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Liftoff Mobile, a California-based mobile app marketing provider, announced on Thursday that it plans to launch . . . into the public markets. The company, backed by Blackstone, is targeting a valuation of nearly $5.2 billion for its IPO, and is looking to raise as much as $762 million in funding by selling more than 25 million shares. Share prices are expected to range between $26 and $30. It will trade under the ticker LFTO. The companys roots go back to 2012, when it was initially founded. A majority stake was later acquired by Blackstone in 2021, and Liftoff was then combined with Vungle to create a single, large, independent mobile adtech platform. That platform provides users with an AI-powered tool to support customer acquisition and monetization for mobile advertisers or publishers. It works across several industries, such as finance and gaming. The companys S-1 filing with the SEC states that it has more than 1.4 billion daily active users, and more than 1,000 global advertisers as of the fourth quarter of 2025. To our new investors: You are investing in a company with a senior leadership team averaging twelve years of ad tech industry experience, and technology that gets smarter with every cycle. We have a history of delivering results and a commitment to sustaining that reputation. You can expect what weve always delivered: customer focus, product velocity, and results, said CEO Jeremy Bondy in a statement included in the S-1 filing. The IPO market has felt quiet overall, but a recent report from EY shows that 2025 was the busiest year for IPOs since 2021. Last year, there were 216 total IPOs, amounting to $47.4 billion in proceeds. As for 2026, EYs report notes that there is significant optimism for investors and potential issuers in 2026, fueled by strong interest in AI and other areassomething Liftoff is likely trying to take advantage of. Almost a month into 2026, data from Renaissance Capital shows that there have been nine IPOs priced so far, down 47% from 2025.
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The last Sundance Film Festival in Utah is drawing to a close this weekend.The Park City gathering was a wistful farewell to the place Robert Redford’s brainchild has called home for over 40 years and launched so many careers. Although the festival isn’t ending it will start anew in Boulder, Colorado, in 2027 it did have many, from filmmakers to volunteers, feeling nostalgic about the change whether their Sundance story began in 2022 or 1992.A Wednesday night anniversary screening of “Little Miss Sunshine,” still one of the festival’s biggest hits, was an especially emotional affair as filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and actors Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano and Abigail Breslin, gathered once more, 20 years later, at the festival’s most famous and largest location, the Eccles Theater. Many in the audience had seen the movie and some had even been at the 2006 premiere. But a fair number were experiencing it for the first time and the response was rapturous.“Who would have imagined that a single film could deliver two electric nights at a Sundance Film Festival?” said festival director Eugene Hernandez.It wasn’t all looking back, however. The festival’s program is first and foremost about discovery. First time feature filmmakers comprised about 40% of the slate. The programmers also wanted to do right by Park City.“I feel like we achieved that based on what we’ve seen this week,” said Sundance programming director Kim Yutani. “The enthusiasm for the artists that we have now shared with the world is significant. It’s profound.” ICE and politics seep in The festival wasn’t a bubble to world events either. On the second night, a Florida Congressman was assaulted at a party by a man who told him he was going to get deported. ICE OUT pins were not an uncommon sight on major stars, like Natalie Portman, on the red carpet. And films like Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell’s “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” (in theaters March 27) sparked conversations about the end of the world. Memorable moments thanks to Charli xcx, Harry, Meghan and Billie Jean King It also didn’t stop people from having a good time. There was an all-night DJ’d party for the Charli xcx movie “The Moment” (in theaters this weekend) which had some out dancing until well after 3 a.m. The Billie Jean King documentary “Give Me the Ball!” had the audience erupting into spontaneous applause. (Afterward, King hit tennis balls into the balcony). Rufus Wainwright and Norah Jones sang Marianne Faithfull songs after a screening of “Broken English.” And the documentary “Cookie Queens,” about Girl Scout Cookie season, was an audience favorite that also brought a surprise appearance by Prince Harry and Meghan, who executive produced. Olivia Wilde’s big comeback Charli xcx might have had Wilde beat in numbers with three films at the festival, but Wilde took the spotlight for sheer impact. She confidently carried Gregg Araki’s comedic, and erotic, thriller “I Want Your Sex,” as the provocative artist Erika Tracy, who initiates an affair with one of her interns (Cooper Hoffman), changing his life and views about sex in the process. But her bigger moment was “The Invite,” a sharp chamber dramedy about an unhappy and sexless San Francisco couple (Wilde and Seth Rogen) who invite their upstairs neighbors (Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) over for dinner. Wilde directed the film, which quickly became a festival favorite, sparking a competitive, 72-hour bidding war. A24 emerged as the winner (reportedly in the range of $12 million) in the biggest acquisition of the festival so far.A release date for “The Invite” has not yet been announced. “I Want Your Sex” has not yet been acquired for distribution. The Channing Tatum drama everyone is talking about One of the biggest hits was also one of the most challenging: “Josephine,” writer-director Beth De Araújo’s raw drama about an 8-year-old girl (Mason Reeves) whose life and sense of safety is upended after she witnesses a sexual assault in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Tatum and Gemma Chan play the parents who are unsure how to help her navigate these new emotions and fears. It has not yet been acquired for distribution. The queer horror breakout Writer-director Adrian Chiarella’s midnight movie “Leviticus” was scooped up quickly by the indie label Neon (of “Parasite” and “Anora” fame) in a reported seven-figure deal. The Australian coming-of-age thriller is about two teenage boys (Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen) trapped in conversion therapy horror. A critic for IndieWire wrote that it played like an episode of “Heated Rivalry” crossed with the psychological horror “It Follows.” A release date has not yet been announced. A documentary more than 50 years in the making The footage that makes up the new documentary “Once Upon a Time in Harlem” was shot in 1972, when groundbreaking filmmaker William Greaves ( who died in 2014 ) brought together the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance, poets, authors, librarians, photographers, critics and actors, to reflect on what it all meant, at a party at Duke Ellington’s home. His son David Greaves did camera work at the party and co-directed and finished the film, a striking and essential historical artifact (and a good, intellectually stimulating hang). It has not yet been acquired for distribution. Other buzzy titles John Turturro got an enthusiastic standing ovation for his performance in “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” a nostalgic crime thriller about a veteran pickpocket who steals from the wrong man, written and directed by Noah Segan.There was lots of chatter about “Wicker,” a quirky fantasy about a sardonic fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) who commissions a basket weaver to weave her a husband (Alexander Skarsgrd), from filmmakers Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson.David Wain’s earnestly horny (and surprisingly gory) riff on “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass” was a starry, easy crowd pleaser, with Zoey Deutch, Jon Hamm and John Slattery. And Rinko Kikuchi got raves for her turn as a woman competing in the Tokyo ballroom scene in “Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty.”All are still seeking distribution, but the end of the festival does not mean the end of those talks.“There are many more deals happening,” Yutani said. “The fact that these films are going to have these robust lives after their Sundance premieres is exactly what we want for these films. For them to reach wider audiencs is definitely the goal.” For more coverage of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/sundance-film-festival Lindsey Bahr, AP Film Writer
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Journalist Don Lemon and three other people were arrested Friday in connection with an anti-immigration protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church and increased tensions between residents and the Trump administration, officials said.Lemon was arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, where he had been covering the Grammy Awards, his attorney Abbe Lowell said. It is unclear what charge or charges Lemon and the others are facing in the Jan. 18 protest at the Cities Church in St. Paul. Lemon’s arrest came after a magistrate judge last week rejected prosecutors’ initial bid to charge him.Lemon, who was fired from CNN in 2023, has said he has no affiliation to the organization that went into the church and that he was there as a journalist chronicling protesters.“Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done,” Lowell said in a statement. “The First Amendment exists to protect journalists whose role it is to shine light on the truth and hold those in power accountable.”Attorney General Pam Bondi posted on social media Friday morning confirming the arrest of Lemon and the others who were present during the protest at the church where a local official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement serves as a pastor.“At my direction, early this morning federal agents arrested Don Lemon, Trahern Jeen Crews, Georgia Fort, and Jamael Lydell Lundy, in connection with the coordinated attack on Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota,” Bondi said.Since he left CNN, Lemon has joined the legion of journalists who have gone into business for himself, posting regularly on YouTube. He hasn’t hidden his disdain for Trump. Yet during his online show from the church, he said repeatedly, “I’m not here as an activist. I’m here as a journalist.” He described the scene in front of him, and interviewed churchgoers and demonstrators.Shortly after the first attempt to charge him fell through, he predicted on his show that the administration would try again.“And guess what,” he said, “here I am. Keep trying. That’s not going to stop me from being a journalist. That’s not going to diminish my voice. Go ahead, make me into the new Jimmy Kimmel, if you want. Just do it. Because I’m not going anywhere.”Local independent journalist Georgia Fort livestreamed the moments before her arrest Friday on Facebook Live, saying “agents are at my door right now” and that they had an arrest warrant and a grand jury indictment.“I don’t feel like I have my first amendment right as a member of the press because now the federal agents are at my door arresting me for filming the church protest a few weeks ago,” Fort said, adding that she knew she was on a list of defendants that is under seal.A prominent civil rights attorney and two other people involved in the protest were arrested last week. Prosecutors have accused them of civil rights violations for disrupting the Cities Church service.The Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation after the group interrupted services by chanting “ICE out” and “Justice for Renee Good,” referring to the 37-year-old mother of three who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Minneapolis.“Listen loud and clear: WE DO NOT TOLERATE ATTACKS ON PLACES OF WORSHIP,” Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in social media post last week.Cities Church belongs to the Southern Baptist Convention and lists one of its pastors as David Easterwood, who leads an ICE field office. Many Baptist churches have pastors who also work other jobs.The Justice Department’s swift investigation into the church disruption stands in contrast to its decision not to open a civil rights investigation into Good’s killing by an ICE officer. The department has not said whether it will open a civil rights probe into the killing of 37-year-old Alex Pretti by federal officers.“Instead of investigating the federal agents who killed two peaceful Minnesota protesters, the Trump Justice Department is devoting its time, attention and resources to this arrest, and that is the real indictment of wrongdoing in this case,” Lowell said. Associated Press reporters Dave Bauder in New York City, Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed. Alanna Durkin Richer and Eric Tucker, Associated Press
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