Despite anxious projections from industry insiders, Apple outpaced expectations with its third-quarter earnings reports. The tech giant outperformed expectations for revenue totals, earnings per share, and service sales. However, it experienced a 1% drop in revenue year-over-year. The 8% boost in service sales, which set a new company record in the category, was fueled by the company’s subscription services, including Apple TV+ and Apple Music. Apple CEO Tim Cook followed the report with a statement, which reflected positively on the state of the company, saying, “From education to the environment, we are continuing to advance our values, while championing innovation that enriches the lives of our customers and leaves the world better than we found it.”

Tom Brady celebrated his 46th birthday with a one-of-a-kind gift to himself. The seven-time Super Bowl champ became the latest American star to join the ranks of famous soccer investors. He joins English football club Birmingham City FC as a minority owner. “BCFC is built on teamwork and determination and I’m excited to work alongside the board, management, and players to make our Second City club second to none,” the 46-year-old said in a statement. “I’ve been part of some amazing teams in my day, and I’m looking forward to applying my perspective to create that same success here in Birmingham.” The Blues currently play in England’s second division, the EFL Championship, and finished 17th out of 24 clubs in the 2022-23 campaign. They last played top-flight football in the Premier League in 2010-11.

Boardroom’s Sam Dunn has more on Tom Brady’s latest venture.

Drake‘s It’s All a Blur tour doesn’t end for another two months, but the Canadian rapper already etched his name in the history books. According to Touring Data, Drizzy became the first rapper ever to earn over $5 million in a single arena concert. For his July 28 and 29 performances at Washington, D.C.’s Capitol One arena, the “In My Feelings” emcee hauled in earned a total of $10.064 million across both nights. He took in an average of $5.032 million in ticket sales each day. As it stands, the highest-earning hip-hop tour in history is Kendrick Lamar’s recent The Big Steppers Tour, which made a total of $110.9 million from 929,000 tickets over 73 shows. Will Drake break it? Only time will tell, but the outlook is good.

As USA Gymnastics looks to revive its reputation, it’s getting help from one of the biggest names in sportswear. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal revealed that the federation inked a partnership deal with Nike. While officials from USA Gymnastics refused to unveil the details of the deal, the Journal added that it does not include naming rights for competitions but “is bigger than any kind of partnerships the organization has had in the past, both in annual and total revenue.” This weekend, Simone Biles, Tokyo Olympic all-around gold medalist Sunisa Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Tokyo Olympic floor champion, Jade Carey, are all scheduled to compete at the U.S. Classic in the Chicago suburb Hoffman Estates.

Michael Jordan‘s 13-year stint as majority owner of the Charlotte Hornets has officially come to a close. On Thursday, ESPN confirmed that his majority stake in the NBA franchise has been sold to a group led by Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin. Adrian Wojnarowski added the purchase sale is valued at $3 billion. The Hall of Famer still maintains minority ownership and will remain the club’s Alternate Governor. When Jordan initially purchased the team for $275 million in 2010, it was still known as the Charlotte Bobcats and he served as the league’s sole Black majority owner. In a statement, Air Highness expressed he was “excited about the future of the team and will continue to support the organization and the community in my new role in the years ahead.” The new ownership group includes a smattering of local talent, including country singer Eric Church and rapper J. Cole.

The good news is: Warner Bros. Discovery made meaningful progress on the company’s efforts to pay down its debt. The bad news is: the Max transition led to the shedding 2 million of subscribers and falling short of projections. Combined, these led to a mixed quarter for the company, as it released its second-quarter earnings report on Thursday. However, even with $1.6 billion in debt relief, Warner Bros. Discovery reported that it had $47.8 billion remaining in the red and a cash balance of $3.1 billion. A dip in ad sales generated an additional cause for concern, prompting WBD CEO David Zaslav to note that this was an “unusual” trend. However, the exec maintained an overall positive tenor, citing the progress that the company has made amidst an uncertain economy.