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Tech / Media / Telecom

Semiconductors/China

President Trump on Monday said he would allow Nvidia to sell its advanced H200 chips to China and that the U.S. will collect 25% of the revenues of those sales. AMD and Intel are expected to receive similar treatment. Separately, the White House successfully lobbied to remove the GAIN AI Act from the annual defense policy bill (NDAA). The GAIN...

Mergers & Acquisitions

Paramount/Warner Brothers (Updated)

Paramount announced this week that it had commenced an all-cash tender offer to acquire Warner Brothers for $30 per share in cash. As expected, Paramount’s proposed transaction is for the entirety of Warner Brothers, including its cable networks. Sources of financing include Affinity Partners, the private equity firm led by Jared Kushner. In...

Mergers & Acquisitions

Netflix/Warner Brothers

The companies are expected to file HSR by January 12. President Trump weighed in on the deal over the weekend, stating that Netflix has "a very big market share" that "goes up a lot" when adding Warner Brothers. He further remarked that he will be involved in any regulatory decision and claimed that the deal "could be a problem.” His comments...

Financials, Macro

Fed/Supreme Court

The Supreme Court (SCOTUS) yesterday heard oral arguments in the Slaughter case – the first of the various lawsuits challenging President Trump’s ability to fire members of independent boards to appear before the court for argumentation. As a reminder, SCOTUS has scheduled separate oral arguments in the Cook case – regarding the legality of...

Financials, Macro

Federal Reserve/Chair Nomination

A variety of developments have occurred that suggest President Trump is preparing to nominate NEC Director Hassett to a seat on the Fed Board and as Chair. Some market participants have reportedly expressed concern to Treasury Secretary Bessent that Hassett would be too willing to cut rates aggressively to please Trump. However, a number of...

Mergers & Acquisitions

The companies were set to file HSR by December 3. We believe there is a likelihood of a second request from the FTC. Feedback from industry participants (who are not involved in the deal) suggests that the merger combines the two largest suppliers of high-end Wi-Fi gateway radio frequency front-end (RFFE) modules and would leave the market with...