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For our last edition of the year, the a16z fintech team weighs in on the big ideas they think fintech will take on in 2021. Check out our big ideas from last year here.
The reason PPP has fallen short and many stimulus checks went unsent this year is that, when it comes to money, there is no direct connection between consumers and government. Instead, banks serve as intermediaries. Very few people directly own U.S. government bonds, for example; they earn interest from the banks that own them. Consumers don’t borrow money from or deposit money with the Fed; their banks often do when handling “excess reserves.” Sending a wire means interfacing with “Fedwire,” but only banks can access that, not consumers. If you have a “conforming mortgage” you effectively got your mortgage through the government — except it went through many intermediaries first.
In 2021, I believe we’ll see the beginnings of the disintermediation of the banking system. Though private banks can and do perform a valuable function in every economy (and I believe “postal banking,” a.k.a DMV banking, is a terrible idea!), when they merely serve as a “front end” to the central bank, they insert more bureaucracy and fail to accomplish monetary policy goals. Fintech represents the most powerful tool that governments have to make monetary services available directly to their own citizens, benefiting consumers equally in the process.
Today almost 5 billion humans have mobile phones, 80 percent of them smartphones with internet access. Amazon has rendered much of retail obsolete; this process is quickly happening to banks, as well. The bank branch is an anachronism. Eventually, every consumer will access their savings, loans, and investments via a mobile app. This reshuffling of the deck is quickly being adopted by consumers — quicker still amid stay-at-home orders. But it should be appreciated even more so by governments, who can use such technology to eliminate unnecessary complexity and cut through bureaucracy.
If the borrower or recipient of money is the government, it makes no sense to filter it through legacy financial institutions first. Fintech has the power to advance monetary goals for consumers more efficiently and effectively.
It’s been a year since I first wrote that every company would be a fintech company. Consumer and B2B companies saw the opportunity to add fintech — including payments, lending, and bank accounts — to better retain customers and to drive more margin. We wrote about the opportunities in vertical SaaS to multiply revenue per customer. This trend will continue for years to come, and financial services will increasingly become the primary business model. These successes are likely to prompt some companies to ask, What more? Now that I’m providing my customers with financial services, what else can I offer? The answer: Insurance. One in 10 Fortune 500 companies is an insurance company, but all of those companies were started back before World War II.
Not only is our current insurance system outdated, but from a consumer’s point of view, it’s also highly inconvenient: I purchase my asset (house, car, lease on an office), but then I have to go somewhere else to buy insurance. For new insurance companies, customer acquisition cost is high, in large part because these companies have to try to nab consumers at the exact moment in time when they are thinking about buying insurance. It would be natural and highly advantageous to be able to embed insurance at the point of purchase. “Insurtechs” would be able to better acquire customers (“would you like some insurance with that?”) and better select risk by potentially leveraging the data of the host platform. For companies, offering insurance is yet another way to provide value to their customers and to drive more revenue.
This year, we saw the first insurtechs go public. In 2021, we will see insurtechs built in a way that makes them more easily embeddable (fast to bind, able to leverage the platform’s data for underwriting), more infrastructure companies that enable insurtechs to spin up faster, and more platforms looking for insurance partners.
There are two critical components to a startup’s success — a distribution insight and a product insight. Though we most often talk about product insights, the distribution insights are arguably harder to come by and even more critical to the success of a company. For example, Credit Karma is known for its free credit score (product insight) but less known for its innovative TV acquisition efforts (distribution insight). Similarly, Robinhood is known for zero-fee mobile trading (product insight), and less known for its incredibly viral referral program (distribution insight).
Over the past two years, the main lever for driving distribution in consumer fintech has been leveraging economic incentives — higher-yield deposits, lower-priced loans, even straight up giving customers cash. In 2021, we expect the pendulum will swing back toward product-led growth. Specifically, we anticipate the emergence of new fintech products that are “social+”: those that have more utility when you use them with others, creating a functional (and often emotional) incentive for users to help drive distribution. There are a number of exciting companies that are catalyzing this change already — Stir, Braid, Commonstock, Public, and Yotta among them. Not only do multiplayer products have built-in growth levers, they make activity around money — investing, financial planning, even saving — more engaging. Fun, even! There are a number of catalysts here: the need for differentiation, the need for distribution, and shifting attitudes around what consumers share about money. It’s a medium of exchange, after all.
The past few years of fintech have seen an evolution from improved access (loans online!) to better economics (and they are cheaper!). I see the next inflection point as improved products and the emergence of networks.
This year, a new crop of investors became active. Platforms like Robinhood have made investing more accessible by offering a more inviting mobile interface alongside product innovations like fractional shares. In addition, commission-free trading has lowered the capital required to participate. With COVID restrictions, many people have also had more time to invest. Trading in securities, however, is just the tip of the iceberg — there are many more asset classes. In 2020, we saw increased interest in options investing, which also can enable investors to take smaller positions.
There are more commonly traded financial products, like bonds, commodities, and foreign exchange (many of which are still traded over-the-counter on a decentralized basis, rather than on an exchange), as well as real asset classes like real estate, collectibles (art, classic cars, etc.), even small businesses. More tech-enabled marketplaces have emerged recently to centralize and facilitate the trading of these asset classes for retail investors. To lower the barrier to entry, many have begun to offer fractionalized ownership, as well. Education is in many cases still a limiting factor. These asset classes have typically been more difficult to enter, given the complexity surrounding the mechanics of the asset. Assets with complex underpinnings can also lead uninformed or novice investors to miscalculate risk.
In 2021 and beyond, we’ll see more of these alternative asset classes become available and accessible to the mainstream investor. Tech platforms will develop innovative ways not only to educate new investors through content and community-based learning, but also to encourage engagement with other owners and the product itself — imagine if you could share a property or painting you’ve invested in. As a result, we’ll see more investors with smaller checkbooks start investing in new asset classes.
Though 2020 has been tragic in so many ways, the year was also a tipping point for the fintech community. In the wake of some of the first major fintech exits, we saw a wave of new entrepreneurs, as well as explosive growth.
Though the ascendency of fintech is often discussed at a macro level, I had the pleasure of experiencing it at a micro level. Earlier this month, I tweeted an offer to help connect fintech entrepreneurs who are looking for a cofounder — more than 180 people reached out in less than 48 hours. This is not just about the increasing quantity of fintech companies, it’s also about the quality of the people building in this space.
As I’ve written before, fintech was still a nascent industry in the aughts and 2010s. Today, many fintech entrepreneurs not only have an understanding of technology and finance, but their early teams are equally impressive and knowledgeable. Many fintech founders we meet have already done one, two, or three tours of duty at successful fintech companies and have been able to recruit from a deep bench of industry talent.
In 2021, we’ll continue to be reminded — and blown away by — how large the fintech community has become.
Beyond making a product that consumers love and want to adopt, getting it into the hands of thousands and millions is how Silicon Valley mints its winners and losers. Distribution is the cornerstone that differentiates whether startups succeed or fail. In fintech, we’re excited to back founders that have found new ways to reach their target customers — these teams innovate on their go-to-market strategy as much as they do on product.
In the past, financial institutions acquired customers through physical bank branches, commercials, and direct-mail ads. (Think Samuel L. Jackson’s “what’s in your wallet?” tagline, or the reams of credit card offers clogging your mailbox.) Eventually, banks transitioned to online channels, led by fintechs that understood the power of the internet. LendingClub, one of the original fintech companies, started out as a Facebook application.
That brings us to today. Though many fintech companies still rely heavily on Facebook, Google, and Instagram to acquire customers, those channels have become increasingly expensive and oversaturated. That saturation has also contributed to a decline in consumer trust—a key component in the adoption of financial services.
I believe the next wave of fintech companies will pioneer distribution avenues—and take a page from the past — in ways that are both cost-effective and inherently trustworthy. In some cases, offline is the new online: fintechs are leveraging existing communities and affinity groups to acquire new customers. Other fintech companies are going back to physical locations, as we’ve seen with SoFi Stadium and the Chime x Mavericks partnership, for example. And increasingly, fintech startups are leveraging referrals from friends and influencers/creators to market financial services and products. We look forward to exploring new, better ways that fintechs can differentiate themselves.
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The Holy Grail of Social + Fintech
The intersection of social and finance—as well as shifting attitudes around what we share about money online—have given way to an ambitious new wave of financial products.
—Anish Acharya, D’Arcy Coolican, and Lauren Murrow
The Promise of Payroll APIs
Universal access to payroll data unlocks new capabilities and use cases for lenders, fintech companies, and employers.
—Anish Acharya, Seema Amble, and Rex Salisbury
a16z Podcast: Fintech for Gen Z and Millennials
How tech-enabled financial tools can cut through bureaucracy, downsize student debt, and optimize consumers’ financial futures from an early age.
—Anish Acharya, Seema Amble, Amira Yahyaoui (Mos), and Lauren Murrow
Charting the COVID Effect on Fintech
What’s trending in lending, trading, banking, and beyond, according to Glimpse’s analysis of consumer online behavior.
—Anish Acharya, Rex Salisbury, Seema Amble, Matthieu Hafemeister, and Lauren Murrow
a16z Podcast: Pandemic Relief and Fraud
How design flaws in COVID-19 relief measures sowed confusion, waste, and abuse — and how fintech and software can help.
—Alex Rampell, Naftali Harris (SentiLink), Bharat Ramamurti (COVID-19 Congressional Oversight Commission), and Lauren Murrow


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Fisheries chief issues caution about illegal and overfishing
The Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (M.A.F), Tilafono David Hunter, has called on local fishermen to stop harvesting under sized fish. He has also reminded them about the impact of overfishing on the local coastal waters.
Speaking during an interview with the Samoa Observer, Tilafono said the Ministry was concerned about overfishing on the back of fears about meat supply shortage during the coronavirus pandemic.
“As we’re all aware, we are seeing so many more fish vendors during this time around which is the alternative protein source (the fish) that has increased,,” he said.
“But we should use them wisely and not abuse the advantage of the rich supplies of fish at the moment. We want to make sure the supply of fish is sustainable."
According to Tilafono, M.A.F. has received many reports about overfishing and illegal fishing.
“Others have broken the law with how they’re fishing,” he said.
Though there is a drop in meat supplies overseas, Tilafono advises fishermen to harvest fish sparingly.
“The challenge for us is the lack of meat supplies,” he said. “The majority of the meat we’re eating every year is from foreign countries. We don’t have enough locally produced meat (moa Samoa) and I think that’s one major concern for us in terms of food supplies.
“So I advice our fishermen to please, give the small fishes the opportunity to grow as well as the crabs and other fish creatures.”
The Ministry and the Government is working to promote, encourage and push the fishermen and families to prevent fishing in the lagoon due to these impacts.
Hence, the public is advised to fish in the deep where the fish is from all around the world’s ocean and not just Samoa.
“Within the lagoon are the fishes which survive on the minerals from our grounds,” he said. “Therefore, it’s better to fish in the deep where there’s more fishes.”
A fisherman in Apolima Island, Puluseu Tautaiolevao said fish is always one of the main source of food and income for the 10 families residing in the island.
However, they are well aware of how to limit the number of fishes a day to sell and eat.
“We’ve been fishermen since we were young and we were instilled the attitude of how to save the fish and how to manage our shores wisely,” he said.
Similar to Tilafono, Puluseu advised all fishermen and the public to manage fishing wisely.

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Windows 95 is twenty today. It's hard to imagine it now, but the launch was greeted with the sort of hype that only Apple generates today: the Empire State Building lit in Windows colours, midnight queues outside PC shops, wall-to-wall news coverage and that Rolling Stones riff.
To some, the arrival of Windows 95 heralded a brave new world of personal computing; to others, it was the beginning of a long period of stagnation for the PC platform.
There's no doubt that if you were running Windows 3.1 or 3.11, Windows 95 was like a visitor from the planet Groovy. No, really. It looked great, and provided you treated the system requirements - a 386 with 4MB of RAM and 120MB of disk space - with the contempt they deserved then it ran great too.
Heavily targeted towards home users as well as the more traditional corporate users, it was the first stand-alone Windows (MS-DOS was part of it rather than a separate OS). It had an exciting new interface that's still visible in Windows 7, and it even had Microsoft's first go at a Web browser - albeit one that was initially tucked away on the optional-extra Plus pack.
The beginning of the big boots
Critics, however, would argue that Windows 95 was when Microsoft started throwing its weight around.
They argue that by bundling MS-DOS inside Windows, Microsoft killed the market for MS-DOS rivals; the arrival of Internet Explorer would become the Netscape-crushing browser war; and the US Department of Justice found that it used the "Windows Tax" - that is, offering manufacturers discounted prices if they promised to limit the number of non-Windows PCs they sold - to stifle competition.
In 1998 consumer advocate Ralph Nader wrote a devastating critique that accused Microsoft of "suffocating" the PC industry and argued that "the victims of Microsoft's monopolistic activities aren't just the companies that go belly-up; they are the consumers who pay high prices to use mediocre and unreliable products."
It's bleakly amusing to note that when the (then) Microsoft-owned Slate magazine responded to Nader, it argued that "in the browser wars, Microsoft faces a formidable array of opponents--Sun and Oracle, to name just two--and, after two years, it still lags behind Netscape even though IE generally gets better reviews than Navigator."
A force for good
Let's concentrate on the product itself, though, because when you do that Windows 95 was clearly a force for good too. It was a vast improvement over its predecessors. It revolutionised PC gaming. It made using computers - computers that we could actually afford to build or buy - much easier than before.
You may mock its primitive graphics (its press-Start-to-stop interface, its increasingly demented product names - Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2, anyone? - and its postie-crippling pile of installation floppies) but twenty years ago, Windows 95 was as cool as computing got.
Microsoft may never be as cool again as it was back then and while Android and iOS now dominate the OS landscape, Windows 95 was the milestone that saw Microsoft become a true technology giant.
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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall (Twitter) has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band HAVR.


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4BC DRIVE - TAXI COUNCIL QLD INTERVIEW RE RIDE-SHARING APP 27.02.15
Interview with Benjamin Wash, CEO of Taxi Council Queensland re Ride-sharing App uber
CABCHARGE TO REVAMP BRAND, LOOKS BEYOND TAXIS AS PROFIT FALLS 27.02.15
Cabcharge chief executive Andrew Skelton will relaunch the company brand under a new name via a revamped booking app hat may eventually replace the company's name and is searching for new...
TAXI CARD PAYMENT SURCHARGE CAP SHOULD BENEFIT CONSUMERS 24.02.15
West Australian taxi users are being reassured the Government's decision to cap non-cash payment fees will not adversely affect services.


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Facebook vs Facebake is only the latest in a series of trademark wars
Earlier this week, the Delhi High Court permanently restrained a Bengaluru-based cake shop from using the name “Facebake” or “Facecake”, or in fact any other Facebook trademark, after Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, went to court.
This wasn’t the first such case. And it is unlikely to be the last.
Dozens of flea markets, Delhi’s Chor Bazaar being one, for instance, sell clothes, shoes, watches and colognes named after world-renowned brands. Popular coffee chains, mineral water brands, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies and many others have had to grapple with violations of intellectual property rights (IPR).
So, where do we stand when it comes to IPR?
Under Indian laws, trade mark is a mark “capable of being represented graphically and which is capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one person from those of others and may include the shape of goods, their packaging, and combination of colours”.
Also Read: Meta aims to address human rights impact amid Rohingya genocide row
Anyone trying to use a brand that is deceptively similar to another popular brand (e.g. in font, format, colour scheme, etc.) is an infringer. “In addition to a similar sounding name, ‘Facebake’ was also using the same font and the blue-on-white colour scheme popularised by Facebook,” says Anupam Shukla, partner at Mumbai-based Pioneer Legal.
There have, however, been instances where similar sounding names have co-existed.
Which begs the question: When does a name become an infringement?
Meghna Mishra, partner at Delhi-based Karanjawala & Co, says it depends on how well-known a mark is. “Other things such as the brand’s international presence, application and a reputation built during the time also determine if one is entitled to protect those marks,” she says.
In cases like these, the conduct of the alleged violator has to be taken into account, she explains. “The look and feel of the cake shop was similar, so it comes in the ambit of unfair advertising. The shop was riding on Facebook’s reputation, diluting its mark,” she says.
How wide is the scope of such laws? Well, it comes with riders.
Cadbury in 2019, for instance, lost its battle in the UK to protect its right to use purple wrappers for its chocolates. After losing the appeal, too, it gave up a trademark. The lawyers had said the company may have decided the trademark application is unenforceable after a court ruled that it was too wide-ranging.
Years before that, in 1994, when the trademark laws were still evolving in India, the Mercedes-Benz case defined the trans-border and spillover reputation. In this case, an undergarment unit had copied the three-star logo of the car company on its garments. “Certain marks become a house name and everyone recognises them. Such marks have to be protected so that others do not benefit from their reputation,” Mishra explains.
However, outlets such as Burger King and Burger Singh are coexisting peacefully. Also, a lot of pizza outlets with similar names exist in the same space. Mishra explains that this is because the term “burger” is wide and cannot just be associated with one brand. “It is about the principle of exclusivity. If the mark would also have been copied, it would have been a different matter. The conduct or intention is what is important,” she says. So, while Burger Singh is fine Mr Singh Burger King isn’t – as a Ludhiana-based vendor, who operated a burger joint by that name, discovered.
He had to change its name in 2015, after the fast food giant filed a trademark case against him.
In a country like India, where counterfeit items are sold in every nook and corner, the regulation of trademark infringement poses a big challenge.
“Such sellers are fly-by-night operators. Tracing the source of counterfeit items is extremely difficult,” says Mishra. “However, in such cases, an injunction against unknown persons can be obtained, which is called the John Doe order abroad and the Ashok Kumar order in India,” she adds.
In such cases, a local commissioner can be appointed to crack down on such operators. But the challenge, Mishra says, is that such instances are rampant and difficult to track.
While tracing the source of infringement might be difficult, it is important to protect the rights of individuals to encourage businesses, says Rajeshwari Hariharan, managing partner at Delhi-based Rajeshwari & Associates.
“In 2020, the Delhi High Court passed strict orders against 24 scammers posing as franchisees of McDonald’s,” she says. “The court directed the freezing of their accounts and that they change the entire mark, logo, etc. This is necessary in the public interest.”
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WARSAW — A police officer posting pictures on social media for assistance in identifying theft suspects led to the perpetrators themselves contacting him and denying their involvement.
Stephen Andrew Seager, 36, 111 Alt Drive, Elkhart, is charged with theft, a class A misdemeanor; and theft with a prior conviction, a level 6 felony.
Atousha Faye Brown, 36, 305 Arbor St. 2, Goshen, is charged with theft, a class A misdemeanor.
On May 5, a Warsaw Police officer was contacted by a Walmart asset protection employee regarding a theft that occurred on April 25. A self-checkout employee said a man and woman walked out of the self-checkout area and left the store without paying for some items.
Security footage showed that on April 25, a man and woman entered the store with a child. They are shown walking through the store and selecting multiple items of merchandise. At one point, it appeared they concealed some merchandise by placing blankets in the cart. The man and woman were later identified as Seager and Brown.
According to court documents, while going to the self-checkout register, Brown scanned some items but did not scan others. She paid for the scanned items with a debit card and passed all points of sale without attempting to purchase the items she did not scan.
Seager is shown on surveillance footage attempting to buy electronic items. He attempts to use the card Brown used, but the card was declined. He then collected the items he had and left the store without attempting to purchase the items. The total value of the items stolen from Walmart is less than $750.
On May 6, the Warsaw officer posted pictures of Seager and Brown on the department’s Facebook page for assistance in identifying them. He later received phone calls from both suspects, asking him to call them back. Both Seager and Brown denied purposefully taking items from Walmart. After speaking to them, the officer was able to verify the people in the surveillance video were Brown and Seager.
Seager was previously convicted of theft in St. Joseph County in February.
Seager was booked in the Kosciusko County Jail on July 22, with a $5,750 surety and cash bond. Brown has already been arrested and released on bond. She has an initial hearing at 1 p.m. Monday, Aug. 2.


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latest news releases from the newsroom
BuyMusic.com Names Elizabeth Brooks as Vice President, Marketing
ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Sept. 3, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- BuyMusic.com, the world's largest legal music download store for PC users, today announced the appointment of Elizabeth Brooks as Vice President, Marketing. Brooks was most recently the Vice President of Creative for BMG Music Publishing and, prior to that, the Vice President of Marketing for Napster, Inc.
Infineon Technologies Licenses ParthusCeva's TeakLite DSP Core
SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 3, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- ParthusCeva, Inc. (Nasdaq:PCVA) (LSE:PCV), the leading licensor of Digital Signal Processor (DSP) cores and solutions to the semiconductor industry, announced today that ParthusCeva's TeakLite(R) DSP core is powering Infineon Technologies' latest single-chip GSM/GPRS wireless baseband controller, the S-GOLDlite(TM). Infineon's licensing of the TeakLite DSP core for its next generation GSM/GPRS baseband builds on many years of successful use of ParthusCeva's earlier DSP core, OAKDSP(R), which Infineon had deployed to power previous 2G and 2.5G wireless and wireline communications products. For the S-GOLDlite(TM) wireless baseband controller, Infineon has combined ParthusCeva's TeakLite DSP core with the ARM926(TM) microprocessor in a highly optimized single-chip solution delivering full GPRS class-12 support and high-performance multimedia capabilities.
Digital Wall Street Inc.
WallSt.net Interviews President and CEO of Medifast Inc., Chairman and CEO of Ediets.com, and CEO of Gateway Distributors Ltd.
NEW YORK, Sept. 3, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- Bradley McDonald, President and CEO of Medifast Inc. (AMEX:MED) discussed the company's 20-year history as a "leader in medical meal replacement products." He also detailed Medifast's "robust print campaign," and the return they've gotten as a result of it. McDonald outlined the size of the industry, his company's competitors, and where Medifast stacks up. He also discussed the company's current run-rate, and gave future projections for revenues for the next several years. Other topics that McDonald covered were his company's acquisitions, and their five year outlook.
Digital Wall Street Inc.
Exclusive Wallst.net Interviews with CEO of CMGI Inc., CEO of Green Dolphin Systems Corp., and CEO of Expeditors International of Washington Inc.
NEW YORK, Sept. 3, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- George McMillan, President and CEO of CMGI Inc. (Nasdaq:CMGI) discussed his company's transformation from an internet incubator to what it has become today. He also covered the company's two major components, and their venture capital arm. "Our general message is to be patient, work the business carefully, and set realistic expectations," McMillan told www.wallst.net. "If we can do the three things well, the combination could bode well for the continuous, gradual recovery of the company." Other topics McMillan covered were the rebound in CMGI's stock, industry size, the company's re-listing on the Nasdaq National Market, and detailed explanations of CMGI's core focuses.
KDS USA Unveils Affordable Pair of 17-Inch 'Pure Flat' Desktop Displays
GARDEN GROVE, Calif., Sept. 3, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- KDS USA, a leading provider of monitors and computer peripherals, today introduced its new pair of Xtreme Flat 'pure flat' desktop displays. The 17-inch XF-7i (available in cool grey) and XF-7bk (available in black) CRT monitors afford consumers sharp and crisp images for high-end graphics, gaming, business and everyday computing applications.


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LONDON (Reuters) - Booming commodity trade financing in Asia is a rare bright spot for Western banks, forced to withdraw from other areas of commodities due to tougher regulation and capital constraints.
Commodity revenue for banks has shrunk dramatically in recent years and in the first half of 2013, turnover in the sector for the top 10 investment banks slid by about 20 percent to $2.7 billion, according to financial consultancy Coalition.
“Yes, there’s been a very large decline in revenue, but it’s not down everywhere. There are certain elements of commodities revenue that have actually been doing quite well,” said George Kuznetsov, Coalition’s head of research.
“One of them is inventory financing revenue. If you look at the Asian revenue for commodities, we’ve seen an increase compared to the global decrease,” he told Reuters.
Standard Chartered (STAN.L), Standard Bank (SBKJ.J) and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE) are leaders in inventory financing, in which short-term loans are provided for producers while commodities are transported to buyers, industry sources said.
While the overall shift of global manufacturing to Asia has fuelled the appetite for commodity financing, internal banking dynamics have also boosted trade revenue for some banks.
A shift of financing activities within banks from traditional trade finance departments to commodity specialists is making possible larger packages and lower rates to clients such as copper producers.
Total commodity inventory financing in Asia is growing at about 10-20 percent a year and has expanded into a business where $15 billion to $20 billion of short-dated deals are in place at any one time, said Stuart Smith, head of commodities in Asia for Deutsche Bank in Singapore.
“The new escalation (in inventory financing) is really the commodity banks coming in and lending slightly more aggressively against finished goods,” he told Reuters.
While a general trade finance department might lend a client such as a Chilean copper producer about half the value of a cargo during the 40-50 days it takes to ship to China, commodity specialists in banks are often comfortable lending about twice as much or virtually the full value, Smith said.
That’s because the bank would have confidence in selling the metal if it was forced to take control of the cargo used as collateral and liquidate it.
While commodity financing in Asia has been growing for years alongside the region’s role as a manufacturing hub for the global economy, banks are placing more focus on it as other areas of commodities become more difficult.
Recognising the potential, Dutch bank ABN Amro ABRGPA.UL this month established an office in Singapore for commodity inventory financing of metals, agricultural products and oil.
“On the commodity trade finance side there is a lot of appetite. Banks are pulling out of commodity trading but not out of commodity trade finance. There is still good demand from clients for this,” Piet-Hein Ingen Housz, global head of metals commodities at the bank, told Reuters.
Deutsche, Germany’s largest bank, focuses on base metals, iron ore and coal.
While major U.S. banks have pulled out of propriety commodity trading and have put up for sale physical businesses due to tighter regulations, inventory financing is not an issue for the watchdogs. “I find that trade finance is one of the areas that regulators are fairly comfortable with,” Smith said.
Additional reporting by Melanie Burton in Singapore and Harpreet Bhal in London; editing by James Jukwey


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By Sam Nussey and Miho Uranaka
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese robot maker Yaskawa Electric is considering investing around $200 million in the United States, its president said, with an eye to making its industrial robots there for the first time.
The investment would follow other manufacturers from allied nations moving to build capacity in the U.S. as Washington tries to boost high-end manufacturing and strengthen its control over supply chains amid trade tension with China.
While Japanese rival Fanuc is a leading maker of factory robots for the automotive industry in the U.S., Yaskawa hopes to ride a wave of automation in other sectors.
Manufacturing locally "gives our customers a sense of security and reliability," President Masahiro Ogawa said in an interview.
The more than 100-year-old company has previously said it is looking to invest more in the U.S. The potential scope of the expansion is reported here for the first time.
Yaskawa is the world's top maker of servo motors, a type of high-precision motor that is widely used in chipmaking tools.
The company, which already makes components in Illinois, Wisconsin and Ohio, is considering expanding U.S. production to modules which incorporate its motors, Ogawa said.
The U.S. views securing access to cutting-edge semiconductors as a priority, with its leading chip equipment makers including Applied Materials and Lam Research.
Foreign manufacturers building out capacity in the U.S. include automaker Toyota Motor and chipmakers TSMC and Samsung Electronics.
Yaskawa, whose shares have risen by about a third year-to-date giving it a market capitalisation of around $10 billion, is looking at possible subsidies to fund some of the cost of the expansion, Ogawa said.
(Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Christopher Cushing)


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Therese Rein sells Noosa chalet to Gina Rinehart and earns $3 million in six months
Wealthy businesswoman Therese Rein, wife of former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and Gina Rinehart come from different ends of the political spectrum but have found common ground over a nearly $10million cottage on Queensland’s Sunshine Beach.
The ‘classic beach cottage’ was put up for sale last year and bought by an investment firm ultimately owned by Rein for $6.75million, only to be sold six months later for $9.75million of dollars.
The sale netted the self-made businesswoman a capital gain of $3 million during her brief ownership, which equates to $500,000 for each month she owned it.
The recent off-market sale of the two-bedroom house in Sunshine Beach was filed on behalf of Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting subsidiary, BV Investments.
Rinehart has become one of Sunshine Beach’s most grateful buyers since last year, when she reportedly purchased a $34 million home from the Charlton family.
This record sale has not yet been confirmed by a settlement, but in the meantime, Rinehart’s BV Investments company has accumulated a total of more than $42 million in Sunshine Beach real estate this year.
In February, the corporation bought a 530 square meter beachfront plot on the road for $11.02 million, just 18 months after the same grassy mound traded for $7.05 million.
And a renovation-ready home on a popular beachfront double block has been bought for $21.5 million from veteran backpacker hostel owner Errol Rumpf, just steps from the beach from the beachfront home. sea of $17 million from Rudd and Rein.
The highest sale price this year in Sunshine Beach is $28.5 million for a newly built beachfront home bought by Karen Greer, wife of Wilson Asset Management founder Geoff Wilson.
Real Housewife doubles over Noosa
Reality TV queen Krissy Marsh has doubled down on her preference for spending her Australian winter in Noosa over Europe – ‘You don’t even have to pay to go to the beach’ – by paying $7million for a second holiday home in the seaside resort.
The five-bedroom home sits almost directly behind the $9.8million waterfront dig that Marsh bought three years ago and is intended for use by extended family when they aren’t earning its life as a luxury vacation rental.
The purchase by the star of The Real Housewives of Sydney The series comes as she and her husband John swap real estate in Sydney, buying the Double Bay family home of Magellan’s Hamish Douglass and his jewelry designer sister Sybella Morris for what well-placed sources say is a little more of $25 million.
The exact purchase price has yet to be revealed – which isn’t surprising given that it was offered with a $30 million guide.
Byron’s star appeal
Talent managers Mark and Lizzi Morrissey have put their home and office warehouse in Rosebery up for sale after moving to Byron Bay.
The mixed-use warehouse has been their Sydney base since 2008 when it was bought for $1.35million, but is up for auction on August 13 with a $3million guide by Shannan Whitney of Bresic Whitney and John Bacic of Metro Commercial.
The couple had previously downsized their home in Whale Beach, but sold it last year for $3.6million to grow to a $2.4million acreage in Byron’s hinterland , thus bringing them much closer to the most prominent talents of Morrissey Management, Chris and Liam Hemsworth.
Jointly to fund the cannabis trade
The Vaucluse home of cannabis entrepreneurs Vaughn and Air Graham hits the market next week after the couple moved to Thailand and expanded their new business, Hempagoda.
As the company name suggests, Hempagoda grows and produces hemp and cannabis products, and is headquartered in Bangkok, where the marketing of cannabis was legalized in 2019.
Michael Dunn of Richardson & Wrench Double Bay has yet to offer a guide to the couple’s Vaucluse home on popular cul-de-sac Hillside Avenue, but buyers are provided with recent sales from the property as a guide. order of $11 million and $12 million.
It last traded in 2019 for $6.8million when it was sold by Toula and Andrew Finlayson of Carrington Property Group, and the sale proceeds are expected to help fund the couple’s Thai business interests .


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Key Market Indicators
Burmese asbestos imports are set to hit 153.8 million kilograms by 2026, a 5.2% annual growth rate. The demand for asbestos in Burma has skyrocketed since 2015, increasing by 201%. In 2021, Burma was the fourth-largest importer of asbestos, overtaken by Indonesia, which imported 112.9 million kilograms. China, Indonesia and Burma ranked second, third and fourth respectively in the world for asbestos imports.


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Microsoft and Britain's Royal Mail postal service are expected to announce a new worldwide city-to-city document delivery service, according to industry sources. Few details about the plan are known, but it will apparently offer fast electronic and secure transmission over the Internet - with postal hand delivery.
Microsoft and the Royal Mail have called a London press conference for 2 April to announce "the launch of a new joint service." A Royal Mail spokesman said he was unable to comment further at this stage on the proposed move, but added that "It would be an exciting service of great interest ... and would be very useful, especially in terms of communication."
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GM Sees Hefty Y2K Expense: General Motors will spend perhaps a half-billion dollars to fix its year 2000 problems, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal. As with Ford and Chrysler, most of the GM's millennium bug fix outlays - expected to end up falling somewhere between US$350 million and $500 million - will come this year, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The Big Three hope to have their computers updated in time to do a year of operational testing before the clock strikes midnight on 31 December 1999. The heavy toll to automakers emphasizes that it's not just the highly computerized banking industry that will pay dearly on Y2K, but manufacturing companies also, The Journal notes. Earlier, Citicorp priced its problem at US$600 million and BankAmerica at $380 million.
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Feds review Network Associates' plans: The US government is promising a thorough review of Network Associates' announced plans to sell its powerful data encryption products overseas, bypassing strict export limits. Network Associates said it plans to sell its powerful Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption software, which cannot be exported from the United States, in other countries through a deal with a Swiss company, cnlab Software. Network Associates said PGP encryption products for international markets will be developed and compiled in Europe by cnlab, based on widely available published software code it said was legally exported from the United States. The Commerce Department says it will review the deal to determine if it is, in fact, legal.
Reuters contributed to this report.


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Kids’ Weight Rises When Convenience Stores Open
MONDAY, Dec. 14, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Children have actually a boosted threat of weight problems when there are much more corner store in their community, a brand-new research programs.
“In this study, we found that community food environment, particularly small neighborhood stores, can significantly influence children’s weight status. Our findings are useful for designing future interventions and public policies,” stated research writer Punam Ohri-Vachaspati, a teacher at Arizona State University’s College of Health Solutions.
The scientists complied with 2 teams of low-income and also ethnic/racial minority youngsters, aged 3-15, in 4 New Jersey cities: Camden, New Brunswick, Newark and also Trenton. One team was complied with from 2009-2010 to 2014-2015, the 2nd from 2014 to 2016-2017.
The detectives examined exactly how modifications in the variety of food electrical outlets situated at different ranges from the youngsters’s houses influenced their weight.
While just an organization was seen, undesirable modifications in youngsters’s weight referred a rise in corner store in time, according to the research released Dec. 10 in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and also Dietetics.
For instance, having an extra corner store within a mile of a kid’s residence over 24 months led to an 11.7% better threat of a kid remaining in a greater body mass index (BMI) array, contrasted to various other youngsters of the exact same sex and also age. BMI is a price quote of body fat based upon weight and also elevation.
In comparison, having an extra tiny food store that offered healthy and balanced food things within a mile over 24 months was related to a 37.3% reduced threat of remaining in a greater BMI classification.
No constant patterns were located for modifications in youngsters’s direct exposure to grocery stores, dining establishments or drug stores.
“The need for a more refined understanding of the impact of local food environments on children’s weight status and health has become more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been accompanied by increased food insecurity among low-income populations,” research elderly writer Michael Yedidia stated in a journal press release. Yedidia is a teacher at the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University’s Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and also Aging Research in New Brunswick, N.J.
The American Academy of Pediatrics provides weight problems avoidance guidance.
RESOURCE: Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and also Dietetics, press release, Dec. 10, 2020


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Bitcoin Exchange - Coin News AsiaGet started with Bitcoin: find a wallet, buy bitcoin, shop with bitcoin, read bitcoin news, and get involved on the forum.Reserve Bank warns against Bitcoin use. Gaining currency Bitcoins, and other virtual currencies, have been gaining currency quickly in India.Bitcoin Mining. Resale value of Advanced Micro-Processing GPUs is gaining ground as virtual currency miners rush to buy them and.Bitcoin prices in India have remained firm in a tight upper range of Rs 59,000-Rs 61,000 a piece.Bitcoin Update: Virtual Currency Gaining Ground With Federal Authorities.
It is the best App Out there to track and Monitor your BitCoin investments.Selling bitcoin is just as easy, you will receive INR directly into your bank account.
Mark Cuban Tweets Down The Price Of Bitcoin | PYMNTS.com
Probably the most visible application of blockchains right now isthe virtual currency Bitcoin. or no chance of gaining. while the ground.
A Banker's Guide to Virtual Currency | Bankers OnlineKratika Kashyap, former writter at Freelancers Answered 3w ago According to a recent report, IT ministry officials, Finance ministry officials, Reserve Bank officials, and NITI Aayog officials committee will legalize the virtual currencies in India soon.Unable to Get Dollars, Venezuelans Turn to Bitcoins. offered by bitcoin, a virtual currency outside of. for one bitcoin.
Digital Currencies: International Actions and RegulationsWhat might be ahead for virtual currency in 2016. bitcoin is now gaining attention from celebrities and other business people.A Bitcoin exchange is a platform used to exchange Bitcoins to other forms of currency may it be fiat or alternative. the cost of this virtual coin will doubtlessly.
Capital Controls and Ponzi Schemes: How Nigeria Is Discovering Bitcoin. Bitcoin is gaining ground. and virtual currency operations, bitcoin is listed in.Hackers can also target Bitcoin exchanges, gaining access to thousands of accounts and.Virtual currencies like bitcoin are assets but bitcoin in itself.As per Chris Burniske, Bitcoin trade analyst, Indian trades are accounted around 10% of cryptocurrency trade made globally in May 2017.
From exercising caution over Bitcoin cryptocurrency, the Government of India could finally be moving towards compliance.
Is it okay to ban beef in a secular country like India on religious grounds.Bitcoin and other digital coins are beginning to gain ground as a solution for a.When it was launched four years ago, few people took it seriously, but now the use of Bitcoin, the virtual payment system, is gaining ground.How virtual currency Bitcoin is gaining ground in India - The Economic Times.
Bitcoin Basics: The Economics Of Mining - Nasdaq.comBitcoin is a digital or virtual currency that uses peer-to-peer technology.
Gaining ground: Startups, entrepreneurs turn to coworking
Some reports bluntly deliberate that Bitcoin will not gain any.Cryptocurrency is certainly gaining ground and its usefulness is proven day by.
Lethal surveillance versus privacy - The HinduWell I will say ZebPay is very secure and is a listed startup in India based out of Ahmedabad.
Will China determine the future of Bitcoin? | Forbes IndiaHow virtual currency Bitcoin is gaining ground in India. A quick guide to India GST rates in 2017.
Bitcoin Users Growing In India Despite RBI. flagging concerns on virtual currencies like Bitcoins,. types of solutions for virtual currency,.I will recommend ZebPay ( Promo Code - REF70986736 - To get 1000Rs as Free BitCoin Cash) BTW, Also Download UnoPay they give Rs250 Paytm as Referral Bonus amount just get verified. (Promo Code -U379083), thought its not as easy as ZebPay.Though Bitcoin,. games being built from the ground up around.
Is Bitcoin a threat to the financial sector? - World.taxThanks to its growing mobile penetration lower income groups in India can significantly gain from.
virtual currency | NextBillion
More Info About Bitcoin you may Want to read- Why was Bitcoin Created.The digital currency came into existence in 2009, having been created by a developer (or developers) going by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto.Bitcoin, Litecoin Mining: 5 Steps To Building A Future In. give miners better net-gain. the ability to exchange their coin to local currency, use virtual.
Ethereum, a cryptocurrency network and rival to Bitcoin, continues to gain steam in the virtual money world. India’s Central Bank Tells Virtual Currency Committee.Below is just a sample list of small to large companies that are accepting Bitcoin as payment.
The formula only allows a limit of 21 million Bitcoins to be mined and so far 16,141,163 Bitcoins have been mined.Bitcoin to Gain Legal Status in India xCryptocurrency Staff April 20,.RBI would issue guidelines regarding investment and purchase of Bitcoins.


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- Kmart Australia calls in police over security breach
- Patreon donor details apparently spilled after massive hack
- After Kmart, David Jones confirms hack too. Un-patched IBM WebSphere to blame?
- This vigilante virus protects you against malware attacks, quotes Richard Stallman
- OAIC welcomes Kmart Australia breach notification after customer data hack
social networking - News, Features, and Slideshows
Despite the frothy headlines stirred by Twitter's initial public offering, tech is not in a bubble of the sort that arose before the 2000 dot-com crash.
Twitter made its IPO documents public Thursday and in the process revealed some juicy information about the company, like how much money it makes (or loses) and how much its executives get paid. Here are a few of the details we learned about Twitter today.
New technologies and new IT strategies are here to solve all your problems -- except the ones they create
Latest blend of Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync servers in the cloud combines an excellent feature set with easier setup and management
I recently decided, somewhat randomly, to experiment a bit more with social networking. I was on LinkedIn and at some point the service asked me if it could access my Gmail contact list.
Facebook, which had been in the doghouse with Wall Street since it went public, wowed investors with its third-quarter report on Tuesday, in particular with its improvements and early results in the crucial mobile market.
Facebook is getting serious about on-the-go social networking with a suite of new features announced during the Facebook Mobile event on Wednesday.
Facebook, the company many people don't trust to protect their status updates and personal information, is now in the business of collecting location information, thanks to the introduction of its Foursquare/Gowalla killer, Facebook Places.
Quick: Who's the CEO of Facebook?
Facebook, according to its CEO, is built around the simple idea that people want to share things with "their friends and the people around them."
Want an expert lesson in how to respond without actually responding and how to apologize without saying you're sorry? Then you need to read Facebook CEO Mark Zukerberg's quasi-mea culpa in today's Washington Post. Do it now; I'll wait.
New Yorker Barry Hoggard draws a line in the sand when it comes to online privacy. In May he said farewell to 1251 Facebook friends by deleting his account of four years to protest what he calls the social network's eroding privacy policies.
Once upon a time, instant messaging was a consumer technology. That consumer toy worked its way into the corporate network and was eventually not just accepted, but embraced and leveraged as a valuable tool.
Call me crazy, but something about Microsoft's Kin phone</a> just doesn't add up.
Now that Twitter has begun to display ads--pardon me, Promoted Tweets--in users' search results, the big question is how millions of loyal Twitter fans will respond. Reaction on the micro-blogging site has been muted thus far--more questions than commentary, actually--and it's apparent that most users haven't seen the new ads yet.
- Recent court ruling may have nudged Google, Microsoft to settle patent disputes
- Microsoft acknowledges Office 2016-El Capitan crashes but lacks ETA for fix
- Scottrade had no idea about data breach until the feds showed up
- How News Corp is uniting 10 business units and 25,000 employees in a global IT push
- Microsoft slashes value of Office 2016 upgrade offer
- OgilvyVentures: Finding an alternative way to innovate
- Bigcommerce joins ranks behind new Twitter Buy Now button
- Report: Customer values and data-driven insights drive revenue growth
- How eHarmony’s date with data has lifted customer conversions
- Why marketing analytics is not about ROI calculation, but innovation


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Lawyers for Research In Motion and patent holder NTP are scheduled to give final arguments later this month before a Virginia judge who could reimpose an injunction on the sales of BlackBerry devices in the U.S. NTP has won several court victories so far, but RIM has prevailed on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to call NTP's patents into question.
The case is being closely watched by the tech industry amid calls for patent reform and by anxious BlackBerry users wondering how they'll keep the mobile e-mail flowing in the event of a shutdown. Just to spice things up, RIM claims that it has a "workaround" that could allow it to bypass NTP's patents simply by upgrading its software.
Why might I wake up one day in late March to a dead BlackBerry?
As its patent-infringement defense against NTP winds down, RIM is scheduled to against an injunction on the sale and support of BlackBerry devices in the U.S. After a in 2002, NTP that was stayed in 2003 pending an appeals process.
Various appeals courts have struck down a few portions of that original decision, butand ordered the case returned to the lower court. Since the courts agreed that most of NTP's claims were infringed by RIM, NTP is expected to ask for an injunction. The company has agreed to give RIM's customers to switch to other providers and will allow RIM to continue providing the service to agencies of the U.S. government.
Who or what is NTP?
NTP is a holding company that exists to enforce patents issued to the , who founded NTP with his lawyer, Donald Stout, to capitalize on his inventions. It has signed licensing deals with , , and .
Why does NTP want an injunction?
NTP doesn't make any products or provide any services, so it won't benefit from shutting down RIM in the competitive sense. But the cost that an injunction would pose to RIM, its customers and investors is believed to be so prohibitive that many analysts believe RIM will settle the case rather than risk angering its base.
RIM and NTP tentatively agreed to settle this case last March for $450 million, but the deal fell through. It's believed a new settlement could fetch NTP as much as $1 billion.
Why doesn't RIM just settle the case now?
Several reasons. There's always the possibility the judge might decline to re-impose the injunction, although legal experts won't bet on it given that the appeals court and trial judge have both found that RIM is infringing on NTP's patents. On Wednesday, the Department of Justice weighed in and filed a brief arguing against an injunction, saying that it will be very hard to ensure government access to the service while denying the use of BlackBerry devices to others.


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A vertically-integrated business consolidates a number of steps in the typical distribution course of, from manufacturing to client purchase. Hence Pandora stores at the second are classed as a ‘chain’ for the purpose of our 2020 State of the Industry Report. The firm Jewelery News opted not to renew its lease on the premises at the end of September following prolonged discussions with Scentre Group, which is Australia’s largest retail landlord and the operator of Westfield shopping centres.
- With classic jewellery being so again in fashion, so is the Art Deco aesthetic.
- That said, on a like-for-like basis, there have been 128 brand-only stores in 2010 throughout a complete of 19 watch and jewellery brands.
- The assortment features delicate craftsmanship, meenakari work, and intricately set diamonds.
- Times Brand Icons, Bihar, 2023, a premium initiative from the home of the Times Group, honoured and applauded round 25 manufacturers and individuals together.
- “We are demonstrating that Signet has the methods, power and structural advantages to constantly outpace the market and achieve share whereas additionally delivering sustainable double-digit margins,” Drosos said within the earning call.
That is, more and more, luxury brands in a single category are expanding their product offering into watches and jewelry, thereby making it harder to clearly define the model. Another interesting ‘story’ is that of APM Monaco, a silver jewellery brand with seven Australian stores. It was based in Monaco in 1982 however is now headquartered in Hong Kong. US-based personal fairness firm TPG Capital, which focuses on leveraged buyouts and progress capital, acquired a 30 per cent stake in 2019. The evolution of the watch and jewelry model combine over the previous decade is also interesting. Of the 19 manufacturers within the 2010 report, solely six had been watches; a decade on, that figure has tripled to 18.
Shopping For Teams – Uk’s Houlden Spring Occasion Presents Top-notch Suppliers To…
A shift from the unorganised and small stores to organised and huge format stores, strengthened by stringent government regulations, has led to significant market share features for gamers like Thangamayil Jewellery. Manluu designer MoAnA Luu was impressed by her Creole heritage when conceptualizing her gender impartial jewelry line. This bangle design is inspired by the brand’s signature assortment featuring reimagined woven rattan in gold. Before launching her jewelry brand, she was an artwork vendor and private curator. Her new collection, Cocktail, is a total temper booster and is precisely what all of us want this summer time.


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24 May 2013
Seneca Foods has booked an increase in full-year earnings on the back of higher sales and one-time gains.
1 February 2013
US canned foods firm Seneca Foods has booked an increase in earnings in the first nine months of its fiscal year.
16 January 2013
Seneca Foods has completed the acquisition of Washington-based canned fruit manufacturer Independent Foods.
9 November 2012
US canned food firm Seneca Foods has announced it could buy local peer Independent Foods.
26 October 2012
US canned foods firm Seneca Foods has reported an increase in half-year sales, with price hikes offsetting a fall in volumes.
8 October 2012
Reducing the amount of food waste that goes to landfill is a sustainability challenge faced the world over. Ben Cooper takes a look at an initiative in the US which brings together retailers, manufacturers and restaurant operators.
7 August 2012
US canned vegetables maker Seneca Foods returned to profitability in its first quarter, despite recording a drop in sales.
11 June 2012
US canned vegetables maker Seneca Foods has booked a drop in full-year profits, hurt by a one-time charge.
27 January 2012
US canned food supplier Seneca Foods has reported a fall in nine-month profits due to higher LIFO charges.
28 October 2011
US canned vegetables maker Seneca Foods has reported a slight rise in net earnings for its second quarter but it was not enough to stem losses over the first half of its financial year.
5 September 2011
US canned vegetables makers Seneca Foods and Allens have announced that talks over a potential merger have ended.
25 August 2011
Chiquita Brands International has teamed up with the US Department of Agriculture to promote MyPlate, the new food advice initiative.
4 August 2011
US food processor Seneca Foods remains upbeat despite recording a net loss in its first quarter.
25 July 2011
US canned vegetables makers Seneca Foods and Allens are mulling whether to merge their businesses.
27 May 2011
US food processor Seneca Foods posted a drop in net earnings for its 2011 financial year as it was hit by decreased selling prices, a less favourable sales mix and a lower sales volume.


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Up to 36.5 million Android devices may have been infected with a newly discovered piece of malware that generated fraudulent ad revenue for its creators. Because of the huge reach of the infected apps, these fraudulent clicks have generated large amount of revenues for the publishers. However, it wasn't clear which countries have been impacted by the Judy malware.
Security firm Check Point has uncovered a massive malware campaign that stretches back several years, hiding in plain sight within the Google Play Store.
A new malware named "Judy" has found in over 41 apps on the Google Play Store, infecting over 36.5 million users. It's surprising that most of these infected apps have large number of positive ratings in the store.
Latest research by Checkpoint security has uncovered a malware called "Judy".
According to Check Point, nobody noticed the malicious nature of the apps because those malicious effects were taken from a non-Google server after the user installed them. Yet, the Judy malware has managed to get 4.5 million to 18.5 million downloads on the Google Play Store.
The name of the company that's suspected to be involved is Kiniwini and their name in the Play Store is ENISTUDIO corp.
The Judy Malware fiasco shows that even Google Play Store tends to pass up a major opportunity for malware on occasion, as it obviously did for this situation.
This malware seems to be unsafe for all the android users as this malware has spread in huge proportion and if left untreated then it can infect more android devices.
Since when it is present on the Google Play Store?
They said this means the "malicious code hid for a long time on the Play store undetected". As of last spring, an estimated 1.3 to 1.4 billion people owned Android phones, which are easier to infiltrate than iOS-based devices.
Once the malicious code is installed on the user's device, the JS code finds out the advertisements on the app and clicks on them.


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California’s New Right to Repair Law - January 2024
In July 2024, California’s Right to Repair Act (SB 244) goes into effect, a significant advancement for the right-to-repair movement. This law requires electronics and appliance manufacturers to supply necessary parts, tools, and documentation for repairs to both independent repair shops and product owners.
California is now the third state in the country to enact a digital right to repair law. The law paves the way for additional states to follow suit in providing their citizens with the right to fix their electronic devices by a repair servicer of their choosing rather than being forced to go through the device manufacturer.


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Economists have disputed claims from a pro-Brexit campaign group that leaving the customs union and new free trade deals could create 400,000 jobs, arguing it takes no account of the risks to exports.
Analysis by the Change Britain campaign group suggests that hard Brexit, where Britain leaves both the single market and the customs union, could ultimately be beneficial for the UK, citing reports that the US, India, the South American Mercosur group, China, Canada and South Korea have all expressed an interest in trade deals.
Agreements with these countries would create almost a quarter of a million jobs, a figure that could rise to just under 400,000 if deals were struck with Japan and the Asean group of states that includes Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, the group’s analysis said.
But Jonathan Portes, professor of economics and senior fellow at the thinktank UK in a Changing Europe, called the report’s figures “entirely fictional statistics” and said they did not take into account possible risks of leaving the customs union.
“Successful free trade deals would increase both exports and imports,” he said. “Calculating, as Change Britain does, a speculative figure for the number of jobs created by additional exports while ignoring the jobs lost as a result of additional imports is either deeply ignorant or deliberately misleading.”
Portes said he also believed it was misleading for the report to cite extra benefits including free trade agreements with countries such as South Korea. “The report scores the impact of the EU-Korea FTA as a benefit from Brexit,” he said.
“Since this has been in force since 2011 – and would not necessarily continue post-Brexit, although it may well do so – this is a potential cost, not a benefit. Whatever your view on the economics of Brexit, Change Britain are again doing their best to distort the debate.”
A Change Britain spokesman said that though the South Korea FTA had been provisionally applied for a number of years, all tariffs only formally disappeared from 2016. “The European commission has said that many benefits would not be clear for at least 10 years – that’s why we are including these benefits in our calculations,” the spokesman said.
“We have used the same methodology as used by the EU commission in its papers on the benefits of free trade. This is the very institution that Portes is still campaigning in favour of.”
Change Britain’s spokesman said it was “a shame that experts like Portes continue to talk Britain down”.
Simon Tilford, the deputy director of the Centre for European Reform thinktank, said Change Britain “seem to assume that leaving the deepest and biggest customs union and free trade agreement in the world, the EU, with which we do half of our trade, will not have any negative economic implications and will not cost employment – that’s an unserious proposition”.
Change Britain, which developed out of the official Vote Leave campaign, is chaired by Labour MP and leave supporter Gisela Stuart and has backing from prominent MPs including Michael Gove and Dominic Raab as well as former chancellor Nigel Lawson.
The report’s figures are calculated using a European commission study from 2012 that estimated 16,700 jobs would be created for each billion euros of extra-EU exports.
“This means that the number of UK jobs that will be created from trade deals with these countries can be calculated by simply dividing 16,700 by the UK’s proportion of extra-EU exports – 14.99% in 2015,” the report says. “This process produces a new figure of 2,503 new UK jobs for each €1bn of extra-EU exports.”
Sam Bowman, the executive director of the neoliberal Adam Smith Institute, wrote in a blogpost that the numbers were “basically junk” and said the heavyweight backers of Vote Leave “can do better than this”.
“The extra exports figures come from using EU projections about the benefits of trade deals with countries and blocs like India, China and Mercosur, and dividing by Britain’s share of extra-EU trade (15%),” he wrote.
“This is fairly misleading, because it assumes that the UK could get the same terms as the EU, which is unlikely, since the UK is a much smaller economic bloc than the EU, so other countries will be less willing to give us what we want to get access to our market. It’s very much back-of-the-fag-packet stuff.”
The pro-single market campaign group Open Britain, the continuity arm of Stronger In, called the report “misleading, fantasy figures” that undermined the case for leaving the customs union.


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Health Canada is forming a committee of scientists to help it navigate the emerging world of non-prescription health products containing weed.
The Science Advisory Committee for Health Products Containing Cannabis will provide independent scientific and evidence-based advice as Health Canada works out safety and evidence standards for these new products, the department announced Thursday.
This will include reviewing evidence of how weed can be used as a health product, reviewing emerging clinical studies and suggesting safety standards for health products, such as dosage, quality and efficacy.
Health Canada is also creating a sub-committee to address issues related to cannabis products for animals.
The department is seeking eight to 12 committee members form a wide range of knowledge and experience, including Canadians with lived experience as medical cannabis patients.
Committee members can be nominated by others or themselves and will be selected by federal government staff.
Issues the committee might be asked to tackle include using THC or CBD for therapeutic purposes, how to tackle gaps in a doctor’s knowledge about cannabis and what harms using THC or CBD could pose when being used without a doctor’s advice.
The idea to form a committee was created during Health Canada’s consultations, which ran from June 19, 2019, to Sept. 3, 2019, in which the department asked how it should approach regulating non-prescription health products.
Top image of the Peace Tower in Ottawa via Deposit Photos


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Nabisco is gearing up for summertime with a brand new Oreo flavor that is designed to taste just like Good Humor’s iconic Strawberry Shortcake bars. While the popular sandwich cookie brand has debuted a strawberry shortcake flavor in the past, the new version is meant to taste just like the strawberry ice cream bars, rather than the fruity cake.
The new Strawberry Shortcake bar Oreo cookies were spotted on store shelves just a few weeks ago. The new Good Humor Oreos consists of golden Oreo biscuits with strawberry-flavored bits embedded within -- a unique combo that is no doubt meant to mimic Good Humor’s strawberry cake bits experience. The cookies are then stuffed with a whipped, strawberry-flavored cream to recreate the taste of the creamy filling found inside a Good Humor bar.
While it is unclear when the new Oreos will officially hit store shelves, it appears that some savvy shoppers have already managed to hunt down the summertime treat.
Image Credit: @candyhunting.


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What’s the point: NSL for TensorFlow, AWS adds container insights, TeamCity and GitLab fixes
The TensoFlow team has introduced a new framework, which it says should allow both novice and advanced developers to train neural networks with structured signals. Dubbed Neural Structured Learning, the framework can be used to construct “accurate and robust models for vision, language understanding, and prediction in general.” The team said the framework leverages structured signals in addition to feature inputs, and structure can “be explicit as represented by a graph or implicit as induced by adversarial perturbation.”
TeamCity’s 50 fixes
TeamCity 2019.1.3 hit the streets last week, fixing a list of 50 different problems in JetBrains’ CI platform. Six of these were performance related, including excessive memory usage inside the SML RPC request processor. Memory was also being swallowed up by a problem with the getNodesWithoutChildren method, which has now been fixed. The update also fixes a pair of bugs that were slowing down health reports in the platform. A trio of security problems were also fixed, but these were not detailed.
AWS goes GA with container insights
AWS has announced that Operational Insights for Containers and Containerized Applications is now in general availability. The books to cloud giant announced its CloudWatch Container Insights service as an open preview for new clusters back in July, covering Amazon ECS and AWS Fargate. The firm announced late last week that Container Insights had gone GA, and now covered existing clusters, and has been extended to Kubernetes and Amazon ECS for Kubernetes, as well as the aforementioned platforms. The service will discover all of the running containers in a cluster and collects performance and operational data at every layer in the container stack, Amazon said.
GitLab patch release
GitLab has issued a patch release covering its Community and Enterprise editions, fixing bugs and regressions in the 12.2.3 release it put out last month. These include nine bugs afffecting both the community and enterprise editions. It also fixes a bug in Enterprise Edition that meant group hooks didn’t fire in PostReceive. 12.2.4 shouldn’t require any new migrations or downtime, the firm said.


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The next update for Grand Theft Auto online will focus on the nightlife scene in Los Santos, development studio Rockstar Games announced.
The new update will expand the game's nightlife scene with various new pieces of content. The new content is expected to be linked to existing business empire content and gameplay mechanics.
In addition, the update will feature sets from DJs Solomun, Tale Of Us, Dixon and The Black Madonna.
The new update is expected to be released next month. An exact release date has yet to be announced.
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BALTIMORE (WJZ) — There are about 50 Walmart locations in the state of Maryland, but the retailer (or at least one of its suppliers) doesn’t have a great grasp on what the state actually looks like, as it turns out.
As Reddit user bmorelegalbeagle pointed out Monday, the store is selling a medium-density fibreboard panel craft product that claims to be in the shape of Maryland… but it’s not.
Here’s a comparison:
“I suppose that Montgomery and Prince George’s counties are now part of Virginia?” one Reddit user wrote.
“They left out everything west of the Chesapeake but gratefully added the VA portion of the DMV peninsula,” another said.
A third suggested the person who made the product “must have been a color blind designer working off the electoral map.”
Whatever happened… better luck next time, Walmart.


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The Resource Center has all the info you'll need From content to user feedback, the resource center has the information you need for every level of the entrepreneurial process.
Medical device startups must demonstrate a product's economic value as well as its clinical usefulness, say industry leaders. Read more about their advice for new healthcare businesses.
Medical mobile apps will be placing patients in closer touch with their own health data, if doctors are willing to give up that control. That was one of the takeaways from a speaker at the mHealth Summit going on in Washington, D.C.
Three years ago, Jason Bhan, MD, a family practitioner, went into business with a cousin—Sundeep Bhan, a serial entrepreneur—and a friend, Destry Sulkes, also an MD. The three healthcare entrepreneurs founded Medivo, which developed tools to track symptoms, explain lab results, and provide personalized health information.
Despite having a great product, your company can suffer from mistakes made during the product launch. Here are five tips on avoiding the mistakes others have made.
Dr. Todd O’Brien has additional challenges beyond those encountered by most startup life science CEOs. The 48-year-old podiatrist still sees patients even while developing his latest innovation: an electronic tuning fork for measuring diabetes-related nerve damage in people’s feet. He's also building his company in Orono, Maine - far from any major healthcare hub.
There’s no silver bullet for becoming a successful life science entrepreneur. But at a session on entrepreneurship and innovation at the FutureMed conference at Singularity University in the Silicon Valley last week, three panelists shared their tips on achieving entrepreneurial success.
Publicity is good for an early-stage company, but you shouldn't be pumping lots of dollars into public relations for your new healthcare business. Read more about the right time to hire a PR agency.
This week, eMed will be providing coverage of Partnering for Cures, a conference bringing together leaders in biotech research to discuss the healthcare business landscape.
Pharma reps at GSK are selling their products in a new way. The emphasis is more on communicating a drug's benefits and risks than trying to sell as much as possible. Read more about this change in approach to sales.
Pharmaceutical companies are trying to adapt their marketing to an increasingly digital world. To get a handle on this environment, one company has appointed a digital advisory board of marketers from other industries.
Want to get connected? Sign up to receive regular news, polls and updates from The Kauffman Foundation.


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In 2019 Your Workspace will be displaying smart storage in the Smart Buildings Expo at Facilities Show 2019. This major new addition to the show gives workplace technology suppliers the chance to showcase the products, solutions, technologies and thought leadership shaping the growing smart buildings market.
Talking about this year’s plans, Your Workspace Marketing Manager, Charlotte Porter said,
“Once science-fiction, the expansion of the telecommunications infrastructure has made the connected home a familiar concept. Apps now enable us to control our Media and entertainment; Home security; Energy management; Health and wellbeing – in a single smartphone device. However, the benefits of smart technology have yet to be fully exploited in the workplace.
While a single ‘connected’ product may offer some advantages over a ‘dumb’ product. Like in the home, the true benefits of smart technology come from the integration of products and services into a single platform. This gives a business a 360-degree view of the entire office environment and those who work there.
Over the last year we’ve worked closely with the Facilities Show team to realise their vision for the smart building expo. The showroom experience will bring the smart building concept to life, giving facilities professionals a first-hand understanding of how their business could benefit from new, integrated technologies.
During the event visitors will be able to experience two of our products – connected lockers and smart storage wall – in their ‘real-life’ workplace context. Plus, our experts will be on hand to advise guests how smart storage solutions can work for them.”
Smart Buildings Expo has been created in response to an increasing desire within the facilities management sector for a more dedicated focus on the opportunities – and challenges – of new smart building technology. More and more often, new offices and public buildings are being fitted with automated lifts, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting and heating, surveillance systems and access control. Even ordinary homes are taking advantage of the smart technology boom, with the Amazon Echo and Google Home allowing consumers an unprecedented level of control over their personal space.
Facilities Show 2019 has responded to this with the launch of Smart Buildings Expo. It consists of three strands: ‘Educate’, ‘Experience’ and ‘Consult’, which are designed to guide facilities managers and building service professionals through the shifting landscape of the smart buildings market.
‘Educate’ will take place in the Workplace Technology Theatre, which will host presentations, demonstrations and case studies on critical issues within the smart buildings sector, including smart workspaces, smart security systems, how to harness AI, and a mythbusting panel on the benefits of smart buildings. Here, FMs and building service professionals can develop their expertise and discover the new trends and technologies shaping smart buildings.
Chris Edwards, Event Director of Facilities Show said,
“Whatever stage you’re at with regards to bringing in technology to your workspace, however big you think the challenges ahead are and however likely or unlikely you think that you’ll be able to adopt a Smart Buildings mentality there will be something at the show for you.”
The second strand, ‘Experience’, features a 196m2, full-scale replica of a smart building, created in partnership with Master Systems Integrators, Vanti.
“We’re really excited about showing FMs that smart buildings are about more than gimmicky technology,” says Vanti CEO Mike Brooman. “A truly smart building should be based around creating an experience that supports all of its users, and we look forward to showing Facilities Show attendees how integrated technology can help them achieve a space that contributes positively towards their business goals.”
This space allows FMs and building service professionals to discover an extensive showcase of innovative products within their proper context, thereby giving you the chance to interact with solutions and prove their efficacy for yourself. It gives you a unique opportunity to discover the ways some of the market’s leading workplace technology is driving expertise and innovation within the smart buildings sector.
The final strand is ‘Consult’, which lets you access independent advice and guidance from smart buildings experts in pre-arranged meetings, so you can speak to the individuals driving the smart buildings expertise.
Smart Buildings Expo is just one of the features available at Facilities Show 2019, taking place 18-20 June at ExCeL London. The show brings together the entire facilities management profession, facilitating career development for more than 12,000 visitors, and providing you the chance to source and trial cost-effective facilities management solutions.
To attend the show and access the ideas, products and technologies shaping the facilities management sector, sign up for your free ticket today.
About Facilities Show
Facilities Show is the largest dedicated FM event in the world, with over 12,000 visitors annually. Taking place 18th-20th June at ExCeL London, Facilities Show is showcasing Facilities Management solutions, Workplace Wellbeing and Smart Building excellence.


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Ford is unveiling the 2016 Ford Police Interceptor Utility vehicle at the Chicago Auto Show Feb. 12. The SUV’s refresh parallels that of the new 2016 Ford Explorer, including a revised front and rear design, new headlamps, a new instrument panel and an enhanced electrical system to distribute electrical loads more efficiently.
One trick new feature available is Surveillance Mode technology. It warns the driver when someone approaches the rear of the vehicle, and the driver’s window automatically raises and all doors lock. Ford is the first manufacturer to bring this feature to market. Ford’s 3.7-liter V6 producing 304 hp and 279 lb-ft is standard, while an available 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 makes 365 hp and 350 lb-ft. All-wheel drive is standard. The standard six-speed automatic has what Ford calls Pursuit Mode, automatically switching from normal/fuel-saving operation to Pursuit Mode when it detects aggressive driving situations. It then produces quicker upshifts and downshifts, returning to normal mode when it senses the aggressive driving is complete.
Heavy duty equipment includes suspension, cooling, brakes and powertrain mounts; the front doors have ballistic shields inside. Law enforcement agencies can choose from up to 25 different light patterns. Ford says since the introduction in 2012, its Police Interceptor Utility became America’s best-selling police vehicle, helping Dearborn take 55 percent of the U.S. law-enforcement vehicle market. The latest Interceptor was developed with input from the Ford Police Advisory Board. Ford created the board in 2000 to develop future cop cars using a rotating, 25-person panel from the law-enforcement community. Stay tuned for shots of the new Ford Interceptor from the Chicago Auto Show floor, along with more news and galleries from the Windy City.


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Prevagen, a popular dietary supplement marketed to an aging population with memory loss, is the target of a lawsuit filed by the FTC and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.
The marketers of PrevagenQuincy Bioscience Holding Company, Inc. and related entitieshave made false and unsubstantiated claims in violation of the FTC Act and New York state laws, according to a 31-page complaint filed in New York federal court. The disputed claims relate to the product’s ability to provide cognitive benefits including memory improvement and whether it has been clinically shown to work, FTC announced in a news release.
“The marketing for Prevagen is a clear-cut fraud, from the label on the bottle to the ads airing across the country," said Schneiderman, who has been a critic of the supplement industry, in a statement. “It’s particularly unacceptable that this company has targeted vulnerable citizens like seniors in its advertising for a product that costs more than a week’s groceries, but provides none of the health benefits that it claims."
State and federal authorities are seeking refunds for consumers who purchased the dietary supplement. Minus refunds, sales of Prevagen have totaled US$165 million from 2007 through mid-2015, and customers have paid anywhere from approximately $24 to $59 for a 30-day supply of regular strength pills, the lawsuit noted.
Prevagen, which has been sold at major retailers and advertised on national broadcast and cable networks, contains apoaequorina dietary ingredient that was purportedly obtained from a species of jellyfish, the lawsuit said. The supplement “has been clinically shown to help with mild memory problems associated with aging," and apoaequorin “is safe and uniquely supports brain function," according to Prevagen’s website.
Authorities, however, contend the marketers of Prevagen have exploited an elderly population and lack scientific evidence to support their cognitive function claims.
“Marketers say Prevagen’s active ingredientderived from a species of jellyfishcan get rid of excess calcium that builds up in the brain as we age," Lisa Lake, a consumer education specialist with FTC, wrote in a Jan. 9 blog, commenting on the lawsuit. “The TV ads for Prevagen even tout a clinical study and featured dramatic charts. But according to the FTC, that study actually found that Prevagen didn’t impact brain function as advertised, and the company doesn’t have evidence to back up its claims for memory or other cognitive benefits."
Company Defends Itself
Quincy Bioscience, a biotechnology company in Madison, Wisconsin, described the case against it as “another example of government overreach and regulators extinguishing innovation by imposing arbitrary new rules on small businesses like ours." The company pointed out only two FTC commissioners votedincluding FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, a Democratauthorizing staff to file the complaint.
“It is unprecedented for a complaint like this to be brought by only two sitting commissioners, let alone two commissioners from the same party," the company said in a press release. “The FTC is supposed to be headed by five commissioners, representing a diversity of political backgrounds."
Commenting on Prevagen, Quincy Bioscience said it has amassed substantial evidence to show its product improves memory and fosters healthy brain function.
“This evidence includes preclinical rat studies, canine studies, human clinical studies, and most importantly, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human clinical testing," the company said. “The type of testing has long been acknowledged by both the FTC and the FDA to be the ‘gold standard’ for scientific evidence."
At issue in the case is a study that included 218 individuals who took either Prevagen or a placebo. “The Madison Memory Study failed to show a statistically significant improvement in the treatment group over the placebo group on any of the nine computerized cognitive tasks," the lawsuit alleged.
Quincy Bioscience asserted the dispute relates to the interpretation of study results. “The FTC should not be the arbiter in matters of scientific debate," the company said.
On the Prevagen website, Quincy Bioscience has written a letter to its customers, disclosing that it is defending itself against allegations that the product does not work as advertised. The lawsuit was filed Jan. 9 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
“We firmly contend that these allegations are not true, and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves in court," the company advised its customers.
This is not the first time Quincy Bioscience has attracted regulators’ attention. The company was the subject of an FDA warning letter in 2012. Among other observations, FDA alleged the company neglected to tell it about "adverse events like seizures, strokes, and worsening symptoms of multiple sclerosis that had been reported to your firm as being associated with the use of Prevagen products."


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Its often said that medicines should not be taken without doctor’s prescription, as it could lead to other medical emergencies, proving the above statement true, research has been taken out, which has proved that non-prescribed NSAIDs enhances the risk of heart attack.
There seems to be no denial that diabetes is a contentious issue for governments across the world and that can be reflected from a recent report which indicated that incidence rate of life style diabetes has increased by two times in the last ten years.
As per a recent report presented by the Local Government Activity officials, most of the members of the foodservice industry based in NSW were obeying with laws, which assisted them to shelter their potential consumers from the deadly food-borne sicknesses.
Identical twin girls Angelica and Angelina Sabuco marked with different-colored ribbons to make a distinction between them after surgeons managed to separate them from each other following a daylong operation.
There has been a lot said over lifestyle changes and specifically eating habits. On the same lines, Pizza Hut has come up with a new range of reduced calorie pizzas which could make health conscious once again gorge on them.
It has been confirmed that the new offering in the name of Pizzetta range would give consumers chance to enjoy pizzas having calorie content limited to 500 each, including Chicken Delight, Shrimply Delicious and Virtuous Veg.
According to latest reports, a recent study, which has been carried out by the researchers from Manchester University, has claimed that the frequency of cervical cancer among young women has increased steadily during the last
20 years or so. In this regard, the researchers have blamed the increasing practice of having unprotected sex at a comparatively younger age, as indicated by the recent figures.
Obesity can be considered as an epidemic of present era where the said health condition continues to take more and more number of people under its spell, regardless of age.
- Finally a $7 Billion Settlement for Citigroup
- Discussions In Progress for Merger of Tobacco Businesses: Reynolds to Acquire Lorillard
- Amazon Seeks Permission to Fly Drones for Delivery of Packages from FAA
- Wells Fargo Reports a Profit
- Abbott hits JV deal with Fonterra to operate diary farms in China


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We have been in the apparel export business for several decades and we follow the Minimum Wage Act and other Labour Acts meticulously.india Updated: Sep 09, 2007 23:13 IST
Apropos of the article UK retailers take shirt off Bangalore sweat shops (September 4), I was surprised at this heading, especially the word ‘sweat shop’ which has negative connotations. We have been in the apparel export business for several decades and we follow the Minimum Wage Act and other Labour Acts meticulously. We work with world’s top brands and each of these retailers have a compliance team that visits our factories.
As mentioned about the suicide case in our factory seven months ago, the reporter has rightly mentioned that the person worked only for 19 days in the factory, and thereafter two investigation groups, one consisting of union leaders and the other, a women’s redressal group, visited the factory. Both these committees gave a finding that the woman committed suicide due to domestic problems. Before working with us for 19 days she had worked in three other factories for eight months and her husband has been in jail for the past two years. She received a phone call on her cellphone that her children were thrown out of the house by her family members and that was presumably the reason she took this acute step.
Rajendra J. Hinduja
Readers may e-mail
letters to the editor at:
First Published: Sep 09, 2007 23:11 IST


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Several Facebook alumni have formed startups to develop new social networking applications. Among them are Asana, which aims to improve collaboration among teams, Quora, which connects people and information, and Path, a mobile social network.
The Los Angeles Times identifies the brains behind these companies as:
- Dustin Moskovitz (a co-founder of Facebook) and Justin Rosenstein at Asana
- Former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever at Quora
- Dave Morin at Path
Another Facebook veteran, Matt Cohler, is now a local investor. Kevin Colleran, the company’s first ad sales executive, invests in companies from his home in Boston.
Local tech scene observers are optimistic about these ventures. First, they’ve got money — or will have a lot of it as soon as Facebook’s IPO is complete. Second, they’ve got great networks of potential collaborators, which can be a key factor in a startup’s success.
“The basic unit of innovation in Silicon Valley is the team,” futurist Paul Saffo told the Times. “Innovation is an irrational act, and the only way to get through that irrationality is to surround yourself with other people as crazy and obsessed with changing the world as you are.”


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Metro Market looks for employees to work at new store
A soon-to-be Metro Market in Shorewood is looking to fill more than 100 positions.
The store is holding a series of job fairs to let community members know about the open jobs. The second took place Saturday.
Bryan Aderhold of Roundy’s Supermarket said the company will be busy meeting with candidates soon.
“We're going to be interviewing for a variety of positions both full and part-time here in the store. We have a lot of very specialty positions that we're offering as well,” said Aderhold.
The new shop is set to open on Oakland Avenue. It will open in February.
The next fair is scheduled for next Saturday.


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Chrysler continues dishing out portions of its ad business to an array of agencies, this time awarding Doner its dealer/retail account, which could be worth an estimated $500 million in billings next year. According to Adweek, Doner’s assignment is to produce dealer and retail-oriented ads for Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep as part of a year-end effort to clear lots. Lord knows after losing Mazda nearly six months ago, Doner sure could use a major boost like this. The Southfield, MI-based agency is also one of handful of shops in the running for Chrysler’s brand advertising, says the automaker’s CEO/chief marketer, Olivier Francois. Read more at Adweek here.
McMurry/TMG is looking for a Account Supervisor. next job Bailey Lauerman is looking for a Media Director. next job Wells Fargo & Co. is looking for a Sr Copywriter. next job Fusion.net is looking for a Director, News Practices. next job The Marketing Division is looking for a Freelance Flash Designer. next job SafeAuto Insurance Company is looking for a Media Buyer/Planner. next job CoolGraySeven is looking for a Account Manager. next job The Ad Council is looking for a Project Manager. see all
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- After posting hefty operating and net losses for Q4, Adidas on Wednesday warned of a possible 700 million euro ($738.6 million) operating loss for 2023, which would be its first annual loss in three decades. That includes a potential 500 million euro write-off of unsold Yeezy-branded merchandise and 200 million euros in one-off costs.
- Despite a 482 million euro net loss in Q4, the company posted net income of 254 million euros for the year. Currency-neutral revenues rose 1% for the year, reaching 22.5 million euros, and fell 1% in Q4. The company’s operating profit decreased 66% to 669 million euros in 2022, down from nearly 2 billion euros in 2021.
- Adidas also announced changes to its executive team as new CEO Bjørn Gulden takes over. CFO Harm Ohlmeyer will continue in that position until 2028. Arthur Hoeld will oversee global sales starting April 1, replacing Roland Auschel, who is leaving the company after 33 years. In addition, Brian Grevy, who oversees global brands, is leaving the company effective March 31. Gulden will assume responsibility for global brands.
Adidas’ decision to end its partnership with Ye, also known as Kanye West, hurt the company financially. The breakup may affect 2023 profitability too.
In addition to an expected operating loss of more than $700 million, Adidas projected currency-neutral revenues would decline in the high-single digits in 2023. The company’s guidance reflects a revenue loss of about 1.2 billion euros from potentially not selling the existing Yeezy stock. Adidas’ underlying operating profit is projected to break even in 2023.
Adidas last month told Retail Dive it has not decided what to do with the unsold Yeezy inventory.
The breakup with Ye is not the only issue affecting Adidas’ balance sheet. The company said recession risks in North America and Europe, along with geopolitical tensions and the need to “significantly reduce high inventory levels,” will impact revenue in 2023.
The “shockingly bad” guidance, as one analyst described it in February, led both S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s to downgrade the apparel maker’s credit and debt ratings last month.
In an earnings announcement, Gulden restated a sentiment he shared last month: 2023 will be a transition year for the company as it works to rebuild a profitable business. Gulden, who became CEO in January, channeled athletic language to describe how the company will reorient itself after a challenging year, saying the company will work to become “fast and agile.”
In order to become “the best sports brand in the world once again,” Gulden said Adidas will put its focus on its products, consumers, retail partners and athletes by balancing global direction with local needs. The company also reiterated its commitment to serving customers both through wholesale channels and its direct-to-consumer business.
Also a part of that strategy is a revamp of its management team. Hoeld, who is taking over global sales, has been with Adidas for 25 years. He had served as managing director of the company’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa region since 2018. With Gulden taking over responsibility for global brands, as of April 1, the members of Adidas’ new executive board will include Gulden, Hoeld, Ohlmeyer, Amanda Rajkumar (global human resources, people and culture), and Martin Shankland, who will oversee global operations.