WSJ : New ‘Yellowstone’ Spinoffs Stoke Feud Between Paramount and NBCUniversal

New ‘Yellowstone’ Spinoffs Stoke Feud Between Paramount and NBCUniversal
The entertainment companies spar over whose streaming service has the rights to air shows based on Taylor Sheridan’s hit western show

Forget the Dutton Ranch. The real drama on “Yellowstone” is behind the scenes between Paramount Global PARA 2.15%increase; green up pointing triangle, the entertainment company that makes the show, and rival NBCUniversal, which has the right to stream it.

Paramount is planning two spinoffs of the blockbuster western that it aims to keep for its own networks and streaming service. The planned new series could further inflame a yearslong fight with NBCUniversal, which has the exclusive rights to stream “Yellowstone” on its Peacock service and wants to retain as much related content as possible, according to people familiar with the matter.

“Yellowstone,” made by star creator Taylor Sheridan, has grown into one of Hollywood’s most successful television franchises by appealing to viewers across the U.S. For all of its popularity, however, it has never appeared in the U.S. on Paramount’s own streaming service, Paramount+.

Under the terms of its licensing deal with NBCUniversal, episodes air first on Paramount Network and then stream exclusively on Peacock. That deal, which Paramount executives have long regretted, is set to end in 2029, five years after the actual series finale, according to some of the people.

Comcast CMCSA 1.16%increase; green up pointing triangle-owned NBCUniversal has told Paramount that it believes any spinoffs similar to the original—featuring the same actors and characters—should fall under that deal, some of the people said.

The original “Yellowstone” series tells the story of the Dutton family of ranchers as they protect their Montana land. One of Paramount’s planned new shows will feature actors Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser, who played “Yellowstone” characters Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler, in those same roles. Another spinoff set for Paramount’s CBS network will feature actor Luke Grimes as another main “Yellowstone” character, working as a member of the Montana U.S. Marshals Special Operations Group, according to people familiar with the matter.

Paramount executives say that the deal with Peacock only extends to “Yellowstone” and now that the main character, John Dutton, is dead and the ranch has burned down, that story has ended, according to a person familiar with the situation.

NBCUniversal sent a letter to Paramount executives when reports of the first spinoff surfaced in May 2023, warning that any such show would be in violation of their agreement, said one of the people. Since then, NBCUniversal executives have discussed legal options over potential spinoffs with their lawyers, said some of the people close to the situation.

Paramount has launched related shows by Sheridan, such as “1923” and “1883,” which also both focus on the Dutton family but in different eras, with different characters. Those shows stream on Paramount+.

In recent weeks, the studio has approached streamers including Netflix NFLX -2.67%decrease; red down pointing triangle and Amazon about potentially licensing Sheridan’s “Mayor of Kingstown” and “1883” after they appear on Paramount+ as part of a library of movies and TV shows it is shopping. It hasn’t approached NBCUniversal about that deal, some of the people familiar with the matter said. Paramount executives told NBCUniversal that they wanted a global deal, and Peacock is only in the U.S.

Paramount and NBCUniversal previously tussled over the fifth and final season of “Yellowstone.” Paramount broke the season into two parts, releasing the second part in December 2024, a year after the first. Under Paramount’s deal with NBCUniversal, “Yellowstone” can air on Peacock 90 days after a season ends.

Critics of the move at NBCUniversal said that by splitting the season into two parts, Paramount could delay its appearance on Peacock. People close to Paramount say the company was contending with scheduling and creative conflicts with star Kevin Costner.

Paramount has approached NBCUniversal several times since the initial deal was signed, trying to reclaim the streaming rights for “Yellowstone,” but discussions never advanced, those people said.

FT : Elliott held talks with private equity as it considered new Bayer campaign

Elliott held talks with private equity as it considered new Bayer campaign
US hedge fund gauged investor interest in German conglomerate’s consumer health business

Elliott Management held talks with private equity groups in recent months to gauge interest in buying Bayer’s consumer health business, as the US hedge fund considered reviving a pressure campaign at the German conglomerate.

The activist’s discussions underscore the issues facing Bayer, with the troubled pharmaceuticals-to-agriculture group in the midst of a complicated turnaround plan under its new chief executive Bill Anderson.

While the buyout groups approached expressed interest in Bayer’s consumer health business, Bayer was unlikely to carve out the unit imminently, said people familiar with the matter. Elliott did not currently own a stake in Bayer, the people added.

Elliott has previously pushed for change at Bayer, confirming in 2019 that it had built a $1bn stake and arguing that the group’s share price did not reflect the value of its separate divisions.

Bayer’s challenges have since grown in complexity, with the group facing billions of dollars in US legal claims related to the health impact of glyphosate, a pesticide ingredient in its Roundup weedkiller. Bayer acquired Roundup in its ill-fated $63bn deal to buy US group Monsanto in 2018. It denies the claims that glyphosate can cause cancer.

Elliott’s discussions came at a time when private equity groups have shown strong interest in consumer health companies. Last year, US buyout group Clayton Dubilier & Rice agreed a €16bn deal to acquire Sanofi’s consumer healthcare business.

Bayer’s over-the-counter consumer health business produces products such as Aspirin, Alka-Seltzer and Claritin. The division in 2024 produced about €5.9bn of sales and nearly €1.3bn of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation.

One person familiar with Bayer’s thinking said that the company was a year into a “massive restructuring”. The German group is introducing a new management model called “dynamic shared ownership”, which shifts decision-making to lower-level employees and is expected to involve removing about half of the company’s managers. “[We] cannot afford to take our eyes off the ball now”, the person added.

Anderson’s plan to turn around the company includes improving its pipeline of new pharmaceutical products, following last year’s expiry of the patent on its blockbuster blood thinner Xarelto.

Anderson has also made boosting the profitability of Bayer’s crop division a priority as it struggles with weak demand in Latin America and cheap competition for plant protection products.

Markus Manns, a portfolio manager at Union Investment which owns a stake in Bayer, said that a carve-out of the consumer health business would be very complex, but could be “value-generating for Bayer shareholders”. It was “incomprehensible that Bayer remains the only major pharmaceutical company still clinging to a conglomerate structure”, he added.

Elliott and Bayer declined to comment.

FT : Russia detains billionaire Vadim Moshkovich

Russia detains billionaire Vadim Moshkovich
Founder of one of Russia’s largest agricultural companies held by authorities

Russian authorities have detained billionaire Vadim Moshkovich, the first time that such a high-profile Russian businessman has been held by authorities since the 2022 Ukraine invasion.

Moshkovich, the founder of one of the country’s largest agricultural holdings Rusagro, was detained as part of an investigation into fraud and abuse of power, according to the state newswire Tass.

Rusagro confirmed authorities were conducting searches of its offices in Moscow and three other Russian cities on Wednesday, but said the searches did not relate to any of the company’s current business activities.

“We understand that this situation may raise questions among our clients, partners and employees, so hasten to assure you that the company is fully compliant with the law and is ready to provide all the necessary assistance to the authorised agencies,” the company said in a statement that did not mention its founder.

Rusagro did not immediately respond to questions regarding the detention of its founder.

Moshkovich, a billionaire from the top-100 of Russia’s Forbes list, is one of the most prominent Russian business figures to be detained since Russia’s fulls-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago. Several high-profile Russian defence officials were also arrested last year following a shake up of the Russian defence ministry.

Rusagro is classified by the Russian government as one of its economically significant enterprises. The Kremlin has moved to take stronger control of its farm industry since the start of the war, with local traders taking a bigger share of the market after large Western agricultural traders exited.

The incident is also reminiscent of high-profile cases in the two decades leading up to the war, which saw the arrests of numerous influential businessmen ranging from Mikhail Khodorkovsky, to the billionaire Ziyavudin Magomedov who had close ties to Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev.

Moshkovich’s fortune is estimated at $2.9bn, according to Forbes. He emerged as a businessman in the 1990s selling sugar and vodka before eventually forming Rusagro as a larger holding company for several businesses in 2004.

In addition to the agriculture business, he is also one of Moscow’s biggest property developers and spent eight years as a senator in Russia’s federation council, from 2006 to 2014 representing Belgorod, which is located on Russia’s front lines and has been one of the hardest hit by the war.

He stepped down as chair of Rusagro in 2022 after falling under western sanctions and reduced his stake to under 50 per cent.

Rusagro is the country’s largest producer of sugar, pork and sunflower oil and at one point had a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange.

Moshkovich’s detention comes almost one year after authorities initiated several criminal fraud cases against several former deputy defence ministers who had left the government following a shake-up of the country’s military leadership.

FT : British Steel’s Chinese owner rejects UK government subsidy offer

British Steel’s Chinese owner rejects UK government subsidy offer
Move triggers fears about job losses at company’s flagship Scunthorpe site

The Chinese owner of British Steel has rejected a £500mn lifeline offer from the UK government, raising fears about thousands of jobs at the steelmaker.

A letter sent by the government to Jingye on Monday had offered the money to sustain the business and help it switch to greener production, following almost two years of rescue talks between UK officials and the company.

However, Jingye sent a letter to the government on Wednesday in which it turned down the approach, according to people familiar with the situation. 

Trade unions fear the company, which employs 4,000 people at sites including its flagship Scunthorpe plant in Lincolnshire, could start consultations on redundancies as early as Thursday. 

Sarah Jones, energy minister, told the House of Commons business committee on Wednesday the offer had been rejected, but the government was “still very much talking to British Steel, every day”.

Jones said there was “no deadline” on the talks with the company.

British Steel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The business operates at Scunthorpe the last two blast furnaces in the UK after Indian-owned Tata Steel closed its final one at Port Talbot, south Wales, in September. 

Ministers had hoped to replicate a deal they struck last year with Tata Steel in which they provided £500mn of taxpayer support to help the company switch to greener steelmaking.

The government has committed as much as £2.5bn towards the steel industry to help it reduce its carbon footprint and meet the UK’s net zero targets by 2050.

Unions last month put forward a plan to keep open the British Steel blast furnaces until two less carbon-intensive electric arc equivalents were operational.

Unions have been concerned the rapid closure of the blast furnaces will result in the loss of up to 2,000 jobs.

As part of the plan, however, unions wanted the government to provide an extra £200mn to help mitigate the expected carbon costs associated with keeping the blast furnaces running.

Union expectations of a higher government offer to Jingye last week were dashed after the Treasury rebuffed pleas for more money, according to two people familiar with the situation. 

Jones told MPs that the government’s preference would be for the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe to keep going at least temporarily. 

Liam Byrne, Labour chair of the business committee, said it was “deeply troubling news”.

“At a time of war in Europe, rising global tension, and economic uncertainty, we need more resilience, not less . . . we need blast furnace steel made here by us, for us,” he added.

“Ministers must now answer and answer fast: if not this deal then what? If not now, then when? And if not here, then where will we make the steel Britain still needs?”

FT : A 25 per cent tariff on Europe is only fair

A 25 per cent tariff on Europe is only fair
The US needs to act over the competitive advantage the EU gives its companies in areas like value added taxes

President Donald Trump’s administration argues reciprocal tariffs between the US and other nations can level the playing field for fair trade. But what is a fair rate?

For Europe, there is a clear case for taking action. Tariff rates between the US and Europe are relatively small but officials have correctly identified that Europe’s competitive advantage primarily owes to non-tariff barriers — especially how it applies value added tax.

A recent White House memo pointed out a lack of reciprocity was one source of the large and persistent US annual trade deficit in goods. It cited VAT as one of the unfair, discriminatory, or extraterritorial taxes imposed by trading partners that it wanted to tackle.

Essentially European companies such as carmakers do not pay VAT on goods for export. For the European Commission that is a fundamental principle. The problem for US companies exporting into Europe is that it puts them at a competitive disadvantage

Think of it this way. German carmaker BMW can sell into the high-tax European market or export into the lower-tax US market, taking advantage of the VAT rebate. By contrast, US maker General Motors must compete against BMW in Europe without an export subsidy. As BMW receives a VAT rebate when exporting outside Europe, it is in effect shielded from the tax burden borne domestically — an implicit subsidy GM does not enjoy when exporting Cadillacs to Europe.

Take a $100 good for example. European producers can sell it domestically at about $120 after VAT but export it free of the tax at $100. US exporters to European markets must compete against domestic companies, paying VAT locally while also bearing embedded domestic US taxes. That might be one reason there are a lot more BMWs sold in the US than Cadillacs in Europe.

It is a long-standing problem. As Gary Clyde Hufbauer of the Peterson Institute for International Economics has pointed out, after European countries adopted VAT in the 1960s, US firms argued that the rebate on exports and its imposition on imports disadvantaged American exporters. In 1971, the then Treasury under-secretary Paul Volcker helped introduce a new tax vehicle, the domestic international sales corporation or Disc, which reduced the corporate tax burden on exports by qualifying US firms.

“We have concluded that we can no longer afford the luxury of forcing our exporters over tax obstacles that their foreign competitors — sometimes, ironically enough, their own affiliated corporations overseas — do not have to run,” he said in a 1970 speech.

Hufbauer adds the Disc status was phased out in place of an alternative scheme agreed under negotiations for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, only for the WTO’s dispute settling body to later rule it illegal. Part of the reason why the Trump Administration must resort to tariffs is because US efforts to promote trade through export subsidies has been repeatedly thwarted by the WTO. Some export-subsidy schemes still exist but the VAT issue has persisted since.

While Europeans might recommend a VAT in the US to equalise the tax treatment of Cadillacs and BMWs, Americans are unlikely to support adding to existing state and local sales taxes. Nevertheless, Trump has tariffs in his toolbox.

One might think a simple, reciprocal 20 per cent tariff would level the playing field. But that misses the important imbalance on taxes when thinking about US exports — a VAT is embedded in the final price consumers pay, whereas a tariff is added explicitly on top of the pre-tax price.

To neutralise the competitive disadvantage for its companies, the US must impose tariffs exceeding Europe’s VAT rate — my calculations suggest 25 per cent. This would create a price cushion that compensates US exporters for the embedded domestic taxes they bear. This higher tariff does not unfairly penalise Europe; it merely neutralises Europe’s implicit export subsidy.

Trump has identified a genuine imbalance in trade with Europe that has vexed US policymakers for decades. Although he may not hold a PhD in economics, his economic advisers like National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett and Council of Economic Advisers chair Stephen Miran do. Their advice will translate Trump’s instinct for fairness into practical trade policy.

A potential US tariff of 25 per cent on goods from Europe is not arbitrary, punitive, or merely a negotiating tactic. It logically addresses inherent differences between tariff and VAT systems. From an economic perspective, it’s only fair.

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WWD : On Dropped a New Swiss-inspired Sneaker Only Available at Revolve and Fwrd

On Dropped a New Swiss-inspired Sneaker Only Available at Revolve and Fwrd

On has dropped a new Swiss-inspired sneaker — but it can’t be found just anywhere. The new Cloudnova style, marked at a price of $150, is available exclusively at Revolve and Fwrd.
On’s Cloudnova Form 2 “Abundant Green” sneaker.
The Cloudnova Form 2 “Abundant Green” style takes design cues from Switzerland’s enduring connection to the sport of tennis. The sneaker showcases a white, green, gold and yellow colorway in reference to classic tennis courts and the refinement of Swiss watchmaking. The shoe features a mesh and rubber upper, rubber sole, perforated microfiber tongue, Zero-Gravity foam midsole and a nylon blend Speedboard.

On’s Cloudnova Form 2 “Abundant Green” sneaker.
On has made it clear that it wants to hold relevance beyond the running space.

“I think it’s important to not just be a one-trick pony,” Caspar Coppetti, On cofounder and executive co-chairman, said in a call with analysts in November. “We’re no longer just a running brand. We also have significant business, for example, in training, in tennis, and of course, on the lifestyle side.”
On’s Cloudnova Form 2 “Abundant Green” sneaker.
On’s sneakers featuring its CloudTec have proven to be quite popular lately. Specifically, On’s Cloudmonster and Cloudsurfer styles played a significant role in fourth-quarter growth, the brand’s co-chief executive officer Martin Hoffman reported during an earnings call earlier this month. He additionally said that the Cloud 6 is a release fans can look forward to.

“We’re also extremely excited to further elevate our most iconic all-day silhouette with the launch of the new Cloud 6, after a period of successfully focusing on the diversification of our product portfolio and expanding our performance running share,” Hoffmann said. “The latest iteration of this classic all-day franchise will return to being a significant contributor to growth in 2025 and beyond. While the full-scale launch will happen in a few days, demand from our partners over the past months has been amongst the highest we have seen yet.”

Keeping in touch with younger generations and pop culture, both Zendaya and FKA Twigs have partnerships with On.