Hi, just leave on work now. Sorry, it's a bit loud.

Um, basically, so I was thinking we could get Macies tonight. Had a big Mac on my mind all day, and delivery fee on the app is now from 99P. So you win? Of course you are. Love you. Bye! Exclusively on the McDonald's app. 18 plus, service fee and small order fee may apply. Participating restaurants. Serving times and teas and seas apply. The views expressed on this podcast are those of the participants, not of Reuters' news.

What comes next after Kraft Hines' bid for Unilever melted away and why allegations of sexism are a big roadblock for Uber?

Those are the topics of conversation we'll be discussing this week on the Views Room.

The conversation among breaking views columnists about the ups and downs of the world of finance.

I'm your host, Jennifer Sabah, and I'm joined today by my colleague, Anthony Curry. Hello, Anthony. Hi, Jen. All right, first let's turn to the mega merger that was not to be. Kraft Heinz's $145 billion bid for Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever. If that deal were to come to pass, it would have married the Velvita Cheesemaker with the producer of Marmite.

Yum.

Yum.

So joining us to discuss the deal and all the implications of why it didn't happen is our Dallas-based Breaking Views columnist Lauren Silva Loughlin.

Welcome, Lauren.

Thank you for having me.

So let's start. I mean, Friday,

the news drops that Kraft-Tines had put out this bid for Unilever, and it's a huge deal. And quickly,

like a couple days later, Unilever basically says, no way, go away. And then the whole thing seems to be dead, at least for the moment.

Why don't you take us through a little bit of the mechanics? What happened and why it happened so

quickly? Yes, it was fascinating. And what's interesting is that, you know, people seem to be

relatively surprised that Unilever was the target. But, you know, Kraft Hz was kind of out there, and Mondalese was the one that

everyone thought they would sort of take over.

And then on Friday, you know, a bunch of the food company stocks were down.

So there was a lot of discussion about why it was Unilever.

Unilever has this big sort of home products division, and it didn't totally fit with

Kraft.

...