Wall Street Breakfast Podcast: Bob Iger Stresses Building

Listen below or on the go on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

Disney townhall (DIS): Bob Iger downplays asset sale comments, says it’s time for building. (00:25) Adelson family (LVS) to buy majority stake in Dallas Mavericks from Mark Cuban – reports. (01:30) Farfetch (FTCH) jumps amid report founder may make offer for luxury fashion site. (02:18)

This is an abridged transcript of the podcast.

Disney (NYSE:DIS) CEO Bob Iger told staff that next year will be about building a “modern version” of the company, and said no decisions were made regarding major asset sales.

Iger downplayed his earlier comments on potential asset sales, saying he likes to “run things up flagpoles to see how they will fly.”

Iger told ABC News anchor David Muir at the companywide town hall, “I did not think everyone would run with a story that everything is being sold, which is not the case.”

Iger retook the helm last year, and began an overhaul at the company through cost cuts, layoffs and prioritizing streaming profitability. Disney (DIS) is targeting to save $7.5B this year.

“I spent the year with the team fixing a lot of things,” Iger said at the townhall, adding that there were more challenges than he expected. “But I feel we’ve just emerged from a period of a lot of fixing to one of building again.”

The launch of a direct-to-consumer version of ESPN remains a major priority for Disney (DIS) and is expected to launch by 2025.

Disney’s (DIS) stock has struggled to hold on to gains since Iger’s return, declining 3.3% over the past year.

Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, is selling $2 billion of shares in Las Vegas Sands (NYSE:LVS) so she can buy a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks NBA team.

She’s buying the stake from Mark Cuban who is a tech billionaire known for his role on ABC’s “Shark Tank”, a show about entrepreneurs.

A deal is expected to be announced shortly.

The Athletic reported the sale puts the Maverick’s franchise total valuation at $3.5 billion. Cuban will retain a stake in the team and full control of basketball operations.

Cuban purchased the Mavericks from H. Ross Perot Jr. in 2000 for $285 million.

Las Vegas Sands (LVS) is down 5.2% in premarket trading.

Farfetch (NYSE:FTCH) soared nearly 23% Tuesday amid a report that the founder of the luxury fashion site may be looking to take it private.

Jose Neves is said to be in talks with bankers and top shareholders, including Cartier-owner Richemont (OTCPK:CFRHF), about a potential takeover, according to a report in The Telegraph. It is believed that Neves plans to take the company private could be announced “imminently.”

Farfetch (FTCH) has a market cap of $677 million. The company’s shares have plunged 92% since the luxury fashion site went public in September of 2018.

The Telegraph report comes as Farfetch (FTCH) was scheduled to announce Q3 earnings results today. However, Farfetch (FTCH) announced on Tuesday that it will not be releasing its Q3 results today and will provide a market update in “due course.”

According to the Telegraph report, Neves has a 15% stake in Farfetch (FTCH), though he has 77% of the voting rights through a dual-class structure.

Other articles to look out for on Seeking Alpha:

Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett’s associate, dies at 99: Berkshire Hathaway

Apple ending credit card partnership with Goldman Sachs – WSJ

Tesla’s Cybertruck is finally here – will the launch create a halo effect?

On our catalyst watch for the day,

• Regis (RGS) will start trading on a split-adjusted basis after the 1-for-20 reverse stock split.

• Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX (SPACE) CEO Elon Musk will be one of the interviewees at the New York Times DealBook Summit. Disney (DIS) CEO Bob Iger, JPMorgan (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) CEO David Zaslav, and FTC Commissioner Lina Khan are also slated to be interviewed.

U.S. stocks on Tuesday ended higher.

The Dow (DJI) added 0.24%. The Nasdaq (COMP.IND) climbed 0.29%. The S&P 500 (SP500) eked out gains of 0.10%. The benchmark index is on track for its best month since July 2022.

Of the 11 S&P sectors, eight ended in positive territory, led by Consumer Discretionary and Real Estate. Health Care, Industrials and Financials were the three losers.

The 10-year yield (US10Y) was down 6 basis points to 4.33%. The 2-year yield (US2Y) was down 15 basis points to 4.74%.

Now let’s take a look at the markets as of 6 am. Ahead of the opening bell today, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. The Dow is up 0.3%, the S & P 500 is up 0.3% and the Nasdaq is up 0.4%. Crude oil is up 1.2% at more than $77 per barrel. Bitcoin is up 2% and above $38,000.

In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is down 0.1% and the DAX is up 0.9%.

The biggest movers for the day premarket: NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) is up 12% after the company outperformed expectations in FQ2 results and provided an upbeat outlook. And Leslie’s (NASDAQ:LESL) is down 15% after reporting mixed Q4 results and a FY2024 outlook that fell short of analysts expectations.

On today’s economic calendar:

• 8:30 am GDP Q3

• 1:45 pm Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank President Loretta Mester will give a keynote speech before the Policy Conference 2023 hosted by the Loyola University Chicago Quinlan School of Business.