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☆ Three women escaped in 2017 from the prison where Elizabeth Holmes is being held — one is still on the run
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-01 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

In 2017, three women escaped from the prison Elizabeth Holmes is being held in. One of them is still on the run, CBS reported, citing prison authorities. Holmes reported to the same Texas prison on Tuesday to begin an 11-year sentence. Holmes reported to the same prison on Tuesday to begin an 11-year sentence. Inmates working on a factory line earn a wage of at least $0.12 an hour.

Persons: Elizabeth Holmes, Holmes, —, Bryan, Edith Lara, Ysenia Frausto, Brenda Rosas —, Frausto, Rosas, Lara, hasn't Organizations: CBS, Service, Prison, Bureau of Prisons, US Bureau of Prisons Locations: Texas, Bryan

☆ Elon Musk's Twitter is moving deeper into programmatic advertising as it attempts to revive revenue
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Twitter is going to make its ad inventory available to buy on the open programmatic market for the first time. The company is entering into a partnership with adtech company InMobi, and has been speaking with other ad vendors. Twitter had had ongoing conversations with multiple adtech vendors about partnerships for months, according to people familiar with the matter. Insider Intelligence last month slashed its forecast for Twitter's 2023 ad revenue to $2.98 billion, down 37% on its October projection for the same period. The move to work with external programmatic advertising vendors comes more than a year after Twitter sold its mobile advertising network to MoPub to gaming and adtech company AppLovin for $1.05 billion.

[1/3] The 76th Cannes Film Festival - Photocall for the film "How to Have Sex" in competition for the category Un Certain Regard - Cannes, France, May 19, 2023. However, there was a slight hiccup: Molly Manning Walker was not in the room when the award for her debut feature was announced. The first Sudanese film to be included in the Cannes official selection, "Goodbye Julia," took the freedom award. Director Mohamed Kordofani thanked the Sudanese people for their support as well as for not giving up. "Un Certain Regard" is a competition focused on arthouse films that runs parallel to the main competition, the Palme d'Or, which will be announced on Saturday.

☆ Apple's nascent ad business faces more competition than ever, and it's set to launch a major charm offensive to get big advertisers to buy in
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-25 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Apple usually plays it so low-key at big industry events, you wouldn't even know the company had attended. It has rented a space at the top of the iconic Carlton hotel, situated on the busy Croisette promenade, according to multiple advertising industry sources. It's also planning a week of programming, with panel topics expected to include sports on Apple TV+, Apple News, apps, and the broadening Apple advertising offering, those sources said. All of which were "not necessarily a strong-point with Apple advertising in the past," Auzins said. Today, Apple's ad business largely consists of search ads sold within the App Store, which Insider Intelligence forecasts will generate $8.7 billion this year.

☆ What Number Comes Next? The Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences Knows.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Siobhan Roberts | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Dr. Sloane is the founder of the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, a database of 362,765 (and counting) number sequences defined by a precise rule or property. In 1995, it became an “encyclopedia,” with 5,487 sequences and an additional author, Simon Plouffe, a mathematician in Quebec. A year later, the collection had doubled in size again, so Dr. Sloane put it on the internet. Dr. Pudwell writes algorithms to solve counting problems. “I found this perplexing,” Dr. Pudwell said.

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Apple's upcoming 'Reality' headset, BookTok drives book sales, and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

AI startup cloud deals by Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are ringing "accounting alarm bells" across Silicon Valley over revenue "round-tripping." As Big Tech firms invest in AI startups in exchange for commitments to use their cloud services, some investors question whether those arrangements are artificially inflating cloud revenue growth. A former Apple marketing executive predicts the company's upcoming "Reality" headset risks being "one of the greatest tech flops of all time." How the BookTok phenomenon helped send book sales to an all-time high and reignite a love for reading. Read on to find out more about what you can use the AI app for.

☆ 14 private equity firms investing in advertising, marketing, and communications companies in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

PE firms represented more than half of the acquisitions in the advertising and marketing space in 2022. Insider identified 14 PE firms active in the advertising and marketing space over the past 12 months. Private equity interest in the advertising and marketing space is expected to remain strong in 2023, defying a global IPO market that's practically shut and a massive slowdown of strategic dealmaking. Representatives for the PE firms either declined to comment or didn't respond to requests for comment unless otherwise noted. Did we miss any other major PE deals in the advertising, marketing, and communications space from the last 12 months?

Meta's ad business has been rebuilt since Apple's ATT update threatened its ability to make money. Many of Meta's top execs left and are now building ad platforms for companies like Reddit and Snap. Below are some prominent former Meta ad execs who recently left, and where they've ended up. This time last year, Meta's ad business was on the brink. But today, Meta's ad business is back on the upswing, as the company has delved into AI to replace the consumer data that powered its lucrative ad targeting and measurement capabilities.

☆ Google is pressing ahead with its plan to kill off cookies. Advertising and privacy groups aren't convinced its cookie alternatives are ready for public consumption.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Google has laid out the latest timeline for its plan to kill off third-party cookies in Chrome. Google will take the next steps in its plan to kill third-party tracking cookies from its Chrome browser, the company said on Thursday. Google has missed previous deadlines to stop supporting third-party cookies in Chrome. Google's blog post also included quotes from adtech companies crediting the tech giant for soliciting feedback from developers who have tested the Privacy Sandbox technology. The Privacy Sandbox proposals have also faced privacy concerns.

☆ What Is the F-16 Fighter Jet and Why Does Ukraine Want It?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Lara Jakes | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

British and Dutch plans to help Ukraine obtain F-16 fighter jets have put the United States and some of its closest European allies at odds — yet again — over what weapons the West should send Kyiv to defend against Russia’s invasion. Even if the Biden administration overcomes its long-held reluctance to give Ukraine the American-made planes, the F-16 would not be used in combat for months at the earliest, officials and military analysts say. Here is a look at the F-16, why Ukraine wants it and why the Biden administration is hesitant to supply it. First flown in 1976, the F-16 “Fighting Falcon” is a supersonic fighter jet used by militaries in 25 countries for air-to-air combat and air-to-ground strikes. It has flown in American conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, the Persian Gulf and on homeland defense missions in U.S. airspace.

☆ The Latest Rift Among Ukraine’s Allies Is Whether to Send F-16s
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Lara Jakes | Eric Schmitt | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A fresh push by Britain and the Netherlands to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter planes has exposed the latest fault line among Western allies who have wrangled repeatedly over sending powerful weapons of war, once again pitting a reluctant United States against some of its closest European partners. Several European allies are prepared to give their F-16s to Ukraine. But the Biden administration, which must approve any transfers of the American-made planes, remains unconvinced that Ukraine needs the expensive jets, which are a staple of many modern military arsenals. So deep is Washington’s skepticism that Kyiv’s pilots are currently not even allowed to train on the F-16s that are owned by European states, according to a senior Ukrainian official who spoke on condition of anonymity to frankly discuss the sensitive diplomatic issue. American reluctance to allow training would severely limit a proposed new European coalition to help Ukraine obtain and fly F-16s — whether in the current conflict or to protect against any future aggressions by Moscow after the West turns its focus from the 15-month war.

☆ $144 billion Man Group is teaching non-tech workers coding and data-science skills that are saving them hours of manual work
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Man Group's <develop> program is growing in popularity among non-tech workers. That's the thinking behind Man Group's technology upskilling program, <develop>, which has served as the $144 billion investment firm's answer to a tight tech-labor market. "The level of demand for software engineers outstripped the number of qualified engineers entering the workforce each year," Lara Carty, Man Group's chief people officer, told Insider. It's also spanned a variety of backgrounds, from workers on the trading desk to communications and public-relations employees, Carty said. There's classroom-based learning led by about a dozen of Man Group's top engineers with a mentorship aspect.

Elon Musk announced today that Linda Yaccarino would be the next Twitter CEO. With its revenue falling and its reputation falling faster, she may be the win Musk needs. Elon musk needs a win. The ad sales team generated more than $100 billion in ad revenue during her 12-year tenure, according to the company. That advertising revenue is just what Musk needs right now.

The departure of ads chief Linda Yaccarino to Twitter has thrown NBCU into chaos. The exit comes on the heels of the departure of NBCU CEO Jeff Shell after sexual harassment allegations. One advertising executive who works closely with NBCUniversal described the situation inside the company as a "Cuban missile crisis." NBCU does have a deep bench of ad executive talent that's highly regarded in the ad industry. Although Yaccarino's departure from NBCUniversal to Twitter was a surprise, she had been close with the company and its billionaire owner.

☆ How Meta is fighting off Apple's best shot and saving its ad business
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Lauren Johnson | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Meta's AI tools has helped save its ad business, after Apple rolled out its ATT privacy feature. These AI tools have helped Meta regain the trust of some advertisers after ad performance declined. Knowing it would lose the user signals that made its ads business so lucrative, Meta heavily invested in artificial intelligence. "Meta's advantage in AI is its advantage in training data," said Adam Heimlich, CEO of Chalice Custom Algorithms. "Every advertiser who places a Meta tag on their site or app is contributing to Meta's advantage by contributing data.

☆ Check out the pitch deck that helped Freshsound, which helps brands license music for their ads, raise $2.2 million in seed funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Freshsound, a self-service platform to license commercial music, raised a $2.2 million seed round. For more than a decade, Stevie Gyasi worked in marketing, helping link brands like Absolut, Nikon, and H&M with music artists for campaigns and events. The Freshsound platform offers its users an instant price for a track and handles the payments, removing the need to negotiate with songwriters and labels. This week, Freshsound said it had raised a 2 million euro, or $2.2 million, seed funding round, led by Zenith Venture Capital and Aligned. Check out the key slides from the pitch deck Freshsound used to raise its seed funding round.

☆ $144 billion investment firm Man Group is supercharging non-tech workers with Python and data-science skills. Here's a look inside the popular program helping employees save time.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

☆ Terence Kawaja's adtech-focused investment bank Luma Partners may lose 3 of its partners amid a disagreement over its future direction
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Luma Partners' three partners are currently planning to exit the company, Insider has learned. It followed a disagreement with Luma Founder and CEO Terence Kawaja about the future vision for the firm. Luma Partners, the adtech-focused investment bank may lose all three of its partners following a disagreement with the company's founder, Terence Kawaja, about the future direction of the firm, Insider has learned. Kawaja's court jester style is in sharp contrast to that of Andersen, Greenbaum, and Filippini who tend to keep a lower profile. For the moment, they remain partners with Luma, which is currently working on a live M&A deal, Andersen said.

☆ Amazon just poached a longtime Meta veteran to lead its growing adtech division
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Amazon Advertising has hired Kelly MacLean as its VP of its ad buying platform. MacLean, who joined Amazon late last month, previously spent more than 11 years at Meta. Amazon Advertising has poached a longtime Meta executive to lead a key adtech division, Insider has learned. The Amazon DSP uses automation to let advertisers buy ads on Amazon properties like Amazon.com, Twitch, and IMDb, as well as elsewhere on the web. The Amazon DSP recently underwent an overhaul that was 18 months in the making to improve its machine-learning and predictive algorithms.

☆ Adtech giant The Trade Desk strikes deal to solve one of marketers' biggest challenges in the $80 billion retail media space
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Trade Desk wants to take a bigger slice of the $80 billion retail media market. Adtech giant The Trade Desk has landed a partnership that aims to solve one of advertising's biggest challenges in the $80 billion retail media space: getting timely data on how their ads are driving sales across multiple retailer sites and stores. Attain, which will charge advertisers on a CPM, or cost-per-thousand-impressions basis, will offer The Trade Desk advertisers metrics including sales, return on ad spend, and conversion rates. The Trade Desk is the largest independent adtech firm, and the company's moves typically indicate where the industry is investing. The Trade Desk is set to release its latest earnings report on May 10.

☆ Why the producers of 'Queer Eye' and Peacock's 'Swedish Death Cleaning' show believe they're 'in a really good position' to ride out a Hollywood writers' strike
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

"Queer Eye" creator Scout Productions is betting its time is now, with a Hollywood writers' strike looming. It's working with Kristen Stewart on a "super-gay ghost hunting" reality series, as the star touted it on Instagram. It's also plotting a return to its scripted content roots. "They are very Scout shows in our storytelling process, but they're also shows that fit, that can be international, they can be domestic only. Joel Chiodi, head of documentaries and SVP of strategic development, contended that Scout's content "may not be broad, but we're enough in the mainstream, just pushing a little more."

☆ The CEOs of the world's biggest advertising companies just outlined how AI is about to transform their businesses
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Advertising agency CEOs are eager to signal their companies' AI expertise to Wall Street. Speaking on this quarter's earnings calls, executives at the world's largest advertising agency groups also outlined some of their recent AI client projects and technology task forces. "What's changed over the last six months is the application of AI through generative AI into the creative process," Read said. Omnicom is running more than 20 projects where it combines Omnicom's historical data with GPT's automation technology, Wren said, though he didn't specify exactly how it was being deployed. That will require more creative assets, Sadoun said on the Publicis earnings call.

☆ Adtech company MediaMath has hired bankers to explore a possible sale
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

MediaMath has appointed investment bank Houlihan Lokey to explore its strategic options. Amid a period of major upheaval, MediaMath has been pursuing a sale since 2020. Adtech company MediaMath has appointed the investment bank Houlihan Lokey to explore its strategic options, which could include a debt restructuring or a sale, according to two people familiar with the matter. It's the third investment bank MediaMath has appointed in three years, amid a period of major upheaval for the company. While MediaMath held serious talks with four companies between 2020 and 2022, including Amazon and the publicly traded adtech firm Tremor, a sale didn't materialize.

☆ The live volcano sitting below Santorini
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Elinda Labropoulou | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —Everywhere you look on Santorini, you’re reminded that you’re on a volcano. Few realize that beneath the hypnotic kaleidoscope of colors lies an active volcano. The East Mediterranean’s most active underwater, and potentially dangerous, volcano, Kolumbo, is five miles northeast of Santorini and part of the same volcanic system. They include a visit to the volcano of Nea Kameni: one of five islands that form the Santorini volcanic complex, and a national geological park in itself. A simmering volcanoTourists can take boat trips to Nea Kameni, home to an active volcano.

Besides YouTube's 2.6% first quarter ad revenue decline, Google is facing multiple challenges to its advertising business. While Google's search revenue was up about 2%, Microsoft is in the early stages of a big play to go after it. Matthew Bailey, principal analyst at research firm Omdia anticipates Google will post digital ad revenue growth at around 5% in 2023 and in 2024. Google's monolithic search ads business is starting to see real competitionMost of Google's ad revenue is driven by its ubiquitous search engine. But Amazon, which has a $31 billion ad business, and Walmart, which has a $2.7 billion ad business, grab roughly 80% of retail ad spend.

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