Agency News Appointment concludes insurer’s quarter-century relationship with Horizon Credit: Geico Nearly five months after putting its media account in review and laying off dozens of marketing staffers, Geico has selected IPG shop Mediabrands. The appointment concludes the insurer’s 25-plus-year tenure of working with Horizon. Dentsu Media was one of the other finalists in the review according to multiple people close to the situation. Dentsu Media declined to comment. Adrianne Pasquarelli is a senior reporter at Ad Age, covering marketing in retail and finance, as well as in travel and health care. She is also a host of the Marketer’s Brief podcast and spearheads special reports including 40 Under 40 and Hottest Brands. Pasquarelli joined Ad Age in 2015 after writing for Crain’s New York Business, where she also focused on the retail industry.

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Graphics-chip maker Nvidia ( NVDA ) late Wednesday beat Wall Street’s estimates for its fiscal fourth quarter and guided higher for the current period. NVDA stock jumped in extended trading. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company earned an adjusted 88 cents a share on sales of $6.05 billion for the quarter ended Jan. 29. Analysts polled by FactSet had predicted Nvidia earnings of 81 cents a share on sales of $6.02 billion. On a year-over-year basis, Nvidia earnings dropped 33% while sales sank 21%. Gaming chip sales remained weak in the fourth quarter, falling 46% year over year to $1.83 billion. However, data center chip sales rose 11% to $3.62 billion, fueled by cloud service providers investing in artificial intelligence technology. In Nvidia’s smaller business segments, professional visualization sales plummeted 65% to $226 million while automotive and embedded sales surged 135% to a record $294 million. NVDA Stock Jumps On Upbeat Report For the current quarter, Nvidia forecast sales of $6.5 billion, down 22% from the same quarter last year. But that topped Wall Street’s target of $6.31 billion for the first quarter. In after-hours trading on the stock market today , NVDA stock jumped 7.1% to 222.18. During the […]

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The 2023 California Business Investment Guide , recently published by the Governor’s Office of Business & Economic Development (GO-Biz), features a comprehensive list of state incentive programs to help California businesses identify and use existing state funding resources for recovery and success. GO-Biz serves as California’s single point of contact for business, economic development, and job creation efforts. The long list of incentives includes a wide range of assistance with business development and support, employment and workforce, equipment and machinery, financing and start-up support, and power and utilities. Every individual program is hyperlinked, so users can simply click to learn more information. For example, the first incentive program listed under Business Development and Business Support is the California Competes Tax Credit (CCTC) program. That listing links directly to the CCTC website, where the opening page shows current information and deadlines, a schedule of webinars for those who want to learn more, a list of helpful resources (in Spanish and English), and contact links. GO-Biz has had a major impact, with milestones such as $31.6 billion in new investments awarded by the California Competes Tax Credit, $17.9 billion in direct in-state spending by film and TV tax credit recipients, and […]

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Domino’s Pizza DPZ –11.25% stock was sinking Thursday after the company lowered its retail sales outlook as macroeconomic pressures have hit its delivery business. Domino’s (ticker: DPZ) said Thursday it has continued to experience ongoing macroeconomic headwinds in the U.S., which led to “significant pressure on our U.S. delivery business in 2022.” The pizza maker now expects global retail sales growth of between 4% to 8% in the next two to three years. The company previously expected retail sales growth of between 6% and 10%. After losing eight million egg-laying hens to avian influenza in 2015, Versova Management Co. spent tens of millions of dollars on laser systems, sound cannons and on-site worker showers to shield flocks from the virus spread by wild birds. Versova lost another two million or so hens in the latest outbreak, showing the limits of costly industry protections.

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Humana’s departure from its Employer Group Commercial Medical Products business will happen over the next 18 to 24 months. Humana Inc. said it would exit its Employer Group Commercial Medical Products business, including all fully insured, self-funded and federal employee health benefit medical plans. The health-insurance company said the move comes after a strategic review that determined the business was no longer positioned to sustainably meet the needs of customers or to support Humana’s long-term strategic plans.

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Alibaba ( BABA ) reported quarterly results early Thursday that beat estimates on the top and bottom lines, as the China e-commerce giant fought through softer demand and supply chain woes. BABA stock jumped in premarket action. The company reported adjusted earnings of $2.79 a share on revenue of $35.92 billion. Analysts expected Alibaba to show earnings of $2.44 a share on revenue of $35.8 billion, according to FactSet. Revenue rose 2% from the year-ago period. Earnings jumped 14%. BABA stock jumped 6.2%, near 100.65, during pre-market action on the stock market today . The results were for Alibaba’s fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31. "We delivered a solid quarter despite softer demand, supply chain and logistics disruptions due to the impact of changes in Covid-19 measures," Chief Executive Daniel Zhang said in a written statement with the Alibaba earnings report . Several of China’s largest internet players, including JD.com ( JD ) and PDD Holdings ( PDD ) — formerly Pinduoduo — tumbled on Feb. 21. That was in reaction to news that JD.com plans to spend $1.5 billion to create a subsidiary to rival PDD Holdings. That raised fears of increased competition ahead. Alibaba, JD and PDD […]

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What’s the latest thinking in fiscal and monetary policy? The Hutchins Roundup keeps you informed of the latest research, charts, and speeches. Want to receive the Hutchins Roundup as an email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Thursday . Spencer Y. Kwon at Harvard, Yueran Ma at the University of Chicago, and Kaspar Zimmermann at the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE find evidence that a small number of firms account for an increasingly large share of production assets and output over the past century. For instance, the share of production assets held by the top 0.1% of corporations increased about 40 percentage points between 1930 and 2018, from 47% to 88% . The rise in business concentration was stronger in the manufacturing and mining industries in the pre-1970 period and stronger in the services, retail, and wholesale industries in the post-1970 period. Industries with stronger growth in business concentration have more operating costs that are fixed, higher research and development investment, and higher output growth than other industries, suggesting that the rise in business concentration may be due to productive firms investing in and achieving economies of scale. Francesco Ferrante, Sebastian Graves, and Matteo […]

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New York CNN — Federal prosecutors have announced four more criminal charges against Sam Bankman-Fried , the founder of the crypto trading platform FTX, expanding his potential liability in what authorities allege is a billion dollar fraud. Bankman-Fried was charged in December in an eight-count indictment. On Thursday an indictment was unsealed adding new charges for a total of 12-counts, including conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and securities fraud. Bankman-Fried, who was released on a $250 million bond , previously pleaded not guilty to charges announced in December, including one count of conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws. At the time he was charged with multiple counts of conspiracy and wire fraud and conspiring to violate US campaign finance laws by making political donations through straw donors. The FTX founder made more than 300 illegal political contributions through straw donors totaling tens of millions of dollars paid for by Alameda and FTX funds, according to a newly unsealed indictment. Despite SBF personally becoming one of the largest publicly reported political donors for the 2022 midterm elections, he fraudulently made donations ahead of the midterms in the names of two FTC executives […]

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On average, a small business will spend 6.9% of its revenue on IT alone. If your business is still growing, that considerable expense could limit your growth potential, but there are ways to cut costs. For example, a good VPN could help you manage your digital security, but the significant savings opportunities are in hardware. Your employees may need computers, but if you know where to look, refurbished hardware can work just as well as brand new at a fraction of the cost. This Apple MacBook Air would normally cost $999. It’s refurbished with only superficial signs of wear and can be purchased for just $459.99 as part of our Refurbished Event if you order before February 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT. A lightweight, powerful laptop may be a fit for office-based, remote, and traveling workers. The lightweight design makes it easy to transport. It may be slim, but the 1.6GHz Intel Core 95 Processor is backed by 8GB RAM for effortless multitasking and low-lag performance. The 128GB SSD provides plenty of room to store important files locally, but it also has Bluetooth capabilities to transfer files or connect extra hardware wirelessly. If your workers have to use demanding […]

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At Bankrate we strive to help you make smarter financial decisions. While we adhere to strict , this post may contain references to products from our partners. Here’s an explanation for . If you have multiple business loans, you may be a good candidate for business debt consolidation. When you consolidate your business debt, you replace your existing loans with a single loan. A business debt consolidation loan can provide lower monthly payments, shorten your repayment term, or both. Those with higher interest rates stand to save the most by consolidating business debt into one loan. But this may not be the best option for every small business owner. Not all consolidations will save on interest, offer better rates or resolve cash flow issues. Plus, not all lenders will be a good fit. Newer businesses and those who don’t have a strong credit history may find an online lender offers better options. But established businesses with a strong history may get the best rates and longest repayment terms from traditional banks. Here’s a closer look at how a small business loan can help you consolidate your business debt. How business debt consolidation works Business debt consolidation is when you […]

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