Zaz’s NBA Nightmare, Gigaweek Sneak Peek, The A.I. Rat Race

Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon package of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, William D. Cohan examines the dawning horror that the brutal Paramount Global M&A process might actually get kicked down the road, now that the Ellison/RedBird exclusivity window has lapsed and given Shari’s undisguised antipathy for the Apollo-Sony bid.

Plus, below the fold: Marion Maneker catalogs the art market’s $1.2 billion gigaweek fantasy. Baratunde Thurston carefully inspects Google’s burgeoning existential threat. John Heilemann fluently essays about why he joined the Puck superteam. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Jon Kelly reflect on David Zaslav’s NBA negotiation snafu and the latest twists in the Paramount spectacle.

WILLIAM D. COHAN

After letting the Ellison/RedBird exclusivity window lapse, it seems increasingly possible—at least for now—that the deal dies with age, Shari rejects the Apollo-Sony bid, and delays this brutal M&A process until next year. Quelle horreur!

MARION MANEKER

As gigaweek begins in New York, the big auction houses are fantasizing about more than a billion in sales—down from last year, sure, but also not terrible for a year without a signature artist or collection in the spotlight.

BARATUNDE THURSTON

A new wave of A.I.-assisted search products, like Perplexity A.I., have the biggest tech incumbents on their heels. Are we witnessing the birth of a new internet?

JOHN HEILEMANN

From its first incarnation to its latest (and greatest!) here at Puck, the ethos of Impolitic has been the same: 100 percent #realtalk, free of bullshit and bad faith. No fake news, no outrage porn, no performative piety. And, unequivocally, no false binaries or false equivalencies.