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(Reuters) -Apple has landed U.S. broadcast rights to Formula 1 in a five-year deal that would help the tech giant bolster its streaming service with one of the country's fastest-growing sports, following the success of its Brad Pitt-starrer "F1: The Movie". The two sides did not disclose the financial details of the deal on Friday. CNBC reported it was for $140 million a year, much higher than the $90 million Walt Disney-owned ESPN was paying per season for F1, which it has broadcast since 2018. Apple's deal begins next year. The iPhone maker will stream F1 on Apple TV, its critically acclaimed streaming service that won 22 Emmy Awards this year but lacks the scale to compete with industry leaders such as Netflix and Disney+ despite billions of dollars in investment. F1 joins Apple's growing sports lineup, which includes Major League Soccer and "Friday Night Baseball." Live sports have become a key battleground in the streaming industry as platforms compete for costly rights that attract loyal fans, reduce churn, and increase ad revenue. "We're thrilled to expand our relationship with Formula 1 and offer Apple TV subscribers in the U.S. front row access to one of the most exciting and fastest-growing sports on the planet," said Eddy Cue, Apple's senior vice president of services. As part of the agreement, Apple TV will host all practice, qualifying, Sprint sessions, and Grands Prix. Select races and all practice sessions throughout the season will also be available to watch for free in the Apple TV app. The deal follows the box office success of the Apple-produced F1 film, which has grossed more than $628 million worldwide, according to IMDb's Box Office Mojo. The movie will make its global streaming debut on Apple TV on December 12. Formula 1 added nearly 90 million new fans last year, with China showing the biggest percentage rise following the sport's post-COVID return to Shanghai, according to Nielsen Sports data. (Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru and Alan Baldwin in London; Additional reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona and Leroy Leo)

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By Svea Herbst-Bayliss BOSTON (Reuters) -Activist investor HoldCo Asset Management has built a sizable position in Eastern Bankshares and wants the storied Boston financial institution to put itself up for sale, instead of buying up other banks, according to people familiar with the matter and documents seen by Reuters. HoldCo, which built its 3% stake in Eastern in recent months, is pressing for a sale, possibly to its much larger neighbor northeast super-regional M&T Bank. It also wants Eastern's management to stop its "poor allocation of capital," which includes three acquisitions made in five years and multiple securities restructurings, said the people who are familiar with HoldCo's thinking but can't discuss it publicly. The acquisitions ate up nearly all of the excess capital that Eastern received when it transformed from a mutual bank, founded in 1818, to a publicly traded company in 2020 when it raised $1.8 billion through its initial public offering, HoldCo argues. HoldCo blames Eastern's former chief executive and board chairman, Robert Rivers, and directors for mismanagement, arguing they have little expertise in buying banks but acquired three companies in four years the people said. A representative for Eastern and for Rivers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Fort Lauderdale, Florida-headquartered hedge fund, which oversees some $2.6 billion in assets and invests primarily in financial institutions, is ready to talk to Eastern's management but is also poised to ratchet up pressure and possibly launch a proxy fight to throw out directors, the people said. Eastern, which has a market value of $3.8 billion, currently has 15 directors and five, including Rivers who was elevated to executive chairman last year, will stand for election in 2026. "Nothing would please us more than a consensual resolution, but a proxy contest and any and all other options are on the table," the firm's founders Vik Ghei and Misha Zaitzeff said in documents seen by Reuters. Zaitzeff has already served on the board of another Boston-based bank, Berkshire Hills Bancorp, as part of a 2021 settlement between the hedge fund and bank. PUSHING FOR SALE HoldCo is taking aim at Eastern two weeks after playing a role in an $11 billion deal where Fifth Third will buy Comerica. For months, the hedge fund had pushed Comerica to sell itself and in September turned up the heat by threatening to nominate five directors to its board. Bank mergers and acquisitions, while notoriously tough because of regulatory requirements, are expected to pick up now, analysts said, noting the Trump administration is expected to be more lenient than the Biden administration in approving possible deals. Eastern is Boston's leading local bank with more than 100 branches in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut and what analysts call loyal small business and retail customers whose families have banked there for decades. It also has low deposit costs, making it a potentially attractive target for bigger banks to buy. While Eastern cites its acquisitions as strengths that helped assets swell to $30 billion next month from $12 billion in 2019 and strengthen its foothold in wealth management, HoldCo disagrees. The firm argues that recent purchases of Century Bancorp, Cambridge Bancorp and HarborOne Bank, which will be finalized next month, have hurt shareholders and that they would have been better off if management had done nothing. "Had Eastern refrained from M&A and Securities Restructurings, it would conservatively have $13.90 per share of excess capital today versus a stock price of $17," the document said, adding "meaning that paying a special dividend today would allow shareholders to basically own this bank for free." While HoldCo criticizes Rivers for his actions, he wields great power in Boston. Boston Magazine ranked him as No. 7 on its Most Influential Bostonians 2025 list, ahead of Fidelity Investments' Abigail Johnson and New England Patriots President Jonathan Kraft. (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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By Stine Jacobsen and Bhanvi Satija COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Shares of weight-loss drug makers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly fell on Friday after U.S. President Donald Trump said that the price of Novo's popular Ozempic treatment would be lowered.  Although Ozempic is approved to treat diabetes, it shares the same active ingredient – semaglutide – as the Danish drugmaker's blockbuster obesity treatment Wegovy. In the United States, Ozempic has been frequently used as a so-called off-label treatment for obesity and often served as a generic reference to weight-loss drugs. Since taking office in January, Trump has been striving to narrow the gap between U.S. and foreign drug prices. Under its "most favored nation" policy, the U.S. government will require drugmakers to charge patients in the U.S. no more than in other wealthy nations. INVESTORS BRACED FOR PRICE CUTS Novo's shares fell to a near three-week low of 342.3 crowns and were last down 6% at 344.7 crowns. Shares in rivals dropped as well, with Eli Lilly down 4% and Zealand Pharma down 5%. In U.S. pre-market trading, Viking Therapeutics was down nearly 6%, and Altimmune down 1%. BMO Capital markets analyst Evan Seigerman said that the market reaction to Trump's comments seemed exaggerated. Trump's made the comments during a White House event on Thursday, where he announced a deal with Germany's Merck to cut the cost of some drugs needed for in-vitro fertilisation in exchange for protection from future tariffs. Trump was asked by reporters to identify the drug that he said earlier at the event would be made less expensive. "I was referring to Ozempic, or – I was referring to – the fat loss drug?…. They'll be much lower," Trump said. A Novo spokesperson said the company was in discussions with the Trump administration over the most favored nation order.  UBS analysts said they had already factored potential U.S. price cuts into their forecasts. "If the prices mentioned by President Trump end up being the negotiated prices then this would be more than captured by our numbers," they wrote. J.P. Morgan analysts also said investors were prepared for price cuts for semaglutide, which is among the list of 15 drugs selected for a U.S. price negotiation programme. Mehmet Oz, who runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and was at the event on Thursday, said that the agency had not yet finished negotiating the price for the GLP-1 class of drugs, which includes Ozempic, Wegovy, and Lilly's Mounjaro. (Reporting by Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen, Bhanvi Satija in London and Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru. Editing by Terje Solsvik and Mark Potter)

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