Sales & Marketing news

• SoftBank's big, discounted Uber deal is going through — and it's going to invest another $1.25 billion on top of that

  28-12-2017 23:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  SoftBank's offer to purchase Uber shares from earlier investors and employees has succeeded.
  As part of the deal, SoftBank is expected to buy shares from employees and investors worth about 15% of the company and will invest an additional $1.25 billion directly into Uber. 
  SoftBank offered $33 per Uber share. That price puts the company's value at $48 billion, or about 30% less than the $69 billion valuation it had after its last funding round.It's official: SoftBank will own a big chunk o
  
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• Apple apologizes for slowing down iPhones with older batteries

  28-12-2017 22:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  Apple apologized in a public letter for slowing down iPhones with older batteries.
  The company is dropping the price of iPhone battery replacements from $79 to $29 in January 2018.
  Apple will release a new version of iOS in early 2018 that lets users read the health of their iPhone battery.Apple apologized Thursday for slowing down iPhones with older batteries without disclosing the practice to customers until last week.
  In a public letter, the company said, "We know that some of you feel Apple
  
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• Ripple hits all time high

  28-12-2017 22:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  XRP, a cryptocurrency made by Ripple, hit a fresh all-time high Thursday, according to data from Markets Insider. 
  The company's Asian subsidiary and a group of Japanese financial services companies announced a consortium earlier on Wednesday. 
  It was trading at $1.26 a coin Thursday at 4:18 p.m. ET. XRP, the cryptocurrency made by Ripple that is focused on bank transfers, hit a fresh all-time high Thursday of $1.30 a coin, according to Markets Insider data. It started
  
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• Traders are betting billions that the hottest stocks of 2017 will get crushed (FB, AAPL, AMZN, GOOG, NFLX)

  28-12-2017 20:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  Facebook, Apple, Netflix, and Google are high up on the list of S&P 500 companies that investors added the most notional amount of short interest to this year.
  They're also among the most heavily shorted right now, according to S3 Partners, a data analytics firm.
  Short sellers defied the tech rally and increased bets for sell-offs even while they were losing money.
   
  The so-called FANGS — Facebook, Apple, Netflix, and Google — helped drive the S&P 500 to what's set to b
  
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• CRYPTO INSIDER: Bitcoin plunges amid fear of crackdown in South Korea

  28-12-2017 20:17 via feedproxy.google.com
  Welcome to Crypto Insider, Business Insider’s roundup of all the bitcoin and cryptocurrency news you need to know today. Sign up here to get this email delivered direct to your inbox.
  The price of bitcoin dipped below $14,000 Thursday morning amid fears that South Korea plans to shut exchanges. Across the board, the top cryptocurrencies were trading lower. 
  Ripple, which Wednesday announced a consortium with a number of Japanese credit card companies, was the
  
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• SoftBank and its partners are primed to buy around 20% of Uber shares at a huge discount from its previous $69 billion valuation

  28-12-2017 19:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  Employees and shareholders have offered to sell at least 20% of Uber to SoftBank.
  SoftBank will buy the shares at a 30% discount.
  Assuming the deal goes through, SoftBank has agreed to buy another $1 billion worth of Uber shares at the company's previous $69 billion valuation.A group of investors led by SoftBank looks set to acquire a 20% stake in Uber at a whopping 30% discount, the Wall Street Journal reported.
  SoftBank and its partners offered to buy shares from Uber employees and existing i
  
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• Introducing Wall Street's Rising Stars of Equity Research age 35 and under

  28-12-2017 19:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  Every day an army of Wall Street stock analysts issue target prices, stock predictions, and forecasts for many of the thousands of publicly traded companies.
  We scoured our contacts for the best and brightest of these analysts, receiving recommendations from bosses, colleagues, investors, and recruiters. The editors made final decisions.
  We came across many talented people. We've included people with varying levels of experience at Wall Street research firms, including Morgan Stanley and JPMorg
  
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• We did the math to see if it's worth buying a Powerball or Mega Millions lottery ticket

  28-12-2017 18:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  The jackpots for both Powerball and Mega Millions are above $300 million as of Thursday morning.
  Even though that's a pretty big prize, working through the math of how lotteries work suggests buying a ticket is not a great investment.
  The low probability of winning and the risk of splitting the prize in a big, highly-covered game mean you're probably going to lose money.The Powerball jackpot for Saturday's drawing is up to $384 million as of 11:00 a.m. ET Thursday. At the sa
  
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• 'Heed these words of warning:' Ethereum founder threatens to leave if the crypto community doesn't grow up

  28-12-2017 17:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  Ethereum's founder is fed up with the immaturity of the cryptocurrency community. 
  He threatened on Twitter Wednesday that he would leave if folks in the space don't get their act together. Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, thinks crypto is heading in the wrong direction. 
  The 23-year-old took to Twitter on Wednesday to lament the immaturity of communities across the cryptocurrency market. He said folks in the space should understand the difference between enacting positi
  
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• Citigroup's investment bankers are challenging Wall Street's best — and they may be on the verge of a breakthrough (C)

  28-12-2017 17:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  Citigroup's investment bank has ambitions to compete for the top spots in the league tables.
  The bank has been mid-tier since the financial crisis, but recent improvements in mergers and acquisitions and equity-capital markets suggest the bank may be on the verge of a breakthrough.The bank may be firing on all cylinders, but industry analysts and top executives say Citi still has work to do to climb the final few rungs.
  "It continues to be a very, very competitive landscape, so we take nothing
  
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• The 17 US cities where rents are soaring the most

  28-12-2017 15:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  Renters in America spent a record amount of money on housing in 2017.
  They paid $485.6 billion to landlords, about 1% more than they did in 2016, according to Zillow. This was the slowest pace in recent years because more renters transitioned into homeownership. 
  But tight supply and strong demand from buyers are likely to keep the cost of housing on the rise in 2018. "Despite recent changes to federal tax laws that have historically made homeownership financially attractive, the long-term
  
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• The 50 most incredible photos of 2017

  28-12-2017 15:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  2017 was undoubtedly a wild year. 
  President Donald Trump was inaugurated, which has led to a seemingly never ending string of debates and controversies: the crowd size at his inauguration, the travel ban, his war of words with North Korea's Kim Jong Un, and so on. 
  But there were many other events not necessarily related to Trump that unfolded as well: the Rohingya genocide, multiple mass shootings and terror attacks, hurricanes, the Mayweather/McGregor fight, and more. 
  As 2017
  
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• 10 things you need to know today (SPY, SPX, QQQ, DIA, AAPL)

  28-12-2017 12:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  Here is what you need to know.
  Bitcoin plunges on fears South Korea will shut exchanges. The cryptocurrency trades down more than 10% near $13,800 a coin after the South Korean government warned it may close some cryptocurrency exchanges amid "irrationally overheated" trading.
  Bitcoin is losing its dominance over crypto. The digital coin commanded nearly 90% of the crypto market at the beginning of 2017, but that number hit a low of 42% on Monday, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com.
  The yi
  
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• Artificial intelligence could make brands obsolete (GOOGL, AMZN, AAPL)

  28-12-2017 11:01 via feedproxy.google.com
  Brands are dead, or they might be in the future.
  According to Aaron Shapiro, the CEO of the marketing firm Huge, brands will take a backseat as technology like artificial intelligence and machine learning become more prevalent.
  "As machines start to take more decisions for people it makes it harder for marketers to figure out how to enter into that equation and how to influence consumer behavior," Shapiro told Markets Insider. "It's very disruptive for many companies."
  Artificial intelligence p
  
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• What is the future of retail?

  28-12-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  BEST OF 2017: The world of retail is ever-changing as the sector reacts to shifts in consumer behaviour occasioned by new technologies while also exploring how it can harness such tech to its own ends.The most-read WARC article on the subject,
  
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• The changing face of luxury

  28-12-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  BEST OF 2017: Luxury brands no longer feel they can sit above the digital fray and are exploring new ways to reach consumers at different levels of the market, including the creation of experiences as well as products.The most-read paper on WARC...
  
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• Millennials remained top of mind in 2017

  28-12-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  BEST OF 2017: WARC’s Best Practice portfolio has grown significantly in the past year to include a wide range of topics, although the most-read paper was about a particular demographic which remains vital to marketers.
  
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