Today we have the pleasure of hearing from Ron Fishman, founder of a flight search engine called Airglitch. Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions Ron! 1) Please tell us about yourself and your role with Airglitch?…
The post [INTERVIEW] Founder of Flight Search Engine: Airglitch appeared first on Pointshogger.
BMG and Concord have today (September 1) confirmed the successful completion of their merger.
The combined companies say the deal will “create a new global music company with the scale, expertise, and capabilities to unlock greater opportunities for creators.”
The transaction, first announced on April 28, 2026, has received “all required regulatory approvals”, according to a press release. The company’s global headquarters will be located in Nashville, with Berlin serving as its European headquarters.
As previously announced, the combined company will operate under the BMG name, and will be owned approximately 67% by Bertelsmann and approximately 33% by affiliates of Great Mountain Partners.
Affiliates of Great Mountain Partners received a one-time cash payment of $1.16 billion from Bertelsmann as part of the transaction.
Bob Valentine now assumes the role of Chief Executive Officer of BMG, with Thomas Coesfeld serving as Chairman. The combined company boasts a catalog of over four million works.
“The completion of this transaction marks the beginning of a new chapter for BMG, creating a business with the scale and resources equipped for the future. We believe that investing in creators, music rights, and AI will allow us to unlock new opportunities for artists and writers in a rapidly evolving industry,” said Thomas Coesfeld, Chairman of BMG.
“By building on the entrepreneurial cultures and independent spirit that have long defined both organizations, we have created a platform that is uniquely positioned in the music industry and set up for sustainable long-term growth. I am truly convinced that together, our passionate teams will continue to innovate with purpose and deliver exceptional service to our creative partners around the world.”
Bob Valentine, Chief Executive Officer of BMG, said: “Today marks an exciting new chapter for our combined company and the creators we represent.
“We have brought together exceptional teams, celebrated catalogs, diverse and talented rosters, and a shared belief that creative talent deserves both dedicated advocacy and sustained investment. While our reach has expanded, the mission that brought us together remains the same: to support artists over the long term, honor the legacies we represent, and help build the next generation of enduring music and culture.”
In a press release, the combined firms said that “based on a strong commitment by both shareholders to invest into the further development of the company”, BMG is aiming to achieve revenues of over USD $2.5 billion at an EBITDA of USD $1.2 billion “in the midterm.”
The new BMG will be governed by a Board of Directors, working closely with an Executive Management Team.
The Board of Directors consists of Chairman Thomas Coesfeld, Johannes von Schwarzkopf, and Rolf Hellermann (Bertelsmann), as well as Alex Thomson (Great Mountain Partners), and Steve Smith (Concord Founding Partner).
The Executive Management Team will be comprised of the following individuals with designate titles:
Bob Valentine, BMG CEO, said: “The new Executive Management Team brings together leaders with the experience, judgement, and focus we need to deliver on BMG’s ambitions.
“As we begin this next chapter, our priority is to build on the strengths of both businesses, creating a clear, focused organization that can move nimbly, invest with conviction, and deliver long-term value for the artists, songwriters, and playwrights we partner with and represent.”
BMG has also established an 18-member Strategic Leadership Council, comprising the six members of the Executive Management Team and 12 additional senior leaders from across the company.
The Strategic Leadership Council comprises the following individuals and their areas of responsibility:
Valentine added: “The Strategic Leadership Council gives us a broader group of leaders around the table, bringing together different areas of expertise and perspectives across BMG.
“It will help ensure we stay connected as a leadership team, sharpen our thinking, and maintain alignment as we translate our strategy into action across the business.” Music Business Worldwide
D.R. Horton is tapping the full legal playbook to challenge a class action racketeering lawsuit plaintiffs say could encompass tens of thousands of homeowners.
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The nation’s largest home builder last week filed a motion to compel arbitration with the home buyers
The move adds to D.R. Horton’s pending motion to dismiss the accusations that it
A federal judge last month agreed to postpone discovery in the eight-month old case pending a ruling on the motion to dismiss. The company has insisted in filings that it followed federal disclosure rules regarding monthly payment estimates for its customers.
Plaintiffs argue that they’ve successfully alleged the legal elements of a RICO enterprise, and are also suing D.R. Horton for violating other state consumer protection laws.
Neither attorneys for the parties nor a spokesperson for D.R. Horton responded to requests for comment Monday.
Plaintiffs who bought D.R. Horton-built homes with loans from DHI Mortgage say the company knowingly misled them with artificially low payments, driven down by partially escrowed property taxes in monthly payment estimates.
Once a subsequent servicer undertook a proper escrow analysis, borrowers’ monthly payments soared, forcing them to scramble to make up, in some cases, hundreds of dollars extra per month in mortgage payments, they said.
“Defendants have run this scheme thousands of times and did so to close more home sales and extract higher prices for these homes (and larger loans) from homebuyers,” wrote counsel for plaintiffs in a June filing.
D.R. Horton said in its motion to dismiss that new construction is typically assessed by local officials with lower tax rates when loans close, and that borrowers signed notices explaining their escrow amounts would be reassessed.
The company recently argued that the lawsuit’s claims are covered by broad arbitration clauses. Defendants
The federal judge in the Nevada forum did not indicate a timeline for a ruling on the motion to dismiss. Plaintiffs haven’t specified the exact range of the potential class they’d seek to certify, but have suggested it could be greater than 100,000 affected home buyers.
The industry giant has seemingly weathered the
As of 8 a.m. Eastern Time today, oil is trading at $94.11 per barrel, based on the Brent benchmark we’ll explain in a bit. That’s $1.08 above yesterday morning’s level and about $25.40 higher than where it stood a year ago.
No one can say for sure where oil prices will go next. Many forces shape the market—but at the core, it’s still about supply and demand. When risks like a potential recession or war ramp up, oil prices can change direction quickly.
When you buy gas at the pump, you’re covering more than the cost of crude oil. You’re also paying for every step in the process, including refineries, wholesalers, taxes, and the markup your local gas station adds.
Even so, crude oil has the biggest influence on what you pay, often making up more than half the cost per gallon. When oil prices jump, gas prices usually climb right along with them. But when oil falls, gas prices often slip much more slowly—a pattern sometimes called “rockets and feathers.”
If an emergency hits, the U.S. keeps a backup supply of crude oil called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It’s mainly there to protect energy security during crises, such as sanctions, catastrophic storm damage, even war. It can also help cushion the blow when supply shocks send prices soaring.
It’s not meant to solve long-term problems. Instead, it provides quick relief for consumers and helps keep vital parts of the economy moving, like essential industries, emergency services, and public transit.
Oil and natural gas are two of the world’s primary energy sources. A big change in oil prices can affect natural gas by extension. For example, if oil prices increase, some industries may swap natural gas for some segments of their operations where possible, which which increases demand for natural gas.
When looking at how oil performs, two main benchmarks stand out:
Of the two, Brent gives a better picture of global oil performance because it prices a large share of the world’s traded crude. It’s also the go-to for tracking oil’s historical trends. In fact, even the U.S. Energy Information Administration now relies on Brent as its primary reference in its Annual Energy Outlook.
If you look at the Brent benchmark over several decades, oil has been far from stable. It has experienced sharp rises tied to wars and supply cuts, along with steep drops linked to global recessions and oversupply (called a “glut”). For example:
To sum up, oil’s historical performance has been anything but smooth. Again, it’s heavily influenced by wars, recessions, OPEC whims, shifting energy policies, and much more.
Looking to stay up-to-date regarding the latest energy developments? Check out our recent coverage:
The current price of oil per barrel depends largely on supply and demand, including news about potential future supply and demand (geopolitics, decisions made by OPEC+, etc.). In the U.S., prices also move based on how friendly an administration is to drilling, as it can affect future supply. For example, 2025 saw the Trump administration move to reopen more than 1.5 million acres in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas leasing, reversing the Biden administration’s policy of limiting oil drilling in the Arctic.
The price of oil updates constantly when the “futures” markets are open. A futures market is effectively an auction where people agree to buy or sell oil in the future. As long as people and companies are trading contracts, the oil price is changing.
In short, shale is rock that contains oil and natural gas. Think of shale as energy yet to be tapped. The more shale the U.S. accesses, the more energy we’ll have—and the more easily oil prices can keep from spiking as much thanks to a greater supply.
When oil is expensive, it tends to make everyday items cost more. This can be related to energy (your heating, gas utilities, etc.), but it’s also due to the logistics involved with making those items accessible to you. Shipping, for example, can affect the price of things at the grocery store, as it’s more expensive to get those products from warehouses and farms onto the shelf.
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Starting this fall, all seven schools in the University of Maine system, plus Cloud County Community College and Pratt Community College in Kansas, will award college credit for soft-skills credentials students earned in high school through the nonprofit Jobs for Maine Graduates and its national spinoff GenUS.
Program leaders say it’s the first time colleges have granted credit for “durable skills” (leadership, communication, financial literacy, career readiness) developed in high school outside the colleges’ own courses. The credentials will be treated much like credit for prior learning, the same framework colleges have long used for military training and AP exam scores.
University of Maine students can receive up to eight of the 120 credits needed for a bachelor’s degree, with each campus deciding how many count and whether they apply toward majors or electives. That’s meaningful money at a time when the average cost of college keeps climbing.
Free credits equate to real savings for students. Families spent an average of $34,019 on college last year, and eight credits is more than half a semester’s worth of coursework a student won’t have to pay for. Entering with credits can also shorten time to degree, and can help with graduating college in three years.
There’s an access angle too. University of Maine Chancellor Dannel Malloy noted many Jobs for Maine Graduates students are low-income and would be first in their family to attend college, so arriving with credits already banked makes enrolling less intimidating.
The move fits two trends we’ve been tracking here at The College Investor.
Personal finance instruction is now mandatory in 28 states, so a pipeline that converts that coursework into college credit gives those mandates a payoff beyond graduation requirements.
And employers and states are dropping degree requirements in favor of demonstrated skills — colleges accepting skills credentials for credit is the same shift running in the other direction.
GenUS will host representatives from a dozen states in Kansas in September, with Wisconsin and Kentucky showing strong interest. Watch whether other public university systems follow Maine’s lead and whether credentials start reducing what families actually pay by replacing tuition-bearing courses at scale.
Editor: Colin Graves
The post University Of Maine Will Give College Credit For Soft Skills Learned In High School appeared first on The College Investor.
Amazon has a nice discount on the new Apple AirTag (2nd Gen) 4-Pack, which was released earlier this year.
The 4-pack is currently priced at $79.99, down from the previous deal of $85, making it a good opportunity to pick up several of Apple’s latest trackers at once. The new second-generation AirTag comes with improved Precision Finding, a louder speaker, upgraded range, and expanded Find My features.
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AMD (AMD +1.10%) and Nvidia (NVDA +1.49%) are recognized as two of the top computing unit manufacturers in the AI arms race. While Nvidia got off to a hot start and dominated the initial build-out, AMD has made up some ground recently, although Nvidia still holds a far lead.
Unless you’re familiar with the computing industry, determining which company has the best technology may not be easy. To determine which products are best, sometimes finding a smart voice in the industry is the best approach.
One of the most highly regarded minds in the world is Elon Musk, CEO of both Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies. Both companies are spending heavily on computing infrastructure: Tesla is training its self-driving vehicles on countless hours of recorded driving footage, and SpaceX owns xAI, the maker of the Grok large language model.
Musk knows a thing or two about which computing units he prefers his companies to use, and he just gave a glowing endorsement to one of these two firms.
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Image source: The White House.
During SpaceX’s Q2 conference call, Musk stated:
And going forward, we’ve decided to build exclusively on Nvidia because we think the Vera Rubin architecture is the best architecture . We think it’s the best AI computer, and we greatly value our close cooperation and partnership on many levels with Nvidia. So, we’re exclusive to Nvidia.
That’s a pretty definitive quote, but what may be lost in that announcement is how impressive Nvidia’s next-generation hardware will be. Currently, all the AI breakthroughs and advancements we’ve seen are on the Hopper or Blackwell architectures. Compared to Blackwell architecture, Rubin provides a tenfold reduction in inference token cost and a fourfold decrease in the number of GPUs required to train an AI model. Rubin GPUs will be more efficient, so AI firms could accomplish the same amount of work with fewer GPUs. But what will most likely happen is that firms will deploy the same number of GPUs to increase computing capacity and lower the cost per unit of work.
Today’s Change
(1.49%) $3.23
Current Price
$220.78
Market Cap
Day’s Range
$216.21 – $221.30
52wk Range
$164.07 – $236.54
Volume
124.7M
Avg Vol
140M
Gross Margin
74.67%
Dividend Yield
0.13%
That’s a huge improvement, and with Rubin chips now in full production and shipping in the near future, Nvidia could see another revenue boost. However, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a better stock pick than AMD.
Both companies have recently reported results, so a somewhat apples-to-apples comparison is possible (although AMD’s report were about a month before Nvidia). AMD’s total revenue rose 50%, while data center revenue increased an impressive 107%. Nvidia outperformed AMD by every measure, as its total revenue rose by 106%, while data center revenue rose 117%.
That pretty definitely scores the growth comparison in favor of Nvidia, but it also has another unique quirk: It’s far cheaper than AMD.
NVDA PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts
AMD trades at nearly three times the price tag that Nvidia does, which is a huge premium to pay, especially considering that Nvidia’s technology is recognized better by one AI CEO and is growing far faster. Even if you value the stocks using 2027 earnings estimates, Nvidia is far cheaper.
NVDA PE Ratio (Forward 1y) data by YCharts
It’s rare when investors can buy a company that’s doing better on nearly every measure than its competitor at a far cheaper stock price, but that’s exactly what the market is handing investors right now. As a result, I think investors should swap AMD shares for Nvidia, if they have any. Or if you’re on the fence about which one to buy, I think the answer is pretty clear, pretty definitive, and obvious: Nvidia.
“When you get into that kind of first-time homebuyer number, that handholding is something that we really pride ourselves on,” he said. “Anytime you’re going to go drop $500,000 on your first home, it’s a scary moment, and our originators don’t take that lightly. They go into that conversation detailed, explaining every part of the process.”
Ospina pushed back on the idea that affordability concerns have scared off first-time buyers.
“I don’t believe that the demand for a first-time homebuyer to get into a home has waned one bit,” he said. “Getting into a home far outweighs renting in most cases, and these people understand that owning a home and building equity sooner rather than later is a safe bet. By the time you’re done with that mortgage, you will have equity, whereas with renting, you’ll have none of that.”
Down payment assistance is a major part of how SimplyPMG turns that demand into closed loans, according to Ospina. He said the company tracks usage closely because it shows how much business depends on buyers simply knowing the option exists.
“Last quarter, 30% of our first-time homebuyers used some form of DPA,” he said. “And of that 30%, about 50% of it used that DPA as a forgivable grant, so they were getting into these homes where the down payment is forgiven.”
