Top News:
April Roach / CNBC:
Bill Ackman's Pershing Square proposes to acquire Amsterdam-listed Universal Music Group for €56B in cash and stock, form a merged company, and list on the NYSE — Activist investor Pershing Square said Tuesday it is planning to buy Universal Music Group in a cash and stock deal worth about 55.8 billion euros ($64.4 billion).
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Reuters:
UMG shares jump 11% following Pershing Square's €56B offer, which is a 78% premium to their April 2 close; UMG is down nearly a third since its 2021 listing — Billionaire investor Bill Ackman's Pershing Square (PSHP.L) proposed a takeover of Universal Music Group (UMG.AS) …
Discussion:
Billboard, Pershing Square, Financial Times, Fortune, The Times, Music Business Worldwide, Inc.com, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, Yahoo Finance, The Wrap, Wall Street Journal, Euronews, The Independent, Fast Company, CMU, Blockonomi, Proactive, Digital Music News, New York Times, CBS News, Music Ally, Forbes, The Next Web, Reuters, Gnaneshwar Rajan on LinkedIn, Australian Financial Review, CNN, Barron's Online, Benzinga, Telegraph, The Irish Times, The Standard, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, Dow Jones Newswires, Semafor and Daily Sabah
George Grylls / The Times:
A profile of Aaron Rupar, who manages a social media news operation monitoring Trump across 12 TV channels simultaneously, supported by a $50/year Substack — Aaron Rupar spends up to 80 hours a week following the US president, from meandering speeches to impromptu press conferences.
New York Times:
Journalist Shelly Kittleson, abducted in Iraq by an Iranian-aligned militia, has been freed after a week in captivity, per the militia and two Iraqi officials — The journalist, Shelly Kittleson, was abducted by a militia allied with Iran and held for a week.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Reuters, Fox News, HotAir, One America News Network, Mediaite, The Daily Wire, Deadline, ZeroHedge News, Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Washington Examiner, @lensconflict, @foxnews, Human Events, New York Sun, Politico, France 24, The Hill, The Sun, @joyce_karam, WUSA, @joyce_karam, @syrianotes.org, Jodie Ginsberg on LinkedIn, WTOP News, @osint613, @Nonilex@masto.ai, The US Sun, Newser, @joyce_karam, FOX 4 News Dallas-Fort Worth, The Gateway Pundit and @nickkristof.bsky.social
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Kalshi signs a deal with Fox Corp. to integrate its forecasts into Fox News, Fox Business Network, Fox One, and Fox Weather, following deals with CNN and CNBC — The prediction market already has deals with CNN and CNBC. — The biggest prediction market in the U.S. is teaming up with the biggest TV news channel in the U.S.
Discussion:
TheDesk.net, Fast Company, CoinGape, Kalshi, The A.V. Club, Washington Examiner, Crypto Briefing, crypto.news, The Wrap, Bitcoin News, New York Post, Reuters and The Block
Michael Schneider / Variety:
CBS is selling its 11:35pm ET timeslot to Byron Allen, who will air episodes of Comics Unleashed starting May 22, after The Late Show With Stephen Colbert ends — As “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” ends its run next month, CBS has opted to turn its 11:35 p.m. ET post-local news timeslot …
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, HELLO!, CNN, The Daily Wire, Washington Examiner, E! Online, New York Times, @steveburgess53.bsky.social, UPI, Cord Cutters News, Washington Times, Reality Tea, Baller Alert, TODAY.com, Deadline, @jbflint, Forbes, Barrett Media, @matthewkeyslive, Breitbart, @alexweprin, @alexweprin, @corbinbolies, @bdomenech, @variety, @jeremymbarr, MediaPost, The Post Millennial, @tomleykis.bsky.social, @rickporter.bsky.social, @jessehawken.bsky.social, @justinbaragona.bsky.social, @adamrose.bsky.social, Fox News, Daily Mail, WUSA, HotAir, TV Insider, NewsMax.com, @nemalki.bsky.social, Reuters, New York Post, The US Sun, The Hill, The Daily Beast, TheDesk.net, ScreenRant, Consequence, TV Insider, E! Online, The A.V. Club, LateNighter, Los Angeles Times and The Wrap
Cheyanne M. Daniels / Politico:
Trump threatens to find and jail the journalist who reported that a US officer was awaiting rescue in Iran last week, unless the journalist reveals their source — Two crew members of the F-15E Strike Eagle had self-ejected from the cockpit on Friday after Iranian military forces struck their plane.
John Ourand / Puck:
Sources: ESPN plans to cut ~30 jobs in the coming weeks, primarily in off-camera departments, partly due to a $100M loss tied to its 2025 YouTube TV dispute — Layoffs are coming as the sports network deals with cord-cutting, the YouTube TV blackout, and uncertainty around whether Josh D'Amaro …
New York Times:
Silicon sampling, simulating human polling with AI agents, undermines the very idea of the opinion polls and will only worsen our broken information ecosystem — A recent Axios story on maternal health policy referred to “findings” that a majority of people trusted their doctors and nurses.
Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:
Sources: AI music startup Suno's licensing talks with UMG and Sony have stalled; labels argue that AI tools like Suno rely on human-made music and should pay — One executive says there is ‘no path’ towards licensing deal under current proposal — Talks over licensing deals between …
Discussion:
The Verge
Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Soros Fund Management is leading an investment round into MeidasTouch Network to expand its 24-hour digital news operation; terms were not disclosed — The MeidasTouch Network has taken off on YouTube as a top podcast with 300 million views a month — George Soros remains bullish on liberal podcasts.
Discussion:
@kevinleecaster.bsky.social, @ashleyrcarman, @maxwelltani and Meidas+
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Spotify expands Prompted Playlists, its AI feature for creating playlists, to include podcasts, for Premium users in the US, Canada, the UK, and other countries — Spotify said today that it is expanding its AI-powered feature to create playlists, called Prompted Playlist, to include podcasts as well.
Discussion:
The Verge, Edgar Tanaka on LinkedIn, CNET, Android Authority, 9to5Google, iPhone in Canada, Engadget, PCMag, TechRadar, Thurrott, Android Police, Spotify, Digital Trends, 9to5Mac and MakeUseOf, more at Techmeme »
