Blackstone reported third-quarter earnings of $1.4 billion Thursday, almost twice the $794.7 million figure in the same period last year.

Its assets under management reached $730.7 billion by the end of the quarter.

The firm has made a number of significant moves across sports-related industries this year.

• On Wednesday, it purchased a majority stake in Spanx at a $1.2 billion valuation.
• Last month, it entered an agreement to sell the Las Vegas Cosmopolitan casino and hotel as part of a $5.65 billion deal, making it Blackstone’s most profitable real estate deal ever. 
• In July, Blackstone bought a majority stake in Certified Collectibles Group at a valuation of more than $500 million.
• In April, it took part in an $80 million funding round for Overtime.

At $156 billion, Blackstone now has a higher market capitalization than Goldman Sachs and IBM.

Its stock has increased more than 100% since the beginning of the year.

Candy Digital, an NFT platform owned by Fanatics, has completed a $100 million Series A funding round valuing the company at $1.5 billion.

The round — co-led by Insight Partners and Softbank Vision Fund 2 — includes NFL Hall of Famer Peyton Manning and Connect Ventures, an investment partnership between Creative Artists Agency and VC firm New Enterprise Associates.

Since its launch earlier this year, Candy Digital has wasted no time building its NFT ecosystem.

• In June, the company secured a long-term NFT deal with Major League Baseball.
• It’s released NFTs with college athletes including Georgia quarterback JT Daniels.
• Last week, it announced a deal with NASCAR’s Race Team Alliance.

Candy Digital will soon unveil its beta platform, along with a line of NFTs for the MLB playoffs and upcoming World Series.

Fanatics is reportedly looking into acquiring a sportsbook, and its newly launched trading card company raised $350 million in September at a $10.4 billion valuation.

The company expects sales to reach $3 billion this year.

AT&T’s revenues dropped 5.7% year-over-year to $39.9 billion in the third quarter as the company undergoes a seismic shift.

WarnerMedia was a key revenue driver, bringing in $8.4 billion, a 14% jump year-over-year mainly due to growing subscription numbers at HBO Max.

This helped overcome a 12.4% drop in advertising revenues to $1.4 billion, largely attributed to the NBA’s unusual schedule last year.

AT&T is in the process of moving away from being a media provider to focus more heavily on telecommunications infrastructure, including 5G networks.

• AT&T will receive $43 billion when it spins off WarnerMedia into a merger with Discovery.
• In August, it completed its spinoff of DirecTV, receiving $7.1 billion in a deal with private equity firm TPG.
• In July, it struck a 10-year deal worth at least $5 billion to be the primary network services provider of Dish Network.

Slimmed-down operating expenses partly due to reduced sports programming brought a 98% year-over-year increase in net income to $6.3 billion.