For Reese Witherspoon, selling her media company Hello Sunshine was just the next step in bringing more female-led film and television projects to the masses.The actress, who founded the company in 2016, told CNBC’s Julia Boorstin on “Tech Check” Tuesday that this cash infusion will help the fledgling entertainment group grow exponentially.”We’re just doubling down on our mission,” Witherspoon said. “Now we’re going to have the ability to tell more stories, to hire more female filmmakers, to promote and lift up even more authors.”Hello Sunshine courted a number of offers, including one from Apple. A majority stake is being bought by a venture that includes Blackstone Group and is led by former Disney executives Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs. A person familiar with the deal said it was valued at about $900 million.”When we started the company 4½ years ago, we set out with a very specific intention of how we wanted to build,” said CEO Sarah Harden. “We took a step back and said ‘how do we set ourselves up for the next five to 10 years of growth?'”Witherspoon and Harden will continue to oversee Hello Sunshine’s day-to-day operations and will join the yet-to-be-named company’s board.Hello Sunshine was started to create content focused on female voices and has already produced shows like HBO’s “Big Little Lies,” Hulu’s “Little Fires Everywhere” and Apple’s “The Morning Show.”With so many streaming options in the market, there is pent-up demand for content. Backed by Blackstone, Hello Sunshine will be able to produce more shows and films, making it attractive to these platforms. Not to mention, it has a solid track record of Emmy nominations.The company has been able to key into what its audiences want through social media, Witherspoon said. The actress actively engages with this community, particularly those that are part of Reese’s Book Club. Witherspoon, an avid reader, has optioned a number of books for television series.”We didn’t have these kind of opportunities seven years ago,” she said. “I was making movies in a vacuum. I never really knew who was seeing them, what their feelings were. Now, I have this really great one-on-one relationship with people all over social media. … We can really figure out and tease out exactly what audiences want to see.”In addition to a scripted studio, Hello Sunshine also produces unscripted shows and began a kids animation division 18 months ago.”I’m really excited to extend our mission into animation so that we can reach more young women with this idea that women can be the heroes of their own story and do that authentically with real female creators,” Witherspoon said.Disclosure: Comcast owns a stake in Hulu and is the parent of NBCUniversal and CNBC. More

Major League Baseball and the players union held talks in New York this week, as they attempt to end the lockout.
Spring training is supposed to start next month, and regular-season opening day is scheduled for March 31.
Player pay, the playoff format and the luxury tax are among topics on the table.

Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Cody Bellinger (35) steals second base as St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Tommy Edman (19) takes the late throw at Dodger Stadium in the 2021 National League Wild Card game.
Robert Hanashiro | USA TODAY Sports

Now that the controversial Hall of Fame process is out of the way, with Barry Bonds again denied entry into Cooperstown, Major League baseball is on the clock as it tries to get its season started on time.
Players have been locked out since December, when MLB entered the ninth work stoppage in league history. Spring training is supposed to start next month, and regular-season opening day is scheduled for March 31.

The two sides are finally negotiating. The league and officials from the MLB Players Association met twice this week and will do so again in New York on Thursday to discuss the framework for a new collective bargaining agreement. Talks resumed last week for the first time since the lockout went into effect.
“Any day spent at the bargaining table is a good day,” said former MLB executive Marty Conway. “Two straight days is a good sign.”

Topics addressed include increasing minimum salaries, rules around the arbitration system, service time manipulation and revenue sharing among MLB clubs.
“At this point, you’re trying to move past posturing and personalities, which dominate the first few sessions,” said Conway, who is now a sports business professor at Georgetown University. “You have new people at the table who haven’t really negotiated with each other. It had to evolve past that to really get into the issues.”

Major League Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr. and Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark speak during a press conference before Game 3 of the Championship Round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic between Team USA and Team Puerto Rico on Wednesday, March 22, 2017 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California.
Alex Trautwig | Major League Baseball | Getty Images

Finding common ground

Pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to team sites in the middle of next month, and spring training games start Feb. 26.

But first teams need to fill out their rosters, and none of that is happening at the moment. Though more than $1 billion in deals were secured before the work stoppage, top free agents like Atlanta Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman and Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa remain unsigned.
Conway predicted there would be “real progress over the next several weeks” because players don’t want to miss regular-season games and the paychecks that go along with them.
They may be willing to forego some of the preseason, which is held in Arizona and Florida. But gearing up for a 162-game regular season requires conditioning, and players have to consider how important that is to them.
“Do you feel like you need three weeks?” Conway said. “Do you need two weeks? What is it?”
There are certain key areas where the league and players share some common ground. One is the possibility of an expanded postseason, which was successfully tested during the pandemic-shortened season in 2020.
Rather than limiting the playoff field to 10 teams, MLB invited in 16 teams in 2020. The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays in six games. League commissioner Rob Manfred then started the lobbying process for a more permanent change.
The league envisions a 14-team format going forward, with a bye for the top team in the American League and National League. The MLB Players Association prefers to have 12 teams.
The more clubs in the tournament, the greater the opportunity to earn postseason revenue, while players would also have a greater pool of money to divide up. The players’ pool combines gate receipts from all postseason games and includes a 60% take from the first four games of the World Series. In 2019, the last full season before the Covid pandemic, that sum totaled a little more than $80 million, the third-highest pool of all time. The remainder of the postseason money is split among team staff.
The 12-team proposal has some support beyond just the players. One media executive told CNBC that anything beyond 12 teams would dilute baseball’s product and ruin the pennant races that typically drive excitement in the season’s closing weeks.
In a 14-team format, as supported by MLB, division winners would host a best-of-three series with all the games at their home field. Higher-seeded teams would also select their opponent.
Conway said a revised postseason format would bring excitement to MLB as “fans, customers, commercial sponsors, love more meaningful games.”
Another hot topic on the table is a universal designated hitter. The main rule difference between the two leagues in baseball is that pitchers hit in the National League, while the American League uses a designated hitter for the pitcher. The universal DH approach was used during the pandemic season.
Also up for discussion is a change to the way the draft is handled. One proposal is that the draft implement a lottery system like the NBA uses, adding in some level of luck and randomness to the process.
And, as always, player salaries are a key sticking point.
The minimum salary is currently $570,500. The players union is seeking to push that number to a flat $775,000 minimum. MLB proposed $600,000, then increased its tier offers to $615,000 for players with no experience, $650,000 for one year of experience and $700,000 for players with at least two years under their belt, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because they’re not authorized to speak publicly on the subject.

Shohei Ohtani #17 of the Los Angeles Angels pitches during the game between the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Angels at Angel Stadium on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 in Anaheim, California.
Daniel Shirey | Major League Baseball | Getty Images

Work to be done

Other pay-related issues that the players want addressed include service time, revenue sharing among teams and the luxury tax. The first topic looks at how teams manipulate the usage of young players, often keeping them off the roster for just enough time during a season to extend how long they have control over contracts.
As for the luxury tax, the 1995 CBA added a rule that penalizes teams who overspend on payroll. Teams that exceed the MLB’s payroll threshold are taxed between 20% and 95%, with the higher rate for repeat offenders. The money collected is distributed to teams below the line, so top spenders like the New York Yankees and Dodgers help keep some smaller-market teams afloat.
The luxury tax sits at $210 million, up from $195 million in 2017. The union wants changes to the luxury tax system, expecting that more teams would be willing to spend on player salaries if they weren’t penalized for doing so.

A view of the fans watching from the outfield during the game between the Houston Astros and the Atlanta Braves during the first inning of game six of the 2021 World Series at Minute Maid Park.
Jerome Miron | USA TODAY Sports

While owners and players hammer out their differences, local businesses in spring training areas like Phoenix worry they could suffer if the exhibition games don’t arrive on time.
The Associated Press reported the Cactus League, which is played in Arizona, had an economic impact of more than $600 million in 2018 from spring training games. That figure was roughly $363 million in the abbreviated 2020 session before the pandemic shut down sports.
Companies like Topps, which sold its trading card business to Fanatics for $500 million, also have a reason to be concerned. The company has historically used spring training games to shoot photos of players for its new products.
Then there’s the risk of pushing away fans.
“That’s the sad and disappointing collateral damage that should be considered now more than ever,” said Joe Favorito, a sports public relations guru and a sports business professor at Columbia University. “The fans are what this is about as much as the business side. And no sport, after what we’ve gone through the last couple of years, can afford to alienate fans with a long work stoppage.”
Favorito, a New York Mets fan and partial season ticketholder, praised the franchise’s outreach for keeping fans engaged even as offseason events have been interrupted. For example, the Mets invited people to a trivia event at Citi Field and asked for feedback on how the team could do better during the lockout.
“More than ever, in a work stoppage, you better show your core fans that you care,” said Favorito. “If you get to not playing games, you may have more fan erosion because people have long memories, and they have other things they can do with the disposable income.”
WATCH: MLB and Players’ Association meet but make no progress toward deal

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German laser communications company Mynaric recently listed on the Nasdaq, and CEO Bulent Altan, a former SpaceX executive, spoke to CNBC about the company’s U.S. initial public offering.
Mynaric makes optical communication terminals, a device which uses a laser to send data from one point to another. Satellite companies are the firm’s target customer base.
Altan said Mynaric decided to list on the Nasdaq because “you have a investor base in the U.S. that understands the space market and has been active in it quite a while.”

A rendering of the company’s laser communications system on satellites in orbit.

German laser communications company Mynaric listed on the Nasdaq in the past week and CEO Bulent Altan, a former SpaceX executive, spoke to CNBC about the company’s U.S. debut and plans for further growth.
The company raised $75.9 million through its initial public offering, with the stock priced at $16.50 a share. The stock is up slightly since then, having closed at $18.19 a share on Thursday.

Mynaric makes optical communication terminals, a device which uses a laser to send data from one point to another. Altan explained that Mynaric’s target market is companies building satellite constellations, including for broadband, earth imagery, and more.
“This isn’t just a space pure play; it’s almost a constellations pure play,” Altan said, highlighting that most satellite companies are not public, giving SpaceX’s Starlink as a notable example of a constellation operated by a firm that may one day IPO but has not yet.

The company’s CONDOR Mk3 optical communication terminal.

The company has not yet sent a full laser terminal to space, but has performed aircraft flight tests that were successful. Mynaric is hoping to perform an in-space demonstration in the second quarter of next year, but Altan noted that schedule is “fluid” and depends on the company’s customers.
Altan said Mynaric decided to list on the Nasdaq because “you have an investor base in the U.S. that understands the space market and has been active in it quite a while.”
“The whole space industry is coming in Europe, but in the U.S. it has established itself,” he said.

Altan – who spent more than a decade at SpaceX, most recently as the vice president of satellite mission assurance – said that Elon Musk’s company is not a Mynaric customer. SpaceX is “very vertically integrated,” Altan said, and the laser communications technology that Starlink satellites are using is different from Mynaric’s, making chances of a customer relationship “low.”
“I think being a technology partner would be a better avenue for us to explore,” Altan said of SpaceX. The company notably nominated former SpaceX vice president Hans Koenigsmann to join Mynaric’s supervisory board earlier this fall.
The other motivation for Mynaric’s listing was that its “customer base is now very U.S.-centric,” Altan said – including companies such as Northrop Grumman and imagery start-up Capella.
“The government right now is buying so many laser communication terminals indirectly, by procuring a high number of satellites with laser communication capability,” Altan said.
For now Mynaric is well capitalized, he said, with no “immediate need” to raise more money. It has a facility that can build as many as 400 laser terminals per year, but Mynaric plans to increase that to 2,000 per year.
“The underlying technology is really mass production oriented,” Altan said.

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Spc. Demetrie Barnett of the Nevada National Guard administers a COVID-19 test during a preview of a free drive-thru COVID-19 testing site in the parking garage of the Texas Station Gambling Hall & Hotel on November 12, 2020 in North Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller | Getty Images

The United States reported another record one-day spike in Covid-19 cases as the outbreak grows more severe and overwhelms some hospitals.
The country reported more than 153,400 new cases on Thursday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. That’s the third-straight record one-day spike and has pushed the seven-day average of new U.S. infections to over 131,400, up more than 32% compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of Hopkins data.

It’s not just cases. More than 67,000 people are hospitalized with Covid-19 across the country, more than at any other point during the pandemic, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project, which is run by journalists at The Atlantic. The number of people dying every day from the disease is climbing, too.

Arrows pointing outwards

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday that “a number of factors” is driving the outbreak, including people growing tired of following public health measures. He said that’s a particular issue as the country approaches Thanksgiving in about two weeks, when many Americans are expected to travel to see family and friends, potentially bringing the virus with them.
Fauci urged Americans to wear a mask, practice social distancing, wash hands frequently and to follow other public health measures.
“If we do the things that are simple public health measures, that soaring will level and start to come down,” he said on CBS’ “This Morning.” “You add that to the help of a vaccine, we can turn this around. It is not futile.”
Fauci added that “we need to pull more testing into the community” in order to identify people who don’t have symptoms but are infected and spreading the virus. Testing has increased substantially across the country, but as infections become more prevalent as well, many epidemiologists say even more testing is needed.

Arrows pointing outwards

While some, including President Donald Trump, have said increased testing is driving the rise in cases, the data doesn’t bear that out. The seven-day average of new tests on Thursday was over 1.4 million, up by about 8.3% compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of COVID Tracking Project data. The rise in cases far outpaces that, with a week-over-week rise of more than 32%, on an average weekly basis.
And the so-called positivity rate has been increasing, too. Epidemiologists say the percent of positive tests can be a helpful figure to determine whether an outbreak is expanding and whether an area is conducting enough testing. In the U.S., the seven-day average positivity rate rose to 9.1% from 7.2% a week ago, according to Hopkins data.
The surge of the virus is beginning to overwhelm hospitals in some areas. Dr. Alan Kaplan, CEO of UW Health at the University of Wisconsin, said Thursday his system’s hospitals are overwhelmed in both rural and urban communities.
“We are short of staff all times, either because they have Covid or they have some other illness and we need to rule out Covid before we bring them back to work,” he said on “Squawk on the Street.” “There is no surplus now.”
— Charts by CNBC’s Nate Rattner. More

Disney+ with no ads is increasing $3 per month to $10.99.
Disney+ with ads will be $7.99 per month.
A bundle of Disney+ and Hulu, both with ads, will be $9.99 per month.

Disney unveiled a new pricing structure that incorporates an advertising-supported Disney+ as part of an effort to make its streaming business profitable.
Starting Dec. 8 in the U.S., Disney+ with commercials will be $7.99 per month — currently the price of Disney+ without ads. The price of ad-free Disney+ will rise 38% to $10.99 — a $3 per month increase.

The price of Hulu without ads will rise by $2 per month, from $12.99 to $14.99, effective Oct. 10. Hulu with ads will go up by $1 per month, rising from $6.99 to $7.99.
Disney announced last month that ESPN+ with ads would go up 43% to $9.99 per month.
The price increases reflect the growing operating loss for Disney’s streaming services. Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ combined to lose $1.1 billion in the fiscal third quarter, $300 million more than the average analyst estimate, reflecting the higher cost of content on the services. The increased operating loss occurred even while Disney added about 15 million new Disney+ subscribers in the quarter, about 5 million more than analysts estimated.
Disney has previously stated it plans to lose money on Disney+ until 2024. Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy reiterated on Wednesday’s earnings conference call that Disney+’s losses will peak during the company’s fiscal 2022.
Average revenue per user for Disney+ decreased by 5% in the quarter in the U.S. and Canada due to more customers taking cheaper multiproduct offerings.

Overall, the company’s quarterly results, also announced Wednesday, beat analysts’ expectations on the top and bottom lines. Disney+ subscriptions rose to 152.1 million during the most recent period, higher than Wall Street’s projections of 147 million.
Counting Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu (which is partially owned by Comcast), Disney has 221 million streaming subscribers.

Bundled pricing

Disney also announced new bundle prices incorporating its Disney+ product with commercials.
For existing customers only, a bundle of Disney+ without ads and Hulu and ESPN+ with ads will increase by $1, from $13.99 to $14.99.
The price of a bundle of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+, all with ads, will be $12.99, or $1 lower than the current Disney bundle price.
Consumers will be able to purchase a Disney+ and Hulu bundle for $9.99 per month with commercials. That’s a discount to paying for Disney+ and Hulu with ads separately.
The price of a no-ad Disney+ and no-ad Hulu, with ESPN+, remains $19.99 per month.
Disney will also have new pricing for its Hulu with live TV bundles. Subscribers that want Hulu with live TV and Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ with commercials will pay $69.99 per month. For existing customers, Disney will offer Disney+ without commercials in that bundle for $74.99. The premium bundle of Hulu with live TV along with Disney+ and Hulu without ads will be $82.99 per month.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which owns CNBC.

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