What's next for Verizon Media

Good morning and welcome to Insider Advertising for February 1. I'm senior advertising reporter Lauren Johnson, and here's what's going on:

• Verizon's media plans.
• Hot e-commerce companies to watch.
• The PR people cleaning up Robinhood's mess.

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Tips, comments, suggestions? Drop me a line at LJohnson@businessinsider.com or on Twitter at @LaurenJohnson.

Yahoo owner Verizon Media is planning a personalized-content 'megalaunch'

• Lara O'Reilly spoke with Verizon Media CEO Guru Gowrappan about the company's plan to launch a "mega" product in the coming weeks.
• The idea is to serve more personalized content to users on Yahoo Mail and sites like Yahoo News and TechCrunch.
• Verizon Media marked annual revenue growth in the fourth quarter - its first since 2017.

Read the story.

12 companies that are ripe for acquisition as e-commerce takes off

• The rise of online shopping in the pandemic has made e-commerce companies ripe for acquisition.
• Tanya Dua and I talked to e-commerce execs, founders, bankers, investors and consultants which companies could be targets.
• Their picks include companies like Pacvue and Wpromote.

Read the story.

• Sean Czarnecki reports that Robinhood has a core team of seven communications and marketing professionals.
• This team, with technology, finance, and political backgrounds, face the task of fixing the trading app's image.
• Robinhood is under heavy scrutiny for its role in the GameStop short squeeze.

Read the story.

More stories we're reading:

• Robinhood is living through a branding nightmare. PR experts explain how the company can rehab its image. (Business Insider)
• Huawei hires ad giant WPP to promote its brand in the US as it tries to overcome Trump ban (Business Insider)
• Cable networks are cutting back on contributors as the Trump media frenzy comes to an end (Business Insider)
• Facebook is working on a newsletter tool for freelancers and independent writers, The New York Times reports (Business Insider)
• Robinhood raised $1 billion in emergency funds from investors this week as the platform struggles with a surge in trading (Business Insider)
• Netflix slashes annual global ad spend by 23% despite record year (Campaign)
• Apple's privacy change will hit Facebook's core ad business. Here's how. (Wall Street Journal)

Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow! You can reach me in the meantime at LJohnson@businessinsider.com and subscribe to this daily email here.