This week’s top business news — Feb. 2-6, 2015

Mergers were the news of the day for most of the week. Some of the biggest announced included Staples’ purchase of Office Depot and Pfizer’s of Hospira. Regulatory news also made headlines with the S&P settling for $1.38 billion with the U.S. government and UBS facing another tax evasion probe.

What follows is a list of what Talking Biz News views to be this week’s top 10 stories.

Monday

• The Chipotle effect: Why America is obsessed with fast casual food, by Roberto A. Ferdman of The Washington Post
• Is Google planning to take on Uber?, by Tom Huddleston Jr. of Fortune

Tuesday

• Is S&P’s $1.38B deal enough to keep credit raters in check?, by The Associated Press
• Staples shares get fired up on Office Depot merger talks, by Kurumi Fukushima of The Street

Wednesday

• UBS faces a new tax-evasion probe, by Christopher M. Matthews and Devlin Barrett of The Wall Street Journal
• Caché follows Wet Seal and Delia’s in filing for bankruptcy, by Sapna Maheshwari of BuzzFeed

Thursday

• Amy Pascal leaving as Sony studio chief, by Michael Cieply and Brooks Barnes of The New York Times
• The problem with Pfizer’s $17 billion buy, by Matthew Herper of Forbes

Friday

• Is Google’s Page dealing with thinning of ranks?, by Ari Levy of CNBC
• For blue-collar America wage gains are slim even as employment surges, by Jason Lange of Reuters