Britain ’s merger watchdog has opened a probe into Paramount Skydance Corp. ’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. The Competition and Markets Authority set an initial deadline of August 7 to rule on the deal to unite two Hollywood studios behind films from Casablanca and Harry Potter to Mission: Impossible; two major news networks in CNN and CBS; the streaming powerhouse HBO and ...
Britain ’s merger watchdog has opened a probe into Paramount Skydance Corp. ’s $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. The Competition and Markets Authority set an initial deadline of August 7 to rule on the deal to unite two Hollywood studios behind films from Casablanca and Harry Potter to Mission: Impossible; two major news networks in CNN and CBS; the streaming powerhouse HBO and dozens of cable networks. While the move was expected, the London-based agency has come under pressure from public-interest groups, unions and film-industry groups to take a tough stance on the takeover. “The film and TV industries contribute billions to our economy, so it’s important we assess whether deals between studios may harm competition,” the CMA said. The UK’s scrutiny is one of the last hurdles Paramount Chief Executive Officer David Ellison must overcome after outmaneuvering rival suitor Netflix Inc. with multiple bids over more than five months, visits to Washington, meetings with shareholders and President Donald Trump and the personal backing of his billionaire father Larry Ellison . The deal, if approved by regulators, would give the Ellison family control of one of the most powerful media empires in the world. An initial investigation from the UK’s CMA gives the agency 40 days to decide whether a merger raises any competition concerns. After that, companies can offer remedies to allay those fears, if that’s not enough then an in-depth probe will begin lasting 24 weeks. The European Union ’s antitrust authority has already set a July 7 deadline to rule on the tie-up, and Paramount is open to selling some children’s TV assets, if necessary, to clinch approval in the 27-nation bloc, people familiar with the deal said last week. Meanwhile, Paramount has submitted suggested terms to resolve an antitrust investigation by California and other states into the transaction, Bloomberg has reported. A Paramount spokesperson said the CMA move was expected and that the co...
Wei Li, chief global investment strategist at BlackRock, says there is a “healthy debate to be had” about the durability of Artificial Intelligence earnings and sees the AI trade as a “space to be selective and active.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Wei Li, chief global investment strategist at BlackRock, says there is a “healthy debate to be had” about the durability of Artificial Intelligence earnings and sees the AI trade as a “space to be selective and active.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Hong Kong Chu Hai College has sued its finance head, along with a company and its director, for allegedly embezzling over HK$25 million (US$3.19 million) by disguising the transfers as academic and administrative expenses. The private institution filed the lawsuit in the High Court on Monday to reclaim what it said were misappropriated funds transferred to finance director Ray Yip Kam‑chun, Ho Chu...
Hong Kong Chu Hai College has sued its finance head, along with a company and its director, for allegedly embezzling over HK$25 million (US$3.19 million) by disguising the transfers as academic and administrative expenses. The private institution filed the lawsuit in the High Court on Monday to reclaim what it said were misappropriated funds transferred to finance director Ray Yip Kam‑chun, Ho Chung-ling and Rivers Design Engineering “under the guise of payroll, autopay and academic...
FEATURE Intel shares were rising early Tuesday. A newly expanded deal with Cadence Design Systems looks like a sign of confidence in Intel’s next-generation chip-manufacturing process. Intel shares were up 1.
FEATURE Intel shares were rising early Tuesday. A newly expanded deal with Cadence Design Systems looks like a sign of confidence in Intel’s next-generation chip-manufacturing process. Intel shares were up 1.
The magazine writes: ‘Resisting Gen-Z socialism is therefore an urgent task.’ That urgency must outweigh any urgency of feeding hungry people A spectre is haunting Europe and America – the spectre of gen Z socialism. That’s the urgent warning from the Economist in a new cover-story editorial, How to fight back against gen Z socialism . Alarmed by a youthful threat to the established order, the mag...
The magazine writes: ‘Resisting Gen-Z socialism is therefore an urgent task.’ That urgency must outweigh any urgency of feeding hungry people A spectre is haunting Europe and America – the spectre of gen Z socialism. That’s the urgent warning from the Economist in a new cover-story editorial, How to fight back against gen Z socialism . Alarmed by a youthful threat to the established order, the magazine is calling for heightened vigilance from defenders of private enterprise. Norman Solomon is the director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy Continue reading...
In an often chilling new documentary, the chefs of brutal leaders from Idi Amin to Saddam Hussein, talk about their unusual lives behind the scenes Kim Jong-il loved pepperoni pizza. Saddam Hussein couldn’t resist a fish barbecue. Idi Amin reportedly had the capacity for an entire roasted goat. The menus may have differed, but the appetite was the same. For history’s most notorious strongmen, the ...
In an often chilling new documentary, the chefs of brutal leaders from Idi Amin to Saddam Hussein, talk about their unusual lives behind the scenes Kim Jong-il loved pepperoni pizza. Saddam Hussein couldn’t resist a fish barbecue. Idi Amin reportedly had the capacity for an entire roasted goat. The menus may have differed, but the appetite was the same. For history’s most notorious strongmen, the dining table doubled as a stage for power. For the cooks who served them, every meal came with extraordinary stakes. “It goes back to Hannah Arendt’s banality of evil a bit,” says director Andrew Neel. “These everyday things that are beloved to us, like food, can take on an entirely different dimension within the context of a dictatorship.” In his latest film, How to Feed a Dictator, which premieres at the Tribeca film festival this week, five private chefs recount their intimate experiences serving some of the world’s most feared dictators and the ever-present dangers that came with the job. Based on the 2020 book by the Polish journalist Witold Szabłowski, the 95-minute documentary probes the fraught terrain between morality and survival, asking viewers to consider the choices these chefs made – and the choices they never really had. Structurally, the film is something of a tasting menu, serving up sobering morsels of human atrocity within the trappings of a decadent cooking show. It makes for especially uneasy viewing on an empty stomach. Continue reading...