Mergers and Acquisitions

The U.S. Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that would increase fees that companies planning the biggest mergers pay to government antitrust agencies and give those agencies bigger budgets.

Staples said on Friday it had offered to buy Office Depot owner ODP Corp's consumer business for $1 billion, the latest effort by the office supplies retailer to acquire its rival's assets.

Etsy Inc. said on Wednesday it would buy Generation-Z focused fashion resale company Depop for $1.63 billion, seeking to attract younger shoppers and bolster its position in a booming market in vintage or used clothing.

Anoka, Minnesota-based Vista Outdoor is acquiring the hunting athletic-wear brand, Venor, which focuses on clothing for women; will also take ownership of electric bike company QuietKat, which designs and manufactures e-bikes meant for outdoor sports, such as camping, hunting and fishing.

Amazon's purchase of MGM is the company's second-largest acquisition after Whole Foods.

U.S. equity markets rose Monday, putting the major averages on track for their first weekly advance in three.

Oil and gas producers Cabot Oil & Gas Corp and Cimarex Energy Co said on Monday they would combine to form a company with an enterprise value of about $17 billion, the latest in a sector rebounding from one of its worst downturns.

Sumit Rajpal, former co-head of the merchant bank of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is launching a new private-equity firm targeting companies that are sitting on valuable troves of data that can be used more effectively to spur growth.

A deal to sell the newspapers of Tribune Publishing has been approved by the company's shareholders.

Kansas City Southern is expected to ditch its merger agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. in favor of a competing proposal from Canadian National Railway Co. according to people familiar with the matter, a dramatic turn with big implications for the shape of the U.S. rail industry.

While one source close to the situation cautioned that it’s too early to speculate and no decisions have been made, another noted that Mayer is friendly with a number of Discovery and WarnerMedia insiders, including Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav.

The deal, which isn't slated to close until next year, will create a new publicly traded company that will enter a streaming arena that has been flooded in the past two years with new players including those owned by AT&T and Discovery, which operate HBO Max and Discovery+, respectively.

The annual Pebble Beach golf tournament had an unwitting part in the year's biggest media merger

In what could easily be the year’s biggest media deal, AT&T announced it will spin off its WarnerMedia assets and combine them with Discovery in a blockbuster $43 billion tie-up that’s shaking up the entertainment industry and already there are winners and losers

Amazon is in talks to purchase film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.