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☆ Disney's quarter reflects what we knew all along about Bob Iger's turnaround plan. Here's our earnings analysis and what's next
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Botton line We've been saying for weeks that fiscal Q2 was not the one to rush in and get in ahead of. Not represented in the table, the Q2 loss was also smaller by $400 million quarter over quarter. Furthermore, management acknowledged churn could be a potential issue for one more quarter before returning to domestic sub-growth in the fiscal fourth quarter. As for theme park sales, this profitable growth engine remains in great shape, jumping nearly 38% to $6.76 billion in fiscal Q2. Iger's Strategy Updates Alongside fiscal Q2 results, we got some more news on the strategic changes Iger has for the company, about six months into his return as CEO.

☆ Disney's revenue is on the rise, giving CEO Bob Iger a victory lap amid legal battle with Florida's Ron DeSantis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Disney announced its fiscal second quarter earnings, with 13% revenue growth in the three months ending April 1. The results come as CEO Bob Iger reorganizes the company and pursues a legal battle with Florida Gov. Walt Disney Co. reported $21.79 billion in second quarter revenue, which topped Wall Street expectations for the period and marked 13% growth for the three months through April 1, the company said. The company noted decreases in advertising revenue at non-sports channels including both ABC network and A&E cable channels. Still, Disney's direct-to-consumer unit grew revenue by 12% in the second quarter to $5.5 billion while its operating losses decreased.

☆ "We're being hounded" - French transgender sprinter decries Olympics ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Noemie Olive | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] French sprinter Halba Diouf, 21, a transgender woman athlete who dreams to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics Games, attends a practice session on an athletics track in Aix-en-Provence, France May 3, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo FuentesAIX-EN-PROVENCE, France, May 9 (Reuters) - French sprinter Halba Diouf feels she is being marginalised and hounded after her dream of participating at next year's Paris Olympics was shattered when World Athletics (WA) banned transgender women from elite female competitions. "The only safeguard transgender women have is their right to live as they wish and we are being refused that, we are being hounded... In March WA's council cut the maximum amount of plasma testosterone for DSD athletes in half to 2.5 nanomoles per litre from five. The WA rules also stated the level must be maintained for at least 24 months before DSD athletes can compete in female competitions.

☆ Foods and drinks packaged for kids are higher in sugar and lower in nutrition, study shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Madeline Holcombe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Products with marketing that appealed to children were higher in sugars and lower in all other nutrients, according to the study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One. The study looked at nearly 6,000 packaged foods to analyze their number of marketing strategies aimed at children and their nutritional information. “We are likely underestimating just how much marketing children are exposed to on food packages in real time — and packaging is just one of the ways that food companies target children with food marketing,” she said. And governments will need to step in to regulate companies’ ability to target children directly when marketing products that can harm their health, she added. Mulligan recommends talking to kids about how companies use marketing and how it might influence their choices.

☆ In California, Desperate College Students Compete for Spots in Trailer Park
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | Photographs Clara Mokri For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Laura Chappell lives with six other roommates in a house near the University of California, Santa Cruz that has termite damage, annual rat infestations, and gopher holes throughout the backyard. Two of the seven spaces they use as bedrooms are unheated and unpermitted. She pays $963 a month, nearly half of her take-home pay, for the smallest of them.

☆ California’s Housing Crisis Leaves College Students Eager to Live in Trailers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | Photographs Clara Mokri For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell exits after an 'inappropriate relationship,' shocking insiders, and Comcast won't rush to replace him as corporate exec Mike Cavanagh steps up
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell's exit shocked company insiders and all of Hollywood. NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell's bombshell departure on Sunday night was a surprise to the well-regarded executive and also to his closest colleagues. Deadline reported that Shell's relationship was with CNBC's senior international correspondent, Hadley Gamble, which lasted 11 years but had ended a couple of years ago. "Comcast is as buttoned-up and straight as ever — this is a black eye for Brian Roberts," the Comcast CEO. A second company insider, however, said that Cavanagh is expected to remain in the role for some time.

☆ Disney begins the second round of 7,000 planned job cuts — targeting ESPN, theme parks, entertainment, and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Nathan Mcalone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Disney is starting the second round of its planned cuts on Monday, with divisions like ESPN getting hit, the company confirmed to Insider. Disney told The Wall Street Journal that several thousand employees would lose their jobs this week at divisions across the company, spanning from entertainment to theme parks. Disney does not expect hourly frontline operations roles at its parks and resorts to be impacted, the company told Insider. "When [Iger] was last at the helm, money was practically free," Mike Bloxham, EVP global media and entertainment at consultants Magid, previously told Insider. The company also created a new finance team pulling together staff from Disney Entertainment and ESPN, Insider reported Friday.

☆ Leaked memo reveals Disney's new finance structure as more layoffs loom, with a reported 15% of entertainment staffers to be cut
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Disney's chief financial officer, Christine McCarthy, named a new finance team pulling together staff from both Disney Entertainment and ESPN. McCarthy shared the details with staff this week, naming Bryan Castellani as the new chief financial officer of Disney Entertainment and ESPN. Under Castellani, Lukas Wickart will continue to oversee finance for direct-to-consumer streaming business Disney+, ESPN+, Hulu, and Star. Karen Sack will oversee finance for our entertainment television businesses, including TV studios and ABC News finance, marketing, and networks planning. Jeff Grenn will oversee segment consolidation for Disney Entertainment, and finance in support of Aaron LaBerge's technology organization across Disney Entertainment and ESPN.

☆ California Capitol Shut Down Following Threat by Shooting Suspect
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Capitol building has been temporarily closed while officers search for the suspect and his vehicle. California’s Capitol building was temporarily closed Thursday after law-enforcement officials identified a credible threat from a person suspected of being involved in a shooting outside a local hospital the night before. In a statement, the California Highway Patrol, which manages security at the Capitol in Sacramento, said it had been notified that a man involved in shootings in two nearby suburbs had also made threats against the Capitol.

☆ When it's dumpling-eatin' time in Georgia...
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TBILISI, April 12 (Reuters) - In the mountainous Caucasus nation of Georgia, dumpling-eating is a serious affair. "I'm not Georgian, but the first rule I learnt when I came to Georgia was how to eat khinkali," says Sergei Shirinsky, who dubs himself a connoisseur. That's the first rule," Shirinsky says. "If you add something other than pepper you can go to prison in Georgia," Shirinsky jokes as he manoeuvres the fluffy parcel past his moustache, completing a demonstration of how khinkali should be eaten. The exact origins of the dumpling in Georgia are unclear, but it has been prepared in towns and villages across the country for centuries and different regions still bicker over who invented it and who makes it best.

☆ Disney is ditching its metaverse plans after laying off an entire team focused on interactive storytelling, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Disney laid off its entire metaverse team, which included around 50 people, in recent cuts. It's the latest firm to abandon its metaverse ambitions, despite assembling a team just a year ago. The company recently announced plans to lay off 7,000 people in a major cost-cutting effort. White's team was responsible for exploring ways of interactive storytelling through new technological formats. Now, Disney managers are under pressure to identify employees to layoffs and areas where they can reduce budget, a person familiar with the company told Insider's Claire Atkinson earlier in March.

The first test in the race to replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California is a year away, but the top three contenders are already furiously raising money, crisscrossing the state and amassing endorsements in what could become one of the most expensive statewide contests in recent memory. Reps. Barbara Lee , Katie Porter and Adam Schiff have been hitting the campaign trail hard, shoring up support and introducing themselves to new voters since Mrs. Feinstein announced in February that she would retire at the end of her term. The trio are some of the biggest names in Democratic politics but the field appears wide open, with no candidate drawing more than a quarter of the vote in an early poll.

☆ Disney executives are being directed to identify thousands of layoff candidates and propose other budget cuts by April
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bob Iger is on a push for profitability at Disney and announced plans to cut 7,000 positions. Managers must identify candidates for layoffs by April, according to a source close to Disney. Disney bean counters have been looking carefully across the company in an attempt to find redundancies and eliminate executives where they can. Earlier this month, Disney announced that top human resources executive Paul Richardson would exit. In February Iger announced a restructure of Disney into three divisions: Entertainment, ESPN, and Parks, Experiences and Products.

☆ Disney executives are being directed to identify thousands of layoff candidates by April as CEO Bob Iger targets $5.5 billion in spending cuts
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Bob Iger is on a push for profitability at Disney and announced plans to cut 7,000 positions. Layoffs will impact about 4,000 employees, with the rest of the cuts coming from open roles. Disney bean counters have been looking carefully across the company in an attempt to find redundancies and eliminate executives where they can. Disney Chief Financial Officer Christine McCarthy told investors on the earnings call that the company has targeted cost savings of $5.5 billion. In February Iger announced a restructure of Disney into three divisions: Entertainment, ESPN, and Parks, Experiences and Products.

☆ California Gov. Newsom Updates Plan to Combat State’s Homelessness Problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

California Gov. Gavin Newsom rankled big-city mayors and other local leaders last year when he temporarily froze state funding for their homelessness programs and demanded they set more ambitious goals for moving people off the streets. Many have now risen to that challenge, Mr. Newsom said Thursday, and can unlock $1 billion more in state funds for efforts aimed at moving people into housing and preventing others from landing on the streets.

☆ March Madness, Vasectomies Are an Unlikely Pairing Filling Urology Offices
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

March is a special time for college basketball fans, who kick back on the couch for days to watch the two-week NCAA tournament known as March Madness. It also has become a shining moment for some urologists, who see the games as a perfect time to peddle vasectomies.

☆ Foreign Buyers, Who Nearly Disappeared During Covid, Finally Return to the U.S. Housing Market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Katherine Clarke | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Alice-Christine Merenda and her family, who live in Munich, Germany, had been thinking of moving to the U.S. for years. A professional translator and interpreter, she said she and her husband, Stefano Merenda, wanted to raise their four children bilingually and admired the freedoms U.S. citizens had amid the Covid onslaught, when Germans were completely confined to their homes. Then, the war in Ukraine began.

☆ California Mass Transit Hopes for Bailout in Already Tight Budget
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Christine Mai-Duc | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

San Francisco’s Bay Area Rapid Transit, or BART, is more reliant on passenger fares than most California transit systems, leaving it particularly vulnerable. Public transit agencies across California are asking the state for a bailout, saying they face a looming fiscal crisis due to lagging ridership that could otherwise force them to cut service, lay off employees or shut down some lines and stations. Since the start of the pandemic, some $69 billion in federal emergency funding has kept buses, trains and subways across the country running. But most of California’s transit agencies say they expect that funding to run out within two years. Meanwhile, ridership numbers remain well below prepandemic levels as many high-income workers continue to work from home at least some of the time.

☆ What is a microaggression? 15 things people think are fine to say at work — but are actually racist, sexist, or offensive.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Marguerite Ward | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Microaggressions are indirect or subtle expressions of racism, sexism, ageism, or ableism. A number of Black workers report facing less discrimination and fewer microaggressions working from home than when they're at the office. Some women of color say remote work has helped them in the same way, too. From telling a new female worker that she "looks like a student" to asking a Black colleague about her natural hair, microaggressions can make a workplace feel uncomfortable, unsafe, and toxic. Since microaggressions are subtle, it's often hard to know if you're committing one or if you're on the receiving end.

☆ Lawmakers show rare bipartisan unity in pursuing protections for kids online
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee found rare alignment at a recent hearing about how Congress can help protect kids from online harms. They're speaking out in support of the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which would require sites likely to be accessed by kids 16 or younger to maintain certain privacy and safety protections by default. "We must and we will double down on the Kids Online Safety Act," Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said at the hearing. Though lawmakers have shared similar goals in other discussions around regulating tech, when it comes to protecting kids online, they're more united in the types of action they want to see take place. However, a bill that recently passed the state's House of Representatives removed that provision, instead allowing for consumers to sue social media companies that knowingly cause harm.

"This reorganization will result in a more cost-effective, coordinated approach to our operations," Iger told analysts on a conference call. Disney earlier reported its first quarterly decrease in subscriptions for its Disney+ streaming media unit, which lost more than $1 billion. Iger also repositioned the company to capitalize on the streaming revolution, acquiring 21st Century Fox's film and television assets in 2019 and launching the Disney+ streaming service that fall. Now, Iger will seek to put Disney's streaming business on a path to growth and profitability. It reorganized its business in 2018 to accelerate the growth of its streaming business, and again in 2020, to further spur streaming's growth.

☆ Disney investors await CEO Iger's revival plan with results on tap
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LOS ANGELES, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) CEO Bob Iger is expected to discuss a turnaround plan on Wednesday, when the media company delivers its first quarterly results since the return of the executive who built the modern incarnation of Disney. "This is the right place to do it. It also endorsed Iger's leadership, adding that Disney generated a shareholder return of 554% under his previous tenure as CEO. That change resulted in the departure of Kareem Daniel, head of the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution group created by Iger's predecessor, Bob Chapek, to consolidate budgeting and distribution for the studio's content. Analysts polled by FactSet estimate Disney+ will have 163 million subscribers, down modestly from the previous quarter.

☆ Inside Disney, 'nervous and anxious' execs brace for news of cost cuts and layoffs that could number in the thousands
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Claire Atkinson | Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Cost cutting reductions, including layoffs, are expected to hit Disney in the coming weeks and months. CEO Bob Iger has asked top execs to reorganize the former Disney Media Entertainment Distribution division. Disney employees are expecting wide layoffs as returning CEO Bob Iger moves to get costs in line. Internally, there's speculation that Disney will target people who work on nonpremium digital products for layoffs, one company insider said. Iger is expected to dismantle the division formerly known as DMED (Disney Media Entertainment Distribution) and shift P&L controls back to creative leaders and others.

☆ Ukrainians Survey Damage After Barrage of Russian Missiles Hit Kyiv
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Motive Sought in Monterey Park Shooting as Families Mourn Victims Investigators continue to search for a motive in a mass shooting that killed 11 people celebrating the Lunar New Year at a dance ballroom in Monterey Park, Calif. Meanwhile, victims are being remembered by grieving families. WSJ’s Christine Mai-Duc reports on the community in mourning. Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

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