ATLANTA, GEORGIA – DECEMBER 02: Byron Allen speaks onstage at day 2 of the 2025 HOPE Global Forum at Signia by Hilton Atlanta on December 02, 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia.(Photo by Paras Griffin/Getty Images) By Kimberly Wilson ·Updated March 13, 2026 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready…

Welcome to Black Wealth Watch, where we round up the biggest stories in Black business and economic news each week — the wins, the setbacks, the deals getting done, and the conversations we should be having about money, power, and who actually gets a seat at the table.

This week we’ve got Byron Allen going after one of our favorite networks, a women’s basketball league that is proving its doubters wrong in the best way possible, a lawsuit that may be the most consequential legal fight for minority business owners you haven’t heard nearly enough about, a 400-day boycott that’s been called off (though not everyone agrees it should be) and one of our own ESSENCE Power 55 honorees making a major career move. Let’s get into it.

Byron Allen Sets His Sights On Starz

Byron Allen quietly picked up a 10.7 percent stake in Starz Entertainment last week, paying $25 million for 1.8 million shares and landing himself among the company’s largest individual shareholders. Starz, which only went public last year after splitting off from Lionsgate and is home to the entire Power universe and P-Valley, moved fast with the board voting unanimously to adopt a shareholder rights plan that makes it significantly more expensive for anyone to try to push their ownership past 17.5 percent. Allen has made clear he intends to engage directly with company leadership on strategy, and the board clearly took that seriously. This one is worth following.

Unrivaled Finished Its Second Season With $45 Million and a Point to Make

Men lie, women lie, but women’s basketball numbers don’t. The 3-on-3 women’s basketball league wrapped its second season this week and the numbers are not a fluke. Unrivaled pulled in $45 million in revenue, crossed 1.2 billion digital touchpoints with fans, and sold out arenas in both Philadelphia and New York. The league expanded to new tour stops this season while merchandise sales and its own digital platforms both hit new highs. The league is only two seasons in and showing no signs of slowing down.

15,000 Minority-Owned Businesses Just Got Their Biggest Legal Ally

If you have not been paying close attention to what’s been happening in Texas, this is your sign to start. The Global Black Economic Forum, alongside Freedom Economy and American Pride Rises, filed what organizers are calling the first affirmative national lawsuit brought specifically in defense of minority and women-owned business enterprises. At the center of it is the state’s Historically Underutilized Business program, which for more than 35 years directed public contracts to qualified small businesses (more than $4 billion worth in fiscal year 2024 alone). Then, through emergency executive action and without any vote from the legislature, more than 15,000 certified businesses were stripped of their certifications overnight. The lawsuit’s central argument is that programs created by law cannot be dismantled through executive order, and if the organizers prevail, the implications go well beyond Texas. This is the case to have on your radar right now.

The Target Fast Is Over. Sort Of.

After 400 days, Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant officially called an end to the Target Fast on March 11, saying the coalition secured three of its four original demands, including Target moving toward ful>confirmed to USA Today that Target made no new concessions and reversed none of its DEI rollbacks. Co-organizer Nina Turner said publicly she is not going back to Target and that the boycott, from where she stands, is not over. The Racial Justice Network in Minneapolis, which helped spark the original movement, held their own press conference the same day to say the same thing. Meanwhile Target’s stock is up more than 20 percent so far this year. The pressure campaign cost the company an estimated $12 to $15 billion in market value. Bryant called it a victory. The community is still deciding.

GLD Just Hired Someone We Already Know

Life>named Vanessa Wallace its new Chief Marketing Officer, and if that name rings a bell, it should — she’s a 2025 ESSENCE Power 55 honoree. Wallace spent close to two decades at Nike, eventually running marketing for Jordan Brand North America, before becoming CMO at Savage X Fenty. At GLD, she’ll oversee brand strategy, performance marketing, and wholesale expansion for a company already deep in partnerships with Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Micah Parsons, and Snoop Dogg. It is a serious hire for a brand with serious ambitions and we couldn’t be more proud of her.

The post Black Wealth Watch: Byron Allen Buys Stake In Starz, Unrivaled’s Second Season Brings In $45M, And A Lawsuit Fights For 15,000 Diverse-Owned Businesses appeared first on Essence.

Author: Kimberly Wilson

Read the original article on Essence.