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☆ Alphabet, Meta lure back advertisers as smaller rivals expected to struggle
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

This year, though, the social media ad market is expected to grow at a slightly faster pace than in 2022, according to a report last month from media and intelligence firm MAGNA. "Advertisers are simply going back to platforms they know, like and trust," said Brian Mulberry, a portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management. The social media advertising market overall is expected to grow 6% this year to $66 billion, according to MAGNA. Last year, the social media ad market grew 2% in part because privacy updates by Apple Inc (AAPL.O) made it more difficult for advertisers to gather user data to serve targeted ads. Digital pinboard company Pinterest is expected to post a 3% year-over-year rise in quarterly revenue on Thursday, according to Refinitiv data.

☆ Two Americans Take a Chance in Playa del Carmen, Mexico: Which Condo Did They Buy?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Morien Wark and Zoelle Appell had long been fond of Mexico, particularly Playa del Carmen, a coastal resort town where they had spent many vacations over the years. By New Year’s Eve, they were in Playa del Carmen. “This move was always something that was in the back of our mind,” Mr. Wark said. Unlike her husband, Ms. Appell does not speak Spanish, but the fast-growing expatriate community made it easier for her to get by. Late last year, after selling their Portland house for $650,000, Mr. Wark and Ms. Appell set up a fideicomiso and began house hunting in Playa del Carmen.

"At this point, we are no longer behind in building out our AI infrastructure," Zuckerberg said on a conference call. AI recommendations increased time spent on Instagram by 24% in the January-March quarter, Meta said. Reuters GraphicsCOST CONTROLSpending on the AI retooling has spiked the company's capital expenditures, which came in slightly under expectations at $7.1 billion for the quarter. "We've been focusing on both AI and the metaverse for years now, and we will continue to focus on both." Revenue for the first quarter rose 3% to $28.65 billion, beating an average estimate of $27.66 billion.

The company said its expenses for the year may be lower than it had forecast in March. Spending on the AI retooling has spiked the company's capital expenditures, which came in slightly under expectations at $7.1 billion for the quarter. Analysts had forecast $7.2 billion in capital expenditures in the quarter, based on the company's annual forecast of $30 billion to $33 billion, which it kept unchanged. Net profit for the first three months of the year fell to $2.20 per share from $2.72 a year earlier, but beat expectations of $2.03 a share. Revenue for the first quarter rose 3% to $28.65 billion, beating an average estimate of $27.66 billion.

☆ Irsina, the Italian village being repopulated by Americans
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Silvia Marchetti | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

More than 15 families from the US and Canada have bought old properties in this remote village, known for its premium wheat fields and olive groves. The first foreign “pioneer” to buy a house in Irsina was Sandy Webster, a 63-year-old writer from San Diego. The couple fell in love with the village, bought an old house with thick stone walls, antique furniture and ancient maiolica-tile floors, and spent four years renovating it. “When we got here in 2016, over 80% of the population had fled to the newer district of Irsina, the old Irsina was empty and we loved how it looked. Their house, built into the old village walls, was on sale for 70,000 euros ($77,000).

They said two in five people seeking food assistance in the Atlanta region this year have not done so before. In central Ohio, the local food bank says the number of households seeking aid has increased by nearly half since last year. Craig Gundersen, a Baylor University economics professor who is a prominent researcher for Feeding America, said that food banks experiencing spikes above COVID levels are outliers. The Highland Food Pantry in Winchester, Virginia, said it served about 90 families a week during the pandemic. In early April, White visited a community center to donate old clothes and noticed a line for the food pantry.

☆ RESTRICT Act explained: proposed TikTok ban is 'a PATRIOT Act for the digital age,' some lawmakers say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The RESTRICT Act, a bill that could ban TikTok nationwide, was introduced in the Senate last month. GOP Senator JD Vance of Ohio called the bill proposal "a PATRIOT Act for the digital age." But the RESTRICT Act — touted as a way ban TikTok nationwide — would do far more than prevent users from accessing an app known for its viral dance routines and conspiracy theory videos. "This will directly improve our national security as well as safeguard Americans' personal information and our nation's vital intellectual property." Even those who support a TikTok ban, such as Senator JD Vance of Ohio, don't see the RESTRICT Act as an appropriate solution.

☆ Washington Commanders near a deal to sell to 76ers owner for almost $6 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Jessica Golden | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Washington Commanders are nearing a sale to an ownership group led by Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Devils Owner Josh Harris at just under $6 billion, a person familiar with the deal told CNBC. Harris' ownership group includes Washington D.C.-based billionaire Mitchell Rales and NBA legend Magic Johnson. Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos was exploring the sale process, but decided not to make an offer, according to ESPN. For Commanders fans and former employees, progress in the sale process is welcome news. Commanders owner Dan Snyder announced in November of 2022, that he was putting the Commanders up for sale.

☆ Deal close for Washington Commanders football team
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

If finalized, the sale would mark the end of the controversial ownership of the Washington franchise by embattled billionaire Daniel Snyder. News of the near deal was first reported by Sportico, which reported the team sold for $6 billion, a record for a North American sports franchise. Snyder purchased the team, then named the Washington Redskins for a reported $750 million in 1999. It adopted the Commanders name last year, after playing two seasons with the name Washington Football Team. “Today marks the end of a long, difficult chapter for all employees and fans of the Washington football organization,” read a statement from Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, two attorneys representing more than 40 former Washington Commanders employees.

☆ Do You Speak Real Estate? Take Our Home Buyer’s Quiz.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The process of purchasing a home, particularly for first-time buyers, can be stressful and confusing. And buyers in today’s market may feel the odds are stacked higher against them. There are also more all-cash buyers purchasing homes now than ever before, so even well-qualified buyers with excellent credit are finding it difficult to compete. Along the way, you’ll encounter real estate jargon that can be difficult to understand. The stronger your grasp, the better prepared you’ll be to conquer (or at least navigate) the housing market.

☆ Seeking a Studio on the East Side of Manhattan for $600,000: These Were Her Options
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Her father, the first-generation American son of Puerto Rican parents, and her mother, an immigrant from Colombia, had always encouraged her to own property. “Growing up, I was always told, ‘If you can buy, then buy,’” said Ms. Gonzalez, 27, who works remotely as a digital communications strategy manager for a Mexico-based tequila brand. “The idea of buying in New York felt impossible, so I decided to get as close as I could,” she said. By the summer of 2022, she figured that selling her apartment would leave her with a budget of up to $600,000 to buy a new place. [Also in Real Estate: This 835-Year-Old Medieval English House Needs Some Modern Love — and a Buyer.]

☆ Guinness Maker Diageo Appoints Its First Female CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Elena Vardon | Michael Susin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Debra Crew, currently Diageo’s chief operating officer, will take over from Ivan Menezes on July 1. Diageo PLC named Debra Crew as its next chief executive, tapping an internal candidate to succeed longstanding leader Ivan Menezes at the helm of the alcoholic beverage company. The London-based maker of Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky, Guinness stout and Smirnoff vodka said Tuesday that Ms. Crew, currently Diageo’s chief operating officer, would take over from Mr. Menezes on July 1. In becoming CEO, she adds to the handful of women that lead one of Britain’s biggest companies.

☆ Diageo CEO Menezes to retire after nearly a decade in role
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

March 28 (Reuters) - Diageo (DGE.L) said on Tuesday that Chief Executive Ivan Menezes will retire and leave the Johnnie Walker whisky maker at the end of June, after nearly a decade at the helm. Menezes will be replaced as CEO by Chief Operating Officer (COO) Debra Crew, who will also join the board, Diageo said in a statement. Crew, who took on the role of COO last October, was previously president of Diageo North America and Global Supply from 2020, the company said. Menezes joined Diageo after the merger of Guinness plc and Grand Metropolitan plc in 1997 and has held a number of senior positions in the business, Diageo said. Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; editing by Savio D'Souza and Jason NeelyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Johnnie Walker maker Diageo appoints Debra Crew CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —One of the world’s largest alcoholic drinks companies has appointed its first female CEO. Diageo, which makes Guinness beer and Johnnie Walker whisky, said Tuesday that chief operating officer Debra Crew would succeed Ivan Menezes, who will retire from the company after 10 years at the helm. Diageo is the seventh-largest member of the FTSE 100 (UKX) index and will now become the largest UK-listed company led by a woman. There are just nine other FTSE 100 (UKX) companies led by women, including pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GLAXF) and bank NatWest. Diageo is the world’s fourth biggest alcoholic drinks company by market value, after AB InBev (BUD) and China’s Wuliangye Yibin and Kweichow Moutai.

☆ Easy Diageo succession belies new CEO’s hard job
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

On Tuesday, the 80 billion pound maker of Guinness and Don Julio tequila announced that Chief Operating Officer Debra Crew would replace CEO Ivan Menezes in July. Menezes has been gunning for 5%-7% annual revenue growth and a 6%-9% annual increase in operating profit over the next three years. The company operates with a 31% operating profit margin, higher than its closest rival Pernod Ricard (PERP.PA), which runs on 29%. With the price of staff, ingredients and packaging soaring, cost cutting will be hard to pull off. Diageo’s smooth succession may lay the path for a bumpy road.

☆ Would $650,000 Buy a House in San Diego? One Couple Tested Their Budget.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Mr. Toellner, now 32, met Barton Lynch while both were living in Washington, D.C. Mr. Lynch, now 28, is a corporate communications consultant, and Mr. Toellner was serving as an aide to the secretary of the Navy in the Pentagon. Two years later, the Navy reassigned Mr. Toellner to San Diego, allowing the couple to stay put for the remainder of his military career. Mr. Lynch, who grew up in Lexington, Ky., had never even been there. They knew that in San Diego’s heated housing market, that meant a condo rather than a single-family house. “We would go on Zillow to search houses, put in all our filters, and then be like, ‘Oh, one result!’” Mr. Lynch said.

☆ Norfolk Southern CEO to tell senators how he plans to 'make it right' after Ohio derailment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Noah Sheidlower | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Drone footage shows the freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, U.S., February 6, 2023 in this screengrab obtained from a handout video released by the NTSB. Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw will tell a U.S. Senate panel Thursday how he plans to "make it right" after one of the company's trains derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, last month. Other committees in Congress are also investigating the East Palestine derailment. On Saturday, another Norfolk Southern train derailed in Ohio, after which residents near Springfield were ordered to shelter in place. Hours after that derailment, internal emails obtained by CNBC indicated that Norfolk Southern was making broad safety adjustments to prevent future incidents.

☆ Ventas CEO Debra Cafaro
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailVentas CEO Debra CafaroFor Women's Heritage Month, Ventas CEO Debra A. Cafaro talks about being fearless and confident when it comes to running her $20B health care REIT. Cafaro is one of the longest-serving female CEOS in the S&P 500.

☆ Seeking a Studio in Downtown Brooklyn for Less Than $400,000: She Was Surprised by the Options
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Debra Kamin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The first time Jenn Leyva moved to New York, it was to start college at Columbia University. She took Zoom calls in a corner of the communal living room and made sure to always wash her dishes. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com]She was pleasantly surprised by the options she found online: a handful of studios for less than $400,000, just south of the Brooklyn Bridge, in the corner of the borough where leafy Brooklyn Heights meets Dumbo and Downtown Brooklyn. “Studios were cheap, because everyone was still working from home and wanted a one-bedroom with a separate sleeping space and work space,” Ms. Leyva said. “But my work space is in Manhattan.”She teamed up with Leora Blumberg Rubinstein, a realtor with Douglas Elliman, who approved of her strategy.

☆ Florida Great Displacement: Climate Change Forces Residents to Leave State
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Jake Bittle | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

The Keys are also the first flock of canaries in the coal mine of climate change. The hurricane made undeniable what previous floods had only suggested: that climate change will someday make life in the archipelago impossible to sustain. The decision to leave, on the other hand, which once signified surrender, now looks more like acceptance of the inevitable. It's this messiness that is reflected in the word "displacement": the migratory shifts caused by climate change are as chaotic as the weather events that cause them. This is an excerpt adapted from THE GREAT DISPLACEMENT: Climate Change and the Next American Migration by Jake Bittle.

☆ Teen girls seeing 'dramatic' rise in poor mental health - U.S. CDC
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Nandhini Srinivasan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The data shows a "dramatic" rise in experiences of violence, poor mental health and suicide risk in teens, especially in girls, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said on Monday. "The levels of poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors recorded by teenage girls are now higher than we have ever seen," said CDC's Kathleen Ethier told reporters. The current study did not examine the cause of the spike but the CDC noted there was also a 20% increase in reports of sexual violence among high school girls since 2017, when the agency started monitoring this measure. "CDC and many other researchers have looked at this and we know that with sexual violence, it is associated with mental health issues, substance use and also long-term health consequences," CDC's Debra Houry said. Overall, 42% of high school students felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row that they stopped their usual activities.

☆ Hispanic dialysis patients face 40% higher risk of staph infection than whites, CDC says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Hispanic dialysis patients face a 40% higher risk of developing a staph bloodstream infection compared with whites, underscoring economic and racial disparities in the U.S. health-care system, according to new data released Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People of color, however, face an even higher risk of kidney failure, representing more than half of dialysis patients. Black and Hispanic people on dialysis were also more likely to contract staph infections than white patients, the CDC said. The data analyzing dialysis patients from 2017 to 2020 didn't clearly calculate the increased risk for Black patients. Hispanic patients, however, faced a 40% higher risk of staph infection than whites, according to the CDC.

☆ Q&A with 'That '90s Show' star Kurtwood Smith: 'I was a little insecure on the first episode of "That '70s Show'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Eboni Boykin-Patterson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Kurtwood Smith played Red Forman on "That '70s Show" and reprised the role for "That '90s Show." Fans who recognize him will often come up and ask him to call them "a dumbass" just like Red would. The idea of Jackie and Fez together is pretty funny. I was a little insecure on the first episode of "That '70s Show," but I got some pretty good laughs out of it, and then it just continued on. I didn't necessarily think, "Oh, I'm pretty funny" — we had great writers on that show, and we have great writers on "That '90s Show."

☆ Artifact: Instagram's founders are back with a new app
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —More than four years after Instagram’s founders left the company, they’re back with a new app. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger on Tuesday announced the launch of Artifact, an app that promises “a personalized news feed” powered by artificial intelligence. Unlike Instagram, the app is more focused on articles rather than photos. A main feed will display popular articles from large media organizations down to smaller bloggers, and a user’s feed will grow more personalized based on what they click on. Jim Bennett/WireImage/Getty ImagesAfter launching Instagram together in 2010, Systrom and Krieger sold the app to Meta for $1 billion in 2012.

☆ Everyone's watching Meta's earnings report for a hint at how online ads are doing
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Jonathan Vanian | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty ImagesWall Street's worst year since 2008 wreaked havoc on tech companies, particularly those reliant on digital advertising. Also on Thursday, investors will hear from Amazon and Apple , which both have growing digital ad businesses that have been taking market share of late from Google and Facebook. But revenue growth isn't expected to pick back up until the second half of the year. Revenue is expected to fall another 2.8% in the first quarter, before sub-1% growth returns in the second period. He has a hold rating on Meta, Snap, Amazon and Netflix, but recommends buying Alphabet and Apple, according to FactSet.

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