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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Goldman Sachs named 95 partners last week, including private wealth exec Brittany Boals Moeller.</li><li>The 39-year-old runs the Southeast region and leads strategy for young and women clients.</li></ul>Brittany Boals Moeller, one of Goldman Sachs' newly minted partners, didn't picture a career in finance when she joined the bank 17 years ago. She grew up in Jonesboro, Arkansas, where her parents were professors at the local university. After graduating from New York University in 2007, she thought she would work at Goldman Sachs for a few years to save up for graduate school, perhaps to study public policy or become a lawyer. But even when the financial crisis hit, which was an opportune time to go back to school, she didn't want to leave."At Goldman, you are given tremendous responsibility and opportunity young in your career if you prove yourself able," she told Business Insider in an interview. "I've never once been bored, and so it's an easy choice to stay."The 39-year-old is based in Atlanta and runs the Southeast region of Goldman Sach's private wealth division. While wealth management clients skew older, the division has a pipeline of rich millennial founders who work with the investment banking arm. Boals Moeller said these clients in their 30s and 40s are more likely to want more than investment advice, desiring services like concierge healthcare and bill pay that make their lives easier. To keep these clients loyal, she leads an initiative to cater to younger clients, including heirs and self-made entrepreneurs, and another that focuses on women customers."They're busy. They want simplicity. They need good people around them to help," she said.During the dealmaking drought, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-private-wealth-management-asset-david-solomon-2023-1">wealth management</a> business gained new prominence. "Quite frankly, private wealth management at Goldman Sachs has never been as much of a focus for the firm as it is today," division cohead John Mallory told BI in 2023.Boals Moeller said the business's current stature is the result of investments more than a decade in the making. She served as chief of staff to wealth management head Tucker York during the financial crisis. Around 2010, she embarked on a listening tour of every wealth office. The advisor feedback led to the bank expanding its offerings beyond investment and tax planning advice."We knew this going way back, and it certainly continues today, which is we are not purely an investment solution for our clients," she said. "Investments are critical and core to our work, but increasingly we're seeing that with the next generation of wealth owners today, they are seeking simplicity and solutions in all aspects of their life."Goldman Sachs' family office offering, Apex, launched a few years later. Now, the division offers chief financial officer services to help clients with not just estate planning but also lifestyle services like cybersecurity.Catering to these younger clients, whether they are old-money heirs or startup founders celebrating their first windfall, requires meeting them where they are. That usually isn't over a steak and martini lunch or 18 holes at the golf course. What entices these clients more, Boals Moeller said, is getting to meet like-minded people.Goldman Sachs holds events and conferences, often with star-studded lineups or in scenic locales. In August, Boals Moeller hosted a reception in Atlanta with singer Ciara and Marc-Kwesi Farrell, the founder of a rum brand that provided custom cocktails. In October 2023, Goldman Sachs hosted a conference in Deer Valley where billionaire Patrón founder John Paul DeJoria talked about keeping a business empire in the family. Sustainability and sports are particularly interesting to this demographic, with Goldman Sachs hosting a tour of a waste-to-clean-energy power plant in Copenhagen and bringing in Michelle Hynik, president of women's football club Utah Royals, to the Deer Valley summit.Advisors also introduce clients to each other when appropriate, such as a pre-IPO founder to an entrepreneur who has already been through the process."A lot of effort is put into helping people not only just manage the risk and obviously the investment side of things, but also the broader piece, which is how do we help you have an amazing corporate outcome from the sale of your business, and how do we help you as a family appropriately prepare for that?" she said.Advisors can meet with families one-on-one for financial education. However, many of these millennial and Gen-Z clients prefer digital education on their own time. Goldman Sachs has courses for children of clients as early as 15 years old. This Semester at GS program has six one-hour sessions that span trading talks from executives in global markets as well as personal finance topics like how to think about a credit score. These virtual sessions are cameras off, Boals Moeller notes."You don't have to be at a desk," she said. "It's not another hour of homework."

This new Goldman Sachs partner is leading the bank's strategy with young heirs and founders

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The DOJ filed a $100 million lawsuit against the owner and operator of the Dali.</li><li>The lawsuit alleges the owner and operator of the container ship "cut corners."</li></ul>The Justice Department on Wednesday filed a $100 million lawsuit against the Singapore-based owner and operator of the container ship that struck and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/baltimore-bridge-collapse-response-timing-mayday-call-saved-lives-2024-3">collapsed a major Baltimore bridge</a>, alleging that they "cut corners" and "jury-rigged" the vessel.In the lawsuit filed in Maryland federal court, the DOJ called the March 26 disaster that left <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/1-worker-survived-bridge-collapse-construction-company-says-2024-3">six construction workers dead</a> and the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-we-know-dali-francis-scott-crash-collapse-maryland-bridge-2024-3">Francis Scott Key Bridge</a> destroyed an "entirely avoidable tragedy."The electrical and mechanical systems on the massive Singapore-flagged container ship, known as the Dali, were "improperly maintained and configured in a way that violated safety regulations and norms for international shipping," the lawsuit alleges.These problems, the lawsuit says, precipitated a power loss and then a "cascading series of failures that culminated" in the 95,000-ton cargo ship smashing into one of the bridge's support beams, causing it to collapse."As events unfolded, and because of the unseaworthy condition of the ship, none of the four means available to help control the Dali — her propeller, rudder, anchor, or bow thruster — worked when they were needed to avert or even mitigate this disaster," the lawsuit says.The ship's owner and manager, the lawsuit says, sent an "ill-prepared crew on an abjectly unseaworthy vessel to navigate the United States' waterways.""They did so to reap the benefit of conducting business in American ports. Yet they cut corners in ways that risked lives and infrastructure," the lawsuit says.The lawsuit calls the actions by Grace Ocean Private Ltd, the owner of the vessel, and the ship's operator, Synergy Marine Group, "outrageous, grossly negligent, willful, wanton, and reckless."It adds that punitive damages are available in this case, because the Dali "got underway with known unseaworthy conditions in confined waters where a ship of its magnitude had every opportunity to cause catastrophic damage and loss of life, which in fact happened."Darrell Wilson, a spokesperson for Grace Ocean Private Ltd and Synergy Marine Group, told Business Insider in a statement that the legal claim was "anticipated.""By court order, all persons alleging claims against the owner and manager of the Dali must file their claim on or before September 24th," Wilson said, adding, "The owner and manager will have no further comment on the merits of any claim at this time, but we do look forward to our day in court to set the record straight."The DOJ's lawsuit seeks to recover more than $100 million in costs the US incurred as a result of the response to the disaster, which included the clearing the wreck and bridge debris in order to reopen the Port of Baltimore.The lawsuit is also seeking punitive damages to deter any future "misconduct" by the owner and operator of the Dali."The Justice Department is committed to ensuring accountability for those responsible for the destruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which resulted in the tragic deaths of six people and disrupted our country's transportation and defense infrastructure," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.Garland continued, "With this civil claim, the Justice Department is working to ensure that the costs of clearing the channel and reopening the Port of Baltimore are borne by the companies that caused the crash, not by the American taxpayer."In the aftermath of the disaster, Grace Ocean Private Ltd and Synergy Marine Group <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/baltimore-bridge-crash-owner-manager-dali-ship-limit-liability-law-2024-4">sought to cap their liability in the tragedy</a> to about $44 million by invoking a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ship-owner-baltimore-bridge-crash-likely-invoke-law-cap-damages-2024-3">19th-century federal law</a> that was successfully used by the owner of the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/titanic-secrets-facts-2018-4">Titanic</a>.Grace Ocean Private Ltd and Synergy Marine Group previously filed their petition in federal court under the 1851 Limitation of Liability Act, which allows vessel owners to cap any damage claims stemming from a maritime catastrophe at the post-incident value of the ship.

New $100M DOJ lawsuit details the 'unseaworthy' condition of the ship behind Baltimore bridge collapse

In March 2023, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser anointed Anand Selva, as the bank's chief operating officer. His mandate: oversee a deeply unsexy yet crucial initiative to regain compliance with regulators. At the time, she praised his "long track record of delivering results."So far, Selva's tenure has been rocky.In July, two regulators <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-jane-fraser-regulatory-citigroup-transformation-2024-7">fined Citi $135.6 million</a> for failing to make enough progress in fixing its data-management issues. The bank had agreed in 2020 to work on this problem and others, including poor risk controls, after <a target="_blank" href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/citigroup-slammed-400-mln-fine-longstanding-deficiencies-regulation-occ-fed-2020-10-1029660295">paying $400 million</a> in fines to the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The OCC said in July that the bank had made "meaningful progress overall" but that the agency wanted to ensure Citi allocated enough resources to address the "persistent weaknesses" regarding data.These new fines are despite Citi dedicating massive resources to a firmwide initiative to overhaul the bank's technology. This program, called the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-transformation-citigroup-regulatory-fine-anand-selvakesari-2024-7">"Transformation"</a> and overseen by Selva, has about 13,000 employees. Citi spent $7.4 billion on the endeavor from 2021 through 2023. This year's budget has been increased by $250 million, to more than $3 billion.The pressure is on, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren urging the OCC to "impose growth restrictions" on Citi, arguing that it has grown "too big to manage." The regulator and Citi declined to comment."We've always said that progress wouldn't be linear," Fraser said after the latest fines, "and we have no doubt that we will be successful in getting our firm where it needs to be in terms of our Transformation."For Selva, leading the Transformation is unlike any test he has faced in his three-decade career at Citi. Selva, who goes by the shortened version of his last name, Selvakesari, joined Citi as an assistant operations manager in Chennai, India, in 1991. He rose through the ranks in Asia before taking over the US consumer bank in 2019. When Fraser was made CEO in 2021, she chose Selva, who's now 57, to replace her as the global head of consumer banking.In his current role, his mandate is to make the bank safer, not to turn a profit. To do so, he has to solve for Citi's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-real-reasons-behind-citi-mike-corbat-early-retirement-2020-9">decades of underinvestment</a> in its infrastructure, which affects every business line of the bank.Business Insider talked to 14 current and former Citi employees who have worked under Selva to get a picture of the challenge facing him and why he was put in charge of the bank's No. 1 priority. All but two spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal or the sensitivity of regulatory matters. Three senior executives pointed to his experience navigating regulation and working with technology from running Citi's consumer bank. Gonzalo Luchetti, Selva's successor as the head of the US consumer business, told BI that serving 70 million customers required handling tremendous operational risk."If we mess it up, usually you don't mess it up for one; you mess it up for hundreds of thousands, if not millions," he said. "You have to be super good at process orientation and making sure that there's high discipline and rigor."Luchetti also emphasized Selva's longevity at Citi and experience across regions."He knows the fabric of the firm very well," Luchetti said. "The Transformation is about really repiping the machine. He's touched a lot of the machine himself."But touching the machine isn't the same as fixing it. Eight employees told BI that they were surprised that Selva was made the head of the Transformation given that he had never held a leadership role in technology or compliance. They described Citi's culture as a cliquey environment that rewards managing up over results, noting that the COO promotion followed dismal performance for the wealth unit he oversaw."The biggest job was given to a guy who with 1 ½ years in wealth wasn't able to do anything," a former managing director said.Selva has also come under scrutiny for a lawsuit filed against him and the bank by an ex-Transformation executive in May. Kathleen Martin, a former interim data chair, alleged that Selva pressured her to hide information from the OCC that would make Citi "look bad" and that she was fired in September 2023 after multiple refusals. Citi denied the accusations and filed a counterclaim in late August, alleging that Martin was fired for underperformance. Citi has recently made leadership changes to Selva's unit. The bank tapped its new tech head, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citi-data-tim-ryan-anand-selva-memo-transformation-regulators-2024-9">Tim Ryan</a>, to lead the data effort alongside Selva and take over management of the 800-employee data team. The work on data, along with risks and controls, is paramount to the Transformation.Splitting the burden may expedite the massive task, which requires coordinating work from employees across the entire bank. Citi declined to specify a timeline, citing the confidential nature of regulatory matters. A managing director in the Transformation estimated that the work required would take about two decades.Mike Mayo, a Wells Fargo analyst, said that until Citi meets the requirements of the OCC and the Federal Reserve, the bank is in "regulatory purgatory.""Citi has thrown over 10,000 people and $3 billion and more at this problem," Mayo told BI in July. "They just have to get it done."Selva does have a long track record at Citi. Born in Madurai, a large city in southern India, he studied engineering and played basketball at the Coimbatore Institute of Technology. He earned his master's in business administration at Madurai Kamaraj University before joining Citi in 1991.Selva made his name at Citi by shaping its consumer-bank businesses across Asia. He led retail banking in China and India before taking over the Asia Pacific market in 2015. His approach was digital-first, eschewing branches for banking apps. Despite closing 60% of bank branches in Asia from 2016 through 2018, Selva grew deposits by 10%.<div type="image" title="Citi's Anand Selva speaking at a panel, seated and wearing a pinstripe suit and a red tie." height="3307" width="4960" msid="114093573" hostid="261" sizebytes="2310830"></div>"He's very tech and digital-oriented," Luchetti said. "We've been to China together to look at startups and firms that were disrupting the world. He was always very connected with learning more about technology, had that curiosity, and then the execution chops to get it done here."In 2019, Selva moved from Singapore to New York, where he now lives with his family, to run the US consumer bank. He assumed the global consumer-banking business from Fraser in 2021. Selva leaned on credit-card and lending offerings, launching products like Citi Custom Cash which allowed customers to pick their reward categories, and Flex Pay, a buy-now, pay-later service. Under Selva, Citi was the No. 2 issuer of credit cards in the US, and deposits grew by more than a third, to about $220 billion.In 2021, Citi started divesting itself of more than a dozen consumer-bank markets across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Selva was an important player on both sides of the table, according to Adora Tidalgo, the head of operational risk management at Citi. She said he helped find Asian acquirers that maximized value for Citi while keeping the businesses running smoothly with low attrition."That skill of balancing how much you want to bring in terms of revenue and the credit loss you want to take is really a skill that very much needs to be honed in the consumer space," she said. "That balancing, to me, I have seen Anand over the year been very successful in doing that."There have been some bumps in the road. As part of Fraser's reorganization of the bank in 2021, Selva gained oversight of a newly formed wealth unit and its new leader, Jim O'Donnell. Six current and former managing directors told BI that Selva's approach focused more on scale and digital offerings than high-touch client service. For instance, he didn't approve loans that failed to meet a certain threshold of return, even if it meant losing an important client, two former managing directors said."The way that every private banker on earth thinks about relationships is you need to invest in relationships, and then as you start to do more business with clients, you start getting more and more valuable opportunities with them," one of the former managing directors said. "You have to look at the relationship. You can't just look at every single transaction."Employees argued that Selva's playbook may have worked to build scale in Asia but not to satisfy well-heeled — and much more sought-after — US clients."I think Anand's decisions were comparing everything to what he knew from his time in Asia, and they are completely different markets," another former managing director said. "In Asia, Citi has a very recognizable brand, and people actually want to bank with Citi. You don't have to sell it that hard."<div type="image" title="Citi CEO Jane Fraser testifying at Congress" height="3828" width="5846" msid="114093582" hostid="261" sizebytes="314760"></div>The wealth business' revenue dropped by 6% year over year at the end of 2022. Fraser called the division's performance "disappointing." O'Donnell's reign over wealth was cut short in January 2023, and it was later placed under <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/andy-sieg-citi-wealth-management-ceo-2024-6">Andy Sieg</a>, the former head of Merrill Wealth Management. With Citi on a campaign to divest itself of 14 international consumer-bank markets, Selva's remit shrank.His appointment as COO thrust him into the spotlight. Tidalgo told BI that he was no stranger to the task of dealing with regulators."When you are the head of a country, you are the face of Citi to the regulators. Good, bad, or indifferent, you have to face them," she said. "That's part of the job."Citi's Transformation and its challenges predate Selva's appointment as COO. It existed as a firmwide initiative before the October 2020 fines but was kicked into overdrive after Citi entered consent orders with the OCC and the Federal Reserve.It can be viewed as two parts. The most visible is the strategy to simplify and modernize the bank, such as divesting Asian consumer businesses, removing five layers of management, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/citigroup-reorganization-layoffs-management-overhaul-reorganization-jane-fraser-stock-price-2023-9">reorganizing</a> so that the five business lines report directly to Fraser.The second part is meant to address the 2020 consent orders. The initiative is separated into seven programs, including finance, compliance, and risk and controls. While some 13,000 employees are dedicated to the Transformation, much of this work is carried out by employees across the bank. Selva sits at the center, coordinating these efforts. He's in a tough position, as much of the Transformation's work is executed by employees in other divisions."The challenge with the Transformation role is you are accountable yet not responsible," the managing director in the Transformation said. "The role is really coordinating and getting others to do what they need to do, which is very different from running a business where the entire team follows your lead, you own it, you have the ability to actually get them to do this stuff."When everyone is accountable, effectively no one is, a former senior vice president in the Transformation said. Matters got stuck in bureaucracy, bouncing from one department to another and being debated in committee for months.A senior executive in the Transformation acknowledged that the programs often rely on each other's work. For example, a delay in data work can lead to one for a finance project."When we are asked sometimes why it is challenging to execute on the Transformation, one of the challenges is the interconnectivity of those seven works," she said.The senior executive said the Transformation's successes had been overlooked, partly because the bank is limited in what it can say on regulatory matters. For instance, Citi has retired or replaced a quarter of its applications, halfway to its overall goal. The bank declined to specify the number of existing or terminated applications, but as of July, it had retired nearly 300 applications this year. The senior executive also touted the bank's streamlining its risk-management workflow.But the Transformation has earned a middling grade from Citi itself. The bank evaluates the initiative's success for the purposes of a bonus program applicable to about 200 senior employees, including Selva. In 2022, an internal committee gave it a score of 94%, citing targets it met, such as submitting remediation plans to regulators.For 2023, the score sank to 80%, calculated by measuring the timeliness of executing scheduled work, the percentage of work deemed complete by the bank's internal auditors, and a "qualitative consideration of Citi's cultural change" derived from the bank's employee surveys.<div type="image" title="Headshot of Citi's new tech head Tim Ryan, smiling and wearing a black suit jacket with a light blue shirt" height="739" width="985" msid="114093578" hostid="261" sizebytes="32120"></div>Bringing in Ryan, the bank's head of technology and business enablement, to help the bank catch up makes sense. The recruiter Phil Waxelbaum argued that a more traditional candidate to help lead the Transformation would be a seasoned, high-ranking person from a regulatory agency. But someone with a nonbanking background such as consulting or technology can work, too, according to recruiter Jeffrey Warren. Ryan joined Citi in June after seven years leading the US business of PricewaterhouseCoopers."In situations like this when you are looking to drive transformation, you need someone who can work at the intersection of people, processes, and technology," said Warren, managing director at Russell Reynolds Associates. "That includes working from within and likely driving some change with new people who have experience in new technologies or new ways of doing things."Ryan is now sharing data, a significant component of the Transformation, with Selva. Another PwC alum, Citi's head of enterprise risk management, Ashutosh Nawani, will take over the chief data office from one of Selva's lieutenants, Japan Mehta, and report to Ryan. Mehta will move to another role that the bank declined to specify.Employees told BI that they thought bringing in Ryan and Nawani would help."Sure, there might be some reservation that more consultants are coming in to run Citi, but there is a positive vibe of changing senior leadership," the former senior vice president in the Transformation said. "Legacy Citi culture is what got us into this spot in the first place."While the July fines did not meaningfully move Citi's stock, they have placed the bank and the Transformation under greater scrutiny. The OCC has ordered Citi to provide a resource-review plan each quarter to ensure the bank is providing enough resources for the effort. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also required the bank to address the Transformation's progress in future filings.The outstanding issues have also impeded Citi from expanding in China. According to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-09-23/citigroup-s-china-expansion-plan-put-on-hold-by-us-regulators">Bloomberg</a>, the bank is still waiting on a clearance letter from the Federal Reserve to set up a securities office. The bank declined to comment on the process but said it was "fully committed to supporting clients" in China.<div type="image" title="Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts at a hearing on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2024." height="1333" width="2000" msid="114093583" hostid="261" sizebytes="96482"></div>Regulators placing an asset cap on Citi, as Senator Warren has requested, isn't out of the realm of possibility, said Timothy Coffey, an analyst with Janney Montgomery Scott."At what point do the regulators just get fed up with Citi's inability to adequately resolve these issues or stick to the timeline that they've laid out?" he said. "That's an open-ended question."But the consent orders and the lack of progress are distractions in themselves. When Fraser took over Citi nearly four years ago, she said the Transformation was her No. 1 priority and asked for patience. Now her requests for time are wearing thin. Regardless of who leads the Transformation, Fraser is still accountable."This stays out here in terms of headline risk, and I think it puts a cap on the valuation that Citi can achieve," said Stephen Biggar, an Argus Research analyst. "It's an overhang on the stock. It's an overhang on the reputation of Fraser."Do you work for Citi? Have a tip or story to share? Reach out to Hayley Cuccinello at <a target="_blank" href="mailto:hcuccinello@businessinsider.com">hcuccinello@businessinsider.com</a> or 917 740 5340, which works for calls, text, and the encrypted messaging app Signal.

Meet the executive tasked with Citi's hardest challenge: getting the bank's house in order

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Major banks like Goldman Sachs walloped Wall Street expectations thanks to dealmaking fees.</li><li>Investment banking has made a comeback, and bigger bonuses are in the cards, too.</li></ul>Christmas came early for investment bankers.The biggest banks on Wall Street reported a huge boost in dealmaking fees this quarter after a two-year slump. Investment bank revenue surged 30% on average at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-3q-results-dealmaking-trading-resurgence-david-solomon-2024-10">Goldman Sachs</a>, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley, according to Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo."We continue to believe we are in the early stages of a multiyear capital markets recovery," Morgan Stanley CFO Sharon Yeshaya said during an earnings call. Morgan Stanley's investment bank revenue surged 56% year over year to $1.46 billion, beating Wall Street expectations.Several tailwinds are at play, including tempering inflation and pent-up demand. Debt underwriting has surged as companies rushed to take advantage of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fed-cuts-interest-rates-how-much-september-fomc-powell-inflation-2024-9">interest rate cuts</a>, S&amp;P Global's Nathan Stovall told BI. After years of recession fears, there is more optimism the Federal Reserve can deliver a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inflation-recession-outlook-prediction-labor-market-job-additions-interest-rates-2024-10">soft landing</a>, he said."You're seeing corporates get more comfortable with the world they're operating in, and they're willing to take more risks, and this leads to more M&amp;A activity, more equity raising, things like that," said Stovall, director of financial institutions research.An incoming flurry of dealmaking could reflect a broader economic recovery, as lower borrowing costs make it easier for companies to fund acquisitions. This past quarter saw several <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/megamergers-deals-m-a-wall-street-comeback-2024-9">megamergers</a>, such as candy giant Mars buying the maker of Pringles for <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-buying-pringles-cheez-it-maker-kellanova-36-billion-deal-2024-8">nearly $36 billion</a>. Citi advised Mars and provided $29 billion in debt financing with JPMorgan. Paramount <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/paramount-global-agrees-to-merge-with-skydance-shari-redstone-2024-7">agreed to merge</a> with David Ellison's Skydance Media. Bank of America is one of Skydance's advisors on the $8 billion deal.Wall Street CEOs, however, are cautious about their enormous wins. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jpmorgan-earnings-q3-jamie-dimon-economy-geopolitics-banking-wall-street-2024-10">JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon </a>warned on an earnings call that the favorable interest rate conditions "may not prevail or be the ongoing conditions late next year" and of geopolitical turmoil that is "treacherous and getting worse." Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon noted that while the bank had a healthy backlog, M&amp;A and equity activity is still well below 10-year averages.Risks to this comeback loom large, Mayo wrote in a research note."There's little question to us that activity and revenues reflect a degree of bull market banking," he wrote. "This could end based on potential results and reactions to the upcoming November elections, a stock market decline, and/or unexpected changes in rates (esp. higher)."Portfolio manager Cole Smead described the results as a "head fake." Smead is watching the US's ballooning deficit, concerned it could <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fixed-income-investing-tips-national-debt-yield-curve-steepening-treasury-2024-9">push up bond yields</a> and the cost of borrowing, which would discourage dealmaking."This can go on for maybe a quarter or two more, but it is likely going to fall apart long before it ever gets back to anywhere near the numbers of 2021," said the CEO of Smead Capital Management, which owns shares of Bank of America and JPMorgan. "Ultimately, this equity market, with many risks out there, is complacent and doesn't care. The problem is when the chickens come home to roost, this activity will go back to low levels again."<h2 id="d7f46fb6-2aae-4454-a462-5b0acb5aa3e8">The potential 'X-factor'</h2>While the risks are real, this quarter's upswing isn't necessarily a blip. For the five banks, Mayo estimated that capital markets revenue will grow 8% in 2025 to $31.7 billion and another 7% to $34 billion in 2026.There's also what Mayo calls "the X-factor": the $1 trillion-plus of dry powder held by private equity firms.Jon Gray, president and chief operating officer of private equity giant Blackstone, said that anecdotally, the number of confidentiality agreements more than doubled in September compared with a year ago."Now, that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to turn into that volume of deals. But it clearly shows you there is more enthusiasm," Gray said during the firm's earnings call Thursday. "And we know in the private equity world, there's a lot of companies that need to be sold, similar story in real estate."Finance professor David Stowell told BI that while the upcoming US election and overseas conflict pose economic risks, the sponsors can't sit on the sidelines indefinitely."They know that they always have to risk-adjust their investments," said Stowell, an investment banker for two decades before joining the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. "They pretty much have to spend the money, or their kind of business goes away."Stovall acknowledged that one quarter doesn't make a trend but said that economic data, such as job creation numbers, points to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-economy-outlook-data-points-to-soft-landing-no-recession-2024-9">soft landing</a>. This bodes well for dealmaking for the rest of the year and 2025."I'm cautiously optimistic," he said. "It is wise to not jump up and down and say things are going to go straight up from here, but I do think it's more encouraging than it's been for a while."For now, some Wall Streeters can already count on larger bonuses, according to compensation consultant Alan Johnson. With debt and equity capital markets thriving, underwriters will get the biggest gains. For debt and equity underwriters, he estimated bonus increases of 25% to 35% and 20% to 30%, respectively. M&amp;A bankers will have to wait longer for a significant boost and should expect maybe a 5% or 10% uptick this season."Traditionally, the sexiest area would be M&amp;A — the pipeline looks really good, but most of the closing fees would be for 2025," said the founder of Johnson Associates. "The headlines around M&amp;A are really going to be next year's story."

Investment banking has made a multibillion-dollar rebound, but it's too early to pop the Champagne 

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote in his memoir that Queen Elizabeth II had bone cancer.</li><li>Experts say royals have historically kept their medical information private for different reasons.</li></ul>After Queen Elizabeth died on September 8, 2022, her official cause of death was listed as <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/queen-elizabeth-96-died-of-old-age-death-certificate-says-2022-9">old age</a>.But former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote in his upcoming memoir, "Unleashed," that the monarch had bone cancer before her death, as an excerpt published by <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13901877/BORIS-JOHNSON-meeting-Queen-inspirational-words-wisdom.html">The Daily Mail</a> revealed. The book will be released in the UK on October 10 and in the US on October 15."I had known for a year or more that she had a form of bone cancer, and her doctors were worried that at any time she could enter a sharp decline," he wrote in a passage about a visit with the Queen in September 2022, just days before her death. Johnson also said the Queen's private secretary, Edward Young, told him that she "had known all ­summer that she was going," though that was not made public.Johnson's revelation wasn't completely new, as royal biographer Gyles Brandreth <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/uk-queen-elizabeth-ii-had-cancer-before-she-died-new-book-claims-2022-11">said the Queen had bone marrow cancer </a>in his 2022 book, "Elizabeth: An Intimate Portrait." Buckingham Palace declined to comment on the book at the time of its publication.The late monarch's decision to keep her health private isn't atypical for a royal — but it is unusual for a former prime minister to share intimate details of a monarch's health.Buckingham Palace did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.<h2 id="c397b2ee-14ab-45aa-a560-010eb7bf0b53">Medical privacy in the monarchy</h2>Members of the royal family, particularly those on the throne, have often kept their medical matters private.Historian, author, and royal commentator <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.royalhistorian.com/">Carolyn Harris</a> told BI that under King George VI's reign, privacy was indicative of the larger culture around medicine at the time. Queen Elizabeth II's father died of lung cancer, which Harris said George himself may not have seen coming."For many members of the public, it came as a shock that he died when he did, and certainly for his family as well," she said, noting that Elizabeth and Prince Philip had just left for a royal tour ahead of his death."That reflects the 1950s when it was thought to be upsetting to both the patient and to the patient's family and to the public as well to speak of cancer," Harris said.<div type="image" title="King George VI and then-Princess Elizabeth." height="4080" width="5440" msid="113887503" hostid="261" sizebytes="518850"></div>Royal watcher <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.kristenmeinzer.com/">Kristen Meinzer</a> also noted that the media landscape of much of the 1900s was intrinsically friendlier to offering public figures privacy than our modern era is."The Queen, over the course of her lifetime, saw a huge change in the media landscape and thus how information about the royal family was disseminated," she said. "It was easier if the royals wanted to be private about their health 100 years ago to just not say anything."The Queen and Prince Philip carried on her father's legacy of privacy, but Harris said their motivation was likely slightly more strategic than King George VI's. "Both Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip always wanted the headlines to be focused on the work of the monarchy rather than their individual health conditions," Harris said.<div type="image" title="queen elizabeth prince philip" height="2331" width="3108" msid="113887502" hostid="261" sizebytes="568554"></div>For instance, Harris said Philip chose <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prince-philip-officially-retires-best-photo-from-every-year-of-his-career-2017-7">to retire from public life in 2017</a> so "there wouldn't be feverish press speculation every time he was absent for a royal event." He <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prince-philip-dead-2021-3">died in 2021</a> at the age of 99.Likewise, the Queen made multiple appearances in her last year of life despite her declining health, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trooping-the-colour-royal-family-queen-platinum-jubilee-photos-2022-6">attending her Platinum Jubilee</a> in June 2022. Just two days before she died, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/queen-death-final-engagement-liz-truss-uk-prime-minister-photo-2022-9">she met Liz Truss</a> at Balmoral Castle in Scotland to appoint her as the new prime minister.Meinzer echoed Harris, noting that the Queen <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/royal-family-motherhood-kids-photos#queen-elizabeth-iis-pregnancies-werent-formally-announced-instead-the-palace-said-she-would-undertake-no-further-public-engagements-1">never even formally announced her pregnancies</a>.<h2 id="63cf2767-39d9-428e-9de5-1c0e43d2305f">Changing times</h2>As Harris told BI, Johnson's detailing of the Queen's health in his memoir is unusual for a former prime minister."The conversations between the sovereign and the prime minister are supposed to take place in confidence, and that's why there's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moments-in-the-crown-season-4-that-didnt-happen-2020-11">so much curiosity</a> about conversations that take place behind palace doors," Harris said.She added that some recent prime ministers have been slightly more candid about their private audiences with the Queen, including <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-queen-is-annoyed-by-david-camerons-scottish-independence-comments-2019-9">David Cameron to the Queen's reported displeasure</a>.Harris said medical details about royals have traditionally only been revealed in authorized biographies, though King Charles III seems to be taking a more modern approach to his health.Charles and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kate-middleton-surgery-public-absence-what-to-know-2024-2">Kate Middleton</a>, the Princess of Wales, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/king-charles-close-to-kate-middleton-both-battle-cancer-2024-3">were both diagnosed with cancer</a> in 2024, and the king, in particular, was intentional about sharing that he was undergoing surgery for an enlarged prostate in January.<div type="image" title="King Charles stands in front of an open door frame." height="1897" width="2000" msid="113887510" hostid="261" sizebytes="176262"></div>"I think so much of King Charles III's life, both his public life and his private life, have unfolded before the media, so it's clear that he feels more comfortable engaging with the media," Harris said.Harris and Meinzer pointed to the biography "The Prince of Wales," which the king worked on with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/king-charles-biographer-compares-prince-harry-to-b-list-celebrity-2023-1">Jonathan Dimbleby</a> in the 1990s, as an example of his openness to the media."I think King Charles III sees the benefit of the public being aware of the monarch going through these various health procedures," Harris said.After he announced he was undergoing a procedure for an enlarged prostate in January, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.england.nhs.uk/2024/01/kings-prostate-diagnosis-sees-1000-jump-in-visits-to-nhs-advice/">the NHS page</a> about prostate enlargement saw a surge in daily visitors.Although the king's openness has made a positive impact, and Kate recently shared that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kate-middleton-finished-chemotherapy-announcement-2024-9">she finished chemotherapy</a>, Meinzer doesn't think they will reveal intimate details about their treatments in the coming months."Maybe eventually there will be another memoir or biography that Charles collaborates on or that Kate collaborates on," Meinzer said. "I wouldn't expect that anytime soon, but it's always a possibility."

Boris Johnson said Queen Elizabeth II had bone cancer. It's not unusual for royals to keep health troubles private.     

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/streaming/how-to-get-burning-man-tickets-2024">Burning Man</a> kicked off this weekend in the Nevada Desert.</li><li>Hundreds of planes descended on the makeshift airport built for the occasion.</li></ul>Hundreds of charter and personal planes touched down on the same tarmac this weekend — and it wasn't in the Hamptons, Lake Tahoe, or any other particular bougie hot spot. It was a pop-up airport called 88NV in the middle of the Nevada desert.Officially named Black Rock City Municipal Airport, 88NV's two 6,000-foot runways created from a dry lakebed handle the hundreds of planes flying in for the annual <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/burning-man-experience-biggest-misconceptions-2023-9">Burning Man festival</a>. The temporary airfield is only open for about two weeks before it's taken down "without a trace."In the spirit of the event, 88NV is run almost completely by <a target="_blank" href="https://burningman.org/event/participate/volunteering/teams/airport/">volunteers</a>, including on the ramp and in the air traffic control tower."Burning Man hires a crew of five professional air traffic controllers who are the best in the world," a spokesperson for the Burning Man Project told Business Insider, noting the controllers also work large airshows like Wisconsin's famous Oshkosh AirVenture event. "The airfield is rolled and watered every night by a small fleet of large trucks to make the surface acceptable for aircraft and reduce dust."The spokesperson said during Burning Man peak days, the airport handles about 500 takeoffs and landings per day. This includes charter flights, personal and private aircraft, and "scenic flights given for free to Burning Man participants." He added that most of the operations involve propeller-driven planes, but the airport will also see the occasional charter jet.According to data from the aircraft-tracking website <a target="_blank" href="https://www.flightaware.com/live/airport/88NV/arrivals/all">FlightAware</a>, 88NV has handled more than 230 arrivals, including scenic flights, since the temporary airport opened for the season. The spike began on Sunday when the festival started, and hundreds more planes are expected before 88NV disappears again.Among the operations is Burning Man's dedicated shuttle service called Burner Air Express, which connects cities in California and Nevada to 88NV — but it's not cheap. At the time of publishing, a roundtrip ticket starts at over $1,500 from Reno and over $3,000 from the Bay Area.Burner Air Express told BI the cost of chartering one of its planes outright starts at $9,000 — one way.Burning Man wasn't always for the jet set. The annual music and arts festival started in San Francisco as a group of friends and a bonfire before moving to its desert locale, known as the Playa, in 1991.By the mid-1990s, it was attracting <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-ceos-founders-attended-burning-man">the attention of those now considered the tech elite</a> — although they weren't quite as elite then. Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and Jeff Bezos attended the festival in the 1990s.While a few planes started to fly into the desert in 1991, the Black Rock City airport wasn't recognized until 2008. By then, the festival was known as much as a gathering of anticapitalist hippies as a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-ceos-founders-attended-burning-man">destination for the technorati.</a>Famous founders and CEOs, such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Ray Dalio, have all attended the event.As Musk told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.vox.com/2014/4/3/11625260/at-hbos-silicon-valley-premiere-elon-musk-is-pissed">Recode</a> in 2014: "If you haven't been, you just don't get it."It's not just the private planes that make the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/burning-man-one-percent-ultra-wealthy-private-jet-personal-chef-2019-8">Burning Man experience different for the ultrawealthy</a>.Rich burners buy <a target="_blank" href="http://businessinsider.com/what-is-burning-man-theme-tickets-dates-outfits-2018-8">over-the-top outfits</a> and drive around in decked-out art cars — fancy golf carts — not bikes. Instead of sleeping in run-of-the-mill tents they pitch themselves, they spend tens of thousands of dollars to stay in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/burning-man-fancy-celebrity-camp-2015-9">fancy camps</a> with furniture, electricity, and, in some cases, air conditioning. Rather than cook simple food, they hire private chefs to cater in the middle of the desert.Word is still out on whether this adheres to Burning Man's 10 principles, namely decommodification, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ultrarich-burning-man-attendees-face-protesters-private-jets-plastic-use-2023-8">leaving no trace</a>, and radical self-reli. Still, it sure is easier than getting <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/first-burning-man-muddy-disaster-still-going-back-2024-8">stuck in the mud</a>.

Hundreds of private planes are touching down at a makeshift airport for billionaire favorite Burning Man

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Rachel Williams is suing Netflix over her portrayal as Anna Sorokin's friend in "Inventing Anna."</li><li>Her lawyers want the private notes of the journalist who wrote the magazine article about the Anna Delvey scam.</li></ul>The woman who alleges she was wrongfully portrayed in "Inventing Anna" is trying to get her hands on the confidential notes and sources of the journalist whose article inspired the Netflix show.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anna-sorokin-inventing-anna-netflix-rachel-williams-2022-2">Rachel Williams</a>, who was friends with the real-life Anna Sorokin, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inventing-anna-rachel-deloache-williams-sues-netflix-defamation-2022-8">sued Netflix last year</a>. The show, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/shonda-rhimes-could-be-deposed-as-part-of-inventing-anna-lawsuit-2022-12">produced by Shonda Rhimes</a>, is based on a viral New York magazine article by the journalist Jessica Pressler, who also consulted on its development.In court filings this week, Netflix lawyers revealed that Williams' lawyers want to obtain Pressler's private journalistic notes. Pressler, in a declaration, said that turning over the files would make sources less likely to trust her — and other journalists — in the future."Maintaining such confidentiality is critical to my role as a journalist and my ability to report will be substantially impaired if I am compelled to disclose my newsgathering material," Pressler wrote in a court filing.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inventing-anna-netflix-real-life-delvey-sorokin-family-relationship-2022-2">"Inventing Anna"</a> tells the tale of how Sorokin, using the name Anna Delvey, scammed members of Manhattan's elite by faking the identity of a European heiress with a $40 million fortune. Williams, who is portrayed using her real name, is a prominent character in the show as Sorokin's closest friend.According to Williams's lawsuit, Netflix defamed her by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/whats-true-inventing-anna-delvey-sorokin-differences-netflix-show-reality-2022-2">portraying her</a> as an opportunistic sidekick who was happy to siphon money, clothes, and vacations from Sorokin's phony largesse — rather than as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anna-delvey-sorokin-trial-vanity-fair-rachel-williams-witness-testimony-hbo-book-deal-2019-4">a friend who was duped</a>.Sorokin stuck Williams with a $60,000 American Express bill from a group vacation to Morocco, although the company later reimbursed the charges. Williams later wrote <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/my-friend-anna-book-anna-delvey-sorokin-rachel-williams-2019-7">a book, "My Friend Anna,"</a> where she recounted the panic and psychological damage of discovering her supposedly close friend was, in fact, a con artist and her worry that she'd lose her job as a photo editor for Vanity Fair. HBO had also purchased the rights to Williams' story — which she partially recounted in an article for the magazine — but there are no public indications the project is being developed.In a 2019 criminal trial, a Manhattan jury <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anna-delvey-sorokin-trial-story-fake-heiress-2019-4">found Sorokin guilty</a> of stealing from banks and other institutions as part of her scam but acquitted her of allegations that she stole from Williams. She was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anna-sorokin-delvey-interview-after-prison-release-2021-2">released from prison in 2021</a> and then promptly <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anna-delvey-writes-about-inventing-anna-and-life-in-jail-2022-2">rearrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement</a>, which sought to deport her to Germany, where her family lives. Sorokin, who is fighting both deportation and an appeal in her criminal case, was <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/anna-sorokin-house-arrest-dancing-with-the-stars-ankle-monitor-2024-9">released from house arrest in August</a>, her immigration lawyer previously told BI. This week, she is hosting several New York Fashion Week shows in collaboration with Pornhub and the clothing brand Shao. She is scheduled to be in the next season of ABC's "Dancing With the Stars."<h2 id="97cef5ac-5599-4c31-9482-5b6a59ba77af">Netflix waived reporter's privilege once it used the notes for 'Inventing Anna,' Williams' lawyers argue</h2>On October 4, Sorokin — who <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/netflix-paid-anna-delvey-sorokin-tv-series-victim-fund-2021-1">sold her life adaptation rights for "Inventing Anna"</a> — is scheduled to testify for a deposition in Williams's suit against Netflix. US District Judge Colm Connolly, who is overseeing the case in Delaware federal court (and who was himself once portrayed in the TV movie "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264366/">And Never Let Her Go</a>"), in March declined to fully dismiss the case and allowed it to move into the discovery phase.Journalists in the United States are often protected by some form of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.rcfp.org/reporters-privilege/">reporter's privilege, a legal doctrine</a> that preserves the right not to be compelled to disclose information in court.Pressler, in her court filing, wrote that her New York magazine article about Sorokin raised important questions about elite institutions and "how our culture celebrates wealth.""I believe that my Article raised matters of public concern, namely examining the way a young woman could con her way into rooms with the most elite, and convincing those in the banking, fashion, and art worlds that she was something she was not," she wrote.<div type="image" title="Julia Garner as Anna Sorokin and Katie Lowes as Rachel Wiliams in Netflix Inventing Anna" height="1666" width="2500" msid="113267891" hostid="261" sizebytes="249240"></div>In letters obtained by BI, lawyers representing Williams have argued that Netflix forfeited any legal protections by sharing Pressler's notes with different members of the production team for "Inventing Anna.""Netflix has asserted the privilege over an incredibly broad range of documents, including draft scripts, production schedules circulated to the whole cast and crew, and many other documents written by someone other than Ms. Pressler," Williams's lawyer Alexander Rufus-Isaacs told BI in an email. "Our position is that by sharing this information so widely, Netflix has waived the reporter's privilege."Pressler declined to comment. A lawyer for Netflix referred questions to a company spokesperson, who didn't respond to requests for comment. (Some of Netflix's lawyers in the case, at the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, also represent Business Insider in unrelated First Amendment disputes.) Representatives for New York magazine's parent company, Vox Media, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.In court filings, Netflix's lawyers say there are plenty of precedents for applying New York's reporter shield law to adaptive works since the original purpose of the reporting was for a magazine article.Pressler also wrote in her declaration that "Inventing Anna" would "use my newsgathering to further publicize these matters of public concern — and take these questions of who is a victim, who is a con, and who should be celebrated to a different audience.""It does not matter that these newsgathering materials were later used to create a dramatized series — Ms. Pressler and Netflix have an unqualified right under New York law to maintain the protection of these confidential sources' identities — which were originally procured as part of Ms. Pressler's writing process," lawyers for Netflix wrote in a filing.

Scammer's friend in 'Inventing Anna' wants journalist's private notes to fuel her defamation lawsuit against Netflix

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Canaccord Genuity is hiring ex-WPP dealmaker Lance Maerov to work on ad and media M&amp;A.</li><li>Maerov's hiring suggests there could be a coming rise in deals on Madison Avenue.</li></ul>Canadian investment bank Canaccord Genuity is hiring a former top dealmaker at advertising giant <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-wpps-volatile-year-2023-12">WPP</a> to join its advertising and media mergers and acquisitions practice, Business Insider can exclusively reveal.<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/top-execs-leading-ad-industry-mergers-aquisitions-2021-8#andrew-scott-chief-operating-officer-wpp-11">Lance Maerov</a>, who left WPP in December, is set to join Canaccord Genuity's technology, media, marketing, and information M&amp;A practice, two people familiar with the matter told BI. The company informed staff earlier this week, one of the people said. They requested anonymity in order to maintain business relationships. Their identities are known to BI.Canaccord Genuity didn't respond to requests for comment.The move to expand the bank's media and advertising practice by hiring a prolific Madison Avenue dealmaker is a strong signal that acquisitions in the agency space could heat up. Recent Canaccord Genuity deals in the ad and media space include the sale of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.marketingdive.com/news/publicis-acquires-mars-united-commerce-full-funnel-marketing/727539/">Mars United Commerce</a> to Publicis Groupe, Verve Group's acquisition of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.adexchanger.com/mobile/verve-acquires-jun-group-a-mobile-video-and-gaming-network-for-185-million/">Jun Group</a>, and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.adexchanger.com/omnichannel-2/cadent-acquires-adtheorent-for-324-million-with-a-plan-for-performance-tv/">AdTheorent</a>'s sale to Novacap-owned Cadent.<h2 id="7487460d-0072-4efb-a442-7c2e88683789">The advertising industry is undergoing radical change that's fueling deal activity</h2>The advertising agency landscape has transformed in recent years amid the advent of digital marketing and the emergence of new technology and practices, from <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-ai-changing-advertising-agency-business-2023-9">artificial intelligence</a> to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/retail-media-advertising-surges-challenging-google-traditional-channels-2023-9">retail media</a>. Agencies have responded by adapting their services to suit a broader array of client needs than simply creating and buying their ads, as in decades past.It's been marked by a wave of high-profile acquisitions, such as Publicis Groupe's $4.4 billion purchase of the data business <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/publicis-acquires-epsilon-for-44-billion-but-marketers-say-combining-forces-will-be-a-challenge-2019-4">Epsilon in 2019</a> and, more recently, Omnicom acquiring e-commerce specialist <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2024/01/19/inside-the-omnicom-flywheel-merger-with-john-wren-jonathan-nelson-duncan-painter">Flywheel Digital</a> for $835 million last year.The varying fortunes of different ad-holding companies, as well as an emergence of new entrants — and a growing interest in the space <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/private-equity-firms-investing-in-advertising-and-marketing-companies-2024-3">from private equity</a> — have also fueled speculation that agency groups, too, could be merged or acquired.Rumors continue to buzz in the industry about what might be <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/insiders-question-ad-giant-wpp-ceo-mark-reads-bounceback-plan-2023-10">next for WPP</a>, once the leader of the pack, whose market value has dropped well below that of arch-rivals Publicis and Omnicom. (On Wednesday, WPP reported <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.wsj.com/business/earnings/wpp-returns-to-growth-beating-expectations-9a85cd15?mod=media_news_article_pos1">a return to revenue growth</a> in its third quarter, which analysts generally hadn't expected.)The Wall Street Journal reported this summer that IPG was in talks to sell R/GA, its digital agency famed for its work on Nike, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.wsj.com/business/media/interpublic-explores-sale-of-prominent-digital-agency-to-consulting-giant-b96f8eed">to Tata Global Consulting</a>. S4 Capital, led by former WPP chief Martin Sorrell, turned down an acquisition offer from <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.wsj.com/business/media/he-was-the-ad-industrys-hunter-now-hes-the-prey-65a12b99">rival firm Stagwell</a> earlier this year, The Wall Street Journal first reported.Maerov, who worked under Sorrell at WPP as its EVP of corporate development, was responsible for the company's M&amp;A and venture capital investments. He also worked closely with current CEO Mark Read and chief operating officer Andrew Scott.Maerov worked for WPP for more than 20 years, during which time it made transformative acquisitions, such as the 2007 purchase of digital marketing company <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://techcrunch.com/2007/05/17/wpp-acquires-247-real-media-for-649m/">24/7 Real Media</a> and the 2015 acquisition of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rob-norman-on-why-wpps-groupm-acquired-essence-digital-2015-11">British media agency Essence</a>.Through WPP's investments, Maerov sat on the board of companies including The Weinstein Company, Vice Media, IT firm Globant, and the lifestyle website Refinery29. He would later <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/weinstein-board-member-lance-maerov-testifies-harvey-weinstein-1272131/">testify</a> against Harvey Weinstein in the trial that ultimately sent the movie mogul to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/harvey-weinstein-found-guilty-sexual-assault-rape-in-trial-verdict-2020-2">jail</a>.This year, Maerov branched out on his own, launching Dinmont Ridge, a strategic advice and investment-capital consulting firm.

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You Searched For "working conditions private banks" and got 8 results

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