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  • 🚀 Capital One’s $35 Billion Deal to Buy Discover

🚀 Capital One’s $35 Billion Deal to Buy Discover

PLUS: Google offers 300% salary hike to retain talent, Walmart to acquire Vizio in a $2.3 billion deal

Dear founder, here’s your 3-minute recap (without the fluff):

  • Capital One’s $35 billion deal to buy Discover

  • Google offers a 300% salary hike to retain talent

  • Walmart to acquire Vizio in $2.3 billion deal

  • New tools, funding updates & job postings

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đź“š Resources

10 lessons from Warren Buffett’s shareholder letters (link)

Crazy career arc: If she can do it, you can too (link)

A short guide to business writing by David Perell (link)

Highlights of OpenAI's first text-to-video model, Sora! (link)

PS. If you’re interested in this AI stuff, you should sign up for our other newsletter - Prompts Daily. It has 100,000+ readers (Executives, VCs, and engineers). Sign up with one click.

🗞️ News 

Capital One: $35 Billion, Year's Biggest Deal

Capital One plans to buy Discover Financial Services for more than $35 billion. This move aims to combine two big credit card companies in the United States. Capital One wants to tap into Discover's large network of over 300 million cardholders. However, there are regulatory challenges ahead. Authorities will closely examine how this merger might affect competition and consumers.

If the deal goes through, it could change the credit card industry a lot. But there are worries about Capital One having too much power and control over prices, especially with credit card debt on the rise in the country.

Google Offers 300% Salary Hike to Retain Talent

Google is offering a big pay raise—300% more—to keep an employee from leaving for an AI startup. This shows how tech companies are trying hard to hold onto key people, even as others are cutting jobs. Google knows that having experts in AI is super important for staying ahead in technology, so they're ready to pay big to keep them.

This could change how other companies keep their top talent and shows how much value there is in AI skills.

Walmart to Acquire Vizio in $2.3 Billion Deal

Walmart is set to acquire TV manufacturer Vizio in a $2.3 billion deal aimed at boosting its advertising business. With Vizio's SmartCast Operating System, Walmart aims to innovate in television and in-home entertainment, providing new opportunities for advertisers to engage customers.

This move allows Walmart to better compete in the smart TV market, enhancing its offerings against rivals like Amazon and Roku. The acquisition, subject to regulatory approval, signals Walmart's strategic push into connected TV advertising, leveraging Vizio's technology for a scaled advertising platform.

đź’° Funding

Bold raises $50M in series C funding round led by General Atlantic (link)

Rasa lands $30M to supercharge customer service with generative AI assistants (link)

đź’Ľ Job Board

Senior Machine Learning Engineer at Coinbase (Remote)

Venture Lead, Conversational AI Experiences at Adobe (US)

đź’Ś Etcetera

Walmart reports rising holiday sales as shoppers seek value

This year’s Superbowl brought 882 private jets to Las Vegas airport

Hustle culture vs. Quiet quitting: how bosses can walk the line

The rise and fall of Drizly, one of Boston’s great startup stories

New York rent-control system left intact by US Supreme Court

The truth behind Zomato's turnaround - startup case study

Scientists finally understand why insects are drawn to artificial light

How to have the hardest conversations—in marriage, politics, and life

Zombie deer disease is spreading through America. Here's why it's a concern

Delta offers flights to view total solar eclipse

Women may get more health benefits from regular exercise than men—even if they work out less 

That’s it for now!

Hope you enjoyed this week’s edition! See you next week.

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