ChainCatcher reported that Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, said a consortium made up of private equity firm Advent and payments processor Stripe has decided to abandon the acquisition of PayPal Holdings Inc. The potential transaction would have been one of the largest leveraged buyouts in history. Earlier people familiar with the matter had said the consortium put forward an offer worth more than $50 billion. The people in the latest report said the group is no longer moving forward with the purchase of PayPal. The individuals asked not to be identified because the information has not been made public. PayPal, described as a financial-technology pioneer, was the target of the proposed transaction. Bloomberg's report said the people spoke on condition of anonymity because the details had not been officially disclosed. The consortium's abandoned bid would have ranked among the largest leveraged buyouts in history. No further details were disclosed in the report.

OpenAI's secret 'Project Mercury' pays ex-bankers from Goldman, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan $150/hour to train AI for financial modeling. The initiative aims to replace junior analysts' manual Excel work in IPOs, LBOs, and more, marking OpenAI's deep push into corporate workflows.

OpenAI's Project Mercury hires over 100 former Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan bankers to teach AI financial modeling, aiming to replace junior analysts' manual work and reshape Wall Street workflows, with potential crypto implications.