Mailchimp CEO Rania Succar on culture, acquisitions, and how big 'small business' really is

Hey everyone, it’s Nilay. We’re off today, but we’ll be back Thursday, so stay tuned. In the meantime, we have an excellent episode from Business Insider Chief Correspondent Peter Kafka, who hosts the media podcast Channels. In this episode, Peter sat down with one of the biggest names in journalism: New York Times publisher AG Sulzberger. It’s a fascinating conversation that covers some of the most pressing issues facing journalism and the news business today. We think you’ll like it.  Links: NYT publisher AG Sulzberger on Trump, OpenAI and the economy | Channels New York Times Reports 350,000 Additional Digital Subscribers | NYT IGN and CNET owner Ziff Davis sues OpenAI | Verge The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement | Verge Dow Jones CEO Almar Latour on AI, press freedom, and the future of news | Decoder Platforms need the news — but they’re killing it | Decoder Why The Atlantic signed a deal with OpenAI | Decoder Platformer’s Casey Newton on surviving the great media collapse | Decoder Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A lot has happened in the first 100 days of Trump's second term. It’s nearly too much to keep up with, really, but we're going to try. Verge policy editor Adi Robertson joins Decoder this week to talk through six of the biggest stories and themes we're covering, from tariffs to TikTok to DOGE. Links:  Donald Trump’s first 100 days: all the news affecting the tech industry | Verge The DOGE days have just begun | Verge America is living in tariff limbo | Verge MAGA’s next wave of influencers saved TikTok | Verge Whatever happened to the Kids’ Online Safety Act? | Verge Brendan Carr’s FCC is an anti-consumer, rights-trampling harassment machine | Verge Environmental warning systems are suffering from Trump’s data purge | Verge Why Trump can’t be trusted with Congress’ new anti-deepfake bill | Decoder How Trump’s tariffs actually work on the ground | Decoder The FCC is a weapon in Trump’s war on free speech | Decoder Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A few days ago, I hosted a panel with FTC commissioners Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya at the IAPP Global Privacy Summit in Washington, DC. We recorded the discussion, and we’re bringing it to you today. Normal Decoder stuff, but these are anything but normal times. Becca and Alvaro were FTC commissioners until very recently, when President Donald Trump fired them — but he doesn't have that legal authority. They’re suing to get their jobs back, and they’re prepared to go all the way to SCOTUS if they have to. Links:  Trump fires Democratic FTC commissioners | The Verge Fired FTC commissioners sue Trump | The Verge The case for breaking up Google has never been stronger | The Verge The government doesn’t understand Meta | The Verge FTC v Meta live: updates from the battle for Instagram, WhatsApp | The Verge DOGE has arrived at the FTC | The Verge Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s failed negotiations with the FTC | Wall Street Journal FTC chair says he’d drop Meta case if lawfully ordered to | The Verge Bedoya warns of “corrupting influence of billionaires”| The Verge The FTC has enough staff to sue Amazon, after all | The Verge Transcript: ⁠https://www.theverge.com/e/657115⁠ Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today we’re talking about the very real possibility that Google might be broken up by the United States government. And to do that, I’m talking to Jonathan Kanter, the former assistant attorney general for antitrust under the Biden administration. Kanter left the DOJ after Trump was elected, but he was the architect of the major antitrust cases the Trump administration continues to pursue against Google. That means he’s much more free to share his thoughts on what it took to build and win both of these cases and what should happen next. Links:  Google loses ad tech monopoly case | Verge Google is in more danger than ever of being broken up | Verge OpenAI tells judge it would buy Chrome from Google | Verge The high stakes of Google’s monopoly trial | Verge DOJ says Google must sell Chrome to crack open search monopoly | Verge Google makes history with rapid-fire antitrust losses | NYT Read the antitrust ruling against Google | NYT Google ad monopoly ruling's surprise winner: OpenAI | Axios DOJ antitrust chief is ‘overjoyed’ after Google monopoly verdict | Decoder DOJ’s Kanter says the antitrust fight against Big Tech is just beginning | Decoder Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As CEO of Verizon's consumer division, Sowmyanarayan Sampath oversees the biggest part of the company, which does business with roughly a third of the entire country. He's a longtime Verge reader, so we  talked very directly about whether the huge 5G investment had actually paid off, and whether – whether the “race” we were supposedly in with China was actually worth it, and what kinds of new apps and services actually come to light. And while Verizon fought tooth and nail against regulations like net neutrality, the current Trump administration isn’t nearly as hands-off when it comes to things like  holding up deals because of DEI policies — something that’s happening to Verizon right now. So I had to ask Sampath if he was going to push back on that kind of government overreach as hard as Verizon has in the past. Links:  The US government makes a $42 million bet on OpenRAN | The Verge FCC scrutinizes Verizon’s $9.6 billion Frontier deal over DEI | USA Today Verizon offers a three-year price lock — but there’s a catch | The Verge T-Mobile updates its DEI policy to get Lumos deal approved | Fierce Network We don’t need net neutrality; we need competition (2014) | Ars Technica Wireless and cable industries sue to kill net neutrality (2015) | The Verge Everything Verizon says in this terrible video against net neutrality (2017) | The Verge Report: Most Americans have no real choice in internet providers | ILSR T-Mobile’s merger promises couldn’t make a carrier out of Dish | The Verge Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Our producers are Kate Cox and Nick Statt. Our editor is Ursa Wright.  The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices