Business

Spirit’s job cuts span several airline departments.
The budget carrier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November.
The airline said it expects to exit bankruptcy this quarter.

A Spirit Airlines plane at New York’s LaGuardia Airport
Leslie Josephs/CNBC

Spirit Airlines is cutting about 200 jobs across the company as the struggling budget carrier seeks to reduce costs after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November.
“These decisions were not made lightly, as we know they impact professional and personal lives,” CEO Ted Christie wrote in a staff memo, which was seen by CNBC. “As you all know, we’re facing significant challenges with our business, which is why we’ve been focused on taking actions to optimize our organization and create more efficiencies. The bottom line is, we need to run a smaller airline and get back on better financial footing.”

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Spirit had about 13,000 employees at the time of its bankruptcy filing, about 84% of them represented by unions, according to a court filing. The job cuts are to nonunion positions and are part of the company’s plan to cut $80 million in costs.
“With all of those actions, coupled with this week’s reductions to our workforce, we’ve now reached the $80 million cost-savings target,” Christie wrote.
The Dania Beach, Florida-based airline had previously furloughed hundreds of pilots and offered flight attendants extended voluntary leaves of absence to try to reduce costs. It has also shrunk its network and reached deals to sell some of its Airbus jetliner fleet to raise cash.

Spirit has struggled since its planned merger with JetBlue was blocked by a federal court on antitrust grounds a year ago, adding to struggles that also included a Pratt & Whitney engine recall and a surge in labor costs after the pandemic.
Christie said the carrier is still on track to exit bankruptcy this quarter.

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Maverick Carter, LeBron James’ business partner, is advising a group of investors who are trying to raise $5 billion to form a new international basketball league, people familiar with the matter said.
The league would consist of both men’s and women’s teams and plans to play in eight markets.
Players will be offered an equity stake in the league, people familiar with the matter said.

Maverick Carter, co-founder and chief executive officer of The SpringHill Company, during the USC Next Level Sports Conference in Los Angeles, California, US, on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. 
Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A group of high powered investors want to raise billions to form a new international basketball league, according to people familiar with the matter.
The new organization would offer players equity, those people said.

The investors aim to raise $5 billion for the league, which could serve as a rival to the NBA if it can offer big-money deals to players, similar to how LIV Golf lured away PGA Tour players.
It’s unclear which players the league would target or when it could start.
Maverick Carter, LeBron James’ longtime friend and business partner, is advising a group that includes investment firm SC Holdings’ Jason Stein and Daniel Haimovic, Skype co-founder Geoff Prentice and former Facebook executive Grady Burnett.
A representative for James said he is not involved in the effort and declined to comment on whether the Los Angeles Lakers star has been approached to participate.
The group is working with UBS and Evercore to help raise the money, which is expected to come from a mix of sovereign wealth funds, institutional investors and wealthy individuals, the people said.

The unnamed league is expected to play games in eight cities around the world, spending two weeks in each city, following a model similar to Formula 1. The league will consist of 12 teams — six men’s and six women’s teams.
Singapore is one of the markets where games will take place, the people said. It’s unclear what the other seven markets will be.
Representatives for the NBA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
But a source familiar said they were not aware of the plan for the league before reports about it emerged Wednesday. Bloomberg first reported the news.
In recent years, the NBA has ramped up its international presence, with a league in Africa and games abroad ranging from China to the UAE, Mexico City and Paris. The league also had a record-tying 125 international players tip off in the 2024 season. More

LIV Golf inked a media rights deal with Fox Sports to broadcast its League competition.
Fox and its family of networks will begin airing LIV tournaments in February.
The announcement comes just a day after LIV named Scott O’Neil as its new CEO.

A general view of the 18th green the LIV Golf logo and Club 54 during the 3rd round of the LIV Golf Invitational Series Bedminster on July 31, 2022 at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Rich Graessle | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

LIV Golf announced Thursday a multiyear media rights agreement with Fox Sports to broadcast the pro golf tour to U.S. viewers, starting in February.
The tour’s 14-tournament season will air on Fox, FS1 and other Fox networks, and will also stream on the Fox Sports and LIV Golf+ apps. The LIV Golf League features 13 teams of four golfers each, including two-time major champions Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau.

The news comes a day after the Saudi-financed sports organization named Scott O’Neil, the former CEO of Merlin Entertainments and Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, as its new CEO. He replaces Greg Norman, the tour’s first commissioner and CEO, who will remain informally involved with LIV.
“We are thrilled to partner with FOX Sports, one of the preeminent broadcast networks in the world,” O’Neil said in a news release. “LIV Golf is getting bigger and bolder, and this relationship signals the next phase of growth as our League joins the company of the nation’s premier sports leagues and conferences.”
LIV Golf was originally founded in 2021 as a competitor to the PGA Tour and is backed by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. It quickly poached prominent golfers, including Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.
In June 2023, the PGA Tour and LIV Golf reached an agreement to merge, but the leagues have yet to strike a deal after more than 18 months of negotiations.
LIV Golf was previously broadcasted on the Nexstar Media Group-operated CW Network. The upstart golf league struggled to bring in big audiences on The CW.

Fewer than 90,000 fans tuned into the league’s individual championship in September, a fraction of the audience it had when the league kicked off. It’s expected that the move to Fox could help broaden its reach.
This season, LIV will host tournaments in nine different countries, beginning in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on February 6 and concluding with the team championship in the Detroit suburbs in late August.
— CNBC’s Jessica Golden contributed to this report. More

Auto data firm Motor Intelligence reports more than 3.2 million “electrified” vehicles were sold last year.
That includes 1.9 million hybrid vehicles, including plug-in models, and 1.3 million all-electric models.
Tesla continued to dominate sales of pure EVs but Cox Automotive estimated its annual sales fell and its market share dropped to about 49%.

New Tesla cars are displayed at a Tesla dealership on December 20, 2024 in Corte Madera, California. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

DETROIT — Sales of all-electric vehicles and hybrid models reached 20% of new car and truck sales in the U.S. for the first time last year — marking a landmark year for “green” vehicles but coming at a slower pace than many had previously anticipated.
Auto data firm Motor Intelligence reports more than 3.2 million “electrified” vehicles were sold last year, or 1.9 million hybrid vehicles, including plug-in models, and 1.3 million all-electric models.

Traditional vehicles with gas or diesel internal combustion engines still made up the majority of sales, but declined to 79.8%, falling under 80% for the first time in modern automotive history, according to the data.
Regarding sales of pure EVs, Tesla continued to dominate, but Cox Automotive estimated its annual sales fell and its market share dropped to about 49%, down from 55% in 2023. The Tesla Model Y and Model 3 were estimated to be the bestselling EVs in 2024.
Following Tesla in EV sales was Hyundai Motor, including Kia, at 9.3% of EV market share; General Motors at 8.7%; and then Ford Motor at 7.5%, according to Motor Intelligence. BMW rounded out the top five at 4.1%.
The EV market in the U.S. is highly competitive: Of the 68 mainstream EV models tracked by Cox’s Kelley Blue Book, 24 models posted year-over-year sales increases; 17 models were all new to the market; and 27 decreased in volume.
There’s more uncertainty with how sales of all-electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles will perform this year, pending potential actions by the incoming Trump administration.

Currently, sales of EVs and plug-in electric vehicles are being subsidized by a federal credit of up to $7,500 for the purchase of one of the vehicles, which President-elect Donald Trump could remove, along with other support for EVs.
Cox Automotive is expecting 2025 to set another record for EV volume, at about 10% of new vehicle sales. Including hybrids, the company projects one out of every four vehicles sold to be electrified this year.
— CNBC’s Phil LeBeau contributed to this report.

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