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All eyes are on Netflix, which is set to report fourth-quarter earnings after Tuesday’s closing bell. In the ongoing saga over whether Netflix will acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, the streaming giant is now offering to pay all cash for the deal, revising a previous bid that included a mix of stock with cash, according to a filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On Tuesday, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery announced the amended agreement, which simplifies the deal for investors who no longer have to worry about Netflixs fluctuating stock price. The news comes as Netflix continues to stave off a hostile takeover bid from rival Skydance-owned Paramount, led by chief executive David Ellison, who has tried to blow up the deal. The acquisition deal would include Warner Bros. Discovery’s movie studio, along with HBO and HBO Max, a natural fit for Netflix. (Paramount had been offering an all-cash deal.) The saga started about six weeks ago in early December, when Netflix initially offered to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $27.75 per WBD share ($23.25 per share in cash, $4.50 in Netflix stock), which comes out to about $72 billion in equity value and totals $82.7 billion in enterprise value. Warner has repeatedly rebuffed Paramount’s offer. The WBD Board continues to support and unanimously recommend our transaction, and we are confident that it will deliver the best outcome for stockholders, consumers, creators, and the broader entertainment community, Ted Sarandos, co-CEO of Netflix, said in a statement. The large scope of the megamerger “would reshape the entertainment industry,” according to CNN. And the back-and-forth developments have had both Wall Street and investors closely watching their share prices. Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) was trading up nearly 1%, while Warner Bros. Discovery (Nasdaq: WBD) was up 0.58%, to $28.74 midday on Tuesday, at the time of this writing. Analysts expect Netflix to report a solid fourth quarter, with the success of new seasons of shows like Stranger Things, but investors are concerned about the high price tag for the Warner Bros. Discovery deal, which would incur debt, per Yahoo Finance. Netflix has had a string of solid quarters but missed estimates in the third quarter of 2025. The company’s stock price has decreased 30% since October, when rumors of the Warner Bros. Discovery deal first surfaced, CNBC reported. The financial news channel also said Wall Street has focused on Netflix’s ad revenue and whether price hikes are impacting subscriber numbers. Analysts polled by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) expect earnings per share to come in at 55 cents, with revenue of around $11.97 billion.
Category:
E-Commerce
Efficiency dominates conversations about AI. We celebrate its ability to automate and optimize so businesses can move faster and people can work smarter. But AI is becoming more integrated into people’s lives in ways that go far beyond productivity. In a world obsessed with speed and efficiency, the future of AI isnt just intelligentits beautiful. AI is now a force that enhances creativity, self-expression, and confidence. AI does not just optimize lifeit elevates it. Consumers are embracing AI for everything from recipe creation and travel planning to interior design and fitness regimens. They are turning to AI for recommendations on shows, movies, music, restaurants, and, of course, beauty and fashion. In these contexts, AI is enhancing experiences and sparking creativity. Because consumers are using AI to explore and have fun, companies can encourage broader adoption by focusing on building AI products designed to inspire. Brands have more opportunities than ever to build AI into their experiences as access to generative AI and specialized APIs broadens. However, that shift requires rethinking how we design and deploy AI so that it serves as a partner in expression and discovery. BUILD AI THAT DELIGHTS To build AI experiences that consumers genuinely enjoy, we need to understand what makes technology beautiful and inspirational in the first place. Fundamentally, its about aligning how systems function with how people naturally behave, think, and learn. We gravitate toward systems that show cause and effect, where we can see how our unique inputs shape the results. Visual feedback, confidence scores, or small cues that acknowledge uncertainty all make the interaction more collaborative. For example, Neutrogena’s Skin360 helps consumers identify their individual skin concerns and goals, and then suggests products, tips, and ingredients to help them achieve their desired outcomes. The experience gives consumers personalized assistance that makes them feel confident about the products and encourages them to purchase. Inspirational AI also encourages curiosity. AI assistants allow users to try different inputs and discover new outcomes on their own terms. As an example, Hoppers AI travel planner lets users play with different dates, destinations, and budgets, surfacing alternative routes or seasons to encourage experimentation. That experimentation works best when users maintain creative control. AI that provides suggestions rather than conclusions empowers people to make choices that feel personal. This approach transforms digital moments, such as shopping and content creation, into expressive experiences. Similarly, Grammarly and Shopify’s AI suggest edits or design options, but leave final decisions to users. APIs HELP BRANDS OF ALL SIZES UNLEASH CREATIVITY One of the most exciting developments in consumer AI is its accessibility. The proliferation of APIs and generative frameworks now makes it possible for companies of all sizes to experiment, prototype, and deploy creative AI experiences quickly, affordably, and with less risk. These tools allow brands to plug advanced models into existing platforms, test new ideas, and learn from user behavior in real time. A small direct-to-consumer (DTC) brand can integrate a virtual try-on experience or an AI-powered stylist without specialized expertise. They can test whether a feature resonates with users, gather feedback, and deploy updates within days or weeks rather than months. The proliferation of consumer AI APIs also unlocks entirely new categories of creative experiences. Take cultural recommendation engine Qloo, which offers an API that can predict correlations across music, dining, fashion, and film. Brands can explore creative pairings that surprise and delight users. Imagine a fashion brand suggesting a playlist to match a lookthese connections create moments of discovery that feel magical. What makes these experiences particularly powerful is how they reimagine the relationship between users and recommendations. Generative tools shift the paradigm from delivering static recommendations to enabling co-creation. Brands can now offer generative AI tools that let users actively participate in creating something new rather than showing them what they might like based on past behaviordesigning personalized products, generating new looks, or expressing preferences interactively. This transforms passive consumption into active exploration. With this transformation, the metrics of success change. Brands should think of these APIs as creative building blocks to test emotional responses and track indicators of enjoyment that may include time spent experimenting, frequency of sharing, or the likelihood of a consumer returning. New metrics for a beauty brand might look like a consumer spending ten minutes playing with different virtual makeup looks, trying bold colors they had never considered before. With access to this technology once reserved for large enterprises, DTC brands and small-to-medium-sized businesses can compete with brand and retail giants in delivering sophisticated AI experiences. A boutique cosmetics shop can offer the same caliber of consumer AI technology as a multinational beauty company. This democratization gives consumers wider access to inspirational AI experiences across products and services they care about. DESIGN FOR WHAT COMES NEXT Consumer AI is at a turning point. The underlying technology will continue to improve, but adoption depends on how well it understands and serves human emotion. To design AI rooted in inspiration and discovery is to design for trust and for delight, giving users space to explore and create technology that stops feeling like automation and starts feeling like play. Alice Chang is the CEO and founder of Perfect Corp.
Category:
E-Commerce
Stocks slumped in morning trading on Wall Street Tuesday after President Donald Trump threatened to hit eight NATO members with new tariffs as tensions escalate over his attempts to assert American control over Greenland. The S&P 500 fell 1.2%, pulling back further from the record it set early last week. It was the first time U.S. markets could react to the escalation from Trump, as they were closed on Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 536 points, or 1.1%, as of 10:56 a.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite slumped 1.5%. The losses were widespread and led by technology stocks, many of which already have more influence over the direction of the market because of outsized values. Retailers, banks and industrial companies also fell sharply. Nvidia, one of the most valuable companies in the world, plunged 3%. Amazon fell 2%, JPMorgan Chase fell 0.6%, and Caterpillar lost 1%. The energy sector eked out gains as the price of U.S. crude oil rose 1.4% to $60.19 per barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 1.1% to $64.69. Exxon Mobil rose 1%. European markets and markets in Asia fell. Trump said Saturday that he would charge a 10% import tax starting in February on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland. The annual combined imports from European Union nations are greater than those from the top two biggest individual importers into the U.S., Mexico, and China. Gold prices surged 3% and silver prices soared 5.5%. Both reached for records. Such assets are often considered safe havens in times of geopolitical turmoil. The trade tensions apparently short-circuited a recent rally in bitcoin. The cryptocurrency rose above $96,000 late last week but has dropped back to around $90,400. Treasury yields were mixed in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.27% from 4.23% late Friday. The yield on the two-year Treasury fell to 3.59% from 3.60% late Friday. Trump linked his aggressive stance on Greenland to last years decision not to award him the Nobel Peace Prize, telling Norways prime minister that he no longer felt an obligation to think purely of Peace, in a text message released Monday. Trumps message to Jonas Gahr Stre appeared to ratchet up a standoff between Washington and its closest allies over his threats to take over Greenland, a self-governing territory of NATO member Denmark. Trump’s threats have sparked outrage and a flurry of diplomatic activity across Europe, as leaders consider possible countermeasures, including retaliatory tariffs and the first-ever use of the European Unions anti-coercion instrument. Tariffs have been looming over the U.S. and global economies since 2024. Trump’s tariff policy has been confusing and uncertain, involving the threat or implementation of tariffs and then often followed by delays or cancellations. Existing tariffs have added more pressure to already high prices on goods and the threat of more to come makes it difficult for businesses to plan ahead. The threat of tariffs reigniting already high inflation could further complicate the Federal Reserve’s job. The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate three times late in 2025 to help bolster the economy as the job market weakened. But, it has taken a more cautious view because of the risk of rising inflation, which remains above the Fed’s target of 2%. Lower interest rates on loans can help bolster economic activity, but they could also fuel inflation, which could counter any benefit from lower interest rates. The Fed, and Wall Street, will get another update on inflation on Thursday, when the government releases the personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE. It is the Feds preferred measure for inflation. The Fed will meet next week for its policy meeting on interest rates and Wall Street is betting that the central bank will hold its benchmark interest rate steady. Wall Street is also in the midst of the latest round of corporate earnings, which could help provide more insight into how companies are handling uncertainty from tariffs, geopolitics, and cautious consumers. Industrial and consumer conglomerate 3M slumped 6.2% after reporting mixed results for its most recent quarter. United Airlines and Netflix will report their results after the market closes on Tuesday. Companies from a wide range of industries will report their results this week, including Johnson & Johnson, Halliburton and Intel. Damian J. Troise, AP business writer AP Business Writers By Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
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