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Not too long ago former Apple CEO, John Sculley, announced his new company, Obi Worldphone. They set up shop in Silicon Valley and attempted what could be considered a nearly impossible task. To bring yet another smartphone into the world and hope for global success. Many people would frown upon the idea, however, the people behind Obi are bolder than that. They dared to dream, and now they have a whole family of Obi smartphones that they are ready to release to the world.
Obi Worldphone’s mission was to bring smartphones to the world that didn’t compromise. To give the world smartphones that are on the very edge of technology. Looking at the video and picture presentations of their newest smartphones it looks like Obi is definitely in the game. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get a hands-on experience with the new Obi phones yet despite having reached out to Obi’s press contact. This after having talked to John Sculley himself. We will keep you posted.
The newest additions to the Obi family are three new smartphones. The high-end one, the flagship model, is the Obi SF1 smartphone, but the other two designs, the Obi MV1, and Obi SJ1.5 are not far behind regarding specs. People here at Bit Rebels seem to find that the SJ1.5 design is easier on the eye, while the other ones (the SF1 and MV1 smartphones look similar in design) have a somewhat more edgy look.
The newest Obi smartphones are getting a high consumer rating which should make other smartphone brands trembling in their boots. Even Apple, who is currently lacking innovation, could be looking at an uphill climb as their specs continue sliding.
Personally, I am quite intrigued by the Obi smartphones, and I think that John Sculley and the people at Obi have done a magnificent job. I am a little concerned, however, at the lack of innovation in today’s smartphone models. I am not just talking about Obi, but all smartphones. The Obi phones are bold; that’s absolutely right, but consumers want feature innovation as well. Where is the built-in high-end video projector? Why can’t I take 3D photos (dual cameras)? Why are most smartphones not waterproof yet?
One thing that the Obi smartphones have going for them is that they are incredibly cheap compared to other smartphones in the same spec range. This is something that is going to be a huge deal for consumers, and one that I think will eventually make Obi a household name.
Have a look at the introduction video of the newest Obi smartphones below and let us know what you think. Do you already have one? What do you think about it? What do you like and dislike about it? Let us know in the comment section below.


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Kim Kardashian has a new fight ahead of her after caretakers of one of her properties are suing her for a number of violations.
According to documents obtained by TMZ, maintenance workers and cleaning crew have filed a lawsuit against the billionaire for late wages, a failure to provide proper pay stubs, being forced to work without meal breaks, and nonpayment of overtime.
The plaintiffs also allege Kardashian withheld 10% of their wages for taxes but never actually paid that money to the government. One worker says he was actually fired for bringing up some of these issues and alleged that his 16-year-old son was made to work more hours than are allowable for minors in California.
“Wage theft and other workplace violations are a widespread problem in Los Angeles,” Frank Kim, the lawyer taking Kardashian on in this case, told the Daily Mail. “My firm is currently investigating other potential violations against these defendants, as well as other powerful families and businesses on behalf of everyday workers.”
Folks on Twitter didn’t seem particularly surprised by the lawsuit, already prepared to assume the worst.
A representative for Kardashian claims that she hired a third-party vendor to handle the maintenance of her Hidden Hills mansion and that any issues the workers had should be taken up with them.
“Kim is not party to the agreement made between the vendor and their workers, therefore she is not responsible for how the vendor manages their business and the agreements they have made directly with their staff,” the representative told Page Six.
They continued: “Kim as never not paid a vendor for their services and hopes that the issue between these workers and the vendor who hired them can be amicably resolved soon.”
Today’s top stories
|‘Fill her up’: Bartender gives woman a glass of water when the man she’s with orders tequila shot
|‘I don’t think my store has even sold one’: Whataburger employees take picture with first customer who bought a burger box
|‘It was a template used by anyone in the company’: Travel agent’s ‘condescending’ out-of-office email reply sparks debate
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Volkswagen Trucks Unit Reportedly Considers Full Takeover Of Navistar
(RTTNews) - Volkswagen AG's (VKW.L, VLKAF.PK, VOW.BE) commercial-vehicles unit is considering a full takeover of Navistar International Corp., according to reports.
Volkswagen Truck & Bus GmbH already owns about 16.9% of stake in Navistar. The officials at Volkswagen Truck & Bus reportedly said Monday it could raise that stake, and was also considering a full takeover.
Under U.S. securities law, VW Trucks would be required to make an offer for the rest of Navistar's shares if it acquires more than 17% of the company.
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One of the biggest business cloud file storage services, Dropbox, won't be giving its business customers unlimited storage space anymore. The Dropbox Advanced plans will slowly move away from that generous amount of storage, and it's all due to some bad actors.
In a blog post, Dropbox stated that some people were getting the unlimited Advance plans not to store files but for other purposes. Some used it to mine cryptocurrency, and others got it so a number of "unrelated individuals" could access it for personal use. Dropbox stated some users even tried to sell their storage amounts.
The company added:
In recent months, we’ve seen a surge of this behavior in the wake of other services making similar policy changes. We’ve observed that customers like these frequently consume thousands of times more storage than our genuine business customers, which risks creating an unreliable experience for all of our customers.
Dropbox stated it would also be hard to enforce its policies to keep these kinds of users from exploiting the unlimited space it provided.
Starting today, new Dropbox Advanced customers will get 15TB of shared storage for three licenses. Each additional license will get 5TB of additional storage.
Current customers who use less than 35TB of storage per license will be able to keep that amount plus 5TB of additional pooled cloud storage, for at least five years at the same price. Dropbox says that represents over 99 percent of its Advanced subscribers.
For those subscribers who use more than 35TB of storage per license, Dropbox will allow them to keep that amount, plus 5TB of additional pooled cloud storage, for up to one year at no additional cost. The company will offer advice to help transition those customers to lower storage space options.
This news comes a few months after Dropbox announced a large number of layoffs at the company that affected 16 percent of its total workforce.


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The Yankee Candle Company, Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of premium scented candles, today announced the launch of Thanksgiving Dinner Collection, a new limited edition collection featuring three true to life Thanksgiving fragrances: Turkey with Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce and Sweet Potato Pie. As only Yankee Candle can, the company has brought delicious traditions to life to commemorate the most celebrated meal of the year and give back to the military through a partnership with the USO.
To view Multimedia News Release, go to http://www.multivu.com/mnr/61625-yankee-candle-gives-back-with-thanksgiving-dinner-collection-uso
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The LeBron 13 has been one of Nike’s best-selling signature shoes for the superstar since it first launched back in October 2015, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. The model has been released in a ton of different colorways, from the maroon and silver “Opening Night” to the blood-splattered “Friday the 13th.” In addition, the sneaker has also been available for customization via NIKEiD.
The latest look to drop is this “Black Lion” edition, which features an elevated two-tone finish. The shoe’s synthetic upper with Hyperposite overlays is rendered in a bold shade of black, while hits of iridescent adorn the forefoot Swoosh and heel. The shoe’s final detail is the oversized lion graphic that represents one of James’ earliest tattoos.
Nike and the star player’s business relationship dates back years, and his signature shoe line has been a top seller in Northeast Ohio since its debut. In fact, the LeBron 13 is the most successful sneaker ever sold by Nike in its hometown of Akron, with a total of 2.8 million pairs sold. The Cleveland Cavaliers star and the sports apparel company are set to launch the newest iteration of the shoe at an event Sunday at the University of Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall.
The shoes feature a design that celebrates the athlete’s roots in Akron, with subtle nods including the crossed-out XIII on the heel and the word “Akronite” on the outsole. The model is designed for players who rely on their unstoppable blend of speed and power to dominate the game, and it’s equipped with Zoom Air units for responsive cushioning.


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Chuck Eggert, one of the founders of
and a member of its board for the past 12 years, has retired his position and sold his shares back to the Portland-based grocer.
Eggert will continue to serve as a consultant to New Seasons, while also operating his other food and beverage production company,
, based in Tualatin.
"Over twelve years ago Chuck helped create New Seasons Market as part of his championship of a strong regional food economy,"
of the grocery chain that currently operates 12 stores. "He helped us grow from an idea to a company with more than 2,300 staff members, deep relationships with our homegrown ranchers, farmers and producers and extensive support from our local community."
A private company, New Seasons had been overseen in recent years by another co-founder Brian Rohter and an executive Lisa Sedlar. In 2010, the company announced it had sold a minority share the local equity firm Endeavour Capital. At the time, Rohter and Sedlar said the move would help the company create an employee stock option plan.
Since then, Rohter has stepped away from daily operations and his position on the board, while Sedlar became chief executive officer in late 2010.


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Compared to its neighbours in Southeast Asia, Malaysia was late to get on the FTA train. But now it does not want to be left out of the major deals, it seems.
Malaysia signed its first FTAs with Japan in 2005. In 2007, it signed with Pakistan. It also has FTAs with Chile (2010) , India (2011) and New Zealand (2009), It has been in FTA talks with the US, but these have effectively been shelves since 2009. It is in negotiations with Australia, and may commence negotiations with the GCC and EFTA.
As member of ASEAN, it is also party to the agreements with China, India, Korea and Japan, and the negotiations with Australia/New Zealand and the EU.
last update: May 2012
Malaysia is actively participating in free trade agreement negotiations and is optimistic of signing several FTAs by end-2012, says International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.
Foreign investors can bypass local laws and punish the government if the latter stops them from making profits under a FTA, says DAP’s Charles Santiago.
The Government is doing feasibility studies to see whether it could embark on a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) by mid next year, said International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.
The price of medicine might be out of reach for most people if Malaysia inks an understanding with the European Union on the Free Trade Agreement.
The fate of the multilateral Doha Round talks to come up with an outline agreement for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) by July rests in the hands of both developed and developing economies, said European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht.
Next week’s free trade agreement (FTA) signing between Malaysia and India will be a further boost for the country’s palm oil sector and Sabah, in particular, stands to benefit.
Malaysia and the Gulf Cooperation Council signed a landmark framework agreement to boost economic, commercial, investment and technical cooperation between them.
The framework of the cooperation agreement between Malaysia and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries has been completed and the next step is to sign the free trade agreement, according to Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed.
The Consumers Association of Penang is deeply concerned about the implications FTAs with the US (via the TPP) and the EU might have on various aspects of Malaysia’s development.
The Malaysian government last week negotiated free trade agreements (FTAs) with the United States of America (via the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement or TPP) and the European Union (EU).


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Prime minister Jacinda Ardern said retailers have six months to phase out the single-use plastic bags, or face fines of up to NZ$100,000.
“We’re phasing out single-use plastic bags so we can better look after our environment and safeguard New Zealand’s clean, green reputation,” said Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister.
“Every year in New Zealand we use hundreds of millions of single-use plastic bags. A mountain of bags, many of which end up polluting our precious coastal and marine environments and cause serious harm to all kinds of marine life, and all of this when there are viable alternatives for consumers and business.”
More than 40 countries worldwide have now imposed bans on plastic bags.


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An economic stimulus package
was announced by finance ministry to help those sectors that are most affected due to nationwide lockdown in view of spread COVID-19
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
on Thursday, March 26, announced an economic relief package to soften the blow of nationwide lockdown amid spreading coronavirus
. The package focuses on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and weaker sections of the society besides injecting liquidity in the market.
The FM said that package worth Rs 1.7 lakh crore was set for the poor who need immediate help like migrant workers and urban and rural poor. "No one will go hungry," she said.
The govt also announced that 20 crore Jan Dhan Women account holders will get ex gratia amount of Rs 500 per month for the next three months. Three crore old age, divyang, widow pensioners will get one-time amount of additional Rs 1000 in two installments through DBT over 3 months.
The govt may announce relief for other economic sectors.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in India has risen to 649, including 593 active cases and 42 people who have been cured or discharged from hospitals, the Ministry of Health said.


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Why newsrooms are expanding their data teams
Publishers have gotten data religion.
A few years ago, publishers began enlisting data scientists to help with audience building and monetization. But back in 2014, publisher data teams usually consisted of only a person or two. Since then, several publishers have expanded their number of full-time data experts. And their roles have grown too. Media data scientists are now developing apps based on machine learning, shaping content-management systems, teaming up with first-party data providers and testing augmented reality features. Here are a handful of large publishers that have increased their emphasis on data analysis.
In 2013, Mashable brought on Haile Owusu, who has a doctorate in theoretical and mathematical physics, as its chief data scientist to work on the site’s analytics tool that predicts which articles will go viral. Since then, Mashable has hired two additional full-time data analysts and added an intern. In the past year, the data team led by Owusu has helped shape Mashable’s new CMS and its Knowledge Graph tool, which tracks how branded content on Mashable is shared through social platforms, email and text messages. The team was not affected by the round of 30 layoffs Mashable did in April. “There was a pent-up demand for insights around the performance of our content,” Owusu said.
The tech network, which publishes Top Ten Reviews and Live Science, is a different type of publisher in its data focus and commerce-heavy strategy. Purch launched its own ad tech platform, Ramp, in 2014. Since then, its number of data scientists grew from one to five. Their focus is mostly on creating recommendation models that pair content with related consumer products. “We realized how much data we had and that we needed to analyze it to know whether we were charging the right price for advertising,” said Purch CTO John Potter. With Microsoft’s HoloLens, Snapchat’s Spectacles and Google Glass in the news, Purch’s data team has been testing augmented reality features in Purch-owned shopping app ShopSavvy.
The Huffington Post
In 2014, The Huffington Post hired its first full-time data scientist. The website now has eight data scientists in its product and tech departments and three data people on the editorial side. They do everything from create machine-learning algorithms that notify editors which articles are likely to go viral to assist journalists with interactive features. On the editorial side, for example, HuffPost’s Pollster vertical has expanded to include “more filtering by type of data and partisanship, allowing for a closer look at how public opinion is playing out,” said Natalie Jackson, HuffPost’s senior polling director who also has a doctorate in political science. Aside from the presidential election, HuffPost has used data to track President Obama’s approval rating and Brexit polls.
When Rick McFarland, who has a PhD in statistics, joined Hearst as chief data scientist in 2013, he worked alongside another data scientist and an engineer to translate Hearst user data into revenue. The data team has since grown to 10 members. McFarland and his colleagues are working on developing apps driven by deep learning, which would allow users to find Hearst content based off their own images. For example, an app user uploading a picture of a Chevy Cruze could theoretically be connected to an article from Car and Driver that reviewed the Cruze. Hearst recently opened its Buzzing platform — it allows editors at Hearst publications to easily clone trending articles from other Hearst sites — to advertisers. Thanks in part to its data experts, since June, Hearst has programmatically sold ads against Buzzing content. “Being able to stream from customer to ad sales people in real time is really cool, and that’s the power of having a centralized data team in your organization,” McFarland said.
Image courtesy of The Huffington Post
How The 19th relied on memberships and funding to launch during a pandemic
In order to keep on schedule to launch ahead of the U.S. presidential election, non-profit publisher The 19th had to rely heavily on membership and fundraising to meet its launch goal of $4 million.
‘Let the buyers know you exist’: How Morning Brew plans to grow brand ad dollars from its base of direct response
Direct-response ads accounted for 90% of Morning Brew's 2019 revenue in 2019. Its CEO wants brand advertising to account for 50% by the end of 2021.
‘A significant uptick in deal flow’: Why Europe is becoming a hotbed of ad tech innovation
Ad tech companies with data privacy and identity solutions are in vogue among the sector's investors and acquirers.
SponsoredPublishers: Assessing risk and ensuring payments in times of crisis
As the industry navigates the continued impacts of COVID-19, here’s the questions publishers should ask their programmatic partners or ad management providers to protect themselves from clawbacks and lost revenue.
‘We can be agile and evolve’: News UK is quickly growing a 7-figure incremental revenue stream from social video
The goal for Social Studio is a 10-day turnaround from campaign booking to going live.
Lack of events revenue squeezes B2B media, forcing virtual volume — and innovation
Advertising, subscriptions and commerce have begun to recover. But events have not, and B2B media companies are feeling the squeeze.


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THE Appleby Manor Country House Hotel is to feature in the forthcoming Great British Cook Book 2014.
“The book celebrates our very diverse culture, uncovering extraordinary dishes served up by hundreds of pubs, restaurants and hotels across our great nation and Appleby Manor is thrilled to have been asked to join,” said co-owner Mike Dunbobbin.
MORE TOP STORIES:
- Prize money doubled for schools poetry competition
- Kirkstone car pulling women celebrate two record breaking achievements
- South Lakeland restaurant owner gearing up to revive classic racing game
- Kendal Town boss expects loanee to stay for remainder of season
A panel of judges used Tripadvisor and social media in their quest for top venues that featured local produce and were passionate and innovative with food.
The book will feature the hotel and its head chef Chris Thompson.
Appleby Manor is also set to star in the BBC2 show The House That 100k Built..


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The Ontario government is investing up to $25 million over two years to build up the province’s food processing capacity. The new Strategic Agri-Food Processing Fund Program, which was announced in the 2021 Fall Economic Statement, to increase the province’s food processing capacity, strengthen its food security and position the agri-food sector for economic growth, will launch on April 1, 2022.
Ontario’s food processing sector faces challenges to its ability to process more of the food that is grown in the province, including aging technology and facilities. Many aging food processing plants are limited in their capacities to expand and compete by outdated equipment and inadequate operational space to add new, efficient production lines.
The Strategic Agri-Food Processing Fund will support industry investment in projects that address the processing capacity shortage and increase the sector’s competitiveness and resilience against future disruptions. Agri-food businesses are eligible for up to $3 million in cost-share funding to either build new processing facilities, expand or modernize existing facilities and adopt new innovative technologies to improve current operations.
To increase local food production across Ontario, rural, northern and Indigenous businesses will receive an additional five per cent in cost-share funding to build critical processing capacity in underserviced areas.


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Technology Briefing | Internet: Record Industry Files 80 More Lawsuits
Published: October 31, 2003
The recording industry filed 80 more federal lawsuits around the country yesterday against computer users that it accused of illegally sharing music files across the Internet. Those 80 people were among 204 who had been threatened with lawsuits earlier this month by the Recording Industry Association of America unless they contacted the trade association to discuss a financial settlement. The group said the remaining 124 people had approached music industry lawyers about settling the claims. The group previously filed lawsuits against 261 others. It said yesterday that it had reached settlements with 156 people, who defense lawyers have said agreed to pay penalties from $2,500 to $7,500 each.


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The Potential of the Internet of Things is Massive
The Potential Of The Internet of Things Here’s a quick statistic that will blow your mind and give you a glimpse into the future. When you break that down, it translates to 127 new devices online…
Survey: Internet of Things… Is it time to fear the dark side? [Infographic]
New security threats, more devices – companies starting to think about IoT, its relevance to and impact on their business. A survey carried out by GFI Software found that the growing relevance of IoT for SMBs means growing security threats, greater device management challenges and increased costs for IT management.


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Overseas motor companies have found advantages of oilless products one after another
Oilless products are showing their performances in the automobile industry, the largest export industry in Japan. Overseas motor companies have found advantages of oilless products in diverse aspects and they started using the products one after another.
Used in large projects
Reliability of Sankyo products has been demonstrated by the steel industry, which is a key industry with top-notch technology and state-of the-art equipment, ocean development, reclamation, and construction industries.
For diverse fields: From resources to energy
Sankyo products are also used in the field of oil, LPG, raw steel material, feed unloading plants, water power plant turbines, dam water gates, bridges, etc… Their performances have been highly acclaimed.


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Crytek: Enough signatures on a petition will make us consider making more TimeSplitters
Crytek has confessed that there is a possibility that TimeSplitters fans will be able to convince them to make a new game.
Crytek inherited the TimeSplitters IP when they bought over the series original developer Free Radical in 2009 and boss Cervat Yerli has revealed that a large enough petition could convince him to make more TimeSplitters.
He said, "There is actually a petition running online trying to bring the [TimeSplitters] fan base together. But unfortunately the petition doesn't look that convincing. If the petition picks up it will be an even better argument for us."
"At a personal level," Yerli continued, "I'm a big fan of TimeSplitters 2. For me, I would love to see the game out there, as a newborn HD version or what not. I definitely would love to see it. But the case of turning this into a business decision is still difficult, despite the fact that there was a Twitter request feed to test the waters."
He added, giving hope to TimeSplitters fans, "There's a very hardcore market that is very verbal about it. I would love to see this, and if the fan base approves a further petition. They're trying to call 300,000 voices, I think it's at two or three thousand right now. If they could get the petition together I would be very happy to put in front of decision makers in the company, the key stakeholders, and say 'Look here. This is how it is, let's make it now'."
Are you a TimeSplitters fan? If you are, then sign the petition. Go on. You know you want to.
- Valve's Chet Faliszek has been confirmed as the first developer session for EGX Rezzed 2015
- One area from Zelda Wii U is as big as the entirety of Skyward Sword
- Telltale's new collaboration is with Mojang, on a Minecraft story game
- Franklin voice actor indicates GTA V story DLC is on the way
- Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire and Bully sequels will come when the time is right says Rockstar
- Telltale teases another collaboration with another game developer
- New Company Of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault trailer recognizes the 70th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge
- New Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare trailer focuses on character customization
- Splash Damage's free-to-play shooter Dirty Bomb coming to Steam in the new year


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Motorola Cliq to get Android 2.1 in early July
Finally, we are hearing about the Android 2.1 update for another waiting list phone, Motorola Cliq. After, HTC started releasing Android 2.1 for HTC Hero, Cliq also seems to have a change of fate.
TMONews is reporting that Cliq might see the Éclair update in the beginning on July. Well, that is just a month away. Stay tight Cliq owners.


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Starbucks announced Tuesday the company will post calorie information for beverages and food items on the menu boards in all company-operated stores.
The plan begins June 25, ahead of a federal regulation that would require it to do so. The labels are meant to encourage customers to make lower-calorie choices when choosing drinks, and to choose options like nonfat milk and sugar-free syrups.
Starbucks currently provides nutritional information on its website, iPhone app and brochures inside the cafes. Now, the information will be clearly displayed next to the items. For coffee drinks, the calorie count will include the company's default 2-percent milk.
The Seattle-based coffee chain has already implemented the menu in some parts of the country, including New York City and Seattle, where businesses are required to do so.
The pastry case will have calorie counts, too, making it harder for the health-conscious to justify a 500-calorie slice of Iced Lemon Pound Cake. Proponents of the change say the labels are not to keep people from buying high-calorie items, rather, to help customers get a better sense of the calories they are consuming.
This is especially useful when comparing seemingly healthful options, like the company's blueberry scone -- 460 calories -- or banana-walnut bread at 490. Starbucks offers several low-calorie options, including bagels under 300 calories, but the health difference within the bakery case is not obvious even to people that think they know how many calories they consume.
Starbucks follows other chains that already post calorie counts on their menus, including Au Bon Pain, Panera Bread and McDonald's. Other national chains are waiting for final guidelines from the FDA.
The regulation was introduced as part of the Affordable Care Act, and requires all restaurants with at least 20 locations to post calorie information on their menus. The National Restaurant Association, which supports the measure despite initially opposing it, expects the regulation to take effect in 2014.
Studies on labeling have produced mixed results, but one study conducted by Stanford researchers compared Starbucks stores with calorie labels in New York City to those in Philadelphia and Boston without. Research shoed that people did order lower-calorie items when the information was immediately available to them every time they ordered.


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Even G20 summit has an out of expected result, it is too late to reverse the supply chain reaction from trade war risks. Global shift in cross-border supply chains right now is the biggest since China joined the WTO in 2001. Company is searching for new suppliers, Vietnam are emerging as their preferred destination.
Global companies shift their production
Global companies are nervous and scrambling around. The scramble is driven by the risk of more, and higher, U.S. tariffs on China. On the other hand, they fear that nearby emerging economies can only accommodate new businesses on a ”first come, first served” basis.
A dozen of relocation activity happened across Asia in recent months. In June, A Hong Kong furniture maker bought a factory in Vietnam. And they plan to expand the capacity to hundred thousand square meters by the end of 2019. The company mentioned, the acquisition is to mitigate the risks posed by tariffs.
Vietnam electronics and manufacturing solutions companies also benefit from this movement. The existing customers who have operation in China find them for new deals. Some companies will start moving their production base from China to Vietnam very soon.
When China’s economy shifts toward services and high-end manufacture, supply chain relocation has been begun. Any relocation away from China is going to be very slow and uncertain. Companies need to secure funding, the right suppliers and new logistics. Legal and accounting issues in a new country are also problems for them.
However, trade tension seems to be a disruption for old model. If US raising tariffs on 200 billion in Chinese imports goods from 10% to 25%, companies must do something to change.
From Victims to opportunities
To be sure, smaller emerging Asian economies will be hurt in the trade war between the world’s top two economies worsening. Southeast Asia growth has slowed in the third quarter. Vietnam’s manufacturing sentiment indicator is the highest in Asia but is well off its peak.
Vietnam’s PM hoped that Japan will pour more investment in Vietnam to become the largest investor in the nation. The Vietnamese Government is paying special attention to attracting more Japanese investment in Vietnam. Vietnam is willing to tackle difficulties and obstacles for Japanese Investors. Because the Vietnamese Government also closely controls the inflation rate, real estate credit and stocks.
However, Asia countries cooperation poised to speed up. To solve the infrastructure problems, the construction of China-Vietnam cross-border expressways, railways, bridges and tunnels is on the fast track. China is seeking to expand cooperation with ASEAN, and Vietnam can be an important widow.


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.Back to listing
Fri, Mar 07
FDA, cosmetics industry remain at odds over outdated regulations
The disagreements, it turns out, are more than skin deep. Concerned about generations-old regulations that have left it with little power to ensure the safety of thousands of consumer products from shampoo to shaving cream, the Food and Drug Administration launched talks with the cosmetics industry more than a year ago. The goal was to reach a deal on a regulatory regime that has not changed since 1938. Read more.


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The success of the AAP in its case against Audible’s audiobook ‘Captions’ may have long-lasting influence on issues of AI and intellectual property.
This week’s court papers, attorneys for the publshers say, have surprised them as the audiobooks retailer says it’s ‘unable to reach … a path forward.’
More than 100 pages of court filings precede a hearing expected this week in the US publishers’ lawsuit of Amazon’s Audible.
The IBPA has filed a complaint with Audible on behalf of 27 independent publishers that object to Audible Captions functionality.
The court action filed by the Association of American Publishers a week ago has led to a hold on deployment of ‘Audible Captions,’ per new court papers.
AAP chief Maria A. Pallante calls Audible’s ‘Captions’ an effort ‘to seek commercial advantage from literary works that it did not create and does not own.’


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Donald Trump Reportedly Has Only One App on His iPhone
Although Apple’s App Store is filled with more than two million apps, President Trump’s iPhone has just one.
Trump’s iPhone has been scrubbed of all of its apps except for Twitter, tech news site Axios is reporting, citing “top White House officials.” According to the report, those officials are concerned that if their boss has too much free time, he’ll post tweets spend it posting fiery tweets or lashing out at what he sees on cable news. To avoid that, they’ve loaded his schedule with work, the report says.
But exactly why one target of their concern—Twitter (TWTR)—remains on Trump’s iPhone, is unknown.
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Although Trump had been using an unsecured Android phone when he took office, the White House tweeted in March that he had switched to an iPhone. Many of Trump’s tweets have also come from an iPhone.
There could be a number of reasons why the president’s iPhone has no apps except for social media. It’s possible, for instance, that the device was intentionally modified to reduce the risk of hackers getting access to confidential information—something that is unrelated to the president’s tweeting.
Still, considering Trump’s habit of using Twitter to share his thoughts and policies, it’s perhaps no surprise that it’s the one app that survived the scrubbing.


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Lyft IPO at $72 valuing the company at $24 billion dollars. the way the capital is forming is changing public and private markets. a lot of companies are staying private for longer and that STO space is going to hopefully break down these barriers to entry because often it’s the rich getting richer. it’s all these VCS that get to get in these deals early and by the time these companies hit the stock market they’re just ridiculous valuations particularly in the tech space.
Apple after selling iPhone’s and iPad’s move into another industry that’s highly profitable that is finance and banking now they’ve partnered with Goldman Sachs and MasterCard. This new card is going to track every purchase you make in GPS.
The International Monetary Fund and the BIS coming out an warning that emerging markets are going to be crushed in the next financial crisis just like consumers they’re under way too much debt a lot that’s denominated in U.S. dollars they’re not going to be able to pay that off and they come out and say that they the IMF don’t have sufficient lending capacity to respond so each crisis has kind of got bigger and further up the food chain and went to the point where all the central banks are going to be have to be bailed out in the next downturn.
funfair have launched the first license title so Alice Cooper school’s out for summer this is their first blockchain game first licensed they have got the goods assist now all about on boarding users and that funfair tokens going to have a lot of utility if this starts to take off.
Japan’s largest railway company considers new crypto payment system for transport cards and this was tweeted out by Kwan stamp that got people really excited and also which has directly nothing to do with Quan Stamp they do have a strong Japanese presence and obviously a lot of pool in the Japanese crypto community but either way good to see more adoption of these sort of payment systems and we’re seeing all sorts of varieties.
If you’re a Ripple holder, Indian Bank partners with ripple net to facilitate cross-border payments whether or not this is using the XRP token that remains to be seen and that’s still that number one thing. About Pro projects they’re going to come back into fashion this new because they’ve been so busy building and you can now use queue to them anywhere by using Apple pay and Samsung pay.
Wish you all the best,


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Albertsons selects PDX to provide pharmacy technology solution
FORT WORTH, Texas Albertsons has selected PDX and affiliates Rx.com and NHIN to provide its pharmacy technology solution, replacing its current system with the new Enterprise Pharmacy System.
The chain’s pharmacies will implement the Rx.com Electronic Pharmacy Record, which facilitates chainwide DUR checking and allows patients the convenience of shopping at any Albertsons LLC pharmacy. In addition, NHIN will provide complete submissions, reconciliations and collections services for the retailer, as well as manage its day-to-day central host operations via Host Administrative Services.
The company plans to pilot EPS in pharmacies in Texas and Arizona later this year, and will roll out the technology companywide in 2010. Albertsons LLC currently operates nearly 250 stores in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas.
NCPA appealing AWP pricing settlement
ALEXANDRIA, Va. Stoking a long-simmering dispute over drug payments by health plan sponsors to pharmacies, the nation’s largest independent pharmacy group is appealing a lower court’s settlement of a lawsuit that would reduce the published average wholesale price figures used in pharmacy reimbursement contracts.
If the settlement is not overturned, said the National Community Pharmacists Association, the resulting cutbacks in pharmacy payment rates on many drugs could be devastating to community pharmacies. In response, NCPA said Wednesday it has filed an appeal with the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The appeal seeks to freeze AWP-based payment rates to pharmacies at their current levels until the federal court has reviewed the mid-March settlement.
The original case revolved around the prices that union pension funds, teachers’ unions and other health plan sponsors were paying pharmacies to dispense drugs to their members. Historically, reimbursement rates have been based on the drug’s AWP. But the plan payers acting as plaintiffs in the original case charged in U.S. District Court that drug-price publishers had allowed those rates to rise to unrealistic levels, leading them to pay a 25% premium over AWP for some 8,000 drugs dispensed to their plan members.
Originally named in the health plans’ suit was First DataBank, which was accused of conspiring with McKesson Corp. to set AWP rates artificially high. But in May 2007, Medi-Span, a division of Wolters Kluwer Health, was named as a defendant in a similar class action involving the publication of AWPs.
“The groups alleged that the two publishers and the wholesalers illegally conspired to inflate the markup between Wholesale Acquisition Cost and AWP from 1.20 to 1.25. This resulted in higher costs to patients and third party payers,” NCPA noted in a statement.
Three years ago, the independent pharmacy group joined the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the Food Marketing Institute in opposing a proposed settlement that would have rolled back the increase on those 8,000 drugs. That intervention, noted NCPA, “resulted in a $291 per day saving for every community pharmacy when U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris rejected that settlement, savings that continue.”
In January 2008, the judge agreed with NCPA that the rollbacks on the 8,000 brand name drugs would be devastating to community pharmacy. Earlier this year, she pared the list to about 1,400 drugs to be reimbursed at lower rates, and extended the effective date from three months to six months after the settlement, as NCPA requested. “However,” the pharmacy group noted today, “even the reduced list will cause major reductions in Medicaid payments and a 4% cut in AWP-based reimbursements for pharmacies unable to renegotiate their PBM contracts by Sept. 26.”
Mylan COO says Congress must ‘look further into use, abuse of authorized generics’
PITTSBURGH An executive from generic drug maker Mylan said in testimony before Congress Wednesday that “authorized generics” launched by brand drug makers during a generic company’s customary six months of market exclusivity undermine competition.
Testifying before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy, Mylan COO Heather Bresch also said authorized generics – branded drugs that brand companies release under their generic names, often through third-party companies – delay access to generic medications for patients, taxpayers, government agencies and businesses.
“When it comes to settlements, Congress need look no further than the use and abuse of authorized generics by brand manufacturers,” Bresch said in the hearing, which the subcommittee convened to debate so-called “pay-to-delay” agreements between brand and generic drug companies. “The increase in the number of patient litigation settlements in recent years is directly related to the increased use of authorized generics during the 180-day market exclusivity period.”


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A new government anti-smoking campaign will include radio and print ads that question e-cigarettes’ value in helping smokers quit.
The campaign is the latest installment of the “Tips From Former Smokers” series from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to The Wall Street Journal. The series was launched in 2012 to highlight tobacco’s dangers.
One of the new ads features Kristy, a 35-year-old who tried using e-cigarettes to quit smoking cigarettes but ended up using both products instead of quitting. Kristy then suffered a collapsed lung, and was diagnosed with early chronic obstructive pulmonary disease before she quit smoking completely. In the ad caption, Kristy says, “I started using e-cigarettes but kept smoking. Right up until my lung collapsed.”
Tim McAfee, senior medical officer at the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, says the agency decided to include e-cigarettes because the majority of users are not quitting smoking. “Our core message is cutting down is not sufficient,” he said.
In a news release, the CDC notes that nationally, about three in four adult e-cigarette users also smoke cigarettes. “If you only cut down the number of cigarettes you smoke by adding another tobacco product, like e-cigarettes, you still face serious health risks. Smokers must quit smoking completely to fully protect their health — even a few cigarettes a day are dangerous,” the CDC states.
The ads will run starting March 30 for 20 weeks.
In December, the CDC announced “Tips From Former Smokers” cost just $480 per smoker who quit and $393 per year of life saved. The anti-tobacco ad campaign, which featured graphic images, helped 100,000 people quit smoking, the CDC said. An estimated 1.6 million people tried to quit smoking after they saw the anti-smoking ad campaign. Almost 80 percent of American smokers saw the 2012 campaign.


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Profero, the online planning/buying company, has picked up a new
pounds 1 million planning and buying brief from Book Club
The campaign is for BCA’s online arm BCA Interactive and will run until
June. Profero has been briefed by Torsten Schuppe, head of business
development at BCA Interactive, to build online awareness of BCA’s book
and software clubs.
The BCA launched a raft of online clubs last year. They include Quality
Paperbacks Direct, Home Software World and Escape Travel Club.
Daniel Estrin, agency head of buying, senior account manager Matt
Sunderland and account executive Laura Albery have begun selecting a
number of internet portals, ISP’s and niche titles for the advertising
The team are also talking to new-media owners about network deals with
’We will be concentrating on generating the highest possible conversion
of new BCA members from the strategies we have devised,’ said
Profero, which also handles creative online advertising briefs, has
designed a new banner for the campaign.
BCA came third in a table of the UK’s top 20 advertisers compiled by
Marketing earlier this month.
It spends the majority of its advertising budget on direct mail


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Ham-lovers rejoice (maybe) — the Trib says: “A popular glazed ham and turkey company is looking for somebody to buy a franchise in Great Falls and build a retail store and café so it can add Montana to its long list of states. Georgia-based HoneyBaked Ham Co. would like to add a retail store and café in Montana before Thanksgiving and open two additional sites within the next two years, said Melissa McFarlin, director of franchise development.”
Never seen a HoneyBaked Ham store, or even a commercial — but it would be hard for any ham-based company to come up with a more ear-wormy and fun ditty than the Montana Valley Hams commercial (sing-songy “Montana Valley HAA-aams”). Sadly, the only MVH commercial I could find online doesn’t include that part.
I’m not a huge ham fan, but my wife is — and so is Homer.


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1. Her purr is so loud!
Also, just realized Lil Bub kind of looks like a really cute baby bat.
- A Trump official says the campaign has "three major voter suppression operations underway."
- RIP — Vine says it's discontinuing its mobile app, effectively ending the 6-second video service 💀
- Apple has announced new, lighter-than-ever MacBooks with touch-sensitive strips at its fall event 📱 🍎


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Synutra International Inc. Stock Upgraded (SYUT)
- SYUT's very impressive revenue growth greatly exceeded the industry average of 3.3%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues leaped by 158.5%. Growth in the company's revenue appears to have helped boost the earnings per share.
- The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has significantly exceeded that of the S&P 500 and the Personal Products industry. The net income increased by 150.2% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, rising from -$20.48 million to $10.29 million.
- SYNUTRA INTERNATIONAL INC reported significant earnings per share improvement in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. But, we feel it is poised for EPS growth in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, SYNUTRA INTERNATIONAL INC reported poor results of -$0.69 versus -$0.45 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($0.35 versus -$0.69).
- SYUT's stock share price has done very poorly compared to where it was a year ago: Despite any rallies, the net result is that it is down by 46.21%, which is also worse that the performance of the S&P 500 Index. Investors have so far failed to pay much attention to the earnings improvements the company has managed to achieve over the last quarter. Despite the heavy decline in its share price, this stock is still more expensive (when compared to its current earnings) than most other companies in its industry.
- The debt-to-equity ratio is very high at 2.42 and currently higher than the industry average, implying that there is very poor management of debt levels within the company. To add to this, SYUT has a quick ratio of 0.57, this demonstrates the lack of ability of the company to cover short-term liquidity needs.
-- Written by a member of TheStreet RatingsStaff
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Politburo member and head of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh has affirmed the important role of the US business community in boosting bilateral ties and promoting Vietnam’s development goals.
|Head of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh (R) and USABC President and CEO Alexander Feldman (Source: VNA)
Binh made the statement while hosting a reception in Hanoi on March 13 for representatives from 40 leading US corporations who are on a business trip annually organised by the US-ASEAN Business Council (USABC). The Vietnamese Party and State treasure ties with the US, one of the leading partners of Vietnam, he stressed.
Binh spoke highly of the Vietnam-US relationship over the past years with milestones as the 25th anniversary of the normalisation of Vietnam-US economic ties and the 25th founding anniversary of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Vietnam.
He told the US entrepreneurs that the bilateral comprehensive partnership has been growing in a practical and effective way in diverse areas, especially in economy, trade and investment with two-way trade surging to over 60 billion USD in 2018 from 450 million USD in 1995.
The Party official asked the USABC and the US firms to continue expanding business operations in Vietnam and serve as a bridge to attract more US enterprises to the country.
USABC President and CEO Alexander Feldman thanked Binh for his warm hospitality.
Members of the delegation expressed wish to receive further support from the Vietnamese Party and State in stepping up US business operations in Vietnam, affirming that the development of Vietnam-US economic and trade ties lays an important foundation to reinforce the bilateral comprehensive partnership in the near future.
In the afternoon of the same day, Binh hosted a reception for Chairman of the International Investment Bank (IIB)’s Management Board Nikolay Kosov.
Binh spoke highly of partnership between Vietnam and IIB over the past years, especially in developing credit activities in the country via loans in support of Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises, trade and infrastructure.
He also welcomed the lender’s credit and investment expansion plan in Vietnam.


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A German ice cream parlor has expanded its menu with a flavor that gives goosebumps: ice cream with insect flavor sprinkled with dried crickets.
Unusual candies can be bought at the ice cream parlor “Eiscafe Rino”, by Thomas Micolino, in Rottenburg am Neckar.
Micolino is known for creating flavors that are far removed from the preferences of most Germans, such as strawberry, chocolate, banana or vanilla.
He offered liver sausage and gorgonzola ice creamas well as ice cream covered in a thin layer of gold for 4 euros ($4.25) per serving.
“I’m a very curious person and I want to try everything,” Micolino told the Dpa news agency. “I ate many things, even strange things, and I wanted to try the crickets even in the form of ice cream,” he said about his new exotic ice cream flavor.
It can offer cricket flavor because a European Union standard allows the use of insects in food.
Under that rule, cricket can be frozen, dried or powdered. The EU has already allowed the use of migratory locusts and meal beetle larvae as additives.
The ingredients of Micolino ice cream are cricket flour, cream, vanilla extract, and honey, and sprinkles it over whole crickets. She has amazing delicious tasteor at least that’s what she said on Instagram.
Some people feel disgust or anger at the new flavor, however, most of the customers who dared to try it are it turned out delicious.
«Those who try it are very enthusiastic», said Micolino, and closed: «I have customers who come every day to eat a portion».
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.


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- Business and Employment»
- E-Commerce & How to Make Money Online
Is the US Online Retail Market Ready for Donald Trump?
Internet Retailing: A Growing Trend in USA
According to a report published by Euromonitor International, the best way to shop in the US is via internet retailing, which saw growth of 13% in online sales in 2015. This figure implies that more and more business will seek to sell their products and services online, increasing the competition in this arena manifold. The Internet is the preferred means for the millennial consumer, given the wide variety of choices available under one roof online.
Another statistic that supports the preference of the online arena is the sales of smartphones and tablets, which grew by a whopping 61% in 2015 and is expected to see growth of almost 80% by 2018. While this figure seems to point to the preference for mobile devices, these are also the devices of choice for accessing the internet.
In terms of online sales growth, Amazon.com outpaced its competition in 2015, accounting for 60% of the total ecommerce sales in the US, which amounted to a whopping $23 billion over the previous year. In fact, Forrester Research predicted that ecommerce sales in the country would grow to over $530 billion by 2020, with more than 206 million people shopping online.
Trump's Trade Policies
As part of the policy changes President Elect Trump intends to make once he takes over, is a renegotiation of NAFTA, imposing a 35% tariff on imports from Mexico and China. Mr. Trump stated in support of this decision, saying, “Our country is getting ripped off.” This has created a huge buzz amongst the trade manipulators.
Modifying US trade policy to reduce the trade deficit seems to be a prime focus for Mr. Trump, who is looking for big changes in the US trade industry. His alleged opposition of the NAFTA and TPP is meant to be an attempt to reduce the US trade deficit, which stood at $42.6 billion, as of October of 2016, with exports recording the largest decline since January and imports experiencing a prominent boost in the past 14 months.
Impact of Policy Changes
However, abandoning NAFTA could harm US retailers that manufacture their products overseas. According to a 2016 survey report by GT Nexus, 44% of the country’s retailers expect cost of goods to rise due to protectionist trade initiatives, while another 22% expect increased risk of disruptions and delays.
On the other hand, the TPP was a major undertaking by President Barak Obama, and is a trade pact between the US and 11 other nations trading in the Pacific Rim. This pact is also set to get slammed by the incumbent President and it is still unclear how trade deals would look under his administration.
Good For the US, Bad for Others
Imposing tariffs on import will affect the international trade benefits enjoyed by the American consumer, who will have to pay more for limited choices. President Elect Trump's opposition of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) might feel like the perfect decision for manufacturing units in the country. However, will the American consumer be happy with the decision? The short answer is no. The 12 countries that are part of this pact collectively account for a population of about 800 million, big enough to capture 40% of the world trade. Including environmental protection and workers’ rights, TPP aimed at creating new investment opportunities for American businesses and retailers, large and small, both domestically and abroad.
Impact on Ecommerce
The main goal of online retailers is to ensure that orders are delivered to customers in the quickest possible timeframe. This means that some level of automation is required within the logistics process, whether it is at the warehouses, distribution centers or even the possible use of drones to make deliveries, according to a November 2016 article on Business Insider.
However, if Mr. Trump makes policy changes to protect US workers from being replaced by machines, ecommerce businesses might see a drop in productivity due to the need to rely on traditional methods and labor options. This could also mean that the evolution of the online retail space, as well as last mile delivery, might come to a standstill. The consumer today expects a seamless experience, with on-time last mile delivery, and if an online retailer is unable to ensure a smooth process, the consumer will simply move on to someone else who can, according to Boss Fulfillment.
Will the Trump administration make is difficult for ecommerce businesses to provide a seamless shopping experience? Only time will tell.


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Microsoft allow OEMs and retail outlets to sell PCs with Windows XP as customers continue to balk on upgrading to Windows Vista.
Microsoft had high expectations for customer adoption of Vista, and claimed the launch would be one of the most successful in Windows history. Unfortunately for the company, those predictions so far haven’t panned out, and in July, Microsoft lowered its projections for customer adoption of Vista. The company had said the split between XP and Vista sales in its fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, would be 15 percent to 85 percent; now the company is saying the split will be 22 percent XP and 78 percent Vista.
According to some, that may even be optimistic. Paul Ghysels, a custom system builder who owns the Neighborhood Computer Store in Moraga, California, said that Microsoft has “really blown Vista.” He said he’s not surprised Microsoft extended the availability of XP for OEMs. “I figured Microsoft would have to come up with something because Vista is so unprepared for the market right now,” Ghysels said.
Yesterday, a nasty little bug was identified in Excel 2007. Try multiplying 850 * 77.1 and Excel returns 100,000. Well the answer should be 65,535! Any calculator should get this right, so why not Excel.
It all boils down to the fact that you can’t represent an infinite group of non-integer numbers using a finite number of bits. In fact, Excel can store “only” about 9 quintillion distinct values. The numbers going into your calculations may be infinitesimally different from the number displayed, and for two calculations that nominally have the same answer the result may be infinitesimally different. Excel generally manages just fine in dealing with these tiny differences, but in exactly 12 instances out of the 9 quintillion possibilities it goes completely bonkers.
Wolfram research has an interesting blog entry explaining the potential causes for arithmetic errors and he discusses the impacts.
These days reliability is an increasingly important component of numerical computation. Machines have become so fast that people are doing huge numbers of numerical computations all the time. And now what’s critical is to get them right all the time–because if there’s a fringe case that’s wrong, it’s now going to be noticed.


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eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) announced that its CEO, Devin Wenig, has stepped down. He will be replaced by Scott Schenkel on an interim basis.
Devin’s resignation comes amid pressure from activist owners of eBay stock who are looking for the company to conduct a strategic review. Reportedly, disagreements between Wenig, the ex-CEO, and investors Elliott Management and Starboard Value regarding the sale of StubHub, along with eBay’s classified advertising business, led to Devin’s resignation.
The sudden departure of Wenig has come as a surprise to many. Following the announcement of the management shakeup, eBay stock slipped a marginal 0.80% (eBay stock closed at $39.24 on Sept. 25). As of late trading today, the shares are little changed.
The Price of eBay Stock and Consensus Estimates
Scott Schenkel, the Vice President and CFO of eBay, has been appointed as the interim CEO. The company is looking for both internal and external candidates for the CEO role.
Also, the company announced that Andy Cring, eBay’s Vice President — Global Financial Planning and Analysis — has been appointed to serve as its interim CFO.
Notably, the company has reaffirmed its revenue guidance for the full year. It continues to expect revenues in the range of $10.75-$10.83 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 2%-3%.
Why the Shakeup?
eBay implemented this leadership change to leave the company better positioned for growth.
The news comes at a time when eBay is conducting a strategic review of its assets that include StubHub and its classified ad division. Devin, who served as CEO since 2015, continuously sought to expand and bolster the business since its spinoff from PayPal.
eBay’s annual revenues increased to $10.75 billion in 2018. Late last year, it began accepting new forms of payment. In addition, it began letting its merchants advertise on other sites.
Despite these efforts, eBay struggled e in the e-commerce market amid rising competition, particularly from Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN). According to eMarketer, Amazon commands a roughly 38% share of U.S. online retail sales, while eBay holds just a 6% share. Reportedly, Amazon’s revenues in North America were 13 times that of eBay’s in 2018.
Therefore, a few changes including the departure of the CEO, could prove to be beneficial to the company and to eBay stock. eBay will focus on its e-commerce growth, but it should also develop other strategies to boost its long-term profitability.
For now, it’s hard to say where eBay stock will head in the near future.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Currently, eBay has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector include Alphabet Inc. GOOGL and Itron, Inc. ITRI, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Long-term earnings growth for Alphabet and Itron is currently projected at 17.5% and 25%, respectively.
Looking for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside?
Zacks has just released a Special Report on the booming investment opportunities of legal marijuana.
Ignited by new referendums and legislation, this industry is expected to blast from an already robust $6.7 billion to $20.2 billion in 2021. Early investors stand to make a killing, but you have to be ready to act and know just where to look.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report


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Wal-Mart set to open Panorama City grocery store
As unions and community groups dig in to stop Wal-Mart from opening a grocery store in Chinatown, the retailing giant is scheduled to open a Panorama City store Friday morning with little outcry.
Los Angeles' first Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market will open its doors at 7:30 a.m. with speeches by local dignitaries and Wal-Mart officials, and entertainment will include a high school marching band. The store is at 14530 Nordhoff St. in the Vannord Shopping Center, replacing a grocery store that has been shuttered for years.
The store is a smaller, grocery-only version of the chain's usual superstores and will include a pharmacy. Wal-Mart is planning to open similar stores in Altadena, Downey and Bell Gardens.
There has been little controversy about the chain's development of the Panorama City site, first announced in April. That stands in marked contrast to the Chinatown location, which has been met with vociferous opposition from a coalition of labor and community groups who say they are concerned about the loss of smaller, ethnic stores.
-- Catherine Saillant
Photo: Two weeks ago, Wal-Mart opened a store in Torrance. Credit: Patrick Fallon/Bloomberg


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The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) has ordered tens of domestic and foreign brands to not advertise on video clips that contain anti-State propaganda on YouTube, a video-sharing platform.
The Ministry of Information and Communications has ordered tens of domestic and foreign brands to not advertise on video clips that contain anti-State propaganda on YouTube. (Photo: amazeemetrics.com)
The move was made after the authoritydiscovered many prestigious brands have advertised on videos with the illegal andmalicious content via Google Ads. Particularly, video producers get advertisingrevenue sharing from Google, which means the tech giant indirectly funds anti-VietnameseState activities.
According to the MIC, some 8,000 clips with harmful contents shared on YouTube hadbeen removed by Google in recent two years at the request of the MIC.
However, the number of harmful-content clips shared on YouTube is on the rise,it said, reporting that about 55,000 clips which are toxic or violate Vietnam’slaw are being shared on the platform.
ABEI Deputy Head Le Quang Tu Do pointed to Google’s content loose management regime,uncontrolled advertizing activities on the videos and Google Adsense, and allowingusers to buy ads directly from YouTube and Google without involvement ofdomestic advertising agents as causes of the existence of malicious clips onYouTube platform.
The ministry asked YouTube and Google to identify Vietnamese channels, and onlythose which are certified and have proper contents will be considered for adrevenue sharing.
It will work with the State Bank of Vietnam, the General Department of Taxationand the Ministry of Public Security to control the flow of ad revenue, and meteout strict punishment to any violation.
Besides, it has ordered YouTube to remove suggestion mode for violatingchannels, and ban users from republishing the removed clips. Individuals andorganisations are requested to coordinate with the ministry to prevent andremove the channels with inappropriate contents.
Statistics from the ministry showed that Vietnam’s online advertising market isvalued at around 400 million USD, with over 70 percent of the revenue going toFacebook and Google.
Although Google earns some 150 million USD each year from ads in Vietnam, ithas no legal representative offices in the country. Thus, the MIC said that itis necessary for Google and YouTube to open branches or representative officesin Vietnam to provide customer service and work with Vietnamese authoritieswhen needed.
As for social network users, they should be responsible for their comments andsharing of unverified information while correcting false information andopposing to fake news.
The MIC is recommending the Government to complete laws on social networkmanagement and cross-border services.-VNA


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Let’s take a look at some interesting news from the automotive industry. This is the expansion of Chinese car manufacturer BYD in the field of electric mobility. It has a soft spot in my heart and is something I’ve been trying to watch for a while now. But let’s get to it.
From Batteries to EVs
BYD, which stands for “Build Your Dreams,” was founded in 1995 as a battery manufacturer and has gradually transformed into one of the leading electric vehicle manufacturers.
The automaker became known for its affordable models that brought variety and choice for Chinese drivers. Growth has also been supported by the investment of Warren Buffett, whose company currently holds about 3% of the shares.
BYD now offers more than 20 electric vehicle models and has ambitious plans to expand into international markets. The company plans to export up to 400,000 vehicles a year, targeting markets in Europe, Australia, and other regions. For the record, BYD has already surpassed Tesla in global sales in 2022.
What do Skoda Auto and other European automakers have to say about this?
Recently, BYD decided to enter the luxury vehicle segment with its new Yangwang brand. For example, they introduced a $150,000 “supercar” that takes inspiration from Lamborghini design, which can be seen as an entry into the upper automotive league.
European market and Hungary
The entry into the European market throws BYD, as well as other automakers, a spanner in the works. The European market is regulated by strict standards and subsidies for electric cars. In addition, new EU legislation wants to limit access to European subsidies for electric vehicles with Chinese-made components.
In response to the European regulations, BYD announced the construction of its first electric vehicle factory in Europe in Szeged, Hungary. The factory, which will be the first of its kind built by a Chinese car company in Europe, is expected to produce 200,000 vehicles a year as part of a gradual increase in production capacity.
The factory will use state-of-the-art technology and highly automated production processes to create a world-leading production base for new energy passenger vehicles. The Hungarian government has provided BYD with financial incentives to build the factory.
BYD’s brand strategy
Key to BYD’s success is their ability to innovate and adapt to changing market conditions. BYD combines technological innovations, such as in-wheel engines and advanced features in the SUV segment, with an emphasis on design and luxury. This strategy allows BYD to reach a wider range of customers and differentiate itself from the competition.
Another factor is their quick response to market demand and ability to launch new models quickly, which is essential in the dynamic environment of electric vehicles. As a result, BYD has been able to adapt quickly and remain competitive.
BYD is trying to compete not only with Tesla but also with other global manufacturers such as Hyundai and Kia. Let’s just hope that Europe does not remain a museum and turns its own ‘electric wheels’.
Update: The market and capitalism is working! Tesla is getting tougher.


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International hauliers are breathing a sigh of relief after the government was forced to delay the introduction of border checks on imports until October. With many of the key border control posts little more than holes in the ground and with mounting compliance pressure created by pandemic lockdowns and regulations across different European countries, cabinet office minister Michael Gove told the House of Commons it was introducing a “revised timetable” for controls. Gove said: “Thanks to the hard work of […]
CM Show 2020: Cleaner fuels, safer fleets, skills shortages and Brexit challenges all on the agenda for day two
Day two of the Commercial Motor Show 2020 brings you a buzzing conference programme exploring alternative fuels, fleet safety, skills shortages and Brexit implications.
Wincanton is offering its customers the opportunity to model what their supply chains could look like after Brexit.
Fruehauf’s collapse can be attributed to a toxic mixture of Brexit, Covid-19 and a global shortage of materials, according to its administrator.


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Chinese e-commerce giant to raise up to US$20 million in confidential listing.
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba named the most valuable Chinese brand, report shows.
PVH cuts forecast on tariff fears; surf’s out for Abercrombie; and more.
The plan, if it proceeds, would be the sixth-biggest follow-on share sale in history
Blind and partially sighted people are now able to shop online.
Wesfarmers’ Rob Scott rises to the top.
Alibaba reaches out to Spain; Uniqlo storms into fashion capital; and more.
E-commerce giant sees $42 billion in transactions over 24 hour period.
Retailer to bring in more international goods from Australia and other countries.


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The December unemployment report came out this morning, and the initial estimate is that the economy added 155,000 new jobs, which is good but not great. The Department of Labor also revised upwards its initial estimate for November from 146,000 new jobs to 161,000. The hope is that the number of monthly new jobs will edge closer to 200,000 in the months ahead and other economic reports coming in for the end of the year, including homes prices, auto sales and other retail sales, are promising. So, things could be looking up, if not looking rosy, that is, unless Congress decides to take the country into default in two months!
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Fleetwood has just announced the sale of its loss-making caravan business, instantly restoring profitability for the group by closing a segment losing more than $10 million a year.
ASX-listed Apollo Leisure will acquire the Windsor and Coromal brands as well as inventory for the grand sum of $1 million and, in return, Fleetwood turns from a business making about $7 million a year in net profit to one making about $20 million a year.
Apart from caravans Fleetwood operates two core businesses: it leases out accommodation at its mining villages in Western Australia and it manufactures accommodation for the education and retirement sector. The mining bust had left Fleetwood with the loss-making caravan business. Aggregate profits crumbled to almost nothing and by 2016 it was recording EBIT losses. Last year, it made an after-tax profit of just $5 million.
Fortunately, the villages and accommodation businesses have flourished and offset the caravan cliff. Fleetwood hasn’t been a disaster but it hasn’t worked out as well as we had hoped.
The sale of caravans leaves the high-returning villages and a lumpy accommodation business that should generate pre-tax profit of about $20 million. That implies an enterprise value to EBIT multiple of about eight, which is about right for a business of this quality.
As a sanity check, we note that Fleetwood now trades in line with its tangible asset backing. We don’t think there is a mispricing here any longer. SELL.


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The resale value for popular and desirable web addresses pertaining to some of the more thriving Internet industries, like porn, food, retail, and dating, have recently emerged from a three year lull.
Addresses like Beef.com, Men.com, and porn site Whitehouse.com have been the subject of ferocious bidding wars among entrepreneurs who fully realize the enormous moneymaking potential of familiar URLs with established commercial value.
According to VeriSign, the resale market for domain names has more than doubled in recent months from previous years. A typical resale price for a domain is ringing in at around $24,000, whereas a collection of popular domains recently sold for as much as $100,000 each.
Smoking.com sold for $500,000 last week, Mr.com for $350,000, and Americans.com for $150,000, the New York Times reports. And the owner of Car.com paid a reported seven figures for his domain last year in a deal that today would be nearly double in value, experts say.
According to VeriSign, website are renewing their domain suffixes at record levels. Statistics show that 70 percent of VeriSign customers renewed their domain names in the fourth quarter of 2003, whereas only 45 percent renewed in the first quarter of the same year.
Whitehouse.com, which went on the sale block on Feb. 10, has since soared into the million-dollar range after the owner of the domain decided to put it up for sale after seven years in the porn business. The website has had bids for as high as $2 million, according to reports.
The Whitehouse.com domain was often in the eye of controversy for so closely resembling the official White House website (whitehouse.gov), and over the years it has reportedly caused the U.S Government a great deal of grief.
Exponential growth in the domain industry is partly due to an upsurge in the economy and an increased diversity in the ways that webmasters can make money. Some industry analysts attribute the demand for high-priced domain names to search engines like Google and Yahoo that can increase traffic by huge margins when the domain names are simple and succinct and represent a search category, like Sex.com.
Additionally, smaller website owners can generate more revenue by placing Google's small text ads on their sites.
As for the owner of WhiteHouse.com, who also owns real estate site House.com, there has been no official word whether the White House is interested in buying his domain name, and until then, the sky is the limit in the bidding wars.


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JOHNSTOWN - As U.S. Sen. Robert Casey Jr., D-Pa., toured a busy Johnstown Wire Technologies plant Monday, he couldn't help but wonder aloud how much busier it could be.
The 265-employee carbon and alloy wire-maker, housed in a former Bethlehem Steel plant, would be among thousands of U.S. companies that would stand to benefit if China was forced to revalue its currency. Casey said China's currency is currently fixed at low rates compared to the dollar, which allows it to produce and export its goods at an "unfairly" low rate.
"If China revalued its currency by 28 percent, it would mean an estimated 1.8 million jobs in the U.S.," Casey told a crowd of steelworkers on Monday. He said an Economic Policy Institute report suggested the Chinese "yuan," whose value is fixed to the U.S. dollar, was believed to be 40 percent lower than what it should be.
China and its growing economy has taken advantage of the value by flooding the market with below-fair market goods, making it difficult for the world's competitors.
"Cracking down on China's unfair trade practices is one important way we can make it easier for businesses like Johnstown Wire Technologies to grow and create jobs," he added, moments after watching company employees "draw down" metal coil into thin wire during a tour.
Casey noted Johnstown Wire does well despite the disadvantages.
They count Stanley Black & Decker and U.S. auto industry contractors among their customer base, company president Walt Robertson said.
China "is ignoring the rules," Robertson said, and has taken 15 percent of the world's wire-making business.
Casey said he is pushing for several efforts to make China play by the same trade rules that U.S. companies must obey, citing the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Act.


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In what was a largely controversial decision last summer, AT&T decided to restrict FaceTime over cellular to its Mobile Share data plan subscribers only. And while AT&T will continue practising that policy, the carrier has now expanded FaceTime access to Apple’s three LTE devices — the iPhone 5, iPad mini and third-generation iPad or later — at no additional charge.
A tiered data plan is still required to access the video chat service on your iPhone or iPad over LTE networks, but that is better than being forced to subscribe to AT&T’s more expensive Mobile Share data packages. FaceTime also works over Wi-Fi networks for no additional charges.
AT&T today announced it will enable FaceTime over Cellular at no extra charge for iOS 6 customers with an LTE device on any tiered data plan. AT&T will also continue to offer FaceTime over Cellular to customers with any AT&T Mobile Share plan, as well as FaceTime over Wi-Fi, which has always been available.
We expect to roll out this functionality over the next 8-10 weeks. In addition, we are informing our deaf and hard of hearing customers that, as of October 26, we began rolling out several new billing plans designed to allow them to make use of FaceTime. This is part of our ongoing commitment to our customers with disabilities, and it’s a commitment which is very important to us.
Moreover, AT&T has announced that it will be providing a $100 discount off the iPad with LTE or any other tablet based on signing a new 2-year service agreement. For the deal to be honored, the carrier forces you to choose from $15, $30 or $50 data plans that provide 250 MB, 3GB or 5GB in data allowance per month respectively.
Interestingly, this is the first time that a carrier has subsidized the price of an iPad. Most current iPad data plans do not require being locked into a lengthier contract, instead providing service on a month-by-month basis as needed. Let’s just hope it doesn’t become an outright requirement to have a service contract with AT&T or other carriers to use the tablet on cellular networks.


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American fast-food chain KFC has announced plans to double women employee headcount in India to 5,000 in the next 3-4 years, as it steps up diversity and inclusion initiatives in the country. Presently, the ratio of women employees stands at 30%, and the restaurant aims to increase this number to 40% by 2024.
KFC India currently operates two all-women restaurants, with the first one in Darjeeling and the other newly opened in Hyderabad, which also happened to mark the 25,000th KFC restaurant in the world.
In conversation with the media, KFC India Managing Director Samir Menon said, "We have about 2,500 hundred women in our restaurants across states...Our intent is to at least, if nothing else, double the number of women we have in our restaurants over the next three or or four years and bring it up to 5,000 or so...We are adding new restaurants as well. This (gender diversity) sort of gets more amplified as more and more restaurants are opened.”
Commenting on KFC India’s diversity journey so far, Menon added, “On gender diversity, it has grown very organically. It is not like we were going out and trying to make a very loud exercise. Between 2013-14 and pre-Covid, in those five or six years diversity in our restaurants, from a gender perspective, has grown from 7-8 percent to around 30 percent...that included both team members and leaders of restaurants...The intent is to get to 40 per cent by 2024."
Sharing that the company would continue to encourage more women at work, Menon stated, "Over the years, we have realized, and even a research we did in 2019 internally showed up, that in many ways women employees have higher retention, lower attrition and competitive scores are very strong as well. Therefore, from an overall brand perspective it resonates so beautifully with the way our brand is built. And therefore we want to go behind this in a large way."
Beyond boosting gender diversity, KFC India also plans to double the footprint of Special KFCs -- operated by hearing and speech impaired team members, by 2024. The restaurant chain aims to launch select, flagship Special KFCs across India, that provide an elevated KFC experience for specially-abled team members as well as customers. Reportedly, under its KFC Kshamata programme, the brand aims to have 70 'Special KFCs' by 2024, up from over 30 at present.
"Over the last decade or so that first restaurant (Special KFC) has become over 30 and from the first five or six people it has become almost 200. The process of doing that has led us to a very deep conviction that as a brand we can make an impact...Our intent is to keep growing that," Menon said.
As the impact of the pandemic fueled the urgency for diversity and inclusion at the workplace, these initiatives by KFC India will serve as a great example for employers that continue to struggle in recognizing how they can make an impact and where to begin.
By building a business case out of both the talent benefits and societal impact created, brands can accelerate their vision of representing a diverse and inclusive workplace.


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More bad news for Microsoft’s Windows 8.Asus CFO David Chang tells the Wall Street Journal, “Demand for Windows 8 is not that good right now.”
He said demand for touch notebooks has been slow.
Asus is the fifth-biggest PC maker in the world, according to Gartner.
In addition to Chang’s quote, Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund writes today, “Windows 8 is off to an awkward launch.”
Forbes has Sherlund’s note, which says there’s a “learning curve” for Windows 8, and PC makers have been slow to bring out Windows 8 computers.
A quick note on Sherlund. He’s one of the most respected Microsoft analysts—and that includes people at Microsoft. When he’s saying something negative on the company, it’s worth paying attention to.
Sherlund is also warning that the iPad continues to eat into PC sales.
Couple these reports with what we’ve previously heard—that iMicrosoft sales are failing to meet internal expectations—and there must be at least some concern at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, despite yesterday’s report of 40 million licenses sold so far.


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In a recent analytical report on the region’s potato market, EastFruit analysts talked about the huge difference in potato prices between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which has already led to an increase in potato purchases in Tajikistan for exports to Uzbekistan. Despite the fact that market participants expected an increase in potato prices in Tajikistan, they remained at the same level this week.
Potatoes can still be bought at wholesale in Tajikistan at $0.27 per kg, while domestic wholesale prices for potatoes in Uzbekistan are $0.20 higher and reach $0.47 per kg. By the way, this almost corresponds to the average wholesale price for potatoes in Russia, which usually exports them to Uzbekistan during this period.
If the purchases of potatoes in Tajikistan for supplies to the Uzbek market are large, this will lead to an increase in domestic prices sooner or later. According to official data, Tajikistan almost does not export and import potatoes. According to trade sources, local potato shortages in the country used to be quickly covered by potatoes from Kyrgyzstan, but it was not included into the official statistics.
However, the situation has changed dramatically this year. The border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan was closed most of the time, and trade between the countries is complicated even now. In addition, the regional situation has changed and the demand for potatoes from Kyrgyzstan is now unusually high. Russia actively imports potatoes from Kyrgyzstan, which means that it will be more difficult for Tajikistan to cover the deficit, if any, than usual.
The use of the site materials is free if there is a direct and open for search engines hyperlink to a specific publication of the East-Fruit.com website.


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The vehicle owners who prefer to rely on minimum coverage will appreciate our system to find the best range of local rates from known insurers
San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) October 01, 2014
A national search is now possible by owners of preowned vehicles who seek insurance coverage plans in the U.S. The Quotes Pros company has modified its research tool to include collision insurance for used vehicle owners using its portal http://quotespros.com/auto-insurance.html.
The United States based system is now filled with providers that specialize in regular forms of collision insurance. While many companies provide this base level of protection, other companies that exist in the system can customize policies for owners of vehicles. The nationwide system requires input of zip codes before a listing of companies is returned in the database.
"The vehicle owners who prefer to rely on minimum coverage will appreciate our system to find the best range of local rates from known insurers," said a Quotes Pros rep.
The insurance research tool that has been installed can be accessed for the remainder of the year to find collision rates from companies. Motor vehicle owners who seek full coverage, gap or SR22 coverage policies can freely use the tools provided at the QuotesPros.com portal to price these plans of coverage.
"We provide one of the most complete tools available to the public without cost to find agencies and review policy pricing," said the rep.
The Quotes Pros national finder tool is setup to accept consumer usage by input of zip codes this year. The industry providers of automotive and motorcycle can be reviewed as well as companies supplying health, life or business coverage listed at http://quotespros.com/business-insurance.html.
The QuotesPros.com company is a top source for locating rates for coverage plans in the insurance industry using its open style platform. The company database is open to men and women to review in order to find state and national insurers. The QuotesPros.com company has taken away many of the consumer frustrations with locating insurer rates by adding its virtual tools for easy access this year.


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By Alexander Lawrie
JARS of baby bottom cream have been flying off the shelves – after vain mums discovered its botox-like effect.
Staff at Waitrose supermarkets were mystified when their own brand of baby cream kept selling out, but quickly realised the cream is the answer to middle age wrinkles.
Now the supermarket giant has rationed the Baby Bottom Butter to just two pots per person.
Mums across the country are taking the saying ‘as smooth as a baby’s bum’ to a whole new level.
A branch in Edinburgh has revealed they have been inundated with requests for the magic ointment, with up to 15 women asking for it every day.
The buying frenzy erupted after the product, which only costs £2.49 a jar, was given a glowing endorsement on a parenting website.
David Lincoln, Waitrose store manager, said: “We just can’t keep up with the demand. It really is unbelievable.
“Our suppliers have told us they just can’t make the cream quickly enough.
“I’ve been amazed by the public’s reaction. It started off on an internet site and spread like wildfire.
“We haven’t had any for about two weeks but got 72 tubs in on Saturday. Needless to say, they were all sold by Monday morning.”
Shoppers at the Edinburgh store got a surprise yesterday after discovering the last remaining six pots.
Nursery nurse Brenda Gannon, 57, said: “I’ve been in here every day for the past two weeks, but it’s always been sold out. I’ve still to try it, but I’ve heard great things about the results from friends.
“And at £2.49 a jar you can’t really go wrong.”
Colleague Helen Sim, 48, said: “I heard about it on the radio and have looked out for it ever since. I’ve got sensitive skin, so I’ll try anything that might help.”
And it’s not just the ladies who are dying to try the magical cream.
Pensioner Ronnie Cramond said: “I’ve got quite dry skin and thought I’d give this a go. I know it’s normally used for baby’s bums, but if it works, especially at that price, I’ll be happy.
“Although, I can’t really believe all the fuss about it.”
The UK-wide shortage came as sales reached 30,000 tubs in the first part of this year, taking its Hampshire-based supplier completely by surprise.
The butter is free from artificial chemicals and contains olive oil, camomile – for nappy rash – and lavender.
Waitrose says it has seen sales of “natural” baby toiletries rise by 38 per cent after it removed parabens, petrochemicals and colours from its own-label products.
Jo Maclaine, Waitrose’s baby care buyer, said: “It seems that the botty butter gives softer cheeks wherever they are.
“The feedback we have had has been amazing and proof that looking good does not have to cost the Earth.”


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News Archive 2005
Service Contract with Dlogistics
Egemin Automation recently concluded a 24/7 service agreement with Dlogistics (Tienen, Belgium) for support of its miniload warehouse, built by a third-party manufacturer in 2003. This agreement will allow Dlogistics to ensure full continuity of its warehouse to its customer Bosch.
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More than 81 million domestic and overseas tourists visited south China's tropical island province of Hainan in 2021, up 25.5 percent year on year, which is equivalent to 97.5 percent of the number in 2019, local authorities said Thursday.
Hainan's total tourism revenue increased 58.6 percent over the previous year to about 138.4 billion yuan (about 21.7 billion U.S. dollars), up 30.9 percent compared to 2019, according to the provincial department of tourism, culture, radio, television and sports.
Last year, Hainan saw the inking of agreements and launch of 32 tourism projects as well as the establishment of over 40 new companies related to tourism, culture and sports.
The province reported 49.5 billion yuan of offshore duty-free shopping in 2021, up 80 percent year on year, with more than 70 million items purchased by 6.72 million shoppers.
The per capita shopping amount registered in the offshore duty-free shops of Hainan logged 7,368 yuan, an increase of 20.2 percent compared to 2020.
China aims to build Hainan into an international tourism and consumption center by 2025 and a globally influential tourism and consumption destination by 2035.


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Starbucks plans 200 new Southeast Asia stores
- Staff Puget Sound Business Journal
Starbucks Corp. said it plans to open 100 new stores in Indonesia over the next three years and another 100 stores in the Philippines over the next four years.
“With a population of more than 600 million people, an emerging middle class that is driving strong consumption and a robust and resilient economy, Southeast Asia presents a compelling growth opportunity for Starbucks,” said Howard Schultz, Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) CEO, in a statement.
Starbucks said it now operates more than 700 stores in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled on Friday that Apple did not violate five patents Nokia accused the company of ripping off.
According to the complaint, the patents involves electronic devices, mobile phones, computers and portable music players, in other words, most major aspects of Apple’s core business.
The suit was filed in October 2009 and various countersuits have since been filed, with new suits being added as Nokia believed they had found more infringements in different jurisdictions.
Recently added to the battle is four new suits filed by Nokia against Apple in European courts.
According to MacRumors:
ITC staff have already issued a preliminary position siding with Nokia regarding Apple’s countersuit claiming patent infringement, but an agency judge has yet to issue an official ruling on that case.
More to follow as national and international cases continue to work themselves out in court between these two firms.