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☆ JD Sports to buy U.S. rival Hibbett in $1.08 billion sportswear retail deal
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-23 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

(Photo by May James/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)JD Sports Fashion has proposed to buy American athletic fashion retailer Hibbett Inc for about $1.08 billion, the companies said on Tuesday, as Britain's biggest sportswear retailer looks to expand across the southeastern U.S. The deal comes as shares in athletic clothing retailers come under pressure globally after weak outlooks from sports apparel makers such as Nike and Puma. It will pay $87.50 per Hibbett share in cash, representing a premium of about 20% to the U.S. firm's last closing price. JD Sports shares, which have fallen more than 20% so far this year, were up 6% by 0900 GMT. The deal is expected to add to the British firm's earnings in the first full year of ownership, with cost savings expected to be at least $25 million, JD said.

Persons: May James, Foot Locker, Dominic Platt, JD Organizations: UNITED, Getty, Hibbett Inc, Nike, Puma, Adidas, JD Sports, Paris Olympics Locations: UNITED KINGDOM, England, premarket U.S, U.S, North America, Bury, Greater Manchester

"i'm looking forward to returning to openai," Altman said in a post on the X social media platform late on Tuesday. Sam Altman attends the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in San Francisco, California, U.S. November 16, 2023. OpenAI's previous board consisted of Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner and OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Sutskever and Quora CEO D'Angelo, who is part of the revamped board. In a post on X on Tuesday, Shear said he worked "~72 very intense hours" to bring stability - and ultimately Altman - back to OpenAI. When he was out of a job, CEO Nadella said Altman could head a new research team alongside Brockman and other colleagues departing from OpenAI.

Persons: Bret Taylor, Brockman, FRANCISCO, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Larry Summers, Adam D'Angelo, D'Angelo, Altman, Danni Hewson, AJ Bell's, Satya Nadella, Kyle Rodda, Carlos Barria, Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner, Ilya Sutskever, Steve Jobs, Greg Brockman, Sunday Altman, Emmett Shear, Shear, Nadella, Jeffrey Dastin, Aditya Soni, Shivani Tanna, Bansari, Dhanya Ann Thoppil, Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Sam Holmes, Jane Merriman Organizations: U.S . Treasury, Microsoft, Economic Cooperation, REUTERS, Reuters, U.S, Thomson Locations: openai, U.S, OpenAI, Asia, San Francisco , California, Valley, San Francisco, Bengaluru

☆ Xpeng shares drop 7% after the Chinese electric car maker posts a record quarterly loss
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Xpeng on Friday reported a wider-than-expected loss in the second quarter, sending the Chinese electric car maker's shares down more than 7% in premarket U.S. trade. The net loss was wider than the 2.7 billion yuan ($370.7 million) loss reported in the second quarter of last year. It was also the biggest quarterly loss that Xpeng has posted since going public in August 2020. Here's how Xpeng did against Refinitiv consensus estimates for the second quarter:Net loss: 2.8 billion yuan loss vs. 2.13 billion yuan loss expectedRevenue: 5.06 billion Chinese yuan ($693.7 million) vs. 5.06 billion yuan expected, representing a 31% year-on-year fall. Xpeng's is hoping its latest car — the G6 Ultra Smart Coupe SUV — which was launched at the end of the second quarter, will boost margins.

Persons: Xpeng, Li Auto, Brian Gu Organizations: Guangzhou International Automobile, China Import, Tesla Locations: Guangzhou, Guangdong Province of China, premarket U.S, China

☆ UK blocks Microsoft $69 bln Activision deal over cloud gaming concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Paul Sandle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The country's antitrust regulator said on Wednesday that Microsoft's commitment to offer access to Activision's multi-billion dollar "Call of Duty" franchise to leading cloud gaming platforms would not effectively remedy its concerns. Microsoft announced its Activision bid in January 2022 to boost its firepower in a video gaming market led by Tencent (0700.HK) and Sony (6758.T). Europe will decide on the Activision deal by May 22. The CMA said the cloud gaming market was forecast to be worth 11 billion pounds ($13.7 billion) globally by 2026. The CMA said Microsoft had an estimated 60%-70% of global cloud gaming services as well as competitive advantages including owning Xbox, PC operating system Windows and cloud provider Azure.

He will replace Bob Chapek, who took over as Disney CEO in February 2020 just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, leading to park closures and restrictions on visitors globally. Disney disappointed investors this month with an earnings report that showed mounting losses at its streaming media unit that includes Disney+. [1/2] Executive Chairman of the Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger arrives at the world premiere for the film 'The King's Man' at Leicester Square in London, Britain December 6, 2021. IGER'S RETURNSIger exited Disney on a high note as the company led the battle against Netflix in the streaming wars. During his tenure, Disney made several key acquisitions, including Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Entertainment and 21st Century Fox, and boosted its market capitalization five-fold.

The trial results released on late Tuesday could mark a rare victory in the search for a treatment for the memory-robbing disease after years of clinical failures. Biogen's stock surged 46.6% to $290.99 in premarket trading, putting it on track to add over $13.5 billion in market capitalization. BMO analyst Evan Seigerman called the data an "unequivocal win" for Biogen and Alzheimer's patients. The latest trial boost for Biogen and Eisai's lecanemab has raised hope for success in trials testing Roche's gantenerumab and Lilly's donanemab. Shares of smaller Alzheimer's drug developers also rose in premarket U.S. trading.

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