Big Business This Week is a guided tour through the biggest market stories of the week, from winning stocks to brutal dips to the facts and forecasts generating buzz on Wall Street.

ESPN'S BIG BET

ESPN is going all in on sports betting with a naming deal that will rebrand an existing app as ESPN Bet. Penn Entertainment will pay $1.5 billion to use one of the most recognizable sports brands in the U.S. It's a surprising move for ESPN, which is co-owned by Disney, a brand whose family-friendly image seems to be in contrast to the vice of gambling. Penn also announced it sold Barstool Sports back to founder Dave Portnoy, who was itching to get control back.

DISNEY STREAMING CRACKDOWNS

Speaking of the House of Mouse, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced plans to make its streaming services profitable by this fall, and that means customers will have to pay up. The price of ad-free Disney+ and Hulu are going up $3 per month to about $14 and $18, respectively. The company is also planning to crack down on password sharing. Making the service less appealing to customers comes at an interesting time: Disney+ reported the second straight quarter of subscriber losses. Still, with everything going on this week, Disney ended the week up almost 3 percent.

WEWORK STILL DOESN'T WORK

Let's time travel back to 2019: nobody had heard of Covid-19, SPACs were all the rage, and co-working giant WeWork had taken the real estate work by storm…until it all came crashing down. Just as the company was going to IPO with a $47 billion valuation, questions about its finances and founder Adam Neumann's governance sank it. SoftBank took over, Naumann was ousted, and the company went public in 2021. Now, it warns it could go be in trouble again if it can't renegotiate its leases, control spending and find additional sources of cash in the next year.

CAMPBELL SOUP BUYS RAO'S

Campbell Soup announced it will be snapping up the company behind Rao's pasta sauces for about $2.7 billion. Fans of the popular tomato sauces were quick to register worries that Campbell will mess with the beloved recipes, but CEO Mark Clouse told CNBC,  “We’re not touching it! Anyone who thinks we’re going to touch the sauce, no." Campbell Soup ended the week down less than 1 percent.

LUXURY FASHION MERGER

Coach's parent company Tapestry announced it will buy Capri Holdings, the company that runs some of fashion's biggest names, like Versace, Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo. When the $8.5 billion deal closes next year, Tapestry hopes it will put it in a better position to compete with LVMH and Kering – two luxury fashion powerhouses. Capri Holdings' stock jumped 50 percent on the news this week while Tapestry dropped 17 percent.

Share:
More In Business
Spain fines Airbnb $75 million for unlicensed tourist rentals
Spain's government has fined Airbnb 64 million euros or $75 million for advertising unlicensed tourist rentals. The consumer rights ministry announced the fine on Monday. The ministry stated that many listings lacked proper license numbers or included incorrect information. The move is part of Spain's ongoing efforts to regulate short-term rental companies amid a housing affordability crisis especially in popular urban areas. The ministry ordered Airbnb in May to remove around 65,000 listings for similar violations. The government's consumer rights minister emphasized the impact on families struggling with housing. Airbnb said it plans to challenge the fine in court.
Roomba maker iRobot files for bankruptcy protection; will be taken private under restructuring
Roomba maker iRobot has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but says that it doesn’t expect any disruptions to devices as the more than 30-year-old company is taken private under a restructuring process. iRobot said that it is being acquired by Picea through a court-supervised process. Picea is the company's primary contract manufacturer. The Bedford, Massachusetts-based anticipates completing the prepackaged chapter 11 process by February.
Serbia organized crime prosecutors charge minister, others in connection with Kushner-linked project
Serbia’s prosecutor for organized crime has charged a government minister and three others with abuse of position and falsifying of documents related to a luxury real estate project linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The charges came on Monday. The investigation centers on a controversy over a a bombed-out military complex in central Belgrade that was a protected cultural heritage zone but that is facing redevelopment as a luxury compound by a company linked to Kushner. The $500 million proposal to build a high-rise hotel, offices and shops at the site has met fierce opposition from experts at home and abroad. Selakovic and others allegedly illegally lifted the protection status for the site by falsifying documentation.
Load More