Yext CEO Howard Lerman Is Making a Bet on Voice Assistants
*By Carlo Versano*
Software company Yext, which helps companies control their public-facing information online, is making a big bet on voice assistants ー and its latest earnings report suggests the tactic is working.
Yext posted sales of $55 million in its latest quarter, a 35 percent rise from a year ago. Its loss of $0.10 a share was smaller than analysts expected.
The company "lets companies control their information on intelligent services like Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant," CEO Howard Lerman, who founded the company in 2006, said Friday in an interview on Cheddar.
Lerman said his company was built on the profound changes modernity has made to information consumption ー what he called a "platform shift" from documents to voice-controlled databases. So instead of Googling information, users can rely on their digital assistants to get them what they need.
With reading, "it's up to you to do the thinking," Lerman said. But connected databases are rapidly becoming smart enough to understand what people want when they ask for it.
The company uses a software-as-a-service platform that allows its customers, which include Jaguar Land Rover, Home Depot, and Domino's Pizza, to edit and update facts about their brands in almost real-time. For instance, if McDonald's wants to change the calorie count of a sandwich, it can use Yext to make sure that a voice assistant like Alexa announces the correct number to customers.
Allowing businesses to maintain control of their own information protects them from "the tyranny of user-generated content," Lerman said.
He's betting that as machine learning advances, consumers will shift from search to voice for their most pressing, complex queries, and Yext will be there to help steer the information.
Yext, which made its market debut on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2017, has seen its share price more than double since its IPO. But the stock closed down Friday about 1.7 percent.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/yext-ceo-howard-lerman-on-alexa-integration).
Orangetheory Fitness is redefining the future of workouts with smarter tech, strength-based programming, and community-driven studios built for what’s next.
Spain's government has fined Airbnb 64 million euros or $75 million for advertising unlicensed tourist rentals. The consumer rights ministry announced the fine on Monday. The ministry stated that many listings lacked proper license numbers or included incorrect information. The move is part of Spain's ongoing efforts to regulate short-term rental companies amid a housing affordability crisis especially in popular urban areas. The ministry ordered Airbnb in May to remove around 65,000 listings for similar violations. The government's consumer rights minister emphasized the impact on families struggling with housing. Airbnb said it plans to challenge the fine in court.
Roomba maker iRobot has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, but says that it doesn’t expect any disruptions to devices as the more than 30-year-old company is taken private under a restructuring process. iRobot said that it is being acquired by Picea through a court-supervised process. Picea is the company's primary contract manufacturer. The Bedford, Massachusetts-based anticipates completing the prepackaged chapter 11 process by February.
Serbia’s prosecutor for organized crime has charged a government minister and three others with abuse of position and falsifying of documents related to a luxury real estate project linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The charges came on Monday. The investigation centers on a controversy over a a bombed-out military complex in central Belgrade that was a protected cultural heritage zone but that is facing redevelopment as a luxury compound by a company linked to Kushner. The $500 million proposal to build a high-rise hotel, offices and shops at the site has met fierce opposition from experts at home and abroad. Selakovic and others allegedly illegally lifted the protection status for the site by falsifying documentation.
Wealthfront’s CFO Alan Iberman talks the $2.05B IPO and the major moment for robo banking as the company bets on AI, automation, and “self-driving money."
