Nobody Told Us This Was M&A Week

Motley Fool Hidden Gems Investing

The Motley Fool

Investing, Business

4.3 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2026

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We’re only a couple of days into the week, but we’ve already seen some large merger & acquisition deals that could shake up the consumer goods and the food distribution industry. If that weren’t enough, the healthcare industry has its own deal announcements. Plus, mailbag questions Tyler Crowe, Matt Frankel, and Lou Whiteman discuss: - Sysco’s $26 billion deal for Restaurant Depot - McCormick’s $44 billion deal for Unilever’s food division - The track record of major consumer brand mergers - Eli Lilly acquiring Centessa Pharmaceuticals - Listener question: Thoughts on Whirlpool? Companies discussed: SYY, MKC, UL, KHC, BUD, KMB, KDP, PFGC, USFD, LLY, CNTA, WHR Host: Tyler Crowe Guests: Matt Frankel, Lou Whiteman Engineer: Dan Boyd Disclosure: Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. The Motley Fool and its affiliates (collectively, “TMF”) do not endorse, recommend, or verify the accuracy or completeness of the statements made within advertisements. TMF is not involved in the offer, sale, or solicitation of any securities advertised herein and makes no representations regarding the suitability, or risks associated with any investment opportunity presented. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult with legal, tax, and financial advisors before making any investment decisions. TMF assumes no responsibility for any losses or damages arising from this advertisement. We’re committed to transparency: All personal opinions in advertisements from Fools are their own. The product advertised in this episode was loaned to TMF and was returned after a test period or the product advertised in this episode was purchased by TMF. Advertiser has paid for the sponsorship of this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It is merger mania this week.
0:07.9	This is Motley Full Money.
0:20.4	Welcome to Motley Fool Money. I'm Tyler Crow, and today I'm joined by longtime Fool contributors,
0:25.6	Matt Frankel and Lou Whiteman, with three of us being part of the Hidden Gems team here at Motley Fool.
0:30.5	As we said, there has been a lot of movement in the merger and acquisition field in the past couple of days,
0:37.0	and we're going to try to break down as many of those deals as we of days, and we're going to try to
0:37.8	break down as many of those deals as we can. Also, we're going to get to some listener questions,
0:42.3	but to start, let's go with a lot of the deals that's going on in the food industry, because we
0:47.6	had two doozies. There must have been like a lot of lawyers and investment bankers putting in
0:52.7	extra hours this past weekend because first
0:55.3	we got news on Monday that Cisco, the food distributor, not the networking hardware company,
1:00.4	was acquiring private retailer restaurant depot for $26 billion. We'll get into the details in
1:06.3	a second here. But I think that was going to be the headline deal we were going to talk about.
1:09.7	And then this morning, we had a even bigger deal where McCormick basically said, hold my beer, because
1:16.0	they decided to merge with Unilever's food division in a $44 billion deal. And what makes that
1:21.8	kind of striking is that McCormick itself is a $14 billion company. And Cisco, as doing a $26 billion deal, was a $30 billion
1:30.7	company. So these are massive transformative changes in pretty sleepy consumer brand, food
1:36.9	distribution sort of businesses. Now, personally, as I looked at the initial deals, I was a little
1:42.0	dubious. But if forced to choose, I would probably
1:44.9	say the Cisco deal looks a little bit better. But I wanted to turn to you guys and see what you
1:50.9	guys thought of both of these. I'm going to start with you, Matt. Are either of these deals
1:54.5	making Cisco or McCormick more attractive? I'd agree that the Cisco deal is the more
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Motley Fool, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Motley Fool and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.