Topics Covered

• Bloomberg's own fascinating "history & facts" and origins following the acquisition of storied Wall Street firm Salomon Brothers 
• Bloomberg's core as a highly profitable technology business (selling terminals to Wall Street firms), with a large media empire built on top of it
• The tradable value of breaking M&A news & information to Bloomberg's terminal customers, and competing on speed
• How "sources" work — and industry standard that sources be directly within the companies involved in a deal
• The coded language of M&A reporting and gleaning where information is coming from based on a story's structure and phrasing
• The lifecycle of a story—steps from sourcing to writing to release, and reasons (or lack thereof) for why stories run when they do
• Internal & external PR resources companies use for M&A 
• How Alex prioritizes his time researching and creating stories, and who he's meeting with to hear about what deals are in the works 
• The difference between ‚Äònews' and ‚Äòanalysis', and why news dominates the majority of stories versus deeper analysis
• Media and social media business models, their evolution in the messenger world, and speculation on Twitter's future
• How entrepreneurs can think about interacting with the press and building relationships with the right reporters for their stage and space
• Apple's ‚Äòunique' approach to press relations 

Follow-ups

• Instagram announces 500k+ active advertisers, up from 200k in February 2016
• Amazon stock price surpasses $800/share

Hot Takes

• Ford acquires Chariot 
• The Yahoo! data breach and potential impact on their acquisition by Verizon

Carve Outs

• Ben: Phil of Drones' Burning Man 2016 recap video
• David: Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths 
• Alex: Clinton's Samantha Bee Problem, by Ross Douthat in the NYT Opinion Pages