Silver Lake Locks In on AI

Silver Lake is merging two of its software firms in a 10bn euro ($11.6bn) gunshot wedding. 

French business management software firm Cegid, and payroll and HR platform, Silae, will join forces. Is this a new trend to help companies manage AI spend?

The idea is to bring all the functionality into a single platform for entrepreneurs and companies of a certain size. Scaling investment in R&D has been touted as a benefit.

Christian Lucas will serve as Chairman of the combined business. Both firms started in France before expanding to Spain, Portugal, with Cegid also having a foothold in Germany.

Blackstone Homes In on Lloyds Income

Blackstone has been in talks with Aon to create a Lloyd's syndicate that would earn income for the asset manager (as much as $2bn in premiums a year). 

Aon would effectively direct a certain amount of reinsurance business Blackstone's way - and Blackstone would act as a substitute for a "regular" insurer's balance sheet.  It would back this provision with private equity funds such as Blackstone Private Equity Strategies, or BXPE.

Reinsurers have warned that alternative capital providers (a la Blackstone) could be less durable after large losses. Blackstone already backs policies at Lloyds, but this move would be a broader and more visible shift into the market with Brookfield and Oaktree also looking at expansion into this sector.

Will private capital irrevocably reshape the insurance market? And what impact to financial resilience?

Jane Street Becomes a Dealer on Leveraged ETF Swaps

Jane Street joins other dealers as a market maker on risky leveraged ETF swaps.

An ETF swap, also known as a synthetic ETF, is where the provider enters into a swap contract with a counterparty, typically a large financial institution, to replicate the performance of an index, asset or asset class, without owning the underlying securities.

The counterparty pays the ETF the total return of the index (or other asset) including dividends while the ETF pays a fee and the return of collateral to the counterparty.

SpaceX May Bring Asteroid Mining Closer to Reality

Asteroid mining is being explored by several companies like Astroforge. These developments create new opportunities for SpaceX in the future.

Parker Gale Releases Note on Evaluating AI Opportunity and Risk in B2B Software

Chicago, IL-based Parker Gale is a buyout firm specializing in acquiring founder-owned B2B software companies where a hands-on approach (to help "close the gap between potential and performance") is adopted. 

Profitable businesses with $10-30m ARR are targeted to industries where the Chicago firm can point to a specific edge (through a thesis, an executive on-boarded or past experience with similar challenges).

In this field, evaluation of AI opportunity and risk (and where the pendulum eventually swings) is crucial. 

In this respect, Parker Gale have published an AI Resilience Scorecard (Summer 2026) to guide assessment.  Things they look out for:

1. What cannot be copied - software is becoming easier to reproduce.  Harder to copy are datasets, regulatory position, network, relationships.

2. Switching costs - can the company change its mind about its AI provider.

3. High retention not taken as proof of safety - not all organizations will willingly rip out their software and replace with an AI native version. However, the threat of AI-native competition will add pressure to pricing and scope.

AI implementation (and having AI-enabled features) is no longer a differentiating factor.

Bending Spoons Acquries Miro - What Next?

What will Bending Spoons do with this SaaS company?

Citdal Opts In On Appital (as Liquidity Bud)

Citadel Securities has said YES to becoming a liquidity provider on Appital led by Mark Badyra (in their own words - "redefining the scale of electronic liquidity").