• What it takes to be in a $10 million Army Stryker crew

    With over 3,000 units in service, the Stryker armored infantry carrier vehicle has become one of the most ubiquitous vehicles in the Army. Able to transport nine dismounted infantry soldiers along with the driver and vehicle commander, the Stryker features a variety of powerful weapons systems.

    Atop the Dragoon variant sits a 30 mm autocannon as well as a coaxial machine gun.With a base unit price of $5 million, the Dragoon variant requires another $5 million upgrade for its high-tech weapons system.

    Chief video correspondent Graham Flanagan embedded with the Army's 2nd Cavalry Regiment during a training exercise in southern Germany, where he got an in-depth tour of the vehicle from crew members and rode in the vehicle during a combat simulation where Strykers transported soldiers to the fight before firing on an enemy stronghold.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Meet MacKenzie Scott, who has ‘revolutionized philanthropy’ and donated at least $26 billion since divorcing Jeff Bezos

    mackenzie scott
    Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott finalized their divorce in 2019.

    • MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has donated more than $26 billion.
    • She announced almost $7.2 billion in giving in 2025, her largest giving announcement to date.
    • Her giving strategy didn't change after Elon Musk criticized donations to diversity-focused groups.

    Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott ended their 25-year marriage in 2019 — and she's become a major philanthropic force in the years since.

    On December 9, Scott announced that she'd donated close to $7.2 billion in the past year, bringing her total giving to more than $26 billion. Scott mentioned the 2025 total, her largest giving announcement to date, in a recent blog post on her philanthropy's site.

    The donations went to colleges and a range of organizations, including ones focused on the environment, women's rights, and economic security.

    As of December 2025, Scott was worth $33.8 billion, according to Forbes, making her one of the world's richest women. Her $38 billion divorce settlement from her split with Bezos kicked off her journey into charitable giving. A regulatory filing showed that Scott sold 42% of her Amazon stake in 2025, totaling roughly $12.6 billion.

    Scott's giving differs from that of many billionaires. She gives large, unrestricted donations — bucking a common belief that nonprofits can't handle this type of gift.

    "Its breadth and scale are unprecedented for a donor operating outside of a foundation structure," Elisha Smith Arrillaga, the VP of research at the Center for Effective Philanthropy, told Business Insider. "For years, the relative scarcity of meaningfully sized, unrestricted gifts has been a source of frustration for nonprofit leaders."

    The size of Scott's gifts enables the nonprofit to do long-term planning. Additionally, Scott forgoes the classic application process, which can be burdensome. Instead, "her staff takes on the bulk of the vetting," Smith Arrillaga said.

    "It's no overstatement to say that MacKenzie Scott has revolutionized philanthropy," Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, the CEO of a refugee charity that received a donation from Scott, previously told Business Insider.

    Just two months before her divorce, Scott had signed the Giving Pledge initiative, committing to giving away half her wealth. She's given away her money at a faster pace than most other major philanthropists, according to Forbes, donating nearly $2 billion in 2022, almost $2.2 billion in 2023, and around $2 billion in 2024, according to blog posts.

    Melinda French Gates, the former wife of Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, said in 2022 she had "huge respect" for Scott's "trust-based" approach to philanthropy.

    However, Scott's charitable giving has drawn criticism in the past from one of the world's richest people: Elon Musk.

    Musk, who has been a vocal critic of DEI initiatives, criticized Scott in 2024 while replying to another X user's claims that the majority of her chosen charities were organizations that "deal with issues of race and/or gender." 

    But the SpaceX founder's comments have appeared to have no effect on Scott's philanthropy, as she's continued to donate to diversity-related causes.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • The list of major companies laying off staff this year includes Verizon, IBM Amazon, Starbucks, American Airlines, and more

    Verizon store
    Verizon is one of the latest companies to cut jobs in 2025.

    • Companies such as Verizon, Starbucks, Meta, Microsoft, and UPS have trimmed staff this year.
    • Amazon joined the fray in October, announcing that it would cut roughly 14,000 staff.
    • See the list of companies letting workers go in 2025.

    The list of companies laying off employees this year is growing.

    Layoffs and other workforce reductions have continued in 2025, following two years of significant job cuts in the tech, media, finance, manufacturing, retail, and energy sectors.

    While the reasons for slimming staff vary, the cost-cutting measures are coming amid technological change. A World Economic Forum survey found that some 41% of companies worldwide expect to reduce their workforces over the next five years because of the rise of artificial intelligence.

    Companies such as Oracle, CNN, Dropbox, and Block have previously announced job cuts related to AI. In October, Amazon joined its tech peers in laying off staff, citing the rapid pace of technological change as it expands its use of generative AI and agents.

    Meanwhile, tech jobs in big data, fintech, and AI are expected to double by 2030, according to the WEF.

    Here are the companies with job cuts planned or already underway in 2025, listed in alphabetical order.

    Adidas plans to cut up to 500 jobs in Germany
    Adidas shoes are seen in the store in Hoofddorp, Netherlands.
    Despite a strong year, Adidas is planning job cuts.

    Adidas said in January that it would reduce the size of its workforce at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, affecting up to 500 jobs, CNBC reported.

    If fully executed, it amounts to a reduction of nearly 9% at the company headquarters, which employs about 5,800 employees, according to the Adidas website.

    The news came shortly after the company announced it had outperformed its profit expectations at the end of 2024, touting "better-than-expected" results in the fourth quarter.

    An Adidas spokesperson said the company had grown "too complex because of our current operating model."

    "To set adidas up for long-term success, we are now starting to look at how we align our operating model with the reality of how we work. This may have an impact on the organizational structure and number of roles based at our HQ in Herzogenaurach."

    The company said it is not a cost-cutting measure and could not confirm concrete numbers.

    Ally is cutting less than 5% of workers
    Hands typing on a laptop with the Ally website on its screen.

    The digital-financial-services company Ally is laying off roughly 500 of its 11,000 employees, a spokesperson confirmed to BI.

    "As we continue to right-size our company, we made the difficult decision to selectively reduce our workforce in some areas, while continuing to hire in our other areas of our business," the spokesperson said.

    The spokesperson also said the company was offering severance, outplacement support, and the opportunity to apply for openings at Ally.

    Ally made a similar level of cuts in October 2023, the Charlotte Observer reported.

    Amazon will cut 14,000 corporate jobs
    Amazon logo on the front of the building in Edison, New Jersey, on October 23, 2023.
    Amazon will lay off 14,000 of its employees.

    Amazon said in late October it plans to eliminate 14,000 corporate roles, one of the biggest layoffs in its history.

    The move is part of CEO Andy Jassy's push to run the company "like the world's largest startup," according to a blog post from Beth Galetti, SVP of People Experience & Technology.

    Galetti said rapid advances in AI are changing how Amazon works and enabling faster innovation, prompting the company to get leaner with fewer management layers.

    The cuts follow years of belt-tightening since the pandemic.

    American Airlines is cutting management and support staff
    An American Airlines plane flies overhead.
    American Airlines is cutting some management and support jobs.

    American Airlines said in November that it is cutting management and support roles to optimize performance and become more efficient.

    "We're making a small reduction to our management and support staff team to right-size for the work we do today," American Airlines said in a statement shared with Business Insider.

    The job cuts mainly affect positions at the airline's headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. Bloomberg first reported the cuts.

    "We remain focused on continuing to invest in areas that support American's long-term business objectives, and these targeted investments will be made thoughtfully to position our airline for continued success," the statement said.

    Applied Materials says it will cut 4% of its workforce
    An employee walks past an Applied Materials machine in a clean room.
    Applied Materials said it expects to "incur charges of approximately $160 million to $180 million" due to the layoffs.

    Semiconductor company Applied Materials said in an exchange filing on October 23 that it would be cutting 4% of its global workforce.

    Applied Materials has around 36,100 full-time employees, per its earnings release in August, meaning the cuts will affect about 1,444 employees.

    The company said it expects to "incur charges of approximately $160 million to $180 million consisting primarily of severance and other one-time employment termination benefits to be paid in cash, and other non-cash related charges."

    It added that the cuts would help position it "for continued growth as a more competitive and productive organization."

    Automattic, Tumblr's parent, cuts 16% of staff
    Logo of Tumblr.

    Automattic, the parent company of Tumblr and WordPress, said in April it is cutting 16% of its staff globally. The company's website said it has nearly 1,500 employees.

    Automattic's CEO, Matt Mullenweg, said in a note to employees posted online that the company has reached an "important crossroads."

    "While our revenue continues to grow, Automattic operates in a highly competitive market, and technology is evolving at unprecedented levels," the note read.

    The company is restructuring to improve its "productivity, profitability, and capacity to invest," it added.

    The company said it was offering severance and job placement resources to affected employees.

    Best Buy is cutting more Geek Squad staff
    A Geek Squad by Best Buy truck with in California.

    Best Buy is cutting a small number of workers in the customer care and in-home field teams, with affected workers to receive severance, a spokesperson told Bloomberg in September.

    The reductions follow a round of layoffs in the Geek Squad division last year as the company looks to improve efficiency and invest in newer areas of the business.

    BlackRock is cutting 1% of its workforce.
    A black-and-white photo of the BlackRock logo on a building, viewed from below.

    BlackRock told employees it was planning to cut about 200 people of its 21,000-strong workforce, Bloomberg reported in January.

    The reductions were more than offset by some 3,750 workers who were added last year and another 2,000 expected to be added in 2025.

    BlackRock's president, Rob Kapito, and its chief operating officer, Rob Goldstein, said the cuts would help realign the firm's resources with its strategy, Bloomberg reported.

    Block to lay off nearly 1,000 workers
    Smartphone with Square logo is seen in front of displayed Afterpay logo

    Jack Dorsey's fintech company, Block, is laying off nearly 1,000 employees, according to TechCrunch and The Guardian, in its second major workforce reduction in just over a year.

    The company, which operates Square, Afterpay, CashApp, and Tidal, is transitioning nearly 200 managers into non-management roles and closing almost 800 open positions, according to an email obtained by TechCrunch.

    Dorsey, who co-founded Block in 2009 after previously leading Twitter, announced the layoffs in March in an internal email titled "smaller block."

    The restructuring is part of a broader effort to streamline operations, though Block maintains the changes are not driven by financial targets or AI replacements.

    Bloomberg is making cuts in an overhaul of its newsroom
    Bloomberg LP NYC office exterior

    Bloomberg is cutting some editorial staff as the company reorganizes its newsroom, according to a memo viewed by BI. The larger strategy aims to have a larger headcount by the end of this year, however.

    The newsroom currently employs around 2,700 people, and the changes will merge some smaller teams into larger units, the memo said.

    Blue Origin is laying off one-tenth of its workforce
    Blue Origin

    Jeff Bezos's rocket company, Blue Origin, is laying off about 10% of its workforce, a move that could affect more than 1,000 employees.

    In a memo sent to staff in February and obtained by Business Insider, David Limp, the CEO of Blue Origin, said the company's priority going forward was "to scale our manufacturing output and launch cadence with speed, decisiveness and efficiency for our customers."

    Limp specifically identified roles in engineering, research and development, and management as targets.

    "We grew and hired incredibly fast in the last few years, and with that growth came more bureaucracy and less focus than we needed," Limp wrote. "It also became clear that the makeup of our organization must change to ensure our roles are best aligned with executing these priorities."

    The news comes after January's debut launch of the company's partially reusable rocket — New Glenn.

    Boeing cut 400 roles from its moon rocket program
    Boeing Employees Renton Washington

    Boeing announced on February 8 that it plans to cut 400 roles from its moon rocket program amid delays and rising costs related to NASA's Artemis moon exploration missions.

    Artemis 2, a crewed flight to orbit the moon on Boeing's space launch system, has been rescheduled from late 2024 to September 2025. Artemis 3, intended to be the first astronaut moon landing in the program, was delayed from late 2025 and is now planned for September 2026.

    "To align with revisions to the Artemis program and cost expectations, we informed our Space Launch Systems team of the potential for approximately 400 fewer positions by April 2025," a Boeing spokesperson told Business Insider. "We are working with our customer and seeking opportunities to redeploy employees across our company to minimize job losses and retain our talented teammates."

    The company will issue 60-day notices of involuntary layoff to impacted employees "in coming weeks," the spokesperson said.

    Boeing cut 10% of its workforce last year.

    BP slashed 7,700 staff and contractor positions worldwide
    A BP logo on a gas station sign.

    BP told Business Insider in January that it planned to cut 4,700 staff and 3,000 contractors, amounting to about 5% of its global workforce.

    The cuts were part of a program to "simplify and focus" BP that began last year.

    "We are strengthening our competitiveness and building in resilience as we lower our costs, drive performance improvement and play to our distinctive capabilities," the company said.

    Bridgewater cut about 90 staff
    An office in a forested area with a glass bridge connecting buildings.
    Outside Bridgewater Associates' Westport, Connecticut headquarters.

    Bridgewater Associates cut 7% of its staff in January in an effort to stay lean, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

    The layoffs at the world's largest hedge fund bring its head count back to where it was in 2023, the person said.

    The company's founder, Ray Dalio, said in a 2019 interview that about 30% of new employees were leaving the firm within 18 months.

    Bumble said it intends to cut 30% of its workforce.
    whitney wolfe herd bumble ceo founder
    Founder and CEO of Bumble Whitney Wolfe attends Bumble Presents: Empowering Connections at Fair Market on March 9, 2018 in Austin, Texas.

    In a June 23 securities filing, Bumble said it plans to slash 240 roles, about 30% of its workforce. The dating app company said the cuts will result in charges between $13 million and $18 million in its third and fourth quarters.

    "We recently made some difficult decisions to adjust our team structure in order to align with our strategic priorities," a Bumble spokesperson said.

    They told BI that the decision to lay off over 200 employees wasn't "made lightly."

    Burberry says it plans on cutting 1,700 jobs
    Burberry logo and flag

    Burberry announced 1,700 job cuts in May, or about 18% of its global workforce, as part of plans to cut costs by about £100 million ($130 million) by 2027.

    It plans to end night shifts at its Yorkshire raincoat factory due to production over-capacity.

    The British company sunk to an operating loss of £3 million for the year to the end of March, compared with a £418 million profit for the previous 12 months.

    Carter's plans to reduce its office-based workforce by 15%
    Carter's display

    Carter's, a children's retailer, said it will cut about 300 office-based roles, or 15% of those positions, by the end of 2025. The reduction was announced October 27 alongside plans to close 150 stores over the next three years.

    The job cuts are expected to incur a $4 million to $5 million charge in the fourth quarter fiscal year 2025 from severance and outplacement services, the company said in October.

    "We are pursuing several initiatives, including closing low-margin retail stores, right-sizing our organization, and honing product choices," CEO Douglas Palladini said in a press release.

    Chegg says it will cut its workforce by about 45%
    The Chegg logo is displayed on the screen of a tablet.
    Online education company Chegg said on October 27 that it was cutting "388 roles globally," or about 45% of the workforce.

    Online education company Chegg said on October 27 that it would be reducing its workforce by 45%.

    Chegg said it was cutting "388 roles globally" and expects to incur "charges of approximately $15-19 million, representing mostly cash severance payments." Chegg had 1,271 employees as of December 31, 2024, per its annual report.

    "The new realities of AI and reduced traffic from Google to content publishers have led to a significant decline in Chegg's traffic and revenue," the company said, adding that the cuts would save it about $100 to $110 million in adjusted expenses for 2026.

    This is the fourth time Chegg has announced layoffs.

    Chegg said in June 2024 that it was cutting 441 roles, or about 23% of its workforce. Later in November, it said announced cuts for 319 roles, or about 21% of its workforce. Most recently, in May, Chegg said it was letting go of 248 employees, or about 22% of its workforce.

    Chegg's shares are down nearly 11% year to date.

    Chevron is slashing up to 20% of its global head count
    The Chevron logo is displayed at a Chevron gas station.
    The Chevron logo is displayed at a Chevron gas station.

    Oil giant Chevron plans to cull 15% to 20% of its global workforce by the end of 2026, the company said in a statement to Business Insider in February.

    Chevron employed 45,600 people as of December 2023, which means the layoff could cut 9,000 jobs.

    The move aims to reduce costs and simplify the company's business as it completes its acquisition of oil producer Hess, which is held up in legal limbo. It is expected to save the company $2 billion to $3 billion by the end of 2026, the company said.

    "Chevron is taking action to simplify our organizational structure, execute faster and more effectively, and position the company for stronger long-term competitiveness," a Chevron spokesperson said in a statement.

    The cuts follow a series of layoffs at other oil and gas companies, including BP and natural gas producer EQT.

    CNN plans to cut 200 jobs
    CNN's world headquarters in Atlanta.
    CNN is cutting staff in a bid to focus the business on its digital news services.

    Cable news giant CNN cut about 200 television-focused roles as part of a digital pivot. The cuts amounted to about 6% of the company's workforce.

    In a memo sent to staff on January 23, CNN's CEO Mark Thompson said he aimed to "shift CNN's gravity towards the platforms and products where the audience themselves are shifting and, by doing that, to secure CNN's future as one of the world's greatest news organizations."

    ConocoPhillips is cutting up to 25% of its workforce
    FILE PHOTO: The logo for ConocoPhillips is displayed on a screen on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., January 13, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
    FILE PHOTO: The logo for ConocoPhillips is displayed on a screen on the floor at the NYSE in New York

    The third-largest oil producer in the US, ConocoPhillips plans to cut 20-25% of its global workforce as part of a broad restructuring, a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters on September 3.

    The company employed about 11,800 people at the end of 2024, per a regulatory filing, which means up to 2,950 jobs could be cut.

    ConocoPhillips' stock fell 4.4% the same day.

    Other oil giants, including Chevron and BP, have also slashed headcount this year because of falling oil prices.

    Coty is cutting about 700 jobs
    OTY logo is seen displayed on a smartphone and in the background.

    Coty, which sells cosmetics and fragrances under brands such as Kylie Cosmetics, Calvin Klein, and Burberry, is cutting about 700 jobs.

    The company said on April 24 it aimed to cut costs by $130 million a year. Sue Nabi, the CEO, said it aimed to build a "stronger, more resilient Coty that is well-positioned for sustainable growth."

    CrowdStrike is cutting about 500 jobs
    Crowdstrike logo on a phone screen
    The IT outage was triggered by a defect in an update issued by Crowdstrike.

    CrowdStrike, the Texas-headquartered cybersecurity firm, said in May that it would cut about 500 jobs, or 5% of its global workforce, as part of a strategic plan to "yield greater efficiencies."

    It expected the layoffs to cost between $36 million and $53 million.

    CrowdStrike is aiming to generate $10 billion in annual recurring revenue.

    The company reported worse-than-expected annual results in March, signaling that it was yet to fully recover from a widespread tech outage linked to CrowdStrike in July 2024.

    Disney says it's laying off several hundred employees
    Disney logo is seen on the store in Rome, Italy on May 10, 2025. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
    Disney is carrying out its fourth layoff in the past year.

    Disney confirmed to BI on June 2 that it was laying off several hundred employees globally.

    Most of the cuts were to roles in marketing for films and TV under the Disney Entertainment division. Other roles affected included employees in publicity, casting, and development, as well as corporate finance.

    In March, the company also cut around 200 people from its ABC News Group and Disney Entertainment Networks. In 2024, the company also had several rounds of layoffs.

    Shortly after Bob Iger returned to the company as CEO in 2022, he said 7,000 jobs at Disney would be cut as part of a reorganization.

    Elanco announces cuts of roughly 300 workers
    Elanco CEO Jeff Simmons
    Elanco cuts hundreds of jobs

    Animal health firm Elanco announced plans to restructure the company at its investor day on December 9. The company said in a press release that about 600 roles will be impacted, "with 300 eliminated positions and 300 shifted to other areas or locations." The company said it expects a reorganization cost of roughly $175 million.

    The cuts are part of a restructuring effort to expand the company's margins, innovation capacity, and optimize its footprint, the company said. It projects the move will save roughly $25 million in 2026 and $60 million in 2027.

    Elanco's CEO, Jeff Simmons, told Business Insider that most of the affected workers are in Europe, with very few workers in the US impacted. Simmons said the company is shutting down an animal facility in Germany, and expanding research and development in the US.

    "We're hiring AI jobs while we're decreasing some rule-based jobs," Simmons said.

    Those "rule-based jobs" include positions like statisticians and technical writers. However, the company said it expects to expand its overall staff count over the next five years.

    Estée Lauder will cut as many as 7,000 jobs
    estee lauder
    American multinational skincare, and beauty products brand, Estée Lauder logo seen in Hong Kong.

    Cosmetics giant Estée Lauder said in its second-quarter earnings release on February 4 that it will cut between 5,800 and 7,000 jobs as the company restructures over the next two years.

    The cuts will focus on "rightsizing" certain teams, and it will look to outsource certain services. The company says it expects annual gross benefits of between $0.8 billion and $1.0 billion before tax.

    Exxon is cutting 2,000 jobs globally
    An Exxon Mobil station is seen in Houston
    Exxon Mobil is cutting roughly 3 to 4% of its global workforce.

    Energy giant Exxon Mobil plans to cut 2,000 jobs as part of a global restructuring.

    CEO Darren Woods said in a memo to employees that roughly half of the cuts will occur in Europe. A spokesperson for Exxon confirmed the memo's existence, which was first reported by Bloomberg.

    The cuts represent roughly 3 to 4% of the company's total workforce. Exxon plans to cut roughly 1,200 positions across the European Union and Norway by the end of 2027, of which roughly half will be layoffs.

    "We've seen the value of bringing people together in the same location," the spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. "It drives innovation, strengthens execution, enhances career development, and improves teamwork. Our global office network was established decades ago under very different circumstances. To support the collaboration so critical to our success, we are aligning our global footprint with our operating model and bringing our teams together."

    FedEx is cutting over 850 jobs in Texas
    FedEx truck

    FedEx is shuttering a third-party supply chain logistics and electronics operation in Coppell, a suburb of Dallas, Texas. 856 jobs will be cut, according to a legally mandated WARN letter the company sent to the Texas Workforce Commission.

    The facility will be fully closed by the end of April, with the first phase of layoffs beginning in January and impacting 62 workers.

    "All impacted employees will be paid wages and benefits through their last day of employment," the letter stated.

    Fiverr cuts 30% of its workforce
    Micha Kaufman, Fiverr CEO & Founder posing in front of the company's logo.
    Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman said in a letter to employees on Monday that the company will be cutting roughly 250 jobs across different departments.

    Micha Kaufman, the CEO and founder of the freelancing platform Fiverr, said on September 15 that the company was cutting about 30% of its workforce.

    Kaufman said in a letter to employees that the cuts would affect around 250 team members across different departments. Fiverr had 762 full-time employees as of 2024, per its SEC filing in February.

    He added that the cuts were needed to help turn Fiverr into a leaner and faster "AI-first company."

    Kaufman said in a staff memo in April that AI was "coming for your jobs" and was a "wake-up call." In May, he told Business Insider that Fiverr would only hire people who know how to use AI.

    "If you don't ensure that you sharpen your knives, you're going to be left behind. It's that simple," Kaufman said.

    Geico has axed tens of thousands of workers
    geico

    Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chair of Insurance Operations Ajit Jain says Geico has reduced its workforce from about 50,000 to about 20,000. Jain revealed the reductions during Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting on May 3 but did not detail over what time frame they took place. Berkshire Hathaway is one of Geico's parent companies.

    Warren Buffett's company reported its 2025 first-quarter earnings on during the May 3 meeting, saying Geico earned nearly $2.2 billion in pre-tax underwriting.

    GrubHub announced 500 job cuts
    A Grubhub delivery person rides in Manhattan.
    GrubHub said it is focusing on aligning its business with Wonder after the takeover was completed last month.

    Grubhub CEO Howard Migdal announced 500 job cuts on February 28 after selling the company to Wonder Group for $650 million.

    With more than 2,200 full time employees, the number of cuts will affect more than 20% of Grubhub's previous workforce.

    According to Reuters, Just Eat Takeaway, an Amsterdam-listed company, sold Grubhub at a steep loss compared to the billions it paid a few years prior after grappling with slowing growth and high taxes.

    HPE is laying off 2,500 employees
    A man with grey hair wears a blue collared shirt and dark blue shirt. He gestures as he speaks while sitting on a stage in front of a large blue screen.
    US company Hewlett Packard Enterprise President and Chief Officer Executive Antonio Neri gives a conference at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), the telecom industry's biggest annual gathering, in Barcelona on February 27, 2024.

    Hewlett Packard Enterprise is cutting 2,500 jobs, or 5% of its employee base, CEO Antonio Neri said on an earnings call on March 6. The cuts are expected take to take place over the next 12 to 18 months.

    "Doing so will better align our cost structure to our business mix and long-term strategy," Neri said. The company expects to save $350 million by 2027 because of the reduction.

    HPE plummeted about 20% after hours on March 6 after it said business would be affected by recent tariffs, slow server and cloud sales, and "execution issues."

    IBM said it will cut thousands of jobs in the fourth quarter
    IBM logo

    IBM said in November that it would be reducing its global workforce by "a low single-digit percentage," an IBM spokesperson told Business Insider.

    "We routinely review our workforce through this lens and at times rebalance accordingly," the spokesperson said. "In the past, when we have had rebalancing, we have still met our headcount goals, and we expect to do so again in 2025."

    Intel to cut at least 15% of its factory workers
    The Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California
    The Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, California

    Chipmaker Intel is laying off more than 5,000 employees across four US states, according to a July 16 government filing.

    Most of the cuts are happening in California and Oregon, while others are in Texas and Arizona, per updated Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN, filings.

    Intel began laying off employees in July as part of planned job cuts, the company said in a regulatory filing.

    The company told staff on June 14 to expect 15% to 20% of employees in its Foundry division to be laid off this summer, according to a memo reported by The Oregonian. Intel confirmed the authenticity of the memo to BI but declined to comment on its contents.

    As of December 2024, Intel employed about 108,900 people. In its annual report, the company told investors that it would reduce its "core Intel workforce" by about 15% in early 2025.

    "Removing organizational complexity and empowering our engineers will enable us to better serve the needs of our customers and strengthen our execution," an Intel spokesperson told BI.

    Johns Hopkins University
    Johns Hopkins Hospital
    Johns Hopkins Hospital.

    Johns Hopkins University will cut over 2,000 jobs after losing $800 million in funding from USAID.

    "This is a difficult day for our entire community," a spokesperson told BI. "The termination of more than $800 million in USAID funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally."

    The news comes after the Trump administration slashed USAID personnel down from over 10,000 to around 300. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently confirmed that 83% of the agency's programs are now dead.

    "We can confirm that the elimination of foreign aid funding has led to the loss of 1,975 positions in 44 countries internationally and 247 in the United States in the affected programs," the Johns Hopkins spokesperson said. "An additional 29 international and 78 domestic employees will be furloughed with a reduced schedule."

    The layoffs at Johns Hopkins represent the "largest" in the university's history, CNN reported. They'll primarily affect the schools of medicine and public health, along with the Center for Communication Programs and Jhpiego, a nonprofit with a focus on preventing diseases and bolstering women's health, according to the report.

    Kohl's is reducing about 10% of its roles
    A Kohl's department store in Miami.
    A Kohl's department store in Miami.

    Department store Kohl's announced on January 28 that it reduced about 10% of its corporate roles to "increase efficiencies" and "improve profitability for the long-term health and benefit of the business," a spokesperson told BI.

    "Kohl's reduced approximately 10 percent of the roles that report into its corporate offices," the spokesperson said. "More than half of the total reduction will come from closing open positions while the remainder of the positions were currently held by our associates."

    Less than 200 existing employees of the company would be impacted, she added.

    This follows the company's announcement on January 9 that it would shutter 27 underperforming stores across 15 states by April.

    The retailer has been struggling with declining sales, reporting an 8.8% decline in net sales in the third quarter of 2024.

    Its previous CEO, Tom Kingsbury, stepped down on January 15. The company's board appointed Ashley Buchanan, a retail veteran who had held top jobs in The Michaels Companies, Macy's, and Walmart, as the new CEO.

    Kroger is cutting 1,000 corporate workers
    Illustration shows Kroger logo

    Kroger Co. is cutting nearly 1,000 corporate jobs as part of a cost-trimming effort following the collapse of its proposed merger with Albertsons, a spokesperson told BI.

    In an internal memo viewed by Business Insider, interim CEO Ron Sargent told employees on August 26 that "thoughtful, yet difficult, choices are necessary" for the organization to continue to succeed.

    The grocer also plans to reinvest savings into lowering prices, opening new stores, and creating jobs at the store level.

    The shake-up comes as Kroger navigates leadership changes after former CEO Rodney McMullen resigned earlier this year amid a board investigation into his conduct.

    As of February, Kroger employed more than 409,000 people, mostly in retail roles. The layoff would not affect workers in stores, manufacturing facilities, or distribution centers.

    Microsoft has made several rounds of cuts this year
    the Microsoft logo on a building.

    Microsoft cut an unspecified number of jobs in January based on employees' performance.

    Workers were told that they wouldn't receive severance and that their benefits, such as medical insurance, would stop immediately, BI reported.

    The company also laid off some employees in January at divisions including gaming and sales. A Microsoft spokesperson declined to say how many jobs were cut on the affected teams.

    In May, the company announced layoffs affecting about 6,000 workers.

    Another round of layoffs in July will affect less than 4% of its total workforce, or roughly 9,000 employees, based on its head count of around 220,000.

    Meta has had several rounds of layoffs
    Meta sign
    Meta slashed its DEI team in January.

    Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff he "decided to raise the bar on performance management" and will act quickly to "move out low-performers," according to an internal memo seen by BI in January.

    Those cuts started in February, according to records obtained by BI. Teams overseeing Facebook, the Horizon virtual reality platform, as well as logistics, were among the hardest hit.

    In April, Meta also laid off an undisclosed number of employees on the Reality Labs virtual reality division.

    In October, the company said it was laying off more than 600 employees in its Meta Superintelligence Labs, its AI division.

    "By reducing the size of our team, fewer conversations will be required to make a decision, and each person will be more load-bearing and have more scope and impact," Meta's chief AI officer, Alexandr Wang, wrote in a memo.

    Previously, the company had laid off more than 21,000 workers since 2022.

    Microchip Technology is slashing 2,000 jobs
    Semiconductor manufacturing.
    Nvidia semiconductor manufacturing.

    Microchip Technology is cutting its head count across the company by around 2,000 employees, the semiconductor company said on March 3.

    The company estimated that it would incur between $30 million and $40 million in costs, including severance, severance benefits, and other restructuring costs.

    The cuts would be communicated to employees in the March quarter and fully implemented by the end of the June quarter.

    Last year, Microchip announced it was closing its Tempe, Arizona, facility because of slower-than-anticipated orders. The closure begins in May 2025 and is expected to affect 500 jobs.

    Microchip's stock had fallen over 33% in the past year.

    Morgan Stanley plans cuts for the end of March
    Morgan Stanley

    Morgan Stanley is set to initiate a round of layoffs beginning at the end of March. The firm is eyeing cuts to about 2% to 3% of its global workforce, which would equate to between 1,600 to 2,400 jobs, according to a person familiar with the matter who confirmed the reductions to BI.

    The firm's cuts are driven by several imperatives, the person said, pointing to considerations like operational efficiency, evolving business priorities, and individual employees' performance. The person said the cuts are not related to broader market conditions, such as the recent slowdown in mergers and acquisitions that's arrested momentum on Wall Street.

    Some MS staffers will be excluded from the cuts, however — namely, the bank's battalion of financial advisors — though some who assist them, such as administrative personnel in its wealth-management unit, could be affected by the layoffs, the person added.

    Nestlé is axing 16,000 jobs
    The branding of Nestlé

    Nestlé, the Swiss parent company of KitKat and Nespresso, said on October 16 that it will cut 16,000 jobs over the next two years.

    The world's largest food and drink company announced that 12,000 white-collar positions across various functions and locations will be eliminated, along with 4,000 roles in manufacturing and supply. This is 6% of its global workforce.

    Its new CEO, Philipp Navratil, said the company would be "prioritizing the opportunities and businesses with the highest potential returns" and that it "needs to change faster."

    Nestlé estimates the job cuts will save it around 1 billion Swiss francs, or $1.26 billion, by the end of 2027.

    Nextdoor is slashing 12% of its staff
    Nextdoor app

    Neighborhood social networking company Nextdoor is cutting 12% of its staff, or 67 jobs, it said on August 7 in its second-quarter earnings report. The move is part of CEO Nirav Tolia's plan to achieve profitability and reorganize the struggling company.

    The layoffs are expected to reduce operating expenses by about $30 million, it said in the earnings report.

    The company reported a net loss of $15 million, compared to $43 million year-over-year.

    Nike is planning to lay off less than 1% of its corporate employees.
    Nike logo storefront

    Nike's turnaround plan is in full swing. It's reducing its corporate staff by 1% as part of its efforts, the company confirmed to Business Insider on August 28.

    It's unclear how many jobs will be affected, but CNBC reported that Nike sent employees a memo about the change in August.

    "As we shared in Q4 earnings, Nike, Inc. is in the midst of a realignment," the company said in a statement. "The moves we're making are about setting ourselves up to win and create the next great chapter for Nike."

    Nike said in June, when it reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, that it would "evaluate corporate cost reduction as appropriate."

    CEO Elliott Hill also told analysts at the time that the company would realign its teams as it shifts away from a men's, women's, and kids' structure.

    Nike also cut jobs in 2024 amid broader cost cutting.

    Nissan says it will cut 20,000 jobs by 2027
    Nissan

    Japanese car giant Nissan is cutting 20,000 jobs by 2027 and reducing the number of factories it operates from 17 to 10 as it struggles with a dire financial situation.

    The job losses include the 9,000 layoffs announced late last year, and come as the automaker faces headwinds from US tariffs on imported vehicles and collapsing sales in China.

    Nissan reported a net loss of 671 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the 2024 financial year, and said it would not issue an operating profit forecast for 2025 because of tariff uncertainty.

    Novo Nordisk reduces workforce by 11%
    FILE PHOTO: A Novo Nordisk employee controls a machine at an insulin production line in a plant in Kalundborg, Denmark November 4, 2013. REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer//File Photo
    FILE PHOTO: A Novo Nordisk employee controls a machine at an insulin production line in a plant in Kalundborg

    Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk said in a statement on September 10 that it was cutting 9,000 jobs, or about 11%, of its workforce. It added that around 5,000 of the cuts would take place in Denmark.

    Novo Nordisk's president and CEO, Mike Doustdar, said the cuts were needed because the market for obesity drugs was becoming "more competitive and consumer-driven." Novo Nordisk is the producer of the hit weight loss drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy.

    "Our company must evolve as well. This means instilling an increased performance-based culture, deploying our resources ever more effectively, and prioritising investment where it will have the most impact — behind our leading therapy areas," he added.

    Oracle is reportedly cutting jobs from its cloud division.
    Oracle office in Santa Monica, California
    Oracle office in Santa Monica, California

    Oracle is cutting jobs in its cloud unit, Bloomberg reported. The cuts come as the company works to curb costs amid spending on AI infrastructure.

    Sources familiar with the cuts told Bloomberg that some of the cuts were related to performance issues.

    Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

    Panasonic is cutting 10,000 jobs
    panasonic
    A man looks at television sets by Japanese firm Panasonic at an electronics retailer in Tokyo June 10, 2015.

    Panasonic, the Japanese-headquartered multinational electronics manufacturer, plans to cut 10,000 jobs this financial year, which ends in March 2026. The cuts will affect 5,000 roles in Japan and 5,000 overseas.

    In a statement on May 9, the company said it planned to "thoroughly review operational efficiency … mainly in sales and indirect departments, and reevaluate the numbers of organisations and personnel actually needed."

    "Through these measures, the company will optimize our personnel on a global scale," the statement added.

    Paramount is cutting 3.5% of its US workforce
    Paramount on building

    Paramount told employees it would be laying off 3.5% of US-based staff based in the US, per a memo reported by CNBC on June 10, citing industry-wide declines and a challenging macroeconomic environment.

    The move comes after the media company cut 15% of jobs last year to cut costs. Paramount had 18,600 employees at the end of 2024.

    It is awaiting regulatory approval of its merger with Skydance Media.

    Peloton is looking for $100 million in run-rate savings by next year
    FILE PHOTO: A Peloton exercise bike is seen after the ringing of the opening bell for the company's IPO at the Nasdaq Market site in New York City, New York, U.S., September 26, 2019. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
    A Peloton exercise bike is seen after the ringing of the opening bell for the company's IPO at the Nasdaq Market site in New York City

    Peloton said in its August earnings report that it would cut its global headcount as part of an effort to find $100 million in run-rate cost savings by the end of the next fiscal year.

    "As of today, we will have actioned about roughly half of the run rate savings through the reductions in our workforce and we expect to achieve the remainder throughout the balance of the year," CFO Elizabeth Coddington told investors on the earnings call.

    The company employed about 2,900 people last year, and approximately 6% of the workforce will be affected by the reductions, Reuters reported.

    Porsche is cutting 3,900 jobs over the next few years
    The Porsche logo on the front trunk lid of a gold 2025 Porsche Taycan GTS EV sedan.
    The Porsche logo on the front of a 2025 Porsche Taycan GTS EV.

    Porsche said on March 12 that it plans to cut 3,900 jobs in the coming years.

    About 2,000 of the reductions will come with the expiration of fixed-term contractor positions, the German automaker said. The company will make the other 1,900 reductions by 2029 through natural attrition and limiting hiring, it said.

    Porsche said it also plans to discuss more potential changes with labor leaders in the second half of the year. "This will also make Porsche even more efficient in the medium and long term," the company said.

    PwC is laying off approximately 2% of its US workforce
    PwC's logo on a window.
    PwC office in Washington D.C. in the United States of America, on July 11th, 2024. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

    The Big Four accounting firm said it's cutting roughly 1,500 jobs in the US because its low attrition rates mean not enough people are leaving by choice.

    PwC's layoffs began on May 5 and mostly affect the firm's audit and tax lines, a person familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

    "This was a difficult decision, and we made it with care, thoughtfulness, and a deep awareness of its impact on our people, appreciating that historically low levels of attrition over consecutive years have made it necessary to take this step," a PwC spokesperson said.

    Rivian is laying off 600
    Rivian sign

    Rivian said in October it was laying off more than 600 employees, or around 4.5% of its workforce.

    "With the changing operating backdrop, we had to rethink how we are scaling our go-to-market functions," CEO RJ Scaringe said in a memo to employees, adding, "These changes are being made to ensure we can deliver on our potential by scaling efficiently towards building a healthy and profitable business."

    The electric-vehicle maker has conducted several rounds of layoffs over the past three years.

    Salesforce is cutting more than 1,000 jobs
    The outside of Salesforce Tower with the Salesforce logo, which is shaped like a cloud.

    Bloomberg reported in February that Salesforce, a cloud-based customer management software company, will slash more than 1,000 jobs from its nearly 73,000-strong workforce.

    Affected employees will be eligible to apply to open internal roles, the outlet reported. The company is hiring salespeople focused on the company's new AI-powered products.

    The cuts come despite Salesforce reporting a strong financial performance during its third-quarter earnings in December.

    Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment.

    Scale AI is cutting 14% of its workforce
    Scale AI office
    Scale AI is laying off 14% of its full time staff and hundreds of contractors.

    On July 16, Scale AI laid off about 200 full-time employees and 500 contractors, according to the company.

    The 200 full-time cuts make up 14% of the data labeling startup's 1,400-person workforce.

    The company is restructuring its generative AI group, according to an email from Scale's interim CEO, Jason Droege, obtained by Business Insider.

    The cuts follow Meta's $14 billion investment in Scale AI in June as part of a blockbuster deal. The deal included the hiring of Scale's ex-CEO, Alexandr Wang, and the purchase of equity in almost half of the startup.

    Sonos cuts about 200 jobs
    Sonos

    Sonos, a California-based audio equipment company, said in a February 5 release that it's cutting about 200 roles.

    The announcement came nearly a month after Sonos CEO Patrick Spence stepped down following a disastrous app rollout. Interim CEO Tom Conrad said in the statement that the layoffs were part of an effort to create a "simpler organization."

    Starbucks is laying off 2,000 corporate staff
    Starbucks company headquarters in Seattle, a red-brick building with a clocktower featuring the coffee chain's Siren mascot and the US flag flying above it, is seen on a cloudy day
    Starbucks headquarters in Seattle

    Starbucks said it would lay off 900 non-retail employees in September and close about 1% of company-operated stores in North America.

    The cuts come after the company notified 1,100 corporate employees that they had been laid off in February.

    CEO Brian Niccol said in a February memo that the layoffs would make Starbucks "operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration."

    The company is trying to improve results after sales slid last year.

    Southwest Airlines
    Southwest Airlines Boeing plane at an airport.
    A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737.

    Southwest Airlines CEO Bob Jordan announced in February that the company is laying off 15% of its corporate staff, or about 1,750 employees.

    He said affected workers will keep their pay, benefits, and bonuses through late April, when the separations will take effect.

    The company told investors the cuts would save about $210 million this year and $300 million in 2026.

    The move comes as Southwest tries to cut costs amid profitability problems. Jordan said this is the first significant layoff the company has had in its 53-year history.

    An activist hedge fund took a stake in Southwest in June and has since helped restructure its board and change its business model to keep up with a changing industry. For example, it plans to end its long-standing open-seating policy to generate more seating revenue.

    In recent months, the company has also reduced flight crew positions in Atlanta to cut costs.

    Stripe laid off 300 employees
    The logo for Stripe.
    Stripe.

    Payments platform Stripe laid off 300 employees, primarily in product, engineering, and operations, according to a January 20 memo obtained by BI.

    Chief people officer Rob McIntosh said in the memo that the company still planned on growing its head count to about 10,000 employees by the end of the year.

    Target cut 1,800 corporate roles
    Target store front
    Target said it was laying off around 1,000 corporate employees.

    Target said in October it was cutting 1,800 corporate jobs, including about 1,000 employees and 800 open roles.

    The company said the cuts accounted for 8% of the team at its global headquarters, and that leadership roles were affected at three times the rate of individual contributors.

    "The truth is, the complexity we've created over time has been holding us back," Michael Fiddelke, Target COO and incoming CEO, said in a memo to staff. "Too many layers and overlapping work have slowed decisions, making it harder to bring ideas to life."

    UPS is cutting 20,000 jobs
    A UPS Delivery Driver

    UPS announced on April 29 that it plans to cut 20,000 jobs this year — about 4% of its global workforce — as part of a shift toward automation and a strategic reduction in business with Amazon.

    "With our action, we will emerge as an even stronger, more nimble UPS," the company's CEO, Carol Tomé, said in a statement.

    The move follows a sharp 16% drop in Amazon package volume in Q4 and is part of a plan to halve its Amazon business by mid-2026. UPS will also close 73 US buildings by June and automate 400 facilities to reduce labor dependency.

    The Teamsters union have said they would fight any layoffs affecting its members.

    Verizon says it will lay off 13,000 employees
    Verizon store

    The telecommunications giant said on November 20 that it plans to lay off 13,000 employees in order to make Verizon "faster and more focused," new CEO Dan Schulman said in a message to employees. Verizon had about 100,000 employees at the beginning of 2025.

    The Washington Post cut 4% of its non-newsroom workforce
    The Washington Post building

    The Washington Post eliminated fewer than 100 employees in an effort to cut costs, Reuters reported in January.

    A spokesperson told the news agency that the cuts wouldn't affect the newsroom: "The Washington Post is continuing its transformation to meet the needs of the industry, build a more sustainable future and reach audiences where they are."

    Wayfair laid off 340 tech employees
    Wayfair logo on building
    Wayfair laid off about 340 tech employees.

    Wayfair announced in an SEC filing on March 7 that it would eliminate its Austin Technology Development Center and lay off around 340 tech workers.

    The reorg comes as the technology team has accomplished "significant modernization and replatforming milestones," the company said in the filing. Wayfair said it plans to refocus resources and streamline operations to promote its "next phase of growth."

    "With the foundation of this transformation now in place, our technology needs have shifted," the company said.

    Wayfair expects to take on $33 to $38 million in costs as a result of the reorganization, consisting of severance, cash employee-related costs, benefits, and transitional costs.

    Workday cut more than 8% of its workforce
    Workday logo
    Workday said it's cutting 8.5% of its workforce and focusing on AI.

    Workday, the human-resources software company, said in February that it is cutting 8.5% of its workforce, or around 1,750 employees. The layoffs came as the company focuses more on artificial intelligence.

    In a note to employees, CEO Carl Eschenbach said that Workday will focus on hiring in areas related to artificial intelligence and work to expand its global presence.

    "The environment we're operating in today demands a new approach, particularly given our size and scale," Eschenbach wrote. He said that affected employees will get at least 12 weeks of pay.

    Is your company conducting layoffs? Got a tip?
    A close-up of a person's hands holding and typing on a phone

    Have a tip? Contact Dominick Reuter via email or text/call/Signal at 646.768.4750. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • What does Apollo CEO Marc Rowan want for Christmas? To define private credit

    Marc Rowan
    Marc Rowan is cofounder of Apollo Global Management.

    • Apollo CEO Marc Rowan is planning a definitive book clarifying private credit in time for Christmas.
    • Recent bankruptcies and media scrutiny have fueled debate over private credit's risks.
    • Rowan aims to address misconceptions about private credit in financial markets.

    Apollo has a holiday gift it wants to hand out this year — and, unlike Blackstone's, it's not a cringey video.

    Speaking to Goldman Sachs analyst Alexander Blostein at the Goldman Sachs Financial Services conference on Wednesday, CEO Marc Rowan let the surprise slip.

    "I suggested to you before when I came on, you're going to get a Christmas gift from us. It's going to be a gift-wrapped book, it's the definitive book of private credit," Rowan said. "It'll be on our website, so all of you will have access to it."

    Rowan said the book is an attempt to clarify the confusion he sees mounting over the definition of private credit, which he attributed to the "media-ization of financial markets."

    "One of the things that's been frustrating to us is that we have this term private credit," Rowan said. "No one actually knows what it means, and everyone uses it differently."

    This Christmas gift comes after the high-profile bankruptcies of Tricolor Holdings and First Brands, and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon's assertion that there may be more credit "cockroaches." His comments sparked a firestorm over private credit's risks, which had everyone from the head of the International Monetary Fund to the chair of UBS weighing in against the burgeoning asset class.

    The industry's big names have since been playing catch-up with the perception. Just a few days ago, Rowan wrote an op-ed for Bloomberg that goes over the "four myths" of private credit. Meanwhile, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman last month said that attempts to link private credit to the high-profile bankruptcies are "misinformation," and just this week said at Abu Dhabi Finance Week event that banks, not private credit, hold the blame.

    "In fact, all three deals were due diligence by banks, underwritten by banks, syndicated by banks, and private credit was sort of not in the room," Schwarzman said.

    Unpacking Apollo's definition

    Rowan said the first page of the firm's Christmas gift will ask, "Why do we get this wrong?"

    "The first is, no one knows what private credit is, so we have to define it," Rowan said. "And the second is people misunderstand private credit in the sense that they don't understand the difference between a bank and an investor."

    Rowan conceded that private credit was a "better business" over the last few years than it is now, but similarly, it would have been better to buy Nvidia stock over the last four years than currently. The comparison between debt and equity investment profiles may seem irrelevant, but Rowan said that's actually the comparison real investors are making.

    "People are not moving their money out of their treasury portfolio and into direct lending," Rowan said. "They're moving it out of equity."

    From that perspective, private credit is a "derisking" trade, taking investor cash away from "equity volatility," Rowan said.

    That's not to say that the asset isn't without its own volatility, but from an investor's point of view, it's still the best bet, he said.

    "Of course, there's risk in private credit," Rowan said. "We're lending to BB companies; some number of these companies will default, but it's a fraction of the risk of equity, and it's a fraction of the risk of public high yield."

    Rowan then said that "not much has changed other than this media lens" in private credit, which creates a conflict between private credit and financial institutions. And in the end, aren't they both investors?

    "Most of what is inside of financial institutions, be it a bank or an insurance company, is investing," Rowan said.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Look inside the Armour-Stiner Octagon House, an ornate 19th-century mansion in New York, decorated for the holidays

    An ornate building covered in snow.
    The Armour-Stiner Octagon house in winter

    • The Armour-Stiner Octagon House is a fairytale mansion just 18 miles north of Manhattan.
    • Frozen in time to the early 1870s, it was designed as a summer and weekend escape from New York.
    • The residence, once owned by a coffee merchant who rivaled Starbucks, can be privately toured.

    In the mid-19th century, the concept of octagon houses was all the rage among fashionable Americans.

    Its popularity was attributed to a best-selling 1848 book by Orson Squire Fowler, a phrenologist, sexologist, and amateur architect, called "The Octagon House: A Home For All."

    Fowler championed eight-sided houses because they received twice as much light as a traditional four-sided property and allowed owners to view the grounds from all angles.

    The Armour-Stiner Octagon House in the New York City suburb of Irvington-on-Hudson, around 18 miles from the northern tip of Manhattan, is a prime example of the genre.

    Unusually for an octagon house, it features a giant dome, added by its second owner, Joseph H. Stiner, a wealthy tea and coffee merchant who bought the property in 1872.

    The result is a fairytale residence that its current owner, Joseph Pell Lombardi, lovingly restored, beginning in 1978. The preservation architect purchased it from the National Trust for Historic Preservation for $75,000 (equivalent to $387,300 today), with certain conditions, including stabilizing the structure and dome.

    In his book, "The Armour-Stiner (Octagon) House," Lombardi said his goal was "to hold together the fragile exotic beauty of this lyrical home."

    The 8,000-square-foot property, which was restored to its original 1870s glory, is open to the public through private tours that must be reserved in advance.

    Take a look inside the residence while it is decked out for a Victorian-style Christmas.

    The Armour-Stiner House was built in the form of an ancient classical temple.
    A mansion shaped like an octogan overlooking a river.
    The Armor-Steiner Octagon house overlooks the Hudson River in New York's Lower Hudson Valley.

    The octagonal mansion began life as a flat-roofed, two-story building with a raised basement commissioned by New York City banker Paul J. Armour.

    Armour died in 1866, just six years after buying the house. His widow, Rebecca, went on to sell it to Stiner for $27,000 in 1872.

    The Hungarian-born businessman, who made his fortune from importing products such as tea, coffee, and cocoa, rebuilt his summer and weekend retreat in the form of an ancient classical temple with more than 20 rooms.

    The colonnaded veranda, festooned with festive garlands, is reached by sweeping stairs.
    The verandah of a mansion
    The verandah at The Armour-Steiner (Octagon House.)

    Stiner, a father of six, whose family lived in the house for only 10 years, built the 56-column veranda that surrounds the first story, resembling a fairground carousel.

    Guests are greeted by cast-stone lions flanking the sweeping stairs that lead to the structure, which features elaborate gas lamps and a cast-iron railing.

    It allows visitors to view the grounds from every perspective, offering sun and shade depending on where they choose to sit and the time of day.

    The tour begins in the entry hall, where the walls are adorned with silver leaf and stenciled decorations.
    The hallway of a 19th-century mansion
    The hallway is decorated for Christmas.

    Tour guide Kate Mincer, who greeted our group of four at the door, explained how Stiner turned the house into a "temple of whimsy" by bringing in interesting motifs and designs from around the world.

    The walls of the entry hall are adorned with silver leaf and stenciled decorations in trompe l'oeil neo-Baroque frames.

    Mincer also highlighted the miniature antique Christmas tree, made from goose feathers dyed green, with traditional, hand-blown glass ornaments from Germany.

    Mrs. Stiner's salon features a bay window, providing the perfect setting for a stately Christmas tree.
    The Salon at the Armour-Stiner Octagon House.
    The Salon at the Armour-Stiner Octagon House.

    Stiner's wife, Hannah, impressed visitors with her immaculate salon, which featured a bay window that flooded the room with light.

    "Hannah's era was the lead-up to the really showy time period of the Gilded Age," Mincer said. "But this room has the kind of detail you would see in opera houses in Europe, not necessarily in private summer cottages."

    The space features a parlor suite by the renowned 19th-century furniture maker John Jelliff, which includes two sofas, an armchair, and an armless chair designed to accommodate ladies' skirts.

    Many of the decorations on the Christmas tree were handmade in the Dresden style.
    A Christmas tree with ornaments
    Victorian decorations on the salon's Christmas tree.

    For the holiday season, the Christmas tree in the salon is covered in colorful ornaments, including layered decorations crafted from embossed cardboard, foil, and paper, accented with antique trimmings.

    Many were handmade by Jessica Lombardi, the museum director, and a team of docents who copied the Dresden style of ornament making, which originated in Germany in the late 19th century.

    Many of the paintings in the salon belong to the Hudson River School of Art.
    Paintings inside a mansion
    TK

    The Stiners, who eventually moved into the house year-round, supported landscape painters from the 19th-century Hudson River School of Art.

    Most of the images are local to Irvington-on-Hudson, with views of the Palisades along the Hudson River and a particularly wide section of the river known as the Tappan Zee.

    An oil canvas by Robert Havell Jr. is a 1866 depiction of the nearby Old Dutch Church, made famous by author Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

    The sumptuous dining room has a rounded shape.
    A dining room inside a mansion
    The dining room.

    The dining room is the only room in the Octagon House with a rounded space, inspired by the theme of a Roman temple.

    It contains a Renaissance Revival walnut dining table with semi-circular ends, adding an unusual touch.

    Each plate on the dining table is set for December 25, 1872.
    A place setting on a table
    The Christmas menu at the Armor-Stiner (Octagon) House.

    Museum staff have meticulously set the table for Christmas Day, 1872, the year Stiner bought the property. The dining table features a menu that lists dishes such as roast goose or croquettes wrapped in bacon, finishing with plum pudding.

    The silverware is Reed & Barton Roman Medallion 1870s flatware, featuring a Roman centurion's head at its base.

    Current owner Joseph Pell Lombardi discovered one of the pieces at the bottom of a dumbwaiter in 1978. It led to a two-decade search to acquire the complete set.

    The butler's pantry features a soft copper sink that protects tableware from being broken.
    The pantry inside a mansion
    The pantry

    The triangular-shaped pantry includes original cabinets, a dumb waiter, and a soft copper sink, designed to minimize the risk of damage to crockery during the washing up.

    The lady's kitchen was the domain of the mistress of the house.
    The kitchen of a mid-19th-century house.
    The ladies' kitchen

    The first-floor kitchen, with its writing desk for planning menus and a cast-iron stove, was designed for the lady of the house, despite the servants she employed.

    Mincer explained how, within the era, the writers Harriet Beecher Stowe and her sister, Catharine Beecher, suggested that gentlewomen should take an active role in household proceedings.

    "Most of the cooking was done elsewhere, but this was Mrs. Stiner's hub," the guide said.

    Original Joseph Stiner & Co. Importers' tea and coffee tins are kept in the lady's kitchen.
    A 19th-Century tea and coffee tin.
    A coffee tin made for Joseph Stiner & Co.

    The kitchen contains a selection of Joseph Stiner & Co. Importers' tea and coffee tins, including one that lists the merchant's chain of shops in Manhattan.

    "At the height of his success, Mr. Stiner was basically Starbucks before Starbucks," Mincer joked.

    The Stiners used to relax in the sitting room.
    A room in a mansion containing a Christmas tree.
    One of the family rooms.

    The second story of the house was reserved for the Stiner family, who would relax and sleep there. It felt more cozy than downstairs.

    The color palettes are softer, but the gasolier in this particular room, the former primary bedroom, is no less ornate.

    The striking bedroom has a set of "cottage furniture."
    A bedroom inside a mansion
    One of the bedrooms.

    One bedroom visible on the tour has a set of so-called "cottage furniture," made by Hart, Ware & Co. Their designs became a fad in the mid-19th century.

    A more affordable type of wood, such as pine, was painted to resemble the look of ebony. The Armour-Stiner Octagon House pieces — including the bed, dresser, and side tables — come with gold filigree and river scenes.

    Another interesting detail is the stretch of fabric that conceals the otherwise unattractive mechanism connecting the gasolier to the ceiling.

    The curio room is filled with fascinating items, many of which originate from the natural world.
    The curio room inside a 19th Century mansion
    The curio room.

    Lombardi turned one of the children's bedrooms into a curio room — basically a home museum — to reflect the Victorian obsession with natural specimens, such as mounted butterflies.

    It also houses a 19th-century, patented Wooton desk with numerous drawers and nooks and crannies for ordering and storing items of interest.

    The curio room also features a festive display of Victorian-style Christmas cards.
    Victorian holiday cards under a Christmas tree.
    Victorian Christmas cards.

    The old-fashioned greeting cards are in the style of the illustrator Louis Prang, who popularized their distribution by mail. He became known as "the father of the American Christmas card."

    Many depict flowers such as peonies and roses, while the later versions show wintry scenes trimmed with lace.

    "We have images of St. Nicholas wearing purple, green, and brown instead of the iconic red suit," Mincer told our group, adding that Santa Claus had yet to solidify into the familiar character we now know.

    A child's bedroom is simpler than the rest of the house.
    A child's bedroom oufitted in the mid-19th century
    Child's bedroom

    The solo children's bedroom on the tour is situated on the third floor of the house. It has a homely feel with a spruce floor and porcelain doorknobs.

    Old-fashioned toys in the room include a teddy bear and dolls dressed in Victorian attire.

    Miniature Pullman trains are displayed along the walls.
    Train models from the 19th Century.
    Train models.

    Long shelves in the child's bedroom house Lionel train sets dating from 1910, depicting 1870s luxury Pullman passenger cars.

    They were collected for display, along with the period lithograph prints of the actual trains, which ran on the Hudson River Railroad and were the height of luxury during the Stiners' time.

    The grandly titled Egyptian Revival women's gymnasium/music room features brightly colored decor.
    An Egyptian-style room inside a 19th Century mansion.
    The Egyptian…..

    Mincer said the mistress of the house practiced dancing and watercolors in the high-ceilinged room with large, north-facing windows.

    It contains a complete Egyptian Revival furniture set created by the prestigious New York manufacturers Pottier & Stymer, who were highly sought after in the 1870s.

    The Lombardi family visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art to photograph the company's rare examples of Egyptian Revival art on display. They spent months recreating the designs to fit the suite. Its upholstery was woven in the Aubusson style.

    The Egyptian Revival spinet piano dates from the 1870s.
    An organ within a 19th Century mansion.
    TK

    The Egyptian Revival spinet piano brought music to the room. It is adorned with Egyptian hieroglyphics. "The designs weren't accurate, but resembled how people from that era thought they looked," Mincer said.

    The table opposite the piano displays a silver menorah on top, reflecting the Stiner's Jewish faith ahead of Hanukkah.

    The mansion's lights sparkle at night.
    An octagonal-shaped mansion lit up at night.
    The Armour-Steiner (Octagon) house lit up for the festive season at night.

    The fourth and fifth floors of the house are off-limits to visitors, partly because the steep stairs don't meet current building codes.

    On a previous visit, before the code was introduced, I toured the unpartitioned dance room, which features eight windows and a spiral staircase up to the observatory. It commands beautiful views of the Hudson River.

    The holiday tours take place during the day, but it's possible to see the house festively lit up at night from the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, which borders the property.

    I made a quick return visit to see the exterior lights on the night of my tour and was reminded of the splendor inside.

    Lombardi certainly stayed true to that ambitious pledge of holding "together the fragile exotic beauty of this lyrical home."

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Elon Musk says Trump is ‘naturally funny’ — and his meeting with Zohran Mamdani showed it

    Elon Musk
    "He's got a great sense of humor," Musk said of Trump. "He's very funny, he's like naturally funny. It's somewhat effortless."

    • Elon Musk was asked who was the funniest person he knew in real life.
    • He named Trump. "He's like naturally funny," Musk said. "It's somewhat effortless."
    • Musk pointed specifically to Trump's meeting with Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office last month.

    Asked who was the funniest person he knew in real life, Elon Musk had a somewhat surprising answer.

    "You know, President Trump is very funny. He's got a great sense of humor," Musk said on an episode of The Katie Miller Podcast released on Tuesday. "He's very funny, he's like naturally funny. It's somewhat effortless."

    Musk pointed to President Donald Trump's meeting with New York City Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani last month, when a reporter asked Mamdani if he stood by his opinion that Trump is a "fascist."

    "And the president said, 'Just say yes. It's easier that way,"' Musk said, breaking into laughter. "'Don't worry about it. Just say yes.'"

    "How silly," Musk added after further laughter.

    Musk's comments marked yet another turn in his evolving relationship with Trump. The two men appear to have mostly put their differences behind them, with Musk even visiting the White House for a dinner last month.

    Still, Musk said in that same interview that he wouldn't have led the DOGE effort if he could go back in time, despite believing the effort to be a "little bit successful."

    "I think instead of doing DOGE, I would have basically built, you know, worked on my companies, essentially, and the cars — they wouldn't have been burning the cars," Musk said.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • I worried the holidays would lose their spark once my kids grew up. I was wrong, and I love this time with my teens.

    Laura Falin's children dressed for christmas in front of the tree
    The author's children loved Christmas as young kids.

    • I loved Christmas when my children were young because they enjoyed all the magic.
    • But it was also a hectic time that left me feeling very stressed.
    • Now that they're teenagers, there's still magic, but we think of the holidays differently.

    I loved celebrating the holidays with my kids when they were little.

    We have four children, so we had a lot of very excited little people jumping on the bed at 6 a.m. on Christmas morning. They'd wait impatiently on the stairs while their dad turned on the tree and made an elaborate display of roasting coffee — groaning and demanding that he hurry up.

    When he finally released them to grab their stockings and open gifts, they'd tear down the steps. We'd have an hour or so of frenzied present-opening, with wrapping paper and bows everywhere and delighted children checking out what Santa brought each of them.

    As they grew older, I worried that the wonder and excitement of these mornings might fade when they're teenagers. Thankfully, I was wrong.

    Holidays with small kids can be crazy

    The events leading up to Christmas were special with little kids. They loved seeing houses and trees lit up with sparkling lights. They were excited to meet the mall Santa and chat with him; there are no photos of crying kids with Santa at our house!

    There were lots of extra treats as we baked and decorated Christmas cookies. My heart melted when they had piano recitals and church performances, wearing their Christmas plaid and shiny shoes.

    I will always treasure those adorable pictures and sweet moments from when my kids were little.

    But I'm not going to sugar-coat it — holidays with small children can be chaotic and crazy-making. It was a month of dragging toddlers to older siblings' recitals and praying they didn't melt down. There were late hours that made them cranky. They had too much sugar. I stressed over teacher presents.

    And on more than one Christmas Eve, my husband and I desperately tried to assemble toys, quietly hissing at each other, "I thought you were getting the batteries."

    It wasn't all peace and silent nights around our house.

    Some things have changed since the kids became teens

    As the kids have grown into teenagers, some of those earlier special moments have stopped. Fancy Christmas clothes gave way to goofy Christmas sweaters. There are fewer recitals as some of our kids have graduated and moved on.

    They no longer jump on our bed at 6 a.m. on Christmas morning. Sometimes, just for fun, my husband and I will drag them out of bed now (although we kindly give them until 7).

    But this season of life is also much less draining. Everyone pitches in with cutting down our tree, holiday baking and cooking, and all of the decorating. I don't have to wait until everyone's asleep to stuff stockings. In fact, a lot of times the kids do it for me. What I see as a chore, they see as festive fun.

    There's also less pressure. One year, we were assembling a toy for our 6-year-old on Christmas Eve when it flat-out broke. We managed to rig something up, but there was a good amount of panic before we found a solution. Now, everyone's old enough to understand if mistakes happen. They know we can return things, and they seem to appreciate that we're trying — even if we don't get their present quite right. Everyone is old enough to give each other grace.

    The magic didn't disappear; it just changed shape

    We no longer have a frenzied rush to tear open presents, but I actually love this time with my teens and young adults. I see them give each other presents, and I know how much trouble they took to make their siblings happy.

    Their outlook has also shifted. It has matured from the excitement of a child seeing what they got to a deeper understanding of the holidays as they get older. The spiritual elements of Christmas become more important. As they grew, we talked about how you can find the magic of the season in sharing love, joy, and peace, rather than just presents.

    We've traded unbridled energy and excited kids for cozy nights on the couch together watching cheesy Christmas movies and lazy Christmas mornings. It's a different kind of feeling, but it's one that's just as special.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Wins, setbacks, and rivalries: Inside Cindy Rose’s first 100 days as CEO of ad giant WPP

    cindy rose
    Cindy Rose marked her 100th day as CEO of WPP this week. She faces a challenge in stabilizing an ad giant that has fallen behind its rivals and must adapt to the age of AI.

    • WPP CEO Cindy Rose marked 100 days in the role this week.
    • Rose has received plaudits for owning some of WPP's past mistakes and signaling change ahead.
    • She faces a make-or-break challenge as she prepares to roll out a revamped strategy.

    When Cindy Rose took the helm at the advertising agency giant WPP in September, she inherited one of the most challenging jobs on Madison Avenue.

    Battered by a period of big account losses, internal restructuring, and thousands of layoffs, morale had sunk. So was the share price. London-based WPP was trading at lows not seen since 2009, and the company had warned investors that the remainder of the year would continue to be rocky.

    Insiders and shareholders were hopeful that Rose, a US-born executive most recently at Microsoft, could serve as a kind of Goldilocks porridge compared to her predecessors. She was widely seen as a happy medium between Martin Sorrell, the outspoken British business mogul who had built WPP from the ground up over 33 years, and Mark Read, the more introverted operator who took over in 2018.

    Rose was described by one analyst as a "peacemaker," and her tech background and experience in maintaining client relationships were viewed as positive attributes that would help bring about much-needed change.

    This week, Rose marked her 100th day in the role. Darren Woolley, CEO of the management consultancy Trinity P3, scored Rose a "7.8 out of 10" for her performance so far.

    "She's saying all the right things and has sent some signals to the market. The big test will be what happens early next year, as she sets out her strategy," Woolley said. "Cindy will not last a year if they don't believe the strategy can be delivered."

    Rose's wins during her first 100 days — some major new business, key hires, a big partnership with Google, and an oversubscribed bond sale — have been dampened by bad news.

    On her first earnings call, in October, Rose described the company's performance as "unacceptable." Shortly after delivering its second profit warning of the year and downgrading its full-year growth forecast, its shares spiraled further downward, and WPP was demoted from the FTSE 100 index of the UK's largest publicly listed companies. Shares of the London-listed company have dropped by about 18% since Rose became chief executive.

    Adding to Rose's overflowing in-tray, WPP was hit with a lawsuit from one of its former executives who said he was fired in July of this year — before Rose's arrival as CEO — after he raised concerns internally that the group's media investment division was allegedly running a kickback scheme. WPP said in November it would "vigorously" defend itself against the allegations made in the suit. The case is ongoing.

    WPP has fallen behind the sector's star performer, Publicis Groupe, and it faces a new titan following the combo of Omnicom and IPG this year. Agencyland also faces a bigger, existential quandary: What is the role of a large advertising agency holding company amid the rise of tech and the emergence of AI solutions that claim to automate much of the work agencies charge top dollar for?

    This account of Rose's tenure so far draws on interviews with more than a dozen current and former WPP staffers and clients, competitors, marketing consultants, and industry analysts. They said Rose deserves credit for delivering a positive narrative about WPP's opportunities while also owning its problems. Much of her fate will rest on a strategy plan that she has said she will outline fully next year. Insiders and analysts said her strategy will need to be bold and visionary, given the challenges ahead.

    Rose told Business Insider in a statement that in her first 100 days, she has actively sought feedback from WPP's top clients to help create a blueprint for what the company needs to do differently in the future.

    "I'm most proud of our WPP employees for their incredible resilience, client obsession, and passion to win, which is already making a difference, and you can see it in the business that we're winning: Mastercard, Reckitt, Henkel, and more to come," Rose said.

    Rose has planted the seeds of her strategy

    This past September, from the company's 3 World Trade Center campus in New York City, Rose laid out a three-pronged blueprint for what she called "a new WPP" at her first global town hall as CEO. Her first priority was "putting people first" by creating an environment for employees to thrive. She said WPP should be famous for "being completely client-obsessed" as part of her "winning for clients" principle. And she said WPP should be "harnessing our AI advantage," telling staffers to become "AI superusers."

    Her opening address to employees was received well internally, insiders said.

    "We were pleasantly surprised," one current senior WPP agency staffer said. They added that Rose is "so much better at the human stuff" than her predecessors and said she had kept the company regularly updated with videos talking up the agency's wins.

    WPP Sao Paolo campus
    Rose opened WPP's new São Paulo campus in November, a site that will house about 4,000 people across 21 agencies.

    WPP has been heavily pitching WPP Open, an internal AI-powered platform that integrates with technology from companies such as OpenAI, Meta, and Salesforce. It connects signals from clients' own first-party data, partners, and WPP's data on the performance of thousands of campaigns to help plan and place ads, and measure the results.

    In October, with Rose firmly in situ, WPP announced WPP Open Pro, a self-service version to give clients their own access to the platform. The aim was to grow WPP's client base by appealing to smaller advertisers or direct-to-consumer companies that tend to handle much of their marketing in-house. WPP told staffers internally that more than 400 brands had proactively contacted the company about Open Pro in the three weeks after it launched.

    Douglas Hayward and Gerry Murray, analysts at the research company IDC, described the Open Pro launch in a report as "a smart move that shows that WPP is prepared to be bold and innovative and even to cannibalize its revenue in the short term."

    However, some analysts questioned whether WPP would be able to invest enough in marketing Open Pro to appeal to this sort of audience, which is accustomed to using tools provided by tech giants like Meta and Google.

    Nearly all of WPP's rivals are also leaning heavily into their tech investments and offerings as part of their pitches to clients and investors.

    One former WPP agency executive, who left last year, said they felt Rose should be more proactive in emphasizing the company's creative prowess as something that sets it apart from other agency holding groups and the broader tech sector.

    "Creativity is the only thing that human beings have got to make a difference," the exec said.

    Thomas Kurian
    Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, weighed in on the AI hype.

    Agency relationships with tech platforms are an important part of the mix as they try to differentiate themselves from competitors. This fall, in Mountain View, Rose signed a key deal with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, which sent a signal out to the market, clients, and its rivals about the strength of WPP's relationship with Google. The "expanded five-year partnership" was billed as going far beyond typical agency-Google setups. WPP said it would commit to spending $400 million on Google's tech as part of the partnership, which will give it "preferred" access to Google's latest AI models and data. Google is also WPP's largest client.

    A low-profile start

    Save for her welcome address to staffers, which was posted on YouTube, and her first earnings call, Rose has kept a fairly low public profile.

    In November, she appeared at an AI conference in New York City, hosted by Microsoft and Luma Partners, an investment bank. Attendees — who included roughly 100 high-profile tech, advertising, and media executives — said she was whisked away by her handlers into the green room before her talk, a session with Google Americas President Sean Downey, and made a swift exit afterward.

    Three attendees said they felt Rose missed an opportunity.

    "Martin, in the old days, would have worked the room for one hour," one person said, referring to Sorrell, the former WPP CEO.

    At the moment, WPP is a company that "needs more visible leadership for the market, for the staff, for the shareholders, for the clients," Trinity P3's Woolley said.

    Operating in the shadow of Sadoun

    Rose enters an advertising agency landscape that has fundamentally changed. For years, WPP was the top dog. WPP under Sorrell built a formidable empire, acquiring creative agencies and PR shops around the world, and building GroupM (now known as WPP Media) into a huge force, responsible for planning and buying billions of dollars in media across TV, print, out-of-home, and digital.

    The market dynamics shifted, largely due to the emergence of tech giants like Google, Meta, and Amazon, which offer self-service tools that let advertisers bypass agencies. AI has only sped up the disruption. In recent years, clients have pressured agencies to produce more work at lower costs. Agencies have had to respond by retooling to offer marketers more services than just producing and placing ads.

    Rival ad firm Publicis recognized these shifts early. It made first-party data and technology services its citadels and simplified its pitch around a "power of one" operating strategy. In 2024, the French company became the biggest holding company by revenue, and over the past 18 months has won a string of clients — including many from WPP.

    arthur sadoun
    Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun, right, seen onstage with the CEO of French multinational retailer Carrefour's CEO Alexandre Bompard, a key Publicis client.

    Publicis CEO Arthur Sadoun is described by many in the industry as a charismatic and omnipresent force of nature with clients, and a fierce competitor to Rose as she seeks to retain major accounts and acquire new ones.

    During the pitch process this year for Mars' $1.7 billion media business — before Rose was in-post as WPP CEO — the confectionery giant summoned all the agencies involved to meet on a cold January morning at the M&M's Store in central London.

    Sadoun turned up about an hour earlier than the scheduled time. The Mars clients hadn't arrived yet, and the doors to the store were locked shut. He waited outside on Leicester Square. Once Mars' marketing team arrived, Sadoun greeted them, and they duly invited him in for coffee — much to the chagrin of the competing agencies, who weren't able to take advantage of the opportunity to get extra face time with the clients. Mars this summer moved its media account from WPP to Publicis.

    "There are two types of people in life: The ones who are five minutes early and the ones who are five minutes late. It's a personal choice, and Arthur has decided to use these rules for unfair advantage by arriving 10 minutes early," said Richard Robinson, executive director of Ingenuity+, an agency search consultancy that wasn't involved in the Mars pitch.

    Three marketing consultants involved in client pitches said Rose is also visible and warm with clients, delivering passionate addresses and asking personal questions. They say Sadoun takes it to the next level.

    Wins, hires, and the outcome of a strategic review

    Focus now turns to 2026 after WPP's annus horribilis.

    WPP has appointed the management consulting firm McKinsey to assist Rose in conducting a strategic review of the business. Rose said in October that she would detail the outcome in the new year.

    Insiders and analysts predict further layoffs amid a shrinking agency landscape. Jay Pattisall, principal analyst and VP at the research company, forecasts a 15% reduction in agency jobs across the industry as automation and AI force agencies to "pivot from selling services to selling solutions."

    The open question is whether WPP can be optimized to success, or whether it will have to sell some or all of its business in order to best position itself for the future. Or could WPP even pull an Omnicom and acquire a rival? Two people with direct knowledge of the matter said WPP had multiple conversations about a potential acquisition of the US-centric media buying company Horizon over the years, but that the talks never came close to a deal. A Horizon spokesperson said the company doesn't comment on speculation.

    "They need to do some kind of jujitsu," a second former WPP executive said, referring to an unexpected M&A move to outmaneuver rivals.

    As insiders await the outcome of the review, WPP is expected to soon start feeling the impact of some recent sizable new business wins. It secured more than $1.5 billion in billings in November alone, including the consumer goods company Reckitt appointing WPP as its media agency of record and Henkel awarding WPP the media duties for its European consumer brands. WPP was further buoyed this week after its Wavemaker media agency secured a four-year contract, worth up to $2.6 billion, to produce the UK government's ad campaigns — an account previously held by Omnicom.

    Rose has also made some key leadership appointments and formed a new executive management team that could help rally the troops and boost momentum. In one notable hire — and a poke in the eye to rival Sadoun — she persuaded Laurent Ezekiel, who was formerly WPP's CMO, to reverse a planned move to Publicis and become CEO of the WPP agency Ogilvy instead.

    Some investors appear optimistic that Rose can steer the company back on course. This month, investors ordered nearly €3 billion (about $3.5 billion) of WPP's 5.5-year bonds, even though the company only issued €1 billion (about $1.2 billion). The strong oversubscription suggests these institutional investors believe WPP will stay financially stable and meet its debt obligations.

    Rose, in her statement, said that her vision for WPP is clear and that AI would usher in a "golden age of marketing."

    Looking ahead to 2026, she said WPP's greatest opportunity is "to enable our clients to move boldly and confidently into the future and help them fully embrace AI innovation to reimagine growth and unleash their true potential."

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • YouTube TV is planning to launch a cheaper ‘skinny’ sports bundle following its battle with Disney

    Eagles Chargers
    Sports fans will be able to see games like those on ESPN's "Monday Night Football" through YouTube's forthcoming sports bundle next year.

    • Google's YouTube TV will offer a cheaper sports-focused package in 2026.
    • YouTube won the right to offer genre-specific bundles after tough negotiations with media companies.
    • Other pay-TV providers have already created sports-focused bundles.

    YouTube TV will unveil new prices soon. But this time, it will be good news for sports fans.

    YouTube is launching a set of cheaper, slimmed-down versions of its popular live TV service in 2026, which it's calling "YouTube TV Plans," the video giant announced on Wednesday. One of the new plans will be a sports bundle that provides access to ESPN Unlimited, FS1, and NBC Sports Network.

    While YouTube TV isn't yet revealing pricing for these 10 or so genre-specific packages, they'll cost less than the Google-owned service's typical rate, which is $83 a month.

    "Our goal is to let you tailor your subscription with more options," said Christian Oestlien, YouTube's head of subscriptions, in a statement. "Whether you stick with our main YouTube TV plan with 100+ channels, focus on sports, combine sports and news, or select a plan centered on family or entertainment content, subscribers will be able to easily choose the plan that works best for them."

    YouTube TV secured the rights to form these so-called "skinny bundles" after hard-fought negotiations with Disney, Comcast's NBC, and Fox. YouTube TV's battle with Disney was especially intense, as it left subscribers without ESPN and ABC for 15 days.

    Justin Connolly, YouTube's global head of media and sports, said at a media event on Tuesday night that YouTube worked with its partners on "ingesting the entirety of the sports programming" in its service, so that YouTube TV can be a one-stop shop for sports fans. Besides aggregating live games, Connolly said YouTube is being fan-friendly by aiming to "meet the consumer where they are" on price.

    YouTube TV's price has steadily increased since it launched in 2017 at $35, though it's also added more channels. Last December, YouTube TV's monthly price rose by $10.

    Other TV providers have launched sports-focused skinny bundles, with some tradeoffs.

    Fubo's $55.99 a month Sports + News bundle includes all of ESPN and Fox's channels, plus CBS and the NFL Network, but it doesn't have NBC or Warner Bros. Discovery's networks like TNT or TruTV. It also doesn't have the news networks CNN and MS Now (formerly MSNBC), though it has Fox News.

    Sling TV's Orange & Blue bundle goes for $60.99 and has ESPN, Fox with cable sidekick FS1, WBD's channels like TNT and CNN, and the NFL Network. It also carries local channels like NBC and ABC in certain markets. But Sling doesn't have a deal with CBS, plus its main bundle doesn't include specialty sports networks like the SEC Network, the Big Ten Network, or NBA TV. Sling offers a Sports Extra add-on for $15 a month on its main plan, bringing the total to $76.

    DirecTV's MySports package costs $69.99 but is more comprehensive, with the full suites of ESPN, Fox, and WBD, plus all four major local broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox (with possible exceptions in certain markets). It also carries the flagship networks for four major US sports: the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL.

    Sports fans could complement those skinny bundles by buying a digital antenna or by using streaming services like Peacock or Paramount+ that give access to NBC and CBS, respectively.

    ESPN also offers a subscription to its entire suite for $29.99 a month, or a bundle with competing streamer Fox One for $39.99 a month.

    YouTube said its new sports plan will have ESPN's full suite of programming plus sports channels from Fox and NBC, with the option to add on NFL Sunday Ticket and RedZone for more money. Otherwise, it's unclear exactly which channels this bundle will have.

    As YouTube TV's sports bundle enters the market, sports fans have more choices than ever. The challenge for them now is finding the right plan.

    Read the original article on Business Insider
  • Netflix director takes the stand, recounts 5-week scramble to save sci-fi project at heart of his $11 million fraud trial

    Carl RInsch outside of court
    Netflix director Carl RInsch outside of court

    • Netflix director Carl Rinsch took the witness stand in his criminal fraud trial.
    • He cast his dispute with Netflix over his failed sci-fi show as one big misunderstanding.
    • His account appeared to contradict an earlier deposition and the testimony of Netflix executives.

    After a week of testimony about how Carl Rinsch spent millions of dollars on luxury mattresses, Uber Eats, Rolls-Royces, and stock and crypto trades — but not the sci-fi epic that Netflix ordered — the director got to tell his side of the story.

    On the witness stand Tuesday, Rinsch cast his dispute with Netflix as one big misunderstanding.

    In 2018, the streaming service had agreed to spend tens of millions of dollars on "White Horse," a sci-fi project that depicted a world where artificial, clone-like beings created their own society after a schism with humankind. The show had the endorsement of Keanu Reeves, who starred in Rinsch's movie "47 Ronin."

    By November of 2019, Rinsch had spent more than the $44 million Netflix had agreed to pay for one season of the show.

    With the project overbudget and unfinished, Rinsch and Netflix executives needed to determine what to do next. Would Rinsch agree to cede some creative control to Netflix, surrendering his prized "final cut" privilege? Would he reduce his ambitions and complete the single season Netflix initially ordered? Or would Netflix give him a bigger budget to deliver two seasons?

    In Rinsch's eyes, he was ready to deliver Netflix a mega-franchise on par with "Star Wars" or "Game of Thrones," and was negotiating the terms for a sequel. He had already spent millions of dollars of his own money on the passion project, he testified, and wanted to go bigger.

    "This was, in my eyes, a franchise," he testified Tuesday. "It wasn't just one movie."

    In March 2020, Netflix sent Rinsch's production company an additional $11 million — the money at the center of his Manhattan federal court fraud trial. According to prosecutors, Rinsch used the funds for a personal spending spree. Rinsch, on Tuesday, testified that he completed all the production work Netflix expected — at a fraction of the price. The rest, he said, was his to keep.

    The director ultimately never completed a single season of "White Horse."

    Wearing a black three-piece suit with a dark purple tie and pocket square, Rinsch faced the jury as he spoke in a quiet and forceful tone. He kept a sober expression. In a courthouse elevator during the lunch break, he looked heavenward and uttered a short prayer.

    The stakes are high. Rinsch — once a Hollywood rising star and protégé of Ridley Scott — has already lost his career and all of his money. If convicted on all charges, he could spend up to 90 years in prison.

    'It's too much money'

    A keystone of the criminal trial is a March 2020 email that Bryan Noon, then a Netflix executive, sent to Rinsch and his lawyer the day before the $11 million payment.

    According to the email, the $11 million was meant to go toward production costs on "White Horse," which had stalled after wrapping up a shoot in Budapest the previous fall.

    Noon said Rinsch was required to spend the funds in a five-week period for editing the existing footage and for the costs of storyboards, production design, costume design, location booking, securing talent, and building sets for future filming.

    Rinsch testified Tuesday that he estimated all of that would cost only $500,000.

    "It's too much money," Rinsch told jurors. "I would never spend $11 million in five weeks."

    The other $10.5 million, Rinsch testified, was meant to reimburse him for costs he had paid out of his own pocket to continue filming "White Horse" while the production had gone over-budget.

    "I had a crew of probably 100 people staying in a hotel — everybody's ordering room service, everybody's exposed," Rinsch said. "So the idea was I subsidize and pay for us all to be here while we negotiate what the sequel is going to be. That was my cost — and it was a very big cost."

    Carl Rinsch with the cast of "Ronin 47"
    From L: Ko Shibasaki, Hiroyuki Sanada, Keanu Reeves, Tadanobu Asano, Rinko Kikuchi, and Carl Rinsch

    Some jurors wore coats in the chilly courtroom on the 14th floor of the lower Manhattan courthouse, where temperatures outside dipped to 30 degrees. One juror nodded along as Rinsch said that Netflix, in his view, owed him money at the time.

    The director contended that he had completed principal photography on the first season of "White Horse" by the end of November 2019, when he had shot scenes in Budapest. In his understanding, Netflix executives wanted him to conduct "soft pre-production" over five weeks and show them visual concepts that would help them decide whether to order a second season — before the first season even hit the streaming service.

    In his testimony on Tuesday, Rinsch walked the jury through some of his spending in the weeks following the March 2020 deal that he said was for the production of "White Horse."

    Rinsch hired Clayton Townsend, an experienced producer who had worked on several Judd Apatow and "Fast and Furious" movies, paying his production company $30,000. He also paid over $33,000 to secure a castle in Vienna as a shooting location.

    He testified about the Rolls-Royces the government accused him of buying with Netflix's money. He explained that in the sci-fi world of "White Horse," he had wanted a "fleet of Rolls-Royces" carrying diplomats between the areas controlled by humans and those controlled by the "organic intelligent" beings.

    Rinsch said he continued working on the show throughout 2020 and early 2021, including hiring a production designer to put together concept art. Netflix didn't formally tell him it was done with "White Horse" until March 2021, Rinsch said.

    In a civil legal dispute with Netflix, Rinsch's side of the story didn't prevail. An arbitrator in May 2024 awarded the company $8.8 million and control over the "White Horse" footage. Rinsch was indicted by federal prosecutors nearly a year later.

    The $11 million question

    On cross-examination, Rinsch gave explanations that contradicted the accounts of other witnesses. And, at times, that appeared to contradict himself.

    During cross-examination, a prosecutor showed Rinsch transcripts of his under-oath answers from a deposition and a hearing tied to his earlier legal dispute with Netflix.

    While Rinsch said Tuesday that the bulk of the $11 million was for himself, he said in those earlier settings that he would use the funds for additional production work.

    Carl Rinsch trial
    Carl Rinsch on his way to court.

    Rinsch said he completed filming principal photography for the first season of "White Horse," and that planned shoots in Kenya and Holland were meant for a second season. Former Netflix executives testified earlier in the trial, however, that the planned shoots were for scenes that were part of the script for the first season.

    Under questioning on Tuesday, Rinsch didn't address testimony about him rushing to spend millions of dollars on luxury goods in 2021. Nor did Rinsch share his own account of meetings with former Netflix executive Peter Friedlander, where Friedlander testified that he flew to the set of "White Horse" in Budapest to try to resolve budget issues, but the director walked out of them without a resolution.

    Ahead of the trial, Rinsch's lawyers said that his "mental state" could be an issue in the case. While the trial didn't feature any testimony about Rinsch's mental health, jurors saw outlandish text messages and emails he sent to Cindy Holland, the highest-ranking Netflix executive overseeing "White Horse."

    In one document attached to an email, Rinsch laid out a scenario where President Donald Trump would "mobilize Chinese community and create a destabilization" of Chinese President Xi Jinping "by unifying the Chinese people to support the one thing they fear more than XJ… death."

    He cited this scenario among his reasons for making risky options trades in the pharmaceutical company Gilead.

    "I was hedging the market," Rinsch said during cross-examination. "In the instance that we had a total calamity where millions of people died, we would be able to continue working on this show."

    Rinsch ultimately lost millions of dollars on his Gilead trades.

    It was a long way from when Holland sat in Keanu Reeves' home and read the script for "White Horse," thinking it could be the next big thing.

    "I thought it had incredible potential," Holland testified.

    Read the original article on Business Insider