Warner stock jumps on talk of Paramount bid

Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.

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1.

Paramount Play: Warner Bros Discovery stock jumped as much as 37.5% after The Wall Street Journal reported Paramount Skydance is preparing a majority cash bid for the company. The bid, backed by the Ellison family, has not been submitted and could still fall apart. It would cover the entire company, including its movie studio, streaming assets and cable networks, according to the Journal. The news comes as Warner plans to split into two divisions by next April, one focused on legacy cable TV and the other on streaming and studios. The streaming and studio assets would be renamed Warner Bros, while the cable networks, including TNT and CNN, would become Discovery Global. Paramount and Skydance completed their merger last month. Shares in Warner rose to as much as USD 17.24 on Thursday, before closing almost 29% higher. Paramount Skydance gained 15.5%. Both companies declined to comment. (Capital Brief)(WSJ)

2.

AI outsourcing: On Thursday morning Alex Zaccaria called an all-hands meeting with Linktree's 200-plus employees to relay a simple message: You should all be using AI. Comparing AI to the advent of electricity, the company’s CEO and co-founder said that companies like his need fundamentally revamp how they work to get the productivity boom he's convinced AI can ignite. “It's not at all about reducing costs or reducing headcount,” Zaccaria told Capital Brief. “In fact, it's not cheaper… but it is about looking at how we can be way more efficient and make sure that we can increase what we're calling 'time on craft.'” AI will be a part of performance reviews within the link-in-bio unicorn, and managers seeking to expand their team’s headcount will first be asked whether that work can be done by AI. Deferring more work to AI, he said, will allow the startup to hire people in growth areas rather than for "more admin." (Capital Brief)

3.

Epstein scandal: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer fired the British ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, following new revelations about his links to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The new information came to light after the publication of a 2003 birthday book in which Mandelson wrote a 10-page tribute calling Epstein his “best pal.” On Wednesday, Bloomberg reported that the day before Epstein reported to a Florida jail in June 2008 to begin serving time for soliciting sex from a minor, he received a message of support from Mandelson. “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened,” an email obtained by Bloomberg reads. “I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain.” The UK Foreign Office on Thursday said that in light of the revelations, “the prime minister has asked the foreign secretary to withdraw him as ambassador.” (Bloomberg)(BBC)(Capital Brief)

4.

Fed pressure: Rising inflation and weakening jobs data pulled the US Fed in opposing directions ahead of next week’s policy meeting, with consumer prices climbing at their fastest pace since January and unemployment claims hitting a nearly four-year high. The Labor Department reported consumer prices rose 2.9% in August from a year earlier, up from July’s 2.7%, while the core index excluding food and energy increased 3.1%. On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.4%, with gains in cars, clothes, food and housing. Grocery costs jumped 0.6% in August, including sharp annual increases in coffee, beef steaks and apples. Initial claims for unemployment benefits increased by 27,000 to 263,000 last week, the highest since October 2021, underscoring a cooling labour market following slower payroll growth over the summer. Firmer prices have not shaken expectations of a 25 basis point Fed cut next week, with stocks rallying in response. (Capital Brief)(BLS)(Bloomberg)(Reuters)(DofL)

5.

Dimon’s emails: Ten Democratic Senators are calling for a congressional hearing into JPMorgan Chase’s decision to keep Epstein as a client for about 15 years, including after his 2008 conviction. They want CEO Jamie Dimon and other executives to testify under oath about what they knew. “The American people deserve to know what happened at JPMorgan and other banks that financed Mr Epstein,” the senators wrote in a letter to Sen Tim Scott, cited by The Wall Street Journal. A JPMorgan spokeswoman told the paper it was a mistake to associate with Epstein and that it regrets its association with him. The bank has paid around USD 365 million in settlements with victims and the US Virgin Islands. The bank has sought to blame former executive Jes Staley, who it says misled the company. Staley has said he didn’t know about Epstein’s crimes. (WSJ)

6.

Shooter hunt: The FBI released photos of a person of interest in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and said it had recovered the rifle believed to have been used in the attack at Utah Valley University. The older-model Mauser bolt-action was found wrapped in a towel in a wooded area near the campus where the gunman fled. It contained one spent cartridge and three unfired rounds, according to media reports. A preliminary report said some cartridges were engraved with transgender and anti-fascist wording, though officials stressed this was unverified. Authorities said the shooter appeared to be of college age and was tracked on video jumping from a building to escape. Kirk, 31, founder of Turning Point USA and a close ally of Donald Trump, was pronounced dead in hospital. Trump ordered flags lowered and said he will award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom. (NYT)(AP)

7.

Workers out: US authorities released more than 300 South Koreans detained in an immigration raid at a Hyundai-LG battery plant under construction in Georgia and sent them home Thursday local time on a chartered Korean Air flight, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said. The workers, held for nearly a week at a detention centre in Folkston, walked out in their own clothing without handcuffs before boarding buses to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport. A South Korean official told the Wall Street Journal that President Trump paused repatriation to hear Seoul’s position on whether the workers should stay or leave. Seoul said they were exhausted and should return home, which the US accepted. A total of 317 South Koreans were detained, with all but one boarding the flight. Fourteen others (10 Chinese, three Japanese and one Indonesian) were also expected to depart. About 475 workers were arrested in the operation, the largest single-site enforcement in Homeland Security’s history. (Capital Brief)(Bloomberg)(WSJ)(CNBC)

8.

Euro hold: The European Central Bank kept its key deposit rate at 2% for a second consecutive meeting, after halving rates in the year to June. The decision was widely expected, with the ECB saying the economy is in a “good place” and inflation is “where we want it to be”. It lifted its 2025 growth forecast to 1.2% and trimmed its 2026 outlook to 1%. Headline inflation is now seen averaging 2.1% in 2025, 1.7% in 2026 and 1.9% in 2027. Lagarde said brief, minor deviations from the 2% target wouldn’t necessarily trigger a policy shift. She also said risks to growth had become more balanced, with trade uncertainty easing after a 15% EU-US tariff deal. It comes amid ongoing global uncertainty, including French fiscal instability, threats of US retaliation over the EU’s fines to American tech companies, and the Fed’s expected rate cuts. Markets now see just a 40% chance of another ECB cut by northern spring 2026. (Capital Brief)(ECB)(Reuters)(WSJ)