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Founder Melissa Butler says The Lip Bar was impacted by the Target boycott. How Target’s DEI Stance Impacted Its Q1 Earnings As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Target made the decision to scale back its three-year diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, which included dismantling a program that worked to feature Black-owned businesses in its stores. The company also stopped sending reports to an external diversity-focused organization. This prompted a 40-day consumer boycott led by Rev. Jamal Bryant, which attracted participation from nearly 200,000 consumers, per Atlanta News First. Target experienced a decline in foot traffic for 11 consecutive weeks, and its first-quarter earnings were $23.8 billion, which was 2.8% lower than the same period the previous year, according to a press release. To no surprise, business owners shelved at the store have felt the brunt of the boycott. This includes Butler who shared that sales had plummeted between 30% and 40%. “When people ask me...
Salesforce is making a bold move in the enterprise tech space with its planned $7.75 billion acquisition of Informatica, a long-established leader in AI-powered data integration and governance, according to a press release. It’s the company’s largest deal since buying Slack for nearly $28 billion in 2021 and signals a deeper investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Informatica Stock Rises On Deal News Salesforce will pay $25 per Informatica share, a 30% premium over its May 22, 2025, closing price, the day before acquisition talks resumed, as The Network Journal (TNJ) reports. Informatica stock jumped nearly 6% following the announcement. The Salesforce Informatica acquisition is expected to close by February 2026, pending regulatory approval, and will be funded through cash and new debt, per the outlet. A deal was previously discussed in 2024, but the two parties could not agree on terms at the time, according to Reuters. For Salesforce, Informatica offers an...
Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” proved to be good business for Chicago, IL, locals. The entertainer who won Best Country Album at the 2025 Grammy Awards for “Cowboy Carter” is currently touring its tunes with a stop in the Windy City. According to USA Today, the three planned concerts took place on May 15–18 at Soldier Field . View this post on Instagram A post shared by Beyoncé (@beyonce) The tour brought great momentum for the city and was beneficial to several Black-owned businesses, including Bronzeville Soul. The restaurant first benefited from the Carter family in 2023. As AFROTECH™ previously reported, Hip-Hop mogul Jay-Z had been in the area to celebrate his wife Beyoncé’s second night of her “Renaissance World Tour,” which was also held at Soldier Field. The soul food restaurant had been “up and down” for nearly a year before Jay-Z’s visit, but it was able to gain new momentum afterward. “The element of that surprise was huge. It was overwhelming,” Bronzeville Soul Co-Owner Mario...
Beyoncé haircare line is shattering projections at Ulta Beauty. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, in early 2024 the “Cowboy Carter” artist launched Cécred, a science-backed and self-funded haircare brand that was six years in the making, with inspiration from her mother Tina Knowles’ salon. Its products cater to all hair types and include a clarifying shampoo, scalp scrub, moisturizing deep conditioner, and r estoring hair and edge drops, which reached its first-year projections in just one month, WWD reports. View this post on Instagram A post shared by CÉCRED (@cecred) Cécred secured a retail deal with Ulta Beauty, bringing its products to 1,400 Ulta Beauty stores starting April 6, 2025. A party was held at Ulta Beauty’s Westwood location in Los Angeles, CA, to celebrate its launch with Beyoncé sharing kind words. “I grew up in a hair salon, as most of you guys know, with my mother, and this was [our] dream,” Beyoncé said at the event, according to Glossy. “Our team worked so...
Salesforce is retracting its DEI goals. Business Insider reports that the major software company removed references to its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals in its annual financial report. Regarding hiring, the company says it will now uphold equality as its core value. “While we are not specifying representation goals, we remain committed to our core value of equality,” a Salesforce spokesperson confirmed to Bloomberg. This sentiment was also echoed in the filing, which read, “We value the equality of every individual at our company and in our communities and are dedicated to fostering a workplace that complies with these protections, creating an inclusive culture where every individual feels seen, heard and valued.” Salesforce joins a growing list of companies that have all followed a common pattern in recent months. Google, Amazon, and Meta are other technology-driven companies that are shifting their focus away from DEI. In retail, Walmart, Aldi, and Target have done...
The catalog of one of Hip Hop’s greats, the late Notorious B.I.G., is reportedly up for sale. Various artists have seen massive profits from their music catalogs, including John Legend and Nelly, who sold 50% of his catalog to HarbourView Equity Partners in 2023 for $50 million, as previously reported by AFROTECH™ . That same year, Wiz Khalifa also sold a portion of recorded music and publishing assets to HarbourView, and R&B artist Jeremih followed suit in 2024. The estates of late artists have also sold catalogs. David Bowie’s estate cemented a deal with Warner Chappell Music in 2022 to acquire his 27 studio albums for $250 million, Variety reports . Sony Music Group also acquired half of Michael Jackson’s publishing and recorded music catalog in a deal valued at a minimum of $600 million in 2023, according to Billboard. The Hollywood Reporter states that by 2030 the publishing rights asset class will reach more than $10 billion. Now, it appears that the estate of Notorious...
Dave’s Hot Chicken is considering a sale that would bring the company’s valuation to nearly $1 billion. The popular fast-food chain, founded by Dave Kopushyan, Arman Oganesyan, Tommy Rubenyan, and Gary Rubenyan, has locations in states such as Arizona, Massachusetts, California, Missouri, and Texas. In total, the chain has over 250 locations worldwide, per Reuters. It all started in 2017 with a $900 investment that led to the restaurant’s grand opening as a pop-up in an East Hollywood, CA, parking lot, its website mentions. Its menu features chicken tenders and sliders with spice levels ranging from Lite Mild to Reaper. Sides include fries, mac and cheese, and kale slaw. View this post on Instagram A post shared by DavesHotChicken (@daveshotchicken) The company’s business model appears to be a success with each franchise earning on average $2.19 million in revenue (AUV) per year, according to Sharp Sheets. In total, its locations generate an estimated $1 billion in total annual...
While the Supreme Court appears likely to uphold a ban on TikTok, President-elect Donald Trump seems to have different plans. TikTok Ban On Sunday, Jan. 19, the app is expected to be banned in the United States under the contingency that its parent company, ByteDance, does not follow a mandate to sell the app to a U.S.-based company, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. “On January 19th, as I understand it, we shut down,” TikTok lawyer Noel Francisco said in January hearing with the Supreme Court, per NPR. What’s The Issue? The potential TikTok ban is a result of concerns related to user data and the spreading of misinformation. However, TikTok, which has more than 170 million active users, argues this is in violation of the U.S. First Amendment, which protects freedom of speech. “The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue,” TikTok previously said in a...
According to BizBuySell’s Confidence Index , a tool created to examine how roughly 3,000 members of the business-owner and -buyer community feel about the current sales market, confidence is up for both groups for the first time since they began measuring in 2013. Seller confidence is up four points, and buyer confidence is up two, from 46 to 50 and 52 to 54 respectively. With those sentiments on the rise, some might feel that it’s the right time to sell their business, hopefully turning a profit. Therein arrives the big question: how do you price a business for sale? Pricing a business for sale is one of the most critical steps in the selling process. Whether you’re a business owner looking to retire or an entrepreneur wanting to cash out, determining the right price is essential for attracting potential buyers while ensuring that you get a fair value for all your hard work. It’s important to approach the task with careful analysis and a clear understanding of both the market and...
If you tend to spend any time analyzing stock market data , you may have been struck by the sudden surge in Salesforce shares on Tuesday morning. Per reports, the shares saw a more than 12 percent single-day rise as Salesforce’s third-quarter earnings were reported in full. Not only did the corporation, listed as CRM on the New York Stock Exchange , manage to out-earn their Q3 projections in 2024, their recent pivot to artificial intelligence has led analysts to project significant additional growth in quarter 4 and beyond. Expectations for fourth-quarter sales have now been reported at highs of over $10 billion. Though these figures seem massive in scope, some analysts have successfully predicted this rise, as Salesforce has been on a financial uptick throughout all of 2024. To understand why these figures are significant, and what this means for the Salesforce market moving forward, we’ll have to take a brief look at the company’s existing business model, financial structure, and...
Highlighting bias in artificial intelligence (AI) is essential, but equally important is educating people on ways to prevent it. In 2019, Salesforce established its Trusted AI Principles to address the ethical implications of predictive AI and machine learning. By 2023, with the rapid evolution of generative AI, Salesforce deepened its commitment to responsible AI by participating in the AFROTECH™ Conference, where it discussed strategies for prioritizing ethical and inclusive practices in generative AI. During the session, “ Closing The AI Trust Gap: Battling Bias | Presented by Salesforce,” Jackie Chambers de Freitas, Vice President of Agile Delivery and Coaching at Salesforce, shared how Salesforce’s focus on AI began in 2014, when CEO Marc Benioff declared that the company would become an AI-first company. Watch the session here via AFROTECH™ Labs. View this post on Instagram A post shared by AFROTECH (@afro.tech) “The goal was to transform Salesforce into an intelligent...
Bias is often at the root of protracted issues in society. The insurance industry, for example, isn’t exempt from prejudicial attitudes. Salene Hitchcock-Gear, president of Prudential Individual Life Insurance at Prudential Financial, spoke on the history of exclusion in the 1940s and 1950s during the 2023 AFROTECH™ Conference. “Way back when things were first getting started, there were a lot of exclusions on who could be covered for insurance — Black Americans were part of that exclusion,” Hitchcock-Gear said on the Learning Lab stage. “There was a lot of bias around the kind of data that we actually have to use to underwrite, i ncluding race and health. There was a lot of presumption about lifestyle. A lot of things that just did not really lend itself to treating people fairly.” Because insurance products can be critical for financial stability and creating wealth, she shared that Prudential Financial continues to try to modernize and use digital tools to increase access to...
At this moment in time, a judge is washing his hands of a decision involving Jay-Z and Dame Dash’s shares. As AFROTECH™ previously mentioned, Dame Dash is soon having his shares in Roc-A-Fella Records sold at auction following an $800,000 judgement from a copyright infringement and defamation of character lawsuit. The auction has been gaining significant attention as the buyer and new stakeholder would have the rights to Jay-Z’s debut album, “Reasonable Doubt.” Even Drake reportedly showed interest in purchasing the shares through a direct message, Dame Dash had said. “Based on feedback I have received from interested parties (and I can’t mention names), this auction will likely bring out many household names in the sports and entertainment industries as well as those interested in a piece of a historically significant company, which holds an interest in a timeless debut album,” Dame Dash’s attorney Natraj Bhushan explained to Billboard at the time. Jay-Z’s attorney’s has since...
Rick Ross’ investment in Wingstop appears to be a wise business decision. Forbes reports that Ross’ interest in the fast-casual restaurant chain dates back to the early 2000s, but it was not until launching his music career that he became inspired to purchase a franchise. “I began having those thoughts every time I pulled up to the restaurant,” he told Forbes. “Like, ‘Yo! This is something I need to do.’” Ross secured his first location near Memphis, TN, and expanded to five locations by 2014. At that time, Ross mentioned that some of his stores saw an uptick of 50% in monthly revenue. Fast-forward nearly a decade, and Ross now has nearly 30 locations under his belt as of 2023, with some locations earning $200,000 annually, as AFROTECH™ previously reported. Moreover, across the board , Wingstop is emerging as a lucrative investment, as evidenced by its stock price climbing 1,135% since it went public in 2015, CNBC mentioned. In the past five years, its stock prices have surged 262%;...
The “Zendaya effect” is in full swing for shoe brand On. June 2024 the Zurich, Switzerland-based company announced it was collaborating with Zendaya Coleman and was signing the actress to a multi-year deal for her to become its brand partner, per WWD. Under their agreement she would be expected to help the company “drive meaningful conversations around movement and well-being, reimagine select product collections and produce future creative campaigns.” As part of the announcement, On launched its campaign “Dream Together” with Zendaya as the star of a short film. “We’ve been massive admirers of Zendaya’s ability to inspire a generation and dream big,” Co-Founder and Executive Co-Chairman David Allemann said, per WWD. “We can’t think of a better partner to help us grow, evolve and connect with people around the world than Zendaya. This film is the beginning of more stories to come and we are eager to bring in new and distinctive voices alongside Zendaya to continue our mission to...