Brian Boyle

brian@thedailyupside.com

Brian Boyle (he/him) is Lead Reporter at The Daily Upside. His writing has previously appeared in outlets such as Vice, Slate, and The Los Angeles Times, where he was a contributing writer on the opinion section. He lives in Los Angeles.

Media & Entertainment

Can Paramount and Warner Bros. Defy History of Lackluster Hollywood Mergers?

Photo via DC Studios/ The Safran Company/ Warner Bros. / Album/Newscom

If, at first, Discovery, AT&T, AOL, Time and others fail? Well, David Ellison is going to go ahead and give Warner Brothers a try anyway.

6 min read
Media & Entertainment

Wanna Bet? MLB Makes Polymarket Its Official Predictions Market Partner

Photo via Kyodonews/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred pitched prediction markets Thursday as potentially more immune to illegal behavior than online sportsbooks.

2 min read
Media & Entertainment

Can New CEO Josh D’Amaro Break Disney’s Bob Chapek Curse?

Photo via IMAGO/Kobe Li/IMAGO/Nexpher Images/Newscom

D’Amaro, like Chapek, made his bones in Disney’s parks and cruises division, which continues to be a major profit driver.

2 min read
Blockchain

Mastercard Embraces Digital Future with $1.8 Billion Bet on Stablecoin

Photo via IMAGO/Michael Bihlmayer/IMAGO/Bihlmayerfotografie/Newscom

It’s a move that could help secure Mastercard’s place in not just the crypto world of tomorrow, but the AI-driven one too.

2 min read
Industries

Farm Bill Providing Big Boost to Agri-Tech Gains Momentum in Congress

Photo by Getty Images via Unsplash

While comprehensive farm bills are typically passed every five years, Congress hasn’t passed a comprehensive farm bill since 2018.

1 min read
Energy

Clean Energy Regains Its Swagger as Hedge Against Wartime Oil Crisis

Photo via Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group/Newscom

The iShares Global Clean Energy ETF jumped more than 5% last week, exceeding the oil-and-gas-focused Vanguard Energy ETF’s 1.3% gain.

1 min read
Artificial Intelligence

Amazon-Perplexity Lawsuit Heralds Start of Shop-Bot Wars

Photo via Yoshio Tsunoda/AFLO/Newscom

This week, Amazeon scored a court order against Perplexity to ban, for now, the AI startup’s agents from shopping on its e-commerce platform.

2 min read
Artificial Intelligence

Oracle Regains Its Footing amid SaaSpocalypse

Photo via CNP/AdMedia/Newscom

Filings this week also revealed that the value of Oracle’s roughly 15% stake in the new US edition of TikTok sits at about $2.2 billion.

2 min read
Energy

Wall Street Snubs Big Oil Stocks amid Crude Price Runup

Photo by Raymond Kotewicz via Unsplash

Some traders see a possible parallel to the spike and subsequent crash in oil prices in 2008 if the war drags on and threatens supplies.

2 min read
Media & Entertainment

Live Nation Settlement with DOJ Stirs ‘Bad Blood’ with State-Level Skeptics

Photo via Matteo Bazzi/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom

It’s hardly the first time the government has tried to modify the company’s behavior without tearing it apart.

2 min read
Healthcare

Eli Lilly Widens Access to Weight-Loss Injectable as Lower-Cost Pill Nears Approval

Photo via Gado Images/Smith Collection/Gado/Sipa USA/Newscom

Just 20% of firms with 200 or more workers said they covered GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker.

2 min read
Markets

Iran War Turns Middle Eastern Tourist Hot Spots into Strike Zones

Photo by Getty Images via Unsplash

Shares in travel firms are plummeting as Iranian counter-attacks on the US and Israel target vacation spots such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

2 min read
Healthcare

Locking in Locks: Pharma Develops New Treatments to Prevent Hair Loss

Photo by DedMityay via iStock

As the GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound have proven, there’s a lot of money to be made in helping people look good and feel good.

2 min read
Energy

Power-Hungry AI Data Centers Electrify Utilities’ Capital Spending

Photo via David Becker/ZUMA Press/Newscom

2 min read
Real Estate

US Housing Market Doesn’t Have Much ‘Tailwind’: Lowe’s CEO

Photo by https://unsplash.com/photos/condo-neighborhood-in-the-suburbs-ROVuTYG_jso via Unsplash

The value of single-family US homes increased at the slowest rate in 14 years in December, according to the S&P Cotality Case-Shiller Index.

2 min read
Semiconductors

Who Will End Up Paying for Nvidia’s Boom?

Photo via Lance Jording/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom

Nvidia’s performance underlines the key questions facing seemingly the entire stock market right now, both inside and outside the AI trade.

2 min read
Media & Entertainment

What’s the Point of Buying Warner Bros., Anyway?

Photo by Julie May via Unsplash

Netflix, with its 325 million subscribers, swears its potential (if not likely) acquisition of Warner Bros amounts to vertical integration.

2 min read
Healthcare

Gilead Strikes $7.8 Billion Deal for Control of Cancer Biotech Arcellx

Photo via Yichuan Cao/Sipa USA/Newscom

The pharma giant already held an 11.5% stake as part of a 2022 effort to co-develop and co-commercialize the cancer treatment anito-cel.

2 min read
Media & Entertainment

Roku Is Quietly Becoming a Media Power Player

Photo via Richard B. Levine/Newscom

In its fourth-quarter earnings call last week, Roku announced its platform revenue grew 18% year-over-year to reach $1.2 billion.

2 min read
International Economics

Tariff Costs Triple for Midsized US Businesses: JPMorgan

Photo via Walter G. Arce Sr./ZUMAPRESS/Newscom

For mid-sized firms largely lack the ability to dictate trade terms or shuffle their supply chains, making tarriffs a major pain.

2 min read

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