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Here's a look back at the last week in the markets...

Top Stories of the Week

Suck it, Comcast! – Comcast Corporation’s (CMCSA) bid to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) fell apart because, well, despite both companies already EFFECTIVELY operating monopolies, merging would just be a touch too obvious, even for Federal Regulators. However, Comcast getting shot down has opened the door for Charter Communications, Inc. (CHTR) , which is now going to purchase Time Warner for some $56 billion. The move to consolidate the broadband market represents a dream coming to fruition for media mogul John C. Malone.

Oh, so THIS is how you greet us back from vacation? – Anyone hoping to gently nurse their hangovers after a three-day weekend didn’t get any help from the market. The markets were down sharply on Tuesday because of (what else?) more wild paranoia about when/if the Fed might raise interest rates. It was the S&P 500’s worst day in three weeks, falling almost 22 points and over 1 percent with all 10 sectors losing ground.

McDonald’s investors will now have to wait until the end of the quarter for an update on the company’s long, slow death – The trend towards people enjoying food that’s good and, you know, actual food has really hit McDonald’s (MCD) in the pre-frozen burgers served on limp buns. After replacing the CEO, the company is all about making big changes to react to a new burger landscape that appears to be trending away from the “terrible food will sell if it’s made fast and cheap” mindset. One change? McDonald’s won’t be making monthly sales updates anymore.

Wait, HOW much for these Tevas?!?! – In this week’s “caught with their hand in the cookie jar” moment, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd (TEVA) got hit with a $1.2 billion fine over its efforts to delay a generic alternative to its drug Provigil. Provigil is a wakefulness drug created by Cephalon, a company acquired by Teva in 2012. Cephalon apparently paid off generic drug makers to drop their patent challenges, leading the Federal Trade Commission to come after them. Teva decided to settle the case and the money is being paid to insurers and consumers in exchange for the extra costs they hypothetically had without a generic alternative.

Apparently, there is a LOT of money in microchips – Every once in a while, there’s a transaction that reminds you that just because there’s a lack of public awareness surrounding an industry does not mean there’s a lack of money. Case in point, the news that microchip maker Avago Technologies Ltd (AVGO) was buying microchip maker Broadcom Corporation (BRCM) for a whopping $37 billion. If you’re like me, it was a little unnerving to read about a transaction THAT large involving two companies you had never heard of before. If a company decided to buy Twitter Inc. (TWTR) , we’d be reading about it for months and their market cap is currently sitting at under $25 billion.

Featured on Equities.com this week…

Here’s a look at some of the biggest pieces on Equities.com this last week:

• Snapchat Eyes IPO – Is the millennial messenger app the next big tech name to go public? (by Ari Zoldan)

• Can Dan Schulman Grow PayPal? – The digital payment trailblazer now has a plan, but did it wait too long? (by Jeff Kagan)

• We Know Equity Crowdfunding – But What is “Pre-crowd?” – Detailing the first of three principal stages a company goes through when raising capital via equity crowdfunding. (by Oscar A. Jofre, Jr.)

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