In today’s digest we look at Larry Ellison giving his personal backing to Paramount’s hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery, Instacart deciding to terminate price tests on its platform following pushback from customers, as well as Netflix's latest moves in the video podcast space.

Oracle co-founder backs Paramount’s hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery

Larry Ellison, co-founder and CTO of Oracle, has assured he will provide USD$40bn (£29.6bn) of personal backing to support Paramount’s USD$108bn (£80bn) hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). Ellison’s offer comes as a response to resolve doubts about the offer’s financing. 

The move is aimed at bringing WBD back to the negotiating table. According to the FT, someone close to Paramount commented that it would be open to upping its offer price if WBD showed goodwill.

Last week, WBD told its shareholders to vote in favour of Netflix’s offer. Netflix's bid of almost USD$83bn (£61.4) covers just WBD’s studio and streaming business, while Paramount’s offer is for WBD’s entire business, including its cable channels. WBD’s shareholders now have more time to consider both options, with the deadline for the tender offer having been extended to 21st January 2026. 

Someone involved in the hostile bid said that unless WBD engages with the Ellison family, Paramount’s attempt to derail Netflix’s takeover could go on for several months, the FT reported. 

Instacart terminates AI price tests

Instacart has terminated price testing on its platform: effective immediately, the company announced on Monday that AI algorithms would no longer be used to price test items on consumers. The decision follows considerable consumer uproar surrounding the testing. 

Earlier this month, a report covering an investigation conducted by Consumer Reports and Groundwork Collaborative was published, which found that Instacart was displaying differing prices to different users for the same items at the same time.

During the experiment, over 400 shoppers across four US cities added the same items from the same stores simultaneously to their shopping carts (selecting the order collection option so as to not include different delivery costs). The result? They saw an average difference of 13% between the highest and lowest prices, with the highest going up to 23%. 

Instacart’s decision to terminate these price tests comes a week after it was ordered to pay USD$60m (£45m) in refunds to its customers in order to settle the Federal Trade Commission’s allegations that it used deceptive practices to raise costs for shoppers. 

Netflix pushes further into podcast space

Netflix has been busy making deals as it pushes further into the podcast space. The streaming giant reportedly wants to have between 50 to 75 titles ready to go in early 2026.

Last week, it announced an exclusive video podcasting partnership with iHearMedia for more than 15 original iHeartPodcasts. It also announced a deal with Barstool Sports to exclusively carry three video podcasts: Pardon My Take, The Ryen Russillo Show, and Spittin' Chiclets. The video versions of these will be pulled from YouTube, to be shown exclusively on Netflix, although the audio versions will remain available on other platforms.

Netflix will be announcing further exclusive deals to bring video podcasts to its platform early next year. Podcasts in the culture and wellness space are expected, as well as others in categories including sports and crime. 

Until next year!

This is our last digest of 2025. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year! We'll be back on 5th January, bringing you more news from the worlds of ad tech, media, marketing and commerce.