Warner Bros. Rejects Paramount Bid, Nick Reiner Court Appearance, Palisades Rebuild Update, CVLT Abuse Network Charges, World Cup Ticket Changes, Santa Barbara News-Press Returns, Estimate to Fix Downtown L.A. Building Disputed, Instacart's AI Experiment

Headlines From The Times

L.A. Times Studios

News, Daily News, Society & Culture, The Times, California

4.1 • 544 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The board of Warner Bros. Discovery rejects Paramount's hostile bid. Meanwhile, Nick Reiner appeared for the first time in Los Angeles Superior Court and was denied bail. And for nearly a year, Times reporters have been covering the rebuilding efforts in Pacific Palisades, following the devastating fires that destroyed thousands of homes. Meanwhile, Times reporters are reporting that four alleged members of a child sex abuse network have been charged; investigators say the group, CVLT, is mostly dismantled, but has splintered into another entity. Also, some exciting news for sports fans: it may be a bit easier to score tickets to the World Cup in 2026, with a new supporter entry tier for tickets at a fixed rate of $60. And, just up the 101 in Santa Barbara, the city's newspaper, the Santa Barbara News-Press, is back and with a new editor. In business, experts are saying L.A. County's $700 million estimate to retrofit its old headquarters is grossly inflated, and Instacart is facing backlash following an AI experiment that charged customers different prices for the same items.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an LA Times Studios podcast.
0:09.0	Hi, I'm Faith Pino, and you're listening to Headlines from LA Times Studios.
0:14.0	Here are some of today's top stories from the Los Angeles Times.
0:18.0	First, some news on a major media story we've been covering.
0:22.3	The board of Warner Brothers Discovery is rejecting Paramount's hostile bid, saying the $108 billion
0:29.6	deal isn't in the best interest of their shareholders.
0:34.0	Paramount is led by CEO David Ellison, a movie producer and the founder of Skydance Media,
0:40.4	whose father is billionaire Larry Ellison.
0:43.4	Their pursuit of Warner started back in September, making the hostile bid Paramount's
0:48.5	sixth offer for the studios.
0:51.2	But the board at Warner Brothers says that Ellison's new proposal carries too much risk
0:56.4	and that the family has failed to put real money behind it. It's a claim that Paramount
1:02.0	strongly rejects, saying that executives at Warner are misleading shareholders into thinking
1:08.3	that the deal is, quote, a complicated question about legal documents.
1:13.3	Ellison says the money is there. According to regulatory filings, the offer relied on billions from
1:19.2	private equity firms, including Jared Kushner's affinity partners. But this week, Kushner, President
1:26.1	Trump's son-in-law, pulled out of Paramount's financing group.
1:29.3	It's yet to be determined if Netflix or Paramount will be successful in their acquisition of Warner Brothers.
1:36.3	But Matt McAllister, a professor at Penn State University, says perhaps neither deal is in the best interest of the public. We don't want to see fewer companies having more control over our media.
1:49.0	And so no matter really how this turns out, it still is a little bit worrisome
1:54.0	because we're seeing a reduction in the number of organizations or voices in our media.
1:59.0	They promise that it'll be good for the
	...

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