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    Ken Griffin’s multistrategy hedge fund at Citadel rose 1.4% in volatile January

    Kenneth C. Griffin (R) speaks during The New York Times Dealbook Summit 2024 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 04, 2024 in New York City. 
    Eugene Gologursky | Getty Images

    Billionaire investor Ken Griffin’s flagship hedge fund climbed in a volatile January, according to a person familiar with the returns.
    Citadel’s multistrategy flagship Wellington fund rose 1.4% in January, following a 15.1% gain in 2024, according to the person, who spoke anonymously because the performance numbers are private. All five strategies used in the fund — commodities, equities, fixed income, credit and quantitative — were positive for the month, the person said.

    The Miami-based firm’s tactical trading fund gained 2.7% in January, while its equities fund, which uses a long/short strategy, also returned 2.7%, said the person. Meanwhile, Citadel’s global fixed-income fund returned 1.9%.
    Citadel, which had $65 billion in assets under management as the year began, declined to comment.
    Markets experienced violent price swings last month as investors grew wary of President Donald Trump’s protectionist policies. At the end of the month, an artificial intelligence competitor out of China called DeepSeek caused a massive sell-off in Nvidia and upended other megacap tech stocks.
    The S&P 500 climbed 2.7% in January and is up 1.9% in 2025 following a stellar two-year run in 2023 and 2024. The equity benchmark scored a second consecutive annual gain above 20% last year, and the two-year gain of 53% is the best since 1997 and 1998, when it jumped nearly 66%. 
    Before the new administration took office Jan. 20, Griffin criticized the steep tariffs Trump vowed to implement, saying they could result in crony capitalism.

    The Citadel founder said domestic companies could enjoy a short-term benefit by having their competitors weakened. Longer term, however, tariffs do more harm to corporate America and the economy as companies lose competitiveness and productivity, Griffin said. More

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    McDonald’s Shamrock Shake returns — and so does Grimace’s uncle

    McDonald’s is bringing Uncle O’Grimacey back to promote the Shamrock Shake.
    The chain has been reviving its McDonaldland characters after the success of its Grimace Birthday Meal.
    McDonald’s sales have slowed in recent months.

    McDonald’s Shamrock Shake
    Source: McDonald’s

    McDonald’s is leaning on customers’ nostalgia for its McDonaldland characters to spur sales of its Shamrock Shake.
    The company said Tuesday that Grimace will reunite with his Irish uncle, Uncle O’Grimacey, unretiring the mascot after decades out of the spotlight. McDonald’s originally created Uncle O’Grimacey in 1975 to promote the Shamrock Shake, but he hasn’t been seen since the mid-1980s.

    The Shamrock Shake, a seasonal staple for more than 50 years, returns to U.S. restaurants annually before St. Patrick’s Day. The milkshake comes back on Feb. 10. This year, 25 cents of every Shamrock Shake sale will go toward the Ronald McDonald House Charities.
    That same day the shake relaunches, the fast-food giant is expected to report its fourth-quarter results. McDonald’s sales have struggled to bounce back since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked its Quarter Pounder burgers to a fatal E. coli outbreak in October, even after the health agency declared the crisis over. A viral moment, like the return of Uncle O’Grimacey, could boost traffic to its restaurants and lift sales out of their slump.
    Uncle O’Grimacey’s reappearance marks the third time since the viral Grimace Birthday Meal that the chain has used its retro mascots in marketing. The company named its beverage-focused spinoff brand CosMc’s, after the McDonald’s-loving alien that appeared in ads decades ago. And when McDonald’s launched its “Best Burger” initiative to spread the word about changes to its cheeseburgers and Big Macs, the company sent the Hamburglar on a cross-country tour.
    But Grimace remains the star. His birthday meal, complete with a purple milkshake, helped McDonald’s quarterly U.S. same-store sales climb more than 10% in the spring of 2023.
    And Grimace has held onto the public’s adoration. Last year, he became a good luck charm for the New York Mets during the professional baseball team’s most recent season. After Grimace threw out the first pitch before a June game, the Mets went on a winning streak, which led the mascot to appear at games through the team’s playoff push.
    Uncle O’Grimacey disappeared after the company dialed back its use of the McDonaldland mascots. However, a rumor circulated the internet in recent years, saying that Uncle O’Grimacey wasn’t used publicly after an actor playing the mascot in Philadelphia made comments in support of the Irish Republican Army; there’s no evidence to suggest that the incident actually happened.

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    HR unicorn Deel prepares for IPO as soon as 2026 after revenue jump

    Human resources software startup Deel has hit an annual revenue run rate of $800 million, the company told CNBC.
    Deel also added two major new shareholders to its capitalization table, General Catalyst and Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, as part of a $300 million secondary share sale.
    “We are getting ready to go out, potentially next year or a bit later,” Deel CEO Alex Bouaziz told CNBC, discussing the firm’s IPO plans.

    Alex Bouaziz, CEO and co-founder of Deel, onstage at the Collision 2022 conference at Enercare Centre in Toronto, Canada.
    Vaughn Ridley | Sportsfile | Getty Images

    Human resources software firm Deel said it has hit an annual revenue run rate of $800 million and is ramping up preparations to go public with a view to IPO as early as next year.
    The startup, which aims to simplify the process of hiring, paying and managing employees remotely, told CNBC that it hit the milestone after a 70% year-over-year bump in revenue in December. A revenue run rate is an estimation of a company’s future annual revenue, extrapolated from a monthly data point.

    Deel has also added to its capitalization table with two new major shareholders following a $300 million secondary share sale conducted last year.
    The company said that General Catalyst and an unnamed sovereign wealth fund — which CNBC understands is Mubadala Investment Company, the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi — joined the round as new investors.
    It comes after Deel in 2022 hit a $12 billion valuation. Following the secondary share transaction, the company’s valuation was boosted to $12.6 billion, according to two sources familiar with the matter, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
    In an interview with CNBC, Deel CEO and co-founder Alex Bouaziz said the company is developing robust financial audits, compliance processes and infrastructure as it looks to ensure it’s in a good position to IPO.
    “We are getting ready to go out, potentially next year or a bit later,” Bouaziz told CNBC, adding that the firm recently added two new board members including former Illumina CEO Francis deSouza and former Coupa Chief Financial Officer Todd Ford. “We believe we have the right reasons to go public.”

    Bouaziz said that a public listing could help the firm further along on its mission to build a recognizable brand in HR and payroll software.
    “When it comes to HR and payroll, I’ve never truly felt like someone captured the essence of a great brand,” he said. “No one really [builds] a brand that you feel resonates with people.”
    “This is really what we want to build. This is, I think, a big part of the experience that we can bring to people. Being a public company can reinforce that sentiment, be part of the story and be part of the business,” Bouaziz added.
    The CEO said that Deel is under no pressure from its financial backers to go public despite its large size. The firm currently has about 5,000 employees globally.
    Founded in 2019, Deel is a platform that helps businesses with HR services such as onboarding, compliance, performance management, payroll and immigration support. It became popular during Covid-19 shutdowns in 2020 and 2021, which drove the trend of hiring staff remotely.
    Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, managing director of General Catalyst, said Deel’s “focus on enabling large enterprises to navigate the complexities of a global workforce fits seamlessly with our mission to back bold ideas that create enduring value.”
    Zu Fürstenberg previously backed Deel in a seed investment when she was with European venture capital fund La Famiglia, which merged with General Catalyst in October 2023.

    Motion to dismiss ‘baseless’ lawsuit

    Against the backdrop of financial milestones and progress toward an IPO, Deel is currently facing litigation over claims that it facilitated money laundering transactions.
    Last month, Deel was served a lawsuit in a Florida court which alleges it processed payments without proper licensing and enabled money laundering in relation to illegal payment transactions worth at least $2.27 million made on behalf of a former client, Surge Capital Ventures. It also accuses Deel of facilitating payments to Russia in violation of U.S. sanctions.
    Deel strongly denies the claims and has fired back with a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, describing it as “riddled with baseless allegations, gross inaccuracies, conjecture, and downright falsehoods.”
    Deel also alleged the suit was part of a “coordinated effort by a major investor in Deel’s primary competitor seeking to tarnish Deel’s stellar reputation.”
    The plaintiff’s lawyer, Thomas Grady, is named as the incorporator of Waveling Insurance Services in a Florida Department of State filing. Waveling Insurance Services is now known as Ripple Insurance Services, which is a subsidiary of HR and payroll software firm Rippling. Grady is reportedly an investor in Rippling, according to Florida newspaper Naples Daily News, although CNBC was unable to confirm this.
    Neither Thomas Grady nor Rippling were immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.
    Bouaziz told CNBC he feels “pretty confident” about Deel’s chances of dismissing the lawsuit. More

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    Merck’s 2025 revenue outlook falls short as it pauses Gardasil vaccine shipments to China

    Merck on Tuesday issued full-year 2025 revenue guidance that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations.
    The company said that sales range reflects a decision to halt shipments of Gardasil, a vaccine that prevents cancer from HPV, into China beginning in February through and going through at least mid-2025.
    Merck reported fourth-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings that topped expectations as it saw strong sales from its top-selling cancer drug Keytruda, other oncology medicines and the company’s recently launched cardiovascular treatment. 

    Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

    Merck on Tuesday issued full-year 2025 revenue guidance that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, as the company temporarily paused shipments of a key vaccine into China. 
    Shares of Merck fell more than 7% in premarket trading Tuesday.

    The pharmaceutical giant anticipates 2025 sales of $64.1 billion to $65.6 billion, lower than the $67.31 billion that analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected. In a release, the company said that sales range reflects a decision to halt shipments of Gardasil into China beginning in February through and going through at least mid-2025. 
    Gardasil is a vaccine that prevents cancer from HPV, the most common sexually transmitted infection in the U.S. Investors have been unsettled over the past year by trouble with sales of that blockbuster shot in China, as the country makes up the majority of the product’s international revenue. 
    The company believes the pause will allow for a “more rapid reduction of excess inventory” and help support the financial position of its partner in China, a spokesperson said in an email. Merck expects 2% to 4% growth in Gardasil sales, with no further shipments of Gardasil to China at the low end and less than $1 billion in revenue from the country at the high end, the spokesperson said.
    Investors will be listening for more details on the Gardasil decision when the company holds an earnings call at 9 a.m. ET.
    Sales of the shot will likely be critical to Merck’s efforts to offset losses from its top-selling cancer therapy Keytruda, which will lose exclusivity in 2028. Merck is hoping that Gardasil’s expanded approval for men ages 9 to 26 in China will eventually help boost uptake of the shot.

    The Merck spokesperson said “it is important to note that GARDASIL market dynamics in China do not in any way diminish the confidence Merck has in its business.”
    Merck expects full-year adjusted earnings of $8.88 to $9.03 per share, which is generally in line with what analysts were expecting. The outlook reflects a charge of roughly 9 cents per share related to Merck’s license agreement with privately held drugmaker LaNoVa. 
    Sales of Keytruda, other oncology medicines and the company’s recently launched cardiovascular treatment helped Merck beat expectations for the fourth quarter of 2024. 
    Here’s what Merck reported for the fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: 

    Earnings per share: $1.72 adjusted vs. $1.62 expected
    Revenue: $15.62 billion vs. $15.49 billion expected

    The company posted a net income of $3.74 billion, or $1.48 per share, for the quarter. That compares with a net loss of $1.23 billion, or 48 cents per share, during the year-earlier period. 
    Excluding acquisition and restructuring costs, Merck earned $1.72 per share for the fourth quarter. Both adjusted and non-adjusted earnings reflect a charge of 23 cents per share related to Merck’s recent licensing agreements, including a deal to develop an experimental obesity pill from a Chinese drugmaker. 
    Merck raked in $15.62 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 7% from the same period a year ago.

    Pharmaceutical division

    Merck’s pharmaceutical unit, which develops a wide range of drugs, booked $14.04 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter. That’s up 7% from the same period a year ago.
    Keytruda recorded $7.84 billion in revenue during the quarter, up 19% from the year-earlier period. Analysts had expected sales of $7.63 billion, according to StreetAccount estimates. 
    That increase was driven by higher uptake of Keytruda for earlier-stage cancers and strong demand for the drug for metastatic cancers, which spread to other parts of the body.
    Gardasil raked in $1.55 billion in sales, down 17% from the fourth quarter of 2023. That’s slightly below the $1.58 billion that analysts were expecting, according to StreetAccount estimates. 
    Merck’s Type 2 diabetes treatment, Januvia, also saw sales fall to $487 million during the quarter, down 38% from the same period a year ago. The company said the decline was primarily due to lower pricing in the U.S., supply constraints in China and ongoing competition from cheaper generic drugs in international markets.
    That came below analysts’ estimate of $500 million for the period, according to StreetAccount. 
    Januvia is one of 10 drugs that was subject to Medicare drug price negotiations, a policy under the Inflation Reduction Act that aims to make costly medications more affordable for older Americans. New negotiated prices for that first round of drugs go into effect in 2026.
    Merck’s animal health division, which develops vaccines and medicines for dogs, cats and cattle, posted nearly $1.4 billion in sales, up 9% from the same period a year ago. The company said higher pricing for products across the portfolio drove that increase. More

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    PepsiCo earnings beat estimates, but demand for drinks and snacks drops in North America

    PepsiCo’s earnings topped Wall Street’s estimates, but the company’s revenue missed expectations.
    Demand for its snacks and drinks declined in North America.

    Bottles of Pepsi soda are seen on display at a Target store on February 09, 2024 in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn borough New York City.
    Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

    PepsiCo reported mixed quarterly results on Tuesday as demand for its snacks and drinks fell in North America for the fifth straight quarter.
    Shares of the company dropped more than 2% in premarket trading.

    Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

    Earnings per share: $1.96 adjusted vs. $1.94 expected
    Revenue: $27.78 billion vs. $27.89 billion expected

    Pepsi posted fourth-quarter net income attributable to the company of $1.52 billion, or $1.11 per share, up from $1.3 billion, or 94 cents per share, a year earlier.
    Excluding restructuring, impairment charges and other items, the food and beverage company earned $1.96 per share.
    Net sales dropped slightly to $27.78 billion.
    The company’s organic revenue, which excludes acquisitions, divestitures and foreign exchange, rose 2.1% in the fourth quarter.

    Pepsi’s worldwide volume increased 1% for convenient foods and 1% for beverages. The metric strips out pricing and foreign exchange.
    But demand was weaker in the company’s home market, North America. Pepsi has previously said that shoppers in the U.S. have grown more cautious, snacking less and making fewer purchases at convenience stores.
    Frito-Lay North America’s volume fell 3% in the quarter. Consumers have been watching their grocery budgets, thanks to several years of higher food prices and interest rates.
    “In 2024, the salty and savory snack categories underperformed broader packaged food, following multiple years in which these categories had outperformed packaged food,” CEO Ramon Laguarta and CFO Jamie Caulfield said in prepared remarks.
    The company’s North American beverage unit reported a 3% decline in quarterly volume. But there were some bright spots for the division, as Gatorade gained market share and Mountain Dew Baja Blast surpassed $1 billion in annual sales.
    Quaker Foods North America, still reeling from a recall from the prior December, saw its volume fall 6%. The company expects that Quaker’s performance will improve in 2025 as it laps the fallout from the recall, executives said in prepared remarks.
    For 2025, Pepsi is projecting a low-single-digit increase in its organic revenue and a mid-single-digit rise in its core constant currency earnings per share.
    “Looking ahead to 2025, we will continue to build upon the successful expansion of our international business, while also taking actions to improve performance in North America,” Laguarta said in a statement.

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    Pfizer tops earnings estimates as Covid product sales beat expectations and cost cuts pay off

    Pfizer on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat estimates as sales of the company’s Covid products topped expectations and its broad cost-cutting efforts took hold.
    The results cap off a critical year for Pfizer, which has been slashing costs as it recovers from the rapid decline of its Covid business and stock price over the last two years.

    Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, speaks at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival in New York City, U.S., May 22, 2024. 
    Andrew Kelly | Reuters

    Pfizer on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat estimates as sales of the company’s Covid products topped expectations and its broad cost-cutting efforts took hold.
    Here’s what the company reported for the fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: 

    Earnings per share: 63 cents adjusted vs. 46 cents expected
    Revenue: $17.76 billion vs. $17.36 billion expected

    Shares of Pfizer rose 2% in premarket trading Tuesday.
    The results cap off a critical year for Pfizer, which has been pursuing broad cost cuts as it recovers from the rapid decline of its Covid business and stock price over the last two years. The company said it is on track to deliver overall net cost savings of roughly $4.5 billion by the end of 2025 from its cost-cutting program. 
    The company booked fourth-quarter net income of $410 million, or 7 cents per share. That compares with a net loss of $3.37 billion, or a loss of 60 cents per share, during the same period a year ago. 
    Excluding certain items, including restructuring charges and costs associated with intangible assets, the company posted earnings per share of 63 cents for the quarter.
    Pfizer reported revenue of $17.76 billion for the fourth quarter, up 22% from the same period a year ago.

    The company reiterated the full-year 2025 outlook it provided in December, forecasting sales of $61 billion to $64 billion, with a similar performance from its Covid products as seen in 2024. Pfizer noted that changes to the Medicare program resulting from the Inflation Reduction Act will hurt sales by $1 billion. 
    Stripping out one-time items, the company expects 2025 earnings to be in the range of $2.80 to $3 a share. 
    But Wall Street is likely more concerned with Pfizer’s long-term financial health and its drug pipeline. Investors are also watching to see whether Pfizer can win a slice of the booming weight loss drug market with the once-daily version of its experimental obesity pill, danuglipron. 
    Pfizer appears to have dodged a proxy battle with activist investor Starboard Value, which has a roughly $1 billion stake in the pharmaceutical giant, for now. The deadline passed for nominating board members for this year.

    Covid products beat estimates

    Pfizer’s fourth-quarter beat was fueled in part by higher-than-expected demand for its Covid products.
    Paxlovid, its antiviral pill, brought in $727 million in sales for the quarter, up from the loss of $3.1 billion in revenue recorded in the year-earlier period. But the same quarter last year included a revenue reversal tied to the planned return of around 6.5 million Paxlovid doses from the U.S. government. 
    Pfizer said the growth was driven by strong demand, particularly in the U.S. during a recent Covid wave, and a one-time contract delivery of 1 million treatment courses of Paxlovid to the federal government. Analysts expected the drug to bring in $630.7 million in sales, according to StreetAccount. 
    The company’s Covid shot booked $3.4 billion in revenue, down $2 billion from the same period a year ago. Pfizer said the decline was mainly driven by fewer Covid vaccinations globally and lower contracted doses of its shot. 
    Analysts expected $3 billion in sales for the shot, according to StreetAccount.

    Non-Covid product growth

    Excluding Covid products, Pfizer said revenue for the fourth quarter rose 12% on an operational basis, fueled by approved cancer products from Seagen, which it acquired in 2023 for a whopping $43 billion.
    Those drugs brought in $915 million in revenue for the quarter, compared with just $132 million in sales in the fourth quarter of 2023.
    Revenue also got a boost from sales of Pfizer’s Vyndaqel drugs, which are used to treat a certain type of cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle. Those drugs booked $1.55 billion in sales, up 61% from the fourth quarter of 2023.
    Analysts had expected that group of drugs to rake in $1.51 billion for the quarter, according to estimates from StreetAccount.  
    Pfizer said its blood thinner Eliquis, which is co-marketed by Bristol Myers Squibb, also helped drive revenue growth during the period. The drug posted $1.83 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 14% from the year-earlier period. 
    That is slightly higher than the $1.67 billion that analysts were expecting, according to StreetAccount. 
    Sales of Eliquis could take a hit in 2026, however, when a new price for the drug goes into effect for certain Medicare patients following negotiations with the federal government. Those price negotiations are a key provision of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act that the pharmaceutical industry fiercely opposes.
    Pfizer’s vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, saw $198 million in revenue for the fourth quarter, down 62% from the year-earlier period. The shot, known as Abrysvo, entered the market during the third quarter of 2023 for seniors and expectant mothers who can pass on protection to their fetuses.
    The company said the decline came after a significant decrease in U.S. vaccination rates among older adults due to current recommendations from advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which narrowed the market opportunity for RSV shots. The advisory panel in June voted to recommend RSV shots to adults 75 and above, but said those 60 to 74 should do so only if they are at higher risk for severe disease.
    Analysts had expected the shot to generate sales of $459.5 million, according to StreetAccount estimates. More

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    The Super Bowl will stream for free on Tubi, a big move for Fox’s streaming strategy

    Fox will stream Super Bowl 59 on its free, ad-supported service Tubi on Sunday.
    This is the first time the Super Bowl will be featured on a platform like Tubi.
    The streamer could get a boost from the big game, and the Super Bowl’s viewership may grow, too.
    Fox has steered clear of investing big money in subscription-based streaming services like its peers.

    Getty Images

    The last time Fox Corp. aired the Super Bowl, it featured buzzy commercials about its streaming service, Tubi.
    This year, the broadcaster is taking a bigger leap with the free, ad-supported streamer. It’s offering football’s biggest game on the service, too.

    “This time it’s less about shocking viewers and more about being in our credibility era — being a streamer that has the chops to stream the Super Bowl,” said Nicole Parlapiano, Tubi’s chief marketing officer.
    Tubi will offer the same feed of the Super Bowl as its broadcast parent, commercials and all. While Fox will still claim the bulk of the viewership, the Super Bowl on Tubi signals that the media parent is betting big on its streamer.
    Tubi will host two feeds as the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday: the main Fox broadcast and the Spanish-language broadcast on Fox Deportes. In addition to the pregame show, there will also be a Tubi-exclusive red carpet show prior to the game for those sports lite fans who may be more interested in the celebrity sightings, halftime show and commercials.
    The Tubi app, which is available on all streaming devices and televisions as well as mobile phones, has been in the middle of a so-called Super Bowl takeover since last week. Past Super Bowl games, halftime shows and other NFL-related content are now available to stream on the service.

    What is Tubi?

    Pavlo Gonchar | Lightrocket | Getty Images

    Legacy media companies have been fighting to make their subscription-based streaming services profitable as consumers flee the traditional TV bundle. Many have used live sports, especially the NFL, to prop up their fledgling streaming services.

    Fox has taken a different streaming approach with Tubi — until now.
    The media giant acquired Tubi in 2020 for roughly $440 million.
    While its competitors made similar acquisitions to build on their larger streaming plans — Paramount Global bought Pluto and Comcast Corp. snapped up Xumo — Fox stuck with Tubi as its primary streaming offering and has so far avoided launching its own subscription-based streamer.
    “Tubi went from virtually nothing four years ago to a meaningful number for us,” said Fox Chief Financial Officer Steve Tomsic during the company’s earnings call with investors in November.
    Unlike the major streaming platforms including Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max or Disney’s Hulu or Disney+, services such as Tubi and Pluto are free offerings solely supported by advertising. The apps offer a guide of channels reminiscent of the traditional TV guide, as well as deep libraries of movies and TV series. Tubi also has original programming, although far less than the likes of Netflix, which spends billions on it. Streamers such as Tubi and Pluto rarely feature live sports.
    Tubi’s viewership and revenue have been slowly gaining ground.
    In 2022, Tubi’s revenue surpassed the advertising revenue generated by Fox Entertainment for the first time. The following year, Tubi for the first time earned a mention in “The Gauge,” Nielsen’s monthly snapshot of total TV and streaming viewership, not including mobile or desktop viewing. At the time, Nielsen announced Tubi had reached 1% of total TV viewing minutes. As of December, Tubi made up 1.7% of viewing minutes, according to Nielsen.
    Tubi was also a source of revenue growth for Fox when the ad market was in a slump for traditional media companies. Fox has said Tubi has benefited from big moments, too, such as the recent election cycle.
    The streamer recently reached 97 million monthly active viewers, and had more than 10 billion hours of streaming in 2024, said CMO Parlapiano. Tubi’s audience, 77% of which doesn’t have cable TV, skews toward millennials, Gen Z and females, with more than 34% between the ages 18 and 34.
    There’s still room for Tubi to grow, CFO Tomsic said during the UBS Global Media and Communications conference in December.
    “If you look at where the asset is, it’s still a bit of an unknown to many consumers, as well as sort of the professional ad buyers and the professional ad agency,” he said at the time.

    Fox’s FAST approach

    A Fox Sports TV camera operator during the week 5 NFL game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Carolina Panthers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Oct. 11, 2020.
    David J. Griffin | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

    While Tubi isn’t yet profitable, it hasn’t been the drain on Fox that subscription-based streaming services have been on its competitors.
    Fox has focused its strategy on sports and news on traditional TV since offloading its entertainment assets to Disney in 2019. In addition to touting its highly rated programming on both fronts, executives often call out Tubi as a bright spot for the company’s growth.
    “[Fox has] avoided the billions of dollars in losses that other media companies have invested building out their own streaming platforms,” said Robert Fishman, an analyst at MoffettNathanson, noting that live sports aren’t typically offered on FAST platforms, the industry jargon for free, ad-supported streaming.
    Offering the Super Bowl on the streaming service gives it a chance to broaden its audience even further.
    “The idea of using the biggest and most powerful sports event is of course going to bring attention to Tubi,” Fishman said.
    Fox did try to broaden its streaming strategy for its sports portfolio when it teamed up with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery to announce the Venu streaming venture. Venu was supposed to offer the full live sports portfolio of each of its owners until it was held up by a lawsuit. Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox recently announced they were abandoning their efforts to launch Venu.
    “After Venu, Fox needs to help investors better understand how consumers are going to see their very high-quality sports assets in a streaming world,” Fishman said.
    In recent quarters, Fox executives have highlighted that much of Tubi’s viewership comes from its on-demand programming rather than the curated channels. Fox reports its quarterly earnings on Tuesday.
    While the Super Bowl may provide some momentum to Tubi, it’s likely a welcome addition for the NFL, too.
    While the league has been wildly successful and media rights have ballooned, it has more recently leaned into streaming as the key to its future viewership and fandom.
    Disclosure: Comcast owns CNBC parent company NBCUniversal. Comcast is a co-owner of Hulu.

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    UBS shares retreat 6% as fourth-quarter profit beat, $3 billion buyback fail to impress

    Swiss banking giant UBS on Tuesday posted $770 million in fourth-quarter net profit, compared with a mean forecast of $886.4 million in a LSEG poll of analysts and with a $483 million estimate in a company-provided estimate.
    The group announced plans to repurchase $1 billion of shares in the first half of 2025, along with up to an additional $2 billion over the second half of this year.

    UBS shares lost ground after the lender’s fourth-quarter results and up to $3 billion share buyback plans failed to impress.
    Switzerland’s largest bank on Tuesday reported net profit attributable to shareholders of $770 million, compared with a $483 million estimate in a company-provided consensus estimate and with a mean forecast of $886.4 million in a LSEG poll of analysts.

    Group revenue over the period hit $11.635 billion, versus analyst expectations of $11.64 billion in a LSEG analyst poll.
    The bank also announced plans to repurchase $1 billion of shares in the first half of 2025, along with up to an additional $2 billion over the second half of this year — but caveated that this target is subject to the lender achieving its “financial targets and the absence of material and immediate changes to the current capital regime in Switzerland.”
    The group further proposes a $0.90-per-share dividend for the 2024 financial year, up 29% year-on-year.
    Shares of UBS opened in positive territory, but were down 5.57% at 9:54 a.m. London time.
    Deutsche Bank analysts noted “solid” fourth-quarter results but signaled that “the divisional mix could have been better,” given the performance of the Personal & Corporate Banking unit — which notched a 8% increase in the fourth quarter, “largely reflecting improvement in other income, partly offset by lower net interest income,” according to UBS.

    “On balance a decent set of results, but perhaps not as good as at first glance,” Citi analysts said, flagging the welcome cost and dividend beat, but stressing that overall cost and cost-income guidance for end-2026 remains unchanged, while the net interest income (NII) “drag is set to continue” into the first quarter.
    Other fourth-quarter highlights included:

    Return on tangible equity hit 3.9%, compared with 7.3% over the third quarter.
    CET 1 capital ratio, a measure of bank solvency, was 14.3%, unchanged from the third quarter.

    Investment banking shone over the fourth quarter, with underlying revenues up 37% year-on-year amid “strong growth” in global banking and global markets performance. The group’s global wealth management division logged a 10% hike in revenues over the fourth-quarter stretch, “largely driven by higher recurring net fee income, a decrease in negative other income and higher transaction-based income.”
    “What for us is always very important in investment bank to match or to get very close to the best in class in those areas where we want to compete,” UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti told CNBC’s Carolin Roth on Tuesday. “So if I look across equities effects, capital markets activities, you know, and also in M&A and leverage finance, we are definitely not only growing our revenues as a function of constructive market conditions, but we are also gaining market share.”
    Addressing the bank’s core wealth management operations, he added, “If you look at return on risk related assets for the wealth management businesses have been expanding, so we had a couple of points of pick up in terms of return on risk related assets.”
    In its outlook for the first quarter, the bank is guiding for a low-to-mid single digit percentage decline in NII in its Global Wealth Management operations, along with a steeper 10% drop in the NII of its Personal & Corporate Banking division.

    Size matters

    After weathering the storm of a turbulent government-backed tie-up with fallen domestic rival Credit Suisse in 2023, UBS said it was on track with its 2024 integration milestones and delivered an additional $700 million in gross cost savings in the fourth quarter. The group had hoped to achieve $7.5 billion out of a total of $13 billion in cost savings by the end of last year, with CEO Sergio Ermotti signaling in a Bloomberg interview last month that redundancies were “inevitable” as part of the process — even as the group aims to rely on voluntary departures.
    UBS on Tuesday said it plans to achieve another $2.5 billion of gross cost saving this year.
    The Swiss belt tightening adds to a picture of broader expense discipline and restructuring across Europe’s banking sectors, as lenders exit a period of high interest rates and claw profitability to keep pace with U.S. peers. On Monday, fellow Swiss bank Julius Baer revealed an additional target of 110 million of Swiss francs ($120 million) in gross savings, while HSBC last week said it is preparing to wind down its M&A and equity capital markets operations in Europe, the U.K. and the U.S.
    Armed with a balance sheet that topped $1.7 trillion in 2023 — roughly double Switzerland’s anticipated economic output last year — UBS has been battling vocal concerns at home that its scale has breached the Swiss government’s comfort, depriving the lender of peers that can absorb it and facing Bern with a steep nationalization price tag, in the event of its failure. Questions now linger over whether UBS will face further capital requirements as a result.
    The Swiss economy has already been backed into a fragile corner by depressed annual inflation — of just 0.6% in December — and a punitively strong Swiss franc, which only gained further ground on Monday as the global tumult resulting from U.S. tariffs pushed jittery investors toward the safe-haven asset.
    “Of course, the ongoing tariff discussions are creating uncertainties, as you can see in the current environment, the market is very sensitive to any positive or negative developments,” Ermotti warned, while stressing some of the volatility has been priced in by markets.
    “Of course, an escalation of tariffs, the tariff wars, would most likely translate into economic consequences in terms of potential recessions or inflationary pressure, which in turn, would force central banks to stop the easing path, and potentially even have to reverse that, would definitely be something that the market [has] not been pricing on, and would lead into higher spikes in volatilities. More