Business

(Reuters) – U.S. investors pulled out of equity funds and moved to the safety of money market funds in the week to Jan. 8 driven by uncertainties about the Fed’s interest rate trajectory and looming tariff policies by the incoming Trump administration.

Investors divested a net $5.05 billion worth of U.S. equity funds during the week and acquired a robust $56.19 billion worth of money market funds in their largest weekly net purchase since Dec. 4, 2024, according to LSEG Lipper data.

The U.S. Federal Reserve’s Dec. 17-18 meeting minutes, released Wednesday, revealed officials’ growing concerns about persistent price pressures and the potential impact of policies by the incoming Trump administration.

Investors withdrew a net $4.88 billion from U.S. large-cap funds, compared with $5.43 billion worth of net purchases the previous week. Mid-cap and multi-cap funds also had outflows totaling $1.2 billion and $751 million, respectively, but small-cap funds gained $272 million worth of inflows.

Sectoral funds were mixed, with industrials facing a notable $467 million worth of outflows, while communication services and tech had net $348 million and $338 million, respectively, in inflows.

Bond funds, meanwhile, eked out a net $9.14 billion worth of weekly inflow following three consecutive weeks of net sales.

General domestic taxable fixed income funds were popular as investors poured $3.52 billion, the highest in nearly a year, into these funds.

Short-to-intermediate investment-grade funds, loan participation funds, and short-to-intermediate government and treasury funds, also saw a significant $2.62 billion, $2.17 billion and $2.02 billion worth of net additions, respectively.

(Reporting by Gaurav Dogra and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)

source

By Echo Wang, Tatiana Bautzer and Saeed Azhar

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Investment bankers are gearing up for a pickup in dealmaking activity in global equity capital markets this year, buoyed by a promising pipeline of anticipated initial public offerings of several high-profile companies. 

Liquefied natural gas producer Venture Global, privately held medical supply giant Medline, and cybersecurity company Sailpoint, backed by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, are expected to headline a crowded line-up of stock market flotations in the first half of 2025, according to people familiar with the matter. 

An increase in capital markets activity, driven by improving economic confidence, is expected to be a major boon for several of these private equity-backed companies.

Private equity firms have been struggling to sell or list portfolio companies over the past two years due to high interest rates and volatile stock markets that put a chill on dealmaking. 

“Many of the companies owned by private equity firms have become sizeable,” said Arnaud Blanchard, global co-head of equity capital markets for Morgan Stanley. “Sponsors know it may take a while to complete a full exit, so they are becoming active now, early in the cycle.” 

Other buzzy names that could potentially go public in the U.S. this year include the likes of Swedish payments firm Klarna, artificial intelligence cloud platform CoreWeave, and financial technology firm Chime, which confidentially submitted paperwork for its flotation in December, the sources said.

The largest private equity firms have become more bullish about IPOs of their portfolio companies in recent months.When major U.S. banks report earnings next week, investors will focus on the outlook for capital markets, which had a surge of activity last year.

Global equity issuance rose 20% last year, but stock market launches have so far lagged that increase, remaining far below their 2021 peak. IPOs raised $123 billion last year, compared with a record-breaking haul of $594 billion in 2021, according to Dealogic.

Moreover, Wall Street’s most-watched gauge of investor anxiety, the Cboe Volatility Index, is currently at a relatively low level of about 18, raising expectations of a near-term upswing in capital markets. 

LARGER DEALS

Bankers are expecting more large IPOs, which typically refer to share sales worth $750 million and above, and are appealing because they often feature established companies with strong financial performance and offer greater liquidity to investors.

“IPOs, on average, are likely to be larger in size perhaps than they ever have been,” Brian Friedman, president of Jefferies, told Reuters in an interview. 

Bankers also expect the 2025 surge in IPOs to reach across a broad swathe of sectors.

“Investors continue to favor scaled, profitable companies with sensible balance sheets and durable cash flows, especially as rates may be staying higher for longer,” said Matt Warren, Bank of America’s head of Americas equity capital markets cash origination. 

While valuations have risen, many startups backed by private equity firms are still falling short of their targeted returns, said JPMorgan Chase president Daniel Pinto. 

“A lot of the companies in the sponsor books, even with these valuations, are not able to produce a good enough exit for these investments,” he said. “Private equity firms can unlock value in several ways, including small stake sales in IPOs, which can then be used for a strategic sale with a premium.”

Tech companies may buck the trend, attracting demand from investors even if they are smaller in size, Goldman Sachs Chief Financial Officer Dennis Coleman said during the firm’s financial conference in December.

The Wall Street investment banking giant has a “substantial tech pipeline” of IPOs and expects to see offerings for fast-growing companies to rebound after strong performances from recent small and mid-cap tech IPOs.

(Reporting by Tatiana Bautzer, Echo Wang and Saeed Azhar in New York, Additional reporting by Nupur Anand and Suzanne McGee, editing by Lananh Nguyen, Anirban Sen and Nia Williams)

source

WASHINGTON (AP) — The law that could ban TikTok is coming before the Supreme Court on Friday, with the justices largely holding the app’s fate in their hands.

The popular social media platform says the law violates the First Amendment and should be struck down.

TikTok’s parent company is based in China, and the U.S. government says that means it is a potential national security threat. Chinese authorities could force it to hand over sensitive data on the huge number of Americans who use it or could influence the spread of information on the platform, they say.

An appeals court has upheld the law, which bans TikTok unless it’s sold.

The law is set to take effect Jan. 19, the day before a new term begins for President-elect Donald Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on the platform. The Republican says he wants to “save TikTok.”

Here are some key things to know about the case:

Not now, but the short-form video-sharing app could be shut down in less than two weeks if the Supreme Court upholds the law.

Congress passed the measure with bipartisan support, and President Joe Biden, a Democrat, signed it into law in April.

TikTok’s lawyers challenged the law in court, joined by users and content creators who say a ban would upend their livelihoods. TikTok says the national security concerns are based on inaccurate and hypothetical information.

But a unanimous appeals court panel made up of judges appointed by both Republican and Democratic presidents has upheld the law.

The justices will issue a decision after arguments Friday, a lightning-fast movement by court standards.

The conservative-majority court could drop clues about how it’s leaning during oral arguments.

TikTok lawyers have urged the justices to step in before the law takes effect, saying even a monthlong shutdown would cause the app to lose about one-third of its daily American users and significant advertising revenue.

The court could quickly block the law from going into effect before issuing a final ruling, if at least five of the nine justices think it is unconstitutional.

The law is to take effect Jan. 19, the day before Trump takes over as president.

He took the unusual step of filing court documents asking the Supreme Court to put the law on hold so that he could negotiate a deal for the sale of TikTok after he takes office. His position marked the latest example of him inserting himself into national issues before he takes office. It also was a change from his last presidential term, when he wanted to ban it.

Parent company ByteDance has previously said it has no plans to sell. Trump met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, last month.

Free-speech advocacy groups like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have urged the court to block the law, saying the government hasn’t shown credible evidence of harm and a ban would cause “extraordinary disruption” in Americans’ lives.

On the other side, Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican former Senate leader, and a group of 22 states have filed briefs in support, arguing that the law protects free speech by safeguarding Americans’ data and preventing the possible manipulation of information on the platform by Chinese authorities.

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

source

ISLAMABAD (AP) — State-run Pakistan International Airlines resumed direct flights to Europe on Friday following a decision by the European Union’s aviation safety agency to lift a four-year ban over safety standards, officials said.

Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif inaugurated the twice-a-week flights to Paris and vowed that PIA will expand its operations to other European countries soon.

The flight from Islamabad was fully booked with more than 300 passengers, the airline said.

Asif said in a speech that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency had imposed the ban on PIA’s operations to Europe because of an “irresponsible statement” by a former aviation minister.

The curb on PIA was imposed in 2020 after 97 people died when a PIA plane crashed in Karachi in southern Pakistan. Then-Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said an investigation into the crash found that nearly a third of Pakistani pilots had cheated on their pilot’s exams. A government probe later concluded that the crash was caused by pilot error.

The ban caused a loss of nearly $150 million a year in revenue for PIA, officials say.

Meanwhile, the first international flight was scheduled to depart from Gwadar, a new airport in southwestern Pakistan, later Friday. The Chinese-funded airport was inaugurated by Chinese Premier Li Qiang in October.

The airport, Pakistan’s largest, is located in restive southwestern Balochistan province and is part of a massive investment by Beijing that links a deep seaport and airport on the Arabian Sea by road with China.

source

PARIS (Reuters) – Nissan Motor Co Ltd is open to pooling with other carmakers in order to reach its CO2 targets in 2025, a spokesperson for the Japanese carmaker in Europe said to Reuters on Thursday.

“Nissan is fully committed to an electrified future in Europe,” she said. “2025 is challenging, given current overall market conditions, and regulatory changes. Therefore we’re exploring short-term pooling options.”

She added nothing has been decided yet and did not comment on which other carmaker it could sign an agreement with.

Companies can “pool” their emissions with EV segment leaders, purchasing emissions credits from them to lower their overall averages and save hundreds of millions of euros in penalties. EU filings on Tuesday showed companies including Stellantis, Mercedes and Toyota are planning to buy carbon credits from producers including Tesla and Polestar.

Over the past years, Nissan used to be part of a pool on CO2 with Renault, its partner from the Renault Nissan alliance which has been revamped in 2023.

(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume; Writing by Makini Brice; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

source

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) -Kroger has agreed to pay $110 million to resolve a lawsuit by the state of Kentucky alleging the supermarket chain’s pharmacies helped fuel a deadly opioid epidemic by flooding its communities with hundreds of millions of doses of addictive painkillers.

The settlement was announced on Thursday by Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, whose state had opted to not participate in a broader $1.4-billion deal Kroger finalized last year that resolved similar claims by 30 states as well as counties, municipalities and Native American tribes.

In a lawsuit filed in state court in February, Coleman had alleged that Kroger’s more than 100 Kentucky pharmacies had been responsible for over 11% of all opioid pills dispensed in the state from 2006 to 2019, or about 444 million opioid doses. 

The lawsuit alleged Kroger should have known based on the suspiciously high numbers and other red flags that the drugs were being diverted for illicit purposes, and should have taken measures to stop shipments and refuse to fill suspicious prescriptions.

Instead, Kroger continued to ship massive quantities of opioids throughout the state, failed to report suspicious orders to authorities and continued to dispense addictive drugs at “alarming” rates in Kentucky, which was hard-hit by the drug-addiction epidemic, according to the lawsuit.

“This massive grocery chain that asked for our trust and our business allowed the fire of addiction to spread across the commonwealth, leaving pain and leaving so much brokenness in its aftermath,” Coleman said at a press conference.

The Cincinnati-based supermarket chain, whose $25-billion proposed merger with rival Albertsons was terminated after courts blocked the deal last month, said in a statement it hoped the settlement funds would be used to combat opioid abuse in Kentucky.

The company did not admit wrongdoing as part of the settlement and Kroger called the claims that it did not have internal training or guardrails around filling prescriptions for opioids “patently false.”

According to the settlement agreement, Kentucky received a substantial premium above what it would have received had it joined the earlier broader settlement with Kroger. Had it done so, Kentucky would have recovered $66.6 million.

Drug manufacturers, distributors, pharmacy operators and others have agreed to pay about $50 billion to resolve lawsuits and investigations by states and local governments over their roles in the drug-overdose epidemic.

Nearly 727,000 people in the U.S. died from opioid overdoses from 1999 to 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Rod Nickel)

source

(Reuters) – Below is a history of Reuters polls of analysts’ expectations for figures in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual U.S. winter wheat seedings report.

The USDA’s report is based on a survey of roughly 72,200 farmers. Ahead of the report’s release, Reuters surveys as many as 24 grain analysts for their expectations.

The tables below also include winter wheat figures from the USDA’s March plantings and June acreage reports, and the government’s final planted acreage numbers.

The USDA is scheduled to release its winter wheat seedings report at 12 p.m. EST (1700 GMT) on Friday, Jan. 10.

All figures are in millions of acres.

ALL WINTER WHEAT

Average

estimate USDA Jan. USDA USDA USDA

in Reuters seedings March June final

Jan. poll figure plantings acreage acreage

2025 33.366 NA NA NA NA

2024 35.786 34.425 34.135 33.805 33.390

2023 34.485 36.950 37.505 37.005 36.699

2022 34.255 34.397 34.236 34.006 33.281

2021 31.528 31.991 33.078 33.683 33.678

2020 30.664 30.804 30.775 30.550 30.450

2019 32.279 31.290 31.504 31.778 31.474

2018 31.307 32.608 32.708 32.732 32.542

2017 34.139 32.383 32.747 32.839 32.726

2016 39.320 36.609 36.216 36.538 36.149

2015 42.564 40.452 40.751 40.620 39.681

2014 43.501 41.892 42.007 42.296 42.409

2013 42.687 41.820 41.988 42.697 43.230

2012 40.933 41.947 41.709 41.819 40.897

2011 40.943 40.990 41.229 41.108 40.596

2010 40.501 37.097 37.698 37.723 36.576

2009 44.292 42.098 42.889 43.448 43.287

2008 48.586 46.610 46.840 46.605 46.781

2007 44.118 44.089 44.505 45.136 45.012

2006 42.386 41.367 41.404 41.393 40.565

2005 43.203 41.567 41.613 41.408 40.418

HARD RED WINTER WHEAT

Average

estimate USDA Jan. USDA USDA USDA

in Reuters seedings March June final

Jan. poll figure plantings acreage acreage

2025 23.733 NA NA NA NA

2024 25.113 24.000 24.300 24.100 23.787

2023 23.824 25.300 26.000 25.700 25.695

2022 24.034 23.800 23.700 23.500 23.098

2021 22.140 22.300 23.200 23.600 23.522

2020 22.086 21.800 21.700 21.500 21.394

2019 22.727* 22.200 22.400 22.700 22.751

2018 22.327 23.100 23.200 23.200 22.930

2017 24.954 23.300 23.800 23.800 23.426

2016 28.810 26.500 26.200 26.500 26.593

2015 31.023 29.500 29.600 29.600 29.173

2014 30.426 30.100 30.200 30.400 30.498

2013 30.185 29.100 28.900 29.400 29.670

2012 29.438 30.100 29.900 30.000 29.612

2011 30.153 29.600 29.400 29.100 28.469

2010 30.205 27.800 28.300 28.500 28.241

2009 31.124 30.200 30.900 31.400 31.666

2008 34.773 32.500 32.500 31.900 31.580

2007 32.017 31.900 31.900 32.400 32.981

2006 30.668 29.900 29.800 29.700 29.340

2005 31.059 30.500 30.500 30.300 30.047

SOFT RED WINTER WHEAT

Average

estimate USDA Jan. USDA USDA USDA

in Reuters seedings March June final

Jan. poll figure plantings acreage acreage

2025 6.141 NA NA NA NA

2024 7.077 6.860 6.260 6.140 6.062

2023 6.890 7.900 7.800 7.660 7.360

2022 6.555 7.070 6.890 6.860 6.565

2021 5.884 6.230 6.420 6.590 6.648

2020 5.118 5.640 5.690 5.630 5.565

2019 6.019* 5.660 5.550 5.540 5.213

2018 5.555 5.980 5.850 5.890 6.076

2017 5.662 5.680 5.530 5.610 5.763

2016 7.144 6.720 6.600 6.580 6.017

2015 8.039 7.500 7.750 7.610 7.094

2014 9.539 8.440 8.430 8.500 8.484

2013 9.039 9.420 9.670 9.960 10.044

2012 7.773 8.370 8.400 8.300 7.956

2011 7.244 7.760 8.200 8.300 8.496

2010 6.991 5.920 6.000 5.800 4.857

2009 9.392 8.290 8.380 8.400 8.162

2008 10.096 10.500 10.700 11.000 11.363

2007 7.982 8.330 8.660 8.800 8.639

2006 7.325 7.300 7.420 7.450 7.385

2005 7.531 6.600 6.600 6.500 6.134

WHITE WINTER WHEAT

Average

estimate USDA Jan. USDA USDA USDA

in Reuters seedings March June final

Jan. poll figure plantings acreage acreage*

2025 3.496 NA NA NA NA

2024 3.595 3.540 3.590 3.590 3.541

2023 3.631 3.730 3.710 3.680 3.644

2022 3.577 3.560 3.620 3.610 3.618

2021 3.514 3.480 3.480 3.500 3.508

2020 3.490 3.370 3.420 3.420 3.491

2019 3.486* 3.440 3.550 3.550 3.510

2018 3.435 3.560 3.640 3.620 3.536

2017 3.473 3.370 3.380 3.420 3.537

2016 3.366 3.430 3.370 3.420 3.539

2015 3.502 3.480 3.430 3.440 3.414

2014 3.533 3.390 3.350 3.410 3.427

2013 3.458 3.270 3.390 3.380 3.516

2012 3.661 3.490 3.500 3.500 3.329

2011 3.527 3.660 3.700 3.700 3.631

2010 3.406 3.330 3.400 3.400 3.478

2009 3.778 3.620 3.650 3.600 3.459

2008 3.852 3.650 3.630 3.700 3.838

2007 4.133 3.910 3.920 3.910 3.392

2006 4.389 4.200 4.220 4.210 3.840

2005 4.547 4.500 4.500 4.500 4.237

* Final figures for white winter wheat acreage are derived by subtracting hard red winter and soft red winter wheat from USDA’s final all-winter wheat acreage figures.

(Compiled by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; editing by Diane Craft)

source

By Michael S. Derby

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Kansas City Federal Reserve President Jeff Schmid signaled on Thursday a reluctance to cut interest rates again as the U.S. central bank comes into the new year facing a resilient economy and inflation that remains above its 2% target.

“We are currently pretty close to meeting our dual mandate of price stability and full employment” and, “with inflation close to target and growth showing continued momentum, I believe we are near the point where the economy needs neither restriction nor support and that policy should be neutral,” Schmid said in the text of a speech to be delivered before the Economic Club of Kansas City.

In the current environment, “interest rates might be very close to their longer-run level now,” Schmid said. “I am in favor of adjusting policy gradually going forward and only in response to a sustained change in the tone of the data,” he said, adding that “the strength of the economy allows us to be patient.”

The Fed last month cut its benchmark overnight interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to the 4.25%-4.50% range and signaled expectations of fewer rate cuts in 2025 than had been projected three months earlier. Fed officials also penciled in expectations of higher inflation, and in public comments and the release of minutes from the Dec. 17-18 meeting they have flagged considerable uncertainty around the outlook.

Schmid on Thursday was upbeat on where the economy now stands.

“I am optimistic about employment and the strength of the economy,” he said, adding “though the job market has loosened, it remains healthy.” Schmid also said growth has been “solid” around the 3% level.

The Kansas City Fed chief weighed in on the central bank balance sheet drawdown known as quantitative tightening, or QT, which has seen the Fed reduce its holdings from a peak of about $9 trillion in 2022 to just under $7 trillion. The Fed expects to reduce its holdings further but is unsure how far it can take the process.

“I would like to see even further declines this year,” Schmid said of the balance sheet, adding that he would also like to see the Fed move toward an all-Treasuries profile.

“We should minimize our impact on relative asset prices,” he said, noting “this means moving out of mortgage-backed securities.”

(Reporting by Michael S. Derby; Editing by Paul Simao)

source

By Andy Sullivan

The Pacific Palisades area ravaged by wildfires in Los Angeles is one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the U.S., home to Hollywood A-Listers and multimillion dollar mansions. And ahead of this week’s disaster, its insurance costs were among the most affordable in the country, according to a Reuters analysis of insurance and real estate industry data.

That may be about to change. The scale of losses anticipated in the wildfires now ringing Los Angeles, as well as regulatory changes enacted late last year, could spell an end to relatively cheap homeowners’ insurance in areas like the Palisades that are at elevated risk for wildfires, four analysts told Reuters.

“One sees relatively low premiums in high-risk markets in California, but that might be starting to change,”  said Philip Mulder, a University of Wisconsin professor who studies the industry.

Measured against home values, insurance costs are cheaper in the Palisades than in 97% of U.S. postal codes, according to a Reuters analysis of a national database of price data collected by Mulder and University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School professor Benjamin Keys as well as home-value data calculated by Zillow, a real-estate firm.

The fires raging around Los Angeles could be the most damaging in state history, officials say. The flames have devoured thousands of homes and businesses from the Pacific Ocean beaches to hills north of Los Angeles, and as of Thursday morning were 0% contained. At least five people have died, and initial estimates of the damage range from $10 billion to more than $50 billion.

The relatively low cost of insurance in the Pacific Palisades reflects the vagaries of a homeowners’ insurance market in the United States where prices can vary widely because of differing regulatory polices from state to state. Consumer-friendly regulations in California have kept a lid on prices, even in high-risk areas, but have prompted many insurers to scale back coverage. 

Sangmin Oh, a finance professor at Columbia Business School,  and other researchers found that homeowners in more loosely regulated states effectively subsidize homeowners in states like California, where the industry has been more tightly regulated – despite higher levels of risk.

Compared to home values, the average statewide premium in 2023 was the lowest among all 50 states, according to the Reuters analysis. California’s high property values may make that insurance seem relatively cheap, but even on an absolute dollar basis residents the average annual premium of $2,200 was less than residents paid in 30 other U.S. states.

At least six fires have burned near Pacific Palisades since 1980, including a 2018 blaze that was the third-most expensive in California history. First Street, a climate risk research firm, found that 95% of the homes in Pacific Palisades face a “major” risk of burning to the ground. 

Homeowners in Pacific Palisades paid a median insurance premium in 2023 of $5,450, according to the data compiled by Mulder and Keys. That’s less than residents paid in Glencoe, Illinois, an upscale suburb of Chicago where homes are two-thirds cheaper and the risk of wildfire is minimal.

It’s also less than residents paid in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward, the poor and historically Black neighborhood submerged by floods waters during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – even though the typical Ninth Ward home is worth less than 1/20th of the typical home in Pacific Palisades, according to Zillow.

KEEPING UP WITH EXTREME WEATHER

 The insurance industry in the U.S. has struggled to keep pace with extreme weather events in recent years, with more than two dozen billion-dollar wildfires, floods and other climate-related disasters in 2023 alone.

In hurricane-prone areas of Louisiana and Florida, insurance prices more than doubled after hurricanes in 2020, 2021 and 2022 threw state markets into turmoil, Keys and Mulder found. 

In California, regulators until recently mandated price controls for home insurance, which limited annual increases. However, insurers fled the state as they struggled to turn a profit. According to state regulators, 7 of the 12 largest insurers have paused or restricted new business since 2022.

Insurance companies dropped 1.72% of Californian homeowners’ policies in 2023, according to a December report by the U.S. Senate Budget Committee. Only three other states – Florida, Louisiana and North Carolina – had a higher nonrenewal rate.

Dropped by their insurance companies, Californian homeowners increasingly turned to a state-run pool that provides bare-bones policies for those who can’t find coverage elsewhere. Some 450,000 homes – about 3% of all state residents – were covered through the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements plan in September, a 40% increase from a year earlier. The fund is administered by the state but funded by insurance providers. 

In Pacific Palisades, 1,430 homes were on the state plan, up 85% from the year earlier. The state pool now covers $5.9 billion worth of property in the area.

The increasing difficulty of finding insurance coverage prompted state regulators to reassess their approach.

The state’s insurance commissioner, Ricardo Lara, announced an overhaul in December that will make it easier for insurers to raise rates and factor in climate risks and reinsurance costs when setting prices, but would also require them to offer coverage in high-risk areas. The new rules take effect this month.

Patrick Douville, a vice president of insurance with Morningstar, said insurers will try to continue to offer coverage in California, which is one of the most lucrative markets in the country. But they will struggle to provide affordable coverage in areas like Pacific Palisades that will remain risky even after this fire dies out.

“Insurers need randomness,” he said in an interview. “If it’s always the same folks who are targeted, you need to charge them an astronomical premium.” 

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; editing by Scott Malone and Suzanne Goldenberg)

source

(Reuters) -U.S. satellite TV provider DirecTV on Thursday challenged a dismissal of FuboTV’s lawsuit against Venu Sports, the streaming service planned by Walt Disney , Fox Corp and Warner Bros Discovery Inc, saying it does not resolve antitrust issues around the joint venture. 

DirecTV’s challenge marks the latest development in a battle between media companies for dominance in the pay TV market.

FuboTV sued the three media giants behind Venu in February, claiming the sports streaming venture would reduce competition and increase prices for consumers. The deal was temporarily blocked by a U.S. judge in August. 

On Monday FuboTV asked the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to dismiss its lawsuit against Venu after Walt Disney said it would merge its Hulu + Live TV business with FuboTV, creating the second-biggest digital pay-TV provider.  

Under the litigation settlement, the companies will pay Fubo $220 million in cash, with Disney also committing to a $145 million term loan for Fubo in 2026.

Disney will enter into a licensing agreement that would allow Fubo to create a sports-focused service featuring Disney’s sports and broadcast networks including ABC and ESPN, as well as ESPN+.

Fubo and Warner Bros Discovery declined to comment while Disney and Fox did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a letter to U.S. Judge Margaret Garnett on Thursday, DirecTV said the settlement “restores an anticompetitive runway for the JV (joint venture) defendants to control the future of the live pay TV market.” 

Satellite TV provider EchoStar wrote a similar letter on Tuesday.

“By this settlement, defendants pay off and seek to subsume the very competitor that raised these antitrust violations to the Court,” DirecTV said. 

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Nia Williams and Mark Porter)

source