Sales & Marketing news

• $1.85 billion Postmates has filed to go public

  07-02-2019 19:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  Postmates, the food delivery application company, has confidentially filed to go public, the company announced Thursday.
  The company is working with JPMorgan and Bank of America as its lead underwriters, according to Bloomberg.
  Postmates was last valued at $1.85 billion in a $100 million Series F funding round, which the company announced in January.Postmates, the food delivery application company, is the latest unicorn startup to join the spree of 2019 IPO hopefuls.
  The company announced Thursd
  
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• Stocks slump after report says Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are 'highly unlikely' to meet before a critical trade war deadline

  07-02-2019 18:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  All three major US indices were sharply lower in midday trading Thursday.
  CNBC reported President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are "highly unlikely" to meet before planned escalations in the US-China trade war.
  Stocks had already been down on concerns about global growth. 
  Wall Street extended declines Thursday after a report that a meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping may not happen before a temporary truce in the US-China trade war expir
  
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• Sonos is considering moving its manufacturing out of China if its trade war with the US gets worse

  07-02-2019 18:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  Sonos, a popular maker of smart speakers, says it's considering moving its manufacturing operations out of China if the US-China trade war worsens.
  The move could take "up to one year" to complete, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence tells Axios.
  The trade war between US and China has raised tariffs for companies bringing China-manufactured goods into the US.Smart speaker company Sonos will re-examine its Chinese supply chains if the U.S.-China trade war worsens, company CEO Patrick Spence told Axios.
  The
  
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• Victoria's Secret is basically giving things away for free — but it's not working (LB)

  07-02-2019 17:57 via feedproxy.google.com
  Victoria's Secret parent L Brands on Thursday reported the lingerie brand's comparable sales declined in January.
  Victoria's Secret's is selling items at a deep discount, but consumers are not responding, according to Jefferies. 
  L Brands also announced that its first-quarter dividend would be half last quarter's.
  Watch L Brands trade live.
  The Victoria's Secret brand is broken, Jefferies says. 
  The lingerie brand's parent company, L Brands, on Thursday reported that Victoria's Secret'
  
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• The next recession could force the Fed to do something nearly unprecedented. Here's what it is and how it could affect you.

  07-02-2019 17:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  The San Francisco Federal Reserve recently published a paper indicating that an unprecedented policy step, if adopted, would have helped the economy recover more quickly from the most recent financial crisis.
  With the next recession looming, a prominent Wall Street strategist thinks the unpopular tool will be needed to combat it.The Federal Reserve's extraordinary efforts to combat the Great Recession more than a decade ago raised many concerns about what tools it would have left to fight the ne
  
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• Tesla slides after report says Amazon has invested in a self-driving startup (TSLA, AMZN)

  07-02-2019 17:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  Tesla shares made session lows after a report said Amazon had invested in the self-driving-vehicle startup Aurora Innovation.
  Shares were down more than 4%.
  Watch Tesla trade live.
  Tesla slid to session lows Thursday morning after a report said Amazon had invested in a self-driving-vehicle startup.
  Shares were down more than 4% to near $304.12 apiece after Bloomberg reported that the self-driving startup Aurora Innovation had raised $530 million from a group of investors including the venture-ca
  
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• More than 1,400 brands including Mars, P&G and AT&T ran ads on Snapchat in 2018. But most of these were one-off campaigns — and that's a problem.

  07-02-2019 17:20 via feedproxy.google.com
  Snap impressed Wall Street with its fourth-quarter earnings this week, showing that it's making more money from users.
  Ad sales intelligence platform MediaRadar tracked ads on Snapchat throughout 2018, breaking down buying patterns, size of ad buys, product categories, age and gender trends.
  More than 1,400 companies ran ads on Snapchat, according to MediaRadar, but most advertisers ran one-off campaigns during a single quarter.
  The top 5 advertisers on Snapchat by spend were Comcast, Mars, AT&a
  
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• The CEO of UPS reveals the bright spot that many anxious retailers and transportation companies are missing

  07-02-2019 16:24 via feedproxy.google.com
  UPS CEO David Abney shared his thoughts on 2019's global forecast in an interview with Business Insider.
  Abney said the global economy is facing headwinds going into 2019 — but a bright spot hasn't been recognized by many anxious retailers and transportation experts.
  That's cross-border e-commerce, particularly in countries where the middle class is quickly growing and e-commerce is becoming popular.  
  Everything from the shape of the yield curve to home sales to the bond ma
  
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• Chipotle is rallying as higher prices boost results (CMG)

  07-02-2019 15:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  Chipotle beat on revenue, comparable sales, and profits.
  Shares of the burrito chain had fallen as much as 65% since October 2015, when an E. coli outbreak that was linked to Chipotle expanded to multi-states.Shares have rebounded more than 100% since new CEO Brian Niccol was appointed in February 2018.
  Watch Chipotle trade live.
  Chipotle posted fourth-quarter earnings that crushed Wall Street estimates after Wednesday's closing bell. Shares were up 12.9% to $593.55 apiece on Thursday.
  Here are
  
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• From Next to Debenhams to The Co-op: One marketer on what it takes to build a career in retail

  07-02-2019 15:55
  It’s no secret that times are tough on the UK high street. One of the things that seasoned retail marketer Ali Jones feels is currently lacking is innovation, which has been central to her roles at some of the UK’s biggest names on the high street, from Next, Debenhams and Arcadia to her current position as customer director at The Co-operative Group.
  “If you look back at the time I was at Debenhams, we achieved a lot of firsts. We launched the first gift card in the UK, the w
  
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• Twitter sinks after saying its monthly user base continued to decline (TWTR)

  07-02-2019 15:52 via feedproxy.google.com
  Twitter beat on both the top and bottom lines.
  The social-media company reported a drop in fourth-quarter monthly active users, marking three consecutive quarters of user decline.
  Shares fell more than 9%.
  Its social-media peer Snap, which also suffered a declining number of daily users in the second and third quarter, said on Tuesday that its daily user base has stabilized in the fourth quarter.  
  Watch Twitter trade live.
  Twitter was down more than 9% to $31.08 a share early Thursday
  
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• Italy has plunged into recession, but investors are still falling over themselves to get involved

  07-02-2019 15:14 via feedproxy.google.com
  Italy has led the way for sovereign bond issuance in 2019 with two syndicated deals which attracted massive investor attention. 
  Despite being close to a recession and having its growth forecasts cut Italy drew huge interest as the market rallies. 
  Other countries are now issuing sovereign debt despite previous expectations that the end of the European Central Bank's bond buying programme might dampen interest in some sovereign issuance. Italy sold two huge sovereign bonds at the
  
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• Snap is laying the groundwork for a Twitter-like reversal, RBC says (SNAP, TWTR)

  07-02-2019 14:49 via feedproxy.google.com
  Snap's latest earnings results impressed Wall Street, and one analyst says the company is setting up for a Twitter-like reversal of fortune. 
  Twitter shares began bottoming out in early 2017 after falling 80% from their all-time high in 2013. RBC believes Snap could be setting up for a similar trajectory.In the last two years, Twitter shares are up nearly 120%.
  Watch Snap and Twitter trade live.
  Snap might be pulling a Twitter, as far as its stock is concerned.
  "Is This TWTR At The Beginnin
  
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• SunTrust and BB&T used a word that should terrify their employees (STI, BBT)

  07-02-2019 14:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  SunTrust Banks and BB&T announced on Thursday morning that they were joining forces in a $66 billion deal.
  In the statement announcing the transaction, the companies said the deal would produce about $1.6 billion in "synergies."
  Synergies are what you get when you eliminate redundancies to cut costs, and they most likely mean some employees will be let go.
  SunTrust Banks and BB&T on Thursday morning announced plans to join forces in a $66 billion deal.
  Assuming the deal is approved by re
  
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• Billionaires who hate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's 70% tax on the superrich are adamant it will hurt the economy — but history suggests otherwise

  07-02-2019 14:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has touted a plan that would tax Americans earning more than $10 million at a marginal rate of roughly 70%.
  The proposal was immediately met with consternation from the billionaire class, which argued that it would hurt the economy.
  Evidence shows, however, that the US economy has been strong during periods when the marginal tax rate for the ultrarich was at or above 70%.
  Peter Diamond — a Nobel laureate in economics who is one of the world's most
  
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• Buybacks are a $1 trillion political hot potato — here's why politicians and CEOs are sparring over them

  07-02-2019 13:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  2018 saw record share buybacks by S&P 500 companies following the GOP's tax cuts with more than $1 trillion in stock bought back. 
  Bernie Sanders and former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein have been feuding on Twitter about the value of the strategy ahead of potential Democrat plans to limit buyback options by corporations. 
  Other leading figures in US politics have weighed into the debate including Steve Mnuchin and Elizabeth Warren.A US political debate over the roles of capita
  
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• Adam Zavalis leaves top marketing job at Aldi for Boots

  07-02-2019 13:29
  Aldi UK’s marketing director Adam Zavalis is departing the German discounter to join Boots as director of brand and communications, starting 25 February.
  During Zavalis’s six years leading Aldi’s marketing team, the retailer has doubled its market share and sales, taking it from being the seventh largest grocer behind Waitrose and Co-op to fifth, inching ever closer to the so-called big four of Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Asda.
  He has been instrumental in steering
  
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• BB&T and SunTrust are joining forces in a $66 billion deal that'll create the US's 6th-largest bank (STI, BBT)

  07-02-2019 13:04 via feedproxy.google.com
  SunTrust Banks and BB&T have agreed to merge in a deal valued at $66 billion, forming the sixth-largest US bank.
  The transaction pays SunTrust shareholders 1.295 BB&T shares for each SunTrust share they own.
  BB&T agreed to pay a roughly 7% premium for SunTrust, according to Bloomberg data.
  Watch SunTrust and BB&T trade live.
  SunTrust Banks and BB&T have agreed to a $66 billion merger that will create the sixth-largest US bank.
  The deal pays SunTrust shareholders 1.295 BB&
  
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• The state of the agency industry - 5 Trends and challenges in Asia

  07-02-2019 13:00 via warc.com
  2019 combines a number of trends and challenges that the industry will need to deal with, Sumit Ramchandani, Chief Client Officer of integrated and digital agency Lion & Lion, picks out 5 elements that he believes will impact and change...
  
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• The Stage of the Agency Industry - 5 Trends and Challenges in Asia

  07-02-2019 13:00 via warc.com
  2019 combines a number of trends and challenges that the industry will need to deal with, Sumit Ramchandani, Chief Client Officer of integrated and digital agency Lion & Lion, picks out 5 elements that he believes will impact and change...
  
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• Bank of England says 'fog of Brexit' will push UK growth to lowest level since financial crisis

  07-02-2019 13:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Bank of England on Thursday warned that the "fog of Brexit" is hurting UK growth.
  The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street warned that Brexit is causing the UK economy to weaken, cutting its 2019 growth forecast to just 1.2%, the lowest since the financial crisis.
  The central bank's nine-member Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to leave rates at 0.75%, as had been widely expected.
  Any future policy moves from the Bank of England are likely to be heavily influenced by the progress of Bre
  
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• 10 things you need to know before the opening bell (SPY, SPX, QQQ, DIA, AAPL, MSFT, BBT, STI, CMG)

  07-02-2019 12:51 via feedproxy.google.com
  Here is what you need to know.American business leaders reveal the things they are most worried about this year. UBS surveyed 500 CEOs and CFOs of American companies and found that rising costs were top of mind.
  Germany is drawing closer to a recession. Industrial output unexpectedly fell 0.4% in December, according to the federal statistics authority Destatis, short of the 0.3% increase that was expected.
  New Zealand's unemployment spikes sharply. The unemployment rate jumped to 4.3% in the De
  
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• America's business leaders reveal the things they are most worried about

  07-02-2019 12:04 via feedproxy.google.com
  Executives across different sectors of the US economy weighed in with their 2019 outlooks in a new UBS survey.
  The biannual survey of 500 corporations took executives' pulse to gauge expectations on what's driving profits, where they're allocating capital, and the impact they are seeing from policy changes.
  Respondents identified rising costs as a possible threat to profitability this year. Smaller firms, specifically, were most concerned about taxes and labor costs.Still, executives were overwh
  
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• A $280 billion investment chief says the market's biggest fear is overblown, and explains why that will clear the path for a stock spike

  07-02-2019 11:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  Many traders and Wall Street experts aren't sure the US economy will keep expanding beyond next year, but Katie Nixon of Northern Trust Wealth Management says it could have years of decent growth ahead.
  Nixon says a series of factors including technology and aging populations are taking inflation out of the picture, minimizing the risk that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates to the point where the economy falls into a recession.
  The ongoing economic expansion is nearly 10 years old an
  
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• Magazine industry calls on brands to pay more attention to attention

  07-02-2019 11:49
  Magnetic, the marketing body for consumer magazines, has launched its first advertising campaign, backed up by data that aims to raise the importance of consumer attention in a bid to highlight to brands its benefits to advertising.
  ‘Pay Attention’, which goes live today (7 February), marks the first time the magazine industry has come together under one marketing message. It will be hoping to change the conversation around magazine advertising, which has seen revenues fall as brand
  
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• Global stocks slide as Germany's economy draws closer to a recession

  07-02-2019 10:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  Global stock markets are broadly lower Thursday as ongoing trade tensions, poor industrial data out of Germany, and an upcoming policy announcement from the Bank of England influence stocks.
  Moves so far are small, with Europe's biggest faller on the day losing just 0.3% as of 9.15 a.m. in London (4.15 a.m. in New York), just over an hour after markets opened.
  Markets in Asia largely remain closed after the Chinese New Year. Chinese, Hong Kong, and Taiwan stocks are all still closed.Global stock
  
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• A London tech start-up just got VC funding in aim to disrupt the archaic commodity trading world

  07-02-2019 09:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  AI start up Vortexa utilizes swathes of satellite and shipping data to analyse trends in energy trading which could fundamentally change an opaque industry. 
  The company has secured $5 million in Series A funding from VC firms Notion Capital and Mosaic Ventures
  Vortexa was founded by former BP and JPMorgan trading experts and their clients are the biggest energy traders in the world.
  London-based AI start up Vortexa has secured $5 million in Series A funding as it looks to disrupt the tradi
  
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• Tanya Joseph: Marketers’ impact on social inclusion starts with advertising

  07-02-2019 08:30
  I have just taken on a new role as the chair of ISBA’s newly formed diversity and inclusion network. Not another diversity body, I hear some groan, aren’t we drowning in those? Well, yes and no.
  There is a plethora of initiatives, projects and organisations in this space, which can make it difficult to keep track of who is working on what. So one of the objectives of the ISBA network is to help brands navigate this area, making sure they are plugged into best practice not just in ou
  
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• Snap's stock jumped 22% Wednesday. Here's why investors are way too excited about its latest results. (SNAP)

  07-02-2019 01:06 via feedproxy.google.com
  Snap's stock closed up 22% Wednesday after climbing as much as 29% earlier in the session.
  The price bump followed the company's earnings report the previous afternoon.
  While that report was better-than-expected, it didn't justify the huge rebound in Snap's share price.
  Snap's still losing lots of money, its sales growth is slowing, and its user base has stagnated.It's been more than 20 years since then Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan cautioned investors about irrational exuberance, but
  
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• Coca-Cola makes the fans the stars as it kicks off Premier League sponsorship

  07-02-2019 01:01
  Coca-Cola is making “everyday people” the stars of its new multi-million pound campaign designed to celebrate its three-and-a-half-year partnership with the Premier League – the company’s biggest sport sponsorship agreement in the UK.
  The partnership is also part of the company’s wider plan to boost growth beyond its core brand and increase sales of its healthier variants – Diet Coke and Coke Zero Sugar.
  The campaign, ‘Where Everyone Plays’, tells
  
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• YouTube advertisers return in 2018 as channel audiences rocket

  07-02-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  The number of YouTube channels with more than one million subscribers doubled in 2018, while the number of creators earning five or six figures in 2018 grew by 40%, according to CEO Susan Wojcicki.The figures were revealed in a
  
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• Progress in benchmarking influencer marketing

  07-02-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  Influencer marketing is crying out for transparency and greater professionalism, according to an industry figure who has come up with key benchmarks for marketers to consider.Writing in the current issue of Admap, Farhad Divecha, founder and...
  
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• Mattel's nuanced approach to tech innovation

  07-02-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  Mattel, the toy manufacturer, is taking a nuanced approach to using digital technology in its products, in recognition of both the desires of parents and children, as well as the needs of its individual brands.Sven Gerjets, Mattel’s chief...
  
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• Instagram: the 'great wasteland' of luxury clutter

  07-02-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  The Australian luxury goods landscape has become increasingly crowded in recent years and the explosion of brands has been accompanied by an outpouring of luxury comms, much of which is indistinguishable.“You end up with a lot of luxury...
  
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• Innovation is the hardest part of marketing

  07-02-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  Lucy Aitken talks to WARC Awards Effective Innovation judge Jem Fawcus, Owner and Group CEO of qualitative research company Firefish, about how innovation can make or break a brand.
  
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• BBC and Discovery in new global wildlife channel link-up

  07-02-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  The BBC and Discovery have struck a deal to amalgamate their natural history and wildlife content to form a new global, paid-for streaming service.The deal,
  
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• Bangkok and US are favourite Lunar New Year destinations

  07-02-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  Lunar New Year means family celebrations and sweeping away the old ready to usher in the new – it’s also a hugely popular time for travel, with Bangkok emerging as the number one getaway spot for travellers in Asia-Pacific during this...
  
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• 'It changes everything': Facebook insiders are cautiously optimistic about changes to employee bonuses (FB)

  07-02-2019 00:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  Facebook is changing employee bonuses to focus on tackling social issues.
  It's a big change, designed to change employees' incentives as the company struggles to move past two years of scandals.
  Business Insider spoke to sources who were cautiously positive about the change.It has the potential to produce good results — but will be hard to measure and could have dangerous unintended consequences.As Facebook struggles to move past its two years of scandals, it's putting its employees' money
  
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• China's hopes of becoming the world's largest economy are hitting a major roadblock

  07-02-2019 00:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  China's growth potential could slow to 4.5% by 2030, according to analysts.
  Officials have shifted to stimulus programs, including tax cuts and infrastructure incentives, in an effort to curb the decline. 
  But that could become increasingly difficult against a backdrop of debt and in wake of the trade war with the US, which has demanded structural reforms to the Chinese economy. 
  China’s economy is growing at its slowest pace in nearly three decades, and some economists say the w
  
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