LIFE SCIENCES
Boston-based Seaport Therapeutics aims for $212m IPO
Seaport Therapeutics Inc., a Boston-based clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on antidepressants and anxiety drugs, is seeking to raise $212.4 million in a US initial public offering. The company plans to market 11.8 million shares for $16 to $18 each, according to its filing Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At the top of that range, the biotech would have a market value of $912 million based on the outstanding shares listed in its filing. Seaport expects to release second phase trial results for its lead drug, a treatment for major depressive disorder, in the first half of 2027. Earlier this month, the company reported positive data from an early-stage trial of its second candidate, an oral drug to treat generalized anxiety disorder, and revealed plans to advance the drug to two parallel trials. The company, which is backed by PureTech Health Plc, had a net loss of $74.9 million last year, compared with a net loss of $46.9 million a year earlier, according to an earlier filing. Nasdaq and London Stock Exchange-listed PureTech owns nearly 50 percent of Seaport after bringing in outside investors as part of funding rounds that have raised $325 million since the offshoot was founded in 2024. Those investors include affiliates of Arch Ventures Partners, which now hold 13.4 percent, and General Atlantic, which owns 8.6 percent, the filing shows. Seaport’s chief executive officer Daphne Zohar was previously the co-founder of Karuna Therapeutics. That company was acquired for $14 billion by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in 2024. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Verizon sees strong growth in subscribers, for a change
Verizon Communications Inc. surprised analysts Monday when it reported a gain of mobile subscribers, an early signal that new chief executive officer Dan Schulman’s strategy for recapturing market share is already paying off. The largest US wireless carrier recorded 55,000 net new mobile phone customers, the first positive phone subscriber additions in a first quarter since 2013 and a year-over-year improvement of 340,000. Analysts had projected 89,169 customer losses. New phone subscribers will come in at the high end of a 750,000 to 1 million previously forecast range, Verizon said Monday. Schulman, a former PayPal CEO, was given the top job last year to help stem Verizon’s customer losses. He recently said Verizon can’t coast on claims that it has the best network anymore. Its new strategy is focused on improving the overall customer experience. The company has also turned customers’ heads with cheeky marketing, evidenced in a four-and-a-half minute ad starring Heated Rivalry heartthrob Connor Storrie that went viral on social media last month. The company did see lighter wireless service revenue than expected, a tradeoff for the customer growth. Schulman said it’s part of a strategy to give customers more value and keep them for longer. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
STREAMING
Coming soon to your Spotify: Peloton
Spotify Technology is now offering workout classes from Peloton Interactive to premium subscribers, marking the music streaming pioneer’s first major foray into fitness content. The new partnership will bring curated playlists and access to a catalog of more than 1,400 ad-free, on-demand content from some of Peloton’s most popular wellness instructors, Spotify said in a statement on Monday. “For nearly two decades, Spotify has been the soundtrack to the world’s workouts,” said Roman Wasenmüller, vice president and global head of podcasts, in the statement. “Today, we are expanding Spotify to become a true daily wellness companion.” Fitness marks another pillar in Spotify’s expanding selection of content as it moves beyond its early days as a music streaming platform and seeks to become an all-encompassing multimedia service. The Swedish company also offers podcasts, audiobooks, and has recently been pushing into video. For Peloton, the agreement will help it to broaden its global reach and expand beyond its core at-home connected fitness hardware, as part of a larger turnaround strategy. Peloton currently operates in only six countries, but the partnership will significantly expand its footprint to most of the more than 180 markets where Spotify is available. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
RETAIL
UK leader pledges crackdown to halt shoplifting ‘free-for-all’
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the UK will toughen measures to tackle shoplifting and violence against shop staff, after complaints from retailers including Marks & Spencer Group about the scale of the problem. Ministers plan to roll out new technology nationwide to help retailers share real-time CCTV footage with police, allowing thieves to be caught more quickly, Starmer said in a speech Monday to the Usdaw trade union. “We’re currently reforming the police across the country so we can free up their time and their money to focus more on street policing, neighborhood policing, cracking down on anti-social behavior,” Starmer told members of Usdaw, which represents workers in UK retail among other industries. “We are standing firm together against the disgraceful crime of shop theft.” Starmer’s comments come as British retailers face a post-pandemic spike in shoplifting blamed in part on cost-of-living pressures amid faltering living standards. M&S retail director Thinus Keeve said this month that shoplifting is becoming “more brazen, more organized, and more aggressive.” J Sainsbury’s chief executive officer Simon Roberts said last week he would welcome a regular police presence in stores to deter theft and violence. Charges for shop theft have risen 17 percent in the latest statistics, Starmer said, though he acknowledged more has to be done to end what he called a shoplifting “free-for-all” across the UK. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
SOVEREIGN WEALTH
Canada launches $25b sovereign wealth fund
Canada will create its first sovereign wealth fund to provide financing for large infrastructure projects and domestic companies, Prime Minister Mark Carney said, pledging to offer Canadian investors the opportunity to buy in. The new vehicle, dubbed the Canada Strong Fund, will be seeded with 25 billion Canadian dollars (US $18.4 billion) from the federal government, Carney announced Monday in Ottawa. It will be professionally managed and independent of the government, meant to “invest alongside the private sector in nation-building projects, on a fully commercial basis,” he said. Individuals will be able to contribute and earn returns, the prime minister said, with investments structured in a way that limits the downside for them but lets them participate in the upside. “Canadians want to get involved. They want to get involved in building the country,” he said. Carney, 61, has made a priority of boosting Canada’s appeal to global capital. In November, his government set a target of pulling in 500 billion Canadian dollars of private investment over five years, and has said it will accelerate approvals and construction of projects such as ports, pipelines, and other export infrastructure. “The announcement underscores the government’s commitment to getting big-ticket capital spending off the ground,” said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. The real challenge is finding private sector companies to back these projects, he said. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
OpenAI ends exclusive pact with Microsoft
Microsoft Corp. and OpenAI have agreed to drop the software giant’s exclusive right to sell the startup’s AI models, opening the door for the ChatGPT maker to pursue deals with cloud-computing rivals like Amazon.com Inc. In exchange for ending that exclusivity — which helped boost Microsoft’s cloud sales in the early years of the AI boom — the world’s largest software maker will no longer pay a revenue share on OpenAI products it resells on its cloud. The two companies announced the revised deal in a joint statement on Monday. The new pact is meant to simplify a complicated relationship that has been foundational to OpenAI’s rise and the broader artificial intelligence boom. OpenAI has since pursued deals with multiple cloud providers, including Amazon, to meet its growing computing needs to build and serve AI software to a wider audience. “The greater predictability in the amended agreement strengthens our joint ability to build and operate AI platforms at scale while providing both companies the flexibility to pursue new opportunities,” OpenAI and Microsoft said in their statement. — BLOOMBERG NEWS