This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

Edge computing solutions are key tools that help companies grapple with rising data volumes across industries. These types of solutions are critical in allowing companies to gain more control over the data their IoT devices create and in reducing their reliance on (and the costs of) cloud computing.

These systems are becoming more sought-after — 40% of companies that provide IoT solutions reported that edge computing came up more in discussion with customers in 2017 than the year before, according to Business Insider Intelligence’s 2017 Global IoT Executive Survey. But companies need to know whether they should look into edge computing solutions, and what in particular they can hope to gain from shifting data processing and analysis from the cloud to the edge.

There are three particular types of problems that edge computing solutions are helping to combat across industries:

• Security issues. Edge computing can limit the exposure of critical data by minimizing how often it’s transmitted. Further, they pre-process data, so there’s less data to secure overall.
• Access issues. These systems help to provide live insights regardless of whether there’s a network connection available, greatly expanding where companies and organizations can use connected devices and the data they generate.
• Transmission efficiency. Edge computing solutions process data where it’s created so less needs to be sent to the cloud, leading to lower cloud storage requirements and reduced transmission cost.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence examines how edge computing is reducing companies' reliance on cloud computing in three key industries: healthcare, telecommunications, and the automotive space. We explore how these systems mitigate issues in each sector by helping to efficiently process growing troves of data, expanding the potential realms of IoT solutions a company can offer, and bringing enhanced computing capability to remote and mobile platforms.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• In healthcare, companies and organizations are using edge computing to improve telemedicine and remote monitoring capabilities.
• For telecommunications companies, edge computing is helping to reduce network congestion and enabling a shift toward the IoT platform market.
• And in the automotive space, edge computing systems are enabling companies to increase the capabilities of connected cars and trucks and approach autonomy.

In full, the report:

• Explores the key advantages edge computing solutions can provide.
• Highlights the circumstances when companies should look into edge systems.
• Identifies key vendors and partners in specific industries while showcasing case studies of successful edge computing programs.

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• Though Black Friday became one of the biggest and busiest shopping days of the year, it hasn't always been that way.
• Before it exploded into the national, post-Thanksgiving event we know today, it was reportedly a quirky tradition unique to Philadelphians.
• And now, the holiday is experiencing more changes.
• Here's the evolution of Black Friday, from its 19th-century namesake to the dying shopping phenomenon it is today.

Black Friday has long been associated with turkey dinner and bargain-priced holiday shopping.

It's turned into one of the most profitable days for retailers, who raked in $8 billion from Black Friday and Thanksgiving sales in 2017.

But it wasn't always that way.

Here's how Black Friday has evolved over the last two centuries.

SEE ALSO: Photos show what 'Black Friday' looks like around the world

DON'T MISS: 11 insider facts most Black Friday workers know — and you probably don't

The day after Thanksgiving has long marked the beginning of the holiday shopping season, starting with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924.

Source: Business Insider

The behemoth retailer used the event as a living and breathing advertisement ahead of the holiday season.

Source: Business Insider

It helped cement the Friday after Thanksgiving as the ultimate holiday shopping day.

Source: INSIDER

Flames are racing along the southern California coastline as firefighters work to contain the fast-moving Woolsey Fire. The blaze has already scorched 14,000 acres on the outskirts of Los Angeles, and the nearby Hill Fire has charred 6,100 acres in Ventura County.

They're just two of thousands of California wildfires recorded this year. Meanwhile, to the north, the Camp Fire has killed five people and leveled the entire town of Paradise.

Both of the LA-area fires started Thursday afternoon, and though no deaths have been reported, many people have had to leave behind their beloved pets and homes and flee. 

Here's a glimpse at the devastation in southern California so far.

SEE ALSO: 3 dangerous fires are burning across California, and 5 people died in their cars as they tried to escape

The beach city of Malibu is home to about 13,000 people. On Friday, as flames from the Woolsey Fire raced towards the coast, the entire town was forced to evacuate.

Shortly after noon on Friday, the City of Malibu said on its website that the "fire is now burning out of control and heading into populated areas of Malibu. All residents must evacuate immediately."

Source: Business Insider

Stars including Alyssa Milano, Melissa Etheridge, director Guillermo del Toro, and the Kardashian sisters all had to leave their homes in the area.

Milano said she packed up her "kids, dogs, computer," and Doc Marten boots and headed for shelter.

Sources: @Alyssa_Milano, @RealGDT, Business Insider, @metheridge

• Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker reportedly counseled top DOJ officials on how to counter President Donald Trump's demands for investigations into his political adversaries, while at the same time advising the White House on how it could force the DOJ to investigate those same claims.
• In conversations with Trump, Whitaker is said to have cast himself as a staunch loyalist and promised he would "extract as much as he could from the Justice Department on the president's behalf."
• Whitaker is now in charge of the Russia investigation and the special counsel Robert Mueller, and Friday's news is just the latest in a series of revelations that throw Whitaker's independence from the White House into question.

In May, Matthew Whitaker, then the chief of staff to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, was reportedly counseling top DOJ officials on how to counter President Donald Trump's fervent demands to investigate the baseless claim that the FBI "infiltrated or surveilled" his 2016 presidential campaign.

At the same time, Whitaker was advising the White House on how to force the DOJ to investigate those very same claims.

That's according to a new report from Vox, which said Whitaker presented himself as a sympathetic ear when Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein agreed that giving in to Trump's demands would amount to improperly politicizing the DOJ and the FBI.

On the other hand, Vox reported, Whitaker was in talks with the White House about how Trump could best pressure Sessions and Rosenstein to cave.

One person close to Whitaker told Vox that he was merely trying to calm the rising tensions between Trump and the nation's top law-enforcement officials.

But two other sources told the outlet that when talking to the president, Whitaker cast himself as a staunch loyalist and promised he would "extract as much as he could from the Justice Department on the president's behalf." Whitaker also had several private phone calls with either Trump or the White House chief of staff John Kelly during this time.

This week, Trump ousted Sessions and announced that Whitaker would take over as acting attorney general until Trump nominates and the Senate confirms a permanent replacement.

Read more:'Seriously? This guy?': Matthew Whitaker's appointment as acting attorney general has FBI and DOJ officials in a 'daze'

The West Wing's 'eyes and ears' in the DOJ

In his new role, Whitaker is now in charge of the Russia investigation and the special counsel Robert Mueller. Vox's report is just the latest in a series of revelations that throw Whitaker's independence into question.

Once described as the West Wing's "eyes and ears" in the DOJ, Whitaker made the rounds on right-wing media over the last two years claiming without evidence, that there was "no collusion" between the Trump campaign and Russia.

While he was Sessions' chief of staff, Whitaker reportedly met with Trump in the Oval Office over a dozen times. And according to The Washington Post, whenever Trump complained about the ongoing Russia investigation Whitaker "often smiled knowingly and nodded in assent."

He also said in a CNN op-ed last year that Mueller had overstepped his mandate by digging into the Trump Organization's finances.

And late Thursday, audio footage resurfaced of Whitaker claiming the "left is trying to sow this theory that essentially Russians interfered with the US election, which has been proven false. They did not have any impact in the election."

The US intelligence community concluded last year that Russia mounted an elaborate campaign to meddle in the 2016 election to elevate Trump to the presidency. The assessment did not reach a conclusion about whether Russia's meddling had an impact on the results.

In another recording reported on by Mother Jones, Whitaker said the president cannot obstruct justice and can kill any investigation he wants.

The Post reported that despite Whitaker's controversial remarks about Mueller and the Russia probe, the acting attorney general has no plans to recuse himself, even if DOJ ethics officials urge him to do so. Sources also told The Post that Whitaker would likely oppose a request from Mueller to subpoena the president if it came down to it.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said he does not know Whitaker.

But in an interview with Fox & Friends last month, Trump called Whitaker "a great guy," adding, "I mean, I know Matt Whitaker."

SEE ALSO: 'Seriously? This guy?': Matthew Whitaker's appointment as acting attorney general has FBI and DOJ officials in a 'daze'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Trump once won a lawsuit against the NFL — but the result was an embarrassment

• Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson announced that his company will commit $1 million to support homelessness programs.
• This comes after 60 percent voted "yes" to San Francisco's homelessness measure "Prop C" on Tuesday, but this measure, which would bring the city $300 million in funding for homelessness programs, is likely to face legal disputes that could keep the funding on reserve for years.
• Twilio previously did not take a position on Prop C, but Lawson says Prop C should motivate San Francisco business leaders to take action on homelessness.

After San Franciscans voted "yes" on the hotly debated homelessness measure called "Prop C," Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson announced that his company will commit $1 million to support homelessness programs.

Leading up to the election, the cloud communications company did not take a position on Proposition C. However, other tech giants in the city were especially vocal -- notably Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff who advocated for Prop C, and Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, who spoke out against it.

"As we thought about it, there were so much attack, so much personal attacks," Lawson told Business Insider. "To me, the biggest positive outcome [of Prop C] is kicking action on homelessness to the top of the leaders of the city's mind. Obviously we see the problem but there wasn't a lot of action on it."

Lawson announced Twilio's commitment Thursday night at an event where he was honored as one of San Francisco Business Times' Most Admired CEOs. Earlier in the week, Lawson watched Twilio's stock soar 35% after delivering blockbuster quarterly financial results. 

On Tuesday night, Prop C won 60 percent among San Francisco voters. But the measure is likely to face legal challenges in the coming months, so Lawson says he wants to make help contribute to the cause right now. 

"Let's get it done," Lawson said. "Our thinking is how can we start funding initiatives that get the process for Prop C started? If there's a challenge before funds can be deployed, why don't we start now?"

"This issue tore apart our cities"

Twilio didn't take a position on Prop C ahead of the election because it didn't "feel like our voice would add anything." But now that it's passed and with legal challenges likely to come, business leaders can work on tackling this problem now, Lawson says.

Right now, there's a legal dispute in the city on a measure to raise taxes on commercial rents to pay for child care services and early education, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. A coalition of commercial property owners sued the city in August, saying that a simple majority vote is not enough to pass this measure and it violates state law — instead, it should be a two-thirds majority, they said.

This could also potentially affect Prop C, so the city won't spend the money until this legal dispute is resolved. The massive flow of cash from this measure — $300 million a year — for homelessness programs may sit on reserve for years.

Read more: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff on his Twitter beef with Jack Dorsey: You're either 'for the homeless' or 'you’re for yourself'

Lawson hopes to get other business leaders on board.

"After this election, we've come together to say we're going to address the homelessness crisis," Lawson told Business Insider. "As I was thinking about it, this issue tore apart our cities in a lot of ways. This was a difficult proposition. It's time to come together."

Although the company hasn't decided exactly where the donation will go, Twilio.org, Twilio's social impact arm, is currently evaluating options and will provide updates in the following weeks.

"We've seen several organizations in San Francisco fighting homelessness," Erin Reilly, VP of Social Impact at Twilio, told Business Insider. "We are looking at how we can support with technology, funding, and time and help folks who live in the city. Now is the time we're coming together to fight homelessness."

Below is Lawson's Tweet about Twilio's commitment.

SEE ALSO: $1.9 billion big data company Talend is acquiring a Philadelphia-based startup for $60 million to give it leverage in the cloud wars

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: There's so much CO2 in the atmosphere that planting trees can no longer save us

• The US and Japan were joined by Canadian forces for Keen Sword 19, which ended this week.
• The exercise was the biggest and most sophisticated the US and Japan have carried out.
• It comes amid growing tension with China in the seas and airspace of East Asia.

US and Japanese forces this week wrapped up exercise Keen Sword 19, which the US 7th Fleet commander called the "largest and most complex" field exercise conducted by the two longtime allies.

This year's exercise, in which Canadian forces also took part, featured air, maritime, and amphibious exercises involving dozens of US and Japanese ships and hundreds of aircraft.

About one-fifth of Japan's Self-Defense Force — some 47,000 troops — worked with 10,000 US service members. Canada also sent two ships and personnel. In all, this year's Keen Sword included about 11,000 more troops than the last edition of the biennial exercise.

This year's Keen Sword comes amid heightened tensions with China, whose forces have had several close encounters in recent weeks with the US Navy in the South China Sea, where China has made expansive territorial claims.

Beijing and Tokyo are also involved in disputes in the East China Sea, where both navies have been more active.

Japan has taken a number of steps to increase its military capacities in recent years.

This spring, it activated an amphibious brigade, its first such unit since World War II, which is also taking part in its first Keen Sword. Other recent firsts for Japan's military include deploying armored vehicles abroad for the first time and its first exercises in Japan with Britain.

Read also:The US military's top officer says Russia and China present different challenges — but they both can rival US power

The amphibious brigade was set up with the defense of Japanese-controlled islands in the East China Sea in mind. China has also claimed those islands, which are uninhabited and called the Senkaku Islands by Japan and the Diaoyu Islands by China.

During Keen Sword the JSDF amphibious unit conducted landing on beaches near the islands of Guam and Tinian, east of Japan, working with members of the US 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force.

Earlier this year, Japan criticized China for sailing a submarine close to the islands in the East China Sea, and in August Chinese warships conducted air-defense and anti-missile live-fire exercise in the East China Sea. Japan also recently did submarine exercises in the South China Sea for the first time.

Submarine activity in the South and East China seas has increased in recent years, led by China's rapid addition of more advanced subs. Keen Sword 19 also included submarine and anti-submarine-warfare exercises.

Submarine Group 7 command staff, based in Yokosuka, Japan, and the crew of a US Navy Los Angeles-class attack sub trained with their Japanese counterparts on land and at sea to practice detecting, locating, tracking, and engaging enemy targets, according to a Navy release.

The Yokosuka-based USS Ronald Reagan, the Navy's only forward-deployed aircraft carrier, also took part in Keen Sword's anti-submarine-warfare drills.

During the first weekend of November, F-18 Super Hornets were taking off the Reagan about once every minute to practice sortieing and to support the ASW drills.

"We go out there. We work with the Japanese and they tell us what the problem is, where to go and what to search for," Naval Air Crewman 3rd Class Ronald Pierpoint said in a Navy release. "It helps us grease our gears working with real submarines and, at the end of the day, we go over our training to get better and better."

Now read:After some touch-ups, the Air Force's biggest plane is ready to soar for decades, but the service has other transport problems to solve

Commander, Task Force 72, the Navy maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft within the 7th Fleet, was also present. CTF-72 carried out 13 flights with both P-3C Orion and P-8A Poseidon — the latter of which is considered one of the most advanced maritime patrol aircraft in service — to support maritime drills during Keen Sword.

“Creating a positive relationship with 7th Fleet [anti-submarine warfare] communities is extremely important," Lt. j.g. Conner Ferguson, the plans and exercises officer for one of the patrol squadrons taking part, said in a release.

Also over the weekend, two US Air Force C-130J Super Hercules aircraft flew from their base near Tokyo to southern Japan with US Army paratroopers to pick up JSDF paratroopers for a practice jump.

The exercise was to simulate inserting troops to an area without an airfield, one of the Air Force loadmasters involved told Stars and Stripes. The exercise was the first time that a US aircraft dropped JSDF soldiers over the Hiju-dai drop zone in Japan's Oita prefecture, on the northern coast of Japan's Kyushu Island.

"We don’t always get the opportunity to drop Japanese forces,"said Capt. Jeff Larkin, the unit commander, calling the drill "another exciting moment for us because we can fly in an atypical environment."

"They jumped safely and accurately," US Army Master Sgt. Nathan Greer, a US Army Alaska jump master overseeing the jump, said of the JSDF troops involved. "This is most important thing for jumpers, and they were professionals during the airborne operation."

US Air Force pilots based at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa also participated, practicing command and control, aerial refueling, air defense, and escort operations.

Working with Japanese fliers was not a new experience for those US pilots, but last-minute changes to the exercises they were conducting helped enhance the training effect, Lt. Col. Nichelle Somers, a KC-135 pilot instructor, told Air Force Magazine.

The exercises forced pilots to plan and fly the same way they would if they were in Iraq or Afghanistan, Somers said.

"These exercises are key because this is what keeps us ready to 'fight tonight,'" Somers added.

SEE ALSO: The US military's top officer says Russia and China present different challenges — but they both can rival US power

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why Japan is landing hopping robots on an asteroid

• On Friday, Apple announced that two of its products — the iPhone X and the 13-inch MacBook Pro (non Touch Bar) — have known hardware issues.
• Apple said that some iPhone X screens do not respond or intermittently respond to touch.
• For the 13-inch MacBook Pro, Apple said some devices might have an issue that causes data loss or drive failure.
• Customers with eligible devices can have both issues fixed for free at an Apple retail store or with an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

On Friday, Apple announced that two of its products — the iPhone X and the 13-inch MacBook Pro (non Touch Bar) — have known hardware issues. Bloomberg first reported on these issues after being posted on Apple's support pages on Friday.

Apple said that on some iPhone X devices, display screens are experiencing touch issues. Those issues include:

• The screen, or part of the screen, does not respond or responds intermittently to a user's touch.
• The screen reacts even when a user hasn't touched it.

The company said users with eligible iPhone X devices can have their display modules replaced for free at one of its retail stores or an Apple Authorized Service Provider.

According to the Bloomberg report, iPhone X users had been complaining about touch issues online for months. Also, interestingly, the iPhone X was on the market for less than one year after being discontinued in September following the release of the iPhone XS and iPhone XR.

A similar touchscreen issue crept up in 2016 with the iPhone 6 Plus. To repair the problem back then, however, Apple charged it's customers $149.

Read more:Apple just announced it will fix iPhones with Touch Disease for $149

Apple also confirmed that its 13-inch MacBook Pro (non Touch Bar) sold between June 2017 and June 2018 might have an issue that causes data loss or drive failure.

The company said affected laptops could be serviced at one of its retail locations or an Apple Authorized Service Provider for free as well. To know if your MacBook Pro needs to be serviced, you'll need to enter your device's serial number on Apple's support page.

Apple did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

SEE ALSO: The 6 biggest differences you need to know about when switching from an older iPhone to the iPhone XS Max

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: First impressions of the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL

• California is dealing with several dangerous wildfires. The Woolsey and Hill fires are burning on the outskirts of LA, and the Camp Fire in northern California destroyed an entire town in less than a day.
• The flames are being fueled by dry, hot conditions as well as strong winds.
• People in San Francisco, more than 170 miles from the Camp Fire, woke up to a hazy sky and extremely poor air quality.
• Another small brush fire started Friday morning near the Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park, and quickly scorched three acres.
• California wildfires are becoming so frequent and pervasive that officials there say there's almost no need for the term "wildfire season" anymore.

Three dangerous wildfires are raging in California.

The Camp Fire, in northern California, started Thursday morning and quickly charred the entire town of Paradise, which is home to 27,000. The flames grew so fast — a pace of 80 football fields per minute— that four people were burned to death in their cars, the Butte County sheriff Korey Honea told the Associated Press. One deceased person was found near a vehicle.

According to the sheriff, the department has received 35 missing persons reports. So far, at least nine people have died as a result of the Camp Fire. In addition to those found in or near a vehicle, one person was found inside a home.

As of 6:00 p.m. PT, fire officials said the blaze had burned 90,000 acres in just over 24 hours, and was 5% contained.

More than 6,700 structures were destroyed. It is now considered the most destructive wildfire in California history in terms of the number of structures destroyed.

To the south, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, two smaller fires also started Thursday and are now creating havoc for drivers and forcing homeowners to flee. The Woolsey and Hill Fires are burning through parts of Ventura and LA counties. The flames have threatened the homes of celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and shut down stretches of the 101 freeway.

Inside the city limits of LA, another smaller fire broke out Friday morning in Griffith Park near the zoo. Firefighters there are scrambling to reach the area by helicopter, since it's not accessible by truck.

Southern California fire officials say the flames have burned at least 150 homes. They say that number is likely to increase.

Already this year, 7,578 fires have burned across California, fueled by hot, dry conditions and aggressive winds.

Camp Fire claims at least 9 lives

The Camp Fire started about 6:30 a.m. on Thursday. So far, more than 6,700 structures have burned and thousands more are threatened.

According to the Butte County sheriff's office, five of the people whose deaths have been confirmed were found near Edgewood Lane in Paradise, California, in or near "vehicles that were overcome by the Camp Fire." The sheriff's office was not yet able to identify those victims because of their burn injuries. Other residents ran from the fire, the Sacramento Bee reported.

California Acting Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in Butte County because of the Camp Fire Thursday, and sent a letter to President Donald Trump and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) asking for federal assistance.

Smoke from that fire is blanketing wide swaths of Northern California in a gray haze. On Friday morning, people in San Francisco woke up to the smell of smoke and poor air quality, and some donned masks to protect their lungs.

Federal air monitors have suggested that older adults, children, teens, and people with heart and lung conditions should limit their time outside because of the high number of dangerously small pollutants in the air. The air in San Francisco right now is as bad as Beijing, CBS reported.

The Hill and Woolsey Fires are growing in Ventura and LA counties

So far, the Hill Fire has burned at least 6,000 acres in Ventura County, and mandatory evacuation orders are in place for people at the Point Mugu Naval Base and California State University Channel Islands, among other areas.

The Woolsey Fire (the one that forced Kim and Kourtney Kardashian out of their homes) has charred 35,000 acres, the AP reported Friday evening, and the LA County Fire Department said the blaze was still 0% contained as of 5:45 p.m. PT on Friday. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered in areas including Malibu, Topanga, and Thousand Oaks (the same city where a mass shooter killed 12 people on Wednesday), the LA Times reported.

"Imminent threat! Malibu lakes residents must leave area immediately," the LA County fire department wrote on Twitter Friday morning.

Shortly after noon on Friday, the City of Malibu said on its website that the "fire is now burning out of control and heading into populated areas of Malibu. All residents must evacuate immediately."LA County Sheriff's Deputies were knocking on doors there, telling everyone in the star-studded beach town to get out.

You can view the full evacuation orders on the Ventura County Emergency Information site and the LA County Woolsey Fire site.

So far, there are no reported injuries or deaths from either of the Southern California fires. But as a result of the blazes, 250,000 people in Ventura and LA counties had been evacuated as of Friday night, the Times said.

By Friday evening, about 75% of the Ventura County city of Thousand Oaks had been abandoned, fire officials said according to the Associated Press.

Firefighters are racing to keep flames from charring people's homes, but as the LA Fire Department's Eric Scott pointed out on Twitter, some houses are better protected than others, since green vegetation can help keep flames back.

On Friday morning, less than 24 hours after the two fires broke out, acting Gov. Newsom declared a state of emergency in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

Read More: A California wildfire just demolished an entire town and forced the Kardashians to evacuate. Here’s why wildfire season is getting longer and stronger.

The fires have forced the 101 freeway to shut down in a couple different areas. In Ventura County, a nine-mile southbound stretch from Wendy Drive to Lewis Road where the Hill Fire raged, was closed. In LA County, a section of the freeway from the Mulholland Drive/Valley Circle Boulevard exit to Reyes Adobe Road was closed to traffic both ways after flames from the Woolsey Fire jumped across the highway.

Many of the Ventura County public schools closed on Friday, as well as Pepperdine University, Moorpark Community College, California State University Channel Islands, and Cal Lutheran University.

Wildfire "season," in California used to run from late summer through the fall, since autumn's Santa Ana winds help blow flames around. But as the planet heats up, unseasonably high temperatures and drought conditions are becoming more common. So fire officials in the state are succumbing to the idea that fires may not be limited to any specific season anymore.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

SEE ALSO: A California wildfire just demolished an entire town and forced the Kardashians to evacuate. Here’s why wildfire season is getting longer and stronger.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A 'firenado' is a real thing — here’s how the dangerous phenomenon forms

• Moderna Therapeutics, a buzzy startup with a $7 billion private valuation, filed paperwork on Friday to go public. 
• According to a regulatory filing, Moderna President Dr. Stephen Hoge has a compensation package worth almost $24 million, rivaling the paychecks of some of big pharma's most high-profile CEOs. 

One of the highest valued private companies in biotech is finally going public. 

Moderna Therapeutics, a company developing treatments based on messenger RNA, has racked up a private valuation of $7 billion. On Friday, it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public and raise $500 million. 

Read more: A biotech unicorn valued at more than $7 billion just took a big step towards going public

Among the disclosures in Moderna's S-1 filing was the compensation for some of the company's top executives. 

Noticeably, Moderna's president, Dr. Stephen Hoge, had a compensation package worth almost $24 million in 2017, according to the filing. That included a salary of $542,308, a $4,400,000 bonus, and $19,000,000 in stock options. 

In comparison, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel made $6.8 million in 2017, while Moderna CFO Dr. Lorence Kim made $9.3 million. 

Hoge, 42, joined Moderna in 2013 and became president in 2015. Hoge got his MD at the University of California, San Francisco and worked at McKinsey & Co. from 2005 to 2012. 

Hoge's compensation package rivals the paychecks of CEOs like Pfizer's Ian Read, who made $27.9 million in 2017 and Regeneron CEO Len Schleifer, who made $26.5 million that year. 

Zach Tracer contributed reporting. 

See also: 

• Meet the 10 richest billionaires in healthcare, whose ranks include a doctor and heirs to pharmaceutical empires
• One of the biggest drugmakers in the world thinks it has 26 billion-dollar drugs in the pipeline — here's what they aim to treat

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Fox News reportedly made the "conscious decision" to refrain from tweeting following an activist group's protest that erupted at the home of Fox News opinion host, Tucker Carlson.
• The news organization, which has over 18 million Twitter followers, had gone silent for more than 24 hours as of Friday.
• Fox News sources reportedly told a Tribune Media employee the company is engaging in a silent protest due to Twitter's response to users who were posting Carlson's home address on the social media platform.
• Facebook, which Fox News continues to publish stories from, is said to have responded promptly after being alerted.
• It is not unclear when Fox News will begin tweeting again.

Fox News reportedly made the "conscious decision" to refrain from tweeting following a protest that erupted on Fox News host Tucker Carlson's doorstep on Wednesday night.

Around a dozen protesters aligned with the self-described anti-fascist group "Smash Racism DC" showed up at Carlson's home in Washington, DC, nearly two hours before the opinion-show host's 8 p.m. program on Fox News. While some of the demonstrators chanted slogans on the street in front of Carlson's home, at least one showed up at his doorstep.

Carlson, who was at work at the time, claimed that his wife was home when a protester allegedly threw "himself against the front door and actually cracked the front door," according to The Washington Post. Police reportedly confirmed that members of the group also spray-painted an anarchy symbol on the driveway, and left signs on vehicles.

A source at Fox News explained that the protests at Carlson's home, which Carlson described as "a threat," was the reason the company has refrained from tweeting for more than 24 hours as of Friday, according to a Mediaite report.

Another Fox News source cited by a Tribune Media content manager Scott Gustin reportedly said the decision not to tweet came from "the highest level" of the company.

The hiatus is said to be a protest of Twitter's response to complaints that users were posting Carlson's home address online.

Twitter's technical support function is believed to have advised the news organization to submit a ticket request and did not delete tweets containing Carlson's address, Gustin said.

Facebook, which Fox News continues to publish stories from, reportedly responded promptly after being alerted.

It is unclear when Fox News will begin tweeting again, but Gustin's source reportedly explained that the company will continue its self-imposed exile until Twitter apologizes and removes the offending tweets.

Twitter and other social media companies have been criticized for not acting more decisively in regulating user content. Critics have alleged that unregulated content from fringe political groups and users promotes fake news, hate speech, or other harmful messages.

Fox News representatives declined to comment to Business Insider on the matter. Twitter did not respond to numerous requests for comment as of Friday night.

Read more: Twitter dropped the hammer on Alex Jones and permanently kicked him off its service

Videos of the demonstration at Carlson's home were uploaded on the group's Twitter account but were later deleted.

"Racist scumbag, leave town," the protesters chanted in the video.

"We want you to know, we know where you sleep at night," a protestors said on a loudspeaker. "Tucker Carlson, we will fight! We know where you sleep at night!"

Journalists and media personalities from other networks have widely condemned the protest.

"Fighting Tucker Carlson's ideas is an American right," comedian Stephen Colbert tweeted on Thursday. "Targeting his home and terrorizing his family is an act of monstrous cowardice. Obviously don't do this, but also, take no pleasure in it happening. Feeding monsters just makes more monsters."

Fox News' CEO Suzanne Scott and president Jay Wallace reportedly issued a joint statement denouncing the protest.

"The incident that took place at Tucker's home last night was reprehensible," the two executives said. "The violent threats and intimidation tactics toward him and his family are completely unacceptable. We as a nation have become far too intolerant of different points of view."

"Recent events across our country clearly highlight the need for a more civil, respectful, and inclusive national conversation," they added. "Those of us in the media and in politics bear a special obligation to all Americans, to find common ground."

The same group confronted Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and his wife at a DC restaurant in October, amid the fallout from Justice Brett Kavanaugh's contentious confirmation hearings.

Carlson did not appear for his nightly program on Friday. Fox News personality Brian Kilmeade stood in for him instead.

"For every masked lunatic in front of my house, there have been a hundred people, some of whom I don't agree with politically, calling or sending texts of support and kindness," Carlson said to Kilmeade during a phone interview.

"And it's just a reminder of what a really nice country it is."

SEE ALSO: 'Beto is way hotter than you, dude': Ted Cruz and his wife leave restaurant after being heckled

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NOW WATCH: Megyn Kelly in 2017: 'I regret a lot' of the controversial stuff I've said on live television

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here.

Automakers are on the verge of a prolonged period of rapid change to the way they do business, thanks to the combined disruptive forces of growing on-demand mobility services and self-driving cars, which will start to come to market in the next couple of years.

By the end of 2019, Google spinoff Waymo, Uber, and GM all plan to have fleets of autonomous cars deployed in various US cities to provide on-demand rides for passengers. By eliminating the cost of the driver, these rides are expected to be far cheaper than typical Uber or Lyft rides, and even cheaper than owning a car for personal transportation.

Many industry experts are predicting that such cheap on-demand autonomous rides service will result in a long-term decline in car ownership rates — PwC predicts that the total number of cars on the road in the US and EU will drop from 556 million last year to 416 million in 2030.

This decline in car ownership represents an enormous threat to automakers’ traditional business models, forcing them to find alternative revenue sources. Many of these automakers, including GM, Ford, and Daimler, have plans to launch their own on-demand ride-hailing services with fleets of self-driving cars they will manufacture, potentially giving them a new stream of recurring revenue. This could set them up to take a sizeable share of a market that is expected to be worth trillions by 2030.

However, competing in the on-demand mobility market will pit legacy automakers against ride-hailing services from startups and tech giants that have far greater experience in acquiring and engaging consumers through digital channels. To succeed in what will likely be a hyper-competitive market for urban ride-hailing, automakers will have to foster new skill sets in their organizations, and transform from companies that primarily produce vehicles to ones that also manage vehicle fleets and customer relationships.

That will entail competing with startups and tech giants for software development and data science talent, as well as reforming innovation processes to keep pace with digital trendsetters. Automakers will also need to create unique mobile app and in-car experiences to lure customers. Finally, these automakers will face many overall barriers in the market, including convincing consumers that self-driving cars are safe, and dealing with a complex and evolving regulatory landscape.

In a new report, Business Insider Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, delves into the future of the on-demand mobility space, focusing on how automakers will use fleets of self-driving vehicles to break into an emerging industry that's been dominated thus far by startups like Uber and Lyft. We examine how the advent of autonomous vehicles will reshape urban transportation, and the impact it will have on traditional automakers. We then detail how automakers can leverage their core strengths to create new revenue sources with autonomous mobility services, and explore the key areas they'll need to gain new skills and capabilities in to compete with mobility startups and tech giants that are also eyeing this opportunity. 

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• The low cost of autonomous taxis will eventually lead car ownership rates among urban consumers to decline sharply, putting automakers’ traditional business models at risk.
• Many automakers plan to launch their own autonomous ride-hailing services with the self-driving cars they're developing to replace losses from declining car sales, putting them in direct competition with mobility startups and tech giants looking to launch similar services.
• Additionally, automakers plan to maximize utilization of their autonomous on-demand vehicles by performing last-mile deliveries, which will force them to compete with a variety of players in the parcel logistics industry.
• Regulatory pressures could also push automakers to consider alternative mobility services besides on-demand taxis, such as autonomous on-demand shuttle or bus services.
• Providing these types of services will force automakers to make drastic changes to their organizations to acquire new talent and skills, and not all automakers will succeed at that.

In full, the report:

• Forecasts the growth of autonomous on-demand ride-hailing services in the US.
• Examines the cost benefits of such services for consumers, and how they will reshape consumers’ transportation habits.
• Details the different avenues for automakers to monetize the growth of autonomous ride-hailing.
• Provides an overview of the various challenges that all players in the self-driving car space will need to overcome to monetize their investments in these new technologies in the coming years.
• Explains the key factors that will be critical for automakers to succeed in this emerging market.
• Offers examples of how automakers can differentiate their apps and services from competitors’.

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• Meng Hongwei, the Chinese president of Interpol, disappeared after traveling to China in late September.
• China acknowledged on October 7 that it had detained Meng and was investigating him over bribery allegations. Interpol said it received his resignation that same day.
• Beijing has gone silent since then.
• Interpol said organization rules forbade an investigation into Meng's disappearance.
• Meng's wife, Grace, said her husband's disappearance was "political persecution" and that she wasn't sure he was alive.

It's been more than a month since Beijing confirmed that the vanished Interpol president had been detained in China, and we're no closer to knowing what happened.

Meng Hongwei disappeared after traveling to China on September 29. Beijing broke its silence over the matter a week later, on October 7, saying that it had detained him and was investigating him over bribery allegations.

That same day Interpol said it received Meng's resignation— without specifying the source — and accepted it "with immediate effect."

Jürgen Stock, Interpol's secretary-general, told reporters on Thursday that "there was no reason for me to (suspect) that anything was forced or wrong" about the resignation.

Details of China's allegations against Meng remain unclear. His detention appears to be part of a wider "anti-corruption drive" led by President Xi Jinping since his ascendancy to the Chinese leadership.

Activists at Human Rights Watch believe Meng is kept under a form of secret detention called liuzhi (留置), where the person is held incommunicado without access to lawyers or relatives for up to six months.

Sophie Richardson, the organization's China director, told Business Insider that "we assume but cannot confirm" that.

The wife's fight

Meng's wife, Grace, repeatedly denied China's corruption charges and claimed that her husband's disappearance was "political persecution."

She told the BBC last month: "I'm not sure he's alive. They are cruel. They are dirty," she added, referring to China's tactics to silence people.

Read more: The Interpol chief who vanished in China is feared dead after even his wife hasn't heard from him in weeks

Grace Meng added that she received a threatening phone call shortly after Meng's disappearance, in which a man speaking in Chinese warned her not to speak out.

Reuters reported last week that Meng had retained two law firms in London and Paris to track down her husband. Business Insider contacted the two firms for comment on Meng's next steps.

Below is the last text Grace Meng received from her husband on September 25. It says in Chinese: "Wait for my call," followed by a knife emoji — a possible warning that he was in danger.

Interpol says it can't investigate, but is "strongly encouraging" China to speak out

The international police organization, where Meng was elected president in 2016, has not provided much clarity either.

It has not released a public statement since October 7, when it acknowledged Meng's resignation and has not responded to Business Insider's request for comment.

Stock, Interpol's secretary-general, said on Thursday that the organization's rules forbade him from investigating Meng's disappearance.

"We are not an investigative body," he said, according to the Associated Press. He added that "we are strongly encouraging China" to provide details of Meng's whereabouts.

Richardson of Human Rights Watch told Business Insider: "If President Xi was even remotely serious about the rule of law, Meng would be guaranteed fair trial rights, but that is highly unlikely to happen given the profound politicization of China's legal system."

Rights groups protested Meng's election to the Interpol presidency at the time, citing his previous work at China's ministry of public security in Xinjiang and Tibet. The two regions are home to the country's Uighur and Tibetan ethnic minorities, who Beijing has attempted to muzzle.

During Meng's tenure, China submitted multiple "red notices"— Interpol arrest warrants — for dissidents around the world.

Read more: Barging into your home, threatening your family, or making you disappear: Here's what China does to people who speak out against them

Roderic Wye, an associate fellow at Chatham House and former first secretary in the British Embassy in Beijing, told Business Insider last month that public disappearances were not unusual in China, especially in politics.

"It is often a sign that someone has got into trouble if they fail to appear in public doing their normal duties for a period of time," he said.

Earlier this year Chinese authorities publicly disappeared prominent Chinese actress Fan Bingbing for three months after she was accused of evading taxes.

Read more: The humbling of Fan Bingbing is a warning shot from China to anyone who thinks they can defy them

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NOW WATCH: The true story behind Boston gangster Whitey Bulger

• Exclusive: The Brexit department said there could be medicine shortages in a no deal Brexit in an "alarming" meeting with pharmaceutical and medical industry representatives last month.
• In the meeting, DExEU civil servants said some medicines might not be available to patients if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal in March.
• The meeting took place two weeks before health organisations sent a letter to Theresa May's government expressing concern that the risk of medicine shortages in a no deal Brexit is "red."
• Health Secretary Matt Hancock has asked private companies to help stockpile medicines.

LONDON — Theresa May's government refused to rule out medicine shortages under a no deal Brexit during a confidential meeting with shocked medical industry representatives last month, Business Insider can reveal.

Around two dozen representatives from the medical and pharmaceutical industry were told by civil servants from the Department for Exiting the European Union, that ministers could not guarantee that all medicines currently provided by the NHS will be available to patients in the event of there being no Brexit deal.

"They aren't guaranteeing against medicine shortages in a no deal — it's pretty alarming stuff," an industry figure who attended the meeting on the week of October 15 told BI.

"The government rep stuck to the line that if all stakeholders do what is required, then they believe that patients will be protected. But they weren't able to guarantee that every treatment on the NHS will be protected."

There is a growing concern among pharmaceutical firms and charities that the UK government is underprepared for the prospect of leaving the European Union with no deal in March 2019.

Last week, a group of health organisations — including the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry and Brexit Health Alliance — wrote to the government expressing concern that preparations for maintaining drug supplies in a no deal Brexit were so behind that the risk level ought to be "red," the most severe, Politico revealed.

The letter said the health groups "do not believe that the current medicine supply plans will suffice" and that the UK "will have widespread shortages" in a no deal Brexit "if we do not respond urgently."

The government has advised pharmaceutical companies to stockpile six week's worth of medicines as part of no-deal planning. However, industry figures are concerned about medicines which require special conditions like cool temperatures, and medicines with shorter shelf-lives that cannot be stockpiled and may have to be flown in.

Martin Sawer, Executive Director at Healthcare Distribution Association, told MPs last month that it would take "more than a year" to build large cold chain (temperature-controlled) warehouses, while Brexit is five months away.

Pharmaceutical companies are working with the government to scope airline capacity for getting these drugs to the UK in the event of a no-deal, but are worried about being in competition with other industries, like food.

A government spokesperson told BI: "The Government is confident of reaching a deal with the EU that benefits patients and the NHS. However, as a responsible Government we are also preparing for a range of potential outcomes in the unlikely event of a no deal. 

"As part of our contingency planning, we continue to work closely with pharmaceutical companies and storage providers to ensure the continued supply of critical drug and medicine supplies."

'The honest answer is we don't know'

Jane Summerfield — who leads the UK's life sciences commercial regulatory practice — told BI this week that the government was "still working out" how much capacity was needed to stockpile medicines, and how to do it.

"They're far enough down that process to know that additional capacity is needed, and actions are ongoing to identify warehousing on both sides of the channel, but there isn't much information coming out to actually answer that question. The honest answer is we don't know," Summerfield said.

She explained that while some medicines can be stockpiled for six weeks as the government has recommended, other "very complex" medicines cannot, and could be in short supply if there is no Brexit deal in five months time.

"If it is a medicine like gene therapy, you can't just stockpile, that's not how the product works. If it's cold chain (temperature-controlled) storage, you don't necessarily have the right capacity and conditions to do that.

"Some have a very short shelf life. So warehousing works for some clients but others are finding it really difficult."

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told ITV's Robert Peston this week that the government was building extra "refrigeration capacity" for stockpiling medicines which require cool temperatures to prepare for no deal.

Hancock also revealed last month that he has invited private companies to provide additional storage. "We have issued today an invitation to tender for additional storage capacity,"the minister told MPs. 

Another issue facing pharmaceutical companies is the costly and time-consuming customs checks that would emerge on the UK-EU border if there is no Brexit deal next year.

Aline Doussin, a trade lawyer advising firms on Brexit planning, told BI that "at this stage, there are no solutions to the customs issues" facing pharmaceutical companies in a no deal scenario.

"That [customs] is the question that even us as trade lawyers cannot answer," Doussin said.

"We have told clients to get a certified trusted trade scheme that puts them in the priority queue to get their products moving faster across customs borders. But that's the only mitigating point from a UK perspective."

Doussin added that HMRC "can hire customs officials and do as much as it can to make sure goods enter the UK easily" but ultimately EU member states are obliged to implement EU law at their borders.

"If you talk to the French, for instance, they say 'Brexit for us, it's not our issue. Why should we issue so meant customs officials when we are trying to decrease public service cost?" she said.

SEE ALSO: Theresa May fails to block court case that could allow the UK to reverse Brexit

DON'T MISS: Former UK civil service chief backs a People's Vote to stop Brexit 'catastrophe'

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NOW WATCH: This top economist has a radical plan to change the way Americans vote

• Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the web, has persuaded Google, Facebook, and the French government to sign up to a set of ethical principles.
• He also suggests breaking up these tech titans.
• The "contract" asks companies and governments to respect people's privacy and to keep the web free.
• Berners-Lee has been hugely critical of Silicon Valley firms monopolising the web.
• He met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this year to discuss how the firm could do better, including suggesting that the social network scraps its Free Basics offering for emerging economies.

Tim Berners-Lee, the British inventor of the web, has convinced Google and Facebook to agree to new ethical principles around respecting people's data and privacy — while also advocating for breaking them up.

Berners-Lee and his World Wide Web Foundation are trying to pressure tech giants into behaving better through a new "contract", a set of core principles to which he believes governments, companies, and citizens should stick.

Berners-Lee is critical of the many issues plaguing the web, and says a contract might force private firms and governments to improve the health of the web.

Speaking at the Web Summit conference in Lisbon on Monday, Berners-Lee said: "All kinds of things have gone wrong.

"We have problems with privacy, abuse of personal data, people can be profiled in a way that they can be manipulated by clever ads... [they can be] taken to sites where they can come across fake communities of fake people with fake ideas and fake truths. There are lots of issues with the web."

Berners-Lee's proposed principles include: Making the web free and accessible to everyone; respecting people's data and privacy, and developing technologies "that support the best in humanity." Additional principles for government and individuals include keeping the web free and available to everyone and to respect people's fundamental right to privacy.

Apart from Facebook and Google, the World Wide Web Foundation has so far signed up the French government, as well as political figures including former UK prime minister Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah Brown.

Read more:We ran 2 fake ads pretending to be Cambridge Analytica — and Facebook failed to catch that they were frauds

World Wide Web foundation CEO Adrian Lovett told Business Insider in a call that he and Berners-Lee had met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the US earlier this year while firming up these principles.

He said the pair had criticised Facebook's record on Free Basics, its controversial free internet service for emerging economies that some have described as digital colonialism.

"We had a discussion on a whole range issues, [such as] on Free Basics. I think they're engaging at the top levels, and we will judge them according to their actions," Lovett said.

He described the meeting with Zuckerberg as "cordial," with just two other Facebook staffers in the room.

"I certainly had a strong sense... of the extraordinary weight on one individual's shoulders, which you sense was not something he probably aspired to. It's a remarkable responsibility, and one that he and other leaders are expected to take very seriously. At a human level, it's hard not to empathise."

Lovett added that the pair had not yet met with Google chief executive Sundar Pichai, but planned to later this year.

Tim Berners-Lee has battered Facebook and Google for bad behaviour

Berners-Lee has has been highly critical of Facebook and Google and their impact on the web.

He warned Reuters on Thursday about tech firms monopolising the web and said there was no alternative to "really coming in and breaking things up." He didn't name Google or Facebook, but it was clear he was referring to Silicon Valley firms.

Another pet project of Berners-Lee is to decentralise the web, something that would naturally involve defanging the likes of Facebook and Google, which exert a ton of influence over the internet.

The contract, Lovett said, is only the first of several stages. The idea is to turn the principles into something that the UN or the G7 might adopt, with governments and firms holding themselves accountable for sticking to the agreement.

It all sounds a little quixotic and vague, but Lovett thinks there will be tangible results. Accountability, he said, might involve an annual report that tests how different companies and governments are holding up.

"The criticism that this could just be happy-clappy would be justified if we were going to just stop next week. If we only got as far as these principles, that's only worth so much," he said. "The process we have at the second stage is to turn these principles into more concrete commitments... the third stage of the process would be an accountability mechanism.

"I accept you can only judge this some months down the line."

SEE ALSO: 'The web had failed instead of served humanity': Tim Berners-Lee was crushed by Russia using Facebook to meddle in the US election

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NOW WATCH: First impressions of the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL

• A Facebook AI chief told Wired that he has "huge battles" with Google-owned DeepMind for talent.
• Both Facebook and Google tried to buy Deepmind. Google won.
• Elon Musk has previously voiced concern about Facebook and Deepmind monopolising AI.

Facebook and Google are slugging it out for artificial intelligence talent.

That's according to Rob Fergus, who heads up Facebook's AI division in New York. He told Wired that the company engages in "huge battles" with Google's London-based AI company DeepMind.

Google acquired DeepMind in 2014 for about £400 million ($600 million at the time), after originally being courted by Facebook as well.

Facebook now has its own AI division, called the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research (FAIR) group. FAIR is spread across multiple US cities, as well as France and Canada.

Wired described Deepmind as FAIR's biggest rival, and FAIR's New York chief Rob Fergus said the two companies lock horns for the brightest minds.

"Of course we do fight a lot. We have huge battles with [Google] for the best talent... Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose." he told Wired.

Read more:Google's cutting-edge artificial-intelligence unit is costing millions

While Facebook and Google may be racing to the top spot, some industry leaders have warned against any one company holding a monopoly on AI. Elon Musk told Recode's Kara Swisher that he's in favour of creating an independent body to introduce some oversight.

He also said that he founded his own company OpenAI — which has trained neural networks to beat human players at the video game Dota 2— to counter the possibility of AI power being monopolised, and mentioned DeepMind specifically.

"There is a very strong concentration of AI power, and especially at Google/DeepMind. And I have very high regard for Larry Page and Demis Hassabis, but I do think that there's value to some independent oversight," he said.

Although undoubtedly major players, Facebook and Google are not the only game in town. Amazon, Uber, Apple, and IBM all have their own dedicated AI divisions.

SEE ALSO: Google's DeepMind AI can accurately detect 50 types of eye disease just by looking at scans

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NOW WATCH: Watch Apple's October 2018 event in 8 minutes

• Tesla announced that Robyn Denholm is replacing Elon Musk as its chair after he was forced to step down by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Denholm is CFO at Australia's largest telecoms company Telstra. She has been on Tesla's board for the past four years.
• Here's what you need to know about the woman tasked with keeping Elon Musk in check.

Tesla announced it has a new chair on Thursday.

The electric car company has appointed Robyn Denholm, the CFO of Australia's largest telecoms firm Telstra, as the woman to oversee its board.

She replaces CEO Elon Musk, who had to step down as chairman for at least three years as part of a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission after his infamous "funding secured" tweet.

Here's what you need to know about Tesla's new chair, Robyn Denholm:

1. Robyn Denholm has been on the Tesla board since 2014

Denholm has been an independent director at Tesla for four years. She was the first woman to join the board of nine, which includes Musk and his brother, Kimbal.

Among her duties as a board member, she chaired Tesla's audit committee, which provides oversight of the company's accounting and financial reporting.

2. She's CFO at Australia's largest telecoms firm — but she's only been in the role for a month

Denholm is CFO at Telstra, Australia's biggest telecommunications company, and will be leaving the company after her six month notice period is up. She'll get to work as Tesla's chair immediately, however.

She only took up her role as CFO in October. Telstra's CEO Andy Penn told the Sydney Morning Herald:"We know that it has become increasingly difficult to balance her responsibilities as Telstra CFO with the increased activity of the Tesla board."

3. She was named in a lawsuit along with the rest of the board for failing to curb Musk's erratic behavior

The lawsuit was filed by a shareholder, who claims that Tesla's board "breached their fiduciary duties " by allowing Musk to lie about the company having obtained funding to go private.

"Despite being put on notice of [Musk's] propensity for erratic public communications that have harmed the Company and its stockholders, the Board consciously disregarded his actions and failed to do anything," the suit alleged.

4. Denholm was part of a special committee that looked at taking Tesla private

She formed part of a three-person committee along with fellow directors Brad Buss and Linda Johnson Rice in August. The committee was announced on August 14, seven days after Musk's "funding secured" tweet on August 7.

5. She'll get a $300,000 retainer fee plus stock options

A Tesla spokesperson told CNBC that in her new post, Denholm will receive 8,000 in stock options each year on top of a $300,000 retainer.

6. She's no stranger to the tech and auto industry

Previous to working at Telstra, Denholm held positions at Juniper Networks, Sun Microsystems, and Toyota Australia. She loves Tesla because it mixes her passions for tech and the auto industry.

"I am a car enthusiast and am passionate about innovation, so Tesla is the perfect board role for me," she told executive search firm Odgers Berndtson earlier this year.

7. She's not James Murdoch

Tesla board member James Murdoch, son of billionaire Rupert Murdoch, was touted by the Financial Times as the frontrunner to replace Musk. However, Musk himself quashed the Times's report, tweeting "This is incorrect."

Although he was reported as the favourite, Murdoch's wasn't the only name to be floated as Musk's potential successor. Former Vice President Al Gore was also mooted as a potential successor.

8. Her parents owned a gas station

Denholm is taking the helm at the world's most famous electric car company, but as a child, she reportedly tinkered with cars at her parents' gas station in Milperra, New South Wales.

9. She had a Tesla on order before joining the firm

While her childhood may have been filled with petrol cars, she was fascinated by Tesla before even joining the company's board. Denholm said she had a Model S on order before she was approached by Tesla. She is now on to her third Tesla vehicle.

10. She has the Elon Musk Twitter seal of approval

Musk's Twitter activity has been a thorn in the side of Tesla's board, but on Thursday he welcomed her appointment on his platform of choice.

SEE ALSO: Tesla's new in-house clinic may have helped the company avoid reporting some injuries: Report

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch Apple's October 2018 event in 8 minutes

• 2018 has been one of the most active years in senior investment-banking hires and exits since the financial crisis, according to top Wall Street headhunters.
• Business Insider reviewed executive-search reports detailing nearly 300 investment-banking moves at the managing-director level or higher this year.
• We spoke with top investment-banking headhunters to determine the 40 biggest moves of the year.

According to top Wall Street headhunters, 2018 has been the most active year of hires and departures by senior investment bankers in recent memory.

We reviewed reports and spoke with executives at several premier investment-banking search firms and found nearly 300 moves at the managing-director level or higher in the US this year.

Julie Choi, the CEO of CBK Partners, formerly known as Choi & Burns, said 2018 had been the most robust year of hiring among the senior ranks — in terms of both quality and quantity — she had seen since the meltdown in 2008.

Albert Laverge, the head of the corporate- and investment-banking practice for Egon Zehnder, told Business Insider the same.

What's changed in 2018? A few dynamics are at work:

• An unprecedented number of shakeups at the highest ranks of bulge-bracket investment banks — Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and UBS have all seen their power structures revamped.
• It's not just boutiques and independents picking off talent from global investment banks anymore. "In past years, bulge-bracket firms were filling roles as departures occurred, which created a musical chairs between one firm and another. That doesn't really reflect growth," Choi said. "What's really different this year is that every firm is looking to take the hill — both independent and bulge-bracket."
• The record level of dealmaking we've seen in 2018 is most likely spurring moves as well — the hottest sectors for deals mirror the hottest sectors for investment-banker moves (technology, media, and telecom, or TMT, and healthcare). Firms may not feel they can wait to hire when the market is as hot as it is.

"What I do find notable is how active the landscape is," Laverge said. "It's November, and announcements are still coming."

Given the inordinate amount of churn this year, Business Insider put together a list of the most notable moves of 2018. We worked with a handful of senior headhunters who live and breathe this industry to winnow that list of nearly 300 moves down to the 40 biggest.

Some caveats: While seniority and title matter, it's not the only thing that matters. Well-respected dealmakers at an MD level may earn a spot ahead of a group head who's past their prime. Also, this is a US-focused list, so no bankers based in Europe or Asia. Lastly, we included only people who oversee or work directly in investment banking.

Read on for Business Insider's list of the 40 most significant and noteworthy hires and departures in investment banking in 2018.

Have thoughts? Think we missed somebody obvious or important? Shoot us a message at amorrell@businessinsider.com. We'll revisit our ranking at year's end and expand it if necessary.

Gregory Berube: Goldman Sachs to Evercore

Old role: Head of Americas restructuring finance and advisory

New role: Senior managing director, restructuring and debt advisory group

Month: May

After a 14-year run at Goldman, Berube left to help build out Evercore's restructuring business. Among his notable past mandates: Caesars Entertainment, Chesapeake Energy, GNC, Six Flags, and Toys R Us.

Chris Blake: Citigroup to Perella Weinberg

Old role: Cohead of global automotive

New role: Partner in industrials, focused on automotive

Month: July

Blake, an automotive specialist, decamped from Citigroup after 19 years, joining fellow top-40 mover Brennan Smith in the firm's burgeoning Chicago bureau, which it opened earlier this year.

Jordan Bliss: Credit Suisse to Guggenheim

Old role: Head of West Coast life-sciences investment banking

New role: Senior managing director in healthcare investment banking

Month: July

A 12-year healthcare-investment-banking vet, Bliss started his career in M&A at Lehman Brothers and subsequently Barclays before his nearly three-year run at Credit Suisse. He'll continue to focus on life-sciences deals — along with fellow Credit Suisse recruit Punit Mehta — in his new post with Guggenheim in San Francisco.

• In the broader streaming-video market, Amazon is emerging as the chief rival to Roku.
• The two companies have emerged as the leading makers of digital video players, and the leading third-party providers of smart-TV software platforms.
• Advertising has emerged as an important business for both companies, and Amazon is reportedly developing its an ad-supported video service that could rival the Roku Channel.
• The threat from Amazon could crimp Roku's growth prospects, Morgan Stanley said in a new report.

You can add another company to the list of those whose business is being threatened by Amazon: Roku.

Those two companies are now the two leading players in the broadly defined streaming-television market, Morgan Stanley research analysts Benjamin Swinburne and Brian Nowak said in a report released Monday. Amazon is gaining steam in the industry, and its growth threatens to crimp Roku's own, they said.

"Amazon is directly in competition with Roku," Swinburne and Nowak said in the report. They continued: "Amazon has seen meaningful share gains ... and is likely catching up to Roku."

That's likely to strike some fear into the hearts of investors and possibly Roku's management. Amazon, after all, is a notoriously cutthroat competitor, especially in its core retail business, where it's already helped kill off a slew of formerly prominent rivals.

Swinburne, who covers Roku for Morgan Stanley, is concerned enough about the threat from Amazon and other companies that he has an "equal weight" rating — essentially a "hold"— on Roku's stock and a target price of $50, which is nearly $7 a share below where it's currently trading.

Amazon and Roku are increasingly butting heads

In looking at Amazon's budding rivalry with Roku, Swinburne and Nowak take a broad view of the streaming-television market.

It includes digital-media players such as Roku's Ultra; software platforms such as Amazon's Fire OS that underlie those devices and certain smart TVs and distribute apps and channels to them; and video services such as the Roku channel that are distributed over those devices and others.

Companies in the market generate revenue by selling devices, licensing their operating systems to other manufacturers, offering subscriptions to their video services or those they distribute, and selling advertising on the video channels they own or distribute.

Both Roku and Amazon compete in the three major portions of the streaming video market, as do Apple, Comcast, Google, and others. But in the device area, Roku and Amazon are increasingly the dominant players, according to Morgan Stanley's research. While Roku's first-place share has stayed steady, Amazon has steadily grabbed share from Google and smaller players.

The platform battle is more of a mixed bag. But Roku has established itself as a leading player in smart TVs, primarily by licensing its software to TCL, which has become one of the leading brands in North America.

Amazon has been setting itself up as the primary alternative to Roku, at least among manufacturers that don't have their own television operating system and app store. Earlier this year, Amazon signed a deal to have its Fire TV software installed on Insignia TVs, the house brand at Best Buy.

Advertising has become key to Roku's business

But the biggest area of competition could be in the content area.

The fastest-growing part of Roku's business of late has been in advertising sales. The company sells advertisements on the main screens of the user interface of its software platform, but also sells video ads that run on its Roku Channel and on some of the channels it offers in its app store.

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Roku has been so successful selling ads, that its "platform" business segment — which largely consists of advertising sales — is now bringing in more revenue than sales of its devices.

But there again, Roku could face some stiff competition from Amazon. Like Roku, Amazon has become a distributor of streaming channels. Like Roku, advertising happens to be the fastest-growing piece of its business. And it reportedly has in the works an ad-supported channel that would be built around its IMDB service that would be essentially Amazon's version of the Roku Channel.

The as with any advertising-based business, Roku's has grown by offering marketers a large and growing audience and persuading that audience to spend more time with its services. The danger with for Roku is that rivals, particularly Amazon, might slow the growth of its advertising business, whether by stealing market share from its devices and software or by diverting the attention of Roku users to alternate video services.

"Competition by the likes of Amazon and others is real and intensifying," Swinburne and Nowak said in the report.

Roku's shares closed regular trading on Monday off $1.04, or about 2%, to $56.85. Amazon's ended the day down $37.73, or 2%, to $1,627.80.

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• Google's ProjectStream lets you play blockbuster video games with your internet browser, if you've got a strong enough internet connection.
• Using ProjectStream, the visuals and controls of "Assassin's Creed: Odyssey" match the look and feel of playing the game on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
• If ProjectStream and other cloud gaming platforms can provide a streaming experience that feels consistent with playing on console, they can lower the price of entry for high-end video games by hundreds of dollars.
• Cloud gaming will eventually kill consoles if it can provide gamers with a healthy library of streaming games at the right price.

Earlier this month Google rolled out a closed beta test for ProjectStream, a video game streaming service that lets you play high-quality video games via the Chrome browser. The beta test includes just one game, the recently released "Assassin's Creed: Odyssey."

Developed by Ubisoft, "Assassin's Creed" is the sort of blockbuster game that would traditionally require a $400 console or gaming computer to play. ProjectStream significantly reduces that barrier to entry; the sole requirement is a 25 mbps or faster internet connection, and controllers are optional.

Having already played "Odyssey" on PlayStation 4, I was skeptical of how ProjectStream would compare to the console experience. After all, ProjectStream isn't the first cloud-based video game streaming service and the technology hasn't been a hit so far. Sacrificing graphic-quality or settling for less responsive controls has felt like a requirement for past cloud gaming services, and performance varies greatly depending on the game. Given that "Odyssey" is a brand new game with a huge open world, I was skeptical whether ProjectStream would be able to keep up.

Playing for the first time on a MacBook Pro, my concerns were quickly put to rest. At its best, ProjectStream's version of "Odyssey" felt identical to playing on PlayStation, the game immediately recognized the PlayStation 4 controller I connected via Bluetooth and showed the correct button icons on screen. There was no noticeable delay in the controls and the visuals seemed overall consistent with what I saw on PS4, though "Odyssey" does have additional support for 4K and HDR on consoles and PC.

I tried ProjectStream with three different computers with three different network scenarios; a 2017 MacBook Pro on 250 mbps wifi, an HP hybrid laptop on a 50 mpbs wifi connection, and my gaming PC with a 970 GTX graphics card on a 1 gbps connection. The experience felt pretty much identical across the three computers, making their difference in processing power feel insignificant.

Running on the slowest internet connection, the HP laptop did experience some brief moments of instability where the image would appear somewhat pixelated and the controls would freeze, but the game would return to normal after a few seconds. On my gaming PC and the MacBook, ProjectStream was essentially flawless.

Consistency is the most encouraging factor of ProjectStream. Knowing that the experience playing via the Google Chrome browser matches console gameplay regardless of the computer  I'm using — as long as the internet speed if fast enough — is great motivation to leave my PlayStation version of the game behind. ProjectStream also carries my game save over automatically so I can easily continue where I left off, whether I'm playing at work, at home, or at a friend's house. Unfortunately ProjectStream doesn't work on smartphones or tablets just yet, but it would be surprising if Google can't find a way to make the service functional on their own Android devices.

ProjectStream represents a convincing jump in cloud gaming technology at a time where gamers are wondering if the next generation of video game consoles will prioritize streaming content over traditional media. ProjectStream takes advantage of Google's massive server infrastructure and development resources, showcasing a beta product that gamers can be confident in. But even if the technology can match the experience of an Xbox or PlayStation, the next important step will be finding a way to deliver a full library of new and old video games at a price that makes sense.

Google will also be competing head-to-head with endemic video game brands as it enters the game streaming space. So far the most functional cloud gaming options have been Sony's PlayStation Now and Nvidia's GeForce Now, but neither service feels like a true alternative to buying an expensive console or PC. PlayStation Now offers a preselected library with hundreds of games for $20 a month for PS4 and PC, but newer titles are not included. GeForce Now gives players access to specific titles they've already purchased for their PC library and charges $25 per 20 hours of streaming time. For reference, "Assassin's Creed: Odyssey" costs $60 to own and takes at least 30 hours to complete.

Shortly after the rollout of the ProjectStream beta, Microsoft announced its own cloud gaming platform, Project xCloud. Project xCloud will stream games to both PCs and mobile devices with a launch planned for 2019. Microsoft has already shown off touchscreen controls for tablets and peripherals to use Xbox controllers with smartphones. Microsoft already has a separate game subscription service with Xbox Game Pass, which currently players the ability to fully download games on PC and Xbox One instead of streaming them.

During its 2018 keynote, Microsoft executive Phil Spencer teased that the new Xbox devices would make use of cloud gaming as well. Spencer said the company's goal with Project xCloud is to reach the two billion people playing games around the world, regardless of the hardware they play on.

It will take some time for publishers and gaming platforms to establish a market for streaming games, but ProjectStream has shown that the future of gaming will not depend on selling consoles; great games can be delivered right to your browser. The beta test for ProjectStream is accepting new players on an ongoing basis and will run through January 2019. Follow this link to sign up.

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• Since Dutch scientist Mark Post made the first "lab-grown" hamburger in 2013, a handful of startups have emerged with the goal of making meat without slaughtering animals.
• But Post's burger cost roughly the equivalent of a small house in Denver, or about $330,000.
• So when will consumers be able to order a cultured meat burger for a reasonable price?
• Three top-notch VCs who've backed startups like Memphis Meats shared when they expect to be able to dig into a plate of clean meat. Their timelines might surprise you.

For roughly the price of a small house in Denver, Dutch scientist Mark Post created a real beef burger made without killing any animals.

Post's $330,000 lab-grown beef burger graced a plate more than five years ago. Since then, a handful of startups have shared their own plans to turn Post's prototype into an affordable reality. All of them have the same goal in mind: create real meat with the purity of a veggie patty, at a cost that at least some folks will stomach.

But when will anyone besides a handful of journalists and investors get to eat meat without the wasteful, grisly manufacturing processes that characterize modern-day factory farming?

Here's what three venture capitalists who've backed some of the leading startups in the space think.

'A big risk with huge disruptive capabilities'

Transforming meat or fish cells into edible flesh is no easy task. From sourcing the animal cells to feeding them the proper mix of nutrients to brewing up enough of the stuff to feed more than a handful of people, there are a host of challenges that researchers and entrepreneurs face.

No one knows these risks better than the CEOs of the startups who aim to make these products and the investors who've backed them.

"I see clean meat a little bit like the taxi industry — there's a big risk with potentially huge disruptive abilities," Laura Zaim, a partner with the Silicon Valley venture firm New Crop Capital, said at a lab-grown meat industry event called the Cultured Meat Symposium in San Francisco on Thursday. 

Zaim said she believed chicken would be the first kind of meat that most people would be able to eat and added that she saw it happening within the next few years. Her firm has backed Post's startup, a Dutch company called Mosa Meats, as well as Silicon Valley startup Memphis Meats and Aleph Farms in Israel. 

"I want to see it within three years," said Jun Axup, the scientific director of Silicon Valley biotech hub IndieBio and a partner with related VC firm SOSV. Axup, whose firm helped seed Memphis Meats and recently backed a new California-based clean meat startup called New Age Meats, agreed that chicken would likely be the first kind of lab-grown meat she expected people to taste.

Macy Marriott, a venture analyst with Missouri-based VC firm Stray Dog Capital (another backer of Memphis Meats, Mosa Meats, and Aleph Farms), said she'd want to see lab-grown meat "really, really soon." Marriott also expected to see chicken before any other lab-grown meat.

Despite the fairly long road in front of them, these VCs see their investment as having massive promise. The meat industry totals around $200 billion, and demand for beef, pork, and chicken continues to rise across the globe.

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