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NBC Universal is taking a major step forward in making TV advertising work more like digital.

The media giant will soon start selling ads that will appear in nearly all of its top national shows – from "This is Us" to "Sunday Night Football" to "Mr. Robot" – using the same kind of automated software that advertisers use to buy ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. And NBCU is confident that in doing so, it will prove that its ads are more effective than ads on the biggest platforms in social media.

NBCU has signed on Target as its first partner in this endeavor. The retailer will buy ads on multiple NBCU networks, from SyFy to E! to the NBC broadcast network, using its own proprietary customer data.

But Target won't have to call any NBCU sales executives. Just like many advertisers do via social media platforms, Target and its media buying agency Essence will be able to plug directly into NBCU's ad inventory supply via an API (or application programming interface).

For example, Target would theoretically be able to tap into its consumer data to find digital profiles of its active back-to-school shoppers from its e-commerce site and email newsletters and deliver ads during NBCU shows that reach a large number of those potential shoppers.

To facilitate this kind of automated dealmaking, NBCU has tapped 4C, an advertising technology company that helps advertisers buy ads on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.

TV ads work better

On that note, NBCU isn't just trying to emulate its digital rivals' selling options. By making its ad inventory available in the same way Facebook's is, it's hoping to make it clear to brands that TV ads work better – and advertisers are better off keeping their budgets on TV.

"Each client and agency will transact directly," said  Mike Rosen, NBCU's executive vice president, portfolio sales, and strategy. Rosen predicted that in the near future, TV show ratings will matter less than how individual shows perform for individual advertisers. 

Nearly all of NBCU's ad inventory will be available, with the exception of ads in future marquee events like the Super Bowl, Olympics, and World Cup, Rosen said.

NBCU has been an early leader in pushing TV to adapt some of the web's ad tactics, such as a more automated buying process and more targeting precision using data. Last year the company announced that some linear TV ads would be available through some exclusive programmatic deals. 

Still, with those partnerships, NBCU's sales team still had to manually implement each transaction. This time around, it will happen automatically.

Michael Bologna, president of the advanced TV ad firm one2one Media said that NBCU's move could have a big impact on the TV industry's adoption of programmatic ad selling, assuming enough advertisers and agencies are ready to operate this way, and whether others follow suit.

Industry standard?

"It's a step forward no doubt," he said. "The question is whether other networks adopt the same ad tech and processes, or if everybody does this their own way. That could become convoluted." In other words, NBCU risks becoming its own walled garden if other big TV companies go their own way. 

NBCU and many of the other top broadcast TV players have been unified in their desire to take shots at Google and Facebook of late, particularly given each of the tech platforms' recent public struggles (Facebook with self-inflicted metrics errors and Google battle with ads ending up next to hate videos on YouTube).

To be sure, TV is still far from the web's promise of delivering individual ads for each and every consumer. You may visit Yahoo.com and see and ad for sneakers you've recently been shopping for while your friend logging at the same time may see an ad based on his recent vacation searches.

But in the case of NBCU's new initiative, the whole country will still see the same ads. The hope is that the right ads will be delivered during shows that reach a much more interested set of viewers.

" We are so confident that when it is evaluated, this w ill allow advertisers to see the true value proposition [of TV ads on NBCU properties]," said Rosen. " We’re actually incredibly confident that ours will be more effective."

Original author: Mike Shields

Original author: Jasper Pickering and Fraser Moore

China has largely blocked messaging service WhatsApp throughout the country, The New York Times reports.

The move comes just weeks before the start of the Communist Party's gathering next month, where the new party leader — and, by extension, the country's ruler — will be announced.

The Chinese government had already disrupted video calls and file sharing throughout the summer, as the encryption method used for both relies on fairly standard data transfer protocols.

Text messages, however, use the tougher end-to-end encryption — where not even Facebook can see the content of the messages that pass through its servers — which suggests that the government may have found a way to target the more heavily encrypted protocols with specialised software aimed at interfering with WhatsApp messages.

Chinese users, in turn, are moving towards WeChat, the app developed by Chinese software giant Tencent. The platform now has over 963 million users, and virtually works almost as an operating system itself (as Chinese users take advantage of its many features, like money transfer, beyond simple messaging).

The big difference between WeChat and WhatsApp, however, is that WeChat can (and is) easily monitored by the country's censors. Earlier this month, WeChat sent a notification to all its users, to remind them that the service complies with official requests for information.

Facebook's main platform, as well as the image-sharing service Instagram, remain unavailable in China.

Original author: Edoardo Maggio

Mizuho Bank is leading the consortium that wants to launch J-Coin. REUTERS/Shohei Miyano

LONDON — A consortium of Japanese banks are set to launch a new national digital currency in a bid to wean citizens off cash, the Financial Times reports.

The FT says that a consortium led by Mizuho Financial Group and Japan Post Bank plans to launch the new digital currency in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

The new project, which has the support of Japan's central bank and regulators, aims to develop technology to allow Japanese people to pay for goods and services with their smartphone.

Cash currently represents 70% of all transactions by value in Japan but such a heavy cash dependency incurs costs for banks and governments. Banks must pay to handle, transport, and audit large amounts of cash, while governments risk losing tax revenue to undocumented cash-in-hand work or black market transactions.

The consortium of banks estimate that the adoption of a new digital currency could add ¥‎10 billion ($90 million; £67 million) to the economy, the FT reports. J-Coin will be exchanged at a one-to-one rate with yen.

Several European economies are moving towards a cashless society thanks to the success of digital payment methods: physical cash in circulation has declined by 27% since 2011 in Sweden thanks to the popularity of digital payments; Denmark wants to allow shops, including restaurants, gas stations, and clothing stores, to stop taking cash; The Bank of Korea has said it's aiming for a cashless society by 2020; and cash is now in the minority in Britain.

The move towards cashlessness in the Nordics has been helped by the popularity of payment apps like Swish in Sweden and MobilePay in Denmark, while the rise of contactless payments through debit and credit cards has helped in Britain.

Japanese banks are not alone in looking to develop their own digital currency. Leading banks including HSBC, Barclays, UBS, and Santander are developing a "Universal Settlement Coin" to make trade amongst themselves easier, inspired by the success of digital currencies like bitcoin.

Original author: Oscar Williams-Grut

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

Dara Khosrowshahi, the new CEO of Uber, is debating whether to come to London to lobby regulators after his company's app was banned in the city, according to The Financial Times.

Khosrowshahi, the former CEO of travel website Expedia, replaced Uber founder Travis Kalanick as CEO just three weeks ago and he's got several major diplomatic battles to fight all over the world.

Multiple sources, including Mark MacGann, who previously headed Uber’s European policy team, told the FT that it would be in Uber's best interests for Khosrowshahi to visit London and meet regulators at Transport for London (TfL). Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"I think Dara can't not go," MacGann reportedly said on the topic of the London trip. "He will want to go show his brand of leadership ... sending anyone else would be viewed as the 'old, arrogant Uber.'"

Transport for London (TfL) announced last Friday that Uber would not be issued with a private hire operator's licence once its current licence is up on 30 September.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. PA

TfL said Uber was not "fit and proper" to hold a licence, adding that the firm's approach to reporting serious driver offences, approach to driver medical and safety checks, and use of its secret "Greyball" software to dodge transport officials all contributed to its decision.

Uber said it would challenge TfL's the decision in court. The company has also launched a petition calling on Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to reverse TfL's decision. The petition had received over 634,000 signatures on Sunday.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan welcomed an apology from Khosrowshahi on Monday. The apology was made in an open letter to Londoners. But he also invited Khosrowshahi to meet with TfL. "Even though there is a legal process in place, I have asked TfL to make themselves available to meet with him," said Khan.

London is Uber's biggest market in Europe and considered to be one of the taxi-hailing company's top three markets in terms of revenue.

Original author: Sam Shead

Original author: Sam Shead

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Good morning! Here is the tech news you need to know this Tuesday.

1. Apple ditched Microsoft for Google to power Siri. Search results on Siri, iOS, and Spotlight on Mac will now default to Google's search engine, as opposed to Bing.

2. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi apologised in an open letter to Londoners following Transport for London (TfL)'s decision not to renew the company's licence. He remarked that the company will fight TfL's decision, but acknowledged Uber's past mistakes.

3. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was against the company's decision to buy Nokia. The acquisition, worth $7.6 billion (£5.6 billion), was later written off almost entirely, resulting in thousands of people being laid off.

4. Microsoft is planning to release a quantum computing programming language. It will feature full Visual Studio integration and come with a quantum computer simulator some time before the end of the year.

5. Microsoft unveiled a new package for teachers and students called Microsoft 365 Education. The bundle will offer Windows 365 for Education, Windows 10, Enterprise Mobility + Security, and "Minecraft: Education Edition."

6. Microsoft is replacing Skype for Business with its new Microsoft Teams service. The move is an attempt to put bigger pressure on the platform's main competitor, Slack.

7. Microsoft is starting to integrate LinkedIn inside Office 365. LinkedIn's social graph will now appear inside the products of Office 365's portfolio, like Word and PowerPoint, showing contact information from LinkedIn.

8. China has blocked messaging service WhatsApp almost entirely. Now Chinese users won't be able to send WhatsApp messages, following this summer's crackdown on multimedia messages and video chats.

9. Google has launched its $350 (£260) Project Jacquard jacket in collaboration with Levi's. Its smart sleeves contain sensors woven inside the fabric that allow the user to perform certain actions — pre-set via an app — just by touching it.

10. Amazon is dropping the price of 4K movies and TV shows, now ranging from $5 to $19 (£3.5-14), down from a maximum of $30 (£22). The move comes as a response to Apple's launch of its new Apple TV 4K.

Original author: Edoardo Maggio

Donald Trump's tweets have long raised questions about whether they violate Twitter's rules prohibiting abusive behavior on the service. 

On Monday, after a Trump tweet threatened that North Korea might not "be around much longer," Twitter was forced to explain why the President was not banned from the service. 

In a six-part tweet from Twitter's public policy account, the company said that Twitter takes "newsworthiness" and "public interest" into account when determining whether a user has violated its rules. 

Those considerations have long been used internally when deciding the fate of a problematic user, Twitter said. The company said it plans to update its public-facing policy soon to better reflect some of those other internal factors.

"We need to do better on this and will," Twitter said.

Trump's tweet came at time of heightened tensions between the US and North Korea, following several North Korean missile launches and nuclear tests that have drawn sharp criticism from the international community. On Friday a North Korean official said the country might test a hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean.  

Trump and North Korean government have been engaged in a war of words, with North Korea's foreign minister calling Trump "mentally deranged" and Trump referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as "Rocket Man."

After Trump's tweet on Saturday, North Korea's foreign minister told reporters that the country considers Trump's tweet to be a declaration of war, and that his country can thus legally shoot down US military planes, according to NPR. 

The episode has put Twitter in a difficult position, leading many observers to question how the company's policies against threats and abuse squared with tweets by Trump that some believe risk provoking a nuclear conflict.

Under its existing policy, Twitter reserves the right to remove content and disable accounts that post violent threats or harassment.

The company has left up Trump's tweet about North Korea because of its "newsworthiness" and "public interest value" — two factors which are taken into account for all content considered otherwise in violation of the company's content policy. 

That explanation struck some critics as tantamount to Twitter admitting that the usual rules don't apply to Trump. 

Twitter insisted it was not being inconsistent in its rules. And the company promised to update its public-facing policy to give users a better understanding of its process. 

President Trump's tweets have long posed a challenge for Twitter's terms of use policies. Throughout the 2016 presidential election and his presidency, Trump has used the platform to call out individuals and corporations that he opposes, often times using derogatory terms, as well as to introduce new items of public policy. 

Read the full response from Twitter's pubic policy group here: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Original author: Becky Peterson

Original author: Chris Weller

The term "fake news" entered the global lexicon during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Government officials and big tech companies are now scrambling to combat the proliferation of false or misleading news articles, but as we can see in this chart from Statista, a high level of fear remains in many countries.

It's no surprise that Brazilians are concerned about fake news. According to a 2016 report from BBC Brazil, during the week leading up to the controversial impeachment of former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, three of the five most shared news stories on Facebook were false. While it's unfortunately late for Brazil and other countries that may have already been affected by fake news, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have since acknowledged the problem and have pledged to do what they can stop it.

Germany was labeled as a target for fake news in the run up to the country's recent elections, but seems to not have been affected. And Germans are the least worried about it. A 2017 study from Oxford University found that although fake news was being spread through Twitter 'bots' Germans were much more likely to share credible news stories than people in the U.S. and U.K.

Mike Nudelman/Business Insider

 

Original author: Caroline Cakebread

When Microsoft's then CEO Steve Ballmer proposed buying Nokia to shore up the company's foundering mobile phone division, Satya Nadella thought it would be a mistake. 

Four years later, he hasn't changed his mind.  

In his new book, "Hit Refresh," Nadella, who replaced Ballmer as Microsoft CEO, says he unsuccessfully tried to dissuade his predecessor from purchasing Nokia. 

According to the book, Ballmer held an informal poll among his most senior executives: Should he move ahead with an acquisition of Nokia? Ballmer made the case that without Nokia, Microsoft's struggling Windows Phone operating system and ecosystem would never be able to compete with Apple's iPhone and Google's Android, which were dominating even then. 

Nadella, who was then the top executive in charge of Microsoft's cloud business and a member of Ballmer's inner council, voted "no." 

"[It] was too late to regain the ground we had lost. We were chasing our competitors’ taillights," Nadella writes in his book.

Nadella's "no" vote was first reported by Bloomberg back in 2014, not long after he assumed the role of chief executive, but he's never before publicly acknowledged it. Other Microsoft executives joined Nadella in opposing the deal, according to the report, while Microsoft founder Bill Gates advised Ballmer against it. 

Ultimately, Ballmer got his way. Microsoft purchased Nokia in 2013 for $7.9 billion. But just as Nadella worried, the deal turned out to be a big mistake. The company ultimately took a write-down for almost the entire purchase price and laid off thousands. 

And there was another outgrowth of the deal — Ballmer's departure. Microsoft finalized the deal about a month after Ballmer said he would step down as CEO. The friction between Ballmer and Microsoft's board of directors that was generated by the Nokia acquisition is ultimately what led to his decision to resign, according to numerous reports. 

Microsoft hardware chief Panos Panay with the Microsoft Lumia 950 and 950XL phones.Getty Images/Andrew Burton

In early 2014, Microsoft appointed Nadella CEO. While Microsoft released one new flagship Windows phone, the Lumia 950, it wasn't long before Nadella started to unwind the company's smartphone business. 

Instead of focusing on making its own phones, Microsoft, under Nadella, has concentrated on making apps and services available for Apple's iPhone and iPad and for Android devices. Microsoft should only be in mobile when it has something unique to offer, Nadella writes in his book. That could be a hint that the company is still working on its long-rumored Surface Phone.

Nadella says his biggest disappointment from the entire Nokia episode was its human cost. 

"In retrospect, what I regret most is the impact these layoffs had on very talented, passionate people in our phone division," Nadella writes.

Get the latest Microsoft stock price here.

Original author: Matt Weinberger

Original author: Rob Ludacer and Jessica Orwig

Original author: Dave Smith

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WPA Pool/Getty Images

WPP CEO Martin Sorrell believes that Facebook and Google have a reason to be worried. 

In a conversation with best-selling author and long-time New Yorker columnist Ken Auletta at Advertising Week in New York,  Sorrell said that the possibility that the two companies would face government regulation cannot be ruled out. 

"I think they do," he said, responding to Auletta's question about whether the companies needed to worry about the government. "No sovereign state will let a company become worth $1 trillion."

The WPP chief has referred to Facebook and Google as his "frenemies" time and again, saying that they needed to embrace their roles as media companies, and not merely technology companies. But, off late, the tremendous pressure on the companies had made them more of "flexible friends," he said.

This, according to him, was because of the considerable pressures they were under. Facebook has been shrouded in controversy after it was revealed that Russian entities run ads on the platform during the election, while Google has been facing an anti-trust crackdown in the EU. 

"With scale and size comes responsibility," he said. "Whether it's due to Vestager (EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager) and the EU putting pressure on them, political brand safety or consumer brand safety, the threat of regulation, or Steve Bannon’s exit remarks from the White House, I think Google and Facebook have become 'friendlier frenemies' or 'flexible friends.'"

He also used the occasion to slam Facebook for its recent anti-Semetic ads targeting mishap.

"As a Jew, do I like the idea that Facebook provided the ability to target Jew haters?," he said.  

Original author: Tanya Dua

BI IntelligenceThis is a preview of a research report from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about BI Intelligence, click here.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is disrupting businesses, governments, and consumers and transforming how they interact with the world. Companies are going to spend almost $5 trillion on the IoT in the next five years — and the proliferation of connected devices and massive increase in data has started an analytical revolution.

To gain insight into this emerging trend, BI Intelligence conducted an exclusive Global IoT Executive Survey on the impact of the IoT on companies around the world. The study included over 500 respondents from a wide array of industries, including manufacturing, technology, and finance, with significant numbers of C-suite and director-level respondents. 

Through this exclusive study and in-depth research into the field, BI Intelligence details the components that make up IoT ecosystem. We size the IoT market in terms of device installations and investment through 2021. And we examine the importance of IoT providers, the challenges they face, and what they do with the data they collect. Finally, we take a look at the opportunities, challenges, and barriers related to mass adoption of IoT devices among consumers, governments, and enterprises.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

We project that there will be a total of 22.5 billion IoT devices in 2021, up from 6.6 billion in 2016.We forecast there will be $4.8 trillion in aggregate IoT investment between 2016 and 2021.It highlights the opinions and experiences of IoT decision-makers on topics that include: drivers for adoption; major challenges and pain points; stages of adoption, deployment, and maturity of IoT implementations; investment in and utilization of devices, platforms, and services; the decision-making process; and forward- looking plans.

In full, the report:

Provides a primer on the basics of the IoT ecosystemOffers forecasts for the IoT moving forward and highlights areas of interest in the coming yearsLooks at who is and is not adopting the IoT, and whyHighlights drivers and challenges facing companies implementing IoT solutions

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the IoT, choose one of these options:

Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIPPurchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the IoT.

Original author: Peter Newman

The Tastemade Facebook Watch show 'Struggle Meals' is hosted by Frankie Celenza Tastemade

Publishers like Tastemade built big Facebook audiences by churning out lots of short content. But now many need to shift gears. That's because Facebook has begun inserting ads into video clips, but only if they run 90 seconds or more. For Tastemade, that's meant shooting videos using more TV-like conventions, like cliffhangers before ad breaks.

Over the past few years, Tastemade got really, really good at making very short recipe videos on Facebook (aka food porn).

Think a 30-second clip of an unseen chef making delectable-looking fried shrimp tacos – one of which has generated over 26 million views since last June.

 

Then Facebook decided it wanted media companies to make longer videos, so it could insert more video ads. 

When Facebook decides it wants something, publishers usually get on board — especially when the promise of ad revenue is involved.

"We kinda had to rethink everything," Larry Fitzgibbon,Tastemade co-founder and CEO, told Business Insider.

That's likely the state of affairs for many content companies that spent a great deal of energy perfecting eye-catching, decidedly short videos on Facebook. Many publishers built large Facebook audiences by honing the art of producing quick-hit clips built for a sound-off, thumb-scrolling world. The hope was eventually Facebook would help them make money on these videos

But now, they've got to rethink their production operations to make longer videos, and the videos need to be shot and edited accommodate ads seamlessly, without turning people away. It's hard not to feel a bit of algorithm and business-model whiplash.

So earlier this year Tastemade shook up its production process over a two-month period, and re-oriented it around longer content. The hope was that Facebook would keep putting Tastemade clips in people's feeds, and that the content would be good enough to keep people's attention for more than a few seconds – and thus good enough to feature 'mid-roll ads'.

When videos from partners run 90 seconds or more, Facebook now inserts ads during video breaks, similar to TV ads. This is especially top of mind now that Facebook is pushing original series via its new longer-video-centric Facebook Watch platform.

"We were optimized for the Facebook news feed," added Jay Holzer, Tastemade head of production. "That meant grabbing people thumbing through Facebook on their phones with arresting images, hoping they stick around for a few seconds. We had developed a good set of best practices around that."

"You can't just make 45-second videos 90 seconds," said Oren Katzeff, Tastemade's head of programming. "That would be a terrible experience. "

Luckily, Tastemade started out as a food-centric network built primarily on YouTube. So it had been producing content with the help of influencers that was longer than the early Facebook video fare.
Plus, Tastemade was an early Snapchat partner, where it's been experimenting with longer (in relative terms) original series, such as "Frankie's World," a show featuring the digital influencer Frankie Celenza digging into the science of cooking.

"This is all more about changing our process around watch time," said Fitzgibbon. This has been in the works for a while, he added. "You may be able to generate views or clicks. But watch time is the ultimate measure of whether you are entertaining people. So we've thought about, how do we tell stories and create a monetization opportunity. It was evolutionary."

For Facebook specifically, Tastemade has started not only going longer with its instructional, recipe clips, but also breaking them into acts — much like a TV show. Videos now have to deliver something interesting right away, but leave people hanging a bit so they'll hang around after a mid-roll break.

"You need a set up and a tease," Holzer said. "It's very similar to TV. You need a payoff after the ad."

That's even more true for Facebook Watch shows, some of which run a whopping five, 10, or 15 minutes.

It's very early, but Tastemade is seeing some solid traction with Watch. For example, the show "Struggle Meals" which features Celenza prepping quick meals for under $2, has seen several of its early episodes generate over one million views each.

Now Tastemade just needs to start generating some more checks from Facebook.

Original author: Mike Shields

Original author: Jasper Pickering

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A Deliveroo rider. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

Deliveroo's expansion in 2016 helped drive the company's revenue for the year up 611% to £129 million, from £18 million the prior year.

Losses for the food delivery startup were up 300% year on year to £129 million, from £30.1 million in 2015.

According to the filing there was one exceptional cost of £5.3 million, which is how much it cost Deliveroo to rebrand last year. 

Most of the growth came from Deliveroo's international markets, with revenue from countries outside the UK "increasing substantially." In 2016, the London-headquartered startup had expanded to 84 cities in 12 countries. It now operates in 120 markets across 12 countries, and has 120,000 restaurant partners.

The company is still sitting on considerable amounts of investor cash, having raised $275 million (£210 million) in a Series E funding round in August last year. Deliveroo said its net assets stood at £169 million as a result.

Rapid growth means London-headquartered Deliveroo is considered a major startup success story. It was founded in 2012 to allow people to order food for delivery from their favourite high street restaurants, not just those which do takeaway. The company charges £2.50 for delivery — more if your order is under £10 — and takes a commission fee from the restaurant.

But there are some risks. According to Deliveroo's filings, its gross margin percentage stands at just 0.7%. That figure shows the proportion of each pound of revenue the firm keeps as gross profit, before it pays cost of goods. The higher the margin, the more efficient the company. Deliveroo's low figure suggests it has more work to do to cut costs — but 0.7% is an improvement on 2015, when the firm reported a negative gross profit margin.

A higher gross profit margin may depend on whether Deliveroo is forced to pay its drivers more. There is an ongoing battle over how companies like Deliveroo and Uber pay their workers — who work flexibly but are not guaranteed the minimum wage. Deliveroo itself acknowledged the risk of greater regulation in its filings.

Another risk to the business is that more rivals are popping up in the food delivery space. UberEats is a significant rival in the UK, while Amazon has also launched a food delivery service.

Original author: Shona Ghosh

Suspicious options trading in Equifax following its massive data breach has drawn scrutiny from the Feds. Reuters / Brendan McDermid

Raise your hand if you've heard this before: There may have been some funny business around the Equifax hack.

In the latest development, the House Financial Services Committee is now looking at some Equifax options trading that took place following the initial discovery of the breach, but before it was disclosed to the public, according to a report from CNBC's Liz Moyer.

The activity in question occurred on August 21, when a block trade for 2,500 units of an Equifax put contract was made at 1:36 p.m. ET, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The puts represented a wager that the company's stock price would drop to $135 by September 15. Equifax closed at $139.89 the previous trading day, so in order for the trade to be profitable, the stock would've had to drop 3.5%.

That happened on September 8, the first day of trading after the hack became public. The stock dropped 14%, closing at $123.23. Assuming the trader, or traders, who made the bet on August 21 haven't yet closed their position and taken profits, their total gain would amount to more than $10 million.

And if the options market is to be believed, traders think Equifax's stock has further to fall. As of last week, they were paying the highest premium since October 2014 to protect against a 10% decline in shares over the next six months, relative to wagers on a 10% gain. While it's come down from those highs, it's still far above its average over the period.

According to the CNBC report, which cited a source familiar with the investigation, the lawyer for the committee has inquired about how out of the ordinary the size of the trade was, where the options switched hands, and what types of traders would've been active at the time.

The investigation isn't the first foray into suspicious Equifax trading following the hack. On September 18, Bloomberg reported that the US Justice Department was investigating whether top company officials violated insider-trading laws when they sold Equifax shares before the company disclosed the hack.

The report said that Equifax's chief financial officer, John Gamble; president of US information solutions, Joseph Loughran; and president of workforce solutions, Rodolfo Ploder, were those under scrutiny. The three senior executives dumped almost $2 million worth of stock days after the company learned of the breach, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show. An emailed statement from the credit-monitoring agency said the executives "had no knowledge" of the breach beforehand.

As these latest developments show, authorities are still sifting through the wreckage of the hack for signs of wrongdoing. And if the past week has been any indication, there could be more to come.

Markets Insider

Original author: Joe Ciolli

Google has signed a $1.1 billion cooperation agreement with HTC, the technology company said in a statement on Thursday, after trading of HTC shares were halted on Taiwan's stock exchange before the announcement.

The move, first rumored earlier this month and then re-emerged this week, is the search giant's latest attempt to juice up its growing hardware division.

Google hardware exec Rick Osterloh said in a statement: "With this agreement, a team of HTC talent will join Google as part of the hardware organization."

"These future fellow Googlers are amazing folks we’ve already been working with closely on the Pixel smartphone line," Osterloh said, adding that the deal includes a non-exclusive license for HTC intellectual property.

This isn't the first time Google's took a stake in a smartphone manufacturer, and it isn't clear why it will be successful this time round.

In 2011, Google bought Motorola in a $12.5 billion deal, only to resell it to Lenovo for $2.91 billion three years later (Google had sold off other parts of Motorola earlier).

At the time, Google said it deemed the overall operation to be a "success," as it retained Motorola's most valuable asset, its patent portfolio.

Lately, Google has shown signs of taking an Apple-like strategy towards its products. With its new devices, it's taking care of both Android, the software, as well as the hardware.

In April 2016, the search giant hired Rick Osterloh, ex-Motorola chief operating officer, as its first ever hardware czar, and formally put together a hardware team under his leadership.

That resulted in the first-ever solely-Google-branded phone, the Pixel (as well as the larger Pixel XL), and also the Daydream View virtual reality headset. Earlier this year, the Google Home smart speaker followed.

What's more, is that Google is rumoured to be entering the chip-manufacturing space, to compete even better with deeply integrated systems like Apple's iPhone without having to rely on third party companies like Qualcomm.

When the first batch of made-by-Google devices was unveiled, Osterloh said that hardware was an important component of the tech titan's business, and that they would be in it "for the long run." The acquisition of HTC looks like further proof of this commitment.

Notably, HTC also acted as the "ghost" manufacturer for both Pixel handsets last year, and is tipped to be once again as the company behind the forthcoming "Pixel 2" (with LG reportedly taking care of the larger, higher-end "Pixel 2 XL" instead).

In addition to a refreshed phone lineup, a new Pixel-branded Chromebook is also expected to make its debut at Google's dedicated event, taking place on October 4.

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Original author: Edoardo Maggio