The Year Everything Was For Sale: 2025 in Review

Welcome to Backchannel — the weekend briefing from The Closer, where we break down the week's smartest plays in deals, business, and power.

This week: a bumper year-in-review edition. Two stories that defined 2025 — the hostile takeover battle for Hollywood's crown jewels, and the AI spending frenzy that has everyone racing toward a cliff they can all see. Both are stories about ego, ambition, and people who think they're the exception.

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— Bradley

Top Reads of 2025

Before we dive into the year's biggest stories, here are the pieces of business journalism that stuck with us in 2025 — the ones worth bookmarking for the holidays.

• The Two-Year Hunt for a $1.5 Billion Scam Empire (Whale Hunting) — Tom Wright's dogged investigation into the nexus between Southeast Asia's scam industry and major political players. Fearless reporting.
• How Donald Trump Revealed Jeff Bezos' True Self (Politico) — The Washington Post owner who was supposed to be the next Katharine Graham ended up a no-show, his DC mansion lying in darkness.
• What Did Men Do to Deserve This? (The New Yorker) — Jessica Winter's acidic dissection of Scott Galloway and the "centrist manosphere." Essential reading on the year's most tiresome discourse.
• Is It a Bubble? (Oaktree Capital) — Howard Marks' memo on the AI frenzy. The legendary investor asks the question everyone's thinking but few can answer.
• The Ominous Signs in AI's Circular Financing (The Atlantic) — Rogé Karma on how Nvidia invests in companies that buy Nvidia chips. "The last time the economy saw so much wealth tied up in such obscure overlapping arrangements was just before the 2008 financial crisis."
• The Jealousy List 2025 (Bloomberg Businessweek) — Bloomberg's annual roundup of the journalism they wish they'd written. A reading list for the holidays.