Agentic AI & Automation in Finance Summit 2026 Convenes Industry Leaders in Stockholm
The Agentic AI & Automation in Finance Summit 2026 convenes on 15 September in Stockholm, marking the ninth European edition of the global series. More than 25 leading speakers will address senior executives from banking, fintech, insurance and broader financial services. Around 150 decision‑makers from the Nordics and wider Europe are expected to attend, underscoring the region’s appetite for autonomous AI solutions. The agenda centers on agentic AI, risk management, and regulatory compliance in finance.
Automated Audits Can Slash M&A Fraud Risks
Acquirers face "buyer beware" fraud when target companies inflate revenue, mis‑capitalize expenses, and hide true financial results, often leading to EBITDA overstatements of up to five points. In the highlighted case, the M&A team completed due diligence, handed off the...
Miyoko’s Plant-Based Butters, Cream Cheeses, Will Return to Shelves in May, Says New Owner
Miyoko’s core plant‑based butters and cream cheeses will return to select U.S. retailers in May after being acquired by Prosperity Organic Foods. The acquisition followed Miyoko’s entry into an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors last November, ending a period...
6 Steps to Build a Rock-Solid Foundation For Your Business — and Save Yourself Time and Money Later
The article outlines a six‑step framework for establishing a durable business foundation, emphasizing market research, a clear business plan, appropriate funding, legal structuring, cash‑flow discipline, and technology‑driven back‑office systems. It stresses listening to customers early, choosing the right legal entity,...
MLP/Midstream 2025 Total Shareholder Yields Rise
Total shareholder yields for MLPs and broader midstream rose in 2025 as dividend growth outpaced flat price returns. The Alerian MLP Infrastructure Index (AMZI) saw its dividend yield climb to 7.5% while buyback yield slipped to 0.3% after repurchases fell...
Will the Iran Crisis Lead to Another Round of Food Price Spikes?
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has driven a sharp rise in fertilizer and energy costs, with urea prices up about 40 percent, while grain markets remain largely stable, showing only modest increases in wheat, maize and soybeans. Unlike...
Texas Confronts Eye-Popping Water Needs that Threaten Its Growth Story
Texas faces a looming water shortage that threatens its rapid population and economic growth. The Texas Water Development Board estimates $174 billion—about $3.5 billion per year—will be needed for water infrastructure over the next 50 years, with mega‑projects like $10 billion reservoirs on...
When Fashion Influencer Campaigns Go Wrong: How Bad Briefs Break Influencer Collaborations (and How to Fix Them)
Fashion influencer campaigns often stumble not because of the wrong creator, but due to poorly crafted briefs. Vague prompts, over‑scripted captions, and conflicting instructions lead to off‑brand, inauthentic content that frustrates both brands and influencers. The article outlines common brief...
OCR on Hold at 2.25%
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s Monetary Policy Committee kept the Official Cash Rate at 2.25 percent as the Middle‑East conflict pushed global oil prices higher and disrupted supply chains. Near‑term headline inflation is projected at 3.0 percent in the March 2026 quarter and...
Data, Not Infrastructure, Must Drive Your AI Strategy
Companies often build data silos that block AI collaboration, forcing teams to work in isolation. Insight Enterprises helped a large multinational set up an AI Center of Excellence, unlocking shared data assets and enabling data scientists to solve previously intractable...
Manufacturing Bounces Back in March Amid Price and War Woes
U.S. manufacturing activity expanded in March, with the ISM Manufacturing PMI climbing to 52.7, a modest 0.3‑point gain over February and marking the third straight month of growth. While the New Orders Index cooled, the Production Index accelerated, and the...
The Case For Convertibles... When Many Things Could Happen
In Q1 2026 convertible securities delivered strong performance as equity markets slipped, offering investors growth exposure while tempering downside volatility. The Calamos Convertible Fund (CICVX) remains confident amid heightened geopolitical risk, emphasizing a fundamentally driven approach. AI infrastructure is highlighted...
SBA Communications Is on the Block – Report
SBA Communications, owner of over 44,000 tower and small‑cell sites, is evaluating a sale after Bloomberg reported preliminary interest from large infrastructure funds. The company’s enterprise value is estimated at roughly $37 billion, debt included. The news sparked an 18 % surge...
Brooks CMO on Shaping a Global Brand Vision, with Help From Cynthia Erivo
Brooks Running, a century‑old challenger to giants like Nike, posted record growth in 2025 and broadened its CMO Melanie Allen's remit to steer a global brand vision and retail rollout. The company launched the "Shine Under Pressure" campaign starring actress‑runner...
PÜR Gum Founder Jay Klein on Growth and Dragons’ Den
Jay Klein’s PÜR Gum has evolved from a Toronto startup in 2010 to a global better‑for‑you confectionery brand, now available in over 50 countries and 50,000 retail locations. The sugar‑free gum, which uses xylitol and avoids artificial additives, drives annual...
Continuing Consequences From the US-Iran Conflict
The US‑Iran conflict has forced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, driving crude oil prices up 83% to over $110 a barrel and pushing U.S. gasoline to $4.79 per gallon. Higher energy costs are feeding persistent inflation, complicating the...
Chart of the Week: Different Strokes
The latest chart from The Lead Left shows that the overlap between core (large‑cap) and lower‑middle‑market (LMM) investment portfolios has remained remarkably steady over the past ten years. The data, sourced from company filings and Raymond James research, indicates that...
OpenAI Encourages Firms to Trial Four-Day Weeks to Adapt to AI Era
OpenAI released an "Industrial Policy for the Intelligence Age" urging companies to pilot four‑day workweeks with unchanged pay as AI accelerates productivity. The report also recommends higher retirement contributions, expanded healthcare coverage, childcare subsidies, and a public wealth fund to...
Why Gold’s Liquidity Crunch Could Be a Buying Opportunity
Gold’s price plunged from a January high of just under $5,600 to around $4,400 by late March, driven primarily by a liquidity squeeze rather than a shift in fundamentals. Investors and central banks sold gold to raise cash, while Iran‑Hormuz...
JELL-O Unveils the JELL-OMETER: The World's First-Ever Device to Quantifiably Measure Fan Intensity
JELL-O has launched the JELL-OMETER, a proprietary device that translates crowd noise, movement, and excitement into a new metric called Jiggles (Js). The system uses plate‑sensing technology to convert atmospheric sound pressure into mechanical motion, displaying intensity on a one‑to‑ten...
How to Shift From Seller-Centric to Customer-Centric Selling
Most sales organizations now embed a formal sales process, with 94% reporting defined procedures and 78% adhering regularly. However, many of these processes are seller‑centric, emphasizing internal metrics over buyer needs, which limits performance despite high compliance. Customer‑centric selling shifts...
Iran ‘Does Not Forget Its Friends’ as Malaysia Ships Pass Hormuz Amid Selective Access
Iran allowed Malaysia‑linked tankers to transit the Strait of Hormuz after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s direct appeal to President Masoud Pezeshkian, freeing seven vessels that had been stranded. The decision signals Tehran’s shift toward a selective‑access model, where passage is...
Markets on Edge as Trump’s Iran Ultimatum Looms
President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum demanding Iran lift its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m. Eastern, threatening to “decimate” Tehran’s infrastructure if it fails. The warning sent oil prices soaring, with Brent crude around $111 a barrel...
Jungle Creations Appoints Kepler Chief as New CEO
Jungle Creations, the global social and influencer agency behind brands such as PepsiCo and Disney, announced Mallory Simmonds as its new chief executive. Simmonds arrives from Kepler Group, where she led the EMEA and APAC operations and built the firm’s...
Container Fleet Growth Cools, but Charter Market Remains Hot
Global container fleet growth slowed in Q1 2026, with net capacity increasing only 0.8% and total TEU up 6.1% year‑on‑year. While deliveries eased, orders surged to 150 vessels, pushing the orderbook to 39% of the existing fleet and shifting focus...
Bezos' Project Prometheus Hires xAI Co-Founder From OpenAI
Jeff Bezos' AI venture Project Prometheus has recruited Kyle Kosic, co‑founder of Elon Musk’s xAI and former OpenAI infrastructure lead. Kosic will head AI infrastructure, bringing experience from xAI’s Colossus supercomputer. The startup, founded by Bezos and ex‑Google executive Vikram...
ICAP Rolls Out Dry FFA Desk
ICAP has launched a global dry forward freight agreement (FFA) desk spanning London, Copenhagen, Dubai and Singapore, providing 24‑hour coverage of the main freight trading hubs. The desk will handle capesize, panamax, supramax and handysize routes as well as time‑charter...
5 Content Marketing Ideas for May 2026
May 2026 presents ecommerce marketers with five timely content ideas—from the historic Freedom 7 anniversary to Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, National Paper Airplane Day, and Miles Davis’s centennial. Each theme is positioned to generate organic search traffic, feed‑algorithm visibility, and AI‑readable snippets that...
What Is Accounts Payable Automation? AP Automation Benefits & Best Practices
Accounts payable (AP) automation replaces manual invoice handling with software that captures, validates, routes, and pays invoices. The technology slashes processing costs from $12‑$40 per invoice to $2‑$4 and reduces cycle times from roughly 15 days to 3‑5 days. Integrated...
Blackstone Backs Renewable Energy Infrastructure Platform Sunotec
Sunotec, a Bulgaria‑based integrator of utility‑scale solar and battery storage, secured a structured equity investment from Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities fund. The capital will fund Sunotec’s expansion across core European markets such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, and Southeast Europe,...
Where Premiums Will Be Paid: Fashion and Beauty M&A Trends
2025 reshaped fashion and beauty M&A as brands pursued scale, supply‑chain resilience, and AI‑driven capabilities. Flagship deals—Prada’s €1.25 bn (≈$1.35 bn) purchase of Versace, Caleres’ $105 m acquisition of Stuart Weitzman, and e.l.f. Beauty’s $1 bn buyout of Rhode—highlighted a premium on tech‑enabled, culturally resonant...
LatAm Cuisine Firm El Latino Signs Private-Equity Deal
El Latino, a Doral‑based Latin American food producer, has partnered with private‑equity firm Apex Capital to accelerate its U.S. expansion. The deal brings Apex’s food‑industry expertise, derived from Grupo Mariposa, while keeping founder María Elena Ibañez as president. El Latino’s...
How to Simplify the Overcomplicated Hiring Process
The article examines why hiring processes have become overly complex, especially in tech, finance and energy, and outlines how companies can streamline them. It highlights the talent shortage that gives candidates leverage, leading recruiters to add excessive interview rounds and...
81,000 People Shared Their Dreams for AI. Here’s What HR Leaders Owe Them
Anthropic interviewed 80,508 people in 159 countries, creating the largest qualitative AI sentiment study to date. While 19% cited "professional excellence," most respondents actually wanted AI to free time for family and personal life, not just boost output. The data...
The Iran War Shock Is About Half the Size of Covid-19
The Financial Times estimates that the economic shock from the Iran‑Israel conflict will be roughly half as severe as the Covid‑19 pandemic. IMF and World Bank models suggest a 1‑1.5% dip in global GDP, compared with the 3‑4% contraction seen...
Banks Are Missing Out on a Huge Wave of Infrastructure Finance Deals
Traditional banks ceded the fastest‑growing infrastructure finance segment—renewable energy—to private capital after the Net‑Zero Banking Alliance collapsed in 2025. Annual energy‑transition investment hit a record $2.3 trillion, while private equity and credit firms deployed multi‑billion‑dollar deals, outpacing banks constrained by Basel...
OVL: Your Chance To Outperform The S&P While Collecting A 10% Yield
Overlay Shares Large Cap Equity ETF (OVL) employs a covered‑call strategy that delivers a 10.49% yield while targeting outperformance of the S&P 500. The fund sells short‑dated puts on 75‑100% of its holdings, generating monthly return‑of‑capital distributions. Since its 2019 launch,...
“Build It and They Will Come”: The Myth That’s Keeping Regional Startups Small
Regional CEE startups are rethinking the old "build‑it‑and‑they‑will‑come" playbook as venture capital dries up and growth‑at‑all‑costs proves unsustainable. Experts from Estonia and Bulgaria highlighted that Estonian founders think globally from day one, while Bulgarian teams often stay in the local...
Steel Tariffs: Saving One Key Industry Need Not Cause Pain for Another
The UK government has introduced steel import tariffs of up to 50%, coupled with a £70 million trade deal with Nigeria and a pledge to prioritize domestic steel in AI, energy and shipbuilding projects. These measures aim to revive a steel...
SeaLead Cuts Back as Iran Conflict and US Charges Hit Operations
SeaLead Shipping’s operational capacity has collapsed from a peak of 208,000 TEU in May 2025 to just 62,521 TEU across 14 vessels after the Strait of Hormuz was closed and U.S. authorities filed a sanctions‑related lawsuit. The Department of Justice...
Google Explains Why It Doesn’t Matter That Websites Are Getting Larger via @Sejournal, @Martinibuster
Google’s Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt clarified that growing page weight isn’t inherently harmful, emphasizing that page size depends on what’s measured—HTML alone or the full bundle of assets. They highlighted how compression, especially Brotli, can mask the true amount...
KKR Raises $23bn for Biggest PE Fund Solely Dedicated to North American Dealmaking
KKR announced the final close of its newest North America‑focused private equity fund, raising approximately $23 billion. The vehicle is now the largest PE fund dedicated exclusively to dealmaking on the continent. It will target mid‑market buyouts across sectors such as...
OpenAI Seems to Think It Can Acquire Authenticity and Trust
OpenAI announced the acquisition of the technology podcast network TBPN for a reported "hundreds of millions of dollars," aiming to integrate its editorial team into OpenAI's broader communications strategy. The company pledged to preserve TBPN's editorial independence, positioning the move...
Meet the Brand: Corpay
Corpay, an S&P 500 corporate payments firm, introduced its Corpay Complete platform in the UK in April 2025, uniting corporate and virtual cards, accounts‑payable automation, expense and supplier management, and cross‑border payments. The solution integrates with existing ERP systems to give finance...
Ecology Group Snaps up Environmental Consultancy Wildwood Ecology
Ecology Group announced the acquisition of Wildwood Ecology, expanding its portfolio to seven environmental consultancies and reinforcing its ambition to become a market leader in ecological and environmental services. Wildwood, founded in 2008 and the UK’s first ecological consultancy to...
Whistleblower Overload - Part 2: Mitigation Through Clear Policies and Redirected Claims
Bowmans partners Luway Mongie and Graham Damant propose a two‑pronged approach to curb the surge of whistleblowing complaints in South African workplaces. First, they recommend drafting separate policies for protected disclosures, harassment, ordinary grievances, and ethics, rather than a single,...
People & Appointments: Atkin Joins Board of Australian Sustainable Finance Institute
Andrew Atkin has been appointed to the board of the Australian Sustainable Finance Institute (ASFI), bolstering its governance with deep ESG expertise. The move comes as the institute pushes to embed sustainable finance standards across Australia’s capital markets. Simultaneously, ERM’s...
Revolut Evolution: Tracking First Decade Milestones of Europe’s Most Valuable Fintech Startup
Revolut reported a robust 30% year‑over‑year increase in active users during 2025, reinforcing its aggressive expansion agenda across Europe and beyond. A recent private share sale pushed the fintech’s valuation to roughly $75 billion, cementing its status as Europe’s most valuable...
Lowe’s Is Investing $250 Million to Train Plumbers, Carpenters, and Electricians as Its CEO Says Skilled Trades Are ‘Critical to...
Lowe’s Foundation is committing $250 million over the next decade to train 250,000 plumbers, carpenters and electricians, expanding on a prior $50 million pledge. CEO Marvin Ellison says skilled trades are essential as AI reshapes white‑collar jobs and the U.S. faces a...
Savills’ $1.1B Eastdil Secured Buy Creates Some Tantalizing Possibilities
British real‑estate broker Savills completed a $1.1 billion acquisition of U.S. advisory powerhouse Eastdil Secured, securing a dominant position in the American capital‑markets segment. Eastdil, which generated $633 million revenue and $113 million EBITDA in 2025, contributed $4.4 billion in investment‑sales activity in 2024,...