Zuck’s $2B Receipt

The Digital Dealflow

Author

Quartermast Advisors
January 01, 2026

Good Morning and Happy New Year!

Meta dropped a reported $2 billion for the viral AI-agent startup Manus. With Manus, Zuckerberg finally has a profitable AI asset to show for his massive bets. This pivot to monetization is vital, given investor anxiety regarding Meta’s $60 billion spending spree. Lets see how they weave the AI it into Meta’s assets.

Meanwhile, Humanz grabbed $15M and snapped up agencies Ubiquitous and Bambassadors. Ubiquitous cements a dominant U.S. enterprise footprint, while Bambassadors provides the AI-driven UGC infrastructure to scale performance marketing.

Looks like Netflix is in the front seat for Warner Bros- who’s ready for a Harry Potter and The Crown crossover?

Layoff Watch

  • Omnicom Group is moving to lay off over 4,000 employees, up from the reported 3,200, as it consolidates several major advertising and influencer agency brands.

  • New year-end data shows media layoffs surged 18% in 2025, with over 17,000 jobs cut across streaming, news, and creator-adjacent platforms like Twitch and Bell Media.

The Weekly Roundup:

  1. Death of Follower Counts: TechCrunch reports that industry leaders now believe follower counts have never mattered less, as 2025 became the year the algorithm took complete control over distribution, forcing creators to pivot toward high-trust affiliate models and niche community building to survive (TechCrunch).

  2. Tanke’s Case for Human Taste: Tanke CEO Ertan Anadol argues that while AI is flooding the internet with "slop," the future of the creator economy will be defined by "human taste" and integrated creative strategies that treat influencers as cultural connective tissue rather than mere distribution silos (NetInfluencer).

  3. TikTok Shop’s Seller Incentives: TikTok Shop is offering up to $6,000 in coupons and gamified "missions" to lure new U.S. businesses, signaling that the platform's e-commerce arm is entering an aggressive growth phase now that regulatory uncertainty has settled (Digiday).

  4. The Tribeca Festival’s Creator Category: In a historic first for major cinema, the Tribeca Festival is opening its "NOW" category to social media creators on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, evaluating creators based on their full body of storytelling work (The Hollywood Reporter).

  5. YouTube’s AI Creator Portraits: YouTube is experimenting with "Portraits," a feature using Google's AI to allow fans to hold text-based conversations with virtual versions of popular creators to deepen engagement and surface audience insights (Communicate Online).

  6. Colgate embraces brainrot: Colgate and Toejam Films are utilizing handcrafted claymation to cut through the holiday advertising noise, using humor centered on forgotten toiletries to keep the product at the heart of the narrative (DesignRush).

  7. FIFA and Roblox’s Global Expansion: FIFA and Roblox have expanded their partnership by rebranding the "Super League Soccer" title to "FIFA Super Soccer," aiming to engage the next generation of football fans across Roblox's 151 million daily active users (Sports Video Group).

  8. New York’s Social Media Warning Law: New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced a new law requiring social platforms to display mental health warning labels on features like infinite scrolling and algorithmic feeds to protect young users (Reuters).

  9. Instagram’s Teen Growth Strategy: Leaked internal documents reveal Meta’s ambitious roadmap to make Instagram the world’s largest platform for teenagers by 2027, aiming to halt a years-long slide in teen engagement (Washington Post).

  10. TikTok’s Branded Buzz Bonuses: TikTok is launching a $10,000 reward pool and bonuses up to $1,500 to incentivize more creators to use its "Branded Buzz" marketplace, a tool designed to streamline sponsored content pairings (Tubefilter).

  11. TikTok’s Micro-Drama Entry: TikTok is officially entering the "bite-sized soap opera" market with a new "Minis" section, featuring movie-length stories chopped into short episodes to capitalize on a format booming in China and the US (Business Insider).

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