Raphael Stevens

Frontier Airlines has again proposed merging with struggling rival Spirit Airlines, which is in bankruptcy.
Spirit executives told their Frontier counterparts that they were rejecting the deal.

A Frontier Airlines plane near a Spirit Airlines plane at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on May 16, 2022 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Frontier Airlines said Wednesday it has again proposed merging with struggling rival Spirit Airlines, which is in bankruptcy.
Frontier and Spirit first announced a deal to merge in 2022, but a JetBlue Airways offer derailed that plan. JetBlue’s proposed acquisition of Spirit was blocked by a federal judge last year, and Spirit filed for bankruptcy protection in November.

Frontier said in a release that it has met with Spirit’s board and executives since it made its proposal this month. Frontier executives said in a email to counterparts at Spirit this week that their plan is better than Spirit’s own plan to emerge from bankruptcy.
“We continue to believe that under the current standalone plan, Spirit will emerge highly levered, losing money at the operating level, and this would not be a transaction we would pursue,” wrote Frontier Chairman Bill Franke and CEO Barry Biffle in a Tuesday email to Spirit Chairman Mac Gardner and CEO Ted Christie. “As a result, time is of the essence.”
Christie and Gardner told their Frontier counterparts that they were rejecting the deal, calling the terms “inadequate and unactionable,” according to a letter shared in a securities filing on Wednesday.
Spirit said it expects to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy this quarter. It has cut costs recently, including by slashing some 200 jobs and selling some of its Airbus planes. The airline had also been particularly challenged by a Pratt & Whitney engine recall that grounded dozens of its jets.
Budget carriers like Frontier and Spirit have struggled post-pandemic, as costs like salaries have risen and consumers have opted for trips abroad on carriers with options for roomier and more expensive seats.

Both Frontier and Spirit have been working to upend their business models that were marked by low fares and fees for add-ons from seat assignments to cabin baggage.
The airlines last year did away with cancellation and change fees for some of their tickets and started bundling perks along with tickets. Frontier last year said it would start offering a premium section at the front of the plane. More

Fox has sold out of ad spots for the upcoming Super Bowl on Feb. 9, with more than 10 commercials selling for a record $8 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Live sports, especially the Super Bowl, attract the biggest audiences, meaning advertisers continue to shell out for ad spots.
While automakers and food and beverage companies will take up the bulk of air time, artificial intelligence and pharmaceutical companies took a bigger share of commercials this year.

Jake Elliott, #4 of the Philadelphia Eagles, kicks a field goal against the Kansas City Chiefs during the third quarter in Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 12, 2023.
Carmen Mandato | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

Fox Corp. is scoring big this Super Bowl.
The broadcaster has sold out of ad spots for Super Bowl 59 on Feb. 9, and more than 10 of those commercials sold for $8 million apiece, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Fox reported during its November earnings call with investors that it sold out of ad spots for the Super Bowl in the fall of 2024. At the time, media reports pegged average prices at more than $7 million per ad.
“We’re sold out for the Super Bowl at record — what we believe [is] a record pricing,” Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said on November’s call.
Much of the ad inventory for the Super Bowl was sold during Fox’s Upfront presentation to investors last spring, and when it became clear that open spots were dwindling, the price of each unit stepped up, said the person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic matters.
Typically, pricing for Super Bowl ads can escalate by about $100,000 as remaining inventory lessens and game day approaches. This year, the jump in price was closer to $500,000 per spot, the person said.
The voracious appetite for commercial time during the country’s biggest live sports event is no surprise, even if the pricing is eye-popping. Live sports continue to beckon the biggest audiences as the cable TV bundle shrinks, making the matches some of the most coveted programming on live TV for advertisers.

Last year, an estimated 123.7 million people watched the Super Bowl, which was aired on Paramount’s CBS broadcast network, streaming service Paramount+ and Spanish-language telecaster Univision, among other platforms, according to Nielsen.
In 2023, the last time the Super Bowl aired on Fox, more than 115 million viewers tuned in. These audience sizes are a key reason why media giants have shelled out hefty sums for the rights to NFL games.
“If I learned anything, it’s that we’re in a period now where the live sporting event, where people and families come together to watch, is that much more coveted,” said Mark Evans, executive vice president of ad sales for Fox Sports. “There’s an escalation in price and interest in the demand for live sports, but we’re not at its peak. We’ve still got runway for growth.”
The advertising market has been improving since its slump during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Traditional media companies with sports rights and tentpole live programming are benefiting the most, while advertising for general entertainment programming still lags in comparison.
This year’s Super Bowl, which will see the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs once again take on the Philadelphia Eagles, will have plenty of commercials from the typical players, including automakers, restaurants and food and beverage companies, with lots of familiar celebrity faces, said Evans.
Viewers will notice an increase in ads from companies in the artificial intelligence and pharmaceutical industries, while there will be fewer commercials from streaming services and movie studios, he said.
Evans noted that “multiple advertisers have fallen in love with the creative,” adding there will be more 60-second ads in addition to the usually popular 15- and 30-second spots.
Advertisers will also get a little more bang for their buck this year. In addition to broadcasting on Fox, the company is also offering the Super Bowl on its free, ad-supported streaming service Tubi for the first time. Tubi will air the same ad load as the broadcast network.

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Starbucks topped Wall Street’s estimates for its quarterly earnings and revenue, but the company’s same-store sales slid for the fourth consecutive quarter.
The coffee giant said its same-store sales fell 4%, fueled by a 6% decline in visits to its stores.
CEO Brian Niccol is trying to turn around the business with his “back to Starbucks” strategy.

The Starbucks logo is seen on a cup at one of its cafes on April 26, 2024.
Jakub Porzycki/ | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Starbucks on Tuesday reported that its same-store sales slid for the fourth consecutive quarter, but the company’s quarterly earnings and revenue beat Wall Street’s expectations.
The coffee giant kicked off a turnaround plan last quarter in the hopes of reviving its U.S. business, which has slumped over the past year.

“While we have room for improvement, we’re making progress as planned, and have confidence we’re on the right track,” CEO Brian Niccol said in a video released on the company’s website Tuesday afternoon.
He added that the company has seen a “positive response” to the early steps it has taken. Those tweaks have included removing extra charges for nondairy milk options, focusing its marketing on its coffee and slashing 30% of its food and beverage menu items by the end of fiscal 2025.
Here is what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 69 cents vs. 67 cents expected
Revenue: $9.4 billion vs. $9.31 billion expected

Starbucks reported fiscal first-quarter net income attributable to the company of $780.8 million, or 69 cents per share, down from $1.02 billion, or 90 cents per share, a year earlier.
The company’s net sales of $9.4 billion were unchanged from a year earlier.

Starbucks’ same-store sales fell 4%, fueled by a 6% decline in traffic to its stores. Wall Street was expecting a steeper drop of 5.5%, according to StreetAccount estimates. Both its U.S. and international locations outperformed expectations.
U.S. same-store sales slid 4% as traffic to its cafes fell 8%. Under Niccol, who took the reins in September, the company has been trying to turn around its U.S. business by getting “back to Starbucks” and returning its focus to coffee and the customer experience.
Starbucks has also been cutting back on deals, so its discounted transactions fell 40% during the quarter. Niccol credited the pullback in discounts for the chain’s sales improvement throughout the quarter.
Outside of its home market, same-store sales also declined 4%.
Starbucks’ same-store sales in China, its second-largest market, fell 6%, fueled by a 4% decline in average ticket. The coffee giant has been leaning into discounts in China to compete with rivals that have much lower prices, such as Luckin Coffee.
Niccol said he made his first visit to stores in China last week. The company is exploring strategic partnerships to grow its business in the country.
“We’re processing these learnings, and we will share more as we do,” he told analysts on the company’s conference call.
In October, the company suspended its forecast for fiscal 2025, citing the turnaround efforts. On Tuesday’s call, executives also backed away from a target of $4 billion in supply-chain cost savings by 2028; Niccol’s predecessor Laxman Narasimhan had shared that number in April 2024, just as sales began to shrink and months before he was out of the job.
Starbucks is also planning fewer new locations and renovations in fiscal 2025 to free up capital to fuel its comeback. However, Niccol sees strong demand for more cafes in the long term.
“In the U.S. alone, we still see the potential to double our store count, while improving the overall health of our portfolio. We’ll do this through a strong store renovation program, new store builds, and store closures,” Niccol said.
The company is also trying to improve its speed of service by scheduling more workers, removing bottlenecks behind its coffee counters and making baristas’ jobs easier.
For example, Starbucks plans to prioritize installing its Siren equipment in its busiest locations, Niccol said. The new equipment includes a custom ice dispenser, milk-dispensing system and faster blenders so baristas can make drinks more quickly.
Starbucks is also piloting a new algorithm to manage the order that baristas should make both mobile and in-store drinks. If successful, the algorithm could solve Starbucks’ overcrowded pick-up counters that cause frustration for both customers and baristas.
Niccol also has plans for Starbucks’ corporate workforce. He has been reorganizing the company’s structure, including splitting the role of North American president into two jobs. Earlier on Tuesday, the company announced it has hired two alumni from Taco Bell, Niccol’s employer prior to Chipotle.
In early March, the company is planning to lay off workers, although Starbucks has not yet shared how many jobs will be affected.

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Starbucks is adding two former Taco Bell alumni to its leadership team.
CEO Brian Niccol said the company is changing the operating model for its retail team, which led to the shake-up.
Starbucks announced the move hours before it announced fiscal first-quarter earnings that topped Wall Street’s expectations.

Brian Niccols, CEO of Starbucks, speaking with CNBC on Oct. 31, 2024.

Starbucks announced another stage in its leadership shake-up on Tuesday, as CEO Brian Niccol will bring in two more executives who spent time at his former employer Taco Bell while dividing key leadership roles.
“As we focus on our ‘Back to Starbucks’ plan, we need a new operating model for our retail team, with clear ownership and accountability and an appropriate scope for each role,” Niccol said in a letter to employees shared on the company’s website.

Starbucks announced the move hours before it reported fiscal first-quarter earnings and revenue that topped analyst expectations. As the company tries to mount a turnaround, same-stores sales declined for the fourth straight quarter, but not as badly as Wall Street expected.
Before spending six years at Chipotle, Niccol served as CEO of Yum Brands’ Taco Bell. Since starting at Starbucks in September, he has already poached some of his former colleagues to help with his transformation of the coffee giant. For example, he tapped Chipotle and Yum Brands alum Tressie Lieberman as Starbucks’ global chief brand officer in the fall.
The newest changes to the Starbucks organization include splitting the role of North American president into two jobs. The company’s current North American president, Sara Trilling, will depart the company. Trilling has been with Starbucks since 2002.
Starting in February, Meredith Sandland will hold the role of chief store development officer. Sandland is currently CEO of Empower Delivery, a restaurant software company. Previously, she served as chief operating officer of Kitchen United and as Taco Bell’s chief development officer.
Additionally, Mike Grams will join the company in February as North America chief stores officer. Grams has been with Taco Bell for more than 30 years, starting as a restaurant general manager and working his way up to become the chain’s global chief operating officer, according to his LinkedIn.

Both Sandland and Grams will be tasked with implementing Niccol’s vision to go “back to Starbucks.” The strategy includes decreasing service times to four minutes per order, making its stores more welcoming and cozy, as well as slashing the menu.
Arthur Valdez, Starbucks’ chief supply officer, also plans to leave the company. He joined in 2023 after seven years at Target. Starbucks has already identified his replacement and will share that news in the coming weeks, Niccol said in the letter.

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JetBlue’s outlook disappointed investors.
The airline is in the middle of a cost-cutting program that includes culling unprofitable flying.
It lost two antitrust cases that blocked its planned acquisition of Spirit Airlines last year and a regional partnership with American in 2023.

A JetBlue Airways plane prepares to take off from the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on January 31, 2024 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

JetBlue Airways shares fell more than 25% on Tuesday, the biggest one-day percentage loss since the company went public more than two decades ago, after the carrier’s financial outlook disappointed investors.
The New York-based airline forecast its unit costs, excluding fuel, will rise as much as 7% this year from 2024. In the first quarter, it said it expected this metric to rise as much as 10% this quarter year-over-year.

It estimated revenue could come in up to 0.5% lower to as much as 3.5% higher this quarter over 2024. Larger competitors Delta and United have been forecasting higher revenue growth, a sign of those airlines’ strengthening pricing power.
JetBlue is in the middle of a plan to reduce costs by culling unprofitable routes, deferring new aircraft and drumming up revenue with higher-priced seats. CNBC reported Friday that JetBlue has offered senior pilots voluntary early retirement packages. JetBlue cut costs by $190 million last year, the company said Tuesday.
“This is a multiyear strategy, and it’s not linear, and we’re focused on the long term here in getting JetBlue back to sustained profitability,” CEO Joanna Geraghty, who took the top job last year, said during an earnings call on Tuesday. “So it’s going to take a little time.”
Geraghty added she was pleased with the carrier’s progress, which puts it on track to add up to $900 million to pretax profit 2027.
The carrier expects its 2025 revenue to rise between 3% and 6% on flat capacity. The impact of a Pratt & Whitney engine recall will be worse this year, grounding a number of the company’s Airbus jets in the “mid- to high teens, up from 11 grounded aircraft last year,” CFO Ursula Hurley said on the earnings call Tuesday.

JetBlue is in the middle of a plan to reduce costs by culling unprofitable routes, deferring new aircraft and drumming up revenue with higher-priced seats. CNBC reported Friday that JetBlue has offered senior pilots voluntary early retirement packages.
JetBlue lost two antitrust cases that blocked two of its growth strategies. In 2024, a federal judge blocked JetBlue’s planned acquisition of Spirit Airlines, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November, and in 2023, JetBlue lost a case over its regional partnership with American Airlines.
“We would note that the current management team has hit their numbers, but in a market where airlines are seeing solid earnings growth, JetBlue hasn’t been able to keep pace,” wrote Melius Research analyst Conor Cunningham. “JetBlue still needs to aggressively ramp unit revenue throughout the year to get to sustained operating profit – all possible, it just is hard to underwrite given the drag in 1Q.”
JetBlue’s fourth-quarter loss narrowed to $44 million, or a loss of 13 cents per share, down from a loss of $104 million, or a loss of 31 cents a share, in the same period in 2023. The carrier reported revenue of $2.28 billion, down 2.1% from a year earlier. More

The Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic for patients with both chronic kidney disease and diabetes, expanding the use of the wildly popular injection in the U.S. 
The FDA’s decision means Ozempic can be used to reduce the risk of kidney disease worsening, kidney failure and death from cardiovascular disease in patients with chronic kidney disease and diabetes.
The decision could transform how doctors treat patients with the condition, which involves a gradual loss of kidney function and is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. 

A box of Ozempic made by Novo Nordisk is seen at a pharmacy in London, Britain March 8, 2024.
Hollie Adams | Reuters

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic to treat chronic kidney disease in patients who also have Type 2 diabetes, expanding the use of the wildly popular injection in the U.S. 
The drug is already widely used and covered to treat Type 2 diabetes. The FDA’s decision means Ozempic can now be used to reduce the risk of kidney disease worsening, kidney failure, and death from cardiovascular disease in patients with both chronic kidney disease and diabetes.

The decision could transform how doctors treat patients with chronic kidney disease, which involves a gradual loss of kidney function and is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Around 37 million American adults are living with chronic kidney disease, according to Novo Nordisk.
Diabetes is a key risk factor for kidney disease. Roughly 40% of Type 2 diabetes patients have the condition, which can cause additional sickness such as increased risk of cardiovascular problems and death, Novo Nordisk said.
“All chronic kidney disease is progressive. It’s a year-on-year, relentless decline in renal function,” Stephen Gough, Novo Nordisk’s global chief medical officer, said in an interview, referring to the kidney’s ability to filter waste from the blood.
He noted that when the condition progresses to the point of kidney failure — also known as end-stage kidney disease — patients require long-term dialysis treatments to remove waste from the blood, or a kidney transplant. Both are burdensome, and death among patients with end-stage kidney disease is “very high,” particularly from cardiovascular disease, according to Gough.
The approval also demonstrates that a blockbuster class of diabetes and weight loss drugs called GLP-1s have significant health benefits beyond regulating blood sugar and suppressing appetite. 

Ozempic reduced the risk of severe kidney outcomes — including kidney failure, reduction in kidney function, or death from kidney or heart causes — by 24% in diabetic patients with chronic kidney disease compared with a placebo, according to results of a late-stage trial that the approval was based on.
In patients who took Ozempic, kidney function declined more slowly, the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack dropped 18% and the risk of death from any cause fell 20% compared with the placebo. Ozempic also cut the risk of cardiovascular-related deaths by 29%.
“We know that, unfortunately, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease just go hand in hand,” Gough said.
He added that the major treatments patients typically receive when they have the earliest signs of chronic kidney disease aim to reduce cardiovascular risk factors by paying attention to blood pressure.
The rate of serious adverse side effects was 49.6% in patients who took Ozempic, lower than the 53.8% seen in the group that received a placebo. There was a slightly higher rate of discontinuations among Ozempic patients due to gastrointestinal side effects commonly seen with GLP-1s, such as nausea and vomiting.
EU regulators approved Ozempic for the same use in December. 
Novo Nordisk ended the phase three trial in October, a year earlier than expected, in response to positive results. At the time, the Danish company’s announcement caused shares of kidney dialysis companies to plummet about 20% in a single day. 
The trial, called FLOW, started in 2019 and followed roughly 3,500 patients with diabetes and moderate to severe chronic kidney disease.
“From my point of view as a doctor, you don’t get [diabetes, obesity, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease] in isolation,” Gough said. “These illnesses, unfortunately, co-segregate. They cluster within the same individuals. So if you have a medicine that can target each of these co-morbidities in one injection, then you’re addressing what really matters to the patient.”
The approval comes after the Biden administration selected three of Novo Nordisk’s drugs with the active ingredient semaglutide for the second cycle of Medicare drug price negotiations. That includes Ozempic, its weight loss counterpart Wegovy and another diabetes treatment called Rybelsus.  
The FDA’s decision also comes as Novo Nordisk faces increased competition from Eli Lilly and tries to win expanded insurance coverage for Wegovy.
Last year, Wegovy won approval in the U.S. for use in slashing the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes. Novo Nordisk is also studying Wegovy as a potential treatment for fatty liver disease. More