Happy Monday! Here is a recap of industry news from the last week. Sources are in the hyperlinked text after the headline.

Brands + Retailers

• • LVMH bids $14.5B for Tiffany.  Bloomberg
  • Barney’s moves forward with sale to Authentic Brands Group.  The Wall Street Journal
  • Amazon stock tumbles after earnings and AWS revenues fall short of estimates.  Fast Company
  • Microsoft wins $10B Pentagon cloud contract, beating Amazon.  Fortune
  • Macy’s becomes the biggest US retailer to end fur sales.  The Guardian
  • Twitter stock plunges as company blames ad targeting problems for earnings miss. MarketWatch
  • Visa, Mastercard debut one-click checkout to compete with PayPal, Apple Pay.  Bloomberg
  • Mega-mall opens in New Jersey with more entertainment than retail.  Fast Company
  • Birchbox is looking beyond beauty for its next phase of growth.  CNBC
  • Playing the handbag stock market.  The New York Times 
  • The Body Shop builds sales with return to green roots.  WWD
  • Procter & Gamble beats expectations again amid media hikes and agency cuts.  AdAge
  • How Dick’s Sporting Goods is building a future on sports, not guns.  Fortune
  • Amazon pop-up helps shoppers find the perfect pair of jeans.  WWD
  • First Aid Beauty’s founder on being acquired by P&G.  WWD
  • Report says Google parent company, Alphabet, makes offer for Fitbit.  Fortune

Social Media + Marketing

• • Dior, Snapchat create AR experiences to back luggage collection created with Rimowa.  AdWeek
  • Gap focuses on digital with a holiday campaign that won’t air on TV.  AdAge
  • Facebook rolls out a stand-alone news service in its mobile app. AdWeek
  • Amazon ad sales show marked slow down.  MediaPost
  • Snapchat’s third quarter brings big gains.  AdWeek
  • Kind gets 18M views in less than a day on TikTok.  AdAge
  • 12 important updates made by Instagram this year.  Social Media Today
  • Snapchat makes sharing content easier.  The Drum
  • How programmatic disruption is creating a fourth era of digital marketing.  AdWeek

Start up + Acquisitions + Emerging Tech

• • Target incubator propels mission-driven Gen Z startups into the marketplace.  Fortune
  • Apple is revamping it’s smart home efforts after falling behind Amazon and Google.  AdAge
  • London’s top consumer VC’s share which trends they’re tracking.  TechCrunch
  • Combining StitchFix and Instagram, FlipFit ushers in the next phase of social retail.  TechCrunch
  • Why Target won’t be rolling out in-store robots.  CNN
  • VW is betting big on electric.  Bloomberg
  • Google search is starting to use machine-based learning.  Google