Here are the highlights:
🎬 Netflix acquired InterPositive for up to $600M — Ben Affleck's 16-person AI filmmaking tools company. This is the beginning of a trend where AI vertical teams getting acquired at massive premiums by platforms.
🌿 Estée Lauder acquired the remaining 51% of Forest Essentials — going from 49% (since 2020) to 100% ownership. Founded by Mira Kulkarni, HQ stays in New Delhi. This is the holy grail of Indian M&A where global brand houses buying Indian brands to build out their portfolio.
🛡️ LAT Aerospace (Founded by Deepinder Goyal) acquired Sharang Shakti — an indigenous defence robotics startup. Deepinder continues to diversify post stepping down as Zomato CEO, building a portfolio across health, wearables, and now defence tech.
👟 Mirza International's MD Tauseef Mirza acquired 100% of Solethreads — a semi-premium D2C footwear brand backed by Fireside, DSG, and Saama. Legacy manufacturing meets D2C brand-building.
🚛 91Trucks acquired MotorFloor and TrucksFloor showing early consolidation in the commercial vehicle marketplace space.
🧴 Puresta acquired SKINQ — a D2C skincare brand, as Puresta builds an AI-powered full-stack dermatology platform. Raised ₹34 Cr from Spring Marketing Capital and Stride Ventures
🎓 upGrad acquired Internshala in a ~₹100 Cr deal. This is upGrad's ~15th acquisition as Ronnie Screwvala builds a full-stack education-to-employment platform.
🔗 Polymarket acquired Brahma — DeFi infrastructure with $1B+ in transaction volume. Polymarket (rumoured ~$20B valuation) adds to its acquisition spree after Lunch and Dome.