Paramount’s a long way from its peak
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2024
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
SoftBank is leading an investment of more than $1bn into a UK self-driving car start-up, and poppy and marijuana farming money is disappearing from rural areas as traffickers shift to synthetic drugs. Plus, the FT’s Anna Nicolaou explains the rival bids to buy Paramount.
Mentioned in this podcast:
SoftBank leads $1bn funding for UK artificial intelligence group Wayve
El Chapo’s opium heartland bereft as Mexico cartels embrace fentanyl
Shari Redstone, a media scion weighing the future of her ravaged empire
James Cameron and Ari Emanuel back Skydance bid for Paramount
Brussels seeks to ban Russian funding of European politicians
The FT News Briefing is produced by Fiona Symon, Sonja Hutson, Kasia Broussalian and Marc Filippino. Additional help by Denise Guerra, Sam Giovinco, Peter Barber, Michael Lello, David da Silva and Gavin Kallmann. Our engineer is Monica Lopez. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. The show’s theme song is by Metaphor Music.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The UK's energy partner. |
| 0:06.0 | Learn more at equinore. |
| 0:10.0 | At Aquinore. UK. Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Tuesday, May 7th, and this is your |
| 0:17.6 | FT news briefing. Even more money is being thrown at artificial intelligence, this time in the United Kingdom. |
| 0:25.2 | And the Hollywood studio Paramount is having a hard time sealing a deal. |
| 0:30.0 | Plus Mexican marijuana and poppy farmers used to make bank off their crops, but synthetic drugs are the hot new thing. |
| 0:39.0 | It's a sort of traffickers dream business, the fentanyl business. I'm Mark Filipino and here's the |
| 0:45.0 | news you need to start your day. Softbank is leading what is now Europe's largest artificial intelligence deal. |
| 1:06.0 | The Japanese conglomerate is organizing a $1 billion investment in the autonomous systems in cars. The startup has developed software that allows vehicles to learn |
| 1:24.9 | while driving and it's in talks with several carmakers. So aside from $1 billion being a very large |
| 1:31.4 | number, why is this a big deal? Well, we are always |
| 1:35.0 | curious to see what SoftBank is investing in, but this is also a major |
| 1:39.0 | development for the UK because the country wants to be a global hub of AI research. |
| 1:44.0 | The American Studio Paramount has been a legend in Hollywood. It owns CBS. It brought you the Godfather and of course, |
| 1:58.4 | Titanic. But it hasn't kept up with the streaming revolution. Its stock is down 73% over the past five years. |
| 2:07.0 | So maybe an offer from the production company Skydance to By Paramount could turn things around. |
| 2:13.0 | Here to tell us more is the FT's Anna Nickleau. |
| 2:16.0 | Hey Anna. |
| 2:17.0 | Hi Mark, how's it going? |
| 2:18.0 | Oh good, I'm glad to have you with us. |
| 2:20.0 | So this potential deal from Sky Dance has received major backing by some Hollywood power |
| 2:25.3 | players. What do we know about it? |
... |
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