Raphael Stevens

Starboard Value has filed an advisory shareholder resolution to dissolve News Corp’s dual-class share structure, according to people familiar with the matter.
It is the latest challenge by the activist fund run by Jeff Smith, after a push last year for News Corp to spin out its real estate businesses.
The Murdoch family is currently embroiled in a legal battle over the fate of the family’s 14% News Corp stake, according to media reports.

Rupert Murdoch at his annual party at Spencer House, St James’ Place in London. Picture date: Thursday June 22, 2023.
Victoria Jones | Pa Images | Getty Images

Activist investor Starboard Value has moved to dissolve News Corp’s dual-class share structure, a challenge to the Murdoch family’s control over the Wall Street Journal parent, according to people familiar with the matter.
The push was made via a non-binding shareholder resolution, said the people. News Corp’s structure as of September gave Rupert Murdoch control over around 40% of the company’s voting stock.

Starboard owns roughly 2% of the company’s Class A shares, according to FactSet data. Managing member Jeff Smith told CNBC last year the firm was pushing for News Corp to spin out its real estate assets, including an interest in REA Group of Australia.
Smith became vocal last year regarding the dual class structure: “There have been votes to declassify, it’s something to consider as well. But there are easier paths to create a lot of value.”
Murdoch is also in the midst of a legal battle to give his son Lachlan Murdoch control over the family trust which holds the News Corp stake, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have reported.
Last November, Rupert Murdoch, 93, stepped down as chair of the board at both News Corp and Fox Corp. He is now chair emeritus of each company. His son, Lachlan Murdoch, is the sole chair of News Corp., and continued his role as Fox Corp.’s executive chair and CEO.
News Corp shares were down about 1% for the day, gaining slightly when Reuters first reported the news of Starboard’s push. Starboard has mounted campaigns at companies including Autodesk, Match Group and Salesforce.

News Corp, in addition to its ownership of the Journal, also owns The Sun and publisher HarperCollins.
Representatives for News Corp and Starboard did not immediately return requests for comment. More

At least a half-dozen companies have hit the $1 trillion mark.
Next up could be the first individual person to become a trillionaire.
More than 100 years after the first billionaire, the first trillionaire could well be crowned in the next decade.

Combination showing Elon Musk (L), Gautam Adani (C), and Jensen Huang (R)

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.
On Sept. 29, 1916, newspapers across the country announced a wealth milestone once thought to be unreachable: the world’s first billionaire.

“Standard (Oil) at $2,014 makes its head a billionaire,” blared The New York Times headline, adding that Standard Oil’s soaring share price “makes John D. Rockefeller, founder and largest shareholder, almost certainly a billionaire.”
More than a century after the first U.S. billionaire (in measurable dollar terms), the question of who will be first to reach the trillionaire mark continues to fascinate. At least a half-dozen companies have done it, most recently Berkshire Hathaway, which topped $1 trillion just before Warren Buffett’s 94th birthday. Nvidia is now at $2.6 trillion, having hit the 13-figure club last year.
And what about individuals? According to a new report from Informa Connect Academy, which predicts trillionaire status based on average annual growth rate in wealth, Tesla CEO Elon Musk will likely be the first trillionaire.
Musk is currently the world’s richest person, with $251 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Connect Academy forecasts Musk will become a trillionaire sometime in 2027, assuming that his wealth continues to grow at an annual average rate of 110%.
The second to reach trillionaire status, according to the report, will be India’s Gautam Adani, founder of the Adani Group conglomerate. If Adani maintains his recent annual growth rate of 123%, the report says he will be a trillionaire in 2028.

Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, who has seen his wealth skyrocket from $3 billion to more than $90 billion in five years, would become a trillionaire by 2028, according to the report. His wealth would have to continue growing at an average annual rate of 112%. Nvidia’s stock is already up about 115% this year, after more than tripling last year.

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Fourth on the list is Indonesia’s Prajogo Pangestu, founder of the Indonesian energy and mining conglomerate Barito Pacific. The report predicts Pangestu could reach trillionaire status by 2028.
Rounding out the top five would be LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault, who is currently the world’s third-richest person, with just under $200 billion. The report has the luxury king becoming a trillionaire sometime in 2030, along with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Some top billionaires who seem like strong candidates to quickly reach the four-comma club don’t make the top 10. Jeff Bezos, currently the world’s second-richest person, with $200 billion, according to Bloomberg, is listed at No. 12, and wouldn’t become a trillionaire until 2036. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the Google founders, are also slated to wait 12 years to become trillionaires — although artificial intelligence may accelerate their rise.
Granted, wealth-watchers have been predicting the first trillionaire for years. And the stocks of Tesla, Nvidia and LVMH may not go up as fast in the next five years as they did in the past five.
Yet more than 100 years after the first billionaire, the first trillionaire could well be crowned in the next decade.

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The NFL is having its first-ever game in South America on Friday as the Green Bay Packers take on the Philadelphia Eagles.
The league will play five games abroad this season, with eight expected by 2025, as it looks to increase its revenue sources.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has prioritized international growth for the league.

The National Football League kicks off its first-ever game in South America on Friday night, as the league pushes to grow its footprint overseas.
As the NFL enters the Southern Hemisphere, professional football has never been stronger financially. Last season, the league pulled in $13 billion in revenue, and the average team is worth about $6.5 billion, according to CNBC’s Official NFL Team Valuations.

But as the league tries to sustain its growth, international markets are a priority.
Ahead of the league’s inaugural game in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the league aims to become an international sports property. This season, the NFL will play five games abroad in Europe and South America. By next season, the league will play eight games overseas.
“The reality is, when we bring our brand of our regular season games here, it creates a whole new environment,” Goodell said. “It creates a spark and everything seems to really take off after that point in time,” he added.
Goodell said it has been a learning process playing games abroad, as the league sees how players handle long flights and different time zones.
“When [the players] get back to their home cities tomorrow, they’ll be on a similar time zone, and eight days before their next game,” Goodell said. Brazil is one hour ahead of the Eastern time zone but an 11-hour trip. “This is all part of learning how many games we can play,” Goodell said.

As the NFL plays in places such as London, Germany and Brazil, it not only creates new fans, but it also helps grow sponsorship opportunities and deepen the league’s relationships with international media partners.
The league had two sponsorship deals in Germany before it played games there starting in 2022. Today, the NFL has 15 agreements.
The league has also allowed teams to build brand awareness and fans abroad through its Global Markets Program.
This program, currently in its third year, gives teams marketing rights in other countries. This season, 25 franchises are participating in the program across 19 international markets.
Among the deals, the Miami Dolphins have marketing rights in Argentina and Colombia; the Los Angeles Rams have rights in South Korea and Japan; and the Seattle Seahawks have rights in Canada and are expanding to Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
Goodell also spoke to CNBC about the NFL’s current media rights landscape, and said the addition of streaming options has benefited the league and its fans.
The NFL has broadcast deals with Fox, Disney’s ESPN and ABC, NBCUniversal and CBS, in addition to streamers YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and Peacock, all worth an estimated $11.4 billion in 2024. Some games are streaming exclusive, including Friday’s matchup in Brazil, which will air on NBC’s Peacock platform.
“The bottom line is you have to go where your fans are and our fans are moving onto steaming platforms,” he said.
Yet, Goodell said 85% of NFL games are still available on broadcast television.
“We really think that our policy are really beneficial to our growth, to supporting more people watching NFL football and the fans’ enjoyment of it,” he added.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.

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U.S. airlines have eased, if not halted, adding new jobs after a massive hiring spree.
Airlines shed thousands of employees in the pandemic and then scrambled to staff up when travel demand snapped back.
But now carriers are facing delivery delays from Boeing and Airbus, engine issues, and tempered growth plans.

A pilot performs a walkaround before a United Airlines flight
Leslie Josephs/CNBC

U.S. passenger airlines have added nearly 194,000 jobs since 2021 as companies went on a hiring spree after spending months in a pandemic slump, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Now the industry is cooling its hiring.
Airlines are close to their staffing needs but the slowdown is also coming in part because they’re facing a slew of challenges.

A glut of flights in the U.S. has pushed down fares and eaten into airlines’ profits. Demand growth has moderated. Airplanes are arriving late from Boeing and Airbus, prompting airlines to rethink their expansions. Engines are in short supply. Some carriers are deferring airplane deliveries altogether. And labor costs have climbed after groups like pilots and mechanics signed new contracts with big raises, their first in years.
Annual pay for a three-year first officer on midsized equipment at U.S. airlines averaged $170,586 in March, up from $135,896 in 2019, according to Kit Darby, an aviation consultant who specializes in pilot pay.

Arrows pointing outwards

Since 2019, costs at U.S. carriers have climbed by double-digit percentages. Stripping out fuel and net interest expenses, they’ll be up about 20% at American Airlines this year and around 28% higher at both United Airlines and Delta Air Lines from 2019, according to Raymond James airline analyst Savanthi Syth.
It is more pronounced at low-cost airlines. Southwest Airlines’ costs will likely be up 32%, JetBlue Airways’ up nearly 35% and Spirit Airlines will see a rise of almost 39% over the same period, estimated Syth, whose data is adjusted for flight length.

Easing hiring

Friday’s U.S. jobs report showed air transportation employment in August roughly in line with July’s.

But there have been pullbacks. In the most severe case, Spirit Airlines furloughed 186 pilots this month, their union said Sunday, as the carrier’s losses have grown in the wake of a failed acquisition by JetBlue Airways, a Pratt & Whitney engine recall and an oversupplied U.S. market. Last year, even before the merger fell apart, it offered staff buyouts.
Other airlines are easing hiring or finding other ways to cut costs.
Frontier Airlines is still hiring pilots but said it will offer voluntary leaves of absence in September and October, when demand generally dips after the summer holidays but before Thanksgiving and winter breaks. A spokeswoman for the carrier said it offers those leaves “periodically” for “when our staffing levels exceed our planned flight schedules.”
Southwest Airlines expects to end the year with 2,000 fewer employees compared with 2023 and earlier this year said it would halt hiring classes for work groups including pilots and flight attendants. CFO Tammy Romo said on an earnings call in July that the company’s headcount would likely be down again in 2025 as attrition levels exceed the Dallas-based carrier’s “controlled hiring levels.”
United Airlines, which paused pilot hiring in May and June, citing late-arriving planes from Boeing, said it plans to add 10,000 people this year, down from 15,000 in both 2022 and 2023. It plans to hire 1,600 pilots, down from more than 2,300 last year.
It’s a departure from the previous years when airlines couldn’t hire employees fast enough. U.S. airlines are usually adding pilots constantly since they are required to retire at age 65 by federal law.

Arrows pointing outwards

Airlines shed tens of thousands of employees in 2020 to try to stem record losses. Packages of more than $50 billion in taxpayer aid that were passed to get the industry through its worst-ever crisis prohibited layoffs, but many employees took carriers up on their repeated offers of buyouts and voluntary leaves.
Then, travel demand snapped back faster than expected, climbing in earnest in 2022 and leaving airlines without experienced employees like customer service agents. It also led to the worst pilot shortage in recent memory.

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In response, companies — especially regional carriers — offered big bonuses to attract pilots.
But times have changed. Even air freight giants were competing for pilots in recent years but demand has waned as FedEx and UPS look to cut costs.
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said in an investor presentation in March that the carrier added about 2,300 pilots last year and that it expects to hire about 1,300 this year.

Arrows pointing outwards

“We will be hiring for the foreseeable future at levels like that,” he said at the time.
Despite the lower targets, students continue to fill classrooms and cockpits to train and build up hours to become pilots, said Ken Byrnes, chairman of the flight department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
“Demand for travel is still there,” he said. “I don’t see a long-term slowdown.”

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Nationwide, active listings in August were up 36% compared with the same month last year, according to a new report from Realtor.com.
The growth in supply is due to the fact that homes are sitting on the market longer.
While supply is increasing in most cities, some like Tampa, Florida, and San Diego are seeing huge gains.

A for sale sign is displayed outside of a home for sale on August 16, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. United States real estate industry rules governing agent commissions will change on August 17 as part of a legal settlement between the National Association of Realtors and home sellers. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)
Patrick T. Fallon | Afp | Getty Images

The supply of homes for sale is still low by historical standards, but it is rising quickly.
Nationwide, active listings in August were up 36% compared with the same month last year, according to a new report from Realtor.com. That was the 10th straight month of annual growth. Supply is still, however, 26% lower than in August 2019, pre-pandemic.

As inventory grows, sellers are pulling back. There were fewer new listings in August (-1%) than there were the year before. The growth in supply is due to the fact that homes are sitting on the market longer.
“This August, as the number of homes on the market continues to climb, price cuts are more common, asking prices are moderating, and homes are taking longer to sell,” wrote Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com, in a release. “The widely anticipated Fed rate cut has already ushered in lower mortgage rates, but it seems that some buyers and sellers are waiting for additional declines.”
That can be seen in weekly mortgage data. Applications for loans to buy a home are down about 4% compared with this time last year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. This, even though the average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage is about 75 basis points lower now than it was then.
While supply is increasing in most cities, some are seeing huge gains. Tampa, Florida’s inventory is up more than 90% compared with a year ago. San Diego is up 80%, Miami is up 72%, Seattle is up 69% and Denver is up 67%.
Regionally, active listings rose 46% in the South, 35.7% in the West, 23.8% in the Midwest and 15.1% in the Northeast.

More supply is causing homes to sit for sale longer. The typical home spent 53 days on the market in August, an increase of seven days from a year ago and the slowest August pace in five years.
“We have found that the market slows by about one day for every 5.5 percentage point increase in the year-over-year number of active listings,” said Ralph McLaughlin, senior economist at Realtor.com. “Given the rapid growth in inventory we’re seeing now, that can mean changes in some markets of up to 15-20 more days on the market than last year.”
More supply and longer selling times are finally translating into lower prices. The share of homes with price reductions rose in August to 19%, up 3 percentage points from the prior August. The median list price was down 1.3% year over year. Part of that is due to the mix of homes on the market, as more smaller homes are being listed. Prices are still 36% higher than August 2019.

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The Kansas City Chiefs, despite being the NFL’s current dynasty, are only the 18th most valuable team in the league at $6.07 billion.
The two NFL teams with the longest active playoff droughts, the Jets and Broncos, are valued higher than the Chiefs.
The NFL’s revenue sharing structure makes it so that playoff berths do not generate the revenue boost that it may feel like should come with.

Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrate a victory in 2022.
David Eulitt | Getty

The NFL team that has won three of the last five Super Bowls is worth less than the organizations with the two longest playoff droughts in the league.
The Kansas City Chiefs, the NFL’s current dynasty, are only the 18th most valuable team in the league at $6.07 billion, according to CNBC’s Official 2024 NFL Team Valuations.

That puts the franchise well below the $7.35 billion New York Jets, who have not made the playoffs since the 2010 season, and a few slots behind the $6.2 billion Denver Broncos, who have not played in the postseason since the 2015 season and are 1-9 against the Chiefs since 2019. 
But making the playoffs, and even dominating them, doesn’t generate as much value-driving revenue for a team as you might expect.
The bulk of a team’s revenue in a given season comes from the ballooning media rights fees that the NFL charges for its games. For the 2023 season, each team took in an average of more than $350 million from the league in media rights fees, well over half of annual revenue for the majority of NFL teams, according to CNBC’s reporting and data analysis. The Chiefs tallied $590 million in revenue last season.
Additionally, most of the revenue from postseason ticket sales goes to the league to cover expenses. The home team receives a stipend, but hosting playoff games, which the Chiefs have done 10 times in the last five years, does not do much for the ticket sales that a team actually pockets. Contrast that with leagues like the NBA and NHL, where clubs receive a much bigger cut of playoff ticket revenue.
Stadium ownership and operating rights are also a lucrative source of revenue for NFL teams. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones created the blueprint for reeling in huge sums not shared with the rest of the league, and a crucial part of that comes from sponsorship deals and non-football events at AT&T Stadium, which Jones has the operating rights to.

The Chiefs can’t follow that playbook, at least for now. The team is a tenant of Arrowhead Stadium and pays rent to the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority. That means the Lamar Hunt family-owned Chiefs can’t capitalize on non-football revenue like the Cowboys and the Los Angeles Rams do. 
On top of that, Arrowhead Stadium is more than 50 years old, so it does not have the expansive sponsorship and advertising opportunities that newer venues like the Las Vegas Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium and Los Angeles Rams’ SoFi Stadium offer.
Chiefs ownership had planned to revamp Arrowhead Stadium. But earlier this year, Jackson County voters rejected the proposed sales tax extension that would have been used to finance the renovation. 
Chiefs leaders have set a deadline for the end of 2024 to decide what to do when the team’s leasing agreement with the Jackson County Sports Complex Authority expires in 2031. 
Even so, postseason appearances and success can still boost a team’s finances — just not necessarily in the year of a given playoff run. 
A number of factors drive ticket sales, but having a better record is one way to boost prices. The Chiefs’ average ticket cost was $131.81 for a game in the 2023 season, well above the $120.94 league average, according to Statista. 
Perennial playoff teams can also be more attractive to sponsors because they can almost guarantee that thousands of additional people will be in their stadiums every year. 
The Chiefs played in the first NFL game of the season Thursday, defeating the Baltimore Ravens 27-20. More

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The Green Bay Packers, 12th on CNBC’s Official 2024 NFL Team Valuations list, are the only publicly owned team in the league.
There are more than 5.2 million outstanding shares owned by more than 538,000 people.
The unique structure puts the Packers among the teams that newly approved private equity investors will be least interested in.

Jeff Robinson | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

Only one National Football League team has an ownership structure that resembles a publicly traded company.
The Green Bay Packers, who are the 12th most-valuable NFL franchise at $6.3 billion, according to CNBC’s Official 2024 NFL Team Valuations, are the only publicly owned team across the four major North American professional sports leagues. The franchise is completely owned by stockholders, many of them Packers fans, in a structure established more than 100 years ago.

The Packers have had six stock offerings — which kicked off in 1923, 1935, 1950, 1997, 2011, 2021 — resulting in more than 5.2 million outstanding shares owned by more than 538,000 people, according to the team’s 2024 media guide.
The shares pay no dividend, are nontransferable outside of passing to a child or relative and do not have any intrinsic market value. Shareholders get to attend the team’s annual meeting and vote for a board of directors, but the team says owners do not make any financial gains from ownership. The only way a shareholder receives any money is by selling their stake back to the team, and even that is for a percentage of the original share price.
For 2023, the team took in $638 million in revenue, and its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were $128 million. The Packers are a nonprofit, and the only member of the team’s seven-person executive committee who gets compensation is the president.
The Packers’ annual revenue goes toward paying players, maintaining Lambeau Field and marketing, among other expenses. The share offerings throughout the years have been used to pull the team out of rocky financial situations and do larger renovations of Lambeau Field.
The unique structure puts the Packers among the teams that newly approved private equity investors will be least interested in. Even deep-pocketed investors cannot use their funds to generate a return.

There is a 200,000 share per person ownership cap — less than 4% of the team’s outstanding shares. Current rules allow approved private equity firms to own up to 10% of a franchise, but even if the Packers wanted a firm to own that much of the team, it is unlikely to entice private equity investors.
Since the stock offerings are so infrequent, the biggest barrier to Packers fans owning a piece of the team is not money — it’s timing. 
In the first offering in 1923, one share cost $5. Even though the price has increased throughout the years to as high as $300 for an offering that started in 2021, it is still a tiny fraction of the $6.49 billion average valuation of an NFL team today.

The unique ownership structure is one of several ways the Packers stand as an outlier in the NFL. Green Bay is the smallest television market of any of the 32 teams, and it does not have the high level of tourism that other cities with NFL teams such as Las Vegas, Miami, New York and Los Angeles receive.
It also often draws the ire of other fans and organizations because of its long-term stability at quarterback as the team transitioned from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love.
The Packers kick off their season Friday against the Philadelphia Eagles led by Love, who recently signed a four-year, $220 million extension with the organization.  More