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Lightspeed Commerce Advances Unified Commerce Vision with New AI, Payments, Fulfillment and Operations Innovations

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New capabilities across retail and hospitality help high-volume businesses simplify operations, move faster and deliver more seamless customer experiences

MONTREAL, July 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Lightspeed Commerce Inc. (NYSE: LSPD) (TSX: LSPD) (“Lightspeed” or the “Company”), the unified omnichannel platform powering ambitious retail, golf and hospitality businesses in over 100 countries, today announced a new wave of product innovations across Lightspeed Retail and Lightspeed Restaurant designed to help merchants and operators simplify complex workflows, save time and operate with greater confidence.

Retailers and hospitality businesses are under increasing pressure to do more with less while managing disconnected systems, manual processes and rising operational complexity. Lightspeed’s latest innovations address these challenges directly with new AI-powered tools, stronger fulfillment capabilities, improved multi-location management and automated payments reconciliation.

A key theme across this latest release is Lightspeed’s continued investment in Lightspeed Payments. Across retail and hospitality, new payments innovations made in the last year, including saved payment methods, pre-authorization, automated reconciliation and new hardware upgrades, are helping merchants reduce manual work and errors, speed up service, simplify end-of-day operations and create more seamless customer experiences. By bringing more of the payment lifecycle into one connected platform, Lightspeed is helping businesses save time and energy while operating with greater accuracy and confidence.

“What we’ve released this quarter reflects our continued focus on helping ambitious businesses operate with less friction,” said Dax Dasilva, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Lightspeed. “From simplifying daily operations and improving sales visibility, to creating faster checkout experiences and streamlining fulfillment across channels, these innovations are designed to help our customers move faster, operate smarter, and deliver great customer experiences with confidence.”

New product innovations across Lightspeed Retail and Lightspeed Restaurant include:

Retail

Lightspeed and Klaviyo launch integration to empower retailers with marketing automation
By connecting Klaviyo to Lightspeed Retail, Lightspeed enables merchants to automate personalized customer communications without manual data work or fragmented tools. The integration syncs customer, sales, and product data in real time so merchants can easily launch lifecycle flows such as welcome, post-purchase, and re-engage campaigns, as well as targeted omnichannel outreach.AI Blog Builder helps retailers drive traffic and sales through content
With the new AI Blog Builder, merchants can effortlessly generate SEO-optimized blog posts in minutes. By providing automated topic suggestions and publishing reminders, the tool allows retailers to maintain a consistent, professional content calendar that helps drive traffic and boost sales. Advanced design controls, built-in SEO settings, and multilingual support ensure that posts are tailored to reach and resonate with target audiences, allowing merchants to scale their content strategy without the burden of manual creation.AI section generator in AI Assistant helps merchants refine website content faster
The newly embedded AI section generator in AI Assistant empowers merchants to build high-quality, on-brand website content faster. By allowing merchants to preview changes directly in the editor and providing an intuitive, conversational interface for refinements, the tool ensures website updates align with their unique brand vision. This seamless, context-aware workflow saves valuable time and enables merchants to deliver more engaging, customized digital experiences for their customers.Lightspeed Scanner now helps store staff grow basket size at checkout
Lightspeed Scanner now surfaces data-driven cross-sell prompts directly on the shop floor and at checkout. Powered by a rolling 90-day market basket analysis, Frequently Bought Together recommendations appear on the Product Details screen during look up and refresh dynamically on the Sell Screen as items are added to cart — helping sales associates to recommend suitable complementary products, regardless of their experience levels.Omnichannel customer accounts bring more convenience to retail shoppers
Shoppers buying from Lightspeed Retail merchants can now view order history and manage loyalty points through the new omnichannel customer portal. The experience helps merchants bridge the gap between in-store and online shopping while delivering the convenience customers increasingly expect.NuORDER Brand Sales Overview gives brands a clearer view of wholesale performance
NuORDER now provides a centralized view of wholesale sales performance, allowing brands to track orders, revenue, units sold and top performers in one place. With clear year-over-year visibility into sales trends and top-performing sales representatives, the dashboard gives brands a faster, more intuitive way to understand performance without relying on manual spreadsheets.

Hospitality

New Lightspeed AI enhancements bring insights on operations and tasks to hospitality merchants
Lightspeed AI delivers customized AI driven insights when merchants log in to their Back Office. By asking a question in natural language, operators can rapidly generate tailored charts and insights, then pin preferred reports so critical information is always within reach. For merchants using Lightspeed Tasks to build checklists for consistent service, operators can also ask Lightspeed AI to surface operational issues based on checklist insights across locations, so teams can spot what needs attention without reading through every note and comment.Lightspeed launches Locations Manager to simplify multi-site operations
Locations Manager gives hospitality operators a centralized way to manage multiple venues from a single dashboard. In its first iteration, the feature allows businesses to share items, create menus and sync updates across locations in a few clicks, while still giving individual venues the flexibility to make regional changes when needed. Future updates are planned to introduce additional capabilities, including user permission management, invoice visibility across the business and enhanced unified reporting.Lightspeed Payments automates reconciliation for hospitality businesses
Through Lightspeed Payments, reconciliation automatically accounts for tips, split checks, chargebacks and tip adjustments, helping operators quickly spot discrepancies between POS data and bank deposits. Instead of spending hours balancing the books after service, managers can close out faster with a clearer view of actual cash flow.New booking widget gives restaurants more control over the guest journey
Lightspeed Reservations now offers an enhanced booking widget that allows hospitality customers to receive reservations directly through their own websites. By enabling guests to book without leaving a restaurant’s site, the new widget creates a smoother reservation experience while giving operators the ability to capture more bookings along the guest journey.

To learn more about these new features, visit Lightspeed’s website.

About Lightspeed

Lightspeed is the POS and payments platform powering businesses at the heart of communities in over 100 countries. As the partner of choice for ambitious retail, golf and hospitality entrepreneurs, Lightspeed helps businesses accelerate growth, deliver exceptional customer experiences, and run smarter across all channels and locations.

With fast, flexible omnichannel technology, Lightspeed brings together point of sale, ecommerce, embedded payments, inventory, reporting, staff and supplier management, financial services, and an exclusive wholesale retail network. Backed by insights, and expert support, Lightspeed helps businesses run more efficiently and focus on what they do best.

Founded in Montréal, Canada in 2005, Lightspeed is dual-listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Toronto Stock Exchange (NYSE: LSPD) (TSX: LSPD), with teams across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

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Forward-Looking Statements

This news release may include forward-looking information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws (“forward-looking statements”), including information regarding Lightspeed’s partnerships, product offerings and planned product roadmap. Forward-looking statements are statements that are predictive in nature, depend upon or refer to future events or conditions and are identified by words such as “will”, “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “plans”, “believes”, “estimates” or similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts. Such statements are based on current expectations of Lightspeed’s management and inherently involve numerous risks and uncertainties, known and unknown, including economic factors. A number of risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this news release, including, among other factors, those risk factors identified in our most recent Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, under “Risk Factors” in our most recent Annual Information Form, and in our other filings with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available under our profiles on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com and on EDGAR at www.sec.gov. Readers are cautioned to consider these and other factors carefully when making decisions with respect to Lightspeed’s subordinate voting shares and not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are not guarantees of future performance and, while forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions that Lightspeed considers reasonable, actual events and results could differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements made by Lightspeed. Except as may be expressly required by applicable law, Lightspeed does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or revise any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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SOURCE Lightspeed Commerce Inc.

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CobbleStone Announces Upcoming Webinar With WSIPC Cooperative Purchasing On Enhancing Education Agreements

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CobbleStone Software and WSIPC are hosting an exclusive joint webinar tailored specifically for those in the K-12 education community looking to improve their contract management processes July 23rd, 2026 at 1:00PM – 1:30PM.

PRINCETON, N.J., July 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — CobbleStone Software, a recognized leader in contract lifecycle management (CLM) and contract artificial intelligence, is pleased to announce an upcoming collaborative webinar with WSIPC Cooperative Purchasing, titled: Enhancing Education Agreements with CobbleStone Software & WSIPC Cooperative Purchasing. The experience is tailored specifically for K-12 education professionals who manage a high volume of vendor agreements, compliance mandates, and educational service contracts. It will take place July 23rd, 2026 at 1:00PM – 1:30PM.

The highly voluminous and complex contract management process that education-sector professionals face can feel like a balancing act. When contract management stalls, a domino effect occurs, with school budgets and on-the-ground classroom resources being at risk of toppling – resulting in myriad deleterious downstream effects for system systems, teachers, and students.

Luckily, K-12 organizations can rest assured that there is a solution to prevent such headaches: contract lifecycle management tools.

Professionals are encouraged to join Alex Carraro (Account Manager at CobbleStone Software) and Cynthia Gefeller (Contract Administrator at WSIPC) as they tackle education tech contracting solutions that power the sector, with industry-tailored CLM functionality that includes:

Generative AI functionality (chatbot, risk insights, contract sentiment analysis)AI-powered agentic redlining, negotiation playbooks, and auto-obligation tracking and task creation.A searchable, reportable contract repository.Flexible workflow agents and task alerts.Compliance guardrails and monitoring tools.Various system integrations.

Click here to register for the webinar and learn more.

“K-12 education leaders shape the minds of the irreplaceable young people that will go on to shape the workforce,” said Bradford Jones, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at CobbleStone Software.

“By empowering the sector’s legal, procurement, and administrative teams with the tools they need to uphold a strong foundation and strategy for K-12 education, we are honored to play a crucial role in a mission to build a more prepared, knowledgeable, and capable populace.”

Book a free demo to see CobbleStone in action today!

For more information, email Sales@CobbleStoneSoftware.com or call 866-330-0056.

About CobbleStone Software:

CobbleStone Software is a celebrated leader in contract management software solutions whose flagship CLM software solution – CobbleStone Contract Insight® – expedites contract management, vendor management, eProcurement, and eSourcing processes while offering an agentic AI-powered experience, seamless integrations, ease-of-use, and high scalability. CobbleStone provides more intelligent contracts with VISDOM® artificial intelligence, agentic chatbot, machine learning, simplified contract and vendor tracking, highly configurable email alerts, user-friendly calendar notifications, intelligent contract workflow automation, highly robust security options, streamlined authoring of contract templates with dynamic clauses, centralized revenue/cost management, detailed text indexing and searching, future-minded vendor/client ratings, robust document version control, custom contract management reports, speedy IntelliSign® electronic signatures, and more.

Follow CobbleStone Software on social media:
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To stay up to date on contract lifecycle management industry trends and news, subscribe to CobbleStone’s Contract Insights blog.

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SOURCE CobbleStone Software

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Forty Years in the Making: Lucky Mary Blonde Restores a Lost 1988 Concert Through the Power of AI

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Band Releases First Two Singles from Long-Lost 1988 Live Recording Ahead of September 4 Album Release

ST. LOUIS, July 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Nearly four decades after one of its final performances, Illinois alternative rock trio Lucky Mary Blonde is returning with new music from an extraordinary chapter in its history.

Today the band releases its first two singles, “700 Candles Burn” and “I’m a Romantic,” offering listeners the first preview of a newly restored live album recorded during one of the group’s final concerts in the fall of 1988. The complete album is scheduled for worldwide release on September 4, 2026, with two additional singles planned in the weeks leading up to the release.

Recorded at the legendary Gatsby’s music club in Carbondale, Illinois, the concert remained hidden on buried and aging cassette tapes for nearly 40 years before discovery and advances in AI-assisted audio restoration made it possible to recover and restore the performance for modern audiences.

Lucky Mary Blonde emerged as one of the Midwest’s rising college rock bands following the release of its debut album, Let the Moonlight Burn, in late 1987. The album earned regional college radio airplay and established the trio as a favorite throughout the Midwest, performing from Chicago to Memphis before the band unexpectedly disbanded in late 1988.

The restoration project began when St. Louis-based drummer John Baldus received a rediscovered original cassette recording of the concert, prompting him to launch a year-long restoration project with professional recording engineers and original band members, Florida-based Todd Baxter and Virginia-based Jerry Tilk. An unexpected, almost miraculous discovery of a second cassette from the same concert ultimately provided missing audio that helped transform the recording into a remarkably clear and authentic live album.

The finished collection features 16 live performances, including 11 songs never before released, along with five songs from the band’s debut album, Let the Moonlight Burn. Together, they capture Lucky Mary Blonde during its final months and preserve a remarkable chapter of Midwest independent rock history.

The first two singles, “700 Candles Burn” and “I’m a Romantic,” are now available on all major streaming platforms.

The complete live album will be released on September 4, 2026, on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, and other major digital music services worldwide.

About Lucky Mary Blonde

Lucky Mary Blonde was an Illinois-based alternative rock trio that gained a loyal following throughout the Midwest college music circuit during the late 1980s. Following the release of Let the Moonlight Burn in 1987, the band toured extensively before disbanding in 1988. Their restored live album documents one of the group’s final performances and preserves an overlooked chapter in independent college rock history.

Media Contact
Lucky Mary Blonde
Email: luckymaryblonde@gmail.com
Website: www.luckymaryblonde.com

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SOURCE Lucky Mary Blonde

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Brian Ganser Named Partner in Charge of Growing Advisory Practice

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CLEVELAND, July 17, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Cohen & Co has named Brian Ganser, MBA, partner in charge of advisory, effective July 13, 2026. In this role, Brian is responsible for the strategy, growth and operational performance of the firm’s Advisory Practice, including its Office of the CFO, Transaction Services and Valuation teams.

Brian has more than 25 years of experience leading and advising middle market organizations through periods of significant growth and transformation. As an entrepreneur, CEO and adviser throughout his career, he has worked alongside founders, management teams and private equity investors to accelerate growth, execute strategic acquisitions and navigate ownership transitions.

“We are excited to have Brian join our senior leadership team,” says Chris Bellamy, Cohen & Co CEO. “As we continue to expand our services to help clients improve performance, execute strategic initiatives and prepare for growth, Brian is the perfect fit both culturally and from a technical perspective to build on the group’s momentum and deliver results on a national scale.”

The firm’s Advisory Practice has seen significant growth, both organically and from recent M&A activity. Cohen & Co recently brought together its cross-functional expertise to formalize an Office of the CFO advisory service offering. The team supports finance leaders through technical and financial reporting, finance transformation and managed accounting services. The firm also has expanded its advisory expertise via various acquisitions since 2024: Tax & Wealth Management based in Cleveland, Ohio, focused on custom tax and accounting advisory services to family offices, ultra-high-net-worth individuals and corporate executives working internationally; Chicago-based Tassi and Company, focused on outsourced fund and partnership accounting, property management and development accounting, and construction draw accounting and tax services; and New York-based Gioffre & Company, focused on outsourced accounting, financial reporting and tax expertise.

Brian is based out of the firm’s Chicago office and serves on the Leadership Council of Special Olympics. He received his MBA from Indiana University Kelly School of Business and his B.A. from Millikin University.

About Cohen & Co
Named one of America’s Most Recommended Tax and Accounting Firms by USA TODAY and one of the Best of the Best Firms by INSIDE Public Accounting, Cohen & Co offers assurance, tax and advisory services to clients throughout the U.S. and worldwide. The firm serves a broad range of clients, from privately held companies and their owners; to public and private funds, advisers and fund service providers within the asset management industry; to Fortune 1000 multinational enterprises. Founded in 1977, Cohen & Co has 900 dedicated professionals across the U.S. and 15 offices in Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Through affiliated entities, the firm also has a presence in the Cayman Islands and India. Learn more at cohenco.com. 

 ”Cohen & Co” is the brand name under which Cohen & Company, Ltd. and Cohen & Co Advisory, LLC, and its subsidiary entities, provide professional services. Cohen & Company, Ltd. and Cohen & Co Advisory, LLC practice in an alternative practice structure in accordance with the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and applicable law, regulations and professional standards. Cohen & Company, Ltd. is a licensed independent CPA firm that provides attest services to its clients. Cohen & Co Advisory, LLC and its subsidiary entities provide tax, advisory and business consulting services to their clients and are not licensed CPA firms. The entities operating under the Cohen & Co brand are independently owned and are not responsible for the services provided by any other entity operating under the Cohen & Co brand. Our use of terms such as “our firm,” “we,” “us” and other terms of similar import denote the alternative practice structure of Cohen & Company, Ltd. and Cohen & Co Advisory, LLC.

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SOURCE Cohen & Co

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