Business

Walt Disney is targeting $5.5 billion in cost savings, including $3 billion in non-sports related content, CEO Bob Iger said today on a meaty call after earnings where he detailed a company-wide restructuring. He said the other $2.5 billion are general operating costs, of which $1 billion is already underway. CFO Christine McCarthy, also on

The UK’s competition watchdog has moved a step closer to potentially blocking Microsoft’s planned $69bn (£56bn) takeover of Call of Duty gaming firm Activision. In a provisional ruling, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the proposed tie-up could lead to higher prices, fewer choices and less innovation for UK gamers. Activision responded by claiming

UPDATED: Joe Biden’s State of the Union included a number of gestures to Republicans, promotion of the spirit of bipartisanship and mention of a whole host of issues that garner backing from both parties. But there were plenty of outbursts among the GOP, signaling how unlikely it probably is that this Congress will see major

The UK will avoid tipping into recession this year but a greater number of homes – one-in-four – will struggle to pay elevated bills, according to an economic think-tank. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) said in a forecast that the squeeze on incomes from the energy-driven cost of living crisis and

Actor Elijah Wood is not a fan of AMC Entertainment’s latest move around ticketing that sets different prices for different seats inside its theaters. “The movie theater is and always has been a sacred democratic space for all and this new initiative by @AMCTheatres would essentially penalize people for lower income and reward for higher

BP has revealed it is to miss a key climate goal while announcing record annual profits. The London-based firm said its main earnings measure, underlying replacement cost profit, came in at $27.7bn (£23bn) for 2022. That is more than double the previous year’s sum despite weaker oil and gas costs knocking its performance in the

Despite repeated controversies over Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling’s views about the transgender community, it seems the wizarding world may have debuted its first transgender character. In Hogwarts Legacy, the open-world role-playing game debuting this Friday, Sirona Ryan is a witch who owns and runs the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade village. At one point, the

Consumer spending remained broadly below inflation last month but people forked out for holidays and entertainment as pent-up demand was released. Closely watched data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG, as well as from Barclays, showed spending rose by 4.2% and 9.7% in value terms respectively in January compared with a year ago.

Florida lawmakers unveiled a bill on Monday for state control of a special district set up to let The Walt Disney Co. largely self-govern much of the area around Walt Disney World. The bill, expected to be considered during a special session of the state Legislature this month, would allow Gov. Ron DeSantis to appoint

The bosses of Britain’s biggest housebuilders will hold talks with the chancellor this week as they face a multibillion-pound bill in the form of several new levies. Sky News has learnt that the executives from companies including Barratt Developments, Fairview and Persimmon will meet Jeremy Hunt on Tuesday. The Home Builders Federation (HBF), the leading

Backstreets, the respected Bruce Springsteen fanzine, is calling it quits to protest the “dynamic pricing” that has led to sky-high concert ticket costs. “After 43 years of publishing in one form or another, by fans for fans of Bruce Springsteen, it’s with mixed emotions that we announce Backstreets has reached the end of the road,” publisher and editor-in-chief Christopher

Administrators have selected a rival battery start-up based in Australia as preferred bidder for collapsed Britishvolt. EY confirmed on Monday morning that its team had chosen Recharge Industries – owned by US investment firm Scale Facilitation Partners – to acquire the “majority of the business and assets” of Britishvolt following its demise last month. The

Facing two counts of involuntary manslaughter and up to five years behind bars if found guilty, Alec Baldwin and Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed are about to find themselves face-to-face in court with the director of the troubled indie Western and many members of the crew as witnesses in the criminal case against the duo for

Google looks set to unveil how it plans to rival the wildly successful ChatGPT AI, possibly within days. The technology giant has scheduled a 40-minute event for Wednesday 8 February, when it will reveal how it is “reimagining how people search for, explore and interact with information”. “Join us to learn how we’re opening up

Elon Musk continues to look for ways to make Twitter profitable and make back his investment. The new strategy takes aim at businesses and their brands on the social media platform. Well-known brands received a golden checkmark to distinguish them from the blue checkmarks, which now means they are subscribers of Twitter Blue. The gold

Netflix has said that updated measures to crack down on password sharing were posted by mistake. Following widespread disappointment on social media, with many threatening to cancel their memberships, the streaming giant claimed some new account rules being trialled in other countries had accidentally been added to its help pages elsewhere. While subscribers have been

EXCLUSIVE: When the announcement was made in January that Emma Donoghue had developed a play (with music) of her bestselling novel Room and the acclaimed film that followed – and that the play was heading to Broadway – plenty of New Yorkers were filled with questions (Londoners and Canadians had already seen the show). Some

The German automotive giant BMW is in talks with the government about a £75m funding package that would secure production of electric Minis at its Oxfordshire plant. Sky News has learnt that BMW is negotiating with officials at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) over a grant from Whitehall’s Automotive Transformation Fund.

EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that Hello Sunshine is shuttering its kids and animation business as part of a strategic decision to focus Candle Media’s kids and animation efforts under Moonbug, the family production studio the corp snapped up for a near $3 billion in November 2021.   Hello Sunshine will collaborate with Moonbug on future

Elon Musk did not deceive his investors when he tweeted in 2018 that he had the funding to take Tesla private, a jury has found. Investors had sought to sue the SpaceX owner for billions of dollars because his tweet caused Tesla’s shares to soar, only to crash 10 days later when it became clear