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Utah’s video game industry has surged over 230% in a decade, bringing in more than $2.3 billion in revenue last year.
The University of Utah’s top-ranked video game program supplies industry-ready graduates, supporting local growth and innovation.
University of Utah graduates helped create top-grossing games such as “Hogwarts Legacy” and “Fortnite,” strengthening Utah’s reputation as a gaming hub through strong ties with local studios.

Rice–Eccles Stadium, an outdoor college football venue at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, stands against a stunning mountain backdrop.
University of Utah

This article is part of CNBC’s Cities of Success series, which explores cities that have transformed into business hubs with an entrepreneurial spirit and attracted capital, companies and employees.
The video game industry in Utah has become a powerhouse, growing more than 230% in the last decade and bringing in more than $2.3 billion in revenue last year.

And it’s not stopping: The market is expected to reach an impressive $4.5 billion in economic contribution within five years, according to market research firm IBISWorld.
One of the key drivers behind the growth is the University of Utah’s cutting-edge video game program.
Inside a classroom in Salt Lake City, students here are immersed in studying video games — not just playing them, but also creating them, fueling an industry that has deep roots at the campus.

Those were the kind of people I wanted on my team.

Donald Mustard
Former Epic Games chief creative officer, ‘Fortnite’ co-creator

The university boasts a legacy that includes industry luminaries Doug Bowser, president of Nintendo of America, and Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and creator of the iconic game “Pong.”
Alumni of the school have gone on to create games generating more than $2 billion in lifetime revenue, according to the university.

“There were just a whole host of people who came here to go to school and then graduated and were pivotal in the games industry,” Michael Young, chair of the University of Utah’s division of games, said in an interview for CNBC’s “Cities of Success: Salt Lake City,” which premieres Dec. 10 at 10 p.m. ET.

Leveling up

Name
Achievement

Doug Bowser
President of Nintendo of America

Nolan Bushnell
Founder of Atari, Creator of “Pong”

John Blackburn
Vice President and Studio Head at WB’s Avalanche Studios, Lead on “Hogwarts Legacy”

Ed Catmull
Co-founder of Pixar, Former President of Walt Disney Animation Studios

Richard Evans
Pioneer in AI for Video Games, Known for “The Sims”

Before it became a formalized program, the University of Utah’s gaming initiative began modestly within the computer science department, according to Young.
It wasn’t until 2008, when a group of students proposed a dedicated gaming area of study, that it gained traction.
By 2010, the entertainment arts and engineering program, known around campus as EAE, was established with a structured curriculum with a dedicated focus on gaming and interactive entertainment.
In 2017, the EAE program launched a bachelor’s degree in gaming, marking a significant step in its development. By 2021, it had become the university’s 10th-largest major, attracting around 1,200 undergraduates each year.
“The demand has just skyrocketed,” Young said.
In the Princeton Review’s 2024 rankings for top game design schools, the University of Utah rose to No. 4 for both undergraduate and graduate programs, up from No. 7 and No. 6, respectively, in 2023.
Today, the program attracts a global student body, with 72% of its graduate students coming from outside Utah.
The university has committed $25 million to support further expansion of the program.

Top-grossing games

John Blackburn, vice president and studio head at Avalanche Software, a division of WB Games, Inc., and a University of Utah alumnus, credits the success of 2023’s bestselling game, “Hogwarts Legacy,” to a talented team in Salt Lake City that includes many graduates of the university.
The game surpassed $1 billion in revenue last year.

Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

“There are probably at least 30 people here directly from that program,” Blackburn said.
According to Blackburn, the University of Utah’s contributions to the gaming industry extend back to pioneering work in 3-D graphics, including the creation of the first 3-D graphics image and the development of early flight simulators by companies such as Evans & Sutherland.
“That has really bled into the local games scene,” said Blackburn. “And so people leave those companies and then make game companies.”
Blackburn cofounded Avalanche Software in 1995, initially gaining recognition for its development of “Mortal Kombat” for the Super Nintendo and Genesis and later developing a reputation with titles such as “Cars” and “Toy Story 3” during its collaboration with Disney.
In 2017, Epic Games, headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, launched “Fortnite” — one of the world’s most popular games, with more than 500 million registered users.
Teams from around the world contributed to its creation, including some in Salt Lake City, where Donald Mustard, former chief creative officer at Epic and the game’s co-creator, was based.
“The University of Utah and [Brigham Young University], as well as some of the other schools in Utah, have done a really good job building relationships with the developers that are in the area,” Mustard said.
He also highlighted Utah’s unique approach to education: “While some of these students are in school, they have to make their own video game. That’s a very unique skill set that not a lot of people have.”
“Those were the kind of people I wanted on my team,” Mustard said. More

Buildings that are at least 30 years old, as was the Champlain tower that fell, have to undergo special inspections, make repairs and gather reserve funds for future maintenance. The deadline is at the end of this month.
For some associations, the costs are in the millions of dollars, and condo owners, many of whom are retirees on fixed incomes, are on the hook.
Some owners are hoping to sell their units rather than comply, others are walking away, and still others are looking to investors to bail them out.

After the deadly collapse of a 12-story condominium tower in the Surfside suburb of Miami, Florida, in 2021, state lawmakers implemented new requirements for older condominiums. Buildings that are at least 30 years old, as was the Champlain tower that fell, have to undergo special inspections, make repairs and gather reserve funds for future maintenance. The deadline is at the end of this month.
With inspections now underway, the bills are coming due. For some associations, the costs are in the millions of dollars, and condo owners, many of whom are retirees on fixed incomes, are on the hook.

Roughly 1 million units are subject to the new capital-intensive rules. Some owners are hoping to sell their units rather than comply, others are walking away, and still others are looking to investors to bail them out.
Longtime analyst Peter Zalewski, founder of Miami-based real estate consultancy Condo Vultures, calls it the condo cliff.
“I would compare it to what we saw in during the Great Recession, which is effectively zombie buildings. These are the units where a small minority are going to have to basically bear the cross or pay for everyone else who’s not able to pay, whether they can’t or they choose not to pay,” said Zalewski.
According to Zalewski’s count, in South Florida, including Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, three-quarters of all the condo units for sale are more than 30 years old and subject to the new rules. In the usually busy summer season, sales were down 21.5% year over year and the average price was down 2.4%. In the third quarter of this year, active listings were up 60% from the same period the year before.

Search and Rescue teams look for possible survivors in the partially collapsed 12-story Champlain Towers South condo building on June 29, 2021 in Surfside, Florida.
Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images

Special assessments, levied to undertake the repairs, have been as high as $200,000 per unit owner, and repair bills have come in for as much as $15 million, according to a recent report from the Palm Beach Post.

“What’s going on right now is these reports are coming in, maintenance fee budgets are being put together, and many boards do not want to acknowledge how much it’s going to be,” Zalewski said. “All the bills will be sent, and people will receive their little booklets where it says how much you have to pay every month. They’ll get them in January. So right now it’s kind of the calm before the storm.”
In September, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a special session to deal with this condo association financial cliff. Legislative leaders, however, decided to wait until the regular session begins in early 2025 to consider making any changes to the law, saying they need to get a better idea of the financials involved, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Stefania Ancona, a real estate agent in Miami, says the pool of buyers now is extremely limited, so sellers have to either pay the new assessments first or slash their prices. But there is another exit: investors.
One such building — the Bay Garden Manor condo building on West Avenue in Miami — is set to be sold to a large investor and torn down to make way for luxury waterfront property, Ancona said.
“I think it’s safe to say that foreclosures or short sales may happen. I don’t know yet. I haven’t seen many yet, because, again, the investors are buying out the buildings that they feel are in a desirable location,” she said.
Condo prices were down about 2% in the summer season, and Zalewski said that’s just the beginning. 
“It was only in September that the area started to get bombarded with information about the pitfalls,” said Zalewski. “Uninformed buyers saw cheaper prices [in the summer] and figured they better buy now so that they could own a piece of South Florida. There is a lot of buyer regret right now.” More

Stellantis executive Tim Kuniskis had retired from the automaker in May.
Kuniskis will once again lead the company’s Ram Trucks brand, according to two people familiar with the decision.
His return comes roughly a week after Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares unexpectedly resigned from the automaker following problems with its North American market.

Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis unveils the Charger Daytona SRT concept electric muscle car in Pontiac, Michigan, Aug. 17, 2022.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

DETROIT — Well-known Stellantis executive Tim Kuniskis is returning to the automaker effective immediately, CNBC has learned.
Kuniskis, who retired from the automaker in May, will once again lead the company’s Ram Trucks brand, according to two people familiar with the decision. The people, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the move, said the company’s leadership team alerted employees about the decision earlier Monday.

His return comes roughly a week after Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares unexpectedly resigned from the automaker following problems with its North American market.
“Today’s changes will enable us to operate in a structure that will drive the best outcomes for the region, unlock significant potential and win in the market. A main lever is for the Ram brand to have its CEO singularly focused on that brand,” the company said in an emailed statement confirming the appointment.
Kuniskis, who has overseen several of the carmaker’s brands in North America, had led the company’s Ram and Dodge brands before retiring.
Kuniskis is arguably best known for leading Dodge for most of the last decade or so. He is considered the “father” of Dodge’s high-performance Hellcat models and “the unofficial spokesman” for American muscle cars.
During his tenure, Dodge reestablished itself as a quintessential American muscle car brand. The brand did so with vehicles such as the more-than-700-horsepower Challenger and Charger Hellcat models and controversial Challenger Demon drag race cars. He also introduced the Hellcat-powered Ram TRX pickup truck.

Kuniskis’ return was announced in conjunction with several other changes for the automaker’s North American operations. Chris Feuell, who had been leading the Ram and Chrysler brands, will now oversee Chrysler and Alfa Romeo; Jeff Kommor will solely lead North American sales; and Larry Dominique, who was leading Alfa Romeo for North America, will depart.
Stellantis’ U.S. sales struggled under Tavares’ leadership, despite increases in the overall market. That includes a 17% year-over-year decline for the company through the third quarter, including a 24% sales decline for Ram. More

Barington Capital has partnered with private equity firm Thor Equities to mount an activist push at struggling department store operator Macy’s.
The dissidents are looking for the company to trim capital expenditures, beef up buybacks and take a hard look at options for its luxury brands and real estate portfolio.
It’s the fourth activist push at the company in the last decade.

People walk past the Macy’s Herald Square flagship store in New York City, Nov. 29, 2024.
David Dee Delgado | Getty Images

Activist investor Barington Capital revealed Monday it has a position in Macy’s and wants the company to cut spending, explore selling its luxury brands and take a hard look at its real estate portfolio.
It marks the fourth activist push at the struggling department store in the last decade.

Macy’s shares rose roughly 3% on the news in premarket trading. The activist has partnered with private equity firm Thor Equities in its push, according to a Barington presentation. The two investors did not disclose the size of its stake.
The activist said it believes Macy’s can trim back its inventory and sales and administrative costs, according to a slide deck the firm provided. Barington said in the presentation that while the business continues to generate cash, management has chosen to spend nearly $10 billion on capital expenditures while neglecting buybacks or dividends.
Macy’s shares have underperformed the S&P 500 and Retail Select indexes over the last 10 years.
In a statement Monday, Macy’s stood by its plans to close struggling namesake stores and invest in the stronger parts of its business.
“We remain confident in our Bold New Chapter strategy,” Macy’s said in the statement. “We look forward to engaging with our shareholders, including Barington and Thor.”

The department store operator announced in February that it would shut about 150 – or nearly a third – of its namesake stores by early 2027. It plans to invest in the roughly 350 locations that remain and invest in its stronger chains, higher-end department store Bloomingdale’s and beauty retailer Bluemercury.
Barington wants Macy’s to beef up its share buybacks and consider selling off its Bluemercury and Bloomingdale’s brands.
Barington, like other activists that have preceded it, also believes that Macy’s should take a fresh look at its real estate portfolio. Barington values it at anywhere from $5 billion to $9 billion, echoing analyses done by other activist investors. Barington said Macy’s should create a separate subsidiary, which could in turn charge rent to Macy’s parent company while the subsidiary’s management assessed how to maximize value from those assets.
Barington pointed to smaller department store operator Dillard’s, where it also criticized management, as an example of effective capital allocation. Dillard’s has a market cap of more than $7 billion and says it operates 273 stores in the U.S.
Macy’s has become an activist target again as sales at the company’s namesake stores decline and it continues to close many of the mall anchors.
In the most recent quarter, which ended Nov. 2, Macy’s said the company’s sales fell 2.4% to $4.74 billion. Comparable sales for its owned and licensed businesses, plus its online marketplace, dropped 1.3%.
Macy’s postponed releasing full results for the quarter as it faces scrutiny for another reason. The company said it is investigating after it discovered an employee intentionally hid up to $154 million in delivery expenses on its accounting books for nearly three years. It said it plans to share full results and its outlook by Dec. 11.
Selling real estate as Macy’s closes stores could free up cash for the business. Macy’s owns many of its mall-anchor stores, but has not said which locations it has sold. In late November, it said asset sale gains in the most recent quarter totaled $66 million and were higher than its expectations.
In recent quarters, Macy’s has started to report the sales performance of stores that will remain open once it closes the latest round of namesake locations. That cuts out some mall stores that are struggling. At the Macy’s stores that will remain open beyond early 2027, comparable sales were down 0.9% on an owned-plus-licensed basis, including the third-party marketplace.
Barington has mounted campaigns at other big consumer names, including Mattel, The Children’s Place, Hanes and Steve Madden. Thor Equities is a retail-focused private equity firm and was part of the buyout group that acquired Hurley several years ago.
Correction: A previous version of this article misnamed the private equity firm that Barington Capital has partnered with. It is Thor Equities. More

Things have never looked rosier for foreign firms in China—at least according to the country’s Council for the Promotion of International Trade. The body, which is controlled by the commerce ministry, claims that 90% of foreign companies rate their experience in China as satisfactory or better. According to a recent survey by the council, foreign firms say the economy is strong, local markets are attractive and their outlook is bright. Following years of isolation during the covid-19 pandemic, China’s government insists that the country is open again for business, and that reforms have made life easier for foreign companies. More

Ulta Beauty beat Wall Street’s revenue and sales expectations for the fiscal third quarter.
The retailer fended off fears of heightened competition with rivals and cooling demand for makeup and skin-care items.
The company hiked its full-year outlook slightly to reflect better-than-anticipated results.

Beauty products on the shelves at Ulta Beauty.
Brian Cassella | Tribune News Service | Getty Images

Ulta Beauty on Thursday beat Wall Street’s fiscal third-quarter expectations, fending off fears of fiercer competition and slowing demand for makeup and skin care.
The retailer hiked its full-year outlook slightly to reflect the better-than-expected results. For the fiscal year, it said it now expects net sales to range from $11.1 billion to $11.2 billion, compared with its previous guidance for $11 billion to $11.2 billion.

It said it now expects full-year earnings per year to range from $23.20 to $23.75, up from $22.60 to $23.50. For the full year, the comparable sales forecast ranges from a decline of 1% to flat. The comparable sales metric tracks sales at Ulta stores open at least 14 months, along with online sales.
Despite the raised outlook, the company expects holiday-quarter comparable sales to decline by the low single digits.
In a news release, CEO Dave Kimbell said he’s “proud of the progress” the company’s made and “encouraged by early signs that our efforts to reinforce our market position and drive improved performance are gaining traction.”
Here’s what the beauty retailer reported for the three-month period ended Nov. 2 compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $5.14 vs. $4.54 expected
Revenue: $2.53 billion vs. $2.50 billion expected

Ulta shares rose more than 10% in after-hours trading.

Beauty has been a strong category for many retailers, holding up over the past couple of years even as inflation stretched families’ budgets and many shoppers pulled back on discretionary purchases. The category’s resilience caused companies including Target, Walmart, Kohl’s and Macy’s to expand their offerings of makeup and skin-care products.
Yet Ulta began to hint at potential troubles in April, with Kimbell warning of cooling beauty demand at an investor conference.
In recent quarters, Ulta’s results have reflected discerning shoppers and heightened competition. The company missed earnings results and cut its full-year outlook in August after a drop in same-store sales. It marked the first time that the retailer missed Wall Street’s expectations in about four years.
Shares of the company have fallen, too. As of Thursday’s close, Ulta’s stock is down about 19% so far this year, trailing the S&P 500’s approximately 28% gains during the same period.
For the fiscal third quarter, the retailer reported net income of $242.2 million, or $5.14 per share, compared with $249.5 million, or $5.07 per share, during the year-ago quarter.
Revenue rose from $2.49 billion in the year-ago period.
Comparable sales increased 0.6% year over year, as the retailer saw a tiny uptick in traffic and average ticket.
Customer transactions across its website and stores grew 0.5% year over year, and average ticket, the amount spent by shoppers during those visits, rose 0.1% year over year.
On the company’s earnings call, Kimbell said the launch of new brands, rollout of digital tools and in-store events helped drive Ulta’s better performance in the quarter.
For example, he said, Ulta is selling an exclusive line of makeup tied to the release of Universal’s “Wicked” movie. It also added new features for online, including virtual try-on enhancements and new digital buying guides. And it had in-store events, including workshops where customers received coaching from Ulta’s stylists on how to get “salon-worthy blowouts.”
For beauty retailers, including Ulta, the holidays are a critical time of year. Kimbell said the company is “encouraged by our performance through Cyber Monday.”
However, he hinted of a still-challenging backdrop. He said the company is ready for the shopping season, even as “our insights suggest that economic concerns are driving a greater focus on value.”
On the earnings call, CFO Paula Oyibo said the company continues to take a “cautious view of the consumer and operating environment” and factored that into its forecast. She said the compressed holiday season, which has five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas, could also hurt sales.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Wicked.” More

Lululemon beat Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines.
The athletic apparel retailer, best known for its yoga pants and belt bags, offered holiday guidance that was in line with expectations.
The company’s sales have started to slow in the Americas, its largest market, but are growing internationally.

A customer exits a Lululemon store in New York on Aug. 22, 2024.
Yuki Iwamura | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Lululemon’s U.S. growth is continuing to slow, but the athletic apparel retailer is making big gains abroad, leading to a 9% increase in sales year over year.
The yoga pants company on Thursday beat Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines and said it’s “pleased” with the start to the holiday season. Still, on a call with analysts, CEO Calvin McDonald took a cautious tone when discussing the company’s fourth quarter outlook.

“While we feel good about the start of the holiday season, we still have large volume weeks in front of us,” said McDonald. “Given the shorter holiday shopping season, we continue to be thoughtful in our planning for quarter four overall.”
Here’s how Lululemon performed in its fiscal third quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: $2.87 vs. $2.69 expected
Revenue: $2.40 billion vs. $2.36 billion expected

Shares climbed about 8% in extended trading Thursday.
The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended Oct. 27 was $352 million, or $2.87 per share, compared with $249 million, or $1.96 per share, a year earlier
Sales rose to $2.40 billion, up about 9% from $2.20 billion a year earlier.

For the all-important holiday shopping quarter, Lululemon is expecting revenue to be between $3.48 billion and $3.51 billion, representing growth of 8% to 10% from the prior year. Analysts were expecting revenue of $3.50 billion, or growth of 9.1%, which is roughly in line with the midpoint of the guidance, according to LSEG.
It’s expecting earnings per share to be between $5.56 and $5.64, the high end of which is ahead of the $5.59 analysts had expected, according to LSEG.
On a call with analysts, finance chief Meghan Frank said the company is planning the business “prudently” given the shortened holiday shopping season and the “uncertain macro environment.”
For the full year, Lululemon tightened its revenue guidance and raised it by just a hair. It now expects fiscal 2024 revenue to come in between $10.45 billion and $10.49 billion, compared to previous guidance of between $10.38 billion and $10.48 billion. The outlook would top the $10.44 billion that Wall Street had expected, according to LSG
It’s expecting earnings per share to be between $14.08 and $14.16, ahead of the $13.97 that analysts had expected.
Lululemon has hit a rough patch over the last year. It’s still growing, but at a slower pace than it was previously, and the competitive environment has gotten more intense. Lululemon has always competed with legacy giants like Nike, Gap’s Athleta and Levi’s Beyond Yoga, but newer disrupters such as Vuori and Alo Yoga are also taking share from the Canadian retailer. 
The company has turned to China for growth, which so far is lifting sales across the overall business. Company-wide comparable sales grew 4% during the quarter, ahead of the 3.2% growth Wall Street was anticipating, according to StreetAccount.
Behind that number is a 2% slowdown in comparable sales in the U.S., but a 25% increase internationally. Overall revenue grew 2% in the Americas during the quarter and 33% internationally. Still, the Americas remains Lululemon’s largest market, and international is still a fraction of its overall revenue. 
Lululemon has also had a few self-inflicted challenges. It fumbled a high-profile product launch earlier this year and missed out on sales in the U.S. when it failed to offer the colors and sizes that its core customers desired.
When the company reported earnings in August, McDonald insisted that the brand remains strong in the U.S., but its women’s business had slowed because it didn’t have enough new styles to entice customers. 
All of these issues coincided with the departure of Lululemon’s longtime chief product office Sun Choe, who resigned in May and joined V.F. Corp. In the wake of her departure, McDonald unveiled a new reporting structure on the product side of the house that merges together Lululemon’s brand and merchandising teams under chief brand and product activation officer Nikki Neuburger. McDonald said the new structure makes the company more efficient and said it’s “on track” to increase new product releases in time for the spring selling season.
“Our teams have been agile and have been chasing into seasonal colors, prints and patterns. I’m sure you’ve seen several examples across our key franchises,” said McDonald. “These efforts have contributed to the sequential improvement in newness within our assortment in the back half of the year … we continue to see significant potential for growth in the U.S.”
In a note, GlobalData managing director Neil Saunders said it looks like Lululemon’s product struggles are behind it.
“Across the third quarter the women’s range felt fresh and interesting and there was more than enough to grab the attention of shoppers,” the retail analyst said. “This both improved the conversion rate and helped with average basket sizes. In our view, Lululemon deserves praise for the quick course correction which underlines that it is a merchant-led organization.”
Lululemon’s struggles also came at a time when consumers, reeling from persistent inflation and an economy that feels worse than perhaps it actually is, are choosier than ever and less forgiving when a brand makes a mistake. 
Amid its rough patch, Lululemon has turned to stock buybacks to keep Wall Street happy. It approved a $1 billion increase to its stock repurchase program this month. As of Thursday, it had approximately $1.8 billion remaining in the program.
Lululemon has also focused on boosting profitability amid uncertain demand. During the third quarter, gross margin grew more than expected, increasing by 1.5 percentage points to 58.5%, ahead of the 57.5% that analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount. More

A federal judge rejected Boeing’s agreement to plead guilty to a criminal fraud charge tied to two crashes of its 737 Max aircraft, citing concerns the Justice Department’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies would affect the selection of an independent monitor.
Boeing agreed to plead guilty over the summer after the DOJ said the manufacturer violated an earlier agreement.
Lawyers for victims’ family members had criticized the earlier agreement and sought more input in the selection of a monitor.

Nadia Milleron, whose daughter Samya Stumo was killed in the crash of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, holds a sign with photos of the crash victims during a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on aviation safety and the future of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft, in the Hart Building in Washington, D.C., Oct. 29, 2019.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images

A federal judge on Thursday rejected Boeing’s plea deal tied to a criminal fraud charge stemming from fatal crashes of the manufacturer’s 737 Max aircraft.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas expressed concern in his decision that the selection process for a government-appointed monitor, a condition of the plea deal, would be affected by diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

He wrote that “the Court is not convinced in light of the foregoing that the Government will not choose a monitor without race-based considerations and thus will not act in a nondiscriminatory manner. In a case of this magnitude, it is in the utmost interest of justice that the public is confident this monitor selection is done based solely on competency.”
In October, O’Connor ordered Boeing and the Justice Department to provide details on DEI policies that might affect the selection of the monitor.
The court gave Boeing and the Justice Department 30 days to decide how to proceed, according to a court document filed Thursday.
In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of conspiring to defraud the U.S. government by misleading regulators about its inclusion of a flight-control system on the Max that was later implicated in the two crashes — a Lion Air flight in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March 2019. All 346 people on the flights were killed.
Boeing and the Justice Department didn’t immediately comment.

Victims’ family members had taken issue with a government-appointed monitor as a condition of the plea agreement, which they called a “sweetheart deal,” and sought to provide more input on the monitor’s selection.
Erin Applebaum, an attorney representing one of the victims’ family members, applauded the deal. “We anticipate a significant renegotiation of the plea deal that incorporates terms truly commensurate with the gravity of Boeing’s crimes,” Applebaum said in a statement. “It’s time for the DOJ to end its lenient treatment of Boeing and demand real accountability.”
The deal was set to allow Boeing to avoid a trial just as it was trying to get the company back on solid footing after a door panel on a 737 Max 9 blew out in midair during an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5.
The new plea deal arose after the Justice Department said in May that Boeing violated a previous plea agreement, which was set to expire days after the door panel incident.
O’Connor said in his decision Thursday that it “is not clear what all Boeing has done to breach the Deferred Prosecution Agreement.”
Under the new plea agreement, Boeing was set to face a fine of up to $487.2 million. However, the Justice Department recommended that the court credit Boeing with half that amount it paid under a previous agreement, resulting in a fine of $243.6 million. More