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The enterprise customer segment is now a known entity in the Middle East for networking vendors. Always on the lookout for incremental sales, it was inevitable that vendors would start to look further down the customer pyramid. The SMB market is now a vendor battleground and channel strategy is playing a pivotal role.
Make no mistake about it, competition between networking vendors in the small and medium business (SMB) space in the Middle East is fierce. Consumer-focused vendors are looking up to the SMB opportunity and simultaneously enterprise vendors are developing stripped-down offerings to push into this growth market. Major names such as Buffalo, 3Com, Linksys, US Robotics, Netgear and Cisco are queuing up to stake their claim to the SMB throne and persuade Middle East partners that they have the solutions that SMBs want as they rush to develop connected organisations.
For Cisco, which has launched an innovative SMB select partner programme, the channel is an integral part of its regional go-to-market strategy. “We are addressing the needs of SMBs across the emerging markets theatre and the role of partners is critical,” explained Milo Schacher, senior director, commercial business, global emerging markets at Cisco. “Today, we see many SMB customers using the advanced infrastructure that large enterprises are also using.”
“Our go-to-market strategy in the SMB space is clearly through partners. We need that channel capacity and we want them to develop an understanding of the technology and also vertical expertise,” he added. Hand-in-hand with its channel development efforts, Cisco is also looking to ease the purchasing process for SMBs in the Middle East. The networking giant’s SMB leasing programme, which has already been deployed in more developed markets around the world, is now set for launch in Saudi Arabia — a market where Cisco has committed significant investment to develop its presence.
While Cisco pushes down into the SMB space, Linksys — a business unit within Cisco — pushes up, highlighting the strength of the vendor’s total product portfolio and laying down the gauntlet to rivals who seem more than happy to accept the challenge.
“The SMB sector is more than 50% of 3Com’s total business in the Middle East,” said Amanulla Khan, regional channel manager at 3Com. “We grew this side of the business 65% in the last year and that means we now have much bigger installed base in the region. At the same time we are increasing our SMB resources and will soon have a dedicated person in Saudi Arabia focused on this market.”
3Com already has some 700 resellers across the region pushing its SMB solutions to market and is constantly evaluating the potential to develop mew channels. In addition to its current value-added and volume resellers, 3Com is making a powerful play to develop its service provider (SP) channel in the region. Buoyed by its success with SPs in Egypt, Khan believes this will emerge as a major channel for the deployment of SMB networking solutions.
Sumit Kumar, regional sales manager at US Robotics
“We are putting a great deal of investment into the SP sector and I think every vendor is looking at this market,” added Khan. “We think this will change the SMB buying landscape. It has happened in the US, is happening in Europe and will inevitably happen in the Middle East as well.”
3Com is not the only vendor looking closely at the service provider channel. US Robotics is also working hard to develop relationships with telecoms companies that have the potential to also sell networking kit to their SMB customers.
Talking to major vendors in the networking arena, it is clear that their definition of what constitutes an SMB customer varies wildly. For some, it is based on the number of employees while for others it is a revenue call. At the same time some vendors refuse to enforce a strict classification, preferring instead to assess each customer’s individual needs on a case-by-case basis.
In terms of channel building, most vendors prefer not to adopt a scattergun approach based on the sheer number of resellers but instead concentrate on building coverage through a deliberate and well thought out business model.
“We focus on the quality rather than the quantity,” explained Sumit Kumar, regional sales manager at US Robotics. “I don’t believe that having more and more partners is a win-win situation in the long run as issues of price wars and price cutting can emerge.”
“We have approximately 70 authorised partners categorised into platinum, gold and silver status,” he added. “Apart from that we have VAR partners who concentrate more on the corporate and project business and provide complete solutions to the end-user.”
Networking vendors realise that the sheer number of SMB customers that exist in the Middle East means that the channel is the only viable route-to-market for them to embrace. Making their partner programmes stand out from the competition in order to create channel loyalty is an ongoing effort for many.
“Our programmes offer many benefits to the channel partners,” commented Claire Jones, SMB regional sales manager at Cisco. “I would say that the most unique benefits are the leads that the Cisco regional call centre can generate. Passing on qualified leads to the channel is considered to be a major benefit.”
“There are many vendors that are targeting the SMB space, making smart and effective vendor-led or vendor-supported partner programmes extremely important to the reseller,” she added. “Resellers tend to work closely and more devotedly with vendors that recognise the opportunity within the SMB segment if they feel secure that they will receive the vendor back-up.”
Milo Schacher, senior director, commercial business, global emerging markets at Cisco
The number of channels that can be used to reach SMB customers means that many vendors are performing a balancing act as they try to open up new routes-to-market but keep channel conflict and overlap between partners at a reasonable level. For 3Com, even the retail channel is a viable route-to-market for the low end of the SMB space.
“We have made reasonable progress with the power retailers in the region in terms of our wireless products,” said Khan. “We are also in discussions with a couple of distributors that are retail-focused and hope to make an announcement soon. It is important that these partners are in-country and can really support the retailers on the ground.”
While the retail channel can be used to sell certain products to tech-savvy businesses at the lower end of the SMB customer pyramid, networking vendors are also starting to understand the importance of building channels that can deliver a complete solution and engage with end-users as trusted advisors as opposed to purely pursuing one-off transactions.
“Cisco has worked to develop the smart business communications architecture that allows users to scale up easily from 10 users without the need for a forklift upgrade,” added Schacher. “We are also looking at partnerships with vendors such as Microsoft to link network architecture into the applications.”
The potential for growth in the SMB networking channel is clear for all to see. “The small office home office segment is the fastest growing sector for the connectivity business in the Middle East,” said Kumar. “We are experiencing the growth all over the region, especially in the UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.”
Jones at Cisco continued: “Mobility, network security, broadband connectivity, remote access technology and IP telephony are all seen by SMBs across EMEA as key ‘must have’ technologies. These help address the key business challenges they face, which include competition, finance and new market identification and development.”
Resellers in the Middle East have a wide choice of vendors to work with in the SMB networking arena. While the brand equity of the vendor they choose is important, resellers also need to look at the levels of channel competition that exist and the margin potential of the products and solutions that they carry. Their main focus should always be on the needs of their customers. Having selected a vendor partner, they should make the most of the channel programmes on offer.


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Save 50% on your Social Media Week pass! Join leading brands and agencies in NYC this April 9–11 to learn about emerging trends, tools and strategies. Register now—savings expire Dec. 11.
For even the most experienced marketers, Facebook can be an elusive platform. How do you create content that not only reaches a wide audience but also spurs user engagement?
To help decode what works and what doesn’t, social media marketing agency Ignite studied more than 18,000 posts from 30 brands between Jan. 1, 2015 and Dec. 31, 2016. The takeaway: Video works, to an extent.
“Given Facebook’s recent focus on video content, it isn’t surprising that video posts typically reach a larger percentage of fans than link and photo posts … [but video content] is not for generating likes, comments or shares,” said Ryan Sweeney, director of metrics and analytics at Ignite.

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Mo. lawmakers propose looser standards for damaged vehicles
Friday, May 4, 2007
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri lawmakers are considering loosening the standards for the kinds of damage that must be listed on a vehicle's title -- a move praised as pro-consumer by some and denounced as anti-consumer by others.
The House and Senate each endorsed measures Thursday that could lead to fewer salvage titles being issued for vehicles.
Supporters say that could allow people to get a greater resale value for older cars that have hail damage or have been in fender-benders. But opponents fear buyers might be unaware they are getting damaged vehicles.
Under current law, vehicles must be considered salvaged if the cost of repairing them equals at least 75 percent of their value and they are no more than seven years old.
Legislation, which passed 113-38 in the House, would raise the damage threshold to 80 percent of the value, exempt hail damage and require salvage titles only on vehicles six years old or newer.
The Senate on Thursday adopted an amendment to a separate bill that would go even further, requiring salvage titles only for vehicles up to three years old with damage equaling 80 percent of their value. The Senate version also exempts hail damage from triggering salvage titles.
Vehicles with salvage titles often sell for less than those with clean titles.
But a salvage title can be misleading if it's applied to a vehicle that suffered nothing more than tiny dents from hail, said Brent Butler, the government affairs director for the Missouri Insurance Coalition.
"It has a connotation that it's been really wrecked, as opposed to cosmetic damage," Butler said. By exempting hail damage, "we're trying to help our consumers."
Sponsoring Sen. John Griesheimer, R-Washington, a former car salesman, said the current 75 percent threshold also is causing problems with some older vehicles. If an insurance company originally considers a car 50 percent damaged, but a repair shop discovers additional damage that pushes the cost past the 75 percent value, the insurance company could end up paying for the original repairs and then paying the policy holder again because the vehicle must be considered totaled.
In the House, Republican supporters said the current definitions for a salvaged vehicle are too tight and have made it harder for people -- especially the poor and elderly -- to buy cheap cars.
But some House Democrats said the proposed changes would hurt consumers by obscuring when a vehicle has been damaged and substantially repaired.
Rep. John Burnett said the legislation is a "terrible, horrible, no good bill" that reverses years of consumer protections.
"Poor people and old people do not want wrecked cars, and they do not want to be sold cars that have had substantial repairs to them any more than people with money," Burnett, D-Kansas City.
Sen. Rita Heard Days, D-St. Louis, also expressed some skepticism when questioning Griesheimer about the bill.
"I just want to make sure that we're not trying to dupe the public," Days said.
The salvage provisions are included in larger House and Senate transportation bills.
The bill pending in the Senate also would repeal the state's mandatory vehicle inspections and allow police to pull over motorists solely for not wearing seat belts, among other things.
The version passed by the House also would allow bigger trucks on some state roads, allow consumers to claim an income tax exemption worth the sales tax paid for cars manufactured in Missouri and require someone to sell six vehicles a year to qualify as a dealer.
House and Senate members still must agree on a final version of the legislation.


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Koala would not confirm how many staff members it employed before the layoffs, though the professional social network LinkedIn puts it at 288. However, that figure is unlikely to be accurate because some people do not update their employment status when they change or leave a job .
Industry insiders, who spoke to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age on condition of anonymity to discuss the market candidly, said Koala had once appeared a runaway success that pioneered delivering mattresses in a box in Australia, only to find itself competing with a raft of copycats.
A similar mattress company in the US, Casper, was valued as high as $US1.1 billion in 2019 but went public for less than half that and was taken private again earlier this year after its value fell by about another 40 per cent. In 2020, Koala was reported to be raising money at a $500 million valuation.
Former Australian cricket captain Steve Smith was an early investor in Koala. Several of its former leaders have gone onto found other high-profile start-ups, including co-founder Dany Milham, now chief executive of grocery delivery business Milkrun, and former marketing head, Tim Doyle, now boss of healthcare start-up Eucalyptus.
Koala’s spokeswoman did not give figures on the company’s revenue, profit, capital raising or savings but championed its prospects and said suggestions it had explored an IPO were “not correct”.
“Like any private company with proven success as a market leader in our categories and markets, we are fortunate enough to receive countless inbound introductions from potential investors. They see the opportunity for Koala to continue to disrupt the global furniture market.”
She said Koala’s margins were double those of some competitors and that more than half its Australian revenue was coming from non-mattress products, representing a more diverse business.
“Word of month about our furniture offering and experiences has led to incredible growth in non mattress sales. With many more unique Koala designs being launched later this year, we’re excited to continue this strong growth into all rooms of the home.”
The company was supported by its existing investors. “We will continue to invest in our operations across Australia and Asia,” the spokeswoman said.
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.


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EU envoy urges Kenya
to sign 'duty free' flower export agreement
NAIVASHA (Xinhua) -- European Union
(EU) ambassador to Kenya Lodewijk Briet
has urged the Kenyan government to sign the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the EU
in time so as to benefit fully from duty free exports to the European market.
According to EU
flower sector earned 495 million U.S. dollars in sales of roses exported to Europe last year, which contributed to 30 percent of the total exports to the European market during the same period.
ambassador to Kenya Lodewijk Briet
said this was a drop as Kenya
delayed signing the EPAs negotiated between the EU
and Africa last year.
"The delay which took three months to complete had a huge impact on the sales of exported Kenyan flowers," he
"The deadline for ratification is October 2016, and we need Kenya
to sign the agreement in time so as to avoid the last minute rush," the ambassador said.
is one of the high class flower exporters in the world.
The East African nation supplies flowers mainly to European countries including Holland, Britain, Germany, France and Switzerland.
"As we will embrace Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day, we expect better sales in Europe," said Kenya Flower Council
(KFC) Chairman Richard Fox Wednesday
during a visit to Naivasha, Kenya's
largest cut flower center, along with a EU
delegation ahead of Valentine's Day.
Fox said they expected flower sales in Europe in the next four months to increase by 40 percent and out-number those of last year.
A worker prepares roses for export at Van Den Berg Flower Farm Naivasha | Coastweek
NAIVASHA (Xinhua) -- A worker prepares roses for export at Van Den Berg Flower Farm ahead of Valentine's Day in Naivasha, Kenya
According to industry data, flower sector in Kenya
employs over 500,000 people both directly and indirectly, and supports the livelihood of over two million households.


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The MG Hector Plus seven-seater will be the newest addition to the British brand’s India line-up
MG Motor India has enjoyed a tremendous start in the country with its Hector SUV model. Late last year, the company introduced the more upmarket version in the form of the Hector Plus which came with captain seats in the second row and a full fold-down third row. Now, after launching their high-end Gloster full-size SUV, MG is ready to introduce the seven-seater version of the Hector Plus, later this month.
The dimensions of the new variant will remain the same as the six-seater version, as will the trim levels and tech on board. After all, MG has carved a niche for themselves in the market by introducing some class-leading features across their SUV range that includes a host of voice-controlled commands as well as advanced connectivity systems that make the ownership experience rather pleasant.
From a design standpoint, the Hector seven-seater isn’t expected to be any different than the current SUV. Having said that, it is a good looking vehicle with a large front grille finished in chrome, sleek headlights, interesting surfaces along the side and those telltale rear lights. The cabin will also get leather upholstery and soft-touch materials that give it a rather upmarket feel. Under the hood, you can expect the same petrol and diesel engines that have been on offer in the MG Hector models since it was introduced in the country.
As a seven-seater version, the Hector Plus is definitely catering to the large Indian family much like what Toyota achieved with the Innova. While the Innova is now priced well above the Hector range, the new variant is expected to have a competitive price tag that will undoubtedly draw in the customers.


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Strong sales reported from Auckland International Boat Show
by Rebecca Hayter on 19 Sep 2011
The 13th Auckland International Boat Show was opened by Prime Minister John Key on Wednesday evening and closed at 6pm Sunday, 18 September, having launched a new era in the New Zealand marine industry with a new venue and new time of year.
The Auckland International Boat Show in the Viaduct Harbour, Auckland. . ..
Moved from March to September to coincide with 2011 Rugby World Cup and held in the newly opened Viaduct Events Centre, the show welcomed an unprecedented number of international media from several Asian countries, South Africa and Australia, many of them guided to the show by NZ Trade and Enterprise.
Peter Busfield, executive director of the boat show organiser NZ Marine Industry (NZMI), said the significant interest from overseas media would continue to bring benefits to New Zealand for up to two years.
'We have shown up to ten groups of journalists from Asia around the show and introduced them to companies which are active in China or interested in becoming active there,' he says.
'We are also seeing an increase of international companies exhibiting at the show,' adds Mr Busfield. 'Some international exhibitors said they found this show to be the most productive show for them in Australasia.'
Visitors who came to the four-day show mostly had a clear idea of how they wanted to further their boating experience. Many exhibitors commented that the boating public are becoming increasingly knowledgeable about the technical aspects of boating. Whether they were looking to upgrade their boats or to carry out work on their existing boat – for example, an engine repower, a re-paint, or installation of new equipment – they have a clear idea of what they need to know before they arrive.
Overall, exhibitors were extremely happy with the calibre of visitors and reported strong leads to follow up on over the coming weeks.
Yachtfinders Global, which imports the Beneteau range of yachts, had a spectacular start, selling an Oceanis Beneteau 37 cruising yacht within three hours of the show opening. Director Gary Erceg says the yacht is one of his most popular, two-cabin models. He also received significant interest in the new model Beneteau First 35.
Other new yachts included Equilibrium, the newly launched 55-footer from Lloyd Stevenson, and Greg Elliott’s new Tourer 1350, Fiction.
Powerboat manufacturers reported strong levels of interest at the show. Lance Fink, managing director of Tristram Marine, thoroughly approved of the new venue. 'I love it,' he said. 'The atmosphere is just fantastic. We’re really excited to be here and now’s an excellent time to buy a boat for the Christmas holidays.' He’s seen a steady level of enquiries, especially for in the Tristram 690 Bowrider and the Tristram 741. 'We have sold several boats since yesterday [Friday],' said Mr Fink.
Rayglass Marine was delighted to sell two Rayglass 2500 by the second day of the show, each in the $200,000-plus bracket. Both boats spec’d the company’s diesel option, a VW TDI V6, 265hp, said Dave Larsen, general manager of Rayglass Marine.
'We’re seeing much more interest in the diesel option; our customers seem to prefer the greater range the diesel engine gives them when fishing further afield,' said Mr Larsen.
Another major powerboat player, Haines Hunter, was rapt with the level of serious enquiry, especially for the flagship SS725 model.
Lionel Sands, managing director of Haines Hunter, believes now is best time to buy a boat. 'Despite the economy, there is still plenty of money of out there. We’re seeing most interest in the bigger boats. Right now these boats represent really excellent value for money.'
Christchurch-based Griff Simpson at Fi-Glass has had more than his share of problems due to the earthquakes over the past 12 months, but Mr Simpson had only positive things to say about the Auckland International Boat Show.
'It’s now a world class event, it’s just fantastic. The venue has lifted the show to another level.'
Fi-Glass offered a special boat show deal: one-third, one-third, one-third, which enabled buyers to buy the boat in three payments over 24 months.
Engines also generated power at the boat show. Many owners are keen to repower and Volpower was promoting the debut of the new D400 Volvo engine/sterndrive which features a fully electronic fly by wire control system.
Central to this is the Power Trim Assist (PTA), which allows the driver to pre-program the stern leg’s trim angle so it automatically responds to varying amounts of throttle and boat speed.
Andrew Wilkes of Marine Xpress said this was a most successful show exceeding his expectations of sales for his range of stainless steel ladders and marine equipment.
'We sold predominantly to Kiwi visitors but we sold a reasonable amount to Australian visitors and Australian boat builders – enough to decide to scoot over to the Mandurah Boat Show [Western Australia] due to some work there we’ve picked up on the back of the show. It has been a real eye opener after what has been an awfully tough time for us. The fact that we can meet those demands with weird and wonderful [custom-made] equipment worked very well for us at the show.'
Projects secured by Marine Xpress at the show include a 97-year-old ferry from the South Island to be converted into a pleasure boat and a 1976 Lidgard 47. 'We’re just blown way,' said Mr Wilkes.
But there was plenty to dream about, too, in the 55ft Steve Ekman-designed, $5.7 million luxury powercat Bucket List from Fibreglass Concepts in Whangarei which hosted TVNZ Breakfast on Saturday morning, and the 17.5-metre metallic bronze Voodoo designed by Roger Hill and built by Dave Pachoud of Tauranga.
Voodoo’s sunroof and open, light-timber sole interior presented a new look for a Roger Hill design, and complemented its neighbour, the 14-metre helicat, Kukai, also designed by Roger Hill.
The biggest crowd puller of the show was Saturday’s on-water race for the International Boatbuilding Competition, organised by NZ Marine Industry Training Organisation. Teams of apprentices and boatbuilders from superyacht-related companies had built outrigger canoes prior to the show to demonstrate their skills and innovation in boatbuilding. Specialist Marine Interiors won three categories – most innovative, best quality of build and best overall presentation – while Alloy Yachts won the race under paddle, sail and outboard motor on the water.
In his opening address, Prime Minister John Key said he was impressed by the diversity of the marine industry, as reflected by the range of sponsors who contributed significantly to the show as a world-class, vibrant event.
Auckland Mayor Len Brown attended the International Boatbuilding Competition representing major sponsor, Auckland City. The Moorings package of three prizes, each a one-week sailing holiday in the Bay of Islands, encouraged visitors to complete the boat show survey, thus ensuring an even better event next year. Sponsor Line 7 provided smart, branded wear for official boat show staff; Total Floating Systems Ltd transformed the Viaduct Harbour by installing 987 lineal metres of floating marina in just three days, and the fleet of Kia, four-wheel drive vehicles proved perfect for towing trailer power boats.
The top floor of the new Viaduct Events Centre provided the best views of the boat show and comfortable seating to enjoy the Boating New Zealand Weekend Seminars. Topics included kayaking, weather, game fishing, yacht design, classic yacht restoration and protecting the Hauraki Gulf Islands.
By spreading the word about safe boating, gamefishing and the marine sea life, the Boating New Zealand Weekend Seminars will help to ensure New Zealand boaties get best use from their purchases at the Auckland International Boat Show.
If you want to link to this article then please use this URL: www.sail-world.com/88674


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Remember, remember the 8th of December 1993. This was the fateful day that President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) Bill into a law. For all you psych majors who searched Amazon (AMZN) during Intro to US History, allow me to briefly enlighten you…
NAFTA was a trilateral agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexica, which, upon enactment, would allow all importing and exporting of goods between the three nations to be free. Typically, when a company imports or exports a product to another country, they pay a tax, or “tariff” on that product. Enter NAFTA stage right, no tariff.
The logic behind the passing of NAFTA, at the time, seemed clear. Free trade makes it cheaper and easier for companies in one country to sell their product in another country which, in turn, benefits all countries involved. NAFTA, like a 3-year-old chess prodigy, was destined for greatness, but alas, the agreement was far from perfect.
With the financial burden of tariffs removed from the manufacturing and import/export process, companies were able to catch their breath. Prominent economists at the time predicted that NAFTA would create bountiful trade surpluses with Mexico and thousands of job opportunities would be created, however this was not the case. On the contrary, NAFTA led to U.S. trade deficits, not trade surpluses. This deficit continued through the decade following NAFTA’s enactment, taking a snack break in 2007, when the U.S. economy collapsed into the recession and demand for imports dropped off.
In addition to trade deficits, manufacturers recognize that cheap labor could be found in Mexico, rather than the U.S., and nearly 750,000 U.S. jobs are lost, mostly from the automotive, textile, and tech industries. Subsequently, the massive job migration suppressed wages. Companies used the Mexican labor shift as a threat to deter their employees from unionizing.
So you get the picture, NAFTA was severely flawed. Like my bedroom in my pubescent years, the agreement left the U.S. with “schmutz” everywhere.
1.21 gigawatts and 88mph later, we find ourselves 25 years in the future.
The New Deal
On October 3, 2018, a new trade deal was struck to replace NAFTA. The new name, with sex appeal like a Ferrari, is the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or simply, the USMCA. The agreement originates from a campaign promise President Donald Trump made back in 2016.
NAFTA 2: Return of the Trade, 2 NAFTA 2 Furious, NAFTA To The Future, NAFTional Treasure, the agreement is back, but with a complete makeover. Major policy changes include new legislation on cars, labor, environmental standards, intellectual property rights, and digital trade provisions.
The key changes (C Major —> D Major) in the agreement are:
- He Needs Some Milk!: President Trump wants his bones to grow big and strong, so strong that he demanded US farmers have access to Canadian dairy markets.
- “Do you need to go to the bathroom? Nope, IP”: The USMCA deal extends previous terms of copyright law to 70 years beyond the life of its author (up from 50.) It also extends the amount of a time that a pharmaceutical drug can be protected from generic competition
- Dude, Where’s My Car Made?: All automobiles must now have 75% of their components manufactured in Canada, the US, or Mexico in order to qualify for zero tariffs.
- Sunrise…Sunset: Embedded in the agreement is a 16-year “sunset” clause — the terms of the agreement expire (sunset) after the aforementioned period of time. Additionally, the agreement must be reviewed every six years, at which point in time, all three nations must meet and decide the fate of the agreement.
This Little Trade Deal Went to Market
President Donald Trump was able to rewrite a deal that he tweeted in August 2017 as “the worst trade deal ever made,” and replace NAFTA with the USMCA. He’s publicly proclaimed the revised version of NAFTA as “the most advanced trade deal in the world,” going on to explain
that the deal comes with a brand new 6.5’’ Super Retina custom OLED display and is truly the most advanced deal on the market.
Following the announcement of the agreement on October 1, 2018, US stocks climbed towards records, with the Canadian dollar and Mexican Peso reacting positively as well. The S&P 500 Index jumped 0.6% by 12:29 that day.
According to Raoul Leering, head of international trade analysis at ING Group NV, “Everybody is happy and why is that? Because the possibility of tariffs on a variety of Canadian goods would have a much more negative effect on world trade.”
All participating nations and their respective leaders are holding hands as this agreement comes into play. Trump on Monday showers Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with praise for their assistance in coming together in a “great partnership.” These kind words from President Trump signal a turned cheek because, on several occasions this year, Trump publicly insulted Trudeau for being “meek.”
Only time will tell as to how successful the USMCA ends up being, but if it means Canadian milk in my morning, and typically late-night, cheerios, then I’m all for it.


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Global Theft Costs Retailers and Consumers $104 Billion Annually
Cost represents an annual “tax” on honest consumers of nearly $230 per household
THOROFARE, N.J., Nov 12, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — The level of global retail theft reached $104.5 billion in the past year, leading to increased costs for both retailers and consumers alike. The second annual Global Retail Theft Barometer found that while global retail shrink as a percentage of total sales has declined slightly in the past 12 months, the overall cost of retail crime has increased substantially.
“The cost of retail shrink is not just borne by retailers, but by consumers and society at large,” said Rob van der Merwe, President and CEO of Checkpoint Systems, Inc. (NYSE: CKP). “Shrink is a serious threat to retailers’ bottom lines, and amounts to a hidden ‘tax’ on consumers who are already dealing with strain of their tightening household budgets during the economic downturn.”
The Global Retail Theft Barometer (GRTB) is an annual survey conducted by the Centre for Retail Research in Nottingham, UK, and sponsored by Checkpoint, a leading manufacturer and marketer of identification, tracking, security and merchandising solutions for the retail industry and its supply chain. This year’s survey, the most complete analysis of global shrink ever conducted, reports key findings on retail shrinkage and crime in 36 countries and on five continents, based on data from a confidential survey of 920 large retailers with combined sales of U.S. $814 billion and 115,612 operating retail outlets. All figures in the report relate to the twelve-month period ending in June 2008.
Global Costs of Retail Crime
Global retail shrinkage (stock loss from crime or waste expressed as a percentage of sales) cost retailers $104.5 billion over the past year, equivalent to 1.34% of retail sales. In North America, shrink totaled $42.338 billion, or 1.48% of sales, with the U.S. accounting for the majority of that figure.
While the global figure represents a marginal decline in shrinkage of $1.56 billion (-1.5%) compared to 2007, due in part to the increase in survey respondents and a slight decline in shrink, the overall cost of crime to retailers has increased by $4.7 billion since last year. The cost of retail crime, calculated on the basis of crimes by customers, employees and suppliers/vendors (excluding internal error), plus the costs of loss prevention, were $112.78 billion in 2008, compared to $108.1 billion last year.
“This sum represents a tax imposed on honest people by retail criminals of $229.73 per household or $71.12 for every single person in the 36 countries surveyed,” said Professor Bamfield, Director of the Centre for Retail Research.
Who’s to Blame?
Employee theft is the largest source of shrinkage for retailers in North America and Latin America (46.3% and 42.0% respectively), while customer theft is the leader in the Asia-Pacific region and Europe (53.8% and 46.8% respectively).
Globally, customer theft, including shoplifting and organized retail crime, remained the largest source of shrinkage loss in most individual countries, totaling more than $43 billion (41.2% of total shrinkage). Employee theft accounted for 36.5% of shrinkage ($38.15 billion), while supplier/vendor theft and supply chain fraud represent 5.8% of shrinkage ($6.09 billion). Internal errors and administrative failures (such as pricing, process or accounting mistakes) accounted for 16.5% of losses ($17.22 billion.). The level of customer theft is increasing in North America and Asia-Pacific, where the percentage of customer shrink has increased 3.1% and 2.3%, respectively. In contrast, employee theft in
Europe rose from 28.6% to 30.5% in this period.
Retailers reported that stolen merchandise accounted for 38.4% (or $14.6 billion) of internal fraud, while almost one-quarter (23.8%) of internal losses were in the form of stolen cash, coupons, vouchers or gift cards (more than $9 billion).
Current loss prevention systems and processes helped retailers apprehended nearly 5.3 million customer and employee thieves in 2007-2008, the majority of which (84.6%) were customers.
The average amount stolen or admitted per customer theft incident was $328. Employee theft sums were more than 5.6 times greater per incident, averaging $1,842. The total value recovered, including customer and employee theft, was $3 billion.
“The primary role of most Shrink Management Systems is to create a strong deterrence for theft by making the risk and reward analysis less attractive for would-be thieves,” said Per Levin, President, Shrink Management Solutions, Checkpoint Systems. “People are used to a certain ‘lifestyle’ and will try to maintain it even if they lose their job or find themselves with a lower payingjob due to the recession. The reported $3 billion recovered from over 5 million individuals sends a strong deterrence message to society at large. In the next few years systems and processes will need constant improvements to increase the risk of detection for likely thieves.”
Retailers in Europe and North America apprehended the largest numbers of thieves (2.8 million and 2.1 million, respectively), with North America reporting the largest percentage of employee thieves at 32.3%.
Refund frauds and false markdowns rose substantially, comprising 19.7% of internal fraud ($7.5 billion) — an increase of 34% since last year. Collusion represented 10.3% of losses ($3.9 billion). Large financial frauds, also on the rise, accounted for 7.8% of internal fraud ($2.97 billion).
North America also reported the highest average dollar amount stolen by customers, at $747 per incident. The high average in North America is thought to reflect the impact of organized retail crime. Average amounts stolen per apprehension in other regions are much lower — $108 in Europe and $35 in Africa, for example. However, in Europe the average amount stolen per employee thief was $3,145 (compared to $1,391 in North America). In Asia-Pacific, the average amount stolen by employees was $395.
“With the uncertainty surrounding our current climate, we believe the industry can learn quite a bit from the data revealed in this year’s GRTB,” noted van der Merwe. “We suspect the increase in organized retail theft uncovered in the study could be directly attributed to the downturn in our economy.”
Most Vulnerable Merchandise
“Another interesting fact revealed in the survey is that retailers on average provided no specific protection for almost one-third (30.3%) of their top fifty most-stolen product lines,” continued van der Merwe. “This represents an immediate opportunity for improvement. As the recession increases pressure on shrink, we are partnering with retailers to help solve their biggest challenges. Most of them see the need to improve their shrink management programs and it is critical to develop a targeted approach for the most vulnerable products to protect their bottom lines in 2009.”
Thieves are remarkably consistent in their choice of goods, regardless of geographic region, favoring merchandise such as razor blades/shaving products, cosmetics/face creams/perfumes, alcohol, fresh meat/expensive foodstuffs, infant formula, CDs and DVDs, fashion, electronic games, cellular phones and watches.
Retailers estimated that on average they lost between 2% and 5% of new product lines to theft. Popular products such as the Harry Potter books, electronic games, and recent DVDs reached loss levels of up to 8%, causing supply shortages.
Loss Prevention and Impact of EAS Technology
Global loss prevention costs were $25.47 billion or 0.33% of retail sales, a decline from last year’s 0.35%.
Electronic article surveillance (EAS) was the main method of protecting high-theft items (used for 38.3% of product lines). Other means of protection included keepers/safers, display in locked cabinets or locked shelves, cables or loop alarms, and dummy cartons or ticket systems (4.1%).
North American and Latin American retailers had higher loss prevention costs as a percentage of sales (0.43%) compared to their counterparts in other regions, and were more likely to utilize EAS technology.
EAS was used in North America and Latin America for 43.5% of vulnerable lines, compared to 36% in Europe and 31.3% in Asia-Pacific/Africa. EAS source tagging was used on 13.7% of vulnerable lines in North America and Latin America, compared to 7.9% in Europe and 3.6% in Asia-Pacific/Africa.
“We hope retailers will use this year’s Global Retail Theft Barometer as a tool to better understand current global shrink trends,” concluded van der Merwe. “During a weak economic climate, shrink is more likely to increase, so it is even more important for retailers to remain vigilant in the fight against shrink. Our goal in sponsoring this report is to help the retail industry and loss prevention professionals formulate new and more advanced responses to combat shrink in an ever-changing global economy.”
A total of 212 corporations in North America (combined sales of $328 billion), 502 from Europe ($416 billion sales), 131 from Asia-Pacific ($52 billion), 57 from Latin America ($14 billion) and 18 from Africa ($3.3 billion) responded to the questionnaire sent to 3,900 major retailers covering all major types of retail business in the 36 countries surveyed. The response rate was 23.6%. This year, the survey was also expanded to include data from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Malaysia. For additional information, visit www.globalretailtheftbarometer.com.
The Centre For Retail Research
The second edition of the Global Retail Theft Barometer has been produced by Professor Joshua Bamfield, the Director the Centre for Retail Research (www.retailresearch.org) with the cooperation of Checkpoint Systems, Inc. The CRR is an independent organization providing research and consultancy for the retail sector dealing with the changing face of retailing and focusing upon retail fraud and crime. It has carried out extensive studies dealing with the costs of crime and the application of electronic and computerized systems to combat shop theft and fraud in many parts of the world.
Checkpoint Systems, Inc.
Checkpoint Systems, Inc. is the leading supplier of retail shrink management solutions. Checkpoint’s global team helps retailers – and their suppliers – reduce theft, increase inventory visibility and provide consumers with greater merchandise availability through the company’s rapidly evolving RF technology, expanding shrink management offerings and Check-Net labeling solutions. Listed on the NYSE (NYSE:CKP), Checkpoint operates in every major geographic market and employs 3,900 people worldwide. For more information, visit www.checkpointsystems.com.


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The popular multiplayer online gaming platform Stalker Online has reportedly suffered a data breach in which the unknown hackers managed to steal over 1.2 million user records.
The records are now up for sale on the dark web putting millions of Stalker Online players’ security at risk. Another database containing over 136,000 records stolen from the game forums are also being sold on different hacking forums.
The data breach was carried out at a massive scale leading to compromising private data of an alarmingly high number of old and new players that have made accounts on Stalker Online for playing the game.
The data includes sensitive details like usernames, MD5 hashed and salted passwords, email IDs, contact numbers, and IP addresses.
The database was discovered on May 5 on a popular hacking forum. A link that redirected to a defaced page on the gaming website was part of the database as proof that Stalker Online’s servers had been hacked and the data is legit.
However, just a defaced page cannot be considered valid proof, which is why according to CyberNews, who purchased the database from hackers, the data was ‘genuine’ and email IDs were ‘deliverable.’
Reportedly, the database is being sold for Bitcoins worth several hundred Euros and has a total of 1,289,084 Stalker Online user records.
Moreover, CyberNews claims it got the database removed from the dark web marketplace after contacting its hosting company. However, it is bound to show up on another eCommerce platform if only anyone hasn’t purchased it already.
It is recommended that you change your passwords immediately if you were reusing the same password for accessing different services.
The most concerning aspect is that the data is being sold on the dark web hacking forums, which is the hub of cybercriminals. Using the data, hackers can spam users and launch phishing attacks.


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Amarillo, TX - An old computer scam continues to lure users by tricking them into clicking malicious links.
The Better Business Bureau said the scheme is known as the "Windows" or "Microsoft" scam.
Victims will receive a call from "Tech Support" warning of a virus on their computer that must be repaired immediately.
Scammers will then ask for your credit card number to fix the issue.
"The tech support scam has been around for a long time, and most scams have," Janna Kiehl, CEO of the BBB, said. "They come and go, there's an influx of calls on them periodically. And they just hope to find new victims. If these scam artists can find one victim, then they are successful. If they are successful in a particular area they'll continue to call."
The BBB warns to never give your credit card information over the phone.


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GST Council is looking to trim the list of items in 28% tax slab by shifting some items of common use as well as products made by SMEs to a lower tax slab
New Delhi: The GST Council is set to trim the list of items in the highest tax slab of 28% by shifting some items of common use as well as products made predominantly by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to a lower tax slab.
The tax rate fitment committee, a panel of central and state officials assisting the GST Council, is rigorously combing through the list of items in the highest slab to identify such items, two people with knowledge of the development said on condition of anonymity.
The GST Council wants to address the public perception of high tax rates on certain items of common use as well as give further relief to SMEs, which are labour-intensive. India is home to around 56 million SMEs, according to data available from the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises.
“Besides, SMEs contribute only about 5% to the total indirect tax revenue. Hence giving relief to them may not hit revenue collection. The idea is to ease the pain, not to dilute GST structure," said one of the two people cited above.
The revenue department follows the thumb rule that 80% of the tax payers contribute only 20% of tax revenue, while the remaining small section of assessee account for the lion’s share of tax proceeds.
The challenge before the GST Council is that the tax rates apply uniformly to every business irrespective of their sales. “The same product may be manufactured by large industry players as well as SMEs. In such cases, a rate cut will affect revenue receipts from the bigger players too although they need no such relief," said the second official cited above, who also spoke on condition of anonymity. The official added that the eventual goal is to retain only so-called sin goods such as cigarettes, the consumption of which the state wants to discourage, in the highest tax slab. However, the pruning of the items in 28% slab may be a gradual exercise as the GST Council has to also take into account revenue considerations as tax evasion is common in the country, said the official.
M.S. Mani, partner-GST, Deloitte India, said there is need for a relook at some of the commonly used products that have been classified under the 28% tax bracket. “While the rates were decided by the fitment committee considering the pre-GST excise and VAT (value added tax) rates, there appear to be some cases where the GST rates are optically high and need to be reconsidered," said Mani.
The GST Council chaired by finance minister Arun Jaitley will meet in Guwahati, Assam on 9 and 10 November to consider further changing the liberal quarterly tax filing scheme called composition scheme meant for SMEs.
Many products got into the 28% slab at the time of fitting items into various tax slabs as the effective tax burden on them, including central excise and state VAT came in the range of 23-25%. The GST Council has already shifted many items in this list to lower slabs.
At its 6 October meeting, the Council shifted items such as stones used in flooring other than marble and granite, stationery items such as paper clips, poster colours, some diesel engine parts and parts of pumps from 28% to lower slabs. The tax regime has 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% slabs and cess on some items falling in the highest slab.
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Why “Flight To Quality” Is The New IPO: An Interview With David Blumberg
By Murray Newlands for Forbes
Veteran investor David Blumberg, Founder and Managing Partner of Blumberg Capital, has seen over 25 years of exits and acquisitions. Blumberg’s early-stage venture capital firm just had a win in the IPO of Nutanix, a cloud-based data center technology company that combines computing, storage and networking. Nutanix enables companies — Best Buy, eBay, Honda and Toyota among them — to utilize “private clouds,” keeping chosen data in-house and sourcing other pieces to the cloud.
Blumberg was kind enough to speak to me about the trends surrounding IPOs and acquisitions, and what he’s seen change in the years that he has had his finger on the investing pulse.
You recently had a successful exit with Nutanix reaching IPO. Congratulations are in order. But what happens to the other 90%?
Thank you. Well, what happens to the 90% has changed over time. A little bit of history first. In the old days when I was just getting into the industry, it was much easier, faster and cheaper to go public. It was not such an awesome endeavor, it was much lower cost, and people could go public at a much lower revenue level. When I was at T. Rowe Price in the ’80s as a buy-side analyst, many companies with modest revenues went public and they benefitted from good coverage by the securities analyst community. The public markets offered a low cost source of stable equity capital for growth. All that changed after a number of regulatory and structural changes, including Sarbanes-Oxley, raised the costs of an IPO and decimated the Wall Street analyst community. The exchange of securities research for trading commissions, known as “soft dollars” became more difficult. Sarbanes Oxley regulations dramatically increased the burden and cost of accounting, legal reviews, all of that. Then came the tort lawsuits against public companies after share prices fell from their opening. Whether or not there was misdoing, they still were sued, and a lot of the managers and directors became fearful of such potential civil and criminal liabilities.
There was a whole group of people — Mark Zuckerberg and some other great successes are in that category — started to say, “Wait a minute. What’s the benefit of going public so early? If we can raise money in the private markets, let’s just keep growing and growing and defer that decision.” In the 1960’s through ‘80s by comparison, companies went public earlier which benefitted public shareholders and the mutual funds throughout the growth cycles and those stakeholders enjoyed a huge, long upturn. It was called “Growth Stock Investing.” At T. Rowe Price, we were particularly known for it. We had bought and held Xerox for years in its heyday, and IBM in its glory days. Now that’s flipped, and the benefits are being enjoyed by the entrepreneurs, early employees of the fast growing companies, and the VCs because we’re holding onto the equity during this incredible growth spurt and then selling it into the public market.
Now, Nutanix happily seems to be enjoying the best of both worlds. They seem to be on a tear, and although I can’t predict the future, I feel like they’re in the right vein of history, riding a trend.
What do you mean by those glory days of going public flipped?
When I said it flipped, I meant that in recent years, more than 90% of companies with positive exits are acquired, and only a very small percent go public. Since most VC backed companies are acquired, the question becomes: do they get acquired for a great multiple and provide great returns for investors? Or are they acquired merely for return of capital? That may sound okay if you’re just an average retail investor, but for a VC that’s disastrous. Venture Capital is a very expensive asset class. It is expensive because it’s very hands-on and time-consuming, so it doesn’t scale very well. We cannot take $200 billion like Vanguard and put it in ETFs using automated trading and have everything be efficient. Our asset class requires people meeting people, going to conferences, serving on Boards of Directors, taking a lot of equity risk, and building a portfolio over time. That’s expensive.
Again, a tiny minority of companies go public, and a much larger majority are acquired. There are a few new dynamics in the market. One is secondary share selling. This can be good for the entrepreneur, employees, and for the early stage investor, angel or VC.
The reason this midpoint liquidity via secondary share selling is important is because IPOs have shifted later, causing cash flow delays for founders, early employees and early investors. Some LPs want some midpoint returns — we’ve got to show once in awhile we can return cash — and then there’s also market risk and volatility, so you never know if the market is going to let you get liquidity even if the company is doing well. Also, entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley want to afford a home, and it costs a lot of money, so if they’re only making an average Silicon Valley salary, they don’t have the wherewithal for a down payment and need to do some secondary selling. That’s a new phenomenon that historically hasn’t had a precedent.
Then, there’s a third new aspect with regard to exits, and that’s called acqui-hires. Acqui-hires typically occur when an engineering team is acquired even though the company may not have been successful. It may still make financial sense to the acquirer because it’s hard to find engineers. If you build a 20 or 50-person engineering team you can often sell that and get your money back, sometimes for a premium.
Then there’s a fourth new dynamic: the new phenomenon of technology sales. We enjoyed one of those with a company called Cyvera two years ago. Cyvera is an innovative, end-point cybersecurity company that had just begun its sales when they were bought for $200 million by Palo Alto Networks. Now what does that say? Obviously, they weren’t being bought for their then current revenue. They were being acquired for their technology and potential future revenue. I think Palo Alto Networks made a bet, and Founder and CTO Nir Zuk confirmed it to me two days ago at a conference, that his sales force could take the Cyvera technology under his brand name and sell the hell out of it. It was something that our start-up couldn’t have done so quickly at scale. We would have had to grow a whole new sales infrastructure, expand marketing, build the brand, and then build revenue. So, that’s another reason why companies can be acquired for relatively high valuation multiples – it’s the technology acceleration factor.
Now let’s look at the problems. What about the companies that just don’t work out? Obviously, that’s life and life happens. An interesting statistic from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is that historically over the last 20 to 30 years about 400,000 companies were created every year and 300,000 died. That’s the risky nature of business, and especially small business. Whether you open a restaurant, or a hair salon, or a high tech start-up, the odds are, frankly, it’s going to fail. Venture-capital-backed companies less so, because we tend to serve as a quality filter; we invest more capital than a typical entrepreneur. Let’s then look at what happened after 2009. I would argue that chiefly due to burdensome regulation and high taxation the ratio has flipped. We have more companies dying in America than being born, which is a shocker. Doesn’t that surprise you? We need to fix this and encourage entrepreneurship.
Absolutely. But are you also talking about venture-backed companies? Do those fail as often?
No, I’m not really focusing on those. The statistics I cited include all the startup companies in America. Hair salons, restaurants, taco stands, whatever. Sadly, since 2009, more small businesses are dying than are being born. Now, I heard that it flipped positive last year, but for too long, it’s been a negative trend. That’s bad. It’s particularly bad for women, which is interesting, because women are more likely to become entrepreneurs now than men. And I think that’s partly because the flexibility of entrepreneurial work offers a great benefit compared to the standard, “Commute downtown, work in a big office building, commute all the way home, and don’t have a life.”
Again, there’s been a dramatic cultural change. It is especially apparent in cultures where shame is enormously important, like in Eastern Asian cultures, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, then in Germany, Scandinavia and other countries in Europe. Historically, if you lost or failed at anything, it was such a black mark, you couldn’t recover. You were marked as a loser. In sharp contrast, here in Silicon Valley we have the attitude “Hey, you can fail once, but just get up again, learn from it, and move forward.” And that bravado is starting to move and spread across the globe.
Some of the cultural change is being spurred by technological change. The product cycle has shortened to a matter of months from years – increasing the need for innovation and decreasing the cost. Also, new platforms such as cloud infrastructure, social media and smartphones have reduced cost structure and the sales friction for entrepreneurs to sell, and enabled them to reach whole new markets. The tide is coming in for early stage entrepreneurs. It is cheaper than ever to start a company, and faster to scale.
Look at Nutanix. They did a lot of this by choosing to go to market with channel partners, which is a way that you can go from one to many customers instantly. The old days were dominated by enterprise sale models, and those sales guys had to go through the CIO, plus you were competing against Cisco, HP, IBM, Oracle and the other big guys. It was so difficult because you were a tiny little start-up saying, “Oh we have a better ratchet or a wrench.” And they would say, “I don’t care, you might not be around next month.” Now it has been flipped around. Nutanix and many other startups are bringing this radical innovation that’s absolutely necessary and easier to sell, especially using the SaaS model. Try before you buy, scale as needed, and why buy, when you can rent?
Getting back to your question: what about the losers? I think that they have a new trampoline to bounce them back, because if they fail with their company, there’s not a lot of unemployment in Silicon Valley. You’re not too worried about being on the dole for a long time. Folks are generally hired quickly if they’re worth their salt as an engineer or product manager. Plus, we are seeing acqui-hires that effectively hire the whole company. Finally, there’s not much shame in failing. The worst thing you can do when you fail is to have done something really unethical: you really screwed your employees, or you really screwed your customers. That reputation is hard to restore. For the average case, “Hey we tried and it didn’t work,” is not seen as so bad, particularly for the engineers. Engineers generally build what they’re told and it generally works. There aren’t too many companies that have failed due to product failure. It’s pretty rare.
What happens to the companies that raise their round, get a product, and get to break even, but they don’t raise a later round? I’ve had a lot of VCs tell me it’s harder and harder to raise later rounds.
I disagree. Here’s what I think happened. In 2014, almost every company could raise money most of the time. Towards the end of 2015, the public market companies started saying, “We’re having earning reversals. We thought we were going to have this much profit, now we’re going to have lower profits or we’re going to have a loss.” That sent shock waves through the public markets that had started to move into private investing. Companies like Fidelity, Wellington, and T. Rowe Price had started to buy into companies like Nutanix and HootSuite, for example, along with many others. They were paying relatively high multiples, thinking that this is like pre-public equity, ready to IPO within 6-18 months.
Then when the public stocks fell, even though some of these private companies like Nutanix were still doing well, the multiples started tanking. It moved from “anybody can raise” to “nobody can raise.” By now, I would say, good companies can still raise, and this is especially true at the later stage. Look at the bigger, stronger companies; they’re still able to raise on good terms. The stronger companies are raising big amounts of capital at good evaluations, and they’re socking away a ton of cash.
I think that is valid across the industry. It’s what I would call a flight to quality. Now, I know you’re going to say, “What about the ones who don’t have the quality?” And I would say, “Well, quality today certainly means traction. If you don’t have traction, it’s really hard to just sell a story.” That’s the problem; you can’t just keep selling a story. You can’t be the little boy who cries wolf. You’ve got to deliver the goods. That’s when companies will fail: when they run out of money before they can deliver anything, yet they keep selling the same story.
Okay, what happens to the companies that are generating revenue and are sustainable but aren’t going to make it to that dot showing growth? As an investor how do you cope with those? There’s got to be a fair amount of those.
Yes, there is — uncharitably called “the living dead.” Some of them are doing okay, but they’re not on the growth path that obviously could go IPO, and they’re not necessarily attractive to buy. They get acquired, but generally for a weaker multiple, and that’s where VCs get in trouble. If we’ve put too much money in, or keep following on and doing bridges and small rounds, eventually the return on our capital will not be great.
That later stage is where some companies and growth stage VCs can take on risk – if the growth doesn’t show up. They’re expecting a relatively short time frame to exit. In contrast, as early stage investors, we can take a longer perspective and we generally pay low prices for the risk we’re taking. But if you come in at a $100 million valuation and you’re looking for a 3X or 5X and then a few years down the road, the company is only growing at five or 10 percent a year, you’re probably not going to make that required return without a highly structured preferred share class.
What percentage from A stage companies become “the living dead?” I’ve seen quite a few companies that raise $20 million on a $50 million valuation and were heading up, and now they seem to be laying off a few people, and struggling for that B round or C round. There seems to be a lot of companies in an interesting space right now.
Let’s take Twitter, for example. Twitter is facing deceleration of growth. I was just watching CNBC, waiting for Deeraj Pandey, CEO of Nutanix to be interviewed, and there were a couple of analysts saying Twitter is a company that’s going to have to sell itself from a weak hand now. This is amazing because it’s a unique asset, and somebody should want it and make it good, but the business model may not be fully baked. They’re certainly not going to sell at the highs they enjoyed when they were just selling the story. Now investors are looking more for the delivery. There’s definitely space for growth because growth implies a bright rosy future. Now if growth goes away, for most tech companies, that scenario would really drop the multiple dramatically. That’s a very big difference between what venture capitalists look for and what buy out investors look for. We look for growth; they look for predictability.
First appeared at Forbes


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The report shows that while smartphones remain the dominant device in mobile advertising impressions with a 74.1% share, tablets and connected devices are increasing rapidly with an overall share of almost 20%.
The data, sourced from July 2012 to September 2012 reveals that the iPhone continues to be the most popular handset on the market. However, the iPad’s share of impressions continues to rise with 11%, a 43% increase from Q2.
The research found that Apple remains the top manufacturer in the UK with RIM and HTC falling behind their competitor. Samsung achieved an increase in its share of impressions in Q3, with 16% increase from Q2.
The research also shows that the mobile web continues to rule, holding a 70% share of total advertising impressions, this share has decreased from 76% in Q1 and 72% in Q2, as ad impressions on mobile apps are rolled out.
“In the UK, mobile ad growth continues to be driven by smartphones. However, following the recent launch of the new iPad mini, consumer interest in tablets has never been higher and we expect the number of impressions on these devices to continue to rise in Q4,” said an InMobi spokesman.
The InMobi Mobile Insights report can be downloaded for free here.


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Samsung recently offered an official announcement for the Galaxy Tab S lineup, which includes an 8.4-inch and a 10.5-inch model. At the time of that announcement they released a complete set of details. That means specs, pricing and availability. To that point, the tablets are already available for pre-order. Along with the initial release news — Samsung has also dropped their ‘official first look and hands-on’ video.
The video measures in at roughly 3 minutes and 30 seconds. But a bit more important is how the video sums up the features that many are going to find most important. You know, the highlights about the display and the thickness. Or maybe more accurate here — the thinness. The Galaxy Tab S is 6.6mm.
All in all Samsung has offered a nice mix of highlights dealing with the hardware and the software. If you happen to be considering a purchase — you may want to give this video a look before you make a final decision. Of course, seeing some independent hands-on coverage may also be beneficial before parting with your money. If nothing else, this Samsung first look video is a solid place to start.
That said, the Galaxy Tab S 8.4 is priced from $399.99 and the 10.5 is priced from $499.99. As mentioned, pre-orders are available from today with actual availability expected in July. Samsung has said the Galaxy Tab S lineup will be available from a variety of retailers including Amazon, Best Buy and Walmart.


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A Paramount Picture-branded theme park is set to open within an upcoming multi-billion-dollar integrated entertainment resort in South Korea’s Incheon.
A development by Inspire Integrated Resort, an affiliate of Mohegan Gaming & Entertainment (MGE), the Inspire integrated resort is scheduled to open in phases from 2022 onwards.
The 40-plus ha Paramount-branded theme park with a connecting entertainment and retail village is scheduled to open as part of phase 1B of the project in 2025.
Paramount controls a collection of brands in filmed entertainment, including Paramount Pictures, Paramount Animation, Paramount Television, Paramount Players, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies.
It is one of the brands on the growing list of strategic partners for Project Inspire, according to Mario Kontomerkos, CEO of MGE. “Aligning with highly sought after and recognised brands (sharing) mutual goals is a key component to the creation of the world’s first true integrated entertainment resort.”
Phase 1A of the development, spanning over 170ha of Incheon Airport’s nearly 437ha IBC-III parcel of land, is scheduled to break ground in May next year and open in 2022.
It will include a five-star resort hotel with over 1,250 keys, a 15,000-seat concert and sports arena, casino space with 150 table games and 600 slots/electronic games, a hemispherical dome featuring over 4,500m2 of climate-controlled indoor pool space comprising rides, dining and retail.
A conference and convention space that includes the largest hotel ballroom in Incheon/Seoul at 5,617m2 is also expected to open as part of phase 1A of the project.


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Discover more from Rate of Return by Austin Hankwitz
Nike & Adidas Just Doubled Down on NFTs...
Nike just spent ~$100 million to purchase an NFT creative studio... and Adidas may have done something wrong.
Web 3.0 is Heating Up:
It’s shocking to see just how quickly companies we know and love are moving into “Web 3.0” - with the largest development of the last few weeks being Nike’s (NKE) ~$100M acquisition of a leading metaverse fashion and collectibles brand that’s effectively merging culture and gaming.
According to Nike’s press release announcing the acquisition..
“This acquisition is another step that accelerates Nike’s digital transformation and allows us to serve athletes and creators at the intersection of sport, creativity, gaming and culture.
We’re acquiring a very talented team of creators with an authentic and connected brand. Our plan is to invest in the RTFKT brand, serve and grow their innovative and creative community and extend Nike’s digital footprint and capabilities.”
And to be quite honest, despite crypto / NFT investors being very “anti big corporation” in some ways, this acquisition was very well-received by the broader crypto community.
In my experience, crypto / NFT investors — if that’s even a proper title for them — care most about decentralization, ownership, and building community. By the way, Nike specifically introduced this acquisition as “value-adding” …
“Our plan is to invest in the RTFKT brand, serve and grow their innovative and creative community…”
instead of some sort of cash grab (like Adidas — we’ll talk about that here in a second), they’ve been given the thumbs up from Web 3.0 participants.
But is it a Cash Grab?
Alright, so companies are doing metaverse stuff — we get that. I’d personally argue Nike fits right in to this evolving Web 3.0 landscape as more people begin to care about their appearances in the digital world vs. in real life.
But what about all of the other companies and brands that are converging with the metaverse and Web 3 in a more.. “irresponsible” manner?
Let’s start by talking about what’s been deemed ‘cool and fine’ by the Web 3.0 community at large.
Your favorite Saturday hangout, Applebees, is launching a campaign called Metaverse Monday - allowing anyone the opportunity to purchase an NFT based on their iconic menu items.
The first buyer of the NFT will also receive instructions on how to redeem their NFT for “meals for a year,” which their website claims is worth about $1,300 in free Applebee’s meals.
I think this is cool! I mean, people out there are certainly into Web 3 — especially the metaverse — and Applebee’s is catering new products toward them. They’re selling these NFTs for $25 / each, which is a huge discount to their intrinsic value of $1,300 in free meals so everyone wins.
Applebee’s will get some buzz online, and someone will have free meals for an entire year — a win / win situation.
White Castle, credited for creating the world’s first fast-food hamburger chain (1921), recently took to Twitter to announce a slight name change on their account.
This “.eth” at the end of their name is pretty much them saying “We’re claiming a wallet address on the Ethereum blockchain as ours.” What they’ll do with this Ethereum wallet address - no one knows, but it’s certainly interesting.
Let’s now talk about what Adidas did this week - collaborating with a few notable NFT projects, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, to launch their own NFT collection Into the Metaverse.
According to a press release by the company..
“We've embarked on the new age of originality, we said from the very beginning that if we're going to be the brand that’s going to stand for, represent and help push the values of this new generation into the world, then we must move at the speed of culture. This goes back to the principles of Adidas, where we embrace the edge, open the door for the new and act with rebellious optimism.
The opportunity with the Metaverse is it creates infinite possibilities for us to connect, create and belong.
This has been a massive learning journey for us at adidas, working with the communities that surround G Money, Pixel Vault and the Bored Ape Yacht Club. These communities aren't collecting hyped up tokens, they have a stake in the future of that community, and I think we can learn something about that. When we think about the role that we can play as a brand to be that trusted friend of our members looking to join this space. In essence, how can we help our current members, get educated, informed and show them the way?”
Below is the NFT Adidas is selling to their community — a spin on the esteemed Bored Ape Yacht Club — for 0.2 ETH each, or about $800.
Adidas spent 46 ETH, or about ~$185,000, on OpenSea to purchase this NFT. The company did this to build rapport within the Bored Ape Yacht Club community — an NFT community a lot of people look up to.
I’d imagine Adidas was thinking.. “If we can get the ‘best’ community to like us, maybe all of the others will follow suit?”
Well, considering Adidas spent $185 thousand to “win over the approval of Web 3.0 community members,” and made $23 million from the launch.
Because of this “quick” 125X return on their investment (Bored Ape) — some people are beginning to think it was all a corporate cash grab.
To be honest with you, I don’t have a dog in this fight. The only NFT I own is the Poolsuite NFT I shared with you all here. Happily using its ownership to jam out to my favorite tunes on their exclusive website. It’ll be interesting to see how greedy (or not) corporations might become as Web 3.0 evolves.
It sort of reminds me of influencers receiving millions of dollars worth of a cryptocurrency in exchange for pumping it to their audiences — knowing damn well they’re going to sell and “rug pull” everyone without consequences.
I’m not saying Adidas has done or will do that — don’t be mistaken. I’m just keeping an eye on how specific companies are entering this incredibly lucrative space.
This company, through some strategic marketing, made $23 million in less than a day — compare that now to the $538 million in profits the company generated worldwide during the entire last quarter. That’s a potential 4% pad to their bottom line with very little cost. If corporations, like Adidas, are able to reap these lucrative NFT rewards at scale… we may end up seeing a very different Web 3.0 landscape in 2022.
What to Watch Out For:
Companies moving into Web 3.0 in a meaningful way — and by meaningful, I don’t mean offering JPEG images of your iconic menu items to NFT collectors.
I mean companies who are doubling down on enhancing the consumer digital experience as outlined in the Tweet thread below:
Feel free to let me know how you feel about this type of content and the Web3 / NFT / metaverse space in general. We’re all learning together here!
Disclaimer: This is not financial advice or recommendation for any investment. The content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.


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At the time when brand drug prices are soaring and having easy access to cheap and quality generic medications is more important than ever before, most senior citizens in the United States are still forced to overpay for their drugs, a recent field study finds. The researchers say this happens because Medicare prescription plans tend to be much less agile than private plans when it comes to taking in new generic medicines.
Based on the findings of the study report published by the Association for Accessible Medicines – a lobbying group that upholds the interests of generic drug and biosimilars manufacturers, Medicare covers only 22% of all new first generics within their first year in the market as compared to 46% of first generic drugs covered by private prescription plans.
Furthermore, less than 50% of all first generics have been made available for patients to buy since they received FDA approval in 2016. Even though quick access to such medicines is recognized as a public health priority, which promises a healthier competition in the market as well as considerable savings for patients, Medicare appears to be in no hurry to add those to their formularies.
The study did not take into consideration OTC drugs and the so-called ‘authorized generics,’ which are generic prescription medications produced by the original brand drug manufacturer and marketed under a different name at a much lower price.
The Trump Administration Seeks to Leverage Generics to Bring Down Drug Prices
The Trump Administration advocates bringing more first generics into pharmacies as a way of lowering the sky-high costs of prescription medications. However, the tardiness with which prescription drug plans, Medicare included, respond to any such initiatives may signal the presence of a more deep-rooted problem, where the existing complex system of kickbacks and bonuses encourages payers to stick to more expensive branded drugs.
The changes recently made to the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D programs have forced generic meds to directly compete with branded drug therapies, which feels extremely unfair since the latter can provide PBMs with financial incentives that generics cannot offer. AAM experts say the improved prescription finder tool may also cause some problems. Designed to sort prescription plans not by their total cost like before but by the lowest premiums, it can confuse senior patients by directing them to more costly prescription plans first.
Why are generic drugs often so inaccessible?
One of the things that make new first generics so inaccessible is the common practice according to which all new and just added generic medicines are placed on overpriced brand-name drug tiers where the patients’ portion of drug costs is much higher, instead of being put on lower tiers with generics only. As a result, the new generics in such catchall tiers are often not cheap enough to make the difference they are supposed to make.
The AAM study also discusses how by using ‘rebate traps,’ which is when brand name pharmaceutical companies threaten to call off their rebates to the Part D plan should any cheaper generic analogues be added to their tier, manufacturers of branded drugs force out the generic competition.
The AAM calls for creating designated generic tiers for first generic drugs – a measure that, if taken, is expected to reduce patients’ out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs and ultimately give them better value for money.


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BMW and TVS have developed a 310cc platform jointly although it’s the former company who has made most of the benefits out of it. BMW has spawned three different bikes from the platform G 310 R Street Bike, G310 GS ADV, and G 310 RR. TVS, on the other hand, has been able to launch only the single Apache RR 310 sports bike from this platform. However, the company might come up with an Apache 310 Street concept from this platform.
In terms of engine configuration, the Apache street bike concept could receive a reverse-inclined 312.2 cc single-cylinder engine that is capable of putting out 33.52 bhp and 27.3 Nm of max torque. It might come coupled with a 6-speed gearbox and use the ride-by-wire technology with the convenience of creep mode. TVS might give the bike different body panels in order to make it distinctive from G 310 R. In terms of the pricing if TVS decides to go ahead with the launch of Apache 310 Street then expect its prices to be around Rs 20k less than BMW G 310 RR which currently costs Rs 2.70 lakh.
It is not yet officially confirmed by the TVS that whether it will go ahead with the launch of the Apache street bike concept but it is very much a possibility given the fact that BMW products are manufactured by the TVS and they can easily use this competence to come up with the street bike and adventure bike concept for their own brand.


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What are customers expecting for Black Friday 2021?
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the growth of digital commerce substantially. What has also changed with this global health crisis were customer habits: Even people who were reluctant to online shopping were left with no choice, becoming more acquainted with the ins and outs of ecommerces everywhere. In 2020 only the UK saw a 74% surge in online shopping, with 26% of shoppers declaring an increase in their digital spending.
This has translated to all major shopping events, especially during the biggest retail event of the industry: Black Friday. According to Deloitte’s annual holiday retail forecast, ecommerce holiday sales will grow by 11% to 15% on a yearly basis during the 2021-2022 holiday season, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday as its centerpiece sales events.
Lost are the days where customers would queue up for hours in front of department stores, elbowing their way through an assortment of products in the hopes of finding the best deals. Now online, the race is for lowest prices and in-stock products.
That is why you should focus on improving your ecommerce operation and on understanding where your customers stand, what they are expecting and how to reach those expectations.
What are customers expecting for Black Friday 2021
It is impossible to predict the future but, for most retailers, attempting to do so is just a part of the job. When it comes to big events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2021, it is important to carefully research and plan for a good execution once time arrives.
Shopping experiences, new online channels, early sales and harvesting customer loyalty are just a few of the solutions to better meet customers needs, according to a quick Black Friday 2021 trend research. Expectations vary from industry to industry, but one thing is certain: customers want end-to-end shopping excellence. A few tips on how to achieve it are below.
The BFCM shopping experience
Take a step back and think of yourself as if you were the customer. What would you want and need for your shopping journey to be as seamless and smooth as possible? Customer experience excellence is key, but can also be difficult to maintain while online. To get rid of any type of bump or friction that may alter user experience, such as low quality images, slow page loading time, wrong product links and others is one of the possible actions.
Brand and website quality
Your website quality is key when it comes to customer retention and to cross-selling and up-selling. When talking about quality, we are talking beyond images and product itself. It is also about what kind of content it is being offered to customers.
With the latest uproar of branded content and the idea that brands are more than what they sell, content is essential for retailers all over. What customers engage with is often what will bring people closer to your website and brand. A shareable organic video about a product can sometimes be worth more than targeted product ads. These are already saturated and clients will often steer away from them.
Other than that, the content inside your website has to be as relevant as possible — well-built product pages with clear information, related products, material descriptions, size guides and more are info that customers are constantly looking for.
Black Friday is all about the deals but, at the same time, exclusivity has been playing a large role in brand-customer relationships. Recently, a survey conducted by Kelton Global and Sheer ID stated that half of the consumers will feel excited if they receive an exclusive offer or service. Economically wise, COVID-19 has brought some difficulties amongst buyers, so it is time to use loyalty as a way to make shoppers buy smart and not only because of deals.
For brands that already have loyal customers, some Black Friday big sales strategies can be adapted to focus more on the exclusivity of discounts rather than having the same discounts for everyone. Adapting strategies and offering customers much more targeted discounts based on their price sensitivity is a smarter strategy that will preserve sales and gross margin at the same time.
Frictionless checkout experience
Abandoned carts are online retailers’ worst nightmare, but there is a reason why customers do give up on shopping besides changing their minds: Bad checkout experience. That is why investing in a seamless checkout experience can improve the cart abandonment rate, which is proved to be even higher just before big online sales events such as BFCM.
Arranging pricing and discounts to work without overwhelming your servers and using functionalities such as the persistent cart are the two main ways to avoid shoppers from leaving your website empty-handed.
Product discovery, everywhere
Your website is no longer the only online selling spot for your products. With social media presence getting larger and larger each day, customers are finding new ways to buy and discover their favorite products and stores. Either through Instagram shops, marketplaces, Facebook, targeted web ads and even physical stores, customers expect products to find them or to be easily found by one simple search.
Criteo released research that reports search engines as responsible for 39% of product discovery, followed by physical stores (33%) and finally brand websites and apps (32%). This is why working hard on SEO to make sure your store is well-positioned for a specific product search has become a must.
It is also important to observe other trends, such as social selling and conversational commerce. These trends have put the power of social media and customer service to the test, delivering good results and allowing customers to purchase through links on social media or messaging apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
Business Insider predicts that mobile commerce (m-commerce) will account for 36% of all ecommerce sales this year. And currently, mobile apps are converting customers 157% more often than mobile website counterparts.
Early shoppers get the best deals
Isn’t that how the saying goes? Anyways, just like in 2020, 2021 holiday shopping will begin as early as possible. Customers are looking for the best Black Friday deals as soon as they can in order to avoid any type of shipping issues, price surges or risk products going out of stock, as they often do in big retail sales events.
That is why some companies are starting to offer discounts associated with Black Friday shopping as soon as mid-October, as a way to warm-up for the big event. In the United States, for example, “Black November” and “Cyber Week” are slowly replacing the Black Friday and Cyber Monday specific sales days.
Even more retail business owners will start offering early deals for customers who need and want to beat everyone else and to get their shopping done. Another good practice is rolling out discounts while marketing even better deals for weeks to come, culminating in this year’s Black Friday which will happen on November 26th.
Free shipping and other perks
In a fast-paced world, fast (and, if possible, free) delivery is expected by the majority of customers — especially the ones who are already used to other big retailers like Amazon offering free shipping to their own Prime members.
Small perks like those can mean a rise in sales, not necessarily for the money saved but by the illusion of saving money. For instance, if lowering shipping costs to zero means that product prices must go up, it still creates the illusion that money is not being spent.
Another strategy is making subscription and memberships available, granting perks like free shipping or even other products such as gift bags, next purchase discounts, exclusive launches club and more.
Black Friday 2021: it’s all about the customer
Customer care should be the most valuable asset for brands. After analyzing trends and predictions, the most important thing for retailers to do is seeing themselves through clients’ perspectives. Through shopping data, customer shopping habits tracking, social media interactions and other indicators, retailers can identify patterns and learn how to best suit those patterns during sales events.
Going back on your own Black Friday fails and successes and witnessing other brands talk about their own BFCM experiences is very important. Also, listening to clients’ feedback and conducting small surveys can be very fruitful when it comes to “predicting the future”.
The goal is to make the most out of Black Friday 2021 and so the focus should be on offering the best deals and best customer experience while growing your own brand — keep your customers’ preferences and behavior in mind in order to work on those goals.


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“InsightEdge enables our customers to generate insights for C-level executives and line of business management and optimizes automated processes from an unprecedented amount of data generated by sensors and GPS readings from machines, products, employees, as well as inputs from shop floor apps, and back office systems,” said Yuval Lavi, VP Product Innovation at Magic Software. “The combination of integrated data from multiple sources, extreme data processing and real-time analytics provides insights that impact leaner operations and an improved customer experience.”
Magic xpi running with InsightEdge enables several data driven processes, for example, using sensors to monitor equipment to predict breakdowns, performing predictive analytics to determine which and how many quality tests should be performed, and sharing supplier production data with partners and customers to identify delivery delays and adjust processes accordingly.
McKinsey has noted that predictive maintenance initiatives can show a 10% reduction in annual maintenance costs and a 20% reduction in downtime with a 25% reduction in inspection costs for AI-driven predictive maintenance models.
This is not the first collaboration between Magic and GigaSpaces. Magic has been using GigaSpaces’ XAP In-memory computing platform for years to deliver fast data streaming, aggregation and calculations, and last year announced an InsightEdge integration leveraging InsightEdge as an IoT Hub. Magic xpi customers will now have an option to run InsightEdge to experience the benefits of real time analytics.
“Data integration combined with real-time advanced analytics is needed to fuel the factory of the future,” said Yoav Einav, VP of Products for GigaSpaces. “With the incorporation of InsightEdge capabilities into Magic xpi, we are bringing the power of machine learning to the shop floor and the back office to help companies optimize processes to maximize efficiencies and exceed their revenue goals.”


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(CNN)Extravagant firework displays have long been a staple of the Fourth of July holiday, but this year many of the larger displays in cities across America are now canceled due to the pandemic. This has many Americans turning toward consumer fireworks to get their patriotic fix. But they can be dangerous in the wrong hands.
Fireworks at home: Risks and safer alternatives, as sales skyrocket
Last year, more than 7,000 people reported injuries related to fireworks around the Fourth of July period, according to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. And this year, sales are way up.
"They're not toys and so oftentimes we see hands and fingers blown off because people aren't respecting the device they're working with," said Dana Baiocco, commissioner of the US CPSC.
According to the CPSC, 57% of firework-related injuries were burns. People were more likely to hurt their hands and fingers than any other part of their body, which could be caused by holding the firework too long after it's ignited or using hands as a shield if someone points a firework at someone else, according to Baiocco.
Sparklers should also be used with the same amount of care as other fireworks, Baiocco said. She said the tip heats to about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and can burn someone if not put in water after use. Children should not be using sparklers, said Julie Heckman, the executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association.
"We don't give our children matches to play with nor do we give them candles, so you really shouldn't give children fireworks," Heckman said. "Let the adults handle the fireworks and let the children be the spectator."
It's also important to purchase your fireworks from a licensed vendor, according to Baiocco. She said that buying from licensed vendors means that the fireworks meet certain safety requirements.
"If you have the appropriate license in place, that will tell the purchaser that those fireworks presumably have been tested by a third party to make sure that they all comply with the federal and state safety standards and requirements," Baiocco said.
A common way to check if they're consumer fireworks is to see if they're in brightly colored packaging, Heckman said. If they're in a brown paper bag, it could indicate that they're illegal or professional grade fireworks, according to Heckman.
Consumer firework sales have doubled or tripled in the past month for some retailers compared to last year's numbers, according to Heckman. She said it's mostly likely due to the pandemic.
"We still can't go to the movie theater or any concerts or festivals," Heckman said. "Fireworks are affordable family fun."
John Sorgi, owner of American Fireworks, said his company has seen sales of consumer fireworks increase by 30% compared to this time last year. The fireworks company is headquartered in Ohio and has both brick-and-mortar stores and an online shopping website.
Sorgi said that due to mass cancellations of larger firework shows, many families are turning to consumer fireworks. He said he has seen such a spike in sales his company has had to stop selling products to wholesalers so they can preserve what they have for their own stores.
"The way fireworks works is it's not like you can just run out to a supplier to buy more because they're all coming from China," Sorgi said.
His company places orders in July the year before and receives the product in November or December. This year, he wasn't sure if he was going to receive his fireworks because China went