East steps of the US Capitol from the ground

Congress votes to end shutdown

The over 40-day government shutdown came to an end without a guarantee that the ACA tax credits will be extended.

11/12/25 8:30PM

The House of Representatives passed a spending bill on Wednesday, which has already cleared the Senate, and once signed into law by President Trump, will end the longest government shutdown in US history.

The bill passed with a 222-209 vote, with six Democrats voting with Republicans. The bill is expected to be signed into law by Trump late Wednesday evening.

The bill funds most federal agencies through January and promises Democrats a separate vote on extending the ACA tax credits in December.

The bill does not include an extension of the Biden-era enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits, a central sticking point for Democrats after weeks of stalemate that left thousands federal workers without pay, disrupted air travel, and threatened to cut off families from food benefits.

The ACA tax credits, which subsidize health insurance plans provided by private insurers, were part of a 2021 COVID-19 relief package passed by a Democratic-controlled Congress. The subsidies, which are set to expire on December 31, led to a boom in ACA enrollment. Keeping the subsidies would increase the deficit by $350 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

An analysis by Wakely, a healthcare market research firm, projected that Marketplace enrollment would decline by more than half in 2026 if the subsidies aren’t extended. The biggest providers of ACA Marketplace plans like UnitedHealthcare, Elevance Health, Oscar Health, Molina Healthcare, and Centene fell on the news.

Without the ACA tax credits, significantly fewer people will be eligible for help paying for their plan, just as premiums are expected to rise amid soaring healthcare costs. Executives from Molina and Oscar have said that the end of the ACA subsidies will likely result in fewer healthy people purchasing plans, leaving a smaller group of sicker members, making coverage more expensive to provide.

Molina said it plans to increase rates on Marketplace plans by an average of 30%. Overall, ACA Marketplace premium payments are expected to double next year, according to an estimate from KFF.

Centene CEO Sarah London told analysts in an October 29 earnings call that the company is expecting a year-end utilization push as its members stare down “potentially the wholesale loss of affordable healthcare coverage next year.”

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Jon Keegan1h

FTC will appeal Meta antitrust case

Only a few months after successfully defending itself from an FTC antitrust lawsuit, Meta may be heading back to court. Today, the FTC announced that it would appeal the decision, reopening a yearslong suit.

The FTC called Meta’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp an illegal monopoly. The judge in the case found that in the years since the suit was first brought, the competitive landscape had changed dramatically, with Meta facing fierce competition from TikTok.

FTC will appeal ruling in Meta antitrust case over Instagram, WhatsApp deals

Max Knoblauch9h

Netflix goes all-cash in bid for Warner Bros., boosting its odds

Netflix on Tuesday applied more pressure to Paramount Skydance in the ongoing bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery, amending its offer to an all-cash proposal.

Netflix shares ticked up in premarket trading, while Paramount and Warner Bros. were down less than 1%.

The move, which was expected, does not increase the value of Netflix’s $82.7 billion offer for WBD. Netflix said shareholders will be able to vote on the deal in April.

In a Tuesday filing, Warner Bros. said that it values Discovery Global, the spin-off of its cable assets, at between $1.33 and $6.86 per share. Earlier this month, Paramount said it valued the cable TV business at $0 per share.

With Tuesday’s update, event contracts have swung even further in Netflix’s favor, with Paramount’s odds to end up in control of Warner Bros. falling to 14%. That’s below the odds for “none.”

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Netflix Sweetens Warner Bros. Terms to All Cash in Bidding War

The move, which was expected, does not increase the value of Netflix’s $82.7 billion offer for WBD. Netflix said shareholders will be able to vote on the deal in April.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Max Knoblauch1/8/26

Paramount doesn’t improve its offer for Warner Bros., leaving its fate to a long-shot shareholder appeal

Paramount Skydance on Thursday reaffirmed its $30-per-share offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, again stating that it believes the offer to be superior to rival Netflix’s.

In a press release, Paramount said its last amendment to the offer — which included a $40.4 billion personal guarantee from Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison — “cured every issue raised by WBD.”

The problem: Warner Bros.’ board on Wednesday unanimously voted to reject that offer, its sixth rejection of a Paramount takeover and second rejection of this specific $30-per-share bid. Warner’s board stated that it believes Paramount’s offer to be inferior to Netflix’s due in part to an “extraordinary amount of debt financing” and lower effective termination fees should the deal not clear the regulatory process.

By not improving the bid, Paramount is effectively leaving the deal in the hands of Warner Bros.’ shareholders, who will have to weigh the bids and the multiple rejections. Event contracts show a moderate boost in Parmount’s odds to end up in control of WBD on Thursday morning, jumping to 31% as of 9:30 a.m. ET, up from 27% at 9:00 a.m. ET.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Max Knoblauch12/17/25

Warner Bros. Discovery’s board tells shareholders to turn down Paramount’s “inadequate” hostile bid

Warner Bros. Discovery has told shareholders to reject Paramount’s hostile takeover bid, with the company releasing a statement early Wednesday urging shareholders to take the Netflix offer on the table. WBD’s board of directors said the outcome of the Netflix deal is “extraordinary by any measure.”

Paramount’s offer, in contrast, was described in the letter as “illusory,” providing “inadequate value,” and likely to impose “numerous, significant risks and costs on WBD.” The board said Paramount has “misled WBD shareholders that its proposed transaction has a ‘full backstop’ from the Ellison family,” and the board also outlined that it doesn’t believe there is a “material difference in regulatory risk between the PSKY offer and the Netflix merger.”

WBD shares dipped in the minutes leading up to the market close on Tuesday after news leaked that its management was preparing to encourage shareholders to reject Paramount’s bid, and shares of the HBO parent were down at $28.66, off 0.83% from yesterday’s close, as of 7:56 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Netflix was ticking higher, up around 1.7%, and Paramount Skydance was modestly in the red, down 1%.

Several outlets have reported that Jared Kushner’s firm would back out of the group that had been assembled to help finance the Paramount bid. Confirming this withdrawal, a spokesperson for the firm helmed by the president’s son-in-law told NBC News that “the dynamics of the investment have changed significantly since we initially became involved in October.”

Analysts this month have said that a renewed bidding war for Warner Bros. seems “inevitable” given the antitrust concerns surrounding Netflix’s potential acquisition. President Trump on Tuesday appeared to distance himself from speculation around his closeness to Paramount’s owners, posting on Truth Social, “If they are friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!”

Warner’s attempt to influence its shareholders could fuel a higher bid from Paramount in the coming weeks — shareholders currently have until January 8 to decide whether to accept the current offer.

Exclusive | Warner Preparing to Tell Shareholders to Reject Paramount Offer

Jon Keegan12/16/25

Senators open investigation into data centers’ effect on consumer utility bills

As Big Tech builds more and more massive data centers in small towns around the country, the public is starting to ask questions about whether they are to blame for rising utility bills.

Today Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) sent letters to the CEOs of some of the biggest builders of data centers: Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, CoreWeave, Digital Realty, and Equinix.

The senators wrote:

“Utility companies have spent billions of dollars updating the electrical grid to accommodate the unprecedented energy demands of AI data centers and appear to recoup the costs by raising residential utility bills. Through these utility price increases, American families bankroll the electricity costs of trillion-dollar tech companies.”

Electricity prices in the US are indeed up, rising 6.2% since last year. A recent Bloomberg analysis found that ratepayers within 50 miles of data centers saw rates increase up to 276% over the past five years.

The companies have until January 12, 2026, to respond to the senators.

Senator Warren, Lawmakers Open Investigation into Big Tech Data Centers’ Role in Driving Up Families’ Utility Costs | U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

The senators wrote:

“Utility companies have spent billions of dollars updating the electrical grid to accommodate the unprecedented energy demands of AI data centers and appear to recoup the costs by raising residential utility bills. Through these utility price increases, American families bankroll the electricity costs of trillion-dollar tech companies.”

The companies have until January 12, 2026, to respond to the senators.

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