Author: Arabian Media staff

Outsourcing vs. Insourcing: An Overview Outsourcing is the process of hiring an outside organization that is not affiliated with the company to complete specific tasks. Insourcing, on the other hand, is a business practice performed within the operational infrastructure of an organization. The main difference between outsourcing and insourcing is the methods in which work, projects, or tasks are divided between various companies and departments for strategic purposes. Key Takeaways Outsourcing enlists the help of outside organizations not affiliated with the company to complete specific tasks.Insourcing is a business practice performed within an organization’s operational infrastructure.The organization’s control over operations and decisions…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Microsoft is making Elon Musk’s start-up xAI’s artificial intelligence models available to its cloud computing customers, in the latest signal of the technology giant’s cooling relations with ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The Seattle-based group said on Monday that developers using its Azure AI Foundry platform would be able to purchase xAI’s latest Grok models under the same terms as if they were purchasing licenses for OpenAI’s equivalent products.The move means that users will receive “service parity”, such as preferential access to cloud computing…

Long considered too expensive and inefficient for mainstream adoption, solar power has become increasingly competitive with traditional fossil fuel electricity generation. The average operating cost of a rooftop solar system is now 6-8 cents per kWh, depending on its size, type of equipment, and local incentives. Installation costs are dropping too. As of 2025, solar panel installation per watt fell to just around $2.50 before incentives. This is on par with or cheaper than traditional plants in many regions, with a typical 11 kW residential system sticker price of $29,000, or $20,500 after applying federal and state tax credits. As…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldThe head of CBS News has quit, in the latest rupture at one of America’s best-known news groups as its corporate owner Paramount seeks to settle a lawsuit from US President Donald Trump.“The past few months have been challenging,” president and chief executive Wendy McMahon said in an internal memo viewed by the Financial Times. “It’s become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward.”McMahon’s exit comes after the executive producer of CBS’s flagship 60…

There are thousands of mutual funds for you to choose from, and most share the characteristics that have made them a popular investment: liquidity, diversification, and professional management. However, only certain mutual funds have a high dividend yield. Below, we take a look at how some mutual funds generate and distribute dividends. Key Takeaways Mutual funds that own dividend-paying or interest-bearing securities pass those to investors in the fund.Dividends are the investor’s part of a company’s profits. The company sets the amount based on its financial results.Interest is the payment to investors for lending money in the form of a…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.At a recent Columbia Business School gathering focused on cement decarbonisation, Maher Al-Haffar, chief financial officer at Cemex, one of the world’s largest cement companies, had a message for his peers: “There’s a misconception that for any emitting industry, the cost of transition is value-destructive to shareholders,” he said. “In our industry, we actually think it’s value-creating.” Many in the sector agree that decarbonisation of cement, one of the world’s most ubiquitous commodities, is possible and potentially even profitable. The question is:…

Whirlpool Corp. (WHR) is a leading home appliance company that sells products under Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag, Amana, Jenn-Air, and Consul. The company started in 1908 when Lou Upton sold electric washing machines to Sears. Upton and his uncle Emory obtained funding three years later in 1911, to begin making a patented, electric motor-driven wringer washer. Upton Machine Co. evolved to Whirlpool Corp three decades later in 1950. Whirlpool posted a net loss of $305 million on revenue of $16.6 billion in 2024. Its market capitalization was $4.28 billion as of May 2025. Whirlpool has made acquisitions to expand its product…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Former Valentino star designer Pierpaolo Piccioli has been appointed creative director of Balenciaga, in the latest part of a reshuffle under its owner Kering, which is working to reinvigorate demand across its top brands.Piccioli will be tasked with starting a new chapter at Balenciaga after its critically lauded designer Demna Gvasalia, who goes professionally by Demna, was promoted to creative director of troubled Kering flagship brand Gucci in March.In Piccioli’s 25 years at Valentino, 16 of which were spent as creative director,…

A financial advisor’s most valuable asset is not expertise, experience, or even the ability to generate returns for clients. It’s trust, the foundation of any successful advisor-client relationship. It sets an advisor apart from the competition and keeps clients coming back. “The pressure is on for advisors to show their value outside of traditional portfolio management,” Billy Lanter, fiduciary investment advisor at American Trust in Lexington, Kentucky, told Investopedia. “The superior experience clients are willing to pay for is a personal relationship with an advisor who not only understands their goals but is managing their portfolio in accordance with those…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Rio Tinto will pay up to $900mn for a near 50 per cent stake in Chile’s Maricunga lithium project, marking the biggest foreign investment in the sector since Santiago semi-nationalised its lithium mining industry two years ago.In contrast to other diversified mining companies like BHP and Anglo American, Rio is investing heavily in lithium, a critical mineral and a key ingredient in lithium-ion batteries, even though prices for the metal have slumped amid a supply glut. The Maricunga salt flat is the…