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OpenAI continued its march to world domination, unveiling its long-anticipated Web browser, ChatGPT Atlas. It offers some snazzy features, including a split-screen view that allows you to ask ChatGPT questions related to the webpage you’re on without switching tabs. Given how difficult it is to change people’s ingrained habits, getting consumers to switch to a new browser may be tough—certainly harder than getting them to try the chatbot. But at least the browser won’t cost OpenAI the GDP of a small nation, unlike some of its other recent chip-related initiatives.
Meanwhile, the big news of the day was in the entertainment industry, where Netflix confirmed the durability of its world domination, at least in streaming. Netflix reported 17% revenue growth for the third quarter, exactly in line with its projection, and it forecast a similar growth rate in the fourth quarter. That growth rate is double or more what smaller rivals like Warner Bros. Discovery and Walt Disney have recently posted in streaming. Netflix’s success must really grate on the folks at WBD in particular. As we also learned on Tuesday, that once-great entertainment giant is again on the sales block—for the third time in nine years—a sign that the 2022 merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery has failed to make money for shareholders. This will be an $80 billion–plus deal, so it’s not exactly small potatoes.
Notably, WBD revealed that it has had “unsolicited” approaches from “multiple parties,” showing interest in both the entire company and just the Warner Bros. studio, the jewel asset. We already know from news reports in The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere that David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance has made an approach. CNBC reported Tuesday that Comcast and Netflix were both interested as well. A note from research firm MoffettNathanson on Tuesday argued that Comcast—which already owns WBD rival NBCUniversal—would face immense regulatory difficulties in pulling off an acquisition. As for Netflix, co-CEO Greg Peters downplayed the idea of Netflix making a bid for the company when asked about it at a Bloomberg conference earlier this month, noting that media mergers have a poor history. (WBD is a good example of that.)
That analysis might suggest Ellison is in a good position to win. But a breakup of the company might yield better value for WBD shareholders. Based on the current public market valuation of Lionsgate—a smaller studio, which recently split from its cable channel business—the Warner Bros. studio alone should be worth at least $25 billion. WBD’s streaming operations—HBO Max—could be worth $60 billion or more, considering the $28 billion valuation put on the much smaller Hulu in Disney’s recent buyout of that service.
And then there’s WBD’s cable channels, which are shrinking but still generating at least $6 billion in profits annually. A private equity firm could combine those channels with another group of cable chanenls—such as those NBCU plans to carve off—and get some cost savings out of it. WBD says it is considering all kinds of options, which is good news for shareholders. (For more analysis, see our True Value on WBD from last year).
Musk Versus Duffy
Is Elon Musk’s vendetta against President Donald Trump back on?
On Tuesday, Musk unloaded on Sean Duffy, the Trump administration’s acting NASA chief, one day after Duffy said the space agency would consider alternatives to SpaceX for a planned 2027 Moon mission because Musk’s company is “behind schedule” on its Starship launch vehicle. Musk’s middle school–level attacks, posted on his X platform, included referring to Duffy as “Sean Dummy” and comparing him to a monkey based on his past as a competitive tree climber.
Inside the Trump administration, there’s a battle underway over whether to give Duffy, who is also secretary of transportation, permanent control over NASA. The likely alternative would be giving the NASA post to a Musk ally, Jared Isaacman. Trump has to decide what to do before Duffy’s term as acting chief runs out at the end of 2025, and allies of both Duffy and Isaacman have been furiously lobbying the White House over the past several days, The Wall Street Journal reported. It’s likely Duffy’s comments about SpaceX, which he made in Monday appearances on both Fox News and CNBC, were related to this beef.
Whatever happens to Duffy’s leadership of NASA, he’s already been confirmed as transportation secretary and will probably be in that post for years. That agency has huge authority over Tesla and is currently investigating its self-driving software. You have to wonder if Tesla shareholders, who are debating whether to approve a $1 trillion pay package for Musk at the company’s shareholder meeting next month, really want Musk picking fights with the transportation secretary on behalf of a different company.—Theo Wayt
In Other News
• Nvidia is discussing guaranteeing some of the loans OpenAI is planning to take out to build its own data centers, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• Amazon Web Services said its cloud services had returned to “normal operations” as of Monday afternoon Pacific time, after a major global outage lasting more than 12 hours affected users of popular internet services such as Zoom, Netflix, Snapchat and Reddit.
• Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg must testify in the trial for a lawsuit alleging that social media companies have harmed young users, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled on Monday, CNBC reported.
• Google Cloud has hired Karthik Narain, a software industry veteran who was most recently chief technology officer at Accenture, to fill the newly created role of chief product and business officer, CEO Thomas Kurian announced in a LinkedIn post.
Today on The Information’s TITV
Check out today’s episode of TITV in which we talk baby tech and speak with the CEO of Nanit, which builds a smart baby monitor.
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