DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Alec Baldwin's 'Rust' will resume filming amid criminal case over Hutchins death
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Rebecca Picciotto | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Hutchins was killed by a bullet from a gun Baldwin was holding in 2021. Matthew Hutchins, the widower of Halyna Hutchins, will join as an executive producer on the movie, along with the original producers. Bianca Cline, the cinematographer for the Oscar-nominated "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On," will take over as the "Rust" cinematographer. Matthew Hutchins will also serve as an executive producer of a new documentary on his late wife's life and work. Halyna Hutchins' mother, father, and sister filed a separate civil suit against Baldwin last week, which Matthew is not directly involved in.

☆ Potential buyers are leveraging high-profile blowups like Frank and FTX to get better terms. Insiders detail how dealmaking is changing in 2023.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Paige Hagy | Bianca Chan | Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

We don't want to look like JPMorgan,'" Jason Mikula, fintech analyst and writer behind Fintech Business Weekly, told Insider. How closely they adhere to it matters greatly in terms of if a deal is on the line," Mandelbaum told Insider. Investors pumped $132 billion globally into fintechs in 2021 and there were more than 900 fintech M&A exits, according to CB Insights. "It's now a buyer's market," Rob Brown, CEO of Lincoln International, a global investment-banking advisory firm, told Insider. One way companies might optimize the due-diligence process without cutting corners is by leaning on machines to help with the heavy lifting.

☆ ChatGPT is supercharging how EQT sources deals. A top tech exec at the investing giant gives an inside look at how it's 'trying to make cyborgs' out of its dealmakers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But at Sweden-based investment firm EQT, the tech is being used at full throttle. "We're trying to make cyborgs," Alexandra Lutz, head of Motherbrain, EQT's AI platform, told Insider. With ChatGPT, Lutz said EQT has reached "the next frontier," putting the power of AI directly in the hands of its investors and portfolio companies. EQT's AI journey has been seven years in the makingThe impetus for EQT's AI platform can be traced back to a simple question. The AI platform generates lists of companies for EQT investors that look promising based on an input of desired attributes, from company size to geography and underlying technology.

☆ ChatGPT is coming for Wall Street next
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Insider's Paige Hagy and Bianca Chan asked industry experts how they see a tool like ChatGPT impacting all areas of Wall Street, from investment banking to financial planning to consumer banking. So if your boss pitches you on using ChatGPT to help "streamline your workflow" understand that you could be training your replacement. Click here to read more about the types of jobs ChatGPT might upend across Wall Street. Wall Street trading firm GTS Securities is looking to make investing in music royalties accessible to the general public, Bloomberg reports. Stephanee Beggs made seven figures selling her study materials on TikTok and Etsy, which means she cleared more business than half the bankers on Wall Street.

☆ From financial planning to dealmaking, here's how ChatGPT could impact jobs across Wall Street
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Paige Hagy | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Here's how the chatbot could impact six different areas of Wall Street. Experts have predicted ChatGPT's impact on a variety of industries, and it appears Wall Street will be no exception. ChatGPT has the capacity eventually to replace humans in certain roles, according to some, but the realization rests in the customers' hands. But while you mull on whether or not to pay attention to ChatGPT on Wall Street, some are already putting the tech to work. Insider spoke to five industry experts to get their take on how ChatGPT and its underlying tech could be applied to various sectors of financial services.

Some hedge funds, wealth managers, and asset managers are still hiring. Recruiters told us what roles are in demand and what skills can help you land them. Big-name hedge funds like Citadel, D. E. Shaw, and Millennium Management posted double digits in a year that many other investment managers would rather soon forget. Alternative asset managers, meanwhile, are hiring in the private-wealth-management businesses they've spent recent years building out. … if you're in or interested in wealth managementDespite the market downturn, wealth managers are in high demand.

☆ Inside JPMorgan massive tech org: 7 key execs helping global CIO Lori Beer manage the firm's $14 billion tech budget.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Bianca Chan | Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

JPMorgan's tech organization is led by nine-year bank vet Lori Beer, its global CIO. As the biggest US bank by assets, JPMorgan's sprawling $14.1 billion tech budget can be hard to comprehend. The size and scale of JPMorgan's tech spending can seem unfathomable to a small startup or everyday consumer. Lori Beer, JPMorgan's chief information officer, oversees that sprawling tech budget, which grew by 20% from 2019 to 2022. Insider mapped out the key tech executives at JPMorgan who report to Beer and help her lead the bank's massive tech org.

☆ The dealmaking boom meant fast timelines and loose due diligence. But high-profile implosions like FTX and Frank mean would-be sellers can expect more scrutiny, insiders say.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Paige Hagy | Bianca Chan | Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

☆ Due diligence is top of mind for Wall Street in the wake of blowups at Frank and FTX. Here's what it means for the state of M&A.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In the long list of boring, behind-the-scenes stuff for deals to get done, due diligence ranks close to the top. One of the more fascinating knock-on effects is how buyers might leverage FTX and Frank as a way to get better terms on deals. Click here to read more about the new state of due diligence in the wake of FTX and Frank. I know you're a passionate bunch, so we compiled everything Wall Street is saying about the EV maker's fourth-quarter earnings. Which fast-food joint has the best coffee?

Some hedge funds, wealth managers, and asset managers are still hiring. Layoffs across industries have been dominating headlines in January, and Wall Street has been no exception. Big-name hedge funds like Citadel, D. E. Shaw, and Millennium Management posted double digits in a year that many other investment managers would rather soon forget. Alternative asset managers, meanwhile, are hiring in the private-wealth-management businesses they've spent recent years building out. Emily Landon, the CEO of the Chicago-based headhunting firm The Crypto Recruiter, pointed to the job board Crypto Careers, which has over 2,400 openings.

☆ Australian minister says Kanye West could be denied entry
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Lewis Jackson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, Jan 24 (Reuters) - American rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, may not be suitable for an Australian visa because of his history of anti-Semitic remarks, a government minister said on Wednesday, as pressure mounted to deny the award-winning rapper entry. Minister for Education Jason Clare condemned Ye's "awful" anti-Semitic comments involving Hitler and the Holocaust, saying others who had made similar statements had been denied visas. Ye has been dropped by major corporate partners, including Adidas (ADSGn.DE) and banned from Twitter because of anti-Semitic remarks and outbursts on social media against other celebrities. "He's not a person of good character and the minister has the ability to stop somebody coming into our country of bad character." Peter Wertheim, co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, met officials on Tuesday to argue for an entry ban.

☆ Inside THL's investing playbook for how the PE firm uses the public cloud to be aggressive in the bidding process
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The cloud has become a key piece of private-equity firm THL's investment playbook. But for THL, the cloud has become an important part of the investing giant's playbook for winning over acquisition targets. He likened the due diligence and courtship process for founders and CEOs to speed dating with a bunch of investment firms. But the cloud, with its promise of cost savings and easy innovation, is helping THL stand out in the bidding process, Benaquista said. Eventually, as part of the move to the cloud, THL was able to split up Ten-X's commercial and residential businesses with the aim of selling the former.

☆ KKR's top tech exec details the firm's 3-year migration to the public cloud, and how the PE giant is leveraging the tech to streamline how deals get done
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

KKR is moving its technology and infrastructure to the public cloud by year end. The finish line is in sight for Emilia Sherifova, KKR's top tech exec who is spearheading the firm's multi-year migration to the public cloud. KKR's cloud migration has been years in the making. Under Sherifova, KKR has more than doubled its number of cloud-focused engineers, she said, declining to specify numbers. No longer are regulatory and security concerns barring finance players from moving mission-critical systems, like exchanges' matching engines and banks' core banking platforms, to the public cloud.

Insider asked more than 40 top fintech investors to nominate the most promising fintechs. Here are the 61 most promising fintechs. Insider surveyed 43 investors — including those from Bain Capital Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and QED Investors — about the most promising fintechs to watch. Global fintech funding dropped to $20.4 billion in the second quarter, falling 46% from last year, according to data from CB Insights. Check out the 61 fintechs identified as most promising by top investors.

Parafin, launched in 2020, works with so-called platform partners, or companies that other small businesses sell their products through. All the cofounders knew was that they wanted to build technology that would help small businesses. And they may not get their first contract payment from the government for as long as 120 days," Reed, the startup's CEO, told Insider. Helping small businesses manage their taxesComplYant's founder Shiloh Jackson wants to help people be present in their bookkeeping. HoneyBookWhile countless small businesses have been harmed by the pandemic, self-employment and entrepreneurship have found ways to blossom as Americans started new ventures.

☆ Blackstone used this data tool to upend its real-estate business. Now it's being deployed across its PE portfolio.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Carter Johnson | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Blackstone Chief Technology Officer John Stecher told Insider that Blackstone now uses Data Direct — previously called Real Estate Data Direct — across both its real estate and private-equity portfolios. From real estate to private equityInsider first detailed the launch of Data Direct, then known as Real Estate Data Direct (REDD), last year. That led to the roll out of the data tool to other parts of the business, like Blackstone's private-equity portfolio, and to new business lines next year. Data Direct, at its heart, is a data tool, and its success is predicated upon importing reliable information in the first place. Having good, clean data has made Data Direct very successful," he added.

☆ Banks' war against fintechs is a battle they're destined to lose
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

And while this shouldn't bother banks — they make plenty of money doing what they do best — this is Wall Street. In fact, the face of Wall Street, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, literally declared war on fintechs on an earnings call in 2021. But, as Insider's Bianca Chan and Reed Alexander recently outlined in a fantastic feature, banks' bid to topple fintechs is hopeless. Whether it's JPMorgan's digital-only bank Finn or, more recently, Goldman Sachs' Marcus, banks' attempt to cosplay as fintechs rarely ends well. Click here to read more about why banks are doomed to keep failing in their fight against fintechs.

☆ Execs from top firms like Morgan Stanley and Vanguard share tips for how to cut costs when moving to the public cloud
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Carter Johnson | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

When Vanguard first made a push into the public cloud, Michael Carr, the firm's chief technology officer, knew realizing savings was a key part of the move. Collaboration is keyAs with most technology applications, there's a human behavior element to cloud cost savings. At Capital One, it took years to build a culture of collaboration between technology and finance teams within the bank's centralized cloud expense management division, Johnston said. Before, the finance team would send the tech team an aggregate bill at the end of each month and "that was kind of the end of the story," Johnston said. Speaking the same language has instilled a greater sense of empathy across different teams, like finance, technology, business, and others.

☆ Banks vs. Fintechs: Why all the billions in the world can't help Wall Street crush its digital rivals
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Bianca Chan | Reed Alexander | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

To compete, banks have written fat checks to acquire fintechs — tech, talent, and all. But on Wall Street, old habits die hard, and Goldman has struggled to make Marcus, a big fintech bet, a success. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Wall Street leaders have been at the helm of a push to get their employees back to their desks. It's more that the very things that make Wall Street, well, Wall Street are preventing it from embracing the ethos of Silicon Valley. And perhaps, for Wall Street, that's the moral of the story.

☆ 10 of Wall Street's top tech execs detail how the public cloud is revolutionizing the way they do business: 'We are fundamentally rethinking how we solve problems.'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Bianca Chan | Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

This year saw the continued embrace of the public cloud by Wall Street firms. Wall Street is headed for the clouds. But now, a wholesale migration from physical, on-premise data centers to cloud networks is fully underway within financial services. Finance firms are using a move to the cloud as an opportunity to overhaul their business beyond just upgrading back-end tech. Here are the six top trends to watch in the cloud in 2023, according to top Wall Street tech execs.

☆ Here's how to get geared up for 2023 on Wall Street
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But first, Wells Fargo takes a new approach to tech. Ather Williams, senior executive vice president and head of strategy, digital, and innovation at Wells Fargo Wells Fargo1. In other news:After years of hesitancy, Wall Street is finally turning the corner on its acceptance of the public cloud. From a surge in dealmaking to the rise of superpowered software, these are the key trends top VCs are eyeing this year. We identified 34 tech companies that seem primed for a deal.

☆ Wells Fargo's top strategy exec details the bank's the multi-year internal reorganization to cut down its tech development cycle
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Carter Johnson | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Wells Fargo launched a digital strategy group in 2020 amid a broader re-org. "The heritage of Wells Fargo has been very fragmented. "Now you have to teach business people about tech development and tech development people about how the business works. In the wake of the CFPB announcement, Wells Fargo said it expects operating losses in the fourth-quarter to reach $3.5 billion. Wells Fargo reports quarterly earnings on January 13.

☆ Inside Wall Street's cloud ambitions: From cutting costs to new security tools, tech execs from Blackstone, Goldman Sachs, Citadel, and others predict the top cloud trends in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Bianca Chan | Carter Johnson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

☆ Private-equity firms are coming around to the idea of using more data in the investment process. It's still an uphill battle.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Take Blackstone, which recently expanded a data tool it originally built for its real-estate business to be used across its PE portfolio. As recently as just a few years ago, PE firms were just starting to warm to the idea of building out data-science teams. But that tech has been a hard sell for PE firms as well, until recently. Many PE firms are just now waking up to the possibilities of the public cloud. To be fair to PE firms, figuring out how to incorporate data analysis into the investing process is no easy task.

☆ A data tool Blackstone built for its real-estate empire is now being used across its PE portfolio. Here's why it could play a key role in the investing giant uncovering new deals.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Carter Johnson | Bianca Chan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The firm built Data Direct for its real-estate business, but is now using it across private equity. Blackstone Chief Technology Officer John Stecher told Insider that Blackstone now uses Data Direct — previously called Real Estate Data Direct — across both its real estate and private-equity portfolios. From real estate to private equityInsider first detailed the launch of Data Direct, then known as Real Estate Data Direct (REDD), last year. Data Direct, at its heart, is a data tool, and its success is predicated upon importing reliable information in the first place. Having good, clean data has made Data Direct very successful," he added.

Search resuls for: "Bianca C"

25 mentions found