Raphael Stevens

“Rick and Morty” co-creator and star Justin Roiland is facing felony charges of domestic violence, stemming from an alleged 2020 incident.
Hulu said Wednesday he would no longer work on the shows “Solar Opposites” and “Koala Man.”
Adult Swim, which airs “Rick and Morty,” earlier cut ties with Roiland.

Justin Roiland visits the #IMDboat at San Diego Comic-Con 2022.
Michael Kovac | Getty Images

Entertainment companies are cutting ties with “Rick and Morty” co-creator and star Justin Roiland following revelations that he faces felony charges of domestic violence.
Hulu said Wednesday it will no longer work with Roiland, according to NBC News. He had an overall deal with the streamer and produced its animated series “Solar Opposites” and “Koala Man.”

Roiland was the co-creator and one of the leads of “Solar Opposites” as well as executive producer and voice actor for “Koala Man,” which premiered earlier this year. Both shows are expected to continue without him and will recast his roles.
Hulu’s announcement came soon after Adult Swim, which is owned by Cartoon Network, also cut ties with Roiland in connection to the charges. Roiland helped create the cable channel’s popular animated series “Rick and Morty,” which premiered in 2013. Roiland voiced both Rick and Morty.
The show will continue without his involvement. Roiland’s voice roles will be recast, as well, said Marie Moore, the senior vice president of communications at Warner Bros. Discovery, according to NBC News.
Roiland pleaded not guilty in 2020 to one felony count of domestic battery with corporal injury and one felony count of false imprisonment by menace, violence, fraud and/or deceit in Orange County, California. The charges stem from an alleged incident involving an woman Roiland was dating at the time.
Roiland is also out at Squanch Games, the video game company he co-founded in 2016. The company said in a statement it received Roiland’s resignation last week.

CNBC reached out to Roiland’s attorney, T. Edward Welbourn, on Wednesday afternoon. “We look forward to clearing Justin’s name and helping him move forward as swiftly as possible,” Welbourn previously wrote in a statement.
Roiland is due to return to court for another hearing April 27.

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The Biden administration on Wednesday announced it’s reinstating restrictions on logging and road-building on about nine million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest.
The rule, which was finalized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, repeals a Trump administration decision that stripped safeguards for the southeastern Alaska rainforest.
The agency’s plan prohibits road construction, reconstruction and timber harvest in the rainforest’s roadless areas.

Part of Tongass National Forest
Urbanglimpses | Istock | Getty Images

The Biden administration on Wednesday announced it’s reinstating restrictions on logging and road-building on about nine million acres of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the world’s largest intact temperate rainforest.
The rule, which was finalized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, repeals a Trump administration decision that stripped safeguards for the forest in southeastern Alaska. The agency’s plan prohibits road construction, reconstruction and timber harvest in the rainforest’s roadless areas.

The Tongass is a pristine area of 16.7 million acres that serves as a major carbon sink and provides habitat for wildlife such as salmon and trout, brown bears and bald eagles. The rainforest is also considered critical for carbon sequestration and storage to help mitigate climate change. The country’s forests absorb carbon dioxide equivalent to more than 10% of U.S. annual greenhouse gas emissions, according to the USDA.
“As our nation’s largest national forest and the largest intact temperate rainforest in the world, the Tongass National Forest is key to conserving biodiversity and addressing the climate crisis,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement.

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“Restoring roadless protections listens to the voices of Tribal Nations and the people of Southeast Alaska while recognizing the importance of fishing and tourism to the region’s economy,” Vilsack added.
The dispute over protections of the Tongass has lasted for more than a couple decades. Alaska officials have argued that restrictions on the rainforest’s roadless areas have limited economic opportunities for the state.
Alaska’s Republican governor Mike Dunleavy, in a statement on social media, called the Biden administration’s ruling a “huge loss” for residents.

“Alaskans deserve access to the resources that the Tongass provides — jobs, renewable energy resources and tourism, not a government plan that treats human beings within a working forest like an invasive species,” Dunleavy wrote.
Environmental groups praised the rule as a win for the forest, its wildlife and the local communities that depend on its intact ecosystems.
“This decision puts public lands and people first, and we are grateful for the action,” Andy Moderow, state director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said in a statement.

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Levi Strauss earnings beat Wall Street’s estimates, and the company offered an upbeat sales outlook.
The company also saw a 2% drop in direct to consumer sales after at least a year of growth.
The company plans to open around 100 stores across Europe after shuttering nearly every shop in Russia amid its war with Ukraine.

A pair of Levi’s selvedge denim jeans arranged in Louisville, Kentucky.
Luke Sharrett | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Levi Strauss on Wednesday posted earnings and revenue that topped Wall Street’s expectations.
Shares of the company rose in after-hours trading as the company also offered upbeat sales guidance for its new fiscal year.

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Here’s how Levi did in its fiscal fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: 34 cents, adjusted, vs. 29 cents expected
Revenue: $1.59 billion vs. $1.57 billion expected

The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Nov. 27 was $151 million, or 38 cents per share, compared with $153 million, or 37 cents per share a year earlier. 
Sales were $1.59 billion, down 6% from a year earlier.
Levi has been grappling with a slowdown in discretionary spending and a reduced demand for denim, leading some analysts to downgrade the stock.
The denim brand saw a drop in direct to consumer revenue, which the company blamed on store closures in Russia.

Direct to consumer sales declined 2% after Levi closed nearly all of its shops in Russia, a major market for the denim retailer, Levi CEO and President Chip Bergh told CNBC. Still, Levi’s direct channels saw a strong Christmas season and sales increased 10% in November and December compared to the prior year, the company said.
Digital sales were also down 7% year-over-year, which the company attributed to a return to stores and a cooldown on online shopping. The retailer has hired a new chief digital officer to improve the online shopping experience and boost sales. The new chief previously oversaw digital operations for Nordstrom.com and NordstromRack.com.
Europe will remain a strong focus for Levi in the coming fiscal quarter, Bergh said. The retailer plans to open about 100 new stores across Europe, between 70 and 80 on a net basis.
For fiscal 2023, the blue jeans mainstay expects revenues between $6.3 billion and $6.4 billion, translating to growth of 1.5% to 3% year-over-year, as long as inflation and pandemic-related headwinds don’t get any worse. The company expects adjusted earnings per share of $1.30 to $1.40. Wall Street is estimating $6.27 billion in sales and $1.35 earnings per share.
Levi’s chief financial officer, Harmit Singh, will also be the company’s chief growth officer, effective immediately, Bergh announced in a news release. He’ll be focusing on expanding the company’s growth into direct-to-consumer, women’s apparel and its other brands, Beyond Yoga and Dockers, among other initiatives.
Find the full earnings release from Levi here.

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New York Attorney General Letitia James pressed Madison Square Garden Entertainment about its reported use of facial recognition technology.
MSG Entertainment has reportedly identified and denied entry to multiple lawyers affiliated with firms involved in ongoing litigation relating to the company.
Madison Square Garden is home of the NBA team the New York Knicks and the NHL team the New York Rangers.

State Attorney General Letitia James speaks during Martin Luther King Jr. Day at National Action Network House of Justice Headquarters.
Lev Radin | Lightrocket | Getty Images

New York Attorney General Letitia James wants to hear from Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corporation about the company’s reported use of facial recognition technology at its venues.
MSG Entertainment has reportedly used the technology to identify and deny entry to multiple lawyers affiliated with law firms involved in ongoing litigation relating to the company, including those with season tickets. According to a letter she sent the company Tuesday, approximately 90 law firms were impacted by this policy.

The prevention of lawyers from accessing MSG Entertainment’s venues due to ongoing litigation could violate local, state and federal human rights laws, James wrote.
MSG Entertainment owns and operates venues across New York including Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden and the Hulu Theater.
“MSG Entertainment cannot fight their legal battles in their own arenas,” James said Wednesday in a release announcing her letter.
“Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall are world-renowned venues and should treat all patrons who purchased tickets with fairness and respect,” she said. “Anyone with a ticket to an event should not be concerned that they may be wrongfully denied entry based on their appearance, and we’re urging MSG Entertainment to reverse this policy.”
Madison Square Garden Entertainment responded to the letter later Wednesday.

“To be clear, our policy does not unlawfully prohibit anyone from entering our venues and it is not our intent to dissuade attorneys from representing plaintiffs in litigation against us. We are merely excluding a small percentage of lawyers only during active litigation,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “Most importantly, to even suggest anyone is being excluded based on the protected classes identified in state and federal civil rights laws is ludicrous. Our policy has never applied to attorneys representing plaintiffs who allege sexual harassment or employment discrimination.”
James in the letter also wrote that facial recognition software used by MSG Entertainment may not be fully reliable and could result in instances of discrimination and bias, particularly against people of color and women.
The company has said in the past it’s been compliant with applicable laws, including those involving discrimination.
Late last year, Kelly Conlon and her daughter were denied entry to Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular show after she was identified by facial recognition software. Conlon is an associate with law firm Davis, Saperstein and Solomon, which has been involved for years in personal injury litigation against a restaurant venue under MSG Entertainment.
“MSG instituted a straightforward policy that precludes attorneys pursuing active litigation against the Company from attending events at our venues until that litigation has been resolved,” a spokesperson for MSG Entertainment said at the time. “While we understand this policy is disappointing to some, we cannot ignore the fact that litigation creates an inherently adverse environment.”

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AT&T reported fourth-quarter subscriber growth that exceeded Wall Street’s estimates.
CEO John Stankey rejected the idea that the phone service industry is in a pricing war.
Verizon also reported fourth-quarter earnings this week that matched analyst’s expectations.

A pedestrian walks in front of an AT&T location in New York.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

AT&T shares jumped on Wednesday after the carrier reported fourth-quarter subscriber growth that exceeded Wall Street’s estimates, shrugging off its rivals’ lower pricing strategies.
The U.S. phone service provider added 217 million total subscribers across all of its divisions for the fourth quarter, beating StreetAccount estimates of 215 million. New phone subscribers specifically, however, missed analyst expectations, coming in at 656,000 net adds, versus an estimate of 678,400, according to StreetAccount.

Shares of AT&T closed 6% higher Wednesday, trading at $20 per share.
The company has continued to discount the idea that the phone carrier industry is in a pricing war.
“I don’t submit to the view that there’s a race to the bottom going on. I actually think the industry is doing quite well,” CEO John Stankey said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”
T-Mobile has touted its ongoing “Price Lock,” which promises that the company won’t hike monthly phone rates in response to inflation, though it raised millions of customers’ other fees in early 2022, according to a report from Bloomberg. The carrier has called out Verizon and AT&T for raising rates.
That marketing campaign triggered speculation about whether the competing service providers would adjust their pricing strategies in order to snag more subscribers. T-Mobile has also offered customers discounts for switching from rival carriers.

AT&T’s refusal to engage in the price war doesn’t seem to be taking a toll. The company reported a phone churn rate of 0.84%, a slight improvement from a churn rate of 0.85% during last year’s fourth quarter.
Here’s how AT&T performed in the fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street anticipated, based on an average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Refinitiv:

Adjusted earnings per share: 61 cents versus an expected 57 cents
Total revenue: $31.34 billion versus an expected $31.38 billion

The company expects wireless service revenue growth of 4% in 2023, below analyst expectations.
Stankey said during the company’s earnings call it is staying “very conservative” as it heads into its new fiscal year and watches for recession as well as geopolitical disruption.
Verizon also reported fourth-quarter earnings this week that matched analyst’s expectations. It added 217,000 phone subscribers, up from 8,000 in its third quarter but trailing behind AT&T’s subscriber growth.
Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg explained in a call with analysts that the company has been able to lean on its business customers to prop up subscriber numbers, but said it is still working to rebuild the consumer side of its business.
Verizon increased prices last year to offset rising costs, which hurt the consumer base at the lower end of its pricing tiers.
Vestberg said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Tuesday that he is looking to see “where inflation goes this year” in order to gauge Verizon’s pricing strategy for 2023.

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Access to the abortion pill mifepristone has become a major legal battleground in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned federal abortion rights last June.
GenBioPro argues that FDA regulations on the abortion pill preempt West Virginia’s state law that basically bans the medication.
Anti-abortion activists, on the other hand, are pushing to have mifepristone completely pulled from the U.S. market through a lawsuit in Texas.

Boxes of the medication Mifepristone used to induce a medical abortion are prepared for patients at Planned Parenthood health center in Birmingham, Alabama, March 14, 2022.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

Abortion pill manufacturer GenBioPro on Wednesday sued to overturn West Virginia’s ban on abortion because it restricts access to a medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in West Virginia’s southern district, argues that FDA regulations on medications such as the abortion pill preempt state law under the U.S. Constitution.

Access to the pill, called mifepristone, has become a major legal battleground in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned federal abortion rights last June. A dozen states, including West Virginia, have implemented near total abortion bans that basically outlaw the use of mifepristone.
The FDA approved mifepristone more than 20 years ago as a safe and effective method to terminate an early pregnancy, though the agency imposed restrictions on how the pill was distributed and administered.
Mifepristone, when used in combination with misoprostol, is the most common way to end a pregnancy in the U.S., accounting for about half of all abortions nationwide in 2020.
The FDA has eased many of its restrictions to expand access to mifepristone. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the agency allowed patients to receive the pill by mail. Earlier this month, the FDA allowed retail pharmacies to start dispensing mifepristone for the first time so long as they get certified to do so.
But bans such as those in West Virginia conflict with FDA regulations on mifepristone, raising the question of whether federal or state laws take precedence. Although the FDA has a congressional mandate to approve drugs for use in the U.S. market, the states generally license the pharmacies that dispense those medications.

GenBioPro, in its lawsuit, argues that West Virginia’s state ban is unconstitutional because it violates the supremacy and commerce clauses of the U.S. Constitution, which gives the FDA power to regulate which drugs are sold in across the country.
“Individual state regulation of mifepristone destroys the national common market and conflict with the strong national interest in ensuring access to a federally approved medication to end a pregnancy, resulting in the kind of economic fracturing the Framers intended the Clause to preclude,” GenBioPro’s lawyers argued in the lawsuit.
“A State’s police power does not extend to functionally banning an article of interstate commerce — the Constitution leaves that to Congress,” the company’s lawyers wrote.
In another case, a doctor in North Carolina asked a federal court Wednesday to toss out the state’s restrictions on mifepristone because they go beyond the FDA’s rules. North Carolina requires patients to obtain the pill in person from a physician in a certified facility.
“For North Carolina to impose restrictions that go beyond those FDA deemed warranted as part of its regulatory balancing, including restrictions that FDA specifically rejected, frustrates the objectives of federal law,” the doctor’s lawyers wrote in the complaint.
Anti-abortion activists, on the other hand, are pushing to have mifepristone completely pulled from the U.S. market. A coalition of physicians who oppose abortion have asked a federal court in Texas to overturn the FDA’s more than two-decade-old approval of mifepristone as safe and effective.
A decision in that case could come as soon as February.

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The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing this week titled, “That’s the Ticket: Promoting Competition and Protecting Consumers in Live Entertainment,” which focused on the state of Live Nation Entertainment and the lack of competition in the primary and secondary ticketing markets.
“I just want to dispel this notion that this is not a monopoly and then we can go from there about solutions,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said at the hearing, which was held Tuesday.

Live Nation Entertainment is composed of Live Nation, an events promoter and venue operator, and Ticketmaster, a ticket sales giant. The two companies merged in 2010 and now control an estimated 70% of the ticketing and live event venues market.
It’s no secret that Taylor Swift fans were outraged in November 2022 when millions flocked to Ticketmaster.com to grab tickets to see the heartbreak queen for the first time since 2018 and the website crashed. The long wait lines and frozen screens sparked an uproar with fans, blaming Ticketmaster for ruining their chances to see the pop star.
“As the leading player, we have an obligation to do better,” said Joe Berchtold, Live Nation Entertainment president and chief financial officer, at the hearing Tuesday.
This is not the first time consumers have called for the breakup of Ticketmaster and Live Nation. It’s also not the first time the Department of Justice has been reportedly looking into alleged misconduct by the company.
When the Live Nation and Ticketmaster merger was approved in 2010, it was under the condition of a consent decree. Among other things, the purpose of that agreement was to forbid Live Nation from retaliating against a venue for using a ticketer other than Ticketmaster. After an investigation, in 2019 the DOJ made its most significant enforcement action of an antitrust decree in 20 years when it alleged Live Nation Entertainment violated that decree. The company settled with the government.

“The Department of Justice alleged six issues in 2019 which led to our decision with them to extend the consent decree. We did not feel it made sense to be seen as defending the theories of retaliation or threats. It’s not our business practice. It goes against our fundamental focus on alignment with the artists. The idea that we would ever put our interests ahead of theirs. So we are comfortable extending the consent decree,” said Berchtold during Tuesday’s hearing. “It is absolutely our policy to not pressure, threaten or retaliate against venues by using content as part of the ticketing discussion,” he added.
In November 2022, The New York Times reported the DOJ is once again investigating the company.
While Live Nation Entertainment arguably has a monopoly on the industry, a monopoly in itself is not illegal in the United States. A monopoly occurs when a company holds exclusive possession or control of an industry.  
“If we made monopolies illegal on the basis of pricing above cost and generating monopoly profits for a firm, the concern would be that that would potentially stifle risk-taking and entrepreneurial activity,” said Diana Moss, president of the American Antitrust Institute.
Abuse of a monopoly position is another matter. It’s illegal for a business to establish or maintain a monopoly through improper conduct and not allow for others to enter the market. 
Clyde Lawrence, a singer-songwriter in the New York City-based band Lawrence, testified during Tuesday’s hearing. The band regularly interacts with Live Nation Entertainment. It’s often their promoter, venue operator and ticketer. 
“In a world where the promoter and the venue are not affiliated with each other, we can trust that the promoter will look to get the best deal from the venue; however, in this case the promoter and the venue are part of the same corporate entity so the line items are essentially Live Nation negotiating to pay itself,” Lawrence said.
The band told CNBC if they want to play a certain size venue in a particular city, they are sometimes left no choice other than to use Live Nation because of the lack of competition in some regions. Then if they would like to use another ticketer other than Ticketmaster, they say that is not an option.
“Ticketmaster has created these exclusive contracts, once you sign that contract, a band is not allowed to come in and say, ‘we want to sell our tickets with X, Y, Z platform,'” said Jordan Cohen, one of the band’s eight members.
They even have a song with the lyric, “Live Nation is a monopoly.” “Due to Live Nation’s control across the industry, we have practically no leverage in negotiating,” Lawrence said.
While the company does have some competition, experts say no other firm currently stands a chance.
“There’s really no one that’s been able to get the type of scale that Live Nation has. The closest comparable is Anschutz Entertainment Group with their own kind of internal ticketing platform. But they made a statement that speaks to the market power of Ticketmaster, which is that they used Ticketmaster to ticket Taylor Swift,” said Barton Crockett, managing director and senior equity analyst at Rosenblatt Securities.
It’s a business that a lot of people have looked at. They’ve spoken about wanting to get into it, and no one’s really been able to grab enough market share to really be a meaningful player,” he added.
Live Nation declined CNBC’s request for an interview or comment but in a statement on its website said that it’s against company policy to threaten venues if they do not use Ticketmaster and that it does not retaliate for a lost ticketing deal.
It’s unclear what’s next for Live Nation Entertainment.
Watch this video to learn more about how the company got to where it is today and what the future might hold.

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