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.

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.

16hr 7min

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, 202330min 1sec

Thumbnail for "Inside Florida’s home insurance meltdown".

Why Florida’s home insurance market is in meltdown.

December 18, 202334min 4sec

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, 202329min 33sec

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, 202332min 27sec

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, 202338min 6sec

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, 202333min 29sec

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, 202334min 16sec

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, 202334min

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

How a little-known policy wonk convinced Biden to drive down oil prices in a radical new way.

October 23, 202333min 26sec

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, 202338min 15sec

Thumbnail for "Introducing The Closer: Season 3".

The Closer returns with ten dramatic new stories of groundbreaking deals.

October 9, 202339sec

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, 202330min 43sec

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, 202350sec

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, 202335min 50sec

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, 202327min 27sec

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, 202333min 29sec

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, 202326min 27sec

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, 202332min 48sec

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, 202336min 3sec

Thumbnail for "Introducing The Closer: Season 2".

The Closer returns this summer with six dramatic new stories of groundbreaking deals.

June 5, 20231min 48sec

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, 202315min 57sec

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 10sec

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, 202313min 45sec

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, 202315min 52sec

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, 202316min 5sec

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, 202320min 9sec

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, 202314min 53sec

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, 202316min 50sec

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, 202312min 44sec

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, 202312min 55sec

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, 202317min 43sec

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, 202327min 53sec

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, 202326min 46sec

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, 202336min 23sec

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, 202330min 16sec

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, 202333min 22sec

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, 202339min 4sec

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, 202335min 31sec

The inside story of the deals that changed the world.

January 30, 20231min 34sec

ABC and ESPN made Disney into an entertainment powerhouse. It’s now at a crossroads.

December 4, 202330min 1sec

The Disney we know today came about in a series of game-changing deals led by CEO Bob Iger. But before the entertainment juggernaut bought properties like Pixar and Marvel, Disney, and former CEO Michael Eisner, inked an $19 billion deal for Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. The acquisition kick-started Disney’s transformation from a theme park and animated film business to one of the largest companies in the world. In this episode, media journalist Anna Nicolaou tells us why Iger is now faced with potentially having to sell some of the very assets that fueled his growth spree.

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.