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Germany to send Ukraine tanks, Rupert Murdoch abandons Fox merger, Justin Bieber sells music catalog

Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman breaks down leading headlines as Germany and the U.S. look to send Ukraine Leopards and M1 tanks amid the ongoing war with Russia, Rupert Murdoch withdraws from the Fox-News Corp. merger, and Justin Bieber sells his music catalog to Blackstone.

Video transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Welcome back. Let's get down to business now with some other headlines that we are following today.

Amidst international and domestic pressure, Germany has agreed to send Ukraine 14 Leopard 2 battle tanks. That gives Kyiv a substantial upgrade in firepower for its fight with Russia.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had been criticized for appearing to stall the decision, which comes as the United States reportedly will also announce a plan to send M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine as well.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is withdrawing a proposal to reunite News Corp and Fox Corp, indicating that he and his son Lachlan Murdoch, who is the head of Fox, determined a combination of the companies was, quote, "not optimal for shareholders." That's according to a filing yesterday.

The now-abandoned deal announced in October would have rejoined the parent of Fox News broadcasting with the owner of print operations like the "Wall Street Journal" and "New York Post." Investors, including Murdoch's other son James, had opposed the merger.

And another musician has inked a multimillion deal to sell his publishing rights. This time it's Justin Bieber. He agreed to sell his catalog to Blackstone-owned Hipgnosis. Although the parties did not provide financial details, Bloomberg reported in December that Bieber's stake could fetch about $200 million. "Rolling Stone" notes the sale is the largest of any artist of Bieber's generation.