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Bogotá — Colombia’s cotton production experienced its golden years between 1950 and 1978, during which it became one of the drivers of the country’s agricultural sector, but the lack of incentives for producers, failures in the export promotion strategy adopted and weak technological development have all served to stymie the industry.
The decline of Colombia’s cotton industry is reflected in the fact that the country not only stopped exporting the product in 2014, but also went from consuming more than 100,000 tons per year in the past to only 24,000 tons in 2021 due to difficulties in importing yarns and fabrics.
In 2005, the Colombian government adopted a public policy that was aimed primarily at solving the price problem, while at the same time aiming to increase production and productivity of the crop.
But that policy “ended in 2015 without achieving the main aims. The only thing that was achieved during that time is that those who planted cotton received a payment”, but then the sector “was left without any permanent support”, according to César Pardo Villalba, executive presidente of the Colombian Cotton Confederation (Conalgodón)
He said that has only been “some sporadic support” and that “planting has declined”.
“For the price issue there is no problem, and other than that, some rewards are agreed in the contract for cotton quality that have to do with the length of the fiber, resistance, color and also some penalties when it has contamination (...). We have had a more or less stable negotiation with Diagonal, which is the company that represents the textile companies,” he said.
The problem then today is mainly focused on production costs, which, he says, have been resolved little by little. In 2014 producing a pound of cotton cost almost a dollar, and today it costs between $70-75.
And “we can still reduce that cost much more with the productivity increases we are obtaining with the use of certified, transgenic seeds. Ninety-nine percent of the crop in Colombia is grown with transgenic seed, which not only gives cotton quality and productivity, but also serves fundamentally to control pests - lepidoptera and weeds - which avoids too many applications of insecticides and herbicides.
The Beginning of the End
“Colombia has been losing the vocation for cotton, unfortunately, in the midst of all the illicit crops and because the domestic industry has also been declining,” according to Camilo Rodriguez, president of the Colombian Chamber of Apparel and Allied Industries (CCCA).
He said in an interview with Bloomberg Línea that a pound of cotton is quoted at around 550 or 60 dollar cents, and that at one point it was over 120 cents, “which would have been a boon for our Colombian farmers, and a golden opportunity for all textile and apparel manufacturers”.
However, the country has overlooked the opportunity to sell the raw material in a scenario in which the world was demanding commodities, and the prices of some fabrics rose by over 300%.
“Colombia has unfortunately lost a golden opportunity, as we are also seeing today that the final consumer and brands have begun to stop buying cotton from the northeast region of China, which represents about 22% of world production, and about 38% of local production,” he said.
Research in 2014 by Jorge García García of Banco de la República concluded that “the cotton sector in Colombia developed despite government policies that oppressed it during most of the period”.
“Although the sector received some initial protection, it was small and short-lived. Policies to support the sector, such as export promotion and subsidized credit, attenuated but did not eliminate the disincentive produced by the policy of forced sales to Diagonal at prices below international ones,” CCC&A’s Rodríguez says.
According to Statista figures, China was the world’s leading cotton producer in 2021, with 6.42 million metric tons, followed by India (6.1 million), the United States (3.1 million) and Brazil (2.3 million), which is also the world’s leading exporter.
The main importers of cotton are China (2.7 million metric tons), Bangladesh (1.8 million), Vietnam (1.5 million) and Turkey (1.1 million).
According to Rodríguez, Colombia began to destroy its cotton industry after the economic opening-up implemented by former president César Gaviria in the 1990s, and that the South American country went from having close to 398,000 hectares (983,478 acres) planted to fewer than 9,400 hectares currently.
“At that time, the cotton sector generated about 1.4 million jobs in the agricultural sector alone, and today the total number of jobs in the apparel sector is close to that figure,” he said.
Conalgodón’s Pardo said Colombia has had an “overly protectionist” vision, and that the problem was that the country did not adopt policies that favored the competitiveness of the crop.
“It was not about protecting mediocre production, but fundamentally about increasing production and competitiveness. The problem with cotton was first of all the production costs, which increased and reached a ceiling due to pests. In Armero (in the country’s Tolima department), which was the cotton city of Colombia, more than 25 applications were made for each crop and that is an exaggerated figure,” he said.
And as with cotton production, Colombia’s textile industry is currently experiencing the impact of large volumes of imports and the disruption of the productive apparatus.
This has been manifested in the current situation of companies such as Coltejer, which does not foresee the reactivation in 2022 of its production, paralyzed since last year in Colombia, due to the high costs involved, according to a report by the company’s management.
According to the country’s company register, Colombia has 35,111 apparel companies, 215 yarn companies and 7,294 textile companies.
The vast majority are micro, small and medium-sized businesses that are the driving force behind the sector (making up 99.7% of the total), and are the main employer of women in the manufacturing sector.
The Industry’s Vision
In a conversation with Bloomberg Línea, entrepreneur Mario Hernández pointed out that Colombia failed to sufficiently develop its raw material production chain and companies did not keep up to date with the fabric manufacturing processes available in markets such as Asia.
“We were assemblers and did not offer the complete package, which was raw materials, design and production,” Hernandez said, who believes that taxes are very high in Colombia and that takes away the market’s competitiveness.
“So you can’t get materials, you have to bring fabrics and everything (...) Coltejer was a company that has been around forever, but there was a lack of administration, a lack of knowledge, a lack of entrepreneurs joining forces. You see, entrepreneurs in the world get together, they get involved, they develop products. Lafayette, for example, continues to move forward because the owners are still on top of it, developing materials and everything. If this is neglected, things don’t move forward”.
Arturo Calle, a well-known entrepreneur in the sector in Colombia, told Bloomberg Línea that Colombia was once a large cotton producer and even had surpluses for export.
“In Tolima they had a large company that bought all the cotton, processed it and stored it in bales and so on. Colombia in the great days of Coltejer, Fabricato and other large companies produced all the cotton that was required,” he said.
Calle, founder of the homonymous clothing chain, recalled that the department of César “was a white sea of cotton”, as it was in the valleys and plains of Tolima, in towns like Armero.
“Today, if Colombia were a cotton-producing country, the growers would be doing well, because it is becoming scarce globally. A big pity, definitely, as it’s nowhere anymore, at least I have never heard of any place where there were cotton crops,” Calle said.
How to Revive the Industry
Regarding solutions to the problem, Calle said a recovery is not easy because most of the large factories that required cotton have closed.
Added to this are the difficulties in changing the vocation of some departments, where the land is now used as pasture for raising cattle, as well as planting rice, corn and palms.
“To turn that around, to do away with pasture, with livestock, is very difficult,” he said.
Calle also referred to the difficulties involved in refitting the sector’s productive apparatus with new machinery and the adoption of technologies.
“I personally do not see any concept where one can say it [the cotton industry] can come back, it is definitely not easy.”
To solve the issues, “the only thing is for the Colombian government, whoever it may be, to supply a subsidy per ton of cotton produced for domestic consumption. And if it is for export, then there should also be a subsidy,” he says.
A View to 2025
Conalgodón’s Pardo Villalba says that, despite the challenges, the company is optimistic about the situation given that “prices have ostensibly improved with the international commodity issue”.
“Today we have [domestic] prices that exceed $11 million per ton, while just two years ago we had prices that were below $5 million per ton. Despite the fact that the increase in prices also brings with it the increase in production costs, today we can say that the cotton crop is profitable,” he said.
He said Conalgodón has set goals for 2025, which start with exceeding 16,000 hectares of cotton cultivation in Colombia in 2022, and in three years to increase the amount of cultivation to about 40,000 hectares, with production of between 5,000 and 50,000 tons.
“We believe that cotton can recover, it can once again become an important short-cycle crop,” he said, adding that part of the strategy is based on encouraging crop rotations with rice and corn.
This “would be quite important, not only for farmers’ profitability, but also for soil improvement and sustainability. So we are optimistic”, he said.


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FLORENCE, Ky. – Fire swept through a motorcycle repair shop Sept. 26, forcing closure of a stretch of the Dixie Highway and bringing out four fire departments to battle the blaze.
The fire was first reported as a car fire at Short-T-Cycles at 2:15 p.m. Upon arriving at the scene, Florence firefighters did not see any smoke, but something in the back of the repair shop sparked the fire, assistant fire chief Kelly Aylor told the Cincinnati Inquirer. The fire was contained to the back of the shop, but the garage is a total loss. The cause of the blaze is still unknown.
The shop, owned by Joe “Short-T” Catton, specializes in Harley-Davidson and custom motorcycles and has been in business since 2002, according to its website.
John Maines, a friend of Catton‘s, told the newspaper he arrived just after the fire began and helped Catton save 15 customer bikes from the fire. Maines said they also saved much of the merchandise from the front of the shop.
Posted by Holly Wagner

domain: news


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More than fifty leaders from local businesses enjoyed an on-stage reception to launch the Mercury’s new Corporate Partnerships programmes – Footlight, Limelight, and Premiere!
Most consumers think businesses should support charities, and nearly half are more likely to buy from companies that donate to good causes, according to a study commissioned by Foresters, the financial services organisation.
The Mercury’s new partnerships will replace our Corporate Supporters scheme, which has run for many years and offered fewer benefits for the customers and staff of supporters. We are tremendously grateful to the Corporate Community and Corporate Company who have supported the Mercury for many years, and look forward to continuing our relationship in the future, as partners.
The new partnership schemes include press night access and free tickets for partners, their staff and customers, access to hospitality, branding and promotion opportunities, priority booking and discounted panto tickets. The scheme also sees the relaunch of the annual Colchester Lecture, a major night for business networking to be held in October.
Normal stage management rules – no drinks on stage! – did not apply on this one Monday night in June, with speakers including Carl Milton (Managing Director of Fenwick Colchester), David Cant (Partner, Birkett Long) and Denise Rossiter, Chief Executive of the Essex Chambers of Commerce.
Thanks to everyone who came along!
We’re now inviting founder members to join as Corporate Partners – head on over to the Corporate Partners page to find out more about the benefits of partnership for your staff and customers, while supporting the future of theatre here in Colchester and North Essex.


text: According to the news “中国製薬、日本でもじわり存在感 | AnswersNews (ten-navi.com)” released by AnswersNews on 22/Sep/2023, Chinese pharmaceutical innovations are gaining prominence in Japan. In 2021, the anti-cancer drug “Hiyasta” developed in China was approved in Japan. In September 2023, Shanghai-based biotech firm, Haihe Biopharma, applied for gumarontinib in Japan. Takeda Pharmaceutical Company acquired the development and sales rights for the VEGFR inhibitor drug, fruquintinib, from Hong Kong’s HUTCHMED, aiming for obtaining approvals in Japan, the US, and Europe. Chinese pharmaceutical industry is rapidly growing in new drug development. In 2019, BeiGene’s BTK inhibitor, “Brukinsa”, became the first China-developed drug to gain approval in the US, and it is now approved in over 65 countries. The Chinese government strategy called “Made in China 2025” which was initiated in 2015, prioritized the biopharmaceutical sector and promoted innovation in new drug development. As of 2023, the Chinese pharmaceutical market ranks second globally, and four Chinese companies are listed in the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies. Among these companies, Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals has marked its footprint in Japan, becoming the first Chinese company to initiate pharmaceutical sales there. Japanese pharmaceutical companies are also actively adopting Chinese innovations. Following Takeda’s agreement with HUTCHMED. EA Pharma has initiated joint research with Nanjing-based TransThera Sciences. In summary, Chinese pharmaceutical innovation is increasing its presence in Japan, and Japanese pharmaceutical companies are intensifying their efforts to incorporate Chinese innovations.


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Asus is traditionally known as a PC manufacturer but will join other new partners Hisense and TCL by releasing Google TV products in 2013. Google says existing partners LG, Vizio, and Sony will also have products at the show.
LG has already detailed the Google TV products it will show: the GA7900 and GA6400 televisions, which will feature 3D and an updated Google TV interface.
Google says there are many more apps on the way, the most recent being Amazon Instant released late 2012.
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will run from January 8 to 11 in Las Vegas and is the world's largest technology show.


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Episode 93: It’s time for A380 takes off in China, TSMC touts 2nm, One USB to rule them all, No Windows in Russia, FAA 5G woe, PCIe7 super speed, Tim Apple says wait!
Welcome back to the WTR as Karl and I discuss the latest tech news, gadgets, games, & films!
We are available on Apple and Spotify Podcasts, Anchor and via all good podcast sources!
This week we covered:
- Intel’s Arc A380 GPU launches in China for around $150 USD
- TSMC’s 2nm chips are coming to a device near you in 2026
- USB-C iPhone could become mandatory in the US as senators push for common charger law
- Microsoft appears to have blocked Windows downloads in Russia
- Intel really just asked the EU for $624M to pay it back for overturned anti-AMD fine
- FAA: Airlines must retrofit faulty altimeters “as soon as possible”
- PCIe 7.0 to quadruple the bandwidth of PCIe 5.0, coming in 2025
- Xbox Cloud Gaming is getting mouse and keyboard support and latency improvements
As always, we’d love to hear your comments
Find us on Twitter @WeeklyTechRant


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A designer had fun revisiting the most emblematic Internet logos in a retro-futuristic style inspired by the 80s. It’s like Back to the Future arrived in 2018.
Future Punk, a designer known for his retro-futuristic 80’s style, took on the current logos of some of the most famous Internet brands. So what would Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Amazon, or even Netflix, have looked like – had they been born in the 80s?
Check out the 10 logos created by Future Punk:
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After announcing a collaboration with designer Sean Wotherspoon, late last year, Vespa has now revealed the resulting special edition Primavera scooter.


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Mercedes to launch EQC: What does luxury electric power mean for India
The electric landscape for mobility in India is at the cusp of a massive change with the central and state governments increasingly looking at ways to popularize both manufacturing as well as buying electric vehicles here. With petrol and diesel prices at astronomical highs - also due to increasing taxes on the two fuels, it is only a matter of time when EVs begin to prove that going clean makes a whole lot of economical sense too. And while Mercedes-Benz EQC isn't likely to be an affordable offering for the masses, its launch on October 8 is expected to open up a whole new playing field for EVs in India - the luxury field.
EQC is a bold statement of intent from Mercedes, a company with a rich legacy of manufacturing vehicles at the pinnacle of both performance and comfort. Launching EQC in India is an even bolder statement of intent because at a time when some giants int he global auto industry still see the Indian market to be too nascent for bringing in EVs, Mercedes is pushing forward with its plans for the country.
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EQC is expected to be priced at upwards of ₹1 crore. Clearly, the target audience is a niche buyer who - in all probabilities - add the EV as a second or third product in his or her garage. For Mercedes then, it may not be about raking in the numbers but paving the way for a future when EVs are a common sight.
Mercedes EQC is powered by a 80kWH lithium-ion battery with a warranty cover of eight years. The company claims that the battery has been tested in extreme conditions around the world and can be recharged from zero to full in around 10 hours while access to a DC charger will sharply bring down that time to just 90 minutes. With a range of around 350 kilometres, the EQC could also do short highway runs while offering the same level of comfort to passengers as all its siblings do.
Mercedes has equipped the car with a large 12.3-inch dual infotainment screen and creature comforts like ENERGIZING comfort control which can be set to modes such as vitality, refresh etc for customized music and temperature control. The front seats offer massage functionality while the latest generation MBUX system comes in as well.
Is Mercedes ready to usher in electric mobility in the luxury segment in India? EQC clearly points to this. Is India, however, ready to welcome a luxury EV here? Time will tell.


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Co-operative Food is trialling contactless payment ahead of an anticipated uplift in its use during the Olympics.
The grocer will trial the technology in 175 stores, predominantly within the M25, as it seeks to improve customer service.
The Co-op began using the technique at its four Manchester city centre stores last week and will upgrade chip and pin terminals to be contactless in an extra 50 sites within the M25 later this month.
A further 125 stores in and around London will join the trial from early May. It has also been trialling the payment method in its pharmacies.
A Co-op spokesman said: “Customer convenience is a priority. The significance of locating most of the trial sites in the M25 area is that they will all be online for contactless payment ahead of the London Olympic Games, where this point-of-sale technology is expected to be promoted and used prominently.”
A decision will be made on whether to roll out contactless payment to all of the retailer’s 2,883 food stores by the end of 2012.
Other retailers to have introduced the payment method include Superdrug, WHSmith, Lakeland, Waitrose and Wilkinson.
The move follows the grocer’s roll-out of its InStock system in February. The automated store ordering system allows the retailer to improve availability, increase frequency of deliveries and free up store staff to focus on serving customers.
The Co-operative Group chief information officer Andy Haywood said: “The Co-operative has been working hard to roll out this unique payment method across Greater London in time for the 2012 Olympics, which has been billed as a contactless event, and then its entire pharmacy and food estate by the end of the year.
“Contactless technology will mean a much faster and easier, yet secure, way for customers to pay for low-value goods, which will result in shorter and speedier queues in our stores.”


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The Miami Valley Restaurant Association's Summer Restaurant Week produced record turnouts this year with more restaurants and more people participating.
Restaurant week was held from July 29 to Aug. 3 with 48 participating restaurants -- including C'Est Tou, Coco's Bistro, Figlio and El Meson -- that served 8,752 meals.
Diners purchased three course meals for $20.07 and $1 from each meal was donated to either Oak Tree Corner, a charity for grieving children and their families, or Clothes that Work, a nonprofit that provides interview clothes for men, women and teens.
The MVRA was able to generate more than $175,000 worth of business for the participating restaurants.
"We had an influx of people eating and coming out," said Lisa Grigsby, of the MVRA. "July is usually one of the slowest months for the restaurant industry."
The semi-annual promotion started in January of 2005 with 20 restaurants and 4,200 meals.
The winter restaurant week is scheduled for Jan. 27 to Feb. 1 and meals will be priced at $20.08.
Founded in 1985, the MVRA has 357 members.


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The study found that overall, the images were viewed more and recalled better than the text. The study concluded that PWLs that were designed with consistent visual and textual message were more easily recalled by those who saw them. It also found that images captured and held smokers’ attention better than text-only warning labels, a finding that supports the FDA’s push for big tobacco companies to begin to include them on packages and products.
Tobacco companies have argued that graphic warning labels are often too graphic, emotionally charged and not always based on facts. The FDA and supporters of graphic warning labels often argue that requiring pictorial warning labels would better communicate the risks associated with smoking more so than text-only warnings.
You can read a summary of the study here.


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Rules that require companies to report the results of their operating segments to investors the way a company’s managers view them are in focus again after U.S. securities regulators settled a suit with truck and engine maker Paccar over “accounting deficiencies” this week.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said in a complaint that Paccar had waited too long to break out its aftermarket parts segment for reporting purposes, since management started reporting that unit as a separate segment for its own purposes as early as 2008.
“The reason why the parts business is a big issue with these guys, and a lot of companies like this, is that it’s sort of counter cyclical,” said Dan Mahoney, director of research at accounting research firm CFRA in New York. “The parts business was doing very well at a time the trucking business wasn’t, because instead of buying a new truck, people were buying more parts.”
Investors would have been frustrated by the lack of disclosure because they couldn’t see from the public filings how each business was doing, Mr. Mahoney said.
“The essence of the segment reporting requirements under GAAP is to enable investors to see an entity ‘through the eyes of management,’” The SEC said in its complaint. “However, in reporting its truck and parts results as a single segment, PACCAR did not provide investors with the same insight into the company as PACCAR’s executives. While the company only reported two units to investors, Paccar’s strategic planning documents, that included forecasts and details on upcoming initiatives, had rather been broken out into three separate businesses, for its truck business, parts business and financial services group.”
Paccar and its subsidiary agreed to pay a $225,000 penalty and settle the SEC’s charges without admitting or denying them. The company’s chief financial officer, Robert Christensen, told Dow Jones that the failure to report the results for its parts operating segment was “not an oversight” and that the company has since “enhanced its segment reporting.”
Segments are a common problem that the SEC’s Division of Corporation cites in letters to companies when it is reviewing filings, Mr. Mahoney said. Reporting of operating segments are often seen as a gray area for accounting purposes. The Financial Accounting Standards Board is looking at whether companies require further guidance on segment reporting and London-based International Accounting Standards Board has been reviewing whether current rules around segment reporting hurt investors’ ability to make comparisons between companies.


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SZA claims Sephora accused her of stealing makeup
The singer is accusing employees of the beauty company of racial profiling.
Like thousands of her fans, SZA is simply trying to shop Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty collection in peace.
Taking to Twitter on Tuesday (April 30), the Top Dog Entertainment artist recalled an unfortunate shopping experience that took place at a Sephora location in California, during which she alludes to being racially profiled by a non-POC in a similar fashion as the now-viral BBQ Becky and Permit Patty incidents.
“Lmao Sandy Sephora location 614 Calabasas called security to make sure I wasn’t stealing,” the Ctrl singer wrote, claiming that someone who was presumably an associate at the Calabasas store had alerted security while she was shopping. “We had a long talk. U have a blessed day Sandy.”
In a follow-up tweet, she joked: “Can a b—h cop her fenty in peace er whut.”
Ironically enough, the singer has teased a song utilizing the store’s name, leading a fan to be quick to point out and wonder if she’ll be dropping the full version of the track anytime soon.
Additionally, SZA interestingly used to work for the beauty brand. She previously touched on her experiences working for Sephora in an interview with Elle, during which she talks about what she learned from her time with the company prior to kickstarting her music career full time.
“Basically, the most valuable thing I learned is that a lot of ‘organic’ things are bad for your skin,” the Grammy nominee explained at the time. “Just because a product is ‘natural’ or ‘vegan’ doesn’t mean you won’t break out. There are so many natural and non-natural irritants, and some chemicals are actually nice to your skin, and some are hella chemical-y and mess up your complexion.”
She added, “It’s the same thing with price. Some of the biggest skin issues I’d see were from really expensive brands that I can’t bash, because they’ll hate me forever. [Laughing.] But the bottom line is, most skin doesn’t need tons of stuff on it. Keep it as simple as you can, and use what you like, even if it’s not trendy. If it works for you, don’t apologize for it.”
While the singer’s sage beauty advice rings true despite being well-removed from her time working for Sephora at this point, hopefully this recent incident will not be repeated and the company can learn from being publicly called out for its inexcusable alleged behavior. At the time of this report, the brand has yet to address the situation or the star on Twitter.
In related news, TDE president Punch recently teased that SZA is busy at work on her next album.
“Ctrl was a moment. Can’t wait to start really digging into this SZA album,” he wrote on Twitter. “I got a couple ideas lol.”
Take a look at SZA addressing her recent experience being racially profiled at a Sephora store in the tweets below.


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Wow. Who would have thought that Apple would dethrone Microsoft in the category of market capitalization. They did just that!
For Apple 'followers', who have always seen Microsoft through some Manichean prism, this event takes on religious proportions. For the rest of us Apple admirers (who don't rely on anti-psychotic meds to get through the day), however, this is noteworthy for what it reveals about… Continue
Added by Clymer/JR on June 7, 2010 at 11:00am —
has finally confirmed
a 2010 release of its Chrome OS. Not simply a browser any longer, Chrome represents an open source Linux based architecture which scales upward from netbooks to desktops, and downwards to provide some overlap to its smartphone platform, Android. With Windows 7 gaining such good press, it can only be beneficial to… Continue
Added by Clymer/JR on July 10, 2009 at 12:00pm —
In an earlier blog, I posted an analysis
of the "open standards" effort in cloud computing, and the opposition coming from Microsoft. Yesterday, 30Mar09, IBM, Sun Microsystems & other collaborators released specifics on a proposed interoperability architecture which they dub the… Continue
Added by Clymer/JR on March 31, 2009 at 11:00am —
Shakespeare's Hamlet utters..."the lady doth protest too much, me thinks". In a remarkable statement, Microsoft (arguably the archetype software predator) is complaining that "Cloud Computing" standards need to be more open. Though on its face, some may see this as the very height of hypocrisy, others now believe that reality has forced a change in azimuth for this behemoth. Could Microsoft's apparent embrace of open standards and interoperability be genuine. Read this interesting… Continue
Added by Clymer/JR on March 27, 2009 at 12:30pm —
It had been at least 24 hours without a new Microsoft law suit. Well, they're at it again in classic Microsoft fashion with minions of attorneys trying legal intimidation to suppress anything NIH (not invented here). This time, they're suing Tom-Tom. The case is interesting, because it calls a lie to company efforts to coexist with the Linux open-source community. Read commentary from open source experts in this… Continue
Added by Clymer/JR on March 3, 2009 at 1:30pm —
Though somewhat technical, this paper
addresses growing concerns over browser insecurity. It describes the current climate well: as web sites (have) evolved into dynamic web applications composing content from various sources, browsers have become multi-principal operating environments with resources shared among mutually distrusting web site principals.
The paper introduces readers to a Microsoft Research/Univ of… Continue
Added by Clymer/JR on March 2, 2009 at 10:58am —
Microsoft has announced a new program, BizSpark
, creating incentives to start-up companies willing to use Microsoft technologies. Read about this new approach, as the software giant becomes more "open".
Added by Clymer/JR on November 6, 2008 at 1:11pm —
For those who haven't seen a Personal Health Record (PHR) service up close, I'd recommend a tour of Google Health
. Along with Aetna
, they have invested significant resources towards e-personalization of health care delivery. Scores of other ventures exist, as well, in this rapidly expanding space. Read all about it!
Added by Clymer/JR on October 29, 2008 at 10:40am —
If you thought the "cloudy" skies were getting crowded, make way for Microsoft
. The company announced that it is introducing Windows Azure
, a web based services platform that will reside on its distributed data centers, and will be available in CY'09. Read a preliminary… Continue
Added by Clymer/JR on October 28, 2008 at 10:00am —
Aetna has been developing an in-house Personal Health Record (PHR). Today, it announced
a collaboration with Microsoft, allowing Aetna members to transfer the information in their Aetna CareEngine®-powered record directly to Microsoft HealthVault, a security-enhanced, Web-based… Continue
Added by Clymer/JR on October 27, 2008 at 11:26am —
on Microsoft release of Silverlight 2, compatible with 'Rich Internet Application", an open-sourced platform for developing media content. The company provides free developer access under a 'Microsoft Permissive License'. Might we see more open-sourced releases from Microsoft in the future???
Added by Clymer/JR on October 14, 2008 at 10:30am —
describing new Scripps Health Service
research project, involving 'genetic scanning' of 10,000 volunteers with 20 year follow-up. Partners include Microsoft
, and Navigenics
. In addition to ethical… Continue
Added by Clymer/JR on October 13, 2008 at 12:00pm —


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As an analyst, I try to pick emerging themes and topics around a range of industries and most recently I had a chance to study how Pharma companies are catching up to the digital trends – A latest article by Manhattan Research on “Digital health” 2012 suggests that online health awareness has advanced significantly and the new media tools such as online video, discussion through social media, and use of mobile devices have become most essential to any enterprise and an integral part of the day-to-day lives. It is very clear that customer trends and rising healthcare costs are prompting these pharma brands to put more weight behind digital strategies, though they have a long way to go and fill the gap between where customers are and where the budgets are going.
In reality, adoption of digital technologies should grow a bit faster because customers are becoming more demanding, however mindsets are changing – “it’s great to celebrate a 100 years legacy in the business, but their technology capabilities don’t’ have to match the age of the enterprise”.
Studies have shown that Pharma is just NOT the only industry, facing the heat of this massive transformation, enterprises across various industries have seen their business models affected as they contend with twin forces of technology and globalization.
Most executives say the three major trends in digital – Big data/Analytics, Digital marketing and the use of new platforms, cloud and mobility are top priorities for organization, however McKinsey’s annual survey on the topic also report some tough challenges as in, half of its respondents say their companies’ digital initiatives are either too small to deliver results on their objectives or they lack capabilities to meet their technological priorities.
Most common challenges for business leaders in adopting digital technologies
What C-level executives say – Digital doesn’t deliver?
Digital has transformed our universe completely – Not only me and you! I wonder, how it has really challenged enterprises. Once Global CEO, BBDO, Andrew Robertson spoke in one of his interviews with Forbes claiming that he doesn’t really see digital as a technology or new medium – Digital is like learning a new language, something we could use to express ideas and create magical experiences that customers choose to engage in. In my opinion, many leaders fail to take time to assess how comfortable they are with this new language. Learning a new language takes time and dedication – Now, it’s up to you, what is your approach to master this new language?
CEO Nancy McKinstry, Wolters Kluwer says her company’s professional customers have always paid for value information and so when the digital came into reality, what her team found that they just not produced pure information but also developed sophisticated tools that customers can use every day to diagnose patients and to simplify complex tax return. As their customers started using these new digital tools, the retention rates went up, so the digital initiatives have helped increase the value that a company can deliver to its customers.
Ubiquity of digital technologies threatens existing business models?
The change is occurring at an alarming rate and many companies are not ready to introduce new business models to keep up with the evolving demands of customers and harness digital capabilities within their existing commercial functions. Whether such digital activities should be centralized or regionally focused and how much online activities should be standardized based on various geography, product or service – Such questions are thought-provoking and creating confusion among enterprises, however leaders need to understand what works out for them, depending on the industry they are operating into. For example if a company’s strength is having thousands of retail outlets, its digital experience should match up to that advantage, not to replace it.
So, is there a single solution to this? I would say – the mindset needs to change, first.
Going onwards, Marketing and IT teams will require a collaborative partnership
Customers are increasingly interacting with brands via social media and have shifted almost seamlessly to new digital channels but on contrary, enterprises are still in the early days of finding resources/staffing for social media and struggling to analyze social data. We can’t just leave this task to marketers, who have been in charge of social media. New digital platforms are disrupting both marketers and IT leaders – As empowered customers gain more power over suppliers via mobile and social technologies, the ability to consistently deliver positive customer experiences will be critical to success of the organization. Traditionally marketing and IT have been much siloed, however in today’s time both marketing and IT teams need to share joint ownerships and have to be evaluated against the same business goals like higher customer retention or increased margins etc. For example, Marketing should develop competencies with IT to help shift the business from paper-based marketing to digital marketing, similarly IT leaders need to develop teams that can focus on helping marketing leverage technology.
Incorporate digital initiatives into your organization’s strategic plan
Despite being well informed about the potential of digital technologies, executives find two challenges: organizational structure and lack in their infrastructure and IT in fulfilling the promise of their digital initiatives, clearly show their unpreparedness to take advantage of a data rich world.
Executives will need to focus on building and acquiring skills to carry out their digital agenda. I believe, in today’s organizations, success depends on people as companies struggle/compete for the digital talent not only within their industries but also with start ups. In regards to digital technologies, I think we are all learning more from each other from the amount of cases everybody sees – in nutshell, everyone is experimenting so, what do companies do? Innovative companies should be resourceful in nurturing in-house skills wherever possible as well as creative in setting up processes that fast track for talent to implement their strategies most effectively. Remember, companies where thought leaders are actively engaged and sponsor digital business initiatives, it is much likelier to say their organization deliver more values than the competitors.


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Contactless payments pass one million trips
More than one million public transport journeys across NSW have now been paid for by customers tapping on and off with a credit or debit card.
Commuters have embraced the option of using their plastic or payment-enabled mobile smart devices on train, ferry and light rail services across the Opal network.
Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance said there had been significant uptake in contactless payments since the trial extended to heavy rail.
“Fares purchased through contactless payments have grown strongly since the trial expanded to our city and regional train services in November,” Mr Constance said.
“Over the Christmas and New Year period contactless payments jumped by about 20 per cent a week. This convenient option is proving to be a real hit with tourists and visitors, with uptake at the airport stations twice that of other parts of the rail network.
“The one millionth contactless fare was made by a customer travelling between the domestic and international airports on Monday – 49 days after we expanded the trial to include our train network.
“NSW is the first state to offer a contactless payments innovation and this Government is excited to remain at the forefront of transport technology worldwide.”
CEO of the Tourism and Transport Forum Margy Osmond said contactless payments is an absolute winner from a tourism point of view.
“The modern traveller expects great public transport which is easy to use and convenient. Contactless is a fantastic option for foreign and domestic visitors to Sydney and encourages them to use our great public transport network and stay off the roads,” Ms Osmond said.
Minister Constance reaffirmed that the introduction of contactless payments was not about replacing the foundation of digital payments in NSW, the Opal system.
“Opal won’t be going anywhere and is still the most affordable way to pay fares, this trial is about our Government providing greater flexibility and convenience,” he said.


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Apple has one of the world’s biggest gaming ecosystems with $47 billion of spending in 2020, according to measurement firm Sensor Tower. And while it doesn’t have a game business, its share of gaming revenues thanks to its 30% take was $14.7 billion last year.
That’s one of the reasons Epic Games sued Apple for antitrust reasons. Add to that controversies around the Identifier for Advertising (IDFA) and alternative payments and it has presented a challenging platform for game companies to navigate.
Our panel at GamesBeat Summit Next examined those challenges, and we gathered a group of outspoken game leaders to talk about it. Joseph Kim, CEO of Lila games and frequent podcaster, moderated the session and the speakers included Chris Hewish, president of game monetization firm Xsolla; Brian Bowman, CEO of Consumer Acquisition; and Rick Hoeg, a Michigan attorney at Hoeg Law and creator of the YouTube show Virtual Legality.
While Apple created a giant platform for mobile games, its relationship with game companies has never been easy. In the past year, the cracks in the relationship became huge fissures as Epic Games sued Apple (and Google) for antitrust. With the IDFA changes, Apple’s emphasis on privacy over targeted advertising was directed at rivals like Facebook, but game developers got caught in the crossfire. But thanks to part of a judge’s verdict in the Epic antitrust case, some openings like alternative payments and off-store promotion are now possible. Navigating Apple is all about dangers and opportunities. Apple did not respond to our request to appear on the panel
Epic vs. Apple
Hoeg started the discussion.
“For those of you that haven’t followed the story, Epic put a specific link and or button in the Fortnite application on both the iOS and Google Play stores in order to get people to pay them directly instead of paying through the in-app processing on Apple and Google,” Hoeg said. “As you might have suspected, Apple and Google both made moves to get Epic off of their store as soon as that happened and Epic was ready with a federal lawsuit, basically accusing both for different reasons that we can get into if you want of antitrust violations under the United States Sherman Antitrust Act.”
That led to preliminary injunctions, temporary restraining orders, and a trial that was held in May. The federal court decided mostly in Apple’s favor, finding that Apple wasn’t a monopoly, that it didn’t have illegally restraint trade, and went down the line, basically talking about how a walled garden was mostly permissible under United States law, Hoeg said.
“There was one major exception to that, however, and that was with respect to what we call anti-steering rules,” Hoeg said. “Apple had a provision in its app developer contracts that said you aren’t allowed to put a call to action link a metadata button in your app description that will send people off platform Apple wants the money that it wants going through an app payment processing.”
He added that the court said that went too far, and the judge, Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, used California’s unfair competition laws to make that case. As of that trial order in September 10, Apple had about 90 days to incorporate that to change whatever it needed its terms and conditions to be enjoined from doing. It made those changes to its developer contract, and both companies have appealed the decision to the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Apple asked for a stay on the order, and it has refused to reinstate Fortnite in the app store while the litigation is still going on.
Hoeg said it isn’t clear if Apple will have to do anything in the near term, particularly while the case is pending. And the case could be in litigation for years.
Asked if game companies can enable off-App-Store payments now, Hoeg said that another class-action lawsuit is in process against Apple, (primarily called Cameron for purposes of conversation). And in that lawsuit, under very similar premises that Epic brought, Apple agreed to settle. And when Apple agreed to settle, it allowed certain things like emails to be sent to users who were otherwise going through their app store to give their contact information to these developers, Hoeg said.
And so Apple has been making moves with changes to their app development guidelines to allow things like those emails. But in respect to Apple versus Epic specifically, we haven’t seen a change to Section 3.1 in their app developer guidelines that prohibits that metadata, those links, and those calls to action, Hoeg said.
“We’re still in an amorphous, ambiguous period, where we don’t know whether a stay will be granted,” Hoeg said. “If it isn’t, we don’t know what the Apple contract will look like after they abide by the court’s order. And so you have a lot of developers moving to say we’re going to address this, we’re going to do calls to action and various things, some of which are overly aggressive.”
And so it has turned into a waiting game now.
Hewish from Xsolla, which provides alternative payment platforms, said his company is seeing a lot of developers and publishers spinning up web shops that are stores for their own games or a version of their game that runs on the web.
It may link back into the app itself in the App Store on the back end. And they’re driving users to that web shop and monetizing them there, Hewish said.
“And in that way, they’re avoiding having to pay that 30% fee to Apple doing it this way,” Hewish said. “At least from our perspective, they’re paying anywhere from 7% to 10%, versus the 30% fee. There’s also something called top agents that you see developers doing. Supercell has been doing the top of page companies like Scopely. They’re doing more of a web shop or web version of your game. And this is something that has been going on for a little while. And some of the larger companies were doing this and they were reaching out to their players through Discord or online in other ways and directing them over to these stores.”
Hewish said a lot of companies are sitting on the sidelines, as they’re not sure if these actions would amount to a violation of the App Store guidelines or not. Apple removed one guideline, which prohibited developers from using information or contacting players based on information they found at the app, and it removed a guideline which restricted how developers used the data. Those things have changed, Hewish said.
“Mobile developers can actually collect information about the players in-app emails,” Hewish said. “nd then they can use that to contact the players and direct them to these alternative stores. And with those things happening, we’ve seen a big coming off the sidelines of a lot of mobile publishers and developers who realize they’re seeing Supercell and others already doing it. And now it seems to be more acceptable with Apple. So let’s jump into it. What we’re not seeing yet is people that are actually putting new payment systems into an app, or creating ads in an app that drives them outside of the App Store. That is still, from our perspective, a no go zone.”
Hewish said that driving the users to the alternative stores to make purchases is an improvement because, rather than paying 30%, developers are paying more like 10%. Xsolla charges a 5% fee for its services.
“That’s a huge, huge savings,” Hewish said.
Hoeg said that the courts don’t want to be in the business of second-guessing legit business decisions, only that monopolistic practices don’t become anticompetitive in the face of excessive profits. But he noted the percentages are coming down, as Google knocked down its subscription rates in certain cases.
“You see this pressure, whether it’s not solely from litigation, or political pressure, or otherwise,” he said. “I definitely think that number is below 30%, which is the standard that we have seen. It is the 12% standard that Tim Sweeney set in the Epic Games Store? I have my doubts, and I think the court had its doubts. And so far Epic hasn’t shown a profit” in the Epic Games Store.
“One of the questions is what is Apple going to be asked to do by the law to move it in that direction,” Hoeg said. “The court was pretty adamant about the fact that Apple has a right to get some amount of money for using its intellectual property.”
Bowman said he thinks 5% or less is where it will settle in terms of Apple’s take. Hewish also couldn’t put a number on an exact appropriate fee for Apple or other store providers to take.
“Whoever is actually handling those payments, they have to remember that there’s going to be a big cost around customer support,” he said. “Handling taxes, that compliance, customer support chargebacks, all of that stuff. So as much as we like to talk about the percentage of the fee, it has to be paid for somewhere. And then there’s just the platform fee itself running the servers operating all of that. I agree that somewhere in that middle range seems to be shifting out is a fair fee.”
Hoeg thinks it will be years before the courts finish with the case, and he thinks that the core part of the ruling on the federal side — which favored Apple, and the California law — which favored Epic — will likely be upheld. But he’s not positive about that.
“It wouldn’t surprise, me to be honest, because the wheels of law grind so slowly, to actually see legislatures, whether it’s in South Korea or other jurisdictions, move faster and start pushing this harder than just the legal system,” Hoeg said.
Regardless, Hewish said, “What’s happening is people are now opening up their eyes to other ways to monetize their apps and their games. I see this as a situation where new business models may grow up around the App Store that actually diminish the importance of the App Store itself, on the bottom line of these companies. For me, the exciting thing is, whatever happens to the app stores, eventually they will open up. The walls are crumbling, but there are immediate opportunities to catch up to the reality that there’s a bigger world out there that we can do business in.”
Bowman’s firm has managed over $3 billion in paid user-acquisition spending on social.
Kim said that the alternative payment revenues is a kind of “gravy” to recover some of the loss that game makers are experiencing from the IDFA changes, which makes privacy a bigger matter by asking users upfront (in the 14.5 update from the spring) whether they want to be tracked for ad purposes.
Most users are opting out (perhaps 30% are opting in), and that makes it harder to target user-acquisition ads at users who have been making regular purchases in a game. Kim noted some revenue impacts on mobile game and app companies, with those such as Zynga, Facebook, Snap, and others noting that their revenues have been hurt by the IDFA change.
“It’s pretty clear that Apple’s push is to regain control of merchandising by eliminating the IDFA, and it is really affecting the mobile app advertising industry. But it does it in a unique way. Across the board, it has impacted both targeting and measurement, which has had a pretty major impact now on both ecommerce and user acquisition,” Bowman said. “They’re both less effective. We’re seeing an iOS revenue loss between 15% to 35%, for mobile app and ecommerce advertisers. And the odd part here is CPMs (ad rates, or costs per mille) are up, ad impressions are up. And the quality of impressions are likely down due to less effective audience targeting. And if you look at the earnings reports from Facebook and Twitter, they both said that. Facebook said ad impressions are up 9%, CPMs are 22%.”
He said the more that an advertiser focuses on direct response advertising, the greater the financial loss to the business appears to be, based on the financial earnings reports. The more narrow your audience is, meaning you’re targeting dolphins and whales (spenders), the greater the negative impact on IDFA losses, Bowman said.
Without personalization, you’re seeing more ads and the quality of targeting is worse. In other words, ads are becoming more spammy again, rather than having some kind of quality targeting. The third quarter is where we saw the full IDFA impact, Bowman said. But figuring out the true impact is probably going to take years, he said.
He noted a story in the Wall Street Journal that said that a dozen ecommerce companies have all spent more money on ads to get the same number of sales. And they don’t have enough data to effectively measure the specifics of the targeting.
Google, by contrast, had a huge quarter as more advertising spending moved to Android, Bowman said.
“Over the past decade, we’ve all built our model, or lifetime value model, to analyze and work on things to take into account this kind of deterministic certainty,” Bowman said. “When that gets removed very, very quickly, the whole industry has to spin and figure out how to take advantage of it. To my earlier point, in direct response advertising, Snap is saying that it’s about 50% of their business, so they’re definitely feeling the pinch. And if you look at the big one, Facebook, they had an amazing quarter revenue of $29 billion up 35% year over year.”
But Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook’s president) said that the headwinds were coming. Twitter’s impact wasn’t as severe. Bowman thinks that Apple itself and Unity will have a good chance of growing their ad businesses. More spenders are exploring their solutions as they seek to recover lost efficiency in ad spending.
Kim asked if Apple was deliberately trying to hurt a rival, Facebook, with the IDFA actions.
“I think it has absolutely nothing to do with privacy. It has to do with Apple losing control of merchandising at the App Store,” Bowman said. “If it had to do with privacy, they would have put the app tracking transparency on their own apps when they launched 14.6. It would also make the ad pop-up window say, ‘Do you want to be tracked with Apple products?’ They don’t.”
He added, “It’s Apple exerting monopolistic capabilities because they can. They’re clearly on the path to try and launch another ad network. They failed twice. I would suppose that they’ll fail a third time unless they’re going to build something that’s elegant and allows people to target with efficiency that has been lost. I don’t believe it’s uniquely designed for Facebook.”
Hoeg said that privacy is indeed a buzzword that Apple touted in the lawsuit with Apple.
“That all feeds into whether or not it’s legitimate,” he said. “I think there are perfectly valid reasons to think it may not be. And I certainly agree with those. It certainly presents as something that is a PR when to certain folks that people care about that word, they care about privacy, they care about security. And I think overall, we’re entering into a world where you’re going to have a lot of opportunity. There’s a lot of changes on the horizon, regulatory, legal, or otherwise. And I think that’s always exciting, even if it is sometimes difficult to predict.”
Hewish said his final thought was that it is an exciting time.
“Developers and publishers no longer have to be fearful of living and staying within the walled garden,” Hewish said. They can break through and look out to a bigger world outside of it. And what I mean by that is by getting your game onto the web and driving business there through Google ads, or whatever it may be, they will have more personal relationships with the players and gain access to up to 60% larger audiences, when you start to look at a lot of the other territories around the world.”
Bowman said, “Creative is king. Since the algorithms have changed fundamentally, the last lever you have control over is do better creative.”
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. Discover our Briefings.


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Out of nowhere, Lucky Motor Corporation (LMC) has given yet another push to Kia prices in Pakistan citing depreciating currency value and rising freight cost as the reason behind the latest increase.
It is pertinent to mention that the prices of Kia vehicles in Pakistan already witnessed an increase in the month of January 2022. The latest price revision is effective from 1st March 2022.
According to the notification, Kia Picanto has received a price push of up to Rs 214,000 after which the Picanto MT is available for PKR 24.0 lac whereas the Picanto AT now cost PKR 25.0 lac. An increase of up to Rs 236,000 has been made to Sportage variants after which the Sportage Alpha is available at PKR 50.0 lac, the Sportage FWD at PKR 55.0 lac and Sportage AWD at PKR 60.0 lac.
The highest increase comes in case of the newly introduced Stonic B-segment crossover. With a Rs 400,000 increase the Stonic EX is now priced at PKR 41.5 lac whereas after a Rs 475,000 push, the Stonic EX+ now cost PKR 44.5 lac. The prices of imported Carnival and locally assembled Sorento remain unchanged, which once again gives us the hint of possible discontinuation of Sorento variants in Pakistan as the vehicle might get replaced with the new generation model somewhere down the line.
A computer animation professional with over 23 years of industry experience having served in leading organizations, TV channels & production facilities in Pakistan. An avid car enthusiast and petrolhead with an affection to deliver quality content to help shape opinions. Formerly written for PakWheels as well as major publications including Dawn. Founder of CarSpiritPK.com


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Honor has announced that its second-gen folding phone, the Honor Magic Vs, will launch in China on 23 November.
An Honor spokesperson confirmed to Tech Advisor that it will come to global markets in Q1 2023, though they did not say which countries specifically.
Honor previously said at the IFA trade show in Berlin in September that its next foldable would launch in Europe.
The Magic Vs is following on quickly from the Honor Magic V that went only went on sale in China in January 2022.
It seems Honor is hitting its stride without being beholden to Huawei, its former parent company. Unlike Huawei, in Europe Honor’s phones can ship with the Google Play Store and natively support Google Mobile Services for apps like Uber.
I presume the ‘Vs’ in Magic Vs is pronounced ‘vee es’ as it looks like an S version update of the phone – like the iPhone 4S, say – but it makes me want to call it the Honor Magic Versus, which sounds quite cool.
Honor has only shared the above image of the phone, but it does indeed look quite similar to the original Magic V, which has a 7.9in inner folding OLED display with a single camera cut out at the top on the right half.
Looking down from above as the promotion image does, you can see the gold model has a similar camera positioning, but it gives little else away.
The Magic V currently comes in silver, black, and an orange vegan leather version, so this gold looks like a new hue. Given the phone is an ‘S’ version, it’s safe to say the updates could be quite incremental.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the first version should at least see an upgrade to the more battery-efficient 8+ Gen 1, and while the triple 50Mp cameras looked decent, those lenses are always an area to improve on updated phone models.
There’s no word on pricing for the Honor Magic Vs yet – all details are promised at the launch event. The first version cost ¥9,999, which is about $1,370/£1,200 at the time of writing. This is very competitive given the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 costs $1,799/£1,649, but if the Magic Vs comes to the UK it’ll surely cost more than the converted price.
Still, I hold out hope for a European launch of the phone, which seems likely given the IFA announcement. Folding phones are exciting but have already hit a bit of a bump in the road with no amazing new features. Samsung is the obvious market leader, and we need companies like Honor to keep the competition up. It’ll keep ideas fresh and hopefully drive the price down to make these exciting new devices more affordable for more people.
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.


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Crypto adoption has grown significantly in the last two years. It is one of the fastest-growing trends ever experienced in the market, which is expected to continue over time. A look into the growth trend shows some unlikely drivers of this adoption. The NFT space is one that also grew into prominence in the last year, and according to the data, NFTs have contributed substantially to the adoption of crypto in some parts of the globe.
CSAO Embraces Crypto Through NFTs


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Gas Prices Falling Across State
JT Thaden | Jun 18, 2019 AT 9:30 am
(KNSI) - Good news for drivers as we head into the summer driving season: Prices at the pump are tumbling.
According to AAA, prices have been trending downward since Memorial Day, which is usually when the price begins its steady climb. The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas is six cents cheaper than it was just last week.
AAA spokesperson Jeanette Casselano says domestic gas inventories sit at 235 million barrels, which is helping to feed the growing demand.
Nationally, the price for a gallon of regular unleaded is $2.68 a gallon. In Minnesota, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded is even cheaper at $2.58 a gallon, which is seven cents cheaper than a week ago, 13 cents cheaper than a month ago, and 21 cents cheaper than a year ago.


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Frito-Lay Chairman-CEO Steven Reinemund was named president of parent PepsiCo; the post had been vacant. Mr. Reinemund will remain at Frito until a successor is found.
Du Pont Co. to Y&R Advertising, New York, from RT&E, Wilmington, Del., for the U.S. portion of its $15 million to $20 million Advanced Fiber Systems account.
Eve.com is expected to name Arnold Ingalls Moranville, San Francisco, as first agency to handle an estimated $10 million consumer branding campaign.
Coca-Cola Co. Chairman-CEO Doug Ivester was to make a personal apology on Belgian TV on June 25 for the recent Coca-Cola contamination scare. Created in-house, the commercial will run on all four national channels. Other plans include the free distribution of a can of Coca-Cola to all the Belgian population, expected this week.
Novell makes its TV advertising debut July 30 with a buy on ESPN's telecast of the Senior PGA Utah Showdown. Y&R Advertising, San Francisco, is doing the campaign promoting the networking software marketer's Internet capabilities.
Copyright June 1999, Crain Communications Inc.


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Murdoch's BSkyB opens a SF office in search of tech investments and partnerships
There’s a new strategic investor making the rounds in Silicon Valley looking for deals at the intersection of technology and content. Like nearly all other strategics, this group is making promises of "synergies" and "value adds" and "leverage." Unlike most investors, however, history suggests it might actually be true.
BSkyB (Sky), which is the UK’s biggest pay-TV broadcaster, and is part-owned by Rupert Murdoch, is opening an office in San Francisco with the express purpose of finding technology investments and partnerships. Manning that post is the company’s former Director of Product Management & Marketing and newly minted VP of Business Development Hilary Perchard, an 11-year veteran of the Sky organization who moved to the Bay Area in March.
“I really drew the short straw in the office, huh? They asked me to move to this place where the weather’s nice and there are smart young people everywhere building amazing companies,” Perchard says, apparently unaware that, like London, SF isn’t exactly known for its sunshine.
Sky has been early to a number of major technology trends over the last decade, including mobile, broadband, TV everywhere, and internet connected in-home hardware, Perchard says. In many cases the firm has developed its offerings in these categories internally, but the success of several recent investments has seemingly strengthened the argument in favor of buy, rather than build.
Perchard is clear that partnerships are at the forefront of this strategy. Sky will very willingly write a check to get involved with a new technology, but rather than a simple return on investment, the company is looking to learn and to source products and services that it can deliver to its consumers in the UK and Europe. To which Perchard adds, emphatically, “We have no desire to come into the US. We view it as kind of a messy market.”
One of Sky’s most successful initiatives has been its NowTV OTT (over the top) content offering, Perchard claims. which today contains 60 channels. The company declined to specify the number of monthly users.
“Like most new technologies we’ve explored, we found OTT to be additive not substitutional to our more traditional offerings,” Perchard says. “Our customers appreciate the flexibility around length of subscription, the channels that they can watch, and the option to do it where and when they choose.”
It was NowTV that led Sky to make its first startup investment. Eager to offer its subscribers a hardware device from which to stream this content to their televisions, the company first looked into building something itself. The conclusion was that it would cost too much and take too long. So Sky approached Roku in pursuit of a white-label partnership. After some negotiating, the firm agreed to invest in Roku’s Series E round (and later Series F) and the NowTV box was born. Perchard describes NowTV as a completely separate brand, akin to Mini alongside BMW.
“Our CEO said, ‘If we can do this with Roku, there must be many, many other examples of where we can do it,’” Perchard says. “Everybody else always says to me, ‘Let’s do another Roku’ – something that allows us to really kick start a business.”
He continues, “We go at new technology hard, we always have. Our approach to innovation is to take an attack strategy, which is very different than the approach of many of the cable companies in the US, where they seem to prefer to take a defensive strategy and try to fend off attackers. Maybe it’s because we still consider ourselves a relatively small, regional business. Going forward, we expect that more and more innovation will come from outside our business, increasingly from the West Coast of the US.”
Sky’s other big bet is in Jaunt, a Palo Alto-based cinematic virtual reality company. At just over one year old, the company is still in the R&D phase, but Sky has already participated in three funding rounds (Seed, A, & B) and is beginning to produce test content for the format, including shorts in the Dance, Drama, Comedy, Boxing, Sports, and Music genres.
“They’re still perfecting the tech. We started out thinking of this as a three-to-five-year project, but in the last six months, that timeline has started to feel like it’s contracting,” Perchard says. “We’re starting to form some views on what this technology medium would be good for.”
Sky’s investments generally range from the low hundreds of thousands of dollars to the mid-single-digit millions, Perchard says, depending on the stage of the company and the status of any parallel commercial relationship. As should be evident from its involvement in Roku and Jaunt, Sky is intent on backing companies for which it sees integration potential, be it in the near or mid-term. Put another way, these aren’t financial investments, in the purest sense. The goal across all these deals, according to Perchard, is to keep UK and eventually European consumers thinking that if you want the best paid TV has to offer, than Sky is the only answer.
“Increasingly, we’re finding our sweet spot is around the junction of content and technology – Silicon Valley doesn’t entirely get that junction,” Perchard says. “We will still pursue things across all of our strategic themes, but that can take a little longer because we do have this sweet spot and this strategic advantage.”
Those themes that Perchard mentioned are: OTT and content discovery, Ad-Tech, and growth opportunities like internet of things, gaming, and security. It’s the latter area that has contributed most significantly to Sky’s growth in recent years.
Over the last several years, Sky has grown its subscriber base from just 10 million to 11.5 million, Perchard says. But in that same time, the company has increased its products and services on offer from 10 million to 30 million (although this number seems oddly high and it’s unclear as to what exactly qualifies as a product). In other words, once a customer is enrolled in any level of service, Sky is eager to increase the number of things it sells them. For many Valley startups, these 11.5 million subscribers might start to look like fish in a highly strategic barrel.
“If there’s a business that looks really good, but is overly focused on a big exit in the near term at the expense of building a real business, that wouldn’t be really good for us,” Perchard says. “We look at businesses for two opportunities: things where we can learn about something in nascent stages (Jaunt), and things where we want to build a big commercial relationship (Roku).”
That’s an attitude that would seem at odds with the mentality of traditional VCs who are very much focused on achieving big exits. But Perchard argues that hasn’t been the case in his experience, and VCs have been eager to bring Sky into deals, if for nothing else than for the global expansion potential.
“Most often, we take small minority stake in these businesses,” he says. “And we’re certainly not trying to slow them down. Actually we tend to be the one chomping at the bit to integrate their technology, in the UK and Europe. We certainly don’t put any constraints on startups in terms of where they can do business and when. That’s not fair and certainly wouldn’t endear us to the venture community. We don’t mind if they’re working with other companies, even our direct competitors.”
Strategic investors and corporate VCs don’t always get a lot of love in Silicon Valley. They can be thought of either as dumb money or as somewhat mercenary, intent on leveraging their involvement with a startup to learn and better their own business, often with disregard for the startup’s best interests. But Sky is adamant about breaking that stereotype. Whether it can do so successfully, only time will tell.
In terms of what companies would be a good fit for potential investments going forward, Perchard points to an interesting, albeit unexpected place. “There are an interesting subset of businesses that have become really successful in US, but haven’t grown internationally. We find the UK is often a good stepping off point. We can also help US businesses test things in the wild without launching in the US first.”
At the end of the day, this is all about getting ahead of the next technology wave, something that Perchard and his team describe as the global convergence of TV and the Internet. With much of the creativity and innovation in this area occurring in and around Silicon Valley – or at least within the portfolios of the investors based there – it would seem to be the right place for Sky to start its shopping spree.
[image via TNW]


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FTC warns consumers about 'unlimited' plans, probing complaints
The Fair Trading Commission (FTC) is urging consumers to be particularly vigilant when the word ‘unlimited’ is used in advertisements, and are encouraged to obtain full information from their telecommunications service providers on the details of calling plans prior to purchase.
The FTC said it has received several complaints regarding restrictions placed on unlimited calling plans by telecommunication service providers and has launched investigations pursuant to Section 37 of the Fair Competition Act, which deals with misleading advertising.
In particular, the FTC said it will be treating advertisements promoting calling plans which are capped or otherwise qualified, and which are referred to as ‘unlimited’ or any other word which may convey a similar meaning, as being misleading or likely to mislead the public.
The commission said that the complaints from the public, which concern the unlimited calling, text and data plans being advertised, would be vigorously pursued as breaches of the Fair Competition Act.


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“I’m very neurotic, I’m very impatient, I’m a terrible manager… I can’t sit still and I don’t sleep,” says Johnnie Boden, founder and chairman of the upmarket mail order and online clothing brand that bears his name.
These are not necessarily the attributes one might expect a business owner – especially one of the country’s foremost entrepreneurs – to admit, but it is a formula that works for Boden, who set up his business in 1991 with a clear ambition to disrupt the market and bring high-end catalogue clothing to the UK.
More than two decades later the brand’s distinctive prints and quirky style have become the unofficial uniform of Britain’s ‘yummy mummy’ brigade, an accolade cemented earlier this year when Boden was named as one of Mumsnet users’ favourite brands. However, that is also one of Boden’s biggest dilemmas – shared with high street staples such as Marks & Spencer – as it seeks to keep its ageing core customers happy while being relevant and appealing for new, younger shoppers.
Although it started life as a catalogue company offering only eight menswear products, nearly all sales are now generated online, which the owner is not ashamed to admit caught him a little off guard.
“To my great embarrassment, I famously said to my team of directors ‘this internet thing will never catch on’. Now 98% of our orders are online, so I’ve been made to look rather stupid,” he told broadcaster Kirsty Wark at The Marketing Society’s annual conference last month.
Despite the dominance of ecommerce, however, the catalogue still plays a crucial role, he tells Marketing Week, as two-thirds of shoppers peruse its pages before placing an order online, and as soon as an item is removed, sales for that product fall by 60%.
Although there will always be people who want the catalogue, Boden knows that growth in that channel no longer exists.
“Recruiting new customers cost-effectively is a big challenge,” he tells Marketing Week off-stage at The Marketing Society conference. “When I started, 90% of our effort was in cold lists and I still think print plays a part but it is more about ads and inserts in magazines, combined with digital.”
Boden, a former banker who was educated at Eton and Oxford, is as bright and charming as the designs that adorn his clothes, and he talks with the same open and inclusive manner as the correspondence he sends to customers, illustrating just how much he embodies the brand.
“To my great embarrassment, I famously said to my team of directors ‘this internet thing will never catch on’. Now 98% of our orders are online, so I’ve been made to look rather stupid.”
But he says it is a common misconception that Boden is just “Johnnie and his mates” and in fact it is a “professional, dynamic business with a lot of creativity and complexity”.
The privately-owned company reported a 5% rise in full year sales in 2013 after strengthening its presence in the US and Germany – 55% of sales now come from outside the UK – but pre-tax profit remained static at £24.4m compared to £24.3m the previous year.
Boden launched in Australia in August and is already present in Austria and France, and although Asian countries are renowned for their love of quintessentially British brands, this is not a market Boden plans to explore in the near future.
“The problem with Asia is simple – it is sizing. People are smaller so we would have to resize everything, which would be expensive and disruptive,” he says.
In spite of Boden’s personal uncertainty initially about the significance of internet shopping, the transition from mail order to online was relatively smooth, because, unlike bricks-and-mortar retailers, the brand already had the necessary infrastructure of call centres and warehouses in place. But although the brand might have stolen a march to begin with, the fast rise of ecommerce has levelled the playing field in other respects.
“The principle USP of our brand in the early days was that we sold direct [to the consumer] but thanks to the introduction of the internet it is no longer unique to sell direct, so although we had an initial advantage we soon lost it,” he confesses.
To cement the long-term stability of the brand, Boden says it is important to “clarify what the business stands for and not think too much about channel, as you need to be in all channels”.
In order to be a truly multichannel business, Boden is for the first time planning to extend its network of retail outlets – quite a big departure for the brand that opened its first and only store in Hanger Green on the outskirts of London more than 10 years ago.
If successful, however, it is a move that could deliver considerable rewards. Marks & Spencer admitted recently that although it invests 25% of its marketing budget into digital, only 16% of sales are made via its website. Boden calculates that people shop for clothes in store 3.5 times more than online in the UK, which rises to seven times more in the US, meaning there is huge scope to add to its pool of 1.5 million active customers.
“We have always wanted to do it but have never had the time, the resources or the right people,” says Boden. “We’ve now hired a firm of consultants and are looking seriously at some sort of retail test in the UK and the US.”
Boden admits the business has probably left it too late to open new stores next year so the expansion is likely to kick off in 2016. “America remains the biggest opportunity,” he says. “It’s an enormous market and we’ve barely scratched the surface.”
Although the style of UK and US consumers is “remarkably similar”, there are several key differences Boden will bear in mind when marketing to its US audience.
“They are more formal, they dress up for social activities and in the summer they go to ‘the [country] club’, so they wear a lot more dresses,” he says. “Sixty per cent of our US customers also go to church regularly. They are more fitness obsessed – the average American gets up at 5.15am to go to the gym, so they change their outfits many more times than British women.”
Boden’s core customer tends to be women over 30 with a household income of more than £70,000, “who want a bit of fashion but are not obsessed with it and above all value quality and reliability”, Boden explains.
The retailer is also able to charge higher prices for its products thanks to the perceptions of its brand, according to a report by research agency Mintel. The report picks out Boden and Net-A-Porter as online fashion brands that consumers consider note for their quality . However, while it is women under 25 who lead those perceptions for Net-A-Porter, it is over-35s for Boden.
Age is a sticking point for Boden because while it wants to attract a 30-something audience, in reality it is synonymous with a more mature crowd with celebrity fans such as the prime minister’s wife Samantha Cameron and American first lady Michelle Obama illustrating that gap.
However, Boden argues that fashion is more ageless today than it used to be. “The days of wearing different clothes at different stages of your life are gone. Actually now what 50-year-old women wear is very similar to what 30-year-old women wear, so the barrier is not as big as it used to be.”
In order to entice a younger audience Boden says the brand needs to be “in the zones” where these consumers shop. “Young people are not so wedded to the catalogue. They are also much more digitally aware, so social media and blogs enable us to meet younger customers,” he explains.
The brand’s blog, The Great Boden Diaries, aims to appeal to a wide range of women by having a cross-section of contributors. These include 21-year-old fashion and food blogger Olivia Purvis, who writes the What Olivia Did blog, Sasha Wilkins, who is better known as Liberty London Girl and appeals to a slightly older audience, as well as Brooke White and Summer Bellessa, who produce the US-based web series and blog The Girls With Glasses.
Dealing with criticisms
In the past, critics have accused the brand of being “middle-aged” and even “smug” and although Boden takes on the criticism, he is unwavering in his vision for the brand. “We have to make sure that we remove any suggestion that we are middle-aged,” he asserts. “It’s a very good point and we are guilty in certain respects, but the aspects of the brand that are good and strong must remain good and strong irrespective of the criticism.”
He admits that striking a balance can be difficult at times as “some people complain if the brand changes but others complain if it doesn’t”. He also concedes that the business has been guilty of focusing too heavily on existing shoppers rather than trying to entice new customers.
“Entrepreneurs are fundamentally disruptive; the reason they set up their business is because they don’t like the natural order of things, but that can be difficult for employees”
But when the brand moved away from its wholesome, everyday woman image in 2012, after choosing model Helena Christensen for a more fashion-led shoot, there was outrage from the brand’s diehard fan base on Twitter, who felt it was too “sultry and sexy”.
Despite the backlash, Boden believes the campaign was “really successful” but has no appetite to go down the same route again. “We do need pretty people to wear our clothes, but to become too identified with any one person is quite dangerous,” he says.
If he could choose any celebrity to wear his clothes, it would be the Duchess of Cambridge and it is not difficult to see why, as the ‘Kate effect’ has already propelled other British brands, including LK Bennett and Reiss, into the global spotlight.
“Of course I’d like more public figures to wear our clothes but I want people to genuinely engage with the brand,” he says. “Our competitors spend a lot of time and money on it. There is endless gifting. It’s a kind of bribery really and we don’t do that. Is it something we should be doing? I don’t know.”
Being a “rubbish manager”
Boden, is very open and honest about a lot of things, none more so than the admission that he is a “rubbish manager” – perhaps to be taken with a pinch of salt, given the company’s consistent ability to grow sales. Yet he sees his skills as being in the field of shaking things up than holding them steady.
“You can’t be good at everything,” he concedes. “Entrepreneurs are fundamentally disruptive; the reason they set up their business is because they don’t like the natural order of things, but that can be difficult for employees. There are occasions when I will get involved in management, but on the whole I have a very good team that are better at it than I am.”
Leading that team is CEO Julian Granville, who joined the business in 1995 and whom Boden regards as the “sensible one”. When he launched the business, Boden did everything from design clothes to personally check each package before it left the warehouse. Today, the brand sends 100,000 parcels a week, so it is no longer possible for him to have such a tight grip. Learning to let go and delegate is one of the most important lessons Boden says he has learnt over the past 20 years.
“If I could go back, I would have hired a design team [and managing director] earlier on. I would have been clearer about the brand, and would have been braver about testing new products and dropping those that aren’t selling so well,” he says. “When you’re doing well, you tend to be less receptive to change, but in fact you always need to be changing whether you’re doing well or not.”


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Snorkel showcased the revolutionary Snorkel S3019E electric scissor lift to ARA members for the first time at The ARA Show 2020. Snorkel also unveiled a new Kubota engine option for its 400S/460SJ telescopic boom lifts and introduced a pressure washer kit option for its 600S/660SJ telescopic boom lifts. Learn more here.
Orange County Convention Center
Orlando, FL, US


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Local is big and getting even bigger. The yearning for freshness, taste, support of the local economy, knowing the source, and reduced environmental impact has made the local movement one of the biggest trends in years. In a recent study by Mintel, 52% of respondents said it is more important to them to buy local produce than organic. Given the popularity of organic products, this shows just how big locally-grown is.
To capture the growing market of consumers wanting local products, do your research. Consumer propensity reports are a great way to show specific items your customers want to purchase.
For example, women are much more motivated to purchase locally-grown products out of support to the local economy than men (14 percentage point difference). Women also assign greater importance to freshness and taste.
Likewise, shoppers in small towns are significantly more motivated by support of the local economy and freshness than those living in urban areas (11 percentage point difference). Among green-minded shoppers, knowing the source and reduced environmental impact are chief motivators (19 percentage point difference with shoppers with no particular environmental concerns).
These statistics show that regardless of the all-around popularity of local foods — and the countless opportunities they offer to connect with shoppers — retailers still have to carefully match messaging and positioning to their unique shopper audience.
Know your customer. Drive money to your bottom line. Easy as that.


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Gran Turismo 7 is still a ways off. The game appears to be on track for a 2015 release at the earliest, with series creator Kazunori Yamauchi recently revealing that window to be between ’15 and ’16.
In a recent interview, Yamauchi revealed big aspirations for the racer. “For GT7, myself and my staff have a clear vision: to do everything we couldn’t do in GT6… We want to make it very Gran Turismo. By that I mean it’s going to be a game that matches the very era that we live in, in 2015 or 2016,” the developer to GamesTM.
Yamauchi thinks that the PS4 will make “an incredible difference” when it comes to the quality of Gran Turismo 7, and why not, they’ll certainly have a lot more power to work with. “Everything will be running naturally. PS3 was much, much more difficult. The high quality of data that we have being rendered on the PS4 I think is going to make an incredible difference.”
Yamauchi has hinted in the past that Gran Turismo 7 would arrive in 2015. Despite the developers at Polyphony Digital taking their sweet old time with Gran Turismo 5, the sixth iteration had a quick turn around.
We’ll have to stay tuned to find out when PS4 owners will finally get Gran Turismo on the new console.


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SEMI European 3D TSV Summit 2014 - Homepage
NEXT EUROPEAN 3D TSV SUMMIT IS PLANNED ON
JAN 19-21, 2015 IN GRENOBLE
More information to be announced - Save the date and stay tuned
Pictures of 2014 are online: Access the GALLERY
Purchase the proceedings of 2014: PROCEEDINGS
EUROPEAN 3D TSV SUMMIT 2014:
SEMI Europe is proud to announce the 2nd edition of the European 3D TSV Summit. The event will be held on Jan 20-22, 2014 in Grenoble (France).
Building on the success of the 1st edition that attracted almost 320 people from 20 countries, the theme of this year’s event is “Application Ready,” addressing 3D TSV from both a Business and Technology perspective.
The latest TSV product developments and achievements — including cost, business models, supply chain, manufacturability and technology aspects — will be addressed by executives and experts from global companies.
The European 3D TSV Summit will demonstrate the full range of 3D technology and R&D processes, with leading companies participating, showing a range from initial prototypes to high-volume production.
European 3D TSV Summit 2014 will feature :
Summit Steering Committee:
Grenoble: Major European Microelectronic cluster and Capital of the French Alps - Courtesy of AEPI
- Market Info
- Events & Tradeshows


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Roosters to open Huber Heights locale this fall
- Ginger Christ, DBJ Staff Reporter
(Page 2 of 2)
However, the company has been expanding in other markets, growing its footprint from 10 stores in 2003 to 23 stores today, with three more stores in the works, including the Huber Heights location, which will be corporately owned.
The company’s expansion has been partially fueled by its successful foray into franchising. Of its three new sites, two are owned by franchisees.
Roosters franchisees must purchase a development territory and then pay a $15,000 franchise fee. Roosters currently has a franchisee in Xenia, in the Louisville and Indiana area and in the West Virginia and western Pennsylvania are
Roosters fared the recession better than a number of other restaurants because of is price point, Ponton said. The company’s revenue is up 10 percent year-over-year.
Roosters operates restaurants in Ohio, Indiana and Louisville, Ky. Its Dayton area locations are on Main Street and in Springboro, Miamisburg and Xenia.
The Dayton area is a popular one for chicken wings. Dayton-based Fricker’s, which is owned by Robert Frick’s brother, Ray Frick, operates eight restaurants and others such as Cincinnati-based Buffalo Wings and Rings and Minneapolis, Minn.-based Buffalo Wild Wings run Dayton locations.
And Atlanta, Ga.-based Wing Zone plans to open three more stores in the Dayton market in the next five years, including the launch of a store in Vandalia by mid-2012.
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ASATA board to ‘future plan’ and ‘future proof’ changing travel industry
The newly appointed ASATA board takes its reins at a time when the association’s position has been strengthened and elevated, says Vanya Lessing, Sure Travel CEO and re-appointed ASATA president.
“The value of ASATA’s strategic role cannot be underestimated. Our role as a board is to provide a strategic framework for governance in the travel sector and this is through the implementation of 15 key projects which the board, together with the ASATA CEO and his team, have been driving over the past year,” says Vanya.
“This re-elected board will have a clear mandate to future plan and future proof the changing industry. As ASATA, we need to ensure the association is at the forefront of this change. This industry is ripe for disruption, we need to be the agent of that change and it is imperative that we inform the customer of the future of the value that we bring.”
Joining Vanya on the ASATA board are the re-elected Johanna Mukoki, Travel With Flair MD and Founder as Vice President, and James Sedgwick of Sure Travel, Fish Hoek as Treasurer.
Additional board members include:
- Bronwyn Philipps, HRG Rennies Travel
- Claude Vankeirsbilck, Tourvest Travel Services
- Johann Strydom, World Leisure Holidays
- Lance Smith, Avis Rent A Car
ASATA CEO Otto de Vries says the continuity of and support from the re-elected board will ensure that the association’s strategic mandates to further ensure compliance, consensus and confidence within the industry will be realised. “It is through the support of our dedicated ASATA board, that we have been successful in our efforts to champion ASATA members as the consumer channel of choice over the past year.
“We are working steadfastly to support our members in industry, government and media forums as they evolve to meet the changing needs of the 21st century traveller and to grow the stature and credibility of the association among all stakeholders,” concludes De Vries.


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Britain’s biggest car insurer Direct Line today confirmed it has been authorised to provide legal services.
In an announcement to the AIM stock exchange, the firm announced it has been granted an alternative business structure by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
DLG Legal Services, a subsidiary of Direct Line Group, intends to offer legal services to its existing customers. The firm currently has around a fifth of both the UK’s motor and home insurance markets.
The service will be offered in conjunction with Parabis Law LLP and is expected to start on 3 March.
Direct Line’s ABS application was confirmed last summer, when the company pledged its customers ‘will receive 100% of any damages awarded, protecting them from the cost of paying success fees typically levied by alternative legal services provider’.
Clients who do not have motor or family polices will pay a ‘standalone fee arrangement’ under which fees will be deducted from the damages awarded.
Crispin Passmore, SRA executive director, said: 'The authorisation of DLG Legal Services, part of Direct Line Group, is further evidence of the positive changes that the Legal Services Act has ushered in. Competition is good for consumers as we see more firms innovating andseeking to win consumer loyalty.
'The robust authorisation process, targeted regulation and appropriate consumer redress in place gives consumers the confidence to take advantage of this growing choice for buying legal services. Better access for consumers and greater opportunities for legal businesses go hand in hand as the SRA continues to reform and modernise legal regulation.'
Direct Line Group already provides customers of its own Direct Line, Churchill, Privilege and other insurance brands with some legal services in-house and through outsourcing agreements with a panel of law firms.


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An Institute for Supply Management (ISM) report out today puts PMI at 52.7 percent, an increase of 1.9 percent from October. Anything over 50 percent indicates growth, and the figures show expansion in U.S. manufacturing for the 28th consecutive month.
Of 18 U.S. manufacturing industries, eight reported growth in November:
- Wood Products
- Textile Mills
- Petroleum & Coal Products
- Primary Metals
- Food, Beverage & Tobacco Products
- Computer & Electronic Products
- Apparel, Leather & Allied Products
- Paper Products
Other industries such as plastics and rubber products and transportation equipment contracted. Respondents blamed floods in Taiwan for a slowdown in the transportation equipment sector, stating that they were still “chasing some components made in Thailand.”
Other respondents were more optimistic, especially around the automotive sector, stating that “Japanese auto production had returned to 100 percent, and domestic manufacturing continues to increase.”
The report indicates that “general economic environment, government regulations and European financial conditions” were all top-of-mind for respondents, but overall they were “cautiously more optimistic about the next few months based on lower raw materials pricing and favorable levels of new orders.”
Today’s report suggests that the U.S. might maintain its growth in the coming months due in part to the enduring strength of the auto industry which has continued to see an increase in new orders.
In addition, Bloomberg speculates in an article published today, that growth in emerging markets like Brazil may also be helping sustain demand for U.S.-produced goods.
Meanwhile, in a separate index from the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, PMI slid to 49 percent in November, the lowest in three years.
China may have fallen victim to a slowing global economy – new domestic and export orders contracted in November, indicating a decreasing demand for Chinese-made goods in Europe and the U.S. and in China’s own domestic market.
The Chinese PMI report comes on the coat tails of a move by China’s central bank to loosen its reserve ratio in order to free up more money to inject back into its economy.