Breaking Down the Proposed Capital One-Discover Financial Services Deal

Breaking Down the Proposed Capital One-Discover Financial Services Deal

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In this podcast, Motley Fool host Ricky Mulvey and analyst Jim Gillies discuss:

  • How a merged Capital One and Discover Financial Services would compare to the big banks.

  • The investor reaction to the proposed merger.

  • Home Depot's earnings.

  • The end of an activist story at a company that makes garden rakes.

Motley Fool personal finance expert Robert Brokamp and host Alison Southwick continue their conversation with Motley Fool analysts Jason Moser and Bill Mann. They cover the stocks that got away and the ones that broke their hearts.

To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center. To get started investing, check out our quick-start guide to investing in stocks. A full transcript follows the video.

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This video was recorded on Feb. 20, 2024.

Ricky Mulvey: Let's ask the Canadian about regulations in the US. You're listening to Motley Fool Money. I'm Ricky Mulvey joined today by the aforementioned Jim Gillies. Jim, thanks for being here.

Jim Gillies: Thanks, Ricky for that intro. Let's indeed ask me those questions.

Ricky Mulvey: The story this morning that is unavoidable is the Capital One wants Discover. There will be questions among US regulators because headlines are acting like this is a done deal. Let's set the terms out first though. It's a $35 billion all-stock deal. The combo would surpass JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup by credit card volume according to Bloomberg. First and foremost, why does Capital One want this business?

Jim Gillies: Well, they want it. The famous or infamous word, I guess would be scale. Discover is the smallest of the four US major global payment networks, so they're about to get bigger. They want to leverage the investments, they being Capital One, leverages the investments and their network they've put down for the last decades, and they can do that by getting larger very quickly with as you say an all-stock deal. They are claiming and you should always look at these claims with a very healthy shaker of salt, let's put it that way. They're claiming there will be strong returns on invested capital, post-deal synergies totaling about $2.7 billion, I think, through 2027, or it'll take until 2027 to fully realize that. But I think the Empire building is a thing, Ricky, and this is Capital One taking the next step on building their position to challenge the folks, as you mentioned, like JPMorgan and Citigroup.