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☆ Pictures of the month: November
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Jeremy Schultz | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Venezuelan migrants, some expelled from the U.S. to Mexico under Title 42 and others who have not yet crossed after the new immigration policies, stand at a campfire in a camp on the banks of the Rio Bravo river in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, November 14....more

☆ Crowdstrike Holdings warning sparks selloff in cybersecurity stocks
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 30 (Reuters) - A warning from Crowdstrike Holdings Inc (CRWD.O) that clients were cutting back on spending and delaying purchases due to an economic slowdown slammed cybersecurity stocks on Wednesday, inflicting fresh pain on the battered sector. "Increased macroeconomic headwinds elongated sales cycles with smaller customers and caused some larger customers to pursue multi-phase subscription start dates," Crowdstrike Chief Executive Officer George Kurtz said. The results are the latest in a series of dour reports from cybersecurity firms, whose business boomed during the pandemic but is now seeing a slowdown, making them a hot target for private equity buyouts. "Resilient, but not immune is a theme that will likely dominate the narrative during our October quarter-cohort earnings cycle," Piper Sandler analysts said. Still, some analysts see long-term benefits from the rising demand for cybersecurity as more businesses take to the web and high-profile hacks force companies to be more cautious.

☆ Trolls, propaganda & fear stoke Bukele's media machine in El Salvador
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +23 min

In examining Bukele’s media operation, Reuters interviewed more than 70 people, including former media operatives and social media researchers. It showed Bukele with an 86% approval rating in El Salvador, making him the most popular leader in the region. “The threat in El Salvador used to be from the gangs, now it's from the state,” said Angelica Carcamo, the organization's president. “I found a lot more manipulation in El Salvador than in Mexico,” Escorcia said. A native of Guatemala, Torres has been critical of the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras for creating conditions that spur migration.

☆ Migrants stranded at the U.S.-Mexico border
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Dave Lucas | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Venezuelan migrants, some expelled from the U.S. to Mexico under Title 42 and others who have not yet crossed after the new immigration policies, raise their hands to receive donated food at a camp on the banks of the Rio Bravo in Ciudad Juarez,...more

☆ Indigenous fashion designers, artisans challenge plagiarism on Mexico City runway
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Aida Pelaez-Fernandez | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MEXICO CITY, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Wrapped in colorful haute couture, artisans and indigenous designers took a Mexico City fashion event by storm, all while trying to carve out a sustainable future in an industry threatened by plagiarism, instability and lack of funds. World-renowned brands such as Ralph Lauren and Chinese fast-fashion company Shein have in recent months faced accusations of plagiarizing indigenous Mexican designs, threatening the country's ancient textile tradition. [1/10] Artisan Juana Bravo Lazaro from the Urupan indigenous community, attends the Original Mexican Textile Art meeting, in Mexico City, Mexico November 20, 2022. Plagiarism of ancient indigenous designs has drawn ire from Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. "They plagiarize designs from artisans and indigenous people from Hidalgo, Chiapas, Guerrero," he told a news conference last week.

☆ Retailers are starting to charge fees to return stuff you bought online. Here's why free returns may be a thing of the past — and how you can avoid getting charged.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The easiest way to avoid paying a return fee is to bring your items back to the store in person. Here's how we got here, which retailers are changing their tune, and what shoppers can do to avoid paying for returns. Which means retailers are losing, on average, millions of dollars every year by letting you return your unwanted goods for free. Some companies have taken a different approach by offering free returns only to its most loyal shoppers. Translation: Retailers are hoping something else will catch your eye when you come into the store to make your return.

☆ After FTX's collapse, VCs across industries are finally admitting to crypto's failures — and they're preparing for 'more blows to come'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Investors stuck to crypto startups they considered "safe bets," but FTX's failure challenges that idea. Crypto startups held yacht parties through the summer and into early fall at events such as NFT.NYC and Messari Mainnet. "The whole crypto space is a high-leverage space, and it's susceptible to cascading failures." The events of the past week are unlikely to whet risk-averse LPs' appetite for crypto, investors told Insider. Even so, several investors who have backed crypto startups told Insider that despite the industry's recent travails, they remain believers in the technology.

☆ Starboard takes a stake in Splunk. Here’s how the activist investor may help boost margins
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( Kenneth Squire | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Activist Commentary: Starboard is a very successful activist investor and has extensive experience helping companies focus on operational efficiency and margin improvement. Splunk has a leading market share and is considered the "gold standard" in the log management and security markets. This is a typical Starboard investment – a company with strong top-line growth and enviable market position that needs help with optimizing growth and margins. When an activist takes a position at a company, it puts that company in pseudo-play with potential acquirers often coming out of the woodwork. You would think that their interest level has piqued a little with Splunk now trading at a $12.7 billion market cap.

☆ Iranian archer says she did not notice headscarf falling off
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DUBAI, Nov 12 (Reuters) - An Iranian archer has said she did not notice her hijab falling from her head during an awards ceremony in Tehran, after a video appeared to show her allowing the headscarf to drop in what was widely assumed to be a show of support for nationwide protests. In a video posted on Instagram, Parmida Ghasemi said she had not noticed the hijab falling "due to wind and a lot of stress". I wanted to apologise to the people, officials and my teammates,” she said, wearing a headscarf in the video. Last month, Iranian climber Elnaz Rekabi caused controversy by competing in an international competition without a headscarf, later saying she had done so unintentionally and apologising. Iran's deputy sports minister, Maryam Kazemipour, said on Wednesday some Iranian female athletes have acted against Islamic norms and then apologised for their actions.

☆ Life After War: The Men of Bravo Company
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Ben Kesling | Photographs Christian K. Lee For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sergeant Alex Jauregui doesn’t have any legs, but in a way that makes things easy for him. Deployed to Afghanistan more than a decade ago with Bravo Company in the 2-508 Parachute Infantry Regiment, everyone can see he’s been in combat and paid a price, with two prosthetics to show for it. Veteran groups have happily supported him in launching his business, and in turn they get to use his photo in their brochures. Other veterans have wounds invisible to those around them or even to themselves. The men of Bravo Company have spent years reckoning with their harrowing experiences, offering a snapshot of what hundreds of thousands of veterans experienced over the course of America’s 20 years of war in Afghanistan.

☆ Read exclusive 13-slide pitch deck data startup Alation used to raise $123 million from investors like Databricks, Dell, and Thoma Bravo
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Matthew Lynley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Data startup Alation announced it raised $123 million at a more than $1.7 billion valuation. There are also smaller companies in the data cataloging space including firms like Metaphor Data, Acryl Data, and Stemma. Data tools like Alation, however, have been able to still grow and find financing, Sangani said. "When you have to make hard choices you need good data, and that logic extends to data tools," Sangani said. Databricks and Snowflake are also co-investors in data collaboration tool Hex, $900 million machine learning startup Tecton, and $4.2 billion data juggernaut Dbt Labs.

☆ I Hated Fishing. Then Fishing Changed My Life.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Jason Gay | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

We have caught big ones and small ones, and we have lost big and small ones too. Most important, we are now able to bore anyone on earth with a 20-minute story about fishing, which is a true sign we’ve arrived as fishermen. I know it sounds a little silly when you hear fishermen talk about how fishing changed their lives, because they always talk about how fishing changed their lives, but it changed our lives too. We are out there all the time, fishing, trying to add another fish to the list. Jesse, who is 9, likes to say we are addicted, and that’s probably true.

☆ Ford’s beloved little Fiesta is going away, at least for now
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN Business —The Ford Fiesta, a hugely popular little hatchback in much of the world, will soon no longer appear in Ford’s European dealerships. That factory will be turned over entirely to producing electric vehicles once the last Fiesta comes off the assembly line, which is expected to happen in June 2023. A Ford Fiesta in Ford's European design studio in 1975. It was the best-selling small car in all of Europe each year from 2011 to 2015, according to Ford. “My first ever car and what a car it was.”Besides the fuel-efficient base model, the Fiesta has been produced in performance variants like the Fiesta ST and Fiesta XR2.

☆ 14 cloud companies that could be acquired, as PE giants Thoma Bravo and Sunstone prepare to buy UserTesting for $1.3 billion
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Adobe's $20 billion bid for Figma reopened conversations about what's ahead for software startups. More recently, UserTesting is set to be acquired by PE firms Thoma Bravo and Sunstone for $1.3 billion. These are 14 private and public software companies that analysts think could be acquisition targets. On October 27, 2022 private equity giants Thoma Bravo and Sunstone partners announced they intend to acquire UserTesting for $1.3 billion. Here are 15 private and public software companies that analysts and experts think are likely acquisition targets.

☆ Another day, another recent IPO exits the public market. How to pick who might be next
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Christina Cheddar Berk | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The company, which is known for its customer experience tools, went public last November at $14 a share. Its stock stumbled on its opening day and shares never traded above $15.98, a high reached Nov. 17, 2021. With this deal, UserTesting becomes the latest recent IPO to go private. A number of tech companies were on the list as well, including Braze , a company that went public the same day as UserTesting. The UserTesting deal has been approved by the board, but is subject to a "go-shop" period that ends on Dec. 10.

☆ ‘Ticket to Paradise’ Review: They Object
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Kyle Smith | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

David and Georgia Cotton were married for five years, but they’ve been divorced for 20. As David and Georgia are played by George Clooney and Julia Roberts , are there any guesses about what is going to happen? A rom-com need not be unpredictable to work beautifully, though, and “Ticket to Paradise” has a few lively moments. Though like Mr. Clooney’s and Ms. Robert’s ageless faces director Ol Parker has trouble coming up with new wrinkles. Mr. Parker, whose best film is perhaps “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and who managed to execute some adorable ideas in the surprisingly not-bad “Mamma Mia!

☆ 'Ticket to Paradise' review: George Clooney and Julia Roberts get some mileage out of their rom-com pairing
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Review Brian Lowry | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Think of “Ticket to Paradise” like a postcard of beautiful people having fun in a beautiful place and you’ll get along just fine. Giving it much more thought than that won’t help this rom-com vehicle for George Clooney and Julia Roberts, although the “com” part proves a trifle deficient in a movie that’s significantly better when it’s sweet than salty. Here We Go Again”), “Ticket to Paradise” fares better in the inevitable softer moments, allowing the leads to mug less and feel more. “Ticket to Paradise” does tend to shine when Clooney and Roberts soften their rough edges or let their hair down, as they do during a game of drunken mystery-alcohol (not beer) pong. “Ticket to Paradise” premieres in US theaters on October 21.

A Hampton University football player came out publicly as gay, a first for a football player at a historically Black college or university, according to Outsports.com, an LGBTQ sports news site. Byron Perkins, a Division I defensive back for the Hampton University Pirates, came out as gay in an Instagram story shared Wednesday. Perkins told Outsports that he’d like to help other gay Black men who are struggling with their sexuality. “There hasn’t been an out gay football athlete at an HBCU. “I’m sure the young man has heard his fair share of slurs from teammates unaware that he is gay.

☆ Anne Hathaway and other women are saying enough to the haters
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Aj Willingham | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Why did everyone hate Anne Hathaway all of those years ago? At Elle’s 2022 Women in Hollywood event this week, Hathway commented on the bygone “Hathahate” with painful intimacy, saying the outward hatred only increased her inner hatred of herself. By discussing these issues head-on, women like Hathaway and Wu are indicating a sea change in celebrity culture. Hailey Bieber and Selena Gomez defused longstanding rumors and hate by posing together at the 2022 Academy Museum Gala. “Why did everyone hate Anne Hathaway for no reason?”“They were just being haters.”It’s one thing for stars to reveal how cruel the churn of celebrity gossip can be.

☆ Beware of fad stocks. Truly owner, Snap & Zoom have plunged
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The Sam Adams brewer, which also owns the hard seltzer brand Truly, is struggling as the popularity of alcoholic seltzer appears to be fading fast. “The continuing decline of the hard seltzer segment … is deeper than previously expected,” said Boston Beer founder and chairman Jim Koch on the company’s earnings call in July. Sam Adams owner Boston Beer made a big bet on Truly Hard Seltzer. Sales have slowed, the company is still losing money, its founders have left, and the stock has plunged nearly 80% this year. E-signature software company DocuSign (DOCU) and virtual health company Teladoc (TDOC) have also plunged this year after getting huge boosts from Covid in 2020.

Venezuelan migrants, some expelled from the U.S. to Mexico under Title 42 and others who have not crossed yet, protest new immigration policies on the banks of the Rio Bravo river, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico October 18, 2022. Ciudad Juarez, next to El Paso, has taken most migrants, with over 1,000 people, followed by Tijuana, opposite San Diego, with close to 700, according to local officials. Mexico, meanwhile, is worried many Venezuelans are still heading north to reach the U.S. border, a Mexican official said. Venezuelan migrant Franklin Pajaro told Reuters he was sent to Ciudad Juarez on Monday with his wife and two children after six days in U.S. detention, without food, clothing or money. "They left us on the street," he said, as his four-year-old son Saul wiped tears from his father's eyes.

☆ U.S. says seven board directors resigned under antitrust pressure
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Seven directors on the boards of five companies have resigned because of the U.S. Justice Department's concerns over the directors holding similar board positions at rival companies, the department said on Wednesday. Two others representing Thoma Bravo on the SolarWinds board also resigned, the department said. SolarWinds said in a legal filing dated Oct. 14 that the three board members had decided to resign after receiving a letter from the Justice Department alleging that their board service broke antitrust law. A spokesperson for Udemy said a director stepped down on Sept. 23 because of U.S. Justice Department concerns. Directors also resigned from the board of Definitive Healthcare (DH.O), Redwire Corp (RDW.N) and CTS Corp (CTS.N) because they were on the boards of competing companies, the department said.

☆ These 16 cloud-software companies could be acquired by tech giants or private equity as the economy sours, according to RBC analysts
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Here are the 16 software firms RBC analysts say are M&A targets for tech giants and private equity. More software M&A is in the forecast as valuations and stock prices continue to drop — and private companies aren't the only ones likely to get gobbled up. Additionally, private-equity firms will likely continue snapping up public cloud-software companies and taking them private while prices are low, according to analysts. "In other words, we believe larger scale debt-financed private-equity takeouts could be unlikely in the near-term," RBC analysts wrote. Here are the 16 software firms that are M&A targets, according to RBC analysts:

☆ Former J. Crew chief Jenna Lyons to join 'Real Housewives of New York City' cast
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Zachary Schermele | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Jenna Lyons, the New York City fashion designer who was famously outed by the New York Post over a decade ago, will join the cast of “The Real Housewives of New York City” next year for the show’s 14th season. Lyons will be the first queer housewife to join the franchise’s New York City series as one of its seven new cast members. Their romantic relationship was revealed by the New York Post after someone spotted Lyons and Crangi at a New York restaurant amid Lyons’ divorce. The New York Post was asking if she would like to confirm or deny that she was “seeing a woman,” they said. GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, praised the decision to cast Lyons.

At 27, Pierson has defied the odds that many entrepreneurs, especially Latinas, face. Latina founders run nearly 2 million businesses across the country, but receive less than 2% of venture capital funds. Pierson was one of several Latina entrepreneurs speaking in New York City on Friday at a breakfast for investors and members of the media (disclosure: This reporter was one of the moderators). Focused on funding opportunities for women of color, Pierson and others discussed their trajectories on raising capital, scaling up their businesses and achieving significant revenues. One of the other Latina entrepreneurs who discussed her experience starting a business was Karla Gallardo, the founder of Cuyana, a highly successful lifestyle brand known for its sustainably sourced and premium leather accessories and apparel.

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