NBCUniversal is trying to make live TV advertising more tolerable before it's too late

Trae Patton/NBC

• NBCUniversal said that it plans to cut the amount of primetime TV ad time by 10% this fall.
• The media giant's sales chief, Linda Yaccarino, said the move is necessary given consumers' changing tolerance for advertising.
• To offset this ad reduction, NBCU is promising to bring more science to its ad targeting to make the remaining TV ad space more valuable.

NBCUniversal knows the traditional TV ad experience needs to change. So it's doing the once-unthinkable: it's going to run fewer ads.

The media goliath said that starting this fall, it will cut the amount of advertising time during primetime (its most coveted and expensive real estate) by 10 percent on all of its networks — from the NBC broadcast network to SyFy to E! and so on.

Linda Yaccarino, NBCU's Chairman, Advertising and Client Partnerships, said that the move is being driven by an overarching recognition that Americans' tolerance for ads is going down, and the TV experience simply has to change.

"If you look at the consumer experience, it needed to get better," she told Business Insider. "You have a population raised with the expectation of being able to ad skip or go ad free. You can't deny that."

NBCU wants to make TV shows feel way less cluttered

Yaccarino said that through research, NBCU has found that it isn't just the amount of TV time that is soaked up by ads that irks consumers, but the way they were clustered and scattered throughout shows. So NBCU also plans to reduce the number of ads per 'pod' — or unique commercial break — by 20%, the company said.

"It was actually the clutter that bothered people," she said. "We were kind of beating them up both ways."

To be sure, NBCU is not setting out to make 10% or 20% less money from ads this year. To offset that reduction in ad time, NBCU will run a standalone 60-second ad break at either the start or end of each show that will serve as something of a marquee placement.

To that end, the company plans to use a blend of data and manual tracking to try and match advertisers with specific episodes of shows, based on themes from particular episodes. NBCU is calling this its "emotional algorithm," Yaccarino said. "It's going to scrub every script to the scene level."

"The Good Place" stars Kristen Bell and Ted Danson.

Ron Batzdorff/NBC

Marketers will be able to place their ads next to specific scenes from shows based on dozens of content attributes, such as "family" or "fanaticism." "Think of it like a giant grid or jigsaw puzzle," she said. "We're actually going to program our ad pods. It's crazy that we haven't done this."

The thinking is that this will deliver people more relevant and effective ads while, at the same time, making TV ads overall more palatable. For example, an advertisement featuring a cute baby might end up running during an episode of a family show centered on a pregnancy plotline.

Hopefully marketers will be willing to pay more for less

And from a business perspective, ideally these new slots will sell for a premium, and make up for any lost revenue from the reduction in overall commercial time.

NBCU sales chief Linda Yaccarino

NBCU

"The market will ultimately determine its worth," Yaccarino said. "We knew that we had to bring a lot more value to the table. Any brand marketer will tell you, it's all about the value that's delivered."

NBCU's move may appear drastic, but probably inevitable, as the commercial television industry is facing secular decline. TV advertisers are starting to spend more on the medium, which appears to have peaked two years ago, Bloomberg reported.

"We're taking a big swing," said Yaccarino. "This is the first wholesale effort to reimagine TV ads. She hopes other TV networks follow NBCU's lead. "That will benefit the greater good of the TV ecosystem."

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Jared Kushner's business received multimillion-dollar loans from 2 companies whose executives met with him at the White House

White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner arrives for his appearance before a closed session of the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S.

Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

• Jared Kushner's personal financial dealings have sent up red flags in Washington since he was installed as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump.
• Meetings Kushner had while in his official capacity at the White House have drawn new scrutiny because of two multimillion-dollar loans Kushner's company received after he met with executives from Citigroup and Apollo Global Management.
• Kushner's troubled financial portfolio is seen by some within the US government as a liability, potentially making him vulnerable to other countries that might seek to take advantage.

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Jared Kushner's work inside the White House, which has remained under scrutiny since he signed on as a senior adviser to President Donald Trump last year, is under the microscope again.

The New York Times reports that the family business, Kushner Companies, received hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from at least two firms last year.

Those loans — $184 million received from Apollo Global Management in fall 2017, and $325 million from Citigroup in the spring that same year — were received some time after Kushner met with top executives from those companies at the White House.

Kushner is one of many people in the Trump administration who entered their government jobs with substantial wealth, prompting early concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Kushner divested from some, but not all, of his assets before he went to work in the Trump administration, turning some of them over to his brother, and to a trust that his mother oversees.

But Kushner's labyrinthine financial dealings have created something of a cloud over his official work in the West Wing, as observers have watched closely for signs of whether he might be using his position for personal gain.

Spokespeople for Apollo and Citigroup asserted that the loans to Kushner Companies were unrelated to Jared Kushner's White House meetings with their respective executives.

Kushner Companies spokeswoman Christine Taylor criticized The Times, calling the story an attempt to make "insinuating connections that do not exist to disparage the financial institutions and companies involved."

Donald Trump and Jared Kushner.

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

In a statement to The Times, Kushner's attorney, Abbe Lowell, did not deny that the meetings between Kushner and executives from Apollo and Citigroup happened. Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Lowell, said Kushner "has taken no part of any business, loans or projects with or for" Kushner Companies. Mirijanian did acknowledge that Kushner had indeed met with "hundreds of business people" in the course of his official work.

Kushner received some scrutiny last year for failing to disclose a host of communications between himself and foreign entities. He has had to update his security clearance form multiple times because of it.

Lingering doubts around the omissions, Kushner's meetings, and other concerns had some effect on Kushner's federal background check, which has been ongoing for more than a year, forcing him to work with an interim security clearance in the meantime.

Kushner lost that top-secret security clearance last week, following White House chief of staff John Kelly's move to clamp down on the process that had allowed scores of officials to operate under similar temporary authorizations.

The narrative surrounding Kushner's business and political affairs have kept the attention of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is conducting a broad inquiry into whether Russia and people in Trump's orbit cooperated in efforts to interfere in the 2016 US election. Kushner has denied any wrongdoing.

Any possible correlations between Kushner's work in the White House and his personal finances remains an open question for federal investigators. For his part, according to a source cited by CNN on Wednesday night, Kushner has sai d he just feels like "everyone is out to get him."

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A hot startup that could be a model for the JPMorgan-Amazon-Berkshire Hathaway healthcare initiative just raised $110 million

Collective Health co-founders Ali Diab & Dr. Rajaie Batniji

Collective Health

• Collective Health, a startup that works with self-insured employers, just raised $110 million.
• The company helps employers build out health plans that fit their needs by adding technology with the hope of making things like submitting claims and reading bills easier.
• Self-insured employer plans have recently come into the spotlight after JPMorgan, Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway said they're forming a new independent nonprofit venture aimed at lowering healthcare costs for their employees.

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A startup that could be a good model for the JPMorgan-Amazon-Berkshire Hathaway healthcare initiative just raised an additional $110 million.

Collective Health helps employers build out health plans that fit their needs by adding technology with the hope of making things like submitting claims and reading bills easier.

In total, the company has now raised about $230 million from investors including Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, NEA, and GV.

If you're an employee with a self-insured employer, it means that when you're going to a doctor's appointment, your employer is ultimately footing the bill for the MRI you receive, rather than a health insurer. More than half of the non-elderly population is covered by an employer-sponsored plan, and almost 80% of large companies are self-insured.

The companies that you might be familiar with on a health insurance card are there in the middle to handle the logistics of getting the claim from one place to another, which means you might not realize your employer's footing the entire bill on the other end. Employers pay insurance companies for their services on a per member, per month basis.

What Collective Health is trying to do is make that experience better. The most recent funding round will be used to build out its technology platform and increase its operations.

So far, Collective Health covers about 125,000 members, consisting of employees and their dependents from companies like Zendesk, Palantir, eBay, and Pinterest.

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Spotify just proved that the streaming music business is a like a black hole — and investors might not see it until it’s too late

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek.

Getty Images News

• Spotify released its financial results Wednesday as part of the paperwork it filed to become a public company.
• The results show just how difficult the streaming business is, even for the market leader.
• Investors shouldn't expect Spotify to ever become a big money maker.

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If you hadn't figured this out already, the streaming music business is a terrible one to be in.

That's the chief takeaway from the financial paperwork Spotify filed Wednesday in advance of becoming a public company. Despite dominating the subscription music market, the company generates relatively little money per user, has to give away nearly all the money it generates to the big recording companies, and continues to rack up losses.

And, as the company warned potential investors, things may never get much better.

"There can be no guarantee as to when we will eventually reach profitability, if at all," the company said in it regulatory filings.

It's been clear from the years and years worth of losses Pandora has posted that streaming music can be a tough business. But one would have hoped that Spotify would be in a much better position. After all, by some measures, the company has been wildly successful.

Spotify dominates the streaming music business

iTunes

Not too long ago, there were plenty of doubters around who wondered if consumers would ever give up buying songs and albums in favor of paying a monthly subscription. Now, subscriptions generate far more money for the music industry than paid downloads, thanks in no small part to Spotify.

The company has 159 million monthly active users from around the world, 71 million of which pay a monthly subscription fee to use its service. Despite facing off against some of the biggest and most powerful companies in the world, including Apple, Google, and Amazon, Spotify has more than held its own. Its number of paying subscribers is about double that of Apple Music, the no. 2 player in the streaming music market.

Even though it's already huge, Spotify continues to grow rapidly. Its number of monthly active users jumped 29% last year. And as impressive as that growth is, Spotify is having even more success convincing users to pay for its service. Its number of premium subscribers grew 46% in 2017.

All that growth has helped lead to improving financial results. The company's sales jumped 39%.

Thanks to contracts it renegotiated with the major record labels last year, Spotify now gets to keep more of the money it takes in from subscribers and advertisers, helping it improve its bottom line. While its operating loss increased last year, the company actually shrunk that loss significantly as a portion of its revenue. And Spotify has generated free cash flow — the amount of cash yielded by a company's operations less expenditures on long-term goods and assets like property and equipment — for the last two years.

But it hands over nearly all its revenue to the record labels

It sounds like everything is moving in the right direction, right? So what's not to like?

Well, as impressively as Spotify has performed and as big of an impact as it's had on the music industry, its business is still nothing to get excited about. Even with the renegotiated contracts, Spotify still has to pay out huge royalty fees to the big record labels.

After paying out those fees and a few assorted other costs directly related to providing its streaming service, the company is left with only around 21 cents of every dollar it takes in. And that's before it has to pay for advertising or research and development.

Those costs are a big reason why Spotify doesn't seem to have ever posted a full-year profit. Last year, for example, it lost about $1.5 billion on $5 billion in sales. Even if you back out a big one-time financing expense it recorded and some much smaller finance-related income, the company would still have lost $461 million on its operations alone.

If you exclude certain non-cash charges, as Wall Street analysts are fond of doing, Spotify's operations actually generated money. Just not a whole lot. Last year, the company produced $133 million in free cash flow, up from $89 million the year before.

To put those numbers in perspective, Spotify generated about 84 cents of cash for every monthly active user it had last year, up from about 72 cents the year before. All those $10 a month subscriptions it sells and ads it posts on its free service? They added up to less than a $1 per user — for the whole year.

The company is hemmed in by user expectations and deep pocketed rivals

And you shouldn't expect Spotify to ever generate lots of cash, even it it does eventually become profitable.

Here's why.

The appeal to consumers of music streaming services like Spotify is that they offer access to practically all recorded music for a relatively affordable price.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose company has quickly moved into second place in the streaming-music market.

AP

As such, the services are completely dependent on the music labels to grant them access to their libraries — and they have to pay whatever the labels think is fair. Right now, that's somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 cents of every dollar — but that price could up.

Spotify could try to pull a Netflix and publish more artists on its own, rather than having to license all the songs and albums from the big music labels.

But the Netflix model won't translate to Spotify.

That's because unlike Netflix, Spotify couldn't get away with offering a more tailored selection of content. Consumers expect access to a universe of music when they subscribe to a streaming service. It's different than TV, which is more hit-driven.

If Spotify goes narrow, it becomes a nice-to-have service for consumers, instead of the must-have universal music service that consumers will gladly let Apple, Google or Amazon charge their credit cards for every month.

And that points to the fundamental "catch-22" problem in the streaming music business.

You can't go narrow. But if you go broad there's little to differentiate the streaming services. They all basically offer the same proposition. Sure, the apps consumers use to access them are different, and some offer better features than others, but consumers basically get the same thing from each one for the same basic price. That close competition limits Spotify's ability to raise prices or differentiate its service.

And while music is Spotify's entire business, it's a just side hustle for Spotify's bigger rivals. Apple Music helps sell iPhones. For Amazon, music helps make its Prime subscription service more attractive. Those companies can afford to run their music businesses at breakeven or even at a loss, because they're making their money elsewhere. Spotify doesn't have that luxury — but its sales and costs will likely be influenced by such factors.

So don't get too excited about Spotify's impending debut on the public markets. Yes, it dominates streaming music. But that position isn't worth a whole lot.

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Hedge fund billionaire David Einhorn's bad start to the year has gotten worse

Greenlight Capital founder David Einhorn at the Sohn Investment Conference in New York City, May 8th, 2017

Reuters

David Einhorn's bad start to 2018 keeps getting worse.

The Greenlight Capital (Gold), L.P. - Dollar fund, which roughly tracks the firm's flagship fund, dropped 5.7% in February, bringing year-to-date losses to 11.4%, according to a Greenlight client update seen by Business Insider that estimates the returns.

By comparison, the S&P 500 gained 0.67% over the same period, according to Markets Insider data.

Greenlight had already gotten off to a rough start to the year, with the same fund tumbling about 6% in January. The firm's flagship fund returned 1.6% last year after fees, compared with a 21.8% gain in the S&P 500, Business Insider previously reported.

Einhorn said on a conference call last week that Greenlight's performance was the worst since 2000, Bloomberg reported.

A Greenlight spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Greenlight managed $7 billion as of mid-year 2017, per the Absolute Return Billion Dollar Club ranking.

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Mueller is reportedly scrutinizing Trump's efforts last July to force Jeff Sessions out of office

President Donald Trump speaks with Attorney General Jeff Sessions as they attend the National Peace Officers Memorial Service on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., May 15, 2017.

Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

• Special counsel Robert Mueller is said to be investigating President Donald Trump's heated attacks last summer on Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
• At the time, Trump asked why the "beleaguered" attorney general wasn't "looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations."
• Sessions' recusal from the Russia investigation is a key point of frustration for Trump, who once reportedly asked why he couldn't order "my guys" at the "Trump Justice Department" to do his bidding.

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The special counsel Robert Mueller's team is eyeing a key time period between late July and early August of last year, during which President Donald Trump significantly ramped up his attacks against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The line of questioning relates to an obstruction-of-justice case Mueller has been building against the president since last May, shortly after Trump fired FBI director James Comey.

Comey was overseeing the Russia investigation at the time of his firing. The White House initially said Comey was fired because of the way he handled the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. But Trump later said on national television that he fired Comey, in part, because of "this Russia thing." He also reportedly told two top Russian government officials that the FBI director's dismissal had taken "great pressure" off of him.

After Comey's firing, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appointed Mueller as special counsel in charge of the Russia investigation. Typically, the appointment of a special counsel falls on the attorney general. But Sessions was forced to recuse himself from the Russia investigation last March, after it emerged that he failed to disclose his interactions with Sergei Kislyak, then Russia's ambassador to the US, during his Senate confirmation hearing in January.

Sessions' recusal is a key point of frustration for Trump, who once reportedly asked why he couldn't order "my guys" at the "Trump Justice Department" to do what he wanted.

When the Russia investigation began picking up steam last summer, so did Trump's attacks on his hand-picked attorney general.

"So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?" Trump tweeted on July 24.

In another tweet minutes later, Trump called California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, "sleazy" and "totally biased," and accused him of spending "all of his time on television pushing the Dem loss excuse!"

The House Intelligence Committee is one of several congressional bodies investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 race. While Republicans on the panel have been investigating what they characterize as the FBI's misconduct in the Russia investigation, Schiff has been leading the Democrats' calls to focus on the central question of whether members of the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 race in his favor.

Trump continued his Twitter rampage the next day. "Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!" Trump tweeted.

"Why didn't A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation ..." he tacked on the following day. McCabe was forced out of the FBI earlier this year amid an internal investigation into his handling of the Clinton email probe.

Trump's tweets last summer came after he admitted, during an interview with The New York Times the previous week, that he would not have nominated Sessions to be attorney general if he had known Sessions would recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

"Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else," Trump told the Times.

Sessions again sparked Trump's ire when he announced Tuesday that the Justice Department's inspector general, Michael Horowitz, was investigating House Intelligence Committee Republicans' accusations — laid out in a controversial memo released earlier this month — that the FBI abused its authority in seeking a warrant to surveil a former Trump campaign adviser in 2016.

House Democrats on Saturday released a memo countering those claims, arguing that the Justice Department and the FBI provided ample evidence to the surveillance court that justified seeking the so-called FISA warrant.

Horowitz has been the department's inspector general since 2012.

Following Sessions' announcement, Trump got on Twitter to unleash another barrage of criticism toward the attorney general.

"Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse," Trump tweeted Wednesday, referring to surveillance warrants granted by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. "Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn't the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!"

Sessions was seen dining with the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and Solicitor General Noel Francisco on Wednesday in what the news website Axios described as a show of solidarity.

Trump's social-media tirades have raised ethical questions before.

Experts were floored in December, when Trump tweeted, one day after former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to investigators in the Russia investigation, that he had to fire Flynn in February 2017 because Flynn "lied to the FBI."

Comey testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee last June that Trump asked him, during a private Oval Office meeting the day after Flynn was fired, to drop the FBI's investigation into the former national security adviser. Comey gave no indication that he would do so, and he was fired three months later.

Legal experts said that if Trump knew Flynn had misled investigators when he asked Comey to let go of the investigation, as his tweet suggested, it would significantly bolster the obstruction against him.

Trump's personal defense lawyer later took responsibility for the tweet, claiming he had authored it. He added that suggesting the tweet admitted to obstruction was an "ignorant" and "arrogant" assertion.

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Senators blast Trump for suggesting police confiscate guns 'first' and go through 'due process second'

Alex Wong/Getty Images

• President Donald Trump, in a meeting with lawmakers Wednesday, said police should take guns from Americans before due process.
• Senators of both parties rejected the idea for its direct contrast with the US Constitution.

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WASHINGTON — Senators rejected President Donald Trump's suggestion that law enforcement should confiscate firearms from individuals before any due process is applied, after a lengthy meeting at the White House to discuss gun legislation on Wednesday.

"I like taking guns away early," Trump said. "Take the guns first, go through due process second."

Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers in the meeting quickly pivoted from the president's off-the-cuff remark. But back on Capitol Hill, those who either attended or watched the meeting pushed back on the idea that Second Amendment rights could be revoked before any due process of law.

"I don't ever believe there's a time in this country where due process can be dismissed," said North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican. "Period."

Tillis also suggested Trump is a legal novice and therefore was not explicitly saying due process should be stripped from US citizens.

"But I don't think that the president was — he's not a legal scholar — I don't think that he was saying that there's a place where you suspend the constitution and suspend due process. I just don't believe that," Tillis said. "I know you heard the words, I just don't believe in my heart of hearts that's exactly what he meant."

"Strong leaders don't automatically agree with the last thing that was said to them," said Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican, in a statement. "We have the Second Amendment and due process of law for a reason. We're not ditching any Constitutional protections simply because the last person the President talked to today doesn't like them."

Montana Republican Steve Daines, who was one of the senators in the meeting, told Business Insider he disagreed with Trump's idea. As to why he did not make that clear when Trump said it, Daines said, "I think it was a listening session for the president to gather thoughts for various members.

"We'll have a debate on these issues here next, but I don't agree with that," he said.

Also in the meeting was Sen. Pat Toomey, a Republican whom Trump jabbed for being afraid of the National Rifle Association. Toomey did not answer questions from reporters about whether he agreed with Trump that guns should be taken away before due process, adding that "there's lots of things that need to be worked out."

"OK look, it's not my job when there's 25 people in the room to debate every single point myself," Toomey said. "That's not the way that goes."

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who pushed Trump to embrace her proposal to bring back the ban on assault-style weapons like the one in effect from 1994-2004, said she was unsure of what Trump was referencing when he said due process.

"Not necessarily a process, but if a weapon is illegal, police are entitled to take that weapon," Feinstein told reporters. But Feinstein added that if it means taking legal firearms from US citizens before any due process, then like her Republican colleagues, she would reject that idea.

"I don't know what he meant by due process," she added. "I'm reluctant to criticize it because I don't know what he meant. But do I agree with the concept of taking a gun away before — if the law doesn't permit it — no."

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Trump just threw the GOP leadership's strategy on gun control under the bus

Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

• President Donald Trump said during a White House meeting that Congress should pass a broad bill dealing with guns.
• That contradicts the strategy of Senate Republican leaders, who want to pass a narrower bill focusing on the background check system.
• Democrats are in favor of a broader bill to address guns, closer to Trump's request.

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President Donald Trump called on Congress to pass a sweeping bill to address a slew of gun-related issues during a White House meeting Wednesday, a request that flies directly in the face of his own party leadership's strategy.

Trump said in response to the attack at a high school in Parkland, Florida, Congress should address everything from mental illness treatment to the age requirement to buy certain types of guns in an attempt to prevent mass shootings.

In the run up to the meeting, Sen. John Cornyn — the second-ranking GOP senator — repeatedly deflected requests from some Democrats to pass a wide-ranging gun bill. Instead, Cornyn advocated for the Senate to focus on a narrow bill that closed some loopholes in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS.

"I realize that it may not be as comprehensive as some people would like," Cornyn said on the Senate floor Wednesday. "The problem is around here, if you ignore the things that you can agree on and just look to fight about things you can't agree on, nothing ever happens. No problems ever get solved."

Cornyn's "Fix NICS" bill would tighten rules on the existing background check system to ensure that agencies upload information to the NICS. Ad that fewer people who do not qualify to buy a gun fall through the cracks.

During the White House meeting, Trump requested that Cornyn add his narrower NICS background check bill to other legislation such as a proposal that would close background check loopholes for people buying guns online or at a gun show. Trump also suggested increasing the age to purchase long guns to 21.

Trump's request seemed more in line with what Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for on the floor of the Senate than Cornyn.

"Fix NICS has wide support in this chamber, I am a cosponsor but it is just the first, tiny step that addresses one specific issue," Schumer said. "We have a whole host of issues to address."

While many Democrats support the Fix NICS bill, lawmakers in the party are angling to include the fix along with a change that would require background checks on all gun purchases.

"If we were only to debate the Fix NICS Act,we would be slamming the door in the face of all these kids who are demanding change," Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said Tuesday.

Sen. Bill Nelson echoed a similar sentiment, saying Cornyn's bill is "not nearly enough."

"We want to move to some substantial accomplishments to get at this problem," Nelson said.

In a statement following the meeting, Schumer applauded Trump's willingness to go beyond Cornyn's bill.

"I want to commend the president for going far beyond the Fix NICS bill. The president's comments indicate that he supports universal background checks and even possibly an assault weapons ban," he said. "But the next step is even more important - despite the huge pressure that will come from the hard right, the president must stick with these principles."

A spokesperson for Cornyn did not respond to a request for comment.

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LaVar Ball is enjoying the buzz of being in Lithuania because his family is not just 'another lil’ pea in a pod'

LaVar Ball talking with the head coach of his sons' team.

Alius Koroliovas/Getty Images

• Bleacher Report has a new feature on the circus surrounding LaVar Ball and his sons in Europe.
• Ball, unsurprisingly, loves the publicity he is getting.
• The Ball's Lithuanian club has created a Big Baller Brand Challenge explicitly to get his sons playing time.
• LaVar is trying to interfere with the club's operations on his sons' behalf.

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Bleacher Report just dropped a fascinating feature from writer Mirin Fader about LaVar Ball and his sons' venture playing basketball in Lithuania, and spoiler alert, it is every bit the absurd reality show it seems.

One quote from Ball, in particular, seems to sum up his approach to the situation quite well.

"Go to a small place where you got the buzz," Ball said. "Don't go where they got 20 other things going on and you just another lil' pea in a pod."

Fader's writing paints a picture of LaMelo Ball as a young kid who has been overwhelmed by the shadow of his father's celebrity. The piece opens with an anecdote of fans swarming around LaVar and leaving LaMelo alone. Cameras constantly surround LaVar to film his reality show, "Ball in the Family."

Prienai-Birstonas Vytautas, the team for which LaMelo and his older brother LiAngelo play, have pulled out of one local competition, the Baltic Basketball League, in order to play the Big Baller Brand Challenge, that is held against lower-tier teams for the express purpose of getting the Ball boys playing time. In one particularly notable scene, LaMelo ends up getting subbed out in a BBB Challenge game.

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO HIM! YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO HIM! . . . PUT MELO IN!" LaVar yelled at the Vytautas coach.

And all of this is supported by a tiny basketball club thrilled with the extra publicity that the Ball circus brings with it.

As far as actual games against actual competition go, LaMelo hasn't fared nearly as well. In general, Fader paints a picture of the elder Ball trying to set things up to be as easy as possible for LaMelo, from games where he can get easy playing time to a coach who is unwilling, or unable, to push LaMelo as a player.

For more anecdotes about the Kardashians of basketball, including the time LaVar became an assistant coach for Vytautas, check out the whole feature here.

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Take a look inside the stylish, modern-day communes that are taking over US cities

Melia Robinson/Business Insider

More and more city dwellers are considering alternative housing options.

Co-living spaces like Common, which opened three new living facilities since the start of 2018, are providing a sleek reconfiguring of communal life.

In exchange for putting up with a group of strangers in your common space, you receive your own bedroom, a weekly cleaning service, and a regularly replenished stock of items like paper towels, toilet paper, and dish soap.

As Common grows, it's able to offer its rooms at increasingly competitive rates by buying furnishings, supplies, and linens in bulk.

Whatever your opinion on sharing a bathroom with nine other people might be, the demand for co-living spaces shows no sign of letting up: "Right now, we're supply-constrained," said Hargreaves. "We get over 1000 applicants per week — far more demand than we can currently provide for."

Take a look inside Common's latest facility:

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How to Handle Multiple Customers at the Same Time

Ever wonder how to serve three customers at one time without the customers getting adjusted?

If you've ever held a job in a customer service, you've certainly been put in a position where you felt you had to "multi-task" service with multiple people. Perhaps a person walking up to a front desk, when a phone rings, and another call comes in right behind it.

Hey, you can not prevent these situations. So let's learn how to cope with them. Here are some tips for dealing with multiple customers at one time.

The best way to serve multiple customers simultaneously depends on whether these customers are calling in on the phone or have walked into your office. In either scenario, however, every customer desires to be treated with respect and made to feel that her / his business is important to your organization.

As a general rule, a person who walks into your office takes precedence over a phone call. If you receive a phone call while working with someone in person, either let the call go to voicemail or take the call, get the caller's phone number, and call that person back once you have finished assisting the person in your office.

If some people have come into your office, try to handle them in the order in which they came in, but it is crucial to make eye contact with everyone waiting for you and let them know that you will be with them shortly.

When juggling several telephone calls at once, it is best to finish one call before starting the next. If you have the freedom to answer calls as you see fit, it is best to finish up with one caller (and enter notes in the customer database, if your position requires this) before starting the next call. Nothing upsets people more than hearing someone answer "Thank you for calling Archives and Records; will you hold please?" Beside making the person on the phone wonder why you picked up the line when you were not ready to assist her / him, you will be breaking the continuity of the first call and making that call take longer, thereby aggravating your first caller.

As there are many resources online about this subject, I highly recommend researching other methods, particularly communication skills training and David Allen's GTD theory .

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Banks have a big appetite to join JPMorgan's blockchain party

REUTERS/Gil Cohen Magen (ISRAEL)

• During JPMorgan's investor day, CFO Marianne Lake said the company's blockchain initiative — the Interbank Information Network — was working.
• Lake said other banks are looking to "join the party."

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JPMorgan and crypto are a pair many might equate to oil and water.

The Wall Street giant's CEO — Jamie Dimon — famously called bitcoin a "fraud." And in a big regulatory filing the bank noted it could one day be disrupted by cryptocurrencies.

But the bank has been running a pilot program to make certain payments faster using cryptocurrency technology. And other banks are looking to get in on the action.

The Wall Street juggernaut launched its so-called Interbank Information Network (IIN) in October 2017 and the firm's chief financial officer Marianne Lake says the initiative is working. The platform, which is built on top of the bank's private Quo rom blockchain, allows JPMorgan to exchange information with other banks to address compliance issues in certain cross-border payments, Lake said during the bank's investor day on Tuesday. The pilot involves JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Canada and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, but Lake said that other banks have "a lot of appetite" to "join the party."

That's not totally surprising considering how difficult cross-border payments can be. The time and expense of such payments is one of the things bitcoin seeks to remedy. A bitcoin holder can send or receive a coin in a matter of minutes, when the network isn't super clogged up.

"One of the most costly and time-consuming elements of executing cross-border payments today is in correspondent banks having to research and respond to compliance inquiries of each other," Lake said "Today, payments that are flagged for compliance reasons can be delayed for up to two weeks, but this technology can reduce that to minutes."

JPMorgan

One crypto-evangelist described the project as an "actually pretty cool use-case."

John-Paul Thorbjorsen, the head of crypto company Canya, told Business Insider the pilot shows JPMorgan has "figured out how to make an entry in the space."

Lake said the IIN is the first of many initiatives the bank will spearhead in payments.

"The Interbank Information Network represents the first step in our ability to improve end-to-end wholesale payments," Lake said.

JPMorgan isn't the only bank testing the water with blockchain technology. Barclays, UBS, and Credit Suisse are among the banks that participated in a pilot using Ethereum's blockchain to prepare for Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MIFID II), a sweeping regulatory overhaul in Europe that went live this year.

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The global head of investor relations at $28 billion investor Angelo Gordon has left

Reuters/Lucas Jackson

• Gareth Henry, global head of investor relations at hedge fund manager Angelo, Gordon, has left the firm, people familiar with the matter said.
• Henry left earlier this month after two years with the New York-based alternative investment firm.

---

The global head of investor relations at Angelo, Gordon has left the $28 billion investment firm.

Gareth Henry left earlier this month after two years at the company, people familiar with the matter told Business Insider.

Before Angelo, Gordon, Henry worked at Fortress Investment Group and Schroders, according to a LinkedIn page.

A cached version of Angelo, Gordon's website says that Henry was a Managing Director and a member of the firm's executive committee. In a press release announcing Henry's hire two years ago, Angelo, Gordon said that Henry was slated to report to then-president Lawrence M.v.D. Schloss and become a partner.

A spokesman for the firm declined to comment. Henry couldn't immediately be reached.

New York-based Angelo, Gordon manages about $28 billion in credit, real estate, private equity, and other alternative investment strategies, according to its website. Nearly half of those assets - $12.4 billion - were in hedge funds as of last year, according to the Absolute Return Billion Dollar Club ranking.

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Adam Silver sent a letter to NBA teams telling them not to tank

NBA commissioner Adam Silver

Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images

• NBA co missioner Adam Silver sent a letter telling teams not to tank.
• But tanking can be tricky to legislate.
• The league has taken steps in recent years to try and prevent teams from tanking.

---

With tanking looking to be rampant as the NBA regular season enters the home stretch, USA Today has obtained a letter that NBA commissioner Adam Silver sent to all 30 teams telling them not to tank.

"Over the past several seasons, discussions about so-called 'tanking' in the NBA have occurred with some frequency, both in the public discourse and within our league . . . Throughout this period, we have been careful to distinguish between efforts teams may make to rebuild their rosters, including through personnel changes over the course of several seasons, and circumstances in which players or coaches on the floor take steps to lose games," Silver wrote.

"If we ever received evidence that players or coaches were attempting to lose or otherwise taking steps to cause any game to result otherwise than on its competitive merits, that conduct would be met with the swiftest and harshest response possible from the league office."

Of course, defining tanking strictly as a case of players or coaches intentionally trying to lose creates rather narrow grounds for actually punishing teams. It's unlikely that even the notorious Philadelphia 76ers teams under Sam Hinkie featured players actually trying to lose games. Tanking is usually a front office-driven strategy rather than something that happens on the court.

Still, the league has taken other measures to combat tanking, or at least the perception of tanking. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was handed a massive fine for talking about tanking, the league has already tweaked the draft lottery slightly to reduce teams incentive to tank, and it is even considering a playoffs play-in tournament that would further disincentivize tanking.

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Amazon is in talks for a huge new office in Boston — and it drastically ups the HQ2 intrigue

The famous duck statues in Boston Commons.

Shutterstock

• Amazon could be set to hire at least 2,000 people as it fills a massive new office space in Boston.
• Boston is a candidate for Amazon's second headquarters project, called HQ2, and the new office could have implications for its ultimate chances at being selected.
• There are a few scenarios that could play out here.

---

Amazon may be expanding in Boston.

The e-commerce giant is in talks to lease 430,000 square feet in a planned 18-story building in the city, potentially hiring 2,000 or more workers to fill it, according to the Boston Globe, which cited Mayor Martin J. Walsh.

"It's not HQ2. But it is great news for Boston," Walsh reportedly said in a meeting with Boston business leaders on Tuesday.

The building would be part of a planned development in Boston's Seaport District that's expected to be ready by 2021. The deal is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks. Amazon will seek $5 million in tax breaks from the city, the Globe said.

Amazon has the option to expand the lease to a million square feet and 4,000 employees by 2025 by expanding into the building next door, which is also in the planning phases.

The future jobs available at Amazon in Boston are expected to be in the tech-heavy fields of robotics, cloud computing, and voice-activated systems.

In a statement, Amazon said it currently employs 1,200 people in the area. Last summer, it also announced plans to build a tech hub in Boston, at a location in Fort Point.

"Amazon is considering additional options for expansion in the Boston area to meet the demand of our growing employee base and as part of our ongoing hiring efforts," the statement reads. "This is independent of the company's search for HQ2, a second headquarters in North America."

Still, an investment of this magnitude at this point in time can't help but provoke HQ2 speculation.

Boston is seen as desirable for the company due to the quality of its nearby schools that focus on tech, like MIT.

MIT in Boston.

cdrin/Shutterstock

The new office is a significant size, but what's really interesting is the option on the lease for a million square feet — that would be a good start for a company that's looking to build a new headquarters with several million square feet of space.

Amazon says the new headquarters will have 50,000 employees and $5 billion in investment over 10 years.

Of course, the fact that it's just an option on the lease and not a done deal means it could just be there in the case Amazon were to decide on Boston. And the fact that the land is being leased — and not purchased by the company — is another potential hole in the theory.

While Fortune notes that the search for office space in Boston started before Amazon announced its search for HQ2, if the company is going ahead with leases in candidate cities, it could mean that internally, it has decided Boston is not the frontrunner. It's unlikely that Amazon would lease two buildings in a city long-term, then build another headquarters somewhere else in the city.

Amazon has not shied away from opening new offices in HQ2 candidate cities since the announcement of its search for HQ2. Amazon announced in September that it will open a 360,000-square-foot office in New York City, another potential HQ2 city.

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Robo Advisors vs. Human Financial Advisors: Why Not Both?

MyPrivateBanking

After the strong growth of the robo advisory approach in recent years, promoted by numerous start-ups worldwide as well as sizeable number of early adopting wealth managers, a new 'sub-species' has emerged: the hybrid robo/personal contact service, which adds a substantial software component to human interaction in the client advisory process.

This is a key finding of MyPrivateBanking's latest report "Hybrid Robos: how combining human and automated wealth advice delivers superior results and gains market share".

Robo Advisors vs. Human Financial Advisors

Robo-advisors have begun to distinguish themselves into three models, but they each have the same goal. Standalone companies such as Betterment (the most popular U.S. robo-advisor) use algorithms to recommend stocks and manage portfolios. Hybrid robo-advisors combine computerized recommendations with on-demand advice from a human being. And advanced standalone companies leverage more complex algorithms to create and actively manage portfolios.

Robo Advisors for Advisors

In MyPrivateBanking's view, hybrid robo advisory strategies represent a paradigm shift in the pace and path of change in the wealth management industry. MyPrivateBanking estimates that hybrid robo services will by 2020 grow to a size of USD 3,700 billion assets worldwide; by 2025 the total market size will further increase to USD 16,300 billion. This number constitutes just over 10% of the total investable wealth in 2025.

By comparison,"pure" robo advisors (completely automated without personal service added on) will have a market share of 1.6% of the total global wealth at that stage. The report includes a projection for the market size and growth globally of Hybrid Robo Advisor and pure play robo advisor, including a breakdown between North America and the rest of the world, and a split by the retail and affluent wealth and the HNWI/UHNWI segments.

Hybrid robo solutions are a dynamic and also unstable new phase in the wealth management industry's transformation. MyPrivateBanking expects 2016 to be a year of significant developments - several major players have announced that they will reveal their hybrid offerings in the course of the year and many more wealth managers are currently working through the issues of hybrid robo adoption. The institutional players entering the robo advisors markets and their offerings are analyzed in detail in the report.

Hybrid Solutions will impact many financial services sectors

The drivers for hybrid robo innovation will come from several different sources within the global financial industry. For a start there is is the inspiration derived from the original robo advisor services. To this must be added the new opportunities that have arisen following the launch of a substantial range of new B2B technology providers, some focused only on the banking and wealth management industries and others with a broader scope.

The next 12 to 18 months will provide numerous demonstrations of the impact of the new (white label) technology providers and robo/conventional partnering on wealth management. In particular, as this report's case studies show, the resulting hybrid wealth management solutions will spring up in a number of different parts of the global finance industry. Furthermore, with the help of robo technology, MyPrivateBanking expects to see a significant increase in quasi-wealth management services from sections of the industry that have been considered as distinct from wealth management, such as pension providers, fund managers and retail banks.

The robo model of investment portfolio management will be good enough in the eyes of a larger proportion of investors than the wealth management industry itself yet seems ready to recognize. Moreover, hybrid robo advisory services will increase the efficiency of advisors, in terms of numbers of clients served per professional, and the increasing numbers of hybrid solutions will also have a significant downwards effect on the client charges the market will bear.

Wealth managers should implement robo advisors solution fast, but thoughtfu l

The report highlights 20 different recommendations for consideration by wealth managers in weighing up hybrid robo opportunities, among them:

• Wealth Managers should be wary of assuming that one or more robo advisory elements can be just 'added on' to an existing service.
• Especially in the retail and affluent segments, tie-ups with non-financial retail services of various kinds will be of increasing importance for the success of robo advisory client recruitment.
• For most wealth managers the path to a hybrid solution will have several stages; this is fine but clients' awareness of the capabilities of automation will be increasing rapidly in the next few years.
• In the higher wealth segments, wealth managers who automate 'behind the scenes' processes will be best placed to introduce client facing robo elements when they've established their client-base is ready.

This rigorous and detailed report tells you all you need to know for assessing this new stage in the evolution of robo advisors, the strengths and weaknesses and lessons to be learned from of a selection of existing hybrid robo advisor innovators and the implications for conventional wealth managers. This report makes a deep analysis of what constitutes 'hybrid robo' and draws out the important characteristics of this developing field. This is complemented by the MyPrivateBanking's market projections exercise and together both give readers a clear idea of the scale of change that is underway.

In addition, in order to illustrate different types of hybrid robo solutions, five case studies of hybrid robo innovators are included that provide insights into different 'pathways' to hybrid solutions. The report's recommendations chapter provides five outline strategic goals for hybrid solutions together with a larger number of detailed considerations for wealth managers preparing to implement a hybrid strategy.

For the report, the MyPrivateBanking analyst team covering the robo advisor development from its beginnings (see previous reports here) has further researched the leading trends (and providers) and engaged in discussions with service and technology providers as well as industry experts and wealth managers.

The report gives wealth managers, robo advisors, banks, IT-vendors and consultants answers to the following questions:

• What constitutes a 'hybrid robo' and which are the most important characteristics? What are the different 'pathways' to hybrid solutions?

• What is the status of the robo advisor market (full robo advisors and hybrid robo advisors) and how will it develop over the next 10 years?

• How will the growth of the Hybrid robo advisor be differentiated by the retail and affluent wealth segments and the HNWI/UHNWI segments.

• What are the learning points for wealth management from the hybrid solutions of five different institutions?"

• Which features and functions should hybrid robo advisor solutions have to satisfy the needs of clients?

• What are the implications of the hybrid robo advisor model to traditional wealth managers? How can they counter the threats? How can they benefit?

Main Content

• Institutional players entering the robo advisors markets and analysis of their offerings

• Hybrid Robo Advisor and pure play robo advisor market size and growth globally, including a breakdown between North America and the rest of the world

• Hybrid Robo Advisor market size and growth split between the retail and affluent wealth segments and the HNWI/UHNWI segments.

• Five detailed case studies of hybrid robo solutions incl. Schwab Institutional Intelligent Portfolios, Investec and Jemstep, and Hedgeable

• Recommendations on elements of human interaction that can enhance robo advisors so as to win more clients

• 20 recommendations for conventional wealth managers (for all wealth segments) to benefit from the opportunities that hybrid robo advisors present

>>Click here for Report Summary and Table of Contents

Here's how you get this exclusive Robo Advisor research:

MyPrivateBanking

To provide you with this exclusive report, MyPrivateBanking has partnered with BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, to create The Complete Robo Advisor Research Collection.

If you're involved in the financial services industry at any level, you simply must understand the paradigm shift caused by robo advisors.

Investors frustrated by mediocre investment performance, high wealth manager fees and deceptive sales techniques are signing up for automated investment accounts at a record pace.

And the robo advisor field is evolving right before our eyes. Firms are figuring out on the fly how to best attract, service and upsell their customers. What lessons are they learning? Who's doing it best? What threats are traditional wealth managers facing? Where are the opportunities for exponential growth for firms with robo advisor products or models?

The Complete Robo Advisor Research Collection is the ONLY resource that answers all of these questions and more. Click here to learn more about everything that's included in this exclusive research bundle.

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These are the leading credit card processing companies

BI Intelligence

Credit card processors are mostly responsible for data transmission and security when you use your card at a store or online to make a purchase.

There are two types of processors in the payment-card system. Front-end processors route transactions from merchants to the cardholder's bank to gain authorization; that is, they make sure a customer has enough available credit or funds to make a purchase. Back-end processors are responsible for a fund's settlement, which ends with the merchant receiving a deposit for transactions.

Below, we've outlined the major players in credit card processing and described their major strengths.

• Bank of America Merchant Services: Bank of America Merchant Services has the advantage of functioning within the second-largest bank in the U.S. The service promises acceptance of all kinds of payments (credit cards, debit cards, electronic checks, and gift cards), access to funds on the next business day, and mobile support.
• Citibank: The consumer division of Citigroup processes transactions in more than 100 currencies. It offers end-to-end processing services, from pricing to transactions, reporting, customer service, and billing.
• Wells Fargo: One of the "Big Four" U.S. banks, Wells Fargo offers next-business day funding, encryption and tokenization technology, and support for both PIN and signature transactions.
• Chase Paymentech: The payment processing arm of JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank in the U.S., authorizes and processes payments in more than 130 currencies. And like its peers, it offers analytics, fraud detection, and security solutions.
• Barclays: Barclaycard payment solutions facilitates in-person, phone, web, and even mail order payments through desktop and portable card machines.
• Vantiv: Vantiv has been successful thanks to its nearly error-free purchases, authorizations, and captures. In May 2015, it successfully completed 95% of these transactions, ahead of competitors such as Worldpay, PayPal, and Braintree. The company also has a significant speed advantage, as it often processes payments data in less than a second.
• First Data: First Data facilitates small business payments with its Clover suite of products, including a mini reader that works without Wi-Fi and a mobile reader that attaches to other devices in order to process payments on the go.
• Cielo: Cielo is the largest Brazilian credit and debit card operator and the largest payment systems company in Latin America. The company debuted on the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange in 2010.
• TSYS: Short for Total System Services, TSYS supports millions of buyers and sellers around the world through four major branches: issuing services, acquiring services, prepaid solutions, and merchant solutions.
• Global Payments: Global Payments focuses on ensuring businesses accept all major forms of payments. To that end, its services include credit/debit/purchasing cards, electronic check conversion, money transfer, verification and recovery services, gift/loyalty cards, check guarantee, ACH checks, financial EDI services, and point-of-sale equipment.
• Worldpay: The UK-based company is one of the longest-tenured online payment platforms. The company provides several payment services for both online and in-store channels. As of August 2016, the company had 400,000 merchant clients. In 2015, it processed 13 billion transactions valued at more than $526 billion. Worldpay has grown its volume primarily because of early-mover advantages that have allowed it to build scale. It also provides many different services across channels, which diversifies its revenue streams.
• Moneris: Moneris is the largest credit and debit card processor and acquirer in Canada. It processes more than three billion transactions each year for more than 350,000 merchants, and the company employs more than 1,900 people in North America.
• Fiserv: American Banker and BAI ranked Fiserv third by revenue among technology providers to U.S. banks in October 2015. Fiserv provides services in account processing, electronic payments processing, check processing, web and mobile banking, and more.
• Adyen: Adyen provides e-commerce companies with a payment platform that includes gateway, risk management, and front-end processing services. Adyen is a full-stack gateway and has famous merchants like Facebook and Spotify as clients. The company has brought in merchants thanks to its single platform that can support payments in any channel across 100 different payment methods and 200 countries. The firm processed $50 billion in 2015, up 100% from $25 billion in 2014. It earned $350 million in revenue in 2015, and expects to break $500 million in 2016.
• Heartland Payment Systems: Heartland helps businesses move beyond accept ng major credit cards. The company facilitates payment processing in-store, online, and offsite through multiple methods, such as EMV, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay, and gift cards. It also offers next-day funding, real-time reporting, and 24/7 customer service in the U.S.
• Elavon: Formerly known as NOVA, this company is a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp. Elavon processes payments in more than 30 countries for more than one million merchants.

More to Learn

These card processors handle so much volume and so many dollars every day, but they are still just one piece of the larger payments ecosystem, which includes issuers, merchants, and more.

That's why BI Intelligence spent months putting together the greatest and most exhaustive guide on the world of payments entitled The Payments Ecosystem Report: Everything You Need to Know About The Next Era of Payment Processing.

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

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

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you've given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of the payments ecosystem.

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An Introduction to VoIP and the Way It Works

Living in this age and time, if you still haven't heard of VoIP, then you better fine-tune yourself a bit. It is the acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol and is a revolutionary technology in itself, potential to rewrite the destiny of telephones. To put it in short, the technology allows to convert analog audio signals - which is produced when you speak on the phone - to digital data. As we all know, data in its digital form can be smoothly transmitted over the virtual Internet.

Practical usability of VoIP

Thus, in other words, VoIP can easily convert or upgrade a standard Internet connection into a telephony device, from which you can place free phone calls. To make things easier for you further, a host of free VoIP software is readily available on the web. Thus, one can easily bypass the phone companies and place free Internet calls through their phone devices.

Reinvention of the wheel

The VoIP technology is nothing but a smart reinvention of the wheel. These days, the technology has attained sufficient maturity and thus, you can choose from three different flavours of this service.

• ATA: The most popular and certainly the simplest way is through using a device called Analog Telephone Adaptor or ATA. It enables users to thread in a standard telephone device to an Internet connection to facilitate the VoIP service. It may be noted here, ATA is a analog-to-digital converter. It accepts analog signals or data from traditional phone devices and converts it to digital data, which is then transmitted through the Internet. In fact, these days many service providers are offering free ATA service to customers in a plug-and-play box. All you've to do is take out the ATA from the given box and connect the cable coming out from the phone to the ATA. Bang! you're done and now start placing your VoIP calls using your Internet service.


• IP phone: These are specially designed phone devices though they appear just like normal phone sets and come with a handset, keypad or buttons and a cradle. Unlike the RJ-11 connectors in standard phones, these specially designed devices come with RJ-45 Ethernet connector. Thus, these gadgets connect to your router directly and are loaded with all the necessary hardware and software that are required to handle IP calls.


• Computer-to-computer: This is one of the easiest options to avail the VoIP service. You will get reasonably-priced software from the market that you need to place this type of VoIP calls. Apart from the software, you'll need a microphone, a sound card, speakers and of course an Internet connectivity to make use of this facility. The only charge you need to pay on availing this service is the rental cost of your Internet service provider.

Reasons behind popularity

There're basically two factors behind the popularity of VoIP.

• Reasonable cost and


• Impressive functionality

Usually, phone calls via VoIP cost peanuts as compared to traditional phone calls. There's also some additional cost saving, as the technology uses a single network to carry both voice and data. You can even place ISD calls on VoIP for free.

• Impressive functionality of VoIP mainly involves certain things that are almost impossible to achieve with conventional telephony networks. These can be summed up as following:


• All your incoming phone calls are by default routed to your VoIP phone, irrespective of its plug-in location in the network. Just carry the device while you're on a trip and simply plug it to an Internet connection. You won't miss your incoming calls.

VoIP phones also allow call center executives to work from any geographical location, using a reliable Internet connection.

This is all about the basics involving VoIP. Considering all the pros and cons, it seems likely that the technology is here to stay.

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Dick's banned assault rifles after the Newtown school shooting — and later reversed the decision

Dick's will stop selling assault-style weapons.

Reuters

• Dick's Sporting Goods said Wednesday it would stop selling assault-style weapons in its stores.
• The chain also banned the weapons after the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
• Dick's ultimately started selling the weapons again, however.
• Dick's says the ban is permanent this time.

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Dick's Sporting Goods said Wednesday that it would stop selling assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines in its stores, in response to the school shooting Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 students and staff members.

This isn't the first time that Dick's has banned assault weapons.

The sporting-goods chain also ended sales of assault rifles in December 2012, following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 20 students and six staff members.

At the time, Dick's had just offered AR-15 automatic weapons to customers at a discount as a Thanksgiving special.

Several months after banning the guns, Dick's started selling them again at its chain called Field & Stream, which specializes in hunting and fishing products.

To be fair, Dick's never said it was permanently removing the guns.

"We are extremely saddened by the unspeakable tragedy that occurred last week, and our hearts go out to victims and their families and to the entire community," Dick's said in December 2012. "Out of respect for the victims and their families, during this time of national mourning we have removed all guns from sale and from display in our store nearest to Newtown and suspended the sale of modern sporting rifles in all of our stores chainwide."

This time, the changes appear to be permanent.

"We're staunch supporters of the second amendment, I'm a gun owner myself," Dick's CEO Ed Stack said on "Good Morning America" on Wednesday. "We don't want to be a part of this story and we have eliminated these guns permanently."

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Cheap Virtual Phone Service

Given today's global economy where competition and business rivalry are getting increasingly fierce, most business enterprises have come to recognize the need for an efficient communication system. Most analysts agree that a hosted PBX virtual phone service, with all its attendant features, is the best available option.

The hosted PBX offers a lot more benefits than the traditional hardware-based systems - not to speak of the considerable money savings. Besides, the onus of maintenance and back-up support for this virtual PBX system lies with the service provider and that should provide you immense relief.

The method of operating a virtual PBX system is uncomplicated and all you have to do is to popularize the local number or 800 that will be assigned to you amongst your customers and business associates - as all the incoming calls for your business will get centralized.

It is now acknowledged that virtual PBX is the ideal communication system - particularly for self- employed professionals, SOHO, small and mid-sized business houses. The services are provided through a hosted server that employs high-speed bandwidth Internet connection or telephone networks. Because the PBX services are shared by a large number of subscribers, the monthly rates are cheap and affordable to all subscribers.

A hosted PBX virtual phone system is so called because of its capability to provide almost all the functions and features of a regular PBX system used by big corporations. With the availability of a hosted PBX virtual phone system, it is now possible even for small businesses to enjoy features like call waiting, call transfer, call forwarding, follow me, find me, fax to email, virtual receptionist, caller ID, music in hold and a lot more. Virtual PBX services have other additional useful features including online voicemail, online call logs, dial-by-name directories etc.

Interestingly, answering several calls simultaneously without annoying the caller with busy signals is a distinct advantage. The call routing service facility will facilitate the incoming calls to be directed to different sections or to the consecutive telephone lines of the individual employees, including their personal or mobile phone numbers. This is a tremendously useful feature as it will help you manage your business from any part of the world - so essential for businesses that entail nationwide or overseas operations.

During earlier times, PBX systems were very costly and only huge corporations could afford it and enjoying the sophisticated features of a PBX remained a distant dream for most small and medium sized business enterprises. But with technological advancement, all businesses - regardless of its size and scale of operations - can now opt for a hosted PBX virtual phone system.

Finally, those planning to avail the hosted PBX system must understand the need to select the right service provider. Since communication is critically important for the day-to-day business operations as also to its growth, it is essential that you tie up with a reliable and reputed hosted PBX service provider like RingCentral.

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Trump's family is reportedly furious with John Kelly, and the sides may enter a 'death match'

John Kelly and Jared Kushner at the White House in September 2017.

Reuters

• Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump are reportedly squaring up for a "death match" with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.
• Kushner had a horrendous day on Tuesday, in which he appeared to break the law, and had his security clearance downgraded.
• An article in the Washington Post also alleged that foreign officials had used his inexperience to manipulate him.
• But Kelly is on shaky ground too after botching domestic abuse allegations against Rob Porter, the former White House staff secretary who resigned.

---

Jared Kushner, the senior adviser and assistant to the president, and his wife Ivanka Trump are reportedly squaring up for a "death match" with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who they may feel betrayed them.

It follows a horrendous day for Jared Kushner on Tuesday, and would be the latest example of internal strife at the Trump White House.

"Javanka [Jared and Ivanka] and Kelly are locked in a death match. Two enter. Only one survives," a White House source told Axios' Mike Allen.

"Over the past few weeks I've found fewer people internally willing to defend Jared. ... Politically, I've never seen him so exposed," another source told Axios.

Kushner has faced wide criticism for his lack of full security clearance as he handles a basket of high-profile foreign policy initiatives for Trump.

On Tuesday, Kelly downgraded Kushner's security clearances, in a move that will likely damage his credibility as he tackles important initiatives like working on trade with China and towards peace between Israel and Palestinians.

On the same day, the Washington Post published a bombshell report saying that foreign officials in at least four countries had tried to manipulate Kushner into furthering their aims.

The foreign officials reportedly leveraged Kushner's lack of foreign policy experience and complicated business ties to push their agendas and find leverage.

Kushner's lawyer's spokesman dismissed the Post's story as "second-hand hearsay."

Also on Tuesday, Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told Business Insider that by endorsing Trump's announcement to run for office again in 2020 with his official White House title, Kushner may have committed "a clear violation of the Hatch Act."

The Hatch Act bars government employees from using their titles in political efforts, and has repeatedly tripped up Trump officials.

But despite the catastrophic day for Kushner, Kelly also appears to stand on shaky ground in the White House after reports surfaced that President Donald Trump was considering replacing him.

Trump was reportedly angered by Kelly's response to the scandal involving Rob Porter, the former White House staff secretary who resigned amid abuse allegations from his two ex-wives.

"Kelly is now just another staffer who could get fired any day of the week by Donald J. Trump," one person close to the White House previously told Business Insider's Allan Smith.

"Not that I expect him gone today or tomorrow. This is a lesson in what happens when the stabilizing force becomes the agent of chaos."

Rumors of tensions, rough relations, and possible ousters have plagued the majority of Trump's inner circle throughout his presidency.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster have both also been rumored at different times to be leaving the administration, though the pair remain.

Allan Smith and Joe Perticone contributed to this report.

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EU demands Northern Ireland keeps customs union and single market rules in Brexit withdrawal treaty

DUP leader Arlene Foster and Prime Minister Theresa May.

Charles McQuillan/PA Wire/PA Images

• European Union calls for Northern Ireland to stay in its customs zone and stick to single market rules after Brexit if a hard border cannot be avoided.
• The EU wants a "common regulatory area" on the island of Ireland which would keep Northern Ireland wedded to Brussels rules and regulations, a draft treaty published on Wednesday confirms.
• The ECJ should also have jurisdiction over Northern Ireland under the model, which has angered Brexiteers in Theresa May's Conservative Party.
• The EU has "run out of patience" with the UK's incoherent position, a well-placed source in Brussels told BI.
• Prime Minister May is reportedly preparing a "robust" fight back.

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LONDON — The European Union has formally called for Northern Ireland to remain within its customs territory and stick to single market rules after Brexit if a hard Irish border cannot be avoided.

The text states that Northern Ireland should stay aligned to its rules and regulations as a "backstop" option, if Theresa May cannot come up with a way of avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, in a draft legal text of the withdrawal agreement published on Wednesday morning.

The 120-page treaty, which is subject to approval from the EU27, proposes a "common regulatory area" with "no internal barriers" on the island of Ireland which would allow frictionless trade to continue across the border.

The suggested "common regulatory area" is detailed in scope, covering customs, VAT, energy, agriculture and the environment among other areas. Under the EU's proposal, it would be under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, which will rile Brexiteers both within May's Cabinet and elsewhere in the Conservative Party.

The text states:

"This Protocol is based on the third scenario of maintaining full alignment with those rules of the Union's internal market and the customs union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the all-island economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement, and that it applies unless and until an alternative arrangement implementing another scenario is agreed."

The treaty also calls for the ECJ to rule on any disputes that arise over the application and interpretation of the withdrawal agreement between the EU and UK government.

"They [the Commission] know the political risks of this but have run out of patience waiting for coherent proposals from the UK," a well-placed Brussels source told Business Insider.

Here are some key paragraphs from the text:

EU Commission

European Commission

The text, which was briefed to Business Insider on Tuesday evening, does not explicitly call for Northern Ireland to stay in the single market if the UK government fails to come up with a workable solution, but lays out areas where it could stay fully aligned with single market rules in order to preserve the invisible border.

It will make clear that this course of action is the default option — or the "backstop" as its known in Brussels — and other solutions to avoiding a hard border remain available, such as a comprehensive UK-EU free trade agreement.

"This Protocol shall not apply or shall cease to apply, as the case may be, in whole or in part, from the date of entry into force of such subsequent agreement and in accordance with that agreement," the text states.

The proposals come as a leaked letter revealed that the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has privately admitted that Brexit could cause a hard border with Ireland.

Johnson privately told May that preventing a hard border should not be the main aim of the UK government.

Prime Minister May is reportedly preparing a "robust" fight-back against the EU's proposal.

A senior Downing Street source told The Times: "We are fully committed to implementing the December agreement but the EU should be absolutely clear that the prime minister is not going to sign up to anything that threatens the constitutional integrity of the UK or its common market."

Former Brexit minister David Jones accused the EU of trying to "annex" Northern Ireland in an interview with BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday morning. "The EU are living in fantasy land if they think this is something we could ever accept," he added.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, rejected claims that the EU was trying to provoke Britain with its proposals on Northern Ireland.

"I'm not trying to provoke. I'm not trying to create shockwaves. I want these negotiations to be a success," he said in a press conference following the publication of the draft treaty.

Caroline Lucas, Green Party co-leader and champion of anti-Brexit group Best For Britain, accused the government of failing to take responsibility for the Irish border issue.

"This document lays bare the failure of the government to significantly move forward on the Northern Irish issue.

"Behind Boris Johnson's absurd rhetoric is a harsh reality — the British Government's intransigence threatens the Good Friday Agreement. The wheels are coming off the Brexit bus and the case for a people's poll on the outcome grows by the day."

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