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Plaid’s new head of Europe, Brian Dammeir.

Plaid

U.S. financial technology firm Plaid has hired former Adyen executive Brian Dammeir as its new head of Europe, the company told CNBC exclusively.

Dammeir was previously Adyen’s global head of unified commerce, a role he led out of the Dutch payment company’s San Francisco office. Dammeir oversaw a key part of Adyen’s business — joining up different payment experiences including online, in-store, and app-based, in one single platform.

Dammeir will take over the reins from Ripsy Bandourian, who previously oversaw the company’s expansion across Europe, at a pivotal time for the company as it branches out into other areas of finance including payments and lending.

Plaid, which was last valued by investors at $13.4 billion in a funding round, offers technology that enables financial technology apps to retrieve data from people’s bank accounts and initiate payments on their behalf.

It is part of a movement in finance and technology known as “open banking,” which encourages the opening up of financial data to non-bank financial institutions to encourage competition in the sector.

Dammeir told CNBC in an exclusive interview Monday that the thing he was most excited by in joining the company was “the opportunity around open finance,” an evolution on open banking that looks to innovate in all areas of finance, including lending.

“When we think about Europe, it’s about how can we be more relevant globally … how can we find more and more use cases outside of our starting point in fintech.” Dammeir told CNBC.

“Right now, that’s really about expanding into account-to-account payments as well as into lending and traditional banking,” he added.

Bandourian, a former Booking.com executive, was appointed the company’s first head of Europe last year. She worked with Keith Grose, formerly Plaid’s head of international, who has since left the business to join business-to-business billing platform Sequence.

Bandourian left Plaid to “pursue other passions,” a company spokesperson told CNBC via email. Dammeir had interacted with executives at Plaid for “more than a decade,” the spokesperson added.

Dammeir didn’t take his decision to quit Adyen lightly. The longtime fintech executive held positions at Adyen in its North American and European offices for more than eight years, starting in product, before graduating onto general management and strategy across North America and Europe.

Dammeir said that Plaid wanted to encourage a broader movement toward so-called “open finance,” which would enable the creation of innovative new products in lending, insurance, and other parts of the finance ecosystem.

Payments has been a big focus for Plaid beyond financial data, with payment volumes on the platform having climbed more than 90% in 2023.

Now, Plaid is looking to work with partners beyond just fintechs, Dammeir indicated, without sharing names of any of its potential future partners. The company already works with the likes of Monzo, Checkout.com, Public, and Moneybox.

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CrowdStrike slumps 9% on weak earnings outlook, overhang from outage costs

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CrowdStrike slumps 9% on weak earnings outlook, overhang from outage costs

CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz speaks at the Wall Street Journal Tech Live conference in Laguna Beach, California, on Oct. 21, 2019.

Martina Albertazzi | Bloomberg | Getty Images

CrowdStrike shares dropped 9% after issuing weak earnings guidance as the company signaled ongoing pressure from its global IT outage that rattled businesses in July.

The cybersecurity software provider said it expects fiscal first-quarter earnings to range between 64 cents and 66 cents per share, versus the average Factset estimate of 95 cents. CrowdStrike is projecting earnings for the year to range between $3.33 and $3.45 per share, excluding items. That fell short $4.42 expected by analysts polled by LSEG.

For the fiscal fourth quarter, CrowdStrike posted a net loss of $92.3 billion, or 37 cents per share, versus net income of $53.7 million, or 22 cents per share, in the year-ago period. The company also reported $21 million in costs from incident-related expenses and $49.9 million of tax expenses connected to acquisitions.

The company also said it anticipates another $73 million in expenses for the first quarter resulting from its July update that spurred a global information technology outage, grounded flights and disrupted businesses. CrowdStrike projects an additional $43 million in costs due to some deal packages offered in its wake.

The outage has also weighed on free cash flow margins, which CrowdStrike said on a conference call with analysts Tuesday it expects to return to 30% or more in fiscal 2027.

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Many on Wall Street expect headwinds from the July issue to start abating in the new fiscal year, with Bernstein’s Peter Weed expecting a pick up in CrowdStrike net retention rate in the new fiscal year.

“Although FY26 guidance marked a conservative start to the year, in our view, we expect management is setting the stage for a return to a beat-and-raise cadence we saw before the outage,” wrote JPMorgan’s Brian Essex.

CrowdStrike’s disappointing guidance offset better-than-expected fiscal fourth-quarter results. The company posted adjusted earnings of $1.03 per share on $1.06 billion in revenue and said that revenue grew 25% from a year ago.

Founder and CEO George Kurtz called the company a “comeback story” on the conference call.

“I’m extremely proud of the engagement we’ve had with customers, partners, prospects in the market navigating a year that tested CrowdStrike,” he said. “Q4 showcases the fruits of our labors, giving me strong conviction in our AI-native, single platform, excellent execution, and accelerating market opportunity.”

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Amazon’s One Medical CEO stepping down after less than two years at helm

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Amazon's One Medical CEO stepping down after less than two years at helm

A sign is posted in front of a One Medical office on July 21, 2022 in San Rafael, California.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

One Medical CEO Trent Green will step down from the Amazon-owned primary care provider after less than two years in the role.

Green is leaving One Medical to become CEO of National Research Corp., or NRC Health, a provider of health-care analytics and other services, the company said in a release Tuesday. He’ll start there on June 1.

Under Green, One Medical expanded into new geographic markets and opened more offices. It also integrated further into Amazon, with the company adding medical services to its Prime membership program.

Amazon confirmed Green’s departure in a statement.

“After nearly three years with Amazon One Medical, CEO Trent Green has decided to leave the company,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. “We are grateful to Trent for his many contributions and wish him well on his next endeavor.”

Neil Lindsay, who leads Amazon Health Services, said in a memo to employees on Tuesday that Green is moving back to his home state of Nebraska for the new role. Green’s last day at Amazon will be April 4.

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“Trent has helped One Medical solidify its position as an incredible place for providers to deliver — and patients to turn to (and return for) — high-quality, human-centered care,” Lindsay wrote in the memo, which was obtained by CNBC.

Green was named CEO of One Medical in September 2023, succeeding Amir Dan Rubin. The change in leadership came roughly six months after Amazon completed its $3.9 billion acquisition of One Medical.

The deal for One Medical is the third-largest acquisition in Amazon’s history, behind its 2017 purchase of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion and its $8.45 billion deal for MGM Studios in 2021.

Amazon acquired One Medical as part of a deepening push into the health-care market. The company scooped up online pharmacy PillPack in 2018 for about $750 million, before launching its own offering.

It’s continued to tweak its health offerings. Amazon launched, then shuttered, a telehealth service, as well as a line of health and fitness devices.

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Apple unveils new MacBook Air models with $100 price cut despite tariffs

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Apple unveils new MacBook Air models with 0 price cut despite tariffs

Apple’s M4 MacBook Air in a marketing photograph.

Apple

Apple on Wednesday announced new MacBook Air models that update the company’s bestselling laptop with a faster M4 chip and an upgraded videoconferencing camera.

The computers also got a $100 price cut in the U.S., despite tariffs by President Donald Trump that took effect on Tuesday that experts have said could cause the price of electronics to rise

The 13-inch MacBook Air starts at $999, and the larger, 15-inch model starts at $1,099. Users can pay more for memory and storage upgrades.

Although it has the same design as last year’s MacBook Air, the new computer will also be available in a fresh sky blue color, and it now supports multiple external monitors. The new MacBook Air goes on sale March 12.

The MacBook Air is one of Apple’s most critical products. Mac sales rose 15% in the December quarter to just under $9 billion in sales. The company attributed that increase to higher sales of laptops even though overall Mac sales, which also include desktop models, are still down from the company’s fiscal 2022. That was a period when computer sales were elevated as a result of people needing laptops for work or school during the pandemic.

Apple’s MacBook Air announcement caps off a flurry of new product releases by the company over the past few weeks.

In addition to the new laptops, Apple on Wednesday announced a high-end Mac Studio desktop with a chip that can run advanced AI. The company also upgraded its iPad Air with an M4 chip on Tuesday, and last month, it announced the low-cost iPhone 16e.

The Mac Studio has more processing power and is designed for people who work on computer graphics, audio or video production or artificial intelligence. It’s not cheap — the computer starts at $1,999, and more powerful configurations can cost nearly $9,000.

Apple’s new Mac Studio costs $1999 or more.

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Prices watched closely

The MacBook Air price cut comes as Apple’s U.S. pricing is being closely watched by both Apple customers and investors to see what the iPhone maker does in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs

Apple’s announcement signals that the company isn’t jacking up prices yet. 

The new iPad Airs announced this week didn’t see any price change and still start at $599. However, the iPhone 16e costs $599, and it replaced the older low-cost model from 2022 that started at $429.

Analysts at Bank of America Securities last month forecast that PC makers including Apple would likely try to pass increased costs onto buyers. Rival Acer already announced price increases on laptops last month due to U.S. tariffs.

“Tariffs on imported PCs act like a tax that PC vendors largely pass to end customers,” the BofA analysts wrote.

The majority of Apple’s products are made in China and could be affected by two sets of 10% tariffs Trump placed on Chinese imports. Apple’s operations and third-largest market could be affected by Chinese retaliation.

Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Trump at the White House last month. After the meeting, Trump said that Apple “doesn’t want to be in the tariffs.” Cook told investors in January that Apple is “monitoring the situation.”

Apple has expanded its supply chain in recent years. Some Macs are now assembled in Malaysia or Vietnam, production locations which would avoid Chinese import duties. Apple didn’t say where the new MacBook Airs are assembled.

WATCH: Apple reacts to 20% China tariffs

Apple reacts to 20% China tariffs

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