SMITH BRAIN TRUST – For Blue Apron, Amazon's blockbuster deal to acquire Whole Foods couldn't have come at a worse time, says Jie Zhang, marketing professor at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – What could be better than free? For companies with a freemium business model – Spotify, Dropbox, Hulu and The New York Times are examples – it’s a key question. Can a company increase its number of paying customers when a free version is available? And if so, how?

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – When Jonathan Aberman thinks about Snap Inc.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – The fate of Verizon's $4.83 billion offer for long-struggling Yahoo has been murky since a pair of massive breaches was revealed last year.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — AT&T's proposed $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner could be the first of a string of similar mergers to come.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — The Fitbit-led fitness wearable market has been growing worldwide by more than 65 percent a year, and Apple is looking to gain a piece of the action. It’s been highlighting the fitness functionalities in its forthcoming Series 2 Watch.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Southwest Airlines has long swiped left on online travel agencies. But now a trio of matchmakers is pushing the airline into a forced marriage of sorts in the name of consumer protection.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Verizon’s $4.8 billion cash purchase of Yahoo positions the telecom giant to fulfill its longstanding goal to be a player in online media and advertising, says marketing professor P.K. Kannan at the University of Maryland’s Robert H.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — BroadwayHD made history on June 30, 2016, with livesteaming of "She Loves Me," a musical production at Studio 54 in New York. Other companies have done similar things for years.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — The Federal Aviation Administration’s initial, comprehensive set of rules for commercial drones will open the floodgates to tens of thousands of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in U.S. airspace.