On this episode, Mary Ann and Rebecca discussed Alphabet’s announcement this week that it would invest another up to $5 billion in Waymo. It’s an obvious vote of confidence on self-driving cars on Alphabet’s part, but both Becca and Mary Ann agreed on one thing: They’d prefer to stick with riding in cars with human drivers.

Next up was cybersecurity company Wiz turning down a $23 billion acquisition offer from Alphabet. We talked about potential reasons and looked at other examples of large M&A deals not working out.

We wrapped up Equity with a look at digital banking startup Mercury abruptly shuttering its service to founders located in certain countries, such as Ukraine. Founders were naturally not happy, but another fintech was waiting in the wings to help affected customers.

Equity is a show about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. New episodes drop at 7 a.m. PT every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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