EP 30 | Meme Stock M&A, Del Monte’s Peaches & Supreme Court Fight Club

Some weeks the news is weird. This week it is weird, litigious, and somehow involves 420,000 uprooted peach trees. Jason Sanjana & Kevin Eckhardt open with Ryan Cohen's unsolicited, non binding offer to acquire eBay for $125 a share in a cash and stock deal (04:16), a bid that valued the target at roughly $56 billion from a company with a $12 billion market cap. Cohen showed up on Squawk Box in a leather jacket (05:33), could not explain the math to Andrew Ross Sorkin, and watched the stock drop 10% in real time. Michael Burry sold his entire position the next day. eBay called the bid "neither credible nor attractive." The hosts disagree on whether Cohen is a visionary or a chaos agent, and the debate is genuinely good. From there (14:30), the conversation moves to Del Monte Foods, a 130 plus year old company that filed Chapter 11 in July 2025 after an aggressive LME bought the company nine months. Asset sales closed in March 2026, with Fresh Del Monte, Pacific Coast Producers, and B&G Foods splitting the business for roughly $499 million combined. Judge Michael Kaplan's ruling on non pro rata DIP roll ups is the legal crux, and Kevin's conflicted feelings about it are some of the best radio on this episode. Also, 420,000 peach trees are being ripped out of California orchards. Producer Tanya called it a crisis, and she is not wrong. The episode closes with the debut of the Clout Audit Tribunal (24:08), Neal Katyal's TED Talk, Harvey AI, and the Supreme Court bar's collective meltdown over a Burning Man photo (31:16), before landing on Your Friends and Neighbors Season 2 (38:42), Jon Hamm, James Marsden's Owen Ashe, a deer shot dead on a beach, and the show's running thesis that rich people behaving badly in expensive houses is one of TV's most reliable pleasures. ----more---- Hosted by Jason Sanjana & Kevin Eckhardt Produced and Edited by Tanya Hubbard A Production of The Octus Podcast Network (00:00) - Cold open, host intro, and the fine print (02:30) - Kars for Kids and the California restraining order (04:16) - GameStop’s unsolicited bid for eBay (05:33) - Ryan Cohen on Squawk Box and the math problem (11:30) - Is meme stock M&A just modern corporate finance (17:30) - The peach tree crisis, 420,000 trees and $550M in canceled contracts (20:00) - Judge Kaplan’s DIP roll up ruling explained (24:08) - The Clout Audit Tribunal, Neal Katyal’s TED Talk and Harvey AI (33:30) - Jason and Kevin pitch their own TED talks (38:42) - Your Friends and Neighbors Season 2, Owen Ashe, Coop, and a dead deer (48:00) - Wrap and close