What's The Big Deal?

Episodios

• Global M&A Just Hit a RECORD $2.8 TRILLION. Here's What's Driving It. 02.07.2026 23m

  Global M&A hit a record $2.83 trillion in H1 2026, the highest total since records began, eclipsing the 2021 peak of $2.74 trillion. Deal values in Q2 alone were up 41% year-on-year, deal count up around 10%, mega deals continue to dominate, and small-cap and venture activity is up 200%. But the picture underneath the headline numbers is more complicated, and both think the drivers behind the surge may not last into 2027. In this episode, Debs and Graham work through Bain's mi...
• Private Equity vs. Private Credit Explained in 15 Minutes 25.06.2026 14m

  Two of the biggest growth areas in finance over the last decade, but the differences between private equity and private credit are often misunderstood, especially by candidates trying to decide between them. In this episode, Debs sits down with Graham, who spent a decade at Ares Management for a Q&A-style explainer that breaks down what each actually is and how the day-to-day differs. Graham starts with the fundamental distinction: private equity invests in companies that don't trad...
• EX-BANKERS EXPLAIN: Investment Banking Mistakes To AVOID In Your First Year 18.06.2026 30m

  It's summer training season. Both Debs and Graham are spending their days running analyst and associate programmes at major firms, which makes this the right moment to step back from the deal-of-the-week format and share the kind of candid advice they wish someone had given them on day one. Graham opens with his own first-year story at Lehman Brothers in 2005, including the pitch book error that earned him an hour-long dressing-down from a VP, and uses it as the entry point to a broader conve...
• The $1.75 Trillion SpaceX IPO: Everything You Need to Know. 11.06.2026 35m

  SpaceX begins trading on Friday at a $1.75 trillion valuation, and the deal looks unlike any major IPO that has come before it. In this episode, Debs and Graham go inside the prospectus, break down the unusual structural features Elon Musk has pushed through, and debate whether the valuation can be justified. The mechanics alone are remarkable. The IPO is being priced at a fixed $135 per share rather than through a traditional book-build range, putting all of the price risk onto buyers ...
• Will the $4 Trillion AI IPO Wave Break the Market? SpaceX, OpenAI & Anthropic 04.06.2026 28m

  Three mega IPOs are heading to market: SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic. Between them they could push the largest tech names to nearly half of the S&P 500, at valuations that have drawn obvious comparisons to the dotcom era. In this episode, Debs and Graham debate whether those comparisons hold, and where they break down. They start with the triggers: extreme index concentration, the scale of the valuations being floated, and the structural role of index funds that are obliged to buy these co...
• Can Claude Replace Investment Bankers? We Graded the Output. 28.05.2026 24m

  How good is AI at building a DCF? In this episode, Debs and Graham continue their Claude for Excel series, this time prompting the tool to construct a full discounted cash flow valuation for Lululemon from a single instruction. The goal is to test what AI can and cannot do in real valuation workflows, and what that means for analysts working in equity research, investment banking and M&A. Graham walks through DCF fundamentals from first principles, covering future cash flow pr...
• Claude for Finance: Building a Live Merger Model with AI 21.05.2026 49m

  How good is AI at building investment banking models? In this episode, Debs and Graham put Claude for Excel to the test by prompting it to construct a full merger model from scratch, using GameStop's $56 billion bid for eBay as the live case study, but with the focus squarely on the AI workflow rather than the deal itself. Graham walks through the merger model framework from first principles before opening Claude for Excel and giving it a single instruction: build me a merger model for ...
• Nvidia Under Pressure: Is the AI Chip Monopoly Finally Cracking? 14.05.2026 37m

  Every AI product you use runs on semiconductors. And for the last several years, the narrative has been almost entirely about Nvidia. But Q1 2025 results are painting a more nuanced picture and for the first time, the question of whether Nvidia's dominance is structural or temporary feels like a live debate rather than a hypothetical. In this episode, Debs and Graham go inside the semiconductor industry from first principles, mapping out who does what across the AI chip ecosystem before...
• How AI Data Centres Are Funded — And What Happens When the Money Stops 07.05.2026 27m

  OpenAI has missed a revenue target in the run-up to what is expected to be one of the largest IPOs in history. Sam Altman and the company's CFO have been publicly at odds. And behind all of this sits close to $700 billion of committed CapEx across the major hyperscalers, much of it financed through project finance structures that were built on the assumption of hyper-aggressive AI revenue growth. In this episode, Debs and Graham use the OpenAI revenue miss as a lens to examine how AI in...
• Private Equity: Leveraged Buyouts Explained (How to Analyze Deals Like a Pro) 30.04.2026 1h 2m

  This week Graham and Debs try something different. Rather than dissecting a single deal, they go back to basics with one of the most important concepts in finance — the leveraged buyout — and build up from first principles using two of the biggest real-world examples in the market right now: the $18B acquisition of Hologic and the $55B acquisition of Electronic Arts. Graham walks through the core LBO framework using an accessible house purchase analogy, explaining how leverage turns a 1...
• How Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan & Morgan Stanley Make Billions (Explained) 23.04.2026 34m

  Q1 2026 delivered one of the strongest quarters on record for the major investment banks and in this episode, Debs and Graham break down exactly what drove it. Starting with the headline numbers at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley - nearly $90 billion in combined revenue, up 12% year on year. They unpack why this quarter was unusual: all three core revenue engines fired simultaneously, something that rarely happens. The conversation moves through each division in turn.&n...
• OpenAI vs. Anthropic Explained: Business Models, Valuations & IPO Breakdown 16.04.2026 39m

  ChatGPT vs. Claude. Consumer vs. enterprise. Own your infrastructure vs. lease it. On the surface, OpenAI and Anthropic look like the same business. Look closer and the differences are significant and they matter enormously for investors. In this episode of WTBD, Debs and Graham go under the hood of the two most talked-about AI companies in the world, breaking down what their business models actually look like, how their revenues compare, what recent fundraising rounds...
• Q1 2026: A Record-Breaking M&A Quarter — Inside the Unilever $45BN Deal 09.04.2026 28m

  Q1 2026 just delivered the most mega-deals in a single quarter, ever! But not every deal in this bumper period is one to celebrate. This week Deborah and Graham break down what's driving the surge in $10BN+ transactions, then go deep on one of the quarter's most talked-about deals: Unilever selling its food business, including Marmite and Hellmann's, to McCormick for $45 billion. On the surface it looks like a bold strategic pivot. But when you crunch the numbers, the picture ...
• SpaceX to File for Biggest IPO of All-Time ($1.75 Trillion Valuation) 26.03.2026 38m

  Elon Musk's SpaceX is reportedly preparing to file its U.S. IPO prospectus as early as this week, targeting a public listing this June. According to new reports from the Information, advisors now predict the company could try to raise a record-breaking $75 billion, far above the $50 billion previously touted. This would more than double the previous $29 billion record set by Saudi Aramco in 2019. To put this figure into perspective, this single listing would surpass the total proceeds rais...
• Will AI Replace Wall Street Investment Banking Jobs? 19.03.2026 48m

  Welcome to the fourth episode of the 'What's the Big Deal?' (WTBD) podcast powered by Wall Street Prep. AI is advancing at an exponential pace. Tools like Claude, ChatGPT, CoPilot and Shortcut are fundamentally reshaping workflows and what it means to be an investment banking analyst. But where are we right now? And where are we heading? In this special episode of the podcast Wall Street Prep Founder & CEO Matan Feldman and Graham Smith discuss the current state of play and if analyst job...
• The Truth Behind Paramount's $110 Billion Battle for Warner Bros. Discovery (Winners & Losers) 05.03.2026 36m

  Welcome to the second episode of the 'What's the Big Deal?' (WTBD) podcast powered by Wall Street Prep. In this episode, Wall-Street Experts Deborah Taylor, (former Director at Barclays) and Graham Smith (former Director at Ares) dive deep into Paramount's $110B acquisition of WBD. They discuss why Netflix's $27.75 bid wasn't actually "cheaper" than the Skydance $31 offer once you account for the complex spin-off mechanics of the linear TV business. They explore the "circular" valuat...