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Amazon Prime signed a multiyear deal with the Professional Pickleball Association to provide streaming coverage of four tournaments per year.
The coverage will kick off Thursday with a four-day tournament.
The PPA Tour’s 20-plus tournaments in 2023 can be seen across a variety of platforms.

Ben Johns leaps across the kitchen for a backhand shot during the PPA Carvana Arizona Grand Slam Pro Men’s Doubles Championship match at Legacy Sports USA on February 19, 2023 in Mesa, Arizona.
Bruce Yeung | Getty Images

Amazon Prime members can now add pickleball coverage to their list of membership benefits.
Amazon’s Prime Video streaming platform announced Tuesday it’s signed a multiyear deal with the Professional Pickleball Association for global streaming rights to four live PPA Tour events per year, including the 2023-2024 PPA Tour World Championship Series.

Amazon Prime’s coverage will kick off with a four-day tournament starting Thursday from the Atlanta Open in Peachtree Corners, Georgia.
“When something has an explosion in growth, naturally it catches our eye,” Charlie Neiman, head of sports partnerships at Amazon Prime Video, told CNBC.
Amazon said its coverage will include games with top-ranked players such as Ben Johns, Anna Leigh Walters and Anna Bright.
Connor Pardoe, CEO and cofounder of the Pro Pickleball Association, called the deal “monumental” for the burgeoning league.
“It’s important for the evolution of the pro game, the game as a whole, and a nice step forward for the professional players,” he added.

Prime’s deal with the PPA also deepens its commitment to the world of sports streaming rights, which range from Thursday Night Football to emerging sports leagues and sports documentaries.
Neiman says Amazon has had tremendous success investing in other emerging properties such as MMA’s One Championship or Overtime Elite Basketball. He thinks pickleball has significant growth potential as well, he said.
“We’re always looking at content and making sure our offerings on Prime Video reflect our customers’ interests,” he said.
For pickleball enthusiasts, seeing their sport on the small screen, along with the ability to stream games, is welcome news. But patchwork and evolving media strategy has also made it confusing where to watch.
The PPA Tour’s 20-plus tournaments in 2023 can be seen across a variety of platforms that also includes ABC, Fox, CBS, YouTube, the Tennis Channel and FanDuel. Earlier this month, the PPA Tour announced that ESPN will cover eight of the league’s tournaments.
“Where pickleball is today, it’s a sport that’s really hot,” said Pardoe. “It’s really exciting and nobody wants to miss out on it. But also, no one’s really ready to commit to the whole thing as well.”
Pardoe said it will take time to get a more concise and consistent media deal, but today the league is focused on getting its brand “anywhere and everywhere.”
Pickleball continues to see rapid growth, with an estimated 36 million people picking up a paddle between August 2021 and August 2022, according to a report by the Association of Pickleball Professionals. The sport grew more than 158% over the past three years, according to the 2023 Sports Fitness Industry Association Topline Participation Report. More

Two activist investment firms have proposed resolutions before Dollar General’s and Dollar Tree’s shareholders to improve worker safety and wages.
Dollar General is considered a “severe violator” of workplace safety by federal regulators, and employees of Dollar Tree say they aren’t paid a livable wage.
The companies’ boards have asked shareholders to vote “against” the proposals.

Dollar General and Dollar Tree stores
Getty Images

Two activist investment firms are calling on Dollar General and Dollar Tree shareholders to approve a pair of resolutions aiming to improve worker safety and wages, the firms said Tuesday. 
Dollar General Proposal 7, led by Domini Impact Investments, calls for an independent audit into worker safety and well-being. It will be voted on during the company’s annual shareholder meeting May 31. 

Dollar Tree Proposal 7, led by United Church Funds, calls for the creation of a wages and inequality report. It will go before shareholders during the retailer’s annual meeting June 13. 
The resolutions aim to address longstanding workplace safety and wage concerns that have plagued employees of the growing discount chains, which are increasing store counts faster than any other retailer. Collectively, they employ more than 377,000 employees nationwide, company filings show. 
Dollar General is currently facing more than $16 million in fines from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration for safety hazards, including blocked fire exits, blocked electrical outlets and dangerous levels of clutter. 
“It’s far too dangerous in the stores that we work in,” David Williams, a Dollar General stocker, said during a panel event Tuesday. “It’s a dire need and it makes no sense to always look behind your back and always try to do your job but at the same time always trying to make sure you’re safe as well.”
Federal regulators have repeatedly found similar violations at Dollar General stores across the country, prompting OSHA to label it a “severe violator” of workplace safety rules. It’s a designation considered “unprecedented” and “rare” for a company of its size and stature, said Debbie Berkowitz, a former chief of staff and senior policy advisor at OSHA. 

“[It’s] a program for the worst safety violators in the nation. It is totally rare for a large employer with many work sites to be in the severe violator program. Most companies in their program are small construction companies,” said Berkowitz, who is also a fellow at the Kalmanovitz Initiative at Georgetown University.
“OSHA rarely finds the same hazards or cites the same company so many times and for the same violation. Usually companies try to correct safety hazards that endanger workers,” she said.
Berkowitz pointed out that OSHA fines are notoriously low. Considering the $37.84 billion in sales Dollar General posted in fiscal 2022, the penalties are unlikely to have a major impact on its balance sheet. 
The retailer didn’t respond to a request for comment. It is currently in settlement negotiations with OSHA. Its board has called on shareholders to vote “against” Domini’s resolution, proxy filings show.

A shopper walks by a sign displaying $1.25 price, posted on the shelves of a Dollar Tree store in Alhambra, California, December 10, 2021. The store is known for its $1 items, but due to inflation raised prices to $1.25.
FREDERIC J. BROWN | AFP | Getty Images

Dollar General previously told CNBC it “regularly review[s] and refine[s] our safety programs, and reinforce[s] them through training, ongoing communication, recognition and accountability.”
“When we learn of situations where we have failed to live up to this commitment, we work to timely address the issue and ensure that the company’s expectations regarding safety are clearly communicated, understood and implemented,” a spokesperson said. 
Kenny, a Dollar Tree employee, said he’s only allowed to work 15 hours a week and brings in about $600 a month. The low wages and the inability to get full-time hours caused him to lose his housing and move in with his parents.
“You can’t expect most working adults, even teenagers, to make that little money, because it’s not going to help in the grand scheme of things,” said Kenny, who didn’t disclose his last name. 
Matthew Illian, the director of responsible investing at United Church Funds, said Dollar Tree doesn’t have a minimum-wage commitment, unlike some of its peers. 
Costco, Target, Best Buy, Amazon, IKEA and Starbucks all have a guaranteed wage of at least $15 an hour, while Walmart has committed to $14 an hour. However, dollar stores in general differ from many of those retailers because of their heavy footprint in rural communities, which tend to have lower costs of living.
Still, in many of those locales, the dollar store is one of the few retailers in town, so there is less competitive pressure to improve wages, safety and even quality of goods.
Illian argued investors benefit from income equality — and pointed to a study conducted by the Economic Policy Institute that found income inequality drags on GDP by 2% to 4% a year. 
“The economy overall would be doing better. That means more people with more money in their pockets, spending that money in more places,” said Illian. “So we’re asking for Dollar Tree to look at how their compensation practices are impacting the returns of a diversified investor.”
Dollar Tree declined to comment. Its board has called on shareholders to vote “against” United Church Fund’s resolution, according to proxy filings.
— Additional reporting by CNBC’s Melissa Repko More

After rewatching Donald Trump’s May 10 town hall, CNN CEO Chris Licht said he would have liked to do certain things differently from a production standpoint, sources said.
The lessons could be used by CNN or other networks that will have future Trump interviews.
Licht’s primary issue with the CNN telecast, sources said, was it focused too much on the spectacle of Trump while not homing in on the substance of what Trump said.

Chris Licht, Chairman and CEO, CNN Worldwide speaks onstage during the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront 2022 show at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on May 18, 2022 in New York City.
Dimitrios Kambouris | Getty Images

Nearly a week after CNN’s May 10 town hall with Donald Trump, CEO Chris Licht has acknowledged internally there are some things he wished the network had done differently.
Licht continues to stand by the concept of the town hall, telling people both inside and outside CNN that history will look kindly on the network’s decision to interview Trump in front of cheering supporters in a live town hall format.

But there are several production elements that he would have liked done in a different way, according to people familiar with his thinking.
Licht said he wished he had introduced the in-person audience to TV watchers so that viewers could better identify who they were, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions were private.
The crowd was a main character in the event as many Trump supporters cheered his responses and jeered CNN host Kaitlan Collins when she challenged him. Licht would have liked to openly question the crowd before the town hall began so the TV audience could better understand who they were and why they were supporting Trump, said the people.
Licht and other CNN executives also pointed to direction elements CNN could have done differently, such as focusing the camera only on Collins when she tried to fight off Trump’s lies about election fraud in 2020, rather than using wide shots on both Trump and Collins. That way, CNN could draw the audience’s focus to the substance of the question rather than the spectacle of Trump. CNN could have also graphically shown each question while Trump spoke, emphasizing his answers didn’t always match the topic at hand.
Licht said he wished that after the town hall he’d had the network anchors focus on the news Trump made, such as his claim that he would settle Russia’s war with Ukraine within 24 hours or his refusal to weigh in on a federal ban on abortion. CNN could have gone live to a reporter in Ukraine, as an example, which would have reminded the audience of the network’s journalistic range.

The post-event panel, co-hosted by CNN anchors including Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper, looked like they had a case of deja vu after the town hall’s conclusion, clearly showing trauma from previous Trump interviews and speeches where he’d peddled election fraud lies and talked over questioners.
A CNN spokesman declined to comment.
Several high-profile CNN employees told CNBC they were embarrassed by the Trump town hall. One person said it was the network’s lowest point since a 2012 incident when the network initially misreported that the Supreme Court had struck down the Affordable Care Act.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav chose Licht to run CNN last year in an attempt to reimagine the network as a down-the-middle, facts-only cable news network.
Other news networks will likely follow CNN’s lead in booking Trump interviews — especially if he continues to be the front-runner to win the Republican nomination for president in 2024. NBC and its news networks have been in contact with many of the U.S. presidential candidates, including Trump, about scheduling upcoming appearances, according to a person familiar with the matter.
NBC isn’t likely to do a Trump town hall, given how CNN’s went, said the person. An NBC spokesman declined to comment.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
WATCH: Jury finds Donald Trump did sexually abuse E. Jean Carroll More

Home Depot missed revenue expectations and lowered its fiscal year sales forecast.
Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said customers are buying fewer big-ticket items, such as patio sets and grills, and taking on smaller home improvement projects.
In the fiscal first quarter, colder weather and falling lumber prices also hurt sales.

A customer enters a Home Depot store on August 16, 2022 in San Rafael, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Home Depot on Tuesday reported its biggest revenue miss in more than 20 years and lowered its forecast for this year, as consumers delay large projects and buy fewer big-ticket items like patio sets and grills.
The home improvement retailer said cold weather and falling lumber prices also hurt fiscal first-quarter sales. Its last quarterly miss of this magnitude was in November 2002.

The company’s shares closed about 2% lower Tuesday.
Home Depot said it now expects sales and comparable sales to decline between 2% and 5% for the fiscal year. It had previously predicted roughly flat sales for the period. Its operating margin rate is also expected to come in lower for the year, in a range of between 14% and 14.3% compared with a previously expected 14.5%, including the effect of a $1 billion investment in employee wages.
Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail told CNBC that Home Depot anticipated 2023 would be a year of moderation, after Americans’ huge appetite for home improvement during the Covid pandemic. The retailer’s annual sales have grown by about $47 billion from three years ago. Yet he said the expected pullback has been compounded by rising mortgage rates and a shift toward spending on services.
“The state of the homeowner is that they’re very healthy,” he said. “They have healthy balance sheets. They have healthy incomes. But I do think — and our professional customers tell us they hear this from their customers — there is that shift, even if it’s temporary from larger projects into smaller ones.”
Here’s what the retailer reported for the three-month period that ended April 30, compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: $3.82 vs. $3.80 expected
Revenue: $37.26 billion vs. $38.28 billion expected

Home Depot reported fiscal first-quarter net income of $3.87 billion, or $3.82 per share, down 8.5% from $4.23 billion, or $4.09 per share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 4.2% to $37.26 billion from $38.91 billion.
It marked the second quarter in a row that Home Depot missed Wall Street’s revenue expectations. Last quarter, the company fell short of analysts’ expectations for the first time since November 2019, before the pandemic.
Comparable sales for the first quarter fell 4.5%, and dropped 4.6% in the U.S. McPhail said lumber deflation accounted for more than 2 percentage points of that decrease.
Sales trends were better among do-it-yourself customers than among home professionals, but sales fell year-over-year for both groups, CEO Ted Decker told investors on an earnings call.
Spring is the holiday season of the home improvement industry. It marks a major quarter for sales to do-it-yourself customers and professionals who typically seize upon the warmer and milder weather by gardening and taking on other projects.
Yet Home Depot and its competitors now face a more unpredictable outlook. Rising interest rates threaten to dampen the appetite of prospective homebuyers and cool home values. Groceries and essentials now take a bigger bite out of households’ budgets. And with Covid largely in the rearview mirror, Americans now weigh spending on travel, dining out and other experiences when they debate a kitchen renovation or a new refrigerator.
Customer transactions dropped nearly 5% in the quarter compared with the year-ago period, but the average ticket of $91.92 was roughly flat.
Prices of lumber have dropped, but inflation is still raising the price of other items, Decker said on the investor call.
This spring, colder and wetter conditions in California and the western U.S. contributed to lower-than-expected quarterly results, he said.
Home Depot in the quarter sold fewer pricier discretionary items, such as new appliances, McPhail said. He said customers may be putting off those purchases or may have already made them during the pandemic. Demand has softened for flooring, kitchen and bath items, too, he added.
Even so, McPhail said Home Depot has some factors that work in its favor. Housing supply in the U.S. remains low and is aging, dynamics that will continue to prop up home improvement demand. Sales grew year over year in some categories, including building materials, hardware, plumbing and millwork, reflecting that people are still investing in their homes, he said.
“Once we’re through this period, we think the medium to long-term fundamentals of home improvement are strong,” he said.
Shares of Home Depot closed Monday at $288.54, down about 17% from their 52-week high of $347.25. So far this year, the company’s stock has fallen nearly 9%. That trails the approximately 8% gain of the S&P 500 index and the 1% rise of the retail-focused XRT.
— CNBC’s Robert Hum contributed to this report. More

The volleys between Disney and Gov. Ron DeSantis continue, as the company has asked a Florida court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the board of supervisors that the governor handpicked to oversee Disney World’s operations.
Disney’s filing alleges that DeSantis rendered the board’s lawsuit moot after he signed a bill effectively voiding the company’s development deals at the heart of the litigation.
The Disney-DeSantis feud began after the company publicly criticized the controversial Florida bill — dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics — that limits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms.

Handout | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Disney on Tuesday asked a Florida court to dismiss a lawsuit by the board of supervisors that Gov. Ron DeSantis had handpicked to oversee Walt Disney World’s operations.
The court filing argues that the lawsuit was rendered moot after DeSantis signed a bill that voided Disney’s development deals, which are now at the center of the long-running conflict between Disney and the Republican governor.

By signing that legislation, DeSantis essentially carried out the same action that the board is asking the court to take, Disney argued.
The governor’s move “makes any order this Court could issue — in either party’s favor — legally irrelevant,” Disney’s lawyers wrote.
In a statement to CNBC, a spokesman for the special tax district that the board oversees said, “This motion by Disney is entirely predictable and an acknowledgement they know they will lose this case.”
The state-level lawsuit was filed in response to Disney’s federal civil case accusing DeSantis and the board members of carrying out a campaign of political retribution against the entertainment giant. Disney filed suit after the board voted to undo development contracts that the company said it struck to secure its investments.
Disney expanded its lawsuit last week, accusing DeSantis of doubling down on his political vendetta by signing legislation to void Disney’s development deals in Orlando.

The battle between DeSantis and one of his state’s largest employers began after Disney publicly criticized the controversial Florida bill — dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics — that limits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in classrooms.
The governor and his allies soon after targeted Disney’s special tax district, formerly called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which has allowed the entertainment giant to effectively self-govern its Orlando parks’ operations for decades.
The district was ultimately left intact, but its five-member board was replaced with DeSantis’ picks.
In March, the district’s new slate of supervisors accused Disney of crafting “11th-hour” development deals intended to thwart the board’s power over the 25,000-acre area. Disney disputes that characterization, arguing that the contracts were crafted to help lock in its long-term development plans.
DeSantis has kept up his fight with Disney as he positions himself for a likely presidential campaign announcement in the coming weeks. The governor, who is currently seen as former President Donald Trump’s biggest threat for the 2024 Republican nomination, has curried Republican favor and gained national attention by waging high-profile fights over hot-button cultural issues.
But he may have swung too hard at Disney, should it prevail in its motion to dismiss the board’s lawsuit as a result of the governor’s additional legislation.
Disney argued that that bill entirely undercuts the litigation against it, regardless of who would win.
If the court agrees with Disney that its development deals were valid, then “the board would still be prohibited from complying with them under the new state statute,” Disney argued.
On the other hand, if the court sided with the board, its ruling “would be pointless because the contracts would already be void under the new state statute,” the company wrote.
“In short, any declaration about the contracts’ enforceability, voidness, or validity — either way — would be an advisory opinion with no real-world consequence. Trial courts in Florida are forbidden from issuing advisory opinions, and this case should be dismissed,” Disney argued.
DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. More

It has been a jittery few months for the economies of the West. First came the nerve-rattling crisis in the banking sector. Then came the as-yet-unresolved prospect of a default by America’s government on its supposedly risk-free debt. Many now fret over what other hidden dangers lie in wait.An understandable area of concern is the hefty debts racked up by non-financial companies in recent decades courtesy of low interest rates. Since 2000 non-financial corporate debt across America and Europe has grown from $12.7trn to $38.1trn, rising from 68% to 90% of their combined GDP. The good news is that hardy profits and fixed-rate debts mean the prospect of a corporate-debt-fuelled cataclysm in the West remains, for now, reassuringly slim. The bad news is that businesses will soon find themselves waking up to a painful debt hangover that will constrain their choices in the years ahead.The West’s corporate-debt pile has so far proven less wobbly than many feared. On both sides of the Atlantic roughly one-third of debt covered by credit-rating agencies is deemed to be speculative grade, less charitably known as junk, with iffy prospects for repayment. The default rate for those debts remains at a comfortable 3% in both America and Europe (see chart 1). A pandemic-era spike in downgrades from the more reassuring investment grade down to speculative has also since been largely reversed.The explanation for the resilience is two-fold. First is better-than-expected corporate profits. According to The Economist’s calculations, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of listed non-financial firms in America and Europe were 32% higher in the final quarter of 2022 than in the same period in 2019. Some of that is thanks to bumper profits in the energy industry, but not all. Companies from McDonald’s, a fast-food chain, to Ford, a carmaker, handily outperformed analyst expectations on earnings in the first quarter of this year. Procter & Gamble, a consumer-goods giant, and others have successfully protected profits in the face of cost inflation by jacking up prices and cutting costs. That has left plenty of money to continue paying interest bills.The second factor is the structure of corporate debt. In the years after the financial crisis of 2007-09, many firms began opting for long-term fixed-rate debts, notes Savita Subramanian of Bank of America. Today three-quarters of non-financial corporate debt in America and Europe is on fixed rates, according to S&p Global, a rating agency. Rock-bottom interest rates at the height of the pandemic created an opportunity to lock in cheap debt for many years. Only a quarter of the combined debt pile of American and European firms will mature in the next three years (see chart 2). The average coupon rate that issuers actually pay on American investment-grade corporate bonds is currently 3.9%, well below the yield of 5.3% that the market is pricing in at the moment (see chart 3). For high-yield speculative bonds the average coupon rate is 5.9%, compared with a market yield of 8.4%.The morning afterComforting stuff. Yet businesses and their investors would be wise not to take too much solace. GDP growth in America and Europe continues to slow. Analyst estimates suggest that aggregate quarterly earnings declined in the first quarter of this year for listed non-financial firms in both America and Europe. The Federal Reserve and its European counterparts are still raising interest rates. On April 3rd Multi-Color Corporation, an American label-maker, issued $300m of bonds at a hefty 9.5% coupon rate. Firms like Carnival, a cruise-operator, are drawing on cash buffers built up during the pandemic to delay refinancing at higher rates. Such nest-eggs are steadily dwindling.The strain will begin at the flakiest end of the debt spectrum. Less than half of speculative-grade debt in America and Europe is on fixed rates, according to S&P Global, compared with five-sixths for investment-grade debt. Goldman Sachs, a bank, reckons the average coupon rate on speculative-grade floating-rate loans in America has already soared to 8.4%, up from 4.8% a year ago. Floating-rate debt tends to prevail among the most indebted firms, and is particularly common in businesses backed by debt-hungry private equity (PE). Although some PE funds hedge against higher interest rates, the squeeze is already beginning. Bankruptcies of PE-owned businesses in America are so far on track to double from last year, according to S&p Global. On May 14th Envision Healthcare, a provider of doctors to hospitals, declared bankruptcy. KKR, a private-equity giant, paid $10bn for the business in 2018, including debt. It is expected to lose its $3.5bn equity investment.That will make for an uncomfortable ride for the pension funds, insurers and charitable endowments that have entrusted money to the PE barons—not to mention the financiers themselves. Fortunately, for the economy more broadly the effect is likely to be contained. PE-backed businesses employed around 12m workers last year in America, according to EY, a professional-services firm. Listed firms employed 41m.Indeed, it is the effect of rising interest rates on large listed firms, whose debts are mostly investment-grade, that may be the most consequential both for investors and the economy. The S&P 500 index of large American companies accounts for 70% of employment, 76% of capital investment and 83% of market capitalisation of all listed firms in the country. The equivalent STOXX 600 index in Europe carries similar weight in its region.In the years before the pandemic the non-financial firms in these indices consistently splashed more cash on capital investments and shareholder payouts than they generated from their operations, with the gap plugged by debt (see chart 4). But if they wish to avoid a sustained drag on profitability from higher interest rates, they will soon need to start paying down those debts. At current debt levels, every percentage point increase in interest rates will wipe out roughly 4% of the combined earnings of these firms, according to our estimates. Many firms will have no choice but to cut back on dividends and share buy-backs, squeezing investor returns. That will prove especially painful in the spiritual heartland of shareholder capitalism. High payout rates in America—63% of operating cashflow, compared with 41% in Europe—have helped push share prices relative to earnings above those in other markets. Suddenly, borrowing money in order to fork it over to shareholders makes less sense in a world of higher interest rates, argues Lotfi Karoui of Goldman Sachs.Plenty of companies will also find themselves forced to scale back their investment ambitions. Semiconductor companies swimming in overcapacity have already cut back on spending plans. Disney, a media titan with hefty debts, is cutting investments in its streaming services and theme parks. From decarbonisation to automation and artificial intelligence, businesses face an expensive to-do list in the decade ahead. They may find their grand ambitions in such areas derailed by the indulgences of yesteryear. That would be bad news for more than just their investors. ■To stay on top of the biggest stories in business and technology, sign up to the Bottom Line, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter. More

Disney is more likely to buy Comcast’s 33% stake in Hulu than sell its 66% stake, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said.
A deal will likely value Hulu at more than the $27.5 billion valuation floor the companies set in 2019.
Comcast and Disney have already held talks about Hulu this year, Disney CEO Bob Iger said last week.

Ted Soqui | Corbis | Getty Images

Comcast will likely sell its 33% stake in Hulu to Disney at the beginning of 2024, Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said Tuesday.
Comcast and Disney struck a deal in 2019 that allowed Disney the option to buy out Comcast’s minority stake in 2024. That deal set a floor valuation for Hulu at $27.5 billion.

“It’s more likely than not we will go through with what we’ve said all along,” Roberts said at the SVB MoffettNathanson investor conference. “The vast majority case is that we’ll put and they’ll call in the beginning of next year.”
Roberts also suggested the final price for Hulu will likely be higher than the $27.5 billion valuation initially set in 2019.
Hulu is Disney’s adult-focused streaming service, which it bundles with ESPN+ and Disney+ for as low as $12.99 per month. Comcast owns a minority stake in Hulu but has no operational control over the business. Hulu ended Disney’s fiscal second quarter with 48.2 million subscribers.
Comcast and Disney have already held talks about Hulu this year, Disney CEO Bob Iger said last week. Iger told CNBC in Feburary that “everything is on the table” with regard to Hulu.
“I can say we’ve had some conversations with them already,” Iger said. “They’ve been cordial and they’re aimed at being constructive, but I can’t tell you and I can’t really say where they end up — only to say that there seems to be real value in having general entertainment combined with Disney+. And if, ultimately, Hulu is that solution, that’s we’re — we’re bullish about that.”

Roberts’ position on Hulu has pushed Iger back toward buying Comcast’s stake, said people familiar with the matter who declined to be named.
“Everything was on the table,” said Iger during Disney’s earnings conference call last week. “But I’ve now had another three months to really study this carefully and figure out what is the best path for us to grow this business. And it’s clear that a combination of the content that is on Disney+ with general entertainment is a very positive, is a very strong combination from a subscriber perspective, from a subscriber acquisition, subscriber retention perspective, and also from an advertiser perspective.”
Comcast executives had assumed Disney would buy out its 33% stake in Hulu when Bob Chapek was Disney’s CEO last year. But when Iger returned, he emphasized cost-cutting and initially questioned the value of general entertainment content, which he said was “undifferentiated.”
Iger last week backtracked, saying “that was a little harsh,” while also acknowledging talks have occurred with Comcast.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal, which includes CNBC.
WATCH: Breakdown of Disney’s second-quarter earnings More

Home Depot’s slashed forecast indicates that even wealthier Americans who own homes have become careful about spending.
Target shoppers likely pulled back on discretionary spending too.
Target reports earnings on Wednesday.

Target and The Home Depot store signage.
Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty Images

Home Depot and Target may sell very different kinds of merchandise. But the home improvement retailer’s slashed forecast could be seen as a warning sign for the cheap chic retailer.
Target will report its fiscal first-quarter earnings on Wednesday, a day after Home Depot posted its worst revenue miss in more than 20 years and lowered its forecast for the year.

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Here’s a closer look at why Target — and other retailers that report in the coming weeks — may be in an even tougher spot than the home improvement retailer:

Home Depot customers tend to be homeowners.

Home Depot has an edge over many other retailers: Its customers typically own homes. That means they have wealth beyond what’s in their bank account.
On a call with investors on Tuesday, CEO Ted Decker emphasized that difference. He described Home Depot’s shoppers as “one of the best customer sets in any market sector.”
“Our customer is stronger than the overall consumer when you think they tend to have good jobs, increase in wages and own their homes, and collectively those home values have increased by about $15 trillion since 2019,” Decker said, referring to Federal Reserve data.
On the other hand, Target, Walmart and other retailers that report in the coming weeks draw from a more representative pool of Americans. Younger consumers and low- or middle-income families may rent homes and apartments and feel on shakier financial footing than homeowners, particularly as inflation persists and mortgage rates have put buying a home further out of reach for them.

Target sells a lot of discretionary items.

Consumers aren’t going on the big shopping sprees of the pandemic era, as they pay more for food and spend money dining out, traveling or covering the costs of other kinds of services.
Home Depot’s sales results were more evidence of that. Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail told CNBC the company has sold fewer big-ticket items like patio sets, appliances and grills — the kinds of discretionary items that customers can delay buying. He added shoppers are tackling smaller home projects, instead of bigger and pricier ones.
The pandemic boom of home purchases and projects could also be to blame, as they don’t need to be repeated frequently, he said.
Yet across the board, consumers have started to make trade-offs. Discretionary spending fell year over year in the U.S., according to data from Circana, a market researcher formerly known as The NPD Group and IRI. In April, discretionary general merchandise dollar sales fell 7% year over year and unit sales dropped 8%, Circana found.
For Target, that’s troubling news. Its sales are driven by many different discretionary categories, including home goods, apparel and electronics. Only 21% of its annual sales come from groceries, compared with nearly 60% of Walmart’s.
Plus, Home Depot has some sector-specific advantages — even as mortgage rates rise — that could insulate it from some of the effects of lower discretionary spending. There’s a shortage of housing in the U.S., and the median year a home was built is 1979, according to the American Community Survey. That means more leaky roofs, broken furnaces and rooms that need a fresh coat of paint.
Plus, as mortgage rates rise, more homeowners are choosing to stay in place rather than sell — a dynamic that’s giving homebuilders more confidence.
On the call with investors, Decker said the retailer ultimately bets on higher demand over the longer term, as more homes “are reaching that 20-year and 40-year sort of witching hour of age” and people put more wear and tear on their homes while working remotely.
Target does not have those factors working in its favor.

Consumers have become more skittish.

Failing banks. Rising interest rates. And tense talks in Washington, D.C., over the debt ceiling.
Consumers are taking cues from economic and political events that have made headlines. In some cases, it has led to more caution.
Home Depot’s McPhail said on an investor call that tighter monetary policy and tighter credit is shaping consumers’ mindsets. In February, he said the company’s business was trending well and if adjusted for seasonal trends it would have translated to positive comparable sales for the rest of the year.
But that changed in March, he said. Not only did unfavorable spring weather hit, but external factors came into play — including the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
“We think all of those just build to a broader caution among consumers,” he said.
Consumers who are worried about a shaky economy — or a recession — may be less likely to pick up home decor or clothing at Target.
At Target’s investor meeting in February, the company said it already noticed higher interest rates and inflation pressuring budgets. It gave a conservative outlook, saying it expected comparable sales for the fiscal year to range from a low single-digit decline to a low single-digit increase.

Spring is here. For Target, the holiday season is over.

Home Depot’s busiest sales season is springtime. Do-it-yourself customers and home professionals are more likely to kick off a new project when the weather is sunnier and warm. The shift in seasons also inspires purchases of new plants, landscaping tools and gardening equipment.
That didn’t shape up as the company expected, however. In a call with CNBC, McPhail said Home Depot’s sales got hit by colder and wetter weather in the U.S. West, including California.
Even so, where the weather was good, Home Depot saw a spring lift in categories like live goods and garden-related items, Decker said on the call with investors.
Target’s biggest sales stretch has already come and gone.
The retailer’s fiscal first quarter is after its major November and December holiday season, and before the back-to-school season begins. Sales of its own spring merchandise, such as patio sets and outdoor items, could get hurt by weather too.
One potential silver lining? Target tends to lean into seasonal merchandise, from jelly bean-flavored whipped cream and Easter candy to displays of sparkling wine for Mother’s Day. More