the unblinking glare of the cameras, many characters don’t deliver relative to their mystique.

Instead of renaissance men fluent in tennis and takeovers, they’re delivering weekend quality serves.

Andy Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion, called Ackman’s display “the biggest joke I’ve watched in professional tennis”.

Ackman, for his part, shared his reflections on X:

“I can speak in front of an audience of a thousand people or in a TV studio on a broad range of topics without any preparation and without a twinge of fear, but yesterday I had my first real experience with stage fright.”

Short seller Hunterbrook goes long

A scoop-driven newsroom or a hedge fund with an edge? 

Wall Street is divided on what to think about Hunterbrook, the media start-up that supplies its scoops to an affiliated fund to trade on before it publishes them.

If that wasn’t enough to wrap your head around, Hunterbrook this week said that it planned to launch a litigation arm to partner with law firms on cases enabled by its reporting.

It came as the start-up revealed to investors that it raised fresh funds at a $100mn valuation.

The investor letter also came with some good news: the fund generated a 31 per cent return in the second quarter of 2025, and 16 per cent year to date. (Though even chief executive Nathaniel Brooks Horwitz admitted that shouldn’t be seen as normal given the extreme market volatility.) 

The interesting thing is that the fund isn’t quite working as originally envisaged.

Early noises from the start-up suggested it would use its newsroom to reveal the scandals and malpractice lurking at the heart of Wall Street and then short the heck out of those stocks as the news hit the wires.

Instead, Hunterbook has faced up to what it describes as an “irascible bull market” — and seems to have simply found out that a lot of companies are actually OK.

The fund has ramped up its “long” bets, finding gems when its reporters were trying to dig up dirt, and turnaround stories rather than corporate failures.

Good for the investors maybe, but journalists may feel puzzled. 

The old journalist maxim of “if it bleeds, it leads” — reflecting that breaking bad news stories is more profitable than pointing out the good — has not worked out quite as expected on Wall Street.

Revolut’s latest breathless valuation

Revolut is in talks to raise new funding at a $65bn valuation to bankroll its American dream.

The UK-based fintech plans to raise $1bn by issuing new shares and selling existing stock, the FT scooped. 

It hopes to use the money to finance its global expansion, with the US market a key target.

The US investment firm Greenoaks is in talks to lead the funding round, and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, which first invested in the company last year, is also in discussions to participate. 

Let’s step back and talk about that $65bn figure, though. 

To start, it’s not a typical headline figure but a “blended” valuation, comprising a high price for raising new money and a lower one for existing investors selling their shares. 

Moreover, fintechs often undergo artificial valuation surges at funding rounds. Take Stripe: the payments processor reached a peak valuation of $95bn during a 2021 funding round, and then dropped off to $50bn by 2023. SoFi and Circle also had similar trajectories.

That’s not to mention Revolut’s historical challenges with regulators. 

On top of that, Revolut’s chief executive, Nik Storonsky, has major skin in the game.

If the company climbs to a $150bn valuation, Storonsky is up for a bumper pay package, the FT reported last month.

Fintechs such as Revolut have attracted towering multiples more akin to Silicon Valley tech outfits, but the bread and butter of their business remains the rather more sedate world of retail banking.

So let’s wait until the business goes public before getting too carried away with the top-line valuation. 

Job moves

• The Abu Dhabi Investment Council has named Alain Carrier as its executive director of private equity. He was most recently CEO of Bregal Investments and before that was a senior managing director at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

• Goldman Sachs has promoted Ben Wallace to co-head of Americas M&A, Bloomberg reports. He will continue to serve as global head of healthcare M&A.

• WPP has named Cindy Rose as its new chief executive. She is currently chief operating officer for global enterprise at Microsoft and replaces 30-year WPP veteran Mark Read.

• The Financial Services Forum has appointed Amanda Eversole as president and chief executive. She succeeds Kevin Fromer and joins from the American Petroleum Institute.

Smart reads

Fed’s challenge The Trump administration has made no bones about its contempt for Jay Powell. The FT asks how long the Federal Reserve can remain above the fray.

Vibe managers Anthropic asked its AI agent to run a simple shop. It didn’t go well, the FT’s John Thornhill writes.

Tree heist Olives have been a Mediterranean staple for thousands of years, but rising temperatures are hitting harvests, Bloomberg writes. In Greece, that’s leading to a peculiar crime: tree theft.

News round-up

Pentagon strikes investment deal with US critical minerals producer (FT)

Citadel Securities buys Morgan Stanley’s electronic options market making unit (FT)

Amazon weighs further investment in Anthropic to deepen AI alliance (FT)

Moët Hennessy sexual harassment case shines light on company’s culture (FT)

Legal & General agrees up to $20bn private credit partnership with Blackstone (FT)

World Food Programme reviews its partnership with BCG over Gaza work (FT)

ITV and Disney strike deal to stream hit shows on each other’s platforms (FT)

Thames Water dismisses last-minute rescue bid backed by ex-Lib Dem peer (FT)

Portugal restarts plan to privatise airline TAP (FT)

Deloitte and Azets probed over audits of collapsed UK fintech Stenn (FT)