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Saudi Arabia's PIF completes acquisition of Electronic Arts

Business / Business News /

Electronic Arts is now a private company, owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake and Affinity Partners.

The $55 billion acquisition of the gaming giant was first announced last September, approved by EA's shareholders in December, and completed on Tuesday, according to a press release. The deal marked the largest all-...Read more

Pixar/Disney/Pixar

'Toy Story 5' boosts Disney's earnings with massive movie ticket and toy sales

Business / Business News /

LOS ANGELES — After more than three decades, Jessie, Buzz Lightyear and Woody are still moneymakers for Walt Disney Co., as "Toy Story 5" ticket sales and merchandise helped power the company's fiscal third quarter earnings.

The Burbank media and entertainment giant reported revenue of $25.2 billion for the three-month period that ended June ...Read more

Imen Ben Youssef/ Hans Lucas/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Gautam Mukunda: Anthropic is teaching CEOs everywhere a valuable lesson

Business / Business News /

America’s artificial intelligence titans recently banded together to urge the government not to restrict so-called open-weight AI models, or those that are publicly available for users to freely download and run on their own platforms, so that they can better compete with the ones coming out of China. All the usual suspects -- Nvidia Corp., ...Read more

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Why related-party loans at issue in the Mark Walter probe are considered risky

Business / Business News /

LOS ANGELES -- The federal law enforcement probe into the financial affairs of the Dodgers' controlling owner, Mark Walter, seems to focus on what looks like an obscure financial maneuver: related-party transactions.

They are deals between entities with business or personal ties, including loans, sales and other transactions, that can have ...Read more

Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/TNS

As one family struggles to open a Chinatown grocery, neighborhood food scarcity persists

Business / Business News /

LOS ANGELES — Chinatown has always been a North Star in Jessica Wang's life. Growing up in the San Gabriel Valley with her parents, both Taiwanese immigrants, Wang remembers regularly attending First Chinese Baptist Church on Yale Street with her family.

Then, after church, they'd eat.

"I knew we were gonna have dim sum," Wang said, "or ...Read more

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Josh Farley: I will not roll over for AI. Neither should you

Business / Business News /

In the final season of HBO’s Hacks," Hannah Einbinder’s character, Ava, goes ballistic on an AI developer. When her boss and best friend, Deborah, played by Jean Smart, contemplates inputting a career’s worth of stand-up jokes into a ChatGPT-like large language model, Ava loses it.

“You either get on board or you get left in the past,�...Read more

Natallie Rocha/The San Diego Union-Tribune/Los Angeles Times/TNS

How an LA vintage boutique became a billion-dollar company

Business / Business News /

LOS ANGELES — What started as a little tailored vintage clothing store on La Brea Avenue blossomed into a billion-dollar company.

Reformation, the women's clothing company, is known for its sustainable mission and slogan: "Being naked is the #1 most sustainable option. We're #2."

Its clothes have been spotted on the shoulders of celebrities ...Read more

Brandon Bell/Getty Images North America/TNS

How to save on back-to-school shopping with tax-free weekends

Business / Business News /

There’s no disputing that the cost of consumer goods has soared. Even though the U.S. inflation rate has cooled somewhat as of July 2025, prices are still slow to fall in many sectors. Since what was once economical may now be expensive, the prospect of shopping for your child’s school items could be daunting.

And sales taxes are an extra ...Read more

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Tech review: 4 accessories for heading back to school

Business / Business News /

It’s back to school time, and if you’ve got kids in high school or you’re sending them off to college, they’ll need some technology. Everyone should have their own laptop, and along with it, they’ll need some accessories.

Here are four things I’ve been testing that’ll be a big help for your scholars.

Boulies EP500

Anyone who ...Read more

Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Not married and need car insurance? You can get dinged for that in California

Business / Business News /

LOS ANGELES — California has long been known as a progressive state that embraces evolving lifestyles, but when it comes to auto insurance, it seems stuck in the 1950s.

Single, divorced or widowed and need coverage for your car? You might very well pay more than your married neighbor — a penalty sanctioned by the state and judiciary.

A ...Read more

Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group/TNS

A friend tried to save them from a burning Cybertruck. Now electronic doors face federal scrutiny

Business / Business News /

Nearly two years after three young people died of smoke inhalation inside a burning Tesla Cybertruck in Piedmont California, as a friend struggled to open its doors, federal regulators are considering new safety requirements intended to prevent occupants from becoming trapped when electronic latches lose power.

The National Highway Traffic ...Read more

Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

S&P 500 rises to all-time high on Hormuz deal push: Markets wrap

Business / Business News /

Hopes for an agreement to revive the Strait of Hormuz lifted stocks to all-time highs, bonds climbed and oil sank, with Wall Street’s enthusiasm also fueled by a batch of solid corporate earnings.

Both the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to records. The Nasdaq 100 jumped 3.3%. Chipmakers saw their best four-day rally since ...Read more

E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signs protections against insurance rate hikes

Business / Business News /

Drivers and homeowners will have greater protections against insurance rate hikes after Gov. JB Pritzker on Tuesday signed legislation prohibiting excessive increases.

“It’s not asking too much to say to insurance companies, ‘If you’re telling your customers that rate hikes are necessary, you should be able to prove why,’” Pritzker ...Read more

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Paramount's David Ellison says critics don't get his politics

Business / Business News /

Paramount Chairman David Ellison believes the tug-of-war over his proposed $111 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery comes down to a single question: Can he be trusted to control CNN?

"I believe this fight is not really about market share," Ellison wrote in a Tuesday op-ed in The New York Times, noting that regulators around the world, ...Read more

Carlos Gonzalez/Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

USDA secretary to Minnesota farmers: Better times will come once Iran war ends

Business / Business News /

MORGAN, Minn. — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said farmers need to see more reductions in the price of fertilizer while promoting White House trade policies and the Make America Healthy Again movement Tuesday in a packed Minnesota barn.

Rollins’ remarks at Farmfest, a celebration of Minnesota agriculture, come as crop farmers...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Spotify hits record 300 million premium subscribers

Business / Business News /

Spotify has officially hit a new record with 300 million premium subscribers.

In its second-quarter earnings report Tuesday, the Swedish streamer called it a "milestone no audio streaming service has ever reached." Spotify said premium subscribers grew 9% and its monthly active users climbed 12% to 777 million. Total revenue increased 14% to �...Read more

Jeff Wheeler/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

Jury rules Medtronic owes $88 million in first case about hernia treatment products

Business / Business News /

A jury has returned an $88 million verdict against Medtronic in a bellwether case over injuries allegedly caused by the company’s Covidien hernia repair mesh products.

The lawsuit, filed as part of multidistrict litigation in a Massachusetts federal court, was considered a bellwether case for similar litigation Medtronic faces over the hernia...Read more

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Seattle-based Zillow lays off 7% of its workforce

Business / Business News /

SEATTLE — Zillow announced Tuesday it’s cutting 7% of its workforce, as a lukewarm housing market continues to weigh down its real estate business.

Just over 500 employees will leave the real estate giant, which is based in Seattle but employs remote workers nationwide.

CEO Jeremy Wacksman said in a statement on Zillow’s website that the...Read more

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America/TNS

Ford posts double-digit percentage sales drop in July

Business / Business News /

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. reported a more than 10% decrease in U.S. sales year-over-year for July from the impacts of the Escape crossover's cancellation and continued weakness in F-Series inventory due to an aluminum shortage.

But the Dearborn automaker's U.S. sales director said the "decline is by design." Although the absence of the compact...Read more

Justin Enriquez/The Minnesota Star Tribune/TNS

As Farmfest opens, pork industry braces for change

Business / Business News /

MINNEAPOLIS — For years a rallying cry at hay-baled farm conferences and rural political stages in swine country has energized crowds: Don’t let California dictate how American farmers, particularly in the Upper Midwest, raise pork.

But as tens of thousands of crop and livestock farmers convene Tuesday at a field near Redwood Falls for ...Read more