In Mergercast 60, John Boxall, Deals Director at Strategy&, PwC's strategy consulting business; Lori Bistis, Deals Director at PwC and ‎Paul Kennedy, Deals Partner at PwC, discuss megadeals, in the entertainment, media and communications sector; the challenges to remaining competitive, the types of deals that are prevalent, and key elements of successful integration.

In Mergercast 59, Dr. Roman Friedrich, a Managing Director with Strategy& Germany, based in Dusseldorf, and Rolf Meakin, Partner with Strategy& UK, based in London, discuss the risks of a business-as-usual approach for telecoms, and the need to digitize, simplify and consolidate, if they wish to remain relevant.

In Mergercast 58, principals with PwC US Tom Hansson and Abhijeet Shekdar discuss the growth challenges large, well-established food and beverage companies are facing today and how to address them against a backdrop of changing consumer tastes, impatient capital markets, high cost structures and anemic top-line growth.

In Mergercast 57 Arjun Saxena and Doug Stotz, principals with PwC US, discuss a potentially game-changing dynamic: why the bank sector needs $600 billion worth of M&A. The authors look at market forces transforming the sector, the unique challenge for smaller banks, and deal implications of new regulation.

In Mergercast 55 principals with PwC US J. Neely and Paul Leinwand, who is a co-author of Strategy That Works, discuss how winning companies close the elusive strategy-to-execution gap, and how these relate to choices about M&A.

In Mergercast 56 J.Neely, a principal with PwC US and Joerg Krings, a partner with PwC Strategy& based in Munich, discuss the growing rationale for digital deal making, why, and the M&A challenges when these companies get together.

In this two-part Mergercast series Thomas Flaherty, a principal with PwC US, discusses a popular method of value creation - divestitures. Part 1 discusses why carve-outs are growing in popularity, competitive considerations a company should address before conducting a divestiture, and how best a company can create addition by subtraction. Part 2 addresses the tricky business of execution.

Part 2 of this Mergercast series on divestitures addresses the tricky business of execution. Tom Flaherty, a principal with PwC's Strategy&, discusses common mistakes made during the actual separation, planning for the unexpected, and what considerations are needed for the entity left behind to continue successfully. Part 1 discusses why carve-outs are growing in popularity.

Leading practitioners of Strategy&, PwC's strategy consulting business, and principals with PwC US, Randy Starr and Hunter Hohlt discuss how in recent years companies across all sectors have been the target of activist investors. Citing examples in the Aerospace and Defense industry, they outline some of the business strategies employed by companies that make them particularly vulnerable, and tactics they can employ to decrease their attractiveness to activists.

In episode 52 of Strategy&'s Mergercast, Larry Jones and Joe Duerr, leading practitioners in the strategic value consulting group of the PwC U.S. deals practice, discuss how companies can best utilize their most potent weapon against shareholder activists: insider knowledge.

In episode 51 of Mergercast, principals with PwC US J Neely and John Jullens discuss the insights from Strategy&'s study "Deals That Win". Focused on the role of capabilities in M&A, the study reveals that achieving a capabilities fit in deals matters more than ever. In fact, deals that leveraged the buyer's key capabilities, or helped it acquire new ones, produced significantly better shareholder returns than the market, or deals with other rationales in mind.