Kindred shareholder slams 4 1 billion humana deal

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said the company is always eyeing possible deals to bolster its business, citing the $3.8 billion acquisition of DreamWorks Animation in 2016 and Universal’s partnership with Blumhouse Productions . Shell jumped in Thursday after Comcast president Mike Cavanagh noted new deals have a high hurdle versus investing in existing operations. The execs were asked about M&A on a post-earnings conference call, with particular reference to World Wrestling Entertainment. Vince McMahon, WWE ’s majority owner and newly returned executive chairman, is looking to sel l, with Comcast considered a logical buyer. WWE Network programming has been popular on Peacock and helped drive subscriber acquisitions since the service took exclusive U.S. streaming rights in 2021. Shell didn’t address WWE but said the conglom led by Brian Roberts would be opportunistic. And with a market cap of $6.45 billion, WWE is not a mega-deal. “We are always looking … [Read more...] about NBCU Chief Jeff Shell Says Comcast Open To “Bolt-On” Deals, Cites DreamWorks Animation Acquisition, Blumhouse Venture

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell said execs at the company and parent Comcast are “more confident” than they were a year or two ago that investments in streaming service Peacock will soon yield profits. How soon remains a bit unclear, however. “We’ve been clear from the start that we’re going to see a return on that investment — I think we feel better about that now based on where we are,” Shell said during Comcast’s fourth-quarter earnings call. The company said Peacock had passed 20 million subscribers by the end of 2022, more than double its size at the start of the year. It added 5 million subscribers in the quarter thanks to Spanish-language World Cup coverage as well as original programming, other live sports and the addition of first-window movie titles and NBC and Bravo series that used to go to Hulu. Over the rest of the year, CEO Brian Roberts said, “subscriber cadence will follow content launches, which will fall more heavily in the second half of 2023” than … [Read more...] about NBCUniversal And Comcast Execs “More Confident” Than They Were A Year Ago In Peacock Profit Outlook, Jeff Shell Says

A parade of media and tech companies are apparently owed money by FTX along with hundreds of other creditors, according to an extensive list that runs from banks, insurers, hedge funds, airlines and hotels to universities, federal agencies and every state in the nation from Alabama to Wyoming. Creditors run 116 pages of small print in a bankruptcy filing in Delaware by the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange. Media and entertainment names include Netflix, Fox, CAA Sports, WME Entertainment, Turner, Bleacher Report, Bloomberg, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sirius XM and the Coachella Music Festival. Other creditors run the gamut from Amazon to Apple, Amtrak and AT&T, Comcast to Conde Nast, Google to Goldman Sachs to Gamestop, Meta to Marriott to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to Mercedes Benz to the Miami Heat Charitable Foundation. Twitter is there, Time Magazine and Thompson Reuters. There’s Peloton, The Container Store, the Nasdaq, U.S. Department of Labor, the … [Read more...] about Netflix, Fox, Bleacher Report, Coachella Music Festival On Very Long List Of FTX Creditors In Crypto Firm Bankruptcy

Hasbro , which has been reeling from a series of economic and corporate shocks, plans to cut 15% of its global workforce this year, or about 1,000 positions. In addition to those reductions, the company plans to unveil “a new organizational model, commercial alignment, and leadership changes” during its quarterly earnings call on February 16. One preliminary exec move announced today was the departure of Eric Nyman as president and chief operating officer. The consumer products group Nyman used to oversee will now report directly to CEO Chris Cocks. The toy maker and film and TV supplier elevated Cocks to CEO about a year ago following the death weeks earlier of Brian Goldner, who had steered the Rhode Island company to a more high-profile role in Hollywood. Under Goldner, Hasbro reached deals with studios and streamers for adaptations of Transformers, G.I. Joe and many other properties. During the pandemic, though, and with resulting supply-chain and retail pressures, Hasbro has … [Read more...] about Hasbro To Cut 15% Of Workforce, Warns Q4 Results Hurt By “Challenging Holiday Consumer Environment”