What's The Big Deal?
Get the view from the inside. Every week, Graham Smith (ex-Ares) and Deborah Taylor (ex-Barclays) take a look at Wall Street’s headline-grabbing deals.
From mega-mergers and hostile takeovers to complex private credit transactions, they break down the why, the how, and the who behind the numbers.
What's The Big Deal?
Latest Episodes
Investment Banking: Claude Fable 5 Just One-Shotted a Bulge Bracket-Grade DCF
Six weeks ago, Debs and Graham asked Claude Opus to build a DCF.The result got a B-minus from Graham and a C from Debs. Missed calculations, questionable assumptions, no clear reasoning on why it was cutting corners. This wee...
Private Equity Faces a 9-Year Backlog. Here's Why.
US private equity firms now face a 9-year backlog of unsold portfolio companies at the current pace, according to new PwC and PitchBook analysis. Roughly 13,500 companies sit in PE portfolios as of June 30, with nearly 4,000 held for 6+ years a...
Global M&A Just Hit a RECORD $2.8 TRILLION. Here's What's Driving It.
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...
Private Equity vs. Private Credit Explained in 15 Minutes
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 si...
EX-BANKERS EXPLAIN: Investment Banking Mistakes To AVOID In Your First Year
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 advi...