Several states have agreed to settle an antitrust lawsuit that sought to block the combination of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, removing the last major legal obstacle to the deal. Shares of both companies rose sharply following news of the settlement, as investors now expect the merger to move forward quickly.
Paramount Skydance reached a settlement with state attorneys general who had sued to block its $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery, avoiding a trial that was scheduled for next spring. As part of the deal, Paramount agreed to boost domestic production, follow certain theatrical release rules, and create a new board to oversee editorial independence at CBS News and CNN. CEO David Ellison told staff the company now expects to close the merger within about two weeks.
Paramount has reached a settlement resolving the antitrust lawsuit filed by 12 state attorneys general that had stalled its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The consent decree requires an editorial oversight board for CNN and CBS News, annual theatrical releases with added domestic production spending, and separate sale of cable bundles to distributors, but does not force Paramount to sell off its networks or studios. The agreement still needs court approval before the merger can proceed.
Archaeologists studying an ancient skeleton found evidence consistent with a woman who had her nose surgically removed, likely as a judicial punishment. Researchers noted she survived long enough to receive medical treatment for the wound but was ultimately buried in a manner suggesting social stigma or shame.
TechCrunch is offering discounts of up to $200 on tickets for its Disrupt 2026 conference, set for October 13-15 at San Francisco's Moscone West, with the reduced pricing ending September 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Buyers can also get a second ticket of the same type at half price, and the event will host over 10,000 attendees along with 200 early-stage startups in its Startup Battlefield program.
California and other states that had sued to block Paramount Skydance's $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery reached a settlement allowing the deal to proceed, according to multiple reports. The agreement reportedly relies on behavioral commitments from the companies rather than blocking the merger outright, and comes after four states that initially resisted California's proposed terms dropped their objections over the weekend.
Paramount reached a settlement with a coalition of state attorneys general and the Writers Guild of America that had sought to block its $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. The agreement includes commitments to produce more than 30 films annually and expand U.S.-based film production, addressing concerns raised about jobs and industry health.
A developer launched Radius on Hacker News, a hyper-local app for organizing informal meetups around shared interests like coffee, running, or biking. Users post an activity with a time and place, and nearby people interested in the same thing can join, positioning it as a lighter-weight alternative to Meetup.com's group-based model.
The FCC has approved Paramount Skydance's request to waive federal foreign-ownership limits, allowing indirect foreign ownership to reach 49.5 percent through investments from sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. The funds, totaling roughly $24 billion, are tied to Paramount's pending $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, a deal already cleared by the Justice Department but still facing a lawsuit from several US states.
Anthropic has quietly opened a physical biology lab in the San Francisco Bay Area, confirmed by its Head of Life Sciences Eric Kauderer-Abrams to Reuters. The lab supports both in-house experiments and outside collaborations, and is linked to but not limited to Claude Science, the drug discovery initiative Anthropic launched in June.
Researchers have described a previously unknown wild cat species, though evidence for its existence currently rests on just one confirmed living individual. The finding emerged from study of a poorly documented region, highlighting gaps in global mammal surveys. Experts say the animal is roughly the size of a domestic cat.
Researchers Jonas Lescroart and Paola Nogales-Ascarrunz have identified a new feline species, Leopardus tilcayo, native to Bolivia's Yungas cloud forests, marking the first new cat species discovery in over a century. The finding, published in Current Biology, began when Nogales-Ascarrunz noticed a rescued animal at a wildlife center had spots and a tail unlike any known local species, prompting genetic testing. The research also revealed a new tiger cat subspecies.