Marketing automation platform Klaviyo has made an initial public offering and plans to trade its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "KVYO." according to a document on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company reports $585.1 million in revenue for the 12 months ended June 30. This reflects revenue growth of 56.5% for the period. As of that date, the firm had served 130,000 customers with its SaaS solutions, it says. Klaviyo was founded in 2012, with the goal of helping its customers harness their first-party data. It seeks to grow its mid-market and enterprise presence, driving sales from both new and existing customers, expand internationally, invest in its platform and expand into new verticals. Among the risk factors is a history of net losses. Describing market conditions, Klaviyo lists these challenges faced by its customers:
Salesforce has added several new features to its Field Service suite to help firms bring to their field staffs the same artificial intelligence (AI) technologies they have in their offices. The goal is to provide the mobile workforce with “the AI tools and real-time data needed to efficiently handle jobs and offload time-consuming administrative tasks, so they can focus on their craft, deliver great service, and generate revenue for their companies,” says Taksina Eammano, executive vice president and general manager of field service, Salesforce. The company cites statistics showing that application rates for young people seeking work as skilled tradespeople dropped by almost 50% from 2020-2022 in the U.S. Among the tools is Appointment Assistant, which is now available with Salesforce products like Einstein Bots, and all messaging channels. This enables customers to book appointments and check if a technician is on the way. - In addition, Data Cloud provides a unified view of customers and their assets, — including customer purchase details, service history, and IoT signals on machine health. - Meanwhile, Work Capacity Management enables companies to reserve the capacity for priority work. - External Knowledge Search utilizes generative AI to provide frontline teams with access to the right customer, asset, along with their service history data prior to jobs. Field service teams can also avail themselves from the Mobile quoting and document builder and Salesforce Pay Now, which provides payment capabilities within the app. Field Service is used by such brands as AAA: The Auto Club Group, Pella, and Ryder System, Inc.
A federal judge has thrown out the Republican National Committee's lawsuit against Google for allegedly sending fundraising messages into Gmail users' spam folders. In a decision issued Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Calabretta in the Eastern District of California ruled that Google is protected from the claims by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which explicitly allows web companies to make good-faith efforts to suppress “objectionable” material, such as suspected spam. Calabretta wrote that the political committee's allegations against Google, even if proven true, wouldn't show that the company acted in bad faith by sending emails to the Gmail spam folders. Instead, he said the allegations regarding bad faith were “pure speculation.” “Plaintiff argues that the only reasonable inference for why its emails were labelled as spam is Google’s alleged political animus,” he wrote. “This is pure speculation, lacking facts from which the court could infer animus or an absence of good faith.” The decision comes in a battle dating to last October, when the Republican National Committee alleged that Google was “discriminating based on political affiliation and unlawfully controlling the flow of information to the public” by designating fundraising messages as spam. The complaint was referred to a North Carolina State University study that found Gmail Gmail flags around 68% of Republican campaign emails as spam, compared to 8% Democratic campaign emails. Google denied filtering emails for political reasons. "Google designs its spam-filtering technology to make its product better for users — not for any political or partisan purposes. Indeed, effective spam filtering is a key feature of Gmail," the company wrote earlier this year, when it urged Calabretta to dismiss the lawsuit. Calabretta said in his ruling that the North Carolina study provides "some evidence that Google could be acting without good faith,” but also said the study wasn't sufficient in itself to allow the lawsuit to proceed. He added that the study “expressly states there is no reason to believe Google was acting in bad faith.” The Republican committee's complaint included claims that Google violated California's common carrier law (which prohibits telecommunications companies from discriminating when transmitting messages), a state civil rights law that prohibits discrimination, an unfair competition law, and that the company wrongly interfered with potential economic relationships. Calabretta's ruling allows the committee to amend its allegations and re-file the claims relating to unfair competition and potential economic relationships. The other claims were dismissed with prejudice -- meaning they can't be brought again. “No court, much less a court interpreting California’s common carrier law, has found an email service provider to be a common carrier. This Court declines to be the first,” he wrote, regarding allegations that Google had violated California's telecommunications law. He also said California's civil rights law prohibits discrimination based on factors such as race, sex or religion, but doesn't cover discrimination based on political affiliation. Earlier this year, the Federal Election Commission rejected a complaint by Republican groups that alleged Google's spam filter disproportionately rejected GOP fundraising emails during the 2020 election cycle. That agency wrote that Google “credibly asserts that its spam filter is applied on a politically neutral basis and for a commercial purpose.”
Amazon and Starbucks are urging a judge to throw out a lawsuit claiming they violated a New York City law by collecting biometric data from people who visited brick-and-mortar establishments. The lawsuit -- brought by New York residents Alfredo Rodriguez Perez, Suzanne Mallouk and Arjun Dhawan -- focuses on Amazon's “Just Walk Out” technology, which facilitates cashless check-out at Amazon Go and at two New York City Starbucks that share space with Amazon Go stores.. Rodriguez Perez and the others claim that the company is violating a 2022 city ordinance requiring companies that collect biometric data to post a “clear and conspicuous sign” near the entrance. That law allows consumers to sue for up to $5,000 per violation. Rodriguez Perez initially sued Amazon in April, in federal court in New York. He withdrew that complaint and -- joined by Mallouk and Dhawan -- re-filed in federal court in Seattle. Amazon argues in its new motion that the case should be dismissed at an early stage on the grounds that all three plaintiffs consented to the company's use of its cashless technology. “Amazon expressly disclosed that it would use technology to gather information about their activity before they entered an Amazon Go store,” the company argues in papers filed this week. Amazon allegedly draws biometric as part of its checkout procedure, which allows customers to make purchases without waiting in line and then handing over cash or a credit card. The cashless “Just Walk Out” system allows people who have registered their palm prints with Amazon One to make purchases by scanning their palms. Customers who don't register their palm prints can enter the store by either scanning a credit card connected to their Amazon accounts, or using a smartphone app. The complaint alleges that Amazon -- and the adjoining Starbucks -- collect biometric information on shoppers, including their “size and shape,” regardless of whether they use the company's palm scanner. "Amazon Go stores constantly collect and use customers’ biometric identifier information, including by scanning the palms of some customers to identify them and by applying computer vision, deep learning algorithms, and sensor fusion that measure the shape and size of each customer’s body to identify all customers, track where they move in the stores, and determine what they have purchased," the complaint alleges. Rodriguez Perez and the others also contend that Amazon's signage regarding biometric data doesn't comply with New York City's law. The company's sign “fails to disclose that Amazon converts, retains, and shares biometric identifier information,” the complaint alleges. “Even worse, the sign informs customers that Amazon will not collect biometric identifier information on them unless they use the Amazon One palm scanner to enter the Amazon Go store, even though Amazon Go stores do collect biometric identifier information on every single customer, including information on the size and shape of every customer’s body.” Rodriguez Perez alleged that he scanned a code from an Amazon app to enter an Amazon Go store, while Mallouk alleged that she used a credit card associated with her Amazon account to enter a Starbucks Pickup + Amazon Go, and Dhawan allegedly placed his palm over a scanner. Amazon says in its motion that all three agreed to the company's data collection by accepting the terms of service and privacy notices associated with the various Amazon products they used to enter the store. “Each plaintiff knowingly consented to the very activity upon which they base their complaint,” Amazon writes. “They knew and agreed that their movements would be tracked (or, in Dhawan’s case, his palm signature would be used) and chose to take advantage of the convenience of the Amazon Go stores.”