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• James Dyson says he learned “absolutely nothing” from his failed electric car project, but it brought in smart engineers.
• The electric vehicle project was scrapped in 2019 due to high costs.
• In a podcast interview, he said rivals like Tesla had the money to invest billions into EVs, but the risk was too high for Dyson.

Not all of Sir James Dyson’s failures have resulted in a font of learnings. But even failures can have a silver lining.

The billionaire British inventor helped reshape what people expect from home appliances, particularly the modern vacuum cleaner. His company’s history is one of overcoming failures and rejections to create successful products.

However, some of Dyson’s visions never got past the prototype phase. In 2014, the company decided that it would work on building an electric car since it already manufactured electric motors for its existing products. By 2019, though, the project was scrapped, as it was “no-longer commercially viable,” Dyson wrote in a 2020 blog post.

“Everybody said, ‘You know, you must have learned a lot from that experience,’ and the answer is I learned absolutely nothing,” Dyson told podcast host David Senra in a Monday episode of his show.

Dyson spent about $750 million on research and development for its electric car. Then came the 2016 “Dieselgate” scandal in which Volkswagen was called out for misleading “clean diesel” ads, triggering billions in fines and reshaping the global auto industry. As automotive companies jumped into making EVs, Dyson said they became more expensive to produce.

It was “fun to do,” Dyson said, and it produced one model in its Singapore office and a somewhat drivable prototype in one of the company’s hangars.

“It was a difficult decision to stop, because hundreds of engineers, scientists and designers, had poured everything into the project and it was a great engineering achievement,” Dyson said in the blog post.

However, the company said it simply couldn’t afford to invest the money into overcoming the “huge disadvantages” that come along with only manufacturing EVs. He pointed to one competitor that had the funds to do so, and it’s still around today.

“Tesla overcame that through sheer scale and might and investment, but we didn’t have that sort of money,” Dyson said on the podcast. “We couldn’t take that sort of risk, so we stopped it.”

“Sadly, we didn’t really learn anything from it,” Dyson said.

Building an EV isn’t an easy undertaking even for companies that have billions to pour into research and development. In 2024, Apple reportedly decided to sunset its electric car project after pushing back the car’s launch date to 2028 amid production challenges.

Dyson has previously said that he doesn’t regret pursuing an EV even if nothing came of it. It brought in talented engineers, and while half the people who worked on the project ended up leaving for other manufacturers, the other half were put back to work on vacuum cleaners, Dyson said.

A Dyson spokesperson told Business Insider that the inventor believes “passionately in the importance of failure.”

“The project brought a significant influx of talented engineers and scientists into Dyson, and those engineers have contributed to many successes across Dyson’s R&D, with their expertise strengthening Dyson’s innovation in multiple areas,” the spokesperson added.

Although Dyson said he doesn’t test drive the prototype anymore, there is one scrapped project that remains close to Dyson’s heart — or at least useful in his day-to-day life.

The Dyson CR01 Contrarotator is a washing machine that was discontinued in 2005 after it failed to gain traction with a $1,300 price tag that dwarfed that of the competition. However, Dyson said he still uses his.

“I use them,” Dyson said. “It’s great, and people have now copied a lot of the ideas, like the big door.”

• Netflix and Paramount Skydance are battling for control of Warner Bros.
• Former Disney dealmaker Kevin Mayer sees similarities with the Fox deal he helped negotiate.
• Warner Bros. will be a big winner if Netflix or Paramount is forced to fork over more money.

A former Disney executive who oversaw its dealmaking expects “more fireworks” in the bidding war for Warner Bros.

“I would be very surprised if we don’t see a sweetened, and perhaps meaningfully sweetened, offer” from Netflix, Paramount Skydance, or both, said Kevin Mayer, Disney’s former top dealmaker, on Tuesday at the UBS media conference.

On Friday, Netflix agreed to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming and studio assets for $82.7 billion, including debt. Paramount Skydance then launched a hostile offer, saying on Monday that it’s willing to pay $108.4 billion for the whole firm, including the TV networks like CNN and HGTV. Executives at Netflix and Paramount CEO David Ellison have each framed their offers as the best for employees, Hollywood, WBD shareholders, and TV viewers. Both suitors also said they’re confident they can pass regulatory scrutiny.

Mayer, now the co-CEO of Cocomelon owner Candle Media, said he thinks Paramount’s hostile bid will reignite the faceoff for Warner Bros. and force the eventual winner to fork over more money.

“From the Warner Bros. Discovery perspective, this is nothing but good news,” Mayer said.

Mayer added: “Does it move up another $5 billion or $10 billion? I think it probably does. That’s what it’s going to take to win it.”

Mayer said the battle for Warner Bros. reminds him of the fight for control of 21st Century Fox between Disney and Comcast, which he was involved in during his tenure at the Mouse House.

Under Mayer, Disney agreed to buy Fox’s studio, FX, and its stake in Hulu for $52.4 billion in equity, or $66.1 billion with debt, in December 2017. Six months later, cable giant Comcast made a $65 billion all-cash offer for those same assets. Disney ultimately won, but it was forced to pay a heftier price of $71.3 billion. Mayer helped engineer Disney’s initial agreement with Fox, but had moved to a role atop Disney’s streaming business by the time the acquisition closed.

“That was a difficult process,” Mayer said of Comcast’s bid for Fox. “It added $19 billion to the price tag. Still a good deal, but not the exceptional deal that it was before we had to pay more.”

While Disney’s deal with Fox gave it control over Hulu and bolstered its library, Disney activist investor Nelson Peltz argued that the Mouse House had shown “poor judgment” by “overpaying for the 21st Century Fox assets.”

As Netflix and Paramount vie for Warner Bros., Mayer said the Disney-Comcast showdown “points to where we might see this going.”

That’s because Ellison’s $30-per-share hostile bid, which Paramount also sent to WBD’s board, might not be rich enough, Mayer said.

“David Ellison has already kind of hinted at that, that he hasn’t done his best and final yet, and I suspect he hasn’t,” Mayer said.

Mayer was likely referencing a text message from Ellison to WBD CEO David Zaslav, which was made public as part of a Paramount filing on Monday: “Please note importantly we did not include ‘best and final’ in our bid.”

“The team at Paramount is aggressive,” Mayer said. He pointed to the gargantuan amount of money that David Ellison and his father, Oracle billionaire Larry, have at their disposal.

“I don’t think there’s a whole lot of hesitancy to spend it,” Mayer said.

• Luigi Mangione has been in court in NY fighting the admissibility of evidence tied to his arrest.
• See the to-do lists and other items collected from his backpack when he was arrested last year.
• Mangioni is accused of the ambush shooting murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

A second week of evidence-suppression hearings has begun for Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the year-old ambush shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Assistant District Attorney Joel Seidemann set the stage on the hearing’s first day, last Monday, by playing an audio recording of the surprisingly calm 911 call that led to Mangioni’s arrest.

Since then, more evidence has been revealed for the first time in a lower Manhattan courtroom — all seized from Mangione upon his arrest at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s following a five-day manhunt. It ranges from the probative (a journal and firearm) to the personal (a grab-bag of toiletries).

Mangioni’s lead defense attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, has called for the hearing to argue why none of it should be shown to a future jury.

Here are the most significant and interesting images shown in court.

Lawyers are fighting over Mangione’s backpack, which arresting officers searched twice before getting a warrant.

Mangione, 28, hopes to convince a state-level judge in Manhattan to toss key evidence from this bag, most significantly a ghost gun and a handwritten “manifesto.”

The bag was searched twice by arresting officers in Altoona, Pennsylvania — once at the McDonald’s where he was taken into custody, and again during intake at the town’s only police station.

Only afterward did police seek a search warrant. At the hearing, prosecutors are calling more than a half-dozen Altoona officers to testify that both searches were proper under Pennsylvania law.

Mangione’s red notebook, aka “the manifesto”.

Defense lawyers call it a “journal.” To prosecutors, it’s a “manifesto.” Either way, this red, soft-covered notebook is prime evidence.

Prosecutors say an entry from October 22, 2024, describes an intent to “wack” the CEO of an insurance company at its annual “bean-counter conference”. (Thompson, a 50-year-old father of two, was shot from behind six weeks later, as he approached a Midtown hotel, where he was to speak at UHC’s annual investor meeting.)

Police bodycam footage screened at the hearing shows two officers pulling the red notebook and other items from Mangione’s backpack after he is placed in handcuffs at the McDonald’s. They were looking for anything dangerous, including a bomb, multiple cops testified.

This hybrid metal and 3D printed 9mm firearm was recovered from the backpack, too.

Prosecutors say this firearm is a ballistic match to the shell casings and discharged bullet recovered from the sidewalk where Thompson was shot just before sunrise on December 4, 2024.

It was found at the bottom of the backpack at the police station during Altoona cops’ second search — an “inventory search,” meant to record the personal property and evidence taken from a suspect.

The top portion of the gun is the metal receiver for a Glock 9mm, prosecutors say. The bottom portion, including the butt and trigger, was 3D printed. A silencer and an extra ammo clip were also recovered from the backpack.

Some of the contents seized offer a glimpse into Mangione’s self-care aspirations while on the lam for five days.

This is a photo of Mangione’s many toiletries and other incidentals collected from his backpack, including spare socks, fresh medical masks, electrical cords, protein bars, and hand sanitizer.

They are not evidence but offer an intimate view of his self-care routine. Included was a stick of sandalwood-and-shea-butter scented “sensitive skin” deodorant, an electric hair-and-beard clipper with multiple black plastic comb attachments — and a pair of white-tipped tweezers.

“Change hat, shoes, pluck eyebrows,” reads a to-do note dated the day after Thompson is shot

Several handwritten notes were also collected from the backpack — some in the form of “to-do” lists.

A checklist under the heading “12/5” — the day after Thompson’s shooting — begins with a starred entry: “Buy black shoes. (White stripe too distinctive)”. Mangione was indeed wearing new-looking black sneakers when he was arrested four days later.

The second entry reads, “change hat, shoes, pluck eyebrows.”

A third entry begins “bus to Penn Station” and appears to include detailed travel directions.

Prosecutors say Mangione tried to throw arresting officers off the scent by claiming he was a “homeless” guy named “Mark.”

The first two officers arriving at the McDonald’s on December 9, 2024 — the fifth day of the nationwide manhunt — testified they had not believed Thompson’s shooter would be in the restaurant.

The store manager had only reluctantly called 911 at her customers’ insistence, so the call had been dispatched as “Priority: Low.”

“What’s your name?” one of the officers asked, approaching Mangione at the back of the restaurant. “Uh, Mark,” Mangione answered, according to bodycam footage shown in court. He told them he was homeless.

He then handed over this New Jersey license — listing his name as “Mark Rosario.”

Everything changed when Mangione’s mask came off.

Mangione was then asked to pull down his blue-and-white paper medical mask, which Altoona patrolman Joseph Detwiler said made Mangioni stand out in the small Pennsylvania town.

“We don’t wear masks,” Detwiler told the jury. “We have antibodies.”

When Mangione’s mask was lowered, everything changed. “I knew it was him immediately,” testified Detwiler. “I stayed calm.”

Mangioni alerted police to this small knife.

Before they left the McDonald’s, Mangione had alerted the police to a small, silver folding knife they’d failed to find in his pocket, along with something that looked like a metal stylus or screwdriver tool.

The knife was small enough to qualify as a legal carry, Detwiler’s partner, Patrolman Tyler Frye, testified Thursday, adding that even so, “It could possibly hurt somebody — seriously.”

“Hot meal” and “water bottles.”

Back at the Altoona Police station, a more thorough search of Mangione’s backpack, pockets, clothing, and other belongings was conducted. Officers found this folded scrap of lined paper.

Part doodled map, part to-do list, it is filled with dates and tasks, only some of which were accomplished. Under “12/8” — the day before the arrest — the words “Best buy” had been crossed off, as were mentions of a USB drive, “digital cam,” and “light source.”

“Hot meal” and “water bottles” were also crossed off.

Other items on the list — including “AAA bats” and “survival kit” — were never crossed off.

$7,800 in large bills.

At the Altoona police station, cops recovered $7,800 in large bills and currency from Thailand, Japan, and India, totaling $1,620, from Mangioni’s backpack.

“There’s a weapon,” Patrolwoman Christy Wasser is heard saying soon after, in footage showing her continuing to search Mangione’s backpack and lifting the gun from the very bottom of the bag.

Given the gun and the at-first-overlooked knife, the decision was made to strip-search Mangione.

This story was originally published on Friday, December 5. It has been updated to include images of new evidence released in the case.

• The best-selling country artists of all time include Elvis Presley, Tim McGraw, and Shania Twain.
• We used RIAA’s data to compile this list based on total album units sold in the US.
• Only three artists on this list debuted in the 2000s: Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, and Luke Bryan.

Did you know two of the top three best-selling musicians of all time are country music artists?

Elvis Presley and Garth Brooks trail only the Beatles in record sales.

Country music is one of the most popular genres in music, with its own set of stars, award shows, and hall of fame.

We used the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) list of best-selling artists, ranked by albums sold, to pick out the top 25 most successful country musicians of all time.

To qualify as a country star, a musician’s output had to primarily appear on country charts, or the artist had to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, nominated in the country genre at the Grammys, or have received nominations at country award shows like the CMAs or the ACM Awards.

Here’s who made the cut, from No. 25 to No. 1.

25. Hank Williams Jr. — 19.5 million units

24. Luke Bryan — 20 million units

23. Brooks & Dunn — 21.5 million units

22. Carrie Underwood — 22.5 million units

21. Jimmy Buffett — 23 million units

19 (tie). Kid Rock — 23.5 million units

19 (tie). Johnny Cash — 23.5 million units

18. Vince Gill — 24 million units

16 (tie). Toby Keith — 25.5 million units

16 (tie). Faith Hill — 25.5 million units

15. Linda Ronstadt — 30 million units

14. Willie Nelson — 31.5 million units

13. The Chicks — 33 million units

12. John Denver — 33.5 million units

11. Kenny Chesney — 37 million units

9 (tie). Tim McGraw — 41 million units

9 (tie). Reba McEntire — 41 million units

8. Alan Jackson — 44.5 million units

7. Kenny Rogers — 47.5 million units

6. Shania Twain — 48 million units

5. Alabama — 49 million units

4. George Strait — 69.5 million units

3. Taylor Swift — 110 million units

2. Elvis Presley — 146.5 million units

1. Garth Brooks — 162 million units

• Paramount Skydance made a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery after Netflix won a bidding war.
• Both companies cited regulatory approval, Hollywood employment, and consumers in their pitches.
• Here’s how each media giant is making its case to stakeholders.

Hollywood’s latest high-drama battle of the titans: Paramount versus Netflix.

David Ellison’s Paramount made a hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery after WBD rebuffed its multiple offers and accepted Netflix’s offer to buy its studio and streaming business.

This means Ellison, who is backed by his billionaire father, Larry Ellison of Oracle, is making his case directly to shareholders on why he’d be the best owner for WBD.

“We have faster regulatory certainty to close,” Ellison said. He called the deal “pro-consumer, pro-creative talent,” and “pro-competition.”

Netflix didn’t respond to the hostile bid but has said that by combining its streaming hits with WBD‘s classic library and prestige HBO fare, it can supercharge its offering.

“Together, we can give audiences around the world even more value and choice, and get one step closer to being the most loved and the most valued entertainment company,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in announcing the deal Friday.

Here’s how the companies made their cases to various stakeholders, which include investors, employees, Hollywood talent, and regulators.

Paramount Skydance says it is offering a higher price and more certainty

Financials: Paramount offered $30 per WBD share for all of WBD, compared to Netflix’s offer of $27.75 per WBD share for its streaming and studios business, excluding its TV networks, such as CNN and TNT. While Netflix’s offer was a mix of cash and stock, Ellison emphasized that Paramount’s offer is all cash, and $17.6 billion more than the Netflix deal, an $82.7 billion offer that includes $72 billion in equity.

Approval: Ellison repeatedly argued that he’s more likely to win regulatory approval than Netflix is. He said he anticipated approval coming in as little as 12 months. President Donald Trump said he’ll be “involved” in evaluating the deal. Larry Ellison is a longtime ally of Trump, and the firm of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is part of the Paramount offer.

Hollywood and consumers: Ellison argued that the Paramount deal would be good for jobs and consumers. He said Paramount is committed to growing the film and TV output of both businesses, including a theatrical slate of 30-plus releases a year. It’s a pointed contrast with Netflix, whose preference for getting movies onto its streaming service quickly has created friction with the film industry. (Netflix has said it would continue to release Warner Bros. movies in theaters.) Ellison said adding WBD would make Paramount a robust competitor to Netflix, while Netflix buying WBD would extend its dominance in streaming and give it more power to raise prices to consumers.

Netflix says its offer would be better for consumers and creators

Financials: Netflix said the deal would give it a number of financial benefits. While Netflix is the top subscription streaming service, it has a ways to go in creating culture-defining IP. A big part of Netflix’s pitch is that it’ll be able to build on WBD’s famous franchises like DC Comics and Harry Potter, fueling a flywheel that’ll expand its business. WBD would have to pay a $2.8 billion breakup fee if it accepts a different offer, which Netflix said limited its risk. On the other hand, Netflix would have to pay a $5.8 billion breakup fee if the deal were blocked by regulators.

Approval: Wall Street analysts have generally characterized Netflix as having a tougher approval path. However, the company has been making the pitch to Trump and his administration. Trump said Sunday that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos visited him last week. Trump said Sarandos was a “great person” who has done “one of the greatest jobs in the history of movies.” However, Trump added that Netflix has “a very big market share,” which “could be a problem.” Netflix expressed confidence in the approval process, saying it expects the deal to close in 12 to 18 months, after WBD completes its spinoff of linear channels into a new company, Discovery Global.

Hollywood and consumers: Netflix said the deal would provide better choice and value for consumers by bringing together the Warner Bros. film and TV show libraries with its own offerings, and help the WBD’s creators reach a bigger audience. Netflix said many of its subscribers don’t subscribe to HBO Max.

With Hollywood employment stagnating, Netflix also argued that the addition of Warner Bros. would let it expand its production and increase jobs over the long term. It expects to achieve $2 billion to $3 billion in cost savings from the deal, primarily coming from eliminating overlapping support staff.

• Reid Hoffman said he once spent a night on Epstein’s island in connection with MIT fundraising efforts.
• The LinkedIn cofounder told the Newcomer podcast that he had been told a visit would make Epstein more likely to donate.
• Hoffman has previously apologized publicly for his interactions with Epstein.

LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman said he wishes he’d known a little more before agreeing to spend a night on Jeffrey Epstein‘s island.

On the Dec. 1 episode of Eric Newcomer’s podcast, Hoffman said that he visited the island as part of his fundraising work for the MIT Foundation and was told the visit would make Epstein more likely to donate to MIT.

“Note to self: Google before going,” Hoffman said on the podcast. He said he stayed on the island for one night, and that there was a pool, a “bunch of guest rooms,” and a courtyard.

Hoffman has maintained that he only interacted with Epstein, whose 2019 death while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges was ruled a suicide, through his work fundraising for the MIT Media Lab. On the “Newcomer” podcast, he called Epstein a “masterful networker,” and recalled a 2015 dinner he hosted for an MIT researcher in Palo Alto, California.

Hoffman said that Joi Ito, former director of the MIT Media Lab, asked him if Epstein could attend the dinner, which was also attended by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Similar to his visit to the island, Hoffman said he was later told that the financier had said he was more likely to donate if he attended the dinner.

“He’s kind of going through the network, trying to meet people and so forth,” Hoffman said on the podcast. Hoffman also reiterated previous apologies for his involvement with Epstein.

In 2019, a spokesperson for Zuckerberg confirmed the dinner to Business Insider and said it was the only time the Facebook cofounder met Epstein. A spokesperson for Musk also confirmed the Tesla CEO’s attendance.

In a 2019 email to Axios, Hoffman acknowledged multiple interactions with Epstein, which he said were strictly for fundraising purposes, and said he had been told MIT had vetted and approved the convicted sex offender’s participation. He said in the email he was “deeply regretful” of the involvement.

“I went and kind of made a, you know, very public apology because it was like, okay I realized this and I’d already at that point had ramped down connection with him, right, to like no meetings and all the rest of the stuff, under any context,” Hoffman said on the podcast. “And I think he still would drop me an email every so often and say, ‘Hey, can we get on the phone?’ I say, ‘Oh, maybe sometime,’ which is, you know, code for never, right?”

Hoffman said that justice for the late pedophile’s victims is important, and urged the government to release, unredacted, “every single piece of intel that they have about Epstein.”

In November, President Donald Trump signed a bill that will release the Department of Justice’s files on Epstein after months of pressure from Congress, including some fellow Republicans. The department has until Saturday, December 19, to comply with the order.

Trump has also ordered the DOJ to investigate Hoffman, along with other individuals he views as political enemies, including former President Bill Clinton and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, over their ties to Epstein.

Hoffman, a billionaire and major Democratic donor, has previously said that he had to hire security after Musk fueled conspiracy theories about his relationship with Epstein.