Author: Emirates Insight

ASX-listed music and media company Vinyl Group has gone shopping again, buying Val Morgan Digital for $10.5 million from parent company Hoyts. The deal includes $7 million cash and $3.5 million in Vinyl (ASX:VNL) shares, subject to a 24-month escrow. The acquisition of a key rival will bolster Vinyl’s revenue by more than 70%, with Val Morgan Digital generating $10.7 million in revenue in the 2025 calendar year. The business is also expected to contribute $2.5m in annualised EBITDA to Vinyl Group on a pro forma basis. Val Morgan Digital publishes a range of online media brands under licence, including…

Investors should realize that owning boring businesses can still lead to fantastic returns. Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) is proof. In the past decade, its shares have produced a total return of 662% (as of Feb. 26), more than doubling the S&P 500’s comparable performance. Is this top retail stock a long-term buy? Will AI create the world’s first trillionaire? Our team just released a report on the one little-known company, called an “Indispensable Monopoly” providing the critical technology Nvidia and Intel both need. Continue » Image source: Getty Images. It’s important that investors first figure out whether this is a high-quality business.…

Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. A Citrini Research scenario published Sunday sent shockwaves through financial markets Monday, dragging down shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA), Visa Inc. (NYSE:V), American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), and others. But a CEO building payment infrastructure for AI agents says the the piece got the direction right while misidentifying the primary casualties. Citrini Research’s over 7,000-word Substack post, titled “The 2028 Global Intelligence Crisis” and explicitly framed as “a scenario, not a prediction,” modeled a speculative future where AI agents autonomously reroute transactions away from…

The answers from the popular AI chatbot might be quite shocking to some. The US and Israel carried out a rapid and violent military operation in Iran on February 28, which, according to reports, killed its Supreme Leader. Iranian forces already retaliated against several countries in the region, and these developments led to significant volatility in the cryptocurrency market during the weekend. With Trump warning that the military operation could continue further if Iran doesn’t back down, the question now is whether more fluctuations will ensue and in which direction. In this article, we focused on XRP and asked…

It’s a slightly different Startup 360 episode with no special guest, so cohosts Simon and Majella take the time to kick around the big news of the last few weeks, from Canva buying two more startups, to WiseTech slashing 2000 coding jobs in favour of AI, Tassie cybersecurity scaleup UpGuard’s $105 million Series C and SafetyCulture founder Luke Anear returning as CEO ahead of an AI rebuild of the workplace safety platform. Episode 46 also covered Growth Summit in Melbourne, where Aconex cofounder Leigh Jasper offered advice on staying the course in business, and VCs explained what “you’re too early”…

I still remember the cola wars, where Pepsi and Coca-Cola took swipes at each other through marketing campaigns, television commercials, and competing product launches. Today, these two stand as giants in the industry, and yet, the rivalry continues. But did you know this rivalry extends to their stock prices and, more importantly, their dividends? Right now, given the recent tech decline, these two are attracting renewed attention. But of course, there can only be one clear winner. So let’s have a look at both companies and compare their fundamentals to see which one is the best choice for your income portfolio.…

After exploring fundraising and acquisition options, the teams concluded that no sustainable recovery path existed following the breach. Solana-based DeFi aggregator, Step Finance, along with two other affiliate projects, SolanaFloor and Remora Markets, announced plans to shut down all operations with immediate effect. The decision follows the aftermath of a major security incident earlier this year. Hack, Halt, Shutdown In a statement shared on X, the teams said the decision came after exploring multiple paths forward, including fundraising and acquisition discussions. However, none resulted in a viable solution after the hack that occurred in late January. The incident involved…

Many could see the smoke well before the fire, but less than a few months into Australia’s social media ban for under-16s, one of the world’s largest video game platforms for that age group is under scrutiny. Roblox, a sandbox game where players can design their own experiences, is in the crosshairs of both the eSafety Commissioner’s office and Anika Wells, Australia’s Federal Minister for Communications. The eSafety Commissioner, the Australian government agency in charge of policing the social media ban and other online safety matters, issued a formal warning to Roblox focused on moderating and policing its in-game chat…

OpenAI just broke its own record. The company behind ChatGPT announced Friday it has raised $110 billion in new funding, nearly tripling the $41 billion round it closed in March 2025, which was itself the largest private tech fundraise in history at the time. The company said Amazon (AMZN) is investing $50 billion, with Nvidia (NVDA) and SoftBank committing $30 billion each. The deal values OpenAI at $730 billion pre-money, or $840 billion fully diluted, a sharp jump from the $500 billion valuation it carried in a secondary financing just four months ago. Sam Altman appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box…

We came across a bullish thesis on Sonoco Products Company on Compounding Quality’s Substack. In this article, we will summarize the bulls’ thesis on SON. Sonoco Products Company’s share was trading at $51.67 as of February 13th. SON’s trailing and forward P/E were 27.93 and 8.61  respectively according to Yahoo Finance. Sonoco Products Company (SON) is a leading global provider of consumer, industrial, and healthcare packaging, with a recent strategic pivot toward metal packaging through the acquisitions of Ball Metalpack and Eviosys. This move has positioned Sonoco as a global leader in metal food cans, an industry characterized by stability and strong competitive advantages. The company’s business model benefits from long-term contracts with built-in price escalators, allowing it to effectively pass rising raw material…