Raphael Stevens

Alaska Airlines plans to launch nonstop flights to Tokyo and Seoul from Seattle next year.
The carrier closed its acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines in September, which gave it access to wide-body airplanes.
Alaska will also launch a new “premium” credit card with Bank of America to chase high-spending customers.

Alaska Airlines planes.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images

Alaska Air Group expects to grow profits by $1 billion through 2027, and plans to ride the wave of high-end travel demand to get there.
Alaska closed its $1.9 billion acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines in September, less than a year after inking the deal that gives it access to routes across the Pacific and wide-body airplanes such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A330. The two brands are operating separately.

The airline will launch nonstop service between its home hub of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Tokyo’s Narita International Airport in May on Hawaiian’s Airbus A330-200s, and between Seattle and Seoul, South Korea’s, Incheon International Airport in October, Alaska said Tuesday. Tickets for the new Tokyo flights go on sale Tuesday, while fares for the latter route go on sale in early 2025.
By 2030, Alaska plans to serve at least a dozen international destinations from Seattle using wide-body planes, reshaping the carrier.
The carrier said Tuesday that it authorized a $1 billion share buyback.
Alaska also forecast pretax margins of between 11% and 13% in 2027 and per-share earnings topping $10. In October, the company estimated 2024 earnings of between $3.50 and $4.50 a share, including Hawaiian’s results. It raised its fourth-quarter earnings estimates to 40 cents to 50 cents a share, up from a previous outlook for 20 cents to 40 cents.
Alaska’s shares have gained nearly 40% so far this year, more than the S&P 500’s 27% gain. Shares in the airline were up about 10% in premarket trading after releasing its new plans for the carrier.

Stock chart icon

Alaska Air and S&P 500 performance

The carrier is also launching a new “premium” credit card with its partner Bank of America, the latest co-brand deal designed to bring in revenue from customers even when they are not flying.
Alaska is evaluating its premium seat offerings across the fleet. Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett told CNBC that the airline is looking to upgrade options specifically on Hawaiian’s Airbus A330s, with more customers willing to pay up for more space and comfort during travel.
“When you look at the past two or three years, most of the growth in revenues has been in those areas of demand and I think it’s probably going to continue,” Tackett said. “We have a really good base main cabin product … but more people are wanting the opportunity to get into premium economy or first class and we need to serve that demand.”

More seats than ever in first class and premium economy are being bought outright by customers rather than being filled with free upgrades, Tackett said.
Seattle’s rival Delta Air Lines, whose 24% domestic-passenger market share is second to Alaska’s 55% in Seattle, has also noted that shift in demand for its first-class seats. Delta has a bigger share of international passengers from the airport, however.
Alaska said it plans to offer a new lounge at San Diego International Airport. On Wednesday, Delta said it is opening its Delta One Lounge in Boston, its third after locations in New York and Los Angeles opened this year, dedicated to customers traveling in its highest-tier cabin.

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Meanwhile, Tackett told CNBC that he expects more shifts in Alaska’s deliveries from Boeing.
A door plug blew off one of Alaska’s nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9s in January after it left the manufacturer’s factory without key bolts in place. The near catastrophe and stepped-up quality checks have slowed Boeing’s output and deliveries to airline customers such as Alaska, United and Southwest.
“I think they’re making progress. It’s not going to happen in a week. It’s going to take time,” Tackett said about Boeing, whose new CEO Kelly Ortberg is tasked with stabilizing the plane maker. “We’re in a position where we need to be very focused on helping them understand that quality is the most important thing; it’s way more important to us than rate.”
Boeing is scheduled to release November aircraft orders and deliveries at 11 a.m. Tuesday, a tally that is expected to be affected by a nearly two-month machinist strike that halted production of most of Boeing’s aircraft. More

Former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares was fixated on near-term costs and profits to the detriment of the business and the company’s products, several former or current leaders and other U.S. employees told CNBC.
Stellantis, the fourth-largest automaker in the world, mismanaged its U.S. operations, the people said.
Whoever succeeds Tavares will need to reconcile relationships with suppliers, hourly and salaried U.S. employees, dealers and politicians.

Carlos Tavares, Chief Executive Officer of Stellantis, attends the Paris Automotive Summit during the 2024 Paris Auto Show in Paris, France, October 15, 2024. 
Benoit Tessier | Reuters

DETROIT — “Arrogant.” It’s the word former Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares used in June to describe mistakes that led to the automaker’s troubles in the U.S. It’s also how executives who worked with him described the automotive veteran to CNBC over the past year.
Several former or current leaders, as well as other U.S. employees with the trans-Atlantic automaker, said Tavares’ relentless focus on cost-cutting, his goal of achieving double-digit profit margins under his “Dare Forward 2030” business plan, and a reluctance, if not unwillingness, to listen to U.S. executives about the American market led to the company’s current situation and, ultimately, Tavares’ departure last week.

The sources, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity in order to talk freely and avoid repercussions, were interviewed at various times throughout 2024, including several last week.
They described the Portuguese-born executive as being fixated on near-term cost reductions and profits to the detriment of the business as well as to the company’s products, employees and relationships with suppliers, unions and dealers.
The problems included a lack of support for new products and sales, squeezing supplier costs, and mismanagement of plants and products in North America, the sources said.
“If you think you know everything, you’re not going to listen to anybody else,” one source told CNBC, saying the pressure to cut costs felt like having a pistol “to your head.”
Another source said Tavares had a tendency to cast blame on U.S. executives while ignoring any of his own mistakes: “If you don’t know the market, you don’t know the customers, you can’t make the right decisions,” the person said.

Investors also had turned on the chief executive, with U.S.-traded shares of Stellantis off 43% in 2024 prior to his departure. That compares with General Motors, up 55%, and Ford Motor, off 9%, during that time frame.
Such issues ultimately led to Tavares’ resignation, with the company saying Dec. 1 that he was leaving immediately because of “different views” with Stellantis’ board. French financial newspaper Les Echos reported that Tavares’ departure was a negotiated resignation that came after the company’s board decided to terminate the executive.
The board’s actions surprised many inside and outside Stellantis, which Tavares had led since spearheading a merger in January 2021 between his French automaker, PSA Groupe, and Fiat Chrysler. Stellantis is the fourth-largest automaker in the world and owns brands such as Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, Chrysler and Peugeot.

The New York Stock Exchange welcomes Stellantis N.V. (NYSE: STLA), in celebration of its listing on the NYSE following the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. and Peugeot S.A. To honor the occasion, John Elkann, Chairman, and Carlos Tavares, Chief Executive Officer, virtually ring The Opening Bell, Jan. 19, 2021.

Tavares’ departure came less than two months after the board backed him to stay through the remainder of his contract in early 2026. He also was expected to assist with the selection and transition of his successor during that time.
Stellantis said it’s now expecting to name a successor during the first half of next year. Until then, the company has established a new interim executive committee led by Chairman John Elkann, scion of Italian automaker Fiat.
Tavares, 66, was publicly viewed as a business mastermind who could ruffle a few feathers along the way but got things done in the end, as he did with drastic turnarounds of PSA Groupe and General Motors’ former Opel European operations.
A prodigy of former Nissan executive Carlos Ghosn, he was an avid proponent of cost-cutting, mergers and synergies — a trait he also shared with late Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne. Such traits made many believe he was one of the few executives capable of running such an automaker, but they also contributed to his downfall.  
“CEOs in this industry are celebrated like Formula 1 drivers when things go right, but a single misstep can lead to a spectacular spinout,” Bernstein analysts, led by Daniel Roeska, wrote in a Friday investor note about auto company CEO exits. “Just like a F1 race, transformational leadership requires not only vision but also consensus-building among the team, a robust understanding of what the organization (or car 😉 is capable of, and careful timing!”

Wrong turns

Carlos Tavares unveils the B10, at porte de Versailles, in Paris, Oct. 14, 2024.
Magali Cohen | AFP | Getty Images

For Tavares, an avid racer who liked to spend up to one week a month at his ranch in Portugal, there were several wrong turns.
Some sources said his perceived arrogance toward some U.S. hourly and salaried employees peaked this summer when Tavares — who lives in Europe and was compensated nearly $40 million last year in salary, stock and other benefits — publicly announced that he would spend time in North America for a few days to fix problems during his summer break. Such a break is a regular occurrence in Europe but not in the U.S., where sources said it rubbed some employees who don’t get a monthlong vacation the wrong way.
Meanwhile, U.S. leaders, due to the time difference, dealt with regular hourslong meetings in the middle of the night — before having to work their full U.S. day — as well as a smug sense of intellectual supremacy from Tavares and a dismissal of opinions, specifically regarding product planning, the sources said.
“When Tavares started, he said the center of the company is somewhere in the Atlantic … but it became very clear to us that the center of the company was in France,” said a former Stellantis executive.
Several sources said executives tried multiple times to deprioritize the company’s emphasis on electric vehicles or, at the very least, launch gas-powered models before EV models to maintain sales, but Tavares was dismissive of such actions.
Sources said Tavares’ cost-cutting measures also included simplifying vehicles such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee while increasing its pricing above market norms; outsourcing critical engineering work to lower-cost countries and consultants such as France-based Capgemini; and micromanaging budgets and decisions to a point where U.S. leaders felt they had their hands tied behind their backs. A notable one included killing the automaker’s popular V-8 Hemi engines.
“Everybody wanted to keep [Hemi],” said one source. “But it was, ‘You need to be greener'” and there was little to nothing they could do to change the decision.

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Stellantis stock since Jan. 19, 2021

Those issues came even as executives said they were dealing with previously reported problems with delays in new products, cutting low-margin vehicles such as the gas-powered Jeep Cherokee and Dodge Charger and Challenger without any replacements ready, and waging battles over costs with suppliers, dealers and the United Auto Workers union, among other “arrogant” mistakes in the U.S.
“Those are areas where, I think, clearly, you know, we need to build back trust,” Stellantis Chief Financial Officer Doug Ostermann said during a UBS conference Wednesday. “I think there’s a strong desire among the management team today to really work on that. And it will take time.”
Ostermann said such problems with key stakeholders, as well as some disagreements on what Stellantis’ priorities should be during the next 15 to 16 months, were the main drivers for Tavares’ departure.
Stellantis is currently in litigation with the UAW following the union planning strike actions against the company, as well as with at least five notable suppliers, largely due to disputes over pricing and costs.
In Europe, much like the U.S., the budget cuts were excessive. For example, the Financial Times reported guests invited to a factory in the UK this year were served with drinks from a coffee machine that had been transported more than 100 miles from another plant because staff there were not allowed to buy one.

Mismanagement of U.S. operations

A 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee L goes through the Framer 1 section of the assembly line at the Stellantis Detroit Assembly Complex-Mack on June 10, 2021 in Detroit, Michigan.
Bill Pugliano | Getty Images

The mismanagement of U.S. operations led to Stellantis having bloated new vehicle inventories compared with its peers, slashing plant production, undergoing significant head-count reductions and pricing many of its traditional consumers out of the market for its crucial Ram, Jeep and Dodge brands.
“We were arrogant. No excuse,” Tavares said during a June investor event, citing problems with some U.S. plants and his own lack of action to alter business plans amid changing market conditions.
Three executives or top-line managers said Tavares many times dismissed any input that didn’t meet goals in his “Dare Forward 2030” plan, which included doubling net revenues and sustaining double-digit adjusted operating income, or AOI, margins through this decade, led by EVs.
Stellantis’ Ostermann said the company’s board and Tavares didn’t necessarily disagree over long-term plans, but he declined to reconfirm the company’s plans for double-digit AOI. “Whether or not the environment going forward, if double digit is the right number or not, we’ll have to see,” Ostermann said Wednesday.
Tavares also put a level of bureaucracy and budgeting over brand CEOs who had previously had more free range and trust from Fiat Chrysler’s Marchionne to do their jobs, the sources told CNBC.
Such issues led to an exodus of executives, such as Tim Kuniskis, a prior Swiss Army knife for the automaker, who this week returned to the company; global Jeep head Christian Meunier; longtime Jeep North America executive Jim Morrison; and newer leaders, such as Mamatha Chamarthi, who headed the automaker’s software business development, and Chief Financial Officer Natalie Knight. Stellantis North America head Mark Stewart left the company in January to become CEO of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.
Other executives, such as Chief Technology Officer Ned Curic, who remains with the automaker and was named last week to its interim executive committee, in June told CNBC that Tavares’ cost cuts were difficult but effective.
But others in the company weren’t so sure, describing the cuts around that time as grueling to the point of excessiveness and leading to the problems in the U.S.

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Tavares, when asked in July about the cuts being responsible for the company’s U.S. problems, said that was categorically false.
“The narrative about the budget cuts is wrong. …  What is requested to the local team is profit, share and customer satisfaction,” Tavares said in July. “When you don’t deliver for any reason … you may want to use a scapegoat. The budget cut is an easy one. It’s wrong.”
Competitors, consciously or not, also tried to distance themselves from what Stellantis was doing.
GM President Mark Reuss, when discussing the automaker’s own cuts in October, noted that companies aren’t able to cut to growth.
“It’s been said time and again you can’t cut your way to growth. No way,” he said during GM’s investor day in October. “You have to make things that people want, that people must have. We are doing both and we are set up for success over the long haul.”

Damage control

A Stellantis sign is seen outside its headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, U.S., June 10, 2021.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters

Whoever succeeds Tavares will need to continue to reconcile relationships with suppliers, hourly and salaried U.S. employees, dealers and politicians.
Stellantis has reduced employee head count by 14%, or roughly 40,600 employees, between 2020 and the end of 2023, including roughly 15% reductions in the enlarged Europe North America region, according to public filings. That doesn’t include further head-count reductions and layoffs in 2024.
UAW President Shawn Fain, who has been calling for Tavares’ firing for months, applauded the chief executive’s departure, calling it “a major step in the right direction for a company that has been mismanaged and a workforce that has been mistreated for too long.”
U.S. dealers also had been frustrated, but were growing more optimistic given recent changes even before Tavares’ departure.
The head of Stellantis’ U.S. dealer council, Kevin Farrish, commended the company for its recent efforts to support dealers, specifically newly appointed North American Chief Operating Officer Antonio Filosa.
Filosa and Elkann, Stellantis’ chair, were part of a meeting Monday with the Stellantis U.S. dealership council, Farrish confirmed.
“Antonio’s hitting the ground running,” Farrish, who slammed Tavares in September, told CNBC on Friday. “We have a great deal of confidence in Antonio, and we look forward to working with him. … It’s very optimistic to see this much action happening.”

Stellantis Chairman John Elkann speaks during the presentation of the new Fiat Panda as Fiat celebrates the 125th anniversary of its brand in Turin, Italy, July 11, 2024.
Massimo Pinca | Reuters

Meanwhile, damage control surrounding Tavares’ departure was swift, especially in the U.S. and Italy — major markets for the company’s operations and previous headquarters of the former Chrysler and Fiat automakers.
Bloomberg News reported that Elkann alerted Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni prior to Tavares’ resignation. The move came after Stellantis had made significant head-count reductions and production cuts in the country.
Elkann last week also took part in a global tour of Stellantis’ sites in the U.S., Italy and France. A source who attended a leadership meeting last week at the automaker’s sprawling North American headquarters in suburban Detroit said Elkann focused on finishing 2024 and optimism that 2025 would be a better year for the company.
Stellantis did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the visits, including whether the company intends to review Tavares’ past decisions, such as closing and selling the company’s Arizona Proving Grounds.
The source who attended the U.S. town hall said Elkann made no indication of revisiting any decisions. However, they confirmed the company has ended a surgical cost-cutting program internally named “Darwin” — a nod to Tavares saying the auto industry was in a Darwinian period, in which only the strongest survive.
“Darwin is dead because we intend to survive,” Elkann said, according to the source. More

Oreo maker Mondelez made a preliminary takeover approach to Hershey, according to people familiar with the matter.
In 2016, Hershey’s board rejected the snacking company’s $23 billion offer.
Concerns about GLP-1 drugs and soaring cocoa prices have hurt Hershey’s shares this year.

The logo of Hershey’s in Manhattan on Sept. 16, 2023.
Michael Kappeler | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Cookie and snack giant Mondelez has made a preliminary takeover approach for Hershey, according to people familiar with the matter, a combination that would create one of the largest food and beverage businesses in the world.
Shares of the legacy chocolate maker shot up more than 10% on the news. Mondelez made a previous takeover bid for Hershey in 2016, which the company rebuffed.

Hershey hired advisors to help it respond to the interest, said one of the people. Mondelez made the approach shortly after Hershey reported third-quarter earnings that missed analyst expectations last month, said the person.
Hershey declined to comment on “market rumors and speculation.” Mondelez and the Hershey Trust, which controls roughly 80% of the chocolate maker’s voting stock, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Bloomberg first reported Mondelez’s approach.
Hershey’s stock has risen more than 4% this year, raising its market cap to $39.19 billion. Prior to Monday’s move, shares had fallen 6% this year, hurt by concerns about the growing usage of GLP-1 drugs and soaring cocoa prices.
Share of Mondelez fell more than 2% on Monday. The company’s stock has dropped 15% this year, dragging its market cap down to $82.16 billion.
Hershey shares are on pace for their best day since June 30, 2016, when the stock climbed more than 16% after the company publicly disclosed a $23 billion bid from Mondelez, which owns Oreo, Cadbury and Honey Maid. Hershey’s board unanimously rejected the offer, and Mondelez announced in August of that year that it was giving up on its pursuit of a deal.

Since its founding in 1894 by Milton Hershey, the company has remained independent, despite takeover attempts and even a strategic review in 2007 by its board.
Hershey’s dual-class structure gives holders of its Class B common stock, largely held by the Hershey Trust, 10 votes for every share. As a result, the Hershey Trust has “substantial control” over the company’s future, according to a research note from J.P. Morgan analyst Ken Goldman published Wednesday.
Pennsylvania law also gives the state’s attorney general the power to intercede on any deal that takes power away from the trust.
That is what happened in 2002, after the Hershey Trust announced it planned to sell its controlling interest in the company to Wrigley. Following criticism from the public, the attorney general stepped in to block the sale through the Dauphin County Orphans’ Court, which resolves legal issues related to charitable trusts, and 10 of the trust’s 17 board members departed.
Consumer packaged goods companies have been looking to deals to grow their sales after years of price hikes have put pressure on demand for their existing brands. For example, M&M’s owner Mars bought Pringles maker Kellanova this summer for $36 billion.

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Comcast is expecting to lose more than 100,000 broadband customers during the fourth quarter, mirroring the first half of the year, Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson said during a conference Monday.
The CEO called the broadband environment “competitively intense,” especially for more price-conscious customers.
Comcast shares fell nearly 10% Monday morning following the remarks.

View from behind a Comcast truck parked on a residential street in Lafayette, California, on Sept. 28, 2021.
Smith Collection/gado | Archive Photos | Getty Images

Comcast Cable CEO Dave Watson told investors on Monday that the company expects to lose more than 100,000 broadband subscribers during the fourth quarter as the market remains “competitively intense.”
Comcast shares dropped nearly 10% following Watson’s remarks at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference on Monday.

Cable broadband growth has been in the middle of an ongoing slump. While executives have also pinned the drop on the slowdown in the buying and selling of homes — noting that there are fewer people signing up for cable when they get a new house — the ramped-up competition from wireless providers such as Verizon and T-Mobile has played a big role, too.
“Our competition remains competitively intense. That has not changed; it has been pretty consistent throughout the year,” particularly among “price conscious” consumers, Watson said Monday.
Watson noted that the fourth quarter is likely to reflect the first half of the year, when the company lost “just under 100,000” customers per quarter.
Despite the continued cable trends, Watson added that Comcast’s broadband business has remained stable when it comes to its higher-end internet packages.
His warning comes after Comcast saw a relatively improved third quarter when it comes to losses.

The company said in October that domestic broadband net losses totaled 87,000 during the third quarter. However, excluding the losses that stemmed from the end of the government’s Affordable Connectivity Program, which had offered a discount for qualifying low-income households, the company estimated there was a growth of 9,000 customers.
Comcast had nearly 32 million domestic broadband customers as of Sept. 30.
Watson on Monday attributed the third-quarter improvement to seasonality. The return to school often means improved broadband numbers. He also noted that NBCUniversal’s marketing of the Summer Olympics helped, too.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC. NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

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Watch Cities of Success: Denver/Boulder
Watch Cities of Success: Nashville

Utah’s video game industry has surged over 230% in a decade, bringing in more than $2.3 billion in revenue last year.
The University of Utah’s top-ranked video game program supplies industry-ready graduates, supporting local growth and innovation.
University of Utah graduates helped create top-grossing games such as “Hogwarts Legacy” and “Fortnite,” strengthening Utah’s reputation as a gaming hub through strong ties with local studios.

Rice–Eccles Stadium, an outdoor college football venue at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, stands against a stunning mountain backdrop.
University of Utah

This article is part of CNBC’s Cities of Success series, which explores cities that have transformed into business hubs with an entrepreneurial spirit and attracted capital, companies and employees.
The video game industry in Utah has become a powerhouse, growing more than 230% in the last decade and bringing in more than $2.3 billion in revenue last year.

And it’s not stopping: The market is expected to reach an impressive $4.5 billion in economic contribution within five years, according to market research firm IBISWorld.
One of the key drivers behind the growth is the University of Utah’s cutting-edge video game program.
Inside a classroom in Salt Lake City, students here are immersed in studying video games — not just playing them, but also creating them, fueling an industry that has deep roots at the campus.

Those were the kind of people I wanted on my team.

Donald Mustard
Former Epic Games chief creative officer, ‘Fortnite’ co-creator

The university boasts a legacy that includes industry luminaries Doug Bowser, president of Nintendo of America, and Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and creator of the iconic game “Pong.”
Alumni of the school have gone on to create games generating more than $2 billion in lifetime revenue, according to the university.

“There were just a whole host of people who came here to go to school and then graduated and were pivotal in the games industry,” Michael Young, chair of the University of Utah’s division of games, said in an interview for CNBC’s “Cities of Success: Salt Lake City,” which premieres Dec. 10 at 10 p.m. ET.

Leveling up

Name
Achievement

Doug Bowser
President of Nintendo of America

Nolan Bushnell
Founder of Atari, Creator of “Pong”

John Blackburn
Vice President and Studio Head at WB’s Avalanche Studios, Lead on “Hogwarts Legacy”

Ed Catmull
Co-founder of Pixar, Former President of Walt Disney Animation Studios

Richard Evans
Pioneer in AI for Video Games, Known for “The Sims”

Before it became a formalized program, the University of Utah’s gaming initiative began modestly within the computer science department, according to Young.
It wasn’t until 2008, when a group of students proposed a dedicated gaming area of study, that it gained traction.
By 2010, the entertainment arts and engineering program, known around campus as EAE, was established with a structured curriculum with a dedicated focus on gaming and interactive entertainment.
In 2017, the EAE program launched a bachelor’s degree in gaming, marking a significant step in its development. By 2021, it had become the university’s 10th-largest major, attracting around 1,200 undergraduates each year.
“The demand has just skyrocketed,” Young said.
In the Princeton Review’s 2024 rankings for top game design schools, the University of Utah rose to No. 4 for both undergraduate and graduate programs, up from No. 7 and No. 6, respectively, in 2023.
Today, the program attracts a global student body, with 72% of its graduate students coming from outside Utah.
The university has committed $25 million to support further expansion of the program.

Top-grossing games

John Blackburn, vice president and studio head at Avalanche Software, a division of WB Games, Inc., and a University of Utah alumnus, credits the success of 2023’s bestselling game, “Hogwarts Legacy,” to a talented team in Salt Lake City that includes many graduates of the university.
The game surpassed $1 billion in revenue last year.

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

“There are probably at least 30 people here directly from that program,” Blackburn said.
According to Blackburn, the University of Utah’s contributions to the gaming industry extend back to pioneering work in 3-D graphics, including the creation of the first 3-D graphics image and the development of early flight simulators by companies such as Evans & Sutherland.
“That has really bled into the local games scene,” said Blackburn. “And so people leave those companies and then make game companies.”
Blackburn cofounded Avalanche Software in 1995, initially gaining recognition for its development of “Mortal Kombat” for the Super Nintendo and Genesis and later developing a reputation with titles such as “Cars” and “Toy Story 3” during its collaboration with Disney.
In 2017, Epic Games, headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, launched “Fortnite” — one of the world’s most popular games, with more than 500 million registered users.
Teams from around the world contributed to its creation, including some in Salt Lake City, where Donald Mustard, former chief creative officer at Epic and the game’s co-creator, was based.
“The University of Utah and [Brigham Young University], as well as some of the other schools in Utah, have done a really good job building relationships with the developers that are in the area,” Mustard said.
He also highlighted Utah’s unique approach to education: “While some of these students are in school, they have to make their own video game. That’s a very unique skill set that not a lot of people have.”
“Those were the kind of people I wanted on my team,” Mustard said. More

Buildings that are at least 30 years old, as was the Champlain tower that fell, have to undergo special inspections, make repairs and gather reserve funds for future maintenance. The deadline is at the end of this month.
For some associations, the costs are in the millions of dollars, and condo owners, many of whom are retirees on fixed incomes, are on the hook.
Some owners are hoping to sell their units rather than comply, others are walking away, and still others are looking to investors to bail them out.

After the deadly collapse of a 12-story condominium tower in the Surfside suburb of Miami, Florida, in 2021, state lawmakers implemented new requirements for older condominiums. Buildings that are at least 30 years old, as was the Champlain tower that fell, have to undergo special inspections, make repairs and gather reserve funds for future maintenance. The deadline is at the end of this month.
With inspections now underway, the bills are coming due. For some associations, the costs are in the millions of dollars, and condo owners, many of whom are retirees on fixed incomes, are on the hook.

Roughly 1 million units are subject to the new capital-intensive rules. Some owners are hoping to sell their units rather than comply, others are walking away, and still others are looking to investors to bail them out.
Longtime analyst Peter Zalewski, founder of Miami-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures, calls it the condo cliff.
“I would compare it to what we saw in during the Great Recession, which is effectively zombie buildings. These are the units where a small minority are going to have to basically bear the cross or pay for everyone else who’s not able to pay, whether they can’t or they choose not to pay,” said Zalewski.
According to Zalewski’s count, in South Florida, including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, three-quarters of all the condo units for sale are more than 30 years old and subject to the new rules. In the usually busy summer season, sales were down 21.5% year over year and the average price was down 2.4%. In the third quarter of this year, active listings were up 60% from the same period the year before.

Search and Rescue teams look for possible survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on June 29, 2021 in Surfside, Florida.
Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images

Special assessments, levied to undertake the repairs, have been as high as $200,000 per unit owner, and repair bills have come in for as much as $15 million, according to a recent report from the Palm Beach Post.

“What’s going on right now is these reports are coming in, maintenance fee budgets are being put together, and many boards do not want to acknowledge how much it’s going to be,” Zalewski said. “All the bills will be sent, and people will receive their little booklets where it says how much you have to pay every month. They’ll get them in January. So right now it’s kind of the calm before the storm.”
In September, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a special session to deal with this condo association financial cliff. Legislative leaders, however, decided to wait until the regular session begins in early 2025 to consider making any changes to the law, saying they need to get a better idea of the financials involved, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Stefania Ancona, a real estate agent in Miami, says the pool of buyers now is extremely limited, so sellers have to either pay the new assessments first or slash their prices. But there is another exit: investors.
One such building — the Bay Garden Manor condo building on West Avenue in Miami — is set to be sold to a large investor and torn down to make way for luxury waterfront property, Ancona said.
“I think it’s safe to say that foreclosures or short sales may happen. I don’t know yet. I haven’t seen many yet, because, again, the investors are buying out the buildings that they feel are in a desirable location,” she said.
Condo prices were down about 2% in the summer season, and Zalewski said that’s just the beginning. 
“It was only in September that the area started to get bombarded with information about the pitfalls,” said Zalewski. “Uninformed buyers saw cheaper prices [in the summer] and figured they better buy now so that they could own a piece of South Florida. There is a lot of buyer regret right now.” More