Raphael Stevens

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

Stellantis executive Tim Kuniskis had retired from the automaker in May.
Kuniskis will once again lead the company’s Ram Trucks brand, according to two people familiar with the decision.
His return comes roughly a week after Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares unexpectedly resigned from the automaker following problems with its North American market.

Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis unveils the Charger Daytona SRT concept electric muscle car in Pontiac, Michigan, Aug. 17, 2022.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

DETROIT — Well-known Stellantis executive Tim Kuniskis is returning to the automaker effective immediately, CNBC has learned.
Kuniskis, who retired from the automaker in May, will once again lead the company’s Ram Trucks brand, according to two people familiar with the decision. The people, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the move, said the company’s leadership team alerted employees about the decision earlier Monday.

His return comes roughly a week after Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares unexpectedly resigned from the automaker following problems with its North American market.
“Today’s changes will enable us to operate in a structure that will drive the best outcomes for the region, unlock significant potential and win in the market. A main lever is for the Ram brand to have its CEO singularly focused on that brand,” the company said in an emailed statement confirming the appointment.
Kuniskis, who has overseen several of the carmaker’s brands in North America, had led the company’s Ram and Dodge brands before retiring.
Kuniskis is arguably best known for leading Dodge for most of the last decade or so. He is considered the “father” of Dodge’s high-performance Hellcat models and “the unofficial spokesman” for American muscle cars.
During his tenure, Dodge reestablished itself as a quintessential American muscle car brand. The brand did so with vehicles such as the more-than-700-horsepower Challenger and Charger Hellcat models and controversial Challenger Demon drag race cars. He also introduced the Hellcat-powered Ram TRX pickup truck.

Kuniskis’ return was announced in conjunction with several other changes for the automaker’s North American operations. Chris Feuell, who had been leading the Ram and Chrysler brands, will now oversee Chrysler and Alfa Romeo; Jeff Kommor will solely lead North American sales; and Larry Dominique, who was leading Alfa Romeo for North America, will depart.
Stellantis’ U.S. sales struggled under Tavares’ leadership, despite increases in the overall market. That includes a 17% year-over-year decline for the company through the third quarter, including a 24% sales decline for Ram. More