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☆ Pepsi is changing its Zero Sugar recipe
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Pepsi Zero Sugar will soon taste different. Pepsi Zero Sugar’s tweaked formula comes about a year after debuted a refreshed Coca-Cola Zero Sugar recipe. From a sales standpoint, Pepsi Zero Sugar has struggled against main rival Coke Zero Sugar. “Pepsi can no longer be satisfied having an also-ran to Coke Zero Sugar,” Duane Stanford, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, told CNN. “Reformulating Pepsi Zero Sugar is a line in the sand that says it’s time to compete in earnest for share in the most important cola segment today.”He added that “reformulation is a must to compete effectively,” because customers like sweeter colas.

☆ Google Cloud's top U.S. sales executive departs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 12 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google promoted the head of its international cloud businesses, Adaire Fox-Martin, to take on a top sales role as part of an operating model rejig, a spokesperson said on Thursday. The head of Google Cloud unit in the Americas, Kirsten Kliphouse, has left the company, the spokesperson said. Fox-Martin's appointment aims at "unifying global go-to-market organization," the company said and the role will focus on all global sales as well as service and support. The company is also under pressure amid disappointing ad sales, with advertisers cutting back on their spending in the face of an economic slowdown. Reporting by Tiyashi Datta and Vansh Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Lawyers Expect More Anti-Money-Laundering Whistleblowers Thanks to Legislation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Mengqi Sun | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +4 min

The Treasury Department’s anti-money-laundering whistleblower program, which was established in 2021 but has been viewed as lacking teeth, got a shakeup in the recent omnibus spending bill that lawyers predict will result in more whistleblower cases. The 2021 defense bill establishing the program laid out a maximum 30% cut for the whistleblower but listed no minimum. The new legislation also sets up a revolving fund at the Treasury Department used to pay whistleblowers with money collected from enforcement actions based on their tips. The overhauled whistleblower program will strengthen FinCEN’s enforcement capability, said Jason Zuckerman, a whistleblower lawyer at Zuckerman Law in Washington. “Creating a credible anti-money-laundering whistleblower program will encourage whistleblowers to come forward.”Write to Mengqi Sun at mengqi.sun@wsj.com

☆ Cesar Conde consolidates power at NBC with network shakeup
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —On paper, Cesar Conde is the chair of NBCUniversal News Group. But on Wednesday he also appointed himself as the effective president of NBC News. But the NBCU News Group boss notably declined to select a single successor to oversee the sizable portfolio of Oppenheim. Leist will continue to oversee “Today” and Rodriguez will oversee “Nightly” and NBC News NOW. All three executives — Blumenstein, Leist, and Rodriguez — will report directly to Conde, making him the ultimate network boss.

☆ Russia's troubles in Ukraine likely caused leadership shakeup: Pentagon
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Thursday that Russia's persistent troubles in Ukraine likely led to latest shake-up in military leadership, and urged Moscow to end the war instead turning to new generals to oversee the nearly year-long invasion. Russia on Wednesday appointed Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov to oversee the military campaign in Ukraine. "It likely does reflect some of the systemic challenges that the Russian military has faced since the beginning of this invasion," Brig. "We've talked about some of those things in terms of its logistics problems, command and control problems, sustainment problems, morale and the ... failure to achieve the strategic objectives that they've set for themselves." Reporting by Phil Stewart and Idrees AliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Anderson Torres, Bolsonaro's justice minister from 2021 to 2022, took a job as Brasilia security chief after leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office on Jan. 1. "This was a structured sabotage operation, commanded by Bolsonaro's ex-minister Anderson Torres," Ricardo Cappelli, the official leading a post-invasion federal intervention into Brasilia's public security, told CNN Brasil. "Torres took over as secretary for security (in Brasilia), dismissed the whole chain of command and then took a trip. The shakeup of capital security highlights a wider challenge facing Lula, whose new government must now deal with a sweeping criminal investigation of the Brasilia riots while establishing a fresh chain of command among police and security forces. For example, the appointment of Torres, 47, at the Justice Ministry followed years of friendly relations with Bolsonaro's family.

Jan 11 (Reuters) - NBC News appointed New York Times Deputy Managing Editor Rebecca Blumenstein to a newly created role of president of editorial, the broadcaster announced on Wednesday. NBC News President Noah Oppenheim, who led the division since 2017, will depart in a shake-up that includes two other executive appointments. Before that, she worked for 21 years at the Wall Street Journal, where her positions included deputy editor-in-chief, page one editor, international editor and editor of WSJ.com. As part of the restructuring, NBC News promoted Libby Leist to executive vice president, TODAY and Lifestyle, and promoted Janelle Rodriguez to executive vice president at the NBC News NOW streaming network. Prior to running NBC News, Oppenheim spent two years as executive in charge of the morning news broadcast TODAY.

☆ Ubisoft cancels three games and slashes targets, citing 'worsening macroeconomic conditions'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Tencent has increased its stake in French games maker Ubisoft, the company behind popular franchises like Assassin's Creed. Ubisoft canceled three unannounced games and slashed its full-year financial targets Wednesday, blaming "worsening macroeconomic conditions" that have plagued the video game industry. The French game publisher said it expects 2022 net bookings to come in at 725 million euros ($779.4 million), lower than an earlier target of 830 million euros. For the full year, Ubisoft said it expects its 2022 net bookings to fall 10%. Tencent invested 300 million euros in Guillemot Brothers Limited, taking a 49.9% stake in the family investment firm that owns 15% of Ubisoft.

☆ NBC News president Noah Oppenheim exits, replaced by new head of editorial and two others in network shakeup
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN Business —NBC News president Noah Oppenheim will exit the network as part of a restructuring announced Wednesday that will replace his role with three executives, including Rebecca Blumenstein, a deputy managing editor of The New York Times. Oppenheim led NBC News through the tumultuous presidency of Donald Trump. “I leave with enormous pride in all that we’ve accomplished together,” Oppenheim wrote in a note to NBC News staff. As part of the restructuring, Conde also announced that Libby Leist had been promoted to executive vice president of “Today” and lifestyle. And Conde said that Janelle Rodriguez had been named executive vice president of NBC News NOW, the company’s streaming service.

☆ The Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones is laying off staff as it faces an economic downturn
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Layoffs are coming to The Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones, according to people familiar with the situation. Layoffs are coming to The Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones, according to people familiar with the situation, with one knowledgeable source saying the cuts amounted to less than 2% of staff. A Dow Jones spokesperson emailed a statement saying: "Dow Jones is focused on continuing to build on the momentum it has generated across its wide range of leading brands and platforms. The Dow Jones cuts come as the Journal has just appointed a new editor, Emma Tucker, from fellow News Corp. title The Sunday Times in London. This article was originally published on the morning of January 11 and has been updated to include Dow Jones' statement.

The GOP-controlled House passes a rules package for 118th Congress with just one GOP defection, NBC’s Kyle Stewart reports. ... President Biden spends his final day in Mexico City at North American Leaders’ Summit. But first: The news that the Justice Department is reviewing Obama Era classified documents found at a think tank tied to President Biden is quite a political gift to Donald Trump. “When is the FBI going to raid the many homes of Joe Biden, perhaps even the White House?” Trump posted on his Truth Social account. 6: The number of shootings recently at or near the homes of New Mexico Democratic political leaders, including the incoming state House speaker.

☆ Morgan Stanley COO Jon Pruzan to retire
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 9 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley Chief Operating Officer Jon Pruzan will retire from the bank at the end of the month, according to a memo seen by Reuters. Formerly the finance chief at the Wall Street titan, Pruzan was made COO as part of a leadership shakeup in mid-2021, which resulted in four new appointments. At the time, the bank's chief executive, Jamie Gorman, said he was "highly confident" one of the four would be the bank's CEO in the future. Investors have long been speculating about who would succeed Gorman, who joined the bank in 2006 and took over as CEO in 2010. With Pruzan gone, the list of potential successors to Gorman include co-presidents Ted Pick and Andy Saperstein and investment management chief Dan Simkowitz.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried's not-guilty plea keeps his options open, says a former federal prosecutor who explains what the criminal case means for investors-turned creditors of FTX
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( Laila Maidan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's lawsuit had alleged that both Ellison and Wang knowingly deceived the public under Bankman-Fried's direction. O'Brien, a former assistant US Attorney for the Department of Justice, specializes in white-collar criminal defense and commercial and securities litigation. "When you get indicted, your first appearance in court, you don't know what the charges are. You're presented with a piece of paper, an indictment, but you don't know what the evidence is." But Bankman-Fried's plea doesn't have much to do with what the outcome will be for investors who lost funds on the exchange, O'Brien noted.

☆ Tesla breaks into America's bestselling cars list for 2022, but trucks still dominate
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Michael Wayland | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

A Tesla Model Y on display inside a Tesla store at the Westfield Culver City shopping mall in Culver City, California, U.S., on Thursday, April 14, 2022. Tesla does not report regional or individual vehicle sales, so the data is estimated. Overall, Tesla reported delivering about 1.25 million Model Y and Model 3 vehicles globally in 2022. "The brand, despite all the news and stuff, still dominates the EV market and it dominates the luxury market. A lot of that strength comes from the Model Y."

In recent years, U.S. tech majors have stepped up hiring and made diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) a priority. But as the industry grapples with over-hiring since mid-2020, rising interest rates and changes in business and consumer behavior, tech companies have announced deep cuts, risking their diversity efforts. The rare shakeup in big tech companies risks further disrupting diversity pledges that have already grown stagnant as companies de-emphasize DEI efforts. Equal Employment Opportunity data for 2008-2016, found that about 7% of tech firms are actively trying to diversify their workforce. This will disrupt diversity efforts even further, said Benjamin Juarez, a recruiting consultant and co-founder of Latinos in Tech.

☆ J&J's consumer health unit Kenvue files for IPO, moving closer to spin-off
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 4 (Reuters) - Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) consumer health unit Kenvue on Wednesday filed to be listed as an independent company, bringing the healthcare conglomerate a step closer to completing the biggest shakeup in its 135-year history. The filing, for Kenvue to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "KVUE", comes more than a year after Johnson & Johnson announced its plan to break up into two companies. J&J's pharmaceutical and medical equipment units, which make cancer treatments and surgical tools, had recorded nearly $80 billion in sales in 2021, far ahead of its consumer products revenues. General Electric's (GE.N) spun-off healthcare unit, GE HealthCare Technologies , debuted as an independent company on Nasdaq on Wednesday. Kenvue said J&J will continue to own at least 80.1% of the voting power of the company's shares upon completion of the offering.

☆ Creator economy experts say 2023 will be a buyer's market for M&A. Here are 5 themes to watch, from tech buyers like Shopify to startup consolidation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Marta Biino | Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

"As a result, institutional acquirers, like PE firms who still have dry powder to spend, will start snatching up mid-to-large sized creator startups at much more advantageous prices." Insider spoke with creator-economy and market experts about what deals and the broader M&A landscape in 2023 may look like. "They're going to see that the creator economy exists as a direct failure of them to support creators," Gestetner said. "But if an opportunity arises for us to significantly enhance our capabilities to make us a better business powering the creator economy, we'll consider it." Startups can expect consolidation in saturated marketsThe crowded niches within the creator economy startup sphere could also face a wave of consolidation.

☆ These stocks were our best and worst performers in the fourth quarter
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

What made the fourth quarter stand out from the first three of the year? Here's a snapshot of the best and worst performers in the Investing Club's 33-stock portfolio for the fourth quarter, starting with our top 4 performers. Worst performers Turning to what didn't work in the fourth quarter, the worst performer for the club was Amazon (AMZN), which fell 27.6% in the quarter. Revenues declined year-over-year for the second quarter in a row, but that was mostly anticipated by the market. The fourth worst performer was Walt Disney (DIS), which fell 10.8% in the quarter It all unraveled for Disney after it reported a much weaker-than-expected fiscal fourth quarter in November.

☆ Here are the 10 Dow stocks analysts think will see the most gains in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

With that in mind, CNBC Pro looked at stocks in the Dow that have the most upside to the average analyst price target, per FactSet. Salesforce takes the top spot, with nearly 50% upside to the average analyst price target. Tech giant Apple could also see big gains, with the average analyst price target implying upside of 28%. The stock has had a lackluster year, losing 25%, but 62% of analysts covering Apple rate it a buy. 4 spot with nearly 21% upside to the average analyst price target.

☆ Creator economy insiders share the 5 trends that could change the industry in 2023, from a flood of Gen X and millennial creators to a startup reckoning
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Amanda Perelli | Sydney Bradley | Marta Biino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Insider asked creator economy industry professionals to share their predictions for 2023. We spoke with investors, influencer marketers, and industry experts, who shared their best predictions for the creator economy in 2023. Live shopping could finally have its moment in the USIndustry insiders may have been premature in declaring 2022 the year of social and live shopping. Some creator economy startups might close their doorsThis past year, layoffs have been rampant in the creator economy, as companies like Patreon and Jellysmack reacted to the economic slowdown by letting employees go. "Venture capitalists think this isn't the time to be betting on the creator economy, so the next nine months will be really tough."

☆ Elon Musk is tweeting about basically everything — apart from the poll where users said he should give up control of Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk polled Twitter users on Sunday about whether he should give up control of the company. Musk, who has run the site since buying it in late October, said he'd abide by the results of the poll. "Should I step down as head of Twitter?," Musk had tweeted. Shortly after posting the poll, Musk tweeted: "As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it." Some users and activist groups say there has been a rise in hate speech on the platform since Musk took over.

☆ Peru's president to replace prime minister in Cabinet shakeup
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Marco Aquino | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Summary Prime Minister Angulo out after only 1 weekCabinet reshuffling follows 2 ministers quittingMinisters quit after protestors killedLIMA, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Peruvian President Dina Boluarte, who is leading a transitional government following the ouster of her predecessor, will replace the prime minister as part of a reshuffling of her Cabinet, she said on Sunday. Boluarte was vice president until earlier this month when her predecessor, former President Pedro Castillo, was removed from office and then detained after illegally trying to dissolve Congress. She did not hint at a possible replacement for Pedro Angulo, who had been prime minister for just a week. Boluarte also added that the new Cabinet, which will work with the opposition-led Congress, will be "a little more political." Former President Castillo frequently butted heads with Congress, which held two unsuccessful impeachment trials against him.

☆ It's just the beginning of M&A in the creator economy. Industry experts predict 2023's top trends, and the buyers and sellers to watch.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Marta Biino | Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

"As a result, institutional acquirers, like PE firms who still have dry powder to spend, will start snatching up mid-to-large sized creator startups at much more advantageous prices." "They're going to see that the creator economy exists as a direct failure of them to support creators," Gestetner said. "But if an opportunity arises for us to significantly enhance our capabilities to make us a better business powering the creator economy, we'll consider it." Startups can expect consolidation in saturated marketsThe crowded niches within the creator economy startup sphere could also face a wave of consolidation. In the creator economy, companies bet on the fact that YouTube advertising revenue on the videos will increase as the audiences of creators grow and they gain more views.

☆ One of the market's biggest ETFs is changing its holdings. Here's what's new
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Jesse Pound | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The index behind one of the biggest ETFs on the market is getting a shakeup next week, creating a shift in the portfolios of many investors. The index is the backbone of the Invesco QQQ Trust , one of the biggest ETFs on the market with more than $150 billion in assets under management. Investors who own the QQQ will see their own portfolios indirectly change as the massive fund rotates its holdings. Discovery are also not perfect fits within the tech sector. The Invesco QQQ Trust, which was launched in 1999, has an expense ratio of 0.20%.

☆ American Airlines will make it harder to earn frequent flyer status next year in loyalty program shakeup
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Leslie Josephs | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Members of American Airlines ' loyalty program will have to spend more to earn elite status next year, part of a slew of changes that the carrier announced Thursday. Starting in March, AAdvantage members will need to earn 40,000 so-called Loyalty Points to earn Gold status, up from 30,000 in the current earning year. Airlines allowed loyalty program members to hold on to their elite statuses during the pandemic when travel demand dried up. The programs were a lifeline for airlines during the Covid-19 crisis since carriers make money when travelers earn miles through rewards credit cards. For example, after AAdvantage members earn 15,000 Loyalty Points, they will be allowed to board in Group 5 for one earning year.

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