Category Archives: WPTF News

Disney to pay almost $439 million to take full control of streaming service Hulu

Disney to pay almost $439 million to take full control of streaming service Hulu

Disney will pay Comcast’s NBCUniversal nearly $439 million for its stake in Hulu, taking full control of the streaming service. Disney said in 2023 that it was acquiring a 33% stake in Hulu from Comcast for at least $8.6 billion. That amount reflected Hulu’s guaranteed floor value of $27.5 billion, according to a regulatory filing. Disney said in the filing on Monday that its appraiser arrived at a valuation below the guaranteed floor value during the initial phase of the appraisal process, while NBCUniversal’s appraiser arrived at a valuation substantially in excess of the guaranteed floor value. A third appraiser was brought in and concluded that The Walt Disney Co. will pay $438.7 million for the Hulu stake.… Continue Reading

North Carolina auto insurance rates are going up 5% on average in settlement

North Carolina auto insurance rates are going up 5% on average in settlement

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina automobile insurance rates are poised to increase statewide this fall by a 5% average as part of an agreement reached between state regulators and the insurance industry. The settlement announced Monday by Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey is lower than the average 22.6% rate increase for private passenger vehicles originally requested by the North Carolina Rate Bureau. A September public hearing on the request would have been held in September without the settlement. The changes take place Oct. 1 and includes an average 16.3% decrease on motorcycle liability insurance rates.… Continue Reading

Judge dismisses Justin Baldoni’s $400M lawsuit against ‘It Ends With Us’ costar Blake Lively

Judge dismisses Justin Baldoni’s $400M lawsuit against ‘It Ends With Us’ costar Blake Lively

A judge has dismissed the lawsuit that Justin Baldoni filed against his “It Ends With Us” costar Blake Lively after she sued him for sexual harassment. The ruling is the latest development in the bitter legal battle surrounding the film. Lively sued Baldoni in late December. Baldoni then sued Lively and her husband, “Deadpool” actor Ryan Reynolds, accusing them of defamation and extortion. The judge ruled that Baldoni can’t sue Lively for defamation over claims she made in her lawsuit, because allegations made in court are exempt from libel claims. And the judge ruled that Baldoni’s claims that Lively stole creative control of the film didn’t count as extortion under California law. Baldoni’s lawyers say they will amend the lawsuit.… Continue Reading

Dick Vitale has an extension with ESPN — and a college basketball event in his honor

Dick Vitale has an extension with ESPN — and a college basketball event in his honor

Hall of Fame broadcaster Dick Vitale is sticking around college basketball with a new contract extension and a new event named in his honor. ESPN announced Monday that Vitale has signed a contract through the 2027-28 season. In addition, ESPN Events is launching the Dick Vitale Invitational. The first matchup is a game between Duke and Texas on Nov. 4 in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the opening days of the college basketball season. The announcement comes on Vitale’s 86th birthday and months after he returned to the airwaves after being gone for two years amid a fourth cancer battle.… Continue Reading

Sly Stone, leader of funk revolutionaries Sly and the Family Stone, dies at 82

Sly Stone, leader of funk revolutionaries Sly and the Family Stone, dies at 82

NEW YORK (AP) — Sly Stone, an electrifying musician, songwriter and showman whose Sly and the Family Stone transformed popular music in the 1960s and ’70s, has died. He was 82. His time on top was brief, from roughly 1969 to 1971, but his influence on music and culture lasted for decades after. No band better captured the gravity-defying euphoria of the Woodstock era or more bravely addressed the crash. From early hits as rousing as their titles —“I Want To Take You Higher,” “Stand!” — to the sober aftermath of “Family Affair” and “Runnin’ Away,” Sly and the Family Stone spoke for a generation whether or not it wanted to hear the message.… Continue Reading

US stocks drift higher as trade talks start with China in hopes of avoiding a recession

US stocks drift higher as trade talks start with China in hopes of avoiding a recession

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting higher as the world’s two largest economies begin talks on trade that could help avoid a recession. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 58 points, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.5%. Markets are waiting to hear what comes of trade talks between the United States and China taking place in London. Treasury yields eased in the bond market after a survey suggested consumers’ expectations for coming inflation eased a bit. Chinese stocks rose, while indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across the rest of Asia and Europe.… Continue Reading

College sports commissioners laud $2.8B antitrust settlement, call for Congress to act

College sports commissioners laud $2.8B antitrust settlement, call for Congress to act

Conference commissioners lauded a judge’s approval of a $2.8 billion antitrust lawsuit settlement as a means for bringing stability and fairness to an out-of-control college athletics industry. They also acknowledged there would be growing pains. Commissioners of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC renewed their call for congressional action to codify the settlement and emphasized that cooperation at every level of college sports would be necessary to make it work.… Continue Reading

Apple unveils software redesign while reeling from AI missteps, tech upheaval and Trump’s trade war

Apple unveils software redesign while reeling from AI missteps, tech upheaval and Trump’s trade war

CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — After stumbling out of the starting gate in Big Tech’s pivotal race to capitalize on artificial intelligence, Apple tried to regain its footing Monday during a developers conference that focused mostly on incremental advances and cosmetic changes in its technology. The presummer rite was more subdued than the feverish anticipation that surrounded the event in 2023 when Apple unveiled a mixed-reality headset and last year when the company hyped AI features that didn’t pan out as envisioned. Although Apple announced helpful AI tools and a redesign of its iPhone software in a decade, the company is still facing about its ability to innovate and ability to navigate a gauntlet of other challenges.… Continue Reading

Warner Bros. Discovery to split into two companies, dividing cable and streaming services

Warner Bros. Discovery to split into two companies, dividing cable and streaming services

NEW YORK (AP) — Warner Bros. Discovery will calve off cable operations from its streaming service, creating two independent companies as the number of people “cutting the cord” brings with it a sustained upheaval in the entertainment industry. HBO, and HBO Max, as well as Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group, DC Studios, will become part of the streaming and studios company. The cable company will include CNN, TNT Sports in the U.S., and Discovery, top free-to-air channels across Europe, and digital products such as the Discovery+ streaming service and Bleacher Report. Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery, based in New York City, jumped 11% at the opening bell.… Continue Reading

California governor plans to file lawsuit against Trump over National Guard deployment to protests

California governor plans to file lawsuit against Trump over National Guard deployment to protests

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he planned to file a lawsuit against President Donald Trump in response to the administration’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard to confront immigration protesters who took to the streets in Los Angeles. Newsom, a Democrat, said that commandeering a state’s National Guard without consulting the governor of that state is “illegal and immoral.” The streets of the sprawling city of 4 million people were mostly quiet Monday morning, the day after crowds blocked off a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire. Law enforcement responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. Sunday’s protests were centered in several blocks of downtown and a handful of other places.… Continue Reading

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