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The Guardian

UK watchdog to look at Paramount’s $110bn takeover of Warner Bros Discovery

The premiere last week of Paramount’s Scary Movie. Photograph: Jesse Grant/Getty for ParamountView image in fullscreenThe premiere last week of Paramount’s Scary Movie. Photograph: Jesse Grant/Getty for ParamountCompetition and Markets AuthorityUK watchdog to look at Paramount’s $110bn takeover of Warner Bros DiscoveryDeal to create a streaming and sports powerhouse will be scrutinised by Competition and Markets Authority The UK competition watchdog has opened an investigation into Paramount Skydance’s $110bn (£82bn) takeover of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD). The deal will create a media powerhouse controlling assets including the Paramount and HBO Max streaming services, Channel 5 and TNT Sports, which broadcasts Champions League, Premier League and the Olympics, the Hollywood studios behind franchises including Superman, Batman and Top Gun, as well as HBO, home to shows including Game of Thrones, The White Lotus and Succession. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it has opened an investigation to ascertain whether the tie-up will result in a “substantial lessening of competition” in the UK. The CMA said it will decide by 7 August whether the deal warrants a more in-depth phase 2 investigation, which can take up to five months. In February, Paramount beat Netflix to take over WBD, bringing an end to a high-stakes bidding war between the media companies. Netflix refused to increase its bid, saying that at the price offered for WBD it was “no longer financially attractive” to continue the bidding war. Paramount, which paid a $2.8bn fee to Netflix for breaking the streamer’s $82.7bn deal for WBD’s streaming and studio assets, is facing regulatory scrutiny and a backlash from critics worried about the impact on Hollywood. In April, more than 1,000 film and TV industry professionals, including Mark Ruffalo, Kristen Stewart, Ben Stiller and Joaquin Phoenix, signed an open letter protesting against the deal. “The integrity, independence and diversity of our industry would be grievously compromised,” the letter said. “Competition is essential for a healthy economy and a healthy democracy. So is thoughtful regulation and enforcement.” The US senator Elizabeth Warren has described the deal as “an antitrust disaster threatening higher prices and fewer choices for American families”. In April, David Ellison, chief executive of Paramount, told a movie theatre owners convention that he promised to continue to make a minimum of 30 films a year across the Paramount and Warner Bros film studios.

UK watchdog to look at Paramount’s $110bn takeover of Warner Bros Discovery
North America
CNBC Finance

Food supply 'not at risk' after new Texas screwworm cases, USDA secretary says

The U.S. food supply is "not at risk" from the return of the flesh-eating screwworm ​parasite to Texas, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said Monday. "This is not a virus, it's not a disease, it's just a little pest, a larva that lands in a calf's wound, for example, and it can be treated," Rollins said in an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "We have boots on the ground … we'll be able to beat this back, but we're going to do everything we can, investing over a billion dollars to push this pest back into Mexico, then to eradicate, as we did about 50 years ago," she later added. Her comments came shortly before the USDA confirmed two additional cases of screwworm discovered in Texas — one in a calf in La Salle County and another in a dog in Andrews County — bringing the total cases to four. While the dog's case was reported by a veterinarian in Texas, the animal lives in New Mexico, the USDA classified as a New Mexico case. The department said New Mexico officials will increase monitoring and outreach in the area. The USDA confirmed the first positive case of screwworm in Texas on Wednesday. The screwworm cases are the first in the U.S. since the 1960s. The potential for the pest spreading and disrupting the U.S. food supply has led to a response in Texas and Washington D.C., including President Donald Trump's Monday appointment of John Bellinger, a longtime executive in food safety and distribution firms, as as a senior advisor for New World screwworm preparedness. The New World screwworm is a parasitic fly whose larvae burrow into the flesh of living warm-blooded animals, causing painful wounds that can become life-threatening without treatment. The pest poses a risk to livestock, wildlife, pets and, in uncommon cases, people. Screwworms do not infest meat, fruits, vegetables or other food products, according to the USDA. Still, the cases mark a troubling return of the parasite and raise questions about how to keep it from spreading further into the U.S., reviving a threat the country spent decades working to eliminate. Texas agriculture officials, including Commissioner Sid Miller, have criticized the USDA for a slow response that failed to halt the New World screwworm from crossing the border. In response, Rollins said Miller's recent comments are "disturbing and disruptive and so harmful to what we're trying to achieve." She said the U.S. will lean on the same playbook it used starting in the late 1950s, part of which involves releasing sterile insects to suppress the pest's population. She said the U.S. is already dropping around 10 million sterile flies a week on the affected area, both from the air and the ground. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis.

Food supply 'not at risk' after new Texas screwworm cases, USDA secretary says
Europe
BBC Business

SpaceX's stock market blast-off could be Musk's biggest gamble yet

It's 07:25 am, 13 October 2024, at Starbase, near Boca Chica on the Texas side of the US/Mexico border, and on the launch pad stands the biggest rocket ever made. Its engines fire and it climbs into the skies over the Gulf of Mexico to cheers and screams in the SpaceX control room. But the launch is not the main event. What goes up must come down – and how it comes down will become a milestone in space exploration. Seven minutes later, the massive rocket booster that blasted the craft towards space starts falling back to Earth – until its engines reignite as planned. It slows its descent and guides itself with pinpoint precision so it can be captured by a clasp called Mechazilla, or "the chopsticks", by engineers who have achieved something that's never been done before. Amid the whoops and high-fives in SpaceX's control room, Elon Musk tells his millions of social media followers that this is a "big step towards making life multiplanetary" - a reusable rocket that will slash the costs of launching things into orbit, to the Moon and one day to Mars. A company with a futuristic vision, led by what some would call a maverick unconventional genius, SpaceX and Musk have drawn comparisons with Tony Stark, leader of Stark Industries and also known as Iron Man of the Marvel Comics Universe. On 12 June, trading will begin in a chunk of shares in a company that, up to now, only Musk and a select group of rich private institutions have been able or invited to own. It is perhaps little wonder that more than one UK stockbroker has told the BBC that there has been "a surge" in interest in signing up for the chance to buy shares in this exciting company, controlled by a talismanic individual, that has captured the world's imagination. UK retail investors are likely to be allocated around £1.5bn worth of shares and one of the UK's leading investing platforms hopes this could encourage a new generation of investors. Simon Belsham, Chief Client Officer at Hargreaves Lansdown said: "While we recognise this IPO might not be right for everyone, it's an exciting moment for many of our clients. We're expecting this might be a first foray into investing for many." Even if you don't apply directly to buy shares, if you have retirement savings invested in shares - as almost everyone with a pension plan does - then it is very likely you will soon be a part-owner of a company, whether you like it or not, that sits at the crossroads between technology and geopolitics and, as Musk would have it, the very future of the human race. The chance for normal Earthlings to buy shares in SpaceX is one of the most important moments in the history of stock markets and is close at hand – and one that will almost certainly make Elon Musk the world's first ever trillionaire. On the first few pages of the prospectus – or sales brochure – for SpaceX shares is this modest mission statement: "To build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars." But SpaceX isn't just about rockets – it's not even mainly about rockets. It's a bet on the future of artificial intelligence (AI). And the success or failure of its imminent partial sale to the public is an important test of the hitherto unbridled investor optimism – and some people's dismay - that AI will hoover up large parts of the world economy.

SpaceX's stock market blast-off could be Musk's biggest gamble yet
North America
CNBC Economy

Household worries over finances hit highest level since July 2022, New York Fed survey shows

U.S. households grew more worried over their financial situation, with the share of those seeing things as much worse than they were 12 months ago hitting a nearly four-year high, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey. While the central bank's monthly Survey of Consumer Expectations, released Monday, showed the inflation outlook mostly unchanged, the general perception of conditions deteriorated. The share of those seeing their current situation as "much worse" than a year ago leaped to 13.3%, up about 2.7 percentage points from April and the highest since July 2022. The total of those seeing either a much or somewhat worse situation from a year ago stood at 43.7%, which the New York Fed said was the highest since January 2023. Those expecting their situations to be either much or somewhat worse totaled 36%, while those seeing things improving totaled just 22.9%. The net between those seeing better versus worse conditions hit its lowest since October 2022, the New York Fed said in the release. The survey comes with consumers fearful over the inflationary impact from the Iran war, which has sent energy prices soaring. Some Fed policymakers recently have expressed worry that if the conflict persists it could raise inflation expectations among consumers and businesses, making the problem longer term than the typical temporary impact from supply shocks. Inflation expectations at the one-year horizon declined just 0.1 percentage point, to 3.5%. The outlook at the three- and five-year time frames held flat at 3.1% and 3%, respectively. Expectations for gasoline prices actually dropped 0.1 percentage point to 5%, while the outlook for food rose 0.6 percentage point to 5.8% and rent increased 1.4 percentage points to 7.4%. Also, the expectation for household spending growth over the next year fell to 5%, down 0.4 percentage point from April. Consumers will get their next inflation reading Wednesday when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases the consumer price index for May. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expect that headline inflation rose to 4.2% and core inflation, which excludes food and energy, increased to 2.9%. The Fed targets inflation at 2%. The Federal Open Market Committee makes its next interest rate decision on June 17. Markets are pricing in almost no chance the committee will lower benchmark interest rates, with expectations rising that the central bank instead will hike by a quarter percentage point by the end of the year. Correction: Inflation expectations at the one-year horizon declined just 0.1 percentage point, to 3.5%. An earlier version misstated the move. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.

Household worries over finances hit highest level since July 2022, New York Fed survey shows
North America
CNBC Finance

United CEO brushes off airline mergers after American rejection: 'There's nothing'

RIO DE JANEIRO — United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said he doesn't expect more airline consolidation in the U.S. and he's not interested in pursuing a merger for his airline after American Airlines rejected the idea of a combination earlier this year. "United's not going to do a deal just to do a deal," Kirby told reporters Sunday on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association's annual meeting. When asked about the wave of consolidation that has brought together Allegiant and Sun Country this year, and Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines in 2024, Kirby said further combination opportunities look unlikely: "There's nothing," he said. "It's a lot harder," he said. "I've been ... one of the primary architects of consolidation in the United States. I've been around a lot of these deals. It's hard, and you shouldn't do deals that don't make economic sense." Kirby has repeatedly dismissed the idea of buying its new partner, JetBlue Airways. But earlier this year Kirby discussed the possibility of combining with American, where Kirby used to work, floating the idea to the Trump administration, CNBC previously reported. Kirby later said in a statement that he had hoped a combined airline would compete with big foreign rivals, though some analysts said the tie-up would face insurmountable regulatory hurdles. A merger "requires support from everyone," Kirby told reporters at the IATA conference. "We would need the unions, we'd need the customers, the shareholders, the regulators and the management team." He said, however, regarding American's management team, "we don't have that, clearly, so we can't get it done without them." Delta Air Lines President Peter Carter similarly told CNBC on Saturday that he doesn't see a merger or acquisition in Delta's future. He said the carrier's longtime strategy has been partnerships and joint ventures, which include those in South Korea, Mexico and Europe. Because the U.S. domestic air travel market is so mature, international travel is the future, Carter said. He added he wants to take on United, the second most-profitable airline in the U.S., in the lucrative trans-Pacific market. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.

United CEO brushes off airline mergers after American rejection: 'There's nothing'
North America
CNBC Finance

Novo and Lilly are competing to win the GLP-1 pill market as they prepare for Medicare coverage

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly took their GLP-1 pill battle to the preeminent obesity meeting this weekend as they prepare for the next sea change in how patients receive their drugs. Novo Nordisk on Sunday announced that prescriptions of the Wegovy pill have topped 3 million since it entered the U.S. market about five months ago. The Danish drugmaker's CEO Mike Doustdar celebrated the milestone, saying in an interview with CNBC that Novo was able to accelerate prescriptions even as Lilly introduced its own GLP-1 pill in April. "If that's not acceleration, then I don't know what is," Doustdar told CNBC this weekend at the American Diabetes Association's Scientific Sessions. Meanwhile, Lilly CEO Dave Ricks told CNBC that prescriptions of its pill Foundayo are "markedly higher" than the 20,000 that Lilly reported about six weeks ago around its first-quarter earnings release, without giving a specific number. He said the number builds week over week and that Lilly is pleased with the progress. The competition for the weight loss pill market is only the latest for the longtime rivals. Signs of that tension were evident throughout the industry event this weekend. Cars drove around advertising Novo's Wegovy pill, while pictures of Lilly's Foundayo pill covered some of the floors of the convention center in New Orleans. And the two companies will soon make their case for their daily pills and their weekly shots to seniors. Starting in July, millions of people with Medicare will be able to access GLP-1 drugs for weight loss for $50 a month. Until now, Medicare beneficiaries have had to pay out of pocket for the obesity drugs, costing them potentially hundreds of dollars a month. Both companies say they're focused on raising awareness of the program, though they have different pitches. Doustdar thinks the program could be an opportunity to regain some of the ground Novo's Wegovy shot has lost to Lilly's Zepbound. The drugmaker plans to advertise Wegovy's other health benefits on its label, he said, like the fact that it can decrease the risk of cardiovascular problems like heart attacks and strokes. He said Novo should win with seniors "if common sense is to prevail, and I put myself in their shoes." "With the Wegovy high dose, why would you not take a product that has the same efficacy, percentage wise, than my competitor?" he said. "On top of it, you get kidney, liver, heart, stroke protection, let's say free of charge. I would take it if I was 10 years older." Lilly's pitch to seniors is convenience. The company's pill Foundayo can be taken at any time of day with food, water and other medicines, whereas Novo's pill needs to be taken on an empty stomach with little water and requires fasting for 30 minutes afterward. "The main thing is, it's easy," Ricks said. "This is something that can just go in your daily routine. Most seniors are on many other medications, and they've got their pill case, and they use that every day, and this will just fit right into that without any extra thought." Ricks said Lilly is working closely with the government to prepare, and he's confident that Humana, which will process prescription requests, will do a good job. He thinks the program will be popular with seniors and that longer term, the initiative could help prove that obesity care should be "regular health care." "We have to prove that in this pilot and prove cost effectiveness and then kind of reset what we expect from our health insurance, which is obesity care should be health care," Ricks said.

Novo and Lilly are competing to win the GLP-1 pill market as they prepare for Medicare coverage
North America
CNBC Finance

Italian coffee giant Lavazza launches single-serve tablets to make espresso in the U.S.

Lavazza is bringing its espresso tablets to the U.S., aiming to loosen Keurig Dr Pepper's grip on the single-serve coffee category. The Italian coffee giant unveiled Tablì last year and launched the new brewing system first in Italy. The tablets, made of compressed ground coffee without a coating, binder or gelatin, can only be used with a Tablì coffee machine made by Lavazza. Each tablet is marked with the words "100% coffee. At launch, the tabs will come in five varieties: espresso, double espresso, decaf espresso, super crema and lungo, or a "long shot" espresso brewed with more water. "The result that we've been able to achieve was through a very complicated industrial process in order to be able to have [the coffee tablet] very compact, to be able to deliver it without destroying it, to have it able to work in a coffee machine," Lavazza CEO Antonio Baravalle told CNBC. Tablì is the result of Lavazza's acquisition of the Italian startup Caffemotive in 2020. The new system took five years of development, more than 15 patents and a new production facility in Gattinara, Italy, to bring it to market. Its launch in the U.S. comes as the country becomes an increasingly important part of Lavazza's business. In 2025, the company's North American turnover — or revenue — jumped 26.9%, according to Lavazza. "We are strongly investing in the USA because we think it is an important space for us," Baravalle said, adding that Lavazza aims to eventually have a €1 billion ($1.15 billion) business in the U.S. "The brand is growing, in terms of equity, extremely well," Baravalle said. "We've spent a lot of money, for us, in the last two years, and we're going to do that for the next five years." More than 130 years after its founding, the Lavazza family still privately owns the Italian company. In 2025, it reported net profit of €92 million on net revenues of €3.9 billion, according to Lavazza's latest annual report. In the U.S., it generates more than $100 million in annual dollar sales through retailers like Target and Walmart. For context, Keurig reported annual net sales of $3.99 billion for its U.S. coffee segment in 2025. The majority of Keurig's coffee revenue comes from its K-cups. In the U.S., Keurig has dominated the single-serve coffee market for more than a decade, although Nestle's Nespresso has won over customers in recent years. Keurig holds about half of the total U.S. market share for fresh ground coffee pods, according to data from Euromonitor International. Nespresso holds a roughly 7% share. Of course, Lavazza sells K-cup pods in the U.S. through a partnership with Keurig. "For us, it's important to find our own space, but we are talking about two giants, and one of them, we have an important contract with that we are very happy [with]," he said.

Italian coffee giant Lavazza launches single-serve tablets to make espresso in the U.S.
North America
CNBC Finance

Airlines find the grass isn't always greener with new engines

RIO DE JANEIRO — Airplane engine makers have fallen short of what they promised airlines, major carriers' CEOs say, a problem vexing an industry that has struggled for years with aircraft shortages and more recently, a doubling of fuel prices. It's a paradox: Engine makers dazzled carriers with more fuel-efficient options for new planes from Boeing and Airbus. But production shortfalls and disappointing reliability with those engines are becoming costly problems, CEOs said in interviews at the industry's largest annual gathering here. Airline executives said they're being forced to remove engines and take them for maintenance into crowded shops earlier than expected, which is driving up costs and sucking up the fuel savings they were supposed to get from the engines. Airline leaders told CNBC this week that travel demand is still strong despite higher fares, so having aircraft on the ground means money left on the table, just as a $100 billion higher fuel bill this year is slashing airline profit prospects. Alexis von Hoensbroech, CEO of Canada's WestJet, told CNBC in an interview ahead of the more than 370-airline International Air Transport Association's annual assembly that the new engines promising fuel savings of around 15% or more compared with earlier models were "engineering marvels." "However, as you push the limits, it sometimes comes at the cost of reliability, and what we all are seeing is that those engines have to go into unscheduled maintenance far more frequently than prior engine generations," he said. Newer models of aircraft engines burn hotter, allowing them to use less fuel. That's key since fuel is airlines' biggest cost after labor. But that can also mean they wear out faster, which can ground planes, though carriers keep some spare engines. Von Hoensbroech and other airline executives told CNBC that the new the engines have not reached the reliability that airlines need, through there have been improvements. "That's a big struggle, because it adds a lot of costs," he said. "So a lot of the fuel savings are in fact eaten up by unplanned maintenance costs." Manufacturers have invested heavily in expanding engine overhaul and other maintenance capabilities, while third-party shops have also seen a windfall. New engines are costly, but aircraft production is still behind schedule, and that's keeping older engine values up, too. For example, a CFM56 engine made by GE Aerospace and its French partner Safran that powers older Boeing 737s was going for $9.2 million at the start of the year, up 17% since 2019, according to IBA Group. A Pratt & Whitney PW1127 for newer Airbus narrow-body planes was up more than 57% over that time, according to the aviation intelligence and advisory company.

Airlines find the grass isn't always greener with new engines
Europe
BBC Business

Driving test booking rules tightened after thousands of no shows

Learner drivers are now only able to swap their test to the three centres nearest to their original booking location in a bid to cut down waiting times. It comes as official figures shared exclusively with the BBC suggest no-one turned up to take 64,500 practical driving tests last year. The average wait for practical driving tests across Britain is longer than five months. The new rules will stop learners booking the soonest test available anywhere, then making a series of swaps to get a slot closer to home. Learner driver Emma told the BBC she was waking up at 05:30 every Monday to try to book a test only to find herself in a queue of thousands. She now has a test in seven months' time. In England the wait time for a driving test is 22.7 weeks, Scotland 22.9 weeks and in Wales 17.3 weeks, according to figures provided to the BBC by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) for April 2026. Last year, 1,998,608 driving tests were booked in the UK but no one turned up for 64,500 of them meaning 3.2% were wasted, according to the DVSA. Some of these were booked by third party resellers using bots with the intention of charging inflated prices but were unable to sell them, the BBC understands. The number of no shows last year was higher than the 52,000 recorded the previous year. Emma, not her real name, is 21 and has been learning to drive in West London for nearly a year. "Some of my friends who need to drive for work were booking tests at test centres not local to them in areas that they hadn't really driven before...just so that they could get the test and just try and pass as fast as they could," she said. Emma managed to book a test near to where she lives but it is not for seven months. "I'm then paying for lessons every week, which is fine, it's good to have the practice, but when you've got so long until your test, it's just a little bit of a waste of money and a massive time burden," she said.

Driving test booking rules tightened after thousands of no shows