Business

Delta: America’s luxury airline and United’s competitive response
Business

Delta: America’s luxury airline and United’s competitive response

A Delta Air Lines Boeing 767 lands at JFK Airport as Delta and United compete for luxury fliers A Delta Air Lines Boeing 767 passenger jet from Dublin arrives at New York's JFK International Airport, with the iconic Manhattan skyline in the background on February 7, 2024. Charly Triballeau | Afp | Getty Images Delta Air Lines, the country's most profitable airline, faces the challenge of maintaining its top position. The airline's unit revenue, the amount earned per seat flown one mile, surpassed that of its competitors last year. In 2024, Delta's stock price increased nearly 23%, outperforming other airlines in the volatile sector and outperforming the S&P 500 Index. It expects a potential 50% increase in free cash flow this year, reaching between 3 and 4 billion dollars. D...
TikTok’s Future in U.S. Depends on Bet on First Amendment
Business

TikTok’s Future in U.S. Depends on Bet on First Amendment

Associated media - Related media TikTok takes its fight to court TikTok fired the latest broadside in its battle with Washington, suing to block a law that could force the company to split from ByteDance, its Chinese owner, or face a ban in the U.S. The company argues that the law violates the First Amendment by effectively killing an app in the U.S. that millions of Americans use to share their views. Another problem: a divestiture within 270 days is practically impossible, Sapna Maheshwari and David McCabe report for The Times. DealBook spoke with Maheshwari about the lawsuit filed yesterday and what happens next. Do legal experts think TikTok has a chance at winning? It could go either way. Alan Rozenshtein, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, says t...
In a Surprise, Disney+ Becomes Profitable
Business

In a Surprise, Disney+ Becomes Profitable

Linked media - Connected media When Disney reported robust earnings in February, the activist investors then circling the company essentially called it a stunt — a temporary, heat-of-battle effort to fend them off and not, as Robert A. Iger maintained, proof that a struggling Disney had finally “turned the corner.” The Disney chief’s argument just got a lot stronger. Disney blew past Wall Street’s expectations for a second consecutive quarter on Tuesday, in part because its flagship streaming service made money — a first. Disney+ had been expected to lose more than $100 million in the most recent quarter, widening losses since its 2019 arrival to roughly $12 billion. Instead, it swung to a $47 million profit. “Two quarters earlier than expected,” Hugh Johnston, Disney’s chief financ...
How a Pirate-Clad Pastor Helped Ignite Trump Media’s Market Frenzy
Business

How a Pirate-Clad Pastor Helped Ignite Trump Media’s Market Frenzy

Associated media - Connected media Mr. Nedohin raised his arms in celebration. A few minutes later, he cut to a video of a rocket blasting into the sky, with Mr. Trump photoshopped onto it. “We are holding Trump stocks,” he declared. “We are now financial investors in him.” Mr. Nedohin is one of hundreds of thousands of amateur investors who own shares of Trump Media, convinced that its sole platform, Truth Social, will become one of the world’s most popular and profitable social media sites. In recent months, tens of thousands of Trump fans have tuned into Mr. Nedohin’s webcasts, where he exhorts viewers to invest in the company, arguing that “Trump always wins in the long run.” The enthusiasm from Mr. Nedohin and other Trump supporters has turned Trump Media into the latest “meme s...
Ohtani’s Former Interpreter Is Said to Be Negotiating a Guilty Plea
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Ohtani’s Former Interpreter Is Said to Be Negotiating a Guilty Plea

Related media - Related media A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. Matthew Hiltzik, a spokesman for Ohtani, referred to the player’s detailed explanation he gave to the media two weeks ago, when Ohtani said Mizuhara had stolen from him and he promised to cooperate fully with the federal and Major League Baseball investigations. “I never bet on baseball or any other sports or never have asked somebody to do that on my behalf,” Ohtani said. “And I have never went through a bookmaker to bet on sports. Up until a couple days ago, I didn’t know this was happening.” The allegations about the theft surfaced when the Dodgers were in Seoul to open the season with games against the San Diego Padres. Interest in the team has been intense since it signed Ohtani to a 10...
Richard Leibner, Agent for Top Broadcast Journalists, Dies at 85
Business

Richard Leibner, Agent for Top Broadcast Journalists, Dies at 85

Connected media - Related media A trained accountant, Mr. Leibner was described in a 1989 profile by Ben Yagoda in The New York Times Magazine as an idiosyncratic character with a “remarkable emotional range.” “He can be plaintive, cajoling, jocular, terse, profane, sentimental, jovial, respectful, dismissive, analytical or expansive: The one constant is the strain of his native Brooklyn in his voice,” Mr. Yagoda wrote. He was also known for telling incredibly dirty jokes. Andrew Heyward, a former president of CBS News, said in a phone interview: “It would have been easy to dismiss him as a Damon Runyonesque showman, but when it came to actual negotiations, he’d come in, sit on the couch with a legal pad and pen, and we’d go through the details together. He was scrupulously detailed ...
Roberto Cavalli, Designer Who Celebrated Excess, Dies at 83
Business

Roberto Cavalli, Designer Who Celebrated Excess, Dies at 83

Associated media - Connected media Roberto Cavalli, the Italian-born fashion designer who celebrated glamour and excess, sending models down the runway and actresses onto red carpets wearing leopard-print dresses, bejeweled distressed jeans, satin corsets and other unapologetically flashy clothes, has died. He was 83. His company announced the death on Instagram but provided no details. Mr. Cavalli’s signature style — “molto sexy, molto animal print and molto, molto Italiano,” as the British newspaper The Independent once described it — remained essentially unchanged throughout his long career. But he skillfully reinvented his clothes for different eras, enjoying several renaissances and building a global lifestyle brand in the process. In the 1970s, Mr. Cavalli designed jackets, jea...
Audemars Piguet’s New C.E.O. Wasn’t an Obvious Choice
Business

Audemars Piguet’s New C.E.O. Wasn’t an Obvious Choice

Associated media - Associated media Innovation — especially in the form of ambitious building projects — has been a running theme at the brand for the past few years. In 2020 in Le Brassus, it opened a museum, the Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet, designed by the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. A year later, it completed a manufacturing site in Le Locle, another village about a 90-minute drive northeast of Le Brassus. A former Renaud & Papi workshop, the Manufacture des Saignoles now specializes in the brand’s most complicated timepieces. In 2022, the brand opened a luxury hotel, Hôtel des Horlogers, also designed by Mr. Ingels, in a space adjacent to the museum and factory in Le Brassus. And in late 2023, it began construction of a new industrial building in Meyrin, on the outskirt...
Center for Public Integrity Weighs Merger or Shutdown Amid Dire Financial Straits
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Center for Public Integrity Weighs Merger or Shutdown Amid Dire Financial Straits

Connected media - Associated media “The board remains committed to C.P.I. and its essential mission, and is working hard to determine the best way forward for our journalism,” the nonprofit said in a statement. The financial peril facing the Center for Public Integrity threatens to extinguish a newsroom of about 30 journalists that has watchdogged powerful institutions for decades. Much of its funding has come from foundations interested in supporting investigative journalism, including the Knight Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. As its reserves dwindle, its board of directors is contemplating drastic action to address the situation. The Center for Public Integrity explored a potential combination this year with The Markup, a nonprofit newsroom that publishes invest...
Auto Insurance Spike Hampers the Inflation Fight
Business

Auto Insurance Spike Hampers the Inflation Fight

Related media - Related media Job growth, wage growth and business growth are all lively, and inflation has steeply fallen from its 2022 highs. But consumer sentiment, while improving, is still sour. One reason may be sticker shock from some highly visible prices — even as overall inflation has calmed. The cost of car insurance is a key example. Motor vehicle insurance rose 1.4 percent on a monthly basis in January alone and has risen 20.6 percent over the past year, the largest jump since 1976. It has been a huge hit for those driving the roughly 272 million private and commercial vehicles registered in the country. And it has played a part in dampening the “mission accomplished” mood on inflation that was bubbling up in markets at the beginning of the year. According to a recent p...