Deal Of The Week

A quick note to our listeners.

It’s Deal of the Week’s 100th episode! And to celebrate, Don McCree, vice chairman of Citizens Financial Group, the $19 billion market cap financial services company, is in studio along with Ralph Della Ratta, CEO of Western Reserve. Citizens acquired Western Reserve, a middle market M&A advisory firm, earlier this year to boost its presence in giving advice on deals. McCree and Della Ratta tell their deal story from both sides – the courter and the courtee – to give listeners a first-hand look at how an acquisition takes place, from start to finish.  

Stitch Fix is  going public, confirming Bloomberg’s scoop from  back in March. The online delivery company collects information on customers’ style, size and price preferences and sends users five pieces of clothing for a $20 fee. And guess what? It’s profitable and has had steady revenue growth, with annual sales of $977 million in the year ending July 29. That’s what makes Stitch Fix so unusual, according to Bloomberg Gadfly columnist Shira Ovide and Bloomberg IPO reporter Alex Barinka. In an era of cash-burning, unprofitable startups that push to IPO, Stitch Fix stands out as a professionally run business, founded by CEO Katrina Lake, with a clean balance sheet.  

Accusations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein haven’t just rocked Hollywood – they’ve also led to the potential destruction of his company, Weinstein Co. The privately-held independent film and TV studio is in talks to sell itself to Colony Capital, the private equity arm of Colony NorthStar, run by billionaire Thomas Barrack. News of an immediate sale after a crisis is rare, but Weinstein Co.’s corporate governance structure and small size leave it vulnerable, says Larry Hutcher, co-founder and co-managing partner at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron. Bloomberg entertainment reporter Anousha Sakoui also tells host Alex Sherman about Weinstein Co.’s recent box-office failures and traces the company’s history, from Miramax to today. 

Uber’s a steal. Uber’s in turmoil. SoftBank wants to buy a huge stake in Uber. Benchmark, Uber's largest shareholder, wants to sell to SoftBank. Wait, Benchmark doesn't want to sell to SoftBank. There are so many questions about Uber, its valuation, and its future. Bloomberg technology reporter Eric Newcomer has been breaking news on Uber for months. He joins host Alex Sherman to explain the contradictions around Uber and the complicated deal SoftBank is attempting to pull off. 

Nine months of Donald Trump’s presidency hasn’t revealed much on his administration’s antitrust attitudes. While AT&T’s deal for Time Warner appears on pace to close this year, a Sprint and T-Mobile tie-up would serve as a true barometer for how Trump’s antitrust decision makers view competition. The administration’s take on that deal, if it’s announced later this month, could pave the way for future megadeals or chill other attempts. John Oliver railed against corporate consolidation on a recent episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight. Kevin Carty, a reporter-researcher with The Open Markets Institute, echoes Oliver’s concerns to host Alex Sherman and specifically explains why Sprint and T-Mobile shouldn’t be allowed to merge.  

T-Mobile US Inc. and Sprint Corp. could be just weeks from finally announcing a merger. It would be the largest deal of the year, but even if a deal is announced, there’s no certainty it will happen. Regulatory approval is far from assured. Veteran telecommunications analyst Craig Moffett explains why the companies want to merge now and how the government may interpret a merger. He also gives a gloomy outlook for the entire U.S. wireless industry to host Alex Sherman.

How does it feel to watch your company ripped away from you and then merged with an arch-rival in an ill-conceived deal? George Zimmer, founder of Men's Wearhouse, knows firsthand. He not so fondly reminisces about his final days at Men's Wearhouse (let's just say he finds a special place for his old board in Dante's Ninth Circle of Hell) and looks to the future with his new company Generation Tux. He even has some deal news to share! 

Australian company Amcor may be interested in adding plastics to its packaging portfolio with a deal for Bemis. Bloomberg reporters Ed Hammond and Kiel Porter broke the news that Amcor is exploring a takeover of the Wisconsin-based company. They join host Alex Sherman, back from vacation, to explain why plastics are en vogue again, 50 years after The Graduate made them famous. 

Ed Hammond talks to Bloomberg Gadfly's Brooke Sutherland and Gillian Tan about United Technologies' $30 billion takeover of Rockwell Collins and takes a look at the reasons so many deals leak before their announcements.

Paul Taubman, the legendary rainmaker and founder of PJT Partners, talks to Bloomberg's Ed Hammond about the challenges of building an investment bank, what will drive the next wave of M&A, and what it takes to advise companies on their biggest transactions. 

Guest host Ed Hammond talks to Bloomberg's Scott Deveau and Tara Lachapelle about how Sempra won out in the closely contested battle to acquire $9.45 billion Texas electricity supplier Oncor and what the deal means for Warren Buffett. 

It's the 25th anniversary of strategic communications firm Sard Verbinnen, a company that specializes in explaining the rationale for large M&A to investors and the media. George Sard and Paul Verbinnen, the firm's co-founders, have spent countless hours in board rooms right next to bankers, lawyers and executives, brainstorming potential messaging strategies for the world. They share advice for CEOs about how to prepare for a Donald Trump tweet and how to plan for the future. 

As The Bachelorette wraps up another season, a mating dance is developing in the telecommunications world. SoftBank is desperate to find a match for Sprint, the fourth-largest U.S. wireless company, of which it owns 84 percent. It has at least two potential suitors in mind: T-Mobile, the No. 3 U.S. wireless company, or Charter, the second-largest U.S. cable company. With T-Mobile, SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son would probably have to sell majority control of Sprint. Charter, on the other hand, would be a takeover target -- and would come with an enterprise value price tag of $200 billion or more. Will Sprint find a match, or will both partners turn down Son's money-losing asset? Bloomberg reporters Gerry Smith and Scott Moritz give host Alex Sherman their predictions. 

Longtime Silicon Valley lawyer Rick Climan and his team have worked on some of tech's biggest-ever deals, including Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp and Intel's takeover of Altera. His experience working with tech's largest clients led him to champion a study showing that buying power -- the relative difference in size between buyer and seller -- should be used more carefully as a tool when negotiating sale prices in deals. He talks about the results, his long career, and his recent decision to leave Weil Gotshal for Hogan Lovells. 

Scripps Networks's HGTV has become a household name (pun intended) through its popular reality programming, including Property Brothers and House Hunters. Viacom and Discovery are circling the family-owned cable programmer, which is in advanced talks to sell, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg media reporter Gerry Smith and media analyst Paul Sweeney join host Alex Sherman to discuss why a deal is overdue for all three companies. 

For U.S. IPOs, 2017 has been the year of the flop. Blue Apron has tanked since it started trading last month. Shares of Snap fetch less than $15, the lowest since its debut in March. And the Bloomberg U.S. IPO index has risen just 1.5 percent this year, underperforming the S&P 500's 10 percent gain. What's going on? Bloomberg IPO reporter Alex Barinka joins host Alex Sherman to explain the lackluster performance of Blue Apron and Snap, and how MuleSoft and Canada Goose have avoided the same fate. 

Culture seems like a soft, intangible byproduct of mergers and acquisitions. Synergies. Tax efficiencies. Accretion. Those are empirical. That's what drives Wall Street and gives jobs to investment bankers and lawyers. But culture matters to employees, much more than financial engineering. When Trello co-founder Michael Pryor had to decide to sell his enterprise software company to Atlassian earlier this year, his decision centered around cultural fit. Atlassian president Jay Simons and Pryor recount to host Alex Sherman the ways they were convinced an acquisition was right for both companies. 

A trifecta of deal news late last week brings Bloomberg M&A reporter Ed Hammond into the studio. He expresses admiration over the price Staples was able to get -- $6.9 billion -- from Sycamore Partners and optimism about Fox's chances to get its Sky acquisition approved. But the news isn't as rosy for Rite Aid and a smaller drugstore company called Fred's.

TPG's latest $450 million investment values Vice Media at a whopping $5.7 billion. That's about double the size of the New York Times. One explanation: Vice's access to millennials, according to Bloomberg media reporter Gerry Smith and Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Paul Sweeney. Still, it's hard to make the numbers add up without taking a giant leap of faith. Gerry and Paul discuss with host Alex Sherman.