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☆ The rise of 'zombie' VCs puts startups that took funding from them in a difficult spot
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-04 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

What's on deckAdvertisementBut first, zombie, zombie, zombie-ie-ie-ie. AdvertisementThat's why zombie VCs pose such a problem for the industry. Sussing out the prudent investor from the penniless one takes time and effort, two things startups can't necessarily afford when times are tough. AdvertisementIs having a zombie VC as an investor the equivalent of a scarlet letter? If a partner jumps ship from a zombie VC, startups they backed will be in a tough spot.

Persons: —, here's, Insider's Ben Bergman, Ben, it's, Alyssa Powell, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Ray Dalio isn't, Sundar Pichai, Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's, Cory Doctorow, He's, Smashmallow, they've, Jack Teixeira, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover, Grace Lett Organizations: Service, BI, Bridgewater, Bank of America, Trading, Google, Canadian, Singapore Locations: There's, Silicon Valley, British, Singapore, Israel, New York, London, Chicago

☆ Why it was so easy for OpenAI's board to fire Sam Altman, one of the most influential CEOs in tech
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-21 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

OpenAI's board of directors fired Sam Altman, the man behind ChatGPT, in a shock move on Friday. OpenAI's board announced Friday that Altman is out saying it "no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI." The board consisted of six people including OpenAI's president and cofounder Greg Brockman, OpenAI's chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, Adam D'Angelo, Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner and Sam Altman himself. He pointed out that even CEOs are "at-will employees," at US companies, but that OpenAI's board "behaved like a bunch of kids" and "erratically" in this instance. Most of OpenAI's board members don't own shares in the company, including Sam Altman himself who chose not to take any equity in, which ultimately limited his power and influence.

Persons: Sam Altman, ChatGPT, OpenAI's, —, Altman, Greg Brockman, Ilya Sutskever, Adam D'Angelo, Tasha McCauley, Helen Toner, Brockman, John Bates, It's, they've, Satya Nadella, Kara Swisher's, Bates, Marissa Mayer, X, Mayer, Mark Zuckerberg, Zuckerberg, what's Organizations: Microsoft, Service, Cambridge University, Google, Meta Locations: British

☆ Western companies are at risk of losing the biggest market race of all to China: Op-ed
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Dewardric L. Mcneal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

In fact, it's well past the point when CEOs should have started recalibrating their approach to China. But when it comes to de-risking, there is now the risk it's one more race where we risk falling behind to China. There's a limited window available for foreign businesses in China's market to de-risk in a way that protects their shareholders' interests. On multiple occasions, we've witnessed foreign companies get this calculus and timing wrong. These examples underscore the risk of underestimating the complexities of the Chinese market and losing ground to local competitors over time.

Persons: Joe Biden, Xi Jinping, SAUL LOEB, Trump's, Xi Jinping's, There's, we've, Didi Chuxing Organizations: AFP, Getty, U.S, U.S ., Baidu, Huawei's Locations: Nusa Dua, Bali, China, U.S, China's

☆ 'Grandpa Google': Search head testifies that young users see it as out of style
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

As Google fights claims that it violated antitrust law to maintain its online search dominance, the company's search lead testified Thursday that young users mock Google as old-fashioned. Prabhakar Raghavan, a Google senior vice president responsible for for products including search, ads and commerce, said that some young users have referred to the search engine as "Grandpa Google." Raghavan testified that Yahoo's search dominance at one point seemed insurmountable. For example, Google has conducted research that's led to features that let it directly answer users' questions, understand voice queries and lens queries, where users search via a photo they take. "We don't see users carrying through these journeys entirely on Google," Raghavan testified.

Persons: Prabhakar Raghavan, Google, It's, Raghavan, Bing, that's Organizations: Google Inc, Google, Department of Justice, Yahoo, CNBC, YouTube Locations: San Francisco , California

☆ I make 6 figures a year peeling people's skin for a living. I feel more fulfilled as an aesthetician than I did working in real estate.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Ryan S. Gladwin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

After building her brand and creating an at-home peel kit, Barber-Raymond had a six-figure 2020. A chemical peel exfoliates the top layer of skin to shed all the dead cells, revealing smoother skin underneath. The moment I got my license, I became a full-time aesthetician focused on chemical peels for the face and body. Skin peels can be life-changing for people, and it's so fulfilling to seeMy favorite area to peel is the back. I just didn't feel fulfilled, and it didn't light me up the way chemical peels do.

☆ Morning Bid: Volatility stirs
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

World markets end a rough week of confusing and competing narratives in distinctly edgy form, with peculiarly subdued volatility gauges flickering back to life. Both 10 and 30-year yields hit their highest levels in over a month early on Friday. Job shedding in the digital sector continued, with Yahoo's plans to lay off more than 20% of its total workforce. That said, the year-on-year oil price trend continues to be negative, as it's been all year and base effects from last year's price spike around the Ukraine invasion will only deepen that and weigh on headline inflation further. Goldman Sachs lowered its oil price forecasts for this year and next, cutting its Brent 2023 price forecast by $6 to $92 per barrel - still above current levels around $86.

☆ Yahoo to lay off 20% of staff by year-end, beginning this week
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Yahoo will lay off more than 20% of its workforce by the end of 2023, eliminating 1,000 positions this week alone, the company said in a statement Thursday. The company had about 10,000 employees at that time, according to PitchBook data. The layoffs are part of a broader effort by the company to streamline operations in Yahoo's advertising unit. Yahoo said the company would shift efforts to its 30-year partnership with Taboola , a digital advertising company, to satisfy ad services. A Yahoo spokesperson did not immediately respond to follow-up questions sent by CNBC.

☆ Yahoo to lay off more than 20% of staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Yahoo said on Thursday it plans to lay off more than 20% of its total workforce as part of a major restructuring of its ad tech division. The cuts will impact nearly 50% of Yahoo's ad tech employees by the end of this year, including nearly 1,000 employees this week, the company said. This comes as many advertisers have pared back their marketing budgets in response to record-high inflation rates and continued uncertainty about a recession. Axios first reported the news of the layoffs at Yahoo. Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Shailesh KuberOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Lowe's will no longer outsource its ad sales business as it gears up to grab a bigger piece of the $45 billion retail media opportunity
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Lauren Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Lowe's will no longer outsource its ad sales business, and will take full control of it this year. The shift is meant to help Lowe's grab even bigger retail ad budgets than it did before. But this year, Lowe's is taking full control of its own ad sales, said Abi Subramanian, VP and GM of Lowe's ad arm, the One Roof Media Network. Unlike the retail business, ad sales has high margins. Insider Intelligence forecasts that retail media will be a $45 billion market in the US this year, with Amazon controlling 76% of spend.

☆ Tech's ultimate nepo babies: Meet the Drapers, the first family of Silicon Valley
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The billionaire Tim Draper is part of a lineage often lauded as Silicon Valley's premier VC family. As far as powerful professional networks go, it's hard to top the Draper family tree. Draper's venture-capital career began in the 1950s at his father's own trailblazing firm, Draper, Gaither, and Anderson, an early entrant in a new field. Meet the Draper family, the ultimate tech nepo babies and Silicon Valley royalty. Jesse DraperJesse Draper founded Halogen Ventures, which counts her father as an advisor.

☆ Yahoo to buy minority stake in Taboola in advertising deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro | David French | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 28 (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc will acquire a nearly 25% stake in advertising tech firm Taboola Inc (TBLA.O) and become its largest shareholder, the companies said in a joint statement on Monday, in a push to deepen advertising on their digital properties. As part of the partnership, Taboola will power native content and advertisements across Yahoo's sites for 30 years, while the U.S. tech company will get one seat on Taboola's board. Taboola's engine pushes links to articles paid by advertisers - known as native advertising - on sites of publishers including CNBC and NBC News. Taboola, whose shares surged 25% in pre-market trade on Monday, expects the deal to boost its revenue, EBITDA and free cash flow. Taboola said it will host a special general meeting on Dec. 30 to seek shareholders' approval.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg is making a classic big Silicon Valley mistake — one we last saw made by Marissa Mayer at Yahoo
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Mark Zuckerberg is making the same mistakes that plagued former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. Zuckerberg, too, is making a big bet on the metaverse, one better suited for the venture capital world. As Meta shifts to become "a metaverse company" amid stalling user growth and slowing ad sales, stories are emerging about the growing pains that have arrived alongside the changes. Zuckerberg's metaverse play isn't unusual in the tech world, it's just not one we've often seen pay off outside the world of venture capital. Marissa Mayer also had an ambitious vision — and it didn't pay offFormer Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.

☆ It's official: Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner are smarter than Mark Zuckerberg
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-29 | by ( Linette Lopez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

"Make Instagram Instagram again," the half sisters advised in posts on the platform, circulating a petition to stop the changes. And Zuckerberg won't be able to say Kim and Kylie didn't warn him. This after Facebook — Meta's former crown jewel — back in February reported a loss of users for the first time. But it all mostly boils down to the fact that Meta doesn't know how to innovate its product anymore. Flying a plane into a virtual mountainNow, none of this is to say that Meta doesn't make money.

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