Latest news with #Bloo
Toronto Sun
6 days ago
- Business
- Toronto Sun
Billionaire Peladeau still wants to take over travel company Transat
Published Jul 14, 2025 • 3 minute read Pierre Karl Peladeau Photo by Graham Hughes / Photographer: Graham Hughes/Bloo (Bloomberg) — Quebec billionaire Pierre Karl Peladeau says he's not giving up his long pursuit of Transat AT Inc., arguing the travel company's latest balance-sheet maneuvers still leave it with too much debt. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account 'It's not over until it's over,' Peladeau said in an interview with Bloomberg News. 'The company will require another restructuring. They cannot live with that, or if they live with that, they will be impaired in their capacity to develop the business.' Peladeau's interest in owning Transat goes back many years. He mulled a bid when the company was in play in 2019, but the board eventually agreed to an offer of C$18 a share from Air Canada. The Covid pandemic struck before the transaction closed, and it was scuttled altogether in 2021. Peladeau has made a number of attempts to buy the company since. Last month he offered C$2.64 a share, which was rejected. Transat, a Montreal-based company that owns Air Transat, has grappled with an overwhelming debt incurred during the pandemic, when it had to get emergency funding from the Canadian government. Last month, the government agreed to reduce that debt by around C$440 million ($322 million). The remaining debt was restructured into a credit facility, a 10-year debenture and convertible preferred shares, the latter of which would give Ottawa a 19.9% voting stake if converted to common shares. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The deal didn't sit well with Peladeau, who owns slightly more than 9% of Transat. His family office, Financiere Outremont, advised by Canaccord Genuity Group Inc., made its C$2.64 per share offer, but conditional on reaching an agreement with the Canadian government on debt terms. Transat rejected it. 'I was taking the risk to negotiate,' said Peladeau, whose wealth mostly comes from his controlling stake in telecom and media company Quebecor Inc. He tried to stop the deal with the Canadian government in court, arguing that Transat should have consulted shareholders. A judge sided with the company, which had argued the severity of the situation allowed it to bypass shareholders. As of the end of April, prior to the debt restructuring, Transat had a net C$1.7 billion in debt and lease liabilities. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Transat shares have soared by about 70% since the debt restructuring was announced in June and were trading at C$2.80 early Monday, raising the market capitalization to C$116 million. Peladeau said the stock price should have risen by much more than that. 'The market is saying it doesn't work,' he said. Desjardins analyst Benoit Poirier wrote in a report last month that despite the debt swap, 'leverage is still elevated relative to industry norms.' He forecasts the company to have a ratio of 6.7 times net debt to adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the fiscal year that ends Oct. 31. Air Canada has a ratio of lower than 2 times. 'I need to reconsider the situation,' Peladeau said when asked about what will be his next move. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Peladeau believes Transat's restructuring raises a fundamental issue. 'Should the Canadian government be the largest shareholder of an airline, which is regulated by the government? So if I'm an American and I look at this, I say: What's wrong here?' Transat said in a statement that the refinancing was 'the best outcome in the interest of all stakeholders' and 'paves the way for Transat to further implement its long-term sustainable strategic and optimization plan.' The company declined to comment on Peladeau's considerations. The court proceedings revealed that Transat had set up a special committee in September to look for available options to restructure the debt. In January, a solicitation process was launched and 49 potential investors were approached. Only two bidders, including Peladeau's family office, made it to the final phase, and they offered no equity value. The Canadian government ended up agreeing to the refinancing. The Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, one of the largest shareholders, said it was in favor of the debt swap. 'The restructuring of Transat's debt was an essential step and will be beneficial to the company's turnaround. We hope that this Quebec-based company will be able to return to growth, after the more difficult years of the pandemic,' the firm said in a statement emailed by a spokesperson. Columnists Letters Golf Uncategorized Editorial Cartoons
Business Insider
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Inside the Rise of AI-Generated YouTubers (GOOGL)
One of YouTube's (GOOGL) most popular new creators isn't even human, according to CNBC. Bloo, a bright blue animated character with 2.5 million subscribers and over 700 million views, is powered by artificial intelligence. Created by longtime YouTuber Jordi van den Bussche, also known as Kwebbelkop, Bloo plays games like Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto. Van den Bussche came up with the idea after feeling burned out and unable to keep up with the pressure of content creation. Instead of using a real person or photorealistic avatar, he chose a fun, cartoon-like character. While Bloo's voice and movements are controlled by a person using motion capture, everything else is handled by AI tools. Don't Miss TipRanks' Half-Year Sale Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Make smarter investment decisions with TipRanks' Smart Investor Picks, delivered to your inbox every week. In fact, AI tools are advancing quickly. One startup, Hedra, raised $32 million to develop its Character-3 platform, which lets creators build AI-powered animated figures that speak and move in real time. Creators like comedian Jon Lajoie and virtual singer Milla Sofia are already using Character-3 to produce viral content. Google has also entered the space with Veo 3, which is an AI video generator that was trained on YouTube clips, although this led to worries about how AI might use creators' content without their permission. Nevertheless, a growing number of creators are making 'faceless' YouTube channels using only AI. One such creator, known as GoldenHand, runs up to 80 channels and releases around 80 videos a day, mostly aimed at older viewers. His process involves coming up with a story idea and letting AI handle the rest: images, voiceovers, subtitles, and editing. He even launched a service called TubeChef that helps others do the same for as little as $18 a month. While critics worry about low-quality 'AI slop' flooding the internet, others argue this content simply meets audience demand. Is Google Stock a Good Buy? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on GOOGL stock based on 29 Buys and nine Holds assigned in the past three months. Furthermore, the average GOOGL price target of $199.77 per share implies 12% upside potential from current levels.
CNBC
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNBC
AI virtual personality YouTubers, or ‘VTubers,' are earning millions
One of the most popular gaming YouTubers is named Bloo, and has bright blue wavy hair and dark blue eyes. But he isn't a human — he's a fully virtual personality powered by artificial intelligence. "I'm here to keep my millions of viewers worldwide entertained and coming back for more," said Bloo in an interview with CNBC. "I'm all about good vibes and engaging content. I'm built by humans, but boosted by AI." Bloo is a virtual YouTuber, or VTuber, who has built a massive following of 2.5 million subscribers and more than 700 million views through videos of him playing popular games like Grand Theft Auto, Roblox and Minecraft. VTubers first gained traction in Japan in the 2010s. Now, advances in AI are making it easier than ever to create VTubers, fueling a new wave of virtual creators on YouTube. The virtual character – whose bright colors and 3D physique look like something out of a Pixar film or the video game Fortnite – was created by Jordi van den Bussche, a long time YouTuber also known as kwebbelkop. Van den Bussche created Bloo after finding himself unable to keep up with the demands of content creation. The work no longer matched the output. "Turns out, the flaw in this equation is the human, so we need to somehow remove the human," said van den Bussche, a 29-year old from Amsterdam, in an interview. "The only logical way was to replace the human with either a photorealistic person or a cartoon. The VTuber was the only option, and that's where Bloo came from." Bloo has already generated more than seven figures in revenue, according to van den Bussche. Many VTubers like Bloo are "puppeteered," meaning a human controls the character's voice and movements in real time using motion capture or face-tracking technology. Everything else, from video thumbnails to voice dubbing in other languages, is handled by AI technology from ElevenLabs, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini and Anthropic's Claude. Van den Bussche's long-term goal is for Bloo's entire personality and content creation process to be run by AI. Van den Bussche has already tested fully AI-generated videos on Bloo's channel, but says the results have not yet been promising. The content doesn't perform as well because the AI still lacks the intuition and creative instincts of a human, he said. "When AI can do it better, faster or cheaper than humans, that's when we'll start using it permanently," van den Bussche said. The technology might not be far away. Startup Hedra offers a product that uses AI technology to generate videos that are up to five minutes long. It raised $32 million in a funding round in May led by Andreessen Horowitz's Infrastructure fund. Hedra's product, Character-3, allows users to create AI-generated characters for videos and can add dialogue and other characteristics. CEO Michael Lingelbach told CNBC Hedra is working on a product that will allow users to create self-sustaining, fully-automated characters. "We're doing a lot of research accelerating models like Character-3 to real time, and that's going to be a really good fit for VTubers," Lingelbach said. Character-3's technology is already being used by a growing number of creators who are experimenting with new formats, and many of their projects are going viral. One of those is comedian Jon Lajoie's Talking Baby Podcast, which features a hyper-realistic animated baby talking into a microphone. Another is Milla Sofia, a virtual singer and artist whose AI-generated music videos attract thousands of views. These creators are using Character-3 to produce content that stands out on social media, helping them reach wide audiences without the cost and complexity of traditional production. AI-generated video is a rapidly evolving technology that is reshaping how content is made and shared online, making it easier than ever to produce high-quality video without cameras, actors or editing software. In May, Google announced Veo 3, a tool that creates AI-generated videos with audio. Google said it uses a subset of YouTube content to train Veo 3, CNBC reported in June. While many creators said they were unaware of the training, experts said it has the potential to create an intellectual property crisis on the platform. Creators are increasingly finding profitable ways to capitalize on the generative AI technology ushered in by the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022. One growing trend is the rise of faceless AI channels. These are run by creators who use these tools to produce videos with artificially generated images and voiceover that can sometimes earn thousands of dollars a month without them ever appearing on camera. "My goal is to scale up to 50 channels, though it's getting harder because of how YouTube handles new channels and trust scores," said GoldenHand, a Spain-based creator who declined to share his real name. Working with a small team, GoldenHand said he publishes up to 80 videos per day across his network of channels. Some maintain a steady few thousand views per video while others might suddenly go viral and rack up millions of views, mostly to an audience of those over the age of 65. GoldenHand said his content is audio-driven storytelling. He describes his YouTube videos as audiobooks that are paired with AI-generated images and subtitles. Everything after the initial idea is created entirely by AI. He recently launched a new platform, TubeChef, which gives creators access to his system to automatically generate faceless AI videos starting at $18 a month. "People think using AI means you're less creative, but I feel more creative than ever," he said. "Coming up with 60 to 80 viral video ideas a day is no joke. The ideation is where all the effort goes now." As AI-generated content becomes more common online, concerns about its impact are growing. Some users worry about the spread of misinformation, especially as it becomes easier to generate convincing but entirely AI-fabricated videos. "Even if the content is informative and someone might find it entertaining or useful, I feel we are moving into a time where ... you do not have a way to understand what is human made and what is not," said Henry Ajder, founder of Latent Space Advisory, which helps business navigate the AI landscape. Others are frustrated by the sheer volume of low-effort, AI content flooding their feeds. This kind of material is often referred to as "AI slop," low-quality, randomly generated content made using artificial intelligence. "The age of slop is inevitable," said Ajder, who is also an AI policy advisor at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. "I'm not sure what we do about it." While it's not new, the surge in this type of content has led to growing criticism from users who say it's harder to find meaningful or original material, particularly on apps like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. "I am actually so tired of AI slop," said one user on X. "AI images are everywhere now. There is no creativity and no effort in anything relating to art, video, or writing when using AI. It's disappointing." However, the creators of this AI content tell CNBC that it comes down to supply and demand. As the AI-generated content continues to get clicks, there's no reason to stop creating more of it, said Noah Morris, a creator with 18 faceless YouTube channels. Some argue that AI videos still have inherent artistic value, and though it's become much easier to create, slop-like content has always existed on the internet, Lingelbach said. "There's never been a barrier to people making uninteresting content," he said. "Now there's just more opportunity to create different kinds of uninteresting content, but also more kinds of really interesting content too."
CNBC
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CNBC
How AI-generated influencers are taking over YouTube
Virtual YouTubers like Bloo promised a new era of entertainment, combining human creativity with AI scalability. But their rapid rise is raising concerns about authenticity and audience trust. Tools like Character-3 make creating these virtual stars faster than ever, blurring the line between real and synthetic. CNBC explores what this means for the future of creators and the business behind them.
Toronto Sun
26-06-2025
- Toronto Sun
Cartels smuggle a different type of cocaine to new labs overseas
Coca paste — cheap, unrefined cocaine -- is being shipped to laboratories as far away as Italy to be processed into the final powder Published Jun 26, 2025 • 2 minute read Bags of coca paste in Colombia's Guaviare province. Photo by Ivan Valencia / Photographer: Ivan Valencia/Bloo Cartels are offshoring more cocaine production outside of Colombia and exporting lower-grade drugs that are easier to conceal in products such as paints and plastics. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Increasingly, the groups are smuggling coca paste — cheap, unrefined cocaine — to laboratories as far away as Italy and the Netherlands to be processed into the final powder, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. 'In terms of risk, if a shipment gets intercepted they're losing less,' said Leonardo Correa, who heads the UNODC's monitoring and technical analysis in the Andes. 'Coca paste is also easier to mix with other products, which facilitates smuggling.' The evolving tactics seek to profit from soaring production — with global output up more than third in a year — driven partly by Colombian President Gustavo Petro's decision to scale back the military campaign against the private armies of drug traffickers. It's a policy that may change after 2026 elections if angry voters back candidates promising a security crackdown. Petro's approval rating fell to 29% in June, according to local pollster Invamer. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Global cocaine production reached a record of an estimated 3,708 tons in 2023, up 300% over the last decade, according to the UNODC's 2025 World Drug Report published Thursday. That makes it the fastest-growing illicit drug market. While drug violence 'has long been a problem in Latin America and the Caribbean, it is now spreading to countries in Western Europe,' the UNODC found. 'Traffickers are also riding a wave of record production, pushing into new markets across Asia and Africa.' Chemical Camouflage Smuggling gangs have succeeded in mixing coca paste into products such as asphalt, vegetable oil and charcoal, according to the UN. Experts with some knowledge of chemistry then extract the product at the destination, Correa said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In December, Portuguese police dismantled a major cocaine laboratory. Such laboratories have also been found in Spain, Central America and elsewhere. Satellite images show the increase in cocaine supply is being fueled by a surge in production of coca, the raw material for the drug, in Colombia. Output in Bolivia was stable, while in Peru it fell slightly, according to the UN. In Colombia, Petro has sought 'total peace' through negotiations with guerrillas and the private armies of drug traffickers since taking office in 2022. So far these talks have failed to yield major demobilizations, while the groups have taken advantage of a relative lack of military pressure to seize more territory. Many farmers have turned back to growing coca, after crop substitution programs introduced as part of a previous peace process in 2016 have been underfunded and poorly implemented. Producing coca provides them with a more reliable income. Colombia's surging coca production and Petro's strained relationship with President Donald Trump put the Andean nation at risk of being decertified as a partner in the war on drugs by the US. That would put the country in the same category as Bolivia and Nicolas Maduro's Venezuela, and limit access to some aid and loans. Sunshine Girls Music Canada Toronto Raptors Relationships
