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.

On Oct. 17, 2016, undergraduate students at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business who are in the Hospitality Business Fellows (HBF) program traveled a few miles down the road to visit the headquarters of Chesapeake Hospitality, a nationally-recognized hotel management company.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Just a few weeks ago, Twitter had a multitude of potential suitors, with Google, Disney and Salesforce all said to be considering bids to acquire the mainstay social media platform.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – The NFL's biggest concern this season likely isn't Colin Kaepernick or concussion risks or even who's going to the Super Bowl. It's eyeballs. The television juggernaut National Football League has seen its faithful TV audience unexpectedly deflate by more than 10 percent through the first five weeks of the season, according to Nielsen ratings data, with deeper drops notched during the Sunday, Monday and Thursday evening games.   

SMITH BRAIN TRUST  —  What does the first presidential debate have in common with the famed “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman?

SMITH BRAIN TRUST – Love, exciting and new – that’s what Carnival Cruise Lines is going for as its launches its new line of original television programming. Or at least fresh interest in vacations at sea. Carnival Cruise Line is looking to recreate some of the TV magic that helped boost the vacation cruise industry in the 1980s, when the popular hour-long sitcom, “The Love Boat,” was in its heyday and people were flocking to ports like never before in search of a dream getaway.

SMITH BRAIN TRUST — Retweets aren't necessarily endorsements, and they definitely aren’t votes. So what can Twitter tell us about the 2016 presidential election? Maybe more than you think, new research from the University of Maryland suggests. For starters, Republican nominee Donald Trump is winning — at Twitter anyway — over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

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.

The Hospitality Business Fellows (HBF) program at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business was launched on Aug. 29, 2016. The 15 students in Cohort 1 of the program welcomed to their first class five senior executives from Choice Hotels International, who spoke about the wide variety of career opportunities available in the hospitality industry.

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.