Business
2024-04-12-2-fanatics-is-31-billion-dollar-business

The merchandise giant is making "Comic-Con for sports"

Tom Jones, David Crowther

House of cards, kits, and… conventions?

Not content with having a quasi-monopolistic hold over the world of sports jerseys, or constructing a multi-billion dollar empire from trading cards, or dipping its toe into sports gambling, Fanatics is now targeting the live event industry as well, unveiling plans this week for a “Comic-Con for sports”.

Fanatics Fest, slated to take place in August, will see huge names from across the sporting landscape — like Tom Brady, Kevin Durant, and Derek Jeter — take to New York to snap selfies and sign shirts for eager fans willing to pay through the nose to get near their sporting heroes.

Merch merchants

Fanatics started life in Florida as a brick-and-mortar store selling football jerseys and paraphernalia back in 1995, though it only really started to become the sports fan apparel giant we know today after it was acquired by Michael Rubin in 2011. Since then, the company’s grown at an extraordinary pace.

For example, in the summer of 2021, Fanatics wasn’t in the trading cards business at all. About a year later, it was its largest player, per FastCompany, after securing the rights to the MLB, NFL, and NBA, as well as acquiring trading card giant Topps.

However, not everyone’s been along for the ride: memorabilia rival Panini is just one of the entities to pursue legal action against Fanatics, accusing the company of “anticompetitive conduct” in a lawsuit.

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$98B ⛽
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The IATA released its latest financial outlook for the airline industry over the weekend, forecasting a $98 billion jump in the sector’s collective fuel bill. The world’s largest trade group representing airlines expects the oil spike to halve profits by 49% from last year to $23 billion.

The group also expects profit margins to halve year over year, falling from 2025’s 4.2% to 2%. Still, revenue is expected to climb to $1.17 trillion from $1.07 trillion.

A surge in the cost of jet fuel has rocked US and global airlines this year, leading Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, and others to raise fares and ancillary charges like bag fees. Low-cost carriers, which operate on smaller margins, have been squeezed the hardest, resulting in Spirit’s shutdown.

“It’s a tough year for all airlines, especially those whose balance sheets had not yet recovered from COVID. And, of course, for those operating in the Gulf,” said IATA Director General Willie Walsh, who added that demand is holding up and about half of passengers expect to spend more on travel this year. “That bodes well for a strong northern summer peak season. The big unknown is how long travelers and shippers can tolerate the higher costs of connectivity.”

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GM has reportedly rehired more than 100 former Cruise employees, 18 months after shuttering the robotaxi unit

GM has rehired more than 100 employees it let go early last year when it shuttered Cruise, its former robotaxi business, according to reporting by The Information.

The hiring spree, which also includes employees from Nvidia and Uber, is geared toward ramping up GM’s plans for personal-use self-driving vehicles and not robotaxis. The former had been the focus of Cruise, prior to GM shuttering it in 2024.

Reporting last fall revealed that GM was attempting to rehire some former Cruise employees, but the scope of that effort wasn’t clear. More than 1,000 employees were laid off when the automaker scrapped Cruise, which it invested $10 billion into.

Google’s Waymo, Cruise’s former chief rival, is now worth $126 billion after a $16 billion funding round earlier this year. The company says it’s serving 500,000 paid robotaxi rides per week in the US.

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