Paramount stock jumps on WBD talks, Snapchat’s creator subscriptions

Yahoo Finance Video and Josh Lipton

Wed, February 18, 2026 at 5:50 AM GMT+9

In this video:

•                                       StockStory Top Pick 
  

  NFLX

  +0.21%

 SNAP  

 -1.97%  

 

 

 PSKY  

 +4.94%  

 

 

 TRIP  

 +9.68%  

 

 

 WBD  

 +2.72%  

Market Domination Host Josh Lipton and Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Brooke DiPalma track several of the day’s top trending stock tickers, including Paramount Skydance’s (PSKY) positive stock gains after Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) agrees to reopen discussion around a potential buyout, Tripadvisor (TRIP) shares surging as Starboard Value has its sights set on the company’s board, and Snapchat (SNAP) launching its new creator subscriptions feature in alpha.

To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Market Domination.

Video Transcript

00:00 Speaker A

Today’s trending tickers, Yahoo Finance’s Brooke DiPalma, joining me here for a look at Paramount, Skydance, TripAdvisor and Snap. We’re going to start here with Paramount as Warner Brothers agrees to reopen discussions with the company. So this one, it sounds like Brooke, okay, Warner Brothers Discovery agrees to reopen negotiations with Paramount Skydance after it proposes raising the bid, right? Netflix, it sounds like grants the board seven days to discuss the proposal. So the drama continues.

00:36 Brooke

Yeah, the the drama certainly continues. We do see Paramount shares rising about more than 5%, as you can see on your screen as we make our way towards the close, but definitely investors optimistic about what exactly this could mean if exactly Paramount actually could come up with a new substantial, even sweeter offer. We know that just last week Paramount put out the $30 per cash offer. Now Warner Brothers saying that there’s sort of an informal agreement that they can go up to $31. We all got also got that ticking fee. They also said that they agreed to pay the $2.8 billion termination fee if they did not go with Netflix. And over for the past few months, this saga definitely has picked up. The drama continues for sure. And we continue to see that when the deal between Netflix and Warner Brothers was initially announced back in December, according to Polymarket, the odds that this would happen was about 30% and now that is sort of lower to about 22% that Netflix could close a deal with Warner Brothers by year end. And really just the drama around this, it’s almost like a a movie itself.

01:34 Speaker A

Yeah, I’ve heard some analysts really make the case that the Ellisons, Larry and David, they need this to happen. Yeah, this is this is a a must have for for Larry and David.

01:48 Brooke

Yeah, and when Paramount thinks about how exactly it sits within this bigger streaming picture, it’s like will their Netflix have more power or will it ultimately go to Paramount who, it’s important to note, is including the whole entire Warner Brothers Discovery, uh, you know, linear channels as well, whereas the Netflix deal wouldn’t include that. So, it depends. Right now, Warner Brothers saying, hey, we still want to go with Netflix, but could they still actually give Paramount a substantial chance here at getting the the Warner Brothers film and every everything.

02:22 Speaker A

Yeah, Larry is worth an estimated 200 billion. so that does help. That comes in handy. Next up, I know, look at TripAdvisor’s Starboard ramps up the pressure on the company to create shareholder value. So right, they they delivered this letter, they emphasized, listen, we got some, we got some prolonged underperformance here guys. and that stock is down. It’s been shelled. It’s down about 40% year over the past 12 months. They announced plans to nominate a majority slate of director candidates for that 2026 annual meeting.

02:59 Brooke

Yeah, year to date, the stock is down about 27% alone. Of course, today you’re getting this pop about, you know, what exactly this could turn out to be, but you can’t help but here when you hear Starboard Value, you think about the other players that they’ve took taken a stake in as of late. We do know they took a stake in Pfizer and have since stepped away in late 2025. Also, this reminding me back in August of 2024 right before we got a new CEO at Starbucks, Starboard also took a stake within that company. Also, Macy’s, this company, uh this activist investor has gone after specifically not for stock reasons, but more so there was that big uh discussion around its real estate value around Macy’s a few years ago. So definitely it’s pretty monumental. When this company steps in, you know that change is likely to happen here.

03:41 Speaker A

Yeah, popping today about 10%. All right, finally look at Snap as the Snapchat business launches paid creator subscriptions. So CNBC reporting here, uh Snap introducing subscription feature, Brooke. It’s gonna, I guess allow creators to earn uh what sounds like recurring income directly from their most engaged fans. So this is Snap, obviously like looking for ways of hey, let’s let’s try to diversify diversify beyond advertising. So paid creator subscriptions.

04:09 Brooke

Yeah, like Tik Tok has that creator fund as well. So is it trying to compete with that? Also interesting, maybe field study. I was at a few middle schools in the past week talking to students and they said that Snapchat is like their number one form of communication. So still ahead with Gen Alpha there, but at the same exact time, Wall Street largely on the sidelines with this, there is about 35 holds, only 11 buys and three sells. Also really what they’re focusing on is these these, you know, ways in which they’re not only going to grow subscribers after losing some, but other forms of monetization. Don’t know if you’re a Snapchat user yourself, but now you have to pay for storage, which I was pretty upset about, not going to lie there.

04:46 Speaker A

I’m impressed by that as you say, most analysts are on the sidelines here, like 71%. Right. On the side. 71% of analysts who cover the stock, who are paid to tell you what to do with it are telling clients you should hold it. even though this stock, I mean, yike, you pull up a chart of this stock, it has been shelled. It’s down around 40% this year.

05:14 Brooke

56% over the past year, yeah.

05:15 Speaker A

It’s down around right, about 60% over the past 12 months. A lot of times you would see a chart like that and you’d be like, all right, I’ll take a flyer on this. Like the bad news has to be in, but most analysts are like, no thanks.

05:21 Brooke

Well, I will say in recent days, uh just last week on February 10th and then also earlier this week, Snapchat was upgraded by both Stifel and Rosenblatt, I read, if I believe I had that financial firm right. They said that Snap’s top line growth is further shifting from its reliance on a subscale ads business to higher margin, thinking about that subscription income. So definitely some optimism on the street, some turnaround here, but I mean, when they’re thinking about how it competes against Meta, how it competes against, you know, up and comer, maybe what Tik Tok’s to look like now that it is a private US business, definitely trying to understand how Snapchat sits in that landscape. Maybe this is a turnaround, maybe this is the bottom.

06:03 Speaker A

All right. I don’t know. Thank you Brooke, appreciate it.

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