The Oscars appears to be losing its shine.
In the last 16 years the audience tuning in to watch the Academy Awards ceremony has dropped from more than 42 million to just 9.8 million who tuned in to watch Nomadland scoop the top prize of Best Picture on Sunday.
The short term
There are some pretty valid excuses for why this year saw less interest than most. With cinemas closed for much of the last 12 months, audiences aren't as familiar with the movies and stars that are in them. On top of that the ceremony itself was lacking a little bit of its usual pomp and ceremony. The red carpet was slimmed down, some of the acceptance speeches came from satellite hubs in London, Paris and Sydney and a strict "no Zoom" rule meant that Anthony Hopkins, who won Best Actor, wasn't heard from at all (he was asleep in Wales).
The long term
With the rise of streaming and on-demand content, a lot of traditional TV shows have reported declining viewership — and there's a strong argument to be made for the Oscars to change up the format if they want to stay relevant. At the moment a typical Oscars broadcast is around 3-and-a-half hours long. That's a long time to watch hoping for something interesting to happen, when you know you can catch the clipped highlights in a short video the next day.
There are more people without housing in the US amid a lack of homes for sale and apartments available to rent.
OpenAI laid out its plans to convert from a nonprofit-controlled company into a for-profit public benefit corporation (PBC) in a new blog post, confirming previous reporting. The rare company type will allow the startup to “balance shareholder interests, stakeholder interests, and a public benefit interest in its decision-making,” along with raising more capital.
“We once again need to raise more capital than we’d imagined,” the post read.
Rivals like Elon Musk’s xAI and Anthropic also use the structure. As the Financial Times previously noted, “A key benefit of the PBC structure is its potential to thwart an unwanted acquisition or an activist’s demands,” including those who might claim the company isn’t making enough money.
“We once again need to raise more capital than we’d imagined,” the post read.
Rivals like Elon Musk’s xAI and Anthropic also use the structure. As the Financial Times previously noted, “A key benefit of the PBC structure is its potential to thwart an unwanted acquisition or an activist’s demands,” including those who might claim the company isn’t making enough money.
Days before the November election, Cantor Fitzgerald filed an IPO registration for its 10th SPAC, just months after filing for its ninth. The company raised $2.2 billion across seven SPACs in 2020, taking five companies public, though performance of those companies had been lackluster at best. One went bankrupt, and the other four were trading well below their $10 per share deal price (until the recent resurgence of Rumble). But Lutnick seems bullish on SPACs again, and he isn’t alone.
Since April, 50 SPACs have raised a total of $8.7 billion, including new SPACs from Michael Klein (who took Lucid public) and Harry Sloan and Eli Baker (who took DraftKings public). The money raised is more than double the total amount raised in 2023.
While SPACs, as a whole, performed poorly in the public markets (nearly 50% of the 450-plus ex-SPACs still trading are down more than 90% from their public-market debuts), the combination of a recent uptick in investor sentiment, an IPO window that appears to be thawing, and a number of late-stage private companies that could go public has created an opportunity for SPACs to once again be a vehicle for companies to consider as they weigh going public. Time will tell if investors have short memories regarding the performance of other recent SPACs, or if they’ll mandate higher quality acquisition targets from the sponsors whose last merger targets performed so poorly.
Since April, 50 SPACs have raised a total of $8.7 billion, including new SPACs from Michael Klein (who took Lucid public) and Harry Sloan and Eli Baker (who took DraftKings public). The money raised is more than double the total amount raised in 2023.
While SPACs, as a whole, performed poorly in the public markets (nearly 50% of the 450-plus ex-SPACs still trading are down more than 90% from their public-market debuts), the combination of a recent uptick in investor sentiment, an IPO window that appears to be thawing, and a number of late-stage private companies that could go public has created an opportunity for SPACs to once again be a vehicle for companies to consider as they weigh going public. Time will tell if investors have short memories regarding the performance of other recent SPACs, or if they’ll mandate higher quality acquisition targets from the sponsors whose last merger targets performed so poorly.