Business

Andy Dunn, who co-founded men’s clothing company Bonobos in 2007, is rejoining the retailer as its brand advisor.
Bonobos is looking to get back to its roots after it was acquired by WHP Global from Walmart in a $75 million deal that closed in May.
“You get the opportunity to dive deep into why the brand was created in the first place, the success it enjoyed in the beginning years and how that happened,” WHP Global CEO Yehuda Shmidman told CNBC.

A Bonobos ‘guideshop’ stands in lower Manhattan on April 18, 2017 in New York City.
Getty Images

Bonobos co-founder Andy Dunn is returning to the retailer as brand advisor as the company looks to get back to its roots after it was sold by Walmart earlier this year, Bonobos and new parent company WHP Global announced Friday. 
Dunn, who founded the men’s clothing brand in 2007, will report to WHP Global CEO Yehuda Shmidman but will work closely with Bonobos president John Hutchison and Express Inc. CEO Tim Baxter. 

WHP Global and Express Inc., which runs the Express brand, bought Bonobos from Walmart in a $75 million deal that was announced in April and closed last month. Walmart originally bought Bonobos in 2017 for $310 million while it was working to grow its online presence under former e-commerce president Marc Lore.
“It’s almost unlimited opportunity, right?” Shmidman told CNBC of the decision to bring Dunn back to the brand. “You get the opportunity to dive deep into why the brand was created in the first place, the success it enjoyed in the beginning years and how that happened and sort of learn from that to inspire the next chapter of growth.” 
Shmidman said WHP Global has no plans to change the Bonobos DNA and said the firm’s decision to appoint Dunn is part of its plan to center the brand on its core identity. 
“It’s very important to know that we’re not changing. In fact, if anything, we’re doubling down on that very same DNA that made Bonobos successful in the first place,” said Shmidman.
One area where Shmidman does want to see a change is Bonobos’ physical footprint: The brand currently runs brick-and-mortar Guideshops, where customers can try on clothes and then order them online, but only in the U.S. Under WHP Global, Bonobos can expand internationally, he said.

“How about a Bonobos in Dubai? How about a Bonobos in Hong Kong?” said Shmidman. “How cool would that be?” 
Dunn said he’s excited to “have a seat at the table” and that this time around he’ll just be advising the brand — not running it. 
“I’m here to serve in whatever way called upon and the way that I think about that is just staying really close to the customer. I’m a lot older than when Bonobos started, you know, I’m 43 now, I was 28 then,” Dunn said. “So, I’ve gotten a lot of perspectives about the product and the customer and how do we just begin this new chapter and just get bigger.” 
Bonobos started out as a purely digital retailer in the early aughts and grew to be a pioneer in the direct-to-consumer space after it managed to scale, achieve profitability and garner national recognition. 
When Walmart decided to acquire the brand, some thought the partnership didn’t make sense because the giant retailer’s focus on value didn’t seem to mesh with Bonobos’ identity as a premium menswear line. 
While Walmart sold Bonobos for a significant discount compared to what it paid, the acquisition wasn’t necessarily a losing one for Walmart. The tie-up helped boost its digital sales.
Online sales accounted for about $53.4 billion — or nearly 13% — of Walmart U.S.′ total net sales in the past fiscal year, which ended in late January, according to company filings. That’s a jump from $15.7 billion, or roughly 5% of Walmart U.S.′ total net sales, in 2019.

Andy Dunn, Bonobos co-founder
Source: Brian McConkey

But how Bonobos fared — and what it gained — from its time under Walmart’s massive tent isn’t as black and white. 
At the time of the acquisition, Dunn wrote in a blog post that the sale to Walmart gave Bonobos an opportunity to reach a wider ecosystem, arguing the deal fit in with its goal to “become the market leader in all of premium menswear.” 
It also gave Dunn an opportunity to work alongside Lore, his longtime mentor who he considered “the best in the world at building upstart third-party brand e-commerce properties.” 
Six years to the day after that blog post was written, Dunn told CNBC he stands by his decision to sell to Walmart and “vociferously” disagrees with critics who say the brand was diluted by the acquisition. 
“From a premium positioning standpoint, the Bonobos business is still up and to the right and growing,” said Dunn. “From the vantage point of the customer, I don’t think it changed much, you know, would be my read, and I think the proof is in the pudding on the continued growth of the brand.” 
The Walmart umbrella offered Bonobos exposure to a wider customer base and also protection from the pandemic-related headwinds that plagued other independent retailers during the global health crisis. 
“With the pandemic, and how hard that was on retail, that to me was the moment where I stepped back and thought, wow, we made the right decision putting Bonobos inside of such a strong house,” Dunn said.  
These days, Bonobos is still delivering double-digit sales growth, WHP Global said. More

GoDigital plans to bid for Vice Media on Tuesday.
Vice is selling itself out of bankruptcy. If there’s more than one bid for the company, an auction will take place June 22.
GoDigital’s ethos of happiness and tapping into the “Zone of Genius” is far different than Vice Media’s original culture of in-your-face debauchery.

Vice Media Group logo
Pavlo Gonchar | Lightrocket | Getty Images

When Suroosh Alvi, Gavin McInnes and Shane Smith founded Vice magazine, which later expanded to Vice Media, they built a business based on a punk rock, counterculture image. Smith once had himself recorded, nearly naked and drinking alcohol, giving a tour of the media organization’s Brooklyn, New York, headquarters.
The company’s name is Vice. It’s self-explanatory.

Next week, Vice, once valued at $5.7 billion, is planning to sell itself out of bankruptcy. A little-known Los Angeles-based company that wants to buy it has a quixotic culture that would be incomparable to those early days of Vice, and it would almost certainly be derided.
GoDigital Media Group is a privately held conglomerate that owns video and music rights, especially in the Latin genre, and an array of different businesses. The company has such a low profile, it currently doesn’t have a physical headquarters after shutting down its Los Angeles office during the pandemic. GoDigital plans to open up a new LA office later this year. Its executives have been running the business remotely since 2020.
Initially, co-founders Jason Peterson, 41, and Logan Mulvey, 38, used cash flow from music-licensing rights to establish a business around digital media distribution, connecting content creators to retailers by developing a cloud software company called ContentBridge in 2010. GoDigital later expanded its rights business to include those from Jason DeRulo and T.I. Last year, GoDigital invested $100 million into that division for future growth. Music rights ownership makes up the bulk of the company’s revenue and valuation.
In recent years, Peterson, GoDigital’s chief executive officer and chair, has modeled the company as a mini-Berkshire Hathaway as he attempts to play what’s called “the infinite game” — owning durable businesses that hit passion points for consumers.
GoDigital has made eight different acquisitions since 2020 that have spanned media and commerce. Peterson and Mulvey have pursued distressed assets with consumer brand recognition. They acquired YogaWorks for $9.6 million in 2021 after it filed for bankruptcy in October 2020. And last year, the pair plucked assets out of bankruptcy, scooping up retailers Eastern Mountain Sports and Bob’s Stores for $70 million.

The total portfolio now includes seven companies after it merged two of its companies, Latino-focused media companies Mitu and NGL Collective, co-founded by actor John Leguizamo. GoDigital employs about 1,300 people through its subsidiaries and generates annual revenue in the high hundreds of millions.
The company wants to “inspire happiness” along the way, said Peterson in an interview that evoked the opposite of the in-your-face culture that Smith brought to Vice.
“Our goal is to create emotions of joy and happiness in our customers and our employees,” said Peterson. “What differentiates us is our long-term perspective. The goal of the infinite game is simply continuity of play to make sure the game goes on. And when you live and work in that kind of a paradigm, you’re living and working in a compound interest paradigm.”

GoDigital co-founders Logan Mulvey (L) and Jason Peterson (C) with chief strategy officer Craig Greiwe (R)
Source: GoDigital

Vice’s bankruptcy sale

Vice would be GoDigital’s largest acquisition to date. GoDigital plans to bid for Vice on Tuesday at a price between $300 million and $400 million, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking. GoDigital’s executives wouldn’t comment on the specifics of their planned bid.
If another buyer makes a bid or offers to purchase part of the company but not the whole, an auction would be held on June 22. The next day a judge would confirm a potential acquisition during a court hearing.
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Revolt is also considering a bid, said a person familiar with the matter. A spokesperson for Revolt couldn’t be reached for comment.
Fortress Investment, Vice’s largest creditor turned equity holder, is running the sale process and has pledged to back a portion of GoDigital’s bid and other potential offers, said the people, who asked not to be named because the details of the bids are private. Fortress, along with Soros Fund Management and Monroe Capital, has committed to a stalking horse bid of $225 million.
A spokesperson for Fortress declined to comment.
GoDigital’s opaque finances and hodgepodge of smaller assets is stirring skepticism about its ability to acquire a company of Vice’s size. Chief Strategy Officer Craig Greiwe, who was tasked with finding acquisition targets when he joined the company last year, said GoDigital is holding talks with other equity partners on a bid. He declined to provide any names.
“I can understand the skepticism if people haven’t heard of us,” said Greiwe.  “We do have the money to buy it.  We are serious in our bid.  We are also confident that the sellers view us as a legitimate and credible bidder.  We are confident that we can run the company and do so profitably.”

‘The Zone of Genius’

Peterson and Mulvey said they want to own Vice because think it’s been run poorly. They cite the company’s profligate spending, specifically wondering why it’s leasing 20 offices and production hubs throughout the world rather than having employees work remotely. The co-founders are in talks with Alex Wallace, the former head of media and content at Yahoo from 2020 to 2022, to be Vice’s new CEO if GoDigital buys the company, according to people familiar with the matter. Wallace declined to comment.
As CEO, Peterson said he tries to match his portfolio companies’ employees with their own interests. “The Zone of Genius,” a concept borrowed from Gay Hendricks’ “The Big Leap,” is about the intersection between what a person loves and what they are good at doing, Peterson explained. He will preach that message to Vice’s employees on Day One if GoDigital acquires the company, he said.
“I’m going to go in there and I’m going to treat everybody as an individual human, and we’re going to try and figure out what are their individual purposes, what are their values?” Peterson said. “Because when we work at the confluence of what we like and what we’re great at or good at, we’re going to do well. It doesn’t matter how good we are at something if we don’t like it. We’re not going to do it for a long time. When you have high degrees of alignment of purpose between the individual and the organization, that’s when the magic happens.”
When business conversations turn to concepts like happiness and value alignment, it’s easy to think about WeWork founder Adam Neumann’s mission to elevate the world’s consciousness and cringe. It’s particularly jarring to match up the airy language against Vice’s original mission. Smith, Vice’s executive chairman and former CEO, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Shane Smith, co-founder of Vice.

GoDigital’s executives show no embarrassment about their New Age-style business school lingo. They believe linking passion and purpose creates “an incredible positive feedback loop for the company,” said Peterson.
“Recognizing that people make decisions based on their emotional state, our goal is to inspire happiness through an ecosystem of content, community and commerce across consumer passion points,” said Greiwe. “I’m now the person who dreams that at night. There’s a fundamental belief in making the impossible possible and doing it before anyone else.”

Similarities to the portfolio

Any company, including GoDigital, would have its share of problems in taking on Vice.
Vice had revenue of about $600 million last year and wasn’t profitable, Axios reported last month. Vice has been cash flow negative for “several years” according to a bankruptcy filing.
“There’s no reason that Vice shouldn’t be profitable today, but for its past mismanagement,” Peterson said.
But simply figuring out what Vice employees want to do and making sure they do it doesn’t solve problems like a weak advertising market or competition for content. Still, Peterson and Mulvey see similarities between Vice’s business and several companies they already own. Mulvey pointed to YogaWorks as a business GoDigital has transitioned to meet new ways of consumption.
With YogaWorks, GoDigital has attempted to disrupt an in-studio yoga consumer base with an online subscription service offering digitally distributed at-home classes. YogaWorks shut down all of its brick-and-mortar locations as part of its bankruptcy reorganization and has “only lost a very small number of customers” as GoDigital has transitioned the business online, Mulvey said.
Mulvey, who took over as YogaWorks’ CEO in January, said the shift from studio-based to in-home yoga is analogous to changing media-consumption habits.
“People consumed Vice on HBO or cable TV,” Mulvey said, alluding to Vice’s now-cancelled show on HBO and Vice’s cable network. “We’ve got to make sure we understand the followers and the customers that the way we’re evolving the business makes sense for how people consume news, media, fun or exercise on the go.”
Peterson noted Vice’s business model is similar to NGL-Mitu. Both make money off branded content and social amplification.
“This is not a new type of business for us,” Peterson said. “It’s a multi-platform network. We know how to run one.”
Greiwe added “the fundamentals of Vice are strong” and said GoDigital had no plans to sell of any of Vice’s assets, including the women-focused Refinery29, which Vice acquired for $400 million in 2019, and its homegrown advertising agency, Virtue.
“The brand value for Vice and Refinery29 is unparalleled in the marketplace,” said Greiwe. “It doesn’t make sense for Vice News to exist separate from Vice Publishing. And why would you not have Vice Studios on top of all of that with the decades of IP that exists within that company?”
Peterson acknowledged that much of his interest in buying Vice is he thinks it’s a good candidate for implementing his preferred culture and management style, which he calls “the GoDigital way.”
If he’s right, all Vice ever needed to succeed was a bankruptcy process to service its $834 million of outstanding debt and a little more zoned genius.
— CNBC’s Lillian Rizzo contributed to this report.
WATCH: Investing in digital media More

The Department of Justice’s antitrust division has informed the PGA Tour it will review the organization’s proposed merger with Saudi-funded LIV Golf, NBC News reported.
News of the DOJ’s move came after Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon urged the federal agency to investigate the merger agreement.
The PGA Tour’s once-adversarial relationship with LIV was already under scrutiny by federal prosecutors.

PGA TOUR logo is seen during the second round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines South on January 29, 2021 in San Diego, California.
Ben Jared | Pga Tour | Getty Images

The Department of Justice’s antitrust division has informed the PGA Tour it will review the organization’s proposed merger with Saudi-funded LIV Golf, a source told NBC News on Thursday.
The Justice Department and LIV Golf declined to comment.

In a statement to CNBC, the PGA Tour says, “We are confident that once all stakeholders learn more about how the PGA TOUR will lead this new venture, they will understand how it benefits our players, fans, and sport while protecting the American institution of golf.”
A source with knowledge of the situation says that any interest by the DOJ would be an extension of the preexisting investigation, and would not be unusual for U.S. antitrust authorities to review a transaction of this profile. They also say a review does not suggest the transaction violates antitrust laws.
The DOJ was already conducting an investigation into professional golf, in light of the litigation with LIV.
The announcement of the deal last week immediately sparked antitrust concerns.
This week, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Ron Wyden of Oregon urged the DOJ to open a probe into the agreement. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., also opened a probe into the deal. Wyden launched his own investigation Thursday.

The PGA Tour’s once-adversarial relationship with LIV was already under scrutiny by federal prosecutors who last year started investigating whether the PGA Tour had engaged in anticompetitive behavior.
LIV, which is backed by the so-called Public Investment Fund controlled by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, divided the pro golf world when it emerged as a rival to the PGA Tour.
The upstart league’s links to the kingdom, with its sordid record on human rights, triggered a swarm of controversy. But with the help of a reported $2 billion investment from the crown prince’s fund, LIV dangled massive prizes and perks and managed to lure high-profile golfers to play in its tournaments.
Former President Donald Trump hosted a LIV tournament at his New Jersey golf club last summer, stoking outrage from the kingdom’s critics — including families and survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
The PGA Tour and LIV Golf had locked horns in and out of court, and PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has openly criticized the rival league, making the announcement of their proposed merger all the more surprising. The announcement last week noted the tie-up would prompt a mutual end to all pending litigation.
If the merger goes through, the two entities will combine their businesses and rights into a new for-profit company. The PGA Tour policy board will have to approve the agreement, Monahan told players in a memo.
The PGA Tour revealed Tuesday that Monahan is currently recovering from an unspecified medical matter and is taking a leave of absence. More

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s independent panel of advisors recommended that updated Covid shots for the fall and winter target one of the XBB variants, which are now the dominant strains of the virus nationwide. 
Advisors also generally agreed that the new shots should specifically target a variant called XBB.1.5.
The panel’s recommendation is a win for vaccine manufacturers Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax, all of which have been developing versions of their respective shots targeting XBB coronavirus variants.
The FDA typically follows the advice of its advisory committees but is not required to do so.

A woman receives a booster dose of the Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a vaccination centre in Antwerp, Belgium, February 1, 2022.
Johanna Geron | Reuters

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s independent panel of advisors on Thursday recommended that updated Covid shots for the fall and winter target one of the XBB variants, which are now the dominant strains of the virus nationwide. 
The committee unanimously voted that the new jabs should be monovalent — meaning they are designed to protect against one variant of Covid — and target a member of the XBB family.

Those strains of Covid are descendants of the omicron variant, which caused cases to surge to record levels early last year. They are some of the most immune-evasive strains to date.
Advisors also generally agreed that the new shots should specifically target a variant called XBB.1.5. The panel only discussed that specific strain selection and did not vote on the matter.
XBB.1.5 accounted for nearly 40% of all Covid cases in the U.S. as of early June, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That proportion is slowly declining, and cases of the related XBB.1.16 and XBB.2.3 variants are on the rise. 
Advisors noted that XBB.1.5 appears most ideal for the fall since vaccine manufacturers Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax have already started to develop jabs targeting the strain.
“The 1.5 looks good. It seems like it’s the most feasible to get across the finish line early without resulting in delays and availability,” said Dr. Melinda Wharton, a senior official at the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. “The vaccine we can use is the vaccine that we can get. And so it feels like this would be a good choice.”

The FDA typically follows the advice of its advisory committees, but is not required to do so. It’s unclear when the agency will make a final decision on strain selection.
There is also uncertainty about which age groups the FDA and CDC will advise to receive the updated shots this fall.
But the panel’s recommendation is already a win for Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax — all of which have been conducting early trials on their respective XBB.1.5 shots ahead of the meeting.
“Novavax expects to be ready for the commercial delivery of a protein-based monovalent XBB COVID vaccine this fall in line with today’s [advisory committee] recommendation,” said John Jacobs, the company’s president and CEO.
The U.S. is expected to shift vaccine distribution to the private sector this fall. That means the vaccine makers will start selling their new Covid products directly to health-care providers and vie for commercial market share. 
The panel’s recommendation coincides with a broader shift in how the pandemic impacts the country and the world at large. 
Covid cases and deaths have dropped to new lows, governments have rolled back stringent health mandates like masking and social distancing and many people believe the pandemic is over altogether.  
But Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA’s vaccine division, said the agency is concerned that the U.S. will have another Covid wave “during a time when the virus has further evolved, immunity of the population has waned further and we move indoors for wintertime.”
Updated Covid vaccines that are periodically updated to target a high circulating variant will restore protective immunity against the virus, said Dr. David Kaslow, a senior official in the FDA’s vaccine division. 
It’s a similar approach to how the strains are selected for the annual flu shot. Researchers assess strains of the virus in circulation and estimate which will be the most prevalent during the upcoming fall and winter.
But it’s unclear how many Americans will roll up their sleeves to take the updated shots later this year. 
Only about 17% of the U.S. population — around 56 million people —have received Pfizer and Moderna’s boosters since they were approved in September, according to the CDC.
More than 40% of adults 65 and older have been boosted with those shots, while the rate among younger adults and children ranges between 18% and 20%.
Those boosters were bivalent, meaning they targeted the original strain of Covid and the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. 

Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax shot data

During the meeting, Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax presented preliminary data on updated versions of their shots designed to target XBB variants. 
Moderna has been evaluating shots targeting XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.16 — another transmissible omicron descendant, according to Rituparna Das, the company’s vice president of Covid vaccines. 
Preclinical trial data on mice suggests that a monovalent vaccine targeting XBB.1.5 produces a more robust immune response against the currently circulating XBB variants than the authorized bivalent shot targeting BA.4 and BA.5, according to Das. 
She added that clinical trial data on more than 100 people similarly demonstrates that the monovalent XBB.1.5 vaccine produces protective antibodies against all XBB variants. All trial participants had previously received four Covid vaccine doses.
Das said that comprehensive protection against XBB strains is likely due to the fewer unique mutations between the variants, which means their composition is similar.
There are only three unique mutations between the variants XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.16, according to Darin Edwards, Moderna’s Covid vaccine program leader. By comparison, there are 28 mutations between omicron BA.4 and BA.5.
That means the immune response an updated shot produces against XBB variants will likely be similar, regardless of which specific variant it targets, Edwards said.
Pfizer also presented early trial data indicating that a monovalent vaccine targeting an XBB variant offers improved immune responses against the XBB family. 
The company provided specific timelines for delivering an updated vaccine, depending on the strain the FDA selects. 
Pfizer will be able to deliver a monovalent shot targeting XBB.1.5 by July and a jab targeting XBB.1.16 by August, according to Kena Swanson, the company’s senior principal scientist.
Pfizer won’t be able to distribute a new shot until October if the FDA chooses a completely different strain, Swanson said.
Novavax did not provide a specific timeline for delivering a shot targeting XBB.1.5, but noted that an XBB.1.16 shot would take eight weeks longer.
Novavax unveiled preclinical trial data indicating that monovalent vaccines targeting XBB.1.5 and XBB.1.16 induce higher immune responses to XBB subvariants than bivalent vaccines do. 
Data also demonstrates that an XBB.1.5 shot produces antibodies that block XBB.2.3 from binding to and infecting human cells, according to Dr. Filip Dubovsky, Novavax’s chief medical officer.
Dubovsky said the trial results support the use of a monovalent XBB.1.5 shot in the fall.
Novavax’s jab uses protein-based technology, a decades-old method for fighting viruses used in routine vaccinations against hepatitis B and shingles.
The vaccine works differently than Pfizer’s and Moderna’s messenger RNA vaccines but achieves the same outcome: teaching your body how to fight Covid. More

Christine McCarthy will step down as Disney’s chief financial officer.
She is taking family medical leave and will advise the company as it seeks a successor.
McCarthy’s departure comes as the Disney undergoes a broad restructuring during Bob Iger’s second tenure as CEO.

The Walt Disney Company’s Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy participates in a panel discussion during the annual Milken Institute Global Conference at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, April 29, 2019.
Michael Kovac | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Christine McCarthy, Disney’s chief financial officer, will step down from that role, the entertainment giant said Thursday.
She will take a family medical leave of absence, and during that time, she will continue as a strategic advisor to Disney, the company said. McCarthy will also help find a long-term successor, Disney added. Veteran Disney executive Kevin Lansberry, who currently works as finance chief for Disney’s parks business, will become the company’s interim CFO effective July 1.

“I am immensely grateful for the opportunity Bob provided me to serve as CFO of this iconic company and am proud of the work my talented team has done to position Disney to capitalize on the business possibilities that lie ahead,” McCarthy said in the news release announcing her departure.
McCarthy, who started with Disney in 2000 and became CFO in 2015, leaves as Disney undergoes a broad restructuring during Bob Iger’s second tenure as CEO. The company has targeted 7,000 job cuts during several rounds of layoffs this year.
Disney has also contended with a tougher ad market for media companies and struggled to set itself apart in a crowded streaming space. In its fiscal second quarter, Disney reported operating losses of $659 million for its direct-to-consumer segment.
During McCarthy’s tenure, Disney’s streaming spending skyrocketed, and free cash flow fell. For a while, that was fine. Disney’s stock got a bump as the number of Disney+ subscribers soared. But when the balloon popped on streaming valuations in 2022, she needed to change strategies. That is still a work in progress.
McCarthy also emerged as a pivotal figure during last year’s upheaval at Disney, which saw Iger return to replace his successor as CEO, Bob Chapek. During Chapek’s tenure, she moved toward his inner circle, only to reportedly turn on him, which proved to be the final straw for the former chief executive.

But Iger has loyalists at that company, and McCarthy’s move toward Chapek showed she wasn’t in that camp. So, she never had the same status internally as being trusted by Iger as others, according to people familiar with the matter.
Iger struck a positive tone about McCarthy in Thursday’s announcement, however.
“Among her many contributions to the company, one of the things I admire most about Christine is the generous mentorship she has provided to so many of her colleagues over the years, including countless women,” Iger said in the news release. “She has opened doors, created opportunities, and served as a role model for women at every level of business — not just at Disney, but around the world.” More

Peggy Whitson is America’s most experienced astronaut, having spent 675 days in space. She’s just returned from her fourth flight to orbit. 
Axiom Space recently completed its second human spaceflight mission traveling to and from the International Space Station via a SpaceX Dragon Capsule.

Axiom Mission 2 mission specialist Rayyanah Barnawi, of Saudi Arabia (L), and commander and former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, of the United States, make a heart-shape with their hands towards family members, as they arrive at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on May 21, 2023.
Gregg Newton | AFP | Getty Images

Peggy Whitson is America’s most experienced astronaut, having spent 675 days in space. She’s just returned from her fourth flight to orbit. 
Axiom Space recently completed its second human spaceflight mission traveling to and from the International Space Station via a SpaceX Dragon Capsule. Whitson, now Axiom’s director of human spaceflight, served as Ax-2’s mission commander. 

CNBC’s “Manifest Space” podcast sat down with the retired NASA astronaut to discuss her return to space, the commercialization of human spaceflight and her outlook on the private space economy.  
The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Follow and listen to CNBC’s “Manifest Space” podcast, hosted by Morgan Brennan, wherever you get your podcasts.

Let’s talk about the mission, what you accomplished, and what it was like to do this as a private astronaut? 
Of course, I’d love to go into space. It’s like my second home. I wanted to go but being a part of this changing era of space is really exciting to me. And that’s what made this flight special for me. And I like to think of it as we are changing the evolution of the idea that humanity belongs in space. And, and we have a purpose to be there. So that’s, to me, that’s changing a bit from where I’ve come from in the past.  
You’re back at the space station, you’re somebody who’s commanded the space station, you’ve been there multiple times before. What was that like to return as, for lack of better terms, a visitor? 

It was a different perspective for me. I did have the unique experience though. This was the first time I commanded the launching vehicle. So that was a novel part of the experience. And a part of being a NASA astronaut, I had many experiences where we trade responsibilities in command. And so this was just another aspect of that. The station commander had the lead there on the station and on the Dragon, I had the lead. So it’s just an interesting shifting roles and responsibilities depending on where you are. But it was great to be back up there and see the place. Some things were in the same place as they were when I left. … Even some of the bags were labeled by my handwriting.
You’ve ridden on multiple spacecraft and rockets now. What was it like to work with SpaceX? And what was it like to fly in Dragon and be launched from a Falcon 9 versus Soyuz or versus Space Shuttle? 
On the Dragon, I loved the crew interfaces and displays because they integrated data and procedures together and it just made it very easy for my user perspective to really know what was going on, what was happening, and to stay in tune with the vehicle. So it was very exciting. The landing on water was definitely better than landing on the ground. A lot less rolling around.  
How quickly do you think human spaceflight becomes more common, more commercial, and more accessible? 
I think access is going to increase for lots of countries and individuals. But I also think, as we begin developing the commercial aspects of the station, it will also bring in other companies who want to develop products, for instance, pharmaceuticals or other things, onboard a commercial space station, and so I’m excited about that future. Because of Axiom — and NASA’s design to have our station initially joined to the ISS and then constructed from there and depart before the ISS is deorbited in 2030 — [that] allows us an opportunity to have a really good proving ground and to open up that access a little bit earlier.  
Will you be doing more of these spaceflights? 
Oh, I certainly hope so. 
How involved are you in input around the development of these commercial space stations? Or in terms of training around future teams that are going to go on these missions? What does your day-to-day look like working with this space startup? 
One of the most fun things for me is talking to these young, innovative engineers. We have a really cool mix of people who’ve worked on this station and … know what things not to do again. [They have] these new, new innovative ideas coming out, and I get to talk to these young people and say, ‘OK, that’s a good idea, that that one will work in space. This one, you’re gonna have to work on that because it’s just not practical in space for this reason, that reason.’ I get to use my experience to help them design and fine-tune without having to do all the research on their own. It is exciting for me. Also, one of the things that I like to do and one of the things I developed while working at NASA was expeditionary crew skills. So, the soft skills that are used by crew members and interacting with each other. Like teamwork, leadership, followership, self-care, team care, those things are all important aspects of the mission, especially when you’re living in a small, confined space or, you know, away from your families, etc.
Your career has been incredible. Did you always think you’d be an astronaut?  
Well, it was kind of a long path for me. I was 9 years old when Neil Armstrong took his first step on the moon and you know, even at 9 I felt that was very inspirational. And that’s why I hope we are inspiring those young minds that same age, because for me, it’s stuck. And although I was a farm kid and a farm girl, I didn’t really know if that would ever be an option for me. But that’s what my dream was. And it wasn’t until I graduated high school and NASA selected the first female astronauts that I really felt like, hey, this, this is possible, I can do this. And two of the astronauts had medical degrees and another had a biochemistry degree. And I was very interested in biochemistry myself. And so I thought this might really be able to be possible. Luckily, I had no idea how hard it [would] be. But I set my path, I got an undergraduate and graduate degrees and started working at NASA. Of course, as soon as I got my graduate degree, I applied to work to be an astronaut. For 10 years I applied and was rejected. And I always like to tell young people that sometimes your path isn’t always a straight line to getting to your goal. During those 10 years, I can look back now and say that those were the 10 years that enabled me to get the training I needed to be selected as the first female commander, and to be selected as the first female and non-military chief of the astronaut office. It was those 10 years that enabled that. And so, in the end, I got even more than what I ever dreamed of. 
What’s the coolest thing about being in space? Is it a spacewalk? 
Definitely the coolest task in space is going on a spacewalks. It’s you’re out in the spacesuit, it’s basically a little spaceship built for one. That was pretty amazing. I was on a spacewalk. It was my first one in the U.S. suit. I had done one EVA [extravehicular activity] in the Russian suit on my first flight. But on my second flight, I did a spacewalk. And I had pulled out a box — it was a baseband signal processor, but it needed to be changed out, and I pulled it out. And then at the back of that was a reflective thermal insulation thing, but it was like mirror reflective. And I saw myself in a spacesuit. And I saw solar arrays and the earth behind me and I’m like, I’m an “astronaut!” It was very special. 
When you do another spaceflight, what is your dream crew? Are there certain people that you would love to travel with to space? Could be anybody. 
I think, you know, flying up with three rookies was a lot of fun, because it allowed me to re-experience the first time again. I would pick anybody that wanted to be part of a team, because to me that’s what makes the crews special is the people trying to be part of a team. And so I would want people that wanted to make and build that. 

“Manifest Space,” hosted by CNBC’s Morgan Brennan, focuses on the billionaires and brains behind the ever-expanding opportunities beyond our atmosphere. Brennan holds conversations with the mega moguls, industry leaders and startups in today’s satellite, space and defense industries. In “Manifest Space,” sit back, relax and prepare for liftoff. More

The company on Thursday said the flight is targeting a launch window that opens June 27 and runs to June 30.
Shares spiked more than 40%
It then plans for a second commercial flight to follow in “early August,” with “monthly” commercial flights after that.
The company, which was founded by billionaire Richard Branson, completed its final test spaceflight in May.

Spacecraft VSS Unity fires its engine during the Unity 25 spaceflight, May 25, 2023.
Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic aims to launch its commercial space tourism service in late June.
Shares of the company spiked more than 40% in extended trading Thursday.

Virgin Galactic on Thursday said the flight, called Galactic 01, is targeting a launch window that opens June 27 and runs to June 30. Virgin Galactic then plans for its second commercial flight to follow in “early August,” with “monthly” commercial flights after that.
Galactic 01 will carry three members of the Italian Air Force to conduct microgravity research with science payloads.

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The company completed its final test spaceflight in May and said Thursday that it completed “routine analysis and vehicle inspections” of its carrier aircraft VMS Eve and spacecraft VSS Unity.
Virgin Galactic’s first commercial spaceflight has been a long-awaited milestone for the company to begin flying its backlog of about 800 passengers. The company was founded in 2004 by billionaire Richard Branson. The June launch will also begin moving Virgin Galactic toward showing it can fly commercial flights regularly, which is crucial to its long-term success.
“We are launching the first commercial spaceline for Earth with two dynamic products — our scientific research and private astronaut space missions,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement. More

Bowlero CEO Tom Shannon called discrimination claims against the fast-growing bowling alley operator “absurd.”
He acknowledged the federal probe into those allegations may have hurt its stock price.
CNBC reported last month that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission wants to settle its sprawling investigation into age discrimination and retaliation claims

Bowlero CEO Tom Shannon on Wednesday called discrimination claims against the fast-growing bowling alley operator “absurd,” but acknowledged the federal probe into those allegations may have hurt its stock price.
“These allegations are frankly absurd. They don’t pass the sniff test. They don’t pass any common sense,” Shannon told CNBC’s “Mad Money with Jim Cramer.”

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in January proposed to settle its sprawling investigation into age discrimination and retaliation claims against Bowlero for $60 million, CNBC reported last month. Talks over the settlement failed in April, and the case is being referred to the EEOC’s general counsel “for potential enforcement action,” a letter sent by the agency shows.
Shannon said Wednesday that he did not think any potential action taken against Bowlero, the world’s largest owner and operator of bowling alleys, would “be material to the company in any way.” But he acknowledged the probe could have contributed to recent struggles for the company’s stock, which has dropped more than 7% in the last month, driven largely by the company’s disappointing commentary about foot traffic during its earnings call last month.
“Could [the investigation] be driving the stock down?” Cramer asked Shannon on Wednesday.
“I mean, I suppose,” he said.
“Look, we have never been hit by a lawsuit. We have never been hit with anything, you know, in terms of evidentiary findings or anything like that,” Shannon added.

President and CEO of Bowlmor AMF Tom Shannon attends Shay Mitchell hosts the Grand Opening of Bowlero Playa Del Rey on May 25, 2016 in Playa del Rey, California.
Jerod Harris | Getty Images

The EEOC investigation into Bowlero involves claims from at least 73 former employees who allege they were fired based on their age or out of retaliation, company filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show.
The agency’s proposed settlement is not public. It was revealed to CNBC by lawyer Daniel Dowe, who represents more than 70 former employees who made claims against Bowlero to the EEOC.
Asked by Cramer about whether the EEOC released the settlement information, Shannon said he thought the complainants’ attorney put the information out there “along with a complicit journalist” at CNBC.com.
CNBC said it stands by the reporting on Bowlero.
“Our story about Bowlero went through a rigorous review process,” a CNBC spokesperson said in a statement.
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