CE 100 Index Surges 2.8% as Olo Jumps on $2B Acquisition by Thoma Bravo

Call it a case of pre-July 4 fireworks.  The CE 100 Index gained 2.8% in a week shortened by the national holiday.  All pillars posted gains.

Within the Eat segment, which was 3.7% higher, Olo was a standout, jumping more than 15.5%.

Olo Gets Acquired

The company announced it had agreed to be acquired by Thoma Bravo, a software investment firm, in an all-cash deal valuing Olo at approximately $2 billion.  The purchase price represents a 65% premium over the end-of-April share price for Olo, which is when the financial press started reporting the company was being courted by potential suitors.

“The transaction is expected to help accelerate Olo’s growth and strengthen its platform and offerings for the over 750 restaurant brands it serves globally. Upon completion of the transaction, Olo will become a privately held company,” the firms said in the deal announcement.

In the Pay and be Paid segment of the CE 100 Index, which gained 4.4%, Mastercard was 4.3% higher.

Mastercard has expanded its startup engagement program with a focus on cybersecurity.  As PYMNTS reported, the company’s Start Path initiative now includes a “Security Solutions” program dedicated to supporting startups in the fields of cybersecurity, fraud mitigation, digital identity and payment resiliency, Mastercard said.

Among the startups are OneID, which employs bank-based verification methods to provide a “document-free way” to verify customer credentials, and Scamnetic, which offers AI scam-detection technology to protect against things like phishing and deepfakes.

Joining them is Spec, which “invisibly monitors” digital transactions to help brands spot and prevent fraud, bots and abuse, and VanishID, which helps companies protect employees by finding and removing exposed personal data publicly accessible online.  Lastly, there is Shield-IoT, which secures mass-scale IoT networks.

Affirm last week disclosed a partnership with Xsolla, its first link to a firm that offers in-game payment services for video game companies.  Game developers will offer players a BNPL option when they buy items they can use in video games. Affirm shares gained 3.4% while BNPL peer Sezzle gathered 11%.

Block shares increased by 6.3% in the payments segment.  PYMNTS reported at the end of last month that the company said it had prevented of approximately $2 billion in potential P2P fraud scams since 2020, aided by advanced technologies and the in-app Cash App payments warnings feature that alerts customers in real time to examine their transactions before moving ahead.

Block Risk Lead Brian Boates told Karen Webster in an interview at the time of the announcement that “when it comes to fraud and scam detection, it’s really rooted in machine learning. We’ve built a number of models internally using all of the data points that we have historically that have gotten really, really good at detecting potentially scam payments in real time.”

In banking, a pillar up 4.2%, PYMNTS reported that J.P. Morgan Chase reorganized its private bank and named a global head of the bank, which is a new role. David Frame, who previously served as the U.S. head of the private bank, has been appointed to the position. The reorganization of the private bank and the creation of the new role are meant to help the bank assist its wealthy customers in storing their money around the world.  J.P. Morgan’s stock was 2.5% higher.

Elsewhere, shares of Nike jumped 22%, getting a boost from the announcement that the United States had reached a trade deal with Vietnam.

Tesla shares slumped 3.2%.  In its latest quarterly production report, the firm said it delivered 384,122 cars in most recent quarter, sliding 13.5% from a year ago.