Sales & Marketing news

• America's future depends on the death of the single-family home

  04-12-2017 19:50 via feedproxy.google.com
  The US is in the throes of an affordable housing crisis, spurred by high demand and low supply.
  As a solution, more cities are moving new construction from urban centers to spacious single-family neighborhoods.
  California, the exemplar of the housing crisis, recently passed more than a dozen laws to push new construction in suburban areas.
   
  One hallmark of the American Dream — the single-family home — is dying as we know it.
  And it's for good reason: The US needs more aff
  
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• The GOP is set to eliminate one of the biggest benefits of owning a home

  04-12-2017 19:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  Housing industry trade organizations immediately condemned the House's tax bill when it passed mid-November. 
  The Senate's version passed over the weekend. It won't halve the mortgage interest deduction like the House bill, but could still remove tax benefits for homeowners. 
  The Senate's bill raises the standard deduction, meaning it's less likely that households will exceed that threshold and choose to itemize their mortgage interest. 
  Both versions could end up weakening home
  
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• Tech stocks sink as other sectors soar following tax reform (FB, AMZN, GOOGL, NFLX, AAPL)

  04-12-2017 18:52 via feedproxy.google.com
  Tech stocks are getting hit on Monday, as other sectors get a boost from tax reform passing the Senate.
  Some investors are rotating their money from tech to other areas, like financial stocks.
  Watch the Nasdaq 100 trade in real time here.Tech stocks are taking a beat on Monday, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 is down 0.60%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is trading at record highs, up 0.50%. 
  Tech stocks are continuing their slide from last week as investors rotate into other areas.&nb
  
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• Goldman Sachs doesn't think the Republican tax bill would be a big boost to the US economy

  04-12-2017 18:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  Republicans have promised their tax bill would lead to a huge boost for economic growth.
  Goldman Sachs' economic team estimated that the bill would give the US a small economic boost in 2018 and 2019.
  "We note that the effect in 2020 and beyond looks minimal and could actually be slightly negative," the Goldman economists wrote.In the lead up to the passage of the Republican tax bill in the Senate overnight on Saturday, GOP leaders boasted that the bill would be a huge boon fo the US economy.
  G
  
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• Stock market volatility is back — and tech stocks are taking a beating

  04-12-2017 18:23 via feedproxy.google.com
  The GOP tax bill has injected volatility into a stock market that had been seeing some of its most muted price swings on record.
  Tech stocks have been on the wrong side of these price swings as investors have rotated out of them and into industries that have lagged in 2017.
  Despite the rotation, the increase in volatility should be a boon for investors seeking opportunities in the market.For months, equity investors have been anxiously awaiting the return of volatility to the market. It now app
  
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• If CVS can pull this off, it'll change what millions of Americans do when they get sick

  04-12-2017 17:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  CVS' deal to acquire the health insurer Aetna is a change in healthcare that Americans will actually feel.
  Yes, it will better incentivize keeping prices low at more stages in the healthcare payment cycle — from drug manufacturers, to pharmacy benefit managers, to the insurer.
  More important, though, turning CVS pharmacies into lower-cost care facilities could provide a tangible benefit to sick people.Most of the time, healthcare mergers are not something everyday Americans can feel. That
  
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• A brand-new cybersecurity watchdog just shut down a $15 million cryptocurrency scam

  04-12-2017 17:53 via feedproxy.google.com
    
  A brand new unit of the Securities and Exchange Commission has shutdown an initial coin offering scam. 
  This is the first case filed by the new cyber unit, created in September to focus on nefarious activity in the world of crypto. 
   
  US regulators appear to be paying more attention to the opaque world of initial coin offerings. 
  The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Monday it halted a fraudulent ICO "falsely promising" over 1,000% returns. The regulat
  
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• CHART: The 17 US companies with the biggest piles of cash

  04-12-2017 17:49 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Senate passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Saturday.
  The bill allows US corporations to pay a 10% tax on deferred cash earnings and 5% on reinvested earnings.
  24 of the largest US companies are sitting on $1.01 trillion in cash reserves —80% of which is held overseas.American companies are hoarding cash like crazy — but a huge chunk of that change isn't held in the US. 
  Under the newly approved Senate tax plan, passed in the early hours of Saturday morning, companies would
  
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• Morgan Stanley is getting in on the hottest trend in investing (MS)

  04-12-2017 17:29 via feedproxy.google.com
  Morgan Stanley announced Monday that it is launching its own roboadviser.
  Access Investing will help the New York-based bank reach a wider-net of clients, according to a statement. Morgan Stanley is going after the youngsters with a shiny new roboadviser.
  The New York-based investment bank announced Monday the launch of Access Investing, an online roboadviser designed to capture a younger clientele.
  Roboadvisers deliver financial advice through web platforms and mobile apps and use algorit
  
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• WALL STREET PAYDAY: Banks could pull in half a billion in fees from CVS-Aetna deal (CVS)

  04-12-2017 17:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  The $69 billion CVS-Aetna deal could generate more than half a billion in fees for Wall Street investment banks.
  The latest in a wave of megadeals is another big win for Goldman Sachs, as well as a handful of independents. On Sunday, CVS Health agreed a deal to buy insurance giant Aetna in a $69 billion deal. The bankers who spent their weekend closing the transaction, the latest in a wave of megadeals, stand to earn a colossal amount of fees for their firms.
  Between advising on the transa
  
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• Richmond Fed names McKinsey's Thomas Barkin as its next president

  04-12-2017 17:04 via feedproxy.google.com
  Richmond Fed names Thomas Barkin, a McKinsey partner, to be its next president. 
  Barkin has a background in "helping financial institutions," according to his McKinsey bio.
  Community activists criticize the Richmond Fed for failing to embrace a more diverse, less industry-friendly appointment. 
  The post has been open since April, when Jeffrey Lacker resigned due to a leak scandal.
  The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond has named Tom Barkin, a partner at the consulting giant McKinsey &am
  
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• CVS buying Aetna has nothing to do with Amazon's healthcare ambitions (AMZN, CVS, AET)

  04-12-2017 16:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  CVS announced its acquisition of Aetna for $69 billion on Sunday.
  The deal is the largest in 2017 and comes as rumors that Amazon could be entering the healthcare space circulate.
  But the acquisition has nothing to do with Amazon and is simply good for business, according to some analysts.
  Watch shares of CVS trade in real time here. CVS Health is set to acquire Aetna for $69 billion in the year's biggest deal, the companies announced on Sunday.
  Some analysts have speculated that Amazon's
  
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• The CEOs of Apple and Google spoke at a conference that critics say makes them 'complicit actors in the Chinese censorship regime' (AAPL, GOOG, GOOGL)

  04-12-2017 16:38 via feedproxy.google.com
  Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai attended this week's World Internet Conference in China.
  At the conference, a top Communist Party official called for tighter control of the internet.
  US senators asked Apple earlier this year whether the company supported the conference, quoting a critic who said attending the conference made American business officials "complicit actors in the Chinese censorship regime."
  The CEOs of the two most valuable technology companies spoke over the weeke
  
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• The Senate's tax bill encourages companies to bring their cash back to the US — here's which ones have the most overseas

  04-12-2017 16:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Senate passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Saturday.
  The bill would allow US corporations to pay a 10% tax on deferred cash earnings and 5% on reinvested earnings.
  Twenty-four of the largest US companies are sitting on $1.01 trillion in cash reserves — 80% of which is held overseas.American companies are hoarding cash like crazy — but a huge chunk of that change isn't held in the US. 
  Under the new tax bill that Senate Republicans passed in the early hours of Saturday
  
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• Recommended reading: Strategic storytelling and the value of building a side business

  04-12-2017 16:13
  Kill Bad Meetings
  Kevan Hall, Alan HallMeetings are essential for expressing ideas and decision making, yet they are often an irrelevant waste of time. Kill Bad Meetings offers advice on how to cut out unnecessary meetings and focus on improving the ones that remain. The book addresses ways of dealing with business challenges by changing the way people meet, cutting out irrelevant topics and participants that account for 50% of today’s meetings. Instead it suggests ways to run faster, more
  
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• Republicans are still making a huge claim about the tax bill that every independent analysis rejects

  04-12-2017 16:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  Mitch McConnell said Saturday that the Senate tax bill is a "revenue-neutral tax reform bill."
  Every major analysis of the bill says that it would add at least $1 trillion to the deficit.
  Republicans have not produced an analysis that shows the bill would be revenue neutral.On Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters in his home state of Kentucky that the GOP tax bill that had passed hours earlier would end up paying for itself.
  "I not only don’t think it will incre
  
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• Cboe is racing to launch bitcoin futures trading ahead of rival CME

  04-12-2017 16:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  Cboe Global Markets announced Monday it will offer trading of bitcoin futures on December 11.
  Chairman and CEO Ed Tilly told Business Insider that the firm is prepared to "redesign and relaunch" bitcoin futures, if appropriate. 
   
  Cboe Global Markets, the Chicago-based options and derivatives exchange, announced Monday it'll offer trading of its bitcoin futures product on December 11. 
  Cboe and its cross-town rival CME Group got clearance from the US Commodity Futures Commis
  
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• OBAMA ADVISER GOOLSBEE: 'New presidents get a year or so to do anything and I think they’ve used it up'

  04-12-2017 15:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  Austan Goolsbee, President Barack Obama's former chief economic adviser, tells Business Insider he sees decent, but not spectacular, economic growth ahead.
  Goolsbee says he wants to see solid signs of sustained wage growth before making the case that the economic recovery is complete and the job market is fully healed. 
  Gooslbee believes the Federal Reserve may have trouble justifying continued interest rate hikes if inflation and wages don't pick up. For Federal Reserve officials and
  
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• The year's biggest deal is far from certain (AET, CVS)

  04-12-2017 15:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  CVS Health's massive acquisition of Aetna could face heightened regulatory scrutiny amid the Trump administration's new regulatory regime.
  Aetna's stock is trading about 10% below the per-share offer price, reflecting investor uncertainty that the deal will get approval.A year ago, CVS Health's $69 billion acquisition of Aetna would've probably skated past regulatory proceedings. But things have changed under the Trump administration, and investors don't look particularly confident that the meg
  
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• CVS and Aetna used one word that should make employees nervous (CVS, AET)

  04-12-2017 15:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  CVS Health is buying Aetna for $69 billion ($145 a share and 0.8378 CVS shares per Aetna share).
  The merger could reshape the American healthcare system as we know it.
  CVS and Aetna said that the deal will come with some "synergies."In the largest deal of 2017 CVS Health is buying Aetna, the third-largest US insurer, for $69 billion. Aetna stockholders will be paid $145 a share in cash and 0.8378 CVS shares per Aetna share.
  In the press release announcing the deal, the companies used a word tha
  
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• 2017 year in review: Campaigns of the year

  04-12-2017 14:24
  Burger King, ‘Google, Home of the Whopper’
  With brands clamouring for attention, it takes something innovative to stand out. That’s what Burger King managed with its ‘OK Google’ stunt, devised by agency David.
  The 15-second ad, which was on YouTube before being aired on US TV, was designed to activate Google’s voice assistant speaker Google Home by asking “OK Google, what is the Whopper burger”. In response, the device replied with a list of Whoppe
  
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• How Fridge Raiders put influencers at the heart of its brand turnaround

  04-12-2017 10:53
  Fridge Raiders’ turnaround story is one of epic proportions that delivered ROI way beyond our expectations.
  With our product struggling for sales and a main rival – Peperami – that outspent us on marketing and enjoyed greater awareness, we needed our small brand to find a big voice.
  This challenge was compounded by the fact that as a nation we prefer to snack on crisps (average penetration 70%) versus meat snacks (average penetration 18%) – and so in the context of the br
  
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• Pret, Apple, plain packaging: Everything that matters this morning

  04-12-2017 08:50
  Calls to extend plain packaging could cost the drinks industry $293bn
  The drinks industry could stand to lose $293bn if calls to extend plain packaging beyond tobacco products are enforced, according to a new study.
  The analysis by Brand Finance looks at the potential financial impact of such legislation across four categories, including alcohol, confectionery, savoury snacks and sugary drinks, with drinks brands found to be most vulnerable.
  Eight major brand-owning businesses were analysed. The
  
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• Google, Facebook, GE: Everything that matters this morning

  04-12-2017 08:50
  Google pulls YouTube from Amazon devices
  Google and Amazon have been caught in rather unusual public spat, with Google criticising the online retailer for a “lack of reciprocity”. It has said it will block YouTube from two Amazon devices, and criticised the online retailer for not selling Google hardware.
  The companies are in fierce competition with one another, with both parties looking to dominate areas such as cloud computing and online search, and sell voice-controlled gadgets li
  
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• Disney, Facebook, Samsung: Everything that matters this morning

  04-12-2017 08:50
  Rupert Murdoch restarts Fox sell-off talks with Disney
  According to reports, 21st Century Fox has restarted talks with Disney over plans to sell large parts of the company.
  Disney wants to acquire the 20th Century Fox movie studio as well as Murdoch’s 39% stake in British satellite broadcaster Sky. And although any deal would break-up Murdoch’s media empire, he would still keep the likes of Fox News and its broadcast network.
  Disney’s move comes as Fox’s move to gain full
  
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• CES, retail sales, Creative England: Everything that matters this morning

  04-12-2017 08:50
  CES draws marketers’ fire for all-male headliners
  The Consumer Electronics Show in January often sets the tone for the year in the world of consumer technology, highlighting the trends that manufacturers see as having mass-market potential, but it is also receiving criticism for its lack of diversity. All six of the headline speakers currently named on its website are men, five of them white. That has led campaign group Gender Avengers to issue an ‘action alert’ demanding that
  
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• Asda, Primark, Bitcoin: Everything that matters this morning

  04-12-2017 08:50
  Asda puts 800 jobs at risk as it chases Aldi and Lidl
  More than 800 senior Asda shopfloor workers are facing a pay cut or redundancy in the New Year as the supermarket looks to keep pace with Aldi and Lidl.
  In a document seen by the Guardian, Asda told workers it needed to cut costs so it could “close the price gap” with rivals Aldi and Lidl, stating that being the “cheapest of the big four” was no longer a “viable business model.”
  The document also revealed t
  
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• CVS Health is buying Aetna for $69 billion in 2017's biggest deal

  04-12-2017 01:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  CVS Health is buying Aetna for $69 billion.
  The deal that was rumored for months was finally announced on Sunday.
  The merger could reshape the American health care system as we know it.CVS Health is buying Aetna, the companies announced Sunday.
  The pharmacy giant is acquiring the third largest insurer in the US in a $69 billion deal.
  The deal creates a new type of company that includes a health insurer, a retail pharmacy, and a company that negotiates prescription drug prices with dru
  
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• Amazon’s Christmas ad is this year’s big winner as John Lewis ‘misses the mark’

  04-12-2017 01:01
  While John Lewis’ Moz the Monster TV ad may have generated the most amount of headlines, Amazon’s ‘Give’ campaign featuring singing boxes is the ad most likely to persuade Brits to buy, according to a new study by brand valuation firm Kantar Millward Brown.
  The study, which tested 17 of this year’s “most talked-about Christmas ads” across 12 factors including persuasion, entertainment, involvement, originality and likeability, finds Amazon is the stronge
  
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• P&G sees benefits in voice tech

  04-12-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  MIAMI, FL: Procter & Gamble, the consumer packaged goods manufacturer, believes that voice-activated technologies have the clear potential to help brands achieve “mass-precision reach”.Alejandro Betancourt, P&G’s...
  
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• Google revenue buoyed by Ads.txt adoption

  04-12-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  SAN FRANCISCO: The cost of advertising on Google is expected to rise after the internet giant reported that its adoption of the IAB’s Ads.txt filter has helped it to reduce counterfeit inventory on its ad systems.Google has been preventing...
  
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• DHL gamifies research for better results

  04-12-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  BERLIN: Market research is facing problems around participation and data quality but tweaking traditional research methods can make a significant difference to engagement and response rates. Alex Wheatley, research innovator at Lightspeed,...
  
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• Data collection still unnerves US consumers

  04-12-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  BOSTON: More than three-quarters (77%) of US consumers would support regulation requiring Google, Facebook and other online platforms to be more transparent about how and what personal data they collect from them.And an even greater majority (82%)...
  
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• China aims to unlock the potential of e-sports

  04-12-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  SHENZHEN: The growth of e-sports and competitive gaming in China has been driven mostly by private companies so far, but now the Chinese government wants to get in on the act.China’s official sports body, the State General Administration of...
  
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• Advertisers target cinema's captive audience

  04-12-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  LONDON: Digital Cinema Media (DCM) and Pearl & Dean, two companies which supply advertising for cinemas in the UK, say more brands are using the medium to reach audiences who are undistracted by their smartphones and social media.“In...
  
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• 7-Eleven Philippines extends e-commerce options

  04-12-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  MANILA: 7-Eleven Philippines is using its 2,100 stores to take e-commerce to the country’s mass market with an offering localised to Filipino consumers, according to the company’s CEO.“30 million people, we estimate, live within...
  
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