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10:30 PM ET, December 5, 2025

Mediagazer

 Top News: 
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Netflix agrees to acquire WBD's studios and streaming business in an $82.7B cash-and-stock deal, including debt, to close after WBD splits in two in Q3 2026  —  As part of the deal, WBD will continue with plan to spin off its cable television networks  —  Netflix has agreed an $83bn takeover …
RELATED:
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Documents and source: WBD CEO David Zaslav's stock in WBD would be worth close to $660M if the Netflix deal closes  —  This isn't exactly what David Ellison had planned in September.  —  Just a few months ago, the Paramount Skydance CEO sent a letter to the Warner Bros. Discovery board …
Variety:
The WGA, which routinely opposes media mergers, says the Netflix-WBD deal must be blocked, and the Producers and Directors guilds express concern over the deal  —  SAG-AFTRA says proposed pact raises ‘serious questions about its impact on the future of the entertainment industry’
Jody Godoy / Reuters:
Congressional Democrats and Republicans criticize the Netflix-WBD deal, saying it would raise streaming subscription prices and lessen workers' pay and control  —  Netflix (NFLX.O) pitched its $72 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery's studios and streaming divisionas aligned …
Chris Kerr / Game Developer:
WBD confirms that Warner Bros. Games will be acquired by Netflix along with its wider streaming and television business  —  A Warner Bros. spokesperson has confirmed the video game division will be acquired by Netflix alongside its wider streaming and television business.
Katie Campione / Deadline:
SAG-AFTRA puts off taking a position on the Netflix-WBD deal but says a deal benefiting its members “must result in more creation and more production, not less”  —  Instead, the guild says the potential transaction “raises many serious questions” that leadership expects to have answered.
Tony Maglio / The Hollywood Reporter:
Netflix says it “expects to maintain Warner Bros.' theatrical releases for films” but “the windows will evolve to be much more consumer friendly”  —  Now that that's settled...  Netflix just solidified itself as the leading entertainment company (and then some), and all it cost was $83 billion.
Nicole Sperling / New York Times:
Netflix's WBD bid marks a striking strategy shift for a company long known for pivots, especially after years of avoiding full commitment to theatrical releases
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
A look at the uphill battle to win regulatory approval for Netflix's acquisition of WBD, and the roles of the US DOJ, EU regulators, and state attorneys general
Scott Roxborough / The Hollywood Reporter:
A European theater owners group says Netflix's Warner Bros. acquisition “represents a double risk” of fewer films being produced and getting theatrical releases
Jane Fonda / The Ankler:
Jane Fonda warns that a WBD merger in any form is an alarming escalation in media consolidation, threatening the entertainment industry and the First Amendment
Isabella Simonetti / Wall Street Journal:
Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi agree to part ways and let her contract expire at the end of the year, following new allegations about her affair with RFK Jr.  —  Nuzzi joined the magazine as an editor earlier this year  —  Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi have agreed to part ways following …
Alexandra Steigrad / New York Post:
Sources: Forbes has cut ties with dozens of contributing writers; one exec said Forbes needs to ensure the contributor model is “financially sound”  —  Forbes abruptly cut ties with dozens of contributing writers this week — sparking outrage and confusion among the rank and file …
Discussion: Talking Biz News
Oliver Darcy / Status:
Sources: David Ellison's interference in WBD's failed summer talks to extend HBO Max's South Park licensing deal left David Zaslav distrustful of Ellison  —  Over the summer, David Zaslav was deep in negotiations with Paramount over “South Park,” hoping to extend HBO Max's licensing deal for the popular program.
 
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 More News: 
New York Times:
The New York Times sues Perplexity, claiming the AI startup violated its copyrights and kept using its content despite repeated demands over the past 18 months
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Meta strikes commercial AI data deals with news publishers, including CNN, Fox News, and The Daily Caller, to provide real-time answers in its Meta AI chatbot
 Earlier Picks: 
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
The EU fines X €120M for breaching online content rules, the first DSA fine, citing issues like its failure to publish an ad repository, after a two-year probe
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
CBS Evening News co-anchor Maurice DuBois will exit CBS News on December 18, as EIC Bari Weiss and President Tom Cibrowski overhaul the evening newscast
 

 
From Techmeme:

Anthropic:
Anthropic details the “Assistant Axis”, a pattern of neural activity in language models that governs their default identity and helpful behavior

Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog:
Cursor's recent experiment involved running hundreds of AI agents for nearly a week to build a web browser, writing 1M+ lines of code across 1,000 files

Kiran Stacey / The Guardian:
The UK launches a consultation on whether to ban under-16s from using social media, alongside restrictions on addictive app features like infinite scrolling
 
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