MAM
Adsertion, Limelight Networks team for radio broadcasts online
PHOENIX : Limelight Networks which claims to be the price-performance leader in IP transport services, has announced a new agreement with Adsertion Technologies the leading provider of targeted advertisement insertion technology. This new alliance provides an all-in-one Internet broadcast package that enables terrestrial radio stations to expand audiences and provide a new revenue source by extending broadcasts to the Internet. The alliance also creates a turnkey way for Internet-only broadcasters to lower delivery costs as well as capture online advertising revenues.
Competition from digital, satellite and Internet-only radio stations is challenging many terrestrial radio stations to expand their audience base via Web transmissions. Stations have discovered that adding Internet broadcast capabilities can require new royalty payments, investments in technology, and present unique challenges since radio stations are typically not allowed to retransmit advertisements from their terrestrial broadcasts online.
Adsertion Technologies provides technology that offers truly seamless ad insertion that can be achieved without cumbersome downloads of a player to the users’ PC. Adserstion’s solutions are compatible with various platforms including Windows NT and Macintosh. The company’s proprietary audience tracking and reporting technology assists in generating reports now required as a result of recent changes in the law.
Improving upon industry-standard media-encoding technology (Windows Media and Real), Adsertion allows traditional and Internet broadcasters to create new ad inventory with Adsertion’s interactive, targeted flash-media advertising. Adsertion targets and delivers interactive gateway/channel start and in-stream advertisements within the audio broadcast, thus avoiding end-user downloads and minimizing audio level fluctuations and “ad firing” delays. This not only provides broadcasters with increased ad inventory, but also enables advertisers to reach their target audience with greater accuracy. Adsertion couples the interactive flash-media ad insertion with Limelight Networks’ distributed streaming services from multiple delivery locations around the Internet.
Limelight Network’s innovative IP Transport solutions utilise the Edge of the Internet to improve the delivery of rich media. The EdgePrism family of products enables customers to deliver an extraordinary Internet experience while controlling costs and simplifying complexity. The robust technology behind Limelight Networks installs quickly and provides customers with the most cost-effective method of adding richer, more engaging features to their Web sites without change to existing Web server code.
Limelight Networks claims that its technology is becoming the first choice for the Internet radio space. The combination of price/performance and proven track record enable broadcasters to expand their audience and reduce delivery costs and infrastructure complexity. The company claims to be delivering nearly half of the traffic in terms of hours listened for the top 10 Internet radio networks according to Measurecast reports. The company is seeing great momentum in this space, where controlling costs is critical.
Adsertion states that its proven technology provides truly seamless ad integration. This means that customers avoid truncated ads, dead air space, and media player downloads due to constant revisions. Adsertion’s patent pending techniques accommodate the chaotic environment associated with traditional radio stations providing ad transitions that are imperceptible from a listener perspective.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
