In this podcast, Motley Fool contribtors Travis Hoium, Lou Whiteman, and Rachel Warren discuss:

• The growing prevalence of celebrities being involved in big investment moves, including Travis Kelce taking a role in Jana Partners' 9% stake in Six Flags.
• The launch of ChatGPT Atlas.
• A potential deal between Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount Skydance.

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A full transcript is below.

This podcast was recorded on Oct. 22, 2025.

Travis Hoium: Travis Kelce is taking an activist role at Six Flags. Are we going to get Taylor World next? Motley Fool Money starts now. Welcome to Motley Fool Money. I'm joined today by Lou Whiteman and Rachel Warren. Look, the big news over the past 24 hours has been Travis Kelce taking an activist role. At least that's what the headlines say at Six Flags. Jana Partners is actually the one I think fronting a lot of this money. But Lou, this is at least interesting. The interest here is that he has a background going to Six Flags, but we also have Dollywood, and Dolly Parton. Is this going to be Taylor Swift, building her own theme parks? Is that the next thing here?

Lou Whiteman: I hate to say it, it would probably work, but no.

Travis Hoium: Absolutely, it would work.

Lou Whiteman: I don't think that's what's going on here. But look, at the end of the day, I love activists. I've worked with activists my whole career. A lot of it is activists is just a PR campaign at heart. You can have correct ideas about a company. But if you can't get those ideas out into the world, into to the shareholders, you're still going to lose, even if you're right. There is always an element of trying to attract attention to yourself. A lot of times it's with really over-the-top language. It's about accusations. There's a lot of ways to do it. But look, Jana has used celebrities before. They used Dwayne Wade to the NBA and Picture CC Sebathia when they went after Freshpet. Famously, Starboard Value another firm. They use Shaquille O'Neal to go after Papa John's.

Travis Hoium: That at least seems more successful. Do you see check in those commercials?

Lou Whiteman: Well, but it all works. This is just a way of going at it. I think if you look at Six Flags, very ripe for an activist here. It's been a disaster. The stock's down 50% year to date. No one is going to these parks in the volumes that we're supposed to. They did a major merger with Cedar Fair that was supposed to solve this. I don't know if Jana wants to say, you need to improve marketing. You need to improve your customer experience. In a way, Six Flags already tried that. We're going to have fewer people coming through, but we are going to treat them better, and they're going to spend more. I don't know if this will actually work, but I do think that is this is the classic activist campaign with just a little twist from the Swifty world.

Travis Hoium: Rachel, this seems interesting in the sense that celebrities or influencers seem to be more involved in investing. I think Ryan Reynolds, if we go to more the start-up VC world, he's brought a lot of attention to the businesses that he's involved with. He's on the commercials. It's implied that he's a huge owner. Sometimes that's not necessarily the case. Magic Johnson, I at one point thought he actually on the Dodgers. He owns, like, 2% of the Dodgers. JZ, that was the thing. He bought the nets. He owned a teeny, tiny portion of the nets. He got quarter-side seats. But these celebrities do bring attention, and in an attention business, like theme parks, that seems like a valuable thing to bring to the table.

Rachel Warren: It's an incredibly smart marketing strategy that we have seen replicated by numerous firms. This is not new for Jana Partners. It's not new in the space. You could also go back, you think about how well-known figures like movie star George Clooney, back in the day, was involved in the activist campaigns like the one led by Daniel Loeb against Sony over a decade ago.

Travis Hoium: He even tried to build a casino at one.

Rachel Warren: This is something we've seen before, but I will say for Jana Partners, I think the addition of Kelce to this is a really smart marketing move. They have a very successful track record of shareholder activism, as Lou was talking about. They've driven significant changes at major companies. A few other examples. You think about how they took a stake in Whole Foods. They pushed for changes before Amazon ultimately acquired the company. They had a role in the acquisition of PetSmart back in 2014. I think that this is something that is very much needed at this point in time. Yes, there's this presence of Kelce, but also the hedge funds brought in experienced executives from consumer and tech industries to advise on improving marketing the guest experience technology. This is very needed by Six Flags right now they are reporting steep net losses. They have over $5 billion in debt. A lot of that's tied to the Cedar Fair merger. They had a roughly 9% drop in attendance in the second quarter, and their CEO that had come in from Cedar Fair as part of the merger, he announced he's stepping down by the end of 2025. There's a real role here for Jana Partners to play, and I think that's one of the key takeaways.

Travis Hoium: Lou, is this the thing that we should be paying attention to? Six Flags's stock up 26% over the past week. But you look out over the past five years. Shares are down over the past one year. They're still down 35%. Is our activists the thing that we should follow, or is this just noise for regular investors?

Lou Whiteman: Somewhere in the middle. Look, activists like short sellers, I think, play an important role. I think it's case by case. Again, just like short sellers. In this case, like I said, I do think that the target makes sense, whether or not the solution makes sense or how the solution evolves, that's something that an individual investor has to look at. I want to hear more from Jana here cause, like I say, Selene Basu was in here before the Cedar Fair merger, and who's trying to do a lot of what he was doing sounds a lot like what they're talking about, and it didn't really work then. So I'm not convinced, I'm not ready to put my money into chasing this. But generally speaking, activists have done a lot of good work cleaning up companies that were in desperate need of it, and this does look like a good target. I'm curious to follow it and see how it develops.

Travis Hoium: At least it's something we can maybe do a research trip, go on a couple of roller coaster rides.

Rachel Warren: What's to it, guys?

Travis Hoium: Might add some value to the show.

Lou Whiteman: But Travis is welcome to come along.

Travis Hoium: When we come back, we are going to talk about ChatGPT's new browser. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.

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Travis Hoium: Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. ChatGPT yesterday introduced a new browser. GPT Atlas. I had a chance to try this. It's not available everywhere, just macOS. But, Rachel, I just want to go high level. Is this something that we need? The browser is pretty established. We're going on, what, 30 years of looking the same. We've moved things like the search bar into the actual address line. Melded those. Google really owns this market, something like 60% market share with the Chrome Browser. They've already introduced a lot of AI features into it, but AI isn't taking over. Is this something that's going to be successful, or is this just another spaghetti at the wall thing from OpenAI? [Laugh]

Rachel Warren: I think it's too soon to tell. As a Mac user myself, I'm very curious to try this one out. I haven't had a chance yet. I do think that there is an element of OpenAI is trying all sorts of different things to see what sticks, but I also think that they are very strategically trying to build out their ecosystem. I think one of the biggest things that I'm curious about right now is what would the business model be for this browser? There's this idea that there could be a bit of a hybrid approach where they could make some money from subscriptions, from a new type of advertising network. The browser allows.

Travis Hoium: We talked about payments a couple of weeks ago. That seems like something they want to integrate into this. Maybe it's easier if you own the browser.

Rachel Warren: I think so. Well, and you think about how the browser allows OpenAI to embed their AI right into the user's web experience. That gives them unprecedented access to valuable real-time data. That's obviously something that would be really valuable for advertisers. I think it's very much designed to gather data in a way that's fundamentally different from traditional search engines. We're already seeing, they're being integrated with platforms like Shopify and Etsy, so maybe users could complete purchases within the chatbot. But you have to think about the fact that OpenAI's model, as it is right now, is hemorrhaging costs and losses. They're on this very aggressive monetization push. I think that's what a lot of this goes back to. Now, we might see some really valuable tools come out of that, but I think it's far too soon to say whether this is going to be something that's going to be broadly adopted by users. How many of us are going to switch from Chrome to this? That's what I'm not sure about.

Travis Hoium: The idea in tech is generally that the new product has to be 10 times better than the old product for people to actually switch. Lou, that was the context in which I started trying Atlas. Let me tell you, I didn't get very far, and I had multiple pop-ups asking me to upgrade to a paid version or an upgraded version of ChatGPT. That's the thing that's going to turn people off. I appreciate it like Rachel said, they're trying to figure out their business model. But here you have Chrome that is free, that is basically just helping Google's add business. It's 100% consumer surplus. Then you have a new product that comes out that basically does the same stuff with AI stuck in it, and now it's an upsell machine. I just don't know if that's what people want.

Lou Whiteman: It's a shame they couldn't come out with this, I don't know, six months ago, a year ago, when there was, like, all around OpenAI glittered and maybe you would have gotten more then. But I think that shine is off of it. This is a move. Look, I feel like a broken record here with OpenAI, and I don't mean to pick on them. But all of their moves from their funding moves to what their products, their announcement, the some of the pivots they may be doing in terms of what business they're chasing, which fine. But these are moves of desperation, not of strength. They're all understandable. I do think like introducing a browser, it does make sense, but they are in a position of weakness because they don't have the customer right now. They are the ones trying to get the customer.

Travis Hoium: How can you say they don't have the customer? Because they do have something like five million paying customers. You're saying that like Google has a bigger business or?

Lou Whiteman: Google had all things ready to go, and they're just layering this in. Microsoft has its giant office suite that they can just layer these in. Quite annoyingly, I might say, I'm not enjoying having an OpenAI prompt every time I go into Excel. But it's there. Yes. OpenAI has customers, but they started from zero. Google started from billions. They need to backfill so much just to get to the starting line. They're trying things, but to your point, look, Firefox is sitting on my machine. Bing is sitting on my machine. I still just go to Chrome because I go to Chrome. It is going to take something that just, wow, this is a ton better, not just it is the same, to get me to switch? From your reports, I'm quite happy. This is another thing that Little old me as an Android Windows users, have to miss out on. That's fine with me. But I don't blame them from trying all this. I also don't think it's gonna be very successful.

Travis Hoium: Rachel, the other thing I keep going back to is something Brian Chesky said recently about OpenAI and ChatGPT are actually not AI native. We'll see exactly what he means, I think, over time, because that sounds explosive, but it's an application. It's accessing the Internet. It's not a new piece of hardware. It is not quite as disruptive, or the change is not the same as going from a PC to an iPhone or a mainframe to a PC, those kinds of disruptive layers. This is an area where this is not really disruptive at all. It's just taking the old thing and making your own version of the old thing. That's what I struggle with here is what we're dancing around is this is just a sustaining innovation that OpenAI is trying to make into a disruptive innovation.

Rachel Warren: I don't think when you look at some of the products, right, if you will, that they've launched recently, it's not as though they're recreating the wheel. They're taking, I think, a lot of existing technology and presumably trying to make it better with their own AI innovations. I think it remains to be seen whether that's going to be effective or not. You even take this example of the browser that we've been talking about here. You know, is this its own monetizable product within the broader OpenAI ecosystem, or is it going to serve as a sales funnel back to ChatGPT? I think there's still a lot of open questions as to what that's going to look like and how effective it's going to be. But again, I'm going to stress. They need to monetize in a more effective way. I think we're really just starting to see what that's going to look like. I think they are rolling out all of these different products, some of which are, I think, quite familiar to us. A search engine is nothing new. I think they're trying to see if they can make it better and if consumers want that. That's still we don't know.

Lou Whiteman: Maybe I'm being too cynical, but I would love to if I could, like, get Sam Altman's moment of truth. Was a browser really a priority a year ago, or was this something? We all know that there was talk that Chrome would have to be split off as part of Alpha Betz antitrust settlement.

Rachel Warren: Oh, interesting.

Lou Whiteman: This feels like, and I've been in so many board rooms where this has happened, where you start talking about an idea, and that idea made sense because Chrome had its ready-made audience. You would have gotten all those customers with that. But you spend so much time on that, and that didn't happen. Then, suddenly, that is the shiny object you're chasing now. It's like, OK, we need to build our own browser then. I wonder, absent all of that talk, if browser would have really been like this, the Northstar they were guiding toward. We'll never know, but I'm just curious how much of it is after the fact with those discussions, them talking themselves into how great it would be if they had a browser.

Travis Hoium: One of these products is going to have to stick, or OpenAI is not going to meet the revenue targets that they have promised to investors, and that's what all of this trillion-dollar buildout is based on. Is them actually turning this into revenue? We will see if this is a help or a hindrance to that. When we come back, we are going to talk about Warner Brothers Discovery potentially not splitting itself into and getting bought out instead. You're listening to Motley Fool Money.

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Travis Hoium: Welcome back to Motley Fool Money. Warner Brothers Discovery is back in the news. There are now rumors that Skydance is going to be or Paramount Skydance after that merger is interested in buying the company. Look, Lou, we've been talking about this one for a long time. It makes all the sense in the world. Doesn't necessarily make the companies profitable or businesses that are going to be competing with the Giants and streaming. But what did you take away from this?

Lou Whiteman: The news is that, definitely, all the rumors are true that Paramount did approach Warner Brothers, and they were rejected. I think it's worth looking both of these companies separately because there's two separate dynamics going on. I don't know which one is investable right now, but they're both interesting. Warner Brothers Discovery is a mess, and Paramount is really being aggressive. Which knife do you want to catch here, Travis? For Paramount, they realize that for all the billions they have and all the billions they've spent so far, they are still second-tier. Their solution, and I think it's the correct one, they're not going to invest in so much content that they get the next Stranger Things. They get the next knives out. They are going to just try to consolidate the second tier. They have the cash to do it. This is just them saying, money is not going to stop us from.

Travis Hoium: When you say they have the cash, Larry Ellison is behind this. The cash is.

Lou Whiteman: Larry and his son. Yes, and until I see otherwise, I think that this project will be funded. For Warner Brothers Discovery, it feels like a question of just what price can you get. This hasn't worked. It didn't work pre-merger. Even now, like we were joking about this, they're trying streaming. They launched CNN All Access. But, ironically, all access CNN does not include access to CNN if you're not a cable customer. They are just a mess. I feel like there will be a deal here. Whether it's Paramount Skydance, Netflix says they're not interested. I think Comcast Peacock might be in a similar boat to Paramount, so maybe they get involved.

Travis Hoium: There's a lot of bad assets out there; somebody wants to put them all together.

Lou Whiteman: Absolutely.

Travis Hoium: Rachel, what's the thought here? I want to put some numbers behind this. Warner Brothers Discovery has a $77 billion enterprise value as of today, $4 billion in free cash flow. They've got debt. I don't know. This just seems like there's a lot of if none of these companies had debt, we'd be having a different story, but somebody's got to pay for all this. Is it just Larry?

Rachel Warren: It's possible. Honestly, I think if we're looking at this, this speaks a lot more to the consolidation of the media industry among some of the few big players. I look at Warner Brothers Discovery, and I tend to think they're better as part of a bigger entity than two separate public companies. But it is interesting to think about a major acquisition could really reshape the media landscape. As you noted, Netflix, they've said, oh, we're not interested in the legacy assets, but could they be interested in the remainder of the business? There is, I think, a strong case for that. Comcast would face some potential, really high antitrust hurdles, but they've been seen as a really strong possible contender. I think, also, one has to recognize any potential deal that would involve an acquisition versus the SP Warner Brothers Discovery. That's probably going to attract scrutiny from the US government. There's going to be a lot of competition and antitrust concerns. If, in fact, this goes the route of an acquisition, I think this is going to be a much longer-term story than we would have expected if, in fact, the company's just split into two public entities.

Lou Whiteman: Not investment advice because they have to do it right, but I actually do think that there is a successful play here from consolidating all of this second-tier or also-ran. Paramount is not a stand-alone service, but I subscribe. They do have assets that are of interest to people. If you can collect all of those, I do think that that is a viable path to joining Netflix and joining Disney in this top tier. The issue is execution. M&A is really tough, and it's really expensive. I'm not interested in investing myself right now at this early age, but I do think that there is a path to success there for them. I don't know what the path to success is for Warner Brothers Discovery.

Travis Hoium: Well, what about price, though? Because Disney has the theme park business. They have the second-biggest streaming service. They're worth $240 billion from an enterprise value perspective. Warner Brothers Discovery's 77 billion is a lot, and their business is going down. Their business is moving in the wrong direction. I don't disagree, but if these assets are not cheap.

Lou Whiteman: That's the execution question. It's harder to It looks a lot better on paper than it does.

Rachel Warren: Who's going to want to pay that much for those assets when they are dwindling, as we see right now? That's also a question.

Travis Hoium: Even for someone like Larry Ellison, buying $100 billion company is at least notable. They want to.

Rachel Warren: It's not nothing.

Travis Hoium: As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against, so don't buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows the Motley Fool's editorial standards and is not approved by advertisers. Advertisements are sponsored content and provided for informational purposes only. To see our full advertising disclosure, please check out our shown. For Lou Whiteman, Rachel Warren, our production leader, Dan Boyd, and the entire Motley Pool team, I'm Travis Hoium. Thanks for listening to Motley Fool Money. We'll see you here tomorrow.