The proposed valuation equates to roughly ten times Golden Goose's expected year-end core profit, including debt. The Venice-based brand, known for its '500-plus distressed sneakers, recorded '655m in revenue and '227m in adjusted core earnings in 2024. HongShan has asked former Gucci chief executive Marco Bizzarri to become Golden Goose's future chairman. The Chinese private equity group plans to expand the company's directly operated retail network, with a particular focus on Asia, and is targeting a medium-term stock market listing once conditions improve. Golden Goose abandoned an IPO in Milan last year, citing volatility linked to European political uncertainty. A sale to HongShan would represent one of the largest luxury fashion transactions of the year and a major exit for Permira, which has backed the brand during a period of rapid global growth. Subscribe to our Newsletter to increase your edge. Don't worry about the news anymore, through our newsletter you'll receive weekly access to what is happening. Join 120,000 other PE professionals today....

While that's all far more chaotic and destructive than even some of the worst behavior that Waymo's robotaxis have been guilty of, the in-game autonomous vehicles nonetheless resemble the company's earlier-generation Chrysler Pacifica vans. The expansion is called 'A Safehouse in the Hills' and is available starting December 10. It's not clear if the vans in the trailer have been, in true Grand Theft Auto fashion, hijacked by playable characters, or if they've gone rogue. It seems likely it's the latter, though, as Rockstar Games says players will be encouraged to 'stop the development of a mass surveillance network in an all-new action-packed adventure' as part of the DLC. (The trailer also teases a storyline that involves an AI assistant named 'Haviland,' so the tech world in general appears to be a part of this particular storyline.) Waymo has said it will deny government requests for the footage its vehicles capture if those requests are 'overly broad and unlawful.' But its robotaxis have nevertheless drawn criticism for being part of a growing surveillance state. That frustration has contributed to the company's vehicles becoming a target of multiple instances of vandalism. Waymo SUVs have been burned, smashed, and had their tires slashed in different cities over the last few years....

In its latest retreat from India's crowded online retail market, Walmart-backed fintech giant PhonePe has wound down its Pincode e-commerce app and will shift the business toward B2B services for offline merchants. On Thursday, PhonePe founder and group CEO Sameer Nigam said operating a consumer-facing quick-commerce app had become a distraction from the company's core focus on small retailers. The company instead wants to concentrate on helping stores 'achieve operational efficiency, improved margins and visibility,' he said, citing this as its primary objective. PhonePe launched Pincode in April 2023 as a major push into e-commerce, building it on the Indian government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The hyperlocal app offered groceries, medicines, food, electronics, and home decor from neighborhood shops. It rolled out first in Bengaluru and later expanded to other cities. Within a little over a year of launch, Pincode pulled out of most categories except food. Earlier this year, the app shifted to a quick-commerce model, offering 10-minute deliveries through local kirana shops and retailers in cities such as Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Pune. The company also expanded the service to 10-minute medicine deliveries in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Pune in April....

Six years ago at a StrictlyVC event in San Francisco, I asked Sam Altman how OpenAI, with its complicated corporate structure, would make money. He said that someday, he'd ask the AI. When everyone snickered, he added, 'You can laugh. It's all right. But it really is what I actually believe.' Sitting again in front of an audience, this time across from Max Hodak, the co-founder and CEO of Science Corp., I can't help but remember that moment with Altman. Pale-complexioned Hodak, wearing jeans and a black zip-up sweatshirt, looks more like he'd fit in in a mosh pit than pitching a company valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. But he's got a sly sense of humor that keeps the room engaged. Hodak started programming when he was six, and as an undergraduate at Duke, he worked his way into the lab of Miguel Nicolelis, a pioneering neuroscientist who has since become publicly critical of commercial brain-computer interface ventures. In 2016, Hodak co-founded Neuralink with Elon Musk, serving as its president and essentially running day-to-day operations until 2021....