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- Warner Bros. gives Paramount a week for its best and final offer
Warner Bros. gives Paramount a week for its best and final offer
Plus: The startup transforming pet adoption
Matt Davis
February 18, 2026
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Happy Wednesday, !
This week’s world-famous news haiku competition™ is about all the high-profile business, tech and finance people who’ve shown up in the Epstein Files. Send me your entry — to our spiffy email address, haiku at cheddar dot com — by noon ET Thursday, for consideration by your Cheddar peers!
And now for something completely different.
Matt Davis — Need2Know Chedditor
News You Need2Know
What’s the stock market up to, eh?
Companies mentioned in today’s newsletter
Warner Bros gives Paramount a week for its best and final offer
Harry Potter: Some of Warner Bros.’ valuable intellectual property, particularly if you’re a streaming giant dependent on eyeballs for your revenue.
Warner Bros Discovery $WBD ( ▲ 0.07% ) has reignited the bidding war for its future, granting Paramount $PSKY ( ▼ 2.29% ) a seven-day window to make its “best and final” offer after Netflix's $NFLX ( ▼ 0.65% ) $83 billion acquisition bid. The WBD board appears firm in its support for the Netflix deal but has allowed the weeklong talks to fully assess Paramount’s intentions.
“This is a ‘put up or shut up’ moment for Paramount,” said a source close to the negotiations, talking to the Financial Times. Paramount’s latest $108 billion offer includes all of WBD’s assets, unlike Netflix’s bid, and promises improved chances of antitrust approval. However, WBD has expressed doubts, with CEO David Zaslav calling on Paramount to address the “deficiencies” in its proposal and deliver a “binding” deal that offers “superior value.”
While Paramount has hinted at raising its bid from $30 to $31 per share — and even going higher — no formal revision has been made. Paramount insists its current bid is already stronger than Netflix’s and has garnered support from an activist investor opposing the Netflix deal, Ancora Holdings. However, Netflix warned that Paramount is “misleading WBD stockholders” about regulatory risks.
WBD shareholders will vote on the Netflix deal on March 20. With tensions mounting, these seven days could shape the future of the legendary studio behind Harry Potter and Friends. Or they could just decide which streaming platform you’re able to watch those properties on in a year’s time. 🤷
Tinder for pets: A startup changing pet adoption
Valentine's Day is about finding love, and for Get Buddy founder and CEO Ryan Howard, that love story is about pets finding their forever homes. His tech-driven platform, dubbed "Tinder for pets," aims to solve a heartbreaking issue: The high rate of pet returns.
"About a half a million dogs returned each year," Howard explains, noting this is "about the same number of dogs that are put down." A lack of preparation, especially around holidays like Christmas and Valentine's Day, leads to surges in returns when animals are given as gifts.
Get Buddy tackles this with a massive database and advanced AI. The AI helps users navigate the adoption process, advising on "the best breed for your lifestyle," preparing the home, and quantifying "all the costs as well so you know upfront what you're getting into." The platform also supports rescues with tech that uses AI to "write a full, really robust, really compelling description for that animal that we empirically know will get more uptake."
Howard is optimistic about the future of adoption. "There are a million animals put down a year, and all you need is a shift of about 15% from people buying bred animals to adopting,” he said. “And we can solve this problem."
Quote of the Day
We are taking the first step in opening a structured good-faith dialogue with our lenders.
Lenders to commercial real estate owners: Pay up now
Office delinquency rates are hitting records. Source: Trepp
The commercial real estate sector is grappling with a massive wave of defaults as lenders abandon "extend and pretend" strategies in the face of rising interest rates and declining office demand. The delinquency rate for office loans in commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) hit a record 12.34% in January, with $25 billion in loans now past maturity, according to Trepp.
The industry is also navigating long-term changes in office usage brought on by remote and hybrid work. “This isn’t just an economic cycle — it’s a structural shift,” explained Alex Killick, senior managing director at CW Asset Management, talking to the Wall Street Journal as he underscored the bleak outlook for many commercial properties across the U.S.
Some high-profile examples of troubled loans include the $515 million mortgage tied to the upper floors of the New York Times building. Brookfield Asset Management, the property’s owner, has extended the loan five times since 2020 but is now talking with its lenders after losing a major tenant. “We are taking the first step in opening a structured good-faith dialogue with our lenders,” a Brookfield spokesperson said.
That’s like when you can’t afford your car payment and you get involved in a structured good-faith dialog with the guy who shows up to tow it, I think.
While industrial and grocery-anchored properties continue to perform well, office buildings in cities like St. Louis, Dallas, and Portland, Oregon, have become “zombie” properties, dragging down local economies.
“There’s plenty more to come,” warned Killick, as the commercial real estate crisis deepens.
Song of the Day: Jill Scott, JID, ‘To B Honest’
“To B Honest" is a standout track from Jill Scott's sixth studio album, “To Whom This May Concern,” released last week. Featuring Atlanta rapper JID, the song has been critically acclaimed as a rush of neo-soul that highlights Scott's return to the genre after an eleven-year hiatus.
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European Parliament blocks AI on lawmakers’ devices, citing security risks
What a bunch of killjoys. The European Parliament has blocked the use of AI tools baked into lawmakers' work devices. Citing risks to cybersecurity and confidentiality, the Parliament’s IT department said in an email, seen by Politico, that it is "safer to keep such features disabled" while they assess the full scope of what data is shared with AI companies.
AI chatbots, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s $MSFT ( ▼ 0.23% ) Copilot, rely on user-provided data to improve their models. This practice has sparked concerns that sensitive government information could be exposed or fall into unintended hands. According to the IT department, there’s insufficient assurance that confidential information wouldn’t inadvertently be shared or stored on servers, particularly those operated by U.S. companies. It’s almost like those Europeans are losing confidence in the U.S. as a trusted ally for some reason.
An increasing number of countries have begun taking steps to restrict social media access for children and teens, following Australia’s successful ban last December. Concerns over cyberbullying, mental health issues, addiction, and exposure to predators are driving the shift:
Denmark plans to ban social media for children under 15 by mid-2026. The country is also developing an age-verification app as part of this initiative.
France passed a bill in January to ban social media for kids below 15, with strong support from President Macron.
Malaysia, Spain, and Slovenia are drafting similar legislation, while Germany, Greece, and the U.K. still evaluate their options.
I think the biggest sign that this stuff is terrible for kids is the fact that the senior staff at companies like $META ( ▲ 0.16% ) don’t allow their kids anywhere near social, according to the book “Careless People” by former Facebook policy boss Sarah Wynn Williams.
What do you think? Let us know in today’s poll!
Should you check your 401(k) today?
👍️
Okay but don’t get too excited.
Poll of the day: Should we ban social media for kids?
Poll of the day: Careful with that hamstring
We asked: Do you think it's important to stretch before and/or after exercise?
You answered:
⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Are you calling me weak, bro? It sounds like you're calling me weak. (27)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ I used to think it meant I was weak, then I got a horrific injury because I didn't stretch properly. Now I stretch with the devotion of a religious person. (34)
🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ If I could stretch more, I would stretch more. But there are no more hours in the day, and the ones that are available, I stretch during all of them. (86)
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Why should this be a big deal? I have always followed the advice to stretch before and after exercise and I don't think that makes me boring. (200)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ I would die before I stretch more. In fact, that's my intention. (33)
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Only after, never before. Gotta maintain that spring tension when I run! (33)
413 Votes via @beehiiv polls
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