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Welcome to this weekly roundup of stories from Insider's Business co-Editor in Chief Matt Turner. Subscribe here to get this newsletter in your inbox every Sunday.
What we're going over today:
- Google is downsizing its health team and moving employees to Fitbit as part of a major reorganization.
- Credit Suisse has lost at least 45 employees after a string of scandals in recent months.
- Instacart is taking on Google and Facebook with its $1 billion ads business. We have a look inside its playbook.
- The CEO of Tesla wannabe Lordstown Motors is out after accusations of exaggerating demand.
What's trending this morning:
- Austin's top broker, Kumara Wilcoxon, swears by this 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. schedule. She let us in on a day in the life working with Austin's richest buyers and sellers.
- Inside investment-banking's labor crunch. A shortage of analysts is fueling a hiring war across Wall Street and forcing rainmakers to do grunt work on deals
- These are the 27 most innovative CMOs in the world. With execs at companies from Chipotle to Lego, here are our top picks this year.
- New York Post staff say morale has plummeted. After a year of editorial scandals and cuts, employees are left feeling frustrated and discouraged.
- Tulsa Massacre survivors want reparations. They're suing Oklahoma using the same legal tactic the state used to win $465 million over the marketing of opioids.
- Amazon Prime Day kicks off on Monday. To help you prepare for the sales event, we answered FAQs and are sharing all the early deals available now.
Google's health division is splintering
Google's healthcare group is moving more than 100 employees into other departments, including Fitbit and Search. The shakeup is yet another growing pain for the tech company, which is still finding its voice in healthcare:
In March, Google Health had around 700 people working on research, imaging, clinical tools, health sensors, and more. That number has dropped to almost 570 as of this week - a near-20% cut to its headcount - according to internal data obtained by Insider.
The changes should improve the group's impact and execution speed, Dr. David Feinberg, the head of Google Health, said in an email on May 5 seen by Insider. They should also support Google's broader work at a time when the company is expanding its focus on health and wellness, he said.
"We brought together some teams to combine expertise, and focus our efforts on health and wellness," a spokesperson for Google Health said in a statement to Insider.
Here's what else you should know about the reorganization:
Also read:
- Google salaries revealed: New data reveals how much Alphabet is paying its engineers, designers and SVPs
- A startup backed by Livongo veterans just got a nearly $500 million valuation, and it's coming for healthcare's middlemen
Employees are departing Credit Suisse in droves
Credit Suisse has been rocked this year by the implosions of Greensill and Archegos, and nearly 50 of its execs, bankers, and traders have defected to firms like Jefferies, JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America:
The Swiss bank has been embroiled in a string of problems over the last two years, starting with a 2019 spying scandal involving its then-chief operating officer keeping tabs on rival UBS, which was followed by the resignation of its CEO four months later.
The bank in February froze $10 billion of supply-chain finance funds linked to Greensill Capital over valuation concerns. And lately, Credit Suisse has been dealing with the fallout from the implosion of Archegos Capital Management, a family-office client founded by hedge-fund billionaire Bill Hwang that had $8 billion in assets decimated.
Together, the setbacks have cost the firm billions of dollars in losses and have also been accompanied by an exodus of senior bankers and other workers.
Get the full scoop on the bank's talent losses:
Also read:
- Goldman Sachs is in talks to move more than 100 salespeople and traders to West Palm Beach, as the move from Wall Street to Florida accelerates
- Wall Street credit traders are getting poached like mad. Here are 45 of the top moves.
Instacart takes on Google and Facebook
Instacart is building an advertising business that pulled in hundreds of millions of dollars last year - and it's growing so fast that revenue from the operation could top $1 billion in 2022:
The company is known for grocery delivery, a gig-economy business that often suffers from thin or nonexistent profit margins. But what sets it apart from DoorDash and other delivery platforms is how well Instacart's offering suits high-value advertising.
The ads are often paid listings for items like Häagen-Dazs ice cream and Ketel One Vodka that shoppers see while searching for groceries to buy and browsing through Instacart's app. The business has caught on with brands trying to get in front of customers they'd otherwise reach through in-store promotions or grocery-store circulars.
Ads will be key to Instacart's long-term profitability and international expansion - and the business differentiates the company from other gig-economy services such as Uber and DoorDash.
Read up on how its ad business could rival major industry players:
Also read:
- Top Uber execs are discussing easing up on return-to-office plans after backlash
- Power players: Meet the CEOs of 10 logistics startups raising huge rounds to remake the supply chain from port to porch
Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns has resigned
On Monday morning, electric-vehicle startup Lordstown Motors announced the resignation of Steve Burns, its founder and CEO, along with other top executives:
It's a steep fall for Burns, a serial entrepreneur who founded Lordstown in 2019 and last year took it public - but perhaps not an unexpected one.
Insider spoke with 17 former employees from Burns' various startups, including eight current and former Lordstown workers.
Some called Burns, 62, a visionary with a knack for seeing trends before they emerge. Most said he knew how to generate buzz and pull in investors, but at times struggled to deliver on his promises. Others derided him as a "con man" who bent the rules to improve the public image of his companies, hired family members and friends, and lacked the skills to break into the demanding auto industry.
Take a look at Burns' rise and fall:
Also read:
- We visited a futuristic microfactory for Arrival, the $11 billion electric van maker ripping up the Tesla playbook
- Blade, the Uber for helicopters and chartered jets, had a fake spokesperson for 3 years
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Finally, here are some headlines you might have missed last week.
- Matt
- Leaked memo shows Amazon is making it easier for some employees to get out of the 'Focus' coaching program that's often the first step to getting fired
- Wall Street firms are snapping up every single American home they can find. Here are the 6 most important things to know about this trend pricing out everyday people.
- A leading influencer-marketing agency has lost most of its staff, missed some payments, and disconnected its phone
- Matt Gaetz's former classmates say he's an embarrassment to William & Mary Law School and should resign
- These 5 stocks are prime candidates for an explosive AMC-style short squeeze right now, according to data from Fintel
- A top Millennium quant lays out the 4 types of alt data that produce alpha and why it's so hard to find these days
- Software startup UtilizeCore raised $5.3 million off this sleek pitch deck to help property managers with mundane tasks like hiring janitors and plumbers
- How a secretive deal with Travis Kalanick's CloudKitchens and a war chest of $58.5 million from VCs like Tiger Global help Flipdish stand out in the crowded restaurant-tech space