AppLovin Short Sellers Discover Mobile Ad Tech's Ugly Underbelly
Dell shakeup: Dell COO Jeff Clarke said he would take over day-to-day responsibility of the company's PC unit, which has been in a prolonged slump.
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Forbes
5 minutes ago
- Forbes
Your Attention Is Being Sold: 4 Strategies To Protect It
New data underscores the booming business of attention—with advertising spend outpacing consumer ... More spend. Feeling increasingly distracted? New data suggests it's not in your head. According to PwC, global entertainment and media revenues are projected to reach $3.5 trillion by 2029. What's fueling growth? Buying and selling attention. The report highlights that advertising spend is projected to grow three times faster than consumer spend (6.1% vs 2% CAGR). When companies are willing to pay a cost per click, the world is designed to distract - and that design is profitable. Distraction isn't a personal flaw. In 2025, when attention is more commoditized than ever, the smarter move is to prepare for distraction—and sharpen strategies for when it inevitably happens. Attention: Profitable for Companies. Costly for Consumers. Consumer focus is incredibly valuable - to companies. Just as an example, Meta's 2025 revenue, over $164 billion across Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and more, comes largely from ads. But what these platforms really monetize is time and attention. As a result, if attention is profitable for companies, it is costly for people in ways that add up: Lost Productivity: Research aggregated by UC Berkeley shows it can take between 8 and 23 minutes to return to deep focus after an interruption. What does this mean? Getting distracted three times in a day, even if briefly, could mean an hour of overall lost productivity. Mental Health: Studies link frequent phone connection to poor sleep quality and higher stress. Addiction: Reports suggest that it can take just 30–35 minutes of scrolling on TikTok to trigger addictive patterns. As Dr. Thekla Brumder Ross, clinical psychologist, addiction and well-being expert, shared in a Zoom interview, 'The average American spends 12 hours a day on a screen… it's rewiring our dopamine reinforcement loops. And there is no current criteria in the DSM-5 for general technology addiction." Decreased Joy: Time away from phones, especially in motion, has been tied to higher life satisfaction. Small pockets of disconnection matter. Attention Management: Four Strategies to Sharpen Focus What can you do? One tactic is simply disabling alerts; a 2025 Reuters analysis found 43% of respondents turned off news notifications. However, in work and life total disconnection is rarely possible and platforms will continue innovating ways to pursue attention. Better than unplugging is a plan: build a deliberate playbook to manage connection and handle distraction. Here are four strategies to do exactly that: At least once a day take a 5-10 minute phone-free walk. Use the time for social connection or simply enjoy your own thoughts, not someone else's. Try this: When you go get coffee, swing by a coworker's desk, or step outside, leave the phone behind at least once next week. Use your phone to help manage your focus. Try This: Go beyond 'Do Not Disturb' by programming focus modes by day, time and app for different work and life scenarios. For example, if you prioritize deep work from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on Wednesdays but still need to be reachable for family or a key client, you can program a mode that allows only those calls and blocks social apps. As new scenarios arise, take 30 seconds to create a focus mode for it so you are ready next time. Brumder Ross recommends a strategy called 'Release the Grip' to promote intentional phone use. Try This: Instead of grabbing your device, place your palm gently on top of it, turn it face up and ask, 'What do I need in this moment?' This is a self-compassion check. Maybe you need to knock out a few transactional tasks. Maybe you don't. Maybe you simply need to write a note and handle it later. The question interrupts the impulse to scroll and clarifies intent. Every notification creates an opening. First Slack, then LinkedIn, then the pull to check one more thing. Instagram. Being reachable isn't just about responsiveness. It's about attention - and how easily it gets redirected. As a result, managing distraction means managing expectations. 'No one is going to communicate your boundaries for you. You have to do that,' Brumder Ross says. Try This: Clarify when you're reachable and how. Use tools people actually check: calendar blocks, Slack statuses or away messages like 'Heads down until 2:00 p.m., back after.' However, setting the boundary isn't enough - you have to enforce it. If you respond during focus time, you're signaling that you're available. Particularly for anyone leading a team or managing others, modeling how you manage your focus offers permission for others to do the same. Companies Have a Strategy for Your Attention. Create Your Own. The attention economy is only getting louder. However, as Brumder Ross highlights, 'You can't control what the tech companies do, but you can control where you put your attention." The news cycle will not slow. Work will not pause. Connection is part of modern life. However, you may not have to fight the current or disengage completely. The key takeaway is to simply have strategies for managing distraction and engaging with technology on your terms. Reclaiming focus isn't about perfection. It's about practice - and power.
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund Sold Global-E Online Ltd. (GLBE) Due to Cybersecurity and Execution Concerns
Sands Capital, an investment management company, released its 'Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund' Q2 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. Technology Innovators focus on pioneering businesses worldwide that serve as key drivers or beneficiaries of significant long-term changes driven by technology. The fund returned 26.0% (net) in the second quarter compared to a 21.9% return for the benchmark, MSCI ACWI Info Tech and Communication Services Index. Easing geopolitical concerns, renewed AI optimism, resilient macroeconomic data, strong corporate earnings, and technical tailwinds boosted the markets for a quick recovery in the quarter. You can check the fund's top 5 holdings to know more about its best picks for 2025. In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund highlighted stocks such as Global-E Online Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLBE). Global-E Online Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLBE) is a direct-to-consumer cross-border e-commerce platform. Global-E Online Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLBE) shares returned 4.42% over the past month and experienced a 1.58% decline over the last 12 months. On July 24, 2025, Global-E Online Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLBE) stock closed at $34.27 per share, with a market capitalization of $5.817 billion. Sands Capital Technology Innovators Fund stated the following regarding Global-E Online Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLBE) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter: "We sold Global-E Online Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLBE) due to cybersecurity and execution concerns that may derail the business' ability to sustain the strong growth we expected. In recent months, three large customers have been hacked, resulting in significant operational challenges. While it's possible that these attacks were strictly due to vulnerabilities with third party vendors, it would be a material risk to the business and stock if Global-e was implicated. This risk is exacerbated by the challenges higher tariffs may pose to its business, given its role in facilitating cross-border ecommerce. We still see a significant potential for the business, but these unforeseen challenges led us to exit the position in favor of higher conviction opportunities." A shopper browsing through products online from the comfort of their home. Global-E Online Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLBE) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 32 hedge fund portfolios held Global-E Online Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLBE) at the end of the first quarter compared to 31 in the previous quarter. Global-E Online Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLBE) ended the first quarter 2025 with revenues of nearly $190 million, up 30% year-over-year. While we acknowledge the potential of Global-E Online Ltd. (NASDAQ:GLBE) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Google's Sundar Pichai just became a billionaire—but could have been up an extra billion if he hadn't sold stock
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has officially joined the billionaire ranks, reaching a net worth of $1.1 billion largely through long-term compensation and a 0.02% stake in the $2.3 trillion company. While far behind Big Tech founders in wealth, Pichai's stake has been boosted by Alphabet's AI-fueled rally—even as he regularly sells shares under prescheduled trading plans, demonstrating a disciplined and well-known approach amid booming investor enthusiasm. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has joined the glamorous ranks of the world's billionaires, after the tech giant's class A share price bubbled up 13% over the past month. Pichai's net worth has hit $1.1 billion, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index recorded, courtesy of significant cash reserves and the CEO's 0.02% stake in the company with a market cap of more than $2.3 trillion. Unlike many of his Magnificent Seven peers, the Big Tech boss didn't found the company which has afforded him a 10-figure fortune. Compared with contemporaries like Nvidia's Jensen Huang, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, or Tesla cofounder Elon Musk, Pichai's net worth is considerably lower given the fact he hasn't held a significant sum of shares since the early days of the company. Pichai's path to billionaire status has also been altered by the fact that he has sold shares in Alphabet which were awarded to him as part of his compensation package. For example, Pichai has sold a reported $650 million in Google-owner Alphabet stock over the past decade he has served as CEO—sales that today would have amounted to more than $1 billion in gains, winning him a net worth of some $2.5 billion per Bloomberg's index. For example, in June Pichai offloaded some 33,000 class C Alphabet shares for a price of approximately $169 apiece, totaling some $5.5 million in sales. But at the time of writing, those shares sit at a little over $193—which would have resulted in a value of more than $6.4 million. Google declined to comment. Advance planning But the CEOs of the world's largest companies are not playing the highs and lows of their company's share prices the way retail investors or Wall Street analysts may be. Many of Pichai's recent sales have been pursuant to Rule 10b5-1, which allows stock sales to be set up in advance by officers of publicly listed companies to avoid any accusations of insider trading. The rule has a number of stipulations, chief among them that a formula (not a person) determines the number, price, and date of the trade. A third party who cannot be influenced by the client must also be employed to conduct the sales. Pichai's sales on July 16 and June 4 of this year were both pursuant to 10b5-1, for example, as were sales made in previous years. This tactic will be of no surprise to Wall Street watchers. Fortune reported last summer that Nvidia's CEO, Jensen Huang, for example, was offloading $14 million in stock on a near-daily basis, all pursuant to the same regulation. At the time, James Reda, managing director at Chicago-based consultancy Gallagher's HR and compensation practice, said moves for such executives make absolute sense: 'Ultimately, if you don't sell the stock you're gonna have to be like Elon Musk and some others that are putting stock up for collateral and getting these humongous loans. 'That just makes everybody more leveraged, why do that? Peel off a little stock on a regular basis and sell it.' The AI billionaires While Alphabet beat market expectations this week with its second quarter results, the majority of the rally behind the company at the moment comes from (no surprise) AI. Pichai isn't alone in thanking artificial intelligence for his good fortune. Last year the world's richest, from Musk and Zuckerberg to Oracle's Larry Ellison, added $585 billion to their fortunes largely thanks to the technology. On the company's earnings call Wednesday, the phrase 'AI' was used some 90 times. Alphabet reported revenues up 14% year over year to $96.4 billion, confirming Google Search, YouTube ads, Google subscriptions, and Google Cloud all delivered double-digit growth in Q2. A key concern for investors—particularly when looking at the market leaders in the AI race—will be whether companies can keep the talent to stay ahead of competitors. OpenAI, for example, has lost some of its staff to Meta's newly created AI unit. Pichai shrugged off such fears, telling investors on the call: 'We've gone through these moments before. We have obviously always deeply invested in talent, including in AI talent, for well over a decade now. I think we have an extraordinary both breadth and depth of the talent. 'In my experience, the top people look for a combination of—they want to really be at the frontier driving progress, and so the mission and how state-of-the-art your work is matters, so that's super important to them, access to compute resources, and access to your peers, working with the best people in the industry,' he added. 'I think we are pretty competitive on all those fronts.' This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
