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US freezes five large offshore wind projects

Ellison offers personal guarantee for son’s bid for Warner Bros WASHINGTON: Oracle tech tycoon Larry Ellison is offering a US$40.4 billion (RM164.2 billion) personal guarantee to back Paramount’s hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, deepening a bidding war with Netflix, a statement said on Monday. The amended proposal, worth a total US$108 billion from the company run by Ellison’s son David, addresses concerns raised by Warner Bros’ board, which saw the Paramount bid as too risky and asked shareholders to accept a competing buyout offer from Netflix. Netflix shocked the industry on Dec 5 by announcing it had sealed an agreement to buy the film and television studio and HBO Max streaming business for nearly US$83 billion, the entertainment industry’s biggest consolidation deal this decade. Three days later, Paramount – whose CEO is David Ellison, son of Larry Ellison, an ally of President Donald Trump – launched an all-cash tender offer valuing the enter tainment giant at US$108.4 billion. But Warner Bros last week described the Paramount offer as risky, saying it was backed by “an unknown and opaque revocable trust” and involved “no Ellison family commitment of any kind”. Warner Bros Discovery also stressed the dependence of the Paramount offer on foreign investors – US$24 billion of the financing comes from Middle East sovereign wealth funds – which could require further government approval. Paramount’s amended proposal is meant to address those concerns and also increases the breakup fee to match Netflix’s US$5.8 billion, which would be payable to Warner Bros if its offer does not clear regulatory review. “Paramount has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to acquiring WBD,”said David Ellison. “Our US$30 per share, fully financed all-cash offer ... continues to be the superior option to maximise value for WBD shareholders.” Unlike Netflix’s offer, Paramount’s bid includes the buyout of cable channels such as CNN, TNT, TBS and Discovery – which would be added to its group of TV assets like CBS, MTV and Comedy Central. The bidding war that will reshape Hollywood and US media has drawn White House attention. Trump has repeatedly weighed in, saying Netflix’s deal “could be a problem” as it would leave Netflix with a huge market share of the film and TV industry. But he has also railed against coverage of the White House from Paramount-owned CBS News, saying neither bidder for Warner Bros had his preference. – AFP

Orsted said its projects were in advanced stages and had been preparing to power around one million homes across three states from next year. “Orsted is evaluating all options to resolve the matter expeditiously, together with its partners,” the company said. Equinor said it was also evaluating the suspension. Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners was not immediately available for comment. New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Connecticut attorney-general William Tong said in separate statements on Monday that states affected by the freeze were reviewing their options. “The Trump administration will look for any excuse to continue its assault on clean energy – and the thousands of good-paying jobs these projects bring – but there is no credible justification for this stoppage,” Hochul said. The National Ocean Industries Association (NOIA), a trade group representing offshore wind developers, urged the administration to end the pause quickly, pointing out that the Pentagon had been involved in approving the projects under past administrations. “The regulatory process involves a rigorous framework for assessing the national security implications of proposed projects, and every project under construction has already undergone review by the Department of Defence with no objections,” NOIA President Erik Milito said. The top Democrats leading the Senate’s environment and energy committees said they would not back a bipartisan permitting reform effort in 2026 unless the administration backs off the offshore wind halt. “The illegal attacks on fully permitted renewable energy projects must be reversed if there is to be any chance that permitting talks resume,” said Rhode Island senator Sheldon Whitehouse and New Mexico senator Martin Heinrich in a joint statement. In August, the administration had ordered Orsted to halt already advanced construction on the Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island, though a federal judge later lifted the ban. Earlier in the year, the administration lifted a stop-work order on Equinor’s Empire Wind in a compromise with New York state that paved the way for a natural gas pipeline Trump supports. Trump campaigned for the White House on a promise to end the offshore wind industry – saying “windmills” are too expensive and hurt whales and birds – while promoting oil and gas. – Reuters

to identify and locate security threats. The pause will give relevant federal agencies “time to work with leaseholders and state partners to assess the possibility of mitigating the national security risks posed by these projects”, the department said in a statement. “The prime duty of the United States government is to protect the American people,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in the statement. The pause will affect Danish energy firm Orsted’s Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind projects, Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ Vineyard Wind 1 project, Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, and Equinor’s Empire Wind 1 project, according to the statement. Shares in Orsted traded down more than 12%, with Dominion and Equinor also trading lower. Dominion said the suspension will threaten grid reliability for its Virginia customers, including military bases and data centres powering artificial intelligence. “These electrons will power the data centres that will win the AI race, support our war fighters, and build the nuclear warships needed to maintain our maritime supremacy,” the company said.

WASHINGTON: Trump’s administration suspended leases on Monday for five large offshore wind projects that are under construction off the US East Coast over what it called national security concerns, sending shares of offshore wind companies plunging. The suspension was the latest blow for offshore wind developers that have faced repeated disruptions to their multi-billion-dollar projects under Trump, who has said he finds wind turbines ugly, costly and inefficient. State officials, Democratic lawmakers, offshore wind companies, and industry trade groups slammed the move as unjustified. The US Department of the Interior said the decision was the result of complaints by the Pentagon that the movement of huge turbine blades for offshore wind projects, as well as the highly reflective towers that hold them up, cause radar interference that can make it hard o Pentagon raises concerns over radar interference from turbine blades and towers Donald

A drone view shows rotor blades and other parts for the ongoing construction of the Revolution Wind offshore wind turbine farm in Connecticut. – REUTERSPIC

Novo’s Wegovy weight-loss pill to test demand from consumers with cash LONDON: Novo Nordisk’s newly approved weight-loss pill version of Wegovy will be a test case for the fast-growing cash-paying consumer market, with plans for the first highly effective oral treatment to go straight to US self-pay channels in early January. pills, if approved, for US$149 a month to US Medicare and Medicaid patients and cash-paying customers who cannot get insurance coverage for the medications. The focus on cash-paying consumers aims to revive Novo’s slowing sales growth and turbocharge the next stage of expansion for the wider market. Novo has lost hundreds of billions of dollars in market capitalisation since mid-2024 amid rising competition. “We’ve never launched this way before,” Moore said. Lilly is awaiting US approval for its weight-loss pill, which could come as early as March. Novo hopes the once-daily oral dose of Wegovy could be a turning point in attracting people who were not motivated to start treatment with GLP-1 injections. Novo does not expect the pill to cannibalise its injectable Wegovy business.

“We have a self-pay offer from day one for US patients,” David Moore, Novo’s executive vice-president for US operations, told Reuters in an interview ahead of the pill’s approval. Novo plans to launch the Wegovy pill on multiple channels – including retail pharmacies such as CVS and Walmart , online platforms like GoodRx and telehealth partners including Ro and WeightWatchers – so people can start treatment without waiting for insurance coverage, he said. The share of US Wegovy prescriptions – until now injectable versions – via self-pay channels has jumped from about 5% to double digits this year, Moore said.

The pill was granted US Food and Drug Administration approval on Monday, a boost for Danish drugmaker Novo as it looks to claw back ground lost to American rival Eli Lilly. A key part of making it a success will be attracting cash-paying consumers, a stark shift from a business model where drug pricing is managed through health insurance plans, which has dominated for decades. Under a deal with Donald Trump’s administration in November, Novo and Lilly agreed to sell starter doses of their weight-loss

In the past, “the mindset was more traditional – the product is available, you wait for insurers to cover it, and it’s at the retail pharmacy”, he said. Novo is facing intensifying competition from Lilly’s rival obesity drug Zepbound, known outside the US as Mounjaro, and pressure from cheaper unapproved compounded versions of semaglutide, the active ingredient in the Wegovy injection and pill.

Analysts and industry executives also do not expect oral GLP-1s to fully replace injections, but say pills could capture 20% of the global obesity drug market by 2030. “There are people who are needle-phobic, people who develop‘injection fatigue,‘ and people who don’t see themselves as sick and feel an injectable is too serious,” said Zachariah Reitano, CEO of telehealth company Ro. – Reuters