What If? OpenAI Acquires Snapchat, Starbucks Goes Crypto, and Paramount Cuts the Cord | Behind the Numbers

Summary

Behind the Numbers: What If? OpenAI Acquires Snapchat, Starbucks Goes Crypto, and Paramount Cuts the Cord

Podcast: Behind the Numbers: an EMARKETER Podcast
Host: EMARKETER
Episode Title: What If? OpenAI Acquires Snapchat, Starbucks Goes Crypto, and Paramount Cuts the Cord
Release Date: June 23, 2025

In this episode of Behind the Numbers, EMARKETER's team delves into three speculative yet intriguing predictions for 2025: OpenAI potentially acquiring Snapchat, Starbucks venturing into the cryptocurrency space, and Paramount following in the footsteps of major media conglomerates by divesting its cable assets. Hosted by Marcus, the conversation features principal analyst Yuri Wormser, VP of Content Paul Werner, and head of the retail desk Susie David Canyon. Here's a comprehensive breakdown of their discussions, insights, and conclusions.

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Introduction and Setting the Stage

The episode kicks off with a lighthearted "fact of the day" segment, tracing the origin of the word "salary" back to salt payments in ancient Rome. This serves as a segue into the main discussion on futuristic predictions.

Marcus [01:28]:
"Today's real topic, very specific but highly unlikely predictions for 2025. Shark tank style, round one."

The team introduces the format: each member pitches a bold prediction, followed by a panel discussion to evaluate its plausibility.

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Prediction 1: OpenAI Acquires Snapchat

Yuri Wormser [04:37]:
"My prediction is OpenAI will buy Snapchat. I took the highly unlikely direction seriously for several reasons..."

Key Points:

• Valuation and Data Assets: Snapchat's estimated valuation at $13 billion makes it an attractive acquisition target for OpenAI, primarily for its extensive user and influencer data.
• Technological Synergy: OpenAI's expertise in augmented reality and commerce aligns well with Snapchat's features like Spectacles.
• Brand Equity: Given Snapchat's substantial user base, maintaining its standalone brand post-acquisition is deemed beneficial.

Marcus [05:40]:
"Do you think they would keep it standalone or rebrand it under OpenAI?"

Yuri [05:48]:
"I just think they keep it standalone. It has hundreds of millions of users, so it's a lot of brand equity to keep."

Panel Reaction:

• Marcus: Supports the idea, acknowledging the timing factor for 2025.
• Susie David Canyon [08:02]:
  "I also give it a half point because the complexity of integrating data sets might take more than six months."
• Paul Werner [07:22]:
  "I'm in, I'm in."

Final Verdict:
Yuri receives 2 out of 3 points, indicating moderate support for the prediction.

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Prediction 2: Starbucks Launches Its Own Stablecoin

Susie David Canyon [09:14]:
"Recently in the news, Amazon and Walmart are investigating the idea of creating their own stablecoin. However, I predict Starbucks will be the first to market."

Key Points:

• Market Timing: With favorable legislation towards crypto, now is the opportune time for retailers to introduce stablecoins.
• Operational Efficiency: Stablecoins offer near-zero transaction fees and instant payments, enhancing cash flow and reducing costs associated with credit card fees.
• Ecosystem Synergy: Starbucks' robust loyalty program, boasting 34 million active users, can seamlessly integrate stablecoins, enhancing customer retention and spending.

Susie [11:00]:
"Starbucks has the largest loyalty program in the US, with 40% of their sales coming from their strongest loyalty members. Embedding a stablecoin into their existing digital wallet can lower barriers and create new revenue streams."

Panel Reaction:

• Yuri Wormser [13:02]:
  "I'm going to give it a point because it makes a ton of sense for Starbucks."
• Marcus [15:06]:
  "I'm in, but I'm giving it a half point due to timing uncertainties."
• Paul Werner [15:59]:
  "I'm skeptical about this happening in the next six months due to potential backlash and volatility concerns."

Final Verdict:
Susie receives 1.5 out of 3 points, reflecting a cautious but optimistic stance on the prediction.

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Prediction 3: Paramount Divests Its Cable Assets

Paul Werner [19:14]:
"Paramount will be the next media company to spin off its cable assets, similar to Comcast's NBCUniversal and Warner Brothers Discovery."

Key Points:

• Shift to Streaming: The industry trend clearly favors streaming over linear TV, making the divestment of cable assets a logical step.
• Regulatory and Business Pressures: Paramount's ongoing merger with Skydance and the need to appease regulators push the company towards shedding non-streaming assets.
• Asset Valuation: With decreasing returns from cable, divesting these assets becomes economically sensible.

Susie [21:07]:
"While the economic rationale is strong, the actual sale and acquisition process might take longer than six months due to market conditions and asset evaluations."

Panel Reaction:

• Yuri Wormser [22:04]:
  "It makes total sense economically, so I'm giving it a point."
• Susie [22:17]:
  "I'm giving it a one if the prediction is about divestment announcements; however, the actual sale might extend beyond six months."
• Paul Werner [24:27]:
  "I believe the announcement will happen within six months, with deals finalizing shortly after."

Final Verdict:
Susie and Paul's discussions lead to a consensus, awarding 4 out of 3 points collectively, underscoring strong belief in the prediction's validity.

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Conclusion and Future Predictions

The episode concludes with the hosts acknowledging the well-received predictions and teasing future topics:

Marcus [26:00]:
"Well played. We have three more very specific but highly unlikely predictions for you on Friday from three other folks."

Listeners are encouraged to subscribe, follow, and leave ratings to stay updated with the latest insights from EMARKETER.

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Notable Quotes

• Marcus on Real-Time Measurement [00:00]:
  "If you're only getting insights when the campaign is over, then the answer is of course no."

• Yuri on OpenAI and Snapchat [04:37]:
  "OpenAI will buy Snapchat."

• Susie on Starbucks' Stablecoin [09:14]:
  "It's a no brainer that this will happen soon."

• Paul on Paramount's Divestment [19:14]:
  "It's inevitable... The way of the world in the TV universe is that audiences are going to streaming."

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Takeaways

1. Tech Mergers Continue to Shape Social Media: The potential acquisition of Snapchat by OpenAI highlights the ongoing convergence of AI and social platforms, emphasizing data as a pivotal asset.
2. Cryptocurrency Finds Its Niche in Retail Loyalty Programs: Starbucks' exploration into stablecoins signifies a growing trend where retailers leverage digital currencies to enhance customer loyalty and streamline transactions.
3. Media Companies Divest to Adapt to Streaming Dominance: Paramount's predicted divestment of cable assets underscores the irreversible shift from traditional linear TV to streaming services, reflecting broader industry realignments.

This episode offers a thought-provoking glimpse into possible future scenarios, blending analytical insights with speculative foresight to help marketers, retailers, and advertisers navigate the evolving digital landscape.

Transcript

[Marcus]

Are your brand campaigns as effective as they could be? Of course not. Calm down. I get it. If you're only getting insights when the campaign is over, then the answer is of course no. To make better campaign decisions, you need real time measurement. You need lucid measurement by sint. Discover the power of real time brand lift [e-mail] insights that's cint.com insights and get yourself a cheeky little demo today. Hey gang. It's Monday, June 23rd. You're a Paul, Susie and listeners, welcome to behind the Numbers, a new marketer video podcast made possible by sint. I'm Marcus and join me for today's conversation. We have those three people. Let's meet them properly. We have with us principal analyst who covers everything advertising, media and technology, living in New Jersey, it's Yuri Wormser.

[Yuri Wormser]

Hey, Marcus, how are you?

[Susie David Canyon]

Hey, fellow.

[Marcus]

Very good. How are you doing? Great, good things. We also have with us our VP of content, he calls Main home. It's Paul Werner.

[Paul Werner]

Great to be here. And if you had caught me X number of years ago, you could have said I was living in New Jersey too.

[Marcus]

Indeed. Yeah, everyone, it's a prerequisite, apparently free marketer, to have some ties to New Jersey. VP of content, head of our retail desk, living in New York with family in New Jersey, I think. Susan David Canyon.

[Susie David Canyon]

Yes, thanks for having me. I'm very excited. I got asked back for this very special episode.

[Marcus]

Yeah, Blake can make it. Today's facts is where we begin. Salt was sometimes used to pay soldiers in ancient Rome. So this became known as solarium argentum, from which we now derive the word salary. Because the Latin word for salt is sal, and it's the root. It's the root word of salarium. And salt was crucial for a bunch of things. Preserving food, probably the main one, but also disinfecting wounds, was used in religious ceremonies as well. So they weren't just pained with salt, they got coins and money too. But yeah, they would get paid in salt. You think about it, you marketer. I need real money. Sorry, Paul.

[Paul Werner]

I agree with that. Also, usually your facts of the day are completely mind blowing and eye opening. I mean, you come out of nowhere. But this one, I have to say, I knew this from my latin class in 10th grade.

[Marcus]

You took Latin?

[Paul Werner]

I did, I did. So the teacher would start every class with an English, English word and trace the Latin roots.

[Marcus]

Oh, cool. It's fascinating. Yeah. Because Jeff Desjardin of Visual Capitalist was noting a soldier's salary was cut if he was not Worth his salt, which is a phrase that we still use today. So yeah, I guess Paul, he must have had a lot of those being traced back to. Anyway, today's real topic, very specific but highly unlikely predictions for 2025. Shark tank style, round one. Okay, here's how this episode works. Each person, Yuri first, will have 60 seconds to pitch a very specific but highly unlikely prediction for 2025. Then the rest of us, me, Susie, Paul and everyone listening to, decide if we are going to invest in it. Believe in it. That's what it means. Do we believe in the prediction? Then we move to the next contestant and repeat. So Susie will be next and me, Yuri and Paul will become the new panel. Let's quickly check in on some of the predictions we thought would come true this year. We did this. We do this twice a year. We did it in December right before the year started. We do a mid year round as well and we've done pretty well. Paul, you said TikTok would succeed in delaying the January 19 deadline to divest from its Chinese owner. You nailed that multiple times. The gift that keeps on giving. Apparently jasmine said that Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump will likely fall out, each having a social platform and how that might possibly mean they're going to combine them. But actually if they fall out, it could have a multitude of ramifications. So she got that right. Susie, you said Party City will file for bankruptcy. It did indeed. That's the only one you've got, right? I will admit a lot of the other ones.

[Susie David Canyon]

Today's might be the next one. What's there today might be the next one I got.

[Marcus]

It could be. You do have a great one for today. Yes, let's see. But we'll start with Yuri first. Today's prediction. Yuri.

[Yuri Wormser]

All right, so my prediction is OpenAI will buy Snapchat. I took the highly unlikely direction seriously. Few reasons I think it makes sense for them to buy it. First of all, the data they OpenAI has been rumored to be looking to buy to build its own social network. Snapchat is cheap. $13 billion I think something like that in its valuation. Wow. For, for OpenAI, it has tons of user information, has tons of influencer data that they can use that OpenAI can use to train its models and trends. OpenAI also has technology, it has its spectacles which clearly OpenAI is interested in building devices. It has experience with commerce and it specifically has experience with augmented reality and sort of, you know, play space and where, where, you know, try on technology. So all of that I Think makes a really kind of an interesting purchase.

[Marcus]

Yeah. Do they buy it and keep it standalone, do you think, Keep the brand or do you think they eventually fold it into something with open air branding?

[Yuri Wormser]

I just think they keep it standalone. I mean it has many hundred millions of users.

[Marcus]

Yeah.

[Yuri Wormser]

Right now. So I mean Snap has many hundred million hundreds of millions users, so it's a lot of brand equity to keep.

[Marcus]

Yuri, you talked about the users and having a couple of hundred million, which is a few hundreds of millions, which, which is true. But they are. Which is why I think your prediction is a. Is a especially good one. They are one of the very few social networks who we expect, at least our forecasting team expects to lose users this year in the US. You've got threads they're expected to grow the most. 23% users. User growth this year is what we expect. Reddit 12%, then TikTok, Instagram, linked, Pinterest about 3 to 5% each. Facebook flat. But then Snapchat negative 0.4%. Only a little bit, but still down. X, formerly Twitter, going down two points as well. So if you're looking to buy their stock when it was at maybe a lower point than it has been in the past, yeah, you're probably going to get a pretty good deal on them given that they aren't in a. In a fantastic position.

[Yuri Wormser]

Still have great influencer data and user data.

[Marcus]

So, yeah, I'm in. I have to be in. Yeah. 2025 is. That's the thing that's getting me because these are predictions that will happen this year so that for that reason I might be half in. Suzie, you invented the half point, didn't you?

[Susie David Canyon]

I sure did.

[Marcus]

I'm kind of grateful now. It took two years. I think I'm half in because I don't know if it would happen this year. Paul, what do you think? Too soon.

[Paul Werner]

I will say that I was a lot more convinced when Yuri agreed that it would be kept separate because I don't think it would work otherwise or wouldn't work as well.

[Marcus]

Yeah.

[Paul Werner]

So can I invent the three quarter point or.

[Marcus]

Absolutely not. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Susie was pushing it alone. That's why she got banned for a year.

[Paul Werner]

All right, I'm in, I'm in.

[Marcus]

Full point, Full point. My goodness, Susie.

[Susie David Canyon]

I didn't know I was banned. I thought I'd been in all the episodes. I'm very upset now.

[Marcus]

Yeah, we thought it best not to tell you the real reason. Welcome back.

[Susie David Canyon]

Oh, my gosh. Did I really Miss any?

[Paul Werner]

No, no, we didn't do any while you were out.

[Marcus]

No, absolutely not.

[Susie David Canyon]

While I was banned. So I also give it a half point. The only reason why is because I think the complexity, maybe down the line it would happen, but the complexity of sort of stringing the two data sets to one so that ChatGPT could truly leverage the influencer data and the brand data and the user data from Snap to make ChatGPT stronger I think would take more than six months. But otherwise I think that they really can't create the network effect on their own and need to lean in on someone else and it would help them thereafter with shopping.

[Marcus]

Yeah, yeah.

[Paul Werner]

My issue is also like that. My quarter point deduction would have been mostly on the basis of timing, but since I was not allowed to do it, I'm going to err on the side of supporting it rather than not.

[Marcus]

Okay.

[Susie David Canyon]

Hey, half a point is a support.

[Marcus]

It is, yeah. Two out. That's two of three for Yuri. So two points total for Yuri. It's a good start to the round.

[Yuri Wormser]

I appreciate the support.

[Marcus]

Susie.

[Susie David Canyon]

Oh my God. The pressure's on because I didn't realize I had not been invited back since some of my crazy predictions.

[Marcus]

No, it wasn't the only reason. There was other behavioral issues.

[Susie David Canyon]

But the tomatoes speak mainly. Yes back, so be ready. Okay you guys, in all seriousness, I'm really excited about mine. Recently in the news we heard or read that potentially Amazon and Walmart are starting to investigate this idea around doing a stable coin that is their own within their own ecosystem. And while there is a lot of value in the Walmart one because they've been trying to set up the foundation over the last few years by making a purchase to try and get that going and doing some patents and some announcements. I do think, think that Starbucks doing it might be first to market before Walmart does. And I think right now is the right time because as we know the legislation is much more in favor of crypto. Stablecoin takes care of some of that fluctuation that retailers were worried about in terms of receiving the payment in the form of crypto from a retailer. Quick service restaurants. It's truly a no brainer in that there are close to zero fees. It's instant payment, they get to improve their cash flow. So they also potentially have a new revenue model that comes through the stablecoin because you're sort of. It's like a debit card. You're filling a debit card with stablecoin that's issued by the retailer Or Starbucks in this case. And then you're holding it as a reserve that then you're paying. So the retailer is kind of making money off of all of that sort of dollars that they're getting. Plus they're paying less in transaction fees, which by some accounts is the billions and billions of dollars annually that retailers are paying to credit card. So it's the inter fees. So I think from that perspective, it's a no brainer that this will happen soon. Why Starbucks, you might ask. As you see in the chart, I have a chart for you.

[Marcus]

Well played.

[Susie David Canyon]

We do forecast mobile wallets and Starbucks is right behind in terms of users at 39.4 million, which is right under Google pay. Apple pay is obviously by far ahead. But Starbucks has really strong ecosystem when it comes to loyalty and a mobile wallet already. And this also like the stablecoin goes together very well with rewards and loyalty and it all sort of tag teams onto one another and it's a way to get people to keep coming back to you. We already know. I did a little bit of digging around Starbucks. They have that 34 million active users. It is the largest loyalty program. So now we're just talking about the app, right? It's the largest loyalty program in the US about 40% of their sales come from their strongest loyalty members who spend three times more and visit the store more often. And stablecoin that is embedded in the already existing digital wallet. So lower sort of barrier to entry for folks would connect online and in store in a much easier way and you could sort of, you know, get rewards that are paid out in stablecoins. Now you might say, what about Starbucks's Odyssey program which was in pilot for two years and failed? Or maybe it didn't fail, maybe they were just measuring the wrong KPIs. So to that question or that remark, I would say Odyssey was more about NFTs and gamification and I think it was too early. You know, it's like QR codes are 15 years old and we needed a reason for people to start using them. And I think stablecoin, the same thing will happen in smaller businesses. You're starting to see the upcharge for credit cards where it's like pay in cash, it's $3, pay with a credit card, it's 325. So I think consumers will start to think about this and start to really invest in a non credit card payment option.

[Marcus]

So stablecoin for folks is a type of cryptocurrency and it's pegged To a dollar. Exactly. Trying to reduce volatility by pegging it to something like the US Dollar. Exactly. Right. Yuri, what do you think?

[Yuri Wormser]

I'm going to give it a point because I actually think it makes a ton of sense for Starbucks. Not only does it reduce those transaction fees, I think it gives easy access to non bank people. Now Starbucks has a more affluent base, but it has a lot of students and people like that who might have difficulty, difficulty getting credit cards. So it, to me it seems like a really smart fit.

[Marcus]

Does how is this going to be received by the average consumer though? Will they like, will this, would this be something that they can just start using straight away? Will this not confuse them quite a lot? Will they be thinking to themselves, why? Well, why am I going to have, you know, cryptocurrency for Starbucks and a separate one for Walmart and a separate one for this retailer? Will it not cause more confusion for the, the average person?

[Susie David Canyon]

Well, that's a great question, Markus. PayPal amongst others, like digital wallets, already have their own stablecoins, so consumers are starting to become more familiar with it. There is a bill in the legislation talking about crypto and stablecoin has always pulled out of it because it's pegged and the volatility is just against currency basically. So I think because it's already in the ecosystem of payments, because the legislative body is talking about it and there will be safety mechanisms and because, let's be honest, there are lots and lots of articles about crypto and the government and people launching their own cryptocurrency, government officials included. I do think that that barrier, sort of, that people might not quite understand it, but they're so accustomed to hearing about it that they will be more open to figuring it out. And if it's within the. That's why Starbucks is the important one. If it's within the Starbucks digital wallet that the consumer already has downloaded and is using, then I think it's just. Instead of putting cash into it, in whatever mechanism, whether it's your credit card that you're putting cash into it or a debit card now, you're just putting stable. Like it's a, it's a different sort of thing that you're putting an elusive thing that you're putting into your wallet.

[Marcus]

Yeah, yeah. Them having the, the, the loyalty folks through, through the app already I think is a huge leg up here. I think I'm in. But in the next six months. So they, I mean they are moving quick and their new CEO has done a lot Already I was reading about, we wrote about the Green Dot Assist, the new gen AI assistance where baristas can use, which they access through, through tablets, but the baristas can use it to reduce service time, streamline operations, basically ask questions about different kind of specialty menu items or whatnot. So I think they are trying to find ways to make things more streamlined, happen faster. This, and this would do that, a faster transaction. So it's probably on their radar. I would say. I'm going to say half a point. I think six months. No, but half a point.

[Paul Werner]

Paul, I have to say I'm a little skeptical of this certainly happening in the next six months. I still think that bitcoin is much more of an investment vehicle than a transactional vehicle right now. And there's a lot of resistance to changing that. And I think with Starbucks in particular, I foresee a big backlash. Starbucks has already had big battles against unionization. They have a CEO who commutes by private jet every day. So there are going to be environmental issues that are going to be compounded by launching a cryptocurrency.

[Marcus]

Yeah, it's very.

[Paul Werner]

I just see a lot of obstacles along the way to making this happen. I don't think it's a bad idea. And I also think there could be a big crypto crash in the not too distant future. I think crypto will eventually be part of our lives on every level, including transactional. But I just don't know if this is the moment. I don't know if we need to go through like a dot.com bust and boom kind of cycle. But I just see a lot of volatility, a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of, you know, just risk factors.

[Susie David Canyon]

So all very fair points. Bitcoin is not a stable coin. And, and bitcoin is the crypto stuff that you're talking about, which is the. That's why the stable coin is different in that a stable coin is pegged to the US Currency and doesn't have any of the risks that you're talking about. It's like buying a dollar versus people.

[Marcus]

Will be able to separate that in their mind. Do you think that they're going to be able to say, yeah, yes, because.

[Susie David Canyon]

We'Re spending so much time in the media because of PayPal. PayPal already has stablecoin for this exact reason. Retailers will not take crypto unless it's like you're buying a Porsche. That's $100,000. The value of a Bitcoin is, is today it's $100 tomorrow it's $500, the next day it's $300. And so that's impossible for a retailer to take.

[Paul Werner]

No, I, I understand, I understand the distinction between them and the fact that it's not nearly as speculative. But I think there's still the idea that it's a virtual currency. And I think that's part of the leap that people are making quite a. Yet even if the media has gone out of its way to make the distinction, I just don't know if it's really catching on.

[Marcus]

Yeah, I think both is true because I think people are going to have a hard time distinguishing any type of cryptocurrency from any type of cryptocurrency in their minds. They're going to think it's the same thing and maybe treat it with the same level of skepticism. Maybe that will fade over time. And Susie, to your point, it does seem like there's a big push to try and explain that to folks that stable coins are different. So Paul, you're out?

[Paul Werner]

I'm out. I'm half in, with all due respect, Susie, because I again, I think there's a lot of things about this that will happen eventually.

[Marcus]

Paul said, with no due respect, I'm out of here. So Susie, point and a half. Paul, can you beat it? What's yours?

[Paul Werner]

Well, so mine is that Paramount will be the next media company to follow in the footsteps of Comcast, NBCUniversal and Warner Brothers Discovery in spinning off its cable assets. Okay. This is, I think to call it unlikely is maybe using false modesty because like this is going to happen. Oh, I mean it's inevitable. And it's not because like I came up with a genius prediction. It's just because the way of the world in the TV universe is that audiences are going to streaming. There's no turning back that tide. And every one of these media companies is struggling in general, but particularly with their linear TV assets. So it's kind of a no brainer. And this is something that would have happened many years ago if it weren't that the cable business model was still delivering enough returns for these companies that they were able to justify keeping those in their portfolios even though they knew they were eventually going to be losing propositions. But I think now is when they have to pay the piper. And yeah, so I think Paramount, because they're in the middle of this merger with Skydance and because they have so much riding on that from a business perspective, but also in terms of appeasing the regulators, I think it's, it's almost a no brainer given that they will try to lighten their own load by, you know, by getting rid of some of those networks. And in their case it would be like bet, Nickelodeon, MTV and the Paramount TV Entertainment networks, but probably not cbs, the flagship network, or CBS News or CBS Sports.

[Susie David Canyon]

So Paul, how does that work? Each individual asset sort of goes out into the world for people to bid on or are they just sep. Like are they divesting or are they separating the company into two? Like how it's more likely to be.

[Paul Werner]

A divestment of the. Whatever, whatever assets they decide are going to be spun off would be spun off as a unit. So it wouldn't be like, oh, we're, you know, we're having a clearance sale. You can buy MTV or you can buy Nickelodeon. It's more likely to be like a hedge fund or some other holding company and in some cases is like in the case of Warner Brothers Discovery, they're still keeping. And actually same was true for NBC Universal, the parent company is still keeping a stake in the linear TV side of it. So they're not like selling it off and walking away completely, but they're divesting, you know, a great part of their interest in those businesses.

[Yuri Wormser]

Yeah, I mean, I think it makes total sense. Economics of it are pretty clear. So I'm going to give it a point.

[Marcus]

4 point. Same today, Susie.

[Susie David Canyon]

So I will just play devil's advocate for a second. I hear what you guys are saying. Obviously Paul is so sure of it that I should give it a point. But what I don't know is if all these deals are happening at the same time and there are not so great components to linear tv. For all the things that Paul said, right, all the reasons why a company would want to divest, why would a private equity company or any other company want to buy one? And they'll get it at such a discount because there's a few of them on the block right now. Would it actually happen in the next six months or will it take a little bit more time between the deals so that the value of the components goes back to a more fair price, whatever that is. But because they're so sure of it.

[Paul Werner]

Well, I just think there's a lot of urgency on Paramount's part to make it happen. And I also think it's overdue as far as the value for the private equity firm or whoever buys these assets, I honestly can't vouch for that. You know, to me I wouldn't want to Put my money, I don't even know how much salt I would put into investing in linear TV networks, but they do still make money. So maybe if you, again, it gets down to economies of scale. So maybe if you have enough of them and you're able to leverage them. But there's something still to be said for traditional TV programming. There's still an audience that's not subscribed. So maybe you would do it in a way that caters to, you know, 55 plus people, which none of the media companies have wanted to do because they have a lot more at stake reaching younger audiences, which is why streaming makes so much sense to them. But you know, it would almost be a niche business and something that if you could dial dial it in, right, and you had a lot of networks, it could potentially make sense.

[Susie David Canyon]

So for me, I would say I'm giving it a one if the, if the prediction was they will want to sell. But if the prediction is someone will purchase it, I'm giving it a zero because I just don't think that'll happen in the next six months.

[Paul Werner]

And I still think that there are buyers out there who are interested and frankly the prices are going to be, if not fire sales, something close to that. So I think there will be some pretty attractive price points.

[Marcus]

All right, I think he's changing.

[Paul Werner]

I think it's more likely that they would announce that these things are going to be spun off in the next six months. But to your point, Susie, maybe it doesn't happen till next year, but I don't think we're talking about like two, three years down the line. I think we're talking about a 6 to 12 month time frame.

[Marcus]

All right.

[Susie David Canyon]

Susie, you in with that second piece of explanation?

[Marcus]

Yeah, full point.

[Susie David Canyon]

Well, yeah, if we're hedging they're going to announce it this now and then it'll take some time for the deal to happen then. Yeah, I agree. You would be a fool not to agree with Paul. But if it's all of it will happen now in the next six months, then I would give it only half a point.

[Marcus]

All right, four point. Well played. All right. Paul gets the full three for his, Yuri gets two for his which was open. AI will buy Snap and Susie.

[Susie David Canyon]

It'S okay.

[Marcus]

Lost again.

[Susie David Canyon]

You'll just have to ask me to come again. Try again.

[Marcus]

No, probably not. Third place will not get invited back. The Starbucks will accept slash launch their own stablecoin. Point and a half, but still 50% likely with a point and a half. So pretty good. All good predictions today, folks. Well played. We've got three more very specific but highly unlikely predictions for you on Friday from three other folks. That's all we have time for for today's episode. Thank you so much to my guests. Thank you to Susie.

[Susie David Canyon]

Thanks for having me.

[Marcus]

Of course. Thank you to Yuri.

[Yuri Wormser]

Great to be here.

[Paul Werner]

And Paul, thanks as always.

[Marcus]

And thank you, of course, to the whole editing crew and to everyone for listening to behind the Numbers and E Markter video podcast made possible possible by sint. Subscribe it's free. Follow us but not home and leave a rating and review to make the world a better place. Sarah will be here Wednesday to give you the oddest marketing tactics that we've seen from retailers this year.