Deal of the Week

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.

"The Everything Store" no longer comes close to describing the totality of Amazon. The company's web services drive enterprise cloud computing. Its video and music services compete with the nation's top media companies. Now Amazon is spending $13.7 billion to own Whole Foods. What won't this company do? And why do shareholders seemingly cheer every move? Bloomberg Gadfly columnists Shira Ovide and Shelly Banjo try to get their hands around all that is Amazon and explain what motivated founder and CEO Jeff Bezos's biggest acquisition bet ever.

Sirius XM has explored an acquisition of Pandora for at least two years. Last year, Sirius floated a $15-per-share offer for Pandora. More recently, the CEO of Liberty Media, Sirius's majority shareholder, said it would buy Pandora for $10 per share. CNBC reported Sirius's final acquisition offer valued Pandora at $8. After all the negotiation, Pandora reached a deal to sell about 20 percent of the business to Sirius for $480 million, valuing the company around $2.4 billion, or just under $10 per share. Plus, Sirius's investment comes with a 6 percent dividend on its preferred shares. Bloomberg entertainment reporter Lucas Shaw tells host Alex Sherman that evidence indicates Sirius got the better of Pandora in its deal negotiations.

Is Blue Apron a technology company or a grocery delivery service? How investors answer that question will go a long way toward setting a valuation for the venture capital-backed startup that's gearing up to go public. Blue Apron filed its S-1 last week, a proverbial box of goodies (not food) for potential shareholders. Bloomberg reporter Alex Barinka explains Blue Apron's growth story, its considerable challenges, and its plan to become a multibillion dollar public company to host Alex Sherman.

Most mergers and acquisitions don't involve nationalistic pride and potential government intervention. Toshiba's potential sale of its memory-chip business is different. Bloomberg's Ian King explains why Toshiba's struggles embody Japan's technological downfall, and how that could affect which company or private equity firm ultimately buys its crown jewel. He also explains why SoftBank is interested in owning a stake in Nvidia, following up on his scoops from last week.

Aaron Kirchfeld, Bloomberg's global M&A executive editor, joins Ed Hammond, filling in for host Alex Sherman, to discuss the recent surge in deals between U.S. and European companies, and the different approaches governments take to acquirers coming from overseas.

It was once a scent-filled mecca of teenage coolness. Now, Abercrombie & Fitch stores are, well, that's part of the problem. It's not exactly clear what Abercrombie & Fitch's future is, according to Bloomberg apparel reporter Lindsey Rupp, co-host of the Material World podcast. She joins host Alex Sherman to explain why Abercrombie's stores always smelled of that strange perfume and why apparel mergers and acquisitions have been difficult to consummate.

Just weeks ago, Straight Path Communications was an obscure telecommunications company with a $400 million market capitalization. Today, it has a equity valuation of about $3 billion, and it's only climbing higher. What happened? A bidding war between AT&T and Verizon, according to people familiar with the matter. Bloomberg Gadfly columnist Tara Lachapelle and Bloomberg wireless reporter Scott Moritz explain why Verizon is forcing AT&T to pay top dollar for a little-known owner of wireless licenses and airwaves.