Logo for The Closer: Deals Change the World

The Closer: Deals Change the World

Brazen

The Closer brings you the inside story of deals changing the world, as told by the people who know how it all went down. Understand the human motivations behind groundbreaking business decisions, and learn dealmaking lessons through a deep dive into one deal each week, with host Aimee Keane. The Closer is a Project Brazen production. For more thrilling storytelling, search for the Brazen channel on Apple Podcasts or visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works. From landmark business deals to international espionage and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts or at brazen.fm/plus to and get exclusive bonus episodes for The Closer and all our shows, as well as ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. For the latest from Brazen delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters at brazen.fm/newsletters.

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/

Copyright © 2024 Brazen

The Closer brings you the inside story of deals changing the world, as told by the people who know how it all went down. Understand the human motivations behind groundbreaking business decisions, and learn dealmaking lessons through a deep dive into one deal each week, with host Aimee Keane. The Closer is a Project Brazen production. For more thrilling storytelling, search for the Brazen channel on Apple Podcasts or visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works. From landmark business deals to international espionage and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts or at brazen.fm/plus to and get exclusive bonus episodes for The Closer and all our shows, as well as ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. For the latest from Brazen delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters at brazen.fm/newsletters.

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/

Copyright © 2024 Brazen
17hr 29min
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How a little-known policy wonk convinced Biden to drive down oil prices in a radical new way.
October 23, 202334min 11sec0 B
Thumbnail for "Inside Florida’s home insurance meltdown".
Why Florida’s home insurance market is in meltdown.
December 18, 202336min 49sec0 B
Thumbnail for "How Modelo became America’s #1 beer. And it’s not what you might think.".
The story of how Modelo replaced Bud Light as America’s #1 beer is about much more than a marketing u-turn.
December 11, 202332min 18sec0 B
Thumbnail for "ABC and ESPN made Disney into an entertainment powerhouse. It’s now at a crossroads.".
Disney’s acquisition of ABC/ Capital Cities kick-started its transformation to one of the largest companies in the world.
December 4, 202332min 46sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The fight to lead the world’s largest hedge fund".
Rob Copeland, author of The Fund: Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend, takes us inside the fight to succeed Ray Dalio.
November 27, 202335min 12sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Failed Deal that Led to WeWork’s Downfall".
What set WeWork on the path to bankruptcy can be traced to another failed deal called Project Fortitude.
November 20, 202340min 52sec0 B
Thumbnail for "How Occidental Petroleum beat an oil giant in a high stakes acquisition".
How Occidental Petroleum stunned the oil industry by beating out Chevron
November 13, 202336min 14sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The inside story of how Google went public".
Lise Buyer, ‘IPO Whisperer’ who helped take Google public, talks about how it all went down.
November 6, 202337min 4sec0 B
Thumbnail for "How 90s cool kid Marc Jacobs changed the fashion business".
How a LVMH deal set a new precedent in the industry and helped usher in the era of celebrity in high fashion.
October 30, 202336min 45sec0 B
Thumbnail for "How Walmart bought Jet.com and went up against Amazon".
The story of Jet.com, its founder Marc Lore, and how the startup helped retail giant Walmart sharpen its ecommerce edge against Amazon.
October 16, 202341min0 B
Thumbnail for "Introducing The Closer: Season 3".
The Closer returns with ten dramatic new stories of groundbreaking deals.
October 9, 20231min 24sec0 B
Thumbnail for "Introducing The Negotiators podcast".
There’s a new season of The Closer coming soon — but before it does, we have a special episode to share from our friends over at The Negotiators podcast.
October 2, 202331min 28sec0 B
Thumbnail for "We want to hear from you!".
A special request from Aimee and The Closer team as we gear up for a new season of the show.
September 22, 20231min 35sec0 B
Thumbnail for "S2 E6: How Vince McMahon built an entertainment empire".
Vince McMahon took over his father’s regional wrestling business in the 1980s, and made it into an international media and entertainment juggernaut valued at billions of dollars.
July 17, 202338min 35sec0 B
Thumbnail for "S2 E5: Inside The Private Equity Deal-Machine That’s Buying Apartments".
The Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, has quietly built a deal-making machine that's gobbling up apartments in desirable and gentrifying neighborhoods.
July 10, 202330min 12sec0 B
Thumbnail for "S2 E4: Airbnb's pandemic turnaround".
In early 2020, the home-sharing platform was poised to make a splashy debut on the public markets later that year.
July 3, 202336min 14sec0 B
Thumbnail for "S2 E3: PetSmart & Chewy: A private equity turnaround story".
When private equity-backed PetSmart bought Chewy.com for more than $3bn in 2017, people thought the retailer was doomed.
June 26, 202329min 12sec0 B
Thumbnail for "S2 E2: Who Killed Toys R Us?".
We take you inside the final days of Toys R Us with Lauren Hirsch, the reporter who first revealed the iconic company’s impending bankruptcy.
June 19, 202335min 33sec0 B
Thumbnail for "S2 E1: How the US Women’s Soccer Team scored their victory for equal pay".
The US Women's National Soccer Team is among the most decorated teams in the game but, until recently, was paid a fraction of what the men took home.
June 12, 202338min 48sec0 B
Thumbnail for "Introducing The Closer: Season 2".
The Closer returns this summer with six dramatic new stories of groundbreaking deals.
June 5, 20232min 33sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Closer Weekly: The Saudis and the Soccer Team".
A new kind of money is flooding into professional sports: sovereign wealth.
June 2, 202317min 41sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Closer Weekly: Discovering Max: HBO's App Gets a New Home".
HBO and Discovery are getting a new streaming home.
May 26, 202315min 57sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Closer Weekly: How AI is helping solve Japan's succession crisis".
Hundreds of thousands of Japanese companies have a problem – their founders are aging without a successor in sight.
May 19, 202315min 34sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Closer Weekly: Leaving for Las Vegas - The A’s are out of Oakland".
The Oakland A’s are one step closer to a move to Las Vegas, reaching a deal this week for a new plot of land that would house a brand new ballpark.
May 12, 202317min 37sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Closer Weekly: The shape of deals to come".
The financial press has been reporting on a big trend in dealmaking: it's way down this year, especially in comparison to the M&A activity of 2021.
May 5, 202317min 50sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Closer Weekly: Bed Bath & Beyond enters bankruptcy".
Ben and Aimee discuss Bed Bath & Beyond's collapse, diving into stock sales, failed turnarounds, share buybacks, meme stocks and yes, those iconic blue and white coupons.
April 28, 202321min 54sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Closer Weekly: A back to the future moment for Netflix".
Ben and Aimee discuss two big pieces of news from Netflix this week.
April 21, 202316min 38sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Closer Weekly: What's going on with the JetBlue and Spirit Airlines deal?".
This week, we're looking at a deal suggested by one of listeners: JetBlue's $3.8bn takeover of discount carrier Spirit Airlines.
April 14, 202318min 36sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Closer Weekly: The UFC and WWE join forces".
Two of the biggest names in fighting, WWE and Endeavor’s UFC, are coming together to form a new, publicly traded entity.
April 7, 202314min 29sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Closer Weekly: Jack Ma returns, and Alibaba breaks up".
Shares in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba jumped this week after founder Jack Ma made a rare visit to mainland China.
March 31, 202314min 40sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Closer Weekly: The Case of JP Morgan's 54 Tonnes of Fake Nickel".
JP Morgan Chase thought it owned 54 metric tonnes of highly valued nickel, stored in bags at a warehouse in Rotterdam. It turns out these bags are, instead, full of stones.
March 24, 202319min 28sec0 B
Thumbnail for "The Closer Weekly: The Collapse of Silicon Valley Bank".
Financial Times journalist Tabby Kinder breaks down Silicon Valley Bank's swift collapse and tells us what it's been like covering the story as it unfolds.
March 17, 202329min 41sec0 B
Thumbnail for "S1 E6: The Banker Who Sold David Bowie Bonds".
David Bowie: ground-breaking musician; artistic shape-shifter; style icon; and ... savvy financial player?
March 13, 202329min 31sec0 B
Thumbnail for "S1 E5: Ketchup Wars: 3G’s Takeover of Kraft and Heinz ".
What happens when an eccentric Brazilian investor gets interested in ... Ketchup?
March 6, 202339min 8sec0 B
Thumbnail for "S1 E4: How Amazon Disrupted The Drug Business With The Help of a Scrappy Startup".
What happened when Amazon came for Big Pharma?
February 27, 202333min 1sec0 B
Thumbnail for "S1 E3: The Inside Story of Facebook’s Biggest Acquisition".
WhatsApp and Facebook: not the match made in heaven you might think.
February 20, 202336min 7sec0 B
Thumbnail for "S1 E2: The Failed Deal That Doomed WeWork (no, not the one you're thinking of)".
The deal behind the failed WeWork IPO.
February 13, 202341min 53sec0 B
Thumbnail for "S1 E1: The Deal That Made The World's Biggest Airline".
The story of the rise of Sara Nelson, one of the leading figures in American labor.
February 6, 202338min 16sec0 B
Thumbnail for "Introducing The Closer".
The inside story of the deals that changed the world.
January 30, 20232min 19sec0 B

How one policy wonk convinced the Biden Administration to get into the oil trading business

Thumbnail for "How one policy wonk convinced the Biden Administration to get into the oil trading business ".
October 23, 202334min 11sec

Fearing an energy crisis following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a little-known policy wonk convinced the Biden Administration to help drive down oil prices by using the US’s government emergency supply of oil in a radical new way. Featuring Skanda Amarnath (@IrvingSwisher), Executive Director of the think tank, Employ America.

For more from The Closer and to subscribe to our newsletter, visit www.thecloser.fm.

The Closer is a Project Brazen production. Subscribe to Brazen+ on Apple Podcasts or at brazen.fm/plus and get exclusive bonus episodes for The Closer and all our shows, as well as ad-free listening and early access to new podcasts. 

For more fearless storytelling visit brazen.fm, home to all our podcasts, documentaries and newsletters. At Brazen, we show you how the world really works – from espionage and corruption to deal-making and organised crime, we’ll take you inside stories from hidden worlds.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://brazen.fm/plus/

Thumbnail for "How one policy wonk convinced the Biden Administration to get into the oil trading business ".
How one policy wonk convinced the Biden Administration to get into the oil trading business
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