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The Food and Drug Administration approved Eli Lilly’s blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound for treating patients with the most common sleep-related breathing disorder.
The weekly injection is now the first drug treatment option cleared for patients with obesity and moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea, which refers to breathing interrupted during sleep due to narrowed or blocked airways.
The agency’s decision expands the use of Zepbound and could pave the way for Eli Lilly to gain broader insurance coverage for the treatment.

An Eli Lilly & Co. Zepbound injection pen arranged in the Brooklyn borough of New York, US, on Thursday, March 28, 2024. 
Shelby Knowles | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Eli Lilly’s blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound for treating patients with the most common sleep-related breathing disorder, expanding its use and possibly its insurance coverage in the U.S.
The weekly injection is now the first drug treatment option cleared for patients with obesity and moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea, or OSA, which refers to breathing interrupted during sleep due to narrowed or blocked airways. Zepbound should be used in combination with a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity, the FDA noted in a release.

An estimated 80 million patients in the U.S. experience the disease, according to Eli Lilly. Roughly 20 million of those people have moderate-to-severe forms of the disease, but 85% of cases go undiagnosed, the company told CNBC earlier this year.
“Too often, OSA is brushed off as ‘just snoring’ — but it’s far more than that,” said Julie Flygare, president and CEO of Project Sleep, a nonprofit advocating for sleep health and sleep disorders, in a release from Eli Lilly. “It’s important to understand OSA symptoms and know that treatments are available, including new options like Zepbound. We hope this will spark more meaningful conversations between patients and health care providers and ultimately lead to better health outcomes.” 
Eli Lilly expects to launch the drug for OSA at the beginning of next year. It is the first approval beyond obesity treatment for Zepbound, which entered the market late last year and is also being tested for several other obesity-related conditions, such as fatty liver disease. Tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Zepbound, has been sold on the U.S. market for longer as the diabetes drug Mounjaro.
The agency’s decision could pave the way for Eli Lilly to gain broader insurance coverage for Zepbound, which, like other weight loss drugs, is not covered by many insurance plans. That includes the federal Medicare program, which only covers obesity drugs if they are approved and prescribed for an added health benefit.
The approval also backs up mounting evidence that there could be further health benefits tied to GLP-1s, a class of weight loss and diabetes treatments that have soared in popularity and slipped into shortages over the past year. Notably, Zepbound’s main rival, the weight loss drug Wegovy from Novo Nordisk, is not approved for OSA.

Zepbound could be a valuable new treatment option for patients with OSA, which can lead to loud snoring and excessive daytime sleepiness, and can contribute to serious complications including stroke and heart failure. Patients with the condition have limited treatment options outside of wearing masks hooked up to cumbersome machines that provide positive airway pressure, or PAP, to allow for normal breathing.
Eli Lilly in April released initial results from the two clinical trials, which showed that Zepbound was more effective than a placebo at reducing the severity of OSA in patients with obesity after a year.
In June, Eli Lilly released additional data from the studies showing that Zepbound helpedresolve OSA in almost half of patients. The first study examined the weekly injection in adults with moderate-to-severe OSA and obesity who were not on PAP therapy. The second tested Zepbound in adults with the same conditions, but those participants were on and planned on continuing PAP therapy.
The data showed that 43% of people in the first study and 51.5% of patients in the second trial who took the highest dose of Zepbound achieved “disease resolution,” according to the company. That compares with 14.9% and 13.6% of patients who took a placebo in the two trials, respectively.
Researchers came to those conclusions by examining an apnea-hypopnea index, or AHI, which records the number of times per hour a person’s breathing shows a restricted or completely blocked airway. The index is used to evaluate the severity of obstructive sleep apnea and the effectiveness of treatments for the condition.
Disease resolution for OSA is defined as a patient having fewer than five AHI events per hour, the company said. It is also defined as a person having five to 14 AHI events per hour and scoring a certain number on a standard survey designed to measure excessive daytime sleepiness, according to Eli Lilly. More

Lawmakers in the House voted down a short-term spending bill on Thursday, raising the chances for a government shutdown.
If no deal is reached, the shutdown could begin 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday.
Air traffic controllers and TSA agents are considered essential employees, though they could end up working without a paycheck.

A lone traveler makes his way past a nearly deserted TSA security screening area at Orlando International Airport ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Milton, on October 9, 2024 in Orlando, Florida. 
Paul Hennessy | Anadolu | Getty Images

A government shutdown is looming just as the peak holiday travel season gets underway.
Lawmakers have been at an impasse and on Thursday voted down a short-term bill, which was backed by President-elect Donald Trump, to continue to fund the U.S. government. A shutdown could begin as early as 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday if no deal is reached.

Hundreds of thousands of government employees would be furloughed if Congress fails to pass a spending bill.
A government shutdown could cost the U.S. travel industry $1 billion per week, estimated the U.S. Travel Association, which represents major hotel groups and others.
“It’s hard to see how anyone in Congress wins if they force TSA workers, air traffic controllers, and other essential employees to work without pay during one of the busiest travel periods of the year,” Geoff Freeman, the group’s president, said in a statement on Friday.

What does this mean for air travel?

Commercial airplanes are still scheduled to fly, even given the chance of a shutdown.
Airlines are forecasting the busiest year-end holiday season on record. The Transportation Security Administration expects its officers to screen more than 40 million people during the holidays through Jan. 2. United Airlines alone said it will fly 9.9 million people between Dec. 19 and Jan. 6, up 12% over last year.

The government deems the more than 14,000 air traffic controllers and close to 60,000 TSA agents essential, which means they would continue working, though they wouldn’t be paid during the shutdown.

Read more CNBC airline news

Prepare for longer lines?

TSA officers “would continue working without pay in the event of a shutdown,” the agency’s administrator, David Pekoske, said Thursday on social media platform X.
“While our personnel have prepared to handle high volumes of travelers and ensure the security of our transportation systems, an extended shutdown could mean longer wait times at airports,” the TSA said in a statement Friday.

What happened last time?

The last time the government shut down, it stretched for more than a month from late 2018 through early 2019.
Callouts from a few air traffic controllers in the highly congested airspace along the U.S. East Coast snarled air traffic during that shutdown. Then-President Trump and lawmakers reached a deal shortly after that to end the shutdown, the longest funding lapse in U.S. history.
Congestion has vexed airline leaders. Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration is once again without a permanent administrator after FAA chief Mike Whitaker, who was appointed by President Joe Biden last year, said he will step down Jan. 20, when Trump takes office.
Modernization of air traffic control and hiring more controllers should be the next FAA administrator’s priority, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC earlier this week.

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Party City on Friday announced it will close all of its stores and has initiated corporate layoffs effective immediately, according to a CNN report.
CNN reported the company’s closure was due to ongoing financial challenges at the party supply retailer, which less than two years ago filed for bankruptcy protection over its inability to pay off $1.7 billion in debt.
The New Jersey-based chain exited bankruptcy in September 2023 through a plan that included transitioning into a privately held company and canceling nearly $1 billion in debt.

A sign in a Party City store in Miami, Florida, on Jan. 18, 2023.
Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Party City on Friday announced it will close all of its stores and has initiated corporate layoffs effective immediately, according to a CNN report.
CEO Barry Litwin told corporate employees in a meeting viewed by CNN that Party City has to “commence a winddown process immediately,” and that Friday would be their last day of work for the company.

“That is without question the most difficult message that I’ve ever had to deliver,” Litwin said at the meeting, according to the report.
CNN reported the company’s closure was due to ongoing financial challenges at the party supply retailer, which less than two years ago filed for bankruptcy protection over its inability to pay off $1.7 billion in debt.
The New Jersey-based chain exited bankruptcy in September 2023 through a plan that included transitioning into a privately held company and canceling nearly $1 billion in debt. A majority of its 800 U.S. stores were able to stay open as it emerged from bankruptcy.
Litwin was named CEO in August and said at the time he saw “many opportunities to strengthen our financial performance and build a leading end-to-end celebration experience for consumers,” according to a press release. 
Prior to his appointment, he was the CEO of Global Industrial Company, a distribution leader in industrial products.

Competition in the party goods and costume space has grown in recent years, including Spirit Halloween’s continued rise within and outside of the spooky season. The holiday costume chain announced in October that it would open 10 new “Spirit Christmas” stores, with some of the stores being converted from existing Spirit Halloween locations.
Online retailers have also added pressure to Party City’s operation, even as the company began to offer items on Amazon in 2018.
Representatives for Party City did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on CNN’s report or potential story closures. Read the full CNN report here.

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Starbucks baristas are striking in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle.
Starbucks Workers United is pushing for better pay for baristas as it negotiates with the company.
The coffee giant said in a statement that the union prematurely ended its bargaining session this week.

Starbucks Workers United members picket outside a Starbucks store in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. 
Vincent Alban | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Starbucks baristas in some locations are planning to strike through Christmas Eve, starting with cafes in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle on Friday.
The strikes will escalate each day, covering new markets, as Starbucks Workers United pushes for better pay for baristas. Starbucks is “backtracking on our promised path forward,” the union said in a post on X announcing the strikes.

The stoppage could mean longer waits for holiday drinks and popular Starbucks merchandise in the days leading up to Christmas, when many Americans will be off work and school or buying last-minute gifts.
Relations between the company and the union have turned frosty again, after a thaw earlier this year. In late February, both sides agreed to work together on a “foundational framework” that would include a process to achieve collective bargaining agreements for individual stores. Since then, they’ve conducted more than nine bargaining sessions over 20 days, according to Starbucks.
Earlier this week, Starbucks and the union met for the last scheduled bargaining session of the year. But ahead of the meeting, Starbucks Workers United baristas voted to authorize a strike if the coffee giant didn’t propose a comprehensive package that would address pay and other benefits.
In the bargaining session, Starbucks proposed no immediate pay increase and only guaranteed annual pay hikes of 1.5% going forward, the union said.
Starbucks said in a statement that Workers United prematurely ended the bargaining session this week.

“We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements. We need the union to return to the table,” the company said. 
The union asked for a 64% increase to hourly employees’ wages immediately and a 77% pay hike over the life of a three-year contract, according to Starbucks.
“This is not sustainable,” the company said in a statement.

Starbucks Workers United members picket outside a Starbucks store in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Friday, Dec. 20, 2024. 
Vincent Alban | Bloomberg | Getty Images

It’s been a tough year for Starbucks. Globally and in the U.S., its sales have declined as consumers look elsewhere for their caffeine buzz. In the wake of the sales slump, baristas will reportedly receive a smaller annual pay hike next year than they have in previous years.
Starbucks Workers United represents more than 500 company-owned locations of Starbucks.
Starbucks baristas aren’t the only workers striking during the last-minute holiday rush. Amazon workers across seven facilities went on strike on Thursday to put pressure on the e-commerce giant to come to the bargaining table.

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Netflix on Friday announced it has secured exclusive broadcast rights in the U.S. to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031.
The streaming giant said coverage will include commentary and entertainment from studio shows and top-tier talent, as well as Netflix original documentaries in the lead-up to the tournament.
The 2027 tournament is set to take place in 12 cities across Brazil.
The host country for the 2031 tournament is yet to be announced.

Esther Gonzalez of Spain kisses the FIFA Women’s World Cup Trophy after the team’s victory in the FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 Final match between Spain and England at Stadium Australia on August 20, 2023.
Alex Pantling – Fifa | Fifa | Getty Images

Netflix on Friday announced it has secured exclusive rights in the U.S. to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031.
The announcement comes just days before Netflix will stream its first ever National Football League Christmas Day games. Adding the Women’s World Cup to its portfolio shows the streaming giant is continuing to bulk up its sports rights portfolio. It also comes as the popularity of women’s sports has risen over the past year.

“I’ve seen the fandom for the FIFA Women’s World Cup grow tremendously — from the electric atmosphere in France in 2019, and most recently, the incredible energy across Australia and New Zealand in 2023,” Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria said in a press release. “Bringing this iconic tournament to Netflix is not just about streaming matches — it’s about celebrating the players, the culture, and the passion driving the global rise of women’s sports.”
The 2027 tournament is set to take place in 12 cities across Brazil. The host country for the 2031 tournament is yet to be announced.
Netflix said coverage of the Women’s World Cup will include commentary and entertainment from studio shows and top-tier talent, as well as Netflix original documentaries around major players and the sport’s rapidly growing fan base in the lead-up to the tournament.
The Women’s World Cup has continued to grow in popularity, and more people in the U.S. tuned in for the women’s final in 2019 than the men’s in 2018. U.S. viewership dropped substantially in 2023, however, after the two-time defending champions were knocked out in the Round of 16.
As the audience for the WNBA and women’s national soccer team has grown significantly in the U.S., soccer remains one of the most popular sports globally.

Netflix has 282.7 million global memberships, and the streamer has been pushing for growth internationally in part through its cheaper, ad-supported tier.
Sports media rights have also exploded in valuation for media companies as live sports beckon the biggest audiences.
Netflix has continued to grow into the sports category, streaming a Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight last month, which was watched by 108 million people, making it the most-streamed sporting event ever, according to Netflix.
On Christmas Day, the streamer is set to cover the NFL double-header featuring the Kansas City Chiefs versus the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens versus the Houston Texans. More

CEO exits at U.S. public companies hit a record in 2024 as they faced competitive and strategic challenges.
Turnover included chief executives at U.S. companies that have long dominated in their industries — like Boeing, Nike and Starbucks.
Consumer-focused companies, which are more susceptible to changing tastes and trends, generally have higher turnover than industries like oil and gas or utilities, which tend to have internal and longer-tenured CEOs.

Clockwise from top: Former Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun (CNBC), Starbucks former CEO Laxman Narasimhan (Getty Images), former Nike CEO John Donahoe (Reuters), former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger (Getty Images)
TL: CNBC | TR: Getty Images | BL: Reuters | BR: Getty Images

Retired, ousted or poached, CEOs headed for the exits this year.
U.S. public companies announced 327 chief executive changes this year through November, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

That’s more than in any other year since at least 2010, when the firm first started tracking the turnover. It’s also an 8.6% increase from last year.
Turnover included CEOs at U.S. companies that have long dominated their industries — like Boeing, Nike and Starbucks. The pace of change points to those companies’ customers, investors, hedge funds or boards growing impatient with sales slumps or strategic missteps in an otherwise strong economy when consumers proved they were willing to spend.
CEO changes slowed during the pandemic, when companies were suddenly faced with lockdowns, remote work, supply chain difficulties and shortages, if not outright survival. They later faced higher borrowing costs, inflation, labor shortages, shifting consumer preferences and other challenges.
Over the past 14 years, 2021 had the lowest number of replacements at 197.
“The cost of capital, the speed of transformation, is creating faster turnover,” said Clarke Murphy, managing director and former chief executive of Russell Reynolds Associates, a leadership advisory firm.

Murphy said it was easier to stand out for poor performance in an otherwise strong market.
“In years of 20-plus-percent S&P [500] returns two years in a row, any company that’s significantly underperforming, the spotlight has been on, and boards of directors moved faster than they might have moved five or seven years ago,” Murphy said.
Consumer-focused companies, which are more susceptible to changing tastes and trends, generally have higher turnover than industries like oil and gas or utilities, which tend to have internal and longer-tenured CEOs.
The recent spike in turnover comes even as the number of public companies has dropped.
Here are some of the major U.S. CEO changes so far this year:

Intel

The semiconductor company ousted CEO Pat Gelsinger earlier this month, nearly four years after he was appointed to turn the chipmaker around and better compete with rivals.
Intel’s stock price and market share had collapsed as the artificial intelligence wave boosted chipmaker Nvidia while Intel struggled to crack into the business.
A successor hasn’t yet been named.

Boeing

The aerospace giant announced former CEO Dave Calhoun’s departure in March, part of a broad executive shake-up. It came nearly three months after an unsecured door plug blew off midair from a nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines, plunging the company back into a safety crisis after years of problems across its defense and commercial aerospace business, frustrating the leaders of some of its biggest airline customers.
Calhoun himself was appointed in the last days of 2019 to succeed ex-CEO Dennis Muilenburg, who was ousted for his handling of the aftermath of two fatal crashes of Boeing’s 737 Max in 2018 and 2019.

Boeing’s new CEO Kelly Ortberg visits the company’s 767 and 777/777X programs’ plant in Everett, Washington, U.S. August 16, 2024. 
Boeing | Marian Lockhart | Via Reuters

Calhoun was succeeded in August by Kelly Ortberg, a three-decade aerospace veteran and former Rockwell Collins CEO, whom Boeing plucked out of retirement in Florida to steady the company.
In the midst of a labor strike, which ended last month, Ortberg announced thousands of layoffs and slashed costs elsewhere to conserve cash as Boeing works toward stabilizing production.

Starbucks

With sales shrinking in its biggest markets, Starbucks poached Chipotle Mexican Grill star CEO Brian Niccol to turn around the coffee chain’s fortunes, replacing Laxman Narasimhan. The company’s shares soared nearly 25% when Niccol’s appointment was announced in August.

Brian Niccols, CEO of Starbucks, speaking with CNBC on Oct. 31st, 2024. 

In the 100 days since his appointment, he’s announced plans to bring the company “back to Starbucks” and refocus on what first attracted customers to the coffee chain. Early stages of the strategy include making its coffee shops more welcoming, trimming its lengthy menu and speeding up service.
Chipotle, meanwhile, named insider and industry veteran Scott Boatwright to the Mexican food chain’s helm in November.

Nike

The shoemaker replaced CEO John Donahoe in September with Elliott Hill, a company veteran who started as an intern at Nike in the 1980s.
Donahue had helped Nike grow sales since he took the helm, from $39.1 billion in fiscal 2019 to $51.4 billion in fiscal 2024, but growth eventually stagnated after he moved away from wholesale partners like Foot Locker and Macy’s and lost sight of innovation.

Peloton

A darling of the pandemic, the home fitness equipment company had struggled since return-to-office mandates started rolling in.
In 2022, Peloton brought in former Spotify and Netflix executive Barry McCarthy to take over for founder John Foley, but he stepped down in May after the company announced yet another restructuring.
In October, Peloton announced Peter Stern, a former Ford executive and Apple Fitness+ co-founder as its third CEO. Stern has a background in growing subscription-based services, and Wall Street is hopeful he’ll bring Peloton to profitability by cutting costs and focusing on its high-margin subscription revenue.

Kohl’s

In an aerial view, a customer walks in front of a Kohl’s store on November 26, 2024 in San Rafael, California. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Kohl’s CEO Tom Kingsbury is stepping down on Jan. 15, the off-mall department store said late last month, and he will be succeeded by Ashley Buchanan from crafting mecca Michaels.
Kohl’s has seen its comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, drop in each of the past 11 quarters, and its stock price slumped.

WW International

The weight loss company formerly known as Weight Watchers announced in September that CEO Sima Sistani would step down immediately.
WW International has struggled, with shares falling more than 80% this year. It tired to reorient itself under Sistani’s tenure to include a platform that links customers with popular weight loss drugs.
— CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge and Amelia Lucas contributed to this report. More

Nike CEO Elliott Hill outlined his strategy to return the company to growth after the retailer blamed deep discounting for declining revenue and profit.
The longtime Nike veteran, who returned in October, said the company is focused on turning the business around and returning “sport” to the center of everything it does.
Nike beat on the top and bottom lines for its most recent quarter, though revenue and profit were down year over year.

Customers shop at a Nike store in an outlet mall in Los Angeles, Nov. 8, 2024.
Frederic J. Brown | Afp | Getty Images

Nike’s turnaround will take a bit longer than expected under new CEO Elliott Hill, who outlined his strategy to return the company to growth on Thursday after the retailer blamed deep discounting for declining revenue and profit.
The sneaker giant has been relying on promotions to drive sales, and it plans to return its online business to a full-price model, but first, it will need to aggressively liquidate old inventory through “less profitable channels,” said Hill and finance chief Matt Friend.

“What I’ve seen is traffic in Nike direct, digital and physical, has softened because we lack newness in product and we’re not delivering inspiring stories,” said Hill. “The result is we’ve become far too promotional … Entering the year, our digital platforms were delivering roughly a 50/50 split of full price to promotional sales. The level of markdowns not only impacts our brand, but it also disrupts the overall marketplace and the profitability of our partners.”
As a result, Nike expects gross margins to be down between 3 and 3.5 percentage points during the holiday quarter. It also expects sales to be down low double digits, worse than what analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected.
While expectations were low for Nike’s most recent quarter headed into Thursday’s release, the sneaker giant handily beat Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines.
Here’s how Nike did in its fiscal second quarter of 2025 compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 78 cents vs. 63 cents expected
Revenue: $12.35 billion vs. $12.13 billion expected

Nike shares initially spiked following the results but pared gains after Hill delivered his opening remarks on a call with analysts.

Nike’s reported net income for the three-month period ended Nov. 30 fell to $1.16 billion, or 78 cents per share, compared with $1.58 billion, or $1.03 per share, a year earlier.
Sales fell to $12.35 billion, down about 8% from $13.39 billion a year earlier.
Hill, who started with Nike as an intern in the 1980s before leaving the company in 2020, is tasked with turning around the world’s largest sportswear company after it fell behind on innovation, ceded market share to competitors and botched its selling strategy.
“I have an irrational love for this company. I know Nike inside and out, take pride in what the brand stands for and want to see the company succeed,” Hill said in his opening remarks to analysts. “In a moment where our team, brand and business are being challenged, my singular focus is to help get us back on track, to get back to winning.”

Elliott Hill, president and CEO of Nike, Inc.
Courtesy: Nike

During his opening remarks, Hill delivered a resounding rebuke of the strategies that have come to define his predecessor John Donahoe’s tenure as CEO.
He said the company had spent too much of its resources focused on driving online sales, paying for performance marketing and isolating wholesale partners — strategies that he now plans to unwind. He acknowledged that key wholesale partners feel Nike has turned its back on those partnerships and said the company is now working to build back their trust.
“We know our sales teams will have to earn every ‘open to buy’ dollar, but we’re investing to make sure our partners feel supported,” said Hill. “We’ll do more than just sell in our products. We’ll actively support mutually profitable sell-through. Simply put, we will win when our partners win.”
That’s good news for partners such as Foot Locker, JD Sports and Dick’s Sporting Goods, which rely on Nike products to drive sales.
Hill also called out a criticism that has swirled around Nike for the last couple of years: that the company lost sight of what had long defined the brand — athletes and performance — leading it to cede market share to competitors such as Asics, On Running and Hoka.
“We lost our obsession with sport,” said Hill. “The reliance on a handful of sportswear silhouettes is not who we are.”
Hill appeared to be referencing the company’s previous decision under Donahoe to focus growth on three key franchises — Air Force 1s, Dunks and Air Jordan 1s. For years, those lifestyle brands drove sales, but Nike made so many of the shoes that they became commonplace and uncool. As a result, Nike is trying to cut back supply, which it has said will impact sales in the short term, but hopefully not the long term.

Sneaker sales

During the most recent quarter, sales at Nike’s store and online were down 13% while wholesale revenues were down 3%. The steep discounting contributed to a 1 percentage point decline to gross margin, which came in at 43.6%, slightly better than the 43.3% StreetAccount analysts had expected.
Inventory, another area for concern, was flat compared with the prior year at $8 billion. Units were up, but that was offset by lower product input costs and a shift in product mix.
Still, inventories were higher than the company wants them to be, especially given “recent sales trends,” Friend said.
While Nike saw sales down in all four of its geographies, results were better than expected in all regions except for China, which saw sales decline 8% to $1.71 billion, below the $1.75 billion StreetAccount had expected.
In North America, Nike saw sales of $5.18 billion, an 8% decline but ahead of the $5.01 billion Street Account had expected. In Europe, Middle East and Africa, sales were down 7% to $3.30 billion, slightly ahead of the $3.26 billion StreetAccount had expected. And in Asia Pacific and Latin America, sales fell 3% to $1.74 billion, ahead of the $1.62 billion analysts had expected. 
Converse, which Nike acquired in 2003, has also dragged down the company’s overall performance, with sales down 17% during the period to $429 million, far below the $462.6 million that analysts polled by StreetAccount had expected.
Nike’s shift away from Dunks and Air Force 1s as well as its steep discounting has also affected Foot Locker, which missed Wall Street’s estimates on the top and bottom lines in its third-quarter report Dec. 4 in part because of soft demand for Nike products, its CEO Mary Dillon told CNBC at the time. 
Since Hill took the helm just over two months ago, he has scored a few wins. The National Football League announced Dec. 11 that it had renewed its contract with Nike after it briefly courted other bidders. Amid criticism for falling behind on innovation and botching a uniform release for Major League Baseball, the NFL’s decision to renew its contract with Nike through 2038 was a major vote of confidence. 
Now, Nike is the exclusive uniform provider for the NFL, MLB, and the National Basketball Association.
Shares of Nike were down about 27% in 2024 as of Wednesday afternoon, compared with a roughly 27% gain for the S&P 500. More

Pro pickleball’s metrics are on the rise in its first year as a unified professional sport.
The average pay of players on the PPA Tour and MLP was $260,000, the league said.
The unified league, called the United Pickleball Association, has helped create efficiencies and opportunities across the business.

NEW YORK CITY, NY – SEPTEMBER 21: Anna Leigh Waters of the New Jersey Fives rallies the ball during a Major League Pickleball match on September 21, 2024 at Wollman Rink in New York, New York. (Photo by Andrew Mordzynski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

Pickleball is paying off for America’s best players.
The Professional Pickleball Association said on Thursday that the league is seeing growth in everything from attendance to players, and even salary.

In fact, the average pay of the more than 60 women on the PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball was $260,000, according to the league. That is more than the highest-paid WNBA player’s annual salary and more than double the average salary of National Women’s Soccer League athletes.
The league said pro pickleball players earned more than $30 million collectively. This is based on salary alone and does not include endorsement deals.
Pro pickleball has come a long way since its inception.
Last December, some players formed a collective to voice their concerns about the future of Major League Pickleball after they were asked to take a 40% pay cut.
In February, Major League Pickleball and the Professional Pickleball Association completed their long-awaited merger, creating the United Pickleball Association. The deal also included $75 million of outside investment.

The PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball retained their own distinct brands. The PPA Tour features an individual bracket-style tour, while MLP is a team-based format.
Since the creation of the United Pickleball Association, the off-court drama has died down and the league has been working to refine its product and its business, led by stars like 17-year-old Anna Leigh Water, and top players Federico Staksrud and Ben Johns.

NEW YORK CITY, NY – SEPTEMBER 21: Ben Johns of the Carolina Pickleball Club rallies the ball during a Major League Pickleball match on September 21, 2024 at Wollman Rink in New York, New York. (Photo by Andrew Mordzynski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Icon Sportswire | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

“It’s just these immense efficiencies that came about as we were able to merge, and as a result, it was great for our business,” said Samin Odhwani, United Pickleball Association’s chief strategy officer.
Odwhani said being under one umbrella created cross-promotional opportunities for players and also opened doors with sponsors and their sales team.
As a result, the sponsorship business grew by 50% year-over-year with more than 50 sponsors across both the PPA Tour and MLP brands.
Odhwani projects that UPA revenue should top $100 million in the next few years.
Viewership and interest also remain strong. In 2024, the league said 320,000 fans attended PPA Tour and MLP events, up 40% from the year prior. It also marked the first year in which revenue from ticket sales surpassed revenue from amateur registration, the league said.
Fans tuned into 350 hours of pickleball television in 2024 across Fox, CBS, ESPN, Amazon Prime, Tennis Channel and others, according to the UPA.
PickleballTV, a joint venture between the UPA and the Tennis Channel, said fans watched more than a billion minutes of the sport this season.
“2024 was the best year ever for pro pickleball,” Odhwani said. “We had 320,000 plus attendees at our events, 27,000 amateurs playing and candidly, just a unified league.”
Heading into the new year, UPA said its priorities include expanding media rights partnerships, growing the amateur business and continuing to build existing pros into household names in the world of sports. More