Starbucks announced another stage in its leadership shake-up on Tuesday, as CEO Brian Niccol will bring in two more executives who spent time at his former employer Taco Bell while dividing key leadership roles.

“As we focus on our ‘Back to Starbucks’ plan, we need a new operating model for our retail team, with clear ownership and accountability and an appropriate scope for each role,” Niccol said in a letter to employees shared on the company’s website.

Before spending six years at Chipotle, Niccol served as CEO of Yum Brands’ Taco Bell. Since starting at Starbucks in September, he has already poached some of his former colleagues to help with his transformation of the coffee giant. For example, he tapped Chipotle and Yum Brands alum Tressie Lieberman as Starbucks’ global chief brand officer in the fall.

The newest changes to the Starbucks organization include splitting the role of North American president into two jobs. The company’s current North American president, Sara Trilling, will depart the company. Trilling has been with Starbucks since 2002.

Starting in February, Meredith Sandland will hold the role of chief store development officer. Sandland is currently CEO of Empower Delivery, a restaurant software company. Previously, she served as chief operating officer of Kitchen United and as Taco Bell’s chief development officer.

Additionally, Mike Grams will join the company in February as North America chief stores officer. Grams has been with Taco Bell for more than 30 years, starting as a restaurant general manager and working his way up to become the chain’s global chief operating officer, according to his LinkedIn.

Both Sandland and Grams will be tasked with implementing Niccol’s vision to go “back to Starbucks.” The strategy includes decreasing service times to four minutes per order, making its stores more welcoming and cozy, as well as slashing the menu.

Arthur Valdez, Starbucks’ chief supply officer, also plans to leave the company. He joined in 2023 after seven years at Target. Starbucks has already identified his replacement and will share that news in the coming weeks, Niccol said in the letter.

Starbucks is expected to report its fiscal first-quarter earnings after the bell on Tuesday. Wall Street is expecting the company’s same-store sales to fall for the fourth consecutive quarter as consumers in the U.S. and China opt to get their caffeine fix elsewhere.

Amazon has tapped Whole Foods CEO Jason Buechel to oversee its sprawling grocery business, the company announced Monday.

Doug Herrington, the company’s worldwide retail chief, wrote in a memo to employees posted to Amazon’s site that Buechel will “take on an expanded responsibility leading Worldwide Grocery Stores” while continuing to lead Whole Foods. Amazon acquired the upscale grocer for $13.7 billion in 2017.

“In his time as CEO, Jason has unlocked our ability to make high-quality natural and organic groceries more affordable and accessible to customers, helping WFM achieve record sales growth and expand to over 535 locations,” Herrington said.

Buechel became CEO of Whole Foods in 2022 after co-founder John Mackey retired from the company. In his expanded role leading Amazon’s grocery business, Buechel will succeed Tony Hoggett, who left Amazon last October to join Wondery, a food delivery startup led by serial entrepreneur Marc Lore.

Buechel will oversee not only Whole Foods, but also Amazon’s larger grocery business, which includes its line of Fresh supermarkets, Go cashierless stores and online grocery service.

Amazon has long been determined to cement itself as a grocery destination for shoppers. Since acquiring Whole Foods, it has launched its own chain of Fresh supermarkets, and it’s taken steps to unify its online and brick-and-mortar grocery operations while appealing to a broader swath of consumers.

Herrington said he’s “incredibly energized” by the momentum of Amazon’s grocery business.

“Since creating a single WW Grocery Stores organization in 2022, we have made notable progress in our vision to make grocery shopping simpler, faster, and more affordable for customers,” Herrington wrote in the memo. “We’ve taken steps to integrate our huge grocery selection across our broader logistics network, and create a more seamless experience for customers, especially Prime members. This work will continue under Jason’s leadership.”

The company has further tweaked its grocery division in recent years by shuttering some Fresh and Go stores as part of Jassy’s broader cost-cutting efforts. Last April, Amazon said it would begin removing its pricey and elaborate cashierless checkout system from Fresh stores in the U.S. Instead, it has focused on selling the technology, called Just Walk Out, to third-party retailers.

Amazon has also brought its Fresh and Whole Foods grocery businesses closer together since the 2017 acquisition. The company last October began piloting a new concept at one of its Whole Foods locations outside Philadelphia, where it attached an automated warehouse onto the store that lets Amazon shoppers purchase goods from brands not typically stocked at the organic grocer.

Shares of chipmaker Nvidia plunged Monday, for its worst day since the global market sell-off in March 2020 triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

The plunge came amid a global tech stock sell-off over fears about America’s leadership in the AI sector. Those fears were largely sparked by advances claimed by a Chinese artificial intelligence startup.

Shares of the chipmaker, one of the primary beneficiaries of the artificial intelligence boom in tech stocks, plummeted as much as 18%. That pushed Nvidia’s market value below $3 trillion. Still, shares of the firm are up more than 480% over the last two years.

The drop accounted for nearly $600 billion in lost market value though. It is the biggest market value drop in U.S. stock market history, according to Bloomberg. And nearly double the second worst drop in history, also seen by Nvidia shareholders in September 2024, when the company shed $279 billion in value.

For some perspective, the amount of market value lost by Nvidia on Monday is more than the entire market value of Exxon Mobil, Costco, Home Depot or Bank of America.

Due to the AI-fueled surge in mega-cap tech stocks, Nvidia catapulted into the top five most valuable companies in the world in 2023. The surge didn’t stop there, with the company soaring past Alphabet, Microsoft and the most valuable company in the world: Apple. At its most recent peak, Nvidia reached a towering $3.7 trillion.

With Monday’s losses, Apple has retaken the title of world’s most valuable company and Nvidia’s value sank to around $2.9 trillion.

Nvidia’s drop was also a drag on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which finished the day higher but began the day in the red. Nvidia joined the prestigious 30-stock index in November, replacing rival chipmaker Intel. The Nasdaq Composite, which more closely tracks publicly traded tech companies, slid around 3%.

The global sell-off in tech stocks also meant the S&P Technology sector fell into the red for the year so far, the only sector lower over that time.

DeepSeek on Monday said it would temporarily limit user registrations “due to large-scale malicious attacks” on its services, though existing users will be able to log in as usual.

The Chinese artificial intelligence startup has generated a lot of buzz in recent weeks as a fast-growing rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and other leading AI tools.

Earlier on Monday, DeepSeek took over rival OpenAI’s coveted spot as the most-downloaded free app in the U.S. on Apple’s App Store, dethroning ChatGPT for DeepSeek’s own AI Assistant. It helped inspire a significant selloff in global tech stocks.

Buzz about the company, which was founded in 2023 and released its R1 model last week, has spread to tech analysts, investors and developers, who say that the hype — and ensuing fear of falling behind in the ever-changing AI hype cycle — may be warranted. Especially in the era of the generative AI arms race, where tech giants and startups alike are racing to ensure they don’t fall behind in a market predicted to top $1 trillion in revenue within a decade.

DeepSeek reportedly grew out of a Chinese hedge fund’s AI research unit in April 2023 to focus on large language models and reaching artificial general intelligence, or AGI — a branch of AI that equals or surpasses human intellect on a wide range of tasks, which OpenAI and its rivals say they’re fast pursuing.

The buzz around DeepSeek especially began to spread last week, when the startup released R1, its reasoning model that rivals OpenAI’s o1. It’s open-source, meaning that any AI developer can use it, and has rocketed to the top of app stores and industry leaderboards, with users praising its performance and reasoning capabilities.

The startup’s models were notably built despite the U.S. curbing chip exports to China three times in three years. Estimates differ on exactly how much DeepSeek’s R1 costs, or how many GPUs went into it. Jefferies analysts estimated that a recent version had a “training cost of only US$5.6m (assuming US$2/H800 hour rental cost). That is less than 10% of the cost of Meta’s Llama.”

But regardless of the specific numbers, reports agree that the model was developed at a fraction of the cost of rival models by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others.

As a result, the AI sector is awash with questions, including whether the industry’s increasing number of astronomical funding rounds and billion-dollar valuations is necessary — and whether a bubble is about to burst.

When the Trump administration announced a return-to-office mandate this week, it stated Americans “deserve the highest-quality service from people who love our country.”

Federal employees like Frank Paulsen say that comment suggests they aren’t hardworking or loyal.

Paulsen, 50, is the vice president of the Local 1641 chapter of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a federal workers union. He works as a nurse at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Spokane, Washington, and has been teleworking three days a week since 2022. His main job involves processing referrals to send patients to community health care partners, something he can do remotely.

Paulsen said he has been a federal employee for 22 years and is a disabled veteran himself. And he doesn’t think anyone he works with isn’t measuring up.

“I do not believe that I would subscribe to that belief at all,” Paulsen said. “My co-workers are very diligent about getting the work done.”

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order mandating all federal agencies order their employees back into the office full time “as soon as practicable” alongside a directive to end remote-work arrangements except as deemed necessary.

Late Wednesday, administration officials released a more detailed directive demanding the termination of all remote-work arrangements, alongside a statement that it’s a “glaring roadblock” to increasing government performance that most federal offices are “virtually abandoned.”

The GOP has long bemoaned the state of the federal bureaucracy. But the Trump administration appears to be making good on promises to overhaul it, in part supported by Elon Musk, Trump’s biggest donor, who is now serving as a semiofficial adviser.

“This is about fairness: it’s not fair that most people have to come to work to build products or provide services while Federal Government employees get to stay home,” Musk wrote on X following the order’s signing.

Though it represents just a sliver of the nation’s overall workforce, the U.S. government is the country’s largest employer, with more than 2 million civilian employees. Some 162,000 workers alone are located in Washington, D.C., according to data from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and federal workers make up over 40% of the city’s workforce.

But most federal workers, like Paulsen, actually work in other parts of the country: Only 7.56% of federal employees work in D.C.

Yet whatever their location, many workers like Paulsen are responding to Trump’s RTO order with concern. There are practical worries: Paulsen has questioned whether the office he works in, which the VA leases, has enough seats for everyone employed by his division. Another VA employee, who requested anonymity because she didn’t want her program targeted, echoed space concerns, especially in settings where sensitive medical information is discussed.

Paulsen said he is planning for a return to the office five days a week no matter what.

“The guidance we give our employees is basically, don’t put yourself in a position to get fired,” he said.

Morale has never been lower on one metastatic cancer research team within the VA, an employee there told NBC News. She requested her name not be used because she didn’t want her team to lose funding. Two people on her team are remote workers and the employee said she works from home two days a week, doing administrative tasks and data analysis.

Guidance was changing by the hour on Thursday, she said. With a contract that renews every three years, the employee said she was told by management at one point to start looking for new jobs, then was later alerted by a higher-up that she fell into the VA’s list of exemptions.

The fate of her remote colleagues and telework options remains unclear, she said. They work with veterans across the country, and the team worried for those whose treatments could be canceled without them.

“It just doesn’t feel good to go into work knowing that you don’t know if you’re going to have a job in a few months,” she said.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture employee who works in Washington, D.C., said he and his colleagues are making backup plans. They all have telework arrangements, and some work remotely — hourslong drives from the nearest federal office. He views the executive order as an attempt to force people to quit. He wanted to remain anonymous because he fears retaliation.

“The feeling is there’s an ax over our heads,” he said.

The Trump administration has said that just 6% of federal employees now work in person. But according to an August report from the Office of Management and Budget, among federal workers eligible for telework — and excluding those who are fully remote — roughly 61% of work hours are now in person.

Among agencies, the Department of Agriculture had the highest percentage of in-person work hours, at 81%; while the Environmental Protection Agency had the lowest, at about 36%.

The Biden administration had already been keeping an eye on return-to-office implementation as the Covid-19 pandemic waned, with regular reports being issued on how much telework was being used by each federal agency.

In December, an OPM survey found 75% of telework-eligible employees had participated in telework in fiscal year 2023, though that was 12 percentage points lower than in fiscal year 2022.

The report said there had been positive results from a hybrid setup.

“Agencies report notable improvements in recruitment and retention, enhanced employee performance and organizational productivity, and considerable cost savings when utilizing telework as an element of their hybrid work environments,” it said.

A GOP-sponsored House Oversight Committee report this week accused the Biden administration of exaggerating in-office attendance, citing “physical and anecdotal evidence,” while accusing it of taking a “pliant” posture toward federal union groups as they sought more generous telework arrangements.

Even as it praised Trump’s desire to improve federal workforce accountability and performance, the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan think tank focused on government effectiveness, said in a statement that the return-to-office order was an example of overreach.

‘While any move toward making the government more responsive to the public should be welcomed, it said, the actions announced in Trump’s workforce-related executive orders put that goal “farther out of reach.”

On a press call with reporters this week, Partnership CEO Max Stier said telework is necessary to attract more qualified employees who already tend to enjoy higher salaries in the private sector.

In a follow-up statement, Stier warned of the dramatic impact the order will have on career civil servants’ personal lives.

“The affected employees are everyday people who have to support themselves and their families, and the abrupt and rushed approach chosen here will have a traumatizing impact on not just them but their colleagues who remain in their roles serving the public, as well,” Stier said.

Social media forums frequented by government workers have also lit up, with many raising questions about how agencies were expected to comply given that many have been downsizing their office space.

Even before the pandemic ushered in widespread work-from-home policies, 2010 legislation cited telework for federal employees as a way to reduce office costs and promote resilience in emergency situations, as long as employees continued to meet performance expectations.

The Wall Street Journal reported the government was looking to sell off many of its commercial real estate holdings. NBC News could not independently confirm the report.

Unions representing federal employees have slammed the new policy, saying it would undermine the government’s effectiveness and make it harder for agencies to recruit top talent.

“Rather than undoing decades of progress in workplace policies that have benefited both employees and their employers, I encourage the Trump administration to rethink its approach and focus on what it can do to make government programs work better for the American people,” Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement.

The AFGE’s contracts with major government firms, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education, establish procedures for telework and remote work in accordance with the 2010 law. The union said the order “doesn’t appear to violate any collective bargaining agreements,” and whether it would file a lawsuit depends on how the policy is implemented.

“If they violate our contracts, we will take appropriate action to uphold our rights,” the AFGE said in a statement.

The NFFE, Paulsen’s union, likewise said the executive orders would “impair critical services” and viewed the termination of remote work arrangements as an attempt to force employees to quit.

“I am worried about this administration violating those contracts with regard to telework,” Randy Erwin, the national president of the NFFE, told NBC News.

One sector that would stand to benefit from the mandate is local business in downtown Washington, D.C.

Gerren Price, the president of the DowntownDC Business Improvement District, which covers an area to the east of the White House, said only about half of the office space within its boundaries is occupied. Price said 27% of that office space is owned and operated by the federal government.

From coffee shops to dry cleaners, local businesses that used to cater to a nine-to-five crowd have closed, Price said.

Leona Agouridis, the president of the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District, which encompasses an area between the White House and Dupont Circle a mile to the north, said the neighborhood hasn’t felt as busy as it did before the pandemic.

“This will go a long way in bringing back vibrancy that we have lost over the last five years,” Agouridis said.

At the Tune Inn, a restaurant and bar that has served D.C.’s Capitol Hill neighborhood since 1947, general manager Stephanie Hulbert is bringing back a federal worker lunch discount, which the establishment had done away with after the pandemic because no one used it. She knows this policy will change many federal workers’ lives, but hopes they can help each other out.

“I really hope that when these workers do come back, they come and support the small businesses that need it in D.C.,” Hulbert said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to get the morale up to where it needs to be.”

Adidas plans to cut as many as 500 jobs in a bid to simplify its business, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to CNBC on Thursday. 

The layoffs will affect employees at Adidas’ headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, and represent nearly 9% of the 5,800 staffers it employs at the location. 

The company has not determined how many jobs it will cut, but up to 500 positions could be affected, a source told CNBC. Adidas will decide the final number when it is further along in its process. 

Employees learned about the cuts on Wednesday, just one day after Adidas announced what it called better-than-expected preliminary profit results for its holiday quarter and 19% sales growth. It is expecting sales to grow to 5.97 billion euros, ahead of the 5.68 billion euros that analysts had expected ahead of the announcement, according to LSEG. 

In a statement to CNBC, a spokesperson said Adidas’ current operating model has become “too complex” and the cuts are designed to simplify operations. 

“To set adidas up for long-term success we are now starting to look at how we align our operating model with the reality of how we work. This may have an impact on the organizational structure and number of roles based at our HQ in Herzogenaurach,” the spokesperson said. “We will now start to work closely with the Works Council to ensure that any changes are handled with the utmost respect and care of all employees.” 

The layoffs are not part of a cost-cutting program, but more of an effort to adapt its business to how it has changed over the past couple of years, the spokesperson said.

Adidas has been restructuring its business and capped off 2024 on a high note with sales and profits that came in higher than analysts and the company expected. 

It has leaned on its classic Samba and Gazelle styles to boost sales and has also benefited from a slowdown at Nike, its biggest competitor. 

Universal is hoping the excitement around “Wicked” can hang around — for good.

The movie studio faces a unique challenge: promote and release two build-on films just one year apart. Part one of the “Wicked” cinematic project dazzled at the box office, collecting more than $700 million in global ticket sales through Sunday. Not only did it have the highest opening of any theatrical Broadway adaptation, but it is also now the highest-grossing film based on a Broadway musical, according to data from Comscore.

The question for Universal ahead of the release of part two — “Wicked: For Good,” due out in November — is how to keep its biggest fans engaged without alienating its more casual audiences.

Marketing experts told CNBC that pent-up demand for the movie, combined with the first film’s success, makes promoting its follow-up much easier.

″[Generating] close to $500 million is an amazing feat for that film,” said Mike Polydoros, CEO at cinematic marketing agency PaperAirplane Media. “They have all these fans who have seen the movie over and over again and came to the sing-alongs. They’ve marked their calendars for the second part of the movie.

“So, the marketing of it is more about keeping that group engaged and keeping them [informed] … and giving them just enough nuggets without oversaturating,” Polydoros said.

Universal already has one thing working in its favor: When it launches the marketing campaign for “Wicked: For Good,” it will be able to add best picture Academy Award nominee to its franchise promotions.

On Thursday, the studio snared 10 nominations for “Wicked,” including for lead actress, supporting actress, film editing, sound, score, production design, costume, visual effects and makeup and hairstyling.

The overall marketing plan for “Wicked: For Good” is expected to be similar to the playbook used for “Wicked” with a few alterations to keep it fresh and avoid oversaturating audiences.

Universal jumpstarted the first film’s advertising strategy with a teaser trailer that ran during the Super Bowl in February. The nearly 90-second spot gave fans their first glimpse of Oz, as well as Cynthia Erivo’s triumphant battle cry from “Defying Gravity,” the closing number of the first act of the Broadway musical.

“There wasn’t a debate,” Michael Moses, Universal’s chief marketing officer, told Variety back in November. “When you’re working on materials, you always have those kinds of conversations. But if there’s a single sound associated with ‘Wicked,’ it’s certainly that end to ‘Defying Gravity.’ … Ending that spot with it felt assured and inescapably the right call.”

The Super Bowl ad spot was followed up by another teaser trailer at the annual CinemaCon in Las Vegas in April and a quick appearance from Elphaba (Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande). The co-stars attended the Met Gala in New York City a month later, walking the red carpet together and closing out the evening with a surprise performance. Then, in July, the pair were spotted at the Paris Olympics, which was televised by NBC.

“Our filmmakers and our talent were very accessible throughout this process,” said Dave O’Connor, president of franchise management and brand strategy at Universal. “Many of them participated in various parts of our campaign, from the straight marketing that we did for the film, but also with our partnerships and some of the unique opportunities that our company brought to the table. So I think that was also something that felt organic and authentic to the process.”

Universal peppered audiences with different iterations of the film’s trailer and teaser videos throughout the summer, leading into its big marketing push — more than 400 corporate brand partnerships. Retail stores were flooded with pink and green merchandise, from apparel, accessories, footwear, beauty and costumes to home decor, toys and even one-of-a-kind cars. The collections ranged in price, allowing consumers to choose from affordable and luxury options to show off their love of all things “Wicked.”

“I get asked a lot, ‘What is the state of exhibition?‘” said Brandon Jones, president and chief marketing officer of FilmFrog. “And I think that ‘Wicked’ is the perfect example of this. The state of exhibition is, and has always been, to influence culture.”

With nine months before the release of “Wicked: For Good,” Universal will look to repeat the success of the first film’s marketing campaign, but with some variation.

“I think our intent would not be to replicate, but certainly to evolve and to continue to do incredible work and find the right balance of partnerships that can innovate and really match the heart of the next film,” O’Connor said.

Like “Wicked,” “Wicked: For Good” arrives the weekend before Thanksgiving. This gives the film breathing room for a solid opening weekend before Disney drops its traditional animated release the day before the holiday. This year, it will be “Zootopia 2.”

“Wicked: For Good” will then be able to capitalize on school vacations and family gatherings to fuel a strong second week of ticket sales — the same strategy employed for “Wicked” amid the surprise release of Disney’s “Moana 2” on the Thanksgiving holiday last year.

Cinemas will also look to capitalize on the prior success of “Wicked” when promoting “Wicked: For Good.” While Universal will provide creative assets such as trailers, standees and other digital and physical materials, theaters big and small will look for ways to lure audiences to their locations with special collectible popcorn buckets and unique food and drink options.

“Until, really, the last [decade], exhibitors just relied on studios to do most of the marketing and that really started to change around 2016 or 2017,” said Jones. “Because the relationship between the film and the moviegoer is actually managed by exhibitors. Because you don’t buy your ticket for ‘Wicked’ from Universal. You buy it from your local movie theater.”

Jones noted that the quick release of “Wicked: For Good,” almost exactly one year after “Wicked,” allows movie theaters to engage with guests more acutely.

Using ticket sales data, cinemas can market on a one-to-one basis during the 12-month period between releases to not only promote the second film, but also entice moviegoers to return for other in-theater programming that is similar to “Wicked.”

“It’s one thing to market the movie, it’s another thing to market the experience of going to the movies,” Jones added.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Wicked” and owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

Universal is hoping the excitement around “Wicked” can hang around — for good.

The movie studio faces a unique challenge: promote and release two build-on films just one year apart. Part one of the “Wicked” cinematic project dazzled at the box office, collecting more than $700 million in global ticket sales through Sunday. Not only did it have the highest opening of any theatrical Broadway adaptation, but it is also now the highest-grossing film based on a Broadway musical, according to data from Comscore.

The question for Universal ahead of the release of part two — “Wicked: For Good,” due out in November — is how to keep its biggest fans engaged without alienating its more casual audiences.

Marketing experts told CNBC that pent-up demand for the movie, combined with the first film’s success, makes promoting its follow-up much easier.

″[Generating] close to $500 million is an amazing feat for that film,” said Mike Polydoros, CEO at cinematic marketing agency PaperAirplane Media. “They have all these fans who have seen the movie over and over again and came to the sing-alongs. They’ve marked their calendars for the second part of the movie.

“So, the marketing of it is more about keeping that group engaged and keeping them [informed] … and giving them just enough nuggets without oversaturating,” Polydoros said.

Universal already has one thing working in its favor: When it launches the marketing campaign for “Wicked: For Good,” it will be able to add best picture Academy Award nominee to its franchise promotions.

On Thursday, the studio snared 10 nominations for “Wicked,” including for lead actress, supporting actress, film editing, sound, score, production design, costume, visual effects and makeup and hairstyling.

The overall marketing plan for “Wicked: For Good” is expected to be similar to the playbook used for “Wicked” with a few alterations to keep it fresh and avoid oversaturating audiences.

Universal jumpstarted the first film’s advertising strategy with a teaser trailer that ran during the Super Bowl in February. The nearly 90-second spot gave fans their first glimpse of Oz, as well as Cynthia Erivo’s triumphant battle cry from “Defying Gravity,” the closing number of the first act of the Broadway musical.

“There wasn’t a debate,” Michael Moses, Universal’s chief marketing officer, told Variety back in November. “When you’re working on materials, you always have those kinds of conversations. But if there’s a single sound associated with ‘Wicked,’ it’s certainly that end to ‘Defying Gravity.’ … Ending that spot with it felt assured and inescapably the right call.”

The Super Bowl ad spot was followed up by another teaser trailer at the annual CinemaCon in Las Vegas in April and a quick appearance from Elphaba (Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande). The co-stars attended the Met Gala in New York City a month later, walking the red carpet together and closing out the evening with a surprise performance. Then, in July, the pair were spotted at the Paris Olympics, which was televised by NBC.

“Our filmmakers and our talent were very accessible throughout this process,” said Dave O’Connor, president of franchise management and brand strategy at Universal. “Many of them participated in various parts of our campaign, from the straight marketing that we did for the film, but also with our partnerships and some of the unique opportunities that our company brought to the table. So I think that was also something that felt organic and authentic to the process.”

Universal peppered audiences with different iterations of the film’s trailer and teaser videos throughout the summer, leading into its big marketing push — more than 400 corporate brand partnerships. Retail stores were flooded with pink and green merchandise, from apparel, accessories, footwear, beauty and costumes to home decor, toys and even one-of-a-kind cars. The collections ranged in price, allowing consumers to choose from affordable and luxury options to show off their love of all things “Wicked.”

“I get asked a lot, ‘What is the state of exhibition?‘” said Brandon Jones, president and chief marketing officer of FilmFrog. “And I think that ‘Wicked’ is the perfect example of this. The state of exhibition is, and has always been, to influence culture.”

With nine months before the release of “Wicked: For Good,” Universal will look to repeat the success of the first film’s marketing campaign, but with some variation.

“I think our intent would not be to replicate, but certainly to evolve and to continue to do incredible work and find the right balance of partnerships that can innovate and really match the heart of the next film,” O’Connor said.

Like “Wicked,” “Wicked: For Good” arrives the weekend before Thanksgiving. This gives the film breathing room for a solid opening weekend before Disney drops its traditional animated release the day before the holiday. This year, it will be “Zootopia 2.”

“Wicked: For Good” will then be able to capitalize on school vacations and family gatherings to fuel a strong second week of ticket sales — the same strategy employed for “Wicked” amid the surprise release of Disney’s “Moana 2” on the Thanksgiving holiday last year.

Cinemas will also look to capitalize on the prior success of “Wicked” when promoting “Wicked: For Good.” While Universal will provide creative assets such as trailers, standees and other digital and physical materials, theaters big and small will look for ways to lure audiences to their locations with special collectible popcorn buckets and unique food and drink options.

“Until, really, the last [decade], exhibitors just relied on studios to do most of the marketing and that really started to change around 2016 or 2017,” said Jones. “Because the relationship between the film and the moviegoer is actually managed by exhibitors. Because you don’t buy your ticket for ‘Wicked’ from Universal. You buy it from your local movie theater.”

Jones noted that the quick release of “Wicked: For Good,” almost exactly one year after “Wicked,” allows movie theaters to engage with guests more acutely.

Using ticket sales data, cinemas can market on a one-to-one basis during the 12-month period between releases to not only promote the second film, but also entice moviegoers to return for other in-theater programming that is similar to “Wicked.”

“It’s one thing to market the movie, it’s another thing to market the experience of going to the movies,” Jones added.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Wicked” and owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.

American Express’ affluent cardholders got comfortable spending more freely again late last year, Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC.

Spending on AmEx cards jumped 8% year over year in the fourth quarter after slowing from a 7% growth rate early in the year to 6% during the second and third quarters, according to the firm’s earnings presentation.

While the year-end pickup was seen across all customer segments and geographies, it was especially fueled by millennials and Gen Z users, where transaction volumes jumped 16%, up from 12% in the third quarter.

Older groups were more restrained with their cards. Gen X customers spent 7% more in the fourth quarter, while baby boomers saw billings rise just 4%.

“We had very strong growth from Gen Z and millennials, and that 2 percentage point acceleration gives us a lot of optimism for 2025,” Le Caillec said.

Elevated transaction levels have continued into the first three weeks of this year, he added.

Younger Americans are said to spend more on experiences rather than goods, and that is reflected in the results from AmEx, which along with rival card issuer JPMorgan Chase, dominate the market for high-end credit cards.

Travel and entertainment billings rose 11% in the quarter, compared with 8% for good and services. The boost in travel came from airline spending, which rose 13%, with spending for business class and first class airfares up 19%, according to Le Caillec.

AmEx shares fell more than 2% in midday trading Friday after the company reported earnings and revenue that were roughly in line with analysts’ expectations. Shares of the New York-based company have been on a tear over the past year, hitting a 52-week high on Thursday.

“We are encouraged by accelerating billings growth as we believe it will be a key factor for Amex to meet its aspirational target of at least 10% revenue growth,” William Blair analysts led by Cristopher Kennedy wrote Friday in a research note. “We remain buyers on any pullback.”

Target on Friday said it’s rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion programs — including some that aim to make its workforce and merchandise better reflect its customers.

In a memo sent to its employees, the Minneapolis-based retailer said it will end its three-year DEI goals, stop reports to external diversity-focused groups like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and end a program focused on carrying more products from Black- or minority-owned businesses.

The memo was sent to staff Friday and viewed by CNBC. It was written by Kiera Fernandez, chief community impact and equity officer at Target.

“Many years of data, insights, listening and learning have been shaping this next chapter in our strategy,” she said in the memo. “And as a retailer that serves millions of consumers every day, we understand the importance of staying in step with the evolving external landscape, now and in the future — all in service of driving Target’s growth and winning together.”

A Target spokesperson said there are no job cuts as part of Friday’s DEI announcement.

With the move, the discounter joins a growing list of companies including Tractor Supply, Facebook’s parent Meta, Walmart and McDonald’s that have dropped DEI-related pledges and goals. Some of those companies faced pressure from conservative activists or cited the Supreme Court’s ruling blocking affirmative action at colleges — which may not compel corporations to take any action on the issue.

The company’s decision also follows President Donald Trump’s executive orders, made almost immediately after his Inauguration, to end the government’s DEI programs and put federal officials overseeing those initiatives on leave.

Not all companies have joined the trend. On Thursday, Costco said at its annual meeting that more than 98% of shareholders voted against a proposal to review risks of its DEI programs. Costco’s board of director had urged shareholders to vote it down.

Many corporations’ diversity commitments, including Target’s go back for years and were strengthened in the wake of the “Black Lives Matter” protests and the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

Four years ago, Target CEO Brian Cornell said the murder — which happened just a short distance from Target’s headquarters in its hometown — felt personal. He said it motivated him to step up Target’s diversity and equity efforts.

“That could have been one of my Target team members,” he said at the time, recounting his thoughts as he watched the video of Floyd taking his final breaths.

Target expanded its diversity goals at the time, saying it would increase representation of Black employees across its workforce by 20% over the next year. The company started a new program to help Black entrepreneurs develop, test and scale products to sell at mass retailers like Target. And it promised to spend more than $2 billion with Black-owned businesses by 2025, from construction companies that build or remodel stores to advertising firms that market its brand.

The company and its foundation also gave $10 million to support social justice groups, including the National Urban League and African American Leadership Forum.

On its website in recent years, Target has touted Cornell’s and the company’s “steadfast commitment to stand with Black families and fight against racism.” In other posts on its website, the company provided updates on its efforts to add more officers of color, reduce turnover of people of color, and increase promotions of women and minorities.

One post was titled “We Are Never Done,” and started off with a quote from Black poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou.

Target dissolved the goals at a time when conservative politicians and activists have increasingly turned their focus on company efforts to be more inclusive.

Target had already felt the heat from conservative groups over some of its other longstanding initiatives. About two years ago, the retailer pulled items from its Pride Month collection after backlash and threats to employees about some merchandise it sold, such as “tuck-friendly” swimsuits for trans people.

Cornell said in 2023 that the backlash contributed to weaker quarterly sales for the company. He said, however, that it would continue to mark heritage months with merchandise collections, such as Black History Month and Pride Month.

Target’s employee base had grown more diverse in recent years.

About 43% of Target’s workforce was white, 31% was Hispanic/Latino, 15% was Black and 5% was Asian in the fiscal year that ended in early February 2024, according to the company’s most recent diversity report.

The company’s leadership team is less diverse than its overall workforce. Seventy-two percent of the leadership was white, followed by 11% Hispanic/Latino, 11% Asian and 6% Black.