For the first time in almost 20 years, the share of women holding executive positions at publicly traded US companies has dropped, with a recent report from S&P Global finding that there were roughly 60 fewer women in “C-suite” roles last year.
The news marks a departure from nearly two decades of progress — it’s the first time since 2005, when S&P Global began recording the figures, that the share of women in the C-suite has fallen, dropping by 0.4%. Out of the ~15,000 executive roles tracked, women accounted for 11.8% of them, down from 12.2% the previous year. While the more broadly defined “senior leadership positions” did see an increase in women’s representation, its growth rate also slowed significantly.
According to the report, one possible contributing factor to this trend is a “waning focus on diversity initiatives”. Mentions of “diversity” and “inclusion” on S&P earnings calls — which surged during the pandemic, when the terms were mentioned 1,367 times in total — have fallen consecutively to fewer than 100 in the most recent quarter, as legal complexities and backlash have stalled inclusion efforts.
Beyond this, several other factors might play a part in the regression: S&P Global published research just last month finding that women held less than a third of stepping-stone management positions, with Fortune also finding that women stayed for an average ~2.7 years less than male counterparts once they reached the coveted top spot.
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TIME names the “Architects of AI” as its Person of the Year for 2025
TIME just announced its Person of the Year… and it’s not a single person.
The magazine selected the “Architects of AI” as its 2025 honoree, spotlighting the executives and engineers behind the year’s AI boom. One of the two covers features eight tech leaders perched on a steel beam — recreating the iconic “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” photo from 1932 — including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, AMD’s Lisa Su, xAI’s Elon Musk, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang at the center, whose chips power many of today’s AI models.
As investors pick sides in Netflix vs. Paramount, analysts say a renewed Warner Bros. bidding war looks inevitable
Analysts at Bloomberg on Wednesday said Paramount’s WBD hostile takeover offer could go as high as $35 per share.
The Netflix-Warner Bros. deal now faces a wall of opposition
Netflix will owe Warner Bros. $5.8 billion in cash if the deal is terminated on antitrust grounds.
The New York Times, Chicago Tribune sue Perplexity
The New York Times is suing the AI search engine startup Perplexity, alleging repeated copyright violations.
In the complaint, the Times accuses Perplexity of scraping the company’s content and generating outputs that are “identical or substantially similar” to Times content:
“Upon information and belief, Perplexity has unlawfully copied, distributed, and displayed millions of copyrighted Times stories, videos, podcasts, images and other works to power its products and tools.”
The Times also alleges that Perplexity’s AI tool generates “hallucinations” and falsely attribute them to the Times, creating confusion that harms the company’s brand.
In a separate suit filed Thursday, the Chicago Tribune accused Perplexity of similar copyright violations.
Perplexity’s “answer engine” made early inroads in an attempt to replace traditional web searches with AI-powered responses, but its larger competitors such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic have been adding similar features. OpenAI recently released its own AI-powered web browser, ChatGPT Atlas, which challenges Perplexity’s Comet browser.
Jesse Dwyer, Head of Communication for Perplexity told Sherwood News in a statement:
“Publishers have been suing new tech companies for a hundred years, starting with radio, TV, the internet, social media and now AI. Fortunately it’s never worked, or we’d all be talking about this by telegraph.”
“Upon information and belief, Perplexity has unlawfully copied, distributed, and displayed millions of copyrighted Times stories, videos, podcasts, images and other works to power its products and tools.”
The Times also alleges that Perplexity’s AI tool generates “hallucinations” and falsely attribute them to the Times, creating confusion that harms the company’s brand.
In a separate suit filed Thursday, the Chicago Tribune accused Perplexity of similar copyright violations.
Perplexity’s “answer engine” made early inroads in an attempt to replace traditional web searches with AI-powered responses, but its larger competitors such as OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic have been adding similar features. OpenAI recently released its own AI-powered web browser, ChatGPT Atlas, which challenges Perplexity’s Comet browser.
Jesse Dwyer, Head of Communication for Perplexity told Sherwood News in a statement:
“Publishers have been suing new tech companies for a hundred years, starting with radio, TV, the internet, social media and now AI. Fortunately it’s never worked, or we’d all be talking about this by telegraph.”
European regulators will examine if Apple’s maps and ads businesses require stricter oversight
Apple has notified European regulators that its Apple Maps and Apple Ads platforms meet the threshold to be called “gatekeepers” under the European Commission’s Digital Markets Act, the European Commission said.
European antitrust regulators will now examine if the tech giant’s Maps and Ads units should be subject to stricter regulation. According to the DMA, when a platform reaches 45 million monthly active users and a market cap of €75 billion ($79 billion), it triggers the “gatekeeper” designation and additional rules apply.
While Apple notified regulators that the threshold has been met, it is pushing back on the designation, saying in a rebuttal to rule makers that the platforms are actually relatively small compared to the competition in Europe and should be excluded. The EC has 45 working days to make a final determination about the designation, and Apple would have six months to comply, Reuters reported.
European antitrust regulators will now examine if the tech giant’s Maps and Ads units should be subject to stricter regulation. According to the DMA, when a platform reaches 45 million monthly active users and a market cap of €75 billion ($79 billion), it triggers the “gatekeeper” designation and additional rules apply.
While Apple notified regulators that the threshold has been met, it is pushing back on the designation, saying in a rebuttal to rule makers that the platforms are actually relatively small compared to the competition in Europe and should be excluded. The EC has 45 working days to make a final determination about the designation, and Apple would have six months to comply, Reuters reported.