Category: 3. Business

Firm News  |  January 8, 2026

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Gibson Dunn is advising Jefferies LLC as lead financial advisor to Ventyx Biosciences, Inc. on Ventyx Biosciences’ approximately $1.2 billion sale to Eli Lilly and Company.

The Gibson Dunn corporate team is led by partners Ryan Murr and Sebastian Fain and includes associates Ashley Whittington and Muriel Hague.

Summary

Cambodia is not alone in facing capacity limitations in the production and timely release of key official statistics needed for data-driven policy decisions. This paper demonstrates that combining satellite-derived indicators (e.g., nighttime lights, NO₂ emissions, vegetation indices) with traditional high-frequency indicators in a machine learning framework significantly improves the accuracy of GDP nowcasts. Moreover, satellite data enables closer examination of subnational patterns, providing granular, near-real-time insights into economic activity. These findings highlight the potential of non-traditional approaches to complement conventional methods and strengthen macroeconomic surveillance in data-scarce environments.

Subject: Agricultural sector, Economic forecasting, Economic sectors, Health

Keywords: Agricultural sector, big data, machine learning, non-traditional data, nowcast, nowcasting, random forest, satellite, satellite data

TransUnion’s (NYSE:TRU) revised mortgage pricing model, which was announced Oct 17, 2025, went live last week. At the center of this new model is VantageScore® 4.0, which delivers three critical benefits:

·       Greater access to loans for qualified homebuyers,

·       Lower costs and more certain prices for lenders and homebuyers,

·       Protection of the safety and soundness of the U.S. mortgage market and economy.

“Consumers deserve a safe and cost-effective mortgage market and VantageScore supports these goals. We are proud to now offer VantageScore 4.0 for mortgage lending, as we have done for years for auto and card lending,” said Chris Cartwright, President and CEO of TransUnion. “VantageScore 4.0, combined with TransUnion, delivers unmatched predictive power as it leverages up to 30 months of trended credit data, along with rental and utility tradelines.

To accelerate adoption of VantageScore, TransUnion is offering VantageScore 4.0 for $4 per score in 2026, representing a 60% discount compared to a FICO score. This pricing enables lenders to keep underwriting costs flat compared to 2025, offering substantial savings for mortgage lenders and consumers alike. TransUnion is actively working with lenders, resellers and GSEs to drive adoption of this new, lower-cost, consumer-friendly option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For decades, the mortgage industry has been limited by FICO’s monopoly, restricting lending choice and driving costs higher. FICO’s recent royalty hikes – over 100% for 2026 and more than 1600% over the last four years – are the primary driver of rising mortgage lending data costs. TransUnion’s approach of bundling great credit data with VantageScore 4.0 materially reduces prices and enables lenders to effectively manage their businesses without dramatic annual score price increases.

TransUnion’s market leading credit data is a foundation for safe underwriting, anchoring credit scores with the proven accuracy, fairness and reliability needed to keep the world’s largest mortgage market running safely and efficiently.

Learn more about how TransUnion is powering a stronger, safer and more affordable mortgage market.

 Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of TransUnion’s management. Actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. Any statements made in this press release that are not statements of historical fact, including statements about our beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include information concerning possible or assumed future results of operations, events or developments, including statements relating to the pricing strategies, potential benefits and value propositions of product offerings of TransUnion and our competitors.  We believe these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made. However, forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those risks described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, and any subsequent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q or Current Report on Form 8-K, which are filed with the SEC and available on TransUnion’s website. You should evaluate all forward-looking statements made in this press release in the context of these risks and uncertainties. As a result of such risks and uncertainties, we urge you not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release. We undertake no obligation to publicly release the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect the impact of events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this press release.

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)

TransUnion is a global information and insights company with over 13,000 associates operating in more than 30 countries. We make trust possible by ensuring each person is reliably represented in the marketplace. We do this with a Tru™ picture of each person: an actionable view of consumers, stewarded with care. Through our acquisitions and technology investments we have developed innovative solutions that extend beyond our strong foundation in core credit into areas such as marketing, fraud, risk and advanced analytics. As a result, consumers and businesses can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good® — and it leads to economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for millions of people around the world. http://www.transunion.com/business

 

Mr. Riga brings over 25 years of commercial and operational experience with proven success leading transformative corporate development strategies and transactions

DUBLIN, Jan. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc (Nasdaq: JAZZ) today announced the appointment of Thomas Riga as Chief Business Officer, effective January 1, 2026.

Mr. Riga joined Jazz in April 2025 through the acquisition of Chimerix Inc., where he served as chief operating and commercial officer. In that role, he directed corporate strategy including the successful sale of Chimerix to Jazz. In addition to leading the transaction process and alliance management at Chimerix, he helped navigate a complex regulatory environment leading to successful U.S. approval and launch of the first approved therapy for H3K27M-mutant diffuse midline glioma affecting approximately 2,000 children and young adults in the U.S. annually. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry leading sales and marketing, business development, operations, and has held multiple C-suite positions across various organizations. In his role as chief business officer, he will lead execution of corporate development initiatives and drive strategic partnerships for the company.

“Tom is an exceptional leader with more than 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry and a proven record of driving strategic transactions,” said Renee Gala, president and chief executive officer of Jazz Pharmaceuticals. “He combines a passion for patients with deep commercial, operational, and corporate development expertise, having led over $2 billion in business development deals in the past five years. Tom played a pivotal role in the approval and launch of Modeyso™ (dordaviprone), the first treatment for an ultra-rare, aggressive brain tumor affecting primarily children and young adults. His commitment to patients who previously had no options is truly inspiring. I look forward to working with Tom in this new capacity to strengthen our corporate development capabilities and continue bringing innovative medicines to Jazz’s portfolio that transform lives.”

“I am honored to take on this new role of chief business officer at Jazz,” said Mr. Riga. “I’ve been impressed by the strength and vision of Jazz’s leadership team and look forward to advancing the company through innovative strategic transactions that leverage the existing expertise and capabilities of the company. Together, we will continue to build on our proven corporate development engine to deliver shareholder value and, most importantly, make a meaningful impact for patients with unmet medical need.”

About Jazz Pharmaceuticals 
Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc (Nasdaq: JAZZ) is a global biopharma company whose purpose is to innovate to transform the lives of patients and their families. We are dedicated to developing potentially life-changing medicines for people with serious diseases – often with limited or no therapeutic options. We have a diverse portfolio of marketed medicines, including leading therapies for sleep disorders and epilepsy, and a growing portfolio of cancer treatments. Our patient-focused and science-driven approach powers pioneering research and development advancements across our robust pipeline of innovative therapeutics in oncology and neuroscience. Jazz is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland with research and development laboratories, manufacturing facilities and employees in multiple countries committed to serving patients worldwide. Please visit www.jazzpharmaceuticals.com for more information.

Contacts:
Jazz Media Contact:Kristin BhavnaniHead of Global Corporate Communications
Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc
CorporateAffairsMediaInfo@jazzpharma.com
Ireland +353 1 637 2141
U.S. +1 215 867 4948

Jazz Investor Contact:Jack SpinksExecutive Director, Investor Relations
Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc
investorinfo@jazzpharma.com 
Ireland +353 1 634 3211
U.S. +1 650 496 2717

View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jazz-pharmaceuticals-appoints-thomas-riga-as-chief-business-officer-302656729.html

SOURCE Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc

Zoom meetings are piling up in your calendar. Ping! Your supervisor just messaged you, asking for a quick update on a project.

Later, a frustrated co-worker wants to hop on a video call to walk through the process for posting on your organization’s website; it’s too complicated to explain via email.

Does any of that sound familiar?

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many businesses and organizations into remote work. In the years since, what began as a safety measure has, in certain ways, reshaped workplace culture. Many workplaces have restored in-person schedules; in others, remote or hybrid options have had mixed results.

Researchers at Binghamton University are investigating the advantages and challenges of remote-work practices from different angles, leaning into their expertise in areas such as leadership development or navigating complex systems. Keenly aware that students are entering a workforce with new expectations about the dynamics of office life, Binghamton researchers are beginning with basic questions:

• How can we build virtual teams to optimize creativity and the flow of ideas?
• What’s the most effective way to stand out as a leader in virtual workplace settings?
• Can you manage virtual teams as effectively as in-person groups?
• How can companies make work-from-home practices sustainable?

The most obvious benefit of a virtual work environment is enhanced flexibility. It has improved accessibility for employees by reducing travel and encouraging a healthier work–life balance, says Hiroki Sayama, distinguished professor of systems science and industrial engineering and an expert on complex group dynamics.

“There are things you can accomplish more effectively online and things that work better in person,” Sayama says, “so instead of viewing it as one option being better than the other, managers would benefit by looking at which option is best suited to meet the objective.”

A study published in January 2025, co-authored by Sayama and Shelley Dionne, dean of Binghamton’s School of Management, offered insights into how people should be organized to develop the best ideas. Larger teams of people with diverse backgrounds tend to produce more conservative — almost “safer” — ideas because everyone vetted them from their own areas of expertise, according to the study. Those who interacted with fewer group participants felt more isolated, but they also produced stronger ideas.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has documented the potential staying power of remote-work practices. It found the percentage of remote workers in 2021 was higher than in 2019, and major industries — including finance, technical services and corporate management — still had more than 30% of their employees working remotely in 2022.

A Pew Research Center survey showed that three years after the pandemic, 35% of workers with jobs that could be performed remotely were still working from home full time.

“How much innovation happens in virtual settings compared to face-to-face settings? It depends; there’s increasing scientific evidence that we’re perhaps missing in virtual meetings many of those ‘serendipity’ moments that could have happened if you’re in the physical office, bumping into people throughout the day and having those smaller conversations that help generate ideas,” Sayama says. “In virtual settings, it’s easy to focus more on the prescribed agenda items, logging off once the meeting is over, instead of those random connections that could lead you in new directions.”

Standing out in a virtual crowd

Sitting around a table as a group makes the banter between team members feel more natural. You can read a person’s facial cues and gauge how others respond to ideas.

The same can’t always be said if you’re in a virtual meeting. Osterhout Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship Chou-Yu (Joey) Tsai, who co-authored a study in 2024 on cultivating leaders in virtual teams, says dominating a team discussion in a virtual setting doesn’t necessarily make a person a better leader. In virtual teams, where people cannot pick up on nonverbal cues as easily, a person’s responsiveness to other team members plays a significant role in whether they’re perceived as a leader.

But for that leadership to be effective and teamwork to be successful, Tsai adds, all the group’s participants must also speak up.

“Hybrid models are probably the most effective, because you still have some people in the same room to directly engage with others in a conversation. That can’t happen in purely virtual teams, so unless you have a specific role assigned to everyone involved in the virtual team collaboration, it might not function as effectively,” Tsai says. “At the same time, we found the best way to mimic those essential social cues in a virtual setting is to directly state your reaction or what you’re thinking instead of just your facial expression.”

But there’s another layer to ensuring remote or hybrid workplaces achieve positive results, and it’s the backbone of research by School of Management doctoral student Yu Wang. By digging into remote-work practices used to varying extents by 200 of the top law firms across the United States, she’s learning how these approaches could impact human capital, firm productivity and employee satisfaction.

As a strategic policy, Wang says, working from home helps companies reduce costs such as rent and operational expenses, which can prove valuable for employers in high-cost city centers.

Wang’s research has led her to believe businesses can benefit from optimizing their remote-work policies, even though there isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” solution. If it’s implemented properly, she says, a remote or hybrid approach could expand job applicant pools and be especially beneficial for some groups, such as pregnant women and people with disabilities.

“Providing remote or hybrid options helps organizations retain talent, especially in industries such as law firms or technology, where employees value autonomy a lot,” Wang says. “Allowing companies to access a broader client base without needing to build new physical offices could also help them unlock new market opportunities while avoiding increasing costs.”

A generational shift and looking ahead

When lockdowns prompted by the pandemic sent employees home, students also had to adapt to learning in remote classroom environments. While this shift reshaped how students approach learning, it also influenced their expectations about flexible work schedules.

Tsai views the continued use of remote or hybrid work as an opportunity for educators to cultivate interpersonal skills that might be conveyed more naturally in person but could make a more substantial impact in virtual settings.

He has also noticed that the current generation of students is more acclimated to socializing online through social media platforms, so it’s no surprise that they might instinctively prefer a meeting on Zoom.

“If we don’t reinforce those skills and show how to integrate those in virtual settings, you could run the risk of people losing a sense of meaning to their work,” Tsai says. “It can be much harder to mimic the close mentorship among colleagues in a virtual space; you don’t learn from your co-workers in the same way, and if you do learn, it’s at a much slower pace.”

This trend could easily continue for a decade or longer as the younger workforce becomes more entrenched, Sayama says, potentially clashing with the viewpoints of older managerial generations.

However, one avenue he’s exploring is how the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) systems might enhance or exploit virtual work environments.

Whether it’s AI-driven transcription services or using AI in communication algorithms, tools could help improve efficiency in remote workplaces, as long as they don’t completely replace human connections. Sayama says a similar dynamic arose when email became a mainstream asset, and for the younger generation, integrating online technology into the workplace has become routine.

Looking ahead, the trick will be recognizing when AI should serve as an asset and not a replacement.

“If we’re meeting face-to-face, there’s little room for AI to intervene,” Sayama says. “But as online working environments drive more transition in the coming years, we will likely see more automated communication processed by algorithms.”

Organizations could ensure the long-term success of work-from-home practices by establishing effective mentoring and support systems, Wang says. These could include cross-location communication mechanisms to help employees stay connected, build trust and strengthen team cohesion regardless of where they work.

“To make working from home a sustainable strategic practice, organizations need to go beyond simply ‘allowing’ employees to work remotely by also providing strong internal management support,” Wang says. “This includes leveraging human resource systems to ensure that remote employees have equal access to growth and career development opportunities, such as promotions, training, performance management and recognition.”