Nothing like coming back from a long vacation and jumping right back into action. Just a few hundred emails to sort through, a handful of overdue research projects, a couple of interviews, and a few meetings today. Let's go!

The cycle repeats all over. Yet again, the "magic" of putting together content and distribution fizzles out, failing to produce the desired results. Happened in the past, happening today, will happen again tomorrow. Billions of dollars of shareholder value wasted.

The question that I have is whether we are talking about almost $100M spent on a) terrible advice, b) good advice that was not followed, or c) McKinsey's stamp of approval on $WBD managers' own bad strategy.

It is worth studying PE deals that were early experiments with new business types and deal structures A similar success story of an experimental deal was Silver Lake's buyout of Seagate in the early 2000s, which also confirmed that the PE model can work well in high-tech space.

There is plenty of research that shows that outsourcing critical capabilities, or externalizing when transaction costs are high, leads to poor outcomes. But not all resources and capabilities are critical. I think the key here, just like with individual firms, is figuring out:

Talking to some industry contacts over the last couple weeks and it seems like there should be a significant bump in M&A activity soon.. yet, of course, this is largely anecdotal so far.

A legendary deal for Silver Lake. More importantly, Seagate buyout confirmed that the PE model could work well for tech assets. But given its size and visibility, it attracted competition. By the mid 2000s multiple PE firms were targeting similar high-tech transactions.

Probably the most unexpected M&A outcome in the last couple of years? What a wild ride.

Finally, some fun M&A developments with a potential bidding war brewing for GMS Interesting move for $HD from a corporate strategy perspective as it looks to continue its aggressive expansion into the pro segment following the $18B acquisition of SRS Distribution last year.

Home Depot's M&A activity over the last decade: Only a few big deals: -SRS in 2024 ($18B) - roofing -HD Supply repurchase in 2020 ($8.7B) - electrical, plumbing, etc. -Interline Brands in 2015 ($1.7B) - maintenance/repair for CRE Smaller deals: -IDG/Construction Resources in

Some great thoughts on the recent controversial AI study from my brilliant The Wharton School colleague and AI expert Ethan Mollick

Sometimes it feels like the entire finance industry runs on this breakfast too..

Interesting post on some potential current structural issues for the PE industry. Do GPs generally tend to agree with this assessment? I am also curious to know if this trend is similar across PE investments by size and industry, or if there is variance there.