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☆ 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

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.

☆ 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.

☆ I left teaching and now make $450,000 in revenue a year covering up scars and stretch marks with tattoos. Here's how I built my lucrative business from scratch.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Natalie Rahhal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Laura Lara, a paramedical tattoo artist, who lives in El Paso, Texas. In 2022, I made $457,000 in revenue working full-time for myself in the paramedical tattoo industry. There's also pigment camouflage, which is done when the stretch marks are flat, white, and over a year old. Some people think paramedical tattooing is just for women, but stretch marks don't discriminate. Paramedical tattooists are changing people's lives and that's the best part of itThe paramedical tattoo industry is growing and evolving.

☆ Sydney Cricket Ground gates named after Tendulkar, Lara
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SYDNEY, April 24 (Reuters) - A set of gates at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) have been named in honour of Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara to mark the Indian's 50th birthday and the 30th anniversary of the West Indies batsman's innings of 277 at the ground. Cricket Australia said that visiting players would pass through the gates on their way to the pitch from the away dressing room in the Members Pavilion. Home players access the field via gates named after Australian great Don Bradman. "The Sydney Cricket Ground has been my favourite ground away from India," Tendulkar, who scored three centuries in five tests at the SCG and celebrated his birthday on Monday, said in a Cricket Australia news release. "I'm deeply honoured to be recognised at the Sydney Cricket Ground, as I'm sure Sachin is," said the 53-year-old Trinidadian.

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 neither pose the threat to Google's search dominance that ChatGPT-powered Bing does today, according to an agency source. But ChatGPT-Bing has a bigger opportunity to grab budgets earmarked for Google search because it will change the entire way consumers search for information. 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. Morgan Stanley recently estimated that adtech firms are poised to win $26 billion out of a $130 billion retail media market by 2025.

☆ 'DONE WITH FOX': Right-wing pundits, politicians, and influencers (and Glenn Greenwald) rage against Fox News after it parts ways with Tucker Carlson
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Nicholas Carlson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tucker Carlson and Fox News parted ways Monday. "I think that'll kill Fox," Glenn Beck said during his streaming show . "Wherever Tucker Carlson goes, America will follow!" Eric's brother Donald Trump Jr. was also upset:Starting midday Monday, the phrase "DONE WITH FOX" started to trend on Twitter. — Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 24, 2023

☆ Western Weapons Supplies Fall Short of Ukraine’s Needs, Documents Show
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Lara Jakes | John Ismay | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Western allies this week delivered some of the most powerful weapons that Ukraine says it will need for a looming counteroffensive against Russia: a Patriot air-defense system from Germany and the Netherlands. More 155-millimeter artillery from the United States. And on Friday, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III announced that Ukrainians would soon begin training, for the first time, on American M1 Abrams tanks — an important step to getting the sophisticated weapon to the battlefield. But the reinforcements still fall short of what even American military planners have assessed that Ukraine needs to make the most of an offensive expected to begin in coming weeks to retake more territory captured by the Russians. Classified military assessments dating to February and March, from leaked documents, show dire gaps in what allies had pledged to Ukraine and what, at least by then, had been delivered.

☆ Check out the pitch deck identity management startup Lockr used to raise $2.5 million in pre-seed funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Identity and email management company Lockr raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding this week. Check out the pitch deck that convinced investors like Mozilla Ventures to join the funding round. Lockr, a digital identity management startup, said this week it had raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding, investment it plans to use to grow its team, scale its userbase, and add more features to its consumer product. For publishers and marketers, the company provides Lockr Identity. Investors in Lockr's pre-seed funding round included Mozilla Ventures, Junction Venture Partners, and Grit Capital Partners, as well as individual investors.

The group represents a range of roles at adtech companies, publishers, retailers, and advertisers. They are helping the ad industry grab new opportunities, like retail media and streaming TV ads. Adtech companies are jockeying against each other to capture market share in streaming TV advertising, servicing the needs of content owners like Netflix, Warner Bros. They're also trying to strike gold in retail media, a relatively new category that could represent a $26 billion market for adtech companies, according to Morgan Stanley. We considered nearly 90 people from adtech companies, publishers, and advertisers.

☆ From 'Queer Eye' to gay ghost hunters, Scout Productions execs reveal how they built a reality TV powerhouse that's well armed for a Hollywood writers' strike
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Reality TV powerhouse 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. The company also revealed to Insider that it's developing an unscripted series with Janelle Monáe and her production company, Wondaland. 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.

☆ Google-parent stock drops on fears it could lose search market share to AI-powered rivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Samantha Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Shares of Google-parent Alphabet fell more than 3% in early trading Monday after a report sparked concerns that its core search engine could lose market share to AI-powered rivals, including Microsoft’s Bing. In an effort to address the heightened competition, Google is said to be developing a new AI-powered search engine called Project “Magi,” according to the Times. Google’s search engine has dominated the market for two decades. That’s particularly true when it comes to search engines, a product that many use to find accurate and reliable information. “This is going to impact every product across every company and so that’s, that’s why I think it’s a very, very profound technology,” he said.

☆ Dominion’s case against Fox News goes to trial next week. Is the First Amendment really on the line?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +21 min

But even by the standards of the profession, the language in Dominion's $1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox News has been downright apocalyptic. A victory for Dominion against Fox, they say, could wreak havoc for other journalism organizations across the country. The sheer closeness between Trump and Fox News makes a case like this unlikely to harm journalism organizations down the line, Goodale said. The vast majority of defamation cases against media organizations are settled, which gives few high-profile precedents to the Dominion lawsuit. "And that's the balance that the Sullivan court strike tried to strike in 1964.

☆ Softbank-backed adtech firm Permutive announces further layoffs, which could affect up to 40% of staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Permutive told staffers this week it's preparing a round of layoffs that may affect up to 40% of staff. It follows an earlier round of layoffs in August last year, which reduced its then-headcount by 12%. Permutive said it wants to focus on profitability amid a challenging economic environment and drop in venture funding. UK-based adtech company Permutive this week announced a layoff that is expected to affect just under 80 staffers, or about 40% of its headcount, Insider has learned. UK employment laws stipulate employers laying off more than 20 staff must consult with employee representatives over redundancy plans.

☆ Elon Musk says Twitter is using a Wikipedia list to help decide which news organizations are labeled 'government-funded media'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Sarah Jackson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Elon Musk says Twitter is relying on Wikipedia to help decide which news outlets to label "government-funded media." It recently labeled NPR "state-affiliated media," a move Musk later said might have been wrong, before changing it to "government-funded media." Elon Musk told as much to NPR reporter Bobby Allyn, and Twitter's Help Center page about government and state-affiliated media labels confirmed the policy. Twitter recently slapped a "state-affiliated media" label on NPR's Twitter account. Musk reportedly later admitted adding the "state-affiliated media" label to NPR's account might have been a mistake.

He had told Oxford Gold that he wanted to "get the lay of the land" ahead of picking up a $9 million order for 151 gold kilo bars. But most unusual was that Mancuso wanted to pick up the order from the Oxford Gold office, the source said. The next day, Mancuso contacted Oxford Gold about buying $9 million worth of gold, and the company agreed to sell him 151 gold kilo bars. But Oxford Gold was alerted on December 2 that this was a fraudulent transaction, said a source with direct knowledge. Unsure what to do, Oxford Gold contacted the Beverly Hills Police Department, and eventually got in touch with the FBI, this source said.

☆ Meta's layoffs are affecting customer service and leaving influencers and businesses on Instagram and Facebook in the lurch, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Meta's mass layoffs have affected over 20,000 employees, including its customer support teams. One Instagram influencer told CNBC that her requests for support are going "into the void." The layoffs, which saw thousands of employees leave the company, affected staff in Meta's client support and customer experience and communities teams, former staff told CNBC. The company declined to provide comment to CNBC but provided the outlet with examples of its investment in customer service in recent years. The company has started building a customer service division, Bloomberg reported last year.

☆ Trump praised his family in his post-arraignment speech, but didn't mention Melania, who was nowhere to be seen
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Neither Melania nor Ivanka Trump were seen during Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago speech Tuesday. Donald Jr, Eric and Tiffany Trump all showed up to hear the former president speak. While Donald Jr, Eric and Tiffany Trump and their partners were seen in the ballroom, his wife and eldest daughter were notably absent. During his speech, Trump singled out several family members for praise, including Ivanka — but notably didn't mention his absent wife, a transcript of the speech shows. Speaking about the "fantastic job" his "great family" have done, he indicated Donald Jr, Eric, Ivanka, and Barron Trump, per the paper.

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