Talk Fuse

    Topic: Companies

    Companies covers the businesses shaping media, technology, entertainment and consumer services, from global platforms and game publishers to broadcasters and private providers.

    Readers can follow corporate decisions on products, prices, jobs, ownership and regulation, alongside the wider effects those choices can have on workers, customers and public life.

    • Bari Weiss takeover fears grip CNN staff as Paramount-Warner Bros deal nears completion

      CNN staff are reportedly anxious about their future as Paramount Skydance moves closer to completing its acquisition of parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, with many fearing the network will be handed to Bari Weiss, currently editor in chief of Paramount-owned CBS News. The concern matters because CNN remains a significant profit generator and a key…

    • Chemistry Ventures seeks $500m for its oversubscribed second startup fund

      Chemistry Ventures, a venture capital firm founded two years ago by alumni of Bessemer, Index Ventures, and Andreessen Horowitz, is raising $500 million for its second fund, according to an SEC filing. The move matters as a signal of continued investor appetite for early-stage technology startups, with the firm significantly increasing its firepower from the…

    • Norm becomes a unicorn after raising $120 million for AI legal work

      AI legal startup Norm has raised $120 million in a Series C funding round led by Khosla Ventures, giving the almost three-year-old company a valuation of $1.2 billion and pushing it into unicorn territory. The deal underscores continued investor appetite for legal technology that promises to automate routine legal work, an area now crowded with…

    • iRobot launches its first non-robotic Roomba, the manual Electro Plus floor cleaner

      iRobot has unveiled the Roomba Electro Plus, its first-ever floor cleaner that is not a robot. Priced at $399, the cordless device is a 5-in-1 hard-floor cleaner that vacuums, mops and disinfects, but must be pushed manually by the user. Alongside it, the company launched five new Roomba robot vacuums that offer higher suction power,…

    • Bidbus raises $15m to let dealers bid on private used cars

      A Los Angeles-based startup called Bidbus has raised a $15 million Series A funding round led by mobility fund Ibex Investors, as it seeks to expand beyond its initial markets of California and Texas. The company runs a digital marketplace where multiple car dealerships bid against one another to buy a private seller’s used car,…

    • Lego unveils five new Pokémon building sets with first official images

      Lego and The Pokémon Company have revealed five new Pokémon building sets, following their first collaboration earlier in 2026, which coincides with the franchise’s 30th anniversary. The announcement, made on a Tuesday, expands the partnership beyond its initial line-up of Pikachu, Eevee and the Kanto starters’ final evolutions, and notably includes a fan-favourite Legendary Pokémon.…

    • Everyone Watches Women’s Sports podcast launched by Togethxr and iHeartMedia

      Women’s sports media company Togethxr has partnered with iHeartMedia to launch a weekly audio and video podcast titled “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports”, debuting on 9 July via the iHeart Women’s Sports lineup. The launch matters because it turns Togethxr’s popular, trademarked slogan — which the firm says has already generated more than $10 million in…

    • Here comes J. Edgar musical by Harry Shearer to premiere in London

      Comedians Harry Shearer and Tom Leopold are preparing to premiere their long-gestating musical “Here Comes J. Edgar” at London’s 200-seat King’s Head Theatre on 10 July, some three decades after they first began writing it. The show, about former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, matters both as a rare stage outing for the pair and…

    • Vans and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty condemns shoe collaboration as tone deaf

      Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty has publicly criticised a recent “Vans and Fugazi” trainer collaboration as “tone deaf”, after fans were misled into believing the anti-consumerist post-hardcore band had partnered with the footwear giant. In reality, the collaboration was between Vans and a Los Angeles-based luxury streetwear label that happens to share the Fugazi name, not…

    • Jude Law to lead getaway driver thriller from his Riff Raff company

      Actor Jude Law is to star in a new film about a getaway driver, produced by his own production company, Riff Raff Entertainment. The project was announced by Riff Raff’s co-founder Ben Jackson and head of film and TV Katie Sinclair at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, and marks a notable shift for Law into…