Expedia CTO and E-Commerce SVP Exit After ‘A Violation of Company Policy’

Expedia CTO and E-Commerce SVP Exit After ‘A Violation of Company Policy’

Skift Take

Expedia Group wouldn’t provide additional details on the sudden exits of the two executives.

One week after Ariane Gorin took over as the new CEO of Expedia Group, the company issued a statement Friday that Chief Technology Officer Rathi Murthy, and Sreenivas Rachamadugu, senior vice president, core services product & engineering, are no longer working at the company.

Expedia Group cited “a violation of company policy,” but wouldn’t provide additional details on their exits.

The company said “we’re actively searching to fill these roles and remain confident in our technology, strategy, and employees.”

Both Murthy and Rachamadugu previously worked at Verizon Media. She worked there as chief technology officer in 2020 and 2021, while he was employed there as vice president engineering and product in 2021.

Murthy played a high-profile role at Expedia Group’s annual partner conference, Explore 24, in Las Vegas on Tuesday and Wednesday. She appeared on stage in the general session on Tuesday and spoke about the company’s new AI travel assistant, Romie.

Murthy also briefed the press on Expedia Group’s brand platform migration, in which she played a leading role, and spoke about what it was like to be a top woman executive at such a high-profile company.

One element of buzz at the conference was a “trifecta” of women leaders at Expedia Group, including Gorin, Chief Financial Officer Julie Whalen, and Murthy. That trifecta is now a duo with Murthy gone.

Rachamadudu did not attend the conference.

The sudden exits of Murthy and Rachamadudu do not appear to be performance-related, according to the Expedia Group statement, but were tied to “a violation of company policy.”

Expedia Group’s employee policies cover a wide range of behaviors, including bullying, sexual harassment, conflicts of interests and financial integrity.

On the tech side, Expedia Group

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This AI-Powered Robotics Company that is Changing E-Commerce Reports Earnings Today – February 5, 2024

This AI-Powered Robotics Company that is Changing E-Commerce Reports Earnings Today – February 5, 2024

Symbotic (SYM Free Report)  is an American robotics warehouse automation enterprise based mostly in Wilmington, Massachusetts. Launched in 2014, the firm develops and deploys AI-driven robotic devices that automate warehouse operations, aiming to strengthen effectiveness, precision, and security.

With tailwinds from AI, automation, e-commerce, and other bleeding edge tech, Symbotic is a organization that is positioned for massive gains more than the upcoming several a long time.

Because of the excitement bordering the organization, it trades at an uber-high quality valuation, escalating prospective draw back in the close to-phrase. On the other hand, for those traders ready to keep by way of high volatility swings, Symbotic could be the subsequent speculative inventory to include to your portfolio.

Symbotic studies earnings on Monday, soon after the market near, which will offer buyers with new information on the business’ development.

Primary Improvements

Symbotic has been creating a person of the most progressive and nicely positioned new items in the market place, combining a litany of new systems.

Symbotic’s main product is its Symbotic Technique, which is composed of:

  • Autonomous cellular robots (AMRs): These robots navigate the warehouse using cameras and sensors, retrieving, and storing merchandise from shelves.
  • Computer software platform: This application controls the robots, optimizes warehouse structure and inventory administration, and integrates with current warehouse systems.

The Symbotic Program is made to be modular and scalable, so it can be tailored to a wide selection of warehouses and desires.

The positive aspects of working with Symbotic’s procedure incorporate:

  • Improved effectiveness: The robots can operate 24/7, which can substantially increase the throughput of a warehouse.
  • Enhanced precision: The robots use computer eyesight to make sure that they decide on and retailer the right things.
  • Diminished labor charges: Symbotic’s method can minimize the require for human labor in
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Beauty tech startup Fyyne acquired by Nigeria-based e-commerce company Bumpa

Beauty tech startup Fyyne acquired by Nigeria-based e-commerce company Bumpa

Fyyne gives a splendor expert services market and enterprise resources.

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Toronto-based mostly Fyyne, which gives a market for attractiveness services and enterprise management applications for impartial beauticians, has been obtained by Nigerian e-commerce organization Bumpa.

Both providers declined to disclose the monetary conditions of the offer, which shut this summertime. The shift arrives about a calendar year and a 50 percent after Fyyne released its beauty tech system and secured an undisclosed sum of pre-seed funding. By means of its strategic acquisition of Fyyne, Bumpa hopes to assist gasoline its enlargement into new marketplaces.

Bumpa is developing a Shopify-like e-commerce platform to support African little enterprise entrepreneurs start off, manage, and grow their providers from their cell equipment. In tandem with this acquisition, Fyyne has also launched a redesigned Bumpa-driven variation of its app.

Fyyne’s group was presently comprised of Nigerian workers in Toronto and Lagos, where Bumpa is headquartered.

“Bumpa is really aligned with our mission at Fyyne and they have been performing equivalent perform to fantastic success in the Nigerian sector,” Fyyne co-founder and outgoing CEO Jeffrey Fasegha explained to BetaKit, including that the mix “made a ton of sense” for both equally parties. Fasegha mentioned that when Fyyne has been exploring the plan of transferring into the African market—where Bumpa has “deep expertise”—Bumpa has been planning to deliver its merchandise west.

Started in late 2020 by Fasegha and previous University of Toronto classmates Olugbenga Olubanjo and Al-Ameen Ogundiran, Fyyne established out to strengthen Black haircare accessibility, though also setting up all of the tools that Black barbers and hairstylists need to have to operate their businesses. Fyyne had elevated a whole of $300,000 from a record of backers that bundled BKR Funds, Techstars, Google for Startups, and Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer.

As Fasegha previously

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People Think Amazon Is an E-Commerce Company, but 74% of Its Profit Comes From This Instead

People Think Amazon Is an E-Commerce Company, but 74% of Its Profit Comes From This Instead

Amazon (AMZN 0.33%) is a technology powerhouse. It was founded in 1994, and it amassed a $1.5 trillion valuation in the 30 years since.

The company originally sold books online, though its catalog has expanded to include an estimated 12 million products. In 2023, Amazon accounted for 37.6% of all e-commerce sales in America, which was light-years ahead of second-place Walmart at 6.3%.

But here’s the thing. Online sales — combined with all of its other businesses except one — accounted for a minority of Amazon’s operating income through the first three quarters of 2023 (ended Sept. 30). In 2022, they contributed no operating income at all.

Below, I’ll tell you where Amazon generates the overwhelming majority of its profit, and it’s a segment all investors should watch very closely in the future.

E-commerce remains Amazon’s largest segment

Before we dive into Amazon’s profitability, let’s look at where its revenue comes from. While the company is still very much focused on its e-commerce business, it expanded significantly over the years to operate in cloud computing, digital advertising, robotics, and streaming.

Amazon generated $143.1 billion in total revenue during the latest third quarter, and here’s where it came from:

Segment

Q3 Revenue (Billions)

Percentage of Total Revenue

Online stores

$57.3

40%

Third-party seller services

$34.3

24%

Amazon Web Services

$23

16.1%

Advertising services

$12.1

8.5%

Subscription services

$10.2

7.1%

Physical stores

$4.9

3.5%

Other

$1.2

0.8%

Data source: Amazon.

As you can see, online sales were still Amazon’s largest source of revenue. Commissions and fees charged to third-party sellers on Amazon’s platform were the second-largest contributor.

Advertising services are becoming increasingly important as Amazon finds new ways to sell digital ad spots to businesses on its website and through its streaming platforms like Prime and Twitch. In Q3, advertising services

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Calgary-based geothermal company Eavor receives $90M from feds

Calgary-based geothermal company Eavor receives M from feds

The funding will ‘accelerate’ the deployment of Eavor’s technology that provides clean, baseload heat and power using a closed-loop geothermal system, Freeland said

Article content

A Calgary-based geothermal company is receiving $90 million from the federal government to help it scale its technologies at a commercial level.

Eavor Technologies Inc. is the first recipient of Canada Growth Fund (CGF) support, a $15-billion federal program created in 2022 with the intention of supporting low-carbon finance initiatives.

Article content

Deputy Prime Minister and federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland made the announcement Wednesday afternoon in downtown Calgary.

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Shopify: How this e-commerce company is using calculators to put an end to ‘pointless’ meetings

Shopify: How this e-commerce company is using calculators to put an end to ‘pointless’ meetings
Time is funds, and Shopify Inc wants its staff to understand that maxim applies to pointless conferences, too.
The Canadian e-commerce business has rolled out a calculator embedded in employees’ calendar application that estimates the cost of any conference with a few or much more persons. The device uses normal compensation facts throughout roles and disciplines, together with conference length and attendee count, to put a cost tag on the party. A regular 30 minute endeavor with 3 staff members can operate from $700 up to $1,600. Incorporating an govt — like Main Functioning Officer Kaz Nejatian, who built the plan during a company-extensive hack working day — can shoot the price tag higher than $2000.
The new tool is aspect of the company’s yearlong generate to lessen unneeded gatherings. Previously this year, Shopify removed all recurring conferences with additional than two individuals and started out discouraging meetings on Wednesdays.
The intention of these initiatives, reported Nejatian, is to “change the default response from sure to no.”
The company is on pace to minimize out 322,000 several hours and 474,000 discrete events in 2023, in accordance to Nejatian.
“No just one at Shopify would price a $500 meal,” Nejatian stated in an job interview. “But tons and a lot of people today spend way more than that in conferences without having ever earning a choice. The purpose of this point is to exhibit you that time is income. If you have to devote it, you imagine about it.”
Executives and their employees equally say they commit hours each individual week in meetings that could disappear with out consequence. Time squandered on things to do like meetings were being between the top 5 brings about of inefficiency inside an group, a survey of enterprise leaders and understanding staff from task-administration application
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