Puck's $250M Handover & Netflix's ChuChu Grab

The Digital Dealflow

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Quartermast Advisors
October 01, 2026

Good Morning,

RedBird Capital Partners agreed to take a majority stake in Puck, the newsletter-focused media company, at a $250M valuation. Meanwhile, Roundtable, the media-technology firm, agreed to buy 49.5% of Paradium, owner of Parade and Men's Journal, for $89M, alongside a 10-year, $1B platform agreement that hands Roundtable ad sales and monetization.

Netflix acquired global rights to ChuChu TV, the Indian kids' YouTube channel network. OpenAI also hired Patreon co-founder and CTO Sam Yam and two other senior Patreon leaders to start a Creator Product division, and DraftKings co-founder Matt Kalish launched HardScope, a media company with a studio that builds shows with creators and gives them equity in the franchises, backed by nearly $4M in production funding.

Two tickets for the price of one: Join us at Paris Creator Week! 🇫🇷


Quartermast is partnering with Paris Creator Week to organize the world’s first M&A Track dedicated entirely to the Creator Economy, taking place November 4 in Paris.
The program will feature Emma Harman (CEO, Whalar) in conversation with Jim Louderback (Inside the Creator Economy) about the Whalar acquisition by Accenture Song, with more speakers and sessions still to be announced.


Your M&A Track ticket also includes access to the wider Paris Creator Week on November 4–5, featuring speakers including Dan Clancy (CEO, Twitch) and Eliah Seton (CEO, SoundCloud).
Special offer for Quartermast Newsletter subscribers: Get 50% off your tickets with code GuestQTM50 at checkout — effectively, bring a colleague for free.

On the pre-M&A radar, Brave Bison made a formal 360p-a-share cash proposal for the System1 shares it doesn't own, holding 27.85% with letters of intent covering another 11.34%. (Read our founder James Creech's take on how the drama is unfolding).

When did the reporter become part of the cap table? Puck spent months covering Paramount's takeover, and the firm that backed it is now buying a majority of Puck.

Quartermast Creator Economy Index:

Layoff Watch:

  • Disney: Cutting a few hundred more employees, about 300 by one count, across HR and technology in its third round of layoffs this year.

  • CNN: Staff are bracing for layoffs as Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery moves toward close, with Paramount projecting about $6B in synergies.

The Weekly Roundup:

  1. TikTok Pays Creators Within 30 Days: TikTok launched One Pay, a zero-fee tool that pays creators for brand deals inside TikTok One within 30 days of posting, plus One Plus, an invite-only roster for exclusive brand deals, as TikTok Shop heads past $100B in GMV this year (Mashable).

  2. Best Buy Joins TikTok Shop: Best Buy is debuting on TikTok Shop with nearly 10,000 products (Best Buy).

  3. Netflix vs. YouTube for Creators: Netflix keeps signing creators on non-exclusive terms, including Sam and Colby's Hell Week, The Besties, and ChuChu TV, even as YouTube reportedly offers creators seven-digit packages to stay put (Deadline).

  4. YouTube Rejects Meta's Safety Ask: YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told CNN YouTube won't adopt the safety features Meta is pushing as an industry standard, after Meta's roughly $17B settlement with state attorneys general (Tubefilter).

  5. OpenAI Builds a Creator Team: OpenAI hired Patreon co-founder Sam Yam and two other former Patreon leaders to start a Creator Product division (BigGo).

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