By Anton Bridge

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s SoftBank Group returned to profit for the first time in five quarters on Thursday, as the Japanese tech investment firm was buoyed by an upturn in portfolio companies, sparking hope it was emerging from a period of retrenchment.

Net profit totalled 985.5 billion yen ($6.6 billion) in the three months to December, versus a 744.7 billion yen loss in the same period a year earlier.

Founded by Chief Executive Masayoshi Son, SoftBank and its Vision Fund investment arm have gone through a difficult period of slashing investment activity and selling assets. Stakes in high-growth startups were particularly hit as risk appetite waned during the pandemic and its aftermath.

While SoftBank’s results are often volatile, Thursday’s numbers could give investors some relief: quarterly net income surpassed market expectations and the closely-watched Vision Fund arm booked an investment profit of 600.73 billion yen.

SoftBank was again on a “growth trajectory,” Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto told a briefing, adding that market conditions and the outlook were both “very positive”.

The Vision Fund business – which includes two funds by that name – was helped as valuations increased for holdings such as ride-hailing company Didi Global, TikTok owner ByteDance and robotics firm AutoStore Holdings. Meanwhile, its investment in office-sharing company WeWork was written down to zero in the quarter.

“There have been higher valuations in recent funding rounds for Vision Fund companies. It looks like the environment for tech startups is taking a positive turn,” said Rolf Bulk, an analyst at New Street Research.

While new investment activity in the quarter was minimal, Goto said this was simply a matter of timing and that the investment pipeline was building up.

He added that SoftBank’s first priority was to use its ample liquidity – including 4.4 trillion yen in cash, cash equivalents and liquid bond holdings – to make new investments.

Some investors had been looking to see whether SoftBank would return some money to shareholders via share buybacks, but Goto said that right now growth investment came first.

SoftBank shares jumped 11% on Thursday to their highest since September 2021, helped by an upbeat revenue forecast from chip design unit Arm on Wednesday.

Son is known for having made canny bets on emerging technology such as mobile internet and today’s big names such as e-commerce platform Alibaba, helping transform SoftBank into a tech investment powerhouse.

However, some of his more recent wagers have turned sour, most notably WeWork that was once privately valued at $47 billion but filed for bankruptcy in November.

($1 = 148.6700 yen)

(Reporting by Anton Bridge; Editing by David Dolan, Jacqueline Wong and Mark Potter)

TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s Nissan Motor posted a lower-than-expected 6.4% rise in operating profit in the December quarter on Thursday, saying it will maintain its annual outlook as a more profitable product mix offset a lower full-year vehicle sales forecast.

Operating profit totalled 141.6 billion yen ($951.80 million) for the three months to Dec. 31, compared with the average estimate of 179.8 billion yen in a poll of nine analysts by LSEG.

The automaker maintained its operating profit forecast of 620 billion yen for the current financial year.

It revised its retail sales outlook for the current financial year down to 3.55 million vehicles from 3.7 million it had expected previously, due to lower forecasted sales across markets.

“We are managing our business with discipline,” Nissan CFO Stephen Ma told a press briefing.

The lower sales forecasts reflected challenges such as intensifying competition and logistics issues around the company’s key markets, including China, Ma added.

Nissan’s global sales grew 4.6% to some 3.3 million vehicles in 2023, it said last month, as a stronger performance in North America and Europe offset falling demand for its cars in the world’s top auto market China amid fierce competition from Chinese brands.

China sales slumped 16% in 2023 to less than 800,000 vehicles, a trend that helped the United States become the automaker’s most important market with its sales there rising 23% to almost 900,000 vehicles last year.

Nissan has previously committed to invest up to 600 million euros ($646.80 million) in Ampere, the electric vehicle business of its long-standing alliance partner Renault.

The French automaker’s decision to cancel the stock market flotation of Ampere would not delay investments into the unit from Nissan, Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard said last week.

($1 = 0.9276 euros)

($1 = 148.7700 yen)

(Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by Chang-Ran Kim and Jacqueline Wong)

By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Boeing is “undoubtedly” making significant progress in getting on top of quality issues, the head of Avolon, the world’s second largest aircraft leasing firm and a major Boeing customer, said on Thursday.

Boeing was hit by the latest in a series of problems on Jan. 5 when a door panel flew off one of its 737 MAX 9 jets in the midst of an Alaska Airlines flight.

Avolon CEO Andy Cronin said preliminary findings from a U.S. regulatory investigation into the incident were “positive”, in not appearing to show any design implications for the aircraft or systemic production issues.

“I think undoubtedly they’re making significant progress on what they’ve been trying to achieve,” Cronin told Reuters when asked if Boeing was getting on top of its problems.

Boeing has been under fire from regulators and airlines over a succession of quality issues that have snagged production and development timelines. Aircraft lessors are major buyers of aircraft and Avolon has 116 737 MAX on order.

Cronin said Avolon had discovered a large number of “lower level” quality issues on aircraft recently delivered by multiple manufacturers, adding they were not confined to Boeing or the MAX.

“As supply chains are scrambling to reinstate production, we are seeing compounding factors impacting quality and delivery but not at a level where it’s impacting safety,” he said.

Examples of the issues might be around cosmetic items or “second, third order” type fittings, Cronin added.

Boeing, its main competitor Airbus and the big suppliers both manufacturers work with, are now playing much more of a role across the supply chain as a result, and that is having a positive impact, Cronin said.

The constrained supply of aircraft and increased demand for travel has benefited lessors over the last year, with average lease rates rising by 20%-30% in 2023 for current-technology aircraft that are increasingly in demand to rent.

Avolon reported a full-year core profit of $2.5 billion on Thursday and a 34% year-on-year increase in net income to $339 million, excluding the impact in 2022 of a heavy writedown on aircraft stuck in Russia due to Western sanctions.

Cronin said he saw “plenty of room” for a further increase in lease rates in 2024, though not at the “exceptional” pace of 2023.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)

By Brigid Riley

TOKYO (Reuters) -The U.S. dollar was trading in a tight range on Thursday as traders digested less dovish remarks from policymakers overnight and looked ahead to fresh economic data from the United States.

Overnight, several Fed speakers gave a range of reasons for feeling little urgency to start easing policy in the United States soon or to move quickly once they do.

“For the moment, policy remains well positioned, as we carefully assess the evolving data and outlook,” Boston Fed President Susan Collins said, adding that she believes it will be “appropriate to begin easing policy restraint later this year.”

The market is pricing in an 18.5% chance the Fed will begin to cut rates in March, down significantly from the start of the year, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool. Traders see a nearly 60% chance of a 25 basis point cut in May.

“The markets will be guided by central banks (but) ultimately, market participants will draw their own conclusions based on the fundamentals,” said Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at Capital.com.

“With all of that said, the fundamentals remain strong in the U.S.”

The greenback slipped somewhat after rising above its 100-day moving average on Monday and Tuesday for the first time since late November, propelled by Friday’s surging U.S. jobs data.

The dollar index, a measure of the U.S. currency against six major peers, was last hovered around 104.00.

The U.S. currency will need a fresh push to test resistance levels around 104.60 and 104.80, with the consumer price index (CPI) for January released on Feb. 13 the likely first opportunity, said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG.

The euro was up 0.1% at $1.0782 per dollar, holding above its lowest level since Nov. 14 at $1.0722 hit on Tuesday.

Sterling was little changed at $1.26325.

The Japanese yen weakened 0.25% versus the greenback at 148.53 after BOJ Deputy Governor Shinichi Uchida said the central bank is unlikely to raise interest rates aggressively, even after exiting negative interest rates.

The offshore yuan held steady despite data that showed China’s consumer prices fell at their steepest pace in more than 14 years in January.

CPI fell 0.8% in January from a year earlier, but rose 0.3% month-on-month, data revealed.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.5% fall year-on-year and a 0.4% gain month-on-month.

The producer price index (PPI) slid 2.5% from a year earlier in January, compared with a 2.6% slide forecast in the Reuters poll.

“We expect the Chinese authorities to favour maintaining stability in the yuan going into the Lunar New Year holidays, with dollar/onshore yuan likely to remain within the 7.18-7.22 range for now,” said Wei Liang Chang, currency and credit strategist at DBS.

The currency got support as China’s stock market stabilised following the appointment of a new securities regulatory head, buoying sentiment despite the disappointing data.

The offshore Chinese yuan was mostly flat at $7.2100.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin rose 0.85% to $44,564.62.

(Reporting by Brigid Riley; Editing by Stephen Coates)

By Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger hit back at activist investors on Wednesday with a slew of announcements, including a splashy investment in “Fortnite” maker Epic Games and plans to launch an ESPN streaming service in 2025.

Iger revealed the plans after Disney’s board of directors authorized a $3 billion share repurchase program for the current fiscal year, and declared a dividend of 45 cents a share, a 50% increase from the dividend paid in January. Earnings-per-share topped Wall Street forecasts.

Together, the moves helped boost Disney shares nearly 7% in after-hours trading.

The company has been under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz, who is seeking Netflix-like profit for its streaming business, better box-office performance of its movies and more details about its plans to make ESPN a dominant digital platform.

Peltz is asking shareholders to add himself and former Disney executive Jay Rasulo to the company’s board.

A spokesman for Peltz’s Trian Fund Management said of Disney’s earnings on Wednesday: “It’s déjà vu all over again. We saw this movie last year and we didn’t like the ending.”

Among the new initiatives, Iger said Disney would take a $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games. The companies will work together to create a “huge Disney universe” where consumers can interact with characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Avatar, he said.

“This marks Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games and offers significant opportunities for growth and expansion,” Iger said in a statement.

The partnership signals another attempt at interactive entertainment for Disney, which in 2016 shut down its Disney Interactive Studios, publisher of the toys-come-to-life game series “Infinity,” and announced it would instead license its characters to outside game companies.

Iger also offered details about the long-anticipated streaming launch of the flagship ESPN sports network, which would be bundled with Disney+ and Hulu, and integrate features such as ESPN Bet, fantasy sports and e-commerce. He said it is likely to launch in August 2025.

A day earlier, Disney announced it would form a joint venture with Fox and Warner Bros Discovery to launch a streaming sports service that would combine their broad portfolios of professional and collegiate sports rights as well as their networks, including ESPN, Fox Sports 1 and TNT.

Asked if the moves would assuage Peltz, Iger said the quarterly results and new initiatives showed a team that was motivated, focused and “very optimistic.”

“The last thing that we need right now is to be distracted in terms of our time, our energy, by an activist or activists that, frankly, have a completely different agenda, and don’t understand our company, its assets, even the essence of the Disney brand,” Iger said on CNBC television.

For the just-ended quarter, Disney posted earnings of $1.22 per share, excluding certain items, ahead of analysts’ consensus forecast of 99 cents per share.

Quarterly revenue was comparable to a year ago, at $23.5 billion, but short of projections of $23.6 billion.

Disney said it cut $500 million in costs across its business during the quarter, and that it remains on track to meet or exceed $7.5 billion in savings by the end of the current fiscal year.

The company’s Experiences unit, which includes its theme parks and consumer products, posted record revenue, operating income and operating margins.

Disney reaffirmed guidance that its streaming business would reach profitability by September. It reduced streaming operating losses to $138 million in the quarter, a dramatic improvement over a year ago, when it lost nearly $1 billion. The average monthly revenue per Disney+ user, outside of India, rose 14 cents.

The Disney+ streaming service shed 1.3 million subscribers, nearly double the loss of 700,000 that analysts forecast, after an October price increase.

The company forecast it would gain 5.5 million to 6 million Disney+ subscribers in its second quarter, with positive momentum in per-user revenue.

The Entertainment unit’s streaming business, which also includes Hulu and Disney+ Hotstar in India, reported revenue of $5.5 billion, just above forecasts, and marking a 15% improvement from a year ago.

Overall revenue for the Entertainment segment, which encompasses Disney’s traditional TV business, streaming and film, dropped 7% from a year earlier to $9.98 billion.

Disney’s sports division, which includes ESPN, the ESPN+ streaming service and Star in India, reported an operating loss of $103 million from a deepening loss at Star in India.

Theme park results were buoyed by the opening of the World of Frozen attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland and Zootopia at Shanghai Disney Resort. Higher attendance at those parks helped offset a drop at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The unit reported revenue of $9.1 billion and operating income of $3.1 billion.

(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine in Los AngelesAdditional reporting by Akash Sriram and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru and Svea Herbst in Rhode IslandEditing by Peter Henderson, Kenneth Li and Matthew Lewis)

By Brigid Riley

TOKYO (Reuters) – The U.S. dollar was trading in a tight range on Thursday as traders digested less dovish remarks from policymakers overnight and looked ahead to fresh economic data from the United States.

Attention was also on inflation data out of China in the Asian morning amid concerns about deflation in the world’s second-largest economy.

Overnight, several Fed speakers gave a range of reasons for feeling little urgency to start easing policy in the United States soon or to move quickly once they do.

“For the moment, policy remains well positioned, as we carefully assess the evolving data and outlook,” Boston Fed President Susan Collins said, adding that she believes it will be “appropriate to begin easing policy restraint later this year.”

The market is pricing in an 18.5% chance the Fed will begin to cut rates in March, down significantly from the start of the year, according to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool shows. Traders see a nearly 60% chance of a 25 basis point cut in May.

The greenback slipped overnight after rising above its 100-day moving average on Monday and Tuesday for the first time since late November, propelled by Friday’s surging U.S. jobs data.

The dollar index, a measure of the U.S. currency against six major peers, was last hovering around 103.77.

Given the repricing in markets over the past month, the dollar around 104 “looks spot on,” said Tony Sycamore, market analyst at IG.

The dollar will need a fresh push to test resistance levels around 104.60 and 104.80, with the Consumer Price Index for January released on Feb. 13 the likely first opportunity, he added.

The euro clung around $1.0775 per dollar, holding above its lowest level since Nov. 14 at $1.0722 hit on Tuesday.

Sterling was mostly flat at $1.2631.

The Japanese yen, meanwhile, strengthened 0.07% versus the greenback at 148.05 before comments by the Bank of Japan’s deputy governor later in the day.

Elsewhere in Asia, traders awaited the latest consumer and producer price figures out of China on Thursday, which will show whether the economy is any closer to escaping the clutches of deflation.

Forecasts suggest mixed signals, with year-on-year consumer price deflation expected to have intensified in January but month-over-month prices up at the fastest pace in a year. Annual producer price is forecasted to come in negative.

Still, “core inflation should continue to hold up amid stronger services demand, and new infrastructure-led spending,” said Wei Liang Chang, currency and credit strategist at DBS.

“We expect the Chinese authorities to favour maintaining stability in the yuan going into the Lunar New Year holidays, with dollar/onshore yuan likely to remain within the 7.18-7.22 range for now.”

The offshore Chinese yuan was down 0.11% to $7.2036 per dollar ahead of the data.

In cryptocurrencies, bitcoin rose 0.51% to $44,416.00.

(Reporting by Brigid Riley; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

By Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger hit back at activist investors on Wednesday with a slew of announcements, including a splashy investment in “Fortnite” maker Epic Games and plans to launch an ESPN streaming service in 2025.

Iger revealed the plans after Disney’s board of directors authorized a $3 billion share repurchase program for the current fiscal year, and declared a dividend of 45 cents a share, a 50% increase from the dividend paid in January.

Together they helped drive up Disney’s stock nearly 7% to $106.05 in after-hours trading.

Iger said Disney would take a $1.5 billion stake in Epic Games. The two companies would work together to create a “huge Disney universe” where consumers can interact with characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Avatar, he said.

“This marks Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games and offers significant opportunities for growth and expansion,” Iger said in a statement.

The partnership signals another attempt at interactive entertainment for Disney, which in 2016 shut down its Disney Interactive Studios, publisher of the toys-come-to-life game series “Infinity,” and announced it would instead license its characters to outside game companies.

Iger also offered details about the long-anticipated streaming launch of the flagship ESPN sports network, which would be bundled with Disney+ and Hulu, and integrate features such as ESPN Bet, fantasy sports and e-commerce. He said it is likely to launch in August 2025.

A day earlier, Disney announced it would form a joint venture with Fox and Warner Bros Discovery to launch a streaming sports service that would combine their broad portfolios of professional and collegiate sports rights as well as their networks, including ESPN, Fox Sports 1 and TNT,

“We believe there are a number of sports fans out there that want to watch sports on television, but didn’t want to sign up to the big cable and satellite bundle,” Iger said on a post-earnings conference call.

Disney posted earnings of $1.22 per share, excluding certain items, ahead of analysts’ consensus forecast of 99 cents per share for October through December.

Quarterly revenue was comparable to a year ago, at $23.5 billion, but short of projections of $23.6 billion.

Disney said it cut $500 million in costs across its business during the quarter, and that it remains on track to meet or exceed $7.5 billion in savings by the end of the current fiscal year.

The company is under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz, who is seeking Netflix-like profit for its streaming business, better performance of its movies at the box office, and more details about its plans to make ESPN a dominant digital platform.

“Just one year ago, we outlined an ambitious plan to return the Walt Disney Company to a period of sustained growth and shareholder value creation,” Iger said in a statement. “Our strong performance this past quarter demonstrates we have turned the corner and entered a new era of growth for our company.”

The company’s Experiences unit, which includes its theme parks and consumer products, posted record revenue, operating income and operating margins.

Disney reaffirmed guidance that its streaming business would reach profitability by September. It reduced streaming operating losses to $138 million in the quarter, a dramatic improvement over a year ago, when it lost nearly $1 billion. The average monthly revenue per Disney+ user, outside of India, rose 14 cents.

The Disney+ streaming service shed 1.3 million subscribers, nearly double the loss of 700,000 that analysts forecast, after an October price increase.

The company forecast it would gain 5.5 million to 6 million Disney+ subscribers in its second quarter, with positive momentum in per-user revenue.

The Entertainment unit’s streaming business, which also includes Hulu and Disney+ Hotstar in India, reported revenue of $5.5 billion, just above forecasts, and marking a 15% improvement from a year ago.

Overall revenue for the Entertainment segment, which encompasses Disney’s traditional TV business, streaming and film, dropped 7% from a year earlier to $9.98 billion.

The results were dragged down by lower ad revenue at ABC and lower fees from the continued losses of cable subscribers, partially offset by reduced programming costs associated with the Hollywood strikes. The weak box office performance of “The Marvels” and “Wish” dragged content sales and licensing to a loss.

Disney’s sports division, which includes ESPN, the ESPN+ streaming service and Star in India, reported an operating loss of $103 million from a deepening loss at Star in India.

Theme park results were buoyed by the opening of the World of Frozen attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland and Zootopia at Shanghai Disney Resort. Higher attendance at those parks helped offset a drop at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The unit reported revenue of $9.1 billion and operating income of $3.1 billion.

(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine in Los AngelesAdditional reporting by Akash Sriram and Pushkala Aripaka in BengaluruEditing by Peter Henderson, Kenneth Li and Matthew Lewis)

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Billionaire hedge fund manager William Ackman is launching a new investment portfolio in the U.S., according to a regulatory filing which suggests the fund will mimic his existing hedge fund but offering lower fees and quicker access to capital.

Pershing Square USA will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and available to anyone who can invest in the U.S., including pension funds, endowments and retail investors who are normally excluded from hedge funds.

A pool of potential capital could come from Ackman’s 1.2 million followers on the social media platform X where he discusses various issues as well as smaller endowments which could not write the big checks his original hedge fund required.

Hedge fund investors noted the lower fees and quick access to money could quickly make the new fund popular on Wall Street where high fees and regulatory hurdles have discouraged some investors from choosing hedge funds.

A spokesman for Ackman declined to comment beyond the filing and Ackman did not return a call for comment.

There will be no minimum investment, and the fund will charge a flat 2% fee every year after the first year. That compares with the performance fees of between 15% and 30%routinely charged by hedge funds.

Investors will also be able to get their money out quickly compared to the years it takes to fully redeem assets from Ackman’s legacy hedge fund.

The new format is expected to be considerably more popular with some investors than the old hedge fund. For years, state pension funds and other institutions have pulled out of Ackman’s fund for a number of reasons.

While the filing does not say how much money the fund is expected to raise, its fee schedule for underwriters says how much the banks will be paid if the fund raises as much as $20 billion, suggesting demand could be very high.

Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management currently oversees $18 billion in assets, the bulk in a fund that is publicly listed in Europe.

Ackman, 57, recently ventured beyond telling companies how to run their businesses to focusing on antisemitism on college campuses. His campaign was a factor in the resignation of Harvard University’s president.

The new fund will be structured as a closed-end fund that raises money through an initial public offering and then its shares will trade on the exchange. It will be managed by Ackman, Ryan Israel, the firm’s chief investment officer, and other members of the investment team.

Recent rule changes also now allow funds to use derivatives more. These are tools that have netted Ackman’s investors big gains over the past years through bets on credit markets during COVID and on interest rates last year.

Pershing Square Capital Management generally invests in roughly a dozen stocks and is currently invested in Chipotle Mexican Grill, Universal Music Group and Google parent Alphabet.

As Ackman’s returns surged over the last years, interest in him and his funds has grown. The investor returned an average 31% gain a year over the last five years.

But his investment career has been studded with some notable losers as well, including a bet that Herbalife’s stock price would fall and that Valeant’s stock price would keep climbing.

(Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss, editing by David Ljunggren and David Gregorio)

By Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Walt Disney handily beat Wall Street’s earnings expectations on Wednesday, lifted by record results at its theme parks and continued cost-cutting efforts, as it announced an investment in Fortnite-maker Epic Games.

Even before the company’s investor call, CEO Bob Iger announced in a CNBC interview that the company would take a $1.5 billion stake in Epic and work with the company to create a “huge Disney universe.”

“This marks Disney’s biggest entry ever into the world of games and offers significant opportunities for growth and expansion,” Iger said in a statement.

Disney described an online world in which consumers will be able to play, watch, shop and engage with characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and Avatar.

The announcement signals another attempt at interactive entertainment for Disney, which in 2016 shut down its Disney Interactive Studios, publisher of the toys-come-to-life game series “Infinity,” and announced it would instead license its characters to outside game companies.

Shares of Disney were up 7% in after-hours trading.

Disney’s board of directors also authorized a $3 billion share repurchase program for the current fiscal year, and declared a dividend of 45 cents a share, payable on July 25 to shareholders of record on July 8. That represents a 50% increase from the dividend paid in January.

The company posted earnings of $1.22 per share, excluding certain items, ahead of analysts’ consensus forecast of 99 cents per share for October through December.

Quarterly revenue was comparable to a year ago, at $23.5 billion, but short of projections of $23.6 billion.

Disney said it cut $500 million in costs across its business during the quarter, and that it remains on track to meet or exceed $7.5 billion in savings by the end of the current fiscal year.

The company is under pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz, who is seeking Netflix-like profit for its streaming business, better performance of its movies at the box office, and more details about its plans to make ESPN a dominant digital platform.

“Just one year ago, we outlined an ambitious plan to return the Walt Disney Company to a period of sustained growth and shareholder value creation,” Iger said in a statement. “Our strong performance this past quarter demonstrates we have turned the corner and entered a new era of growth for our company.”

The company’s Experiences unit, which includes its theme parks and consumer products, posted record revenue, operating income and operating margins.

Disney reaffirmed guidance that its streaming business would reach profitability by September. It reduced streaming operating losses to $138 million in the quarter, a dramatic improvement over a year ago, when it lost nearly $1 billion. The average monthly revenue per Disney+ user, outside of India, rose 14 cents.

The Disney+ streaming service shed 1.3 million subscribers, nearly double the loss of 700,000 that analysts forecast, after an October price increase.

The company forecast it would gain 5.5 million to 6 million Disney+ subscribers in its second quarter, with positive momentum in per-user revenue.

The Entertainment unit’s streaming business, which also includes Hulu and Disney+ Hotstar in India, reported revenue of $5.5 billion, just above forecasts, and marking a 15% improvement from a year ago.

Overall revenue for the Entertainment segment, which encompasses Disney’s traditional TV business, streaming and film, dropped 7% from a year earlier to $9.98 billion.

The results were dragged down by lower ad revenue at ABC and lower fees from the continued losses of cable subscribers, partially offset by reduced programming costs associated with the Hollywood strikes. The weak box office performance of “The Marvels” and “Wish,” compared with the strong results a year ago from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” dragged content sales and licensing to a loss.

Disney’s sports division, which includes ESPN, the ESPN+ streaming service and Star in India, reported revenue of $4.8 billion, a gain of 4% from a year ago, but an operating loss of $103 million attributable to a deepening loss at Star in India.

Theme park results were buoyed by the opening of the World of Frozen attraction at Hong Kong Disneyland and Zootopia at Shanghai Disney Resort. Higher attendance at those parks helped offset a drop at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The unit reported revenue of $9.1 billion and operating income of $3.1 billion.

(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Akash Sriram and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson, Kenneth Li and Matthew Lewis)

(Reuters) – Microsoft is launching Microsoft 365 Copilot tool for employees as it looks to get more developers to use artificial intelligence, Business Insider reported on Wednesday.

The company has been running pilot tests to up the usage of AI tools among its community of developers and was planning a wider release of Microsoft 365 to its teams for the first time, the report said, citing an internal message.

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The company’s investment and partnership with OpenAI, along with rapidly growing cloud business thanks to customers looking to build AI applications, has made Microsoft the world’s most valuable company, surpassing Apple.

The Copilot tool is Microsoft’s generative AI assistant, built using OpenAI’s large language models. The Microsoft 365 Copilot product is an iteration of the tool in the company’s productivity suite which includes Word, Outlook and Teams.

In November, Microsoft started selling Copilot, an AI assistant that can summarize an email inbox or craft a slide show, for $30 per month.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)