Sales & Marketing news

• The history of WeWork’s meteoric valuation rise — and fall

  13-09-2019 22:42 via feedproxy.google.com
  Soon-to-be-public WeWork, the coworking company that leases office space to other startups, is  reportedly targeting a $10 billion valuation for its public debut.
  The valuation is significantly lower than the $47 billion valuation it once commanded and comes as WeWork's team scrambles to get investors on board with its heady IPO.
  Since it was founded in 2011, WeWork has raised a whopping $8.39 billion in private funding from backers like SoftBank's $100 billion Vision Fund.
  See WeWork's ful
  
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• Stocks close mixed as the Dow gains for the 8th day in a row

  13-09-2019 22:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  Stocks finished mixed on Friday as the Dow Jones industrial average rose for the eighth day in a row. 
  The S&P 500 index was relatively flat as gains in materials, financials, and energy stocks were offset by losses in real estate, utilities, and technology. 
  Goldman Sachs hit Apple with the lowest price target of any major shop on Wall Street, issuing a warning that Apple TV Plus will into iPhone profits. Apple published a statement shortly after refuting the claim. 
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• MoviePass is shutting down and looking for a buyer

  13-09-2019 22:08 via feedproxy.google.com
  MoviePass, the embattled movie-ticket-subscription service, is shutting down on Saturday, its parent company, Helios and Matheson Analytics, announced on Friday.
  Helios and Matheson said its efforts to recapitalize the MoviePass business, which has lost hundreds of millions of dollars since Helios and Matheson took ownership in 2017, had "not been successful."
  Helios and Matheson said it would explore a sale of MoviePass, along with its other assets Moviefone and MoviePass Films.
  MoviePass has r
  
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• SoftBank reportedly plans to boost its stake in WeWork by $750 million in the coworking giant's IPO

  13-09-2019 21:55 via feedproxy.google.com
  SoftBank plans to buy $750 million in WeWork shares in the real-estate company's planned public offering, The Wall Street Journal reported.
  The purchase would represent about 25% of the shares WeWork is planning on selling.
  The move would up SoftBank's investment in the company to more than $11 billion, assuming it doesn't sell any shares in the offering.
  The news comes as WeWork is considering going public with a valuation of as little as $10 billion.Read all of Business Insider's WeWork covera
  
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• MoviePass' parent company is looking to sell it and Moviefone as it continues to cut staff

  13-09-2019 21:50 via feedproxy.google.com
  Helios and Matheson Analytics is looking to sell MoviePass and Moviefone, multiple sources close to the company told Business Insider.
  Layoffs have continued at MoviePass, and contract workers at Moviefone have been suspended, sources said.
  The Moviefone editor Drew Taylor wrote "effective immediately all freelancing is suspended" in a recent email obtained by Business Insider.
  Some freelance writers for Moviefone had not been paid in months, sources said.Visit Business Insider's homepage for mo
  
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• An analyst that loves Beyond Meat's business still thinks the stock is wildly overpriced — and he's urging traders to sell (BYND)

  13-09-2019 20:52 via feedproxy.google.com
  Brian Holland, the latest analyst to initiate coverage of Beyond Meat, likes the company but thinks it's overvalued at currently. He's only the second analyst to recommend selling the stock. 
  He thinks Beyond is overshooting its forecasts for how much market share it can capture from traditional meat. 
  Still, he likes the potential in plant-based meat and says Beyond Meat has a distinct first mover advantage. 
  Watch Beyond Meat trade live on Markets Insider.The latest Wall Street
  
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• Jeffrey Epstein reportedly used a murky nonprofit account with Deutsche Bank to reap tax benefits

  13-09-2019 20:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  Jeffrey Epstein's Gratitude America foundation reported a number of charitable donations since its founding in 2012, but several listed recipients never received the funds, the Wall Street Journal reported.
  The discrepancy places a greater focus on Deutsche Bank's activities, as it handled Gratitude America's finances. The foundation reported more than $1.8 million in charitable contributions between 2016 and 2017.
  Banks often watch wealthy clients and their foundations with increased scrutiny,
  
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• The electricity provider that caused the California wildfires has reached an $11 billion settlement

  13-09-2019 20:16 via feedproxy.google.com
  PG&E has reached an agreement to pay $11 billion to settle insurance claims over its role in the California wildfires. 
  The utility company's power lines were blamed for wildfires that ravaged Northern California in 2017 and 2018 and resulted in more than 100 deaths. 
  Mounting legal claims over the last two years forced PG&E to filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January. 
  Shares of PG&E rose as much as 10% on the news.
  PG&E has reached another major settlement rega
  
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• A Microsoft security exec explains how its Teams workplace chat app market is benefiting from a major shift in how companies buy cloud software (MSFT, WORK)

  13-09-2019 19:40 via feedproxy.google.com
  Over the summer, Microsoft said that its Teams workplace chat app was growing faster than Slack, the one-time unicorn startup that went public this year in a much-watched direct listing.
  Microsoft's Office 365 security boss Girish Chander tells Business Insider that a big part of this is because companies are less willing to cherry-pick their favorite apps from different vendors like Slack, and more excited about suites of pre-integrated products. 
  Chander says this is a shift away from the
  
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• Dem candidates stumble on how to counter Trump on the trade war with China

  13-09-2019 19:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  Trump has put Democratic presidential hopefuls in an awkward spot through his efforts to pressure China to change practices that put Americans at a disadvantage.
  At the third Democratic primary debate Thursday night, the question of how to reclaim that playbook on trade was on full display.
  But the trade war has also presented challenges for Trump, whose most recent polls suggest Americans are growing worried about tariffs. 
  Visit the Markets Insider homepage for more stories.
  For the 2020
  
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• The stocks that have dominated the market for years are getting destroyed. Here's what it means and what might be next.

  13-09-2019 19:03 via feedproxy.google.com
  The biggest winners on the stock market have suffered through a brutal two-week stretch as investors have started to instead buy the companies that have done the worst this year.
  According to Ben Snider of Goldman Sachs, it's been the most dramatic shift since 2009, and one of the worst stretches for market leaders since 1980.
  The Baird investment strategist Willie Delwiche said stocks have been unusually vulnerable to bad news during this shift, but if it lasts, it could help the bull market en
  
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• Goldman Sachs slaps Apple with the lowest price target of any major research firm as analysts predict TV Plus will eat iPhone profits (AAPL)

  13-09-2019 18:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  Apple dropped as much as 2.7% on Friday after Goldman Sachs predicted that the company's new accounting would cut into iPhones' average selling price.
  Analysts with the bank lowered their target to $165 per share from $187, setting a new lowest expectation for Apple shares among major Wall Street banks.
  The anticipated accounting method would split the $60 Apple TV Plus free trial into a discount on the annual TV Plus membership and the iPhone's price.
  The discount would lower the phones' profit
  
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• Cloudflare surges in trading debut after raising $525 million in IPO (NET)

  13-09-2019 18:16 via feedproxy.google.com
  Cloudflare, a web security and content delivery company, raised $525 million on Thursday after pricing its shares higher than expected. 
  The company sold 35 million shares for $15 apiece, after raising its target price range on Wednesday to between $12 and $14, up from $10 to $12.
  Shares of Cloudflare surged more than 25% when they began trading on Thursday, valuing the company at north of $5 billion.  
  Watch Cloudflare trade live.
  2019's initial public offering bonanza continues.
  
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• Marketing Week Top 100: The top B2B marketers

  13-09-2019 15:25
  The post Marketing Week Top 100: The top B2B marketers appeared first on Marketing Week.
  
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• William Hill promotes social side of gambling to squash negative stereotypes

  13-09-2019 15:00
  https://s3-eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/centaur-wp/marketingweek/prod/content/uploads/2019/09/13165242/WilliamHill.mp4William Hill is looking to shake off the stereotypes around gambling and “elevate” its advertising with a new campaign focused on the sociability of betting.
  The ‘It’s who you play with’ campaign features a group of friends messaging each other about their weekend’s bets. The focus is on fans and the connectivity of these social groups, a place w
  
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• William Hill ditches brand-led focus as it launches campaign promoting social side of gambling

  13-09-2019 15:00
  William Hill is looking to shake off the stereotypes around gambling and “elevate” its advertising with a new campaign focused on the sociability of betting.
  The ‘It’s who you play with’ campaign features a group of friends messaging each other about their weekend’s bets. The focus is on fans and the connectivity of these social groups, a place where William Hill believes it can “naturally insert” itself into the dialogue, explains global brand and
  
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• How employers’ and employees’ attitudes to work are changing

  13-09-2019 14:27
  Working habits are changing rapidly, as technology transforms working arrangements and people’s understanding of what matters at work shifts. But how closely do attitudes and expectations match reality?
  YouGov’s latest report, ‘Success in the modern workplace’, uses its YouGov RealTime data to find out what matters most to employers and employees when it comes to interviews, benefits and professional skills. It also contrasts these to the attitudes of retired people and
  
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• Diet Coke, VW, John Lewis: 5 things that mattered this week and why

  13-09-2019 13:06
  Diet Coke launches ad campaign to appeal to younger generation
  Diet Coke is launching an ad campaign that features cool grannies and cans marked with phrases such as “it’s lit”, “okay next” and “yasss”.
  ‘You Do You’ is clearly an attempt to connect with the nation’s youth but the transparent appeal to be cool is unlikely to land. Already Twitter has been mocking the new cans with one user writing “Congratulations to Diet Coke for
  
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• How connecting through voice increases conversions

  13-09-2019 11:29
  With recent advances in marketing technology (like AI and virtual platforms), it can often be difficult to determine if you’re speaking to a real person or a bot. We live in an age where ‘convenience’ dominates a large proportion of communication in the B2B market, which is why it’s important to always include a personal experience in your buying cycle.
  It’s not enough to wait for the robot on your website to ask your prospect: “Is there’s anything I ca
  
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• Risk vs opportunity: Why saliency can hinder brand growth

  13-09-2019 08:00
  It is probably safe to assume that most brands want fame. But that can come at a cost if they rely too heavily on their fame without paying attention to how the wider consumer landscape is evolving.
  Kantar’s 2019 BrandZ ranking of the UK’s top 75 brands reveals a number of well-known British brands are currently in a “dangerous and exposed” position. They are ripe for disruption and it is their saliency that is the problem.
  “A number of brands are trading on their p
  
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• Yahoo Japan takes control of fashion retailer Zozo

  13-09-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  Yahoo Japan has agreed to take a majority stake in online fashion retailer Zozo in a move expected to ramp up Yahoo’s e-commerce rivalry with Amazon and Rakuten.
  
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• When CEOs beat celebrities in ads

  13-09-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  Print ads that include a company’s founder or chief executive can be more effective than alternatives that feature celebrities if they leverage the right approach, according to a paper in the Journal of Advertising Research...
  
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• Understand momentum across the buyer life cycle

  13-09-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  The buyer life cycle is the process by which a consumer decides to buy a brand. There is no one-size fits all: big brands will differ from small brands, status matters, categories vary. A new WARC Best Practice piece sheds...
  
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• The Athletic launches an ad-supported podcast

  13-09-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  The Athletic, the digital sports news organisation, has applied an ad-free subscription model since it was founded in Chicago in 2016, but now it is about to launch an ad-supported podcast entirely outside of the site’s paywall.
  
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• Sorrell posits post-Brexit UK as home for Google

  13-09-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  Sir Martin Sorrell, executive chairman of S4 Capital, has suggested that a post-Brexit, tax-light and regulation-light UK should be a natural home for the likes of Google.
  
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• SE Asian consumers prefer factual content over emotion

  13-09-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  When it comes to the effective use of content, a new study advises brands to strike a balance between appealing to the emotional needs of consumers while also sharing relevant information to influence their purchasing...
  
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• ProSiebenSat.1's Joyn defends ad-funded content model

  13-09-2019 02:00 via warc.com
  Media brands have become too fixated on subscription models, according to the head of Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1, but he still plans on launching a subscription version of the company’s new Joyn app.
  
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