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London’s most expensive townhouse for sale just listed for the equivalent of about $74 million.
The residence, in the Belgravia neighborhood, spans over 14,700 square feet across six levels, including two floors that are underground.
The home is located in the Chelsea Barracks development, a 13-acre parcel of land that sold for $1.3 billion in 2008.

A row of townhouse residences at Chelsea Barracks. The residence pictured at the center just listed for about $74 million.
Will Pryce

One of the most expensive townhouses in London listed Monday for 60 million pounds (about $74 million).
The amenity-packed residence spans six levels, including two that are underground. There, you’ll find a pool that spans 39 feet, a spa, and parking that connects to a hidden roadway.

The home’s subterranean level includes a swimming pool that spans 39 feet and a pool deck furnished with daybeds.  
Will Pryce

The eight-bedroom, eight-bath home spans over 14,700 square feet and is in a new residential development called the Chelsea Barracks, located in Belgravia, one of London’s most expensive neighborhoods.  
The development is named after the land it sits upon, a 13-acre site which for 150 years housed regiments from the British Royal Army. The parcel was sold in 2008 by the British Ministry of Defence for $1.3 billion, or a whopping $100 million an acre. The sale price made it one of the largest land transfers in British history and one of the biggest residential real estate transactions in the world.

Whistler Square at the Chelsea Barracks.
Will Pryce

The site was purchased by the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar in partnership with the Candy Brothers, British developers who later sold their share to the sovereign state’s Qatari Diar Real Estate Company. The company oversaw the development of 290 luxury residences and 130 units of affordable housing on the site.
The mega-development is located less than two miles from Buckingham Palace and a little more than a quarter mile from the River Thames.
According to Richard Oakes, Qatari Diar’s chief sales and marketing officer, the land’s proximity to the river and high water tables underneath required the developer to construct an underground barrier around the construction zone’s perimeter to prevent water from breaching the site.

It’s a pricey feat of engineering that took two years to complete. Oakes told CNBC it was worth the time and money because it unlocked the ability to build downward.
Now the development contains a subterranean world that spans two levels of each of the 13 townhomes. It includes parking spaces interconnected by an underground roadway that leads to a nearby parking garage, creating a stealthy way to enter and exit the homes by car. There is no curbside parking, according to Oakes, so the concealed parking areas are a boon. 

Below the townhouse residences are subterranean parking spots that eliminate the need for on-street parking.
Will Pryce

Oakes would not reveal the total cost of the development, but he did tell CNBC the project stands two-thirds complete and has already topped $1.2 billion in residential sales since 2015. And the residences are commanding an impressive price per square foot that averages almost $5,600. 
“We’re absolutely trading on a premium,” said Oakes. “I reckon we’re up 30% premium on local area [residences].”

The family room at 3 Whistler Square.
Will Pryce

At about $74 million, the asking price for the townhome amounts to about $5,000 a square foot. Oakes told CNBC he’s “absolutely confident” in the pricing, adding that an apartment unit in the development has already sold for more.
“The release of pent-up demand following the uncertainty of Brexit and the frustration of Covid travel restrictions has boosted activity in London’s 10 million [pound]-plus property market over the last year,” said Tom Bill, head of U.K. residential research at Knight Frank. And even with mortgage rates notably higher, he told CNBC, cash-rich buyers are in a comparatively strong position and the price of 10 million pound-plus inventory has dropped about 12% since its last peak – September 2015 – which will also support demand.

The $74 million townhome’s study.
Will Pryce

For context, in 2022 London’s 10 million pound-plus super-prime market saw 162 transactions recorded, two more than in 2021, according to data provided by Bill. The number is likely to rise, though, due to a lag in data.
Meanwhile, over the last 12 months since February, the prime central London market saw 560 sales of 5 million pounds plus, with 60 of those transactions occurring in Belgravia. In that same date and price range, the district saw an average price per square foot topping $3,300, compared with just over $3,100 a square foot for prime central London, according to Bill.
Oakes attributes the significant premium achieved at the Chelsea Barracks to a couple of factors, including that the units are all-new construction, which is rare in Belgravia.

The pool inside the Chelsea Barracks’ Garrison Club.
Alexander James

He said there’s also value added by concierge services, security, and the community’s residents-only health and wellness center, called the Garrison Club. The club delivers 12,700 square feet of luxe amenities, including a 66-foot swimming pool, gym, steam and sauna rooms, and private training studios.

Inside the 12,700-square-foot wellness-focused Garrison Club.
Will Pryce

And high net worth buyers are drawn to a Chelsea Barracks convenience he calls “lock up and leave.”
“Here you can throw the keys at the concierge, go away for a couple of months and come back and your house is warmed,” said Oakes. “You know everything can be done for you.”
Here’s a closer look around — and under — London’s newest $74 million listing, which is being sold fully furnished.

The formal reception room.
Will Pryce

On the first floor of the six-story home, at 3 Whistler Square, is an over 30-foot-long grand reception room. The room has floor-to-ceiling windows with bespoke iron balustrades, which are intricately designed for each townhome.

The primary bedroom.
Will Pryce

The entire second floor of the residence is devoted to the primary suite. The 1,600-square-foot area, which can be accessed by a grand staircase or a lift, includes a lobby, handbag wardrobe, two baths and two walk-in closets/dressing rooms.

One of the primary suite’s two baths.
Will Pryce

One floor above the primary suite are four en suite guest bedrooms, and one floor higher is a rooftop terrace.

One of four en suite bedrooms located on the residence’s third floor.
Will Pryce

Now for what’s down below. The first of two lower levels includes a family kitchen and dining area with walk-out access to the garden at the back of the home. This can be achieved on a subterranean level because the rear garden is one level below street grade. Also on this level are two more bedrooms, for staff, and access to a pair of elevators, one for residents, the other for service.

Lower-level family area and views of the rear garden.
Will Pryce

One level deeper is the second underground level, which is the home’s most expansive floor, spanning over 4,700 square feet. This level features a cinema and a wine room plus a separate wine vault.

Cinema room on the homes second subterranean level.
Will Pryce

There’s also a health and wellness area that includes a private 39-foot indoor swimming pool, gym, changing rooms, steam and sauna rooms, plus spa treatment areas. This level also features a 30-foot-wide garage with secured access to an underground roadway for entry and exit.

One of the townhome’s subterranean spa treatment rooms.
Will Pryce

Across the backyard is a structure called The Mews. The name is a historical reference to stables that were once built behind large city homes to house horses before they were replaced by cars in the early 20th century.

Across the backyard lawn is a second structure that houses a duplex guest house called The Mews.
Will Pryce

This modern version houses a duplex one-bedroom guest house. While on the surface this second house is separated from the main residence by about 40 feet, hidden deep below the lawn the two homes are very much connected. The subterranean pool level, which is buried two stories directly below the lawn, spans the length of the yard, joining the lowest level of the main house to the lowest level of the guest house.

Interior view of the guest house dining area.
Will Pryce

Oakes told CNBC the sale would be subject to a 15% stamp duty, which would add another $11.1 million in fees. And the buyer should expect to pay a homeowner’s fee, which amounts to about $164,000 per year. More

Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment is in advanced talks to be sold to Ari Emanuel’s Endeavor Group, the parent of UFC.
The deal would combine UFC and WWE into one publicly traded company.
WWE has spent the past several months looking for a buyer.

World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. Chairman Vince McMahon appears in the ring during the WWE Monday Night Raw show at the Thomas & Mack Center August 24, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Ethan Miller | Getty Images

Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment is in advanced talks to be sold to Ari Emanuel’s Endeavor Group, the parent company of UFC, according to people familiar with the matter.
A deal could be announced as soon as Monday. UFC and WWE are expected to form a new publicly traded company as part of the agreement, according to the people, who declined to be named due to the confidential nature of the discussions.

Endeavor is slated to own 51% of the new combat sports and entertainment company, while WWE shareholders would get 49%, according to the people. The Endeavor deal gives WWE an enterprise value of $9.3 billion, they said.
Emanuel is expected to act as chief executive of both Endeavor and the new company. McMahon, likewise, is expected to be executive chairman, while Endeavor President Mark Shapiro will also work in the same role at the new company. Dana White will remain as president of UFC, while WWE CEO Nick Khan will serve as president of the wrestling business.
The development comes during the same weekend WWE hosts its flagship live event, WrestleMania, in California. The company has spent the past several months looking for a buyer. McMahon returned to the company as chairman in January to oversee the process. Shares of WWE are up more than 33% so far this year, giving it a market value of more than $6.79 billion.
The deal will effectively end WWE’s decades-old status as a family-run business. McMahon’s father founded WWE in its original incarnation during the middle of the 20th century, and McMahon is the controlling shareholder in the company. McMahon bought the company from his father in 1982. Since then, the company has grown into a global phenomenon, spawing stars suck as Hulk Hogan, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Dave Bautista and John Cena.
McMahon, 77, retired from the company in July following a string of revelations that he paid several women millions of dollars over the years to keep them quiet about alleged affairs and misconduct. His daughter, Stephanie McMahon, became co-CEO alongside Khan. Paul Levesque, who’s both Stephanie McMahon’s husband and the wrestler known as Triple H, took over creative duties from Vince McMahon.

When Vince McMahon came back in January, Stephanie McMahon stepped down and Khan fully assumed the CEO role. The elder McMahon recently locked in a two-year employment contract, according to a securities filing.
Khan in recent weeks has been making the media rounds to discuss the potential sale. He told CNBC’s Morgan Brennan on Thursday that it’s been a robust sale process, drawing many interested buyers.

WWE brings with it a robust media and live events business, along with its decades worth of intellectual property. The company generated $1.29 billion in revenue last year, driven mainly by its $1 billion media unit.
UFC has paid off for Endeavor. Last year, the MMA league helped Endeavor’s sports business make $1.3 billion in revenue. Endeavor’s market cap stood at about $10.53 billion as of Friday’s close. The Endeavor-WWE deal values UFC at more than $12 billion.
WWE, at least at a glance, would also fit well with the cultures at Endeavor and UFC. McMahon has a brash public persona, making him an apparently good match for Emanuel and White, who are also known for their outsized personalities.
White, like McMahon, is no stranger to scandal, either. Earlier this year, video emerged showing the UFC boss slapping his wife during a public argument at a New Year’s Eve party in Mexico. White apologized.
Disclosure: Peacock, the streaming service owned by CNBC parent NBCUniversal, carries WWE events such as WrestleMania. More

Starbucks fired Alexis Rizzo, the employee responsible for igniting the Starbucks Workers United union campaign, CNBC confirmed.
Rizzo worked as a shift supervisor at Starbucks for 7 years and served as a leader at the Genesee St. store in Buffalo, New York, which was one of the first two stores in the country to win its union campaign.
Starbucks Workers United announced Rizzo’s termination in a tweet Saturday and said in a corresponding GoFundMe page that “this is retaliation at its worst.”

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz testifies about the company’s labor and union practices during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 29, 2023.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images

Starbucks fired Alexis Rizzo, the employee responsible for igniting the Starbucks Workers United union campaign, just days after the company’s former CEO Howard Schultz testified on Capitol Hill about the coffee chain’s alleged union-busting.
Rizzo worked as a shift supervisor at Starbucks for seven years and served as a union leader at the Genesee St. store in Buffalo, New York, which was one of the first two stores in the country to win its union campaign.

Starbucks Workers United announced Rizzo’s termination in a tweet Saturday and said in a corresponding GoFundMe page that “this is retaliation at its worst.”
“I’m absolutely heartbroken. It wasn’t just a job for me. It was like my family,” Rizzo told CNBC in an interview. “It was like losing everything. I’ve been there since I was 17 years old. It’s like my entire support system, and I think that they knew that.”
Rizzo said her store managers fired her after she finished working her shift Friday. She said they told her it was because she had been late on four occasions — two of which were instances where she had been one minute late.
Starbucks told CNBC Rizzo had missed more than four hours of work over the course of those instances, and that she had been repeatedly issued write-ups for being late. 
Starbucks spokesperson Rachel Wall said separations at the company only follow clear violations of policies. In this case, she said there were numerous attendance violations that were impacting other baristas at this store location.

“We appreciate that our Genesee St. partners provided the Starbucks Experience to each other and our customers this morning, and that area stores continue to serve customers without interruption this weekend,” she told CNBC in a statement.
Rizzo said suspects she was let go as a result of Wednesday’s Senate hearing.
Schultz faced a volley of tough questions from Sen. Bernie Sanders Wednesday about Starbucks’ labor and union practices. Sanders, a pro-union independent representing Vermont, has been putting pressure on Starbucks for more than a year to recognize the union and negotiate contracts with unionized cafes.

Sanders chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which conducted the panel.
During the hearing, Sanders said that Starbucks has engaged in the “most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country.” He also accused the company of stalling on collective bargaining agreements, betting that workers will give up and leave the coffee chain.
Schultz defended Starbucks’ approach to its negotiations, maintaining that a direct relationship with workers is what is best for the company. He also denied multiple times that the company ever broke federal labor law and said his focus during his time as interim CEO was 99% on operations, not battling the union.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that two days after Howard Schultz had his ego bruised the way that he did that he started lashing out at Buffalo,” Rizzo said. She added that two other employees were also fired Friday.
Nearly 300 Starbucks cafes have voted to unionize under Starbucks Workers United, according to data from the National Labor Relations Board. In total, the union has made more than 500 complaints of unfair labor practices related to Starbucks with the federal labor board. Starbucks has filed roughly 100 of its own complaints against the union. Judges have found that the company has broken federal labor law 130 times.
None of the unionized stores have agreed on a contract yet with Starbucks.
Rizzo said she is still “in shock” about being fired, but that she plans to fight for her position.
“We’re going to keep fighting to make things right,” she said. “I’m going to fight for my job back and to get reinstated.”
— CNBC’s Amelia Lucas contributed to this report. More

Virgin Orbit is on the brink of bankruptcy, with its valuation tumbling from nearly $4 billion in 2021 to less than $100 million today.
While it touted a flexible approach to launching small satellites, the Richard Branson-backed company was unable to reach the rate of launches necessary to generate enough revenue.
CNBC collected insights from company insiders and investors over the past several weeks to explain where things went wrong for Virgin Orbit.

Virgin Orbit crew poses at the opening bell ceremony as a 70 foot model rocket with satellites is placed in front of the NASDAQ in Times Square of New York City, United States on January 7, 2022.
Tayfun Coskun | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Not too long ago, Virgin Orbit was in rarified air among U.S. rocket builders, and executives were in New York celebrating its public stock debut.
The scene was true to the marketing pizazz that has helped Sir Richard Branson build his Virgin empire of companies, showcasing with a rocket model in the middle of Times Square.

The deal, facilitated by a so-called blank check company, gave Virgin Orbit a valuation of nearly $4 billion. But that moment in December 2021 – when the craze surrounding public offerings centered on special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, was dying out – previewed the pain to come.
Now, Virgin Orbit is on the brink of bankruptcy. The company on Thursday halted operations and laid off nearly all of its staff. Its stock was trading around 20 cents Friday, leaving it with a market value of about $74 million.
When Virgin Orbit closed its SPAC deal, it raised less than half of the nearly $500 million expected due to high shareholder redemptions, shortening its runway. With the broader markets turning against riskier yet-unprofitable assets like many new space stocks, Virgin Orbit shares began a steady slide, further limiting its ability to raise substantial outside investment.
Branson, Virgin Orbit’s largest stakeholder, was unwilling to fund the company further, as CNBC previously reported. Instead, he began hedging against his 75% equity stake through a series of debt rounds. That debt gives the flashy British billionaire first priority of Virgin Orbit assets in the event of the now-impending bankruptcy.
While Virgin Orbit touted a flexible and alternative approach to launch small satellites, the company was unable to reach the rate of launches necessary to generate the revenue it sorely needed.

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Virgin Orbit’s technical staff acquitted themselves well over the company’s brief existence, but were ultimately undone in by its leaders’ financial mismanagement. It’s a story too often told in the history of the space industry: Exciting, or even innovative, technologies do not necessarily equal great businesses.
It became one of a few U.S. rocket companies to successfully reach orbit with a privately developed launch vehicle. It launched six missions since 2020 — with four successes and two failures — through an ambitious and technically difficult process known as “air launch,” with a system that uses a modified 747 jet to drop a rocket mid-flight and send small satellites into space.
But Virgin Orbit had dug a nearly $1 billion hole, flying missions just twice a year while its payroll expenses climbed. The company’s leadership was aware of the deteriorating situation and lack of progress, and even considered changes last summer to make the business more lean. But no clear or dramatic plan came to fruition – leading to Thursday’s fall.
This story collects insights from CNBC’s discussions with company insiders and industry investors over the past several weeks, as well as from regulatory disclosures, to explain where things went wrong for Virgin Orbit. Those people asked to remain anonymous in order to discuss internal or competitive matters.
A Virgin Orbit spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

Lacking execution

The company’s 747 jet “Cosmic Girl” releases a LauncherOne rocket in mid-air for the first time during a drop test in July 2019.
Greg Robinson / Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit was spun-off from Branson’s space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, in 2017, after a team within the latter sister company saw potential in using an aircraft as a platform to launch satellites. While “air launching” satellites was not a novel idea to Virgin Orbit, the company aimed to surpass the air-launched Pegasus rocket – developed by Orbital Sciences, which is now owned by Northrop Grumman –for a fraction of the cost per mission.
Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Virgin Orbit flew most of its missions out of the Mojave Air and Space Port. The exception to that was its most recent launch, which took off from Spaceport Cornwall in the United Kingdom. Virgin Orbit had been working with other governments to provide launches by flying out of airports around the world, signing agreements with Japan, Brazil, Australia and the island of Guam.
The advertised flexibility and potential of Virgin Orbit’s approach attracted quite a bit of attention from leaders in the U.S. national security community. Following meetings with top Pentagon brass in 2019, Branson proclaimed that Virgin Orbit is “about the only company in the world that could replace [satellites] in 24 hours” during a military conflict.
At the time, the Air Force’s acquisition lead, Will Roper, said he was “very excited about small launch” after meeting with Branson. He said the U.S. military had “huge money to invest” in buying rocket launches.
The company had hoped to launch its debut mission as early as 2018, but that goal kept moving every six months or so. Eventually, Virgin Orbit launched its first mission in May 2020, which failed shortly after the rocket was released from the jet. It got to orbit successfully for the first time in January 2021.
Given the company’s burn rate near $50 million a quarter, Virgin Orbit was targeting profitability once it got beyond a launch rate, or cadence, of a dozen missions per year. When it went public, Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart told CNBC that the company was aiming to launch seven rockets in 2022, to build on that momentum.
At the same time, Virgin Orbit was already in a deep financial hole – with a total deficit of $821 million at the end of 2021, due to steady losses since its inception. While Virgin Orbit had aimed to launch seven missions last year, that number was steadily guided down quarter after quarter, closing out 2022 with just two completed lunches – the same as the year before.
Some people within the company who had been critical of Virgin Orbit’s execution pointed to several executives’ backgrounds at Boeing, which has had its share of space-related snags over the years.
Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart had spent 34 years at Boeing, where he was previously the vice president of its government space systems. COO Tony Gingiss joined Virgin Orbit from satellite broadband company OneWeb, but before that had spent 14 years in Boeing’s satellite division. And Chief Strategy Officer Jim Simpson had also spent more than eight years in Boeing’s satellite division before joining Virgin Orbit.
As one person emphasized, the company launched the same amount of rockets in a year with a staff of 500 as it did with a workforce of over 750 people. Others complained of a lack of cross-department coordination, with projects and spending done in silo of each other – leading to a disconnect in schedules.
Two people mentioned wastefulness in ordering materials. For example: The company would buy enough expensive items with limited shelf-life to build a dozen or more rockets, but then only build two, meaning it would have to throw away millions of dollars’ worth of raw materials away.
When Virgin Orbit announced an employee furlough March 15, people familiar with the situation said the company had about half a dozen rockets in various states of production in its Long Beach factory.
As the lack of a financial lifeline made the situation increasingly more desperate, multiple Virgin Orbit employees voiced frustration with how Hart communicated the company’s position – and even more so with the lack of clarity after the furlough.
The day of the initial pause in operations, people described company leadership running around frantically while many employees stood around waiting for word on what was happening. One person emphasized the tumultuous and sudden furlough happened because executives tried to keep the company alive as long as possible. Several employees expressed disappointment with Hart holding the March 15 all-hands meeting virtually, speaking from his office rather than face-to-face, and not taking any questions after announcing the pause in operations.
That frustration continued after the pause, with employees confused by the lack of specifics about which investors were speaking to Virgin Orbit leadership. Thursday’s update that a deal fell through came as little surprise to a workforce that was largely in limbo. Many were already hunting for new jobs.

Deal efforts fall apart

The rocket for the company’s second demonstration mission undergoing final assembly at its factory in Long Beach, California.
Virgin Orbit

A pivot in Virgin Orbit’s strategy became apparent and necessary shortly after it went public.
Virgin Orbit aimed to raise $483 million through its SPAC process, but significant redemptions meant it raised less than half of that, bringing in $228 million in gross proceeds. The funds it did raise came from the minority of SPAC shareholders who stuck around, as well as private investments from Virgin Group, the Emirati sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, Boeing, and AE Industrial Partners.
Unlike its sister company Virgin Galactic, which built its cash reserves to more than $1 billion through stock and debt sales after going public in October 2019, Virgin Orbit did not build its cash coffers. And that meant leadership should have buckled down and made changes to run the company in a more lean way, one person emphasized, to rebuild momentum.
And then Virgin Orbit’s apparent strength in the national security sector began to falter. Despite half of its missions flying Space Force satellites, the company lost out to competitor Firefly Aerospace for a launch contract under the “Tactically Responsive Space” program. Awarded in October, the mission seemed right up Virgin Orbit’s alley, especially since the prior mission under that Space Force program flew on the similarly air-launched Pegasus rocket.
As the financial situation worsened, a few bankers who spoke to CNBC wondered why the search for a deal was dragging on. According to one banker, Virgin Orbit could raise anywhere from $10 million to $15 million quickly to stop-gap the situation while it found a larger buyer. Another investor estimated that Virgin Orbit had about $270 million in net tangible assets, further sweetening the potential for a wholesale deal even despite its plunging market value.
A white knight seemed to appear last week in the form of Matthew Brown, who discussed making an 11th-hour deal with Virgin Orbit, to reportedly inject as much as $200 million into the company. However, within days, the talks fell apart. The company continued to discussions with another, unnamed investor this past week.
But in the words of Hart on Thursday, Virgin Orbit was “not been able to secure the funding to provide a clear path for this company.”
And while the 675 employees laid off Thursday likely have strong job prospects, Virgin Orbit seems now destined for bankruptcy. More

A Delaware judge said Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Fox can move to a trial in April after rejecting all of Fox’s motions and some of Dominion’s.
Fox and Dominion met before the judge last week, each urging for the court to make a ruling on their behalf and bypass a trial.
The judge said he would not make a ruling on Dominion’s argument that Fox acted with malice as several of its hosts helped spread pro-Trump election conspiracy theories.

Members of Rise and Resist participate in their weekly “Truth Tuesday” protest at News Corp headquarters on February 21, 2023 in New York City. 
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images

A Delaware judge on Friday said Dominion Voting’s $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox Corp. and its networks could go to trial in April.
Judge Eric Davis of Delaware’s Superior Court rejected Fox’s arguments that it should bypass a trial since it’s protected by the First Amendment. The judge granted some of the voting machine maker’s motions, with the exception of its argument that Fox and its hosts acted with malice in broadcasting false claims about the 2020 presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

The ruling comes more than a week after Fox and Dominion’s attorneys met before Davis over two days in Delaware, urging him to make a ruling rather than go to trial with jury in mid-April.
“We are gratified by the Court’s thorough ruling soundly rejecting all of Fox’s arguments and defenses, and finding as a matter of law that their statements about Dominion are false. We look forward to going to trial,” Dominion said late Friday afternoon.
Fox also weighed in on the judge’s ruling.
“This case is and always has been about the First Amendment protections of the media’s absolute right to cover the news. FOX will continue to fiercely advocate for the rights of free speech and a free press as we move into the next phase of these proceedings,” the company said.
Dominion brought its lawsuit against Fox News and Fox Business, as well as their parent Fox Corp., in 2021, arguing the channels and their hosts pushed false claims that its voting machines were rigged in the 2020 election that saw Biden triumph over Trump. The former president, who was indicted Thursday in an unrelated criminal matter, has repeatedly made false claims about the election being rigged against him.

Last year, as part of Dominion’s evidence gathering, the company deposed executives at both Fox Corp. — including Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son and Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch — and Fox News, as well as the top hosts on the network. In recent weeks, a trove of evidence has been released as part of the case, showing the hosts, as well as Rupert Murdoch, were skeptical of the election fraud claims being made on air.
Dominion has argued Fox defamed the company, affecting its business, and acted with malice. Fox has argued it was reporting on newsworthy allegations, at the time stemming from Trump and attorneys, and is protected by the First Amendment.
The judge pointed to the statements regarding election fraud, that Dominion manipulated vote counts through software and algorithms, that it was founded in Venezuela to rig elections on behalf of late dictator Hugo Chavez, and that it paid kickbacks to government officials who used the machines in the election – all of which were said on air on Fox – to be defamatory.
“The statements also seem to charge Dominion with the serious crime of election fraud. Accusations of criminal activity, even in the form of opinion, are not constitutionally protected,” Davis said in court papers.
While the judge on Friday granted summary judgement on some of Dominion’s arguments, including defamation, he didn’t grant one on actual malice.
In order to win a defamation case, a plaintiff needs to prove that the individual or business they are suing knowingly made false statements that caused harm, and that it acted with “actual malice,” meaning the speaker knew or should have known what they were saying to be untrue.
In the evidence released in recent weeks, internal text messages and emails between Fox executives and its hosts have shown they were skeptical of the claims being made on air. Still, Dominion argues, Fox continued to host guests such as Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who repeated erroneous claims of election fraud.
Fox argued last week in court that the basis of its case was “whether the press accurately reports the allegations, not whether the underlying allegations are true or false.” Attorneys have built the media company’s case around the notion that “any reasonable viewer” of the news would be able to discern what was allegations or facts on Fox’s networks.
In Friday’s opinion, Davis, the judge, aid there was “no clear and convincing evidence of actual malice.” Instead, Davis said it is a matter a jury should decide.
Similarly, on Fox’s arguments against the $1.6 billion in damages Dominion is seeking in this case, Davis said the matter is for a jury to decide – including the calculation of how much the damages should be.
The trial, which is expected to last for weeks, is set to begin on April 17, with a pre-trial conference and jury selection taking place the week before.
Dominion is requesting Fox’s top hosts, including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, as well as former host Lou Dobbs and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, appear on the stand for questioning. The depositions of both Murdochs, as well as other Fox Corp. executives, are to be included in the trial, too.
Former Fox producer Abby Grossberg was also added to Dominion’s witness list. Grossberg, who worked on the shows of Bartiromo and Carlson, filed a lawsuit against Fox alleging she was coerced into providing misleading testimony as part of the Dominion lawsuit.
Read the ruling. More

Nikola on Thursday announced plans for a $100 million secondary stock offering.
The offering priced at a 20% discount to Thursday’s close, pushing the truck maker’s shares lower on Friday morning.

Nikola Motor Company
Source: Nikola Motor Company

Electric heavy-truck maker Nikola said that its planned $100 million secondary stock offering, announced on Thursday after U.S. markets closed, has priced at $1.12 per share – 20% below the stock’s Thursday closing price of $1.40.
Nikola’s shares closed on Friday at $1.21, down over 13%.

related investing news

Even with the discount, there appears to have been very limited interest in the shares on Wall Street. Nikola’s underwriter, Citigroup, was only able to place about a third of the shares with its clients. An unnamed private investor has agreed to buy the remainder directly from Nikola, the truck maker said.
Nikola plans to use the money raised for working capital and other general purposes. The company is preparing to launch a new long-range electric semitruck powered by hydrogen fuel cells later this year. The new truck will complement Nikola’s shorter-range Tre battery-electric heavy truck, which began shipping last year.
Nikola had $233.4 million in cash and equivalents available as of Dec. 31. The truck maker lost $222.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. More

“What I want to do is get banking back where it ought to be, and that is boring,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Friday morning on “Squawk on the Street.”
In the weeks since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, Warren has authored or sponsored three new bills related to bank oversight.
Banking should not be an industry that attracts risk-takers, Warren said.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants banking to be “boring” again following the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
“What I want to do is get banking back where it ought to be, and that is boring,” Warren, D-Mass., said Friday morning on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “Banking is supposed to be there for putting your money in and you can count on it’s going to be there, and that’s true if you’re a family, that’s true if you’re a small business.”

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Warren said the problem started under the Trump administration, when bank CEOs lobbied Congress to weaken regulation for regional and midsized banks. Silicon Valley Bank was among those who lobbied for the changes, Warren pointed out, noting the bank’s profits surged in the years regulations were loosened.
During a hearing this week, Warren, a longtime critic of the financial industry, pressed the nation’s top banking regulators on how SVB and Signature were able to fail practically overnight earlier this month. Financial regulators shuttered the two banks, citing systematic contagion fears, after negative news triggered bank runs. The failed banks disproportionately serviced startup and cryptocurrency companies.
The incident marked the largest U.S. banking failures since the 2008 financial crisis, and the second- and third-biggest bank failures in U.S. history.
In the weeks since the collapse of the banks, Warren has authored or sponsored three new bills related to bank oversight.
The first would reverse a Trump-era bill that weakened oversight of medium-sized banks. The second would create an inspector general position within the Federal Reserve, and the third would prohibit executives at publicly traded companies from selling stock options for three years.

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is interviewed on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., March 31, 2023. 
Andrew Kelly | Reuters

“What we want to do is align the incentives,” Warren said Friday. “I have a bipartisan bill for clawbacks and the whole idea is to say to these CEOs going forward ‘hey if you load this bank up on risk and the bank explodes, you’re going to lose that fancy bonus, you’re going to lose that big salary, you’re going to lose those stock options.'”
Banking should not be an industry that attracts risk-takers, Warren said.
“I really want to say to bank CEOs, if you’re the kind of guy or gal who wants to roll those dice and take big risks, don’t go into banking,” Warren said. “Banking is about steady profits. Banks should absolutely be able to make profits, but when banks load up on risks, they put depositors at risk, they put small businesses at risk, and ultimately as we’ve learned with these million-dollar banks, they put our whole economy at risk.”
Warren chided banking regulators for not doing enough and called on Congress to join her in putting safeguards back into place.
“You’ve got to look at everything that broke here,” Warren said. “We permitted the regulators to take their eye off the ball. Banking is a regulated industry for a reason because of its impact on the rest of the economy. Just as Joe Biden said yesterday – they need to start tightening those regulations down right now.”

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David Halls, who was the first assistant director on “Rust,” pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge.
Halls’ sentence makes him the first defendant held accountable in cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ death.
Halls must testify at future “Rust” hearings and trials, set to start in early May. Star Alec Baldwin and the movie’s original armorer are charged with manslaughter.

An image of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who died after being shot by Alec Baldwin on the set of his movie “Rust”, is displayed at a vigil in her honour in Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 23, 2021.
Kevin Mohatt | Reuters

David Halls, the “Rust” assistant director who handled the gun that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021, pleaded no contest Friday to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.
The plea makes Halls the first person held criminally accountable in Hutchins’ death. Actor Alec Baldwin and the independent movie’s original armorer, Hanna Gutierrez-Reed, are both charged with manslaughter over Hutchins’ death. 

Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which carry 18-month prison sentences.
The New Mexico judge overseeing the “Rust” case sentenced Halls to six months of unsupervised probation, a $500 fine and 24 hours of community service.
Halls will also have to complete a firearms safety course, as well as testify in upcoming “Rust” hearings or trials, per New Mexico Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer’s ruling. Halls had previously agreed to the plea deal in January.
Preliminary hearings for Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed are expected to start in early May. 
Notably, Friday’s hearing was the first to be conducted under the supervision of the case’s new special prosecutors, Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis. 

To date, “Rust” proceedings have been routinely disrupted by complications concerning the appointment of the case’s previous special prosecutor. 
The first special prosecutor for the case, Andrea Reeb, stepped down earlier this month, after Baldwin’s defense lawyers filed a motion requesting her removal.
At the heart of the request for Reeb’s removal was her allegedly contradictory commitments: Reeb was named special prosecutor before being elected to New Mexico’s legislature. Baldwin’s lawyers argued the state’s constitution prevents people from simultaneously serving as prosecutor and legislator. 
While Reeb and the district attorney’s office initially rejected the motion, Reeb’s decision to step down was followed by a New York Times report in which Reeb suggested in a June 2022 email that working on the case could help her political career. 
Complications only continued from there. On Monday, Mary Carmack-Altwies, the New Mexico district attorney who had overseen the “Rust” case, was given a directive from Judge Marlowe Sommer: Either recuse yourself from the case, or lose your ability to appoint a new special prosecutor. 
On Wednesday, Carmack-Altwies recused herself. In her place, she appointed Morrissey and Lewis. 
“My responsibility to the people of the First Judicial District is greater than any one case, which is why I have chosen to appoint a special prosecutor in the ‘Rust’ case,” Carmack-Altwies said in a statement. More