Tech Brew Ride Home - The Albanian Army Wins!

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Turns out the Albanian army was triumphant as Netflix is buying HBO (and WBD’s studios). The NYT is suing Perplexity. Man, everybody is heading for the exits at Apple at the same time. And get ready for a slew of insider trading controversies in our prediction market world. Netflix agrees $83bn takeover of Warner Bros Discovery (FT) New York Times Sues A.I. Start-Up Perplexity Over Use of Copyrighted Work (NYTimes) X hit with $140 million EU fine for breaching content rules, TikTok settles (Reuters) Apple Departures Point to Challenges for iPhone’s Dominance (WSJ) Chatbots are now rivaling social networks as a core layer of internet infrastructure (The Decoder) Alleged Insider Nets $1 Million On Polymarket In 24 Hours (Forbes) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: 18,000 Reasons It’s So Hard to Build a Chip Factory in America (NYTimes) In Arizona Desert, Taiwanese Families Create Community and Build a Factor (NYTimes) A Growing U.S. Tech Hub Needs Workers. Colleges Try to Keep Up. (NYTimes) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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with a custom color Xbox wireless controller. Learn more at Windows.com slash student offer. While supplies last, ends June 30th, terms at AKA.m.m.S. slash college PC. Welcome to the TechBoo ride home for Friday, December 5th, 2025. I'm Brian McCullough today. Turns out the Albanian army was triumphant as Netflix is buying HBO and WBD's studios.

The New York Times is suing perplexity. Man, everybody is heading for the exits at Apple all at the same time and get ready for a slew of insider trading controversies in our prediction market world. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. Conducting business online can feel a little scary these days, especially with AI creating new opportunities for fraud. In fact, Salent estimates that AI was behind roughly 20% of the fraud perpetrated in 2024. So spotting bad agentic AI while allowing good agents to continue with their tasks isn't easy. Thankfully, though, Memoto Continuous Captcha can spot malicious agents pretending to be people at the point of account creation or registration.

Unlike past Captcha solutions, this runs behind the scenes, so there are no puzzles for users to solve. Momoto offers TechBrew Ride Home listeners early access with a special price for Momoto Continuous Captcha right now. Our listeners can purchase a year of Momoto Continuous Captcha for $5,000, a 20% discount on their lowest price plan. To learn more, head to mimoto.aI.ai slash ride home. That's mimoto. Well, I wanted Apple to buy them, but it looks like HBO is going to Netflix. Netflix has apparently agreed to buy Warner Brothers, Discovery, Studios, and streaming businesses in an $82.7 billion cash and stock deal. The transaction is expected to close after Q3 of next year, and Netflix

has lined up a $59 billion unsecured bridge loan from Wells Fargo, HSBC, and BNP Paribas to make this happened, one of the largest ever unsecured bridge loans. Netflix says it, quote, expects to maintain Warner Brothers' current operations, including theatrical releases for films. Quoting the F.T. The transaction will transform Netflix into the dominant player in Hollywood, adding a coveted library of content, including the Harry Potter and Batman franchises, Warner Brothers' Discovery's streaming businesses, and the premium programming of HBO. As part of the takeover, WBD will continue with the planned spinoff of its cable television networks, including CNN, Discovery, and Turner into a separate company before the studios and streaming businesses are sold to Netflix.

In an auction that kicked off in October and was overseen by WBD boss David Zazlov, Netflix saw off competition for the business from Paramount and Comcast. announcing the deal on Friday, Zazlov said, by coming together with Netflix, we will ensure people everywhere will continue to enjoy the world's most resonant stories for generations to come. Under the agreement, WBD investors will receive $23.3 in cash and $4.5 worth of Netflix shares for each WBD share. The transaction gives WBD an enterprise value, including debt of $82.7 billion. Its equity is valued at $72 billion. The deal, which was approved by the boards of Netflix and WBD will need the backing of WBD shareholders and a sign-off from regulators. It is

expected to close in 12 to 18 months, the company said. Zazlov is set to stay as the head of the new WBD Studios, which will be kept operationally separate from Netflix to make and distribute movies and TV shows. The deal will hand Netflix control of one of the leading film and TV production and distribution pipelines, which will give the tech group unprecedented power in Hollywood. Netflix has promised to maintain Werner Brothers theatrical releases for films. The combination of Netflix and WBD will prove a test for regular. in the U.S. and Europe, where both companies have extensive operations. Those close to the deal

said they were confident any regulatory hurdles could be overcome, pointing to the fierce competition for global audiences, not just from rival streamers, but also platforms such as YouTube, end quote. And quoting the Hollywood reporter. In his Friday morning acquisition announcement, Ted Sarandos, Netflix's co-CEO and former chief content officer, first shouted out in order his affinity for and excitement over ownership of Casablanca, citizen-te. Kane and Harry Potter, three very theatrically released films. Netflix famously does not distribute its movies in theaters with very few, very limited exceptions. Our mission has always been to entertain the world, Sarando said in a prepared statement

by combining Warner Brothers' incredible library of shows and movies, from timeless classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane to modern favorites like Harry Potter and Friends. With our culture-defining titles like Stranger Things, K-pop Demon Hunters, and Squid Game, will be able to do that even better. Together we can give audiences more of what they love and help define the next century of storytelling. In the same press release, Netflix affirms it is committed to releasing Warner Brothers films theatrically. Well, it sort of affirms that quote. Warner Brothers Studios are world-class, with Warner Brothers recognized as the leading supplier

of television titles and filmed entertainment. HBO and HBO Max also provide a compelling complimentary offering for consumers. The Media Alert reads, Netflix expects to maintain Warner Brothers' current operations and build on its strengths, including theatrical releases for films. To be clear, we bolded the expects there, but even without our darker, thicker font, that is heavy verb use right there. Shortly after the acquisition announcement on a conference call with media analysts, Sarandos was asked about the subject of theatrical distribution. I wouldn't look at this as a change in approach for Netflix movies or for Warner Brothers movies, for that matter. I think over time,

I think the windows will evolve to be much more consumer-friendly to be able to meet the audience where they are quicker, he said. All those things I'd like to do, but I'd say right now, you should count on everything that is planned on going to the theater through Warner Brothers will continue to go to the theaters through Warner Brothers and Netflix movies will take the same strides they have, which is some of them do have a short run in the theater beforehand, but our primary goal is to bring first-run movies to our members because that's what they're looking for, end quote. Remember when Netflix said it wanted to become HBO faster than HBO could become it? Remember when the CEO of Time Warner's

compared Netflix to the Albanian army. Yeah, life comes at you fast. My only question is, do I get to stop paying separately for HBO? The New York Times is suing perplexity, claiming the AI startup violated its copyrights and failed to stop using its content despite repeated demands to do so over the past 18 months. Quoting well, the New York Times. The Times said in its lawsuit that it had contacted perplexity several times over the past 18 months demanding that the startup stop using the publications content until the two companies negotiated an agreement. But Perplexity continued to use the Times' material. The suit filed in federal court in New York is the latest in a growing legal battle between copyright holders and AI companies that includes

more than 40 cases around the country. In August 2024, Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and other publications made similar claims in another lawsuit against perplexity. This suit is also the second that the Times has filed against AI companies. In December, In December 2023, the Times sued OpenAI and its partner Microsoft, arguing that the companies trained their AI systems using millions of articles published by the Times without offering compensation. Microsoft and OpenAI, the maker of the chatbot chat chit, have disputed the claims. This new suit accuses perplexity of violating the Times' copyrights in several ways, most notably when the startup's search engine retrieves information from a website or database

and uses that information to generate a piece of text and to respond to queries from Internet users. That would not be fair use of the material, the suit claimed, because Perplexity grabbed large chunks of the publication's content, in some cases entire articles, and provided information that directly competed with what the Times offered its readers. Perplexity provides commercial products to its own users that substitute for the Times without permission or remuneration, the suit said. The Times also accused Perplexity of damaging its brand. In some cases, the suit said Perplexity search engine made up information, what AI researchers called hallucination, and falsely attributed that information to the Times. Perplexity did not immediately respond to a request for comment, end quote. The EU has fined X, $120 million for breaching online content rules,

the first fine under the DSA, citing issues including the deceptive design of its blue check marks. Quoting Reuters, the European Commission's tech chief Hena Verkunen said X's modest fine was proportionate and calculated based on the nature of the infringements, their gravity in terms of affected EU users, and their duration. We are not here to impose the highest fines. We are here to make sure that our digital legislation is enforced, and if you comply with our rules, you don't get the fine. And it's as simple as that, she told reporters. I think it's very important to underline that DSA is having nothing to do with censorship, for Kuhun said. She said,

forthcoming decisions on companies which have been charged with DSA violations are expected to take a shorter time than the two years for the X case. I'm really expecting that we will do the final decisions now faster, she said, end quote. Ready to soundtrack your summer? With Red Bull Summer All Day Play, you choose a playlist that fits your summer vibe the best. Are you a festival fanatic, a deep end DJ, a road dog, or a trail mixer? Just add a song to your chosen playlist and put your summer on track. Red Bull Summer All Day Play. Red Bull gives you wings. Visit redbull.com slash bright summer ahead to learn more. See you this summer.

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Must be 21 to enter. This is really starting to become concerning at this point if you're an Apple fan. Apple says General Counsel Kate Adams and policy chief Lisa Jackson will now retire, and Jennifer Newstead, Mehta's former chief legal officer, will replace at least Adams. Also, a review of LinkedIn profiles shows dozens of Apple employees with expertise in audio, watch design, robotics, and more left to join OpenAI in recent months. Quoting the journal, Apple is facing a wave of executive departures as the company continues a period of transition, not only among its leadership, but if rivals have their way, for its business as well.

On Thursday, the company announced that its general counsel and head of policy will both retire next year. On Wednesday, a top designer left for meta-platforms. On Monday, Apple said its head of artificial intelligence strategy would retire. Its chief operating officer announced his retirement in July, and its chief financial officer has transitioned to a new role. The executive departures underscore a changing of the guard underway at Apple, even if Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook himself isn't stepping down at this point. Cook and his new lieutenants face a critical test preparing Apple for the AI era and the wave of new competitive devices that result. Further down the org chart, dozens of Apple employees have defected to Open AI and meta in recent months, part of a long-term brain drain that has robbed the company of innovations and seeded rivals with expertise they hope to use to dethrone the digital device king.

dozens of Apple engineers and designers with expertise in audio, watch design, robotics, and more have decamped to Open AI in recent months, according to a review of LinkedIn profiles, end quote. According to similar web, generative AI platforms were averaging around 7 billion monthly web visits as of September 2025, up 76% year-on-year, rivaling the traffic of major social networks. Quoting the decoder, mobile growth is even starker. Sessions in Gen.A.I. Apps increased five-fold.

and app downloads surged 778%. ChatGPT remains the primary driver of this expansion. OpenAI's platform grew from about 19 million monthly visits in 2022 to roughly 5.9 billion by September of 2025. This places the site among the world's five most visited websites, putting it in the same league as Instagram, which saw six and a half billion visits in September. Despite rising competition from Gemini Claude and perplexity, chat GPT still commands nearly 80% of global gen AI visits. Similar web's data suggests chatbots aren't replacing traditional search just yet. Of the 462 million people who visited chat GPT, 95% also use Google.

The 441 million overlapping users suggest people switch between conversational AI and search engines depending on the task. Demographics are shifting as well, while 18 to 34-year-olds remain the largest cohort with 1.9 billion users, 53% older groups are adopting the technology fastest. Users aged 45 and over now make up nearly 30% of all visitors, end quote. An alleged Google Insider has allegedly made $1 million on polymarket in the last 24 hours, quoting Forbes. A polymarket trader known as Alpha Raccoon has ignited controversy after allegedly netting over $1 million in 24 hours by placing suspiciously accurate bets on Google's 2025 year-in-search rankings. The trader's near-perfect record

of 22 correct predictions out of 23 attempts has sparked accusations of insider trading, raising uncomfortable questions about prediction market, integrity, just as Wall Street money floods into the sector. The controversy centers on markets asking which personalities would rank highest in Google's annual search trends. Alpha Raccoon placed large positions on obscure questions about search rankings for figures ranging from Pope Leo to Kendrick Lamar to Zoran Mamdani, achieving accuracy rates that strained statistical credibility. According to social media allegations, Google accidentally published the year in search data early before quickly retracting it, but Alpha Raccoon had made his bets far before this had happened. Just a few months after

Intercontinental Exchange invested $2 billion in the platform valuing it at $8 billion, the company faces accusations that its markets can be systematically exploited by insiders with privileged information. The alleged scheme exposes a fundamental vulnerability in prediction markets that regulators have yet to address. Alpha Raccoon's portfolio tells a revealing story. The trader holds 3.4 million in open positions across 92 predictions with a suspiciously high concentration on Google-related events. In the year in search markets, the trader placed substantial bets on highly specific outcomes, such as whether Bianca Sensori would be the number one search person on Google this year, whether Pope Leo would rank in the top five and whether D4VD would claim the top spot.

The markets themselves were remarkably granular, asking not just about general trends, but specific ranking positions. This level of detail and trade size makes random accuracy virtually impossible. Getting 22 out of 23 such predictions correct would be like correctly predicting not just the winner of 23 horse races, but the exact order of finish down to fourth or fifth place in each race. This is also not Alpha Raccoon's first brush with suspiciously accurate Google predictions. In November 2025, the trader allegedly earned over $150,000 by correctly predicting the exact release date of Google's Gemini 3 model, predicting not just that a product would launch in November, but the precise day it would be announced suggests access to information beyond

public speculation. Here is where prediction markets diverge dramatically from traditional securities trading. If Alpha Raccoon worked at Google and traded on non-public information about the company's stock, the Securities and Exchange Commission could pursue criminal insider trading charges. Penalties could include prison time, disgorgement of profits, and substantial fines. But prediction markets exist in a regulatory gray zone. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulates them as derivatives platforms rather than securities exchanges. Current CFTC rules do not explicitly address insider trading in prediction market contracts the way SEC rules govern securities trading. And the various platform's options for addressing suspected insider trading remains limited. Unlike centralized sportsbooks that can

void bets or close accounts at will, Polymarket operates on blockchain infrastructure with smart contracts that execute automatically. Once positions are recorded on Polygon, the platform cannot simply reverse them without undermining the entire premise of decentralized prediction markets. Polymarket could potentially limit Alpha Raccoons access to the front end. The platform could also implement know-your-customer requirements that might deter insiders from exploiting their positions. However, these measures conflict with the crypto-native ethos that attracted many users to the platform in the first place, end quote. Yeah, here's the thing. We should expect this to explode everywhere.

Like, how many times in your life have you just stumbled across information that a lot of people didn't know about? Before, you only had to watch for inside trading on the stock market right now. You're going to have people front-running everything from, you know, what team a soccer star is going to sign for to the announcement of your kids' high school's valedictorian. For the long reads this week, I have three pieces from the same author about the same topic from three different angles. In the New York Times, Peter S. Goodman takes a look at how TSM, Intel, and Amcor are transforming Phoenix into the U.S.'s's Chip Hub, investing tens of billions of dollars and showing the difficulties of large-scale U.S. chip projects. He looks at TSM Village in North Phoenix, as TSM brings an influx of skilled workers from Taiwan who face challenges like adapting to sprawling American suburbia, and how

efforts to turn Phoenix into a U.S. Hub may hinge on training local workers. An estimated 115,000 local chip jobs are set to be created there in just four years. No bonus episodes for you this weekend. And yes, ad-free listeners. I'm sorry, I accidentally left an ad in your show yesterday. Simple problem of uploading the wrong file. What can I say? It's been a rough week.

Editing this show for Brian this week. We'll endeavor to do better next week. Ambition comes in all shapes and sizes. At First Citizens Bank, we roll with your goals because we're built for what you're building. Fit for your ambition, First Citizens Bank.