Raphael Stevens

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will replace CEO Bob Smith with outgoing Amazon exec Dave Limp, CNBC has learned.
Smith is retiring effective Dec. 4 and will remain with the company until Jan. 2 for the CEO transition, according to notes to Blue Origin staff written by Smith and Bezos that were obtained by CNBC.
Limp joins Blue Origin at a key phase of the company’s multiple space projects.

Bob Smith, chief executive officer of Blue Origin LLC, (L), and Dave Limp, senior vice president of devices and services for Amazon.com Inc.
Getty Images

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin will replace CEO Bob Smith with outgoing Amazon executive Dave Limp, CNBC has learned.
Smith is retiring effective Dec. 4 and will remain with the company until Jan. 2 for the CEO transition, according to notes to Blue Origin staff written by Smith and Bezos that were obtained by CNBC.

Limp joins Blue Origin at a key phase of the company’s multiple space projects. Blue needs to ramp production of its BE-4 rocket engines, return its space tourism rocket New Shepard to flight, and launch its next-generation New Glenn rocket for the first time – as well as deliver on a recently-won NASA contract for a crewed lunar lander.

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In a statement to CNBC, a Blue Origin spokesperson praised Limp as “a proven innovator with a customer-first mindset” who has “extensive experience in the high-tech industry and growing highly complex organizations.”
Amazon announced last month that Limp would be stepping down later this year. As Amazon’s devices and services chief, Limp oversaw Amazon’s Alexa, Echo and Ring units, as well as some of its more experimental divisions like Zoox autonomous vehicles, and the Project Kuiper internet satellite business.

Limp’s Amazon success

Dave Limp, Senior Vice President, Devices & Services, speaks at Amazon’s HQ2 in Crystal City, Virginia on September 20, 2023.
Eric Lee | The Washington Post | Getty Images

Limp’s resignation came as a shock, as he spent more than 13 years at Amazon. He became a top lieutenant of CEO Andy Jassy and a member of Amazon’s vaunted S-Team, a tight-knit group of senior executives across almost all of its businesses.
Additionally, Limp and Bezos worked closely together when the Amazon founder was still CEO. Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant and Echo smart speakers were pet projects of Bezos’, and Limp steered both of the high-profile launches.

Amazon has not announced a replacement for Limp yet, but Bloomberg and other outlets have reported that the company is expected to hire Microsoft product chief Panos Panay.

Smith’s few Blue Origin results

Billionaire American businessman Jeff Bezos walks with Blue Origin’s President and CEO Bob Smith after Bezos flew on the company’s inaugural flight to the edge of space, in the nearby town of Van Horn, Texas, U.S. July 20, 2021.
Joe Skipper | Reuters

Smith took the reins at Blue Origin in 2017 after 13 years at aerospace conglomerate Honeywell, with Bezos annually spending billions to transform his space venture into a sector powerhouse.
Under Smith’s leadership, Blue Origin heavily built up infrastructure across the U.S. – adding a key rocket engine manufacturing and testing site in Alabama, expanding its rocket production and launch facilities in Florida, and opening locations in California, Arizona, and Colorado.
The most high-profile success during Smith’s tenure came in July 2021, when Bezos flew with the first crew of Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket to the edge of space and back.
But delays and setbacks marred each of Blue Origin’s major programs under Smith. Both its marquee New Glenn rocket and BE-4 engines – the latter of which is also needed for fellow rocket company United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan vehicle – are years behind schedule. It lost out on a lucrative round of Pentagon launch contracts in 2020, and needs to fly New Glenn to show the U.S. Space Force is can be awarded military missions in the upcoming round of awards.
Earlier this year Blue Origin won a $3.4 billion NASA contract to build a lunar lander for the agency’s astronauts. But the competition was a second-chance contest that NASA organized after Elon Musk’s SpaceX was the sole winner of the first lander contract in 2021 – an award decision that Blue Origin took to federal court and lost.
Those schedule slips were compounded by allegations from current and former employees that the company had a toxic and sexist workplace. Smith addressed those claims by saying Blue Origin had “no tolerance for discrimination or harassment of any kind,” but the company suffered from an elevated turnover rate in 2021. However, Blue Origin has since hired aggressively. Bezos on Monday noting noted the company had grown to more than 10,000 employees, from around 4,000 about two years prior.
Read Bezos’ message to Blue Origin employees on Monday:

I’m excited to share that Dave Limp will join Blue starting December 4th as CEO, replacing Bob, who has elected to step aside on January 2. The overlap is purposeful to ensure a smooth transition.
Before I provide some background on Dave, I’d like to take the time to recognize Bob and the significant growth and transformation we’ve experienced during his tenure. Under Bob’s leadership, Blue has grown to several billion dollars in sales orders, with a substantial backlog for our vehicles and engines. Our team has increased from 850 people when Bob joined to more than 10,000 today. We’ve expanded from one office in Kent to building a launch pad at LC-36 and five million square feet of facilities across seven states.
Our mission has grown too – we’ve flown 31 people above the Kármán Line, almost five percent of all the people who have been to space. Flight-qualified BE-4 engines are ready to boost Vulcan into orbit. New Glenn is nearing launch next year, and, with our recent NASA contract, we will land Americans back on the Moon, this time to stay. We have also engaged and inspired millions of children and educators through our Club for the Future efforts. We’ve made tremendous progress in building a road to space for the benefit of Earth, thanks to each of you and Bob’s leadership.
I’ve worked closely with Dave for many years. He is the right leader at the right time for Blue. Dave joins us after almost 14 years at Amazon, where he most recently served as senior vice president of Amazon Devices and Services, leading Kuiper, Kindle, Alexa, Zoox, and many other businesses. Before Amazon, Dave had roles at other high-tech companies, including Palm and Apple. Dave is a proven innovator with a customer-first mindset and extensive experience leading and scaling large, complex organizations. Dave has an outstanding sense of urgency, brings energy to everything, and helps teams move very fast.
Please join me in welcoming Dave and thanking Bob. Through this transition, I know we’ll remain focused on our customer commitments, production schedules, and executing with speed and operational excellence. I look forward to the many exciting and historic milestones ahead of us!
Jeff

Read Smith’s message to Blue Origin employees:

Team Blue,
It’s been about six years since I joined Blue Origin. During that time, our team, facilities, and sales orders have grown dramatically, and we’ve made significant contributions to the history of spaceflight.With pride and satisfaction in all that we’ve accomplished, I’m announcing that effective December 4, I will be stepping aside as Chief Executive Officer of Blue Origin. I will remain with Blue until January 2 to ensure a smooth transition with the new CEO.
It has been my privilege to be part of this great team, and I am confident that Blue Origin’s greatest achievements are still ahead of us. We’ve rapidly scaled this company from its prototyping and research roots to a large, prominent space business. We have the right strategy. a supremely talented team, a robust customer base, and some of the most technically ambitious and exciting projects in the entire industry. We also have a team that cares deeply about its mission, legacy, and how we contribute to the next generation and bring everyone into a brighter future.
Jeff and I have been discussing my plan for months, and Jeff will announce Blue’s new CEO in a separate note shortly. I’m very excited about the operational excellence and culture of innovation this new leader will bring to Blue. building on the foundation we’ve created over the past few years.
I’m committed to ensuring this transition is flawless, and everyone should know that Ill always be on Team Blue.
Gradatim Ferociter.
Bob Smith

Correction: An earlier version of this story mischaracterized Dave Limp’s status at Amazon. More

USA Pickleball is addressing the noise complaints the sport has produced.
A new “quiet category” aims to help promote and advance quieter equipment.
Pickleball is about twice as loud as tennis.
While the sport was created in the 1960s, it recently gained steam during the Covid-19 pandemic.

People play pickleball at Central Park in New York City on April 8, 2023.
Wang Fan | China News Service | Getty Images

America’s fastest-growing sport is looking to be … quieter?
The governing body of the sport, USA Pickleball, announced on Monday a new initiative to get pickleball to pipe down by investing in changes to the acoustics of the sport. The organization will work with manufacturers and facilities to come up with solutions that will allow the sport to continue its rapid growth.

Pickleball is a paddle sport that combines the elements of tennis, ping pong and badminton. It’s played with a plastic ball with holes in it that resembles a wiffle ball. While the sport was created in the 1960s, it recently gained steam during the Covid-19 pandemic, as people looked for ways to get exercise outdoors and also be social.
As a result, courts are popping up all across the country, including even in people’s backyards and neighborhoods. USA Pickleball says 130 new locations were added per month in 2022 and estimates another 25,000 courts will need to be built to keep up with demand. Last year, 36 million people played pickleball and the sport has grown 158% over the past three years according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.
Yet not everyone has caught pickleball fever.
The pop-pop-pop sound that the sport produces with its rapid-fire paddle play has led to neighborhood quarrels, lawsuits and 911 calls. The cacophonous controversy has even prompted the closure of some courts.
“It’s a torture technique,” one pickleball antagonist told The New York Times in June.

In the 70 decibel range, sound experts say it’s not a dangerous amount of noise but it’s about twice as loud as tennis.
USA Pickleball is looking to quiet the commotion — and cultivate good will — by announcing a new “quiet category” for pickleball equipment.
“With the sport’s growth, addressing noise concerns is essential to maintain a positive relationship between residential communities and facility operators,” USA Pickleball CEO Mike Nealy said in a statement. “By working together with manufacturers and the entire industry, we can develop quieter options that benefit everyone.”

Pop goes the neighborhood

The small northern New Jersey town of Haworth experienced a pickleball explosion among its residents during the Covid-19 pandemic. Today, in an attempt to keep the peace amid noise complaints, the town decided to move its pickleball courts.
“Residents showed up at council meetings expressing the noise issue,” said Kari Heitzner, co-chair of the town’s pickleball club. “Because it’s such a popular sport with people wanting to play at all hours of the day, we ultimately decided to move the courts to an area surrounded by woods.”
The USA Pickleball initiative aims to help municipalities and homeowners associations seek support navigating the noise and to provide them with remote and on-site evaluations.
It’s also helping to promote products that deliver essentially 50% or less of the acoustic footprint.
The organization said it has spent the past 15 months researching and studying the acoustic output of the sport, including by working with acoustic experts.
“I would say that it’s probably less than 1% [of people complaining about the noise], but it is a very vocal 1% that do have issues with it. So we do feel the need to address it and make sure that there are solutions,” Carl Schmits, USA Pickleball managing director of equipment standards and facilities development, said in an interview.

Paddle racket

The goal is to work with manufacturers during development to prioritize innovation in creating quieter products, in addition to providing resources to municipalities.
Schmits says the organization has tested hundreds of paddles and worked with suppliers on dampening the noise through acoustic fabrics and panels.
Bob Unetich, sound engineer and pickleball player, has been studying this problem for the past eight years.
Unetich, who consults for USA Pickleball, started a company called Pickleball Sound Mitigation to help communities with this growing problem.
He said pickleball paddles vibrate at a high pitch of 1,000 times per second, which is what leads to the pop noise. Humans are sensitive to pop sounds and often annoyed by them, he added.
“I appreciate the problem and frankly wouldn’t want to live next door to numbers like 70 decibels over and over and over every four seconds for eight hours a day,” Unetich said. “And I’m sure you wouldn’t either.” More

AMC, Cinemark and IMAX shares were up Monday following news of a tentative deal between Hollywood writers and studios.
Shares of studio owners, meanwhile, were largely down.
While a potential end to the writers’ strike represents positive momentum for Hollywood, union members still need to ratify the deal and even then, it’s still only half the battle.

The AMC 25 and Regal Cinemas on 42nd Street in Times Square, New York.
Richard Levine | Corbis | Getty Images

Movie theater shares popped Monday following news of a tentative labor deal between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
“The world’s movie theatres can celebrate. Extremely good news that progress is being made,” AMC CEO Adam Aron said Sunday in a post on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.

Shares of AMC were up roughly 7% Monday. The notoriously volatile stock reached as high as $8.50 a share.
Shares of Cinemark and IMAX followed behind, up 2.7% and 1.5%, respectively.
Shares of studio owners, meanwhile, were largely down. Disney and Comcast shares were fractionally lower Monday, while Warner Bros. Discovery fell nearly 4%.
While a potential end to the writers’ strike represents positive momentum for Hollywood, union members still need to ratify the deal and even then, it’s still only half the battle.
The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is still on strike after failure to reach a labor agreement with AMPTP.

An eventual deal between SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP is crucial for the well-being of movie theater companies going forward especially as key films such as Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s “Dune: Part Two” as well as Sony’s “Kraven the Hunter” and the sequel to “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” were pushed to 2024 because of the strikes.
Industry experts fear that more films will be forced to move along the calendar if studios cannot solidify contracts with the two guilds this year. Additionally, some films set for 2024 had filming interrupted because of the strikes and will need to restart production sooner rather than later to hit their opening dates.
Still, movie theaters have experienced solid box-office returns this year. The summer season saw a 19% year-over-year increase, due in large part to the success of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.”
“We would need to see movement on negotiations with SAG-AFTRA to have complete comfort over the near-term slate,” said Eric Wold, an analyst at B. Riley Securities, in a research note published Monday. “However, should the WGA agreement be ratified by its members, it would allow for writing to restart on upcoming productions to prepare for the point when actors can become involved once again.”
SAG-AFTRA released a statement congratulating the WGA for reaching a deal Sunday while also calling for the AMPTP to return to the negotiating table on its own agreements.
Despite ongoing turmoil in the media industry, the lengthy writers’ strikes have presented a unique opportunity for streaming companies such as Netflix and their libraries of content. Shares of Netflix gained roughly 1% Monday.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is a member of the AMPTP.
— CNBC’s Sarah Whitten contributed to this report. More

Pfizer said it has restarted the majority of production lines at its drug manufacturing plant in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, more than two months after that facility was heavily damaged by a tornado. 
The company said it expects operations to fully resume by the end of the year.
Pfizer’s plant supplies nearly 8% of all sterile injectable medicines used in U.S. hospitals.

In this aerial image, damage is seen at a Pfizer pharmaceutical factory after a tornado hit the facility two days earlier, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, July 21, 2023.
Sean Rayford | Getty Images

Pfizer on Monday said it has restarted most production lines at a drug manufacturing plant that was severely damaged by a tornado two months ago, but added that some medicines from the facility may be in short supply until at least mid 2024.
In a statement, Pfizer stressed that it has only made the “first step toward full recovery” of its plant in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The company expects the facility’s operations to fully resume by the end of the year.

The Rocky Mount plant supplies nearly 8% of all sterile injectable medicines used in U.S. hospitals, including anesthesia, analgesia, therapeutics, anti-infectives and neuromuscular blockers. The facility also manufactures about 25% of the company’s drugs in that category. 
Pfizer in August warned hospitals that some medicines could see supply disruptions. 
One injection from the plant was in short supply as of late last month, according to a database from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. It was a type of sodium chloride injection, which is used to replenish water and salt lost as a result of certain conditions. 
Pfizer on Monday said it has restarted production of about 13 medicines, which were prioritized based on “patient need and inventory levels.” The company did not specify which drugs those are.
Pfizer said it is also continuing to monitor emergency request orders for certain medicines manufactured at the Rocky Mount plant. The company implemented the emergency ordering process in August to manage the distribution of 12 drugs “in high medical need.”
Pfizer’s announcement comes as the U.S. is already facing an unprecedented shortage of medicine, ranging from ADHD pills to pain medicine to injectable cancer therapies. Those shortages are driven by manufacturing quality control issues and surges in demand, among other factors. More