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Even Argos is repositioning itself on the web
For anyone born in the UK since the 1970s it’s hard to imagine a high street without Argos having a presence. But that could be the case sooner rather than later as the catalogue retail giant signals a shift towards the digital world.
In a business review accompanying the October release of half-year financial results by parent company Home Retail Group, a ‘transformation plan’ was announced, “which will reinvent Argos as a digital retail leader and reposition it from a catalogue business to a digitally-led business.” This announcement was released alongside operating figures that reveal Argos as the UK’s second most visited internet retail site in the past year, and show that 7% of the Group’s sales were made through mobile shopping.
Argos turns the page
Amongst the changes taking place at Argos in the immediate future are the planned closure of at least 75 bricks-and-mortar stores over the next five years, the phasing out of the print catalogue, the introduction of a new digital catalogue in time for this Christmas, and collection of “customer data on a large scale.”
So what has caused Argos to make these dramatic detours away from the high street and onto the e-commerce highways of the internet? According to its Business Review, a growing amount of competition from online retailers (such as Amazon), has challenged “Argos’ historic advantages” and “elevated customer expectations”. The Review also concludes that consumers are increasingly preferring digital channels over high street stores and catalogues.
The benefits of digital
Argos’ announcement is a reminder that in 2012, an increasing number of traditional retailers are turning to the internet to compete, rather than standing to fight newer digital competitors on their home ground of the high street. It’s also a reminder of the benefits that retail businesses old and new are able to tap into by operating via the internet. These benefits include:
Lower overheads (and hence the ability to price more competitively) The potential to reach a nationwide or even global demographic Carrying a greater range of products Streamlined sales procedures The ability to keep the ‘shop’ open 24 hours a day, seven days a week Relatively easy and affordable for small newcomers to get started selling online
All of the above considered, it’s not hard to see why Argos have made the decision, and expect to see many other high street stalwarts following suit over the coming years.
This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jon Celeste .


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Monday’s solar eclipse will bathe a large stretch of the U.S. in darkness, traffic, congestion and a general logistical mess.
Sales of the new Freightliner Cascadia signal a steady demand for trucks in the Class 8 segment despite emerging trends that are reshaping the industry.
Orders for new trucks in the heaviest Class 8 weight segment continue to outperform last year’s numbers, increasing month-to-month and year-to-date.
XPO Chief Executive Bradley Jacobs said the trucking company is on the lookout of multi-billion acquisition targets.
Convoy Chief Technology Officer Grant Goodale explains how the Seattle-based on-demand trucking start-up has attracted investment from some of the biggest names in tech.
Trucking is attracting growing interest from high-risk investors, including some who see logistics and shipping as the key to enabling even greater economic innovation.
Truck manufacturer Paccar Inc. logged a better than expected profit in the second quarter as the market for big rigs and medium-duty trucks started to improve.

domain: news


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Nissan’s electric commitment sidesteps motor industry turmoil
For at least the past couple of decades, reports Iain Robertson, Nissan has used its strategic partnership with Renault to bypass the fence-sitting in which most of its rivals indulge, in the process highlighting its attention to consumer demand and percolating back to a notional pole position, while others flounder.
When our government set its all-electric vehicle ‘switch on’ target for 1st January 2030, even though less than ten years existed before ‘E-Day’, a larger slice of the new car scene hoved into view, as consumers felt it was not merely their right but their environmental duty to support the programme. The response from the motor industry has actually been no less than confused but, worse, intransigent, perhaps even arrogant, through not believing that it would happen. As a result, some carmakers have been dipping their toes into electrification, while others have been making hollow promises, at a time when ‘short supply’, thanks to component shortfalls and a greater desire not to be caught with their pants down, have weighed heavily in their vicinity.
It is not so long ago that Jaguar-Land-Rover announced a timely and blanket commitment to electric power, only for absolutely nothing to happen. Volkswagen, on the other hand, tried to grab the publicity bandwagon for its ‘I.D’ line-up underscoring its activities by getting new Group products into the market as speedily as possible. Yet, Nissan has always played a more subtle hand, just getting on with the job, gradually building its portfolio of electrically charged models, without crowing from the rooftops. Although, as a company, it behaves a bit like a ‘non-dom’, carrying out its pan-European accountancy duties in Rolle, Switzerland and, despite the substantial amounts of UK funding in its Sunderland plant, using the ’employment in a dark place’ argument as a notional cover-up, its public face is normally most acceptable.
To be fair to Nissan, having attended its run of ‘360-degree’ events, at which international motoring journalists are presented with the fullest range of its production models and even many of its concepts, even though they are unlikely to be sold in our domestic market, the company has always been very open about its material intentions. The pioneering Nissan Leaf, consistently upgraded during its existence so far, is soon to be joined by the snowplough-fronted Ariya crossover, which may not be the prettiest of BEVs but is certainly on the money, as far as charge timing, range and packaging are concerned. In fact, the Leaf model has matured very satisfactorily since its original 2010 debut, the latest example ditching clearly the oddball appearance of its forebear, in favour of normalcy. However, the Townstar light commercial van serves ideal purpose as a city centre, zero emissions runabout that possesses practical delivery space and total ease of driving as its core attributes.
While not all of its products today feature electrification, by this time next year, Nissan will cease installing fossil-fuelled engines in all of its new UK destined line-up, as it eyes up its Ambition 2030 programme, by which time each of its models will be part, or fully electrified. No confusion there. The popular Juke, Qashqai and X-Trail models all gain from e-Power hybridisation but their platform architecture is geared towards full electrification in the very near future, having been designed from the outset for such a technological move. It is worth noting that Nissan is also a serial investor in new battery developments, the impact of which is felt consistently in its latest EVs and BEVs.
When reflecting on Nissan’s past, at various times it has been the doyen of the company car sector, during the late-1990s with the Primera line-up that was appreciated for its right-sizing, superior vehicle dynamics and all-round competitive performance; in the early-1980s with its first-generation Mini-aping Micra and during the noughties with one of the most comprehensive ranges of crossovers and SUVs of any carmaker. Its carmaking plant in Sunderland received early funding from the Thatcher government and, apart from raising unemployment levels in the former regional blackspot, has recently been nominated as a ‘carbon-zero’ model for the rest of the industry. Of course, it was not free of controversy, which led to Renault forging its unique strategic alliance, as an essential late-1990s rescue bid for the Japanese firm. However, the relationship has been of as much positive benefit to Renault, as it has Nissan and, together, they drew troubled Mitsubishi into the mix in recent times, although the fruits of that exercise have not been as revealing as may have been hoped for, the company closing its UK independent operation, only reopening it recently in the hands of Birmingham-based distributor, IM Group, a business that seems to be more in favour of ‘commercial invisibility’ with both Subaru and Isuzu brands.
Knowing that you are on ‘safe ground’, in a market sector based currently on shifting sands, is a gamble but Nissan is more of a sure bet than almost any other carmaker. What it does not know about EVs and BEVs is not worth knowing but what it has on its horizon is genuinely enticing and, if not ‘futureproof’, then pretty close to it.


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UPDATE 1-Market Chatter-Corporate finance press digest
Jan 3 (Reuters) - The following corporate finance-related stories were reported by media on Thursday:
* Gap Inc will buy women's fashion boutique Intermix Inc for $130 million to enter the luxury clothes market, the Wall Street Journal reported.
* K2 Intelligence, the investigative company started by Jules Kroll and Jeremy Kroll, has acquired the corporate intelligence firm Thacher Associates in a deal that highlights the growing and lucrative business of internal investigations and corporate monitoring, the New York Times reported. ()
* Microsoft Corp bought start-up id8 Group R2 Studios Inc as it looks to expand further in technology focused on the home and entertainment, a person familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.
* Private-equity firm Rizvi Traverse Management LLC has closed a deal to buy a majority stake in music performance-rights company SESAC Inc for about $600 million, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the deal.
* Irish building material maker CRH Plc and Swiss cement and aggregates giant Holcim are in independent talks with the Shriram Group to purchase a controlling stake in Sree Jayajothi Cements, which owns a 3.2-million-tonne cement plant in Andhra Pradesh, signalling interest by overseas companies in the Indian cement market, the Economic Times reported citing a person with knowledge of the development. ()
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- EXCLUSIVE - Apple iPhone 6 screen snag leaves supply chain scrambling
- U.S. strikes have slowed Iraq militants but not weakened them - Pentagon
- Arvind Subramanian likely to be chief econ adviser
- Indians keep faith with Modi, best hope for economy - poll
- Nifty touches record high; software stocks gain
More than 70 percent of Indians are satisfied with the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi since he took office nearly three months ago, an opinion poll showed, seeing in him the best hope to put the economy back on track. Full Article
India to hike iron ore royalty, miners may struggle to pass on extra cost. Full Article


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‘Why Dead Rising 3 Is An Xbox One Exclusive’ – Capcom Vancouver
We recently caught up with Dead Rising 3 executive producer Josh Bridge to talk in-depth about upcoming Xbox One exclusive, Dead Rising 3.
As part of that conversation, Bridge explained why Dead Rising 3 is an Xbox One exclusive.
“We targeted next-gen. When we first started we didn’t know which platform, what those platforms were going to be, we just targeted next-gen and we started working out what that would be,” Bridge told NowGamer.
“Then we started chatting with Microsoft and they gave us an opportunity to partner with them and it’s a huge honour for us,” Bridge continued.
“With Capcom Vancouver, it’s a huge thing for us to be in a similar position that Capcom have been in the past with Microsoft and Dead Rising on the Xbox 360.
“Now, having the opportunity to work on the Xbox One, it’s awesome. We’ve worked really closely together on making this happen,” said Bridge.
Bridge also commented on the important role Dead Rising 3 is playing for Microsoft in showcasing what the Xbox One can do.
“It’s scary, it’s exciting, the team is incredibly proud. Again, it’s a huge honour, just like, ‘wow, this is great’,” Bridge exclaimed.
“We had this opportunity for Capcom to do this and be on next-gen on day one with Dead Rising 3.”
For more on the game, check out our full Dead Rising 3 interview.


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SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Bayer says the debate surrounding genetically modified crops is over in Europe.
“To be honest, I think that battle is probably lost,” Adrian Percy, global head of research and development with Bayer, told delegates attending Bayer’s AgVocacy Forum.
Bayer is set to become the world’s largest seed technology company if it is successful in its attempt to acquire Monsanto.
Percy said countries such as France and Germany will not budge on their anti-GM stance, so there is no point continuing the fight.
However, he believes it is critical that the scientific community get out in front of new technologies such as gene editing and quell consumer fears before they arise.
“There are really incredibly interesting new technologies that are becoming available, and it’s very important we use agvocacy in Europe,” he said.
“The debate in Europe is going to be a difficult one because people are entrenched at this point.”
Percy said seed technology companies failed to pitch the benefits of GM crops to consumers when they were introduced, and that was a huge mistake.
“We convinced farmers that this was a great technology that would help them in their fields, but we didn’t always reach out to consumers in the same way.”
He said the message should be that tools such as gene editing improve sustainability by helping produce more food on less land.
Percy is encouraged by the “massive push” in the scientific community to adopt and promote technologies such as gene editing. Bayer is working with the 5,000 scientists in its CropScience division to help educate the public.
“We’re trying to enable our people. We’re trying to find different ways to story tell,” he said.
David Hollinrake, vice-president of North American marketing for Bayer CropScience, said the biggest threat facing the company is the misinformation that its seeds and chemicals are unsafe.
He wants farmers to speak out in support of the technologies they’re using because they are the most trusted voice in agriculture.
“It’s about helping farmers raise their voice and do it in a passionate, powerful way, such that we can overcome the opposition,” said Hollinrake.
Bayer has had its agvocacy program in place for three years, and it has had little impact.
Hollinrake said consumer research shows about 20 percent of Americans are concerned about biotechnology and eating GM food, which is the same amount as when the program was launched.
However, he said it takes time to build a movement, and he believes the company is on the right track.
More than 1,000 farmers have taken Bayer’s four-hour agvocacy training program, which equips them with facts about biotechnology and chemicals and how to engage with consumers through social media. Another 10,000 growers have pledged to join Bayer in becoming agvocates.
Robert Fraley, chief technology officer with Monsanto, said transparency and public discourse will be crucial when introducing new products that come out of the Bayer- Monsanto merger.
“Certainly, if there’s anything that we’ve learned from our experience with GMOs, is we know that good science by itself is not enough,” he said. “It has to be accompanied by great communication and a transparent relationship with the public.”


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Microsoft dates and prices first Reach map pack
Microsoft has announced the release date and price point for Halo: Reach's first batch of downloadable content, the Noble Map Pack.
The downloadable content contains three new maps - Anchor 9, Tempest and Breakpoint - which will launch on November 30 for 800 MS points. Additionally, the bundle will enable players to unlock new achievements, totaling 250 Gamerscore points overall.
Reach's new maps will vary in size, with Breakpoint and Tempest accomodating larger game types and Anchor 9 catering to the constrained play modes.
Halo: Reach launched last month to a spectacular reception from both critcs and consumers.The title achieved a collective 91 point ranking on MetaCritic and sold more than 3 million copies globally.


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Traditionally, cyber security has been seen as an IT department’s problem. They make sure everyone has antivirus on their PCs and take care of the firewall – and as long as they’re doing it right, then everyone else is safe… right? This has lulled users and business owners into a false sense of security of late, believing that cyber security simply isn’t their area or that it’s not in their job description. However, this attitude is now being taken advantage of in a big way by cyber criminals, who have discovered that individual users are much easier to target and deceive. As a result, users often takes actions which inadvertently allows the hackers to bypass the IT security systems. Traditional antivirus is dead, and even more advanced next-generation antivirus simply can’t stop the most deadly attacks. Now, everyone in an organisation has a part to play in keeping it secure, from the bottom all the way up to the CEO.
Studies Show Many Businesses Confused or Unprepared for GDPR
With the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) only 8 months away from coming into force, surveys are showing that many businesses across the UK and Ireland are still confused about exactly what the regulation means for them, and may be unprepared for GDPR. A survey conducted of over 1000 IT decision makers revealed that 64% were unaware that customers’ birth dates are considered personally identifiable information (PII), which is especially worrying as any mishandling of such data could constitute a breach of the GDPR and result in fines of up to €20 million. 42% did not realise that email marketing databases contained PII, 32% did not consider physical addresses to be and 21% did not even consider customer email addresses to be PII. In contrast, 85% of these survey respondents reported that they have reviewed the GDPR requirement thoroughly and 79% believe they have done everything they need to do to secure their data. This disparity marks a worrying trend for businesses, big or small.
The GDPR comes into full effect on the 25th of May 2018 – and no one wants to be made an example of
Consent is Always Required – Busting that GDPR Myth
With the GDPR now less than 8 months away from becoming enforceable, businesses all over the EU and indeed any company that conducts business with EU citizens are scrambling to prepare in time for the legislation. The upcoming General Data Protection Regulation was designed to give back clarity and control to users about how their sensitive data is being processed and held, but has led to quite a bit of confusion for businesses about how this will actually work. Most people will have heard about the increased fines, as regulators can now fines offending bodies up to €20 million or 4% of global turnover, but there is a lot of confusion and indeed misinformation and misinterpretation out there to make the process even more difficult. To this end, there’s a few things we’d like to set the record straight on, particular around consent. Over the coming weeks and months we hope to provide more guidance of areas prone to misinterpretation, so stay tuned!
Myth: You must always have consent to process someone personal data.
With the stakes so high, it can be hard to tell the difference between important guidance and scaremongering when it comes to the GDPR
NIST Experts Do U-Turn & Issue New Password Security Guidelines
NIST is the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, and back in 2003, a password primer was written by one of its managers that put forward recommendations, many of which became the rules we have now. Special characters, mixture of upper and lower case letters, regular password changes – these have all been adopted into ‘best practice’ for password security since NIST made these recommendations. Now, however, these complexity guidelines and regular password changes have been repeatedly proven by experts to actually be less secure for companies, due to the work-arounds humans put in place to make remembering password easier. NIST thankfully have released their mistake and have provided updated best practice standards for password security. Why the sudden change of heart, you may ask? Well, over a billion passwords a year are breached by cyber criminals, and the data obtained shows that when presented with a long list of password criteria, people tend to try something basic first and then just tweak it until it fits. For example, ‘password’ becomes ‘Password1’, which may be more mathematically secure, but can be easily guessed instead.
Previously established guidelines are mostly being discarded, in favour of rules that simplify passwords for the user
No one looks forward to those mandatory password changes every few months, as it can be incredibly frustrating to constantly think of new passwords with the right mixture of capital letters, special characters and numbers. In fact, many people try to simplify the process by using a variation of their previous password – ‘Password1’ becomes ‘Password2’, and so on. In fact, the entire basis for issuing new guidelines stems from one simple fact; people can’t remember all the passwords that they have been forced to create, ultimately causing them to create less secure passwords than if they didn’t have to adhere to the guidelines in the first place. So with all that in mind, here’s a breakdown of the new best practices and why they’re easier and more secure:
Companies Continue to Cover up Data Breaches Despite Imminent Fine Increase Under GDPR
Recently, car insurance and breakdown cover provider AA faced accusations of covering up the severity of a data breach that occurred in April of this year. The AA, through their customer support Twitter, chose to downplay reports of the breach and assured users that no credit card or other sensitive data had been exposed. Data was leaked from their online shop due to a server misconfiguration. However, this server contained data on over 100,000 AA customers, and included partial credit card data. Despite knowing about this breach for over two months, it wasn’t until the cyber security community cried out in outrage that AA eventually admitted to the severity of the breach. No customers were notified by the AA directly.


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It is a testament to our local market sales professionals who are committed to providing impactful digital marketing solutions for their customers.
Jersey City, New Jersey (PRWEB) June 03, 2015
Advance Digital today announced it has won the 2015 Microsoft Digital Advertising Partner of the Year Award. The company was honored among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology.
“We are thrilled and honored to win the Microsoft Digital Advertising Partner of the Year award for the third year in a row,” said Peter Weinberger, president of Advance Digital. “It is a testament to our local market sales professionals who are committed to providing impactful digital marketing solutions for their customers.”
Awards were presented in several categories, with winners chosen from a set of more than 2,300 entrants from 108 different countries worldwide. Advance Digital was recognized for providing outstanding solutions and services in digital advertising.
“This year’s award winners are among the most innovative and valuable our partner ecosystem has to offer. Therefore, it came as no surprise that Advance Digital was named among that group as this year’s winner of the 2015 Microsoft Digital Advertising Partner of the Year award,” said Phil Sorgen, corporate vice president, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft Corp. “We applaud Advance Digital on this achievement and for the outstanding value it continues to provide for our mutual customers.”
The Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards recognize Microsoft partners that have developed and delivered exceptional Microsoft-based solutions during the past year.
About Advance Digital:
Advance Digital, based in Jersey City, NJ, works with Advance Local’s 11 affiliated media companies to create digital news and information products that deliver multi-platform solutions for consumers and advertisers in markets across the United States. Embracing new ideas and innovation, Advance Digital is committed to providing engaging digital solutions that inform, connect and empower the communities the Advance Local group of companies serves.
Advance Digital is a part of the Advance Local group, a division of Advance Publications, along with Condé Nast and American City Business Journals.
Product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.


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UPDATE 22/9: H&M has revealed its first set of campaign images for its Kenzo high street collaboration.
The first set of images, which were shot by the famed Jean-Paul Goude, star Chance The Rapper, supermodel and philanthropist Iman, as well as rapper Suboi. The full campaign, which features Rosario
Dawson, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Chloë Sevigny and Xiuhtezcatl
Martinez, will debut on 17 October.
The full Kenzo for H&M collection lands in stores and online on 3 November.
ORIGINAL STORY 12/9: H&M has been slowly releasing information on its latest designer collaboration with Kenzo. In July, we saw the first images from the upcoming collection, and soon a new campaign is to be released, shot by Jean-Paul Goude, the photographer behind the controversial Kim Kardashian Paper cover.
Goude has previously shot campaigns for Kenzo and is regularly seen at the shows.
"We love to work with our idols and Jean-Paul Goude is a true icon. His images for Kenzo x H&M are incredible, and capture the personality, positivity and freedom of the collection," the creative directors of Kenzo, Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, said in a joint statement.
The campaign will celebrate diversity and feature a broad mix of personalities, including the supermodel Iman, actress Rosario Dawson, hip-hop artist Chance The Rapper, musician and composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, actress Chloe Sevigny, rapper Suboi and activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez.
Watch the video below to see behind the scenes on the campaign's shoot.
MORE LIKE THIS


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Atlus has released a new story trailer for Shin Megami Tensei V dubbed “Bethel.”
Here is an overview of the game, via Atlus:
<!– Gematsu – 300×250 Static (5f806c91d0b2e22f7c503a7a) – 300×250 – Place in of page where ad should appear –>
When a grisly murder scene in modern-day Tokyo blocks our protagonist’s walk home, an unplanned detour leaves him buried and unconscious.
He awakens in a new Tokyo, a wasteland ravaged by apocalypse now called Da’at… but before bloodthirsty demons can claim his life, a savior emerges, and they


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The Covid-19 pandemic has forced marketers’ hands in a variety of areas. One of the most evident is around the near-exclusivity of eCommerce – or, anything which isn’t bricks and mortar.
Writing for this publication in July, Joel Davis, co-founder and CEO of Mighty Social, noted the need for change in messaging. “Take into account that during the crisis many consumers closely re-evaluated their consumption habits, what they define as essential products, as well as how to live better lives, even for the good of others,” wrote Davis.
“These values are now guiding people towards brands that represent their personal aspirations – this is a time for eCommerce to get out of its own way and add in a serious dose of authenticity,” he added.
Key to this, therefore, is a sound content strategy for digital commerce. But when the topic at hand is so broad, you need to put parameters in place.
An article from Quicksprout, published last year, outlined some of these rules. “To have a successful content marketing strategy as an eCommerce website, you need to take an eCommerce-specific approach,” the guide noted. “Everything you do needs to drive conversions. That’s the ultimate way to survive… so if you can’t directly or indirectly connect conversions to your content strategy, then it’s a wasted effort.”
Dash Hudson is a provider of visual marketing software for brands. The company works in industries ranging from automotive, to media and publishing, to financial services. Yet its heartland is arguably in the beauty, fashion, and luxury spheres.
Luxury – as in the highest of high-end products – is an area which MarketingTech occasionally covers. An article from December explored the potential of programmatic advertising; Joanne Joynson-Hewlett of Pocketmath pointed out that because traditional advertising methods are eschewed, programmatic could be extremely valuable.
Yet as has already been explored, these types of brands have an interesting challenge ahead. With sustainability and necessity the watchwords amid the pandemic – not to mention the Gen Z audience – this puts more pressure on getting the eCommerce content right. Dash Hudson calls its work with luxury brands ‘social ROI, built for the discerning… navigate the millennial and Gen Z marketing landscape while maintaining every ounce of prestige.’
Going back to the Quicksprout guide, much of it is dedicated to sourcing your current and potential customers, wherever it may be; identifying your target audience, and then learning their online habits. While luxury brands may eschew traditional advertising – and Dash Hudson notes they were ‘slow to jump on the social bandwagon’ – Instagram and even more nascent platforms are now well and truly in play.
Whatever your industry, however, getting the right content in place – and being able to analyse what’s going on around it – could be a game-changer.
Dash Hudson is speaking at the upcoming DMWF Europe virtual event on November 24-25 on the ‘critical role’ of content in eCommerce. Elise Ngobi, director of international growth, will examine the factors which lead to purchase, as well as how brands can leverage rich content and insigths to contextualise and cut through the noise. Find out more and register for the session here.
Interested in hearing leading global brands discuss subjects like this in person?
Find out more about Digital Marketing World Forum (#DMWF) Europe, London, North America, and Singapore.


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Your favorite Apple, iPhone, iPad, iOS, Jailbreak, and Cydia site.
04-30-2012, 06:15 PM #1
Apple Projected to Sell 35 Million iPhones in China Next Year
From personal visits by Apple CEO Tim Cook, to Apple's expanding workforce and production aims across the nation, China is clearly an integral part of Apple's business model and enterprise goals for the remainder of the decade.
For that reason, with each passing month more and more Wall Street analysts join the list of believers who think that the iDevice maker will see iPhone sales explode through the roof next year. On Monday, another prominent "believer" came forward.
In a note issued to investors today, Deutsche Bank's Chris Whitmore says 2013 will be a huge year for iPhone sales in China. Just how optimistic is he? His note today was titled: "iPhone is just getting started in China." This leaves very little to the imagination.
"In 1Q," Whitmore writes, "we estimate Apple has captured less than 15% share of China Unicom and China Telecom's combined 3G subscriber base. Over the next few years, we expect Apple to benefit from strong 3G sub growth at these two partners while continuing its path of share gains. If Apple reaches 20-25% penetration of this subscriber base by the end of 2013, we estimate iPhone unit sales in China would approach ~25M units in 2012 and ~35M units in 2013. Any benefit from a future partnership with China Mobile would be additive to these estimates."
04-30-2012, 06:44 PM #2
Impossible. U think that many people will do this without China Mobile? Besides, that's the same number of iPhones sold total last quarter.
04-30-2012, 06:45 PM #3
Duh yah think by then the iPhone 5 will be out
04-30-2012, 07:00 PM #4
04-30-2012, 07:24 PM #5
04-30-2012, 09:54 PM #6
Simple fact is that apple just FAILED to gained this market share over the past years by still requiring to activate any iDevice via iTunes... so the majority of chinese (asian) people just don't had the requirement to activate any iDivice.
It's that simple. Now that the restriction is gone, the Asian Market (biggest market there is) can get conquered, not with something new, innovative or nice rather than the fact, that it just can!


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GIVING PEAS A CHANCE
What we've missed the most - a look at national and
local lockdown responses in the strangest of times.
t's not going to come as an
immense surprise that visiting
restaurants, pubs and coffee
shops are top of the list of
things British people have
been missing the most during lockdown,
according to one of the largest national
surveys carried out on the Covid-19 crisis.
In the survey, carried out by Allegra
Strategies (a research consultancy
working in the health and wellness
industry), 4,000 people were asked a
range of questions on the personal impact
of the crisis and their future concerns.
When asked which of the following
social outings they missed the most
(with people being allowed three choices)
of the 17 suggested social outings, an
overwhelming number cited visiting cafes
and coffee shops (second choice at 42%),
restaurants (4th choice at 29%) and pubs
and bars (fifth choice at 19%) as the
thing they missed most during lockdown.
Visiting friends and family (60%) came
top with travelling/day trip third (31%).
Further down on the list were shopping,
gyms, cinema, parks, sporting events,
museums, theatre, music shows and
Also, not entirely surprisingly, lockdown
lunchtimes have driven frozen food sales
up by 28%. Fish fingers and frozen peas
have been flying off supermarket shelves
as millions of hungry schoolchildren swap
school dinners for lunchtime with mum
and dad according to the latest industry
figures. Sales data from the British Food
Federation (BFFF) and Kantar (a worldleading evidence-based insights and


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In its attempts to steal more customers from the big two wireless carriers, Sprint has decided to offer potential subscribers carryover data – but only for AT&T customers.
This means that, in addition to doubling your data and cutting your bill in half, Sprint will also carry over your unused data until the next month. Upon closer inspection, though, the deal doesn’t turn out to be so sweet – once you consider that Sprint is forcing you to lease your phones and turn in your old phones, much of the monetary savings are eaten up. Additionally, like AT&T, the carryover data is only valid for a month, which makes this almost pointless.
And sorry, T-Mobile peeps – just like the “Cut Your Bill in Half” event, you’re left out in the cold. Probably because T-Mobile is already priced rock bottom.
If you’re still interested, though, check out the link below.[Sprint]


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Regulators in Oregon and around the country are trying to clear up potential confusion among consumers of the new health insurance marketplaces.
Many people who don't get health coverage through Medicare, their employer or the Oregon Health Plan will want to shop for new policies next year as federal changes kick in. Those already insured can stay with their insurer, but may prefer to shop for tax credits or a different plan
Lawmakers set up Cover Oregon as Oregon’s health exchange marketplace, a quasi-governmental public corporation designed to help the uninsured as well as consumers in the individual market get covered.
Polls consistently show many people don't understand the new exchanges, and regulators around the country have issued public warnings that consumers should be wary.
For instance, consumers need to make sure their agent is certified, and they should know that only the state's official website -- coveroregon.com -- can offer tax credits and other savings, says Cover Oregon spokesman Michael Cox.
So far, officials have contacted three agents about their websites, according to Oregon Insurance Commissioner Laura Cali.
Until recently, oregonxchange.com welcomed online visitors with the words "Oregon Health Exchange" in large type, as well as consumer advice taken straight from Cover Oregon materials. But checks of the website prior to Oct. 14 show the website contained no prominent notice that it was a private insurance agency. After being contacted by Oregon Insurance Division regulators, however, the site proclaimed at the top of the page: "We are an independent insurance agency located in Jackson County Oregon."
Medford agent David Cuttrell says he set up the site at oregonxchange.com after taking out business licenses for Oregon Health Exchange and Oregon Health Insurance Exchange, hoping to capitalize on the state exchange's decision to call itself Cover Oregon. There was no intent to deceive consumers, he said. Cali agreed that an initial review didn’t find the site misleading.
His employer, Breeze Financial Group, has set up different phone lines to use the "Oregon Health Exchange" name, but Cuttrell said consumers are not confused by this. "The first thing we explain to them is 'We're a middleman for Cover Oregon.'"
Under the state’s new health exchange, renamed Cover Oregon from Oregon Health Insurance Exchange late last year, more than 1,000 agents have been certified – including Cuttrell’s firm -- to help consumers use the site. In theory, agents and application assisters were certified to be the first to start doing this as of Oct. 1, but unexpected technical challenges have delayed that, hopefully to later this month, officials say.
The Oregon Insurance Division has contacted two other sites over information pertaining to Cover Oregon. One, Coveroregonnow.com, incorrectly indicated a consumer could not go directly to an insurance carrier to enroll, said Oregon Insurance Commissioner Laura Cali. Steve Cox, a West Linn agent who is certified and who set up the site, said there was no intent to deceive and the language on the site was quickly revised.
Officials questioned a third site’s statement that it was "endorsed" by the exchange rather than merely “certified,” by Cover Oregon. The language on www.pibalinsuranceoregon.com was quickly taken down, Cali said.
In other states, but not Oregon, state regulators are taking action against sites with names that seem likely to mislead people into thinking they were connecting to an official state exchange site, according to the Associated Press. In Washington state, one agent removed the language "Welcome to the Exchange" from a site with a similar web address to that state's exchange. In New Hampshire, a site called newhampshirehealthexchange.com was taken down after the state sent a cease-and-desist letter. In Pennsylvania state insurance regulators caused an agent to take down PAhealthexchange.com.
Officials’ main concern is that websites that confuse visitors could lead them to consult with agents who are not certified to qualify consumers for tax credits and other subsidies that are only available through official state-run exchanges.
Cover Oregon officials say they support the efforts of the Oregon Insurance Division and Oregon Department of Justice to clarify any confusion for consumers.
As long as agents have been certified by Cover Oregon and are clearly spreading the word about the site and the subsidies it offers, "we consider that a good thing," said Cox.
However, he recommended consumers always check to make sure their agent is certified by Cover Oregon, either by checking coveroregon.com or calling 1-855-268-3767.
-- Nick Budnick
This article was modified to reflect the following clarification published Oct. 25:
An Oct. 16, 2013, article and headline about insurance exchange websites could have been read to imply that companies were inappropriately trying to confuse Web searchers. The Oregonian has no basis to suggest any such intent. Coveroregonnow.com and the other websites mentioned have not been subject to any request by Oregon regulators to change their site names. The Oregonian regrets publication of any suggestion that the companies were intentionally attempting to confuse users about the nature of their sites.


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Los Angeles had a record-breaking year for visitor spending and economic impact in 2018. With visitor spending up $1.2 billion since 2017 (5 percent increase) and economic impact up $1.7 billion (4.9 percent increase), this year was the eighth consecutive year of growth in visitation, spending and impact.
"LA's tourism growth in 2018 can be attributed to several factors including a 3.6 percent increase in international seat capacity at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), nearly 2,000 new rooms added to the destination’s hotel inventory, L.A.’s growing reputation as a hot culinary and cultural destination, and LA Tourism’s latest global campaign, ‘LA Loves’ which extended and amplified a message of welcome and hospitality following the acclaimed ‘Everyone is Welcome’ initiative," says Darren K. Green, SVP of sales for Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board.
Green says their latest visitation forecast indicates they will continue this positive growth in 2019, which will be the ninth consecutive year of milestones for LA's tourism industry.
"Travelers generated a record $308 million in transient occupancy tax collections (TOT) for the City of LA, an 8.7 percent year-over-year increase," Green says. "These dollars have become one of the fastest growing revenue sources for the City, used to fund local street repair, making them safer for all, as well as fire protection, recreational and cultural services such as public arts programming."
With so much to do, Green says LA is the ideal place for meetings and events. "Our destination’s incredible wealth of intellectual capital, mix of ‘only-in-LA’ venues and immersive neighborhoods are all compelling reasons to meet in LA," he says. "Los Angeles is a destination that is aspirational for many, truly offering something for every taste and interest."


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Campaigners' latest move
Campaigns against palm oil have evolved over the years. In the 1980s and 1990s, the US soybean lobby campaigned against it on purported health grounds. Since 2000, the campaign has shifted to alleged environmental concerns, largely supported by the rapeseed and sunflower industries in Europe and led by radical Green NGOs.
In recent years, this has taken on a new and more comprehensive approach. Its clear objective is to make palm oil ‘socially unacceptable’. This new approach has been aggressive.
Even Britain’s Prince Harry has been drawn into the debate, remarking that products containing palm oil should carry a label “like cigarettes”, as a form of health warning. His comments, reported in the UK’s Sunday Express newspaper (Dec 4, 2016), were made during a visit to the Iwokrama International Centre in the Guyana rainforest.
His misinformed proposal is reminiscent of radical tactics that attempt to shut down or restrict products to which campaigners raise objections for various reasons. Palm oil has been in their sights, but they have a new playbook.
The first part of the campaign is well underway. That is the push to make palm oil consumption more visible – an easy-to-see target in food products, as has happened in many countries. There has been considerable pressure to have palm oil specifically labelled in Europe. Lobbying by NGOs is now focused on extending this to the US, Australia and New Zealand.
Once palm oil is identified by consumers through labelling, the second and more insidious part of the campaign takes off. This pushes for products to be ‘free of palm oil’. The outcome can already be seen in the proliferation of the ‘No palm oil’ label affixed to products by food manufacturers across Europe.
Use of the label, though, is clearly illegal. There are rules governing the use of negative claims in food labelling in the EU and Australia. There needs to be justifiable cause as to why something is labelled ‘free’ of a particular ingredient. In most cases this is for health reasons, as in the case of dairy or soybean products; these are known sources of allergens. The label should not be applied to palm oil, as it is not an allergen.
The real goal is to poison the minds of consumers. When enough products indicate and advertise that they do not contain a specific product, consumers are led to believe that these are ‘socially unacceptable’ to consume.
The arguments used by anti-palm oil campaigners remain weak. First, the case on health grounds has been tested over a 30-year period. New evidence has closed it comprehensively from a scientific perspective. The NGOs, however, do not care for science.
Second, there is the environmental case, with the justification for avoiding palm oil taking on many guises. This has gone through the wildlife conservation case; the climate change case; the tropical peatlands case; and more recently, the forest fires and haze case.
In all these cases, the claims have been rebutted with evidence. But what they lack in evidence, the campaigners will make up with persistence. They know that if a message is repeated often enough, people will simply accept it.
Third – and this is the newest part of the campaign – is the attempt to make a social case against palm oil. The most recent attacks have been based on allegations of child labour, human rights abuses and land rights infringements.
This last part of the campaign is particularly dangerous, and has mainly been projected to a US audience. It must be urgently dealt with if palm oil is to avoid this narrative becoming as ingrained in the minds of end-users, as is the environmental narrative in Europe.
In most cases, no distinction is made in relation to the source of palm oil – whether by company or country, and whether sustainably produced or not. The target is the commodity itself.
And as is often the case in western markets, people do not necessarily need legitimate reasons to think something is unacceptable. If they are convinced by consistent NGO and media claims that a product is socially or morally unacceptable, they will ignore scientific evidence and legal rulings.
Tobacco, of course, is the ultimate socially unacceptable product. Prince Harry’s comments were not an accident. The comparison with tobacco is the dream of palm oil’s opponents. This is how they would like palm oil to be treated – taxed, restricted, ostracised.
The weak arguments against palm oil have not changed. Neither has the determination of opponents. What has changed is that there is now a concerted plan using all methods available to send palm oil down the same well-trodden path to social banishment as products like tobacco. The palm oil industry must act fast to avoid this fate.


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Samsung's decline of late has allowed Apple – which posted a stellar quarter in which it sold 74.5 million iPhones – to catch up to the South Korean manufacturer. According to data from market research firm Strategy Analytics, both Samsung and Apple control a global market share of 19.6 percent and are now tied for the title of the world's largest smartphone vendor.
The numbers highlight the decline Samsung witnessed in 2014 when seen against previous years. The South Korean vendor sold 11.5 million smartphones less than what it did in Q4 2013. For the latest quarter, Samsung posted a sales decline of 11 percent from the same period in 2013, and a profit decline of 27 percent.
Meanwhile, with a profit of $18 billion and overall revenue of $74.6 billion, Apple had the best-ever quarter by a public company. Apple's fourth quarter sales amounted to 38.6 percent of its yearly sales, highlighting the sheer increase in sales seen last quarter.
Lenovo's acquisition of Motorola enabled the Chinese manufacturer to edge out Huawei to take the number three spot with a combined market share of 6.4 percent. Motorola's return to China and Lenovo's efforts to increase its focus in the country means that the Chinese vendor will be looking to challenge the likes of Huawei and Xiaomi aggressively this year. Huawei is also on the rise, with its 24.1 million shipments in Q4 2014 amounting to nearly a third of its yearly sales.
The smartphone market as a whole grew by 31 percent last year. 1.3 billion smartphones were shipped globally over the course of the year, with emerging markets like India and China witnessing a healthy growth.
Source: Strategy Analytics


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updated 06:30 pm EDT, Thu April 3, 2014
Analyst notes mystery $250M payment to buyer of Apple RAM supplier Elpida
Independent analyst Matt Margolis has reported on a mysterious $250 million payment to memory maker Micron, which in turn last summer bought out another memory manufacturing firm, Elpida, for $2 billion. Among Elpida's many customers, one in particular has a habit of being both secretive and willing to pay large sums in advance to procure supply -- Apple. If the payment is from the iPhone maker, it may be trying to lock in supplies of Micron's new LPDDR4 DRAM.
Apple had previously used Elpida DRAM for its latest iPhones and iPad models running the A7 processor, which includes 1GB of Elpida's RAM. Micron has said that its new LPDDR4 DRAM, building upon the LPDDR3 that Apple and others are currently using, is more power efficient and features 2x more bandwidth -- resulting in both improved performance and longer battery life for tablets and smartphones. It would seem a safe bet that Apple will want to use the new technology in future products, such as the future "iPhone 6" or next-generation of iPads.
The new Micron RAM could also find its way into Mac products where power efficiency is key, such as the company's MacBook line. The unnamed pre-payment deal extends through September of 2016, which Margolis speculates could tie into Apple's traditional timeframe for the release of new iPhones and iPads. Should Apple turn out to be the mystery buyer, this would mean that it expects to use Micron's future DRAM products for the next two years at least.


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Carlton sells Quantel to management
Media group Carlton Communications said it had sold its Quantel image processing subsidiary to its management for an initial £51m. Carlton said up to £57m may also become payable depending on future profits of the Newbury-based company or if it is sold.
The sale is the latest in a series of disposals by Carlton to enable it to focus on core businesses ahead of its proposed merger with United News & Media.
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Search ad CPC prices in the finance category rose significantly in March, on both a month-over-month and a year-over-basis, according to data from Efficient Frontier.
Finance-related clients of the search management platform provider spent an average of 40 percent more per click in March 2011 than they did during the same month in 2010.
The cost of clicks in the travel vertical, meanwhile, dipped by 27.3 percent on a month-over month basis, and almost 30 percent year-over-year.
The retail and automotive verticals remained relatively stable, with the former growing by 4.9 percent, and the latter dropping seven percent, on a month-over-month basis.
SEO and search marketing are a vital part of any marketing strategy, linking together channels like social media, content marketing and offline advertising.
All top Chinese retailers, banks and internet companies share mobile data in earning releases. None of the top 10 US retailers do, nor does Google. US banks and Facebook are better.


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When the Virginia Supreme Court killed off the remnants of the state's "blue law" last September, local retailers found themselves scrambling to open their stores on Sundays.
A year later, store owners are divided as to whether it was worth the trouble.
The impact of the blue law's demise is minimal at best, said Roy Pearson, director of the Bureau of Business Research at the College of William and Mary. Whatever increase in sales it brought is "not in proportion to the increase in hours you're open," he said.
The fact that stores are open one more day a week "didn't change the disposable income of Virginians."
"It's a convenience for the consumer, convenient for the working family," Pearson said.
He said business expansions and shifts with various outlet malls in the area have had a greater impact than the blue laws. "No impact stands out here," he said. "There's no clearcut gain for merchants."
While some merchants say Sunday business has been a worthwhile venture, others say the blue law's death throughout the state merely weakened Monday sales.
"What I have heard is neither negative or positive," said Alvin Tompkins, president of the Virginia Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. "We only have X-dollars to spend. We just have more days to spread it over."
Tompkins said some store owners opposed Sunday business because they did not feel it justified the operating costs. "Of those stores that chose to be open, they tend to be large companies, national companies and, more than likely, in a mall,"
Through the first six months of this year, combined total taxable sales in Hampton and Newport News increased 9.1 percent compared with the same period in 1988, Pearson said. By comparison, total taxable sales increased 8.7 percent in Williamsburg and James City County, and 4.9 percent in Norfolk-Portsmouth-Virginia Beach.
However, experts warn that it would be difficult to say any sales increases were the direct result of the blue law's death. Shopping complexes opening or closing, weather conditions and changes in local economies could affect sales.
Pearson said Virginia and the Hampton Roads region traditionally outperform the national average. Recently released statistics from the Commerce Department show national retail sales have risen 6.3 percent in the last 12 months.
Bill Fleenor, J.C. Penney store manager in Coliseum Mall, said public response to Sunday shopping hours has been "very positive" for the first year.
"It's obvious from the business being done on Sunday that the consumers are voting in favor of that being given to them as a shopping day," Fleenor said. "People vote with their pocketbook, don't they?"
Fleenor said Sunday ranks as the department store's third-best shopping day, behind only Friday and Saturday. While he expected Sunday's business to continue to grow, Fleenor said he did not see stores extending their Sunday hours except during special seasons like Christmas.
"The Penney Company opens because the customers want us to be open and competition forces us to," he said.
Roger Brown, Patrick Henry Mall manager, said Sunday business hours have proven to be comparable to the same hours on Saturday in terms of traffic and sales. However, "I really feel that it will stay as a half-day" in terms of store hours.
"It's been quite a boost for the mall," said Brown. "It's been a healthy and good business move."
Several large companies, such as Leggett Department Stores and Chick-Fil-A have resisted the urge to switch to Sunday hours, though some said they may be forced to reconsider.
"It took us out of the market that day," said Fred Leggett Jr., Leggett president. "I think it's something our board will look at from year to year."
Leggett said the company probably would not study Sunday business before the end of September, though he said the board would have to consider the needs of its employees.
"I don't think Virginia is doing any more business" because of the blue law's demise, he said. "It's just a reallocation of the days they spend it on."
Randy Chivers agrees. Manager of Butler's Shoe Store in Newmarket North mall, Chivers said that since the law was repealed, opening on Sunday has not been worth the effort 90 percent of the time.
"I can't see where five hours a week makes any difference," Chivers said. "Being here when it's not busy just seems like a wasted day."
Chivers said the store is hurt when anchor tenants like Leggett are not open on Sunday. "I would be here every Sundaay if the people were here," he said.
Other small stores in Newmarket North differed as to Sunday's impact.
"It's nothing I would write home about," said Ronn-Lee Mayo, assistant manager of Everything's a Dollar. "I don't see the profit of opening on Sundays."
"Most Sundays it's quiet. There's nothing to do," said a salesman at Things Remembered. "Sometimes they come in, but it's not to buy, it's to look."
A year after employees complained about losing their only guaranteed day of rest and Christians lamented the state's continuing plummet into secular disarray - life in the Commonwealth sans blue laws has continued without a hitch.
For years the law, which dated back to Colonial times, had been criticized for its arbitrary nature. Originally affiliated with Sunday religious observances, the law later came to be a way of giving workers a common day of rest.
The blue law went through several changes throughout the years as lawmakers and judges pondered what could and could not be sold on Sunday. For example, in the early 1960s groceries could sell milk and bread but not eggs or bacon, as it was illegal to sell food that customarily required further cooking.
In September 1988 the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of several businesses that claimed the law should be declared invalid because its many exemptions allowed virtually any commodity to be sold on Sunday, while designating who may or may not sell them.
The plaintiffs - Hechinger Co., K mart Corp., Zayre Corp., Henderson Development Co. Inc., Best Products Co. Inc., Circuit City Stores and Rose's Stores - said that the numerous exemptions made it impossible to enforce the law fairly.
A year after the decision, many of the plaintiffs said the outcome was worth the effort.
"Sunday has turned out to be a strong day," said Kaye Lasater, a Rose's spokeswoman. "It seems to be a good day for families to get out and do a little shopping."
Best spokesman Ross Richardson said the company did not anticipate that the court decision would result in increased revenue for businesses. "I think that it's proved to be the case," he said.
Sales figures for Best show differing results. In Tidewater, "they haven't seen a real sizable increase in sales by opening on Sunday," Richardson said, adding that Monday sales have leveled out.
Best has seen strong sales in other market areas, especially Lynchburg, without a decline in Monday business, though Richardson credited the occurrence to other factors, such as a change in the company's promotional program.
Sunday has "added increased sales," said Sam Butler, manager of Hechinger in The Original Newmarket. "It's worth the extra day."
By the mid-1970s localities were given the opportunity to choose whether they wanted the blue law. In the Hampton Roads area, only Williamsburg and James City, York and Gloucester counties repealed the law before last year's ruling.
When the blue law changed in September, non-restricted businesses worried that they might see a drop in sales.
Roger Copenhaver, part owner of the True Value hardware store in Grafton, said the blue law's death has had a slight impact on sales.
"Ours changed because we were the only place open before the blue laws were abolished," said Copenhaver. "Before we'd get people from Virginia Beach and Portsmouth."
"We're pleased we haven't been hurt by it," said Brian Giffin, general manager of The Waterside in Norfolk, which had operated on Sunday for several years. "I can't see much of a change or much of an impact on us here."
"It seems like it went through real smooth," Patrick Henry's Brown said of the past blue-free year. "As an overall picture, it's been well worth it."


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The move underscores the company’s intentions to boost capital income as it finalizes plans to launch service in every country around the globe except for one. The streaming media giant is warning its US members grandfathered on the “Standard” $7.99 HD plan (1080p, supports 2 viewers at once) that they can keep their plans for $2 dollars more at $9.99 per month, or simply be downgraded to the SD plan (480p, supports 1 viewer) for the same price. In short, this means 1080p customers in the US will pay $24 more per year to keep their subscriptions, or $120 per year. Meanwhile, for just $2 dollars more the company offers a “Premium” 4K Ultra HD plan (supports 4 viewers at once) at $11.99 per month, or $144 per year.
Source: Netflix.com - Standard "grandfathered" $7.99 subscribers to pay $2 more later this year
This is not the first time the company has raised prices unexpectedly. In May 2014, prices for new users went up from $7.99 to $8.99 per month for its “Standard” HD 1080p plan. In October 2015, the company hiked prices for new users again from $8.99 to $9.99 per month for the same plan.
Four months ago in September 2015, Netflix launched service in Japan, followed by Spain, Portugal and Italy in October. At CES 2016, the company announced the availability of Netflix everywhere in the world except for China. The move expanded Netflix coverage to over 550 million homes worldwide. Over the next few years, the company specifically plans to target “outward-looking, affluent consumers with international credit cards and smartphones,” according to the latest earnings statement.
The company is also seeing increased adoption of its $11.99 4K Ultra HD plan as more 4K TVs are purchased and as Netflix remains the leading source of Ultra HD content for consumers. Thankfully, the Ultra HD plan will not be affected by a price increase.
Source: Netflix via Shareholder.com (Netflix Q4 2015 Letter to Shareholders)
In the fourth quarter of 2015, Netflix membership grew by 5.59 million members to 74.76 million, up from 4.33 million new members in the same quarter a year earlier (Q4 2014). For Q1 2016, the company is forecasting 6.10 million new members versus 4.88 million in the same quarter a year earlier (Q1 2015).
The company finished Q4 with debt of $2.4 billion, unchanged from the prior quarter, and with cash and equivalents and short-term investments of $2.3 billion.


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BY KHUMBULANI MULEYA
THIS month, First Floor Gallery opened a first time solo art exhibition by Bulawayo-based artist Shamilla Aasha at their gallery in Victoria Falls’ Elephant’s Walk Shopping and Artist Village.
The exhibition is titled Breathing Time and features canvas-based embroideries, textiles, weavings and wall hangings, looking at the dense fusion of ideas about family, multiculturality and being a woman in a time of confinement.
In Harare, First Floor Gallery also opened a solo exhibition titled Neoclassical Taste Matrix, featuring 14 new cosmically poetic paintings by Pebofatso Mokoena. This is Pebofatso’s first solo exhibition in the Harare gallery at Karigamombe Centre and also the South African artist’s first since joining First Floor Gallery in 2020. Both openings were well attended within recommended guidelines with also an excellent response online.
From June 9 to 27, First Floor Gallery is taking part in the second edition of African Galleries Now — an online art fair collaboration between African Art Galleries Association and Artsy. In this edition, the gallery is presenting brand new works from artists Gresham Tapiwa Nyaude, Mavis Tauzeni and Helen Teede.
Finally, on 16 June, First Floor Gallery will be presenting Big Man Syndrome, a brand-new solo project for Troy Makaza, curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah as part of Art Basel OVR Portals run by Art Basel, the world’s biggest international artfair.
“We are proud to emerge strong despite all the disruptions caused by the pandemic. Special thanks go to our amazing artists, audiences and collectors in Harare, Victoria Falls and internationally. We are also excited to welcome Shamilla and Pebofatso to our gallery family and the response to their bodies of work have been tremendous,” First Floor Gallery director Marcus Gora said.
“Lastly, we are excited to be engaging with our international audience through African Art Galleries Now and the Art Basel OVR Portals, really important platforms that will expose our artists’ practice and the gallery’s work further.”


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We’ve all had that feeling of coming out the parking lot to discover someone’s bashed your bumper or dinged your door. Worse, the perp didn’t have the courtesy to leave a note confessing his crime. If only you’d had a video camera to catch the guy in the act.
Victor Lortz understands that feeling — and he’s done something about it.
Lortz, an engineer at Intel, has developed an electronic watchdog to catch those scofflaws in the act and even send live footage to your phone. He’s onto something, because when he announced the the project during the Research@Intel conference, the crowd broke into applause before the demonstration even started.
“This service resonates with people,” Lortz says. “It empowers them.”
He and his team integrated Intel circuitry into an Infiniti EX35, using the car’s onboard cameras and alarm to transmit information to a smartphone. If an oblivious driver or stray shopping cart triggers the car’s sensors, the tech — which features Intel’s Atom compression and uploading horsepower — alerts them, then records the driver making his getaway. The system can, with sufficient wireless reception, stream the footage or archive it in the cloud.
Lortz’s software uses near-field communication to establish a secure connection between phone and car. He has been experimenting with dashboard Quick Response codes that operate through the phone’s camera. Lortz says he wants the technology “to handle a broad variety of phones.”


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Detroit is back. Not the city. That’s still teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, but the automakers. They’re manufacturing more vehicles than they have in years and today’s auto sales reports for June are expected to show the strongest monthly sales since late 2007, a little more than a year before GM and Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protection under a government-orchestrated plan.
“We’re back to pre-crisis levels in the annual sales rate,” says Mike Santoli, senior columnist for Yahoo! Finance. “We ‘ve had tremendous pent-up demand for cars in this country… now we’re getting the payback for that.”
The actual June sales numbers will trickle out throughout the day. Ford sales are leading, up 13%, followed by Chrysler, up 8.2%, and GM, up 6.5%. Sales of pickup trucks for all three were brisk . Sales of GM's Chevrolet Silverado rose 29%, while sales of Ford's F-Series pickups and Chrysler's Ram surged 24% each.
U.S. auto sales overall are expected to reach an annual rate of 15.7 million, up about 8% from a year ago and near the record 15.8 million in December 2007, before the big slump in sales.
Not all of these vehicles are produced in Detroit, of course. Many automakers, especially foreign producers, have located their factories in non-union southern states such as Alabama, George, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Underlying the expected jump in June auto sales is a recovering economy, increasing consumer confidence, low interest rates and some hot new vehicles. “It’s really, really cheap to own or lease a car right now,” says Santoli, referring to the low interest rates. Those low rates not only increase affordability for consumers but benefit car companies as well, says Santoli, because they don’t have to give up as much on price when consumer financing is so cheap.
Increasing housing sales is another reason vehicles sales are rising, especially sales of pickups. “Pickup trucks are selling at three times the rate of passenger cars,” because of new housing construction, says Santoli.
Competitive labor costs are also contributing to the rise in U.S. auto sales. The average autoworker’s pay including benefits was $38 in 2011 compared to $60 in Germany and $37 in Japan, according to the Center for Automotive Research. That has encouraged foreign automakers to increase production in the U.S. largely for export.
”That old story you can’t make cars in America profitably anymore is no longer the story," says The Daily Ticker’s Aaron Task. “ Obviously that’s been a big boost to the economy, the auto industry and our exports.” U.S. auto exports, in fact, are three times higher now than they were in 2003, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration.
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The coronavirus has caused several businesses to shut down as of late, but the price of bitcoin is also contributing heavily to economic downplay. Several mining firms and blockchain-based enterprises don’t see a point in keeping their doors open so long as the asset’s price suffers, and some companies – like mining venture Digital Farms in California – have decided to shut down “indefinitely.”
Digital Farms Will Close Down for a While
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the mining industry hit by hard conditions in the crypto industry. Remember 2018? It was arguably the roughest year for bitcoin and its crypto counterparts. Despite several coins reaching their all-time highs just months before, many saw their values disintegrate and crash the moment 2018 was rung in and the world said adios to 2017.
Bitcoin, for example, was trading at almost $20,000 during the previous Christmas holiday. The next Thanksgiving, the currency has lost more than 70 percent of its value and dropped into the mid-$3,000 range. Ethereum had fallen from its $1,400 high to about $100, while bitcoin cash fell to a few hundred dollars after trading beyond $3,000.
It was an ugly sight, and many crypto mining giants such as China’s Bitmain saw massive declines in the sales of mining equipment during this time, forcing it to lay off half its staff. It appears several mining firms and related businesses didn’t see a point in continuing their operations; bitcoin and crypto were no longer profitable.
Now, the scenario is playing out again. Digital Farms is just one of the companies that has decided to call it quits until further notice. So long as BTC is below $8,000, miners just aren’t making the same money.
A few days ago, the company’s parent enterprise DPW Holdings issued a statement explaining:
Digital Farms cryptocurrency mining operations have been suspended indefinitely, primarily due to the sharp decline in the market price for bitcoin… Due to the unprecedented market conditions domestically and internationally, and the effect COVID-19 has had and will continue to have on the company’s operations and financial performance, the extent of which is not currently known, the company is temporarily suspending guidance for 2020.
Last Year Seemed to Be Good
This marks a huge change for the company, which seemed to be doing ok last year. The enterprise purchased a 617,000 square foot facility to set up all its mining rigs. It claimed to have access to approximately 28 megawatts of power, and that its infrastructure would be powerful enough to support as many as 300 megawatts in the future.
However, the company had been around since February of 2018, when things really started to go bad for bitcoin. By that time, Digital Farms had borrowed over $20 million and spent thousands to purchase crypto mining equipment, yet the venture made less than $2 million in profit by the time 2019 rang in.


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Meet Timothy Irving Jr., the founder of The Original Irving Whiskey who was inspired to start his own spirit brand after learning of his family’s history of making moonshine (illicit whiskey).
His family grew up in rural Georgia where opportunities were few for Black people. To provide for the family, his uncle began making and selling moonshine after the demise of their grandfather.
“I wanted to create a spirit brand that pays homage to my family’s name which is why the brand is called The Original Irving Whiskey. It took a lot of sacrifice, failures, and money to get to where I am at today. Though it has been a tedious and challenging process, I am happy that I did not allow self-doubt to hold me back,” Irving told Voyage ATL.
For his first product, Irving released a straight bourbon whiskey that was aged for a little over two years using traditional bourbon barreling methods. According to him, what sets his brand apart from others is what it does just before bottling its products.
“We use a special filtration process that places emphasis on the sweet notes of vanilla and caramel to create a truly enjoyable experience. A compliment that we have consistently heard from our customers is how tasty and smooth it is despite it being bottled at 90 proof,” he noted.
Black-owned spirit brands and distilleries are making waves recently. This was almost impossible some 10 years ago as there were few spirit brands that were owned by Black people. The America Craft Spirits Association told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that in 2010, there were fewer than 100 craft distilleries. Currently, there are about 2,300 but fewer than 50 are minority-owned, it said.
Irving’s journey in the wine industry has not been smooth sailing. Knowing his background and the struggle of Blacks in general to keep their businesses, he was not oblivious to the challenges that awaited him.
“I haven’t had anyone to guide me in the process. Because of this, I have had to learn along the way, and there have been times I have made mistakes,” he told Voyage ATL.
In his recent interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, he also noted that trying to break into the big distributors and gaining their respect has been challenging. And Irving is convinced the color of his skin plays a big part in these challenges. “It’s a little bit of a challenge to prove ourselves. We just want the opportunity,” said Irving.
He credits his wife for how far he has come in his entrepreneurial journey. He told ShoutoutAtlanta that his wife has been supportive throughout the process and even serves as his consultant when it comes to advertising as that is her profession.
On the brand’s website, The Original Irving Straight Bourbon Whiskey is described as providing “an easy and enjoyable drink experience.” It continues, “The nose is cherries and dark chocolate followed with a taste of caramel, oak and vanilla with a warm and slightly sweet finish.”


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Archer Daniels Midland Company has announced the latest addition to the company’s expansive specialty proteins portfolio, as well as its intention to offer pea protein isolates and concentrates in the future.
The new addition is SUPERB, a functional ingredient containing protein and fiber. Made from soybeans, SUPERB provides food manufacturers with an effective way to enhance water-binding, improve the texture of meat products and meat substitutes, and boost protein and fiber content.
In addition, ADM is evaluating options for offering pea protein isolates and concentrates in response to growing demand for versatile, functional proteins that can be easily incorporated into a wide range of products, from energy bars to beverages.
“Our customers are seeking innovative ways to add high-quality protein and fiber to their products, and ADM is responding with one of the industry’s broadest and deepest protein and fiber portfolios,” said Bruce Bennett, president, ADM Specialty Ingredients.
“SUPERB and pea protein both offer exceptional utility for customers intent on meeting growing demand and gaining a real competitive advantage in the consumer marketplace,” he added.
ADM’s current specialty protein offerings include soy protein isolates, concentrates, textured proteins and crisps, and soy flour and grits. The company’s other offerings include its line of edible bean powders and Fibersol soluble dietary fibers.


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14.1-inch iPad Pro Being Developed for Early 2023, Says Report
According to Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants (DSCC), Apple is reportedly developing a larger iPad Pro with a 14.1-inch display.
Young shared details on the new iPad Pro on Thursday morning, citing supply chain sources.
“Confirmed the 14.1” iPad Pro is being developed with our supply chain sources. It will have MiniLEDs and ProMotion. Not sure of the timing, but early 2023 may be more likely,” said Young.
Confirmed the 14.1" iPad Pro is being developed with our supply chain sources. It will have MiniLEDs and ProMotion. Not sure of the timing, but early 2023 may be more likely.
— Ross Young (@DSCCRoss) June 9, 2022
When asked about the aspect ratio of the device, Young said “still trying to find that out.”
The news from Young seemingly corroborates a separate claim by leaker @MajinBuOfficial on Wednesday. The account said, “According to my resource, Apple is developing a new 14.1-inch iPad M2 with 512GB and 16GB of base memory. The new M2 line is expected to include a new 11-inch model with no major changes, a new 12.9 model with reduced bezels and this new 14.1 iPad.”
Young has been accurate in previously predicting new iPad mini and MacBook Air display sizes, plus ProMotion landing on the MacBook Pro and iPhone 13 Pro.
Ross Young accurately revealed:
– 8.3" iPad mini (vs. 7.9" previously)
– 13.6" MacBook Air (vs. 13.3" previously)
– MacBook Pro getting ProMotion
– iPhone 13 Pro getting ProMotion
If he says a 14-inch iPad Pro is coming, I fully believe it. https://t.co/3mwe9uEkAB
— Joe Rossignol (@rsgnl) June 9, 2022
It is likely this new iPad Pro would include Apple’s second-generation silicon chip, M2, unveiled at WWDC22 and making its debut in the new MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, launching next month. At 14.1-inches, this would be the largest display in an iPad to date.
Current M1 iPads will have some exclusive features when iPadOS 16 debuts this fall, such as support for Stage Manager, a new multitasking feature for iPad and the Mac.


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With a firm understanding that being seen is the first step to a successful business, 10 Best SEO picks the top-performing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) agencies for this month's list. Boostability and Ignite Visibility achieved third and second place, respectively, with Straight North, a Chicago-based agency, receiving the top spot and the title of Best SEO Agency.
10 Best SEO has just released its list of October 2017 winners in the category of Best SEO Agency, naming Straight North as the top contender.
This is a new monthly award that commends companies for their ability to successfully market their clients and improve their traffic and overall productivity. The award goes to companies that go far beyond the call of duty in customer service, service offerings, success, pricing and other factors. The top businesses have shown excellence in numbers as well as client satisfaction.


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As noted earlier this morning, today’s consumer spending data slightly missed expectations, with expenditures rising 0.2% in September vs. 0.4% expected. However, Mark Perry at Carpe Diem puts the latest figure in historical perspective — real consumer spending has now made a full recovery to its pre-crisis level, with expenditures in real terms hitting $9.349 billion in September:
(Chart via Carpe Diem)
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http://www.tropicalmba.com/knowedgeversusefficiencyrevisited/ A few weeks ago , Dan and Ian published an episode called The Knowledge Gap vs. The Efficiency Gap.
In that episode, they tried to make a distinction between businesses that solve "Knowledge Gaps" for their customers and businesses that solve "Efficiency Gaps".
"Knowledge Gap" businesses focus on educating their customers on how their business can solve new problems, whereas the businesses that solve "Efficiency gaps" for their customers are intent on providing more efficient solutions to their preexisting needs.
A few of our listeners wrote in with some comments about that show. Nate Smith is the founder of AdmitScout, which specialized in paid traffic lead generation for addiction treatment facilities. Eagan Heath is the founder of a digital marketing agency called Get Found Madison, which is mostly aimed at businesses in Madison, Wisconsin.
In this week's podcast, we've invited both Nate and Eagan on to the show to share their responses to that episode and to talk about how Knowledge Gaps and Efficiency Gaps have played a role in their own businesses.


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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued its consultation paper, Guidance on Cryptoassets. It focuses on where cryptoassets interact with the FCA’s regulatory “perimeter” (the perimeter). The guidance looks at where cryptoassets would be considered ‘Specified Investments’ under the Regulated Activities Order (RAO), ‘Financial Instruments’ such as ‘Transferable Securities’ under the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II), or captured under the Payment Services Regulations (PSRs), or the E-Money Regulations (EMRs). It also covers where cryptoassets would not be considered ‘Specified Investments’ under the RAO. Comments on the consultation paper are requested by 5 April 2019.Read More
Rain, a cryptocurrency exchange in Bahrain has received a Shari’a compliance certification from Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB). SRB is licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain as a Shari’a advisory firm authorised to issue Shari’a compliance certifications. SRB reviewed Rain’s brokerage service and determined that the sale, purchase and custodian activities of Rain are in compliance with Shari’a principles. The Shari’a certification covers three cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin). Rain aims to enable family offices, investors and Islamic institutional investors to buy, sell and store cryptocurrency in an Islamic-compliant way.
Rain was co-founded in 2017 by blockchain professionals from Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Silicon Valley. In September of that year, Rain was invited to join the Central Bank of Bahrain’s regulatory sandbox. It was the first digital currency exchange to be admitted to the sandbox – but since then four more have joined including UAE’s BitOasis. However, many governments in the Middle East (including those of Saudi, Egypt and Morocco) have officially banned cryptocurrencies, urging residents not to invest in them.
On 22 January 2018, two of the largest ‘buy now, pay later’ businesses in Australia, Afterpay and Zip.co, appeared at a hearing before the Senate’s Economic References Committee.
During the Senate hearing, both Zip.co and Afterpay presented how their respective business models operate and responded to questions about how the ‘buy now, pay later’ industry should be regulated. As previously mentioned, ‘buy now, pay later’ businesses are not currently classified as ‘credit providers’ under the National Credit Code (Code) and, as such, are not subject to the responsible lending obligations under the Code.Read More
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA) published two complementary assessments of the regulatory coverage of crypto-assets under existing EU legislation and also set out their advice to the European Commission on potential policy initiatives in the future.Read More
Authors: Cameron Abbott and Sara Zokaei Fard
The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is looking at 2019 with fresh eyes. Although digital coin prices plummeted in 2018, some by as much as 90%, NYCEDC has announced that it will open a blockchain centre in Manhattan. The blockchain centre is being developed by NYCEDC in partnership with blockchain industry leaders Future\Perfect Ventures and the Global Blockchain Business Council.
It is reported that the blockchain centre will be a resource for industry professionals as well as those interested in learning about the technology. It will create a peer community that will provide business support, mentorship as well as public education to assist people to understand how blockchain can impact daily life. The block chain centre will also be utilised to convene bodies including from industry and government to further dialogue on a regulatory environment that supports both consumers and innovation.
Industry leaders have described it as “a nascent technology” and a “burgeoning innovation sector”. The question now becomes, should we invest in bitcoin, or the blockchain centre itself as Microsoft and IBM have done!
The European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs), including the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Banking Authority (EBA), have published a report setting out a comparative analysis and best practices in the design and operation of sandboxes and innovation hubs (“innovation facilitators”) established in the European Economic Area. The report was requested by the European Commission in its FinTech Action plan, as part of its efforts to enable innovative businesses to reach EU-wide scale.Read More
A report has been published summarising the findings from research by ICAEW (The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) and ISCA (Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants) into FinTech in London and Singapore. The two cities show the importance of tailoring detailed measures to reflect local differences. Singapore, for example, puts stronger emphasis on collaboration between start-ups and the established sector, and acts as a gateway to new markets across Southeast Asia. By contrast, in London, there is more of a push for start-ups to disrupt the incumbents in financial services and more focus on the challenges of scaling up FinTech businesses.Read More
On 19 December 2018, the UK tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs (“HMRC”), published a policy paper on the taxation of cryptoassets. The guidance is limited to HMRC’s view in relation to individuals holding cryptoassets and does not extend to tokens or assets held by businesses. The guidance confirms that HMRC does not consider cryptoassets to be currency or money for tax purposes and separates crypto assets into three categories of “tokens”: exchange tokens, utility tokens and security tokens. The guidance focuses on the taxation of “exchange tokens,” a term encompassing assets such as Bitcoin.Read More
On January 2, the Texas Department of Banking (“DoB”) updated Supervisory Memorandum – 1037 (“Guidance”) which provides guidance regarding the application of the Texas Money Services Act (the “Act”) to virtual currencies. First issued on April 3, 2014, the Guidance divides virtual currency into two categories: centralized and decentralized.
Centralized virtual currencies are virtual currencies “created and issued by a specified source” that “rely on an entity with some form of authority or control over the currency”. Decentralized virtual currencies, on the other hand, are virtual currencies that do not have an administrator or a central repository.
Stablecoins are considered decentralized virtual currencies, provided they do not have an administrator or central repository. According to the Guidance, whether the Act applies to centralized virtual currencies requires a case-by-case determination. As for decentralized virtual currencies, the Guidance states that the Act only applies when sovereign currency is involved, and only in certain cases, because decentralized virtual currencies do not constitute money or monetary value.Read more
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK financial regulator, confirmed to the Financial Times on 30 December 2018 that it was investigating 18 businesses involved in the sale of cryptocurrencies. The regulator has also issued alerts and warnings about dozens of companies suspected of cryptocurrency investment fraud. Currently, the transfer, purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies are not regulated in the UK. However, companies that sell regulated investments with an underlying cryptocurrency element may need FCA authorisation to do so depending on their activities.Read More


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Amazon.com Inc.'s (AMZN) - Get Amazon.com, Inc. Report agreement to buy Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFM) for $13.7 billion represents a major victory for activist investor Jana Partners' Barry Rosenstein, an insurgent manager who pushed for a sale and was sorely in need of a win.
The purchase comes roughly two months after Jana Partners launched a campaign at Whole Foods that included a number of demands, such as having the company sell itself. Soon afterward, Whole Foods took the unusual step of reshuffling its board to include five new heavy hitters to appease the company's institutional investor base.
Even after that, however, Jana Partners said it was keeping all its "options on the table." That meant a director-election contest was still a big possibility, with Jana -- which has a history of launching director-battles to drive change at targeted companies -- still serious about nominating board members. The activist fund has launched 56 campaigns, including seven proxy fights, since 2001, according to FactSet.
Clearly, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey took that threat seriously despite his frustration with Jana and agreed to sell the business. Mackey, who will remain in his role after the $42-a-share transaction, referred to the activist firm as "a bunch of greedy bastards" who were trying to "destroy" his reputation in an interview with Texas Monthly published earlier in June.
That discord hasn't dissipated. In some cases, when a targeted company agrees to sell itself under pressure from an activist, the insurgent manager is included on the press release about the deal. That wasn't the case when it came to the Amazon-Whole Foods hook up.
"It's a little surprising that Jana wasn't brought in on the announcement so they could sign on," said Joe Mills, founding partner of proxy solicitor Saratoga Proxy Consulting.
Regardless, the sale represents a big win for Jana Partners and Rosenstein, who did not return a request for comment. The activist investor accumulated its original 9% stake between Feb. 9 and April 10, at prices ranging from $29.14 a share to $31.80, significantly lower than what Amazon is paying.
Jana has struggled of late with big activist campaigns, coming up short with an effort at Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) - Get Qualcomm Inc Report even though it added directors to the company's board. The activist last year cashed out its once-significant position in the tech giant after its stock price dropped significantly.
Jana, and its investors, are likely excited about the purchase price for Whole Foods, which will give them the resources to shake up more companies. The question for markets is which ones.
Amazon's shares rose 2.5% to $988.60 late Friday morning. Whole Foods' rose 27% to $42.
Visit here for the latest business headlines.


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Regional views on Digital Transformation find common ground (SME’s)
Hernan Marino | Digitalist Magazine by SAP | March 14, 2017
According to a new IDC InfoBrief, “The Next Steps in Digital Transformation: How Small and Midsize Companies Are Applying Technology to Meet Key Business Goals,” sponsored by SAP, many firms worldwide are experiencing similar success. The study says 73%–87% of small and midsize companies across 13 countries say their technology investment expectations have been met or even exceeded. Top benefits include easier access to information, better portability within the office environments, and regulatory compliance.
No matter the region or industry, 56% of small and midsize companies view “improving customer acquisition” as the top priority for their digital strategies.


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The latest round of trade talks between the U.S. and China got underway this week in attempt to reach a deal before the Mar. 1 deadline, which helped lift all three major equity averages into positive territory for the day.
China's Vice Premier Liu He is expected to visit Washington this week to participate in the trade talks.
The price of crude oil, meanwhile, rose to $56.05, its highest level in three months. Noble Energy stock surged more than 5 percent. Gold prices hit a 10-month high.
Shares of Dow component Walmart got a boost after the company's fourth-quarter earnings topped Wall Street estimates amid concerns that a slew of investments from the world’s largest retailer to both its online platform and brick-and-mortar locations is weighing on margins. E-commerce sales at Walmart rose 43 percent in the fourth quarter, while same-store sales grew 4.2 percent – well above analyst expectations.
|I:DJI||DOW JONES AVERAGES||25914.1||+65.23||+0.25%|
|I:COMP||NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX||7688.527434||+57.62||+0.76%|
Advance Auto Parts reported fourth-quarter profits that surpassed Wall Street expectations, but same-store sales growth that fell short and shares slipped.
Medtronic reported fiscal third-quarter profit and revenue that beat analyst expectations.
|AAP||ADVANCE AUTO PARTS||161.57||+6.73||+4.35%|
The National Association of Home Builders said its index of builder confidence in the market for new single-family homes rose to 62 in February from 58 in January. This exceeded expectations of economists.
In Europe, the major markets finished the day mixed. London’s FTSE was down 0.6 percent, Germany’s DAX added 0.1 percent and France’s CAC slipped 0.2 percent.
In Asian markets, China’s Shanghai Composite ended flat, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.4 percent and Japan’s Nikkei inched up to a 2-month high adding 0.1 percent.
FOX Business' Ken Martin contributed to this report.


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When new products are created and placed on the market, consumers expect those products to have been thoroughly tested for safety. Most products do go through rigorous testing and consumers never have a problem with them. Yet, sometimes a negligent company or manufacturer puts a dangerous product on the market, placing consumers at extreme risk of harm. This may be especially true when those defective products are medical devices.
This is what happened with the Stryker Rejuvenate and ABG II hip implants, which, after less than two years on the market, were found to fret and corrode at the modular-neck junction. For comparison, a typical hip replacement lasts 15 to 20 years. The defects in the Stryker implants may cause adverse local tissue reactions, hip failure, necrosis, metallosis, and the need for revision surgery. Other metal-on-metal hip implants have faced similar issues, with DePuy recently settling a class-action lawsuit with about 8,000 patients.
Lawsuits revolving around the Stryker implants are still coming forward, with nearly 1,000 complaints filed. Some of the cases are being settled through mediation, while others are still pending. When a mass tort like this leaves several injured, it may be in all injured individual's interests to seek a class action lawsuit. These lawsuits often send a loud message to a negligent manufacturer or company that unsafe practices will not be tolerated. Such a lawsuit may also help injured individuals recover damage related to medical expenses, lost wages, and pain and suffering.
The lawsuit process generally, and the class action lawsuit specifically, can be very complex. A Texas attorney with experience handling these types of cases can be useful in bringing forth a lawsuit. He or she can simplify the process for a client, discuss legal options, and vigorously work to develop legal arguments to support the case. With a strong advocate by their side, a class of injured individuals stands a chance at correcting a major wrong and protecting other Americans.


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► Budget city car crossover concept
► Displayed at 2015 Tokyo show
► A partner for Renault’s Kwid?
Nissan sub-brand Datsun will reveal the rest of this dinky crossover concept in full at the upcoming 2015 Tokyo motor show.
The high-riding city car concept’s name is yet to be announced, but this official picture confirms that it will definitely feature headlights. Bold, on-trend light graphics above high-set spotlight saucers (shades of Nissan Juke, anyone?) flank a hexagonal grille and typical faux-by-four plastic wheelarch extensions.
Hang on. I thought the Datsun name was dead and buried?
Formerly the name Nissan cars were exported under, the Datsun brand was retired in the mid-1980s but made a return in 2012. Still a part of the Nissan empire, it’s been relaunched as a budget brand for markets including India, Russia and Indonesia. Think of its role to Nissan as Dacia is to Renault.
Datsun currently offers a series of ultra-basic five-door superminis called the Mi-Do and the Go, along with a longer Go+ estate variant. This new concept, more a production car preview than a design study flight of fancy, almost certainly heralds the addition of a taller crossover model to the range.
Click here to read more about the Datsun Go.
Datsun’s 2015 crossover concept
Expect oily bits and switchgear borrowed from various parts bins in the Renault-Nissan alliance, with more than a few similarities to the new Renault Kwid likely. Read more about the Renault Kwid, a budget compact crossover for the Indian market, here.
The new Datsun model is expected to be aimed at the brand’s re-established markets outside of Europe and the US for now.
Click here for CAR’s A-Z of the most important new cars at Tokyo 2015.


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Sentencing day for ex-Virginia first lady McDonnell
RICHMOND, Va. — Maureen McDonnell, the wife of former Gov. Bob McDonnell, will be sentenced today after a jury found the couple guilty of taking gifts and loans from a vitamin executive in exchange for promoting his products.
A jury in September convicted the McDonnells of doing favors for former Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams in exchange for more than $165,000 in gifts and low-interest loans. The gifts included about $20,000 in designer clothing and accessories Williams purchased for Maureen McDonnell during a Manhattan shopping spree and an engraved $6,500 Rolex watch she gave to Bob McDonnell as a Christmas present. Williams also paid for vacations and golf outings.
U.S. District Judge James Spencer, who delivered Bob McDonnell's sentence, will also handle Maureen McDonnell's. Prosecutors are recommending a sentence of 18 months for Maureen McDonnell.
- USA Today