Blackstone taps AWS - Slack & Zoom paranoia - Point72 alum bets on BNPL
Welcome to Insider Finance. If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Plus, download Insider's app for news on the go - click here for iOS and here for Android.
On the agenda today:
- Slack and Zoom are taking a toll on our mental health - but phone calls might help.
- Credit Suisse has delayed its full US reopening until October.
- Blackstone is migrating to AWS before the end of the year.
Let's get started.
Slack and Zoom are making you lonely and paranoid
Working from home is doing a number on our psyches - and remote-work tools like Slack and Zoom are contributing to the problem. Studies show they can be tough on mental health, and may even cultivate loneliness and misery. But one device may be the salve for our WFH anxiety: the telephone. Why experts are encouraging us to embrace the phone.
Credit Suisse just pushed back US workers' return to office
Citing the Delta variant's contagion rates, Credit Suisse has pushed back its full return-to-office date until Oct. 18. The firm had previously told US staff to resume in-office work after Labor Day. Take a look at everything we know about the decision so far.
Blackstone is migrating to AWS
As Wall Street firms increasingly incorporate cloud technologies into their strategies, Blackstone is looking to migrate its operations to Amazon Web Services' public cloud by the end of the year. The PE giant's top tech exec details why he's so keen on the cloud.
After only a few months with Millenium, VIX trader Benjamin Texier is leaving to join JPMorgan's equity derivatives team. Meanwhile, Credit Suisse has hired John Emmert, Liquidnet's US head of portfolio trading. It's the second big hire for Credit Suisse this month, after bringing on Chris "Whopper" Johnson from Wells Fargo. More on the Swiss bank's latest grab.
Corporate card startup Ramp just made its first acquisition
Ramp on Tuesday announced yet another funding round - a $300 million Series C at a $3.9 billion valuation. But that wasn't its only news: the fintech also announced its acquisition of Buyer, a negotiation-as-a-service startup. Get the latest on Ramp's first deal (and its hopes for more).
OnlyFans' CEO places blame on banks
OnlyFans' CEO Tim Stokely said the company had "no choice" but to ban explicit content if it wanted to maintain relationships with banks, adding that firms like Bank of New York Mellon and JPMorgan created obstacles for the company to pay creators. Here's everything we know so far.
Point72 alum David Fiszel is betting big on BNPL
David Fiszel's hedge fund, Honeycomb, was one of 2020's top funds, returning 58% last year. We spoke to Fiszel, who explained why he's betting big on buy now, pay later names like Klarna, and how he keeps his $1.5 billion fund away from meme-stock hype. This is what he told us.
On our radar:
- Six advertising execs offered ideas on how to sell the vaccine to the unvaccinated. See their strategies for persuading the hesitant.
- This VC firm takes cold pitches. Its head of platform outlined the perfect cold email - and three things founders should stop doing in their first outreach.
- Per Reuters, Yale has named Matthew Mendelsohn its investment chief. Mendelsohn will oversee the university's $31 billion endowment.
- Blackstone is combining adtech firms Liftoff and Vungle, taking a page out of KKR's playbook.