Gina Chon

The typical company earnings call is hardly primetime entertainment. Executives trot out jargon-laden statements carefully honed for their non-committal blandness, while analysts vie with each other to ask the most technical questions they can about the most recondite parts of the company’s business, all on a conference-call line that makes the speakers sound as if they’re sitting under a bathtub.

Kroger Co, the largest US grocery store chain, just got even bigger. Kroger agreed to buy its smaller rival, Harris Teeter Supermarkets, in a $2.5 billion deal. It’s the kind of classic M&A transaction that keeps the deals market humming: two companies tying up in a multi-billion-dollar strategic partnership. And it’s the kind of deal that has been a bit scarce this year.

The world’s largest online coupon marketplace by the number of visitors, RetaileMeNot, has set a $20 to $22 a share range for its upcoming IPO, according to a US government filing submitted today. It will be interesting to see how the market reacts to the company’s public offering, given the disappointing performance of another online coupons firm, Groupon.

Barring any more surprises, it looks like Michael Dell, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Microsoft will succeed in their months-long effort to take PC maker Dell private. Today, Institutional Shareholder Services, which makes recommendations to investors on shareholder proposals, supported the Dell buyout offer over a proposal from two of Dell’s largest outside shareholders, Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management.

It used to be a given that hot startups in Silicon Valley would choose the environs of Menlo Park, Mountain View or Palo Alto as their homes. They’re all quiet areas in the historical heart of the Bay Area’s tech industry located about an hour south of San Francisco. These days, more of them are deciding to establish their offices in the city of San Francisco and find ways to integrate into the community.

Reports that pressure is mounting on the Michael Dell group to increase its bid for PC maker Dell are interesting, given that the company’s shares are still trading below the offer price. Michael Dell, along with private equity firm Silver Lake and Microsoft, agreed to acquire Dell in February for $13.65 a share. Since then, there have been several counteroffers, but those haven’t wowed Dell investors, given that shares are now trading below the offer price, at around $13.31.

Japan’s biggest lender, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, isn’t letting the economic slump in its home market bring it down. The lender has been on an M&A roll the last few years, reflecting its global ambitions. Mitsubishi’s moves outside its home country partly reflect limited growth opportunities in Japan. Its latest target is Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya. Mitsubishi could buy up to a 75% stake in the company for about $5.6 billion.

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus is stepping down, to be replaced by Don Mattrick, the head of Microsoft’s Xbox division.

Despite record cash on the balance sheets of corporations, global mergers and acquisitions fell by 24% in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, according to Dealogic data. There were about 17,100 deals in the first six months of this year, the lowest level in five years.

Satellite television provider DirecTV appears to have the leading bid for video streaming service Hulu, according to sources familiar with the sale process.

Chinese mobile phone company Xiaomi Corp is getting a valuation of at least $9 billion in the private market, Quartz has learned from investors and potential investors who have assessed the company. That figure—more than double the $4 billion valuation it had a year ago in a fundraising round—makes Xiaomi one of the fastest growing Chinese startups and puts it on track to becoming one of the largest Chinese technology companies.

IPOs in the US have been on a roll this year, with companies on track to raise the most money by going public since the financial crisis. But recent market volatility, sparked partly by hints that the US Federal Reserve will wind down its quantitative easing program, is starting to take its toll.

The latest round of tech IPOs has featured multi-class stock structures that give company founders a lot of control. But big investors have become less tolerant of that setup, which disempowers other shareholders. As a result, some of those investors are now pushing back for the next round of tech IPOs, sources tell Quartz.

Satellite TV provider Dish Network lost its contentious takeover battle with Japan’s SoftBank for Sprint, but the deal-making saga still isn’t over. The question now is: What’s next for Dish?

The numbers: They were ugly. US book retailer Barnes & Noble reported a fourth quarter net loss of $2.11 per share and revenues of $1.3 billion. Both figures missed analyst estimates. The retailer’s shares were down by more than 9% in morning trading.

In July, payments startup Square will be taking an ambitious step in trying to become the go-to assistant for small businesses. The company will be launching Square Stand, which is basically a cash register with sales analytics software. The device will go for $299 and be available in stores next month.

Despite recent market volatility, the owners of luxury retailer Neiman Marcus have decided to take it public. Neiman Marcus filed for an IPO today, with Credit Suisse having the prized role of lead underwriter.

One of the largest ever Indian acquisitions of a US company just took place, and it didn’t come from a huge conglomerate like Tata Group or Reliance Group. Instead, it’s Apollo Tyres, which bought the US’s Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. for $2.5 billion. The transaction shows how even smaller, stand-alone companies from the emerging markets are making bold moves for US acquisitions.

Japan’s Softbank raised its offer to acquire Sprint on Monday in an effort to thwart a rival proposal from Dish Network. Sprint also said it ended talks with Dish because the satellite firm’s offer would not lead to a superior proposal.

Lululemon shares are taking a beating—down 13%—after the company announced CEO Christine Day is leaving the firm.

Google’s expected acquisition of Israeli maps and navigation firm Waze shows how Israeli companies are becoming popular M&A targets. Deals involving Israeli companies as sellers have hit the highest ever volume in the year to date, with $5.6 billion worth of announced deals, according to Dealogic. And that doesn’t even include the potential Google-Waze transaction, which has yet to be announced and could have a $1.1 billion price tag.

When Wal-Mart Stores does a thing, it does it big. The stock buy-back it announced at its annual meeting today is no exception, at $15 billion, hot on the heels of an earlier $15-billion repurchase plan.

Tech geeks in Silicon Valley are obviously die-hard fans of the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones. Apparently, so are finance geeks on Wall Street. Bankers, lawyers and hedge funders adore the backstabbing and score settling in the show, which echo cutthroat dealings on finance.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into whether a trader based in Thailand illegally made money off the $4.7 billion sale of US pork products company Smithfield Foods to China’s Shuanghui International. The SEC froze the assets of Badin Rungruangnavarat, who is accused of making more than $3 million through insider trading related to the deal announced last week. It’s one more sign of the SEC’s recent obsession with insider trading cases.