The Twitter takeover chatter rages on. The latest news is that Walt Disney Co. is working with a financial adviser to evaluate a possible bid for the struggling social media platform.
So what exactly does Disney, the biggest film studio in Hollywood, want with Twitter? The house of mouse has increased its tech footprint under the leadership of current CEO Bob Iger with a flurry of investments in digital streaming (Hulu), online media (Vice), and video hosting (Major League Baseball’s live-streaming platform BAMTech). Twitter partnered with the latter on its baseball live-streams, but that’s not where the Disney connection ends.
Iger previously tapped current Twitter CEO Dorsey to sit on Disney’s board, alongside Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. The Disney chief is harnessing the tools and talent to pave the way for his company’s digital expansion, and Twitter (which now boasts a promising live-streaming strategy) could unlock a massive audience for Disney’s subsidiaries. Two of the firm’s biggest properties (ABC and ESPN) could easily fit into Twitter’s live-streaming model, which is geared toward the platform’s news and sports-hungry users.
However, considering Twitter is eager to strike up more live-streaming partnerships, Disney could also simply provide content to the platform without forking out a possible $30 billion.
If Disney does manage to beat the competition, one of its biggest challenges will be to boost Twitter’s ad revenue. Social media advertising is thought to be a big draw for the corporation, which views Twitter as a direct source of communication with its customers, Bloomberg reports. On the other hand, Disney could avoid the risk that comes with a costly takeover, and just up its Twitter presence, or fork out on more Twitter advertising.
As his investments have illustrated, Iger isn’t afraid of a challenge. Under his leadership, Disney has also been extremely cautious not to alienate existing fans of the properties it has acquired (the Disney logo does not appear on film franchises owned by the company, such as Lucasfilm or Marvel productions). This could bode well for both Disney and Twitter’s respective brands, and users. After all, a platform with an abuse problem doesn’t exactly fit in with Disney’s family-friendly image. On the other hand, an overbearing approach could result in a backlash from Twitter’s hardcore fan base.
Despite the fact that Google and Salesforce are reported to be in the final stages of calculating their respective bids, formal announcements aren’t expected till later this year. Meaning, more speculation regarding interested parties (we’re looking at you News Corp., Apple, and Comcast) will dominate headlines until then.
Discord is trying to push more visibility on the internet for some of its biggest communities, and there's a good chance your messages could end up in a Google Search. The platform is preparing to make conversations from certain public servers searchable on the web, so there's a privacy setting you might want to check before the rollout begins.
According to Discord's official announcement, the changes will roll out in two stages. Starting November 16, qualifying servers will have public web pages featuring automated summaries of conversations. By mid-December, individual messages from eligible public channels could also appear word-for-word in Google and other search engines.
You just opened X and started typing your thoughts. Imagine the jump scare when a hand suddenly pops up on your screen, pointing at the promote button. It doesn’t say a word and simply points. For a growing number of X users, this isn’t a made-up scenario but something they have been seeing since yesterday, and very few of them are amused.
Most of us have learned to tune out the usual in-app upsells, whether it’s a glowing upgrade banner or a pop-up about a premium plan. A floating hand hovering over your draft is much harder to ignore, and that’s probably the whole point.
Scroll through any app for five minutes, and you’ll find someone maxxing something. Their skin, their sleep, their protein intake, even their Friday night on the couch. That little suffix has been everywhere this year, and now it has a trophy to show for it. In a recent announcement, Dictionary.com named maxxing its 2026 Word of the Year.
What are people actually doing when they’re maxxing?