Author: Editor

“I don’t want to go back,” said Katie, my best friend of 20 years, from across a café table in Cape Town. A tear slid down her cheek.We were two single women traveling 8,000 miles from our respective homes — hers a one-bedroom apartment in New York City, and mine a two-story house in Charleston, South Carolina.It was the last day of a two-week girls’ trip and the longest stretch we’d spent together since college.Now, the reality of returning to a life that would rip us apart again was setting in, and our hearts were breaking simultaneously.By the last day…

Haivivi Bubblepal, an AI toy.Courtesy: HaiviviIt seems everyone is talking about AI these days — even Ultraman. When asked if investors should be worried about an AI bubble, the new second generation CocoMate AI-powered plush toy by Chinese company Haivivi warned about the dangers of speculation in AI stocks.”The AI market has been on a wild ride lately,” the toy based on the Ultraman character cautioned. “If investors pour too much money into unproven ideas without solid fundamentals, it could lead to a bubble burst!”China has long been a dominant manufacturer in the global toy industry. So pushing into AI playthings…

Netflix’s co-CEOs want to assure staffers that its bid to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s key assets will be good for the company — and for jobs across Hollywood.In a letter sent to staffers on Monday, a copy of which was also filed publicly with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos said a combined Netflix-Warner Bros. is “pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, pro-creator, and pro-growth.””We see this as a win for the entertainment industry, not the end of it,” the Netflix co-CEOs wrote, addressing concerns that the combo of the streaming giant and one of the most iconic studios…

Don’t say bah humbug to applying to jobs during the holiday season.It’s easy to feel like a Scrooge about the job market these days. At this point, you might think you’ll need a Christmas miracle to get hired in the waning moments of 2025.But unlike Santa Claus, your chances of getting hired in December are real, writes BI’s Sarah E. Needleman.I don’t mean to be a Grinch by telling you to spend your holidays applying for jobs. I get the feeling of wanting to shut it down for the year and give it a go in 2026. After all, it’s…

Christmas, it is often said, is a time for second chances.So it would seem for Five Below, which is celebrating a transformational year under the leadership of CEO Winnie Park.The stock is up about 85% this year so far — that’s well more than the returns of most major retail stocks and AI chip darling Nvidia in the same period.To rewind, last year’s holiday season wasn’t looking like a very joyful one for the tween- and teen-focused retailer.The Philadelphia-based company was on its way to posting its fourth-straight quarter with negative or flat comparable sales, and that was coming off…

Shutting down a hedge fund isn’t as simple as turning off the lights and handing the office keys to the building manager.Trades need to be wound down slowly to make sure backers don’t lose money in a fire sale. Employment contracts with payouts and deferred compensation need to be honored. Anything worth selling needs to find a buyer.At $3.2 billion Eisler Capital, the London-based multistrategy fund founded by Goldman Sachs veteran Ed Eisler, the firm’s late September letter to investors about liquidating the firm was just the first step. Ed Eisler founded his hedge fund in 2015. David M. Benett/Dave…

When Jeff Simmons isn’t steering animal-health giant Elanco, he’s focused on a different kind of leadership challenge: raising six kids.”We have family meetings every Sunday,” Simmons told Business Insider.Those check-ins double as career-coaching lessons. With some of their children already in the workforce, Simmons said he and his wife are consistently coaching their kids.The CEO’s core message is straightforward: “Find your ‘why.'”One of his sons has already put that advice into action, leaving a broadcasting job in Lexington, Kentucky, to pursue a path as a pastor. Simmons said it took him 13 years to uncover his own sense of purpose,…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jane Way, 84, who lives in a suburb of Phoenix. Way works 30 hours a week as a US-based accountant for a South African orphanage. She works partly out of financial necessity but said she would work regardless, despite some health issues. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.I started working at 7 in my parents’ restaurant. I have a degree in accounting. I was the first woman from Cal Poly to be invited to help recruit students for CPA firms. I was then offered a position at a…

The four-year college degree no longer has the same pull it once did — and the Trump administration agrees.The Department of Education concluded its negotiations on the Workforce Pell program on December 12, a new initiative included in President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful” spending legislation.The program would extend Pell grants to low-income borrowers in short-term certification programs, with the intention of providing more funding for alternative paths to a four-year college degree or trade school.Nicholas Kent, the department’s undersecretary, acknowledged during remarks at the beginning of negotiations that a standard four-year college degree is losing its value.”Americans are questioning whether…

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Heath Kitson and William Lu, who worked at ANZ Bank in the company’s Melbourne office. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.Heath Kitson: I managed a team of data analysts, and I was at ANZ for seven years before I was laid off a couple of months ago.William Lu: I was at the bank for eleven years, and I reported to Heath.I’ve always said to people that it’s been one of my dreams to be made redundant and enjoy some time off, but when it actually happens, it hits you…