Company News in Brief

Anthropic ditches its core safety promise

Anthropic, a company founded by OpenAI exiles worried about the dangers of AI, is loosening its core safety principle in response to competition.

Instead of self-imposed guardrails constraining its development of AI models, Anthropic is adopting a nonbinding safety framework that it says can and will change.

In a blog post Tuesday outlining its new policy, Anthropic said shortcomings in its two-year-old Responsible Scaling Policy could hinder its ability to compete in a rapidly growing AI market.

The announcement is surprising, because Anthropic has described itself as the AI company with a “soul.” It also comes the same week that Anthropic is fighting a significant battle with the Pentagon over AI red lines.

-CNN Business

Paramount escalates Warner Bros. Discovery fight with new $31-per-share bid

Paramount has officially raised its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, to $31 per share, and now the WBD board says it is extending the window for talks with Paramount about a possible deal.

In addition to the higher price per share, Paramount has also sweetened its proposal in several other ways, including by promising “a $7 billion regulatory termination fee” to WBD “in the event the transaction does not close due to regulatory matters.”

So the talks with Paramount will continue, as WBD strives to land the best deal possible. But the WBD merger agreement with Netflix “remains in place,” the company emphasized, and analysts say Netflix is likely to match the competing bid.

Until now, Paramount has been offering $30 per share, which WBD rejected as “inferior” to the company’s deal to sell its studio and streaming assets to Netflix. Paramount has been appealing directly to WBD shareholders in what is commonly known as a hostile takeover bid.

-CNN Business 

Treasury ‘advises’ 15 municipalities to let Eskom take over

National Treasury has advised 15 struggling municipalities to appoint Eskom as an agent to perform electricity distribution on their behalf.

Eskom would in terms of such Distribution Agency Agreements (DAAs) manage the electricity infrastructure, billing, and collections – with payments made by consumers going directly into Eskom’s bank account.

The utility would ring-fence these payments and use the funds in accordance with an agreed upon merit order.

National Treasury Director-General Duncan Pieterse said during a media briefing before Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivered his Budget Speech 2026 on Wednesday (25 February) that Treasury had written letters to the 15 councils following their non-compliance with Treasury’s debt relief programme.

In terms of the programme municipalities could qualify for the write-off of their historical debt to Eskom over a period of three years if they comply with certain conditions. This includes paying their current Eskom account every month.

The 71 participating municipalities collectively owed Eskom R85 billion by December but only 15 comply consistently with the programme’s conditions.