Tag Archives: Investment & Company Information

Slack’s CEO is joining OpenAI to find the money to pay for all those data centers

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OpenAI has announced that Denise Dresser, the current CEO of Slack, will be the company's new Chief Revenue Officer. Dresser will oversee the company's revenue strategy "across enterprise and customer success," according to OpenAI's announcement, and will presumably play a key role in leading the company towards profitability now that it's reorganized as a public benefit corporation.

"We're on a path to put AI tools into the hands of millions of workers, across every industry," Fidji Simo, OpenAI's CEO of Products said in the announcement. "Denise has led that kind of shift before, and her experience will help us make AI useful, reliable, and accessible for businesses everywhere."

Simo joined OpenAI in May of this year, after serving as CEO of Instacart, and before that, the head of Facebook at Meta. Hiring Simo and Dresser could be a good indication of how OpenAI plans to approach ChatGPT going forward. Which is to say, the company is taking a very Silicon Valley approach to growing its chatbot business and focusing on scale and monetizing as many AI interactions as possible. It's not a mistake that Simo helped establish Meta's ads business and OpenAI is reportedly planning to introduce ads into chats with its AI models.

Even with the possibility of ad revenue, Dresser will still have to overcome what OpenAI continues to spend to offer its various AI products. OpenAI pays for multiple partnerships for data center access and has commitments to both buy and build server components for those data centers. Add in the cost of just processing a ChatGPT query itself, and growing the company’s revenue seems like a tall order.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/slacks-ceo-is-joining-openai-to-find-the-money-to-pay-for-all-those-data-centers-220411962.html?src=rss

Paramount makes a $108 billion hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery

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Paramount has been none too pleased about Netflix striking an $82.7 billion deal to buy much of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). Now, Paramount is making a hostile takeover bid for WBD. It's making its pitch directly to WBD shareholders with an all-cash offer of $30 per share that expires on January 8.

Late last week, the WBD board unanimously accepted Netflix's offer of $27.75 per share. That breaks down to $23.25 per share in cash and another $4.50 per share in Netflix stock. Netflix's overall bid is valued at $82.7 billion, while Paramount's totals $108.4 billion.

There's a key difference when it comes to the Paramount offer, as it’s for all of WBD. The latter is scheduled to split into two companies next year. Netflix only wants the Streaming and Studios side of WBD's business, which includes HBO Max and the Warner Bros. film, TV and game studios.

Paramount is after the whole shebang, including WBD's cable channels (Global Networks). "WBD's Board of Directors recommendation of the Netflix transaction over Paramount's offer is based on an illusory prospective valuation of Global Networks that is unsupported by the business fundamentals and encumbered by high levels of financial leverage assigned to the entity," Paramount said in a press release on Monday.

As of the end of September, WBD was carrying $34.5 billion of gross debt. It planned to saddle the Global Networks company (aka Discovery Global) with most of that. The Paramount offer includes $40.7 billion in financing from the family of Paramount CEO David Ellison — his father is Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison — and RedBird Capital, but it would be taking on more debt to secure a deal for WBD. The bid includes "$54 billion of debt commitments from Bank of America, Citi and Apollo." (Apollo owns a majority stake in Yahoo, Engadget's parent company).

According to an SEC filing [PDF], other entities are backing the Paramount bid, including Jared Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners and the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia (the Public Investment Fund), Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Tencent was a financing partner in a previous Paramount offer, but it’s not involved with the hostile takeover attempt.

In a letter sent to WBD CEO David Zazlav before the company accepted Netflix's offer, Paramount questioned the "fairness and adequacy" of the sale process. It asked whether WBD was acting in the best interest of shareholders after the management team allegedly appeared to favor the Netflix offer.

"Despite Paramount submitting six proposals over the course of 12 weeks, WBD never engaged meaningfully with these proposals which we believe deliver the best outcome for WBD shareholders," Paramount said. "Paramount has now taken its offer directly to WBD shareholders and its Board of Directors to ensure they have the opportunity to pursue this clearly superior alternative."

Paramount — which Skydance bought for $8 billion this year — also claims that its offer is likely to face less regulatory scrutiny than the Netflix offer, which wouldn't close until sometime after WBD splits in two later in 2026. According to CNBC, Paramount executives believe that the company's smaller size and cozy relationship with the Trump administration will help streamline the regulatory process. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said that Netflix's bid for WBD has "got to go through a process, and we’ll see what happens. But it is a big market share. It could be a problem."

In a statement to Variety, WBD said it will consider Paramount’s latest bid and provide a recommendation to its stockholders within 10 business days — in other words, by December 19. The company said it “is not modifying its recommendation with respect to the agreement with Netflix” for the time being and it is asking shareholders “not to take any action at this time with respect to Paramount Skydance’s proposal.”

Meanwhile, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said at an event on Monday that Paramount’s new offer was “entirely expected. We have a deal done, and we are incredibly happy with the deal. We think it’s great for our shareholders. It’s great for consumers. We think it’s a great way to create and protect jobs in the entertainment industry. We’re super confident we’re going to get it across the line and finish.”

Update December 8, 2025, 11:14AM ET: Added details about the involvement of sovereign wealth funds and Affinity Partners.

Update December 8, 2025, 2:38PM ET: Added the responses from WBD and Netflix.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/paramount-makes-a-108-billion-hostile-takeover-bid-for-warner-bros-discovery-152248473.html?src=rss

Ubisoft delayed its latest earnings report due to an accounting issue

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The possible reasons behind Ubisoft delaying the earnings report it was expected to release last week were the subject of much discussion, especially given the company’s well-documented issues in recent times. But we now know that the delay was forced by an accounting issue relating to its soon-to-be finalized transaction with Tencent.

As detailed in Ubisoft’s now-published first-half 2025-26 earnings figures, the company was required to restate its FY2024-25 accounts, concerning revenue for this period attributed to sales from a partnership. "This position now applied by the Group going forward has also resulted in a partnership signed in Q2 FY2025-26 not being recognized in IFRS15 revenues," the company said. "The above results in the Company not complying with its leverage covenant ratio under certain existing financing agreements at September 30, 2025. However, this is being addressed by the aforementioned actions relating to the concerned debt instruments."

With the report now published, Ubisoft has asked Euronext to resume trading its shares. And while the accounting snag led to the week-long delay, the French company said that its deal with Tencent is set to close in "the coming days," with the imminent €1.16 billion ($1.36 billion) investment expected to help the company pay off outstanding debt. Once finalized, the partnership will also "enable the acceleration" of Vantage Studios, the new Ubisoft subsidiary in which Tencent will own a 25 percent stake. The new studio will be responsible for Ubisoft’s three biggest IPs: Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six.

Ubisoft reported net bookings of €491 million ($564 million) this quarter, which it said was a 39 percent year-on-year increase. The company said that Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which is getting a Switch 2 port next month, had overperformed this quarter, likely helped by arrival of its New Game+ mode in the summer.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/ubisoft-delayed-its-latest-earnings-report-due-to-an-accounting-issue-152017119.html?src=rss

Mastodon’s founder is no longer its CEO

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Mastodon's founder Eugen Rochko has officially stepped down as CEO. The move comes ten months after the company announced it would transition into a nonprofit entity and that Rochko would leave his post. Rochko will take on an advisory role with the company. 

In a blog post about this decision, Rochko pointed to a desire for guardrails to avoid becoming another egotistical founder "sabotaging thriving communities." He added, "But it would be uncouth for me to pretend that there isn’t some self-interest involved. Being in charge of a social media project is, turns out, quite the stressful endeavour, and I don’t have the right personality for it." 

In his place, Felix Hlatky has taken on the role of executive director. Hlatky has worked at Mastodon since March 2020 and plans to focus on expanding the team, long-term financial stability and making it easier to run servers safely and efficiently.

Currently, Mastodon is operating as a nonprofit in the US, but aims to set up a permanent home base as a nonprofit in Belgium, known as an AISBL. Mastodon previously held nonprofit status in Germany but lost that it last year. 

Mastodon has pursued outside funding since its announced transition to a nonprofit. It shared that Stock Exchange co-founder Jeff Atwood and his family gave the organization €2.2 million ($2.5 million). Part of that influx of cash has gone toward hiring new employees in its engineering, marketing, operations and product teams. Rochko also received a one-time €1 million ($1.2 million) compensation after ten years of "taking less than a fair market salary." 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/mastodons-founder-is-no-longer-its-ceo-143011438.html?src=rss

Apple is reportedly getting ready to replace Tim Cook as early as next year

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According to the Financial Times, Tim Cook may be ready to leave his position as soon as next year, and Apple's board and senior executives have ramped up their preparations to secure his replacement.

Cook, who has been at the helm of Apple for more than 14 years, succeeded Steve Jobs and led the company to a market cap of more than $4 trillion. Cook's tenure since 2011 has overseen the introduction of hardware, including Apple Watch, AirPods and Vision Pro, but also services like Apple Arcade and Apple TV+. According to the Financial Times's sources, Apple's senior vice president of engineering, John Ternus, will most likely take on the CEO role, but this decision hasn't been finalized yet. Ternus has been with Apple since 2001 as part of its Product Design team and eventually stepped into a vice president role within the Hardware Engineering division, where he played a heavy role in the company's transition to Apple silicon.

According to the Financial Times, Apple isn't planning to announce the new CEO before its January earnings report. However, the report also noted that this announcement would come earlier in the year to allow the leadership team to transition smoothly in time for all of Apple's annual events. Earlier this year, Apple also announced Sabih Khan as the new chief operating officer, taking over for Jeff Williams.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-is-reportedly-getting-ready-to-replace-tim-cook-as-early-as-next-year-171407974.html?src=rss

Something funky is going on at Ubisoft

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It's been clear for some time that all is not well at Ubisoft. Between games not meeting the company's sales expectations, studio closures, downsizing elsewhere and sexual misconduct issues, it's been a rocky past several years for the company. 

But now it seems something else may be going on at the publisher. Just before it was set to hold a call with investors on Thursday, Ubisoft said it was delaying its half-year earnings report and halting trading of its shares. It has asked Euronext — the European stock market on which its shares are listed — to halt trading from November 14 until it publishes its earnings results "in the coming days."

This could mean any number of things. Other companies have delayed earnings reports due to things like accounting issues. But halting trading of the company's shares could portend major news, such as a sale or Ubisoft becoming a private entity again. Engadget has contacted Ubisoft for comment. 

It was reported late last year that the founders of Ubisoft were looking to take the company private with the help of Tencent. That hasn't transpired as yet, but Ubisoft (with the help of a Tencent investment) did this year form a new subsidiary called Vantage Studios. That is now overseeing Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six — three of Ubisoft's most important franchises.


This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/something-funky-is-going-on-at-ubisoft-184058990.html?src=rss

Sony has sold 84.2 million PlayStation 5s since launch

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It's been just over a year since Sony launched the updated PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro consoles, so how's that going given Sony's pessimistic outlook in May? Pretty well, judging by the company's latest earnings report. Sony sold more PlayStation 5s last quarter than it did a year ago (3.9 million compared to 3.8 million), boosting total PS5 sales to 84.2 million since launch. Sony also expects more revenue from its gaming (G&NS) division than it previously forecast. 

Back in May, Sony predicted a ¥100 billion ($700 million) hit to revenue in fiscal year 2025 due to tariffs, given that most of its sales occur in the US. Another key blow was the delay of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto VI launch that was first pushed back to May 2026 and was recently delayed again until November 19, 2026. 

However, Sony now expects to sell more hardware than it thought and make ¥4.47 trillion in gaming revenue ($29 billion) for its full year ending March 31, 2026 — up ¥150 billion ($973 million) from its last forecast. That figure, would be slightly below its full year 2024 sales of ¥4.670 trillion ($30.3 billion), but it's still impressive for a nearly five year old console that has seen multiple price hikes. .

In terms of game sales, the main highlight was Ghost of Yotei, which sold 3.3 million units as of November 2, 2025, just a month after it launched. The company sold 6.3 million first-party games across PS5 and PS4 (up one million compared to last year) and 80.3 million games total. 

As for PlayStation Network, monthly active users hit 119 million, up 3 million from last year at this time. Sony doesn't break out PS Plus Premium subscribers, but that service just launched a new feature that lets you stream games you own over the cloud on the PlayStation Portal. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-has-sold-842-million-playstation-5s-since-launch-123004469.html?src=rss

Paramount+ is getting a price hike and ending free trials

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Paramount+ is making some changes that will make its streaming service get more to watch. During Paramount's earnings report today, the company announced that it will increase the subscription prices for Paramount+ in the US during the first quarter of 2026. Price hikes were also announced today for viewers in Canada and Australia. The new pricing was not shared, but a dollar or two more per month has become the standard change. Considering most streaming services jack their prices every year or two, the news was probably inevitable; the last increase for Paramount+ was back in June 2024. But today's announcement also revealed that Paramount+ will no longer offer free trials, which is a common practice for most digital entertainment subscriptions. 

The changes appear to be part of a reassessment of the Paramount+ finances. The company's approach to increase long-term profitability "includes shifting away from certain hard bundles and low-margin subscriptions, reducing investment in select international markets without a clear path to sufficient scale, retiring free trials, and reviewing discount practices."

These new moves follow Skydance's acquisition of Paramount over the summer, an $8 billion purchase which received regulatory approval after some pretty scuzzy interactions with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/paramount-is-getting-a-price-hike-and-ending-free-trials-231146302.html?src=rss

SpaceX acquires $2.6 billion more in spectrum licenses from EchoStar

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SpaceX is acquiring more spectrum licenses from EchoStar in exchange for about $2.6 billion worth of shares in Elon Musk's aerospace company. The transaction is an expansion of the $17 billion deal struck between the companies in September. SpaceX had previously said it would use these licenses for its Starlink satellites as it works to build out the network's 5G connectivity.

The AWS-3 spectrum licenses changing hands include frequencies used in the US for commercial wireless services such as mobile and satellite communications. The distribution and use of spectrum are overseen by the federal government, which also lays out requirements for the use and development of spectrum for the benefit of consumers.

EchoStar had been facing pressure from the FCC to either use its substantial spectrum stockpile or seek divestment. This deal encompasses all of EchoStars' remaining unpaired AWS-3 spectrum holdings. Earlier this year, the company sold $23 billion worth of licenses to AT&T in addition to its deals with SpaceX. The FCC ended its investigation into EchoStar after these sales. Today’s deal is pending regulatory approval and no precise closing date was shared.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/spacex-acquires-26-billion-more-in-spectrum-licenses-from-echostar-170233413.html?src=rss

Snap and Perplexity sign $400 million deal to put AI search directly in Snapchat

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Snap and Perplexity AI have struck a $400 million deal that will bring the AI search engine directly to Snapchat sometime in "early 2026," the two companies announced. With the partnership, Perplexity's AI search engine will be a prominent part of Snapchat's "chat" interface so users can "ask questions and get clear, conversational answers drawn from verifiable sources, all within Snapchat."

The news was announced alongside the company's third-quarter earnings. The company said that revenue from the deal — Perplexity is paying Snap $400 million for the integration — is "expected to begin contributing" to the company's bottom line in 2026. In a letter to shareholders, CEO Evan Spiegel also hinted that Snap could pursue similar partnerships with other AI companies. "This collaboration makes AI-powered discovery native to Snapchat, enhances personalization, and positions Snap as a leading distribution channel for intelligent agents, laying the groundwork for a broader ecosystem of AI partners to reach our global community," he wrote. 

Snap, like its peers, has been leaning into generative AI in recent years. The company has its own LLM-powered chatbot, called MyAI, which uses models from OpenAI, Google and, soon, Perplexity AI. Snap has also introduced AI-powered lenses and creation tools, which have helped boost its Snapchat+ subscription service.  

Spiegel also teased other AI-powered updates coming to Snapchat. He said the company is working on a new AI video generation feature called "AI Clips" that "will allow creators to generate short, shareable videos from simple prompts." He didn’t say when the feature might launch.

Outside of Snapchat, Snap is also planning on launching a new version of its AR glasses, called Specs, sometime next year. Spiegel didn’t offer any new details about the device, which he has previously promised will be lighter-weight than the current version. He did, however, suggest the company was considering working with potential hardware partners. He said Snap would be “putting Specs into their own standalone, 100% owned subsidiary” to give the company more flexibility to pursue such arrangements.

Update, November 5, 2025, 3:08PM PT: Added more details from Snap’s earnings call.


This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/snap-and-perplexity-sign-400-million-deal-to-put-ai-search-directly-in-snapchat-221101734.html?src=rss