Friday Furnace

eXp Realty's COO Patrick O'Neill is out, with his departure disclosed in a single sentence tucked into an exhibit press release — not the body of the 8-K — on a Friday crowded with a corporate rebrand, a state redomestication, and new director indemnification agreements. No reason for the exit is given, and the filing's Item 5.02 section covers only his successor's promotion and pay raise, not the departure itself. His replacement, Wendy Forsythe, is a former HomeSmart COO and Compass regional president who will simultaneously continue running marketing through the transition — leaving the COO role at eXp Realty's core operating engine in a split-attention handoff. Whether the change reflects strategy, performance, or something else, the filing provides no basis to tell.

EAF Graftech International, Ltd. Distressed

GrafTech Opens $50M Stock Sale as Losses Deepen

At edition (May 29, 2026) $260M · Live $148M

GrafTech authorized a $50 million at-the-market stock offering through Evercore, giving the company flexibility to raise equity capital at its discretion with no obligation to sell any shares. The move comes as cash has dropped from $256 million at year-end 2024 to $120 million by March 2026, with Q1 2026 adjusted EBITDA deepening to negative $14 million and free cash flow at negative $27 million. Total liquidity still stands at $329 million and gross debt of $1.125 billion carries no meaningful maturities until December 2029, so this is not an immediate crisis — but the $50 million ceiling is notable against a market cap of roughly $260 million. The core tension is whether GrafTech's improving volumes, falling unit costs, and announced price increases can return the business to positive EBITDA before its liquidity cushion erodes further.

CRDF Cardiff Oncology, Inc. Existential License Dispute

NMS Moves to Terminate Cardiff's Sole Onvansertib License

At edition (May 29, 2026) $130M · Live $87M

Nerviano Medical Sciences issued a termination notice on May 27, 2026 for the 2017 license agreement that gives Cardiff Oncology all rights to onvansertib, alleging Cardiff breached the contract by refusing to name an NMS employee as a co-inventor on two Cardiff patents and by failing to use commercially reasonable efforts to advance the drug. Cardiff rejected the notice as legally ineffective and factually unsupported — its second formal rejection of NMS breach claims since February 2026. The termination came just eight days after Cardiff filed suit in the Southern District of California seeking injunctive relief and a declaratory judgment that no breach occurred, making that litigation the only mechanism standing between Cardiff and the loss of its sole clinical asset. With a Phase 3 trial in active planning and no other pipeline, the court's ruling will determine whether Cardiff's onvansertib program survives.

VACHU Voyager Acquisition, Corp. Distressed

Veraxa Secures $27.5M Secured Note and $50M Equity Line After Near-Total SPAC Redemptions

At edition (May 29, 2026) $304M

Veraxa Biotech emerged from its SPAC merger with just $885,000 in trust cash after near-total redemptions — less than three days of debt service under its new financing. To bridge the gap, the company simultaneously closed a $27.5 million senior secured note (purchased at a $3.4 million discount) carrying monthly amortization of $2.75 million beginning 90 days post-closing, a 20% cash sweep on future equity raises, and a first-priority lien on all assets. A parallel $50 million equity line with Lincoln Park provides additional runway but prices every draw at 97% of recent lows, guaranteeing ongoing shareholder dilution, and costs $750,000 in upfront commitment shares regardless of use. The combined facilities mean Veraxa's $1.35 billion merger valuation rests almost entirely on expensive new debt and a discount equity drip, with no filing disclosure on whether the capital is sufficient to reach meaningful clinical data.

NAVI Navient, Corp. Turnaround

Navient Completes $500 Million Note Offering at 9.375%

At edition (May 29, 2026) $805M · Live $809M

Navient raised $500 million through a public offering of 9.375% Senior Notes due 2031, locking in five years of unsecured holding-company funding at a firmly high-yield rate. The coupon sets the current market price for Navient's below-investment-grade paper and adds to an annual interest burden on a $5.3 billion unsecured debt stack already running in the hundreds of millions. The raise covers a meaningful portion of the $1.2 billion in senior unsecured notes maturing within the next 12 months—a near-term wall that more than doubled from year-end 2025—but does not eliminate it. Incoming CEO Bramson inherits a company that returned to GAAP profitability in Q1 2026 with 61% origination growth at Earnest, but one whose Phase 2 growth thesis depends on whether that momentum can outpace the compounding cost of an expensive funding channel.

PROK Prokidney, Corp.

ProKidney Cuts Phase 3 Power Assumption and Cohort Size for Third Time in Three Months

At edition (May 29, 2026) $376M · Live $417M

ProKidney has revised PROACT 1's statistical design for the third time in three months, reducing the accelerated approval analysis cohort from ~360 to ~320 patients and explicitly setting the power assumption at 80% — exactly the minimum threshold to detect the FDA's agreed floor effect size of 1.5 mL/min/1.73m². The sequential pattern across three filings (total enrollment cut in February, cohort reduction in March, further cohort reduction and power revision now) signals that the internal model for expected treatment effect has migrated toward the regulatory minimum, where any shortfall meaningfully raises the probability of a failed primary endpoint. The BLA timeline has also slipped a quarter, from Q4 2027 to Early 2028. With Q1 2026 operating cash burn at $41.7 million and a runway projected only into mid-2027 — the same window as pivotal topline data — there is no financial buffer between the readout and the end of cash, leaving the company with no margin for an ambiguous result.

CRMT Americas Carmart, Inc. Distressed

Car-Mart Forms Special Committee, Hires Houlihan Lokey for Strategic Review

At edition (May 29, 2026) $102M · Live $22M

Car-Mart's board formed a Special Committee and hired Houlihan Lokey to evaluate strategic alternatives spanning recapitalization, equity issuance, asset sales, and debt restructuring — essentially every major option available to a distressed borrower. To chair the committee, the board added a new independent director with 25 years of capital-structure advisory experience, compensated at $45,000 per month, signaling an active and urgent engagement. The backdrop is stark: a $104.9 million cumulative net loss through January 2026, total debt of $892 million, and the closure of 42 dealerships in April that shrank the operating footprint to 94 locations. A warehouse credit facility critical to funding new originations remained unsecured as of the filing, leaving the Special Committee racing to find a solution before covenant pressure on the $300 million term loan narrows the options further.

BNC CEA Industries, Inc. Contested

CEA Industries Sues Asset Manager to Escape 20-Year Contract

At edition (May 29, 2026) $125M · Live $111M

CEA Industries has sued its asset manager, 10X Capital, in federal court seeking to void a 20-year Asset Management Agreement signed in August 2025 — or, at minimum, strike a liquidated damages clause that would accelerate nearly two decades of future fees if the company terminates the contract. The AMA was executed simultaneously with a $500 million PIPE and the installation of 10X Capital principals as CEO and board members, meaning the contract was negotiated by the very counterparty it bound. A previously undisclosed side agreement between 10X and YZi Labs had further restricted any amendments to the AMA and involved fee-sharing arrangements that shareholders were not told about at signing. All three 10X-affiliated directors are now gone, and the independent board that replaced them is asking a court to undo a deal it had no hand in making.

VTIX Virtuix Holdings, Inc. Distressed

Virtuix Exchanges Secured Notes for Dilutive Streeterville Equity-Purchase Facility

At edition (May 29, 2026) $121M · Live $99M

Virtuix exchanged three secured convertible notes held by Streeterville Capital — totaling $3.47 million in original principal — for a new unsecured Pre-Paid Purchase instrument bearing 6% interest, giving Streeterville unilateral discretion to convert its credit into Class A common stock at any time. After a Trigger Event, the purchase price can reset below the Fixed Price to the prevailing market rate, creating a variable dilution mechanism that shifts pricing risk onto existing shareholders. This is the third Streeterville restructuring since February 2026; combined with a March exchange note still outstanding, Virtuix now carries over $6.1 million in Streeterville principal against roughly $1 million per quarter in revenue and $1.1 million in cash at its last reported period-end. The same filing announced a Rutgers University neurodivergent therapy research collaboration and an Air Force SBIR Phase I selection — real milestones, but neither alters the company's near-term cash position.

OTLK Outlook Therapeutics, Inc.

Outlook Raises $5M From Director-Linked Fund, Reprices 15 Million Warrants

At edition (May 29, 2026) $102M · Live $215M

Outlook Therapeutics raised $5 million by selling 8.5 million shares at $0.5855 to GMS Ventures, a fund affiliated with two sitting board members, under its existing shelf registration. As part of the deal, the company repriced 15.5 million warrants GMS already held — cutting the exercise price roughly two-thirds, from a weighted average of $1.78 down to $0.5855 — delivering a significant benefit to a related party beyond the share purchase itself. The raise is the third consecutive ~$5 million transaction in two months, and the higher per-share price reflects the FDA's May 26 ruling that ONS-5010 met the substantial evidence standard, clearing the path for a June BLA resubmission under a 60-day review clock. Despite the regulatory tailwind, cash runway remains tight against a ~$14 million quarterly burn rate, and the stock must still clear $1.00 by August 17 to satisfy Nasdaq's minimum-bid deadline.

ANAB Anaptysbio, Inc.

AnaptysBio Completes Royalty-Only Pivot With CEO, CFO on Consulting Contracts

At edition (May 29, 2026) $1.6B · Live $1.9B

AnaptysBio has restructured into a pure royalty vehicle with both its CEO and newly appointed CFO engaged as independent contractors rather than employees — an arrangement rare among public companies. The board has been stacked with royalty-management veterans, including the CFO of Royalty Pharma and the CEO of XOMA Royalty, and a fiscal year shift to June 30 creates a clean reporting cadence post-spin-off. The central risk is the GSK litigation, where AnaptysBio alleges Tesaro has structurally undermined dostarlimab's commercial return by pairing GSK's ADCs with competitor PD-1s — and is seeking a court declaration that the rights revert entirely. Against that backdrop, Jemperli posted $313 million in Q1 2026 sales with greater than 40% growth, an imsidolimab FDA decision is due December 12, 2026, and the Sagard royalty monetization liability could be fully paid down by mid-2027.

QXO QXO, Inc.

QXO Files Kodiak and TopBuild Financials, Showing Debt-Heavy Acquired Balance Sheet

At edition (May 29, 2026) $12.5B · Live $16.8B

The mysterious merger-related 8-K turns out to be procedurally routine: QXO filed the audited and unaudited financial statements of Kodiak Building Partners and TopBuild Corp., plus unaudited pro forma combined financials, as required by SEC rules in connection with the pending TopBuild acquisition registration. The filing breaks no new strategic ground. What it does provide, for the first time publicly, is a look inside Kodiak's books: the company carried roughly $1.49 billion in debt against $2.34 billion in 2025 revenue, generated a loss from continuing operations of roughly $592,000 on that revenue base (after $126 million in interest expense), and reported net income only because of a $70 million one-time gain from selling its kitchen-and-interiors division — meaning QXO absorbed a highly leveraged target whose underlying business barely covered its debt service. The pro forma combined financials incorporating all three companies were also filed as Exhibit 99.5, but were not included in the full text provided for review.