The numbers

$72 billion — Netflix ups its merger acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery to an all-cash offer, changing the previously agreed-upon offer of cash and stock. The deal is valued at $27.75 per WBD share.

$1.5 billion — Netflix’s 2025 ad revenue.

$45.2 billion — Netflix’s overall revenue for 2025, up +16% year over year.

325 million— Netflix’s new subscriber count.

The watercooler talk

In its Q4 2025 earnings report on Tuesday, Netflix shed light on its updated deal for Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming and studio assets. The streamer originally announced in December 2025 that it was in the process of acquiring WBD’s assets in a cash-and-stock deal valued at around $82.7 billion (equity value of $72.0 billion). However, the streamer has now updated the offer to be all cash.

“The revised transaction structure expedites the timeline to a WBD shareholder vote and provides greater certainty of value that will be delivered at closing,” the company said in a letter to shareholders.

In the letter, the streamer also outlines areas of opportunity, including developing WBD’s IP and leveraging HBO Max to create personalized, flexible subscription plans. The company also noted it was planning to expand production capacity in the U.S. and abroad.

Among other highlights from its earnings report, Netflix revealed that it now has 325 million paid memberships, up from the 302 million it reported for Q4 2024. In addition, the streamer noted that its ad revenue grew by more than 2.5x from 2024, reaching over $1.5 billion.

In Q3 2025, Netflix announced it had doubled its upfront commitments in the latest cycle and recorded its best ad sales quarter. The streamer is also rolling out AI ad formats, bringing advertisers closer to the content. With all that in mind, Netflix expects ad revenue to double again in 2026, to around $3 billion.

The key quote

“Netflix and Warner Bros. are highly complementary businesses, and together we’ll be able to offer more opportunities to creators and strengthen the entire entertainment industry. This will allow us to offer more choice and greater value to consumers.” — Netflix letter to shareholders

Pinterest is continuing its transformation into a full-scale shopping hub with the addition of two key executives. Amazon’s former global brand and marketing vice president, Claudine Cheever, will assume the role of CMO, while DoorDash and Spotify veteran Lee Brown will join as chief business officer, a newly created role.

The appointments come at a dynamic time for the 15-year-old social platform. When Bill Ready—who was PayPal’s COO before becoming commerce chief for Google—took over as CEO of Pinterest in 2022, he laid out the platform’s ecommerce ambitions.

“As someone who has spent most of my career in commerce and payments, it’s so clear to me that Pinterest has the opportunity to build something unique,” Ready said on LinkedIn at the time. “In the next phase of our journey, we will help people engage more deeply with all the inspiring products and services they find on our platform so they can build their best lives.”

In a post earlier today, Ready suggested that these two new hires will play key roles in those plans.

“Lee is a proven business leader with deep experience leading global sales and content teams at beloved consumer apps and publishers,” Ready wrote. “Claudine has spent the past decade leading marketing for the world’s largest online retailer.”

In her own LinkedIn post, Cheever expressed enthusiasm for joining Pinterest for its “next chapter” while also reinforcing the platform’s roots as “a place where people come to feel inspired, take action, and shop.”

Cheever replaces former CMO Andréa Mallard, who’d held the post for nearly seven years and has joined Microsoft AI as CMO.

From inspiration to purchase

Pinterest debuted in 2010 as a digital cork board where users could collect images and videos (“pins”) of things that sparked their imaginations in areas like apparel, home decor, and travel. Its original business model was heavily dependent on advertising.

The social media platform awakened to the potential of online shopping via social media in 2015, when it introduced Buyable Pins. In 2017, its “Shop the Look” feature furnished its advertisers with click-to-purchase capabilities for items featured in pins.

In 2020, Pinterest proclaimed a “goal of making every pin shoppable.” Four new shopping enhancements appeared in 2022, including an API to empower advertisers with catalog management and product metadata features to support merchants on the platform.

While economic realities, including tariffs and tighter ad budgets, have spurred Pinterest to evolve, it’s not facing an existential crisis. The company posted a strong Q3 performance, including 17% year-over-year revenue gains, a 12% jump in monthly active users to 600 million, and an adjusted EBITDA of $306 million.

Even so, the social media platform got a late start to the ecommerce game; Twitter and Facebook introduced “Buy” buttons in 2014.

And while Pinterest is incorporating AI to improve recommendation relevancy and ad engagement, that effort has been expensive; the platform’s 2023 R&D costs of $1.07 billion rose to $1.24 billion in 2024.

To further increase its visibility as a shopping destination, Pinterest recently inked a deal with Roku for Bring My Pinterest to Life, a streaming series featuring six 22-minute episodes in which influencers Caroline Vazzana, Tay BeepBoop Nakamoto, and Drew Michael Scott will lead guest consumers on an “inspiration to realization” shopping journey.

John Gentry, a longtime advertising executive and the chief executive officer of supply-side platform OpenX, died Wednesday evening after a long battle with cancer. He was 58.

A post to Gentry’s LinkedIn profile Thursday evening read: “If you are reading this, it means that I’m no longer around and lost my fight with cancer. While I am dying earlier than most, I outlived myself by 28 years, thanks to a kidney transplant and modern medicine, and I’ve had a wonderful life. I am a lucky and thankful man.” 

Gentry went on to express gratitude for the many people he bonded with during the course of his career, saying “the best part of the ride has been all the amazing relationships I’ve formed over the years.”

The company confirmed his death in an email to ADWEEK.

Gentry was considered a trailblazer in adtech, contributing to the innovation of header bidding in the mid-2010s and the evolution of supply-side identity technology. 

He was also a thoughtful leader, collaborator, and friend to many.

“JG’s belief in me changed my life,” OpenX president Matt Sattel said in a statement shared with ADWEEK. “He was more than a leader to me. He was an advocate, a mentor, and a friend. JG believed that doing the right thing and building a strong business could go hand in hand, and showed us that it was possible to lead with both strength and humanity, even when it was hard. In challenging moments, he pushed me to think bigger, act with clarity, and put our people first. His career and lessons will stay with me always, and he will be deeply missed.”

A graduate of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and of UCLA, Gentry worked at the Walt Disney Company in the 1990s, where he directed distribution strategy for ABC cable networks. He went on to hold various executive roles across the advertising and financial services industries, with stints as a senior vice president and general manager at Overture (an early leader in digital advertising acquired by Yahoo for $1.63 billion in 2003), chief revenue officer of financial services company Green Dot, and president of adtech startup Spot Runner—before joining OpenX in 2012. 

Gentry was appointed chief executive at OpenX in 2020, after years of serving the company as an advisor, and later, as its president. He steered OpenX through various hurdles, including the disruptive entry of header bidding, evolving privacy regulations, and an ongoing legal battle with Google over antitrust allegations. 

Gentry’s mentorship and leadership style were widely praised. Chris Gaglia, a former OpenX employee, recalled Gentry’s initial hesitance to hire him over concerns that Gaglia was a surfer, and Gentry was “worried about motivation.” However, the two bonded quickly and, “as it turned out, JG loved paddleboarding and spending time in Newport Beach—and once we connected, we never looked back,” Gaglia said. 

“Every once in a while, you meet someone who leaves a lasting imprint on your life. JG was one of those people,” Gaglia said. “Although my time working with him was far too short, I’ll never forget our weekly one-on-ones—half nervous, half excited—because he was always direct, always expected outcomes, and yet somehow always sent you away sharper than when you walked in. He was a leader who challenged you, believed in you, and made you better. The industry lost a great one.”

Michael Todd, an executive at Silver Lake Partners who previously worked as chief technology officer and at OpenX, remembered Gentry as a thoughtful and caring presence. “John was instrumental in building OpenX into the independent, people-first ad tech company it became known for over the past decade,” Todd told ADWEEK. “He combined deep industry intuition with genuine care for those around him, and he pushed everyone to operate at a higher standard. I was fortunate to learn from him as a leader and to know him as a person.”

Tributes to Gentry flooded social media following the news of his death. 

Jason Fairchild, cofounder and CEO of TV adtech firm tvScientific, in a post, called Gentry “an industry leader, a pioneer, a collaborator to many of us, and an incredible executive.” He also characterized Gentry as his “best friend,” “mentor,” and “biggest fan.” 

Fairchild and Gentry worked together at software firm GoTo.com before Fairchild recruited Gentry to join OpenX. Under his oversight, Fairchild wrote, “OpenX re-transformed into a high-growth company driven by innovation and incredible execution.”

In a statement to ADWEEK, Fairchild added: “John was a force of nature. A force centered on doing the right thing. The right thing for the company and the right thing for the individual. The force was uncompromising and often pushed people out of their comfort zones, but it was grounded in empathy and care for the person.”

In their personal lives, Gentry and Fairchild were extremely close. “We spent countless hours together commuting, vacationing, and just hanging out, talking about work, life’s ups and downs, our goals, family, and whatever was going on,” Fairchild wrote in his post. “We raised our kids together, sharing Christmas mornings or teaming up against the kids for epic Call of Duty matches, only to get our asses kicked by 8-year-olds. We were in and out of each other’s chaotic daily lives for decades. He was the first friend I’d call with good news or to talk through a life challenge.”

Gentry’s selflessness and good nature were echoed by others who knew him and worked with him. 

“JG was a thoughtful man that helped me out on numerous occasions without asking for anything in return,” said Wayne Blodwell, who leads the programmatic practice at Stagwell agency Assembly Global, and previously consulted for OpenX. He added: “His openness and kindness will be missed by those around him and the wider industry.”

OpenAI is finally ready to see if its users will trade their screen real estate for a free chat.

The AI giant announced Friday that it will begin testing ads within the Free and Go tiers of ChatGPT in the “coming weeks,” marking a watershed moment for the world’s most popular AI chatbot as it adopts a traditional monetization approach.

Ads will appear at the bottom of ChatGPT answers when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service tied to the ongoing conversation, the company said in a blog post.

The company said that ads will be “clearly labeled and separated from the organic answer,” and won’t appear for users under 18 or near “sensitive or regulated” topics such as health, mental health or politics. ChatGPT on the Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans will remain ad-free.

In one example, OpenAI said people might see a sponsored ad and be able to ask follow-up questions directly in ChatGPT to make a purchase decision—like getting a recommended brand of ingredients while asking the chatbot for a recipe.

“Given what AI can do, we’re excited to develop new experiences over time that people find more helpful and relevant than any other ads,” the blog reads. “Conversational interfaces create possibilities for people to go beyond static messages and links. For example, soon you might see an ad and be able to directly ask the questions you need to make a purchase decision.”

The move signals a new phase for consumer AI. ChatGPT has more than 800 million weekly active users, CEO Sam Altman said in October, and the company has been reportedly testing and considering ads as a monetization strategy for some time, though it has thus far only had limited commercial strategies beyond subscriptions and enterprise deals. Last month, Altman sent a memo to staff calling for a “code red” as it lost ground to competitors including Google and Anthropic, The Wall Street Journal reported. ADWEEK has reported on early signs of ads and ad features appearing across OpenAI’s products.

The company had expanded its marketing infrastructure since hiring Fidji Simo as CEO of applications last year. Simo, the former CEO of Instacart, spent part of last year recruiting for an ads and monetization team for ChatGPT, according to reporter Alex Heath’s Sources newsletter. The company also recruited engineers to develop internal tools for ad platform integration, campaign management, and real-time attribution as part of a newly formed ChatGPT Growth team, as ADWEEK previously reported.

Advertisers are likely to test how well they can reach users in a conversational environment. But OpenAI faces a delicate balance–people sharing personal details in ChatGPT are used to an ad-free experience, and the company is tasked with maintaining trust while experimenting with monetization.

In the post, OpenAI said ads would not influence ChatGPT responses, that conversations would remain private from advertisers, and that ad placements would always be separate from core content.

OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment.

Netflix began planning its tarot-themed campaign to announce its 2026 slate early last year. Now, around nine months later, it seems success is in the cards.

According to Netflix, its latest “What Next” campaign, which launched with the release of a hero film on Jan. 7, has already received 104 million owned social impressions across Netflix social channels; more than 1,000 dedicated press pieces across broadcast, print, and digital outlets; and the company’s fansite, Tudum, achieved its best-ever traffic day on Jan. 7 with over 2.5 million visits, thanks to a dedicated “Discover Your Future” hub as well as news stories and in-depth articles.

But the true success goes even beyond those numbers, with Netflix rolling out and adapting the campaign across 34 markets around the globe, including North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with localized efforts and in-person activations all being tied together through the tarot storyline.

“We found that the tarot card and looking into the future really worked well for markets to localize,” Marian Lee, Netflix’s CMO, told ADWEEK. “They could pick up the shows and films that we were highlighting out of the U.S., but then they could put in their own local slate. And so it ended up being much more universal, which is always the goal.”

The campaign revolves around a four-minute hero film, “Discover Your Future 2026,” the creation of which is a feat in itself. The film, directed by Show Yanagisawa, features actor Teyana Taylor as a mystical tarot reader, playing into the idea of looking into the future.

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In the video, Taylor leads a fan through 10 different worlds of Netflix shows, interacting with the stars of upcoming series including Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man), Millie Bobby Brown (Enola Holmes 3), Luke Thompson (Bridgerton), Iñaki Godoy (One Piece), Lily Collins (Emily in Paris), Gordon Cormier (Avatar: The Last Airbender), Theo James (The Gentlemen), Omar Sy (Lupin), and even Sesame Street’s Elmo.

The majority of the film was shot at Shepperton Studios, one of Netflix’s owned production hubs in the U.K., with the streamer rebuilding show environments to bring the different series to life in the ad, even using the same vendors who work on the shows and films to ensure the visual effects matched fan expectations.

From getting the talent together—some, including Teyana Taylor, Lily Collins, and Gordon Cormier, who even pushed the campaign on their own socials—to assembling vendors and sets, Lee noted it wasn’t easy.

“It was really hard to cull down to just 10 of our titles, and then when you think about the different creatives in it,” Lee said. “We are blessed with a very wide variety of things to choose from, but it all has to hang together.”

To make it all work, Netflix brought in a variety of partners for the campaign, including its internal brand studio, Wieden+Kennedy Portland, Los York Studio, Prettybird, Electric Theatre Collective, and ExtraCredit.

Fifty custom illustrated tarot cards, each representing a global title, served as the creative anchor for the campaign, including in physical and digital activations where fans could choose their own futures from Netflix’s slate of stories.

The executions included out-of-home (OOH) in major cities such as L.A. and New York; digital takeovers with TikTok TopView, a YouTube Masthead, and Spotify mobile; and commercials airing during various live events, including a teaser in Netflix’s NFL Christmas Day games and upcoming TV spots in SNL episodes hosted by Teyana Taylor and Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard.

The tarot theme got even more personalized with in-person activations.

On Jan. 12-13, Netflix hosted an immersive activation in New York City at Grand Central Terminal, where an animatronic Teyana Taylor gave readings in a 12-foot Tarot Booth, which gained further publicity online with the help of creators such as Kevin Li, Erika Priscilla, and Gabrielle Chase.

Various in-person activations also extend globally in multiple markets, ranging from an interactive tarot tour in Spain to a specialized WhatsApp bot in Brazil that predicted fans’ viewing future. Meanwhile, global press events are planned through Feb. 17 in locations including Italy, Spain, DACH, Poland, Romania, Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, and India.

Through it all, Lee emphasized that Netflix remains flexible in its execution.

Not everything can be predicted

The streamer’s ingrained flexibility is evident in how it has approached multiple recent situations, including expanding its campaign for KPop Demon Hunters after the movie blew up in popularity and even leveraging added publicity from a viral fan theory about the final season of Stranger Things.

Following the Stranger Things finale airing on New Year’s Eve, fans came up with several pieces of “evidence” that there was a secret ninth episode of the show on the way. Lee noted that the theory of the secret episode, known as the Conformity Gate, became so popular that it even led her to question her own reality.

“It just kept going. For a minute, I was like, ‘Is there a ninth episode? Is this the best-kept secret at Netflix?’” Lee said, laughing. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m actually losing my mind. What am I doing? This is how conspiracy theories really do get started.”

Reacting to the situation, Netflix used the added publicity to tease its Stranger Things documentary, which takes fans behind the scenes of the final season. Lee said that while most of a campaign is rigorously planned, some things, like the Conformity Gate phenomenon, happen serendipitously, which is where the flexibility comes in.

The streamer is currently in the middle of another of those serendipitous situations, with Teyana Taylor, the star of its “What Next” campaign, also recently winning a Golden Globe for One Battle After Another, instantly making her a central figure during the ongoing awards season.

It wasn’t predicted, but it puts Netflix in a stronger position to win.

“The principle really is about flexibility and agility,” Lee said. “Netflix positions itself well to do that. And that’s why we were able to do it for Stranger Things, we’re able to pivot for Kpop Demon Hunters, and we try to leave room in the overall plan for things that we can’t anticipate.”

A jury on Thursday found TV measurement firm EDO, co-founded by actor Ed Norton, liable for breaching its contract with iSpot, both companies confirmed, awarding iSpot $18.3 million in damages. ISpot was seeking up to $47 million. 

The jury, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, found that EDO breached its contract with iSpot, in connection with its handling and use of iSpot’s TV ad airings data.

“We are in the business of truth, transparency, and trust. Rather than innovate on their own, EDO violated all those principles, and gave us no choice but to hold them accountable,” an iSpot spokesperson said in a statement shared with ADWEEK.

In an amended complaint, filed in 2022, iSpot alleged that EDO accessed its TV advertising measurement platform under the premise that it would use the data in that platform only for film box office analysis.

However, iSpot claimed, EDO violated its contract by scraping proprietary data from various industries it was not licensed to access, “exploited” its dashboard and APIs, and stole iSpot’s trade secrets to build a rival TV advertising analytics platform, which launched in 2020 after its contract with iSpot expired.

ISpot also alleged in its suit that EDO and a former EDO employee continued to use iSpot’s systems, enabling EDO to extract confidential information and gain an unfair competitive edge. 

While the jury found EDO liable for violating its contract with iSpot, it tossed iSpot’s claims that EDO and a former EDO employee misappropriated trade secrets under both state and federal law, determining that the data in question did not qualify as a trade secret. 

An EDO spokesperson said in a statement: “iSpot’s desperate attempt to slow down a smaller, smarter competitor and distract us from doing what we do best, delivering superior results for our clients.”

The spokesperson noted the jury’s decision was mixed, but that it is “still disappointed that the decision on the other claim misinterpreted the complexity of events from a decade ago.”

EDO said it plans to appeal the decision. 

EDO previously filed a countersuit against iSpot in 2022 for tortious interference, alleging that just days before EDO was set to secure an $80 million investment from Shamrock Capital, iSpot added EDO to its complaint, which originally named only the former EDO employee as a defendant. Shamrock is also the owner of ADWEEK.

Proceedings in that case have been put on hold in a Delaware court. The former EDO employee did not respond to a request for comment.