Axios Closer

June 09, 2025
Monday ✅
Today's newsletter is 579 words, a 2-minute read.
🔔 The dashboard: The S&P 500 closed up 0.1%.
🥶 Today's stock spotlight: EchoStar (-8.5%). The satellite and wireless company co-founded by Charlie Ergen was reported late Friday to be considering a bankruptcy filing as part of a strategy to protect its wireless spectrum licenses from the FCC.
1 big thing: WBD's breaking up the band
Warner Bros. Discovery, in a not-so-huge surprise, officially announced a plan to split into two publicly traded companies, Axios' Sara Fischer and Christine Wang report.
↔️ On one side will be the streaming and studios business headlined by HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Studios.
- On the other side will sit the legacy television networks, including CNN, TBS, TNT and Discovery.
- WBD CEO David Zaslav will lead the streaming business, while CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels will take the reins at the networks spinoff.
💰 The company's existing debt load — currently around $37 billion — will predominantly land with the networks business, executives said today.
- Though slower growing, the networks business still generates a healthy cash flow. Networks will also retain up to 20% in the faster-growing, stand-alone streaming and studios business.
📉 Market impact: WBD's stock closed down 3%.
Flashback: WBD was formed in 2022 when Zaslav's Discovery, which was made up mostly of cable networks and some smaller streaming services, merged with WarnerMedia.
🗓️ The separation is expected to be completed by the middle of next year.
Disclosure: Sara Fischer is a paid contributor for CNN.
2. Trump touts "Trump accounts"
Infants may soon be the newest stock market investors if President Trump gets his way.
- 👶 The president today gathered a roomful of high-profile CEOs to tout his proposal to place $1,000 into an investment account for every U.S. baby.
📝 The big picture: The so-called "Trump accounts" proposal is part of the president's "One Big Beautiful Bill."
- The White House says it would help newborns start their lives on the right track.
🤑 The program would deliver a one-time $1,000 government contribution for every U.S. citizen born between Jan. 1, 2025, and Jan. 31, 2029.
- The accounts would be privately held, tax-deferred and set up to track a U.S. stock index fund. They would be open to additional private contributions from sources, including families, employers and religious institutions.
- Funds would be eligible for distribution when the beneficiary turns 18.
3. Other happenings
💼 Ken Moelis is stepping down as CEO of Moelis & Co. The investment bank's co-president Navid Mahmoodzadegan will take over as CEO, while Moelis will become executive chair. (WSJ)
📉 Robinhood shares fell after the online brokerage was left out of the S&P 500. Some investors had been expecting the stock to be included in the index after Bank of America analysts deemed it a top candidate. (Reuters)
🤖 OpenAI has hit $10 billion in annual recurring revenue, including sales from ChatGPT consumer and business products and its API, and not including Microsoft licensing revenue. (CNBC)
4. Live from Apple's WWDC
Apple plans to make Apple Intelligence models available for developers to use in their own apps.
- 🐌 The announcement from Apple's annual developer conference comes even as critics worry the company is falling further behind in AI.
🗣️ Zoom in: Apple software executive Craig Federighi kicked off the keynote with the access news while outlining a series of design tweaks and software changes to Apple products.
- As part of some otherwise modest enhancements to its custom emoji and image-generation features, Apple announced that customers will now be able to draw on ChatGPT's capabilities as part of Apple Intelligence.
- 📷 The company debuted a new, bolder "Liquid Glass" design for its software that the company said would be used across its products. It said it is also redesigning the camera app.
📉 Market impact: Apple shares fell at the start of the event, closing down 1.2%.
Go deeper for updates (this event was still taking place)
📺 Fun fact: Disney's Donald Duck turned 91 today. Making his debut in the 1934 Disney short "The Wise Little Hen," Donald, as VP of the farmhouse Idleness Club, was taught a hard lesson in the value of hard work.
Today's newsletter was edited by Pete Gannon and copy edited by Sheryl Miller.
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