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Warner Bros. again rejected Paramount’s latest takeover bid and told shareholders Wednesday to stick with a rival offer from Netflix.Warner’s leadership has repeatedly rebuffed Skydance-owned Paramount’s overturesand urged shareholders just weeks ago to back its the sale of its streaming and studio business to Netflix for $72 billion. Paramount, meanwhile, has sweetened its $77.9 billion offer for the entire company and gone straight to shareholders with a hostile bid.Warner Bros. Discovery said Wednesday that its board determined Paramount’s offer is not in the best interests of the company or its shareholders. It again recommended shareholders support the Netflix deal.Late last month Paramount announced an “irrevocable personal guarantee” from Oracle founder Larry Ellisonwho is the father of Paramount CEO David Ellisonto back $40.4 billion in equity financing for the company’s offer. Paramount also increased its promised payout to shareholders to $5.8 billion if the deal is blocked by regulators, matching what Netflix already put on the table.The battle for Warner and the value of each offer grows complicated because Netflix and Paramount want different things. Netflix’s proposed acquisition includes only Warner’s studio and streaming business, including its legacy TV and movie production arms and platforms like HBO Max. But Paramount wants the entire companywhich, beyond studio and streaming, includes networks like CNN and Discovery.If Netflix is successful, Warner’s news and cable operations would be spun off into their own company, under a previously-announced separation.A merger with either company will attract tremendous antitrust scrutiny. Due to its size and potential impact, it will almost certainly trigger a review by the U.S. Justice Department, which could sue to block the transaction or request changes. Other countries and regulators overseas may also challenge the merger. Associated Press
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E-Commerce
The stock prices of RAM and NAND manufacturers surged yesterday, with Micron Technology (Nasdaq: MU) up 10%, Sandisk Corporation (Nasdaq: SNDK) up 27%, Western Digital Corporation (Nasdaq: WDC) up 16%, and Seagate Technology Holdings (Nasdaq: STX) up 14%. The driving factor behind this recent stock surge is a shortage of RAM, or random-access memory. The shortage expected to last throughout 2026, and it could mean that youll pay much more for personal computers and smartphones this year. Heres what you need to know about the RAM shortage of 2026. Why is there a RAM shortage in 2026? The RAM shortage in 2026 can essentially be blamed on one thing: artificial intelligence. Major tech giants like Google and Amazon, as well as other so-called hyperscalers, are rushing to build as many AI data centers as possible. These data centers are packed with servers, and those servers run all the powerful AI services that are quickly becoming ubiquitous. Data center servers are made of various componentsstorage, CPUs, GPUs, and, critically, RAMthat are needed for them to be able to carry out their AI tasks. RAM is the short-term storage that digital devices use to quickly perform tasks. RAM, also colloquially known as memory chips, holds onto data for the short term. It differs from other forms of computer storage, like NAND chips, which are the flash storage used in SSDs, that are designed to hold data for the long term. The more RAM your smartphone or computer has, the faster it runs and the more quickly it carries out tasks. Manufacturers are racing to keep up with AI demand The problem now, which is driving the RAM shortage, is that RAM manufacturers have limited production capacity, so they must decide which types of RAM to produce. The servers used in AI data centers use a more advanced type of RAM than the RAM found in smartphones and personal computersand right now, that RAM is in high demand from tech giants in need of data centers. Big Tech companies are willing to pay a premium to get their hands on as much RAM as possible for their AI data centers, which means RAM manufacturers are prioritizing the production of the RAM that AI companies require over the RAM that consumer electronics companies acquire. This prioritization is leading to a shortage of the traditional RAM that is used in laptops and smartphones. The shortage could mean pricier smartphones in 2026 A shortage of any component often drives up its price, meaning consumer tech companies are now paying more for the traditional RAM that their devices require. In a TrendForce analysis published on Monday, the market intelligence firm reported that conventional DRAM contract pricesthe kind of RAM used in consumer electronicshave increased between 55% and 60% quarter over quarter. This price increase is due to the RAM shortage, and will likely mean that youll pay more for a new smartphone or laptop this year. Smartphone and computer manufacturers will typically not choose to absorb the costs of pricier components, instead passing them on to consumers to avoid a negative impact on their bottom lines. As for how much more consumers can expect to pay for their devices this year, the Financial Times reported this week that prices could rise by up to 20%. However, some industry analysts are expecting personal device price rises of less than 20%, notes the FT. That’s because consumer device companies could conceivably find ways to cut costs elsewhere, which they may be keen to do to avoid sinking sales of their devices during a period when most consumers already feel cash-strapped. RAM maker stock prices soar Given that the price of RAM chips is rising and demand from deep-pocketed Big Tech companies shows no signs of abating, its little surprise that the stock prices of memory makers are on an upward trajectory as of late. Yesterday, the share prices of four of the largest DRAM and NAND flash memory makers surged on the Nasdaq, with Micron, Seagate, Western Digital, and SanDisk all up by double digits. That sharp rise in memory maker stocks came after Mondays report from TrendForce as well as after comments from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. At CES 2026 this week, Huang said that the memory storage market was a “completely unserved market today and one that will likely be the largest storage market in the world, basically holding the working memory of the world’s AIs, according to Business Insider. Thanks primarily to this market demand, DRAM and NAND memory makers have seen their stock prices surge over the past six months. As of yesterdays close, Microns stock price was up more than 44% in the past six months, Seagates was up 121%, Western Digitals was up 231%, and Sandisk’s was up a staggering 653%.
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E-Commerce
Chat platform Discord filed confidentially for an initial public offering in the United States, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The U.S. IPO market regained momentum in 2025 after nearly three years of sluggish activity, but hopes for a stronger rebound were tempered by tariff-driven volatility, a prolonged government shutdown and a late-year selloff in artificial intelligence stocks. Deliberations are ongoing and the company could decide not to proceed with a listing, the report said. A Discord spokesperson told Bloomberg “the company’s focus remains on delivering the best possible experience for users and building a strong, sustainable business.” Discord did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Discord, which was founded in 2015, offers voice, video and text chatting capabilities aimed at gamers and streamers. It had more than 200 million monthly active users, according to a December statement on its website. Prakhar Srivastava and Nathan Gomes, Reuters
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E-Commerce
I recently argued that return-to-office mandates arent really about productivity; theyre about control. Ironically, my article published smack-dab in the middle of a September inflection point of increasing office time requirements, a phenomenon Owl Labs dubbed hybrid creep. And now, perhaps shockingly, Ive started a new job with a team that (gasp!) has an office. When I wrote my argument against RTO, I had no inkling that I would soon be back in an office (part-time) myself. I am now basically in a live experiment. So far, its changed how I feel about the idea of going into an office. It hasnt changed my view on RTO. A lab for truly flexible work My new team has a completely flexible work-location approach. There is an office, and we can come in if we want to. But theres no requirement or badge-swiping. Those of us who are local also collaborate daily with colleagues in drastically different time zonesEurope, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC). So our overall team is distributed enough that in-person work cant be our organizing religion. That makes my current situation a fascinating window into what happens when people are free to optimize their work model to their life needs, versus an imposed framework of what a workday is mandated to look like. When in-person time is voluntary, rhythms emerge instead of rules Im seeing that when location is genuinely a choice, people start building rituals. Theres a weekly team meeting for which many people choose to be in the office. There are social opportunities like an annual holiday party and happy hours. And the office itself is an uplifting, interactive place where dogs are allowed, theres a bar in the kitchen area, and people play music throughout the day. A few teammates come in more often simply because thats what works best for them. If someone is visiting from another location, the office fills up as people come in to see them. In-office time also doesnt have to be a full day. Many of us have early calls with EMEA, so we take those from home, head into the office midmorning, and leave before rush hour to finish up from home again. A main team meeting is midday, on purpose, to make that flow possible. A morning Slack thats more than a status report Another ritual I love is a deceptively simple morning Slack each person sends sharing where theyll be that day and whether theyll be offline at any point. On the surface, it sounds like basic coordination. In reality, it feels like a daily good morning and a window into each others lives. The messages arent just Ill be online 9-to-5, WFH. Theyre things like We had a loss in our family, so Ill be taking the day off;My puppy was sick last night, so Im working from home; andHeaded to a workout midday and will be back online by 2. These tiny updates are powerful because they keep us connected and normalize being a human with a life outside work. They also give us opportunities to respond and help cover for each other. How Im using the office now Im going into the office about two days a week, with my Tibetan terrier Basil trotting alongside me, eager to greet everyone when we walk in. My colleague keeps a laser pointer at his desk; Basil goes wild chasing the dot when we need a laugh break. Im trying to schedule one-on-ones for days when others are in, so theyre in-person catch-ups, not just agenda boxes checked off. We get the power of group thinking around a table, friendly greetings, and the ability to take a walking meeting instead of more staring at a screen. All of this feels like support, not surveillance. No one is proving they exist by punching a proverbial time clock. We go in by choice, which gives me gratitude for the option versus dreading going to an office. So, has this changed my view on RTO? Absolutely not. If anything, its reinforced my original point that dictating office time is a sign of poor leadership. The benefits Im witnessing wouldnt exist in the same way if they were forced rather than organic. The difference isnt office versus remote. The difference is a culture of empowerment versus a culture of control. In a control culture, leaders start with mandates such as how many days people must come in, and then try to retrofit culture. Any sense of flexibility is granted like a favor. In an empowerment culture, leaders start with trust and clarity: Heres what we need to achieve, heres how well communicate, here are your options of where you can work. Then they let people design their own patterns inside that useful guidance. In the first model, the office is a compliance tool. In the second, the office is a resource people leverage when it helps. A growing body of research on RTOs exists Were far enough past pandemic-forced flexible work to start seeing how different work-location models perform and their impacts. For example, a large study done at Baylor University tracked the LinkedIn histories of workers at S&P 500 firms and found that when companies imposed RTO mandates, turnover jumped by about 14% and hiring took longer. Even more concerning, turnover was more likely among top talent and those important to diversity (especially women, whose turnover rate was three times that of men). A separate two-year study of more than 800,000 employees by Great Place to Work found that productivity stayed stable or improved after moving to remote work; what mattered most was leadership quality and trust, not where people sat. I expect that in the long term, companies that dont empower their team members with flexible work location will experience enough brain drain that it will be difficult to remain competitive. There must be a better way, and I believe Im experiencing a version of it. What leaders can draw inspiration from You may not be able to copy our exact setup, but you can borrow from these themes: Replace mandates with rituals. Instead of dictating fixed in-office days, anchor around events such as weekly team meetings designed for collaboration, planning on-sites, and celebratory events that people actually want to attend. Design for life needs. If you want in-person time, schedule office-based meetings to avoid peak commutes and respect caregiving schedules. Start micro-updates. A daily or weekly Where Ill be check-in across the team takes only a minute for each person and creates a real sense of presence and care. Foster inclusion. The office should be a place where everyone feels invited. Ensure that people who are typically remote feel this too. They get invites to all major happenings like holiday parties, a CEO visit, etc. And when someone from another office or region visits, others know so they feel invited to come in. Make the office earn its gravity. If your office isnt a place people want to be (no dogs, decent spaces to collaborate, or sense of warmth), fix that before you fixate on policies. Many keep asking, How do we get people back to the office? Thats the wrong question. The better questions asked by true leaders are How do we give people the autonomy to choose the best place to do their best work while making the office one of those places? and How do we foster a culture that invites people in? My current experience is proof that when you take these approaches, the in-office magic happens, no mandate required.
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E-Commerce
Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. In todays article, were sharing the full results from the Q4 2025 Zoodealio-ResiClub Real Estate Agent Survey. To conduct our real estate agent survey, ResiClub partnered with Zoodealio, a cash-offer platform, and iBuyer-management software designed for real estate agents. Among the 204 agents who took the survey, half (51%) have been real estate agents for 15 years or longer. The survey was fielded from November 17 to December 29, 2025. Respondents included real estate agents spanning all regions of the U.S., giving us a ground-level view of buyer urgency, seller motivation, leverage shifts, commission structures, and expectations for the next 12 months. Heres what the results revealed. Buyer urgency cools and leverage continues to shift away from sellers Nationally, a majority (55%) of agents say buyer urgency is lower than it was 12 months ago. The pullback is most pronounced in the Southwest, where no agents reported seeing buyer urgency pick up, and 65% reported seeing lower urgency. This slowdown is underlined by a continued downturn of buyer demand, with 52% of U.S. agents reporting lower homebuyer demand relative to 12 months ago. As buyer demand softens and inventory continues to build, 54% of U.S. agents now say sellers outnumber buyers, with 64% of agents in the Southeast noting the trend, reinforcing that buyers are gaining negotiating power as they move less urgently. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of agents across all regions (82%) agree that the leverage continues to shift toward homebuyers in their local housing markets. As buyer urgency fades, seller urgency is rising. Nationally, 45% of agents say seller urgency is higher than it was 12 months ago, led by the West (51%), Southwest (48%), and Southeast (46%). In these regions, fewer sellers appear willing to wait for conditions to improve. By contrast, the Northeast looks more stable: 55% of agents there say seller urgency is about the same as a year ago. Agents expectations for 2026 In Q4 2025, 39% of agents surveyed expected home prices in their local market to increase over the next 12 months, up from 28% in Q3. The shift is driven by a rise in expectations for prices to stay flat or see slight appreciation, with only 2% of agents anticipating price increases of 5% or more. Mortgage-rate expectations have dipped lower over the past quarter. Earlier in 2025, many agents were still bracing for a higher-rate outcome by the end of the year. As the year progressed, that view softened: Throughout Q4, most agents reported their expectations shifted toward a mid-6% end point, with far fewer expecting rates to remain in the 7% range. Overall confidence is weak, but agents see growth coming from existing homeowners Some 60% of real estate agents surveyed describe their business outlook for the next 12 months as optimistic, led by those in the Southeast (67%). Where do agents think the pie can grow the most in 2026? They say more homeowners are looking to downsize. Roughly 43% say downsizers will be the fastest-growing client segment, followed by move-up buyers (20%). First-time buyers trail well behind (15%), reflecting ongoing affordability constraints. Agent commissions are holding upbut theyre still mad at NAR Sentiment toward the National Association of Realtors remains weak: 57% of agents describe their view as somewhat unfavorable (26%) or very unfavorable (31%), while only 13% express a somewhat favorable (10%) or very favorable opinion (3%) of the organization. Agent compensation structures remain largely similar to the way they were prior to the March 2024 NAR settlement: 88% of sell-side deals and 82% of buy-side deals still use fixed-percentage commissions, mostly in the 2% to 3% range. Alternative structures are more common on the buy side but remain a minority. Meanwhile, about 10% of U.S. agents say they have discussed iBuyer cash-offer options with clients very often in the past year. These conversations are most common between agents and clients in the Southwest and the Southeast. Big picture The Zoodealio-ResiClub Real Estate Agent Survey results from Q4 2025 show a market moving in the same direction, but with more clarity than in Q3. Buyer urgency has cooled further, seller urgency has picked up, and the majority of agents say sellers outnumber buyers, reinforcing the ongoing shift in negotiating power toward buyers. At the same time, expectations around home prices have firmed modestly, with fewer agents anticipating declines and more expecting flat to slight growth in the next 12 months. As in Q3, agents expect activity to be driven primarily by existing homeownersparticularly downsizers and move-up buyers. Meanwhile, post-settlement agent sentiment toward NAR remains poor, and commission structures remain largely unchanged.
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E-Commerce
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