Nat Versus the Volcano: Can an AI Investor Solve an Ancient Mystery from the Ashes of Vesuvius?Read more

Former Disney executive Kevin Mayer. Photo by AP

Former Disney Exec Kevin Mayer's Comeback

Photo: Former Disney executive Kevin Mayer. Photo by AP

How the world turns! A little more than a year ago, Disney’s onetime streaming chief, Kevin Mayer, looked like he had made the career blunder of the decade by quitting as CEO of TikTok during a short-lived fuss over the hugely popular app’s Chinese ownership. Today, though, Mayer has emerged as a player in the intense battle underway between tech and media companies trying to profit from the streaming boom.

Two pieces of news on Wednesday highlighted Mayer’s new status. Discovery, the TV firm buying control of HBO Max’s parent, WarnerMedia, from AT&T, said it had tapped Mayer as a consultant. Discovery CEO David Zaslav gushed to analysts that Mayer was a “big brain” who could help Discovery “with everything that he’s learned.” At about the same time, The Information reported that Mayer and his former Disney colleague, Tom Staggs, were close to a deal to buy kids’ streaming production firm Moonbug Entertainment for about $3 billion through a firm backed by Blackstone. It would be the second deal done by the Mayer-Staggs-Blackstone group, following their $900 million purchase of Reese Witherspoon’s studio Hello Sunshine. The team is betting that the value of independent production houses can only go up from here, thanks to the streaming boom.

Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
OpenAI's Greg Brockman (left) and Google's Demis Hassabis (right). Photos by Getty.
AI Agenda google ai
OpenAI Hustles to Beat Google to Launch ‘Multimodal’ LLM
As fall approaches, Google and OpenAI are locked in a good ol’ fashioned software race, aiming to launch the next generation of large-language models: multimodal.
From left, a Google TPU, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and Google Cloud chief Thomas Kurian. Photos via Getty, Google and YouTube.
Exclusive google semiconductors
To Reduce AI Costs, Google Wants to Ditch Broadcom as Its TPU Server Chip Supplier
Google executives have extensively discussed dropping Broadcom as a supplier of artificial intelligence chips as early as 2027, according to a person with direct knowledge of the effort.
Flexport founder Ryan Petersen. Photos via Getty and Flexport.
e-commerce
Can Ryan Petersen Fix Flexport?
Ryan Petersen was getting antsy. This March, Petersen had handed over the CEO job at Flexport—the logistics company he’d founded a decade earlier, which had ballooned to an $8 billion valuation in 2022—to veteran Amazon executive Dave Clark.
Photo via Midjourney.
AI Agenda startups ai
The Rise of Startups That Help Other Startups Evaluate LLMs
All but a handful of artificial intelligence startups typically fall into one of two camps. The first group uses a single large-language model, typically OpenAI’s GPT-4, to power their applications.
Photos via Eiso Kant (left) and YouTube/VMWare Tanzu (right)
AI Agenda startups ai
How GitHub Copilot’s Co-Creator Raised $126 Million to Compete with His Former Employer
Recent interest in artificial intelligence has focused on large-language models that aim to do everything from writing Shakespearean poetry to solving math riddles.
Art by Mike Sullivan
entertainment media/telecom
Disney-Charter Deal Could Prompt More Cable TV-Streaming Bundles
Last week, Charter Communications, the No. 2 cable provider, and Walt Disney Co. cut a deal to include Disney streaming services, such as Disney+ and a new ESPN service still in the works, with Charter’s cable television packages.