VOLUME 47

Happy Thursday! Just a reminder today is Free Slurpee Day at 7-Eleven if that’s your thing.

And once again, if you came here to learn about the biggest stories in media and tech this week, you came to the right place.

Enjoy!

— Jacob Pace

Apple Hits Unprecedented $3.5 Trillion Market Cap

Apple has become the first company in the world to reach a $3.5 trillion market cap. Right as Amazon passed its $2 trillion milestone and NVIDIA reached $3.33 trillion, Apple decided to pass both of them. This achievement comes after an incredible rally since April, where the company's stock has soared more than 20%. The growth is primarily due to Apple's long-awaited AI strategy, Apple Intelligence, which they’ve kept relatively low-key up until recently when they announced details at their annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

Since April, Apple has added $700 billion to its market cap—more than the combined valuations of companies like Nike, McDonald's, and Netflix. In addition to Apple’s massive growth and ambition plans around AI, the company also has more than 2.2 billion active devices worldwide, making them a powerful force in the world of consumer technology.

Now the real question is — who’s the first company to $4 trillion? Apple or NVIDIA?

MrBeast Reaches 300M Subscribers and Hints at Presidential Run

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is the first YouTuber in the world to reach 300 million subscribers. To celebrate this milestone, Donaldson took to X to mention that if the age requirement to run for President of the United States were lowered, he would do it. While he's only 26 and ineligible to run for another nine years, Donaldson mentioned that a key part of his vision would include prioritizing the American people over party lines and seeking bipartisan expert advice.

In his own words, "If I were President, I wouldn't care about party lines. I'd just always truly make the American people my #1 priority."

While it seems far-fetched that a YouTuber could one day be president, I do think MrBeast is able to mobilize the youth in a very compelling way with his massive platform. Only time will tell if he’s serious about this or if the post was just way to get some attention. Regardless, 300 million subscribers is an incredible feat.

Spotify Quietly Rolls out Social Media Features

Spotify has been quietly rolling out social media features over the past few months, in an effort to expand beyond music streaming and more into a social platform to connect creators and fans. The shift comes as artists try to find a better way to connect with their listeners and as Spotify attempts to go after the lucrative social media advertising market.

Some of the features that have been introduced include enhanced artist profiles for updates, fan engagement tools like Q&A sessions, improved collaborative playlists, stories integration, and a comments feature for podcasts, allowing direct interaction between creators and listeners.

Interestingly enough, in 2010, Steve Jobs introduced iTunes’ new social network Ping as “Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes,” calling it a “social network all about music.” Ping never found success in Jobs’ lifetime, but even that early on he saw the connection between music and social. Shortly after Jobs’ death, Apple shut down Ping in 2012. Apple later tried the same thing with a social feature for musicians, Connect, which also didn’t last.

If Spotify doesn’t crack the code here, I’m sure somebody will.

Paramount and Skydance Strike a Merger Agreement

Paramount Global has officially agreed to merge with Skydance this week, marking the end of the Redstone family’s control over the storied movie studio and CBS broadcast network. This merger follows months of negotiations and sees Skydance founder David Ellison taking charged of the combined company.

The merger, valued at over $8 billion, will see significant investments and strategic shifts aimed at revitalizing Paramount's assets, including its film studio and flagship streaming platform, Paramount+. The deal is expected to close by Q3 2025, pending regulatory approval, and includes a 45-day period for other potential offers. However, if Paramount does not choose to go with the Skydance offer, it will be forced to pay a $400 million breakup fee.

Others who have expressed interest in acquiring Paramount included IAC chairman Barry Diller, former Warner Music Group CEO and chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management — who submitted a $26 billion all cash offer in May.

Also, their new logo is getting some criticism (see above). However, I think there’s bigger fish to fry here.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s stories! See you next week.