Deal Dispatch: Starbucks To Exit China, NFL Team Drafts VCs – Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR), Capstone Holding (NASDAQ:CAPS)

Starbucks SBUX is brewing up some big decisions for its China business, including a potential stake deal that could fetch several billion dollars.

The coffee giant has been quietly chatting with tech firms and private equity players, hoping someone might want a sip of its 7,750-store China portfolio.

But with local rival Luckin Coffee chugging ahead — pulling in $1.2 billion last quarter versus Starbucks’ $740 million — the cold truth is the Seattle-based company is having trouble navigating the market.

And it’s not alone. McDonald’s and Yum! Brands both sold stakes in their China operations.

As for Starbucks, the franchise’s stock price has cooled faster than an unattended latte. It’s down 25% since February. Meanwhile, Wall Street is not impressed, as Starbucks missed earnings estimates and reported a global sales dip.

Read: Consumer Sentiment Crashes To 5-Year Lows As Inflation Fears Reach 1981 Levels

• Charter Communications CHTR agreed to acquire Cox Communications from Cox Enterprises for about $34.5 billion. Axios first reported the deal.

  Charter seeks to create the largest U.S. cable TV and broadband provider by subscribers, surpassing Comcast Corp CMCSA. It will also take on significant debt — about $12 billion worth. The combined entity will be called Cox Communications and will retain the Spectrum brand for consumers. Simultaneously, Charter will complete its all-stock acquisition of Liberty Media, announced last fall.

• Venture capitalists are catching a piece of the San Francisco 49ers. The football franchise is divesting a 6% stake at an $8.5 billion valuation. The buy side includes Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures; Byron Deeter of Bessemer Venture Partners and Will Griffith of Iconiq. The deal will require approval at one of the NFL’s owners meetings, per Bloomberg.

• Adam Waterous is turning up the heat in the oil sands drama. The Canadian oil baron’s Strathcona Resources plans to take a C$6 billion ($4 billion) bid for MEG Energy straight to shareholders, according to Bloomberg. Previously, MEG’s board gave Waterous the cold shoulder. The offer, about C$23.27 per share, will hit the official paperwork trail within two weeks. If successful, it would be another feather in Waterous’ hard hat after years of deal-making. On the same day, Strathcona also announced it’s unloading its Montney shale assets for C$2.8 billion.

• Dick’s Sporting Goods DKS is lacing up to buy Foot Locker FL for about $2.4 billion. It’s the second major footwear deal this month, hot on the heels of 3G Capital‘s $9 billion Skechers buy. While Foot Locker brings 2,400 smaller, urban stores to the table, Dick’s offers around 800 suburban big-box behemoths.

• Robinhood Markets Inc. HOOD wants to acquire Canadian crypto trading platform WonderFi Technologies in an all-cash deal valued at approximately C$250 million ($178.9 million). The deal will be executed through a statutory plan of arrangement, with Robinhood acquiring all outstanding WonderFi common shares. WonderFi’s largest shareholder, Mogo, which owns roughly 82 million shares, has already signed a voting support agreement in favor of the transaction. Other directors, officers and shareholders holding about 28% of WonderFi’s outstanding shares have also agreed to support the deal.

• Pan American Silver Corp. PAAS and MAG Silver Corp. MAG disclosed a definitive deal to acquire MAG Silver‘s shares through a plan of arrangement. MAG shareholders will receive approximately $2.1 billion in a mix of $500 million cash and 0.755 PAAS shares per MAG share.

• Consider it a tough prescription for survival: Rite Aid will have less retail square footage, but hopefully fewer financial headaches now that it filed for bankruptcy. About 115 stores will close as part of its ongoing Chapter 11 plan. After filing earlier this month, the pharmacy chain initially revealed 47 store closures, then added 68 more in a May 9 court filing. That brings the total to nearly 10% of its 1,240 locations, spread across 10 of the 15 states it operates in.
• Bayer AG is making another attempt to weed out its legal troubles over Roundup, the popular herbicide linked to cancer in thousands of lawsuits.

  The company is trying to settle many cases in Missouri state court, but is also prepping a backup plan: putting Monsanto — the U.S. maker of Roundup — into bankruptcy. According to the Wall Street Journal, Bayer has brought in restructuring pros from Latham & Watkins and AlixPartners to explore options. Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018 for $63 billion.

  A San Francisco jury quickly found Monsanto liable for a man’s cancer, setting off years of litigation. Bayer insists Roundup is safe, citing EPA reviews, but the lawsuits have taken their tollv—vso much so that the company has warned it might stop making the product altogether. Its stock has dropped about 75% since the Monsanto deal.

• Li-Cycle Holdings Corp LICY is filing for creditor protection in Canada and Chapter 15 bankruptcy in the U.S. It’s now planning a court-supervised garage sale for its assets. One potential buyer? Mining giant Glencore ADR GLNCY, which has agreed to bid at least $40 million for some of the Lithium-ion battery recycler’s assets.

Today, Benzinga spotlights Capstone Holding Corp. CAPS. The company’s shares were up 46.34% at last check Friday, trading at about $2.40.

With 1,500 potential acquisitions on its radar and housing demand holding up, Capstone’s clearly not done building — both literally and financially.

The Illinois-based building materials distributor reaffirmed its 2025 goals of $100 million in revenue and $10 million in adjusted EBITDA, fueled by steady growth and M&A shopping sprees.

CEO Matthew Lipman says the company is on track to double in size, snapping up deals at 4–6x EBITDA with up to 45% paid in non-cash consideration.

Capstone’s Instone unit held strong and continues to push proprietary products with names such as Toro and Pangea.

The company also locked in a flexible equity credit line, but promises to only use it for deals immediately accretive to earnings.

For last week’s edition of Deal Dispatch, click here.