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    Qatar Investment Authority offers to buy minority stake in Washington Wizards parent company

    Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has offered to buy a minority stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Washington Wizards and other Washington, D.C., sports teams.
    The National Basketball Association said it is still reviewing the deal with the Qatar Investment Authority. 
    The fund offered to buy a roughly 5% stake in Monumental as part of a $4.05 billion deal, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. 

    Russell Westbrook, who played for the Washington Wizards in the 2020-21 NBA season, reacts prior to playing against the Denver Nuggets at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., February 17, 2021.
    Will Newton | Getty Images

    Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund has offered to buy a minority stake in Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the Washington Wizards and other Washington, D.C., sports teams, the National Basketball Association said Thursday.
    The NBA is still reviewing the deal with the Qatar Investment Authority, league spokesperson Mike Bass said in a statement to CNBC.

    The fund offered to buy a roughly 5% stake in Monumental as part of a $4.05 billion deal, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. 
    The proposed agreement was first reported by Sportico. It is believed to be the first time the government of Qatar is investing in U.S. professional sports. 
    The NBA in November began to allow sovereign wealth funds and other institutional investors to buy noncontrolling stakes in the league’s teams. Under a new policy, a foreign fund can buy up to 20% of an NBA team.
    “In accordance with the policy, if approved, QIA would have a passive, minority investment in the team, with no involvement in its operations or decision-making,” Bass said in the league’s statement. 
    In addition to the Wizards, Monumental owns the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals and the Women’s National Basketball Association team, the Washington Mystics. 

    The company also owns the Capital City Go-Go of the NBA G League and recently took over the media outlet formerly known as NBC Sports Washington, now Monumental Sports Network.
    Monumental declined to comment. More

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    Moderna files for FDA approval of updated Covid vaccine for fall

    Moderna on Thursday submitted an application for FDA approval of the biotech company’s updated Covid vaccine for the fall. 
    Moderna said the submission is based on the FDA’s recommendation last week that vaccine makers update their jabs to target omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, the dominant strain of the virus nationwide.
    Moderna and rivals Pfizer and Novavax already began to develop versions of their vaccines targeting XBB.1.5 months before the FDA’s recommendation.

    A vial and a medical syringe seen displayed in front of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Moderna biotechnology company’s logos.
    Pavlo Gonchar | LightRocket | Getty Images

    Moderna on Thursday applied for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of the biotech company’s updated Covid vaccine for the fall. 
    The shot targets omicron subvariant XBB.1.5, the dominant strain of the virus nationwide. 

    Moderna said the submission is based on the FDA’s recommendation last week that vaccine makers update their jabs to target XBB.1.5, which is one of the most immune-evasive Covid strains to date. 
    Moderna and rivals Pfizer and Novavax already began to develop versions of their vaccines targeting XBB.1.5 months before the FDA’s recommendation.
    All three companies are expected to make vaccines available to Americans in time for the fall, pending the FDA’s approval.
    “The agility of our mRNA platform has enabled us to update Spikevax, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, to target XBB variants with speed and clinical rigor,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. 
    The FDA will review Moderna’s available efficacy and safety data on the shot to decide whether to approve it for the fall. 

    Preclinical trial data on mice suggests a monovalent vaccine targeting XBB.1.5 produces a more robust immune response against the currently circulating XBB variants than the company’s authorized bivalent shot targeting the BA.4 and BA.5 strains, according to a Moderna presentation last week. 
    Clinical trial data on more than 100 people similarly demonstrates the monovalent XBB.1.5 vaccine produces protective antibodies against all XBB variants. All trial participants had previously received four Covid vaccine doses.
    The U.S. is expected to shift Covid vaccine distribution to the private sector as soon as the fall. That means Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax will sell their updated jabs directly to health care providers rather than to the government.
    It’s unclear how many people will take the new shots.
    Only about 17% of the U.S. population has received Pfizer and Moderna’s latest boosters since they were approved in September, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More

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    Virgin Galactic raises $300 million, seeks another $400 million to expand spacecraft fleet

    Virgin Galactic has successfully raised $300 million via an “at the market” offering of common stock, the company disclosed in a securities filing Thursday.
    The space tourism company aims to raise an additional $400 million through a subsequent stock offering.
    Virgin Galactic plans to use the funds to develop and expand its spacecraft fleet.

    Carrier aircraft VMS Eve releases spacecraft VSS Unity before firing its rocket engine during the Unity 25 spaceflight on May 25, 2023.
    Virgin Galactic

    Virgin Galactic has successfully raised $300 million via an “at the market” offering of common stock, the company disclosed in a securities filing Thursday.
    Now, the space tourism company aims to raise an additional $400 million through a subsequent stock offering, as it looks to fund the development and expansion of its spacecraft fleet.

    Shares of Virgin Galactic have rallied since the company announced plans to launch its first commercial spaceflight by the end of this month.

    Sign up here to receive weekly editions of CNBC’s Investing in Space newsletter.

    The company opened the first fundraiser August 4, saying at the time that the funds “would be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital, general and administrative matters, development of its spaceship fleet and other infrastructure to scale its commercial operations.”
    Virgin Galactic had cash and securities totaling $874 million at the end of the first quarter, it reported in May.
    The company has a single carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, and one spacecraft, VSS Unity, which it has said can conduct flights as frequently as once a month.
    But Virgin Galactic’s growth hinges on its ability to expand its fleet with the Delta-class vehicles it is developing, and the common stock offerings are a way to stop gap its cash burn until those spacecrafts are flying. More

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    Fed Chair Powell says smaller banks likely will be exempt from higher capital requirements

    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Thursday that banks below $100 billion in assets won’t be impacted by any new capital requirements.
    The questions, and the move to re-examine regulations, follow the March tumult in the industry.
    In separate testimony, FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg said the upcoming rules could apply so-called Basel III international standards to banks in the $100 billion to $250 billion asset range.

    Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell prepares to testify during the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing titled “The Semiannual Monetary Policy Report to the Congress,” in Dirksen Building on Thursday, June 22, 2023.
    Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

    New rules expected to require that banks keep more capital almost certainly won’t apply to smaller institutions, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday.
    Addressing concerns over proposals to tighten the reins on bigger banks, Powell told members of the Senate Banking Committee that the rules are still in draft stage.

    At the same time, he also raised concerns about what impact higher capital requirements would have on lending.
    “More capital means more stable banks and stronger banks, but there’s also a trade-off there,” he said in the second day of his semiannual testimony on monetary policy. “You’ve got to make a judgment about where you draw that line.”
    In Powell’s understanding, banks below $100 billion in assets won’t be affected by any new requirements. That provided some relief for Republican lawmakers who questioned whether the changes were necessary, as Powell faced multiple questions about the future of regulation and supervision. If that’s the case, the new rules would affect the top 25 or so banks in the U.S.
    The questions, and the move to reexamine regulations, follow the March tumult in the industry, in which Silicon Valley Bank and two other large regionals were shuttered following deposit runs.
    Lawmakers and Biden administration regulators have been pushing for a return to more stringent requirements after larger regionals were given a break in changes made in 2018.

    In separate testimony Thursday, FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg said the upcoming rules could apply so-called Basel III international standards to banks in the $100 billion to $250 billion asset range. The changes are not expected to be applied until sometime in 2024. Michael Barr, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, has said they likely will take years to implement fully.
    “The capital requirements will be very, very skewed to the eight largest banks,” Powell said. “There may be some capital increases for other banks. None of this should affect banks under $100 billion.”
    Even with the exemption for smaller institutions, the looming changes represent an adjustment in thinking that Powell previously had supported, specifically that regulations should be tailored for both small and midsized banks. Gruenberg’s comments, for instance, “support our view that banking regulators are biased toward higher capital levels,” Raymond James’ Washington policy analyst Ed Mills said in a client note.
    The American Bankers Association criticized the move toward increase requirements that have been reported to be 20% higher.
    “We have long believed that regulation should be tailored to a bank’s risk and business model,” ABA President Rob Nichols said in a statement. “Arbitrary asset thresholds and changes not justified by rigorous data and evidence are a mistake that will only make it harder for banks of all sizes to meet the needs of their customers, clients and communities while driving financial activity to less-regulated nonbanks.”
    Powell faced little in the way of hostile questioning despite concerns raised over the SVB failure.
    He did face some grilling from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a frequent critic who charged Thursday that Powell is “ultimately responsible for the team of supervisors who fell down on the job” when SVB failed.
    Powell replied that the Fed “learned some lessons” from the episode.
    “The main responsibility I take is to learn the right lessons from this and to undertake to address them so we don’t have a situation like this where we had unexpectedly a large bank fail and spread contagion into the banking system. That’s not supposed to happen, and we need to take appropriate steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he said. More

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    Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Overstock, Tesla, Accenture and more

    An employee scans an order in the shipping area at the Overstock.com distribution center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
    Ken James | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.
    Overstock.com — Shares jumped 17.3% on news the e-commerce company won the auction for Bed Bath & Beyond’s digital assets and intellectual property, which includes the brand name.

    Spirit AeroSystems — Shares of the Boeing supplier dropped 9.4% after the company halted production in its Wichita, Kansas, factory following an announcement that workers will strike, starting Saturday. Boeing’s stock also fell 3.1%. Spirit AeroSystems makes fuselages for Boeing’s 737 Max, as well as the forward section of many of Boeing’s other aircrafts.
    Accenture — The stock fell 1.9% after the consulting firm shaved the top end of its revenue expectations for the fiscal year. The firm said to expect between 8% and 9% in local currency after previously setting a range between 8% and 10%.
    Darden Restaurants — The Olive Garden parent dropped 2.6%. Darden posted earnings of $2.58 per share on revenue of $2.77 billion in its latest quarter. The results beat analysts’ forecast of $2.54 in earnings per share, but met revenue expectations, according to Refinitiv. The company’s full-year earnings guidance range included the consensus estimate of analysts polled by FactSet. The company also increased its quarterly dividend and announced Chairman Eugene Lee would retire.
    Anheuser-Busch InBev — Shares gained 2% after Deutsche Bank upgraded the beer giant to a buy from a hold rating, citing fading headwinds from the recent flight of customers amid its collaboration with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
    NRG Energy — The stock advanced 3.1% a day after the Wall Street Journal reported Elliott Investment Management, an activist investor, wanted to remove the CEO and other executives.

    Tesla — Tesla finished the choppy session 2% higher after Morgan Stanley downgraded the electric-vehicle giant to an equal weight rating from overweight, citing valuation concerns.
    Root — The car insurance stock soared 34.1% following a Wednesday report from the Wall Street Journal that Embedded Insurance offered $19.34 per share in a takeover bid.
    Sotera Health — Shares shot up 17.3% after the lab testing company said it settled a lawsuit over ethylene oxide in Illinois.
    Alcoa — The aluminum company dropped 4.3% following a downgrade to underweight from equal weight by Morgan Stanley. The firm warned Alcoa could miss estimates on a key profit measure in upcoming quarters.
    Amazon — The e-commerce giant added 4.3% after JPMorgan Chase reiterated the stock as overweight, noting the opportunity for further growth in Amazon Prime. Loop also reiterated its buy rating and raised its price target given what it sees as an opportunity for the stock to rally further.
    Dow — The chemical company slipped 0.9% on the back of a downgrade to underperform from neutral by Bank of America. The firm said recovery in demand was “elusive” and hurt prices.
    Expedia, TripAdvisor — Expedia and TripAdvisor gained 2.2% and 4.7%, respectively, after B. Riley initiated coverage on each stock as buy. The firm said Expedia has an appealing risk/reward ratio, while TripAdvisor could see its margins expand.
    Eli Lilly — Shares rose 1% after Bank of America reiterated the stock as a buy, saying it was still the firm’s favorite in the biopharmaceutical space.
    — CNBC’s Samantha Subin, Michelle Fox and Jesse Pound contributed reporting. More

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    Flavored e-cigarette sales are booming despite federal crackdown

    E-cigarette unit sales rose nearly 47% between January 2020 and December 2022.
    The spike in sales comes despite a federal crackdown that placed more restrictions on the flavors and marketing for tobacco products.
    The CDC found that most popular brands of disposable e-cigarettes on the market aren’t FDA-approved and are illegal.

    A pile of used or discarded vape pens found littering the streets in New York City.
    Lindsey Nicholson | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

    Efforts to restrict e-cigarette flavors favored by teens may have fallen flat as new brands hit the market, according to a new report.
    Fruit, candy, spice and dessert-flavored e-cigarettes that have long been popular among underage smokers have proliferated in recent years, according to data analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC Foundation and the Truth Initiative.

    Flavored e-cigarettes represented 41.3% of U.S. retail-store e-cigarette unit sales in December 2022, up from 29.2% in January 2020, the organizations found. Overall e-cigarette sales in the U.S. rose about 47% during the period. 
    The spike in sales comes despite a federal crackdown that placed more restrictions on the flavors and marketing for tobacco products.
    “The dramatic spikes in youth e-cigarette use back in 2017 and 2018, primarily driven by JUUL, showed us how quickly e-cigarette sales and use patterns can change,” said Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “Retail sales data are key to providing real-time information on the rapidly changing e-cigarette landscape, which is essential to reducing youth tobacco use.”
    Citing the appeal of flavored e-cigarettes to children, the FDA announced in January 2020 that it would prohibit sales of sweet and fruit-flavored e-cigarette pre-filled pods, which led to the demise of big brands such as Juul and Vuse.
    Between January 2020 and December 2022, unit shares of pre-filled cartridges decreased from 75.2% to 48.0%.

    However, the flavor limitations didn’t affect disposable cigarettes, which at the end of 2019 only represented 15% of e-cigarette unit sales in U.S. retail stores, according to the data. Between January 2022 and December 2022, disposable e-cigarette unit shares increased from 24.7% to 51.8% of total unit sales.
    They now represent more than half the U.S. e-cigarette market.
    Nicotine is highly addictive and can harm the adolescent brain, which continues to develop through approximately age 25, according to the CDC. Moreover, the agency found that most popular brands of disposable e-cigarettes on the market — Puff Bar, Elf Bar and Breeze Smoke — aren’t FDA-approved and are illegal. The FDA has only authorized disposable e-cigarette brand NJOY Daily, which comes in two tobacco flavors.
    Last year, the FDA ordered Elf Bar and Breeze Smoke off the U.S. market, according to the CDC report.
    “The tobacco industry is well aware that flavors appeal to and attract kids, and that young people are uniquely vulnerable to nicotine addiction,” said Robin Koval, CEO and president of the Truth Initiative. “While we are encouraged by [the] FDA’s recent actions to curb unlawful marketing of flavored e-cigarettes, we all must work with even greater urgency to protect our nation’s youth from all flavored e-cigarettes, including disposables.” More

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    Vice Media declares Fortress Investment Group the winning bidder in bankruptcy sale

    Vice Media has declared Fortress Investment Group the winning bidder for the company as it plans to emerge from bankruptcy.
    Fortress led a group of lenders that offered a $225 million stalking horse bid for Vice when it entered bankruptcy protection in May. The group later increased its offer to $350 million.
    GoDigital submitted a bid for $300 million but Fortress had concerns about the potential acquirer’s funding, according to sources.

    A general view of atmosphere at the VICE Kills TX Music Showcase during the 2013 SXSW Music, Film + Interactive Festival at Viceland on March 16, 2013 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Hutton Supancic/Getty Images for SXSW)
    Hutton Supancic | Getty Images

    Vice Media has declared Fortress Investment Group the winning bidder for the company as it plans to emerge from bankruptcy.
    Fortress led a group of lenders that offered a $225 million stalking horse bid for Vice when it entered bankruptcy protection in May. The group later increased its offer to $350 million, according to court papers filed Thursday.

    Vice received multiple bids for the company, but none of them “rose to the level of being deemed a superior bid,” according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC.
    Closely held GoDigital submitted one of the bids at a $300 million valuation, according to a person familiar with the matter. Fortress wanted more cash in the offer and had concerns about GoDigital’s funding, according to two people familiar with the matter, who asked not to speak publicly because the bidding details are private.
    “Our offer was significantly more than the stalking horse bid by the sellers,” GoDigital said in a statement. “The sellers chose to turn down this opportunity even though it was a bid higher than their own.”
    GoDigital chief strategy officer Craig Greiwe added in a statement to CNBC that the company “remains ready to acquire Vice on reasonable terms and had demonstrated the financial ability to do so as part of this process.”
    Fortress had been part of a consortium of lenders including Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital that provided financing to Vice in 2019. Vice filed for bankruptcy with a credit bid from the group.

    Following failed sale processes before the filing, Fortress and the lenders were prepared to take control of Vice, a person familiar with the matter said. Fortress had become one of the leaders of the pre-bankruptcy sale processes, CNBC previously reported.
    A bankruptcy-run auction – which was canceled since no other bids were deemed qualified – was a way of checking the market to see if the company’s assets could get a higher valuation, the person added.
    The lender group will likely own the company for the next two-to-three years before trying to offload it once again, the person said. In the meantime, the new ownership will look to further shave off the business, and will entertain offers for individual assets, the person added.
    Vice will present the sale to bankruptcy court on Friday and expects the acquisition to close then, the company said in the memo.
    The sale closes a chapter for the digital media company, which was valued at $5.7 billion in 2017. Vice owns a series of assets including Vice News, Vice Studios, Refinery29 and an ad agency called Virtue.
    Spokespeople for Vice and Fortress declined to comment.
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    Warren Buffett’s charitable giving exceeds $50 billion, more than his entire net worth in 2006

    Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, smiles as he plays bridge following the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, May 5, 2019.
    Nati Harnik | AP

    Warren Buffett has made another annual donation to five foundations, boosting his total charitable giving to more than $50 billion — significantly higher than his entire net worth in 2006 when he first scheduled the grants.
    The 92-year-old legendary investor said Thursday he has converted over 9,000 Berkshire Class A shares into B shares in order to donate 13.7 million B shares to five foundations. A total of 10.5 million shares were delivered to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, and 1.05 million shares were donated to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his first wife, who died in 2004.

    Another 2.2 million shares were split evenly among the three foundations run by his children: the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation. As of 1:30 p.m. ET, the B shares were worth about $336 apiece.
    The “Oracle of Omaha” said the schedule for annual grants was made on June 26, 2006, when he owned $43 billion of Berkshire A shares, which represented more than 98% of his net worth. Buffett pledged in a 2006 letter to make annual gifts of Berkshire B shares throughout his lifetime for the benefit of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 
    “During the following 17 years, I have neither bought nor sold any A or B shares nor do I intend to do so. The five foundations have received Berkshire B shares that had a value when received of about $50 billion, substantially more than my entire net worth in 2006,” Buffett said. “I have no debts and my remaining A shares are worth about $112 billion, well over 99% of my net worth.”
    Last year, Buffett donated more than $750 million to the four foundations associated with his family on Thanksgiving eve as the “ultimate endorsement” in his children.
    Buffett plans to give away all of his Berkshire shares through annual gifts, which will be completed 10 years after his estate is settled. After this year’s donation, Buffett now owns 218,287 A shares and 344 B shares.

    “Nothing extraordinary has occurred at Berkshire; a very long runway, simple and generally sound decisions, the American tailwind and compounding effects produced my current wealth,” Buffett said. “My will provides that more than 99% of my estate is destined for philanthropic usage.”
    The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate, a sprawling empire with businesses ranging from insurance to railroads, and utilities to energy and retail, is now worth more than $730 billion. More