An Equity podcast shot: Unpacking the Amazon-Whole Foods deal

We’ve got an Equity Shot for you, an irregular extra hit from the Equity podcast crew.

Today the big news is the potential Amazon-Whole Foods deal, which has led to rampant media speculation, depressed grocery stocks around the nation and allegations of intelligent corporate strategy.

It’s the sort of day that forces you to sit back and re-cast your views of the technology world. It demands answers to questions like “Why is Amazon buying a grocery store?” And if it makes sense, why?” That, of course, raises the final query: “If the why makes sense, will the price of tomatoes go down?”

The answer to the last point is no, of course, so stop dreaming. But that we are seeing the platform wars not just burn on, but retrench in form as they advance in scope seems incontrovertible.

Two of our usual crew, the excellent Katie Roof and the inimitable Matthew Lynley, were each out of the state, so we called up our dear friend Jon Shieber to help us out.

Tune in, and let’s get this weekend started right.

(You can catch the regularly recorded, scheduled, and released episode of Equity here. As always, you can find Equity on iTunes, and everywhere else you spin podcasts.)