On Wednesday morning, local time, over one million Australian children discovered their social media accounts had vanished. And it may not be long before kids in other countries find themselves in a similar predicament.
Under the new law, which was approved late last year, no one under the age of 16 in Australia will be allowed to set up accounts on platforms including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, X, Snapchat, Twitch, and Reddit. Any accounts for people in that age category will be deactivated or removed. The law is meant to protect the mental health of children from the addictive nature of social media.
Australia’s law goes three years beyond the de facto minimum age for social media limits in the U.S., where privacy legislation dictates that children under 13 are not supposed to be able to create accounts (though they easily end-run those restrictions). Anika Wells, the country’s communications minister, said those extra years will help children mature more before they take part in social media.
We want children to have childhoods. We want parents to have peace of mind and we want young peopleyoung Australiansto have three more years to learn who they are before platforms assume who they are, she said earlier this year.
The legislation is being watched carefully by other governments, which have struggled with the impact of social media on young minds. If Australian children show improvements in their mental (and physical) health, with reduced reports of depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorder, and more, the country’s policies could become a blueprint for other nations.
Several have already put plans into motion. Denmark, Norway, Malaysia, and the European Parliament have all either announced plans to ban social media access for children, similar to the Australian law, or are in the process of creating new rules.
Denmark has gone the furthest, announcing last month that it would ban access to social media for anyone under 15, noting 94% of the children in that country had profiles on at least one social media platform. Under the age of 10, half of all Danish children do. The country has not yet set a date for the ban to begin.
Children and young people have their sleep disrupted, lose their peace and concentration, and experience increasing pressure from digital relationships where adults are not always present, the Danish ministry for digital affairs said. This is a development that no parent, teacher or educator can stop alone.
As for the U.S., don’t expect similar legislation anytime soon. The Big Tech lobby is firmly against the policy. And tech leaders, including Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, have a close relationship with Donald Trump. Even those whose relationship with Trump is contentious are seemingly protected. Last week, when the European Commission hit Elon Musk’s X with nearly $140 million in fines for violating its moderation law, the Trump Administration came out swinging.
“The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on social media. “The days of censoring Americans online are over.”
Some U.S. states, including Texas and Florida, have tried to enact bans, but those measures have either failed to pass the state legislatures or have been struck down by courts.
Australia’s social media ban, meanwhile, passed with overwhelming support, though some critics warned it would be too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively.
Social media companies were given a year to beef up their technology to confirm user ages and teens were encouraged to begin weening themselves off of the apps, so the formal ban wouldn’t come as a shock. Teens were even given a checklist to prepare for the shift.
Justin McLeod, founder and CEO of dating app Hinge, is consciously uncoupling from his app. Hinges president and chief marketing officer Jackie Jantosrecently named one of Fast Companys CMOs of the yearwill succeed him in the role of CEO, effective immediately. McLeod will stay on as an adviser through March to support the transition.
McLeod, who founded Hinge in 2011, is leaving to launch Overtone, an AI-driven venture focused on facilitating connections between people; it will be backed by Match Group. In a blog post, he calls his departure a wildly bittersweet moment.
This past year, I got higher conviction on two different things. One is that Jackie is the next right leader for Hinge. She’s an incredible strategist, he tells Fast Company. The other thing [is] I realized how much I miss and how much I love the early-stage part of building a company. That was where my heart was and where I wanted to focus.
Jantos joined Hinge four years ago as CMO and took on the role of president in March. Shes behind the companys breakout No Ordinary Love campaign and has steered its outreach to Gen Z users, who now account for more than half of Hinge users. She also helped bring the app to new markets, most recently Mexico and Brazil.
Ive been operating the business for the past year, since I stepped into this president role, so there won’t be much change, Jantos says.
Hinge has been so successful because Jackie and the team understand their consumer, says Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Hinge parent company Match Group. They have [their] finger on the pulse of where the world is at with respect to human connection.
DESIGNED TO BE DELETED
Hinge has been one of the few bright spots amid a broader downturn in dating apps. Earlier this year, Bumbles struggles led to the return of founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, who has since laid off 30% of staff. Tinder, another Match Group property, has lost more than 1.5 million paying users since its 2022 peak.
After Rascoff took over as CEO of Match Group in February, he trimmed headcount by 13%.
In contrast, Hinge, which has 15 million monthly active users, saw its paying users grow by 17% year over year to 1.87 million in the third quarter of 2025. The app took in $550 million in revenue last year, and more than $500 million in the first nine months of 2025.
McLeod laid the foundation for this success with a foresighted app relaunch in 2015. While other dating apps were prioritizing user engagement and addictive swiping, Hinge focused on creating positive outcomes: app interactions that convert into real-life dates.
The company has even inserted deliberate speedbumps into the user experience to combat user behavior like ghosting. McLeods iconoclastic approach is embodied in the apps tagline, designed to be deleted.
Jantos says Hinges mission will remain unchanged. We are very much working to help intentional daters find the relationships they’re looking for and get off the app into dates.
THE MATCH GROUP ECOSYSTEM
McLeods departure comes as Rascoff pushes to create more links between Match Groups different apps, allowing them to share insights around user behavior and how to incorporate AI in their user experiences.
For example, a member of Chispa, Matchs Latino-focused dating app, might receive an invitation to join Hinge, which will autofill their profile. Rascoff even envisions that the matching algorithm behind these apps could be standardized
I’m moving the company towards more cross-brand collaboration and knowledge sharing,” Rascoff says.
He notes that Hinge has long embraced a “consumer-focused, product-led” mindset. “I’m trying to bring that attribute that has made Hinge so successful into all of our other brands, many of which have been more financially oriented, more short-term oriented, and less consumer-driven, Rascoff says.
With more integrations on the back end, the distinctive user experience and marketing of each app could prove more important than ever.
As CMO, Jantos has attracted younger users to Hinge by showcasing real-life relationships rather than the polished versions of love usually portrayed in media. This year, the company launched the second iteration of its No Ordinary Love campaign, which tells the complicated love stories of real Hinge couples, as well as the second chapter of the Its Funny We Met On Hinge video series.
FOUNDER MODE
McLeod remains coy about his new venture, Overtone, which a Hinge spokesperson describes as focused on using AI and voice tools to help people connect thoughtfully and in a personal way.
We’re not going to talk a lot about that quite yet, McLeod says, except to say that there’s an opportunity to completely reimagine the dating experience and how technology can help facilitate people finding their partnerthat breaks the mold of the way current dating apps are designed.
McLeod has been bullish on audio technology in dating apps: Hinge now allows users to record a 30-second audio introduction.
McLeod began developing Overtone at Hinge, with Match Group providing early funding. Overtone will operate independently, but Match Group plans to lead the company’s initial funding round early next year and will have a substantial ownership position. Rascoff will join its board of directors. McLeod will serve as chairman and founder.
I think for that zero-to-one stage of a company, where you have to move really fast, it made sense [for Overtone] to be its own independent public company, McLeod says. And I’m a founder and CEO at heart. There’s a piece of me that wants to be out there on my own, ultimately steering the ship again.
If your home insurance rate has spiked lately, youre not alone. And President Trumps policies could make it even more expensive.
Since 2021, at least 6 million policyholders across the country have seen rate hikes to their property insurance policies, according to a new report from the environmental advocacy group Climate Power. Insurers have also canceled at least 1.4 million policies in that time.
One big reason is the worsening climate crisis, which is driving more and more instances of extreme weather. Inflation, labor shortages, and supply chain issues are also factors, as they drive up the costs to rebuild a home.
The Trump administrations policies may be exacerbating this crisis. Trumps tariffs could make home insurance prices rise 38% faster, one insurance agency estimated.
And since beginning his second term in office, Trump has also gutted the countrys ability to forecast extreme weather, as well as the governments ability to respond to disasters. Less information means insurance companies may raise premiums even more, or pull out of high-risk areas altogether.
Climate change and the home insurance crisis
When it comes to rate hikes, cancellations, and the cessation of new business, insurers attribute more than one in four of those actions to extreme weather or climate disasters, according to Climate Power.
In Louisiana in 2023, Citizens Property Insurance customers saw a 63% rate increase on their home insurance. That move affected more than 100,000 homeowners who were forced to take out policies with Citizens after Hurricane Laura and other recent storms, The Times-Picayune reported, because other insurance companies went insolvent or left the state because of its disaster risks.
And more companies are leaving especially risky states, or halting their coverage. State Farm and Allstate stopped insuring homes in California because of climate risk. And Farmers and Progressive have scaled back their coverage in Florida.
Its not just coastal states at risk, however. While Florida and California are the two top states impacted by insurance cancellations, per Climate Powers report, the top 10 list also includes Iowa, Oklahoma, and Oregon.
Cost-of-living and affordability issues don’t hurt profits
At the same time that Americans are facing higher premiums or being left without any coverage, insurance companies are still profitable and paying their CEOs millions.
In 2024, 22 publicly traded insurance companies reported profits that exceeded $36 billion combined, per Climate Power. Together, they gave their CEOs more than $220 million.
One example is Allstate, which reported $4.7 billion in profits and compensated CEO Thomas Wilson with $26.7 million in 2024. Thats the same year the company raised rates for 350,000 California policyholders by 34%.
Insurance companies are raking in profits, paying CEOs millions, but still canceling policies and hiking rates, which is leaving Americansespecially those facing extreme weatherhung up to dry, said Lizzy Ganssle, Climate Power’s national press secretary.
No help from Trump
The property insurance industry has also supported Trump to the tune of more than $1.3 million for his presidential campaigns, through donations from individuals and political action committees (PACs). But as Climate Power points out in its report, Trump isnt addressing the insurance crisis issueand may actually be making it worse.
Trumps tariffs, cuts to disaster relief, and elimination of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) programs all mean that homeowners will have to bear more of the burden when it comes to extreme weather events and the cost of rebuilding their homes.
Many Americans are already dealing with a cost-of-living crisis and struggling to pay for groceries, housing, and skyrocketing energy bills. As they become more pessimistic about the economy, though, Trump has called affordability issues a con job and a fake narrative.
Climate Power hopes its report helps Americans to understand the scope of the insurance problem, as well as why their prices may continue to rise.
Its very important for us that Americans understand the impacts that extreme weather is having on their real lives, Ganssle said. Its also important for us that folks understand that Donald Trump is doing nothing to address this issue.
U.S. job openings barely budged in October, coming in at 7.7 million with ongoing uncertainty over the direction of the American economy.
The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers posted 7.67 million vacancies in October, close to Septembers 7.66 million.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which was delayed by the extended government shutdown, also showed that layoffs rose to almost 1.9 million, the most since January 2023. And the number of people quitting their jobsa sign of confidence in the labor marketfell in October, suggesting that businesses seeking to control labor costs will have to pivot to active layoffs, lifting unemployment, rather than rely on natural attrition, Samuel Tombs, chief U.S. economist at Pantheon, wrote in a commentary.
Job openings have come down steadily since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March 2022, when the economy was roaring back from COVID-19 lockdowns. The job market has cooled partly because of the lingering effect of the high interest rates the Federal Reserve engineered in 2022 and 2023 to combat an outburst of inflation.
Overall, its a puzzling time for the American economy, buffeted by President Donald Trumps decision to reverse decades of U.S. policy in favor of free trade and instead impose double-digit tariffs on imports from most of the worlds countries.
Policymakers at the Federal Reserve are meeting this week to decide whether to cut their benchmark interest rate, and the gathering is expected to be unusually contentious. Inflation remains stuck above the Feds 2% target, partly because importers have tried to pass along the cost of Trumps tariffs by raising prices. Normally, stubborn inflation would discourage Fed policymakers from cutting rates. But the job market has looked shaky in recent months, and the Fed is expected to reduce its benchmark rate for the third time this year, though some policymakers might dissent.
Meanwhile, the 43-day federal shutdown has made a mess of the governments economic statistics.
The October report on job openings came out a week late, and the September version was not published separately because federal data collectors were on furlough. Instead, Septembers JOLTS numbers were folded into Tuesdays report along with Octobers. They showed a hefty increase in openings from 7.23 million in August.
The Labor Department will issue numbers for hiring and unemployment for November next Tuesday, 11 days later than originally scheduled. The department is not releasing an unemployment rate for October because it could not calculate the number during the shutdown. It will release some of the October jobs dataincluding the number of positions that employers created that monthalong with the full November jobs report.
Forecasters surveyed by the data firm FactSet predict that employers added fewer than 38,000 jobs in November and that the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.5% from Septembers 4.4%. That would be low by historical standards, but the highest in nearly four years.
By Paul Wiseman, AP economics writer
Google faces fresh antitrust scrutiny from European Union regulators, who opened an investigation Tuesday into the company’s use of online content for its artificial intelligence models and services.
The latest regulatory flexing by the European Commission in Brussels risks antagonizing President Donald Trump’s administration, though EU officials denied they were singling out American Big Tech companies.
The European Commission, which is the 27-nation bloc’s top antitrust enforcer, said it’s examining whether Google has breached competition rules through its use of content from web publishers and material uploaded to YouTube for AI purposes.
Regulators are concerned that Google has given itself an unfair advantage by using content for two search services, AI Overviews and AI Mode, without paying publishers and content creators or letting them opt out. AI Overviews are automatically generated summaries that appear at the top of its traditional search results, while AI Mode provides chatbot-style answers to search queries.
They’re also examining whether Google uses videos uploaded to YouTube under similar conditions to train its generative AI models, while shutting out rival AI model developers.
Officials said they’re seeking to determine whether Google gained an edge over AI rivals by imposing unfair terms and conditions, or giving itself privileged access to content.
This complaint risks stifling innovation in a market that is more competitive than ever,” Google said in a statement. Europeans deserve to benefit from the latest technologies, and we will continue to work closely with the news and creative industries as they transition to the AI era.
The Commission, which is the bloc’s executive arm, is carrying out the investigation under the EU’s longstanding competition regulations, rather than its newer Digital Markets Act that was drawn up to prevent Big Tech companies from monopolizing online markets.
“AI is bringing remarkable innovation and many benefits for people and businesses across Europe, but this progress cannot come at the expense of the principles at the heart of our societies,” Teresa Ribera, the Commissions vice president overseeing competition affairs, said in a statement.
Last week the Commission opened an antitrust investigation into WhatsApp’s AI policy. It also fined Elon Musk’s social media platform X 120 million euros ($140 million) for breaching digital regulations, which drew complaints from Trump officials that American companies were being targeted.
The Commission is agnostic about the nationality of companies it is investigating, spokeswoman Arianna Podesta said.
Of course, the sole focus of our antitrust investigations is possible illegal behavior and the harm that this could bring to competition and consumers within the European Union, Podesta told reporters at a regular briefing in Brussels.
Google will have the chance to reply to the concerns, and the Commission has also informed U.S. authorities about the investigation, she said.
Brussels has no deadline to wrap up the case, which could result in sanctions including a fine worth up to 10% of the companys annual global revenue.
By Kelvin Chan, AP business writer
Associated Press writer Sam McNeil contributed to this report.
Some bad news for Americans with student loans.
The Trump administration’s Department of Education announced on Tuesday that millions of borrowers who are enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan may soon need to select a new repayment plan, part of a settlement with the state of Missouri.
If approved, the move could force millions of Americans to repay their federal student loans, ending the current pause in payments and interest aimed at student debt relief, a holdover from the Biden administration.
What is Saving on a Valuable Education plan, or SAVE?
SAVE is a popular federal student loan income-driven repayment plan (IDR), which caps, or puts a maximum limit, “on how much borrowers must may monthly federal student loan bills at a portion of their income, and it forgives remaining debt after a set number of payments, according to Nerd Wallet.
Why is SAVE ending now?
SAVE has been in legal limbo since February 2025, when the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided the Biden administration was not authorized to establish the SAVE program.
President Donald Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which he signed into law this summer, did not renew student loan forgiveness, which is set to expire at the end of this year, which means student loans are eligible to be taxed, once again.
As Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC), previously told Fast Company: “There are two things that student loan borrowers need to know: There are changes in the way student debt is taxed, and the other is Congress didnt extend tax-free student loan forgiveness.”
More than 7.6 million student loan borrowers are in SAVE forbearance, according to Education Department as reported by CNBC. Previously interest-free, SAVE borrower accounts resumed accruing taxes on August 1, according to Nerd Wallet.
PepsiCo plans to cut prices and eliminate some of its products under a deal with an activist investor announced Monday.
The Purchase, New York-based company, which makes Cheetos, Tostitos, and other Frito-Lay products as well as beverages, said it will cut nearly 20% of its product offerings by early next year. PepsiCo said it will use the savings to invest in marketing and improved value for consumers. It didn’t disclose which products or how much it would cut prices.
PepsiCo said it also plans to accelerate the introduction of new offerings with simpler and more functional ingredients, including Doritos Protein and Simply NKD Cheetos and Doritos, which contain no artificial flavors or colors. The company also recently introduced a prebiotic version of its signature cola.
PepsiCo is making the changes after prodding from Elliott Investment Management, which took a $4 billion stake in the company in September. In a letter to PepsiCos board, Elliott said the company is being hurt by a lack of strategic clarity, decelerating growth, and eroding profitability in its North American food and beverage businesses.
In a joint statement with PepsiCo Monday, Elliott Partner Marc Steinberg said the firm is confident that PepsiCo can create value for shareholders as it executes on its new plan.
We appreciate our collaborative engagement with PepsiCos management team and the urgency they have demonstrated, Steinberg said. We believe the plan announced today to invest in affordability, accelerate innovation, and aggressively reduce costs will drive greater revenue and profit growth.
Elliott said it plans to continue working closely with the company.
PepsiCo shares were flat in after-hours trading Monday.
PepsiCo said it expects organic revenue to grow between 2% and 4% in 2026. The companys organic revenue rose 1.5%. the first nine months of this year.
PepsiCo also said it plans to review its supply chain and continue to make changes to its board, with a focus on global leaders who can help it reach its growth and profitability goals.
We feel encouraged about the actions and initiatives we are implementing with urgency to improve both marketplace and financial performance, PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Ramon Laguarta said in a statement.
PepsiCo said in February that years of double-digit price increases and changing customer preferences have weakened demand for its drinks and snacks. In July, the company said it was trying to combat perceptions that its products are too expensive by expanding distribution of value brands like Chesters and Santitas.
Dee-Ann Durbin, AP business writer
President Donald Trump said Monday that he would allow Nvidia to sell an advanced type of computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to approved customers in China.
There have been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips to be sold to China as it could help the country better compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities, but there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
The chip, known as the H200, is not Nvidia’s most advanced product. Those chips, called Blackwell and the upcoming Rubin, were not part of what Trump approved.
Trump said on social media that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping about his decision and President Xi responded positively!
This policy will support American Jobs, strengthen U.S. Manufacturing, and benefit American Taxpayers, Trump said in his post.
Nvidia said in a statement that it applauded Trump’s decision, saying the choice would support domestic manufacturing and that by allowing the Commerce Department to vet commercial customers, it would strike a thoughtful balance on economic and national security priorities.
But a group of Democratic senators objected to the chip sales.
Access to these chips would give Chinas military transformational technology to make its weapons more lethal, carry out more effective cyberattacks against American businesses and critical infrastructure, and strengthen their economic and manufacturing sector,” said the statement.
The group included Sens. Chris Coons of Delaware, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Andy Kim of New Jersey, Michael Bennet of Colorado and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan.
The senators noted that Chinese AI company DeepSeek recently said the lack of access to advanced American-designed chips was their biggest challenge in competing with U.S. companies involved in AI, with companies, including OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, Perplexity, and Palantir making major investments in developing the technology.
Trump said the Commerce Department was finalizing the details for other chipmakers such as AMD and Intel to sell their technologies abroad.
The approval of the licenses to sell Nvidia H200 chips reflects the increasing power and close relationship that the company’s founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, enjoys with the president. But there have been concerns that China will find ways to use the chips to develop its own AI products in ways that could pose national security risks for the U.S., a primary concern of the Biden administration that sought to limit exports.
Nvidia has a market cap of $4.5 trillion and Trump’s announcement appeared to drive the stock slightly higher in after hours trading.
Josh Boak, Associated Press
CoreWeave stock dropped 8% Monday after the AI cloud computing company announced plans to raise another $2 billion, this time through convertible debt, to finance its rapid build-out of new data centers. On Tuesday, the company said it would increase the total offering to $2.25 billion. CoreWeave, which sells access to powerful Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) to run AI models, may be a bellwether in an industry placing unprecedented bets on an AI boom some believe is just around the corner.
CoreWeave is a pick-and-shovel infrastructure company in AI (like Nvidia) whose fortunes may test the narrative that tech companiesand their stock valuesare riding the long wave of the next technological transformation. CoreWeaves stock may be an especially twitchy meter because investors rosiest expectations for how that narrative will play out appear to be already priced in. An 8% drop suggests that investor skepticism of the reality and sustainability of the AI boom is growing.
The new convertible notes are targeted at investors willing to loan CoreWeave money at a relatively low interest rate (1.75%), in exchange for the option of converting the notes to equity shares when they mature in 2031. The company also plans to grant initial purchasers an option to buy an additional $300 million in notes. CoreWeave said it raised $1.75 billion through the sale of similar notes during the third quarter.But the new debt raise comes at a sensitive time. CoreWeave continues to aggressively raise and spend money for its infrastructure expansion, even as its margins fall, making some investors nervous. The company has already raised roughly $14 billion through debt and equity this year alone ($25 billion in total). It reported paying $311 million in interest in Q3 2025triple the amount it paid in the same quarter a year earlier.
The company already has 41 data centers in its portfolio, CEO Mike Intrator said. The company also buys data center space from third parties. CoreWeave executives believe the company will spend between $12 billion and $14 billion during 2025, and that that amount will double in 2026.
CoreWeave has seen its revenue surge: It rose 134% year over year to $1.36 billion in Q3. But its operating margins have suffered, falling to 4%, compared with 20% in the year-earlier quarter (or 16% from 21% when nonoperational expenses are factored out), as its infrastructure expenses mounted. The company remains unprofitable, posting an adjusted net loss of $41 million in Q3.
Meanwhile, demand for AI computing is high, and the company has been struggling to keep enough GPUs humming to fulfill it. Its shares plunged 45% in November after the company gave full-year revenue guidance below analyst expectations. Company executives said CoreWeave has a backlog of contracted but not yet recognized revenue worth $55.6 billion, nearly double the $30.1 billion reported in Q2. The company says it has major contracts with Meta ($14.2 billion), OpenAI ($22.4 billion across multiple agreements), and Nvidia ($6.3 billion).
But the backlog may not fully translate into revenue, investors worry, especially given CoreWeaves expansion problems. And yet the company expects capital expenditures to more than double in 2026 compared with 2025, raising questions about how much more debt it will need to take on.
Investors reaction to CoreWeaves sour full-year revenue guidance may not have been so dramatic if much of the market wasnt already fearful of a so-called AI bubble, or the idea that AI-heavy companies like CoreWeave are way overvalued and overleveraged.
CoreWeaves decision to issue short-term debt reflects managements strong belief that the data center capacity the money will fund will quickly translate into increased revenues.
While equity investors reacted negatively to the offer of the convertible notes, the corporate bond market has shown strong demand for them in the past. Initially, the new convertible notes will be offered to institutional investors in private transactions. However, CoreWeaves past debt offerings have seen strong investor demandin part because of bullishness about the companys business prospects and in part because of the relatively high interest rates (9% and 9.25%).
In fact, the tech sectors biggest players are now placing unprecedented bets on AI. The market caps of these companies, and by extension the wider stock market, seem to rest on the idea that AI models will soon transform business and bring about untold efficiencies and abundance.
The big questions are whether or not said AI transformation will happen fast enough and last long enough to sustain VC-backed AI startups, and the stock prices of larger, publicly traded tech companies. Some longtime investors are reminded of the irrational exuberance that propped up the ill-fated dot-com companies of the late 1990s.
Paramount Skydance‘s hostile takeover bid of Warner Bros. Discovery places CNN and its sister cable networks squarely back into what is likely to be an extended period of management limbo.
There was some relief at CNN with last Friday’s announcement that Netflix was buying Warner’s studio and streaming businesses, since the cable network would not be a part of that deal. But that quickly changed on Monday with Paramount’s announced bid, which includes the cable assets that Netflix doesn’t want and, if successful, opens the possibility of a combined CNN and CBS News.
The management uncertainty adds to what is already a challenging time at CNN, where there was no doubt who was in charge before swashbuckling founder Ted Turner sold his company in 1996. That era might as well be the roaring ’20s for how long ago it feels, said Ross Benes, senior analyst at emarketer.com.
The dueling bids between Paramount and Netflix now lead to more uncertainty and greater anxiety among the current CNN staff and among those of us who served for many years as leaders of CNN under Ted, said Tom Johnson, former CNN president in the 1990s.
Paramount’s bid, which must be approved by shareholders and regulators, could be seen favorably by President Donald Trump, who is closely allied with Paramount Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison as well as his father, Oracle founder Larry Ellison. But Trump has already expressed anger at the company on social media for Sunday’s 60 Minutes report on former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Prior to Friday’s announcement, Warner Bros. Discovery had said it planned to spin off its cable television networks, including CNN, Discovery, HGTV, the Food Network, and TLC, into a separate company. The growth of streaming has made cable networks an unattractive business.
CNN’s television ratings have tumbled to the extent that it is firmly the third-rated cable news network behind Fox News Channel and MS NOW, formerly MSNBC. Its CEO, Mark Thompson, has aggressively moved into digital with a new subscription service and said that management of Discovery Global, the spinoff company, has already approved a 2026 budget investing in the plan.
I know this strategic review has been a period of inevitable uncertainty across CNN and indeed the whole of WBD, Thompson told staff in a memo Friday. Of course, I can’t promise you that the media attention and noise around the sale of our parent will die down overnight. But I do think the path to the successful transformation of this great news enterprise remains open.
Thompson had no additional comment on Monday, a spokeswoman said.
Since Paramount’s takeover of CBS News this past summer, the network has taken steps to appeal to more conservative viewers with the installation of Free Press founder Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief. Weiss is moderating a prime-time discussion this weekend with Erika Kirk, widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
During an appearance on CNBC Monday, Ellison answered, yeah, when asked if he would combine CNN’s newsgathering operation with CBS News. What exactly that means is unclear.
We want to build a scaled news service that is basically, fundamentally, in the trust business, that is in the truth business, and that speaks to the 70% of Americans that are in the middle, Ellison said.
Trump has spoken highly of both Ellison and his billionaire father. But he was clearly angry about Lesley Stahl’s 60 Minutes interview with former MAGA supporter Greene, who broke with him and recently resigned from Congress. Trump said on Truth Social that his real problem with the show is that the new corporate ownership allowed it to air.
THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, Trump said, adding he believed that 60 Minutes had gotten worse from his perspective since the changeover.
CNN is not likely to find out soon who its new owners would be. Even before the Paramount bid, experts had predicted the Netflix deal would face more than a year of regulatory hurdles.
There is such a need for independent, unbiased news services, Johnson said. I so hope that the new CNN owners will see that as their fundamental mission.
If Netflix eventually wins, emarketer.com’s Benes predicted it would be likely that the spinoff company, Discovery Global, would be shopped around to other buyers.
CNN will be in limbo for a while no matter which bidder purchases CNN, he said.
David Bauder, AP media writer
