Morgan Stanley is getting into the “robo-advice” business, where software manages funds instead of people. The service, Access Investing, is aimed at younger investors, and helps them put their money with the businesses they’re most interested in.
“Forty percent of our clients have chosen to invest in a theme, and the most popular ones [are] robotics and artificial intelligence,” Naureen Hassan, Chief Digital Officer for Wealth Management at Morgan Stanley, told Cheddar.
The financial firm rolled out its Access Investing division, which focuses on advising clients online, in December. Hassan says that her team has seen a lot of engagement with from people 45 and under.
Robo-advisers, or digital investment portfolios, are not very new. The field has competitors, such as Betterment or Wealthfront, that have been making strides in the sector.
But Morgan Stanley says it’s betting on its legacy to differentiate itself in the industry.
“We think it’s the Morgan Stanley investing expertise that really differentiates it,” Hassan said. “That’s why we are offering clients choice, it just isn’t only a passive portfolio, we believe in a mix of assets.”
Warren Schlichting, president of Sling TV, spoke to Cheddar from Denver Startup Week Monday about the changing media landscape. "I don't want to pay for things I'm not watching," he said, channeling the mantra of the 2.3 million cord-cutters who make up Sling's customer base.
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Comcast's $38.8 billion winning bid for British satellite broadcaster Sky was a "shocking price" to pay for international expansion, said Rich Greenfield, media and tech analyst at BTIG.
Shares of Pandora surged Monday after the satellite radio company announced an all-stock deal to acquire the streaming service. Sirius made a $480 million investment in the company last year, taking about a 15 percent stake in it. BTIG analyst Rich Greenfield says the deal is probably bittersweet for Pandora which "really failed as a public company."
The blockchain has made its way into a slew of industries. Next at bat ー the sports world. The Los Angeles Dodgers are moving away from traditional promotions and have begun using crypto tokens to give away digital bobbleheads to fans. Ralph Esquibel, VP of information technology for the team, said this is the first giveaway of its kind and could lead to more experiments with cryptocurrencies.
GSTV, which delivers content across thousands of fuel retailers in the U.S., reaches 75 million unique visitors and hopes to reach one in two adults in the next few years. Sean McCaffrey, president and CEO of GSTV, said that the scale of the company is increasing daily.
GSTV recently partner with Cheddar to distribute content through its outlets.
The Canadian cannabis company has seen exponential growth with shares doubling since just mid-August, when Corona-maker Constellation Brands upped its stake with a $4 billion investment. CEO Bruce Linton said interest is now coming from pharma giants, which will rely on companies like Canopy for research, patented technology, and formulas.
Facebook plans to finally unveil its Portal video chat device for the home next week, Cheddar has learned. The device will function similarly to an Amazon Echo Show with social features and come in two screen sizes, according to people familiar the matter. The wide-angle video camera will use artificial intelligence to recognize people in the frame and follow them as they move throughout a room.
Amazon will get a lot more than 3,000 brick-and-mortar stores when it builds out its cashierless Amazon Go chain.
The tech giant announced a slew of new products and software for Alexa-enabled homes, betting that the voice assistant becomes the entryway into the company's ecosystem for many households. Among the new Echo devices: a microwave, a wall clock, and the Echo Auto.
