Sales & Marketing news

• Here's the breakdown of how Microsoft managers earn their cash bonuses, according to an internal post by an HR exec (MSFT)

  19-04-2019 23:44 via feedproxy.google.com
  As some employees inside Microsoft decry the company's diversity efforts, they claim that managers have financial incentives tied to diversity.
  This, it turns out, is true, according to a post that explains how Microsoft managers earn bonuses by the HR exec in charge of that program.
  It is not true that they have a diversity hiring quota, though, and the amount of bonus money tied to diversity is far smaller than that tied to other goals, like their hitting financial metrics.
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• A Silicon Valley VC says a group of tech companies are quietly blowing away expectations while the spotlight shines on splashy IPOs like Lyft and Pinterest

  19-04-2019 23:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  The initial public offerings of consumer tech startups such as Uber, Pinterest, and Lyft are generating a lot of buzz lately.
  Enterprise software startups don't spark the same kind of excitement, but they remain a central focus of venture-capital investing, said Jai Das, the president of Sapphire Ventures.
  The market for enterprise software and services has grown larger than even Das and his colleagues expected.
  He sees plenty of opportunity ahead for such companies.
  Visit BusinessInsider.com fo
  
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• BlackBerry wants to rescue users of the doomed BBM messaging service by giving them access to its corporate product (BB)

  19-04-2019 20:14 via feedproxy.google.com
  BlackBerry said it will open up BBMe — the enterprise version of BBM — to individual consumers.
  The move follows Emtek's announcement Thursday that it will shut down the once popular BlackBerry Messenger service on May 31.
  Emtek warned that BBM users will lose access to their conversations, photos, and other data after it shuts down BBM.
  It's unclear if BBM users will be able to port their accounts or data over to the enterprise version.
  Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories.Bla
  
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• The SEC hit Silicon Valley lender Prosper with a $3 million fine for inflating its returns to 'tens of thousands of investors'

  19-04-2019 19:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday said the online lender Prosper would pay a $3 million penalty for inflating returns to investors.
  Prosper told more than 30,000 investors that its returns were higher than they actually were, the SEC said in a release.
  Visit MarketsInsider.com for more stories.
  The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday that the online lender Prosper Funding LLC will pay a $3 million penalty for "miscalculating and materially overstating annualized net
  
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• Meet the programmer-turned-drummer-turned-lawyer who's helping open source startups stand their ground against Amazon's cloud amid a 'clash of ideologies'

  19-04-2019 19:10 via feedproxy.google.com
  Open source licensing lawyer Heather Meeker, one of Business Insider's 100 people transforming business, has helped companies like MongoDB, Redis Labs, and Confluent write new software licenses.
  These companies changed their licenses in response to cloud vendors like Amazon Web Services selling the software they created -- which is completely legal.
  Meeker discusses the controversy around these licenses from advocates who say they go against the definition of open source.
  Meeker helps open sourc
  
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• Federal investigators could go after Mark Zuckerberg personally in a legal escalation after massive privacy scandals

  19-04-2019 17:21 via feedproxy.google.com
  Mark Zuckerberg could be held directly responsible by the Federal Trade Commission for any Facebook privacy failings in an investigation of the social network, The Washington Post reports.
  The FTC's investigation is the result of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which Facebook user data of millions of people was improperly handled by third-party services.If Zuckerberg is targeted in the investigation, it would represent a significant increase in federal scrutiny for the person in charge of on
  
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• Lyft might eventually make money — but it could take 7 years to get there, analyst says (LYFT)

  19-04-2019 17:17 via feedproxy.google.com
  Lyft, the ride-hailing app that went public last month, lost $911 million last year.
  One analyst who initiated coverage of the stock this week said the company could eventually turn a profit, but that it could take seven years.
  The question of profitability, along with stiff ride-hailing competition, lies at the heart of many analysts' concerns about Lyft's viability in the near-term.
  Watch Lyft trade live.
  It isn't shocking that young technology companies fail to turn a profit, but it does worr
  
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• A judge gave Elon Musk and the SEC one more week to come to a new agreement about how to monitor the CEO's tweets (TSLA)

  19-04-2019 16:41 via feedproxy.google.com
  Elon Musk's tussle with federal regulators will last for at least an additional week, a judge ordered Thursday. 
  The Tesla CEO and SEC lawyers met for an hour by phone, the two parties said in a filing asking for an extension on their new agreement. 
  The fight goes all the way back to Musk's failed bid to take Tesla private in September, and the SEC's later motion to have Musk found in contempt of court. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and federal regulators have until Thursday to decide on a
  
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• Uber has raised $1 billion for its self-driving unit, which is now valued at more than $7 billion (UBER)

  19-04-2019 14:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  Toyota, Softbank, and Denso corporation are investing $1 billion in Uber's self-driving car unit, the company said Thursday. 
  The round values Uber's Advanced Technologies Group at $7.25 billion, confirming earlier reports it was looking to raise more capital.Self-driving technology is not only expensive to develop, but key to Uber's long-term prospects, it said in an IPO filing this month.
  Uber has raised $1 billion in fresh capital for its Advanced Technologies Group (ATG), which is devel
  
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• Blend, a startup that's building a 'one tap' mortgage-application tool, is now jumping into the auto-loan market

  19-04-2019 14:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  The startup Blend has been working toward an ambitious goal: reducing the mortgage-application process to a single tap on a smartphone.
  The company, which creates digital tools to streamline home lending, is actively working on a solution with a couple of clients, and it could be deployed in the next year or two, the company told Business Insider.
  The company is also branching out, developing similar tools to streamline auto loans and personal loans.
  Its founder and CEO, Nima Ghamsari, is featur
  
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• The lawyer who led Canopy Growth's groundbreaking $3.4 billion purchase of the US marijuana cultivator Acreage Holdings says the sale will 'untap the market' for companies hunting similar deals

  19-04-2019 14:29 via feedproxy.google.com
  Canopy Growth on Thursday announced it entered an agreement to purchase Acreage Holdings, a US pot company.
  The groundbreaking, $3.4 billion deal would be the first example of a Canadian cannabis company buying up a US operator.
  The deal will provide an opportunity for companies from consumer packaged goods, cannabis, and pharmaceutical industries to get exposure to the lucrative US market without violating federal law.The Canadian marijuana behemoth Canopy Growth on Thursday morning announced i
  
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• The world's largest investor says a $3.8 trillion market faces growing climate-change risk

  19-04-2019 13:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  Climate change threatens an increasingly large part of the $3.8 trillion US municipal bond market, the asset manager BlackRock warned.
  The firm analyzed the economic impact that climate-change-related risks — like flooding and hurricane-force winds — could have at a local level in the coming years.
  Visit MarketsInsider.com for more stories.
  BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, is doubling down on its view that investors in the US don't yet fully appreciate the just how disas
  
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• 16 brilliant quotes from Bill Gross, the legendary 'Bond King' who retired earlier this year

  19-04-2019 13:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  Bill Gross, the world's most famous bond investor, has a net worth calculated at around $1.5 billion, and would have easily a billion dollars more if not for a recent contentious divorce.For many years, Gross oversaw Pacific Investment Management Company's Total Return Fund, the largest bond fund on the planet.We compiled 16 of Gross' most memorable quotes over the years.
  Visit MarketsInsider.com for more stories.Stories follow Bill Gross like rats to the Pied Piper. From the lurid details leake
  
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• Soundless video ads require a rethink

  19-04-2019 02:00
  Brands need to take more proactive and deliberate steps to maximise the impact of video ads that are viewed in soundless environments, according to a study published in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).Colin Campbell (University of San...
  
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• Marketing investment pays off for PepsiCo

  19-04-2019 02:00
  PepsiCo’s share price hit a record high earlier this week after the food and beverage giant reported its biggest sales increase in more than three years, not least because of its investment in marketing.According to a statement detailing its...
  
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• Global broadcasters line up to market Game of Thrones

  19-04-2019 02:00
  Winter is here, for broadcasters of Game of Thrones at least: the eighth and final season of the TV fantasy epic has arrived, and international media owners are striving to engage local audiences with advertising and experiential marketing.HBO,...
  
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• Axel Springer builds audience segments with machine learning

  19-04-2019 02:00
  German publisher Axel Springer is using machine learning to fuse disparate data sources and create three-dimensional “maps” that cluster users around likely interest groups.Carolin Bink, Axel Springer’s head of data products,...
  
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• Asia's marketers need to look beyond stereotypes

  19-04-2019 02:00
  Marketers are often guilty of a tendency to “segment everything into little boxes”, but consumers rarely fit neatly into their assigned roles and it can be easy to miss the subtle changes that are taking place across demographics. ...
  
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• Amazon shuts down its China marketplace site

  19-04-2019 02:00
  Amazon, the US e-commerce giant, has decided to close its online marketplace in China after facing stiff competition from domestic rivals, Alibaba and JD.com.Instead, as first reported
  
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