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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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Trump Criticizes Amazon for Taking USPS Subsidies: Newsletter January 5, 2018
Amazon received criticism from the President this week, who accused the company of taking unjust subsidies from the United States Postal Service. Of the deal between Amazon and the US Postal Service a Bloomberg analyst reported that in 2014, the USPS shipped 40% of the “final mile” of Amazon’s packages to consumers’ homes, for which Amazon pays about half as much as it would through FedEx or UPS. According to Citigroup analysis, it would cost Amazon an average of $1.46 more per package if costs were “fairly allocated,” which has invited critics to say that the giant is using their power to leave the USPS with the raw end of the deal. Indeed, the USPS’s most recent quarter shows a net loss of $2.1 billion, so one can see why offering Amazon deep discounts could be met with criticism.
Google Launches SEO Snippets: Newsletter December 29, 2017
Google has this week announced the addition of educational videos to its Webmaster Tools product. Currently, anyone can post webmaster and SEO questions on its forum or via the Webmaster Central blog, but Google themselves had not been addressing common concerns beyond their FAQ. Now, users can subscribe to their YouTube channel for a video series called “SEO Snippets,” where they will pull questions from their forum to offer instructional videos as a starter guide on topics ranging from 404 errors, how and when crawling works, URL structures, duplicate content, and more.
FCC Repeals Net Neutrality: Newsletter December 15, 2017
Yesterday, the FCC voted to repeal net neutrality regulations that prohibited the blocking of websites by broadband providers and charging for service or certain types of content. The federal government will also no longer regulate high-speed internet delivery in the same way it does today with phone services, i.e. as a utility. This seemingly goes against public opinion survey showing 83% of the U.S. population opposes the decision irrespective of party affiliation. The vote is expected to be appealed in federal court.
UK Treasury Amends Cryptocurrency Laws: Newsletter December 8, 2017
The U.K. treasury announced they would be amending anti-money laundering laws to require bitcoin and other cryptocurrency investors to reveal their identities. Online investing platforms will vet each investor and report suspicious persons to the U.K. authorities in an attempt to limit crime facilitated by crypto-investing. Critics of current bitcoin operations, from Goldman Sachs to JP Morgan execs, are in agreement with the U.K. Treasury’s decision, purporting that allowing investor anonymity can lead to crime, fraud, and breaches in counter-terrorism financial legislation. This follows last week’s order from a San Francisco judge mandating Coinbase to release investor information to the IRS to avoid tax fraud on crypto-investments.
Black Friday Sees Record-Breaking Sales: Newsletter December 1, 2017
This year’s Black Friday saw record-breaking U.S. online sales of $5.03 billion. This record was short lived, however, with reported Cyber Monday sales of $6.59 billion, taking the total for Nov 1 – 27 to $50 billion, up 16.8% YoY. Analysts now believe this may be the first year where online sales during the holiday period break the $100 billion mark in the U.S. China’s Alibaba still holds the e-commerce record for one day of sales during China’s “Singles Day”, at $25.4 billion. Interestingly, the YoY growth in smartphone sales outpaced overall growth levels, hitting $1.59 billion, a 32.2% YoY increase.
QuickBooks Capital Loans to Small Businesses: Newsletter November 10, 2017
Intuit announced their new initiative, QuickBooks Capital, a small business lending service powered by artificial intelligence technology. QuickBooks Capital is a response to the struggle many small businesses face of getting approved for loans due to a short financial history. With 26 billion data points to inform their algorithm, the program combs through a small business’s financial data to determine the probability that future cash flow will be sufficient to repay a loan. Small businesses can apply for loans up to $35,000 for now, backed by QuickBooks itself, and should expect low rates according to the head of QuickBooks Capital, Rania Succar.
Trump Administration Releases New Tax Plan: Newsletter November 3, 2017
Yesterday, the Trump administration released their proposed tax reform bill. It contains several proposed changes to the current tax legislation, with the key points for business owners being that the tax brackets will be simplified from 7 to 4 income groups, standard deductions are nearly doubled and corporate tax is cut from 35% to 20%. Though the tax plan does not address all points that have been suggested by GOP legislators, the proposal would help small business owners significantly, as they would see their tax rate cut nearly in half. Kevin Brady, author of the bill and Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, hopes to get the bill passed through the House by Thanksgiving, though the bill as it currently stands will likely be edited over the weekend before it faces a scheduled markup by the Ways and Means Committee on Monday. Read below for more details on the proposed bill.
FE International Acquires iAcquisitions: Newsletter October 27, 2017
We are thrilled to announce that FE International has successfully completed the acquisition of iAcquisitions, a leading privately held e-commerce mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory firm.
Kohl’s to Accept Amazon Returns at 10 Stores: Newsletter October 20, 2017
Kohl’s has announced a partnership with Amazon in a new initiative allowing customers to return Amazon purchases in 10 of their stores in Chicago and LA. Not to be outdone by Walmart’s announcement last week that they would be accepting returns for online purchases in-store, Amazon is once again leveraging its colossal sales engine to create new partnerships to combat the existing offline distribution Walmart has. This one comes right before the holidays, and will likely be a leading indicator of whether consumers value the ability to return items in store, and whether this will drive more in-person purchases for Kohl’s, a reputed holiday retail giant.
