🧠 Salesforce’s $8B Brain Boost

☕ Good Morning, Masala Crew!

It’s Thursday, May 29—aka Friday Junior, and the news cycle is giving pre-weekend energy! From surprise warehouse raids and massive dry fruit funding to Salesforce's AI power play and Indo-U.S. trade talks heating up, today’s edition is lean, fresh, and hot off the wire.

Let's stir the pot ☕📈

☕ Chai Shots

• 🛠️ BIS Raids FirstCry Warehouse, Seizes ₹90L Goods: The Bureau of Indian Standards conducted a surprise inspection at a Bengaluru warehouse, citing hallmarking violations and seizing products worth ₹1.3 crore. FirstCry says it complies with norms and is seeking legal guidance.

• 📉 BAT Sells 2.5% ITC Stake, Nets Over ₹13,000 Cr: British American Tobacco offloaded a 2.5% slice of ITC through a discounted block deal but still clings to a strong 23.1% stake. The sale boosts BAT’s buyback ambitions back in the UK.

• 🚀 Salesforce Buys Informatica for $8 Billion: The CRM giant is turbocharging its AI play by acquiring cloud data powerhouse Informatica. The deal supercharges Salesforce’s Agentforce platform with enterprise-grade data tools. 📈 More in the Big Brew!

• 📦 PayPal, Worldline Get RBI’s Blessing for Export Payments: Both players secured preliminary approval to operate as payment aggregators for Indian exports. PayPal says this nod will support Indian freelancers and businesses in nearly 200 markets and fuel product innovation.

• 🛢️ Castrol Up for Grabs, and India’s Giants Are Eyeing It: BP’s lubricant business, Castrol, has caught the eye of Reliance, Apollo Global, Lone Star, and even Saudi Aramco. With a price tag of $8–10 billion, the sale could be one of the biggest buyout plays of the year. Castrol’s strong foothold in India and its new tech for AI data centre cooling make it a hot-ticket asset. Meanwhile, bankers are working on a $4B+ financing package to back the bids.

📈 Market Masala

• 📉 Sensex & Nifty Slip as FMCG Stocks Weigh Down Markets: The Sensex dipped 239 points to settle at 81,312, while the Nifty50 ended 74 points lower at 24,752. The broader mood? Lukewarm, with investors opting for caution ahead of monthly expiry.

• 🛒 FMCG Takes a Hit Post-ITC Block Deal: The Nifty FMCG index fell 1.5%, dragged down by big names like ITC and Nestle. BAT’s ₹13,000 crore stake sale in ITC spooked investors, especially since it gives up veto power in the company.

• 📉 Volatility Eases, But Bears Still Lurk: The India VIX cooled nearly 3% to 18.02, but technical signals hint at possible selling pressure if Nifty breaches the 24,700 support zone. A strong breakout will need to clear the 25,000–25,100 ceiling.

• 🇮🇳🇺🇸 India-U.S. Trade Talks Enter Final Stretch: With a June 25 deadline looming, both countries are racing to reach a deal. India seeks exemption from a steep 26% tariff, while the U.S. wants greater access for its agri and EV exports. Stakes are high in this diplomatic tug-of-war.

• ⚖️ ICICI Bank Gets SC Nod for ICICI Sec Merger: The Supreme Court threw out a challenge against the delisting process, clearing ICICI Bank’s path to fully merge ICICI Securities. Over 70% of shareholders had already backed the plan.

🌎 Global Masala

• 📉 Wall Street Slips as Investors Eye Fed Signals and Nvidia’s Outlook: U.S. stocks dipped midweek with the Dow losing 245 points, as investors parsed Fed minutes and awaited Nvidia’s report. The Fed struck a cautious tone, citing possible “tough tradeoffs” ahead if inflation picks up. Meanwhile, rising Treasury yields and corporate earnings uncertainty kept traders on edge.

• 🌊 Thames Water Fined Record £123M for Sewage Scandal: The UK’s biggest water supplier is in hot water—literally. Thames Water was hit with a record £123 million fine for letting sewage flow into rivers while still dishing out dividends to shareholders. A potential sale to KKR is in the works.

• 📉 Shein Shifts IPO Plans to Hong Kong: After facing radio silence from regulators on its London IPO, fast-fashion giant Shein is now prepping for a Hong Kong listing. The company is aiming to file a draft prospectus soon, with hopes to go public by year-end.

• 📉 HP Tanks 15% After Tariff-Linked Earnings Miss: HP shares nosedived after the tech company’s Q2 results came in weaker than expected—despite a revenue beat. The miss? Blame ballooning costs from Donald Trump’s revived tariffs. HP said it’s shifting most of its manufacturing out of China to places like India, Vietnam, and the U.S., hoping to dodge trade hurdles by Q4.

• 💸 Nvidia Defies Tariff Turmoil With 73% Data Center Growth: Nvidia flexed its AI muscle, clocking a massive $44B in quarterly revenue and a 26% jump in profit. Even with a $4.5B hit from China chip restrictions, the company’s core AI business is firing on all cylinders. Data center sales alone surged 73% YoY, with Microsoft snapping up GPUs for OpenAI. Gaming and auto chips also delivered big.

☕ The Big Brew: Salesforce Just Bought the Future of AI Data

Salesforce has just made one of its boldest bets on the future of AI—announcing an $8 billion acquisition of Informatica to supercharge its data capabilities.

• 📊 Why Informatica? The company is a leader in data integration, privacy, governance, and metadata management. All this will now power Salesforce’s Agentforce, Tableau, MuleSoft, and Data Cloud.

• 🤖 What’s the Plan? Salesforce wants its AI agents to operate independently, responsibly, and contextually—think automation with brain and backbone. Clean and trustworthy data is mission-critical, and Informatica delivers just that.

• 💸 The Money Move: The deal comes at $25 per share in cash—a ~30% premium—and will be funded through a mix of cash and new debt.

• 📦 What Else? Informatica’s 5,000+ global clients include over 80% of the Fortune 100. Salesforce now gets a massive cross-sell runway for its AI tools.

• 📉 What’s Behind the Push? After slowing its M&A roll under activist investor pressure, this marks Salesforce’s return to making big, strategic bets to remain AI-relevant.

What does this mean? In the AI era, data isn’t just king—it’s the entire kingdom. Salesforce just bought the throne.

🌟 Startup Scoop

• 🥜 Bolas Eyes ₹900 Cr Funding Boost: Karnataka-based dry fruit brand Bolas is in talks with Westbridge and others to raise ₹900 crore in its first institutional round. The goal? Expand retail, dominate healthy snacking, and scale operations.

• 👗 NEWME Unleashes Zip Mode in Bengaluru: Fashion-tech label NEWME just launched Zip, a delivery service that promises to drop the latest looks at your door in under 60 minutes. Starting in Bengaluru, the brand will next expand to Mumbai and Hyderabad.

• 🤖 Frinks AI Raises $5.4M for Vision AI: Bengaluru-based Frinks AI secured fresh funding led by Prime Venture Partners to scale its smart inspection platform for manufacturers. The tech is already deployed across 1,000+ factory lines globally.

• 🌾 Samunnati Banks ₹5 Cr More: Agri-fintech NBFC Samunnati raised ₹42.5 crore from Elevar Equity, adding to its ongoing pre-Series E round. The firm is targeting a full-stack agri-ecosystem play.

• 🤝 CCI Clears Jumbotail’s Solv Buyout: Jumbotail just got the green light to fully acquire Solv India. This move combines Jumbotail’s grocery and supply chain strengths with Solv’s reach in apparel and MSME fintech—setting the stage for a potential unicorn leap.

🍵 Chai Break Trivia

🧩 Did you know? Bananas are naturally radioactive!!!

Thanks to their potassium content—especially potassium-40—they emit a tiny amount of radiation. But don’t panic! You’d have to eat millions in one go for it to even matter—so they’re completely harmless and still a-peeling (see what we did there?) 😂

☕ What’s Brewing Next?

• 📆 Mark June 25: That’s the rumored deadline for India and the U.S. to wrap up their interim trade agreement before temporary tariff relief expires.

That’s your Thursday brew, folks! Catch you tomorrow for another sip of the spiciest headlines in business, tech, and policy. And remember—Friday Junior deserves a strong cup and stronger opinions. ☕😉