Latest in Corporate Affairs

Reed Hastings might not have wanted to talk Monday about Dave Chappelle and the controversy around remarks centered on the trans and LGBTQ+ communities in his Netflix special The Closer, but the Netflix staffer who called out the streamer on the "attacks" in the October 5-launched show certainly does – in-depth and at…

"All philanthropy today," Netflix’s Reed Hastings said Monday at the Milken Conference after moderator and CNBC correspondent Julia Boorstin lamented that she wasn't able to ask the co-CEO about the Dave Chappelle backlash, earnings or anything else related to the streamer. Staying strictly on message, Hastings today…

Sony Pictures Entertainment has sold GSN Games, a division of its Game Show Network subsidiary, to mobile gaming specialist Scopely for $1 billion. Half of the purchase price will be paid in cash and the other half in preferred equity. The deal, subject to the customary review by regulators, will give Sony Pictures a…

Sinclair Broadcast Group, the No. 2 owner of local TV stations in the U.S., says its operations were hit by a cyberattack. In an SEC filing, the company disclosed that it had identified a “potential security incident” over the weekend. The company discovered that “certain servers and workstations” in its environment…

Nielsen, which has had a turbulent few months as its methodology has been questioned by a range of advertising stakeholders, has unveiled a new brand identity. The new look is timed to the start of Advertising Week in New York, a hybrid event that will see a number of media and tech firms take part. In an…

Director David Zucker (Airplane!, Naked Gun) has attacked the problems of cancel culture, saying he could only make his Airplane! film today without the jokes. In a long essay in Friday’s New York Post, Zucker – marking the 40th anniversary of the release of Airplane! – claimed Paramount Pictures actually “discussed…

Now things are really getting messy. Netflix has today fired a long time employee who leaked confidential financial information in response to the streamer’s launch of Dave Chappelle’s controversial The Closer special on October 5. “We have let go of an employee for sharing confidential, commercially sensitive…

Squid Game has been crowned by Netflix as its biggest original ever, but it got off to a slow start in the U.S., according to Nielsen. In the measurement firm’s streaming rankings for the week of September 13 to 19, the South Korean blockbuster failed to crack the top 10 original shows. It racked up 206 million…

Capitalizing on a red-hot deal market, LeBron James’s SpringHill Company has sold what it calls a “significant” minority stake to RedBird Capital Partners, Fenway Sports Group, Nike and Epic Games. The deal values SpringHill at $725 million. Negotiations with a group of investors had been reported over the summer and a…

EXCLUSIVE: Redbox has set a multi-year distribution deal with Lionsgate for the release of Redbox Entertainment titles and also stocking Redbox streaming services with Lionsgate library fare. Formed in 2019, the entertainment division of the longtime operator of DVD kiosks is an important part of the company’s…

Big theater chain Cinemark has named Melissa Hayes Thomas, chief financial officer of Groupon, as its new CFO and executive VP effective Nov. 8. Current CFO Sean Gamble will step back from that role but continue as president and chief operating officer, the company said Wednesday. He’ll become chief executive on Jan…

EXCLUSIVE: Smosh, the longtime supplier of YouTube comedy videos, has hired its first CEO. Daniel Tibbets, a media veteran who most recently served as general manager for Robert Rodriguez’s El Rey Network, will guide the company as it looks to broaden its reach. Smosh, which has 45 million subscribers and 10 billion…