C’mon Apple, Buy HBO!

Welcome to the Tech Brew ride, home for Tuesday, 10/21/2025. I'm Brian McCullough. Today, HBO Max might be on the market and I want Apple to buy it. Coinbase is on an acquisition tear. Is the Amazon job apocalypse nigh? Is OpenAI plotting to take over Wall Street in a literal sense? And a brain implant startup has leapfrogged Neuralink in terms of helping blind people see again. Here's what you missed today in the world of tech. Big day for HBO or HBO Max, nay, Max, or whatever they're calling themselves now. HBO Max raised prices across all plans. Basic with ads increases by $1 a month to $10.99 per month. Standard goes up by a dollar 50 per month to $18.49 per month, and the premium plan is up by $2 a month to $22.99. But then news from CNBC that says parent company WBD is open to a sale after receiving unsolicited interest from multiple parties. Sources say the parties include Netflix and Comcast. Quote, earlier this year, WBD announced plans to split into two separate entities, a streaming and studios business and a global networks business. It's also been fielding takeout interest from the newly merged Paramount Skydance. But on Tuesday, WBD said it's received, quote, unsolicited interest from multiple parties and will now review all options. In the meantime, it's still moving toward the previously announced separation, the company said. We continue to make important strides to position our business to succeed in today's evolving media landscape by advancing our strategic initiatives, returning our studios to industry leadership, and scaling HBO Max globally, CEO David Zaslav said in a statement. We took the bold step of preparing to separate the company into two distinct leading media companies, Warner Brothers and Discovery Global, because we strongly believe this was the best path forward, end quote. It is unclear how serious potential offers outside of Paramount would be. Netflix was not interested in buying legacy media assets but didn't want WBD to go to another buyer at a low price, a source familiar with the matter said. For any buyer that just wants WBD's studio and streaming assets, acquiring them after a split later this year is better for tax purposes, end quote. Yeah. But going public with this now means that they want to start a bidding war. Right? And why not? This would be an incredible asset for somebody, strategic or otherwise, either the whole studio or just HBO. And look. That's my pitch. Longtime listeners will know it's a bugbear of mine that HBO, which was once the Tiffany TV channel, has been so run into the ground. It's a crime. So Apple, just do it. Buy HBO. Save HBO. Come on, Tim Apple. Make this be your big Swan Song media acquisition. Coinbase has agreed to acquire Echo, a blockchain platform that lets crypto companies quickly raise capital for around $375,000,000. Now I'm marking this not because Echo is especially interesting to me, …