Pinterest is in a tough spot right now.

Last week, the social media platform that acts like a digital vision board posted disappointing Q4 results and issued a weak outlook for Q1. The company posted $4.2 billion in full-year revenue for 2025 and $1.32 billion in revenue for Q4, pointing to 16% YoY growth and 14% YoY growth, respectively.

Pinterest CEO Bill Ready blamed tariffs for the company’s weak performance.

“We are not satisfied with our Q4 revenue performance and believe it does not reflect what Pinterest can deliver over time,” he told investors on an earnings call. Ready added that the Pinterest advertiser base, which leans heavily on large retailers, slashed ad spending in response to tariff pressures.

In Q4, Pinterest CFO Julia Donnelly reported that Pinterest’s largest retail advertisers “created a more meaningful headwind than we expected as they sought to protect their margins in this dynamic environment and pulled back on ad spend.” The social media platform expects growth in Q1 to further slow down with estimated revenue to come in between $951 million and $971 million.

Pinterest has quietly become one of Gen Z’s favorite planning tools and visual search engines. But despite Gen Z making up more than half of Pinterest’s user base, and Pinterest making improvements to its ad tools, advertisers aren’t prioritizing the platform—choosing to funnel budgets toward Meta and Google instead. According to ad experts, Pinterest hasn’t moved with the pace of AI innovation.

Keep reading here.—VC

We all know the uncertain economy and shifting trade landscape are weighing on retail, but they’re also reshaping the M&A world.

According to KPMG’s latest quarterly M&A report on the consumer, retail, and hospitality sectors, dealmaking looked very different over the past year, starting with one headline trend: fewer deals, but much bigger ones.

Per the report, total M&A value jumped 51.7% to $229.8 billion in 2025 even as deal volume fell 6.9%. In other words, buyers weren’t chasing quantity, they were making high-conviction bets on premium assets.

Some of the megadeals that drove the increase include Kimberly-Clark’s acquisition of Kenvue, Keurig Dr Pepper’s purchase of JDE Peet’s, and 3G Capital’s take-private of Skechers.

Keep reading here.—JS

Two companies, similar stories: Carhartt was founded in Detroit in 1889. Fourteen years later, so was Ford. Carhartt has made apparel for Ford factory workers for over a century.

Today, the two companies both call Dearborn, Michigan, home. They cater to similar segments of the workforce: Skilled trades workers make up the core customer base for Carhartt’s workwear, and Ford’s commercial business is the quiet profit engine of the company, booking $2 billion in earnings in Q3 2025.

Beyond these affinities, what drew the two together for a recently unveiled multiyear brand partnership was a mutual focus on workforce development. The collaboration “explores the intersection of heritage workwear and automotive craftsmanship, uncovering shared values of durability, innovation, and local pride,” according to a news release.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—JG

Tired of one-size-fits-all job boards? CollabWORK highlights roles that reflect your interests and goals—delivered through communities like Retail Brew. Click here to explore the full job board.

• Director, Sales Representative - Structured Finance at Moody’s
• Senior Associate, Digital Marketing Operations at Sallie Mae
• Continuous Improvement Manager - Materials & Distribution at HP Inc
• Regional Sales Consultant at Signode
• Outside Sales Executive - Software at Global Payments