• Elon Musk denied rumors he would soon be leaving the Trump administration. When news leaked in Politico that Trump told his inner circle the Tesla CEO would soon return to the private sector full-time, shares in the beleaguered carmaker surged.

Amid all the grim news around Tesla, investors finally had cause to cheer on Wednesday. Politico leaked rumors that CEO Elon Musk would, at long last, return to run his business empire full-time, leaving his newfound love of politics behind.

Shares in the company reversed their losses, soaring on the hopes that President Trump had in fact told his inner circle that the entrepreneur would soon be gone just as the article reported. 

Not so fast, Musk countered—he wasn’t going anywhere. 

“Fake news,” posted the Tesla CEO, who only two weeks earlier proudly shared a glimpse of his new D.C. office as head of Trump’s government efficiency task force DOGE. In two brief words, he dashed hopes among his investors that his political career as cost-cutter-in-chief was all but over.

Hours earlier, Tesla shocked shareholders with its worst quarterly sales since the spring of 2022 almost three full years earlier. Not even the most pessimistic analyst forecast anything close to the 13% decline in volumes. 

It was the latest warning sign that Tesla and its core autos business was rusting away.

Musk staked his domestic political capital on Wisconsin race—and lost

Whether by coincidence or not, the report landed just shortly after Trump learned that Musk’s campaign to help Republicans win control of the Wisconsin state supreme court proved a complete disaster. 

The Tesla CEO splurged nearly $25 million in the belief that electing Brad Schimel would alter the very course of western civilization. 

“This is one of those things that may not seem that it’s going to affect the entire destiny of humanity,” Musk told a rally in Green Bay in all earnestness, “but I think it will.” 

It isn’t the first time the Tesla CEO has felt this strongly about a vote. Only two months prior, he told Germans that electing the nationalist far-right AfD into power would determine the fate of Europe, if not the entire world: “I do not say it lightly when I think the future of civilization could hang on this election.” 

Instead, AfD came second, and Musk accused the country of “suicidal empathy.” Just as with the AfD, Musk’s endorsement of Schimel did not appear to have helped at all, and may have even hurt—a fact likely not gone unnoticed by Trump.

Amid the entrepreneur’s declining popularity and weeks of anti-Tesla boycotts that had owners afraid of leaving their cars unattended, investors are starting to say enough is enough.

Brief Musk stopovers to hold Tesla investors by the hand no longer cut it

On Wednesday, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives called Tesla “the most disruptive technology company in the world” thanks to Musk. Yet, even he is now warning the longer its CEO stays at DOGE, the more permanent damage he will inflict on Tesla’s brand.

Only last week, Ives had praised Musk for holding investors by the proverbial hand during a Tesla meeting, in which he promised staff they would make history by turning scarce resources into an infinitely sustainable abundance.

“The future we’re headed for is one where you can literally just have anything you want,” Musk told them in comments that also helped soothe shaky investor nerves.

But after Wednesday’s dreadful delivery figures, Ives is seemingly no longer satisfied with brief Musk stopovers to rally the troops.

“With major protests erupting globally at Tesla dealerships, Tesla cars being keyed and a full brand crisis tornado now underway, this has turned into a life of its own and cast a dark black cloud over Tesla’s stock,” he wrote. “Musk needs to get his act together or else unfortunately darker times are ahead for Tesla with today’s disaster Q1 delivery number a stark reminder.”

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• Several Tony’s Chocolonely chocolate bars have been recalled for possibly containing small stones. The stones were not filtered by a third-party processor of almonds. The bars were sold in retail stores in the U.S. as well as the company’s website.

Think twice before you bite into that Tony’s Chocolonely chocolate bar.

The popular chocolate bar has recalled several lots in the U.S. after discovering the same products might contain small stones.

Seven lots of the brand’s Dark Almond Sea Salt Bar and Everything Bar are impacted by the recalls. Those were distributed nationwide, selling at both retail locations and the company’s website between Feb. 7 and March 24 of this year.

The company the stones were “not filtered during third-party almond harvesting and the almond processing process.”

“Whilst the chance of any individual product being affected is low, and we have not yet received any complaints in North America, we have decided to take this step in order to ensure the safety and satisfaction of Tony’s Chocolonely consumers in an abundance of caution,” the company wrote in the recall.

Here’s how to tell if the candy bar in your house was affected by the recall:

Tony’s Dark Almond Sea Salt Bar

Products with a best-used-by-date of Nov. 22, 2025
Lot code is: 4327
The UPC is: 850011828564

Products with a best-used-by-date of Nov. 25, 2025
Lot code is: 4330
UPC is: 850011828564

Products with a best-used-by-date of Nov. 26, 2025
Lot code is: 4331
UPC is: 850011828564

Products with a best-used-by-date of Nov. 26, 2025
Lot code is: M4331
UPC is 850032676441

Tony’s Everything Bar

Products with a best-used-by-date of April 2, 2026
Lot code is: 163094
UPC is: 858010005641

Products with a best-used-by-date of Feb. 28, 2026
Lot code is: 162634
UPC is: 858010005641

Products with a best-used-by-date of Feb. 28, 2026
Lot code is: M162634
UPC is: 85001182890

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

TORONTO (AP) — The NHL and Rogers Communications announced a new 12-year national media rights deal Wednesday to air games on multiple platforms in Canada.

The agreement, which was first reported Monday, is valued at $11 billion Canadian dollars, or roughly $7.7 billion. The new deal runs through the 2037-38 season.

“Based on how the discussions were going and Rogers’ resolve to retain us and our resolve to try and continue to make the partnership work, we actually extended the exclusive negotiating period so that we could get to a point that we were both comfortable,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said at a news conference about the deal. “It wasn’t what I would describe as contentious in the least. I think we were pretty much on the same page. We had to work a little bit on the money, but that came together as well. But in the final analysis, we wanted to be together. And that’s how it came together, as quickly as it did.”

In Canadian dollars, it is worth more than double the previous contract signed in November 2013 that cost Rogers $5.2 billion in the local currency.

Rogers CEO Tony Staffieri said the finances have worked out and will continue to work out with the new deal. Sportsnet, Rogers’ sports network, said its revenue has more than doubled since 2013.

“The value of live sports content just continues to appreciate, and it’s really rooted in viewership continuing to grow,” Staffieri said. “If you look at our NHL deal over the last decade, viewership grew by 50%. And with that kind of growth, what you see is revenue growing at a very steady and healthy pace in terms of advertising revenue, subscription revenue, and in the deal we have now, sub-licensing revenue. And so as we look to the next 12 years, we were very thoughtful in how we thought about the economics.”

The NBA’s U.S. rights deal went up 160% from 2016 to 2025 and the NHL’s U.S. rights deal increased by 213% from 2011 to 2021. Rogers’ deal is a 111% raise from 2014 to 2026.

This is the league’s latest source of revenue after contracting with ESPN and Turner Sports in 2021 for the current U.S. TV and streaming rights deal for $4.5 billion over seven years combined.

The deal includes national rights across all platforms, including TV, digital, and streaming, for all national regular-season games, in all languages, as well as out-of-market rights for all regional games.

It also includes national rights to all playoff games, the Stanley Cup Final and all special events and tentpole events, in all languages.

The agreement allows for strategic sub-licensing for a subset of the rights, including national French-language and a single-night exclusive national package.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

Source link