If the U.S. wireless market were a John Hughes ’80s movie, Verizon would be Jake from Sixteen Candles — rich, expensive car, gets what he wants; AT&T would be Andrew from The Breakfast Club — dumb but popular, brutish, secretly just wanting to be loved; T-Mobile would be Duckie from Pretty In Pink — pugnacious, a flashy dresser, occasionally adorably profane; while Sprint would be Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — always seemingly on the verge of failure, barely tolerated, has parents with a lot of money. And now those rich parents think that teaming up their awkward son with plucky T-Mobile will help them both take on the bigger, more handsome competitors. [More]
mergers and acquisitions
Should Comcast Merge With Charter Or Verizon? Analyst Says Yes
By 4.21.17
In much the way that fans of celebrities enjoy chatting about how great two stars would be together, financial analysts daydream about multibillion-dollar corporate weddings. The current pro-business, anti-regulation mindset in D.C. is only fueling those romantic merger fantasies, with one high-profile analyst claiming that now is the perfect time for Comcast to gets its acquisition on. [More]
Petsmart Adopts Pet Supplies Site Chewy.com
By 4.18.17
Big-box pet supply store PetSmart is expanding its presence in your pet’s life and in its food dish, acquiring the popular online pet supplies vendor Chewy.com. [More]
Bass Pro Shops Is Still Buying Cabela’s, But For Less Money
By 4.18.17
Since the $5.5 billion deal where Bass Pro Shops agreed to acquire Cabela’s was announced last October, a few things related to the deal have changed. Now the companies have announced that the deal is going forward, but at a price cut of $4 per share of Cabela’s, and the addition of a middleman in the sale of its credit card operations to Capital One. [More]
Amazon Reportedly Exploring Purchase Of BJ’s Wholesale
By 4.17.17
After decades of being the face of online-only retail, Amazon is increasingly inching into the bricks-and-mortar world: pop-up stores; planned supermarkets without checkouts; a reported interest in buying Whole Foods — and now the possible acquisition of BJ’s Wholesale Club. [More]
Amazon Was Thinking About Buying Whole Foods: No, Really.
By 4.12.17
What do you get when you combine a flailing health food chain and an e-commerce giant that’s desperate to get into the grocery business? We could have found out, since Amazon was reportedly thinking about buying Whole Foods. [More]
LeEco And Vizio Call Off Acquisition, Blame “Regulatory Headwinds”
By 4.10.17
Last year, the Chinese electronics company LeEco announced plans to acquire the popular television brand Vizio for around $2 billion. Today, the two companies said they’re calling the merger off, blaming “regulatory headwinds.” [More]
Panera Sold To Owner Of Krispy Kreme, Peet’s & Caribou For $7.5 Billion
By 4.5.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
FCC: Charter No Longer Required To Provide Competing Service For 1 Million People
By 4.3.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
When the FCC approved the three-way merger of Charter, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House, it did so under the condition that Charter would have to bring broadband competition to 1 million people in markets where consumers only have one choice. Today, the FCC voted to scrap that requirement, instead asking Charter to build its network elsewhere. [More]
Walgreens & Rite Aid Willing To Unload More Stores On Fred’s To Make Merger Happen
By 3.14.17
Walgreens and Rite Aid want to merge and become the largest pharmacy chain in the country, and the Federal Trade Commission is the main obstacle in their path. That’s why Walgreens, the much larger partner in this merger, is preparing a new proposal for the regulators, which would include selling off more stores to what’s now a small regional chain. [More]
Volkswagen Not Yet Saying No To Idea Of Chrysler Merger
By 3.14.17
While poor Fiat Chrysler is busy hopelessly playing the Duckie to General Motors’ Andie Walsh (What — you’re not Pretty In Pink fans? Monsters), there might be another potential prom date in FCA’s future: Volkswagen. [More]
Sprint Reportedly Talking To White House About Possible Merger With Comcast Or T-Mobile
By 3.6.17
In recent weeks, President Trump has repeatedly mentioned promised investments and jobs from Sprint and its parent company Softbank. Now the wireless provider is reportedly hoping to eventually turn that goodwill — and the Trump administration’s light-touch approach to regulation — into a mega merger, possibly with T-Mobile, Comcast, or others. [More]
Yelp Buys Restaurant Waitlist Tech Company Nowait For $40M
By 3.1.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Yelp is trying to change the way users visit restaurants — or the way in which they wait for a table with the $40 million purchase of Nowait, a startup that uses technology to streamline the seating process at restaurants around the country. [More]
FCC Chair Ajit Pai Has No Plans To Review AT&T/Time Warner Merger
By 2.27.17
In recent years, the FCC played a key part in blocking the mergers of AT&T and T-Mobile, and Comcast and Time Warner Cable, while also using its regulatory leverage to place pro-consumer conditions on the mergers it did approve — like getting Charter to agree to not use data caps for seven years. However, the FCC will apparently give AT&T its wish and not even chime in on the pending merger of AT&T and Time Warner. [More]
AT&T: It’s Fine For Us To Buy Time Warner Because We’re Too Small To Hurt Competition
By 2.22.17
AT&T’s plan to buy Time Warner — the parent company of several cable networks, not the cable company that Charter snapped up last year — was greeted with a surprising amount of skepticism right from the start. Even though AT&T is sidestepping a lot of regulatory scrutiny by not seeking FCC approval of the merger, lawmakers have continued to ask why this merger would benefit anyone other than the shareholders of these companies. AT&T’s response: Competition or prices won’t be affected because we’re such a small-time player in the pay-TV business, and Time Warner’s viewership numbers are low. [More]
Verizon Revises Deal To Buy Yahoo At $350M Discount
By 2.21.17
If you found out after you got engaged that your soon-to-be better half had done something that made you question the impending union, what would you do — Cancel the wedding? Move the reception from the country club to your cousin’s backyard? If you’re Verizon and your betrothed is the data-breached Yahoo, you ask for a $350 million discount. [More]
Kraft Heinz Trying To Buy Unilever, Bring Your Ketchup And Mayo Under One Roof
By 2.17.17
Once upon a time, there was Kraft, home to blue-boxed mac-and-cheese and several other grocery store favorites. Then there was Kraft Heinz, bringing your ketchup and other condiments together with your cookies and cheese. And now, if Kraft Heinz gets its way, they might be joined by European mega-conglomerate Unilever, tying half your grocery store together under one big corporate umbrella. [More]
