Business · Economics · Weekly
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the money
One business, industry or financial structure per week — followed to the end, until it is clear who profits, who loses and who is really in control.
- 3
- Breakdowns
- 26
- Deals tracked
- $37.5B
- Disclosed value
Latest breakdown
8:56Coworking real estate · Sep 19, 2026
Why Did WeWork Collapse From a $47 Billion Valuation to Bankruptcy?
WeWork was valued at $47 billion in January 2019 and filed for Chapter 11 in 2023 owing $18.6 billion. Here is the lease mismatch that actually broke it.
Read the breakdown→Everything else
- 02
Who Owns America's Car Wash Chains and Why Is Private Equity Buying?
Build costs, membership revenue and the real deal figures behind the car wash roll-up — including Mister Car Wash's $3.1 billion take-private and the ZIPS bankruptcy.
Car washSep 19, 2026 - 01
Who Owns Subway, Dunkin' and Arby's? Inside Roark Capital's Roll-Up
Roark Capital quietly owns at least 19 restaurant brands, from Subway to Dunkin' to Arby's. How the franchise royalty roll-up works — and where it has failed.
Restaurant franchisingSep 5, 2026
How this is done
Every figure is sourced
Build costs, margins, deal values, dates. Each one carries the reporting it came from, so you can check it rather than take it on trust.
The failure case is included
The bankruptcy, the divestiture at a disappointing price, the brand that shrank. A playbook that only ever works is a sales pitch, not an explanation.
It adds up to a dataset
Every deal covered goes into the tracker. Over time that becomes the thing you can cite — not a pile of episode recaps.
The dataset
The Roll-Up Tracker
Every deal covered on this channel, in one table: target, sponsor, date, disclosed value, status and source. It grows with each episode — and it is the part of this site you can actually cite.
Largest disclosed deals
- Dunkin' Brands (Dunkin', Baskin-Robbins)Roark Capital · 2020-10-30$11.3B
- WeWorkSoftBank · —$9.5B
- WeWork · 2021-10$9B
- Mister Car WashLeonard Green and Partners · 2026-02$3.1B
- WeWorkSoftBank · 2019-01$2B