Raine

NBA Plans 16-Team European League for October 2027

The NBA is targeting October 2027 to launch a new 16-team European league developed with FIBA. The proposal uses a hybrid model combining American-style permanent franchises with European merit-based promotion: 12 permanent hubs (including London, Paris and Madrid) and four annual spots awarded by domestic-league performance. The league is courting capital via JPMorgan Chase and the Raine Group to attract sovereign wealth and private equity investors. The move positions the NBA in direct competition with the incumbent EuroLeague and other entrants such as Project B, and raises governance and domestic-league coordination questions for markets like the U.K. The timeline and structure were confirmed by an NBA executive speaking at a Milan conference and were first reported by ESPN.

Misinformation Allegations in The Facebook Papers; Google Faced with Unredacted Court Papers - ExchangeWire.com

A digest covering three stories: (1) The Facebook Papers claim Facebook and WhatsApp selectively curb hate speech and misinformation in India, including a 2019 test where a fake account encountered extensive QAnon content and slow responses to problematic material, with a potential rebranding aligned to a metaverse strategy. (2) Newly unredacted court papers in Google’s Texas-led antitrust case describe the Jedi Blue deal and an 18-month header bidding strategy intended to increase cross-platform leverage, with allegations of mutual protection and user identification on Apple devices; Google denies the claims. (3) VideoAmp raised $275 million in a Series F led by Spruce House Partnership, with additional investors, valuing the company at $1.4 billion as it competes in modern media measurement against Nielsen.

Grab Go Public in $40bn SPAC Deal; Univision Merge with Grupo Televisa - ExchangeWire.com

Today’s ExchangeWire digest covers three major moves in tech and media. Grab will go public in the US via a record SPAC merger, raising about USD 4.5 billion and valuing the company near USD 40 billion, in what will be the largest SPAC deal to date. SoftBank-backed Grab, which began as a ride-hailing service in 2012 and has evolved into a “super-app” offering delivery, ecommerce, logistics, and payments, is merging with Altimeter's SPAC; CEO Anthony Tan called it a milestone. In a separate transaction, Univision and Grupo Televisa agreed to merge to form Televisa-Univision, a USD 4.8 billion deal that leaves Televisa with about 45% of the new entity; additional investment will come from SoftBank Latin America Fund, Google, and The Raine Group. Separately, the US added seven Chinese entities to its export blacklist over alleged military use of supercomputing technology, highlighting ongoing US-China tech tensions.