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    Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia forms new investment group called Player 15

    Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia is forming a new sports, entertainment and real estate investment group called Player 15.
    It will house the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and the newly acquired G-League team for the Suns, as well as operations of the Footprint Center arena.
    “It’s about unifying all of these businesses under one brand,” Ishbia told CNBC.

    Mat Ishbia, majority owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns, talks to the media during his introductory press conference at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, on Feb. 8, 2023.
    Barry Gossage | Getty Images

    Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia is forming a new sports, entertainment and real estate investment group as a single unifying place for his investments.
    The new investment or holding company will be called the Player 15 Group, the company announced Wednesday. It will house the National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Suns, the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Mercury and the newly acquired G-League team for the Suns. Up until now, Phoenix was the only NBA franchise without a G-League affiliate.

    “It’s about unifying all of these businesses under one brand,” Ishbia told CNBC.
    “Whether you are a star player, whether you’re the janitor or security guy, everyone’s going to do their role,” he said. “Player 15 represents that mantra that we’re all about the team, all the time.”
    The new investment company will also include operations of the downtown Phoenix Footprint Center arena, where the Phoenix pro teams play, and the $100 million development for a new Suns and Mercury team campus and dedicated Mercury practice facility, announced in October.
    Any future investment opportunities for Ishbia will be done through Player 15, he said.
    The group follows similar one-stop shop investment groups such as Fenway Sports Group, Harris Blitzer Group and The Kraft Group.

    The notion of Player 15 is very personal to Ishbia. Today, at 44 years old, in addition to his role as owner of the Phoenix Suns and Mercury basketball teams, he’s the CEO of mortgage lender United Wholesale Mortgage and has a net worth of more than $8 billion, according to Forbes.
    But before all of that, he wore a No. 15 jersey while playing basketball for Michigan State University, where he was the 15th player on the roster, referring to the last guy to make the team. He says he owes his success to grit and tenacity.
    “I was the hardest working guy to be the worst on the team,” he said.

    Mateen Cleaves, #12, center, of Michigan State, is mobbed by his teammates after defeating Florida 89-76 to win the final round of the NCAA Men’s Final Four at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana.
    Jed Jacobsohn | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images

    Ishbia went on to win a national title with the Spartans championship team in 2000, averaging just a few minutes per game.
    Ishbia says Player 15 is a tribute to the player who gets the last spot not because of their individual talent, but because of what they bring to the team.
    “It has really defined everything I was about,” Ishbia said.
    It has been just about a year since Ishbia agreed to buy the Suns and Mercury for a record $4 billion from embattled owner Robert Sarver.
    In that time, he has made dramatic changes to everything from the front office to the team roster, and even the footprint in Phoenix. Those changes include the hiring of a new CEO, Josh Bartelstein; bringing NBA superstar Kevin Durant to the Suns; and making investments in state-of-the-art facilities.
    “I couldn’t be happier and excited about what we’re doing this year both on and off the court,” Ishbia said, adding that the Phoenix teams have already proved to be a lucrative investment. “Over the next 10 to 15 years, do I think NBA valuations will double again? … The answer is absolutely.”Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

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    Done with diamonds? Gemstone engagement rings are capturing hearts and market share

    U.S. consumers will spend a record $6.4 billion on jewelry around Valentine’s Day this year, according to Ankur Daga, founder and CEO of fine jewelry e-commerce company Angara.
    A decade ago, about 5% of engagement rings were colored gemstones, according to Daga. Now, it’s more than 15%.
    The shift toward colored gemstones could be a product of the rise in lab-grown diamonds or a reflection of the customer who wants a more distinctive ring.

    Luxury precious rings in a row on display in a jewelry store at a high-end shopping mall.
    Craig Hastings | Moment | Getty Images

    Roses are red, violets are blue, gemstones are hot and prices are too.
    Valentine’s Day has long been one of the most popular days of the year for jewelry and engagements. U.S. consumers will spend a record $6.4 billion on jewelry around Valentine’s Day this year, representing 10% of the total annual spend, according to Ankur Daga, founder and CEO of fine jewelry e-commerce company Angara.

    This year, the contents of those ring boxes may look a little different from the traditional, natural diamond solitaire.
    “We’re seeing a shift in much larger center stone engagement rings, primarily as a result of lab-grown diamonds, and sapphires and rubies tend to be very hot,” Daga said.
    A decade ago, about 5% of engagement rings were colored gemstones, according to Daga. Now, it’s more than 15%.
    More than 20% of people would upgrade their engagement ring to a colored gemstone — such as an emerald, yellow diamond or pink sapphire, for example — if they could, Daga said, citing results of a survey Angara commissioned of more than 2,000 people.

    Industry giant Signet Jewelers is seeing the same gemstone trend in the wedding category as well as in fashion pieces. It’s seeing particular pickup in sapphire, morganite, London Blue Topaz, aquamarine and green quartz stones, according to Signet, which sells jewelry under brand banners including Zales, Jared and Kay.

    Beyond engagement rings, Signet said amethyst and ruby are always popular stones for the Valentine’s season. Amethyst is the birthstone for February, and ruby red evokes the color of love.
    But the shift toward colored gemstones could also be a reflection of the customer who wants a “more distinctive piece,” said Brilliant Earth CEO Beth Gerstein. The company, which specializes in lab-grown diamonds, also offers gemstones that span the color spectrum.
    “We also see gemstones resonating because people love the personalized approach of birthstones,” Gerstein said, adding that gemstones, in general, “cater well to a Gen Z audience, as we know they want something that is unique to them and reflective of their personal style.”

    Gemstones seen displayed for sale during an event.
    Peerapon Boonyakiat | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

    Supply pressures

    Demand for gemstones is increasing just as supply of many natural gemstones is getting tighter.
    Rubies and select exotic stones have become more expensive and difficult to source due to quality concerns and limits on the regions that stones can be sourced from. Those challenges have given rise to lookalike stones such as garnet in place of rubies, for example.
    “There’s only really one mine in Madagascar that produces the bulk of the world’s rubies,” said Daga of Angara. “If we look at sapphire, Burmese and Kashmir mines are now shut so you really have Sri Lanka and Madagascar as the two primary providers. Even on the emerald side, we see that Zambia and Colombian emerald supply is much harder to come by, at much higher prices, than in the past.”

    Hands holding a diamond ring with a ruby.
    Solidcolours | Istock | Getty Images

    Wholesale prices for sapphire gemstones are up 12% per year over the past three years, Daga said. For emeralds, its 13%, and rubies, 17%.
    “Some of the more niche stones, like pearls and opals, are up over 20% a year. Tourmalines are up all the way up to 36% a year,” he said.
    By comparison, the compound annual growth rate of the S&P 500 stock index is 10.5% over the past three years.
    Daga argues the shift in supply and demand of gemstones — and consumers’ general desire for color in many luxury goods, such as gemstone bezels on Rolex watches or brightly colored Ferraris — makes the stones a more attractive asset class.
    “If you look at Bonhams, Sotheby’s and Christie’s auctions very recently, over half of the gemstone lots have sold over the high estimates, and there’s quite a few lots that are selling three times plus of the high estimate,” Daga pointed out. “We’re seeing this transition to investors really looking at color as an inflation hedge and as a growth vehicle for investments.”

    A 25.86 carat vivid yellow diamond is displayed at an auction preview in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, on Dec. 19, 2023.
    Costfoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

    While the market for diamonds has moved dramatically over the past three years toward lab-grown alternatives — representing 50% of diamond engagement rings purchased last year, according to Daga — the same isn’t yet true for colored gemstones.
    Roughly 75% of customers shopping for colored gemstones still prefer natural, he said.
    “While [lab-grown gemstones] are chemically, physically and optically identical to natural, I think the key difference is they look so perfect as a result where most colored gemstones have inclusions,” Daga explained, using an industry term for what the casual admirer might call imperfections. “Those inclusions are really what make them pretty or will make them unique and different.”
    — CNBC’s Cait Freda contributed to this report.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More

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    ‘Anyone But You’ could spark a rom-com renaissance in Hollywood

    Sony’s “Anyone But You” was a slow burn at the box office, generating just $6 million during its opening weekend in December.
    Seven weeks later, the romantic comedy has tallied $151.8 million globally, with $76.2 million of that haul coming from domestic theaters.
    Romantic comedies fell out of favor with Hollywood studios looking to chase big box-office returns from superhero-based blockbusters.
    “Anyone But You” proves romantic comedies still have a place in the theatrical space and audiences will turn up for them.

    Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney star in Sony’s “Anyone But You.”

    Released just before the crowded Christmas movie season, Sony’s “Anyone But You” seemed destined to be anything but a box-office hit — especially after it tallied just $6 million in ticket sales during its opening weekend.
    However, the film’s box-office success was as much of a slow burn as the romance between its main characters played by rising stars Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney.

    In the seven weeks since, the romantic comedy has tallied $170 million globally, including $80 million from domestic theaters, according to data from Comscore. The film had a reported budget of just $25 million.
    A sleeper hit at the box office, the film is a “healthy sign” for the romantic comedy genre and other mid-budget Hollywood flicks, said Scott Meslow, author of “From Hollywood With Love: The Rise and Fall (and Rise Again) of the Romantic Comedy.” But it remains to be seen if other rom-coms can repeat its success.
    As studios chased big-budget superhero flicks after the success of Marvel’s interconnected cinematic universe, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy and DC Studios’ “Man of Steel,” the rom-com found itself on the cutting room floor — and then as padding for streaming services.

    Between 2004 and 2010, Hollywood consistently released between 15 and 25 romantic comedy or romance films each year. But from 2011 through last year, there were less than 15 new rom-com or romance releases per year, with most years falling below 10.
    Meslow said there was no rom-com “kill shot,” a film or series of films that sparked the decline in theatrical releases of the genre.

    Instead, it came after media companies changed their priorities.
    “Studios are, at the end of the day, businesses,” Will Gluck, the writer-director of “Anything But You” and the filmmaker behind “Easy A” and “Friends with Benefits,” told CNBC. “So, if they start to see a certain thing is successful, they’re going to try to replicate that success. So, I don’t think there’s an inherent bias against rom-coms and comedies.”
    Studios saw action or superhero movies with $200 million budgets and billions in box-office returns as a priority over smaller-budget films, which may have been profitable, but less so in comparison. Now, as superheroes fall out of favor and Wall Street wants to see profitability from direct-to-consumer streaming platforms, the romantic comedy genre is poised for a comeback.
    Gluck’s “Anyone But You” proves audiences will still turn up for romantic comedies in theaters.
    The film’s performance builds on the success of two rom-coms from 2022. Paramount’s “The Lost City” generated nearly $200 million at the global box office on a budget of under $75 million. Universal’s “Ticket to Paradise” snared nearly $170 million globally on a budget of $60 million.
    While “Anyone But You” had a slow start at the box office, ticket sales increased in both its second and third weekend in theaters. And when sales started to dip, they fell just 27% or less in each of the next five weeks. Typically, films will see sales drop around 50% to 70% in each week after their opening weekend.
    Gluck attributes much of the film’s box-office popularity to word of mouth and the power of TikTok.
    In the wake of its release, users on the social media platform began making short videos of themselves singing and dancing to Natasha Bedingfield’s 2004 single “Unwritten.” The song is featured in the film, and cast and crew are seen singing and dancing to it during the final credits.
    “It would not surprise me at all if this became a textbook case of modern Hollywood marketing,” Meslow said. “It’s really harnessed TikTok and the stars’ presence on it better than probably any movie ever released.”
    Hollywood will now find out if “Anyone But You” is a unicorn or a replicable theatrical strategy. The film benefited from several key factors, including a blockbuster-free January and limited direct competition.
    But the industry is already leaning into a strategy that relies on potential sleeper hits like “Anyone But You.”
    Major studios have pledged to bring more mid-budget films back to theaters. Those movies are able to fill the gaps between large tentpole features and provide consistent box-office dollars. More films also means more chances for studios to advertise future releases to the public.
    While some films will still be released only on streaming platforms, Hollywood has rediscovered the importance of theatrical as part of overall downstream revenue. A film’s debut in theaters creates buzz and a sense of quality that follows it through on-demand sales and onto streaming platforms.
    Notably, Sony’s “No Hard Feelings,” which tallied $83.8 million globally in 2023 on a budget of $45 million, became a top-streaming film on Netflix when it was released on the platform in October.
    “Anyone But You” is destined for Netflix after it wraps up its theatrical run, as part of a streaming distribution deal with Sony signed in 2021.
    Gluck, who enjoys taking on a wide variety of projects, expects he will continue to write and direct films like “Anyone But You” going forward.
    “I think I’d rather take a gamble on a mid- to low-budget movie than $200 million dollar movie,” Gluck said. “Because my whole career has been mid-level budget movies. But to me, the fun part is always outperforming. It is always great when the expectations are low … it’s just it’s really fun to be written off and outperform.”
    Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. More

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    As London loses another listing, analysts are wary of writing off the UK capital

    TUI Chief Financial Officer Mathias Kiep told CNBC on Wednesday that investors had asked the company to reconsider its dual listing amid a shift in liquidity from London to Frankfurt.
    London has also suffered a number of de-listings and high-profile IPO snubs over the past year, with British semiconductor design firm Arm notably opting to list on New York’s Nasdaq.

    The offices of London Stock Exchange Group Plc, right, in Paternoster Square in the City of London, UK.
    Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    LONDON — TUI became the latest company to ditch its share listing in London, as shareholders voted overwhelmingly for the German travel giant to list solely in Frankfurt.
    The Hannover-headquartered group’s investors voted 98.35% in favor of moving the portion of its shares traded on the London Stock Exchange’s FTSE 250 to Frankfurt’s MDAX, with the transfer expected to occur on June 24.

    TUI has a dual listing between the two cities, but said in a statement Tuesday that the company was approached by various investors last year questioning whether this was still optimal, given changes in the ownership structure of the company’s shares and a “marked shift in liquidity from the U.K. to Germany.”
    Around 77% of transactions in TUI shares are currently settled via Germany, with the U.K. now accounting for less than a quarter.
    “A lot of the liquidity, the volumes, already for quite some time went from the trading line in the U.K. to the trading line in Frankfurt, so on the back of this, we were actually approached last summer by shareholders,” TUI Chief Financial Officer Mathias Kiep told CNBC on Wednesday.

    “A lot of comments were about if we were to go to Frankfurt, one, liquidity would be in one pool only. The other point was that a lot said ‘then you are more prominent in the MDAX than where you are today in the FTSE 250,’ and there were also some comments that [the U.K.] could be a more challenging market environment today.”
    U.K. stocks are trading at a considerable discount to the rest of Europe, having suffered an investor flight in recent years. The country’s blue chip FTSE 100 index is down almost 5% over the past year, compared to a 5% increase for the pan-European Stoxx 600.

    London still a contender
    London has also suffered a number of de-listings and high-profile IPO snubs over the past year. The number of applications to list in the Square Mile fell to a six-year low in 2023, according to data obtained by investment platform XTB late last year and reported in several U.K. media outlets.
    British semiconductor and software design firm Arm, owned by Japanese investor SoftBank, notably opted last year to list on New York’s Nasdaq, along with a number of other tech companies, despite efforts from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government to persuade the company to list in London.

    “It is very disappointing to see another company leave the Main Market of the LSE, following multiple takeovers and de-listings last year, and with companies such as Arm turning to NASDAQ for IPO,” Melanie Wadsworth, partner at international law firm Faegre Drinker, told CNBC on Tuesday.
    “However, I can understand the rationale behind this proposal, given that TUI’s headquarters is in Germany and only approximately 22% of its trading in 2023 took place via the U.K. market. I would therefore hope this decision is driven by factors specific to TUI, rather than being indicative of a trend.”
    Tom Bacon, partner at global law firm BCLP, said it was understandable for some to point to the TUI de-listing as another example of companies moving away from London, but agreed that it was important to consider the specifics of TUI’s case.
    “Much like other recent examples, there are specific reasons for this decision related to the legacy merger of TUI Travel plc and TUI AG in 2014,” Bacon said via email Tuesday.
    “On various metrics, London remains the largest exchange in Europe and has actually faired better in 2023 in terms of activity than the other European exchanges like Frankfurt, Paris and Amsterdam.” More

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    Pilots got their payday. Now flights attendants are pushing airlines for higher wages

    Flight attendants from United, Alaska, American and Southwest picketed at major airports on Tuesday.
    Flight attendant unions are seeking pay increases and compensation for work during boarding.
    Pilots at major carriers have won large raises, partly due to a shortage of aviators in the post-pandemic travel boom.

    CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – JANUARY 24: American Airlines workers picket at O’Hare International Airport on January 24, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. The workers, mostly flight attendants with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), were picketing to demand better working conditions as their contract negotiations continue. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
    Scott Olson | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    Airline pilots won pay raises worth billions of dollars in new labor deals last year. Flight attendants are now pushing for similar improvements.
    Flight attendants from United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines and others picketed Tuesday at dozens of airports around the U.S., demanding higher wages and a better quality of life.

    “We have been in a period of austerity for 20 years, and it’s time the industry paid up,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, which represents cabin crews at United, Spirit, Frontier and others.
    The demonstrations mark the first mass pickets jointly held by the labor unions, which represent more than 100,000 flight attendants at U.S. airlines between them. New labor deals would come not just on the heels of pilot contracts, but also pay raises won by autoworkers, Hollywood writers and at major companies like UPS.
    Flight attendants at most of the largest airlines haven’t received pay increases since before the pandemic, which paused contract talks, while the cost of living rose sharply in recent years.
    American and other carriers told CNBC they are optimistic that they will reach agreements with their flight attendants in the coming months.
    Labor costs and fuel account for airlines’ two largest expenses.

    Stagnant pay

    Flight attendants make an average of about $67,000 a year, according to the Labor Department, though pay can range from around $38,000 at the bottom 10th percentile to about $97,000 at the top.
    Inflation has been “the most difficult for our new hires,” said Julie Hedrick, national president of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents about 27,000 flight attendants at American. “We want [American] to come to the table and recognize what we’ve done to return this airline to profitability.”
    Flight attendants for the most part are paid when the aircraft door is closed. Unions are largely pushing for either ground pay or boarding pay to compensate flight attendants for their work before takeoff.
    Delta Air Lines, whose flight attendants aren’t unionized, started paying flight attendants for boarding at half their hourly rate in 2022. (The Association of Flight Attendants started a new union drive there before the pandemic.)

    Alaska Airlines flight attendants gather at a picket line protesting for landmark changes in their new contracts, currently under negotiation, at San Francisco International Airport, in San Francisco, California, U.S. December 19, 2023.
    Carlos Barria | Reuters

    Strike threat

    During the pandemic, after most travel resumed, cabin crew members faced increased job stress from packed planes, reduced staffing, overloaded schedules and at times, unruly travelers, according to the unions.
    “It doesn’t surprise me that they’re unhappy,” said Conor Cunningham, an airline equities analyst at Melius Research. “Remember what happened in the pandemic: They had to be the police of the sky. They got hit with inflation just like all of us and their wages didn’t increase with it.”
    Despite the picketing Tuesday, the aviation industry is unlikely to see strikes or work stoppages like those seen in the auto and entertainment industries last year.
    Flight attendants’ and other aviation workers’ contracts don’t have expiration dates, and would require federal release to go on strike. Still, several flight attendant unions have approved strike authorizations, and all four carriers are negotiating with their flight attendants’ unions through federal mediation.
    Southwest Airlines flight attendants rejected a tentative agreement in a vote last year.
    “We reached an industry-leading Tentative Agreement with TWU 556 in October 2023 and are scheduled to meet next week with the union and the National Mediation Board to continue working toward an agreement that benefits our Flight Attendants and Southwest,” the airline said in a statement.
    Correction: Southwest Airlines flight attendants rejected a tentative agreement in a vote last year. An earlier version misstated the timing.
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    Airfare is down, but here’s why that may not last for long

    Airfare fell 6.4% January from a year ago, according to the latest inflation read.
    Flight tracker Hopper said it expects “good deal” domestic fares, which it defines as the bottom 10th percentile of available fares, to average $276 in February.
    But airlines are facing capacity constraints from suppliers, congested airports and recent engine recalls.

    Travelers at LaGuardia Airport in New York on June 30, 2022.
    Leslie Josephs | CNBC

    Airfare fell 6.4% in January from a year earlier, the Labor Department said in its monthly consumer price index report on Tuesday. It might not last too long.
    January is typically a slower month for travel as customers take fewer trips following the New Year’s holiday. Domestic travel usually picks up during school breaks and spring holidays.

    The drop comes even though carriers are facing capacity constraints this year, in part because of an engine recall from Pratt & Whitney, congested airspace and delayed aircraft deliveries. Meanwhile, airline executives have forecast robust demand this year, even in the domestic market, which has faced more competition from international destinations that opened up in the wake of the pandemic. Those trends could help lift fares.
    “The capacity decline is related to artificial constraints due to aircraft delivery delays and GTF engine issues,” TD Cowen airline analyst Helane Becker said in a note Friday. “These are not going away any time soon. Since demand remains above year ago levels, and above 2019 levels, we expect improvement in pricing.”
    Airlines including Southwest and Alaska have moderated their capacity growth forecasts for the year. In 2023, airlines had been forced to discount flights, particularly in off-peak periods, after the industry added capacity.
    Flight tracker Hopper said it expects “good deal” domestic fares — which it defines as the bottom 10th percentile of available fares — to average $276 in February. The company expects the average to rise to $302 in May, a more than 9% increase from its February forecast.
    Delta CEO Ed Bastian said aircraft repairs and the parts supply chain are the biggest areas of the business that haven’t returned to pre-pandemic levels.

    “All the suppliers in our industry lost a tremendous amount of experience due to the pandemic, and it’s taking time to get that back,” Bastian said on a Jan. 12 earnings call.
    The grounding last month of Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after a midflight blowout of a fuselage panel caused capacity constraints for Alaska and United, the only two U.S. operators of the aircraft, though the planes returned to service in late January.
    The Federal Aviation Administration has said it will stop Boeing from increasing Max production as it reviews the plane maker’s manufacturing lines.
    Alaska said it expected capacity to grow from 3% to 5% this year when releasing its quarterly earnings last month but, “given the grounding, and the potential for future delivery delays, the Company expects capacity growth to be at or below the lower end of this range.”
    United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said on a Jan. 23 earnings call that he expects a challenging environment in 2024 as the industry deals with hiring constraints, maintenance catch-up and supply chain issues.
    “It turned out to be even more challenging than we thought. …Those operating environment challenges led directly to industry capacity plans, including our own, coming down 3 points on average as carriers adapted to the new operating environment,” Kirby said.
    Demand for air traffic has continued to rebound from its pandemic lows. Total global traffic reached 94% of its pre-pandemic level in 2023, according to the International Air Transport Association.
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    Hasbro reports 20% revenue drop, issues downbeat 2024 outlook

    Toy company Hasbro reported a more than 20% hit to its fourth-quarter revenue and issued a downbeat 2024 forecast Tuesday morning.
    For the last three months of 2023, Hasbro lost $1.06 billion, or $7.64 per share, drastically wider than the year-ago losses.
    The company now expects to cut $750 million in costs by the end of 2025.

    A monopoly game sits under the Hasbro logo during Brand Licensing Europe at ExCeL in London, England, on Nov. 18, 2021.
    John Keeble | Getty Images

    Toy company Hasbro reported a more than 20% hit to its fourth-quarter revenue and issued a downbeat 2024 forecast Tuesday.
    Here’s how Hasbro performed in the fourth quarter compared with estimates from LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

    Earnings per share: 38 cents vs. 66 cents expected
    Revenue: $1.29 billion vs. $1.36 billion expected

    For the last three months of 2023, Hasbro lost $1.06 billion, or $7.64 per share, drastically wider than losses of $128.9 million, or 93 cents, a year earlier. After major adjustments related to goodwill and intangible assets, the company reported adjusted earnings per share of 38 cents, still well below analysts’ estimates.
    For the full year 2023, revenue declined 15% to $1.29 billion, including double-digit sales drops in its consumer products and entertainment segments. Hasbro did see an increase in revenue, however, in its Wizards of the Coast and digital gaming segment, primarily due to licensing revenue related to Baldur’s Gate 3 and Monopoly Go.
    The company reduced its inventory by more than 50% compared to the year prior.
    “2023 was a productive year for Hasbro, although not without some challenges,” Chief Financial Officer Gina Goetter said in a statement. “As we navigated the current environment, we took aggressive steps to optimize our inventory, reset the cost structure, and sharpen our portfolio focus on play with the eOne film and TV divestiture.”
    Hasbro expects further revenue declines in the year ahead. In the Wizards of the Coast segment, the company expects a 3% to 5% revenue dip, coupled with a 7% to 12% hit to the consumer products business. The company expects overall adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $925 million to $1 billion.

    The company now expects to cut $750 million in costs by the end of 2025, up from a previous target of $350 million to $400 million.
    In December, the toymaker laid off 1,100 employees after it had already cut 15% of its workforce earlier in the year. More

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    Molson Coors looks to lock in market share gains as consumers shift away from Bud Light

    Coors Light and Miller Lite’s parent company reported a quarterly earnings beat as it returned to profit and grew its market share.
    Molson Coors grew its marketing and administrative spending nearly 19% in the fourth quarter as the company looked to maintain those gains.
    CEO Gavin Hattersley said he remains confident that the shifts in the U.S. beer industry will be “permanent.”

    A Miller Lite and a Coors Light is displayed in Chicago on Oct. 9, 2007.
    Scott Olson | Getty Images

    Brewer Molson Coors said on Tuesday that it expects to maintain its market share gains in the year ahead.
    The company, which makes Coors Light and Miller Lite, reported strong fourth-quarter earnings Tuesday as net sales for 2023 grew 9.3%. Those revenue gains were in large part tied to consumers migrating away from AB InBev’s Bud Light products after boycotts began last April.

    “Molson Coors was well positioned to benefit from the significant shifts in consumer purchasing habits,” the company said in its earnings release, though it didn’t directly refer to the boycotts.
    It was a return to profit for Molson Coors from a loss a year ago. The company reported net income of $103.3 million, or 48 cents a share, for the quarter, compared with a loss of $590.5 million, or $2.73 a share, during the same period last year.
    Molson said its underlying earnings were $1.19 per share, which outpaced the $1.12 per share analysts were expecting, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv.
    CEO Gavin Hattersley shared his confidence in the company’s plan to maintain its leadership in the beer category on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
    “The gains we’ve seen in our core brands have been consistent for over nine months,” Hattersley said. “We’re growing in every region, every channel, with every major customer in the United States, and at this point, we believe that the shifts in the U.S. beer industry are permanent.”

    Molson also invested a significant amount of capital in the fourth quarter, spending nearly 19% more on marketing and administrative costs to achieve those gains.
    The company was among the advertisers that spent big on Sunday’s Super Bowl game, with a commercial featuring LL Cool J and the icy Coors Light train. For the second consecutive year, the average cost of a 30-second ad spot was $7 million.
    “We invested strongly behind our brands, increasing marketing spend over $50 million in the quarter,” said Greg Tierney, vice president of financial planning and analysis and investor relations, on the company’s earnings call. “Our focus was on retaining our existing drinkers and attracting new ones.”
    Some analysts on the earnings call remained skeptical that Molson’s gains from the Bud Light boycott would be sustainable. The stock fell nearly 3% Tuesday despite the rosy outlook. But others think Hattersley’s strategy will pay off for investors.
    TD Cowen analyst Robert Moskow said in a note to investors that the company “will hold on to the majority of the share they picked up from the Bud Light boycotts.”
    Ariel Investments, which has invested in Molson Coors since 2018, also remains confident in the stock’s performance.
    “The core brands were growing dollar share even before the Bud Light controversy,” said Tim Fidler, Ariel Investments’ portfolio manager.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More