Good morning, European Sandwich chain Pret A Manger is making its Canadian debut, while Indigo books is going private. Here’s what’s up:

• Indigo Books and Music is going private.

• A&W Canada and Pret A Manger collab.

• Elon Musk’s xAI raised $6B to build a supercomputer.

• Boeing, NASA to launch Starliner capsule despite helium leak.

• 5 tools to boost your productivity.

• More biz-tech news.

RETAIL

📚️ Indigo Books and Music is going private

Indigo Books & Music shareholders have approved a deal to privatize the company, accepting a $2.50 per share offer from Trilogy Retail Holdings Inc. and Trilogy Investments L.P., which own a 56% stake in Indigo. Trilogy is owned by Gerald Schwartz, spouse of Indigo's CEO, Heather Reisman. The deal is expected to close in June.

Why are they going private?

• To avoid public reporting responsibilities.

• To address ongoing challenges without the scrutiny of public markets.

Challenges: Indigo is recovering from a cyber attack that severely impacted its operations last year. Plus, high inflation and interest rates have been a cherry on top, because consumer spending is slow, especially on discretionary items.

RESTURANTS

🥪 A&W Canada and Pret A Manger sign a deal

A&W Food Services has secured a long-term development agreement with the sandwich chain Pret A Manger, following a successful two-year trial period.

The plan:

• A&W plans to introduce Pret's products in various formats, starting with a national rollout of Pret coffee in A&W restaurants this fall.

• The agreement outlines a 10-year development term to increase the number of physical locations offering Pret products across Canada.

AI

💸 Elon Musk’s xAI raised $6B to build a supercomputer

Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, has raised $6 billion in a Series B funding round at a $18 billion (pre money valuation), making it the largest ever round raise of all time. The company is led by experience executives from top tech companies like Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and Tesla.

Some background of xAI:
xAI is direct competitor to OpenAI. Elon Musk was an early supporter of AI and OpenAI, backing it before the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022.

In November 2023, Musk launched Grok, an AI Chatbot directly integrated into X (formerly Twitter).

The plan forward: xAI is planning to build a massive supercomputer containing 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs.

Elon plans to use 20,000 GPUs to train newer versions of Grok AI Chatbot.

SPACE

🚀 Boeing, NASA to launch Starliner capsule despite helium leak

Boeing and NASA are set to launch the Starliner capsule with U.S. astronauts for the first time on June 1, despite a stable leak in the spacecraft’s propulsion system.

Isn’t it dangerous?
Boeing's VP and manager of the Commercial Crew program, Mark Nappi, stated the leak is not a safety issue and can be managed.

NASA and Boeing will conduct another review on May 29 and plan to roll out the rocket and capsule to the launch pad on May 30.

The History of Starliner launch: Starliner’s crew debut has been delayed by years, with significant costs incurred. Boeing has absorbed USD 1.5 billion in costs due to setbacks, in addition to nearly $5 billion of NASA development funds.

The latest attempt on May 6 was called off due to an issue with the Atlas V rocket, which has since been resolved.

• 🦞 Red Lobster has asked Ontario court to recognize U.S. bankruptcy.

• 👕 Gildan ex-CEO is back to take charger after months of leadership battle.

• 🍾 Ontario corner stores will start carrying alcohol starting September.

• ⚖️ Superior Court of Quebec authorized a class action lawsuit against Bombardier due to misleading financial statements from 2018.

PRODUCTIVITY

5 Tools to Boost Your Productivity

1. 🌲 Humata Ask questions and chat with any file instantly using AI.

2. 🎥 Pictory Automatically create short, branded videos from long-form content.

3. 🗒️ Notion AI Your notes, on steroids. Access the limitless power of AI, right inside Notion.

4. 🖥️ Super Create a website from your Notion database in minutes.

5. 🎤 Wondercraft Turn existing content such as blog posts, into full podcasts.

FEEDBACK

If you have any specific feedback or anything interesting you’d like to share please let us know by replying to this email.