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☆ Goldman Sachs' top tech bankers size up the industry's dealmaking landscape
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailGoldman Sachs' top tech bankers size up the industry's dealmaking landscapeGoldman Sachs' Global Head of Internet Investment Banking, Jane Dunlevie, and Global Co-Head of Software Investment Banking, Ryan Nolan, join CNBC's Leslie Picker from the firm's Private Innovative Company Conference which convenes prominent pre-IPO companies in Las Vegas. Dunlevie and Nolan weigh in on how AI is changing dealmaking strategy and explain why they expect to see a more vibrant tech capital markets environment in 2025.

Persons: Goldman Sachs, Jane Dunlevie, Ryan Nolan, CNBC's Leslie Picker, Dunlevie, Nolan Organizations: Internet Investment Banking, Global, Software Investment Banking, Innovative Company Locations: Las Vegas

☆ SpaceX gets green light for fifth Starship test flight
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-12 | by ( Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —Federal regulators granted SpaceX its long-awaited license to move forward with a fifth uncrewed test launch of Starship, the most powerful rocket system ever constructed. The FAA had been expected to hand down a license for this test launch weeks ago. SpaceX has also publicly denied reports that the company violated wastewater regulations with the deluge system, which SpaceX says uses potable water. Notably, the company launched a 2020 test flight of a prototype rocket, called Starship SN8, without obtaining prior approval from the FAA for a public safety waiver. At one point in 2023, for example, he said that he did not blame the FAA for holding up Starship launches.

Persons: “, Artemis, Elon Musk, ”, Mike Whitaker, Whitaker, SpaceX’s, ” Whitaker, Patrick T, Fallon, SpaceX, didn’t, Biden, Donald Trump —, Whitaker “, ” Musk, Jose Luis Magana, Kevin Kiley, they’re Organizations: CNN, SpaceX, US Federal Aviation Administration, NASA, FAA, ”, Super, Getty, Texas Commission, Environmental, Environmental Protection Agency, Committee, Transportation, Aviation, US, Infrastructure, Republican Locations: Boca Chica , Texas, Texas, AFP, California

☆ It's official: McDonald's should stick to unhealthy food
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-08 | by ( Emily Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

At The Wall Street Journal's Global Food Forum in June, Joe Erlinger, the president of McDonald's US, detailed the company's missteps in meatless burgers and salads. Over the years, McDonald's has been able to fold in some noncore items — namely, coffee and chicken. It's not just consumer demand that's keeping McDonald's menu limited to the more-traditional, less-than-body-boosting items — it's its franchisees, too. And no one goes to McDonald's looking for greens. And no one goes to McDonald's looking for greens.

Persons: McDonald's, Joe Erlinger, Erlinger, Darren Tristano, Danilo Gargiulo, it's, Tristano, Benedict, hasn't, Gargiulo, Burger King, Burger, It's, they're, Emily Stewart Organizations: Food Forum, Dallas, Bernstein, Foods, Apple, Toyota, Consumers, McDonald's, Business Locations: San Francisco, Europe, Sweetgreen, Cava, McDonald's, Australia, Chicago

☆ AI is replacing human tasks faster than you think
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

That’s in addition to creative tasks for which some businesses are already relying on ChatGPT and other AI chatbots to assist, including crafting job posts, writing press releases and building marketing campaigns. The findings show companies are increasingly turning to AI to cut costs, boost profits and make their workers more productive. Nearly 60% of all companies (and 84% of large companies) surveyed said that over the past year they have already leaned on software, equipment or technology including AI to automate tasks employees previously did. Bosses are turning to AI for a variety of reasons, including to trim what they are spending on human workers. Human jobs will be replaced — but will be replaced by other humans using AI,” he said.

Persons: ” Duke, John Graham, Duke, ”, Graham, “, Reid Hoffman, ” Hoffman, Janet Yellen, Democratic Sen, Gary Peters, ” Graham Organizations: New, New York CNN — Corporate, Duke University, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, ”, CNN, Survey, Atlanta Fed, LinkedIn, Democratic, Homeland Security, Government Affairs Committee Locations: New York, That’s, ChatGPT

☆ Google’s C.E.O. to Take Another Turn on the Antitrust Witness Stand
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Nico Grant | More About Nico Grant | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Testifying under oath is a task that many tech chief executives might be asked to do in the coming years, with Amazon, Meta and others facing their own antitrust court fights. Though he was never called to the witness stand to testify, Bill Gates, who was chief executive of Microsoft in the last big technology antitrust case brought by the Justice Department more than two decades ago, came across as combative and evasive in depositions. Mr. Zuckerberg has at times exasperated lawmakers with vague responses, while Mr. Altman appeared to charm senators in a hearing this year. The main duty on the witness stand for Mr. Pichai — a low-key and detail-focused executive — has been to keep the temperature low under questioning and keep to the central point of Google’s antitrust defense: that it is an innovative company that has maintained its leadership through innovation and hard work instead of illegal monopolistic behavior. The Justice Department filed its landmark antitrust suit against Google in October 2020, arguing that the company’s default-search deals with phone makers and browser companies helped it illegally maintain a monopoly.

Persons: Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Zuckerberg, Altman, Pichai, — Organizations: Amazon, Microsoft, Justice Department, Google

☆ UBS upgrades Big Pharma stock after shares drop on poor drug results
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Ganesh Rao | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

UBS upgraded AstraZeneca 's stock to a "buy" rating despite the drugmaker's trial of a lung cancer medication recently delivering poor results. The investment bank said the subsequent drop in the pharma giant's stock price now meant that "investors can come back to the stock for the performance of in-market products." London-listed shares of AstraZeneca dropped by 8% in a single day, the most in years, after releasing the results of the "TropionLung01" trial for drug candidate "Dato-DXd." UBS expects shares of AstraZeneca to rise by 27% to £13 ($16.8) a share over the next 12 months. These include Imfinzi, a drug for bile duct or gallbladder cancer, and Tagrisso, a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer in adults.

Persons: Michael Leuchten, UBS Michael Leuchten AZN Organizations: UBS, AstraZeneca, pharma, DXd, FDA, Johnson Locations: London, Swiss, Tagrisso

☆ Vice Media's bankruptcy has 'killed the ad pipeline' for the company, sources say, as questions about its future roil staffers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Vice Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 15, leaving current and laid-off staffers anxious over what's next. One advertising source told Insider, "The bankruptcy has killed the ad pipeline." Employees who were laid off in recent weeks are demanding answers about how the company's bankruptcy will affect the terms of their departure. One of the former execs told Insider they were just keeping their fingers crossed that payments come through. A person close to the company said Vice Media intends to pay severance and COBRA, subject to court approval.

☆ AMC plunges as investors approve reverse stock split, APE share conversion
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Sarah Whitten | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

AMC investors voted Tuesday to approve a reverse stock split and the conversion of APE shares into common company shares. The APE stock was issued less than a year ago. The hearing is centered around a class-action lawsuit that claims AMC circumvented shareholders who were against adding more shares by creating the preferred stock APE. Tuesday's vote comes less than a month after AMC posted disappointing fourth quarter earnings. Losses also widened, as AMC posted a net loss of $287.7 million, a steeper fall than the $134.4 million in losses it posted a year ago.

☆ Regional bank stock plunge creating key entry point for investors, top analyst says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Anna Gleason | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The dramatic drop in regional bank stocks is a key entry point for investors, according to analyst Christopher Marinac. The SPDR S&P Regional Banking ETF dropped by more than 12% on Monday after regulators shuttered Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. When asked which regional banks look most attractive, Marinac recommends Fifth Third Bank . Marinac also named Truist as a top sector pick, saying the company has a competitive advantage among regional banks after selling a portion of its insurance unit. Truist stock has dropped 30% over the past five sessions.

☆ Amazon used enough plastic air packets in its boxes to circle the planet 800 times in 2021, an outside group found. The company said it used far less.`
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Catherine Boudreau | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon said its plastic packaging footprint came to 97,222 metric tons in 2021. Oceana estimated that Amazon used nearly 322,000 metric tons of plastic in 2021, more than triple what the company calculated. By Oceana's count, Amazon used 52% more plastic last year compared with 2019, the first year the group conducted its analysis. In 2021, Target, Walmart, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo each used more plastic packaging than the previous year, contributing to an overall 4.3% increase across brands and retailers. California, the largest economy in the US, passed a law in June to cut plastic packaging in the state by 25% over a decade.

☆ Shopify's C-suite revamp could signal more acquisitions and a focus on services over software, analysts say
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Madeline Stone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Most of Shopify's C-suite has been replaced in the past two years. "There was some hope that they would reprioritize software, whether it's marketing-automation software or customer-engagement software," he added. The former chief technology officer Jean-Michel Lemieux, chief legal officer Joe Frasca, and chief talent officer Brittany Forsyth all departed in 2021. The chief product officer Craig Miller left the company a few months before that, in fall 2020. Shopify has yet to formally fill the chief product officer role, whose responsibilities Lütke said he would take on in the wake of Miller's departure.

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