Businesses to continue AI investment with voice assistants, chatbots

Pearson announces the disposal of its interests in Pearson Institute of Higher Education (PIHE) in South Africa to a consortium of Stellenbosch Graduate Institute (SGI) and EXEO Capital. Stellenbosch Graduate Institute (SGI) is an established provider of innovative education programmes from a digital platform. EXEO Capital is a pan-African alternative investment firm. This is in line with the strategic direction Pearson has taken in recent years to shift away from physical, large-scale direct delivery services and focus on strategic opportunities. The disposal is expected to close in the first half of 2021 subject to the necessary regulatory approvals being obtained.

Three magazines were earned Pulitzer Prize winners Monday afternoon as part of the 102nd class of honorees, the fourth since the nation’s top journalism honors were first expanded to include glossies in addition to newspapers. The New Yorker‘s Ronan Farrow—whose reporting on Harvey Weinstein’s history of sexual assault and cover-ups were integral to the subsequent national discourse around the #MeToo movement—shared honors in the Public Service category with New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. Last month, Farrow’s work similarly earned The New Yorker a National Magazine Award for Public Interest. Elsewhere in the 2018 class, GQ can now call itself a Pulitzer Prize winner. Click Read More below for additional information.

Nordstrom, Inc. reported second quarter results, which reflected continued broad-based improvement in sales trends at Nordstrom and Nordstrom Rack across categories and geographies. The Company reported net earnings of $80 million or $0.49 per diluted share, with earnings before interest and taxes (“EBIT”) of $151 million. For the second quarter ended July 31, 2021, net sales increased 101 percent from the same period in fiscal 2020 and decreased 6 percent from the same period in fiscal 2019, representing a sequential improvement of approximately 700 basis points relative to the first quarter of fiscal 2021. The timing shift of the annual Anniversary Sale, with roughly one week falling into the third quarter of 2021, had a negative impact of approximately 200 basis points on net sales compared with fiscal 2019. Adjusting for this timing shift, sales trends improved by approximately 900 basis points relative to the first quarter.