BN Daybreak Mon 16 Feb: SANDF’s dangerous Cape Flats admission; China trade deal ‘nonsense’; Hungary sex tape blackmail

In today’s episode, retired US Colonel Chris Wyatt delivers a withering critique of the SANDF’s deployment to the Cape Flats, labelling it a “dangerous admission of failure” by a government kicking the can down the road. Trade expert Donald MacKay pours cold water on the proposed SA-China trade framework being hyped up by Pretoria, explaining why the math simply doesn’t add up for South African exporters. Plus, a sordid sex-tape blackmail scandal rocks Hungary’s election race; US Secretary of State Marco Rubio navigates the "new Cold War" in Europe; the historic City of London name Schroders is snapped up by US giant Nuveen; and more..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Watch here.Listen here.BizNews Reporter.Market momentum: Gold breaks records, Bitcoin recoversThe financial week opened with the South African Rand starting at 15.92 against the US Dollar. However, the most striking movement came from the commodities and digital asset sectors. Gold has maintained its impressive momentum, holding steady above $5,000 an ounce. Meanwhile, Bitcoin, which briefly surged above $70,000 on Friday, has eased back to approximately 68,200 as it begins a quest for recovery.Media giants: The battle for Warner Brothers DiscoveryThe landscape of global entertainment continues to shift as Warner Brothers Discovery (WBD) potentially reopens takeover talks with Paramount Skydance. Paramount has revised its offer to address board concerns, notably including a $2.8 billion breakup fee that WBD would owe Netflix if it terminated their existing merger agreement.Paramount is also offering to backstop a refinancing of WBD’s debt, signaling a determined effort to consolidate these media powerhouses into a singular entity capable of competing in a crowded streaming market.AI juggernaut: Anthropic’s massive funding roundIn the technology sector, the artificial intelligence race has reached a fever pitch. Anthropic, the developer of the Claude chatbot, has secured a staggering $30 billion in a Series G funding round, valuing the company at a post-money valuation of $380 billion. This valuation is more than double its previous mark, fueled by a surge in annualized revenue to $14 billion—a tenfold increase year-on-year.The primary engine behind this growth is "Claude Code," a product that has achieved a $2.5 billion revenue run-rate since its wide release in mid-2025. Anthropic’s "enterprise-first" strategy has clearly paid off, with the company now serving eight of the Fortune 10 companies.Geopolitics and security: Local and global tensionsDomestically, South Africa faces internal controversy over President Cyril Ramaphosa's decision to deploy the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to the Cape Flats to combat escalating gang violence. While Western Cape Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile welcomed the move to address high-risk hotspots, critics and community activists have questioned whether military intervention can achieve long-term safety without broader intelligence-led operations.On the global stage, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio used the Munich Security Conference to deliver what many are calling an "ultimatum" to Europe. Rubio emphasized a shift away from the "rules-based order" toward a future defined by hard power and national interest, urging European allies to align with Washington’s "New Western Century" or risk being left behind.Asset management: The end of an era for SchrodersFinally, a landmark deal has shaken the asset management world. US-based Nuveen has agreed to acquire the UK’s Schroders for £9.9 billion ($19 billion), ending 220 years of family ownership. The merger will create a combined entity managing nearly $2.5 trillion in assets.Despite the scale of this deal, Robin Wigglesworth of Financial Times Alphaville notes that even this combined entity will not crack the top ten of the asset management industry. This highlights the immense pressure on mid-sized players to consolidate, as $1 trillion in assets has become "table stakes" for survival in a market dominated by "juggernauts" like BlackRock and Vanguard.

BN Daybreak Mon 16 Feb: SANDF’s dangerous Cape Flats admission; China trade deal ‘nonsense’; Hungary sex tape blackmail

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