This week, corporate shake-ups and shifting consumer behaviour dominated the advertising and media landscape, with Big Tech facing mounting scrutiny. In today’s MadTech Daily, we look at The Trade Desk’s leaked deck revealing its agentic AI plans, Nine cutting the value of its television business, and OpenAI bringing shopping to the ChatGPT sidebar.

The courts were particularly busy this week. WPP pushed back against Richard Foster’s wrongful-termination lawsuit, arguing that his claims amounted to an attempt to secure an excessive payout and denying that he qualifies as a whistleblower. Amazon is also facing a class action over its use of Twitch videos to train AI, despite previously offering creators an opt-out. Meanwhile, TikTok agreed to a USD$400m (£300m) settlement with the US government over allegations that it improperly collected personal data from children under 13. And in one of the week's biggest regulatory settlements, Meta agreed to pay up to USD$18bn (£13.5bn) over the next decade to 29 US states while introducing tighter restrictions around teenagers’ use of Facebook and Instagram.

Away from the courtroom, the business landscape saw some major moves. Shein is preparing for a Hong Kong listing at a valuation of up to USD$27bn (£20.3bn), considerably below the USD$30bn (£22.5bn) target reportedly considered earlier and far below the more than USD$100bn (£75bn) valuation it once commanded.

The advertising industry, meanwhile, continued to consolidate and innovate. Taptap Digital acquired UK-based Skyrise, combining its AI-powered location intelligence with Skyrise’s privacy-first audience targeting technology to create a platform designed to activate and measure audiences without cookies or personal identifiers.

At the same time, the Advertising Standards Authority relaunched its public awareness campaign with expanded industry backing, with Netflix and Waitrose joining existing supporters including Tesco, Marmite, Churchill and Compare the Market.