Decoder with Nilay Patel

Today, let’s talk about the big Paramount-Warner Bros. Discovery merger. Right now, Paramount head David Ellison is very much acting like he’s over the finish line after outbidding Netflix, which walked away after what seemed like a done deal. 

Back in January, I asked Puck’s Julia Alexander to walk me through Netflix’s reasoning, and today I’m digging into Paramount’s with Rich Greenfield, a media and entertainment analyst and cofounder of research firm LightShed Partners. There’s a lot going on here, including the biggest question I’ve had throughout this entire saga: why would anyone want to buy Warner, which has basically killed every acquirer it’s had for the last quarter century?

Links: 

David Ellison’s plan to compete with Netflix: Paramount+HBO | Rich Greenfield

The worst acquisition in history, again | Prof G Media

David Zaslav gets the last laugh | THR

Warner Bros. Discovery agrees to Paramount merger | The Verge

Tech, TV, Movies & News: Ellisons on brink of colossal empire | NYT

Pete Hegseth says ‘the sooner David Ellison’ buys CNN, ‘the better’ | NYT

Warner Bros CEO to pocket $887 million from Paramount deal | Reuters

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Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. 

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jim Lanzone is the CEO of Yahoo. It's basically impossible to sum up Yahoo's story over the last 25 years, but the short version is that once upon a time, Yahoo paid Google to run the search box on its website, and everything immediately went sideways. Jim calls it Yahoo's original sin.

But after a long series of mergers, spinouts, and a hot, weird minute as part of Verizon Yahoo is once again an independent, privately held company — and it's growing. But can Yahoo really take market share from Google?

Links: 

Yahoo sells Engadget to Static Media | The Verge

Yahoo sells TechCrunch to Regent | The Verge

Yahoo Finance launches crypto partnership with Coinbase | Yahoo

Yahoo Scout looks like more web-friendly AI search | The Verge

Yahoo Finance launches crypto deal with Polymarket | Yahoo Finance

Yahoo resurrects Artifact inside AI-powered news app | The Verge

Yahoo Mail adds more AI to simplify desktop email | The Verge

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. 

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My guest today is Mike Masnick, the founder and CEO of Techdirt, the excellent and long-running tech policy blog. Mike has been writing about government overreach, privacy in the digital age, and other related topics for decades now, and he’s an expert on how the internet and the surveillance state have grown in interconnected ways over the past two decades.

I wanted to have Mike on the show to discuss the messy, fast-moving situation at Anthropic, the maker of Claude that now finds itself in a very ugly legal battle with the Pentagon. Instead of covering the daily drama, I wanted to dig in specifically on Anthropic's surveillance red line, and the important history and context around digital privacy in the U.S. that shapes how we should think about this going forward. 

Links:

AI bros wanted Trump — now they learn what happens when you tell him no | Techdirt

OpenAI’s ‘red lines’ are written in the NSA’s dictionary | Techdirt

Anthropic is suing the Department of Defense | The Verge

Anthropic launches new think tank amid Pentagon fight | The Verge

How OpenAI caved to the Pentagon on AI surveillance | The Verge

Inside the backlash to the AI war machine | Platformer

The Pentagon is violating Anthropic's First Amendment rights | FIRE

Why the Pentagon wants to destroy Anthropic | Ezra Klein / NYT

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. 

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hasbro might be a toy company, but CEO Chris Cocks has spent the last several years pushing it more and more into the digital media, gaming, and collectibles space. That makes sense, since adults have money and kids don't. All those IP and licensing deals are working out for Hasbro so far.

But Hasbro is also facing a lot of risk from instability: in trade and tariffs, in politics and culture, and in the video game market, which seems to be in a more or less permanent state of crisis. 

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links: 

Chris Cocks on Decoder (2023) | The Verge

Hasbro just made a massive ‘Harry Potter’ Announcement | Parade

Businesses push for tariff refunds as Trump aides hint at fight | New York Times

We’re finally seeing more of Hasbro’s forgotten space game | PC Gamer

Xbox in is danger. Will Microsoft save it, or kill it? | Decoder

OpenAI’s billion-dollar deal puts Mickey Mouse in Sora | The Verge

A comprehensive timeline of JK Rowling’s descent into transphobia | Them

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. 

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today let’s talk about prediction markets, which continue to insert themselves into the news cycle and the news in increasingly weird, unsettling, and potentially illegal ways. 

My guest today is Liz Lopatto, a senior reporter at The Verge who owns what we cheerfully call the chaos beat. Liz has been writing a lot about prediction markets lately and especially why they all seem so intent on being perceived as sources of news — a position which directly incentivizes insider trading. That in turn creates a long list of very predictable problems.

Read the full interview transcript on The Verge.

Links:

Prediction markets want to eat the news | The Verge

How anonymous bettors cashed In on the Iran strike | NYT

With Iran, Kalshi & Polymarket Bet on the Depravity Economy | 404 Media

Polymarket pulls bet on nuclear detonation in 2026 | 404 Media

Polymarket defends betting on war as ‘invaluable’ | The Verge

Someone made a ton of money betting on Maduro’s capture | The Verge

Are prediction markets gambling? Robinhood CEO bets no | Decoder

Prediction markets roll out war bets beyond Washington’s reach | Bloomberg

Polymarket partners with Substack for some reason  | The Verge

It’s MAGA v Broligarch in the battle over prediction markets | The Verge

Subscribe to The Verge to access the ad-free version of Decoder!

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Decoder is produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and edited by Ursa Wright. Our editorial director is Kevin McShane. 

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices