Featured Stories
Selling an Edtech Business: The PositivePsychology.com Exit
PositivePsychology.com, a mission-driven edtech platform used by 19M+ professionals, was acquired in an 8-figure deal advised by FE International. This case study covers their growth, decision to sell, and the exit process.
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IBBA Deal Maker of the Year Award Granted to FE International CEO Ismael Wrixen: Newsletter June 16, 2017
FE International! We are proud to announce CEO Ismael Wrixen as the recipient of four IBBA awards. During the Annual IBBA Member Excellence Awards Gala of the IBBA Conference, on behalf of FE International, Ismael was awarded with the IBBA Chairman’s Circle, IBBA Deal Maker, IBBA Deal Maker of the Year and IBBA Top Global Producer awards. To learn more about these awards, you can read our latest blog post or check out the full press release on Yahoo! Finance. We want to take a moment to thank you, our readers, friends, partners and advocates for working with us.
Switch to HTTPS May Impact Bing Rankings: Newsletter June 9, 2017
You may have been pressured before to switch your website from HTTP to HTTPS, however some sources have found that this may be impacting your traffic from Bing. It is commonly known that Google gives secured sites a boost in ranking. If you have migrated to HTTPS using an extension of transport layer security (TLS ), a security protocol necessary for HTTPS called sever name indication (SNI), then Search Engine Land says that you may have noticed a drop in Bing ranking and that this is caused by Bing’s inability to crawl sites with this type of site security implementation. To learn more about how your site may have been affected, check out this article.
Stripe Releases Sigma Tool for SQL Data Analytics: Newsletter June 2, 2017
Stripe is now serving customizable SQL data analytics to its customers through their newly released Sigma tool. Stripe users will be able to instantly see invoices and receipts going out, money coming in and get access to other critical data one needs from a payment processor. Start getting familiar with SQL, and you will quickly gain full visibility over your metrics.
Amazon’s Free Shipping Minimum Drops to $25: Newsletter May 19, 2017
Amazon’s new free shipping minimum has dropped down to $25, with a previous minimum of $49. This applies to non-Prime members as Prime members get 2-day shipping on select items. In tight competition with Walmart, who have recently updated its free shipping minimum, Amazon is taking note of Walmart’s every move. To learn more about this story, check the news briefs below.
NHS Hacked by Massive Ransomware Campaign: Newsletter May 12, 2017
Announced this morning, a massive ransomware campaign has infected a number of organizations around the world. The ransomware locks computers and demands a payment in Bitcoin. A report claims to have detected 36,000 instances of the ransomware called “WannaCry”, including the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). The BBC has been posting updates on the major cyber-attack, as experts uncover more details. Be sure to always update your software as new versions include protection against these types of vulnerabilities. You can read more about the story here.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Addresses Harvard class of 2017: Newsletter May 26, 2017
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg swung by in Boston this week to address the 2017 graduating class at Harvard College and receive his honorary degree. Of course, he broadcasted the speech via Facebook live, which you can view here. That was probably a distraction from the real Facebook news this week – that the company is issuing refunds to some advertisers after a bug that led Facebook Insights to overstate clicks on websites. Advertisers affected were those that specifically paid for ads that resulted in clicks to their websites. The WSJ’s report on the story is here.
WordPress Update Introduces Noopener and Noreferrer: Newsletter May 5, 2017
The recent WordPress update triggered lots of controversial discussions around the new tags it introduced: noopener and noreferrer. What looks like a potential bug at a first glance, is in fact a useful feature that is supposed to stop newly opened pages having the ability to control the page that opened it. In other news, Google Doc users have been under threat with a phishing scam this past week, so make sure to keep an eye out of suspicious looking emails and links!
Trump Introduces New Tax Cut Proposal: Newsletter April 28, 2017
This week featured a few announcements in governance. Trump offered Americans a new tax proposal, while the EU Parliament implemented a new data privacy regulation. Claiming to be the “biggest tax cut in history,” Trump’s Tax Plan suggests to relieve rates the for individuals at every income level, as well as for both small and large businesses. The biggest tax breaks will be offered to the wealthiest individuals and corporations. Watch out for our tax blog post in the coming weeks!
Quora Raises $85 million to Expand Internationally: Newsletter April 21, 2017
Popular Q&A platform Quora announces that it has raised $85 million, which comes after Quora’s last round of $80 million three years ago and $235 million to date. This is good news, as it boasts over 190 million monthly unique visitors. After the rather public donation issues Wikipedia faced earlier this year, it is encouraging to see that investors still pace a high value on online advice and education. The $85 million will be used to expand the platform internationally, grow business strategy and make new hires to improve machine learning abilities. The last funding round, Quora was valued at $900 million, which poses the question of an IPO?
