• NBA shows are bonkers, says this Brit.
• Unlike Premier League soccer, the NBA manages to keep things interesting throughout dull periods like time-outs, and at half-time.
• Just watch out for flying t-shirts.

Some of the most memorable moments in sports are born out of technical genius, senseless violence, or just good old-fashioned chaos.

I'll always remember Dennis Bergkamp's close control during a Premier League match against Leicester City, where he scored a remarkable hat-trick in a 3-3 draw in 1997. I'll never forget Zinedine Zidane dragging France to the 2006 FIFA World Cup final, only to be sent off in the tournament showpiece for ramming the butt of his head into Italy defender Marco Materazzi's chest. And, more recently, I'll always think about how Khabib Nurmagomedov refused to celebrate his dominant submission win over Conor McGregor in 2018, choosing instead to leap over the UFC fence, charge at McGregor's cageside friends, and spark post-fight riots in and out of the cage itself.

Things like this are not the norm, of course. In fact, they very rarely ever happen.

Sports events can sometimes be rather dull affairs that are bereft of any real excitement. Passages of play get interrupted by things like incompetent touches, wayward passing, and errant shooting. Goalless draws are the scourge of travelling fans, and post-match comments from athletes and coaches can be mind-numbingly boring.

The recent NBA game between the Washington Wizards and the New York Knicks at the 02 Arena in London on Thursday was certainly void of plays worth remembering 10 years from now, but the NBA has managed to do something that soccer struggles to do. And that is to keep things interesting throughout those dull periods, during time-outs, and at half-time.

Read more: NBA boss Adam Silver explains why a worldwide basketball league would fail

The reason for this is simple. NBA shows are completely bonkers.

Hip hop music blares through the speaker systems in the middle of the game, cheerleaders engage in gravity-defying gymnastics during time-outs, and strange-looking mascots act like children's entertainers at courtside. It is a sensory overload.

This behaviour, though, is contagious as elaborate jigs danced in the bleachers by excitable fans get broadcast on the big screens. But fans have to be careful … if they're not paying attention, a rogue t-shirt wrapped tight like a torpedo could cannonball into their unwitting faces at any moment, as they get fired into the crowd by enthusiastic event organizers working at ground-level.

The closest comparison to a British sporting experience is the darts, or at boxing, and both tend to be organized and promoted by the father-son duo at Matchroom Sports, Barry Hearn and Eddie Hearn. The Hearns understand that event-going fans like to dress-up, to drink, to listen to music, to dance, to sing, and, of course, to watch sport.

The NBA fosters a similar feel-good atmosphere. The league's annual event on English turf provided a dramatic finish this week as the Wizards edged the Knicks by a 101-100 score thanks to a last-second goaltend violation.

Yes, the overall quality of the basketball may have lacked the skills of James Harden, LeBron James, and Steph Curry — the elite of the NBA — but in London, the league combined its competition with a fun night out, and that's exactly how it should be.

SEE ALSO: NBA boss Adam Silver explains why a worldwide basketball league would fail

DON'T MISS: Adam Silver says NBA supports Enes Kanter for avoiding team trip to London over fear for his safety after comments on Erdogan

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We compared Apple's $159 AirPods to Xiaomi's $30 AirDots and the winner was clear

• Microsoft is making a big push to develop a streaming service for gaming.
• The service, which is planned for a public trial this year, aims to deliver high-end, blockbuster gaming experiences on whatever device you're using.
• Microsoft calls the service "Netflix for games" internally, as a shorthand for what the service intends to do.

Microsoft's ambitious vision for the future of gaming doesn't involve a high-powered, expensive box sitting underneath your TV.

Instead, it's as simple as Netflix. 

Just as Netflix allows you to watch movies and TV shows from any device, a streaming gaming service would let you play high-end, blockbuster video games anytime, anyplace and on any device — your phone, or tablet, or laptop, or TV. No game console required.

With "Project xCloud," Microsoft aims to establish itself as the de facto standard in video game streaming services. And, in 2019, the service goes public.

Here's everything we know about Microsoft's ambitious plan to change how we play games:

SEE ALSO: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella just laid out the company's vision for its 'Netflix for games'

The goal: to reach more people who play games.

"There are 2 billion people who play video games on the planet today. We're not going to sell 2 billion consoles," Xbox leader Phil Spencer told Business Insider in an interview in June 2018. "Many of those people don't own a television; many have never owned a PC. For many people on the planet, the phone is their compute device," he said. "It's really about reaching a customer wherever they are, on the devices that they have."

The best way to do that is by lowering the barrier to entry — stuff like owning a TV, nonetheless owning a game console and having a stable internet connection, are barriers to entry for the potential userbase Microsoft is targeting with its streaming initiative.

The same could be said for the move from DVD — physical media — to streaming services and digital entertainment. Far, far more people are able to watch TV and movies thanks to smartphones and the digitization of so much media. 

Since games can require serious processing power, digitization alone only opens the door so much — making high-end, processor-intensive games available through streaming services kicks open the door.

The competition: Several major tech companies, from Amazon to Verizon to Google and Sony, either already have game streaming services or are working on game streaming services.

Nearly every major tech company is working on a form of video game streaming technology right now.

Some have been announced or are already operating, like Google's Project Stream and Sony's PlayStation Now, while others are little more than whispers at the moment, like streaming services from Verizon and Amazon.

The competition is stiff, to put it very lightly.

Broadly speaking, the next two years appear to be the general launch target for most of these new game streaming services. Both Microsoft and Google have been testing their streaming services with limited, invite-only audiences, while Amazon's and Verizon's streaming services are little more than talk at this point.

Google's Project Stream demonstrated the ability to stream blockbuster games — "Assassin's Creed Odyssey," specifically — in web browsers. A public, limited test ran from late last year until mid-January 2019.

Microsoft promised "public trials" of Project xCloud in 2019, but has yet to give specific dates; it's otherwise testing the service privately on an invite-only basis.

Sony, meanwhile, has been operating a subscription-based video game streaming service in PlayStation Now for five years. The service enables players on PlayStation 4 and PC to stream PlayStation 2, 3, and 4 games without a download. It costs $20/month or $100/year.

How Microsoft plans to do it:

As seen above, Microsoft already has data centers all over the world — and that helps tremendously given the demands of video game streaming. 

It's relatively simple for Netflix or Hulu to stream video data to your television, smartphone, laptop, PC, or whatever other device. If you have a stable internet connection, even if you're on a smartphone, you can probably stream video. Occasionally it might need to buffer, or maybe it'll drop in resolution in an attempt to mitigate buffering, but those stutters aren't such a big deal if you're just watching an episode of "The Office" idly during your lunch break.

Those stutters matter much more if you're playing a game, and can mean the difference between playable and unplayable in some cases.

Microsoft intends to offset those issues as much as possible by harnessing its worldwide data centers, matching players geographically with the connection closest to them.

When John Chambers announced his retirement as CEO of Cisco, he hand-picked Chuck Robbins to be his successor. And when Robbins officially took over, he called his shot: Under his leadership, Cisco would move faster — much faster — to stay ahead of the changing times. 

At the time, Cisco was still a Silicon Valley powerhouse, but doubts were beginning to swirl. Companies were moving to Amazon's cloud, or Microsoft's, or Google's, in a trend that's only accelerated in the years since. And the more they relied on the cloud for their computing infrastructure, the less they were spending on their data centers — and data center networking hardware, like the kind that Cisco is best known for.

Going on four years later, and Wall Street is definitely taking notice of Robbins' progress: Cisco shares are up almost 60% from the day Robbins took the reins at the company, and were up some 13% in 2018 alone. The company has a market cap of about $200 billion at the time of writing.

In its 2018 fiscal year, Cisco booked its highest-ever annual revenues of $49.3 billion, up from $48 billion in 2017, with 32% of that coming from recurring sources like subscriptions, while software was about 10%. Networking gear is still Cisco's bread-and-butter, but the mix is changing.

"The irony of this whole cloud transition is that it is actually one of the key forces that's leading to our growth, whereas four or five years ago it was viewed as an existential threat," Robbins told Business Insider at a sit-down interview at Cisco headquarters in December. 

Don't underestimate that trend, either: "Growth doesn't come easy at a mature company, especially with mostly-mature technologies," says Rohit Mehra, VP of network infrastructure and a long-time Cisco-watcher with research firm IDC.

Here's what Robbins had to say about his journey from the bottom of Cisco all the way to the top, what comes next, and how he revitalized the $200 billion company into a lean, mean, cloud-focused machine. 

"I think that we're just living in a time where every company has to challenge themselves every year as to, what do we have to change," says Robbins. "I mean, you also have to wake up and say: What were we doing last year that's going to keep working this year, and what do we have to change?" 

Change from inside

Like his contemporary Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, Robbins is a true Cisco insider. 

Robbins got his degree in mathematics from UNC Chapel Hill in 1987, and worked for five years at the North Carolina National Bank as a programmer. What's funny, he says, is that this gig gave him hands-on time with Cisco's first-ever products, well before he actually joined the company in 1997. First coming aboard as a sales account manager, Robbins climbed the ladder, from regional manager, and ultimately up to CEO. 

He says that this has given him a variety of perspectives on Cisco: First as a customer and user, then as a member of the rank-and-file staff, and ultimately as an executive at its highest levels. He credits these experiences with helping him develop as a leader.

"Just watching the industry evolve, and then being here, I think that you get instincts about how this thing, and how it's moving," Robbins says. 

To that end, he credits his insider status with giving him some key advantages as he tries to move the company forward. It's given him a good grounding in what, exactly, needs to get done, as well as knowledge of how to navigate office politics and processes to actually make things happen. 

"The perfect candidate is an insider who knows that you need to change, because if you know you need to change, then being an insider just enables you to do it more quickly, because you know how to get things done inside the company," Robbins says. Contrast that to an outsider, he says, who might recognize the need for change, but "not understand how to get it done quickly, not understand the political undertones that you have to navigate."

The three big things

Robbins credits his predecessor John Chambers for doing a lot help Cisco evolve before retiring from the CEO job. Key acquisitions like Meraki, a wireless networking startup that's now one of Cisco's most important businesses, were made under Chambers' watch, Robbins notes. 

Read: How a startup that Cisco bought six years ago is totally shaking up the $208 billion company’s status quo

When Robbins took over, the time was right for the company to take an even bigger step towards reinvention — "There's always an opportunity when there's a leadership change," he says. 

His goals were threefold: First, "provide clarity to the market" about Cisco's role in the cloud computing market. Second, "reinvigorate the innovation in our core franchises"— he says "there were a lot of people who didn't believe that there was any innovation left to bring" in that regard. 

"Which we disagree with, or at least I did," says Robbins. "Good news is, I found most [employees] to agree [with me]."

The third priority was to give customers more flexibility in how they use Cisco products and services. This has, in turn, led to Cisco focusing its efforts on subscription-based businesses, like cloud security and compliance. 

Not everybody was on board.

Some Cisco executives weren't interested in pursuing this new direction: Some were close to retirement anyway, and others took it as a sign that it was time to leave and pursue new opportunities as CEOs themselves. Indeed, several high-ranking Cisco executives, including former CTO Padmasree0 Warrior, left in the months just following Robbins' ascension as CEO.

Ultimately, though, Robbins says that he found a strong core of Cisco employees who wanted to work with him on this push, which was good, because he needed the help.

"There are lots people who actually agreed, and frankly helped shape [the vision], because I didn't know every answer," says Robbins. "I mean, I just had an idea of what I thought we needed to do, and then you put a lot of smart people around you." 

The big catalyst

Core to Robbins' strategy is the idea of what he calls intent-based networking. 

A big reason why cloud services like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure are so successful is because they remove a ton of complexity, argues Robbins. You throw your servers up in one or more clouds, and let Amazon or Microsoft or whoever else worry about the hard work of securing and managing the network. 

This is where Robbins saw the opportunity to innovate. Not every company wants to, or is able to, move to the cloud wholesale. Robbins wants to make it as easy for those customers to manage their networking infrastructure as it is to run it in the cloud. The strategy involves helping IT pros spend less time worrying about the nitty-gritty of running a network, and shortcut straight to what they hope to get out of it — hence, intent-based networking.

The first big example of this, Robbins says, was the Catalyst 9000 line of network switches, which he says was Cisco's fastest-adopted product ever when it launched in mid-2017.

These switches are programmable, meaning that IT departments can automate security and compliance processes, even if they're managing an uplink to the cloud. And they integrate with Cisco's DNA subscription service, which helps networking pros manage, maintain, and secure their networks on an ongoing basis. 

This combination of hardware and software accomplishes some key goals for Cisco, says Robbins: It allows Cisco to keep on trucking with building networking gear, while the subscriptions give it a credible play in the red-hot cloud market. Cisco even helps manage these processes if some of a customer's infrastructure is, in fact, in the cloud.

"The reality also is that there are many problems in the world that still need incredibly high performance hardware. That's just the nature of what we do," says Robbins. "But that also aligns with what is perceived favorably by Wall Street. And it creates a more predictable business model."

The success of the Catalyst line, and the success of similarly intent-based products like the Cisco HyperFlex server infrastructure platform, has given Robbins confidence that the company can, indeed, still innovate. And he says that it means that more changes are on the horizon. 

In the next few months, a broad base of Cisco products will be going through similar "transitions," he says. "We haven't had that in as long as I can remember."

So far, so good

Robbins says that the move towards subscriptions was something of a gamble. But in a world where everything from Adobe Photoshop to music and movies are purchased via a monthly subscription, it was a necessary move.

"I had no idea how our customers would respond to the shift of subscriptions, but frankly this is just the way they buy things today," says Robbins. In general, he says, customers are grateful that Cisco is trying to meet them where they are, and work at making their lives easier. 

And while Cisco has a reputation as serving the Fortune 500, Robbins says that it's seeing huge growth in the midmarket, too.

The Catalyst 9000 switches were adopted by mid-sized companies who wanted enterprise-grade features, without enterprise-levels of complexity, he says. And Meraki, the Cisco subsidiary, helps even small companies manage their corporate WiFi and protect against threats — Mehri, the analyst, sees it as the leader in its market. 

Still, things aren't perfect, says Mehri: Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications company that's been in the news a lot lately, is challenging Cisco's market dominance in key foreign markets, notes Mehri. And it's still worrisome for Cisco that Amazon Web Services and the other cloud providers are either building their own networking gear, or just customizing cheap white-labeled alternatives, rather than purchasing the company's wares. 

In the end, though, Cisco has a lot going for it, and Robbins has made lots of moves to make it competitive, in Mehri's view.

"Cisco will be healthy for a long time," says Mehri. 

Robbins would likely agree with that assessment. While he says that he's pleased with the work done so far, it would be a mistake to get too wrapped up with Cisco's strong performance on the stock market.

"Look, you get to enjoy that for about 10 minutes, and you don't ever take it for granted," says Robbins. "We have to keep executing, and the great news for us is we're still in the very early part of this transition."

SEE ALSO: 44 enterprise startups to bet your career on in 2019

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We compared Apple's $159 AirPods to Xiaomi's $30 AirDots and the winner was clear

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. This report is exclusively available to enterprise subscribers. To learn more about getting access to this report, email Senior Account Executive Chris Roth at croth@businessinsider.com, or check to see if your company already has access. 

New data shows that mobile features have become a key factor that customers weigh when choosing a bank. 

In Business Insider Intelligence's second annual Mobile Banking Competitive Edge study, 64% of mobile banking users said that they would research a bank's mobile banking capabilities before opening an account with them. And 61% said that they would switch banks if their bank offered a poor mobile banking experience.

For channel strategists, the challenge in attracting mobile-minded customers is knowing when to bet budgets and political capital on developing emerging features. It's complicated by most flashy features — such as voice assistants, smartwatch banking, and bank-offered mobile wallets — being deemed a "must" by analysts, media, and rival banking executives. 

The Mobile Banking Competitive Edge Report uses data to inform channel investment decisions by highlighting which mobile banking features are most valuable to customers. Our study has data on consumer demand for 33 in-demand mobile capabilities across six key categories. 

Using that consumer data, the study benchmarks the largest 20 banks and credit unions in the US by whether they offer the cutting-edge mobile features that customers say they care about most. What sets our benchmark apart is that it weights every feature according to customer demand data — not subjective analyst opinion.  

Channel strategists within financial institutions use our report to see which innovative features they should prioritize in development pipelines and to find out how they compare with rival banks and credit unions in offering those features.

Business Insider Intelligence fielded the Mobile Banking Competitive Edge Study to members of its proprietary panel in August 2018, reaching over 1,200 US consumers — primarily handpicked digital professionals and early-adopters, making our sample a sensitive indicator of emerging features. 

Here are a few key takeaways from the report:

• Citi snagged first overall. The bank led the account access section, tied for first in account management, and ranked highly in all the other categories of the study. Wells Fargo took second place, leading in security and control and transfers. USAA came in third, NFCU was fourth, and Bank of America rounded out the top five.
• Demand for security features is sizzling. Following a year of huge breaches being announced at companies like Facebook and Google, consumers' security concerns jumped to become the most important category. The category included the No. 1 feature overall: the ability to turn a payment card on or off. 
• Digital money management features are also highly demanded. Chase and Wells Fargo may be onto something with their millennial-focused banking apps, Finn and Greenhouse, as the generation had sky-high demand for the six features in the category. The most popular feature in the category was the ability to separate recurring payments, such as Netflix and gym memberships.

 In full, the report:

• Shows how 33 mobile features stack up according to how valuable customers say they are.
• Ranks the top 20 US banks and credit unions on whether they offer each of those features.
• Analyzes how demographics effect demand for different mobile features.
• Provides strategies for banks to best attract and retain customers with mobile features.
• Contains 63 pages and 30 figures.

The full report is available to Business Insider Intelligence enterprise clients. To learn more about this report, email Senior Account Executive Chris Roth (croth@businessinsider.com).  

Business Insider Intelligence's Mobile Banking Competitive Edge study includes: Ally, Bank of America, BB&T, BBVA Compass, BMO Harris, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Fifth Third, HSBC, KeyBank, Navy Federal Credit Union, PNC, Regions, SunTrust, TD, Union Bank, US Bank, USAA, and Wells Fargo.

SEE ALSO: These are the trends creating new winners and losers in the card-processing ecosystem

Join the conversation about this story »

Dear Readers,

This week's stories included lots of bank earnings (bottom line: bond trading slumped, but execs said the markets are improving). We broke down Wall Street's (skeptical) reaction to a $22 billion fin-tech megadeal. And we talked to a handful of tech bankers who sighed that although 2019 was supposed to be the year of the multi-billion IPO, it's turning into a 's---show' (their words). 

I went down a bit of a rabbit hole this week after reading our reporter Dan DeFrancesco's piece about a new fin-tech company that lets small investors buy partial ownership in real-world assets such as an art collection (imagine holding 1/1,000,000th of a Picasso) or shares in a soccer club, through the sale of digital tokens. There are also a number of companies doing this with real estate to let smaller investors take fractional ownership in different residential or commercial properties. I've even heard rumblings of tokens for rare wine and car collections, restaurants, or portfolios of patents. 

Here's how it works. 

Groups issue "security token offerings"— different than initial coin offerings, which have drawn a wave of subpoenas from regulators. STOs, meanwhile, have garnered increased attention over the past year as a legitimate alternative investment method. The digital securities have stricter regulatory oversight and are tied to actual assets.

STOs serve a few different purposes. Big picture, their aim is to make previously illiquid assets as liquid as cash. They can also serve as an alternative funding avenue for a startup rather than traditional methods like venture capital. And they offer the ability for small investors to gain access to exclusive investments that may have been off-limits to them previously. 

Probably my favorite application of this technology being used so far is the St. Regis Hotel in Aspen, which last year allowed smaller investors to buy digital tokens that represent equity shares in the high-end hotel.

It all seems a bit 'pie in the sky' for now, but I think this is going to be a huge trend that becomes increasingly mainstream in the couple of years, particularly as better infrastructure comes along and regulation is cleared up. 

Next week, we'll be sending a big group of reporters and editors to Davos to rub elbows with billionaires and world leaders so stay tuned for some dispatches from the snow. 

To read most of the articles here, subscribe to BI Prime, or email me at ooran@businessinsider.com for a 1-month free trial. And if you're interested in the latest healthcare news, check out our Friday newsletter, Dispensed.

Please pass along this newsletter to anyone you think might find it valuable. New readers can sign up here. 

Thanks again for reading and enjoy the long weekend!  

- Olivia

2 dealmakers named David: Uber and Lyft's expected IPOs will trigger competition at Google's in-house VC firms

The 2019 tech IPO line up has promised plenty of side-choosing as ride hailing rivals Lyft and Uber prep for dueling multi-billion dollar public stock offerings.

Alphabet, however, has hedged its bets, reports BI's Becky Peterson. 

The Google parent company has made major investments in both Uber and Lyft through its two investment arms, CapitalG and GV.

Alphabet is in a unique position, perhaps rivaled only by SoftBank's competing investments in Uber, the Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing, the Indian Olo Cab, and Singapore's Grab.

There are not many other examples of investors playing both sides of the field — venture capital firms tend to avoid backing direct competitors because of stress it creates between founders and investors, as well as the logistics over which information can be disclosed to which people within a firm.

As big corporations like Alphabet and SoftBank take on an increasingly larger role in startup investing, the rules of the game are changing.

The David Solomon era at Goldman Sachs kicked off with 43 words Lloyd Blankfein would never say

If it wasn't clear before Wednesday that a new era of management had begun at Goldman Sachs, new CEO David Solomon wasted little time in making the point.

Just minutes into the firm's fourth-quarter conference call, Solomon told analysts the firm was taking a hard look at its beleaguered fixed-income trading division. The review might include shrinking the business further if necessary.

"Let me be direct," Solomon said. "We are fully cognizant of the reduction in industry wallet over the past decade, and we will not be complacent waiting for the market to return. We are running the business with a clear perspective of its revenue potential."

On its face, Solomon's declaration doesn't seem all that controversial. Goldman's fixed-income business has had a difficult couple of years, and many competitors have already downsized their own desks. 

But at Goldman, the comment drew a sharp departure from the public stance espoused by Blankfein. Inside its 200 West St. headquarters, Solomon's comment raised eyebrows, according to two employees.

Blankfein, a student of history and business cycles and Goldman's CEO between 2006 and 2018, had famously stuck by the fixed-income-trading division that fueled his rise. For years, he defended the division against calls to shrink its footprint, explaining how important it is to have traders in seats when the business inevitably bounced back. That has yet to materialize.

More here. 

A $72 billion Canadian investor is poised to start making venture-capital bets in Silicon Valley

A huge Canadian pension fund is plotting to expand into Silicon Valley, seeking to place bets on hot US tech startups.

OMERS, which manages more than 95 billion Canadian dollars, or $72 billion, on behalf of municipal workers in the province of Ontario, hired Michael Yang as a managing partner of OMERS Ventures to open the venture arm's first US offices in San Francisco and Palo Alto.

OMERS Ventures oversees about 880 million Canadian dollars invested in 35 companies, mainly in Canada. The goal of expanding to the Bay Area is to gain better access to investment opportunities in innovative startups, Yang said in an interview with BI's Zach Tracer. OMERS itself has been opening offices outside Canada to broaden its investment opportunities.

"Just look at where the deals are, the dollars are, where the innovation is," he said. "As they look to deploy more dollars, invest in more and more interesting projects, they need to expand their geographic horizons."

‘Someone’s going to get hurt’: JPMorgan chief issues a stark warning on the market for risky loans

The firms that lurk outside the traditional banking system, known as shadow banks, are first in line for pain when the leveraged-lending cycle eventually turns, according to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon.

Compared to the traditional banking sector, "shadow banks, they do things differently," Dimon said. Dimon was responding to multiple questions from analysts on the firm's fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday about its exposure to a corporate-loan market that has shown signs of cracking.

Dimon, the head of the largest US bank and a huge lender to corporations, shrugged off any concern about the traditional banking system. He ticked off a list of reasons why the industry will be more immune to losses than it was in the depths of the financial crisis: Senior lenders have more loss protection from other investors lower down the payment waterfall, more flexibility in the deals, and higher capital levels, Dimon said.

Not so for other market players, such as collateralized-loan managers, he said.

"A lot of those folks are — they're quite bright, they kind of know what they're doing — someone's going to get hurt there," Dimon said.

Ken Griffin's $30 billion Citadel has cut several stock-pickers, joining some of the biggest names in the industry in shedding staff

Surveyor Capital, an equities arm of Ken Griffin's $30 billion Citadel, has axed long-time portfolio manager Adam Wolfman and his team of three analysts in December, sources tell Business Insider.

The poor year and a tough environment for traditional stock-pickers has also pushed other multi-strategy firms like Jana Partners and BlueMountain Capital Management to get out of the space completely.

Citadel — which has credit, fixed income, commodities and quant strategies to go along with its stock-picking arms — posted a solid returns in 2018 in its main, multi-strategy fund of 9.1%, according to a source familiar with the matter.

A hot marijuana startup is aiming to go public next year 

Pax Labs is aiming to go public in 2020, Bharat Vasan, the marijuana vape startup's CEO, told BI's Jeremy Berke in an interview.

Vasan he's been talking to bankers and found the appetite for an IPO has been "overwhelmingly positive."

The buzzy vape startup has landed equity investments from blue-chip firms like Tiger Global and Tao Capital Partners.

If you don't know who Pax is, you probably you've heard of Juul, the tobacco-vape company that recently landed a $12.8 billion infusion from Altria. Pax was spun out of Juul in 2017.

Wall Street move of the week:

Blackstone has hired a growth equity veteran as it pushes into a new business area

Chart of the week: 

In tech news:

In markets:

• Forget FANG — a $135 billion investor says a new group of stocks is poised to dominate the market going forward
• A fund manager at a $1.7 trillion investing giant reveals how he's preparing in case stocks crash again — and outlines the risks that could plunge the market into chaos
• One slice of the stock market is set to explode higher — here are the 5 reasons, and how you can get involved
  
  

Other good stories from around the newsroom:

• Gillette knew that its new #MeToo ad would prompt backlash. Here's why the company still went ahead with it.
• What young women think it takes to get ahead at work isn't actually what moves the needle
• 2019 is expected to be another terrible year for media brands, but publishers like BuzzFeed and Refinery29 have a plan to survive

Join the conversation about this story »

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi requested that President Donald Trump delay the State of the Union address until after the government shutdown concludes, whenever that may be, citing security concerns.
• But the Department of Homeland Security said that the agency will be ready to provide security for the address on January.
• The State of the Union is a chance for Trump to try and win over the American populace.
• But according to an INSIDER poll, the platform may not be that useful for Trump.
• Most Americans that are still undecided on the shutdown fight do not regularly watch the State of the Union.
• Therefore Trump's speech would likely not reach the desired audience of persuadable Americans.

President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are fighting over the exact timing of the president's State of the Union address because of the government shutdown, but it may not make a difference either way.

Pelosi requested that Trump delay the State of the Union, scheduled for delivery to a joint session of Congress on January 29, due to security concerns during the record-breaking, ongoing government shutdown.

"Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29th," Pelosi wrote in a letter to Trump on Wednesday.

Pushing the speech back until after the shutdown would deprive the president of a prime-time spot during which Trump could make his case for a border wall and blast Democrats for allowing the government to remain closed. Given that dynamic, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement saying the agency would be ready to provide security for the event.

Read more:Nancy Pelosi suggests Trump either postpone his State of the Union address until after the government shutdown ends, or submit it in writing»

While it is unclear if the request will actually result in the speech's delay, there's little chance the change will make much difference.

According to an INSIDER poll, most Americans that are still undecided about Trump's border wall and the shutdown are unlikely to watch the State of the Union anyway. So there is little chance that the platform itself will aid the president in changing the minds of many Americans.

We conducted a SurveyMonkey Audience poll on a national sample from January 15-16. We had 1,095 respondents for a margin of error of about +/-3.11%. 

We asked respondents who they blamed most for the shutdown, and whether they typically watch the State of the Union address. Overall, 54% blamed the president, 17% percent blamed House Democrats, 16% did not know, 9% blamed Senate Democrats, and 5% blamed either Senate Republicans or House Republicans.

While these numbers have been changing — and no single poll should be construed as the definitive view of who the nation holds responsible — we can use those preferences to figure out if a State of the Union address would actually reach the desired audience of persuadable and undecided Americans.

It's pretty clear it would not.

While the third-most common response among people who took the poll was that they didn't know who to blame, that category of respondent was the least likely to be a regular State of the Union viewer.

Nearly half, or 48 percent, never watched the address, and a total 69% watched it rarely or never. Of the 16 percent who don't have an opinion, only one out of 10 watch the State of the Union "usually" or "always." It's simply not an effective medium to reach out to the voters who may be persuaded to come to the president's point of view.

As it stands, the government is in the 26th day of the partial shutdown and given the political dynamics of the situation, neither side seems ready to back off their position.

As the political fight continues, more and more Americans are starting to feel the burn from the shutdown. What exactly will break the logjam remains to be seen, but it's unlikely to be any speech delivered by Trump.

Overall, 24% identified as very or somewhat conservative, 29% as very or somewhat liberal, with the rest as slightly conservative or liberal, neither conservative nor liberal, or they'd rather not say.

SurveyMonkey Audience polls from a national sample balanced by census data of age and gender. Respondents are incentivized to complete surveys through charitable contributions. Generally speaking, digital polling tends to skew toward people with access to the internet. SurveyMonkey Audience doesn't try to weight its sample based on race or income. Total 1,095 respondents, a margin of error plus or minus 3.11 percentage points with a 95% confidence level.

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NOW WATCH: MSNBC host Chris Hayes thinks President Trump's stance on China is 'not at all crazy'

• President Donald Trump's former lawyer and self-described fixer, Michael Cohen, on Thursday confirmed a Wall Street Journal report indicating he once paid a technology firm to try to rig online polls in favor of Trump.
• He also implicated Trump, saying Thursday that he regretted what he called his "blind loyalty to a man who doesn't deserve it."
• Cohen on December 12 was sentenced to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to tax fraud, bank fraud, campaign-finance violations, and lying to Congress.

President Donald Trump's former lawyer and self-described fixer, Michael Cohen, on Thursday confirmed a Wall Street Journal report indicating he once paid a small technology firm to try to rig online polls in favor of Trump ahead of the 2016 campaign.

"As for the @WSJ article on poll rigging, what I did was at the direction of and for the sole benefit of @realDonaldTrump @POTUS,"Cohen posted to his Twitter account. "I truly regret my blind loyalty to a man who doesn’t deserve it."

The Journal's report said that Cohen gave a firm called RedFinch Solutions between $12,000 and $13,000 in cash — Cohen apparently denied that, telling The Journal it was by check — as well as a boxing glove in a Walmart bag to try to boost Trump's standing in a 2014 CNBC online poll ranking the US's top business leaders and a 2015 Drudge Report poll of possible Republican presidential candidates.

The attempts to artificially inflate Trump's performance in the two polls were unsuccessful, The Journal said. Cohen also had the firm create a Twitter account called @WomenForCohen, which describes Cohen as a "strong""pit bull" and "sex symbol."

Read more: Michael Cohen reportedly paid someone to run a Twitter account called @WomenForCohen that described him as a 'sex symbol'

The Journal said Cohen received a $50,000 reimbursement from the Trump Organization for the services, which the paper said came largely Trump's personal accounts.

In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to tax fraud, bank fraud, and campaign-finance violations in the Southern District of New York. The violations were related to payments to secure the silence of two women, Karen McDougal and the porn star known as Stormy Daniels, who said they had affairs with Trump.

Federal prosecutors said in their sentencing memo for Cohen that he made the payments "in coordination with and at the direction of" Trump, establishing the president as an unindicted coconspirator in the case. Trump has denied having affairs with both women.

On November 30, Cohen struck a deal to plead guilty to one count of lying to Congress in exchange for cooperating with Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 US presidential election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow.

Read more: Everything Michael Cohen told Mueller about the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia, according to the memo that could land Cohen a 'substantial' prison sentence

On December 12, Cohen was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison. At his sentencing, Cohen said he acted out of "blind loyalty" to Trump, adding that "time and time again I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds."

"I have been living in a personal and mental incarceration ever since the day that I accepted the offer to work for a real-estate mogul whose business acumen that I deeply admired," he said. Cohen is scheduled to testify before the House oversight committee on February 7.

SEE ALSO: Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen will testify publicly before Congress next month

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NOW WATCH: MSNBC host Chris Hayes thinks President Trump's stance on China is 'not at all crazy'

• Actors Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard have listed their four-story Brooklyn townhouse for $4.59 million.
• They purchased the home 12 years ago for $1.91 million, as The Wall Street Journal reports.
• The past several months have seen an assortment of high-profile real estate transactions in Brooklyn, including Matt Damon purchasing Brooklyn's most expensive apartment in late December.

Hollywood power couple Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard are selling their 3,600-square-foot Brooklyn townhouse for $4.599 million.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, they purchased the home at 36 Sterling in Park Slope in 2006 for $1.9 million. The couple moved in while Gyllenhaal was pregnant with their first daughter; now that both daughters are attending schools outside the neighborhood, they're listing the house.

According to the Sotheby's listing, the house has four bedrooms, a fireplace, and a south-facing garden.

Read more: Shaq is selling his lakeside Florida mansion for $22 million, and it comes with a 17-car garage and a 6,000-square-foot basketball court — here's a look inside

The past several months have seen a variety of high-profile celebrity real estate transactions in Brooklyn. Matt Damon bought the borough's most expensive home — a $16.7 million penthouse— in December. And, in January, Curbed reported that celebrity couple Emily Blunt and John Krasinski splashed out $11 million for a condo in the same building as Damon.

Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard's four-story townhouse is listed with Debbie Korb of Sotheby's International Realty.

Below, take a look at the property.

SEE ALSO: Hollywood-style trailers, exclusive dinner parties, and 'Instagram museums': The CEO of a real estate PR firm dishes on how he sells multimillion-dollar mansions to the super-rich

READ MORE: A SoHo triplex penthouse got a $5.5 million price chop, but it could still break the record for the most expensive apartment ever sold in downtown NYC

Celebrity couple Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard got married in May 2009 and, in 2012, purchased a Park Slope, Brooklyn, townhouse for a reported $1.9 million.

Source: People, The Wall Street Journal

The couple has two daughters and, according to The Wall Street Journal, is selling the house because both girls are going to school outside of the neighborhood.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The couple's home is in Park Slope, an expensive Brooklyn neighborhood that borders Prospect Park to the east.

Source: Google Maps

• America's most prominent politicians all got there start somewhere, from the military to local politics.
• We rounded up pictures of some of American lawmakers from their college years or early on in their careers.
• Vice President Mike Pence played acoustic guitar in college, and Sen. Mitt Romney married Ann Lois Davies while he was still a student at Brigham Young University.

America's most prominent lawmakers might seem like they've been around forever. But they all got their start in politics somewhere — whether it be their state capitol buildings, their college dorms, or the Air National Guard. 

Though some of today's most popular politicians have just recently started their national careers (and may even be too young to run for the White House), others have been fixtures in Washington for years and years. 

Take a look back at what some of America's most prominent lawmakers, politicians and government figures looked like at the early stages of their careers, plus pictures of how they look now.

SEE ALSO: How Nancy Pelosi went from San Francisco housewife to the most powerful woman in US politics

California Senator Kamala Harris as a young college graduate in 1986.

Harris is now considering a 2020 run for the White House.

Mike Pence loved to play guitar during his college years.

• The five richest men in the US are worth a combined $415.4 billion.
• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, is worth $135 billion.
• He's followed by Bill Gates, worth $92 billion, Warren Buffett at $81 billion, Mark Zuckerberg at $54.7 billion, and Larry Page at $52.7 billion.
• Their combined wealth equals more than 2% of the US GDP, which was $20.66 trillion in the third quarter of 2018.

The richest men in the US are worth a mind-boggling combined wealth of $415.4 billion. And all but one of them made their fortunes in the tech industry.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos tops the list with a net worth of $135 billion, followed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates ($92 billion), investor and Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett ($81 billion), Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg ($54.7 billion), and Google co-founder Larry Page ($52.7 billion), according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index.

Their combined fortune comes out to more than 2% of the US GDP, which was $20.66 trillion in the third quarter of 2018. (Exactly 2% of $20.66 trillion would be $413.2 billion.)

A Business Insider analysis found that for a billionaire, buying a vacation to Bali is the equivalent of a typical American buying a candy bar. And that's based on a net worth of just $2 billion, the median fortune of a Forbes list billionaire. 

While these five men are the richest in the US, they are not the top five richest in the world. Bernard Arnault, the French businessman who controls LVMH and is worth $69 billion, Amancio Ortega, who controls the world's largest clothing retailer that includes Zara, worth $60.1 billion, and Carlos Slim of Mexico, worth $57.1 billion, are all currently wealthier than both Zuckerberg and Page.

While many of the world's richest billionaires live in the US, Hong Kong overtook the US in 2018 to become the city with the most super-rich people — individuals worth at least $30 million — people in the world. 

SEE ALSO: To a billionaire, the cost of a trip to Bali is like buying a candy bar — here's what spending looks like when you're that rich

DON'T MISS: 21 quotes from self-made billionaires that will change your outlook on money

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NOW WATCH: Japanese lifestyle guru Marie Kondo explains how to organize your home once and never again

• Democrats are reaching for Instagram Live videos to showcase relatability and connect with potential voters.
• Younger Democratic politicians have captivated users and amassed large followings through Instagram Live videos.
• Other Democrats have experimented with livestreaming, signaling they might be gearing up toward a 2020 presidential run.

WASHINGTON — The hottest new trend among Democrats looking for a bigger spotlight as the 2020 presidential election kicks into gear is Instagram Live, where politicians can speak endlessly and answer questions from their homes.

The young Democrats are all doing it, especially among the wave of new freshmen members of Congress such as New York's Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Potential 2020 presidential candidate and former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke is also an avid Instagrammer. 

But it is not limited to the younger generation. Even political veterans like Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown have taken to Instagram to chat with followers and supporters.

Brown, 66, has a modest following on Instagram of less than 10,000. Other Democrats, like O'Rourke and Ocasio-Cortez, boast following of 746,000 and 1.6 million, respectively.

Still, each Democrat is using the platform to showcase relatability, whether it is authentic or not.

Ocasio-Cortez often cooks or bakes while discussing priorities and going back and forth with viewers. She responds to critics and addresses her issues with the way Washington works, like when a symposium for freshmen members of Congress featured a number of lobbyists as speaker, which was co-hosted by the American Enterprise Institute.

O'Rourke regularly prepares food or takes his followers on hikes through Texas. Shortly after losing his Senate bid to unseat Republican incumbent Ted Cruz, O'Rourke cooked up a steak, which received fawning coverage among left-leaning publications like ELLE and the Daily Dot.

"During the Senate race, the relentless livestreaming of the candidate’s activities became a feature of his campaign,"wrote Dan Solomon in Texas Monthly. "Supporters could connect with O’Rourke at their leisure, whether it was the mundanities of campaigning or skateboarding."

O'Rourke took it to the next level by documenting his trip to the dentist, sending Twitter users into a frenzy.

The stunt spurred cringes and mockery, even from both critics and supporters of O'Rourke. 

"Please don’t do the colonoscopy!"tweeted Republican operative and CNN commentator Doug Heye.

"Love me some Beto but this is self-parody territory,"quipped Ana Marie Cox, a liberal commentator and writer.

And Democrats, especially those looking to court voters as they mull 2020 presidential bids, are trying to emulate the casual and relatable trend that Ocasio-Cortez and O'Rourke have so handily mastered.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren used the platform to recap her announcement that she had launched an exploratory committee to run for president in 2020, as well as preview a swing through Iowa.

"I’m gonna get me … um, a beer," said Warren during a December 31 Instagram Live video, leaving the camera view only to return with a Michelob Ultra. She also used the livestream to introduced her husband, Bruce Mann.

Warren, whose Instagram account has 1.2 million followers, is currently the most high-profile Democrat officially touring early voting states in pursuit of a presidential bid.

Whether the trend continues will likely depend on its effectiveness. O'Rourke managed to turn Instagram Live sessions into a fixture of his campaign and personal brand. Others, especially those less with different campaign strategies, might struggle to cultivate a strong following with which young Instagram users want to engage.

SEE ALSO: Democrats warn that a formal request for Trump's tax returns may not come quickly

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NOW WATCH: MSNBC host Chris Hayes thinks President Trump's stance on China is 'not at all crazy'

• Details about Google's future version of Android, called Android "Q", have emerged.
• A video with a leaked, early version of Q shows some major changes for privacy controls, as well as a new "dark mode" option.
• It's still early days for Android Q, and anything can change between now and its official release.

The newest version of Google's mobile operating system, Android Pie, is just beginning to make its way onto devices this year, after being limited to Google's Pixel device following its August launch.

On Thursday, however, Android enthusiast forum XDA-Developers got a hold of an early build of Google's upcoming version of Android, called Android "Q."

Given that this is still early build, there aren't very many changes that are worthy of note so far. Except for two.

Google is making big changes to the way you control your privacy on Android Q. And it's introducing the option to enable an operating-system-wide dark mode.

Dark mode makes it more comfortable to use your device in dark settings. And it helps save battery life on devices with OLED displays, which includes pretty much every premium flagship Android smartphone in recent memory. 

Of course, this is an early build of Android Q and that means anything can change between now and when Google releases it, probably later this year. 

Check out the two biggest changes coming in Android Q:

SEE ALSO: Google's cheaper Pixel 3 'Lite' is totally leaked in a new video and comes with one of the most important features from the $800 Pixel 3

Android Q will make it easier to see which apps have permission to access personal data such as your contacts and location.

You'll also finally be able to customize when an app uses your location by choosing between settings: all the time, only when you're using the app, or never. It's a feature that iOS has had for some time.

Apps will also ask your location preferences when you first open them, so you don't have to go into the Settings menus.

• Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to a story on Twitter about a man whose Apple Watch picked up on a major heart problem.
• Cook said the story and others like it "inspire us."
• This isn't the first time an Apple Watch has averted a medical crisis.

Apple CEO Tim Cook responded to a tweet from someone who said their husband's Apple Watch helped save his life.

Twitter user Elissa Lombardo tweeted at Cook on Friday, telling him that her husband's Apple Watch picked up his irregular heartbeat. He subsequently went to the ER and was discovered to have a blockage in his arteries.

According to Lombardo, he has now had two stents fitted, and thanked Cook. The CEO replied on Tuesday, saying he was glad to hear her husband was okay and that her story was an inspiration.

Apple released two updates for its watch late last year, designed to help users detect irregular heart rhythms and perform an electrocardiogram — a heart function test — from their wrist.

In 2017, health startup Cardiogram and the University of California San Francisco found that the wearable tech can detect an abnormal heart rhythm with 97% accuracy when paired with an AI-based algorithm.

In a separate study last year, Cardiogram and the University of California San Francisco revealed that the Apple Watch can also pick up hypertension, otherwise known as high blood pressure, and sleep apnea.

Lombardo's story isn't the first time an Apple Watch has taken the credit for averting a medical crisis. Last year, a 32-year-old man was alerted by his Apple Watch telling him to seek medical attention for what turned out to be a ruptured ulcer.

SEE ALSO: Apple has finally released a battery case for the latest iPhones, and it costs $129

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NOW WATCH: 7 science-backed ways to a happier and healthier 2019 that you can do the first week of the new year

• Google is being criticized for allowing an app on its Google Play Store that promotes the controversial practice of gay conversion therapy.
• LGBTQ+ advocates say the religious group behind the app has incited hate against the queer community, and "casually trashes LGBT people as living 'destructive lifestyles.'"
• An online petition calling for the app to be removed has garnered almost 40,000 signatures.
• The same app was already removed from Apple's app store in December.

Google is facing criticism over an app in its Play Store that promotes gay conversion therapy.

An online petition calling on Google to remove the app has received almost 40,000 signatures since it surfaced a week ago on Change.org. The LGBTQ+ advocacy group behind the petition, Truth Wins Out, says the app "casually trashes LGBT people as living 'destructive lifestyles,'" which goes against Google's "stated policies of inclusion, respect and diversity."

The app, from the religious group Living Home Ministries, was already removed from Apple's App store in December after Truth Wins Out created a similar online petition to plead its case. But while Apple reacted "swiftly" to kick the app from its store, Google has been dragging its feet, Truth Wins Out says.

"By any standard, the app is awful. It brazenly compares homosexuality to an addiction," the petition reads. "Every moment that this app remains at Google’s online store, vulnerable LGBT teenagers can download it, so time is of the essence."

Google's policy for its Google Play Store states it doesn't allows apps that "incite hatred against individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization."

Google did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment. The app has been available in Google's Play Store since 2014, and has been downloaded more than 1,000 times, the app store data shows.

Read more:The author of 'Boy Erased' reveals what gay conversion therapy is really like — and how he survived it

The religious nonprofit behind the app, Living Hope Ministries, describes itself as adhering to"a Christ-centered, Biblical world-view of sexual expression rooted in one man and one woman in a committed, monogamous, heterosexual marriage for life." The organization promotes this belief through support groups, counseling, and education that counter the rise of "homosexuality, gender confusion, and sexual and relational brokenness."

Living Hope Ministries said in a statement to the Telegraph that Truth Wins Out claims' were "inaccurate" and "not descriptive" of the services the organization offers.

Gay conversion therapy, like Living Hope Ministries' "ex-gay" program, has been widely criticized for its negative effects on the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals. The American Psychiatric Association has warned against efforts to "mischaracterize homosexuality and promote the notion that sexual orientation can be changed."

Research has shown that LGBTQ+ individuals who went through gay conversion therapy are 63% more likely to have attempted suicide. Nonetheless, almost 700,000 Americans have received conversion therapy, according to a study from UCLA's School of Law in January 2018.

The realities and negative effects of gay conversion therapy were brought center stage in 2018 with the release of two popular movies— "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" and "Boy Erased." The author of the memoir "Boy Erased", Garrard Conley, also helped to produce a podcast from WNYC that tells the stories of LGBTQ+ individuals who have experienced gay conversion therapy.

SEE ALSO: Norwegian authorities are investigating allegations that Tidal's streaming numbers for Beyonce and Kanye West albums were inflated

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NOW WATCH: Jeff Bezos is worth over $100 billion — here's how the world's richest man makes and spends his money

• Facebook users are using Facebook less — but that's not necessarily the end of the world for the company.
• An analyst argues that television's revenues increased for years after it hit peak viewership, suggesting a way forward for Facebook.
• And the company also has Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger at its disposal — all of which could be considerably more monetized than they are now.

A key question confronting Facebook in 2019 is whether Facebook's nightmare year of scandals will have real consequences for its users' behavior.

There are already indications that people are using the 2.2 billion-member social network less than they used to — and there are fears among some observers and investors that usage could continue to dwindle over the coming months.

But even if that's the case, that's not necessarily any reason to worry, according to Rob Saunderson, an analyst at MKM Partners.

In a new research note for clients on Monday, Saunderson argued that Facebook can continue to grow its revenues even if it can't convince users to spend more time on the social network, and points to television as a historical example of this. 

"While we think ad 'engagements' on television maxed out earlier, pay-TV subs in the US peaked in 2010," he wrote. "We think it's conservative to say that television advertising revenue has continued to grow for at least six years past the peak in engagement."

Adding to this, Facebook the company isn't just Facebook the app. It has a plethora of other social apps — namely Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp — that are largely free of the reputational issues plaguing Facebook's core product. Even as Facebook dwindles, these other services are likely picking up the slack, Saunderson reckons.

"Cumulative engagement across the family of apps remains very healthy and much of the reported engagement decline on Facebook is likely fuelling engagement growth on other [Facebook] properties," the analyst wrote.

In other words: The television industry's continued good health even after viewership started to go into reverse shows that a drop in engagement isn't necessarily the end of the world for Facebook — and the company also has a bevvy of other lucrative properties to support it. Some of these, like WhatsApp, are extremely early in their path to monetization, and are likely to see significant revenue growths for years to come.

Facebook doesn't break out data on how much time people are spending on the social network on a regular basis. Third-party estimates abound, many of which paint a negative picture for Facebook — one from Pivotal published in late 2018 estimate a 7% decline year-on-year. But they're ultimately estimates and educated guesswork, and Saunderson is largely skeptical of all these figures: "There is no reliable data on total engagement or time spent metrics in our view," he wrote.

"[Facebook's] management did say that the 5% reduction in time spent in Q4’17 was 50mn hours per day of engagement, suggesting more than 90bn hours of total engagement for the quarter."

MKM Partners remains highly bullish on Facebook's prospects, and has set a 12-month price target of $190 — far above the level it's currently trading, around $146. Of course, even this bullish target remains below Facebook's 52-week high of $218.62.

Do you work at Facebook? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via Signal or WhatsApp at +1 (650) 636-6268 using a non-work phone, email at rprice@businessinsider.com, Telegram or WeChat at robaeprice, or Twitter DM at @robaeprice. (PR pitches by email only, please.) You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

SEE ALSO: Here are the Facebook execs who insiders think might leave next

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NOW WATCH: China made an artificial star that's 6 times as hot as the sun, and it could be the future of energy

• CES 2019, the biggest tech show of the year, was light on funky, futuristic laptops that will likely never come to market.
• What it did have were some great-looking laptops that are either already available for sale or will come out later this year.
• Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Huawei all had strong outings this year, with new models that look great and offer great specs — and that are often cheaper than a comparable Mac from Apple.

CES 2019, the largest tech convention of the year, got me excited about laptops in 2019. 

I didn't see any crazy concept laptops, with weird designs and funky features that are unlikely to make it to store shelves — unusual, because those are usually out in full force at CES. 

What I did see was a good range of perfectly reasonable and practical models that we're definitely going to see come to market in 2019. In a way, these "reasonable" new laptops are actually more exciting than the far-out concepts, mostly because they'll actually be available to buy at some point this year.

This year, there was a great showing by Lenovo, Dell, HP, and Huawei.

Check out our favorite laptops of CES 2019 that we can't wait to try:

SEE ALSO: Laptops with the 'holy grail' of screens are finally coming this year

Huawei MateBook 13

The latest MateBook 13 from Huawei sports a beautifully minimal design, great specs, and a price tag that'll make anyone question Apple's $1,200 asking price for the new MacBook Air.

The $1,000 base model of the MateBook 13 comes with an 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, a fingerprint scanner, and a sharp 13-inch 1440p display. Overall, those are very similar to — if not better than —  the specs in the 2018 MacBook Air, but for $200 less. 

The $1,200 MateBook 13 model comes with a powerful 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, a fingerprint scanner, and a sharp 13-inch 1440p display. Essentially, for the same price as the MacBook Air, you're getting a significantly more powerful processor and more storage.

The MateBook 13 series comes with only USB-C ports, which isn't ideal. However, Huawei is including a USB-C adapter for more traditional USB ports, which is something that Apple expects you to buy separately. 

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 7th generation

In several respects, Lenovo's 7th generation of its ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptop is just another great Lenovo laptop with that beautifully classic, IBM-inspired design and a fantastic keyboard. What makes this specific laptop special is just how lightweight it is. The new 7th-generation X1 Carbon weighs in at 2.4 pounds, which is 0.35 pounds lighter than the 2018 MacBook Air's 2.75 pounds.

Once available in June 2019, the 7th-gen ThinkPad X1 Carbon can be had with an 8th-generation Intel Core processor, up to 16GB of RAM, up to 2 terabytes of SSD storage, a 15-hour battery life (or so Lenovo says), a fingerprint sensor, and all the ports that the MacBook Air should, but doesn't, have. That includes two regular USB 3.1 ports, two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, and an HDMI port.

Lenovo estimates a starting price of $1,710, which seems on the high side, but we'll have to wait to see what specs come with the asking price when it's fully released in June this year. 

Frost White Dell XPS 13 9380

The new Dell XPS 13 comes in a new color scheme — white on the inside with a rose-gold exterior. In this photo, it all looks pretty pink, but that's because of the lighting ... trust me, it's white. 

It looks absolutely stunning, and it makes a strong case for other laptop models to offer their wares in white, too. Dell also moved the camera from the bottom of the screen to the top, which fixes the XPS series' webcam viewing angle that used to look up a user's nostrils. 

As with other top laptops, the Dell XPS 13 is moving up to an 8th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16GB of RAM, up to a 4K display, and is available in various storage options when it's available in February 2019. Its starting price is $900.

• US President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday night mocking Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos over his divorce, dubbing him Jeff "Bozo."
• In the tweet, Trump appeared to praise the National Enquirer, the gossip tabloid that published details of Bezos' relationship with the former TV news anchor Lauren Sanchez.
• Trump berated The Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos.
• The Post published a bombshell report over the weekend about Trump's meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

US President Donald Trump has mocked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos over his divorce in a tweet.

In a flurry of posts on Sunday evening, Trump seemed to revel in Jeff Bezos' impending divorce from his wife, MacKenzie. The president baptized Bezos with a nickname, dubbing him "Jeff Bozo."

Previously Trump — who has been married three times — told reporters he thought the divorce was going to be "a beauty."

Read more:Trump wishes Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos good luck with his divorce, says it's 'going to be a beauty'

In his tweet Trump seems to refer to reporting by the National Enquirer, the gossip tabloid that published pictures of Bezos with the former TV news anchor Lauren Sanchez and obtained texts sent from Bezos to Sanchez.

The Enquirer is a longtime ally of Trump's, and its publisher admitted in December to having bought the rights to ex-playmate Karen McDougal's story of an affair with Trump so it could quash it using a "catch and kill" deal.

Trump has also long been critical toward Bezos, who bought The Washington Post — a publication the president has attacked over its reporting on his administration — in 2013.

The Post published an article over the weekend finding that Trump had been secretive about his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, concealing details even from senior officials. Trump phoned in to Fox News on Saturday night to dispute the article, saying: "I'm not keeping anything under wraps, I couldn't care less."

The president also has a history of animosity toward Amazon, which Bezos runs as CEO. The news website Axios reported in March that Trump was "obsessed" with taking down Amazon.

SEE ALSO: Trump is reportedly 'obsessed' with taking down Amazon — here's his history with his least favorite company in America

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Jeff Bezos is worth over $100 billion — here's how the world's richest man makes and spends his money

• Top American economists from both sides of the aisle see a carbon tax as the most cost-effective way to address climate change.
• In a letter out this week, forty-five of them said climate change was "a serious problem calling for immediate national action."
• But lawmakers remain bitterly partisan on climate action, especially carbon taxes.

What do eight recent Republican White House economic advisers have in common with their Democratic counterparts?

They think the US needs to tax carbon in order to address climate change.

From Janet Yellen to Gregory Mankiw, top economists from both sides of the aisle signed a letter published in the Wall Street Journal this week calling for a national tax on carbon emissions, which play a central role in global warming. They said climate change was "a serious problem calling for immediate national action."

Co-signatories of the Climate Leadership Council letter included:

• Nearly every Council of Economic Advisers chair since the 1970s, more than half of which served Republican administrations
• Four former Federal Reserve chairs, split between parties
• Two former Treasury secretaries on opposite sides of the political spectrum
• More than two dozen Nobel Laureate economists

"As the number and stature suggest, you won't find much disagreement among economists," Christopher Knittel, an energy economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said of carbon taxes. "In fact, the only real disagreement is among policymakers."

The policy outlined in the letter would increase the cost of products and services that use carbon, which the economists called "the most cost-effective lever" to reduce emissions at the scale and speed they said was necessary.

While that would mean higher fuel and electricity prices, those funds would be redirected to Americans in the form of dividends. It is estimated that a $40 per ton carbon tax would amount to a $2,000 per family rebate, Yellen told the Washington Post.

But for all of the consensus among economists, a carbon tax is still one of the most politically polarizing issues around. Lawmakers have failed to pass such a policy even at state levels, despite decades of research showing climate change poses catastrophic risks to the planet.

“It is misleading for CLC to say their carbon tax plan has political viability when that is not the case at all,” said Thomas Pyle, a Trump campaign advisor and president of the Institute for Energy Research, a think tank that supports fossil fuels.

He pointed to Washington state's recent rejection of a carbon tax proposal, though it contrasted with national plans in not being revenue neutral. The state ballot initiative also faced a more than $31 million campaign led by oil industry donors who argued it would hurt the economy.

"Without that industry onslaught, the carbon tax referendum there would probably have passed," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said in December.

 Richard Schmalensee, a member of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George H.W. Bush, said depolarizing carbon taxes would start with congressional acceptance of scientific findings. Many Republicans in office have downplayed the threat of global warming, also rejecting the widespread consensus that humans contribute to it.

"Among lawmakers the division is not on that proposition but, rather, on whether climate change is actually a serious problem," Schmalensee said. "In other countries the center-right wants to do less than the center-left, but outright denial of hard science seems, sadly, to be a U.S.-only phenomenon. I can remember when it was Republicans in DC who insisted on following the science.”

Recent polls suggest the number of Republicans who believe climate change exists could be on the rise. But GOP lawmakers have continued to take tones similar to President Donald Trump, who during his presidency has shrugged off a series of landmark reports on global warming.

"President Trump is sui generis in many ways, so it is hard to predict his behavior," said Gregory Mankiw, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush and a co-signatory of the letter. "But I think the broader political class will over time recognize the importance of the issue, and once they do, they will see the carbon tax and dividend plan as the best response to a pressing problem."

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Rising smartphone penetration, regulations pushing users away from cash, and globalization demanding faster and new ways to transact are leading to a swell in noncash payments, which Business Insider Intelligence expects to grow to 841 billion transactions by 2023.

This shift has created a greenfield opportunity in the space. Legacy providers are working to leverage their scale as they update their infrastructure and adapt their business models. But at the same time, upstarts are using their strengths in user experience to try to disintermediate or beat out those at the forefront of the space — a dichotomy that’s creating crowding and competition.

Digitization and crowding in the payments space will force companies that want to emerge atop the ecosystem to undergo four critical digital transformations: diversification, consolidation and collaboration, data protection, and automation. Those that do this effectively, and use these shifts as a means of achieving scale without eroding the user experience, will be in the best position to use ongoing digitization in their payments space to their advantage.

In The Future Of Payments 2018, Business Insider Intelligence takes a look at some of the biggest problems digitization and crowding are causing for payments firms, outlines the key transformations players can make going forward to resolve them, and explores areas where firms have already begun to use these transformations to their advantage.

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Major logistics providers have long relied on analytics and research teams to make sense of the data they generate from their operations.

But with volumes of data growing, and the insights that can be gleaned becoming increasingly varied and granular, these companies are starting to turn to artificial intelligence (AI) computing techniques, like machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing, to streamline and automate various processes. These techniques teach computers to parse data in a contextual manner to provide requested information, supply analysis, or trigger an event based on their findings. They are also uniquely well suited to rapidly analyzing huge data sets, and have a wide array of applications in different aspects of supply chain and logistics operations.

AI’s ability to streamline so many supply chain and logistics functions is already delivering a competitive advantage for early adopters by cutting shipping times and costs. A cross-industry study on AI adoption conducted in early 2017 by McKinsey found that early adopters with a proactive AI strategy in the transportation and logistics sector enjoyed profit margins greater than 5%. Meanwhile, respondents in the sector that had not adopted AI were in the red.

However, these crucial benefits have yet to drive widespread adoption. Only 21% of the transportation and logistics firms in McKinsey’s survey had moved beyond the initial testing phase to deploy AI solutions at scale or in a core part of their business. The challenges to AI adoption in the field of supply chain and logistics are numerous and require major capital investments and organizational changes to overcome.

In a new report, BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, explores the vast impact that AI techniques like machine learning will have on the supply chain and logistics space. We detail the myriad applications for these computational techniques in the industry, and the adoption of those different applications. We also share some examples of companies that have demonstrated success with AI in their supply chain and logistics operations. Lastly, we break down the many factors that are holding organizations back from implementing AI projects and gaining the full benefits of this disruptive technology.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• The current interest in and early adoption of AI systems is being driven by several key factors, including increased demands from shippers, recent technological breakthroughs, and significant investments in data visibility by the industry’s largest players.
• AI can deliver enormous benefits to supply chain and logistics operations, including cost reductions through reduced redundancies and risk mitigation, improved forecasting, faster deliveries through more optimized routes, improved customer service, and more.
• Legacy players face many substantial obstacles to deploying and reaping the benefits of AI systems, though, including data accessibility and workforce challenges.
• AI adoption in the logistics industry is strongly skewed toward the biggest players, because overcoming these major challenges requires costly investments in updating IT systems and breaking down data silos, as well as hiring expensive teams of data scientists.
• Although AI implementations are unlikely to result in large-scale workforce reductions in the near term, companies still need to develop strategies to address how workers' roles will change as AI systems automate specific functions.

 In full, the report:

• Details the factors driving adoption of AI systems in the supply chain and logistics field.
• Examines the benefits that AI can deliver in reducing costs and shipping times for supply chain and logistics operations.
• Explains the many challenges companies face in implementing AI in their supply chain and logistics operations to reap the benefits of this transformational technology.

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to an All-Access pass to BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and over 100 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >>Learn More Now
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