Fox Corporation has completed its $22 billion acquisition of Roku, transforming the Murdoch family’s company into a major player in the streaming video business.
The deal closed Friday, months ahead of the companies’ original target of the first half of 2027.
The deal combines Fox’s news, sports and broadcast channels with the San Jose-based streaming platform, which reaches 100 million households globally. The $22 billion valuation includes debt.
Roku, founded in 2002, provides Fox with a direct line to consumer households at a time when the traditional pay-TV universe continues its slow decline as viewers move away from cable and satellite services to video streaming. Fox already owns the free ad-supported streaming service Tubi, which turned profitable last year.
Fox Corp. expects to see around $400 million in cost reductions within two years of the Roku acquisition.
While Roku provides Fox with an opportunity to be more aggressive in marketing its channels, Fox has pledged that the platform will remain open to distributing content from competitors.
“Beginning today, our top priority for the combined company is to continue to relentlessly serve audiences and partners, while reinforcing the openness and choice that is the essence of the Roku platform,” Fox Executive Chair and Chief Executive Lachlan Murdoch said in a statement. “Our shared entrepreneurial passion and clear conviction toward building the future together with our new Roku colleagues gives us great confidence in the opportunities ahead of us.”
Roku founder Anthony Wood will join the Fox board of directors. He will also serve as co-chair of Fox Digital Platforms, the newly formed division that includes Roku, Tubi, the direct-to-consumer streaming service Fox One and Red Seat Ventures, which provides sales and technical support to podcasters. Paul Cheesbrough, who oversaw Tubi for Fox, will become co-chair and chief executive of the division.
Under the terms of the merger agreement, Roku stockholders are entitled to receive $95.30 in cash and 0.9799 shares of Fox Class A common stock for each share of Roku Class A and Roku Class B common stock they owned immediately prior to closing. As a result of the transaction, Fox stockholders own around 74% of the outstanding shares of Fox common stock and former Roku stockholders own approximately 26%.
Walt Disney Co. is experimenting with using artificial intelligence to test out different concepts for music videos showcasing the lyrics to its songs, starting with “Go the Distance” from its 1997 animated movie, “Hercules.”
The effort is part of a deal with Bay Area AI startup OpenArt, which makes AI generated videos. Disney can input its songs into OpenArt’s platform, which will create a storyboard preview of a lyric video based on the song’s words, mood and emotional tone. Disney can make any changes during the process and fine-tune the video.
“They are very excited to bring some of the older catalogs of the music and create visual lyrics videos for those songs,” said OpenArt CEO Coco Mao, adding it’s “early exploration” for Disney to see how AI could potentially help with their creative workflow.
By working with OpenArt, “creative teams can iterate more freely, generating and evaluating multiple concepts in hours rather than weeks, enabling new fan experiences around Disney music between major releases,” Disney said in a blog post.
The commercial deal was announced as part of the Disney Accelerator Demo Day on Tuesday in Burbank. OpenArt was one of five companies in this year’s Accelerator program, which provides participants with investment capital and the opportunity to explore future collaborations with Disney leaders. This year, the entire cohort is made up of AI companies.
“We’re looking at how we can fit these companies into our existing workflows and help expedite that,” said David Min, vice president of innovation at the Walt Disney Co.
The experiment comes as Disney has challenged other AI companies over the use of its intellectual property. Disney and other studios have sued AI companies Midjourney and MiniMax, and in February, Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Chinese tech company ByteDance over its AI video generator Seedance 2.0.
OpenArt offers a platform that works with many different AI models, including Kling, Google Veo and Seedream. Businesses can select which AI models they wish to use for their videos. OpenArt also has a tool that helps flag potential intellectual property infringement.
Videos featuring the lyrics to Disney songs can be popular on social media and video platforms. For example, a lyric video posted six years ago featuring “Go the Distance” sung in different languages with a scene from “Hercules” generated 280,000 views on YouTube.
In general, making music videos has been a popular way that creators are using AI, as it can be more economical and allow them to test bold ideas without blowing the budget or going to multiple locations. Rather than a static image with music, a lyric video with different imagery can also help increase views on social media platforms.
“Before joining Open Art, I was in a rock band, so I was one of the artists that know the pain of not having enough money or time or resource to make lyrics videos or any kind of videos to promote your song on social media, so being able to be a part of building a tool that helps musicians and songs from big to small is very monumental,” said OpenArt executive Chloe Fang, who oversees entertainment and enterprise partnerships.
OpenArt was founded in 2022 by former Google engineers Mao and John Qiao. The company said it has nearly 100 employees and 17 million monthly active users.
Disney is considering different ways to incorporate AI into the company. For example, Disney Accelerator participant Irvine-based FieldAI is working with Disney on exploring whether robots can support parking or other operations within theme parks and San Francisco-based Physical Intelligence is looking at whether robotic systems can help with the handling and arranging of 3D glasses for cleaning between shows at Disney theme parks.
In September, Disney named Character.AI’s then-Chief Executive Karandeep Anand as its new chief technology officer. Last month, Character.AI filed for bankruptcy, and Disney offered $20 million to license some of the startup’s intellectual property. Other bidders can still top Disney’s offer.
Not all of Disney’s AI partnerships have worked out. Last year Disney announced a $1-billion investment in OpenAI and a licensing deal to bring Disney characters to OpenAI’s AI video generator Sora, but it fell apart months later after OpenAI decided to shut down Sora to focus its resources on other aspects of its business. The deal was never completed and no money changed hands.
As a criminal investigation into Southern California Edison’s actions before last year’s deadly Eaton fire continues, the state’s for-profit utilities are lobbying for legislation that would protect their shareholders from paying for future catastrophic fires they cause.
According to slides recently presented by a Pacific Gas & Electric executive to a group of state senators, the utilities are asking for a permanent cap to limit their corporate liability for a fire where they are found to have acted negligently or imprudently. The slides were reviewed by The Times.
“If ratepayers are forced to pay the lion share for fires utilities cause, there is no imperative for the for-profit utilities to take safety and fire mitigation seriously,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog.
The utilities say their shareholders must be shielded from wildfire costs because the risk of future fires has damaged their credit ratings. Lower credit ratings mean the companies must pay higher interest rates on borrowing, an increased cost that gets passed on to electricity customers.
“It is in our customers’ interest to have action in 2026,” Pedro Pizarro, chief executive of Edison International, told Wall Street analysts last week when asked about the utilities’ push in Sacramento for a liability cap.
Caroline Choi, Edison’s executive vice president of public policy and corporate affairs, told The Times that the proposal would not change the utilities’ focus on preventing fires. “Safety is our number one priority,” she said.
Executives at Edison and PG&E also recently told their investors that without the liability protection they may cut what they are spending on capital improvements, including to connect new housing developments and green energy projects.
PG&E recently sent letters to thousands of its customers, saying their projects could be delayed next year as it defers $2 billion in spending.
Those comments and PG&E’s letter have angered consumer advocates, wildfire survivors and some lawmakers.
On Sunday, state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena), whose district includes Altadena, sent a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission, pointing out that both companies continue to pay millions of dollars in dividends to their shareholders, while complaining that the wildfire risk had financially weakened them.
“Their decisions to delay or reduce investments in critical projects are particularly troubling given the billions of dollars in profits reported by their parent companies in recent years,” Perez wrote. “The Legislature must not be pressured to roll back utilities’ financial accountability for wildfires through threats to withhold the investments needed to serve our communities.”
The state’s three biggest for-profit utilities, which also include San Diego Gas & Electric, have been lobbying for protection from wildfire costs since early 2025. That’s when videos emerged showing two bright flashes coming from Edison’s transmission lines, just before the Eaton fire ignited.
A government investigation released in August concluded that the devastating fire ignited when an out-of-service transmission line that Edison had not used since 1971 was briefly reenergized in the high winds, causing sparks that landed in dried brush below.
The fire killed 19 people and destroyed a wide swath of Altadena, leaving thousands of families homeless.
Last week, Pizarro told investors that executives believed the utility acted prudently before the fire. If the utilities commission agrees that the company acted prudently, Edison’s liabilities for the fire would be fully covered by a $21-billion state wildfire fund.
If the commission instead determines that Edison acted imprudently — a California regulatory standard that is similar to negligence — the company’s shareholders would still pay no more than $4.3 billion for the Eaton fire under a 2019 law known as Assembly Bill 1054.
The law was passed by Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers to protect utilities from bankruptcy if their power lines spark a catastrophic fire. Since then, utility equipment has continued to spark major wildfires, even though the companies have charged customers tens of billions of dollars to prevent them.
The slides presented to state senators propose that the cap on damages — when a utility is found to have acted imprudently — be made permanent. Under current law, the cap will end when the state wildfire fund, as well as an additional $18-billion reserve created last year, are depleted, leaving shareholders exposed to greater costs of future fires.
The proposed limit on shareholder liability would be equal to 20% of each utility’s transmission and distribution equity rate base, which differs based on the size of the grid maintained by each company. This number for Edison is now $4.3 billion. For PG&E, it is $5.1 billion, according to the slides, while it is $1.5 billion for SDG&E.
The companies’ customers would have to shoulder the rest of a fire’s costs, which would be added to monthly electricity bills.
Mark Toney, executive director of the Utilities Reform Network, called the idea of permanently capping shareholders’ liabilities for fires “completely unacceptable.”
“There needs to be a cap on ratepayers’ liability,” he said.
Earlier this year, the utilities’ stock prices began to rise as executives told investors that Newsom was working on legislation to reduce the companies’ financial risks from fires.
But wildfire survivors were angered when details emerged that Newsom’s proposal would limit payments to victims for pain and suffering and cap attorney fees. Another proposed measure would have increased property insurance premiums across the state by reducing the amounts that insurers could collect after a utility-caused fire.
The utilities are now asking Newsom to call a special session in which lawmakers would debate how to reduce the utilities’ fire risks, including the possible limit on what shareholders would pay.
“A predictable limitation would enable utilities to maintain investment grade credit ratings to better access capital at lower borrowing costs for customers,” Lynsey Paulo, a PG&E spokesperson, said in an e-mail.
In February, Edison disclosed that the Los Angeles County district attorney was investigating whether Edison should be criminally charged for its actions leading to the Eaton fire. And last month, an investment firm published a report claiming that there was evidence that Edison “acted with conscious and willful disregard for the rights and safety of others,” which would make its shareholders liable for all Eaton fire costs. The costs have been estimated to be tens of billions of dollars.
Pizarro told investors last week that he believed there was no evidence that Edison acted criminally before the fire. And he similarly dismissed the investment firm’s report.
“Just to be very crystal clear on this, not only do we not see any basis for felony liability, we certainly don’t see any basis for allegations of conscious or willful disregard,” Pizarro said on the conference call. “I think I said this to all of you before — that is not something I lose sleep over.”
A UK travel company that sells holidays to Turkey, Greece and Portugal has entered administration after nearly four decades.
Wroxham Travel first opened in 1987 as an independent travel agency selling holidays to numerous destinations including UK staycations, short-haul trips and long-haul holidays.
Wroxham Travel has entered administration after 39 yearsCredit: Alamy
The company also sold ocean and river cruise trips.
However, the Norwich-based company officially closed on October 30.
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The company had two high street stores – one in Hoveton and one in Aylsham.
While the impact of the company’s closure isn’t clear, it is expected to primarily affect holidaymakers in the Norfolk and Greater Norwich areas.
The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said in a statement: “We are sorry to inform you that Wroxham Travel has ceased trading with effect from 30 October 2026.
“We are now treating this as a financial failure.
The company used to sell holidays to the likes of Turkey and GreeceCredit: Alamy
“If you booked a holiday through Wroxham Travel, the tour operator or principal business with whom Wroxham Travel booked your holiday will be named on your paperwork (or ATOL certificate if it was a flight inclusive holiday; this would be stated on your ATOL certificate under “Who is protecting your trip”).
“To ensure your holiday can continue as planned, you will need to contact the credit control department of your tour operator or other principal travel business with whom you have a contract.
“Your booking should continue as normal, and they will be your direct point of contact.
“Please ensure that you have all your documentation with you, as they may require information from it to assist you.”
But keeping the Dodgers, right? “No matter what,” Walter told the California Post last week.
Wait a second, though. In August, Walter’s TWG Global holding company issued a statement that was definitive in two specific aspects: the Dodgers were “not being sold” and his company was “not considering exiting its stake in the Cadillac Formula 1 team.”
So I reached out to Walter’s company and to his personal spokesman, asking how to reconcile the definitive statement denying interest in a Formula One sale with the news of a possible sale and, in light of that development, whether the denials of interest in a Dodgers sale should remain credible.
No one at the company emailed me back, and the spokesman declined to comment. Someone in contact with Walter, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to comment, advised me to wait and see if a Formula One deal actually materializes and, if so, for what value.
Amid federal investigations into whether the insurance companies Walter controls might have violated laws designed to protect investors, and as he is a defendant in multiple civil lawsuits filed by investors that allege fraud and breach of contract, Walter is selling off assets from his sports empire.
He could generate a significant share of the more than $20 billion he might need to recapitalize the insurance companies and satisfy state regulators. It is uncertain how that might influence the federal investigations and civil lawsuits.
The Lakers sold for $12.5 billion — the valuation for the entire team, not for Walter’s controlling share.
Walter is seeking $3 billion for his interest in the Formula One team, according to Sportico, and $700 million for the Sparks, according to Bloomberg. The sale of the Chelsea stake, owned jointly by Walter and Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly, generated about $1.27 billion, according to the Financial Times.
The sale of the Dodgers could generate $10 billion to $13 billion, The Times has reported.
None of this is to say Walter is not genuine in his proclamation that he is not selling the Dodgers. He said the Dodgers would win, and they have: three championships within six years, after three in the previous 56. The shine has been restored to an L.A. crown jewel.
“As always when we have an investigation — external, law enforcement, whatever — we monitor that,” Manfred said at the World Series. “That’s where we are right now. We’re just watching what’s going on right now.”
And that is indeed where we are right now: We don’t know what’s going to happen with the feds, and in the courts. For today, and for the immediate future, the Dodgers are not for sale. But plans can change, as Walter’s Formula One team just learned.
As President Trump tries to convince voters to maintain the Republican majority in the House and Senate ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, some Fox News viewers are taking a break.
That’s what Lachlan Murdoch, executive chairman and chief executive of Fox Corporation, believes is behind the steep October ratings drop for the conservative leaning cable news channel. Fox News, which often draws more viewers in prime time than one or more of the broadcast networks, saw its October audience levels drop 28% compared to a year ago, according to Nielsen. Its total day audience among viewers ages 25 to 54 fell to 98,000, the lowest monthly level in 25 years.
“The business is in incredibly good shape and we’re very proud of the team,” Murdoch told analysts Monday on the company’s quarterly earnings call. “What we are seeing, though, is some viewer fatigue where our viewers have gone through some incredible news cycles the last few years.”
Murdoch noted that Fox News suffers in a year-to-year comparison with a 2025 news cycle that included President Trump’s inauguration, and the murder of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, which spiked the network’s ratings in the fall last year.
Murdoch also said Fox News viewers are not switching to MS NOW or CNN and are instead watching slightly less television overall. But both of those networks gained viewers in October, which suggests the fatigue is not being felt across all of cable news.
Even with the ratings decline, Fox News says it is on pace for its highest-rated midterm year in total day viewers. The network’s total day average was 1.1 million viewers in October, down from 1.5 million a year earlier.
Politically minded viewers tuning out when their side is struggling has happened at the other end of the political spectrum. Progressive-leaning MS NOW, formerly known as MSNBC, saw its ratings drop sharply in the months following Trump’s victory over then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election that returned him to the White House.
The Fox News ratings slide had no impact on the parent company’s earnings, which were strong in its fiscal first quarter thanks to the record-setting audience levels for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup and robust political ad sales on its TV stations. Fox News’ audience also declined during that quarter, and the company reported lower digital news advertising revenue.
Fox News has slightly more than a 50% share of the combined audience for the three major cable news channels and remains the dominant leader over competitors CNN and MS NOW, both of which gained viewers last month. Fox News has also broadened its base of advertisers in recent years and benefits from negotiated increases in revenue from cable and satellite providers that carry the channel.
Murdoch said Fox News saw a similar ratings dip during the 2006 midterm campaign when then-President George W. Bush was in his second term. (Republican viewers were also turned off by the Bush administration’s botched handling of Hurricane Katrina.)
Murdoch did not cite the more recent example of late 2020, when the audience tuned out of Fox News as they were unhappy over the results of the 2020 election and the network’s coverage of them, including its call of Arizona for Joe Biden. Trump and his most ardent supporters insisted he won and that the election was rife with voter fraud. (While Fox News journalists were consistent in reporting that Joe Biden won the election, the network repeatedly aired Trump’s false claims of fraud, leading to a defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems, that was settled for $787 million in 2023.)
In the current election cycle, Fox News opinion hosts continue to deliver strong support for Trump. But Trump has complained that the network is not giving enough coverage to his rallies.
The competitiveness of the midterm elections has the network devoting more time to the poll numbers that indicate the Democrats will have a strong night on Tuesday, largely due to voter unhappiness over Trump’s handling of the economy and the war with Iran.
Trump has complained publicly about Fox News giving attention to Democratic candidates, even though the network has always welcomed the party’s members to appear on its programs. Candidates backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, along with the left wing organization’s leaders, have been willing to engage with its anchors even as Fox News opinion hosts paint them as dangerous radicals.
But Fox News is also likely feeling the impact of the dwindling number of homes with subscriptions to pay TV, as consumers continue to abandon cable and satellite services for streaming, although CNN and MS NOW gained viewers despite the same trend. Fox has tried to recoup some of those cord-cutters through its direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service Fox One.
Murdoch touted the growth of Fox One and said it is fulfilling its mission of signing on consumers who no longer have pay TV, but the company has not revealed subscription numbers.
Murdoch touted the growth of Fox One and said it is fulfilling its mission of signing on consumers who no longer have pay TV, but the company has not revealed subscription numbers.
Quant rankings for the upcoming earnings calendar show strength concentrated across information technology, energy, and health care, while weakness is more pronounced in financials and real estate. A total of 1479 companies are scheduled to report in the coming week.
The latest round of belt-tightening across Hollywood has now reached the Happiest Place on Earth.
Walt Disney Co.’s theme parks division is laying off between 100 and 200 people, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly.
The cuts to Disney’s experiences segment stem from a regular evaluation of the division’s priorities, investments and project timelines, the person said. Burbank-based Disney has more parks-related projects in progress than ever before.
Disney declined to comment.
The layoffs are limited to the experiences division, which includes Disney’s theme parks, cruise line and Aulani resort and spa in Hawaii. All affected employees will be notified by the end of the day Wednesday.
The experiences division is Disney’s economic engine. In fiscal 2025, the segment brought in $36.2 billion in revenue and more than 56% of the company’s total operating income.
Because the division is so central to Disney’s bottom line, analysts closely track attendance at its theme parks, particularly among international visitors to the U.S. Though Disney previously said it faced “international visitation headwinds” at its domestic parks, that trend has since “moderated,” executives said during the company’s most recent earnings call in August.
The news comes as other parts of Disney, including its human resources and technology teams, have been affected by layoffs. Separately, the company offered early retirement packages for older workers earlier this month. The latest round of layoffs is not related to those earlier job cuts.
Those moves are part of an effort by new Disney Chief Executive Josh D’Amaro to sharpen the company’s focus and help it respond faster to the changing entertainment industry.
Disney is far from the only entertainment company cutting costs. Hollywood is in the midst of an industry-wide consolidation that has affected wide swaths of Southern California. Workers at Skydance, the new name for the combined Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery, are also bracing for layoffs as the company looks to cut $6 billion in costs over three years.
Times staff writer Todd Martens contributed to this report.
The billionaires targeted by the wealth tax on the November ballot include owners of some of California’s top sports teams and, among them, there will be winners and losers if voters approve the measure.
Which owners would be ensnared by the proposed tax on billionaires’ assets remains unclear, since it’s largely dependent on whether they are declared official California residents, at least for state tax purposes. And that’s before lawyers and accountants get involved, an almost certain bet if the ballot measure is approved by California voters.
So it’s possible that the majority owner of the Los Angeles Chargers, Dean Spanos, would have to pay the the wealth tax while the owner of the Los Angeles Rams, San Kroenke, would not — even though both their teams are playing on the same home field at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. It all depends on whether the state considers Spanos or Kroenke official California residents and how their assets are tallied.
Other wealthy team owners or co-owners who have residences in California and could be subject to the tax include the Golden State Warriors’ Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, the San Diego Padres’ José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones, the San Jose Sharks’ Hasso Plattner and the Anaheim Ducks’ Henry Samueli.
Among those who appear to live out of state, according to news reports, and may not be impacted: the San Francisco 49ers’ Denise DeBartolo York and John York, the Los Angeles Clippers’ Steve Ballmer, the San Francisco Giants’ Charles Johnson, the L.A. Kings’ and the L.A. Galaxy’s Philip Anschutz.
In August, embattled billionaire Mark Walter agreed to sell the L.A. Lakers to former Disney chief executive Bob Iger and venture capitalist Joshua Kushner. The proposed billionaire tax would apply to Iger, who lives in California, but not Kushner, who lives in New York. A spokesperson for Iger declined comment. Walter, who also owns the Dodgers and has been under federal investigation, told the California Post on Wednesday that he has no plans to sell the team.
There is uncertainty and disagreement about how the tax would be levied on sports team owners, and how their ownership stakes would be evaluated by the state when assessing their assets.
Representatives of the Warriors and Chargers, declined comment. Spokespeople for the Kings, Padres, Sharks and Ducks did not respond to requests for comment, nor did representatives of Kroenke or Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, who lives in California and whose $9.6-billion purchase of the Seattle Seahawks was finalized in September.
Legendary sports agent Leigh Steinberg warned that the proposed tax would have unintended consequences. “It creates an uneven playing field,” he said. “Out-of-state owners get an advantage over in-state residents.”
Steinberg, who has represented more than 300 professional athletes including Troy Aikman, Drew Bledsoe, Michael Vick and Oscar De La Hoya, said the increased tax could be passed on to fans if voters approve Proposition 40 on Nov. 3.
“Ticket prices are high enough anyway, and somewhat prohibitive to a working person or young person attending a game live,” Steinberg said. “The last thing in the world positive for the growth of sports is passing on that surcharge.”
Dodgers fans buy food at Dodgers Stadium.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Proposition 40 would impose a one-time 5% levy on many of the assets of billionaires, including their holdings in companies. It was crafted by a healthcare union to compensate for federal healthcare cuts signed by President Trump last year that will cost California an estimated $100 billion, impacting the state’s most vulnerable residents.
David Gamage, a tax law and policy professor at the University of Missouri’s law school, countered that consumers would be far more hurt by the impacts of the impending federal healthcare funding cuts than by potentially higher prices at sporting events.
“The billionaire wealth tax would address the healthcare crisis caused by the Trump administration slashing Medicaid and other healthcare funding. Passing the billionaire wealth tax would be expected to reduce healthcare costs and thereby keep the prices of hot dogs and other consumer goods lower,” Gamage said. “Trying to fool voters by implying otherwise is shameful.”
More than 200 billionaires live in California, some of whom moved themselves or their businesses out of the state because of the proposed tax. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of social media giant Meta, told company leaders that he planned to leave the state to avoid his control over the company being substantially diluted by being forced to sell enough stock to pay the proposed levy. Last week, the company announced the creation of a new nonvoting type of stock that would allow Zuckerberg to sell enough shares to pay the proposed tax while retaining his voting power in exchange for him agreeing to remain in the state for eight years.
Protesters in New York demonstrate against Elon Musk following the launch of the SpaceX initial public offering.
(Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
Proposition 40 supporters say that billionaire sports team owners have benefited from Trump’s tax cuts — dividends they didn’t share with the fans who spend hard-earned money to bring their families to games — and that they need to pay their fair share.
Opponents argue that professional sports are among myriad California economic engines that will suffer if voters approve the proposition, in part because owners based in the state would be subject to the tax while those who reside in other parts of the country would be exempt.
The measure “will also drive up the cost of operating a sports team in California, increasing the price of tickets, concessions and merchandise,” said Rob Lapsley, president of the California Business Roundtable. “This is just one of many ways Proposition 40 will cost Californians.”
A poll by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies released Thursdayshowed public sentiment had turned against the billionaire tax, with half of likely voters opposing it and 42% supporting it.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer addresses the crowd.
(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
More than $404 million has been donated to efforts supporting and opposing the wealth tax, according to the California Secretary of State’s Office. Proponents of the ballot measure had raised $36.5 million as of Thursday, while opponents received nearly $368 million.
The residency of billionaires is often difficult to ascertain, given that many have multiple properties across the nation and around the world. It is not solely based on where the person is registered to vote.
Among the “facts and circumstances” the California Franchise Tax Board considers are the person’s employer, their spouse’s and childrens’ locations, where mail is delivered, and the location of doctors, accountants, lawyers, country club memberships and houses of worship. The number of days spent in California also is factored into the board’s assessment of residency.
Lakers part-owner Patrick Soon-Shiong at a game.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a billionaire, owns 4% of the Lakers and recently became a co-owner of a new women’s professional volleyball team in Los Angeles expected to start competing next year.
Soon-Shiong noted that it’s not only wealthy Californians who oppose the tax. Teachers, firefighters and other groups oppose Proposition 40 because of concerns about long-term impacts on the state. And, as a businessman with stakes in sports teams, he predicted bad effects on pro sports.
“It’s really, really expensive to bring a family to watch a professional game, whatever that game may be,” he said during an interview in September. “All those costs will go up, and for sure, it’ll be passed down to the cost of the ticket.”
Times Library Director Cary Schneider contributed to this report.
At a new luxury yacht club, boats will be outfitted with slatted decks, hulls and portholes, but they won’t be bobbing in a marina. Instead, they will be anchored to the dusty desert floor — in Joshua Tree.
Lucky Find Hospitality, a boutique hotel development and management firm, says the company is less than a year away from breaking ground on Compass Yacht Club, a nautical themed hotel where guests will stay in yachts designed to serve as hotel rooms. These rooms — specifically, 30 two-level luxury yachts and 28 boat houses — will be arranged in a circle around a central clubhouse that will feature a restaurant, bar and swimming pool, all just a five-minute drive from the entrance to the national park.
A rendering of one of the 58 boats that guests could book during their stay.
(Compass Yacht Club)
“You fall asleep in a yacht, wake up in the desert with a view of the mountains, and you’re a few minutes from one of the most beautiful national parks in the country,” said Nick Ovanessoff, managing director of the firm. “It sounds a little crazy, and that’s exactly why we love it.”
The improbable nautical-themed resort has been a long, hard labor of love, said Lucky Find Hospitality’s CEO, Rigel Bitterman. Born in Idyllwild and raised on a sailboat in San Diego, Bitterman grew up camping and rock climbing in Joshua Tree National Park. After helping to launch close to 40 boutique hotel projects around the globe, his company purchased a 23-acre parcel across the highway from Auto Camp in 2023. The team has been working ever since to clear the many geotechnical, biological and cultural hurdles that make developing anything in the high desert so challenging.
“It’s wild how long it takes to get things done out there,” Bitterman said.
A rendering of the interior of a room.
(Compass Yacht Club)
The property was already zoned for commercial use when Lucky Find Hospitality purchased it, but a section of the parcel is in a FEMA flood zone, which meant that the company had to work through the federal government as well as local municipalities to obtain permits and entitlements. Lucky Find has also prioritized environmentally friendly development processes, spending extra time to ensure that the Compass Yacht Club will use minimal water and be constructed of sustainable materials. To cause minimal impact on the environment, the yachts will be built off-site and placed on the desert floor by a massive crane.
Yet another challenge came from the local community, which has historically been hostile to new development. Bitterman has tried to play nice, hosting ongoing quarterly town hall meetings to keep locals abreast of the project and receive feedback from them, but the meetings are inevitably confrontational.
“I’m tarred and feathered every time,” he said.
One community member described the project as “gentrification at its finest” at a town hall last December. Another suggested that Lucky Find Hospitality replace the hotel’s yacht theme with something more appropriate for the desert: spaceships.
It seemed to be a popular idea.
“The whole room started chanting ‘Spaceships, spaceships,’” Bitterman said.
Each luxury yacht will be constructed of sustainable materials.
(Compass Yacht Club)
Despite the expected — and unexpected — challenges, Bitterman is confident the project will move forward. Approval on the final conditional use permit should be coming by the end of the year, which will allow portions of the property to open to the general public in addition to hotel guests. If all goes according to an already elongated schedule, the team will break ground in 2027 and Compass Yacht Club will open by the end of 2030. In the meantime, Lucky Find Hospitality together with its design partner Rad Labs, has a modular yacht hotel room design ready to go.
Over the past 10 years Lucky Find Hospitality has helped launch hotels where guests sleep in yurts, treehouses, glamping tents and Airstreams and. But Bitterman said Compass Yacht Club has been the company’s wildest, hardest and most dear to his heart projects yet.
“It’s partly my origin story, growing up on a boat and always being fascinated by boat design,” he said. “Everything we do is small and unique, but I’ve never been able to bring something to market quite like this.”
Veteran Hollywood film producer Kathleen Kennedy will oversee the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the organizing committee said Wednesday, giving the executive behind the blockbuster Star Wars and Jurassic Park franchises a leading role in staging what has been billed as the biggest athletic event in modern history.
Kennedy will helm a team of producers designing the look and content of dual ceremonies that will kick off the Summer Olympics on July 14, 2028 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Exposition Park and SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. She also will lead the team designing the closing ceremony and both ceremonies for the Paralympics, which begin a month later.
“This appointment reinforces LA28’s commitment to harness the unparalleled creativity, cultural influence and storytelling power of the entertainment capital of the world,” an announcement from the Olympic organizers said. The result will be “ceremonies that are distinctly Los Angeles and leave a lasting impression on the global stage.”
At LA28, Kennedy will serve as head of ceremonies and content, a post that had been held by another big-name entertainment executive, Peter Rice.
Rice had a long career at 20th Century Fox, climbing the ranks to become president of 21st Century Fox in 2017. He recently was named chief content officer at Netflix. LA28 said in its announcement that Rice would remain on as an executive producer.
Kennedy ended a 14-year run as president of Lucasfilm in January, a changing of the guard at the Star Wars studio.
LA28 Chairman Casey Wasserman heralded Kennedy as a legend and “one of Hollywood’s all-time greats,” adding: “I can’t think of anyone better to conjure the magic of Hollywood than Kathleen.”
In her own statement, Kennedy said she and her husband and producing partner, Frank Marshall, had attended almost every Olympics since the Games last came to Los Angeles, in 1984. “Sport remains one of the great unifying experiences we share,” she said.
Among the films Kennedy helped produce were “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” She co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Steven Spielberg, and that company made hits like “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and the “Back to the Future” trilogy.
The production company she founded with Marshall made “The Sixth Sense,” “Seabiscuit” and “Lincoln.”
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia — A U.S. cruise ship on an around-the-world voyage that touted its cabins as floating homes suspended its three-year voyage in Cambodia due to fuel costs, forcing hundreds of passengers to disembark.
The MV Odyssey set sail two years ago on a voyage to the seven continents marketed as combining long-term living at sea with global travel. Its operator had offered to “make the Odyssey your permanent home,” with the purchase price of a suite for the lifetime of the vessel starting around $230,000.
For now, it is docked at the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand, with no certain departure date.
The ship has been carrying 203 passengers, mostly Americans, along with 156 crew members, according to Cambodian officials. It has a 650-passenger capacity.
Its Florida-based operator, Villa Vie Residences, said monthly fuel expenses per cabin that historically averaged $1,800 have reached an estimated $6,000 to $8,000 in parts of Asia due to the war in Iran. The company said it sought to reduce fuel consumption by slowing the itinerary and spending more time in port, but was unable to offset the surging costs.
Traffic has been curtailed in the Strait of Hormuz since the war in Iran began, squeezing supplies of all kinds of petroleum-based fuels, especially in Southeast Asia, and sharply increasing prices.
“We have been unable to continue carrying the resulting operating losses,” Villa Vie Residences said in a statement issued Tuesday. “Passing the full increase on to residents is not a realistic solution. Our focus now is on supporting residents, crew, and employees” while it tries to restructure.
“The company is working with residents to coordinate disembarkation and identify temporary living arrangements,” it said.
Those on the ship had hoped to sail for years to come
Passengers, however, said they received no support and had to make their own arrangements after being given seven hours notice on Tuesday to disembark. Some were devastated and expressed hope a new company could rescue the venture so life at sea can continue.
Paul and Lynn Montoya, a retired couple from Wyoming, said they bought a window cabin and had expected to sail for years. They boarded the ship 17 months ago in Panama.
Paul praised the concept of residential cruising but said the shipowner lacked the expertise to make the business financially sustainable. While rising fuel costs had been cited publicly as the reason for the suspension, he said the company had already been struggling. Changes to itinerary, unreliable internet access and declining food quality had pushed many residents to leave the ship in recent months, he said.
Lynn said residents were repeatedly asked to contribute additional money for fuel and other expenses, including a fresh call to raise funds for fuel to get out of Cambodia. She said the crew members were also not paid.
“We were tired of every two to four weeks being asked for money for fuel, money for everything,” she said. “We had hopes but they just kept sinking further and further into the hole through mismanagement.”
The company could not immediately be contacted for comment.
For some, the venture was a risk worth taking
Yet for some, even the financial and logistical turmoil couldn’t outweigh the extraordinary experience of traveling the world and living at sea.
Carol Larson, 69, and her sister Crystal Lavering, 72, occupied separate cabins aboard the ship for 18 months. The siblings, from California, described the suspension as heartbreaking, and hoped the cruise would be resuscitated.
“I hope there is a movement for the residents to buy the ship and I am hoping that goes through because it’s a dream to live on the ship and I don’t want it to end,” Larson said.
Lavering said her health improved during her time on the ship, and that she didn’t need to use a cane to walk anymore. “You come to this ship to live … it’s just sad that it’s all over.”
Larson bought her cabin for $120,000, paid in installments, in addition to monthly maintenance fees, under a plan that had promised the possibility of living aboard for up to 15 years. She said she blamed U.S. President Donald Trump for the ship’s woes as fuel costs spiked due to the Iran war, in addition to poor management. But she said she didn’t regret her investment.
“Because it was a startup company, I believe that it was a risk. From the very first day, I said to myself that if it lasts a year, I can walk away and feel like I got my money’s worth … I still feel that way. I feel blessed to have been part of the experiment of residential cruising,” she said.
The cruise began in Northern Ireland in 2024
The ship arrived in Sihanoukville last Friday and was scheduled to depart Wednesday, according to a statement from Long Dimanche, the deputy governor of Preah Sihanouk province. He said it was now expected to refuel and depart Cambodia on Saturday, but the ship’s operator has not yet publicly confirmed any date.
Built in 1993 and operated under different names by several cruise lines over the years before being becalmed by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the Odyssey was bought by Villa Vie Residences in 2023.
Its current cruise, originally intended to last 3 1/2 years, began in October 2024 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where the ship had been refitted. A second cruise had been tentatively scheduled to end in August 2030.
The Odyssey is not the first cruise ship Sihanoukville has hosted in crisis.
In February 2020, the MS Westerdam was allowed to dock in Cambodia after being turned away at five ports in other nations because of fears of COVID-19, which just a month earlier had started to spread from China. It carried 1,455 passengers, more than 600 of them American citizens.
After being stranded at sea for two weeks, Cambodia’s then-Prime Minister Hun Sen allowed it to dock for what he said were humanitarian reasons. Cambodia won plaudits as passengers were welcomed ashore and arrangements were made for them to fly home.
Cheang writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.
As Netflix grapples with fallout from historic layoffs and upheaval in its senior executive ranks, the streaming giant is facing mounting scrutiny from investors about its growth strategy, diversification plans and response to rising competition from the likes of YouTube.
But the biggest challenge confronting the Los Gatos, Calif., company may be something more fundamental: a clash between the firm’s roots as a technology-driven upstart and its ambition to be a force in Hollywood.
Increasingly, tensions have flared between the L.A.-based executives dedicated to movies and TV shows and its engineers and technologists in Silicon Valley. Internal disputes have erupted over how best to expand the business and promote content on the platform to boost audience engagement, according to former Netflix employees and industry insiders who spoke to The Times.
The friction has deepened since co-founder Reed Hastings stepped away from management, handing the reins in January 2023 to Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, who share the job of chief executive.
The dual-boss structure has at times hobbled the company and contributed to muddled messages and some costly misfires, such as its foray in the games business, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly due to the sensitivity of the topic.
“With two CEOs, it’s hard to have a singular vision,” said a former Netflix executive who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Netflix declined to comment for this article.
But a person close to the company disputed the claim that there was a culture divide in Netflix.
“The idea that this is a power struggle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley misses how Netflix actually operates,” said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly. “Ted and Greg bring different perspectives to the table, and that’s the point. They debate, make decisions together and recognize that neither great content nor great technology succeeds here without the other.”
Netflix, which laid off 6% of staff this month, has faced rising pressure after losing its status as a Wall Street darling and a Hollywood star.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
Only about 1% of the largest 3,000 publicly traded companies in the U.S. have co-CEOs, according to research firm Equilar. But there are high-profile examples of the arrangement, including software company Oracle, Comcast Corp., Spotify and private equity behemoth KKR.
The Larry Ellison family, which this month merged Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery in a $111-billion transaction, installed scion David Ellison as CEO and the former leader of Mattel Corp., Ynon Kreiz, as co-CEO. Hollywood has had prosperous pairings, including longtime Warner Bros. studio chiefs Bob Daly and Terry Semel. Disney achieved tremendous success in the early 1990s when the late Frank Wells worked alongside former CEO Michael Eisner.
“The division of labor is just extremely powerful,” said Henning Piezunka, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. “If there is a disagreement between the CEOs, you still have two very smart people that are battling it out, and I kind of prefer that over one single person making the decision.”
But Netflix’s top leaders now face mounting pressure as the company has lost its status as a Wall Street darling and a Hollywood star.
Investors have grown impatient; they want to see better growth metrics, which has become increasingly difficult as the service, which has more than 325 million subscribers, has neared saturation in the U.S.
This month, Netflix laid off 6% of its staff, including several key movie and TV executives. It bounced its chief content officer, Bela Bajaria, replacing her with former Fox and Disney executive Peter Rice, who starts on Monday. Several programming executives were also let go, including film chief Dan Lin and his top deputy, Doug Belgrad, and the director of original TV series, Carolina Garcia.
“They have got to have a plan to reignite revenue growth, and it can’t just be about making better TV content,” said Laura Martin, media analyst with Needham & Co. “Everybody’s trying to make hit content.”
Former Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings, left, and Ted Sarandos attend at 2011 launch party in Mexico City.
(Elizabeth Fuentes/Getty Images)
A dynamic leader
Former CEO Hastings, who co-founded the company in Scotts Valley just outside of Santa Cruz in 1997, was a dynamic leader. The mathematics and computer science graduate, who spent two years in the Peace Corps, launched Netflix by mailing DVDs in red envelopes to customers bothered by Blockbuster Video chain’s practices and late fees. In 2007, Netflix began offering streaming.
Hastings oversaw the creation of a pioneering technology that could offer helpful recommendations to users on what to watch next.
That recommendation algorithm has long been viewed as Netflix’s secret sauce. It quickly became the envy of rival entertainment firms that were late to recognize how disruptive the streaming business would become.
With Hastings, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur at the helm, power at the company was cleanly split between the tech teams who worked at its Bay Area headquarters and the executives who worked with talent and content on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
Hastings established Netflix’s unique left-brain/right-brain culture, where people pitching projects were encouraged to openly debate and disagree.
To prepare for an eventual leadership transition, the company set up a dual CEO structure in 2020 by promoting Sarandos, its longtime content chief, to co-CEO.
Hastings, a 66-year-old billionaire, stepped down in 2023 as co-CEO, leaving his lieutenants in charge.
Hastings did not respond to a request for a comment.
Sarandos, 62, was known for making splashy bets on programming that paid off, including agreeing to pay $100 million for the first two seasons of a political drama, “House of Cards,” starring Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright that turned into one of Netflix’s first big TV hits.
Peters, 55, who was previously chief operating officer, has a tech background that complemented Sarandos’ entertainment industry insights. He holds a bachelor degree in physics and astronomy from Yale University and was taught code by his mother, a computer programmer.
Under Sarandos’ leadership, Netflix grew its presence in Hollywood and created content teams internationally. With Hastings no longer in the day-to-day mix, the power tilted toward Hollywood and Sarandos, who oversees the bulk of the company’s $20-billion programming budget.
“Over time, the center of gravity moved to L.A.,” one industry executive said.
The company expanded its business, including offering customers a cheaper subscription plan with ads. It also pushed into live sports, which Bajaria championed, and games.
The Dallas Cowboys’ Gene Jones, left, and Jerry Jones chat with Netflix executive Ted Sarandos during a 2025 premiere at the Egyptian Arena Theatre in Hollywood.
(Amy Sussman / Getty Images)
Escalating tensions
But as Netflix expanded and diversified, internal divisions intensified over operations and strategy.
In one instance, tech employees were surprised when Sarandos’ team signed a deal to release 2024 NFL Christmas Day games on Netflix without consulting tech and product executives, whose staffers would be responsible for providing the tech support for such a key event, two people familiar with the matter said. Those concerns were magnified after Netflix experienced widespread technical difficulties during the streaming of the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight that November, though the NFL broadcast was largely free of glitches.
Disputes also emerged over how best to promote and market shows and movies on the platform. Under Hastings, the trailers and thumbnails of programs were overseen by the product team, who analyze consumer behavior. But Sarandos has given the company’s marketing team more control over the promotional assets of programs, leading to disagreements with the product team over how to best to represent programs and engage viewers, two people familiar with the matter said.
Another source of internal friction has centered on Netflix’s aggressive venture into games that Peters championed, as part of a strategy to diversify its business and retain subscribers.
The streamer acquired several game studios beginning in 2021, investing billions into the space, sources said.
But the effort has badly misfired. In August, Netflix announced it was closing Hollywood-based gaming studio Night School and shuttering Finland-based gaming studio Moonloot. It previously shuttered Allen, Texas-based Boss Fight Entertainment.
The focus on games also sparked disagreements between Peters and Sarandos, who believed the tech and product teams were giving too much attention to games, creating confusion among teams over how they should operate, said a source with knowledge of the matter.
The leaders also disagreed in other areas as well, including over a 2025 deal with French broadcaster TF1 to bring its free channels into Netflix in France as a way to draw more viewers to both services.
Peters pushed for the deal, which Sarandos initially opposed, and the debate delayed an effort that could have helped the business sooner, according to three people familiar with the deal who were not authorized to comment. The TF1 partnership was a success that Netflix wants to replicate with other partners.
Sarandos and Peters also raised eyebrows when they appeared to send conflicting signals on the company’s interest in buying Warner Bros. During an Oct. 8, 2025, conference appearance, Peters said Netflix had a deep heritage of being a builder rather than a buyer.
“One should have a reasonable amount of skepticism around big media mergers,” Peters said. “They don’t have an amazing track record over the history of time.”
Netflix executives Greg Peters, left, and Ted Sarandos, right, visit a studio lot with Warner Bros. Discover chief David Zaslav.
(Joe Pugliese and John Nowak / For Warner Bros. Discovery)
A week later, Sarandos called Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav to express interest in acquiring Warner’s streaming and studios business, according to regulatory filings. Netflix in December unveiled its $82.7-billion proposal, which Peters also supported, according to knowledgeable sources.
But, after spending months touting the benefits that Warner assets would bring, Netflix abruptly pulled out of the auction in late February when Paramount’s Ellison upped his company’s offer. Warner executives expected Netflix to go the distance, but they soon recognized deep anxiety within Netflix’s board, according to an executive who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Netflix’s stock hasn’t recovered. Its shares traded for $109 before the Warner bid. On Friday, the stock closed at $65.85.
Netflix is profitable, with net income increasing 44% to $3.7 billion in the third quarter and revenue up 12% to $12.87 billion from the third quarter a year ago, but the company remains under scrutiny by Wall Street.
Sarandos in an earnings call last week there is “no need for a fundamental shift in the strategy” but said the company needs to develop more hit shows in the U.S. that can “travel around the world.”
Netflix projected its revenue would come in the lower range of its estimate for the year, citing a lower ad revenue forecast.
“Their advertising growth has been very slow … and the video game business has been disappointing,” Martin, the analyst, said. “The problem is that the market is maturing and they need a Plan B, and they don’t really have a Plan B right now.”
In February, after getting served with subpoenas in a federal criminal investigation, the billionaire sports mogul Mark Walter’s insurance companies abruptly stopped lending to him.
But within weeks, new loans started rolling in from a different source: a financial firm whose owners include his business protege, basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
Amistad Financial Group, a holding company that counts Johnson as a board member and minority shareholder, loaned about $1.26 billion to Walter’s companies between March and June of this year, according to a Bloomberg News review of business records and a person with knowledge of the activity who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters. Another $1.06 billion went to intermediaries that routinely serve as conduits for loans to Walter.
The combined $2.31 billion of lending, which hasn’t been reported previously, highlights the way Walter relies on debt to fund his business empire, and Amistad’s role. Even before this year, the firm’s insurance units had provided billions of dollars of loans to Walter affiliates, filings show. It also acted as an intermediary to help him tap loans from his own insurers, Bloomberg reported previously – transactions that are now part of the federal investigation.
Walter himself owns a single-digit voting stake in Amistad but doesn’t control it, participate in its management or sit on its board, according to a person familiar with its operations.
Representatives for Walter’s TWG Global holding company and for Johnson did not respond to messages seeking comment.
A former point guard who led the Los Angeles Lakers to five National Basketball Association championships, Johnson has described Walter as a business mentor. They have done deals with each other for more than a decade, including Johnson’s participation in the Walter-led purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. Johnson doesn’t serve on Amistad’s three-person executive committee, and it’s unclear whether he was involved in or aware of the lending decisions. Some of Amistad’s insurance units are led by Eric Holoman, Johnson’s former business manager.
The federal investigation, being pursued in parallel by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, focuses on Walter’s insurance companies’ failure to disclose that more than $20 billion of loans on their books went to his other businesses.
The recent lending came from two Amistad subsidiaries, Equitrust Life Insurance Co. and Heritage Life Insurance Co. It’s unclear whether Amistad executives were aware of the investigation when the loans were made. Walter’s insurers disclosed the subpoena in a regulatory filing on June 26, but the filing did not get much attention until Bloomberg News reported on it in July. Information about lending activity after June 30 won’t be disclosed until next month.
Walter is now scrambling to reduce debts to his own insurance companies, Delaware Life Insurance Co. and Clear Spring Life and Annuity Co., in part to assuage concerns from ratings agencies about the scale of affiliated lending. He has agreed to sell the Lakers at a $12.5 billion valuation to free up cash and proposed a $6.5 billion debt swap with Delaware Life. This week, the insurer said it had regulatory approval to proceed with part of that, swapping $3.8 billion.
Because he doesn’t legally control Amistad, Walter is under no such pressure to reduce his reliance on its money.
His ties to Amistad are deep. Its official corporate address is the Chicago office suite that houses Walter’s family office. Walter’s financial firm, Guggenheim Partners, serves as an investment manager for both Equitrust and Heritage Life.
Walter’s brother-in-law serves as president of Heritage Life. Walter used to control Equitrust when it was owned by Guggenheim. He sold it to Johnson in 2015, and Johnson sold it to Amistad last year.
Recipients of the new Amistad loans include a company through which Walter holds his stake in used-car seller Carvana Co., and another containing his interest in the Billie Jean King Cup, the women’s tennis competition that he has backed since 2023. The destination for most of the money wasn’t clear from regulatory filings.
New LLCs
The federal investigations revolve around how Walter’s insurers came to lend so much money to his other businesses without disclosing the arrangement to their regulator, the Delaware Department of Insurance, as required. As of the end of last year, the amount of money they had invested in affiliates was $24 billion, or about 45% of the companies’ total invested assets.
Much of the money was routed to loans for newly created limited liability companies with no public profile. These LLCs were created by Amistad and other intermediaries, which in turn sent the money back to Walter.
In January and early February of this year, that lending arrangement continued, with Delaware Life loaning $730 million to newly formed LLCs that then sent the money to Walter’s other businesses, regulatory filings show. That stopped after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan sent the grand jury subpoenas.
But in March, Amistad’s Equitrust sent $500 million to 10 LLCs. These borrowers had been formed days earlier by Federico Hermida, a Miami-based executive at ABS Capital Co., a longtime business partner of Walter’s that has often served as an intermediary in deals between Walter and his insurers. In June, Amistad’s Heritage Life sent $303 million to a subset of the Hermida borrowers. A representative of ABS declined to comment.
Heritage Life also sent about $253 million to LLCs set up by two other intermediaries that Walter has used for loans in the past: the real estate firm Bradford Allen and Hudson Trading, both based in Chicago. Representatives of Bradford Allen didn’t respond to requests for comment, and Hudson Trading declined to comment.
The remaining $1.3 billion of loans were made to companies that are known to be part of Walter’s business empire, or that were formed by a Walter employee, or were confirmed by the person with knowledge of the matter.
Most of the loans carried interest rates of 8 percent or more, and were due to mature in September or earlier. The insurers won’t have to disclose whether those loans were repaid, extended or replaced with new debt until they file their next quarterly financial reports next month.
Despite the borrowing from Amistad, Walter had not significantly reduced his debt to his own insurance companies by June 30, the date of the most recent regulatory filings. After climbing from $24 billion to $25 billion through March, the amount of affiliated investments dropped to about $24 billion as of June.
Elizabeth Holmes is the convicted fraudster at the center of Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s hit documentary “You Can See Everything,” but for many viewers, it’s her longtime partner, Billy Evans, who has emerged as the film’s marquee villain.
Evans, 34, comes from a wealthy San Diego hotel family and stood by Holmes as her blood-testing startup Theranos collapsed and she was convicted in 2022 of defrauding investors. The couple has two children, 5-year-old son William and 3-year-old daughter Invicta. With Holmes serving an 11-year federal prison sentence in Texas, Evans is raising their children while pursuing a new biotech venture of his own.
In the film — warning: spoilers ahead — Evans comes across as controlling and increasingly volatile, taking over from Holmes as she whisks eggs, interrupting an interview to demand that the cameras be turned off and at one point casually brushing his teeth while standing stark naked in the shower, with Fielder awkwardly looking on. He speaks of Holmes dedicating her life to building “monuments of love” to him, and in one heated confrontation threatens to ruin the lives of people he believes have wronged her. “I’ve got vengeance in my heart,” he declares.
So who is Evans, how did he end up with one of Silicon Valley’s most infamous figures and what is he up to now?
What do we know about Evans’ upbringing?
Evans grew up in a wealthy, prominent San Diego family. His grandparents, William and Anne Evans, founded Evans Hotels in 1953, opening what became the Bahia Resort Hotel on Mission Bay. The family business later expanded to include the Catamaran Resort Hotel and Spa and the Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla.
Evans attended Francis Parker School, an exclusive private school in San Diego, before graduating from MIT with a degree in economics in 2015. Despite his family’s wealth, Evans is neither an employee nor a shareholder of Evans Hotels, according to a statement the company issued Oct. 1.
His family reportedly had reservations about his relationship with Holmes at first. But his father, also named William, became a supporter — and even went undercover of sorts at her 2021 fraud trial. According to NPR, the elder Evans showed up for jury selection under the name “Hanson,” introducing himself to reporters as a concerned citizen who fixed up old cars for a living. His expensive loafers and a Starbucks cup bearing a different name eventually raised suspicions.
How did Evans meet Holmes?
The two met Oct. 7, 2017, at a Fleet Week party hosted by a venture capitalist in San Francisco, according to Evans. Theranos was already engulfed in scandal, though Holmes had yet to be criminally charged.
In the documentary, Evans recalls that he initially didn’t recognize Holmes because she was wearing a floppy hat, dark sunglasses and a Band-Aid on her face from a scratch by her husky. He says he fell in love with her almost immediately. When Fielder points out that he could barely see her face, Evans replies, “I guess that wasn’t what mattered to me.”
Nathan Fielder observes Elizabeth Holmes with her family in “You Can See Everything.”
(A24)
Holmes says the attraction was mutual. The two became friends and started dating about six months later, just weeks before she was indicted on federal fraud charges.
Fielder asks Evans whether he worried early on that Holmes might be conning him. “100%,” Evans replies, before asking what she would have had to gain from him. “Well, isn’t your family rich?” Fielder asks.
Pressed about the family’s money, Evans grows visibly uncomfortable and cuts the conversation short, saying he needs to get to a cousin’s event.
How is Evans managing life with Holmes in prison?
Since Holmes entered federal prison in May 2023, Evans has been raising their two children in Austin, Texas, bringing them to visit her at the federal prison camp in Bryan. Holmes is expected to transfer to a halfway house outside Austin in August.
In an appearance last week on the tech podcast “All-In,” Evans described the difficulty of the experience. “It’s hard because I’m building a business and I’m trying to free my wife from federal prison and I’m raising two kids,” he said.
Though Evans routinely refers to Holmes as his wife, Holmes said in a 2025 interview from prison with People that they had not legally married: “Maybe we’ll get married someday, but our bond is more than a piece of paper.” The two got engaged in 2018, reportedly at a Taylor Swift concert.
Is Evans trying to revive Theranos?
After graduating from MIT, Evans reportedly attempted to launch a medical concierge service before working at companies including LinkedIn and Luminar Technologies, which developed lidar systems for autonomous vehicles.
In 2022, he founded Haemanthus, a biotech startup developing technology to analyze biological samples using lasers. The company hopes to make diagnostic testing cheaper and more accessible — a mission that may sound awfully familiar to anyone who followed the rise and fall of Theranos.
Haemanthus has reportedly raised millions of dollars but has yet to release a commercial product. Eric Potma, a UC Irvine chemistry professor who consults for the company, told Wired this week that its technology is worth exploring despite significant technical challenges. “The engineers at Haemanthus are legit,” he said.
Holmes’ name does not appear in Haemanthus’ incorporation documents, according to Wired. But in the documentary, the couple is shown discussing plans for a new diagnostic venture, with Evans speaking openly about his desire to revive her original ambitions.
“The idea is to put the band back together and do it all again,” Evans tells Fielder.
How has Evans responded to ‘You Can See Everything’?
Evans and Holmes agreed to participate in the documentary in hopes of changing the public perception of her. Early in the film, Evans explains that they wanted to give the filmmakers extraordinary access to their daily lives, embracing what he calls “radical transparency.”
But Evans’ commitment to transparency had its limits. In the film, he repeatedly tries to shut down uncomfortable conversations and, in a meeting reenacted for the cameras, demands a share of the documentary’s profits — an arrangement Fielder fears could compromise the project’s integrity. Evans ultimately agreed to forgo payment.
“We felt Billy was trying to exert a lot of control over the process, and it sort of caused our communication to break down a little bit,” Fielder said during a Q&A after the screening. “The challenging thing is he’s sort of a conduit to her.”
Speaking on the “All-In” podcast before seeing the finished movie, Evans acknowledged that participating might turn out to be a mistake. “I haven’t seen it yet,” he said. “I might think this is like the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”
Evans attended a private screening of the documentary on Oct. 16, followed by an off-the-record conversation with Bryan Johnson, the tech entrepreneur known for his elaborate efforts to reverse aging.
In a post on X the following day, Johnson called the film “a masterpiece” and described Evans as “magnanimous in conversation.” Though Johnson said he gave Evans every opportunity to defend himself and “strike back because Fielder roughed him up,” Evans declined.
Evans replied publicly, thanking Johnson for treating their conversation with care. “When the world is against you and the pain is so real,” Evans wrote, “it means so much to have people like you show such kindness.”
It’s been nearly 40 years since the dread-filled tones of the “Unsolved Mysteries” theme song first hit network TV airwaves.
In that time, the celebrated documentary series has been through nearly every iteration of the TV business — and is about to embark on a new one.
Next week, “Unsolved Mysteries” will launch a video podcast in partnership with the audio and entertainment firm Audacy. The weekly podcast, which will be available on YouTube and on all podcast platforms, will release new episodes starting Oct. 29 that explore cases such as mysterious deaths and unexplained disappearances.
The podcast will be hosted by actor and TV host Jordan Murphy and will include interviews with the people involved in the case, “Unsolved Mysteries” co-creator Terry Dunn Meurer told me in a recent interview.
“We’re still trying to expand the brand and pivot,” she said. “It just feels like that’s where the industry is heading. The YouTube audience is the biggest audience out there, and we are looking for the biggest audience because we’re trying to help solve these cases. So the more viewers we can get with these episodes, the better.”
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“Unsolved Mysteries” isn’t the only Hollywood player to bet on video podcasts. Spotify has bet big on video podcasts, and Netflix has added them to its platform, both of which are attempts to compete with YouTube, diversify their offerings and keep consumers tuned in.
For “Unsolved Mysteries,” the move is just the latest way the show has tried to evolve with the TV industry’s ups and downs.
The show debuted in 1987 as a series of specials NBC used to fill holes in its lineup, Dunn Meurer said. That kind of pinch-hitting meant there was no marketing or publicity to get audiences excited about the show, but viewers started tuning in anyway.
Eventually, the specials became a weekly show that aired on NBC for nine seasons before moving to CBS. “Unsolved Mysteries” also had a syndication run on cable channels Lifetime and Spike TV.
Throughout its TV lifetime, the show would highlight stories of mysterious disappearances, escaped fugitives, lost connections and even the occasional paranormal story. “Unsolved Mysteries” made appeals to viewers, urging them that someone out there “knows the truth” and encouraged them to write in with tips or new suggestions for investigation, which has resulted in tens of thousands of submissions over the years.
More recently, “Unsolved Mysteries” was revived on Netflix for three seasons, with a format focused on a single story. The series also previously had an audio-only podcast.
In addition to the video podcast, “Unsolved Mysteries” also recently produced a full-length documentary on new evidence surrounding the so-called Tylenol Killer, a 1982 case in which seven people died after unknowingly taking cyanide-filled pill capsules.
Though the method of delivery has changed, Dunn Meurer said the show’s mission remains the same. Over the years, the series has helped to directly solve more than 260 cases, she said, though many are so-called lost love cases of missed connections, as well as fugitive whereabouts and some murders.
“There’s so many mysteries out there that need attention, cases that have gone cold,” she said. “For me personally, it’s hard to not keep putting those stories out there and helping these families and law enforcement that need the help to solve these cases.”
‘Musk’ advertising controversy
In notable media news, the TikTok ad account for Bleecker Street’s documentary “Musk” was “permanently suspended” Friday, the day the film opened nationwide, a spokesperson for the indie studio confirmed.
But on Sunday, a spokesperson for TikTok said the account was restored “after an error.”
The documentary, directed by Alex Gibney, follows billionaire Elon Musk and the effect he has had on politics and his support for the GOP and President Trump.
The ban raised suspicions in Hollywood as TikTok is now partially owned by Oracle, which was co-founded by billionaire Larry Ellison. Ellison, who still serves as executive chairman of the tech company, is briefly mentioned in the documentary when he offers to help Musk finance his acquisition of Twitter, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The documentary will make its streaming debut on HBO Max, which is owned by Ellison’s son, David.
In its second weekend in theaters, “Musk” grossed about $306,700 across 472 screens in the U.S. and Canada, for a $650 per-screen average. The film has notched a 97% critics rating on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
Stuff We Wrote
Film shoots
Number of the week
A24’s “You Can See Everything” brought in $15 million at the domestic box office over the weekend, a huge feat for the nearly three-hour documentary that delves into the life of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes shortly before she reported to federal prison for defrauding investors.
The documentary, directed by deadpan comic Nathan Fielder and “Primetime” filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, got a ton of buzz after its surprise debut at the Telluride Film Festival last month. The $15-million opening is even more impressive given that it was available only on 855 screens.
That was good enough for second place at the weekend box office. In first was Skydance-owned Paramount Pictures’ “Street Fighter,” which scored $31 million domestically for a worldwide gross of $51.1 million.
What I’m watching
During a busy (news) week like last week, sometimes you just need a comfort watch. For me, that’s HGTV.
There’s nothing more calming than watching people try to redo their houses into the home of their dreams. But because it’s spooky season, I ended up watching “Scariest House in America,” a hilarious home makeover competition hosted by “Parks and Recreation” comedian Retta, where homeowners show off their creepy, strange or wildly dilapidated houses in hopes of winning a renovation. After watching the travails of people who chose to live in a former jail or a self-constructed giant gingerbread house with a rickety single-person elevator, I was oddly soothed.
What we don’t know: What the future holds, in what could be a turbulent winter for the Dodgers and for all of Major League Baseball.
Here are four things we don’t know about the Dodgers, but well worth keeping an eye on:
Shohei Ohtani
Just three short months ago, we wondered whether Ohtani would win his fifth most valuable player award and his first Cy Young Award. Has the time come for the Dodgers to consider curtailing his pitching?
As the Dodgers trudged through the playoffs, we endured daily drama over where in the lineup Ohtani would bat (first, second, fourth, fifth or sixth) and what he could produce despite playing through multiple injuries.
We’ll soon get a better understanding of those injuries, and whether rest, rehabilitation and/or surgery might be recommended for each one. We’ll also get a better sense of what the future might hold for Ohtani as a two-way player, and for his potential to perform at an elite level on both sides of the ball.
Ohtani said he plans to resume pitching next year. He is 32. He just completed his 14th professional season.
Ohtani has pitched more than 132 innings once since 2016, when he was 22 and playing for the Nippon Ham Fighters.
In his three seasons with the Dodgers, this was the first that did not involve rehabilitation from elbow surgery. He started 14 games before a knee injury prevented him from pitching any more this season.
Payroll
Dodgers pitcher Tarik Skubal walks off the field during Game 1 of the NLDS.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Major league owners are poised to shut down the sport this winter, in pursuit of a salary cap designed to restrain the Dodgers, since they won’t restrain themselves.
The owners’ initial proposal set a salary cap of $245 million next year. The Dodgers already have $347 million committed to 14 players next year, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts.
Under a cap, the owners have promised a transition period to account for existing commitments, and an actual negotiated cap could be higher.
Even if the players do not agree to a cap — and they insist they won’t — whatever economic system that would emerge from collective bargaining would be almost certain to make it painful for the Dodgers to spend so freely.
Whatever the case, the Dodgers could face the kind of difficult roster choices they often have papered over with money this decade. Two closers for $141 million? Good luck with that.
And would they be able to fit soon-to-be free agent Tarik Skubal into their payroll? Skubal might well sign before the lockout is expected to start in December, but there is nothing agent Scott Boras loves more than pitching a marquee free agent to a new owner. The two other Southern California teams — the Angels and San Diego Padres — both have one.
Age
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, left, and general manager Brandon Gomes have decisions to make about their aging roster.
(Luke Hales / Getty Images)
When Andrew Friedman made his name as the general manager of the Tampa Bay Rays, he did it in large part by taking advantage of one market inefficiency within the American League East: He beat up on the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees because they were stuck with rosters crowded with aging stars on big contracts. The Rays couldn’t have done that even if Friedman had wanted to.
He didn’t want to do it too much in Los Angeles, because it compromises roster flexibility. But, after seven National League West titles and no World Series championships, ownership went all in: Mookie Betts (12 years, $365 million), Freddie Freeman (six years, $162 million), Ohtani (10 years, $700 million), Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12 years, $325 million), Tyler Glasnow (five years, $137 million), Blake Snell (five years, $182 million), Will Smith (10 years, $140 million) and Kyle Tucker (four years, $240 million).
It worked: three rings in six years. Now the bill comes due.
The Dodgers fielded the oldest group of position players in the major leagues this season. Ohtani and Betts are under contract through their age-39 seasons; Smith will be 38 when his deal’s up, Yamamoto and Max Muncy 37, Snell 36, Glasnow 35.
Something to watch this winter: Freeman is 37, signed through next year. He would like to play until 40 and finish his career here. That would take a two-year extension. Would the Dodgers say no?
Ownership
Mark Walter’s insurance empire is under investigation by federal authorities — and the subject of discussions with state regulators — over allegations the businesses he controls failed to properly follow laws designed to protect investors.
Walter’s company has denied wrongdoing, and neither Walter nor his businesses have been charged with a crime. He is, however, a defendant in multiple civil lawsuits in which insurance policyholders claim he and several of his companies committed fraud and breach of contract.
Walter may need more than $20 billion to satisfy regulators by recapitalizing insurance companies. He abruptly sold the Lakers in August, in a deal that valued the team — not just Walter’s controlling interest — at $12.5 billion. He and fellow Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly also sold a small stake in English soccer club Chelsea FC last month for about $1.27 billion, the Financial Times reported. It is uncertain how Walter would provide the rest of the money for recapitalization.
“Regarding the Los Angeles Dodgers, to be clear, the team is not being sold,” Walter’s holdings company said in a statement last month.
It is uncertain whether a resolution with insurance regulators would satisfy the Department of Justice, which reports to President Trump. In July, when the Dodgers visited the White House, Walter presented Trump with an official World Series championship ring with his name engraved on it. He also sold the Lakers to former Disney chief Bob Iger and venture capitalist Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law.
Major League Baseball is monitoring the situation and could conduct its own review after the state and federal matters are concluded.
The heart of Screenland is cozying up to artificial intelligence.
The open space in Culver Steps typically hosts community events and movie nights. But on Wednesday, it turned into a job fair for companies looking to hire talent for AI studios.
Companies showed off their life-like AI videos, urging emerging talent — and out-of-work creatives — to join them as they worked to reinvent traditional filmmaking.
“It’s a great breeding ground for this new filmmaking,” Dave Clark, cofounder of AI film production studio Promise, said about Culver City. “To the independent filmmakers here, it’s time to take back power.”
The event was part of LA Tech Week, a citywide event organized by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Culver City is already home to big names in Hollywood and technology like Amazon MGM Studios, TikTok, Apple, and Sony Pictures Entertainment. Recently, a growing cluster of AI studios, including Promise, TrueShort, Native Foreign, and PhantomX, are expanding in the neighborhood.
Luma AI, a $4-billion Palo Alto startup that makes generative AI video software, opened a facility in Culver City last year. The company’s Dream Lab occupies a 7,000 square feet space and employs a team of 13.
“Culver City is the future of AI and filmmaking,” Caroline Ingeborn, Luma AI’s chief operating officer, said in a statement.
The companies said they are drawn by the legacy studios they hope to rival. The fact that space is available and affordable thanks to the general decline of the entertainment business in L.A. also helps.
Proponents of AI see it as an antidote to high production costs and say it allows creatives to make films that otherwise would never be made. However, many in Hollywood, its unions, and the public at large are suspicious of the surge in AI use, worried it is stealing the work of human creatives and taking people’s jobs.
The new wave of AI filmmakers have accepted the rise of AI as inevitable, and are forging ahead, increasingly in Culver City.
The city is not opposed to it.
“We’re a hub for the creative economy that is continuing to evolve,” said Adam Troy, Culver City assistant city manager, in a statement. “We look forward to what’s next in the space and what businesses see their future here in Culver City.”
TrueShort moved into Culver City last month, taking over most of a 5,000-square-foot office space near Amazon’s studio. The AI studio has raised $17 million and employs about 45 people. Around 75% of them are creatives: filmmakers, editors, sound designers and composers.
Its streaming app hosts short-form true crime audio and video shows that are fully AI-generated. On average, a 10-minute episode costs about $10,000 to make and takes about 10 days to go from idea to release.
“The next Netflix or the next Disney is going to come out of AI this time,” said Nate Tepper, cofounder of TrueShort. “And, in a way, it kind of needs to be a startup because the big incumbents are not going to move as fast. They’re going to be afraid of backlash.”
The company outgrew its Santa Monica office and is now located near Culver Theater.
“It is cool being next to the other bigger lots like Sony and Amazon, only because it’s inspiring,” Tepper said. “We want the lot. We want to become the big studio.”
Culver City-based creative studio Native Foreign makes AI commercials for brands that are more open than Hollywood about AI use. It has done ads for Virgin and Toys R Us.
It made one of the first AI-animated shorts, “Critterz,” using OpenAI’s software and planned to help make a movie based on it, but OpenAI pulled out of the project and canceled its video-making AI model.
“We don’t have the kind of opportunities that maybe some huge huge studios and companies have, so we are able to bag above our weight with these tools,” Nik Kleverov, co-founder of the company, said on a panel at LA Tech Week.
Google-backed Promise is another Culver City-adjacent AI studio that’s a proponent of hybrid productions, where human actors work with AI specialists. The company uses AI to generate backgrounds, visual effects, and synthetic humans for its slate of films, but a lot of the performances are shot on soundstages across L.A. using actors.
In late 2024, the studio acquired Curious Refuge, an online AI school that teaches traditional artists and newbies to use generative AI tools for filmmaking. Promise moved close to Culver from Venice in June.
Excitement about AI grows even as the industry puts up guardrails to contain it. The actors’ guild SAG-AFTRA has secured special protection against fully synthetic performers in the union contract signed this year.
However, some Hollywood veterans point out that the industry has fought over technology before. Alex Cancado, who spent years in visual effects and has worked on over 80 movies, now works in the AI Studios division of Amazon MGM Studios.
Pitching the crowd of creatives on Wednesday, he said the transition from practical effects to computer graphics was equally fraught.
“It was a challenge getting CG to be accepted by directors and producers,” Cancado said.
Much of the buzz around AI use for big productions started with a conference in Culver City called “AI on the Lot,” which started in 2023. It has since grown to thousands of attendees.
The organization also sponsored the job fair on Culver Steps and a networking happy hour for media AI companies in Culver City. It estimates that AI media companies with $2 billion in backing have converged on the city.
Mike Gioia, a founder of AI on the Lot, attends City Hall meetings and is trying to build momentum around the concept of a “Culver cluster” — bringing more companies and individuals working in AI to the neighborhood.
“We want to make Culver City the capital of AI media,” said Gioia.
It was a crowning moment. Netflix appeared to have prevailed in an audacious $82.7-billion deal to scoop one of the industry’s most prestigious studios: Warner Bros. The move seemed to cement Netflix’s status as the ultimate Hollywood gate-crasher and its dominance as the leading new player in media.
Now, nearly a year later, the plotline for Netflix has dramatically changed. The streaming giant lost out to Paramount Skydance in its bid for Warner Bros. Discovery and is facing headwinds on multiple fronts.
That was underscored this week when the streaming giant Netflix began shedding 6% of its workforce, or about 1,000 jobs — believed to be the largest layoff in the company’s history and exceeding the last round of job cuts in 2022, when it reported subscriber declines.
On Wednesday morning, Ted Sarandos and Co-Chief Executive Greg Peters sent a note to employees confirming the job losses, adding that the bulk of the cuts would affect the tech, product, legal and human resources teams.
“Our mission — to entertain the world — is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources,” wrote Sarandos and Peters in the memo obtained by The Times.
The cuts mark the latest reductions across the film and TV industry. Other entertainment and media companies have slashed their payrolls, including Walt Disney Co., Paramount and Sony Pictures Entertainment during a period of economic uncertainty in Hollywood.
But the scale of such downsizing is unusual for Netflix. Industry analysts and insiders chalk up the reversal of fortune to several factors. Although it still dominates the television business, the Los Gatos company hasn’t been able to produce enough new hit franchises to replace culture-defining shows from years past such as “Stranger Things” and “Squid Game.”
At the same time, Netflix faces rising competition from rivals such as HBO Max, Apple TV, Hulu and others that have upped their game. Free, ad-supported streaming platforms such as YouTube are increasingly taking a larger slice of consumer streaming hours. And Netflix’s efforts to diversify its business into new areas such as games have yielded mixed results.
A Netflix building on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in 2025.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
The upshot: Netflix continues to be the dominant video subscription streaming player with more than 325 million subscribers, but the time that consumers spend on the platform is growing at a slower pace than what investors want. In the first half of this year, consumer watch time on Netflix increased only 2% compared with a year earlier, even as content spending increased 11% to $20 billion this year. Netflix also narrowed its annual revenue forecast last summer, disappointing some investors.
“Netflix’s layoffs show that even the top streaming companies are not immune to stagnation and financial difficulties,” said Ross Benes, senior analyst at research firm Emarketer.
Amid the sobering signs, investors have grown restless. Netflix shares, which closed at $70.57 on Wednesday, have plummeted 42% in the last year. Part of that decline was fueled by anxiety among investors over Netflix’s deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, but the share price hasn’t rebounded even after that deal fell apart.
“They need to better prepare their balance sheet and economics since engagement has plateaued,” said Brandon Katz, director of insights and content strategy at Greenlight Analytics.
Katz said that Netflix’s five most-watched English-language scripted summer movie releases in their first eight weeks posted the lowest average hours watched compared with the streamer’s top five summer releases in 2025, 2024 and 2023, citing Nielsen data.
Sarandos acknowledged concerns about engagement at a Bloomberg Screentime event Sept. 30.
“Overall we’re not growing as fast as I want us to, and we’re working on making that move faster,” Sarandos said.
Netflix declined to comment on the layoffs.
“We’ll continue to invest aggressively in high-impact areas to improve our service and further drive growth and innovation,” Sarandos and Peters said in their memo to employees.
In some ways, Netflix has been victim of its own success. It has produced a string of shows and movies that have hit the cultural zeitgeist such as “KPop Demon Hunters” and “Squid Game.” But finding enough new popular shows that continue to drive subscriptions has been a challenge.
“A lot of these major hits are coming to an end at similar times, and they don’t yet really have heir apparents to replace them,” Katz said.
Sci-fi hit “Stranger Things” released its finale last year, followed by the young-adult drama “Outer Banks” and “Emily in Paris,” which ends this year. Netflix also announced that “The Witcher” and “The Lincoln Lawyer” will wrap after their next seasons.
What’s more, the second seasons of some shows with big followings have seen large view drop-offs compared with their first seasons. For example, the fantasy series “Avatar: The Last Airbender” season 1 debuted with 21.2 million views, but views for its second season dropped 59% to 8.7 million, according to Netflix data.
New series from Netflix also haven’t captured as much consumer demand as other competing shows from rival streamers, according to Parrot Analytics.
Last year, Netflix had just one show — the Japanese anime and manga series “Sakamoto Days” — that made it in Parrot’s top 10 list of first season original series on streaming platforms. Parrot’s ranking measures consumer demand in the U.S. and is based on digital interactions such as social media chatter and Google searches. By comparison, Netflix had three titles in 2022 alone: the true crime show “Monster,” the documentary series “Harry & Meghan” and the sci-fi mystery show “1899,” Parrot said.
Sarandos told investors in July that such declines are typical and that second season falloff is slightly improved this year. But popular shows on rival streaming services such as the medical drama “The Pitt” on HBO Max have not seen such declines. “The Pitt” drew even more viewers in its second season than the first.
To diversify its business, Netflix has expanded its programming offerings beyond TV shows and movies to include live sports, such as football and baseball games.
Although live programs have helped to spur significant subscription sign-ups, they still represent just 1% of watch time on Netflix while costing 5% of the company’s content budget, Sarandos has said.
Netflix also has added video podcasts that have helped to boost daytime viewing on the platform, and has made deals with YouTube creators to bring their content to the streaming service.
But some of the new content hasn’t clicked, particularly in games, analysts said. In August, Netflix shut down Hollywood-based Night School, the maker of supernatural adventure game “Oxenfree,” and said it was closing a Helsinki-based games studio.
“They are spending on a lot of things that haven’t necessarily proven to be effective yet,” said Rob Rosenberg, a partner at law firm Moses & Singer and former Showtime Networks general counsel. “It feels a lot like they’re trying to send a message to Wall Street that ‘we’re re-examining how we do business.’”
Meanwhile, Netflix continues to face more competition from rivals such as YouTube, which offers a free, ad-supported version of its video library.
Unlike Netflix, YouTube does not pay for the creation of many of the videos on its platform. Instead, creators or companies upload and produce the programs themselves and YouTube shares ad and subscription revenue.
YouTube’s share of streaming watch time in the U.S. on TVs has steadily increased. In July, YouTube represented 14.2%, compared with Netflix’s 7.8%, according to Nielsen.
The pressure to boost engagement on Netflix has caused tension within the company, particularly between the teams of people responsible for how programs are promoted on the platform and the employees responsible for bringing shows and movies on Netflix, according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.
Some blame the content for not being enticing enough, while others contend that the programs could be promoted better on Netflix.
“It’s a bit of a quagmire,” said one of the sources familiar with the matter. “There is a tension when things aren’t working. People tend to point fingers.”
In their staff memo, Sarandos and Peters said Netflix is on track to deliver its full-year forecast and will continue to invest in areas that improve its service and drive growth and innovation.
“Doing that means making focused choices across the business so we can keep delivering for our members, partners, employees, and investors,” they wrote.
Despite the downsizing, Netflix remains highly profitable. In the second quarter, the company generated $3.4 billion in net income, up 9% from a year earlier. Revenue rose 13% to $12.6 billion last quarter, including double-digit revenue growth in all of its regions. Next week, the company will share its third-quarter results.
The streamer is expected to get a boost from new seasons of popular shows — including season 4 of the political drama “The Diplomat” and spy series “Lupin: Part 4,” as well as Thanksgiving Eve and Christmas Day NFL games.
Having new seasons of popular shows such as “Lupin” and “The Diplomat” will help boost Netflix’s engagement, said Alejandro Rojas, vice president of applied analytics at Parrot Analytics.
“The new season is like a catalyst for people to watch the previous seasons,” Rojas said.
On the theatrical side, Netflix also has high hopes for upcoming movies including La Bola Negra, starring Penelope Cruz; and “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” featuring Brad Pitt. Next year, Netflix will release the Greta Gerwig-directed film, “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew” on Imax screens.
Netflix has not signaled any changes to its strategy for releasing movies or TV shows. But some analysts said it could benefit from having more theatrical releases and by dropping episodes of shows once a week, instead of all at once, to generate more buzz for programs. They also expect that Netflix will be more disciplined in its content spending.
“While the company will expand its sports roles, it’s cutting back at a time when revenue matters much more than subscriber additions,” said Benes of Emarketer. “With pressure mounting, Netflix will look to turn the tide by getting a boost from low-cost content. The battle for top creators will become more pitched.”
Times staff writer SamanthaMasunaga contributed to this report.
Discovery+, one of Skydance’s new streaming assets, will now cost $6.99 a month for its ad-supported tier, up $1. Its ad-free tier is also up $2, costing viewers $11.99 a month. The prices take effect immediately for new subscribers. Existing subscribers will get 30 days’ notice and see the higher rates on bills dated on or after Nov. 12.
Skydance did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The platform first launched in 2021, at $4.99 a month for its ad-supported tier and $6.99 for ad-free. Nearly six years later, the price of the cheapest tier has risen roughly 40%, and the ad-free tier has jumped about 72%. This is the service’s second price hike since January 2025.
The standalone streaming service features tens of thousands of TV episodes from cable networks like HGTV, Food Network and TLC.
Before the merger, each company maintained its own streaming services, with HBO Max and Discovery+ under Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount+ under Paramount Skydance. The services are currently operating as separate entities. But David Ellison, Skydance’s chairman and chief executive, has said he plans to merge the two platforms into one streaming service. It’s unclear when that might happen, what it would cost, or where Discovery+ fits in. The company has not publicly laid out plans for the service.
Prices for HBO Max currently range between $10.99 and $22.99 monthly. Paramount+ costs between $8.99 and $13.99 a month.
Streaming is one of the biggest open questions for Skydance as it enters a new era. The company is carrying roughly $80 billion in debt and is targeting more than $6 billion in cost savings over three years. Skydance has said those savings will come primarily from technology, procurement, marketing and real estate, and Ellison has said the bulk won’t come from layoffs. Industry observers expect that debt load to add pressure for more price increases across Skydance’s streaming lineup.
This price increase also comes at a time when many streaming platforms are similarly hiking their prices — in part to cover the rising cost of programming and talent. Discovery+ joins platforms like Netflix, Apple TV, Hulu and Disney+ which have all raised their subscription fees in the last year. Prime Video raised the cost of its ad-free add-on in April.
Skydance-owned Paramount Pictures has taken over the lease for the Bay Theater in Pacific Palisades and intends to reopen the cinema, which has been closed since the January 2025 Palisades fire last year.
Paramount plans to upgrade the theater with state-of-the-art projection systems and in-seat food and drink service, Rick Caruso, whose company owns the Palisades Village shopping center where the Bay Theater is located, said in an interview. Caruso is founder and executive chairman of the real estate firm Caruso.
Paramount plans to show first-run theatrical movies from all studios. The theater will be operated by The Lot, a La Jolla-based luxury dine-in theater chain with four locations in California. The theater is expected to reopen later this year, Caruso said.
“The comeback of this movie theater is a great signal for all of L.A.,” he said. “Los Angeles is resilient, and we’re going to show the country that Los Angeles can bounce back from a terrible, terrible disaster, and the comeback is going to be much greater than the setback.”
Palisades Village reopened in August after more than $100 million in renovations, including major infrastructure work. The upscale outdoor mall survived the Palisades fire, but needed refurbishment to eliminate any potential contaminants from the blaze.
Caruso declined to share terms of Paramount’s lease agreement, saying only that it was long-term. Paramount declined to comment on the size of its investment in the theater.
Caruso said he brought up the Bay Theater over lunch last year with David Ellison, chief executive of Skydance, who was then working to acquire Paramount. The two were discussing that deal and Ellison’s belief in the importance of the movie theater business to the industry.
“Together with Caruso, we are proud to help bring the Bay back to life as a place for the Pacific Palisades community to gather around the shared experience of cinema,” Ellison said in a statement. “This theater has always meant more than movies alone — it’s woven into the fabric of this neighborhood, and helping restore it is a privilege.”
The Bay Theater was previously leased by Netflix, which took it over in 2021. The company used the theater to host special events, screen classic films and showcase its own original theatrical movies.
Caruso described Netflix and company Chief Executive Ted Sarandos as “incredible stewards” of the theater, adding that Sarandos was “very much a gentleman” in having the discussion about Paramount stepping in at the theater.
Ellison has long extolled his love of movies and appeared at the CinemaCon movie theater owners convention earlier this year to reiterate his commitment to theatrical releases.
Studios were barred from owning theaters for decades under the Paramount consent decrees, which a federal judge terminated in 2020. Netflix has since operated the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood and the Paris Theater in New York.
“Through our curated offering and dedicated hospitality, we look forward to welcoming the Pacific Palisades community back to the movies, the way they were intended to be shared,” Adolfo Fastlicht, founder and chief executive of The Lot, said in a statement.
The Tom Cruise-led “Digger” is poised for a massive loss after ticket sales for the political satire fell 60% in its second weekend in theaters in the U.S. and Canada.
The Warner Bros. film made just $3.2 million in those theaters over the weekend, according to a studio estimate. Its opening weekend brought in $8 million, Cruise’s lowest opening as a leading man since 2007’s “Lions for Lambs.” Global ticket sales for “Digger” were only $35.3 million.
The tepid box-office returns mean the studio is now expected to lose at least $150 million on the film, including ancillary revenue streams such as premium video-on-demand and streaming, industry sources said. Historically, a film has typically needed to make 2½ to three times its budget to recoup its costs.
A Warner Bros. spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
It’s a tough result for the film, which stars Cruise as an aging oil tycoon whose company sets off an environmental catastrophe. Analysts have said that the film was challenging to market, given a major twist in the plot, and that Cruise’s nearly unrecognizable appearance could have dissuaded his fan base from coming out to support the film.
The film suffered from polarizing critical reviews, notching a 53% on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Opening-night audiences gave it a C+ on CinemaScore, a grade that typically points to weak word of mouth and steep drops in the weeks that follow.
The budget for “Digger” raised the stakes. Warner Bros. has said the film cost $125 million to produce, though some industry experts and trade reports have estimated the cost was at least $160 million, citing production delays.
That figure also doesn’t include marketing costs, which sources said could have increased in the days after the film’s opening since Warner Bros. began using the divided reviews in social media and TV ads to encourage people to see the film for themselves.
The film will have value to Warner Bros. — and Skydance, the newly combined company that now owns it — beyond its theatrical reception. “Digger” probably will make money through downstream revenue sources such as streaming. If Cruise wins his first competitive Oscar, that also would be a plus for the film.
But a film’s domestic reception, and to some extent, its international box office revenue, does play a role in the value of those downstream revenue opportunities, experts said.
“Even with respectable ancillary income based on the film’s pedigree, the movie is going to lose a lot of money,” David A. Gross wrote in his FranchiseRe movie industry newsletter shortly after the film’s opening.
The reception for “Digger” comes during a tough time for Warner Bros.
The studio has had a string of disappointments this year, including Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Bride!” and DC Studios’ “Supergirl.” None of its 2026 releases has crossed $100 million at the domestic box office.
But the prospects for Warner Bros. should improve next year, according to the research and brokerage firm Bernstein. Skydance has said it will keep the Warner Bros. and Paramount studios distinct, though Paramount Pictures chiefs Dana Goldberg and Josh Greenstein are expected to oversee both. Bernstein expects the Warner Bros. film and TV studios to amass $11.7 billion in revenue, driven by strong titles that include the sequel to “Minecraft” and a new “Lord of the Rings” movie.
