• Citi named 276 new managing directors on Wednesday, the bank's highest rank below the C-suite.
• This year's class is about 20% smaller than 2024's 344 promotions.
• Business Insider has the full list of newly promoted managing directors.

Citi has a new group of senior leaders joining its highest ranks.

On Wednesday, the bank announced 276 managing directors, elevating the class of leaders to its highest rank below the C-suite.

This year's class includes 55 promotions in markets, 45 in banking, 40 in wealth, and 33 in services, the bank's unit that helps clients manage and move money globally. The promotions reflect the firm's strong year in the markets and its push to drive more growth from banking, wealth, and its unique services business — all three of which have undergone major revamps in recent years.

The class is about 20% smaller than Citi's last cohort of promotes — the 344 employees it elevated to MD in 2024, the largest class since Jane Fraser became CEO. That group leaned heavily toward markets, wealth, and tech roles. But the drop-off makes this the smallest MD class since 2020, when the bank promoted 241 people. In 2023, it announced 304 new MDs; in 2022, 331; and in 2021, 306.

"Their promotions arrive after a year that asked a lot from all of us as we raised our performance and pushed ahead on the work that will define Citi's next chapter," the executive management team members — including CEO Jane Fraser — wrote in an internal memo viewed by Business Insider.

"Each of these new MDs played a meaningful role in that progress. They led teams through a fast-moving environment, kept focus on what mattered most, and helped turn strategy into action," the memo continued, citing their contributions as helping to accelerate Citi's "steps toward becoming an AI-enabled bank with smarter operations and a clearer foundation for growth."

A Citi spokesperson told Business Insider that the number of promotions varies each year, "taking into account the firm's skill and leadership needs, attrition, external hiring, and other relevant considerations."

On Wednesday morning, Citi marked the annoucements with "roll call" gatherings across its business units — some in person, others remote — a tradition the bank has expanded in recent years. Members of the executive management team led a call with the newly promoted group to share advice, then held their own roll calls within their divisions to read the names aloud.

The promotions come as Citi continues a multiyear effort to simplify its structure, strengthen risk and control functions, and invest in a large-scale tech turnaround.

The bank's strategy

The overhaul has reshaped its leadership and reorganized significant parts of the bank. In recent years, Fraser brought on star executives like former JPMorgan dealmaker Viswas Raghavan, as executive vice chair, to turn the firm's investment banking operations around.

The firm has made significant gains in the past 12 months in sectors like investment banking — which saw a 23% year-over-year bump in fees to $1.15 billion in the third quarter — and its markets unit, which handles trading, experienced a 15% bump.

The new 2025 managing directors come from 21 countries and represent 32 nationalities, the bank said. Two-thirds are multi-lingual, and 30% have worked in at least two countries for Citi. They have a median of 16 years of experience at the firm, and 20 years in financial services overall. Twenty-three percent joined Citi through an early-career program, the bank added.

Nearly half — 134, or almost 49% of the class — are based in North America; 18% in the UK; followed by nearly 10% in Japan, north Asia, and Australia. The rest are dispersed in other regions.

Below is the full list of Citi's newly promoted managing directors.

Banking (45)

Ram Anand

Siddharth Bansal

Irina Berg

Aaron Bloch

Thomas Brancourt

Sarah Briddon

Matteo Casadei

Ricardo Celayeta

Varun Chokhani

Alexios Coscoros

Nick J Dragisic

Samuel H Eisner

Sascha Hahn

Thomas Holsten Leren

Jun Hong

Keng Huat Koay

Terry Koizou

Brian Krieger

Piotr Krupa

Jonathan Laycock

Minha Lee

Ryan Li

Menzi Lukhele

Christopher Marino

David Moreno

Koyu Mori

Victor Mourad

Janusz Nelson

Milan Ninkov

Daniel O'Czerny

Vineet Puri

Ifti Qurashi

Shirley Riches

Raimund Riedl

Alfonso Saturno

Michael Seidenfeld

Dhruv Sethi

Pei Pei Sim

Sam Sun

Steven Thompson

Nisheeth Ranjan Tripathi

Mimi Tse

Vineet Vetts

Stephen White

Saad Zaman

Chief Operating Office (7)

Babar Ahmed

Traci Brooks

Sheetal Chanderkar

David Noyce

Scott L Phillips

Brett Russo

Sana Sayed

Client (18)

Eugene Belostotsky

Vanessa Bernardino

Yogesh Bhatt

Tom Cerasoli

Nedra Nichelle Collins

Alexander Guffanti

Jeffrey Kurges

Eric O Ligan

Beata Manthey

Andre Mazini

Jyothi Narayanan

Caio Patricio

Monique Pollard

Vibhor Rastogi

Arthur Smith

Hana Uddin

David M Wollin

Kyna Wong

Enterprise Services and Public Affairs (1)

Rula Dajani

Finance (12)

Tristan Clark

Eric Haugk

Jai Maxwell

Diego Miyake dos Santos

Ney Peralta

Robert Sabochick

Watcharee Thitibordin

Ben Vance

Sharan Wadhwa

Hua Wang

Jon Warren

Matt Welsh

Global Legal Affairs & Compliance (17)

Maitane Arozena

Jonathan Barkey

Sandra Behar

Soumyajyoti Bose

Jessica Britton

Mark DeAngelis

Robert Ehrlich

Rick Gambs

Omar Garduño Chavero

Lindsay Gatto

Justin Marc Irwin

Bruno Kumi

Fiona Mahon

Valerie Nezianya

Abhimanyu Singh Poonia

Rahul Dev Sharma

Ann-Katrin Wilczek

Human Resources (3)

Victoria Hooker

Jacqueline Lucas

Marc Polinsky

Internal Audit (2)

Cedrick Parize

Amine Trifi

International (2)

Jay Jhala

Malcolm Munoz

Legacy Franchises (7)

Eduardo Allegre Marquez

Robert Baltazares

Alejandro Díaz Romo

Larissa Garduño

Sreekanth Malisetti

Xavier Villalobos

Carlos Zamudio

Markets (55)

Omar Ahmed

Eric Bakkensen

Miles Patrick Bartholomew

Thomas Baud

Kanika Berry

Thomas Beviss

Stefania Calabretta

Alex Chiew

Sangini Chopra

Dominique de Peyrecave

Lindsay DeChiaro

Gaurav Dhingra

Matthew Doyle

Ryan Ellis

Michael Fielder

Troy Fraser

Brian Fugazy

Tom Gallagher

Ben Gardiner

Sean Garvey

Ting Guo

Tom Heslop

Kyle Higgs

Vito Hinora

Stuart Kaiser

Ryutaro Katano

Christina Keeler

Kemal Keskin

Ray King

Giovanni Laureri

Dessislava Lazarova

Hyungjoo Albert Lee

Sunny Li

Noah Mao

Liam McShane

Deepak Mehra

Loubna Moutai

Hooi Wan Ng

Truong Nguyen

Andrea Olivari

Sebastian Palacio

Jennifer Podurgiel

Yash (Shreyash) Priyank

Diana Ribeiro

Bryant Schlichting

Nagaraja Shenoy

Byungnoh Sohn

Zhengyuan Sun

Thomas Szelestey

Michael Tamburrino

Henrique Utrini

Mandakini Vadher

Sean Walsh

Tadeusz Wysocki

Timothy Young En

Risk Management (11)

Ritesh Bansal

Shivani Datadin

Matt Fleet

Christian James

Lauren Karfonta

Elizabeth McAlpine

Shilpa Saroha

Charles Tao

Shantanu Upadhyay

Natalia Villazan

Yoyo (Xiaotong) Yan

Services (33)

Leena Aich

Lorna Ballard

David Bartlett

Ignacio Capparelli

Valentina Chuang

Patricia Corregiari

Rubin Kiran Dave

Arpit Desai

Virginie Dhouibi

Katie Dilaj

Katherine Earl

Meng Wei Feng

Brian Gauvain

Ganas Govender

Ilyas Khan

Nimit Khare

Xin Lin

Aneesh Kumar Mahajan

Jared Mecham

John Murphy

Mick Murray

Tony Nanez

Caitlyn Oster

Christopher Piparo

Andrew Quan

Christopher Ravn

Christoph Rosemeyer

Ernesto Sarria

Shalin Shroff

Rufus Southwood

Rodrigo Takaku

Will Thorne

Tanya McKnight Williams

Technology & Business Enablement (15)

Zak Bahri

Katie Fontana

Rama Gontla

Shantharam Iyer

Prashant Jain

Daniel Jepp

Alina Kamat

Konstantine Kos

Rajiv Mirjankar

Viral Patel

Kevin Peel

Namita Saran

Bhagavathi Satchithanantham

Nikhil Shah

Elvis Veliz

U.S. Personal Banking (8)

Matthew DiPisa

Rohan D'Souza

Promiti Dutta

Patrick Gallagher

Paul Gawlik

Jess Lucas

Neri Neri

Dani Paul

Wealth (40)

Manuel Alvarez

Patricia Avallone

Zakir Banatwala

Duygu Baydur

Julie Bennett

Gunjan Bhatt

Boyko Botev

Analicia Gil Brocchetto

Asaad Chaudry

Benjamin Dx Choo

Angie Clardy

Vishal Desai

Jose Huerta

Ahmad Jamaleddine

Richard Jiang

Stephan Lanz

Jeanne Lee

Andrew Li

Sherlock Lou

Billal Malik

Megan Malone

Vikram Manik

Peter Manno

Morgan Morris

Sarah Wee Hian O

Stephen Pak

Avanee Vasant Patel

Darlene Yuting Patterson

Deborah Querub

Sebastian Rubano

Thomas Schlaus

Ash Shandilya

Vibhor Singh

Michael Squillante

Priya Sriskantharajah

Luca Vodini

Ivo Voynov

Richard Weintraub

John Whitelaw

RuiRui Zhu

• Paramount owners Larry and David Ellison want to buy Warner Bros. Discovery.
• They are reportedly getting help from the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.
• Foreign investors have put money into American media companies before. But this seems meaningfully different.

A deal to combine Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery would create a media behemoth.

And that behemoth could be partially owned by the governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.

So says Variety, reporting that David and Larry Ellison, who own Paramount and are bidding to buy WBD, are using money from those countries' sovereign wealth funds to finance their proposed deal.

If that story sounds familiar, there's a good reason: In November, Variety reported more or less the same thing — which prompted Paramount to call the story "categorically inaccurate".

But even at the time, it didn't seem implausible that Middle Eastern oil money would be used to help the Ellisons buy WBD. And other outlets had suggested the Ellisons might partner with the Saudis, among others.

Now Variety is doubling down on its initial report. Bloomberg also reports that "Middle East funds" are involved in the Ellisons' bid. A Paramount rep declined to comment; I've also reached out to the sovereign wealth funds.

But as I noted before, the fact that it's even possible that Middle Eastern petrostates could have ownership stakes in a giant American media conglomerate — one that would control major movie studios, streaming networks, and news outlets — tells us a lot about 2025. A few years ago, this would have seemed like a non-starter; now it seems quite close to happening.

That's because Paramount, which is competing with Netflix and Comcast in the WBD bidding, still seems like the most likely WBD owner when all of this is done. That's partially because Paramount is offering to buy all of WBD, while Comcast and Netflix only want part of it. And partially because the Ellisons — Larry Ellison in particular — are close to Donald Trump, and we live in a world where people close to Donald Trump often get what they want.

In the absence of anyone involved in the deal talking to me on the record, I can imagine some arguments why a petrostate-backed mega-media conglomerate makes sense:

• The funds would presumably have minority stakes in a combined Paramount/WBD, and it would presumably remain controlled by Americans.
• Foreign investors have frequently owned some or all of big, American-based media companies: See, for instance, Japan's Sony, which owns a major movie studio and music label. And Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was a longtime minority investor in Rupert Murdoch's Fox empire; now he has a stake in the company formerly known as Twitter.
• The Saudi sovereign wealth fund is already set to own almost all of video game giant Electronic Arts, and no one seems to have an issue with that.

A Middle East-financed deal for WBD could raise some eyebrows

All true! But I still think that there are differences that will certainly raise eyebrows, and maybe more forceful pushback, if a combined Ellison/Middle East deal goes forward.

One obvious point: It's one thing to have a private company or investor from another company taking a stake in an American media giant; it's another to have one that's directly controlled by a foreign government.

Another one: As media companies continue to consolidate, the power of the remaining ones gets amplified. On their own for instance, CBS News and CNN have dwindling influence and financial power; a company that combines the two, though, might have more meaningful sway. You can argue that the Saudis owning one of the world's biggest video game companies is also meaningful, but the video game industry never gets the attention it deserves, and that seems likely to continue in this case.

And last: It's possible that Middle Eastern countries are investing in an American media conglomerate solely for a financial return, and would have zero interest in the content that conglomerate makes and distributes. But that's an assertion that many folks would have a hard time taking at face value. And while lots of American companies have sought Middle Eastern funding for years, there was a pause after 2018, following the murder and dismemberment of Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi — a shocking act the CIA concluded was ordered by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman himself. (He has denied involvement.)

Now bin Salman might end up owning a piece of major American news outlets and other media arms. How's that going to go over?

• AI is a powerful tool to use to analyze the large troves of HR data within companies.
• Companies can use AI analysis to identify workforce talent and skills gaps.
• This article is part of "How AI is Changing Talent", a series exploring how AI is reshaping hiring, development, and retention.

As technology continues to advance and companies look to remain competitive in meeting market demand, the skills that employees will need are also evolving. A growing number of companies are exploring how to address these skills and workforce gaps with artificial intelligence.

HR can use AI to reveal "patterns and gaps" and benchmark "current workforce skills against evolving business needs or industry trends," said Lauren Winans, CEO and principal human resources consultant at Next Level Benefits.

What AI offers in this realm isn't exactly new, said Will Howard, practice lead of HR trends and AI at McLean & Company. HR teams have long collected and analyzed workforce data manually, he said, but AI can make the process more "feasible and efficient" through automation.

Here, HR experts share four factors to consider when using AI to identify workforce and skills gaps:

1. Organize your data

Organizations have troves of HR data, such as job advertisements, performance reviews, and employee job histories and training, that can be mined to uncover skills gaps, said Sanmay Das, associate director of AI for Social Impact at Virginia Tech. But this data often lacks "quality and completeness," Winans said.

Before adopting AI, organizations must embrace "good data hygiene" by ensuring the data they plan to analyze is accurate, current, and consistent, said George Denlinger, operational president of US technology talent solutions at Robert Half.

Otherwise, AI insights will be limited or inaccurate. "The phrase 'garbage in, garbage out' rings especially true here," Howard said.

Companies need a clear and consistent process for collecting, maintaining, and updating workforce data, Howard said. For instance, standardize job descriptions, including specific skills, knowledge, and activities, so that AI can make accurate comparisons.

2. Analyze the insights

Large language models, like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, can summarize and report on data, Das said. But, for a deeper analysis, companies often need specialized AI tools designed for HR, including workforce planning and analytics, Howard said. Workday and Disco are some examples.

Ultimately, AI tools can leverage your existing data and identify strengths and weaknesses in your workforce, Denlinger said.

For example, with data on employee performance for a specific project and sales forecasts, AI could suggest the skills or roles necessary to meet the organization's future demands, Howard said. Examining an employee's job and training history, AI could quantify their capacity to acquire new skills via upskilling or reskilling, Winans said.

IBM, for example, uses an AI system that analyzes its employees' digital footprints within the company to identify their skills and predict skill proficiency levels. The company then uses that analysis to offer employees personalized educational opportunities and career coaches, helping them identify job opportunities and new career paths. In 2024, IBM reported that the approach had boosted employee engagement by 20%.

3. Understand AI's limitations

While AI can analyze data, it may overlook nuances and the human aspects of what makes a role successful, such as small tasks not listed in a job description, soft skills, or the behind-the-scenes efforts employees put in, Das said.

Companies should also focus on data privacy, trust, and employee buy-in, Winans said. Employees may worry about how their data is being used and how it could impact them, such as changes to their roles or responsibilities. She suggested communicating transparently about what data will be used, how it will be used, and why.

Data literacy is another challenge: HR teams must know what to do with the AI results, Howard said. "Even the most advanced AI technology still requires a human to put the results into a business context and communicate and take action on the insights within the organization."

For instance, the AI analysis on skills gaps should inform decisions about new roles the company needs to create or the training necessary for existing employees, Winans said.

4. Refine your strategy

"Skill requirements evolve rapidly," Winans said. Using AI to uncover skills gaps should be a "continuous process, not a one-time audit," she added.

While AI can be useful for tracking ongoing skills gaps, Denlinger said this is still an emerging use of the technology that will likely evolve.

Al also isn't a "silver bullet that can take you from zero to best in class," Howard said. "Organizations shouldn't view AI as a shortcut. It still requires the foundational skills and structures that have always been there," such as clean data and employees confident in using the technology.

Then, he said, AI "becomes the cherry on top that can take your workforce planning and data analysis to the next level."

• Ken Griffin's $71 billion Citadel rolled out an AI assistant for its teams of stockpickers this year.
• The firm's chief technology officer, Umesh Subramanian, said there is no requirement to use AI.
• The Miami-based hedge fund has been using AI and machine learning in some fashion for 10 years.

Ken Griffin's stockpickers are using an internal chatbot to speed up their processes and find new info at his $71 billion hedge fund.

The tool, rolled out earlier this year, helps the firm's legions of fundamental equity investors find hidden details in public filings, summarize research from sell-side banks, track mentions of certain key words from executives, and more.

But the human part of these flesh-and-blood traders remains mission critical, according to Umesh Subramanian, Citadel's chief technology officer.

Speaking at a New York conference on Wednesday, he said, "We are also careful that it's not used in the wrong way."

"We don't want PMs offloading their human investment judgment to AI. This is a tool to further accelerate their research process," he said.

Citadel is far from the only hedge fund with an internal chat tool. Managers such as Balyasny, Man Group, Viking Global, and more have rolled out AI helpers to assist their investment teams. Citadel had already been using AI or machine learning in some form for roughly a decade.

But decision-making has yet to be turned over wholesale to the machines, aside from a few funds, such as Bridgewater, which is allowing AI to run a strategy uninhibited by people. Even quant fund managers — which trade markets using systematic, computer-run strategies — believe humans are still a critical part of investing.

At Citadel, employees aren't forced to use AI, Subramanian told Business Insider in an interview.

"We don't have a requirement to use AI, just like we don't go around saying you are required to use Java as a programming language. That's backward," he said. The new tool has close to full adoption across stock-picking teams, the firm says.

While companies like Microsoft and Shopify have mandated the use of AI by their employees, Subramanian said, "Where that goes wrong is adopting AI for the sake of adoption, rather than because it's actually needed."

"That is a slippery slope," he said.

• The US has a new one-way attack drone task force in the Middle East.
• The Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack Drones resemble Iranian-designed Shahed loitering munitions.
• LUCAS designs were unveiled at the Pentagon earlier this year.

The US military revealed Wednesday that it has a new one-way attack drone task force in the Middle East — and it's already fielded a squadron of low-cost attack drones.

Task Force Scorpion Strike set up a squadron of Low-cost Uncrewed Combat Attack System drones, which resemble Iranian-designed Shahed drones.

News of the one-way attack drone task force comes just one day after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared his "drone dominance" plan envisioning a $1 billion investment over two years in production and fielding of hundreds of thousands of cheap attack drones, increasingly an integral part of modern warfare.

US Central Command, the military's combatant command that oversees presence and operations in the Middle East, announced the new LUCAS drone squadron on Wednesday, saying that the drones were already deployed and being used by personnel in the area.

The LUCAS drones boast long ranges and have autonomous features, CENTCOM said, and can be launched from catapults, rocket-assisted takeoff, and mobile ground and vehicle systems.

In the announcement on the task force, Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM's commander, said that "equipping our skilled warfighters faster with cutting-edge drone capabilities showcases US military innovation and strength, which deters bad actors."

Video footage shared by the command showed many of the drones sitting on a tarmac at an undisclosed location in the region.

Over a dozen prototype low-cost attack drone designs were on display at the Pentagon this past July. These drones are American-made alternatives to loitering munitions like Iran's Shahed-136, one of several one-way attack drones that Russia has used against Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure throughout the war.

Russia has been firing Iranian-made and homegrown Shaheds in large-scale air strikes on Ukraine, pairing hundreds of them with missiles to complicate strike packages and attempt to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses without draining its more limited stockpiles of expensive precision-guided munitions.

The effectiveness of Shahed-style drones has grabbed the attention of US Army leadership, with the commanding general of the service's 25th Infantry Division out of Hawaii saying in October that a low-cost, easily produced and assembled drone like the Shahed was exactly the type of capability the Army wants in the Indo-Pacific region.

During the display at the Pentagon in July, a fact sheet paired with a design from American engineering firm SpektreWorks said the Shahed-style LUCAS could be useful for US forces in the Indo-Pacific region by "providing a viable threat emulator" and offering "a low operational and maintenance cost compared to traditional munitions systems or aircraft."

The Trump administration has made boosting production of drones a top priority in order to keep up with adversaries like Russia and China, as well as meet the increasing threat drones present in modern warfare.

In May, President Donald Trump praised the cost of Iranian drones, roughly $35,000 to $40,000, adding that the drones were "very good too, and fast and deadly," and were responsible for "killing tremendous numbers of people" in the Ukraine war.

The Pentagon is pouring more money into all types of drones, seeing them as force multipliers, cheaper strike options than missiles, and a way to extend surveillance reach.

• Strong demand for the iPhone 17 is driving a turnaround for Apple in China.
• Research firm IDC found that Apple led smartphone shipments in China in October and November.
• Apple told investors it expects to return to growth in China in the quarter that ends in December.

Things are looking up for Apple in China.

The tech giant is expected to lead in smartphone shipments in 2025 in a region that has previously been a low point, according to a research report published by the International Data Corporation on Tuesday.

In China — Apple's largest market — there has been massive demand for the new iPhone 17, which is propelling Apple toward a record 2025. IDC predicts 247 million iPhones will be shipped globally this year.

Apple was "miles ahead of the competition" in China in October and November, with a market share of more than 20%, according to IDC's monthly sales data in China.

"This turns a previously projected 1% decline in China for 2025 into a positive 3% growth, that's a phenomenal turnaround," Nabila Popal, senior research director with IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, said in the report.

It's a big leap from the 9% decline in iPhone shipments in China that IDC reported in April, a few months before the iPhone 17 lineup was announced. The firm also found that Apple was the only major smartphone maker to lose market share in the first quarter of 2025.

Globally, IDC forecasts that worldwide smartphone shipments will grow 1.5% year over year, driven by Apple's performance in the holiday quarter. Apple told analysts in October that it expects revenue for the December quarter to be the "best ever" for both the company and the iPhone.

Although Apple CEO Tim Cook's prediction of returning to growth in China seems to be on track so far, the iPhone maker showed signs of a struggle in its most recent quarter. Cook said a supply constraint in China drove a 4% year-over-year decline during the period.

Apple faces local competition in China as rivals like Huawei and Xiaomi release new smartphone lineups. The iPhone Air, which was announced alongside the iPhone 17, also faced early challenges in China, where the eSIM-only phone was unavailable for some time after the global release. Still, Cook said he "couldn't be more pleased" with how well the iPhone 17 was being received in China during its first month on the market.

The iPhone's success has spread across regions, including the US and Western Europe. IDC forecasts that overall global shipments will grow 6.1% year-over-year in 2025.

"This calendar year will not only be a record period for Apple in terms of shipments but also in value, which is forecast to exceed $261 billion," Popal said.

• Real estate data giant CoStar Group claims Crexi stole tens of thousands of its photos.
• Crexi countersued CoStar over its dominance of the market for office-leasing data.
• Alex Spiro, who has represented big-name clients like Elon Musk and Jay Z, is now defending Crexi.

Real estate data company Crexi has brought on celebrity lawyer Alex Spiro — known for defending billionaires, rappers, and professional athletes — in its scrap with CoStar Group.

According to court filings on Wednesday, Spiro will now defend Crexi in its legal battle with the real estate data giant. The $3,000-an-hour lawyer has represented clients like Elon Musk, Jay-Z, and Megan Thee Stallion, and has also worked for a variety of businesses in disputes with short-sellers, rivals, and regulators.

CoStar, a $29 billion company known for its real-estate data and deals platforms, claims that Crexi used offshore workers in India to "copy and crop" photos from CoStar's Loopnet website, omitting CoStar's watermark. After a mixed ruling in June that affirmed CoStar's ownership of the photos, the case, which was filed in 2020, is headed to trial.

Crexi responded by accusing CoStar of abusing its market power and violating US antitrust law. That countersuit was originally thrown out, but an appeals court revived Crexi's claims earlier this year. Crexi wanted both cases to go to trial at the same time, but a judge rejected that, so Crexi is playing defense first.

CoStar is a dominant player in real-estate data and has a history of winning legal fights. Bringing on a big name like Spiro is a shot across the bow. It could also catch the attention of other CoStar rivals, including Zillow, which was sued by CoStar over the summer based on similar allegations of stealing copyrighted photos from the CoStar-owned website Homes.com.

Spiro and representatives for CoStar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"CoStar will finally be held accountable for years of misconduct against the commercial real estate industry," Crexi said in a statement. "We're excited to welcome Alex Spiro and Quinn Emanuel to join this fight and lead our trial team."

Lawyers from Latham & Watkins are representing CoStar.

The Crexi dispute is similar to a previous legal fight between CoStar and Xceligent, a commercial real estate data company that was spun out from Loopnet in 2012. It went bankrupt in 2017, about a year after it was sued by CoStar for allegedly stealing thousands of copyrighted photos.

Xceligent had also accused CoStar of violating monopoly laws, but those claims failed.