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Diamond Sport Group, an unconsolidated and independently run subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday.
The company, which airs local NBA, NHL and MLB games across the country, said it plans to restructure its more than $8 billion debt load.
Diamond said it was still finalizing the restructuring support agreement with creditors. The plan could see Diamond separate from Sinclair to become a standalone operation, Diamond said.

The Ohio Cup Trophy on top of a Bally Sports logo prior to a game between the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on May 17, 2022 in Cleveland, Ohio.
George Kubas | Diamond Images | Getty Images

Diamond Sports Group, the largest owner of regional sports networks, filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday, toppled by a more than $8 billion debt load.
The company, which is an unconsolidated and independently run subsidiary of Sinclair Broadcast Group, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas. The company said in a release it is finalizing a restructuring support agreement with a majority of its debt holders and Sinclair to wipe out its debt load.

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The hefty debt load stems from when Sinclair in 2019 acquired the portfolio of networks from Disney for $10.6 billion, which included roughly $8 billion in debt.
While Diamond has continued to make the rights fees payments to the leagues and teams it broadcasts games for, it was on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in annual debt interest payments.
Last month Diamond Sports said it missed a $140 million interest payment due to its bondholders and would instead enter into a 30-day grace period. During that time the company had been in negotiations with its creditors and other stakeholders in a bid to restructure its debt load, CNBC previously reported.
Making matters worse for Diamond, the networks, like other pay-TV channels, have been facing an accelerated rate of cord-cutting in recent years as consumers opt for streaming services. Despite maintaining stable ratings, as live sports often do, the regional sports networks have felt the brunt of the shift away from cable.
Diamond said it plans to restructure its balance sheet while continuing to broadcast local games on its portfolio of 19 networks under the Bally Sports brand across the U.S. The networks air professional hockey, basketball and baseball games.

Diamond, like other regional sports networks, has been focused on growing its streaming presence. Last year it launched Bally Sports+ to give consumers that have cut the traditional pay-TV bundle an option to stream games.
But the effort had yet to substantially pay off.
As of Tuesday, Diamond said, it was still finalizing the restructuring support agreement with creditors. The plan could see Diamond separate from Sinclair to become a standalone operation, Diamond said.
As part of the restructuring support agreement, Diamond’s first-lien lenders will remain unaffected while other secured and unsecured creditors will swap their debt for equity and warrants issued by the reorganized company.
Diamond had been moving toward this step for some months now. Last year Diamond appointed its own board and appointed David Preschlack, a former NBC Sports executive, as its CEO. In recent weeks it made further management hires.
Diamond’s impending bankruptcy filing has been a concern for the leagues — namely Major League Baseball, as its season begins on March 30 — spurring concerns that Diamond could forgo making rights payments during the bankruptcy process. The NBA and NHL regular seasons are winding to a close.
And, while Diamond obtained streaming rights for all of its NBA and NHL teams last year, it has been working on a team-by-team basis for MLB.
Last week, Diamond said it opted not to make a rights fee payment to the Arizona Diamondbacks since it had yet to obtain streaming rights for the team, according to a company spokesperson. It’s the only team it hasn’t made a payment to so far.

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AMC investors voted to approve a reverse stock split and the conversion of preferred APE shares into common company shares.
The result of the special shareholders meeting is expected to pave the way for the theater chain to continue raising cash, reduce its debt load through stock sales and increase its share base.
A Delaware Chancery Court injunction hearing planned for April 27 could delay any new debt-raising action by the world’s largest theatrical exhibitor.

Victor J. Blue | Getty Images News | Getty Images

AMC investors voted Tuesday to approve a reverse stock split and the conversion of APE shares into common company shares.
The result of the special shareholders meeting is expected to pave the way for the movie theater chain to continue raising cash, reduce its debt load through stock sales and increase its share base. The APE stock was issued less than a year ago.

Shares of the company fell more than 15% Tuesday.
Preliminary results for Tuesday’s meeting show that the APE conversion proposal passed with 978 million votes, or 88% of those cast. The second proposal, the reverse split of the company’s common shares at a ratio of 10:1, passed by a similar margin.
“I would like to commend our shareholders for the wisdom exhibited in your votes by approving these proposals, and doing so by a wide margin,” said CEO Adam Aron following the vote. “This is a landslide victory that shows your determination to keep AMC a strong and innovative company and the leader of our industry.”
He also noted that APE conversion vote will eliminate the gap between the value of AMC shares and the preferred dividend, which has hampered the company’s efforts to sell stock.
However, a Delaware Chancery Court injunction hearing planned for April 27 could delay any new debt-raising action by the world’s largest theatrical exhibitor.

The hearing is centered around a class-action lawsuit that claims AMC circumvented shareholders who were against adding more shares by creating the preferred stock APE. The ticker symbol APE is a reference to AMC retail investors who dubbed themselves “Apes.”
Aron also addressed the April hearing, telling investors that he would keep them updated on developments.
Tuesday’s vote comes less than a month after AMC posted disappointing fourth quarter earnings. The company saw revenue fall 15% to $990.4 million from $1.17 billion in the prior-year period.
Losses also widened, as AMC posted a net loss of $287.7 million, a steeper fall than the $134.4 million in losses it posted a year ago.
Essentially, AMC continues to spend more on operating costs and rent than it is making from admissions and concessions. As of Dec. 31, the company had nearly $850 million of available liquidity.

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Ohio sued rail company Norfolk Southern over the derailment of a train carrying toxic materials in East Palestine last month, the state’s attorney general announced Tuesday.
The state is seeking damages, civil penalties and a “declaratory judgement that Norfolk Southern is responsible,” Attorney General Dave Yost said.
Yost said Tuesday he heard from people who experienced sore throats and other irritations while visiting the site, and he noted he had felt “discomfort” himself while on location.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost speaks in Columbus, Ohio, on Feb. 20, 2020.
Julie Carr Smyth | AP

Ohio sued rail company Norfolk Southern over the derailment of a train carrying toxic materials in the town of East Palestine last month, the state’s attorney general announced Tuesday.
The 58-count lawsuit alleges several violations of state and federal law pertaining to hazardous waste, water pollution, air pollution and common law negligence, among others, said Dave Yost, the state’s attorney general, during a press briefing. The state is seeking damages, civil penalties and a “declaratory judgement that Norfolk Southern is responsible,” he said.

“This derailment was entirely avoidable,” Yost said, adding that Norfolk Southern has seen an 80% increase in accidents over the past decade. “The fallout from this highly preventable accident is going to reverberate through Ohio and Ohioans for many years to come.”
Yost is seeking repayment of the state’s costs including for natural resource damages, emergency responses and economic harm to the state and its residents. Yost said some businesses have lost significant revenues as people continue to avoid the area.
The state’s complaint asks for minimum federal damages of $75,000 “as a formality” but notes “the damages will far exceed that minimum as the situation in East Palestine continues to unfold.”
According to the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, the derailment is one of a “long string” of Norfolk Southern derailments and hazmat incidents. Since 2015, at least 20 Norfolk Southern derailments involved chemical discharge, the state claims.
Norfolk Southern executives met with Yost this week to discuss assistance programs the company will establish alongside Yost’s office and others from the community, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

“We look forward to working toward a final resolution with Attorney General Yost and others as we coordinate with his office, community leaders, and other stakeholders to finalize the details of these programs,” the company said.
On Feb. 3, a Norfolk Southern freight train with 11 tank cars carrying hazardous materials derailed near Ohio’s border with Pennsylvania and subsequently ignited, spurring concerns of environmental and health impacts for the surrounding community.

This photo taken with a drone shows the continuing cleanup of portions of a Norfolk Southern freight train that derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023.
Gene J. Puskar | AP

Rail workers have reported feeling ill during cleanup on the derailment site. Yost said Tuesday he heard from people who experienced sore throats and other irritations while visiting the site, and he noted he had felt “discomfort” himself while on location.
The complaint said substances from 39 rail cars were released into the ground, storm water infrastructure and surface waters that eventually empty into the Ohio River.
Yost said “there’s lots of things that we don’t know yet” regarding whether the chemical spill will have long-term impacts for farmers and their livestock. He also highlighted concerns from homeowners that their properties would lose value because potential buyers would be hesitant to move in.
Norfolk Southern said Tuesday that it remains committed to finding a solution to address “long-term health risks through the creation of a long-term medical compensation fund.” The company also said it is working to provide tailored protection for home sellers if their property loses value.
Yost has asked that Norfolk Southern conduct future soil and groundwater monitoring at the derailment location and surrounding areas, and that the company be prohibited from disposing of any additional waste from the site.
“A big point of this lawsuit is to make sure that those long-term effects are not only not forgotten but they are addressed,” Yost said.
Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw last week told a Senate panel that the company plans to clean the site fully in an effort to “make it right,” adding he is “deeply sorry for the impact this derailment has had on the people of East Palestine and surrounding communities.”
Shaw also said Norfolk Southern will provide financial assistance to affected residents and first responders near the derailment site, pledging more than $21 million in reimbursements and investments.
“This was an epic disaster, and the cleanup is going to be expensive,” Yost said Tuesday. “It’s going to take some significant dollars to put the people of East Palestine back as close as possible to the position they were before Feb. 3.”

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Tyson Foods will close two chicken plants in May as part of a plan to strengthen its poultry business.
In its latest quarter, the meat giant said its chicken business underperformed expectations.
Other food suppliers, including PepsiCo and Beyond Meat, have laid off workers in recent months to cut costs.

A package of Tyson Foods Inc. chicken is arranged for a photograph in Tiskilwa, Illinois.
Daniel Acker | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Tyson Foods will close two chicken plants in May, affecting nearly 1,700 employees.
“While the decision was not easy, it reflects our broader strategy to strengthen our poultry business by optimizing operations and utilizing full available capacity at each plant,” Tyson said in a statement to CNBC.

In its latest quarter, Tyson’s chicken business underperformed expectations as its operating income was halved compared with the year-ago period.
The company’s plants in Van Buren, Arkansas, and Glen Allen, Virginia, will close May 12. Demand will be shifted to other Tyson facilities. The Wall Street Journal first reported the upcoming closures.
Tyson said it is helping affected employees apply for open jobs and offering relocation assistance to other plants. The Glen Allen plant has 692 employees, while the Van Buren facility has 969 workers.
The meat giant is the latest food supplier to lay off workers in an effort to cut costs.
Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, both of which make alternative meats, have cut more than a fifth of their workforces as demand wanes for their products and the companies look to conserve cash. Coca-Cola offered voluntary buyouts to North American workers, while PepsiCo cut jobs in its Frito-Lay and North American beverage units. Spice giant McCormick said it would offer buyouts and lay off workers as part of a plan to save $75 million.

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Demand for wide-body planes has picked up in recent months.
Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman announced the launch of a new airline, Riyadh Air, over the weekend.

An employee works on the tail of a Boeing Co. Dreamliner 787 plane on the production line at the company’s final assembly facility in North Charleston, South Carolina.
Travis Dove | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Boeing said Tuesday that it has reached a deal to sell 78 of its 787 Dreamliner planes to two Saudi Arabian airlines, the latest large order for the wide-body jets in the past few months.
The jetliners will go to Saudi Arabian Airlines, or Saudia, and a new airline, called Riyadh Air, which Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman announced over the weekend. Saudia ordered 39 of the planes, with options for 10 more, and Riyadh Air will get 39, with options for 33 more.

The sale shows a pickup in demand for wide-body aircraft, planes that are used for long-distance flights and fetch a higher price than the more-common narrow-body jets.
Riyadh Air is owned by the country’s sovereign wealth fund and will be helmed by Tony Douglas as CEO, a longtime industry veteran and former CEO of Etihad Airways.
In December, United Airlines agreed to buy at least 100 Dreamliners from Boeing and last month, Air India placed an order for 460 Boeing and Airbus planes.
This is breaking news. Check back for updates.

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Amazon revealed a trio of satellite antennas, as the company prepares to take on SpaceX’s Starlink with its own Project Kuiper internet network.
The tech giant will offer a standard, ultra-compact and pro versions of its antennas, with speeds ranging from about 100 megabits per second to as much as 1 gigabit per second.
Amazon said the “standard” version is expected to cost less than $400 each to produce.

The company’s “standard” customer terminal, the middle of the trio of Project Kuiper satellite antennas at under 11 inches square and weighing under five pounds.

WASHINGTON — Amazon revealed a trio of satellite antennas on Tuesday, as the company prepares to take on SpaceX’s Starlink with its own Project Kuiper internet network.
The tech giant said the “standard” version of the satellite antenna, also known as a customer terminal, is expected to cost Amazon less than $400 each to produce.

“Every technology and business decision we’ve had has centered on what will deliver the best experience for different customers around the world, and our range of customer terminals reflect those choices,” Rajeev Badyal, Amazon vice president of technology for Project Kuiper, said in a statement.
Project Kuiper is Amazon’s plan to build a network of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit, to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world. The Federal Communications Commission in 2020 authorized Amazon’s system, in which the company has said it will “invest more than $10 billion” to build.

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The “standard” design measures under 11 inches square and 1 inch thick, and weighs under 5 pounds. Amazon says the device will deliver speeds to customers of “up to 400 megabits per second (Mbps).”

The “ultra-compact” version of the Project Kuiper

An “ultra-compact” model, which Amazon says is its smallest and most affordable, is a 7-inch square design that weighs about 1 pound and will offer speeds up to 100 Mbps. In additional to residential customers, Amazon plans to offer the antenna to government and enterprise customers for services like “ground mobility and internet of things.”
Its largest “pro” model, at 19 inches by 30 inches, represents a high-bandwidth version for non-residential customers. Amazon says this antenna will be able to “deliver speeds up to 1 gigabit per second (Gbps)” via space.

The company’s “Pro” customer terminal, the largest of the trio of Project Kuiper satellite antennas at 19 inches by 30 inches.

Amazon has yet to say what it expects the monthly service cost for Project Kuiper customers will be.
Last year, Amazon announced the biggest corporate rocket deal in the industry’s history, and has booked up to 92 launches from three different companies to deploy the satellites fast enough to meet regulatory requirements.
On Tuesday, Amazon said it expects to begin mass-producing commercial satellites by the end of this year, with launches of production satellites beginning in the first half of 2024 and service slated to begin by the end of 2024.

The company’s prototype Project Kuiper satellites shipping for launch.

The company’s first two prototype satellites are scheduled to launch on the debut mission of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, set for May.

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An iconic pair of Air Jordan sneakers is going up for sale at Sotheby’s.
It’s expected to be the most expensive pair of sneakers ever to appear at auction, estimated to sell for between $2 million and $4 million.
Jordan’s final season gained recent notoriety with an ESPN and Netflix documentary, “The Last Dance,” raising the estimated value of memorabilia from that year.

Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals Game 2 Air Jordan 13s from ‘The Last Dance’ season are expected to sell for $2/4 million.
Courtesy: Sotheby’s 

An iconic pair of Air Jordan sneakers is going up for sale and is expected to be the most expensive pair of sneakers ever to appear at auction, estimated to sell for between $2 million and $4 million.
Sotheby’s is listing Michael Jordan’s 1998 NBA Finals Nike Air Jordan 13s, worn during the basketball legend’s final season in the NBA.

The valuable sneakers were worn during Game 2 of the NBA Finals, where Jordan scored 37 points as the Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz 93-88. After the game, Jordan signed the sneakers and gifted them to the ball boy who maintained the visitors’ locker room.
The Bulls went on to win the 1998 NBA finals for their sixth title of the decade.
Jordan already holds the record for most expensive pair of sneakers sold at auction: In 2021, Sotheby’s sold the earliest known Michael Jordan Air Ships, also made by Nike, for $1.472 million. The latest sneakers to hit the auction block are in immaculate condition, which is unusual for game-worn basketball shoes, according to Brahm Wachter, Sotheby’s head of streetwear and modern collectibles.
“Michael Jordan game-worn sports memorabilia has proven time and time again to be the most elite and coveted items on the market,” Wachter said.
He said items from Jordan’s final season are of greater value because he wore them during the height of his fame. The season gained recent notoriety with an ESPN and Netflix documentary, “The Last Dance.”

A Jordan jersey worn during his final season recently sold for a record-breaking $10.1 million, the most valuable Michael Jordan sports memorabilia to ever be sold.
Adding to the expected hype, it’s an important Jordan year on the calendar: 2023, which represents Jordan’s longtime jersey number.
Sotheby’s started selling sneakers in 2019 and formalized its streetwear and modern collectibles category in 2021. The category quickly became one of the fastest-growing categories at the company, Wachter said.
Last year, sales in the category totaled more than $48 million, with nearly 90% of lots sold, according to a Sotheby’s representative.
“Most of our clients in this category are between 20 to 40 years old, and more than 80% of the participants are new,” he said. “It’s been a great way to engage a new generation of collectors coming to the market.”
Bidding on the Jordan shoes begins online April 3 and goes through April 11 as part of Sotheby’s “Victoriam” sale.

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Southwest outlined a plan to improve reliability in the winter.
Southwest canceled more than 16,000 flights during the last 10 days of 2022.
The carrier continues to expect a first-quarter loss because of the meltdown and now projects higher unit costs than previously forecast.

Travelers check in at a Southwest Airlines ticket counter during the busy Christmas holiday season at Orlando International Airport on December 28, 2022 in Orlando, Florida.
Paul Hennessy | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Southwest Airlines’ CEO said the company will increase winter staffing and equipment to help avoid a repeat of mass cancelations over the year-end holidays that cost the company millions of dollars and stranded tens of thousands of travelers.
In a filing ahead of an investor conference, Southwest said it continues to expect a loss in the first quarter after a revenue hit of as much as $350 million resulting from the fallout of the holiday mess last year, when it canceled more than 16,000 flights during the last 10 days of 2022, drawing criticism from Washington.

Southwest said it expects unit costs, excluding fuel, to be up as much as 6.5% year over year this quarter, higher than a January forecast of an increase of no more than 4%.
The company will purchase more equipment to deice planes and bolster staffing levels. Bitter temperatures during Winter Storm Elliott limited how much time crews were able to spend outside, Southwest said.
The airline will also improve technology to better predict how long deicing could take and has improved one of its scheduling platforms to better staff flights when things go wrong.
“We understand the root causes that led to the holiday disruption, and we’re validating our internal review with the third-party assessment. Now, we expect to mitigate the risk of an event of this magnitude ever happening again,” CEO Bob Jordan said in a news release. “Work is well underway implementing action items to prepare for next winter—with some items already completed.”

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