OceanFirst to Buy Flushing Bank in $579M NY Expansion
New Jersey‑based OceanFirst Financial Corp. announced a $579 million acquisition of Long Island’s Flushing Financial Corp., slated to close in the second quarter of 2026. The merger will add 30 New York branches and roughly $8.9 billion in assets, creating a $23 billion‑asset institution with about $18 billion in deposits and $17 billion in loans. Private‑equity firm Warburg Pincus is contributing $225 million for a 12% ownership stake and a board seat. OceanFirst projects 16% earnings‑per‑share accretion by 2027, despite a one‑time $106 million pretax charge.
Focus Pocus Media Introduces a Paid Media Framework as B2B Companies Increase Digital Advertising Outsourcing
Focus Pocus Media, a B2B‑focused PPC agency, unveiled a structured paid‑media framework aimed at accelerating growth for companies that outsource digital advertising. The model promises faster execution, measurable pipeline and ROAS outcomes, and eliminates the need to expand in‑house teams....
8.5‑Hour Live Tuna Battle Captivates 2,500 Viewers
My commercial fishing company did something online that has never been done before a few days ago, and the story is a wild one. Here's what went down: During commercial bluefin tuna season (which happens to be right now) we...
Solflare Debuts In-Wallet AI Assistant to Bring ‘Intent-Based’ Trading to Solana Users
Solflare, a leading non‑custodial Solana wallet, unveiled the alpha version of Solflare AI, an in‑wallet large‑language‑model assistant, at Solana Breakpoint 2025. The tool lets users issue plain‑language commands to execute trades, set price alerts, and pull live social‑sentiment data without...
Yes, 404 Status Codes Hurt SEO
A 404 status code signals a missing page but does not act as a direct ranking penalty in Google’s algorithm. Google actually prefers 404 or 410 responses for removed content, treating them as normal web signals. However, when deleted pages...
From CTV Awards To CES: Brand Metrics Brings Next-Gen CTV Measurement To Las Vegas
Brand Metrics unveiled an SDK‑free interactive measurement suite for connected‑TV at CES, showcasing pause‑ad capabilities and real‑time surveys without requiring in‑app SDKs. The technology is already live with Tier 1 publishers and follows the company’s recent Best CTV Ad Tech Innovation...
Jonathan Reiner, Director of Product Solutions, Quantum Machines
In this episode, Jonathan Reiner traces his journey from condensed‑matter physics to leading Product Solutions at Quantum Machines, where he explains how quantum‑control complexity is driving demand for higher fidelity, low‑latency compute, and automated calibration. He details QM’s key offerings—QUA...
How Brands Can Get Noticed in ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews
Brands seeking visibility in AI-generated answers such as ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews must adopt a multi‑layered approach. The article outlines tactics ranging from high‑quality, E‑A‑T‑focused content and structured data to citation‑based optimization and technical performance. It emphasizes conversational keyword...
From Answers to Action: AI’s Five Pillars Evolve
Modern AI = 5 pillars 🧠⚙️ ✨ Generative AI (create) 🧩 LLMs (reason) 🔎 RAG (ground + verify) 🤖 AI Agents (act) 🚀 Agentic AI (coordinate + scale) We’re moving from AI that answers → AI that executes outcomes. Which pillar wins next? 👇 #AI #GenerativeAI #LLMs #RAG...
Stop Blaming, Build a Consistent Revenue Engine
If you missed your 2025 targets, please don't: – Blame your team – Hire a bunch of new people or a new agency “to fix it” – Add tools you don’t fully use – Chase new tactics after watching one...
ContractPodAI Rebrands as Leah to Expand Agentic Automation Beyond Contract Lifecycle Management
ContractPodAI has rebranded as Leah, adopting the name of its flagship AI platform to signal a broader focus beyond contract lifecycle management. The company now offers an agentic automation suite that spans legal, finance, and procurement functions, while still retaining...
Launch a Micro‑SaaS in One Week, Iterate Fast
Build a Micro-SaaS in 7 days. Test the market. Then double down or kill it. Rinse and repeat until you have a working product. 🔹 Days 1-2: Think like a user, not a founder. What makes this necessary? Sketch the data and the screens....
AITech Interview with Alberto Pan, Chief Technology Officer, Denodo
Denodo CTO Alberto Pan explains how the company’s logical data layer and new DeepQuery capability give generative AI real‑time, governed access to enterprise data. DeepQuery lets AI perform multi‑step, cross‑system investigations, returning structured answers with full lineage and policy enforcement....
Trendy Tech Skills to Prioritise in 2026
The Silicon Republic piece outlines the tech competencies poised for high demand in 2026, spanning digi‑health, fintech, education and leadership. It highlights wearables, data analytics, AR/VR, AI, machine learning, blockchain and quantum security as core technical pillars. Soft skills such...
Capita Tells Civil Servants to Wait for Chatbots to Fix Pension Portal Woes
Capita secured a £239 million contract to operate the UK Civil Service Pension Scheme, serving 1.7 million members and managing £189 billion in future benefits. The new pension portal, launched on 1 December 2025, immediately suffered widespread errors, broken links, and placeholder text, prompting user...
Start Now, Learn By Doing, Not Over‑Planning
Everyone wants the perfect plan. Truthfully, the plan is almost never the problem. I've seen people with terrible strategies build great businesses. And people with brilliant ideas go absolutely nowhere. The difference is always the same. One person started before...
RealSense Identifies the 5 Trends Defining Robotics in 2026
At CES 2026 RealSense announced five trends that signal a shift from scripted automation to shared autonomy, positioning visual perception as the core capability for next‑generation robots. Advances in depth sensing, sensor fusion and real‑time perception underpin mission‑based humanoids, autonomous...
Does Facebook Advertising Still Work? What the Data Actually Shows
Facebook’s ad platform reaches 3.07 billion users and generates $122 billion in revenue, but effectiveness hinges on strategic targeting and continuous optimization. Data from WordStream and industry reports show an average click‑through rate of about 1.7% and CPC ranging from $0.34 to...
Telegram Hosting World’s Largest Darknet Market
Elliptic’s latest analysis reveals that Telegram now hosts the world’s largest Chinese‑language darknet markets, with Tudou Guarantee and Xinbi Guarantee together processing roughly $2 billion each month in money‑laundering, stolen‑data sales, AI deep‑fake tools, and other illicit services. Despite Telegram’s 2025...
The Chatbot Will See You Now: How AI Is Being Trained to Spot Mental Health Issues in Any Language
Researchers at Makerere University are using anonymized call recordings from Uganda’s Butabika Hospital to train an AI algorithm that can recognise mental‑health cues in local languages such as Swahili and Luganda. The goal is to power a multilingual chatbot that...
Forget Follower Count: What Actually Drives Sales, According to a TikTok Marketing Expert
TikTok strategist Jemma Wu argues that follower counts are misleading and that authentic, engaged communities drive sales. She cites a livestream where a 500k‑follower creator generated $350k, dwarfing a 1M‑follower influencer who sold only $5K. Wu’s own brand experience shows...
What I’d Say to Me Back Then – Be Kind, Not Nice, Says Epicor’s Kerrie Jordan
Kerrie Jordan, Epicor’s CMO and SVP of Product, shares how a blend of storytelling and technical expertise shaped her career from a literature degree to senior leadership. Early roles at a product‑lifecycle startup and Oracle honed her ability to turn...
The Challenge for Software Engineers in 2026 — and Beyond
In 2025 software engineers grappled with rapid AI integration, facing skill erosion, cost‑heavy LLM infrastructure, and rising burnout as delivery pressures intensified. Gartner analysts warn that overreliance on AI tools can stunt core engineering capabilities, making upskilling a critical priority....
The Isaacman Era Begins at NASA
Jared Isaacman was confirmed by a 67‑30 Senate vote and sworn in as NASA administrator by a federal judge, ending a year‑long nomination saga. He introduced himself at a NASA town hall, emphasizing a faster, less bureaucratic approach to the...
Shoppers Want Flexible Delivery over Free Shipping
The 2025 Delivery Experience Study by Bringg reveals that shoppers now prioritize a reliable, flexible delivery experience over free shipping. Seventy‑one percent of consumers think about delivery before checkout, and 72% consider on‑time arrival essential. Late or inflexible deliveries drive...
Houston Deserves a Space Shuttle, but Not Like This
The 2027 "Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act" attached to the One Big Beautiful Bill will move the Discovery orbiter from the Smithsonian’s Udvar‑Hazy Center to a Houston non‑profit near Johnson Space Center. Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz engineered the provision after years...
The Ambitious Plan to Spot Habitable Moons Around Giant Planets
Exomoons have remained undetected not because they are absent, but because existing techniques lack the necessary precision. A new study proposes a kilometric baseline interferometer capable of 1 µas resolution, enabling detection of Earth‑sized moons out to 200 parsecs. The design relies...
New Zealand Orders Review Into ManageMyHealth Cyberattack
New Zealand Health Minister Simeon Brown has ordered a comprehensive review of the cyberattack on private health‑record platform ManageMyHealth, which may have exposed data of 6‑7% of the nation’s 1.85 million users. The breach, claimed by a hacker known as Kazu,...
Review: Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon
Jeffrey Kluger’s 2025 hardcover, *Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story*, attempts to redress the perceived neglect of NASA’s Gemini program. The book chronicles Gemini’s ten crewed flights, technical innovations, and astronaut profiles, drawing on NASA oral histories...
See You on the Other Side: What Jim Lovell's Apollo 8 Mission Taught a Divided World
Jim Lovell’s 1968 Apollo 8 mission marked the first crewed orbit of the Moon and captured the iconic Earthrise photograph, offering a new visual of Earth as a fragile, border‑less sphere. The mission unfolded against a backdrop of domestic upheaval—assassinations, protests,...
Influencer Marketing Strategies: A Practical Framework for Sustainable Growth in 2026
Influencer marketing has shifted from a niche experiment to a core growth engine for brands in 2026, driven by consumer skepticism toward traditional ads. The article outlines a practical framework that ties business objectives to audience insight, creator authenticity, and...
Techno-Optimists vs Enterprise-Incrementalists – Why Agent Platforms Encode Very Different Futures
The article contrasts two competing philosophies in AI agent platforms: techno‑optimists who champion high‑autonomy, exploratory agents, and enterprise‑incrementalists who embed agents within existing, controlled processes. Although both camps use similar terminology, their underlying beliefs about agency, risk, and value creation...
Find Support at Exit Five During Slow January
5 days into January. CEO already on you about why January is pacing slow… Good time to join a community like Exit Five. Place to vent, get feedback, share with your peers. Details here: https://www.exitfive.com/
VoAgents Launches Enterprise Voice AI Platform to Help Businesses Automate Customer Conversations and Scale Operations
VoAgents unveiled an enterprise‑grade voice AI platform that automates inbound and outbound phone interactions with human‑like conversation quality. The solution leverages a multi‑model architecture, supporting OpenAI, Anthropic and other large language models, and continuously self‑learns from each call. Early adopters...
Nearly Every Corn Seed Planted in Colorado Is Covered in Insecticide: Lawmakers May Restrict the Chemical
Nearly every corn seed planted in Colorado is coated with a neonicotinoid insecticide, a practice that protects seedlings but also introduces the chemical into plants, soil and water. Environmental groups are drafting legislation that would ban such coatings unless farmers...
Marketing Architects Partners with Jounce Media for Greater Transparency in CTV Buying
Marketing Architects has partnered with Jounce Media to embed the latter’s bid‑stream analytics into its proprietary AI buying platform, Annika®. The integration delivers app‑level supply insights, allowing advertisers to see exactly where CTV ads run and to prioritize high‑quality, direct...
Neonode Appoints Marec Gasiun as EVP of Sales & Marketing
Neonode Inc. announced the appointment of Marec Gasiun as Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing, effective Jan. 1, 2026. Gasiun brings extensive leadership experience from Google’s automotive software unit, Telia, and SeeReal Technologies. The hire follows Neonode’s recent conversion of a...
QR Payments Power SE Asia AI Fintech Boom
Beyond payments: SE Asia's QR fuels AI fintech surge • Wealth +24%, insurance +16% YoY • 700 AI startups—3X consumer enthusiasm • Cross-border QR remittances rocket • $300B digital GMV—15% growth unstoppable The real bombshell is in the chart below → Don’t miss the chart...
Flutterwave's Mono Acquisition Signals Maturing African Fintech Ecosystem
Flutterwave buys Nigeria's Mono in rare African fintech exit Rare African fintech M&A: Flutterwave's Mono acquisition shows ecosystem maturation. Exit opportunities emerging as pan-African players build vertically integrated infrastructure https://t.co/fVkBluzRqK https://t.co/HYaa1zlfhC
Questa Launches a New Privacy Focused Ai Assistant to Get Insights From Business Files Without Any Ai Training on Them
Questa unveiled Novara, a privacy‑first AI analytics assistant that redacts sensitive data before any large language model processes it. The solution uses a local "Blackbox" anonymizer, available on‑premise or in a dedicated cloud account, to ensure documents never train the...
Agentic AI Boosts Advantage, Yet Sparks Four Tensions
The 2025 Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy report, from @mitsmr and @BCG , looks at how organizations that are adopting agentic AI are gaining advantage while facing four distinct tensions. Read the full report >> https://t.co/yt7MtRu91D #CES2026 #AI #IoT...
Transparency in Data Use Builds Trust and Engagement
Transparency matters. Banks that show exactly how customer data drives better experiences gain trust and engagement. Learn more in the free report: https://t.co/8tDqGmzCp6 https://t.co/W6BGneNP4I
J.Jill Names Viv Rettke as Chief Growth Officer
J.Jill has appointed Viv Rettke as its first chief growth officer, a newly created role aimed at accelerating the brand’s expansion. Rettke brings growth expertise from Cole Haan, Reebok and Kraft Heinz, where she led major brand transformations. She will...
Visual Search Drives Higher Purchase Intent Than Text Queries
People want to talk about search on ChatGPT or other AI platforms, but no one really talks about visual search. Just look at Google Len's explosion over the years. The thing about Google Lens compared to traditional searches is that there is...
AI-Powered LEOM Revolutionizes Satellite Mapping
Seeing The Lay Of The Land With AI. A new AI model, the Large Earth Observation Model (LEOM) is transforming the process of map-making. https://t.co/TLjW5z5ymH #TechNews #AI #LEOM #ScienceDirect
Moon Rush: These Private Spacecraft Will Attempt Lunar Landings in 2026
2026 will see a surge of private lunar landers as Blue Origin, Firefly, Intuitive Machines, and Astrobotic each schedule missions to the Moon. Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 1 pathfinder will demonstrate a 3‑ton cargo capability and test exhaust‑interaction science. Firefly’s...
XML Sitemap: What It Is And How To Generate One
An XML sitemap is a structured file that lists the URLs a site wants search engines to crawl and index, often including metadata such as last‑mod dates, change frequency, and priority. It boosts crawl efficiency, especially for large or complex...
Forthcoming Machine Learning and AI Seminars: January 2026 Edition
The episode outlines a calendar of free virtual AI and machine learning seminars running from early January to late February 2026, featuring talks on topics such as LLM introspection, causal representation learning for climate teleconnections, AI ethics, combinatorial optimization, generative...
How to Optimize Your Website for SEO (Beginner’s Guide)
Search engines now surface AI‑generated overviews alongside traditional listings, making structured, authoritative content essential. The guide stresses targeting low‑volume, low‑difficulty keywords to capture both organic clicks and AI‑summary citations. It outlines high‑impact steps for new, stagnant, or declining sites, from...
Octopus Energy and GoCardless Complete £12bn Direct Debit Migration
Octopus Energy has completed one of the UK’s largest Direct Debit migrations, transferring 5.5 million customer mandates and £12 billion in payments to fintech platform GoCardless. The move accelerates refund processing, cutting typical times from five days to one‑two days via an...
