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The Ohio Cup Trophy on top of a Bally Sports logo prior to a game between the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field in Cleveland, May 17, 2022.

George Kubas | Diamond Images | Getty Images

The courtroom continues to heat up for Diamond Sports Group, the largest owner of regional sports networks.

On Thursday, Diamond will ask a bankruptcy judge for permission to appoint mediators as it is negotiates with creditors to reach a reorganization plan. The company said in court papers it needs to meet “substantial plan progress” ahead of the start of the upcoming NBA and NHL seasons in October.

Last week, Diamond won court approval to extend the period of time it has to come up with a reorganization plan.

Diamond sought bankruptcy protection earlier this year, burdened by more than $8 billion in debt and the significant headwinds hitting the regional sports networks business as more consumers cancel their cable subscriptions in favor of streaming.

The company and some of its creditors at earlier points in the case, including during a hearing last week, “have indicated that mediation could help [Diamond] sort through myriad issues they must confront on the path toward reorganization.”

Diamond has until Sept. 30 to file a reorganization plan, weeks ahead of the opening of the 2023-24 NBA and NHL seasons. It is vital for Diamond to continue carrying local games on its networks. Since its filing, it has already seen some teams leave its Bally Sports channels due to a breakdown in rights fees discussions.

The prospect of local game rights being up for grabs has attracted broadcast station owners – including Nexstar Media Group, Gray Television and E.W. Scripps Co. – looking to carry the games, CNBC previously reported. The Phoenix Suns recently exited a Bally Sports network for such a deal.

Besides shedding its hefty debt load, Diamond is looking to reset some of its rights deals with teams to reflect so-called market rates.

Last week, a lawyer on behalf of the NHL said the league was in constructive discussions with Diamond, but that “time is of the essence” ahead of the upcoming season.

Sinclair tension

During the bankruptcy process so far, Diamond has faced numerous conflicts – including an ongoing battle with MLB over teams’ streaming rights and rights fees that has led to Diamond dropping some teams from its Bally Sports channels and its recent lawsuit against parent company, Sinclair.

On Wednesday, Diamond unveiled the details behind the lawsuit.

In 2019, Sinclair acquired the portfolio of networks – previously known as Fox Sports – from Disney for $10.6 billion, a required divestiture that was part of Disney’s buyout of Fox Corp.’s 21st Century assets.

Diamond’s more than $8 billion debt load stems from the deal, which also imposed between $400 million to $650 million in debt payments, the company said in court papers.

In the few years since, Diamond’s business, pay-TV providers and other cable channels have experienced accelerating deterioration in their business.

Diamond is now alleging that the ownership of Sinclair only exacerbated its problems.

In court papers, the company said Sinclair has been “milking” Diamond for more than $100 million annually in management fees since the acquisition, despite knowing the dire state of the business. On top of this, Diamond alleges Sinclair, in a “nefarious strategy … wrongfully caused Diamond to transfer more than $1.5 billion in cash and other consideration for the benefit of Sinclair.”

This occurred as Diamond alleges Sinclair knew the RSN business was “careering toward bankruptcy, and it continued after Diamond was unquestionably insolvent.”

“Sinclair has been informed of a lawsuit filed by Diamond Sports Group in connection with their ongoing bankruptcy proceeding. We firmly believe the allegations in this lawsuit are without merit and intend to vigorously defend against them,” a Sinclair spokesperson said in a statement.

Diamond appointed a new board and leadership last year to run its RSN business as it faced an inevitable bankruptcy filing. Diamond is now an unconsolidated and independently run subsidiary of Sinclair.

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Texas Instruments stock falls 12% as CEO warns of tariff concerns

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Texas Instruments stock falls 12% as CEO warns of tariff concerns

The Texas Instruments headquarters in Dallas, Texas, US, on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024.

N. Johnson | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Texas Instruments shares plunged 12% after the automotive and industrial semiconductor supplier warned of ongoing tariff aftershocks.

The company said it expects third-quarter earnings between $1.36 and $1.60 per share, a midpoint of $1.48 per share. That fell short of an LSEG estimate of $1.50.

Texas Instruments anticipates revenues between $4.45 billion and $4.48 billion. The midpoint of $4.63 billion was slightly ahead of the $4.59 billion expected by analysts.

In an earnings call with analysts, CEO Haviv Ilan said the company is experiencing a “shallow” recovery in the automotive sector and said customers may have lingering worries over tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty.

Read more CNBC tech news

Despite the post-earnings slump, Texas Instruments posted a 16% year-over-year jump in revenue. The company reported earnings of $1.41 per share on $4.45 billion in revenue, surpassing the earnings of $1.35 per share on $4.36 billion in revenue expected by LSEG analysts.

Ilan said that some of the second-quarter strength may have come from a pull forward in demand to acquire inventory ahead of tariffs.

Net income for the company rose 15% to $1.3 billion, or $1.41 per share, from $1.13 billion, or $1.22 per share, a year ago.

WATCH: Texas Instruments shares fall more than 7% despite quarterly beat

Texas Instruments shares fall more than 7% despite quarterly beat

CNBC’s Kif Leswing contributed to this story.

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Tesla set to report second-quarter earnings after the bell

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Tesla set to report second-quarter earnings after the bell

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of SpaceX and Tesla, attends the Viva Technology conference at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, June 16, 2023.

Gonzalo Fuentes | Reuters

Tesla will report second-quarter results after the close of regular trading on Wednesday.

Here’s what Wall Street expects, according to an average of estimates compiled by LSEG:

  • Earnings per share: 43 cents
  • Revenue: $22.74 billion

Revenue in the period is expected to drop 11% from a year earlier, marking a second straight quarterly decline. In early July, Tesla reported a 14% year-over-year slide in vehicle deliveries to 384,000 for the second quarter.

Deliveries are the closest approximation of EV sales reported by Tesla but aren’t precisely defined in its shareholder communications.

Tesla’s slump this year is partly due to a backlash against the company in the U.S. and Europe, after CEO Elon Musk spent heavily to help reelect President Donald Trump, endorsed Germany’s extreme anti-immigrant AfD party, and then led the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. At DOGE, Musk helped to slash the federal workforce, roll back regulations, and eliminate USAID.

Other automakers saw their electric vehicle sales increase, eating away at Tesla’s market share during the second quarter.

General Motors’ U.S. sales of EVs rose 111% year-over-year to nearly 46,300 units in the period for an estimated market share of 16%, still far behind Tesla.

Musk’s political activism hasn’t been the only factor weighing on the brand.

Read more CNBC Tesla coverage

Tesla has put off the production of a more affordable “model 2” EV, while other automakers are now offering a greater variety of vehicles, and China-based competitors are selling affordable EVs with high-tech self-driving features as a standard rather than premium option.

Tesla shares are down about 17% for the year, the worst performance among tech’s megacaps. The Nasdaq is up more than 8% in 2025.

Musk has tried to keep fans and investors focused on Tesla’s future, which he envisions as being dominated by the company’s robotaxis, and humanoid Optimus robots. Musk sees Tesla’s robotaxis as working for their owners, making them money while they sleep. Optimus robots, he says, will be so sophisticated they can serve as factory workers or babysitters.

Tesla opened a diner and charging station in Los Angeles this week, where fans can see the Optimus robots at work on a simple task, slowly scooping popcorn. The company faces massive competition in robotics from developers including 1X Technologies, Agility Robotics, Apptronik, Boston Dynamics and Figure AI.

We went to Texas for Tesla's robotaxi launch. Here's what we saw

In June, Tesla began testing a robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, which operates in a limited area with a human valet on board. The service is accessible only to select riders, generally Tesla and Musk enthusiasts.

The robotaxi rollout is seen by bulls as a positive sign for the company, but Bank of America analysts cautioned in a recent report that it would have “immaterial financial ramifications” in the near term.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, meanwhile, has pressed Tesla for information about reported incidents where the vehicles appeared to violate traffic laws. In one incident, a Tesla robotaxi scraped a parked vehicle at a pizzeria parking lot in Austin, and in another, a robotaxi veered out of its lane briefly into oncoming traffic.

In a note earlier this month, Barclays analysts said Tesla has shown “weak fundamentals” heading into its earnings report. Still, shareholders have remained excited about Tesla’s “robotaxi narrative,” wrote the analysts, who have the equivalent of a hold rating on the stock.

Wednesday’s report will be the first for Tesla since Musk officially left his role in the Trump administration and immediately preceded to publicly slam the president, mostly for the Republicans’ spending package that he endorsed.

Musk has since promised to start a new political party in the U.S. which he calls The America Party.

One retail investor submitted an anonymous question via the Say platform, which Tesla uses ahead of earnings calls, to ask, “With Elon Musk now more publicly involved in U.S. politics through the new America Party, is Tesla taking any steps to manage potential risks, whether from shifting political alliances, regulatory perception, or public opinion?”

Most questions submitted to the platform sought updates from Tesla about its robotaxi test in Austin, self-driving ambitions and its plans for a more affordable EV model.

Tesla’s automotive gross margins are also likely to be in focus, along with commentary on how the company will weather Trump’s tariffs and the end of federal tax credits for EV buyers.

Company executives will host an earnings call with analysts at 5:30 p.m. ET.

WATCH: Elon Musk can’t continue to go down this political path

Elon Musk can't continue to go down this political path, says Wedbush's Dan Ives

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Alphabet to report Q2 earnings after the bell

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Alphabet to report Q2 earnings after the bell

Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at a Google I/O event in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, May 20, 2025.

Jeff Chiu | AP

Alphabet is set to report its second-quarter earnings after the bell Wednesday.

Here’s what analysts polled by LSEG are expecting:

  • Revenue: $93.94 billion
  • Earnings per share: $2.18

Wall Street is also watching these numbers in the report:

  • YouTube advertising revenue: $9.56 billion, according to StreetAccount
  • Google Cloud revenue: $13.11 billion, according to StreetAccount
  • Traffic acquisition costs (TAC): $14.18 billion, according to StreetAccount

Alphabet is among the megacaps expected to be a major driver of earnings growth during the second-quarter earnings season. Wall Street is anticipating the search giant to report a 10.9% increase in revenue and 15% growth in earnings per share.

Shares of Alphabet haven’t moved much this year, lagging the other Magnificent Seven stocks and the S&P 500. Investors are primarily concerned about the rise of artificial intelligence chatbots, which could impact Google’s ability to remain competitive in search.

During the second quarter, the search giant rolled out a number of new AI products.

At its annual Google I/O conference in May, Google announced a new subscription tier, called “Google AI Ultra,” that offers access to the company’s “cutting edge” AI features for $249.99 per month. Google also unveiled its return to the smart glasses market with a $150 million partnership with Warby Parker — the two companies said they plan to launch a series of smart glasses as soon as next year.

Google in May also announced a venture fund to invest in AI startups. As part of the “AI Futures Fund,” eligible startups will receive Google investment, early access to AI models, and hands-on support from Google researchers, engineers and go-to-market specialists. They also get credits to use on Google Cloud.

Additionally in May, Google began testing the placement of its “AI Mode” product on its home page, directly beneath the Google search.

Earlier this month, OpenAI added Google to its list of suppliers, saying it expects to use the search company’s cloud infrastructure for its popular ChatGPT service. The announcement represented a win for Google, whose cloud unit is younger and smaller than those of Amazon and Microsoft.

Google made a splash in the AI talent wars, announcing it would bring in Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan and other top researchers at the artificial intelligence coding startup as part of a $2.4 billion deal that also includes licensing the company’s technology.

Internally, Google also made a number of personnel changes during the quarter. 

The company added the new role of chief AI architect when it elevated Koray Kavukcuoglu from his position as Google DeepMind’s chief technology officer in June.

Google also made more workforce reductions by offering buyouts to U.S.-based employees across several of its divisions, including search, ads and commerce.

Alphabet made several strides with Waymo, its self-driving car unit, during the quarter.

Waymo reached 100 million “real world, fully autonomous miles” driven on public roads, the company said last week. Waymo also announced expansions into new markets.

In June, Waymo announced plans to drive vehicles manually in New York, marking the first step toward potentially cracking the largest U.S. city. In July, the company said it will do limited testing in Philadelphia and it began offering accounts for teens ages 14 to 17, starting in Phoenix.

The company also endured some less-flattering optics during the quarter.

In June, Google’s cloud suffered significant global outages knocking down or disrupting dozens of large internet services, including OpenAI and Shopify, among others.

WATCH: Google might be in the lead in their AI capability, says Constellation’s Ray Wang

Google might be in the lead in their AI capability, says Constellation's Ray Wang

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