KPMG Australia's CEO Andrew Yates and audit head Julian McPherson both resigned on Friday after the firm admitted its whistleblower probes lacked "necessary rigour." Confidential data from Lendlease, Optus, Macquarie and Westpac was allegedly misused to win audit pitches. ASIC is investigating, and partners are bracing for client defections. Exhibit A: Lendlease is now weighing ending its 68-year relationship with the firm: AFR

⚖️ Competition: The ACCC has opened a preliminary investigation into Uber Eats over exclusive deals with Bunnings, Hungry Jack's and Guzman y Gomez. The probe followed a complaint from Mitre 10, which claimed its own delivery pilot was axed after Uber Eats locked in an exclusive arrangement with Bunnings. Exclusive deals only breach competition law if they substantially lessen competition, which is always fact-specific. With Menulog's exit last year boosting Uber Eats to around 4.5m active users and DoorDash holding under 5% of the market, the dominance argument looks increasingly hard to dismiss: The Australian

⚖️ Tax: The High Court will soon decide whether a bitcoin holding is "property" under Australian common law in Poulton v Conrad, and the ATO has intervened to protect its position. The Commissioner's intervention targets the property characterisation question, but the stakes are enormous — the ATO has spent 12 years administering bitcoin as a CGT asset on the basis it's property. A finding to the contrary would gut its ability to tax crypto dealings entirely. The Commissioner argues bitcoin satisfies the Ainsworth test, which asks whether a right is definable, identifiable, transferable and stable. Unlike mere information, which can be copied and shared without loss, bitcoin can only be spent once, because the blockchain's mechanisms ensure a transfer extinguishes the sender's holding entirely, making it like physical property: Piper Alderman

⚖️ M&A: IFM's takeover bid for Atlas Arteria came with 10 pages of conditions, and Atlas Arteria is already flagging three that it says won't be satisfied. Shareholders are less likely to accept where satisfaction is doubtful, and the Takeovers Panel may find that relying on an unsatisfied condition creates "unacceptable circumstances" (eg, NGM Resources). If the conditions mean the bid doesn't give shareholders a "genuine opportunity" to sell, Atlas Arteria may escape the frustrating action policy, which ordinarily stops a target board from pursuing major strategic moves without shareholder approval while a bid is live: HSF Kramer

One Nation has officially overtaken Labor on the primary vote for the first time, 31% to 28%. The federal budget managed to alienate both investors and young voters — only 23% of voters think it will be good for the country. Pauline Hanson is now the most popular federal leader, closing in on Albo as preferred PM, 25% to 31%, and is openly floating a move to the lower house: AFR

Australia's data centre investment pipeline is worth upwards of $155bn, and economists are openly comparing it to the mining boom. Westpac says combined with renewables you're looking at close to 12% of GDP in investment. Though Allens warns that without a national fast-track approvals system, developers will take their money to more cooperative jurisdictions: Capital Brief

🤖 Anthropic has confidentially filed a draft S-1 with the SEC, kicking off what's shaping up as a three-way IPO race with OpenAI and SpaceX. The filing comes days after closing a US$65bn raise at a US$965bn post-money valuation, nudging past OpenAI for the first time: Capital Brief

🛣️ IFM Investors is calling out independent expert Kroll's valuation of takeover target Atlas Arteria, labelling it "unbalanced" with "unreasonable assumptions" after Kroll pegged the toll road group at $7.8bn–$9bn, over $1bn above IFM's $6.9bn offer. Allens acts for IFM and Mallesons for Atlas: AFR

💻 Toronto-listed Topicus.com subsidiary TSS has lobbed a $2/share scheme bid for ASX-listed HR software play ReadyTech, valuing it at up to $247m. That's a 49% premium to last close, after TSS bumped from an initial $1.75 off-market offer. Rothschild and Allens for TSS and Jefferies advising the target board: AFR