Raphael Stevens

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    in Business

    Phoenix Suns and Mercury to move games from cable to local network and streaming

    The NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury are leaving behind cable TV, signing a deal with a local broadcast station owner and streaming service.
    The Suns’ local games currently air on cable-TV channel Bally Sports Arizona, which is owned by Diamond Sports. Diamond is under bankruptcy protection.
    The shift to a free over-the-air network for all games and streaming comes as the regional sports network business is under increasing pressure.

    A general view during the second half in Game Two of the NBA Finals between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns at Phoenix Suns Arena on July 08, 2021 in Phoenix, Arizona.
    Christian Petersen | Getty Images

    Arizona’s professional men’s and women’s basketball teams are bouncing out of the regional sports network arena.
    The NBA’s Phoenix Suns and the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury reached a deal with broadcast station owner Gray Television to air the entirety of their regular seasons on local broadcast networks available throughout Arizona.

    The local networks are available for pay-TV subscribers as well as for those who opt to watch for free by using an antenna. The teams also signed a deal with Kiswe, a privately held video technology company, to start their own direct-to-consumer streaming service.
    The deal marks a pivotal moment that will see a professional sports team exit the regional sports business and bring regular season games back to fans through their local TV stations.
    “I am incredibly excited to let you know that we have finalized and signed a deal that is an absolute game changer for our organization, our fans and the future of how we grow the game,” Suns and Mercury owner Mat Ishbia said in an email to executives, viewed by CNBC. “In addition to being the first modern deal to go to exclusively over the air statewide, we are also building our own DTC product in partnership with Kiswe.” 
    Part of what made this deal possible is that the Suns and Mercury have their own in-house production, as well as a commercial sales group, which will help simplify the transition from its RSN.
    Regular season games for the Suns were previously available on Diamond Sports’ Bally Sports Arizona channel. Diamond filed for bankruptcy protection in March.

    Beginning next season, the Suns will no longer be on the network. The Suns, who have advanced into the second round of this year’s NBA playoffs, are considered contenders to win what would be their first league championship.
    Bally Sports Arizona also airs the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes and MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks regular season games. Diamond Sports skipped a rights payment to the Diamondbacks, in a push to gain its streaming rights, prior to filing for bankruptcy. Diamondbacks games are still airing on the network while the battle plays out in court.
    The RSN business model has long been lucrative for the leagues and teams, as networks pay big fees for the rights to games that aren’t nationally aired.
    Financial terms of the Suns and Mercury’s deal with Gray and Kiswe weren’t disclosed. Overall, Gray and Kiswe will carry the Suns games for five years, while the deal with three-time WNBA champion Mercury runs for two years.
    Regional sports networks in general have been under pressure as customers cut their pay-TV subscriptions and opt for streaming. The networks, including Bally Sports, have been launching streaming options at price points that many consumers balk at, but are not likely to upend the longstanding RSN business model.

    US basketball player Brittney Griner, of the Phoenix Mercury, speaks during a news conference at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona on April 27, 2023.
    Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images

    With this new deal, Suns and Mercury games will be available to nearly 2.8 million households in Arizona, which the teams say triples the current number of homes they now reach. The teams will be able to reach every home in Arizona once Gray launches in Yuma this summer.
    “If you go back to the 1980s and 1990s there weren’t RSNs. These pro games were on local TV,” said Pat LaPlatney, Gray Television’s co-CEO. “This gives the Suns and the Mercury a really broad distribution platform. It will make TV advertising and promotion of the games significantly more valuable as the games will be reaching tons more people.”
    With the WNBA season starting in a few weeks, Mercury games will already be available over the local networks and Kiswe’s streaming service. Mercury games will be available for free through the streaming option, in a push to broaden the team’s fan base.
    The first two Mercury games will be nationally aired on ESPN, as it marks the return of WNBA star Brittney Griner, who was jailed on drug charges in Russia last year. She was released in December.
    Mercury games will be available on local TV stations in Phoenix and Tucson, which covers more than 95% of the state’s TV households, and will be added to Yuma over the summer.
    The Suns games, however, won’t be free on the streaming service next season, but will be more affordable than the pricing for other RSN streaming services, the executives said. This year, MSG Networks, which airs New York Knicks’ games as well as games featuring the NHL’s New York Rangers, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils, said it would launch MSG+ for $29.99 a month. The New York Yankees’ YES Network charges $24.99 a month for its new streaming service.
    “The absolute intent is to change it up compared to what’s been out in the industry today from a price point perspective,” said Mike Schabel, Kiswe’s chief strategy officer. “I’d like for it to be soda money, not gas money, type valuation. We’re thinking about the audience and who we’d like to reach.”
    Pricing for the Suns’ streaming option is still being finalized. More

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    in Finance

    Swiss central bank promises regulation review after collapse of Credit Suisse

    The central bank played a key role in brokering the rescue of embattled lender Credit Suisse over the course of a chaotic weekend in March.
    Thomas Jordan, chairman of the governing board at the SNB, said banking regulation and supervision will have to be reviewed in light of recent events.
    The demise of the country’s second-largest bank fomented widespread discontent and severely damaged Switzerland’s long-held reputation for financial stability.

    Thomas Jordan, president of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), speaks during the bank’s annual general meeting in Bern, Switzerland, on Friday, April 28, 2023.
    Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    The Swiss National Bank on Friday pledged to review banking regulations during its annual general meeting in Bern, following recent turmoil involving Credit Suisse.
    Set against a backdrop of protest over its action on climate change and its role in the emergency sale of Credit Suisse to Swiss rival UBS, Thomas Jordan, chairman of the governing board at the SNB, said banking regulation and supervision will have to be reviewed in light of recent events.

    “This will require in-depth analysis … quick fixes must be avoided,” he said, according to a statement.
    The central bank played a key role in brokering the rescue of Credit Suisse over the course of a chaotic weekend in March, as a flight of deposits and plummeting share price took the 167-year-old institution to the brink of collapse.
    The deal remains mired in controversy and legal challenges, particularly over the lack of investor input and the unconventional decision to wipe out 15 billion Swiss francs ($16.8 billion) of Credit Suisse AT1 bonds.
    The demise of the country’s second-largest bank fomented widespread discontent and severely damaged Switzerland’s long-held reputation for financial stability. It also came against a febrile political backdrop, with federal elections coming up in October.
    Jordan said Friday that future regulation will have to “compel banks to hold sufficient assets which they can pledge or transfer at any time without restriction, and which they can thus deliver as collateral to existing liquidity facilities.” He added that this would mean his central bank could would be able to provide the necessary liquidity, in times of stress, without the need for emergency law.

    A shareholder holding a placard reading in German: “Invest in the planet and not in its destruction” takes part in a protest ahead of a general meeting of of the Swiss National Bank (SNB) in Bern on April 28, 2023. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)
    Fabrice Coffrini | Afp | Getty Images

    The SNB faced questions and grievances from shareholders about the Credit Suisse situation on Friday, but the country’s network of climate activists also sought to use the central bank’s unwanted spotlight to challenge its investment policies.
    Unlike many major central banks, the SNB operates publicly-traded company, with just over half of its roughly 25 million Swiss franc ($28.1 million) share capital held by public shareholders — including various Swiss cantons (states) and cantonal banks — while the remaining shares are held by private investors.
    More than 170 climate activists have now purchased a SNB share, according to the SNB Coalition, a dedicated pressure group spun out of Alliance Climatique Suisse — an umbrella organization representing around 140 Swiss environmental campaign groups.
    Around 50 of the activist shareholders were attendance on Friday, and activists had planned to make around a dozen speeches on stage at the AGM, climate campaigner Jonas Kampus told CNBC on Wednesday. Protests were also held outside the event with Reuters reporting that the campaigners totaled 100, leading to tight security.
    The group is calling for the SNB to dispose of its stock holdings of “companies that cause serious environmental damage and/or violate fundamental human rights,” pointing to the central bank’s own investment guidelines.
    In particular, campaigners have highlighted SNB holdings in Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil, Repsol, Enbridge and Duke Energy.
    Members of a Ugandan community objecting to TotalEnergies’ East African Crude Oil Pipeline, were also set to attend on Friday, with one planning to speak on stage directly to the SNB directorate.
    As well as a full exit from fossil fuel investments, activists are demanding that the SNB implement the “one for one rule,” — a capital requirement designed to prevent banks and insurers benefiting from activities that are detrimental for the transition to net zero.
    In this context, the SNB would be required to set aside one Swiss franc of its own funds to cover potential losses for each franc allocated to financing new fossil fuel exploration or extraction.

    Ahead of the AGM, the central bank declined on legal grounds to schedule three motions tabled by the activists, and said on Wednesday that it would not comment on protest plans, instead directing CNBC to its formal agenda. Yet Kampus suggested that just the process of submitting the motions itself had helped expand public and political awareness of the issues.
    “From all sides, there is public pressure and also political pressure that the SNB needs to change things. At this moment, the SNB is really far behind in terms of their actions taken compared to other central banks,” Kampus told CNBC via telephone, adding that the SNB takes a “very conservative view” of its mandate regarding price stability and financial stability, which is “very narrow.”
    The shareholders’ cause is also backed by a motion in parliament, with support from lawmakers ranging from the Green Party to the Centre [center-right party], which demands an extension of the SNB’s mandate to cover climate and environmental risks.
    “While other central banks around the world are going well beyond the steps taken by the SNB in ​​this respect — the SNB has repeatedly taken the position that its mandate does not give it sufficient leeway to take climate risks fully into account in its decisions and monetary policy instruments,” reads the motion, filed on March 16 by Green Party lawmaker Delphine Klopfenstein Broggini.

    “The present parliamentary initiative is intended to ensure this leeway and to make it clear that the SNB must take climate risks into account when conducting monetary policy.”
    The motion argues that climate risks are “classified worldwide as significant financial risks that can endanger financial and price stability,” concluding that it is in “Switzerland’s overall interest that the SNB proactively address these issues” as other central banks are seeking to do.
    Kampus and his fellow activists hope the national focus on the SNB after the Credit Suisse crisis provides fertile ground to advance concerns about climate risk, which he said poses a risk to the financial system that is “several times larger” than the potential fallout from Credit Suisse’s collapse.
    “We feel that there is also a window of opportunity on the SNB side in that they maybe this time are a bit more humble, because they obviously also have done some things wrong in terms of the Credit Suisse crash,” Kampus said.
    He noted that the central bank has always asserted that climate risk was incorporated into its models and that there was “no need for further exchange with the public of further transparency.”

    “Very central to the SNB’s work is that the public just needs to trust them. Trust is something that is very important to the central bank, and to demand trust from the public without leading up to it or supporting it with further evidence that we can trust them in the long run is quite scary, especially when we don’t know what their climate model is,” he said.
    The SNB has long argued that its passive investment strategy, which invests in global indexes, is part of its mandate to remain market neutral, and that it is not for the central bank to engage in climate policy. Activists hope mounting political pressure will eventually force a change in legislation to broaden the SNB’s mandate to accommodate climate and human rights as risks to financial and price stability.
    UBS and Credit Suisse also faced protests from climate activists at their respective AGMs earlier this month over investment in fossil fuel companies. More

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    in Business

    Bed Bath & Beyond store closures will kick off a land grab for fast-growing retailers

    Bed Bath & Beyond, which filed for bankruptcy, is expected to soon close hundreds of stores.
    That is likely to result in a land grab by retailers and other companies that are looking to expand.
    It could be a particular good opportunity for low-price chains and dollar stores.

    A closed Bed Bath & Beyond store in San Francisco, California, US, on Monday, April 24, 2023. 
    David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    In strip malls across the country, Bed Bath & Beyond stores have “Closing Soon” signs.
    For other retailers, those may as well be “For Rent” signs.

    The home goods retailer, which filed for bankruptcy Sunday, won’t only create opportunities for competitors to gain new customers and market share. Its shuttered stores will kick off a land grab for retailers hungry for additional space.
    Bed Bath will join a list of other bankrupt companies, such as Kmart and Sears, that vacated spaces and made way for stores. Bed Bath has nearly 500 locations that could open up — between its 360 namesake stores and 120 Buy Buy Baby locations — for other companies to rent. It had already shuttered many spots, as it wound down 150 underperforming namesake stores and shut all 49 of its Harmon FaceValue beauty-chain locations.
    The company’s stores remain open and its website is still operating. Liquidation sales began this week.
    Yet Bed Bath’s coming closures are hitting at a good time, according to real estate firms and retail industry watchers. The retailer has locations in high-traffic suburban areas. Its stores are easily adaptable at their size — typically around 30,000 square feet, according to industry analysts. Off-mall shopping centers’ vacancy rates are low and demand is high, especially as discounters grow and traditional mall players experiment with new concepts.
    Former Bed Bath stores could turn into a variety of other retail spaces, said Deborah Weinswig, CEO of Coresight Research, a retail advisory group. They could become doctor offices for CVS or Walgreens, as the drugstore chains push into primary care, or turn into grocery locations for growing chains such as Aldi or Lidl, she said.

    Some may be sliced into locations for multiple companies. Others may be backfilled by a single tenant.
    Bed Bath’s spaces are more move-in ready than Kmart and Sears locations because by and large they were better maintained, while the better-performing stores only “need a little light dusting,” she said.
    “In the past, I may have been a bit more concerned if we were to go through something like this, but I’m just not,” Weinswig said. “I’m not worried at this point because of the fact you’ve had this tremendous change in terms of demand for physical spaces.”
    An appetite for space
    Bed Bath & Beyond’s stores will go on the market as the off-mall space is hot and shoppers are flocking back to stores.
    Weaker retailers’ locations thinned out during the fallout of the Great Recession and again during the Covid pandemic, said James Bohnaker, senior economist with Cushman & Wakefield. Now, a mix of stronger retailers are vying for space in similar strip centers, including dollar stores, off-price retailers, direct-to-consumer players like Warby Parker and Casper, and traditional mall retailers like Macy’s.

    Vacancy rates for shopping centers fell to 5.6% in the first quarter of this year, the lowest level since commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield began tracking in 2007. Such locations, which often include a major grocer and businesses like gyms and restaurants, have gained popularity because of their convenience and proximity to growing communities, new subdivisions and wealthier shoppers.
    Retail real estate had a banner year in 2022 in the U.S., as store openings outpaced closures for the first time since 2016, according to Coresight Research.
    Major retailers opened roughly 2,500 net new stores in the U.S. in 2022, the firm found.

    Year-to-date 2023 U.S. store opening announcements

    As of April, discounters are leading the way so far this year with announced store openings in the U.S.
    Dollar General: 1,065 stores
    Family Dollar (owned by Dollar Tree): 328 stores
    Dollar Tree: 308 stores
    Five Below: 199 stores
    JD Sports: 134 stores
    TJX Companies (includes T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods, Marshalls): 102 stores
    Wawa: 100 stores
    Burlington Stores: 96 stores
    Ross Stores: 92 stores
    Bath & Body Works: 92 stores
    Tractor Supply: 70 stores
    Source: Coresight Research data

    Industry watchers expect retailers to expand at a similar pace this year, even as interest rates rise and the economy gets choppier.
    There are several factors driving the demand for retail space, according to Coresight’s Weinswig: Retailers have more money after shoppers’ pandemic-fueled spending spree. Companies see brick-and-mortar stores as both billboards for their brands and fulfillment centers for their e-commerce orders. Retailers also are adding technology to better understand customer behavior, as Google and Apple’s privacy changes make it harder to track them online. And hybrid work schedules mean shoppers visit stores throughout the day.
    Discounters and off-price players, such as Dollar General, Dollar Tree and TJX Companies are leading the way with big plans for expansion, according to Coresight. They could become potential tenants, depending on how the former Bed Bath spaces are sliced and diced.
    Bed Bath’s vacated boxes could also be ideal spots for gym chains such as LA Fitness, Crunch and Planet Fitness, as well as off-price banners like TJX-owned HomeGoods and Marshalls, said Matthew Harding, CEO of Levin Management. The New Jersey-based firm is a landlord and property manager with more than 100 properties in five states and Washington, D.C. Its properties include some former and current Bed Bath locations.
    Even mall players may take a look. Foot Locker, for instance, closed an estimated 187 stores in the U.S. in 2022, more than any other retailer, according to Coresight. The footwear company’s CEO Mary Dillon, however, has spoken about plans to open new locations in strip centers. Macy’s has also opened stores beyond malls.
    Think of it as retail’s circle of life.
    Kimco Realty, a real estate investment trust with 27 Bed Bath stores in its portfolio, said it already has single tenants teed up to fill most of those locations. Through a spokesperson, the company said it can’t yet disclose names, but they include a mix of off-price, full-price, entertainment, grocery, furniture, and automotive or appliance stores.
    At a strip mall in the Phoenix area, one of Kimco’s former Bed Bath & Beyond locations recently reopened as a Burlington store.
    In one shopping center in Edgewater, New Jersey, a HomeGoods (owned by T.J. Maxx-owner TJX Companies) is moving into a former Bed Bath & Beyond, according to Levin Management.
    In a Bergen County location in the state, negotiations are underway about turning a two-story Bed Bath & Beyond into multiple properties, according to Rick Latella, an executive managing director in the retail valuation practice of Cushman & Wakefield.
    He said the owner is close to a deal with off-price retailer, Ross Stores, for one floor. And on the other floor, possible tenants include REI, Petco and Barnes & Noble. More

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    in Finance

    China’s A.I. chatbots haven’t yet reached the public like ChatGPT did

    More than two months since the ChatGPT craze hit China, a similar artificial intelligence-based product has yet to reach the country’s population at large.
    The most well-known alternatives released by Baidu, Alibaba and others have limited access with waitlists — or restricted trials to business partners.
    ChatGPT, which learns using big data, reached an estimated 100 million monthly active users two months after launching in November.

    Baidu CTO Wang Haifeng speaks at the unveiling of Baidus AI chatbot Ernie Bot at an event in Beijing on March 16, 2023.
    Michael Zhang | Afp | Getty Images

    BEIJING — More than two months since the ChatGPT craze hit China, a similar artificial intelligence-based product has yet to reach the country’s population at large.
    Instead, the most well-known alternatives released by Baidu, Alibaba and others have limited access with waitlists — or restricted trials to business partners.

    In what has been compared to an “iPhone moment,” ChatGPT reached an estimated 100 million monthly active users two months after launching in November. The AI-chatbot learns using big data and can generate everything from poems to business strategies in a human-like conversation.
    But ChatGPT, created by U.S.-based OpenAI, isn’t available in China, where access to Twitter, Facebook and Google is also banned via the government’s internet firewall. Beijing this month also released draft rules for regulating AI-generated content, with a public comment period until May 10.
    Those restrictions haven’t stopped the Chinese press and social media in general from talking frequently about ChatGPT and AI tech. Some people tried to buy overseas ChatGPT accounts on Chinese e-commerce sites.

    Domestic companies rushed to release and test alternative products. Accumulating big data and machine learning experience are integral to the tech behind ChatGPT.
    So far, publicly available figures indicate similar AI products in China are not as widely available.

    Alibaba Cloud said Wednesday it received more than 200,000 requests from businesses to test the company’s version of ChatGPT-style tech, called Tongyi Qianwen. The product was announced on April 11.
    One of those business partners, Kunlun Tech, launched the “Tiangong” on April 17 which can interact with users in a question-and-answer format. The product is currently invite-only. Kunlun claims Tiangong is the only chatbot in China with training metrics at the level of ChatGPT.
    Similarly, it’s not clear how many people have gained access to Baidu’s Ernie bot.
    Just under a week after its launch on March 16, the chatbot had more than 1.2 million people on a waiting list. The company stopped disclosing numbers within a few days. No update was available Friday.

    Read more about China from CNBC Pro

    When CNBC tried to sign up for Ernie bot in March, the Baidu system required a mainland Chinese phone number and local ID in order to use the chatbot. More apps in China now require ID verification, or strongly encourage it.
    Baidu this week said that since Ernie bot’s launch, it had updated the product four times, and reduced costs for operating the AI model to one-tenth of what it was previously.
    The public version of Ernie bot allows users to generate English and Chinese text, images and audio.
    In the U.S., new AI-based products from Google and Microsoft also have waitlists. ChatGPT isn’t consistently usable due to server capacity. Some in the industry also expect such AI tools will be easier to commercialize for business products than for public tools such as search.

    Development challenges

    Regulatory uncertainty lingers while Beijing remains in a comment period for its generative AI draft rules. Authorities have not announced when a final version of the rules would take effect.
    Outside China, the U.S. and Europe have generally been lax on ChatGPT, except for Italy, which this month banned the chatbot until OpenAI addresses privacy issues.
    A bug had given ChatGPT users temporary access to other people’s conversations. OpenAI this week said it released incognito-like features that allow users to turn off chat history and opt out of having their data used for training its models.
    Another challenge for companies in China will be obtaining the most advanced chips for training AI models. The U.S. in October announced stringent export bans aimed at restricting China’s access to high-end semiconductors.
    A model at the level of OpenAI’s GPT-3 requires at least 1,000 Nvidia A100 graphics processing units, a kind of chip known as GPUs, to complete one 23-day round of training, HSBC analysts said in an April 20 report.
    More than 30 companies and institutes in China are training such AI models, indicating “robust demand for AI server and increased spending on networking infrastructure,” the report said.
    The analysts said they expect AI GPU demand in China to grow by more than 40% this year.
    Another estimate, based on checks with cloud providers, predicts that demand to at least double — contributing to a “significant shortage” of chips, according to a representative of a firm investing in AI models, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic.
    On regulation, the source said authorities are supportive of ChatGPT-style tech while planning to regulate it — companies anticipate they will need licenses to operate ChatGPT-like tech and are preparing for applications.
    — CNBC’s Michael Bloom and Ashley Capoot contributed to this report. More

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    Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: Amazon, Intel, Snap, Pinterest and more

    A robot prepares to pick up a tote containing product at the Amazon Robotics fulfillment center on April 12, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.
    Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

    Check out the companies making headlines after hours.
    Amazon – Amazon jumped 7% in extended trading after reporting a first-quarter revenue beat. The online retail giant posted revenue of $127.4 billion, greater than the $124.5 billion consensus estimate published by Refinitiv. 

    related investing news

    Intel – Intel shares were down 1.2% after initially rising in the wake of its first-quarter results. The semiconductor firm reported its largest-ever quarterly loss. However, it did beat analysts’ expectations on the top and bottom lines. The semiconductor firm posted a first-quarter loss of 4 cents per share ex-items on revenue of $11.7 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv forecasted a loss per share of 15 cents on revenue of $11.04 billion.
    Snap – The social media stock tumbled nearly 20% in extended trading Thursday after the firm’s first-quarter results. Snap reported first-quarter revenue of $989 million, lower than the estimated $1.01 billion, according to Refinitiv data. On the other hand, Snap earned 1 cent per share, excluding items, which was better than the forecasted per-share loss of 1 cent. 
    Pinterest – Pinterest shares dropped 8%. The image sharing firm surpassed expectations on the top and bottom lines in its first quarter, according to consensus estimates from Refinitiv. However, second-quarter revenue growth expectations were disappointing. The firm expects operating expenses to grow in the low teens. 
    Boston Beer – Boston Beer shares slid 3.2% in extended trading. The brewery behind Samuel Adams and Twisted Tea brands missed analysts’ expectations on the top and bottom lines, according to Refinitiv data. 
    First Solar – The solar stock shed more than 5% on disappointing first-quarter results. The firm reported earnings of 40 cents per share on $548 million in revenue. Analysts expected per-share earnings of $1.02 on revenue of $718 million, according to Refinitiv.

    T-Mobile US – T-Mobile US shares declined as much as 2.5% after first-quarter revenue for the telecommunications firm came in lower than expected, according to Refinitiv.
    Cloudfare – Cloudfare tumbled 23% in extended trading after posting weaker-than-expected first-quarter revenue and issuing a lackluster second-quarter and full-year forecast.
    L3Harris Technologies – L3Harris Technologies added more than 3% in extended trading after beating first-quarter earnings and revenue expectations. The defense contractor posted first-quarter earnings of $2.86 per share ex-items on revenue of $4.47 billion. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected per-share earnings of $2.85 on revenue of $4.25 billion.
    Amgen – Amgen declined 2.2% after disappointing first-quarter revenue expectations. The biotech firm reported $6.11 billion in revenue, lower than estimates of $6.17 billion from analysts polled by Refinitiv. Amgen did beat on earnings expectations.
    Fair Isaac – Shares fell 2% after Fair Isaac missed earnings estimates in its second quarter, though it did beat on revenue expectations. The data analytics firm behind the FICO score reported adjusted earnings of $4.78 per share, weaker than the consensus estimate of $5.04 per share, according to Refinitiv.
    Gilead Sciences – Shares of the biopharmaceutical company fell about 1% in extended trading after it reported disappointing earnings, but topped revenue expectations, according to Refinitiv data.
    Mondelez International – Mondelez International climbed 2% after posting first-quarter results that exceeded expectations on the top and bottom lines, according to consensus expectations from Refinitiv. More

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    Mobileye shares plunge after self-driving tech company cuts guidance amid Tesla’s EV price war

    Mobileye now expects lower revenue and a wider operating loss in 2023, in part because of Tesla’s EV price war in China.
    Several Chinese EV makers are key early customers for Mobileye’s newest and most advanced driver-assist system.
    But things should look up later in the year as Polestar and others begin shipping new cars with Mobileye’s tech, the CEO said.

    Mobileye signage during the company’s IPO at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022. Mobileye Global Inc., the self-driving technology company owned by Intel Corp., priced one of the biggest US initial public offerings of the year above its marketed range to raise $861 million.
    Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Shares of Mobileye, Intel’s self-driving subsidiary, were sharply lower on Thursday after the company cut its full-year forecast, citing weakness in China’s electric vehicle market.
    Shares ended the session down about 16% on the day.

    related investing news

    Mobileye provides chips, sensors and software for advanced driver-assist systems. CEO Amnon Shashua said on Thursday said that shipments of Mobileye’s most advanced system, called SuperVision, were likely to suffer amid “a number of headwinds” affecting EV sales in China.
    Mobileye now expects its 2023 revenue to come in between $2.065 billion and $2.114 billion, with an operating loss between $166 million and $195 million for the year. In January, the company guided to revenue between $2.192 billion and $2.282 billion and an operating loss between $110 million and $160 million.
    China’s EV market has been roiled by Tesla’s recent aggressive price cuts and a reduction in government incentives for EV buyers. Mobileye counts Chinese EV makers Nio and Zeekr, a unit of Chinese automaker Geely, among its customers.
    Nio CEO William Li told CNBC earlier this month that his company won’t cut its prices to follow Tesla.
    But Shashua said the disruption to Mobileye’s deliveries was likely to be temporary, as more automakers doing business outside of China – including Polestar – will begin shipping vehicles with the SuperVision system later this year.
    The cuts to guidance were announced as part of Mobileye’s first-quarter earnings report. Its revenue increased 16% from a year ago, to $458 million, while adjusted earnings per share of 14 cents fell from 16 cents in the year-ago period.

    Stock chart icon

    Shares of Mobileye sold off Thursday after the self-driving tech company cut guidance in response to Tesla’s EV price war. More

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    Paramount wants to get moviegoers back to theaters. Here’s what it has on deck

    Paramount Pictures’ president of domestic distribution spoke Thursday about focusing on the long-term health of the movie business.
    He called on the industry to explore new ticket pricing options as theater admissions decline and ticket prices continue to inflate.
    “We can’t create any friction that prevents audiences from coming to see our movies in your theaters,” Chris Aronson said at CinemaCon in Vegas.

    Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick”
    Source: Paramount

    Paramount Pictures is upping the theatrics.
    Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution for the studio, demonstrated as much Thursday, kicking off Paramount’s studio presentation at CinemaCon by rising through the stage through a sewer grate.

    Aronson, donning an orange eye mask a la Michelangelo from “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and carrying a pizza box, told an audience at Caesar’s Palace in Vegas that studios and exhibitors need to focus “on the long-term health of our business” rather than short-term gains.
    “We’ve got a lot of work to do to get us to where we need to be,” he said. “We can’t create any friction that prevents audiences from coming to see our movies in your theaters. Let’s listen to the consumer and give them the experience that they want and the one that they deserve.”
    Aronson poked fun at AMC’s in-theater marketing featuring Nicole Kidman, as well as the theater owner’s dynamic pricing model, which it launched in February, calling on the industry to explore new ticket pricing options as theater admissions decline and ticket prices continue to inflate.
    “Let’s work together to get it right,” Aronson said. “Pave the way for more moviegoers to come to see our movies. And, of course, we want to keep up our end of the bargain, which means delivering you unparalleled big screen entertainment.”
    Paramount is slated to report its quarterly earnings next week.

    Here’s the studio’s upcoming film slate:

    “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” — June 8, 2023
    “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning: Part One” — July 12, 2023
    “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” — Aug. 4, 2023
    “Paw Patrol: The Mighty Movie” — Sept. 29, 2023
    “Killers of the Flower Moon” — Oct. 6, 2023
    “Bob Marley: One Love” — Jan. 12, 2024
    “A Quiet Place: Day One” — March 8, 2024
    “If” — May 24, 2024
    “Transformers One” — July 19, 2024
    Untitled “Smurf” animated film — Feb. 14, 2025
    “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” — May 23, 2025
    Untitled “Avatar: The Last Airbender” — Oct. 10, 2025 More

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    Hasbro, Mattel shares rise as toymakers announce multiyear licensing agreement, increased IP focus

    Rival toymakers Hasbro and Mattel both released mixed earnings reports this week.
    After competing for licensing rights in the past, Hasbro and Mattel announced a multiyear licensing agreement on Monday.
    Both companies are gearing up for major movie launches tied to their intellectual property this summer.

    Game maker Hasbro
    Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

    Toymaker stocks rallied Thursday after rivals Hasbro and Mattel posted quarterly results and offered optimistic comments about how their intellectual property will boost their businesses.
    Hasbro shares spiked more than 13% Thursday after the toymaker reported first-quarter revenue that topped Wall Street’s expectations. The Monopoly board game maker posted net revenue of $1 billion, beating the $878.4 million expected based on an average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Refinitiv. Revenue declined 14% from $1.16 billion during the year-earlier period. 

    The toymaker posted a first-quarter net loss of $22.1 million, or 16 cents per share, compared to net earnings of $61.2 million, or 44 cents a share, last year.
    “First quarter results came in ahead of our expectations and position Hasbro to meet our full-year financial targets,” Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks said in a statement.
    Other toy stocks, including Hasbro competitor Mattel and pop culture consumer company Funko, also jumped on Thursday. Funko is preparing to report first-quarter earnings next week. The toymakers signaled this week they will increase their focus on leveraging the popularity of key brands to expand their reach.
    Barbie maker Mattel posted first-quarter results after markets closed on Wednesday that beat revenue expectations but fell short of expectations on the bottom line. Mattel continued to face higher costs and waning toy demand. 
    Overall, the toy industry has seen a slowdown since pandemic-era highs, when parents were eager to buy toys to keep newly homebound kids entertained. Along the way, inflation raised costs for toymakers like Mattel — and consumers largely deferred spending as toy prices spiked. 

    Amid the challenging toy and game market, both Hasbro and Mattel are eyeing a future increasingly focused on intellectual property. 
    On Monday, the rival companies entered a multiyear licensing agreement which will see the launch of co-branded toys and games using each company’s popular brands. 
    Hasbro will produce Barbie-branded Monopoly games starting in fall 2023, while Mattel will make Transformer-branded UNO games and Hot Wheels vehicles, slated for 2023 and 2024 releases, respectively.
    The two toymakers have competed for licensing rights in the past. In 2022, Mattel won the license to make toys based on Disney’s princess lineup, beating Hasbro in the process. Previously, Mattel had lost the license to Hasbro in 2016. 
    Outside of their collaboration, the two companies are both making strides to expand the reach of their own IP as they gear up for major movie launches this summer. Hasbro’s “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” from Paramount is slated for a June 9 release, while Mattel’s much-hyped “Barbie” movie from Warner Bros. is scheduled for a July 21 release.
    Last fall, Hasbro’s board authorized a sale process for part of its entertainment assets. Cocks told CNBC on Thursday the company is “pleased with the progress” so far, and said it will have an update in its second quarter. 
    “The global Hasbro team continues to execute our strategy to unlock the value of our rich IP library across our growth priorities including in gaming, direct-to-consumer and licensing,” Cocks said in a statement tied to Thursday’s earnings report. 
    In the first quarter, Hasbro’s entertainment segment revenue declined 19 percent year-over-year, falling to $185.4 million from $227.5 million last year.  
    Meanwhile, analysts are looking to see what boost — if any — Mattel will get from the Barbie movie, starring Hollywood heavyweights Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.
    Mattel also announced J.J. Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot, will produce a Hot Wheels movie in partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery. The company also has films in the works for its other brands, including Polly Pocket and Barney. 
    “As we continue to grow the toy side of the business, we’re also putting together a strategy and continuing to see growth in our IP and capturing value in our incredible franchises outside of the toy aisle,” Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz said in a 2022 CNBC interview. 
    In past investor calls, Mattel executives have noted that live action movies like Barbie are unlikely to trigger the same toy sales boost as animated films, meaning the film’s likely success might not ultimately pay off in doll revenue for the toymaker. 
    During the first quarter, gross billings for dolls, which represent amounts invoiced to customers, were $306 million. They fell year over year in part due to declines in Barbie sales; worldwide gross billings for Barbie plunged 41% in the first quarter. 
    In the first quarter of last year, gross billings for dolls were $396 million, which was primarily driven by growth in Barbie and Polly Pocket sales.
    Mattel has yet to reveal its complete plan for cashing in on the Barbie film’s hype. Previously, executives have said the company will announce a toy line tagged to the film that will appeal to kids as well as collectors.  More