If you had to pick a word to describe the state of hiring in 2026, we have a feeling the word “simple” wouldn’t exactly come to mind.

What’s a word that sounds like complex, looks like complex, and means complex? Because that’s closer to what we’re looking for.

“Businesses have entered into 2026 with more skills gaps and more complex hiring conditions,” Brandi Britton, executive director of contract finance and accounting at talent solutions and business consulting firm Robert Half, told CFO Brew. “Frankly, I think we’ve seen it [for] a long time.”

In a report released February 9 by Robert Half, of 2,000 hiring managers surveyed, 62% said skills gaps were more noticeable now than a year ago.

Finance gap. Fun news: It’s similarly difficult for finance teams. Within finance and accounting teams, Britton noted that 53% of respondents reported the skills gap at their organization became more apparent compared with one year ago.

Some of the most common skills gaps categories include financial planning and analysis, AI literacy, and automation tools, per the report.

Keep reading.—NP

Workforce payment platform Branch’s new CFO, Matt Peterson, said that what attracted him most to the company was not having to choose between “high growth and operational discipline,” because the company has both.

“Now I can come in and leverage my experience, and the pattern recognition that I’ve had at past usage-based businesses, and really help them get to that next stage of growth,” Peterson said.

He came to Branch after three+ years as CFO of gifting and rewards platform Snappy. Peterson has also advised on several IPO launches, including of cloud computing service Fastly in 2019.

Besides having the best of both worlds at Branch, which was founded in 2015, Peterson also said it has a good foundation that’s ready to scale. Amid his first few days, Peterson told CFO Brew about his approach, and what CFOs should think about when entering a new company.

Keep reading.—DL

The merger of SpaceX and xAI has people talking about how two companies with two completely different missions can be effectively merged. For IT pros, such mergers can quickly become a nightmare of tech components that won’t talk to each other, slashed budgets, and general uncertainty.

Nor are mergers a rare event for IT pros. A recently published study from EY calculated 4,086 global mergers and acquisitions in 2025 of $100 million or more—up from 3,644 deals in 2024 and 3,283 in 2023. Half of EY’s global surveyed CEOs consider “operational optimization and productivity gains—including digitalization—as the primary objective of an acquisition.”

IT Brew talked to three IT pros who have critical advice for anyone trying to figure out the best way to combine IT stacks post-merger, whether those newly joined companies deal with rockets, software, chatbots, or something completely different.

Keep reading on IT Brew.—BH

The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s weekly news quiz has been compared to getting a company-wide shout-out from your boss. It’s that satisfying.