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Insiders are starting to go radio silent in advance of the release of third-quarter operating result...
Smooth Sailing for Carnival
05/24/2016 7:00 am EST
Our latest featured recommendation is a cruise vacation company and the largest leisure travel company in the world, notes Crista Huff, editor of Cabot Undervalued Stocks Advisor.
Carnival Corp. (CCL) has 10 proprietary brands including Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Lines and Princess Cruises.
On May 2nd, Carnival’s ship Adonia visited the port of Havana, Cuba, in an historic voyage to a country that has not seen a US cruise ship in decades.
Cuba and the US restored diplomatic relations a year ago, paving the way for air and sea travel, postal service and other commerce.
In Italy, Carnival just took delivery of the Vista, Carnival’s newest, largest and most innovative ship.
The Vista began its maiden voyage on May 1st, offering a suspended cycling experience, an IMAX theatre, an on-board brewery, and enhanced family accommodations and entertainment features.
Carnival beat Wall Street’s second quarter earnings expectations due to lower fuel costs and a pullback in the strength of the US dollar.
Investors were relieved to know that future cruise bookings remain very strong, despite the recent terrorist attack in Belgium.
As a matter of fact, leisure services stocks have moved up to the top quartile of Zacks’ industry rankings.
Carnival’s consensus earnings estimates have been slowly increasing all year. Analysts expect EPS to grow 25.9% and 17.1% in 2016 and 2017 (November year-end).
The corresponding P/Es are 14.6 and 12.4, indicating that the stock is extremely undervalued.
Carnival announced a 17% increase in its quarterly dividend in April, from 30 cents to 35 cents per share. The current yield is 2.8%.
The stock is extremely undervalued and our rating on the shares is “strong buy”.
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OvaScience to focus on baby-making efforts overseas
As OvaScience struggles with U.S. regulators over the classification of its infertility treatment, the Cambridge company is forging ahead internationally, with plans to set up centers abroad in the next year to train doctors on the use of its egg precursor cell technology.
On Tuesday, while OvaScience CEO Michelle Dipp prepared for a presentation at the JP Morgan HealthCare Conference in San Fransisco, the company laid out plans to establish centers in international centers that perform in vitro fertilization to teach physicians about its so-called Augment technology. The process consists of rejuvenating a woman’s eggs by injecting fresh mitochondria from the woman’s own egg precursor cells. Over the course of 2014, the company plans to establish centers in four international regions that will conduct between 40 and 60 Augment fertility cycles to generate data. Those centers will become commercial centers for the company by the end of the year.
She also said that in addition to commercializing Augment, the company plans to launch a newer infertility treatment called OvaPrime in 2015. The announcement from the company did not give details on the new technology other than to say it’s “designed to boost a woman’s egg reserve” using her own egg precursor cells.
The theme of “global” has dominated the flood of announcements out of the company in the past few days, with the recent appointment of both an new executive vice president of global commercial operations, and also a new director described as a “global healthcare strategist.” The new VP, David Stern, will join the company in February “in preparation for the company’s international introduction of Augment,” the company said in an email. The announcement regarding Stern, formerly of EMD Serono, also said that the company’s COO, Alison Lawton, will be leaving to pursue other opportunities.
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The original advertising for its Select Harvest line of soups featured a blindfolded woman tasting the Campbell’s soup and listing fresh ingredients, and then tasting the Progresso soup and listing ingredients such as monosodium glutamate (MSG). This led Progresso to respond by announcing that it was already in the process of reformulating its products to remove MSG, although it said it would have preferred to make the announcement once the whole line had been reformulated – thereby infuriating the Glutamate Association, which pointed out that MSG has been the victim of poor public perception even though it “has long been recognized as safe”.
Progresso then retaliated with a campaign that pointed out that some Campbell’s soups still contained MSG and Campbell had also used an ad that targeted its rival in the New York Times. It showed a can of Progresso with the caption "Made With MSG", which ran alongside an image of Campbell's Select Harvest soup with caption "Made With TLC", or "tender love and care".
Now Campbell’s has chosen to change its advertising tactics with a new campaign that focuses on the perceived positive aspects of Select Harvest’s ingredients, rather than the perceived negative attributes of its competitor.
Targeting new customers
According to the publication Advertising Age, the change is due to a shift from establishing brand awareness within the soup category by explaining what the soup isn’t, to attempting to bring new customers to try the soup by explaining what it is.
But the negative advertising campaign did seem to work.
Commenting on the company’s third quarter results at the end of May, Campbell's president and CEO Douglas Conantsaid: "…We’ve delivered one of the strongest US Soup sales performances in years, with sales up six percent…In particular, condensed cooking soups provided strong growth, as our value marketing message resonated with consumers. We also are pleased with the introduction and ongoing performance of 'Campbell's Select Harvest'.”
MSG has long been marked by bad publicity.
In 1992, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) assigned the independent Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) to examine the available data on glutamate safety. FASEB reported back that consumption of MSG at usual levels did not pose a health risk.
However, it did identify symptoms which occurred amongst some people after consuming MSG-treated food, such as chest pain, headache, nausea, rapid heartbeat and drowsiness, but noted that these tended to be suffered after consuming (abnormally) large quantities of MSG.
MSG has been classified as ‘generally recognized as safe’ (GRAS) by the FDA since 1959, although the FDA does require it to be acknowledged in the ingredients listing of foods in which it is present.
This classification has since been backed up by various bodies including the World Health Organization and the European Scientific Committee for Foods.


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The OnLive cloud gaming platform will launch in the UK this autumn, with registration to secure a unique OnLive Player Tag beginning from June 7.
“OnLive will hit UK shores with a vastly more expanded offering than the US launch a year ago,” said Steve Perlman, OnLive founder and CEO. “OnLive UK will launch with over 100 games, including the latest top titles, full compatibility across a wide range of HDTVs, tablet/smartphone devices and most PCs and Macs, as well as a wide range of exclusive social features, including massive international spectating/voice chat, Brag Clip videos and instant-play Facebook integration.”
Head over to onlive.co.uk from June 7 to complete a simple, free sign-up process and reserve an OnLive Player Tag. Once registered you’ll receive notifications and updates about the pending UK launch via email.
As OnLive UK Founding Members, you will be given access, in sign-up order, to the OnLive UK Game Service as OnLive UK ramps up to full public operation.
Full launch details regarding UK dates, prices and packages, game library, OnLive Game System retailers and specific OnLive events will be announced by OnLive and its partners over the coming months.
In addition, OnLive has announced the Universal Wireless Controller which not only works with OnLive’s own MicroConsole TV adapter, but works with almost any OnLive-compatible device, either establishing a wireless link directly with the device, or via a small USB dongle plugged into the device. The controller will be demoed at E3 next week.


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Campaign Monitor is pleased to announce that we have been named one of the winners of the 2018 NEXT Awards.
This event “celebrated the rebels, visionaries, and game changers who have made a significant impact on the economy in Middle Tennessee,” according to the Nashville Entrepreneur Center who presented the awards. The Nashville Entrepreneur Center—one of only nine Google for Startups Tech Hubs located in North America—is dedicated to making Nashville one of the best places in America to create, launch and grow a business by connecting entrepreneurs with the critical resources they need.
Campaign Monitor won the Technology Market Mover Award in recognition of all our work as a global software-as-a-service company based out of Nashville, TN, a city with a burgeoning tech and start-up community.
Though we have offices in London, Sydney, Indianapolis, and San Francisco as well, Nashville—home to the original Emma office—is quickly becoming known for its invigorated tech scene as more and more companies are putting down roots in the city. Emma was one of the first and is often referred to as Nashville’s “tech darling.”
Source: NEXT Awards
Now that Campaign Monitor’s main offices have moved to Nashville, Campaign Monitor is poised to be a leader of the tech industry in Middle Tennessee as it continues to grow and expand in the near future. In fact, $1.9 billion has been invested in startups in Tennessee since 2012, with software-as-a-service companies—of which Campaign Monitor is one of the biggest—receiving the highest number of investments in 2017, according to a report from BIP-Capital.
The Campaign Monitor CEO, Wellford Dillard, accepted the Technology Market Mover Award on behalf of the company. “We’ve got a lot more acquisitions coming down the road,” Wellford said, pointing to even greater growth for Campaign Monitor in the near future. And as a result, “we’re moving a tremendous amount of jobs to Nashville while keeping our offices open around the world, too.”
Source: NEXT Awards
Campaign Monitor might be making a splash in Nashville, but we remain a global company dedicated to our customers around the world and pride ourselves on our ability to give the best, round the clock customer support to all of them.
It’s an exciting time to be a part of Campaign Monitor, and we feel this award is indicative of all the great things to come for our company.


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An award-winning chocolate maker that is based in the western suburbs of Boston will be opening a retail shop in the heart of downtown Boston.
According to an article from Boston Magazine, Goodnow Farms Chocolate is planning to open a retail counter at Boston Public Market, moving into a space across from Inna's Kitchen. The post says that the storefront will offer a variety of chocolate bars as well as hot cocoa, yogurt-granola bowls with cocoa nibs, and herbal-tea infusions, and that three of the chocolate bars sold recently won Specialty Food Association's Sofi awards (the company actually won six Sofi awards in total for 2019).
If all goes as planned, the Sudbury-based Goodnow Farms Chocolate will open its retail counter by June 1.
The website for Goodnow Farms Chocolate can be found at https://goodnowfarms.com/
Follow us on Twitter at @hiddenboston
Related article from our sister site (Boston's Hidden Restaurants): Slideshow--Twelve Chocolate-Based Items from Places in the Boston Area and Beyond


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IPSE have its say on UK economy growth
(2 minutes to read)
Umbrella company contractors will be pleased to learn that latest GDP figures from the ONS have revealed positive news with regards to the economy.
According to the recent findings, the UK economy continued to grow by 0.6% in Q4 2016 – at the same rate as the previous two quarters.
This is great news for not just contractors of course, but the country as a whole.
The non-profit and largest association of independent professional in the EU, the IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed) have commented on these latest figures.
Lorence Nye, IPSE Economic Adviser, said, “Freelancers will be relieved to see that the economy has remained resilient since the EU referendum. Things are looking up for the smallest businesses; IPSE research, published today, shows confidence has recovered, and average day rates are now slightly higher than they were at the start of the 2016.
He added, “However, freelancers are concerned about the impact of Brexit on their ability to do business. Almost half (47%) told us this could be a problem for them in 2017, and many are concerned that the weakened pound, rising inflation, and post-Brexit uncertainty could lead to economic turbulence in the future.”


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Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. (TSX:ATD.B) reported its fiscal 2018 fourth-quarter and full-year results at the close of markets on Monday, which were very strong and much better than expected. The stock rallied almost 7% on Tuesday. Is it time to buy the stock? Let’s look at the results to determine if Couche-Tard deserves a place on your buy list.
The results that fueled the stock rally
In the fourth quarter ended April 29, Couche-Tard profit jumped 41.5% to US$392.7 million or US$0.70 per share.
Excluding one-time items, the convenience store operator earned US$336 million, or US$0.59 per share, an increase of 13.5% from the fourth quarter of 2017. This beat analysts’ estimates of US$0.55 per share.
This rise in earnings was mainly driven by the company’s CST and Holiday acquisitions and organic growth. Higher fuel margins and a lower income tax rate also contributed positively to earnings, but were partially offset by higher financing expenses as well as by one less week in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared with the fourth quarter of 2017.
Total merchandise and service revenues rose 25% to US$3.2 billion. Same-store merchandise revenues increased by 1.8% in the U.S. by 4.3% in Europe and by 3.6% in Canada.
For fiscal year 2018, diluted net earnings per share increased 39.2% to US$2.95, while adjusted diluted net earnings per share increased 17.6% to US$2.60.
Revenue jumped 41.5% to US$13.6 billion for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018. For the full year, revenue increased 35.6% to US$13.5 billion as compared with 2017, making Couche-Tard Canada’s largest company by revenues. The return on equity for the quarter was strong at 24.8%.
In light of those strong results, Couche-Tard increased its quarterly dividend by 11.1% to $0.10 per share, which gives it a yield of 0.66% at the current share price.
Synergies and extra revenues brought by acquisitions
The integration of the company’s new acquisitions is going well. Couche-Tard realized synergies of US$153 million in less than a year with CST.
The company expects that synergies will total US$215 million over the three years following the close of the transaction. That means about 71% of expected synergies is already realized. These synergies should reduce operating, selling, administrative, and general expenses, as well as improve road transportation, fuel, and merchandise distribution and supply costs.
In addition, for the first quarter since the acquisition, CST cites that same-store merchandise revenues were positive both in the U.S and in Canada.
Acquisitions contributed an extra US$8.7 billion in revenues in the past year.
Couche-Tard added more than 2,100 stores through new openings and acquisitions and now has more than 12,700 stores in North America and in Europe. The company is looking for new acquisitions and would like to expand in Asia.
What about the stock?
I think that Couche-Tard’s fourth-quarter growth is very impressive. The synergies that this company is able to realize show that it is very good at integrating the companies it acquires. In addition, because of its global presence, Couche-Tard benefits from scale advantages and geographic diversification.
The stock is very cheap relative to its expected growth, with a five-year PEG of 0.82. Earnings are estimated to grow at an average annual rate of 17.5% during the next five years. This is better than Loblaw Companies Ltd. and Canadian Tire Corporation Limited, which have five-year expected growth rates of 8.3% and 13.2%, respectively.
After showing returns in the double digits from 2009 to 2015, shares haven’t risen much due to temporary issues. That explains why the stock’s compound annual growth rate of return (CAGR) over 10 years is very high at 31.4%, while its three-year CAGR is only 5.4%. Its year-to-date return is even negative at -7.2%.
But the day after fourth-quarter results were released, the stock soared almost 7%. I expect the stock to keep rising fast since the best days seem to be ahead for Couche-Tard. There is still plenty of growth left for this company and the stock is undervalued, so it deserves a place on your buy list.
In my opinion, Couche-Tard is one of the best Canadian stocks to buy and hold for a long time.
This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the “official” recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium service or advisor. We’re Motley! Questioning an investing thesis — even one of our own — helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer, so we sometimes publish articles that may not be in line with recommendations, rankings or other content.
Fool contributor Stephanie Bedard-Chateauneuf owns shares of ALIMENTATION COUCHE-TARD INC. Couche-Tard is a recommendation of Stock Advisor Canada.


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A new detergent product is getting in the wrong hands and posing a severe threat to the lives of children.
Proctor and Gamble, owner of Tide, is just one company selling small, colorful cubes that pack a big punch of cleaning power. These pods are easy to use, but also pose a huge health hazard for children. A Proctor and Gamble representative said it is important that these pods be kept away from children.
When the Tide Pod hits liquid it dissolves the outer coating, releasing a mix of detergents. Poison control centers nationwide have reported an increase in calls about children under the age of five swallowing these pods.
Kurt Kleinschmidt, a toxicologist, said the pods cause rapid vomiting, nausea, coughing and difficulty breathing if swallowed. He said these symptoms appear within a matter of minutes.
"Twenty-seven percent of people exposed to a standard laundry detergent will see symptoms. With these pods, it was like 76 percent," Kleinschmidt said.
Proctor and Gamble reminds users to store the pods on a high shelf out of the reach of children.


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CINCINNATI, OHIO — HealthPro Brands, Inc., and Elanco, the animal health division of Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY), today announced that Elanco is the global animal-protein development partner for HealthPro Brands' antimicrobial food wash. Elanco will manage the development through its new food-safety business platform, Elanco Food Solutions, and will commercialize several formulations for the meat and poultry industries.
HealthPro Brands currently markets an antimicrobial formulation under the FIT® brand for the produce industry, and it also sells a fruit and vegetable wash for consumer use at home. The company has partnered with the University of Georgia Center for Food Safety to develop a new and improved formulation for restaurants, grocers, beverage manufacturers and food-processing facilities, which is the formulation sold to Elanco.
"We are very pleased to establish a partnership with Elanco Food Solutions," said Todd Wichmann, president and CEO of HealthPro Brands. "Elanco already has relationships with beef and poultry packers and processors and is working with them to implement pre- and post-harvest food-safety interventions. They are committed to bringing science-based food-safety technologies to their customers and this product is an excellent addition to their line-up."
"This antimicrobial food wash is expected to reduce E. coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter pathogens in animal-protein processing facilities," said K. Douglas Miller, PhD, director of Elanco Food Solutions. "Elanco plans to co-develop additional formulations based on HealthPro Brands' proprietary and patented technology. We also will conduct efficacy trials specifically for our meat and poultry customers while ensuring the product does not affect the nutritional, health or flavor properties of the treated food products.
"When Elanco Food Solutions launched earlier this year, we committed to delivering multiple food-safety technologies for the animal-protein packing and processing industry," added Miller. "Because there is no 'silver bullet' solution, we know a comprehensive, integrated line of food-safety interventions will help the food chain meet the growing demand for safe, wholesome and affordable beef, poultry and pork products for consumers."


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Image Credits: TechCrunch
Netflix laid off a contingent of its editorial staff just five months after launching its in-house publication Tudum. Netflix declined to share further details, but said that the Tudum is not being shut down. Over ten writers have tweeted that they were laid off, including an editorial manager. The layoffs reportedly affected 25 people total across Netflix’s marketing department.
“Our fan website Tudum is an important priority for the company,” a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch.
Given the precariousness (and often low salaries) in traditional journalism jobs, Netflix managed to court a number of talented journalists from the top publications in online media, including many people of color, according to tweets by former employees.
While it’s good to know that Netflix is considering DEI when hiring — something that newsrooms severely lack — the quick layoffs put historically overlooked writers back in a position of vulnerability. Media businesses take time to grow, and in this case, it appears that people were let go before they really had a chance to develop a new publication from the ground up.
As competitor services like Disney+ and HBO Max grow, Netflix is struggling to keep up. The streaming service reported last week that in the first quarter of 2022, it lost 200,000 subscribers — its first subscriber loss in over a decade. These losses are expected to continue, as Netflix forecasts a global paid subscriber loss of 2 million for the second quarter.
Netflix has tried to squeeze more money out of customers by raising prices and testing features that would charge extra for account sharing. But on the heels of last week’s bad earnings, it seems that Netflix decided to scale back its new content marketing business.
Netflix told TechCrunch that these layoffs affected a combination of both contract workers and full-time employees, but declined to share if any other departments at Netflix were affected.
If you are a Netflix employee or former employee who wishes to speak about these layoffs or company culture, please email firstname.lastname@example.org or text 929 593 0227 via Signal, an encrypted messaging app.


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If you thought Sony’s creepy tech demo involving that old man’s face was something, wait until you see what Activision’s R&D department has been working on.
Activision showed off the state of the art of real-time graphics on Wednesday, releasing this mind-boggling character demo. The character’s skin, facial expressions and eyes look so real, it’s uncanny.
This newest character edges ever-so-closely to our own side of the uncanny valley, where art is indistinguishable from reality. That’s thanks to what game developer Activision calls “next-generation character rendering.” This character is part of a presentation Activision’s real-time graphics R&D expert Jorge Jimenez gave on Wednesday at GDC 2013, the annual Game Development Conference.
According to Jimenez, this face and others like it represent “the culmination of many years of work in photorealistic characters.” At the presentation, Jimenez showed “how each detail is the secret for achieving reality.”
Jimenez wrote in his blog about how this type of animation has made tremendous progress. “We believe this technology will bring current-generation characters into next-generation life.” Like baseball great Babe Ruth pointing at the center-field fence, before his presentation Jimenez declared this animation would be rendered live, and “we will show it running on our two-year-old laptop.”
The trick for these gaming developers is not only to create photorealistic animated characters, but to ensure that such animations can play in real time on video cards and computers that ordinary people actually own. And that’s what Activision has done, using standard bone animation, facial scanning, performance capture and lots of intricate artwork to make skin look real.


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Long gone are the days of having to run down to your neighborhood market in order to buy a new pair of shoes, a book, or even food. They have been replaced by turning on your computer or mobile device, finding your desired product and completing the transaction all in a few minutes with just a few clicks. Online shopping offers certain conveniences such as low prices, broader selections, and delivery to your front door. Due to the expansion of globalization and greater access to the internet, the world is becoming smaller by the day, making the barriers for ecommerce markets easier to overcome. Nowhere is that more apparent than in China.
China may have been slower than the United States and Europe to begin entering the ecommerce marketplace, but they are rapidly closing the gap. According to an article from Emarketer (https://www.emarketer.com), by the end of 2014, global business to consumer ecommerce sales are expected to hit $1.5 trillion. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to have ecommerce sales reaching $525 billion, outspending North America in ecommerce for the first time, making it the largest regional ecommerce market in the world. Lastly, by the end of 2014, the Asia-Pacific region will claim more than 46% of digital buyers worldwide, and these users will only account for 16.9% of the region’s population.
According to an article by KPMG (https://www.kpmg.com), China’s economy is transitioning from an investment-heavy growth model toward a more consumption-driven model. KPMG’s studies support Emarketer’s sales predictions through 2014, and also suggest that by 2020, China’s ecommerce market is forecasted to be larger than those of the US, Britain, Japan, Germany, and France combined. Alibaba founder Jack Ma explains it as, “in other countries, ecommerce is a way to shop, in China, it is a lifestyle.” Earlier this year Alibaba went public with the world’s biggest IPO raising $25 billion.
Mary Chong, KPMG Partner and Head of ecommerce and payments for China lists four drivers of ecommerce growth in China:
- Ecommerce platforms
- Social media platforms
- Digital platforms
- Mobile devices
Consumer spending in China via ecommerce tends to favor: clothing and accessories, airline tickets, books, tours and hotels and sporting goods. But, the Chinese ecommerce market isn’t just for large corporations or for companies in China. As far away as Montana, USA one of the smallest States in the USA population-wise, ran a trade mission to China. Montana State Governor Steve Bullock organized a trade mission to China. Former Montana Senator Max Baucus is the current US Ambassador to China, and he assisted the trade mission in recognizing the opportunities China presents. The trade mission was comprised of individuals from Montana resorts, bourbon distilleries, beef growers and many more. China represents a good market for companies in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
The United Nations has forecasted there to be 3 billion internet users by the end of 2014, 40% of the world’s population, and the Asia-Pacific region has the largest population of internet users. As stated above, the Asia-Pacific’s digital users only account for 16.9% of the region’s population.
Now is an exceptional time to break into the region’s ecommerce market, as the users will continue to increase resulting in billions of dollars of spending. Companies planning on selling to China and other Asian markets will need to translate “localize” their websites, product catalogs, contracts and other content in order to effectively engage these consumers. Not to mention companies will need to conduct some form of search engine marketing so consumers in China can find them on the web. Localization services make conducting business in marketplaces such as China a real possibility for any company. Globalization has shattered many traditional barriers to doing business with markets such as China. Now if you address the language and technology requirements to engage the Chinese consumer, the door is wide open.


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Mallinckrodt Reports Better-Than-Expected Q1, Raises Guidance
Mallinckrodt earned $2.09 per share in the first quarter on revenue of $914.80 million. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to earn $1.58 per share on revenue of $886.60 million.
Net sales for the first quarter rose 20.3 percent from a year ago and was driven by the Exceptional Specialty Brands segment that grew 45.4 million. The company noted it saw "solid" organic growth in H.P. Acthar Gel and the inclusion of INOMAX for inhalation and Therakos immunotherapy.
GAAP net income for the quarter rose to $115.9 million from $87.4 million a year ago and reflects increased net sales and profits from recently acquired assets in the Specialty Brands segment and contributions from Acthar.
"The first quarter of fiscal 2016 was a strong one for Mallinckrodt, building on fourth quarter fiscal 2015 momentum, and driven by commercial execution across our Specialty Brands portfolio, particularly for Acthar and INOMAX," said Mark Trudeau, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are also pleased with the volume performance of OFIRMEV® (acetaminophen) injection and Therakos. The Specialty Brands segment now contributes nearly 60% of our total net sales.
Mallinckrodt's management also revised its full year fiscal 2016 guidance and expects to earn $7.85 to $8.30 per share. The company previously guided its earnings per share to be in a range of $7.70 to $8.20.
© 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.


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It’s no secret that IBM is one of the biggest companies investing in blockchain technology today. The tech giant has been very open about its plans to further develop blockchain-based platforms for different industries all around the globe. This major shift in its focus has allowed for great success within the company, opening the doors […]
The post Thailand Begins Implementing Blockchain Technology In Customs appeared first on CryptoCoin.News.
Source: Cryptocoin News
Original Post: Thailand Begins Implementing Blockchain Technology In Customs


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Considering the challenges faced in 2020, exports in the Irish meat sector “delivered a remarkable performance”, Meat Industry Ireland (MII) has said.
The Ibec meat industry group was commenting following the publication of Bord Bia’s Export Performance and Prospects report today (Wednesday, January 13).
The report showed an increase of 2% in overall meat exports despite the major disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, the uncertainty of Brexit, and the loss of the Chinese market for beef exports.
The continued diversification into new markets was a welcome trend. Our pigmeat sector now leads the way with over 40% of exports destined for markets outside the UK and EU, the group said.
Our beef exports, while remaining highly reliant on the UK market, have shown significant diversification in recent years: In 2016, the year of the Brexit vote, the UK accounted for 56% of Irish beef exports, but this had reduced to 44% last year.
Commenting on the export performance of the meat sector, MII director Cormac Healy said:
“Our members worked hard to find alternative markets for Irish meat exports in the face of an overnight shutdown of the restaurant and food service market channel due to Covid lockdowns.
Meat export companies and their staff had to be agile in approach to the changing market dynamics, all in the context of significantly changed working arrangements.
“The meat and livestock sector remains a cornerstone of Ireland’s export economy and is particularly important to the economic well-being of rural Ireland.
“While the value of beef exports fell slightly due to its significant reliance on food service sales and the absence of the Chinese market from May 2020, exceptional performance was delivered by both the pigmeat and sheepmeat sectors.”
MII hopes that 2021 will bring more stable conditions and better prospects in certain key market outlets but there are a number of areas that are critical.
- Ongoing Covid-19 impact;
- Post-Brexit trade disruption;
- Exports to China;
- More resourcing of market access.
Concluding, Healy said: “The industry should be proud of the remarkable resilience it has shown in an extremely challenging year.”


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November 21, 2013
Ukraine's MHP reports 47% drop in profits
According to the latest financial results of Ukraine's biggest poultry processor, MHP, its January-September 2013 net income fell 47% on-year to US$150 million.
The decline could be explained by a rise in the production cost of chicken, a jump in feed prices and a decrease in the average price of meat and poultry in 2013, the company said.
"The problem is in the feed price increase and the decrease in market prices for poultry, due to a recent supply increase. Today, profitability is falling throughout the poultry sector in Ukraine," said Aleksandr Matyushenko, a member of the Union of Poultry Breeders of Ukraine.
He pointed out that Ovostar Union recently saw profit drop by 30%. "The serious decline seen in the case of MHP can partly be explained by the high depreciation costs," he added.
"Despite the fact that, in 2013, we expect lower financial results than we predicted earlier, the optimised cost of poultry production, combined with the overall growth in chicken production and the recent acquisition of land in Russia and Ukraine will contribute to the further strengthening and improving of the company's financial results in 2014," said MHP chairman Yuri Kosyuk.
MHP financial director Victoria Kapelyushnoy said the company planned to increase poultry meat to 570,000 tonnes in 2014, a 20% rise on levels achieved this year.
She added that MHP would produce around 475,000 tonnes of chicken in 2013, 17.5% more than the year before. "The increase in production will be achieved by increasing the production capacity of the Vinnytsia poultry complex of MHP," she said. She added that the company planned to increase poultry meat production to 570,000 tonnes in 2014, a 20% increase on levels achieved this year.
MHP currently has a share of around 50% of Ukraine's poultry market.


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Marks and Spencer is set to spend £400 million in the next 12 months on its IT and supply chain infrastructure, as part of a transformation plan.
The retailer has launched a transformation programme called ‘2020 – Doing the right thing’, to be headed by finance director Ian Dyson. The plan is to overhaul its operations, including IT, in order to stave off the effects of the tough economy and to stay competitive. The initiative came as the retailer posted a fall in adjusted preliminary pre-tax profits to £704.4m from £1bn.
Marks & Spencer spent around £188 million on technology and supply chain infrastructure this past year, and plans to more than double this spending to £400 million this year, as part of its 2020 programme. The initiative has already seen 5,000 new PCs switched on.
“We will spend [approximately] £400m in 2009/10, shifting the focus of our capital expenditure from our property portfolio, where we have made considerable investment over the last three years, to our IT and supply chain infrastructure,” M&S told investors in a statement.
The 2020 programme will focus on IT systems and logistics as well as accelerating M&S’s multichannel operations such as its online and store presence, “focusing on the customer whichever channel they want to use”, driving international operations and reinvigorating “brand communication with customers”.
M&S CIO Daryl Stein is responsible for the corporation's supply chain, which is to receive a new distribution centre in Bradford next year. The Bradford depot will improve the speed of distribution.
M&S is also investing in processes for buying and stock checking, after restructuring its distribution centres to create regional hubs in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Istanbul. The regional hubs help it avoid transferring most goods through the UK when they are on sale in other countries.
SAP systems are currently being rolled out to China and Hong Kong, before other countries, by supplier IBM.
The company said it was “improving” systems for management, human resources and sales, but did not immediately give details. It has already updated finance and procurement systems.
In-store, it has implemented 14,000 tills, all with new electronic point of sale software, to speed up transactions and cut queues. It has a seven year deal with Fujitsu to support technology in its outlets. Web sales grew 34 percent in the year.
M&S chairman Sir Stuart Rose said the 2020 initiative came about after a "thorough review of the business" by the Board. “This confirmed our long term growth plans but also highlighted the need to deliver a step change in the way we service our customers' needs and operate our business."
"We are on a journey," Rose told BBC Radio 4 this morning. "We have changed the culture, we have revamped the logistics and we have spent hundreds of millions pounds on that journey, but it has been disrupted by the recession."
Questioned on the recession Rose said he was "cautiously optimistic" and confirmed the company is investigating opportunities of moving into the financial sector in partnership with HSBC using its trusted brand.
Mark Chillingworth also contributed to this report


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Yesterday, we covered Seagate's 8TB and 10TB hard drives. Fixstars probably saw that news and thought "psh, we can go bigger without moving parts." Enter the 13TB SSD-13000M and its "smaller" cousin, the 10TB SSD-10000M. The company isn't new to the large SSD game, either. It released a 6TB model last year.
The new drives are powered by an unspecified controller of Fixstar's own design, and they rely on 15-nm MLC NAND. The company specs these drives' sequential read speed at 580 MB/s and writes at 540 MB/s, and it claims those speeds will remain steady throughout long I/O operations. Power consumption should be under 3W when idle, and up to 6.5W under load.
The drives' form factor is 15-mm high, meaning they won't fit in most laptops. We doubt that's an issue in the markets Fixstars is targeting, though. The firm expects these drives to find homes in applications like video and VFX processing, streaming content, and object storage. Fixstars has an order page up for these drives, and it says it'll be shipping them in late February with a three-year warranty.
|We have a winner in our limited-edition Corsair RM1000i giveaway||9|
|Jonsbo cases drop thick tempered glass on the competition||6|
|Zadak511 SSDs and RAM promise wireless RGB LED tweaking||13|
|Raidmax Alpha case comes with an integrated rainbow||12|
|Scythe Mugen 5 clears room for memory modules||27|
|Khronos Group unites VR industry leaders for a standards initiative||10|
|Go back in time with Nanoxia's Ncore Retro keyboard||30|
|WD unveils a raft of HGST enterprise storage products||15|
|Fatal1ty by Monster's FXM 200 gaming headset reviewed||25|


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In the fast-paced world of investing, finding a multi-bagger stock that can deliver extraordinary returns within a short period of time is the dream of every investor. Such dreams turned into reality for investors of Servotech Power Systems, as company shares delivered a phenomenal return.
The shares, which were trading at a mere ₹3.50 apiece two years ago, have seen a meteoric rise of 4,804% to trade at the current market price of ₹171.65. If an investor invested ₹1 lakh in the shares during this period and remained invested until the present day, the wealth would have grown to a staggering ₹49 lakh.
In addition, from its all-time low of ₹1.30 apiece in January 2020, the stock has zoomed 13,000% to date. What makes this achievement even more remarkable is the consistent annual performance of the stock.
In every year since CY20, the stock has delivered a multi-bagger return. In CY20, CY21, and CY22, the stock generated returns of 194%, 247%, and 110.24%, respectively. So far in the current year, the stock is up by 440%, jumping in value from ₹32.40 to ₹171.65. On June 21, the stock jumped over 4.30% to hit a new all-time high of ₹200 apiece.
Servotech Power Systems is a small-cap stock with a market capitalization of ₹1,825 crore. It is engaged in the end-to-end manufacturing, procurement, and distribution of a range of high-end yet advanced solar products, medical devices, and energy-efficient lighting solutions.
The company has expanded its portfolio by venturing into the electric vehicle (EV) market, unveiling a range of high-tech EV charging equipment. The company intends to establish EV charging technology infrastructure in India expeditiously and bolster the nation’s progression towards the electric revolution.
As of July 2023, as many as 8,738 public EV charging stations were operational in India. The Indian Government allocates subsidies of ₹800 crore to set up 22,000 fast chargers at various fuel pumps across India.
The government has sanctioned 2,877 such charging stations across 68 cities in 25 states and UTs. In addition, 1,576 charging stations on nine expressways and 16 highways have also been sanctioned, as per the company's exchange filing.
The recent projections indicate that fast-charging stations will witness a CAGR of 40% by 2025. Servotech Power Systems stands to benefit significantly from the burgeoning demand in this space.
For the June-ending quarter, the company reported a 1,038% YoY jump in its consolidated net profit of ₹4.10 crore. In comparison, during the corresponding period last year, the company's net profit stood at ₹0.35 crore. However, in contrast to the preceding March quarter, the net profit experienced a 32% decline.
In comparison, during the corresponding period last year, the company's net profit stood at ₹0.35 crore. However, in contrast to the preceding March quarter, the net profit experienced a 32% decline. On the operating front, the EBITDA showcased a remarkable 409.62% YoY increase, reaching ₹6.88 crore, while the EBITDA Margin soared by 105% YoY to 8.65%.
Looking at the broader picture, the company concluded FY23 on a high note, achieving a total net profit of ₹11 crore, a significant 175% increase over FY22's net profit of ₹4 crore. Furthermore, the revenue from operations surged to ₹278 crore, reflecting a remarkable 93% YoY growth.
Meanwhile, the board of directors of the company has declared a stock split in a 1:2 ratio and set a record date for the Split for July 28, 2023.
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of MintGenie.


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Arrested Development may get another lease on life on the small screen: EW has confirmed that the producers of Arrested Development — the critically-acclaimed but short-lived comedy […] Read the full post.
Netflix, Showtime looking at new 'Arrested Development' limited series
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- 'Amazing Race' season 25 winners are...
- Sony CEO: We've 'not caved, not given in'
- FBI officially ties North Korea to Sony hack
- Obama: 'A mistake' to pull 'The Interview'
- 'Colbert Report' has immortal, all-star finale
- 'Game of Thrones' refashions Arya's look
- 'White Collar' series finale: How it ended
- Kate Upton is People 'Sexiest Woman Alive'
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The year 2013 for most brands, especially the ones coping with saturated markets in developed countries, will be a decisive one. Incorporating Africa into their corporate brand strategy, if they haven't done so, will be the better part of valour, so to speak.
By Obaika Consulting Team 31 Jan 2013 13:20
No, the concepts of "tribalism", "gamification" and "engagement" aren't a promo for the latest computer game, but are in fact the trends that will characterise the way companies and consumers interact in 2013. The branding industry is constantly developing and. while the following trends are evolutions rather than dynamic, short-term changes, we believe there are 10 areas that will define the brandscape over the next year.
By HKLM Exco Team 31 Jan 2013 12:33
When it comes to international surveys, African brands have some way to go in realising their full potential.
By Chris Human 13 Sep 2013 07:30
In partnership with distributor CFAO, French retailer Carrefour is making its entrance into the African market and will open shops in eight African countries by 2015.
23 Aug 2013 13:46
2012 saw the BuzzCity network grow by 67% with over 210.8 billion ads served across the globe and this extensive growth in mobile usage is certain to continue as we move through 2013.
By Dr KF Lai 21 Feb 2013 11:07
Africa's growing middle class has expensive tastes and research by Bain & Company suggests that luxury goods sales will increase by 11% this year - demonstrating the continent's potential for upmarket goods.
By Zeenat Moorad 5 Nov 2013 09:50
The Morocco government, earlier this week, held closed door discussions with senior Kenya government officials in an effort to overcome barriers of trade between the two sea-port endowed countries. The talks, lasting an hour, were held in the sidelines of a business exchange visit to Nairobi by over 106 Moroccan investors under the banner of the Maroc Export Promotion Centre.
26 Jun 2013 11:48
MasterCard, the National Bank of Egypt and Etisalat, have announced the launch of 'Flous', the mobile payment wallet in Egypt, which will bring Etisalat Egypt's subscriber base safe and convenient payment services through the power of their mobile phones.
25 Jun 2013 13:31
The rapid growth of Único Bank justifies this award to João Figueiredo, chairman and CEO of Único Bank, and has captured the eye of South Africa financial giant, Nedbank, who recently made an offer to buy a 36.4% stake in Único.
30 May 2013 12:10
The 48th Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) opened today, 27 May 2013 in Marrakech, Morocco, focusing on the need for Africa to turn economic growth into truly shared and sustainable economic transformation in the next half century.
27 May 2013 12:12
A new policy paper by the African Development Bank (AfDB) carries the importance of trade integration to macroeconomic convergence.
26 Mar 2013 12:39
LONDON, UK / JOHANNESBURG, SA: Turbulent times were predicted on the back end of 2012. The ANC Mangaung conference precipitated very little stormy seas other than an anti-climactic conclusion. The Mayan apocalypse materialised into nothing but an ordinary day. In fact with so many forecasts for change and a chasm of chaos, one may tend to be a bit sceptical with further predictions of change.
By *David Mattin and Saint-Francis Tohlang 8 Jan 2013 07:55
NEW YORK, US: Purchases of environmentally protective products have grown significantly in two of the world's leading markets - China and Brazil; but the widespread perception that these products are too expensive may be blocking deeper adoption.
21 Aug 2012 11:16
Africa's top bankers gathered in Arusha, Tanzania, to celebrate the 6th edition of the African Banker Awards, under the patronage of the African Development Bank (AfDB). Olusegun Agbaje, managing director of Guaranty Trust Bank, Nigeria scooped the prize for African Banker of the Year.
31 May 2012 13:20
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Feb 1, 2021Tevel raises $20M for its flying fruit-picking robots
Tevel Aerobotics Technologies, which is developing autonomous flying robots that can pick fruit, has raised $20 million in fresh funding.
According to a story by AgFunder News, among the investors in this round were two major Asian ag equipment manufacturers: Japan’s Kubota and China’s Forbon. Participating alongside them were a host of VC firms including Maverick Ventures Israel, its compatriot OurCrowd, and U.S.-based AgFunder.
Ziv Aviram – co-founder of self-driving car startup Mobileye, which was acquired by Intel for $15.3 billion in 2017 — and Amichai Steimberg, former CEO of electronics manufacturer Orbotech, also invested.
Tevel Aerobotics Technologies has designed a system of small, interconnected drones that can harvest orchard-grown fruits and carry out other tasks, such as pruning, trimming, and thinning that would typically require human labor.
That labor is in increasingly short supply, with the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization estimating the availability of orchard workers to have dropped by 50% over the past two decades – while agricultural fruit output has doubled over the same period.
“Farmers are struggling today with recruiting fruit pickers, a situation that puts the whole industry at risk,” said Tevel founder and CEO Yaniv Maor.
“The situation in orchards is worse than in greenhouses, for a few reasons. Fruit season in the orchard is shorter than for greenhouses and orchards are mostly located in remote villages [where] the local labor is not available, and the imported labor is not sufficient,” he told AFN.
“Tevel supplies autonomous harvesting on demand – anytime, anywhere, any capacity. Our flying robots gently pick the fruit without bruising it [and] they almost don’t leave any fruit on the trees.”
AgFunder News also reported:
Looking a little like something out of War of the Worlds or Doctor Who, Tevel’s solution – named Flying Autonomous Robot (FAR) — is a mobile hive of drones, each equipped with a meter-long mechanical claw and AI-powered ‘eyes.’
Beyond picking, this potentially allows FAR to perform “any intensive selective task that requires accuracy,” Moav said.
“Our robots have excellent maneuverability – they can maneuver with six degrees of freedom. This enables us to pick almost all the fruit from trees, work with different orchard architecture – such as thick and thin trees, trellis systems, and round trees –and to pick many kinds of fruit with the same hardware.”
Tevel’s Wellsian creations also offer farmers the prospect of growing taller trees, as they can overcome “the limiting factor to access treetops,” Moav claimed.
“This can bring extra 10% to 20% of fruit to the same farm – which is not only more revenue, but extra profit to the farm.”
Tevel will use this latest funding to complete product validation, commence production, and launch its commercial service.


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In a move to build up its defenses against the looming onslaught of Microsoft CE-based handheld devices, 3Com tapped Robin Abrams as president of Palm Computing, the makers of the popular PalmPilot device.
Abrams will join the company on February 12 and will also be senior vice president at 3Com. Currently, Abrams is president and CEO of at VeriFone, a Hewlett-Packard subsidiary.
Although the PalmPilot easily continued to dominate the handheld field in 1998 with nearly 80 percent of the market, analysts have cautioned that this market share is likely to slide as Microsoft releases a flurry of palm-devices based on its CE operating software. Other companies, including Casio, Philips, Everex, Compaq Computer, and Hewlett-Packard, have also entered the field.
It is against this rising tide that Abrams is chartered with extending Palm Computing's leadership in the worldwide handheld computing market. She will report directly to Bruce Claflin, 3Com president and chief operating officer.
"Today, Palm Computing is nothing short of a phenomenon, and its potential is even more exciting," Abrams said in a statement."It is clearly the computing platform play for the next millennium, changing forever the way people and businesses think about
Also, in November, less than a year after 3Com acquired Palm Computing, Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky, founders of handheld computer giant PalmPilot, left the company for their new venture, Handspring. The new company has already attracted much attention by industry watchers awaiting what products the brains behind the PalmPilot will develop next.
Abrams has nearly 25 years of computing and computer services expertise coupled with strategic planning and management experience. 3Com said that since joining VeriFone in March 1997, Abrams has extended the company's presence to 7 million merchants while shepherding the company's worldwide transition from a hardware- to software-based enterprise.
Abrams also spent five years at Apple Computer in a variety of executive sales and marketing positions. Beginning her career at Apple as vice president of marketing for Apple Pacific, 3Com said that Abrams and her team grew Apple's Japanese business dramatically and extended Apple's presence into China and India.
"Robin's wealth of computing and management experience will enable Palm Computing to not only take its growth to the next level, but also further 3Com's vision of pervasive connectivity," Claflin said in a statement. "Palm Computing is a profitable, high-growth business that is clearly a key component of 3Com's overall strategy."


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Disney, the Empire that controls the galaxy of Star Wars is backing off. In less than three years there have been four Star Wars films released in movie theaters. But, now Disney is going to ease off on the hyperdrive throttle following the release of 2019’s as-yet-to-be subtitled, Star Wars: Episode IX.
On Thursday, in an interview published in the Hollywood Reporter, Disney CEO Bob Iger acknowledged that forcing one Star Wars movie to happen every year (with only six months between The Last Jedi and Solo) was maybe too much. Like Lando said in Solo, “Whoa whoa whoa, slow down Han. You might want to quit while you’re ahead!” In terms of being a money-making studio, Disney is certainly ahead, despite the fact that Solo didn’t make as much money as everyone thought it would. For that, Iger blames himself. ” I take the blame —[it] was a little too much, too fast. You can expect some slowdown, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to make films.”
This means that Episode IX, the conclusion of the trilogy that started with The Force Awakens will be the last yearly Star Wars movie for a while. And after that, it’s unclear exactly what the future of the Force holds. Iger made a point of mentioning that Game of Thrones showrunners — Benioff and Weiss — we’re still going to make their new Star Wars saga, though noted “we haven’t been specific about,” anything in terms of what those films would be about. Iger did not mention anything about planned Rian Johnson-directed trilogy.
The conventional wisdom here is simple: if Star Wars movies come out at a slower pace, there’s a better chance that the films will be interesting, dynamic and good. It’s an interesting theory, but history proves it wrong.
If you just look at the Star Wars movies that came out from 1977 thru 2005, there was usually a three-year gap in between installments, and of course, a 16-year gap between Return of the Jedi and The Phantom Menace. Of those six Star Wars movies, most people can only really agree that two of them — A New Hope and Empire — are actually good. Meanwhile, even when you take into account the various fan controversies around The Last Jedi, all for of the newer Star Wars movies — Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi, and Solo — are mostly well-liked, and at the very least, all got consistently better reviews than the prequels, or even some of the classic films ever did. Obviously, the critical fan landscape is way different now than it was in previous decades, but if we’re just thinking about perceived quality, the more rapid-fire Star Wars movies are generally more coherent and popular than any of the prequels, which, obviously took way longer to make.
Meaning, Disney isn’t making this decision to ensure everyone gets better Star Wars movies. Instead, they’re mostly worried about money. If they spend less money on these very expensive films and release them slower, they’ll probably get a bigger return. Putting the Star Wars brand out every year just isn’t a good use of resources. Maybe Iger learned from the failures of the Emperor; that dude built two Death Stars back-to-back and ended up losing his whole Empire. The real-life Star Wars empire is trying to build a Death Star every year. Clearly, they can’t afford it.
If the Star Wars movies that happen after 2019 are better than the ones that have come out thus far, it will be a minor miracle. But one thing is for sure, all these movies will probably make more money than Solo.


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Ural Motorcycles experienced dramatic growth in 2011, logging a 39 percent increase in unit sales for the second consecutive year and welcoming 22 new dealers to its existing network. To service its rapidly increasing customer base, an additional 25-30 dealers will be added in 2012.
Additional 2011 highlights included a feature in The New York Times and seeing both Brad Pitt and Ewan McGregor add Urals to their garages. Finally, Ural rang in the new year by watching the year-end release of the M70 anniversary edition sell out in less than two weeks.
Ural’s North American operation, located in Redmond, Washington, is moving to a larger facility to accommodate offices, parts, and logistics departments. Additionally, Ural announced the appointment of Chuck Schram, former dealer developer for Piaggio, to the position of director of dealer development, and Jon Bekefy, previously employed by Ducati and LeoVince, to the position of director of strategic marketing communications.


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Welcome to another edition of the Good e-Reader Radio Show! Today we take a look at all of the big announcements coming out the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. There are big changes coming with iOS 9, Siri enhancements and Apple Music. Also on the show is my take on a recent book, the Modern Mercenary and Amazon promoting the new Despicable ME movie on their shipping boxes and critics destroying the new Kim Kardashian book.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times.


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The front lines of Panasonic's energy solutions - Intersolar Europe 2012 -
"HIT solar modules," which have just been re-introduced in Europe under the Panasonic brand, boast the world's top-level conversion efficiency. What kind of advanced energy solutions come to life by combining these modules with the "lithium-ion storage battery system?" Please take a look at the latest information made available at one of the world's largest solar business exhibitions held in Germany.
- Panasonic News Portal: Panasonic Displays its Energy Solutions for Europe at Intersolar 2012
- Intersolar Europe 2012 Official Site


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The struggle is never more real than when a person’s workout is reduced to the treadmill. A struggle Blue Goji, the new startup venture from Guitar Hero founders and brothers Kai and Charles Huang, recognize. Hence Goji Play.
As described on their website, Goji Play is a fitness game devised to make 30 minutes of exercise feel like five. With its wireless sensor, a person’s walk or run or bike can actually be fun. The wireless controlers clip to the handles of cardio equipment, and as you go through its many games — Smash the Blocks, Fisticuffs, and Flying Hippo, to name a few — your fitness data is tracked, too.
Each account can be customized, too, so that users can track personal goals, calories, and overall steps. There’s even an option to compete against others using the game. Though so far, Goji Play is only compatible with iOS devices.
The game costs $100, which isn’t much considering all it comes with. To compare, FitBit’s Flex band, an activity and sleep tracker, is the same price. Jawbone’s UP is $150, with more or less the same features. Neither of these come with controlers and access to several games in order to distract you while on the dreadmill, er, treadmill.
In an interview with Mashable, Kai Huang reveals that the idea of combing health and fitness with gaming has always been interesting to him. Lest you forget: Huang and his brother also brought the world Dance Dance Revolution. “We want to figure out ways to get people healthier — more active and fit, ultimately leading them to a healthier lifestyle by leveraging gaming somehow,” he said.
The success of these interactive games withstanding, a study from Cornell University’s Food & Brand Lab found participants led on an exercise walk ate twice as many snacks than participants led on a scenic walk. Participants “reward” themselves more after a walking workout, whereas the group who was walking to just walk didn’t.
"Do whatever you can to make your workout fun. Play music, watch a video, or simply be grateful that you're working out instead of working in the office," Brian Wansink, author and Director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, said in a press release. "Anything that brings a smile is likely to get you to eat less.”
Similarly, a study from the Association for Psychological Science found exercise time really does fly when you’re having fun. All this to say Goji Play is an incredibly cool concept, and Blue Goji should know we’re ready to put it to the test.


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While Ontario continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, residents across the province have been swarming grocery stores in a panicked frenzy, hoping to stock up on whatever they can.
But the Ontario Federation of Agriculture is reassuring Ontarians about the safety and strength of the province’s food supply system.
“Despite consumer concerns with availability, Canadian and Ontario products continue to be produced, processed, and distributed through our food distribution networks across the province,” reads a statement released Tuesday.
“However, to help ease immediate short-term supply pressures, OFA is urging consumers to practice normal grocery buying habits with the assurance that fresh and processed products will continue to be made available.”
The call for normal shopping habits echoes the one made by government officials over the weekend, as shops across the province were filled with long lines and empty shelves.
- See also:
“The food supply system in Ontario, and across Canada, is well equipped – even in times of crisis – to continue providing healthy, safe and affordable food,” the OFA said.
In fact, the system is so strong, that OFA President Keith Currie is telling residents that it isn’t necessary to cart boatloads of food home, surpassing your regular purchases by far.
“Consumers are understandably anxious about the uncertainty we are all facing, but one thing we want to do is quell their fears about food running out,” Currie said.
“There is no reason to hoard food. There is enough to feed us all.”


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Digital TV News: VUALTO
JW Player acquires VUALTO
May 6, 2021 – JW Player has announced that it is acquiring VUALTO to complement its scalable video delivery offering with live streaming and DRM services for broadcasters. VUALTO will also expand JW Player’s customer base.
News categories: JW Player, VUALTO, Dave Otten, Camilla Young, DRM, MandA, Media Player, Worldwide
VUALTO event orchestration and DRM chosen for ITV Hub VOD delivery
Jan 13, 2021 – VUALTO has announced that ITV has chosen to implement VUALTO's dynamic event orchestration technology, integrated with VUALTO's scalable DRM solution, to deliver live streamed events via its ITV Hub VOD service.
News categories: VUALTO, ITV, Camilla Young, Vinay Kumar Gupta, Content Distribution, Digital TV, DRM, OTT, UK
VUALTO DRM selected to protect France Télévisions' AV content
Dec 2, 2020 – VUALTO has announced that France Télévisions has chosen to implement VUALTO’s digital rights management solution, VUDRM, to protect and deliver its audiovisual content across all its digital platforms.
News categories: VUALTO, France Télévisions, Camilla Young, Fernando López Navarro, Digital TV, DRM, France, OTT
VUALTO partners with ATEME for automated encoder integration
Feb 13, 2020 – VUALTO has partnered with ATEME for automated encoder integration within the VUALTO CONTROL HUB (VCH) video orchestration tool, which allows for multiple origins and encoders to be integrated.
News categories: ATEME, VUALTO, Paul Marsden, James Burt, Content Distribution, Digital TV, Worldwide
VUALTO integrates DRM with AWS for live and on-demand video
Apr 4, 2019 – VUALTO has announced API integration between VUALTO’s VUDRM digital rights management service and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media Services, including AWS Elemental MediaConvert, AWS Elemental MediaPackage, AWS Elemental Live, and AWS Elemental Delta.
News categories: VUALTO, AWS Elemental, Robert Mitchell, Digital TV, DRM, OTT, Worldwide
AWS releases key exchange API to streamline DRM integration
Mar 27, 2019 – AWS has announced its Secure Packager and Encoder Key Exchange (SPEKE), an open, extensible API specification developed to streamline integration of Digital Rights Management (DRM) with encoders, transcoders, and origin servers.
News categories: AWS Elemental, Michael Callahan, Will Law, Digital TV, OTT, Worldwide
Telekom Malaysia and Vuclip launch OTT TV
Feb 22, 2016 – Telekom Malaysia (TM) and Viu, an Over-the-Top (OTT) video-on-demand (VOD) service from Vuclip, a PCCW media company, have announced their partnership with the launch of Viu in Malaysia. Viu is a freemium OTT service.
News categories: Telekom Malaysia, Vuclip, PCCW, Tan Sri Zamzamzairani Mohd Isa, Jeremy Kung, Nickhil Jakatdar, Janice Lee, Apps, Content Protection, Digital TV, Malaysia, Mobile, OTT
- Riivi chooses Norigin Media for Smart TV app testing
- NexStreaming releases NexPlayer for Nintendo Switch
- Elliptic Labs to trial presence detection and gestures for Smart TV
- Carbon Trust releases white paper on CO2 impact of streaming
- ZEE5 to launch in the U.S. on June 22
- Vewd offers ATSC 3.0 integration options
- Broadpeak's CDN and Multicast ABR power Megacable's Xview+
- TEGNA selects TVSquared for ad measurement and attribution
- Lünecom deploys IPTV solution from ocilion in Northern Germany
- Gigared chooses Appear to deliver to TVs in Argentina
- Kabelnoord extends service to Samsung and LG TVs with 24i
- First football match broadcast over 5G in Portugal
- HD PLUS operator app available on Samsung Smart TVs in Ghana
- More than 11 million addressable TVs for VIZIO in the U.S.
- Viant ad platform integrates TiVo TV viewership data
- WarnerMedia trials national addressable TV with Comscore
- UK broadcasters launch ad campaign measurement tool
- Síminn creating TV bundles using Red Bee Channel Store
- MetaX launches Smart TV commercialization platform
- Only 20% of streaming subscribers content to stay with providers


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In a story April 27, The Associated Press reported that Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s revenue at stores open at least a year has declined for seven straight quarters. The story should have specified that the declines were in comparison with the corresponding quarter the previous year, not the quarter immediately before.
Does Anybody Understand What These Never Trump Republicans Think They’re Achieving?
FISA Reform Could Be A Much Needed GOP Victory
Trump and the Forever War in Afghanistan


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Posts in Category: Business
A PROJECT designed to further increase the public appetite for Prosecco received a boost yesterday.
AN extra $135 million will be spent on the North East rail line following a landmark agreement between the Victorian and Commonwealth governments.
RURAL City of Wangaratta councillors are set to reload when they return to the job today with the roll out of a $350,000 rural towns…
BUSINESS Wangaratta will ‘park’ members’ traffic movement concerns, as it awaits a planned 2018 council strategy dealing with issues like car parking.
DOCKER Street’s Wangaratta Plaza will be demolished early in 2018.
A LOCAL developer claims his efforts to create a unique CBD apartment for Wangaratta has been stalled due to issues with council’s building department.
LOCAL small business owners will not have to travel far to learn more about advancing their companies this month.
WANGARATTA hospitality workers are divided about a new ‘no smoking’ ban in outdoor dining areas due to come into effect next Tuesday.
WANGARATTA CBD master plan’s controversial proposal to transform Moloney’s Arcade into a more pedestrian friendly space is not set in stone, according to Rural City…
THE Wangaratta Retail Centre in Parfitt Road is up for sale and is expected to fetch more than $8 million.
WANGARATTA’S key business lobby group is reaching out to its members to gain vital feedback on how it can support enterprise and consumer needs better.
WANGARATTA Plaza, the home of the former IGA Supa, has been bought by Key Capital.


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If you’ve been in an airport lately, you’ve seen the impact of the pent-up demand for travel. Let’s face it. We’ve been isolated for more than two years, and we’ve had enough. Deloitte put data to it all with a May report called “Getting Back to Getaways.” Even as the pandemic continues to experience fits of stops and starts, many leisure travelers have decided the risk levels are acceptable. Deloitte’s study found that nearly half of Americans planned a summer trip that involved stays in hotels or other types of paid lodging.
More than health concerns, financial worries were the primary reasons cited for staying home. But those who planned to travel were prepared to spend more (compared to 2019) to do so. Deloitte found that U.S.-based properties, airlines, and destinations would benefit most, with international travel continuing to be tempered by wildly varying COVID guidelines and restrictions.
This leisure “revenge travel,” as some in the industry are calling it, will likely ease into traditional levels in the coming months, but that’s when business travel and meetings and conventions are expected to see a resurgence. All of this is welcome news for the North Texas economy, which benefits from both an outbound and inbound perspective.
This past April, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was named the second-busiest airport in the world by passenger volume, according to Airports Council International. It is one of the only airports in the country to increase both flights and destinations over the past two years. The region is also, of course, home to American Airlines—one of the world’s largest—and Southwest Airlines, another top-five carrier. Regional player and American affiliate Envoy Air is based here, as are numerous charter companies and hop-on jet services like JSX.
What doesn’t get talked about as much is the huge base of other travel industry companies that call North Texas home. One of the biggest is Sabre, which generated about $2 billion in 2021. Just about everything related to travel tech is powered by the Southlake-based company. It began as a collaboration between American and IBM to create an airline reservation system in the 1960s. Today, Sabre’s software and systems are used in airport check-in kiosks, online travel sites, airline and hotel reservation networks, mobile apps, aircraft and crew scheduling systems, and more.
Fort Worth-based Virtuoso is one of the largest associations of luxury travel agents in the country, with more than 20,000 agencies in 50 countries. Plaza Premium Group, a Hong Kong-based developer of independent luxury airport lounges, has planted its American headquarters at DFW International and opened its first U.S. venue there.
Hotel ownership, investment, and management is big business in North Texas, too. Dallas-based Omni Hotels & Resorts has 51 luxury properties in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with about 23,500 rooms and more than 14,000 employees. Hotel management powerhouse Aimbridge Hospitality, based in Plano, launched in 2003 with eight properties. Today its portfolio spans 1,500 hotels in all 50 states and 23 countries. Real estate investment trust Ashford Hospitality and its independently run management company, Remington Hotels, are both based in Dallas. So are hospitality-focused Woodbine Development Group and Gatehouse Capital. The list goes on and on.
“Demand for travel is off the charts right now,” says Matthew Upchurch, CEO of Virtuoso. “I compare what is happening in the travel industry to the video game Mario Kart when you’d drive over the arrows on the track and get a little boost. When you take something away from humans for two years, like travel, you just turbocharge the demand.”
A Perfect Storm for Growth
According to Upchurch, 2019 was a record year for the global travel industry. Spurred by strong international markets and rising economies, more than 1.45 billion people took a trip that year. To say that the pandemic was a shock to the industry would be an understatement, Upchurch says. “We went into something that had never happened in our history—not even during the World Wars—and that is 100 percent of all the countries that are members of the United Nations had some kind of travel restriction,” he says.
Upchurch likens the pandemic to the Great Depression for the travel and tourism industry. In 1933, unemployment spiked to a record 24.9 percent. In 2020, Upchurch says the pandemic hit the travel and tourism industry nearly three times harder, with a 70 percent spike in unemployment or furloughs. “The COVID-19 pandemic was a huge inflection point,” Upchurch says. “Another big inflection point was 9/11. But after 9/11, we saw a huge surge in multigenerational travel as people said, ‘Life’s too short, we better enjoy it.’”
In the United States, demand is being fueled by a seismic shift in demographics, Upchurch says. When the last Baby Boomers turn 60 in 2024, roughly 80 percent of the generation is expected to live another 20 to 25 years. “We’ve always had 80-year-olds, but we’ve just never had as many 80-year-olds as we’re about to have,” he says. Add to that Millennials’ and Gen Z’s willingness to prioritize experiences over material goods, and it creates the perfect storm for growth within the industry. “We’re going to have six generations of people all traveling at the same time, which has never happened at the scale we’re about to see,” Upchurch says.
Another trend that’s coming on strong is “bleisure,” a blend of business and leisure travel. It first began gaining popularity in the mid-2010s, especially among Millennials, but now everyone is catching on. “With the proliferation of individuals who are able to work from home, traditional lines between leisure and business travel have blurred,” says Kurt Alexander, president of Omni Hotels & Resorts, who explains that professionals are tacking on a few days to the front or back end of their business trips for fun.
“While traditional business travel is improving, it is still down about 40 percent versus 2019,” he says. “Leisure travel, some of which is driven by business travelers, is generally exceeding pre-COVID levels.” Prior to the pandemic, corporate and group travel accounted for more than half of Omni’s business. This year, that number is down to about 45 percent, Alexander says.
A look at major travel-related companies that call DFW home:
Headquarters: Fort Worth
Fleet: 915 aircraft
CEO: Robert Isom
Fleet: 735 aircraft
CEO: Bob Jordan
Fleet: 185 aircraft
CEO: Pedro Fábregas
Omni Hotels & Resorts
Portfolio: Owns about 50 luxury hotels and resorts with a total of 22,000 rooms
President: Kurt Alexander
Portfolio: Manages more than 1,500 properties
President and CEO: Michael J. Deitemeyer
Business: Travel software and tech giant that essentially powers the industry
Chairman and CEO: Sean Menke
Dallas-based Woodbine Development Corp. is seeing similar trends. “Bleisure is not something that’s limited to DINC’s (double-income, no children); we are seeing families do it as well,” says Dupree Scovell, the company’s managing partner and chief investment officer.
Woodbine, which has been around for about 50 years, specializes in hospitality and mixed-use projects throughout the United States. Its hospitality portfolio runs the gamut from major brands and independents to full-service and select-service properties. Scovell says in recent months, demand throughout the portfolio has been at 90 percent—or greater—compared to 2019. “This trend seems to be industry-wide,” he says. “Gateway markets are the few exceptions that still have a larger gap from 2019 occupancy, partially due to the slower return of international travel.”
Nominal average daily rates (ADR) have been setting records this year, Scovell says, especially at resort properties in drive-to destination markets. “This is important because it is currently outpacing cost increases due to inflation,” he says. “It proves again that hospitality assets offer a great hedge against inflation through daily repricing.”
Dallas as a Destination
Tourism in North Texas is rebounding, too. In 2019, Dallas hotel revenue soared to $2.4 billion. In 2020, that number was cut in half. “Dallas went from aggregate hotel occupancies in the 70s to single-digits overnight,” says VisitDallas’ CEO Craig Davis. “Some hotels lost over 90 percent of their staff. It has been a slow climb back as we moderated around 30 percent occupancy for quite a while before we really began to show signs of life again.” And what about 2021? Dallas hotels generated nearly $2 billion in revenue, according to year-end VisitDallas figures.
Davis says the region’s recovery was partly aided by being perceived as an ‘open’ city among peers. As the rest of the country lingered with COVID-19 restrictions in late 2020 and into 2021, Texas was among the first states to lift mask mandates and openly allow travel again. Davis says that during the pandemic, Dallas went from being ranked No. 5 in its peer class to No. 1 for meeting destinations, according to CVENT—the city and visitors’ bureau gold standard for measurement. Dallas tourism continues to outpace destinations like Chicago, Phoenix, Houston, and New Orleans in a number of metrics that VisitDallas tracks, with few signs of slowing.
Davis is closely watching the recovery of business travel. “Corporate travelers are not traveling like they used to, and Dallas has always been a business city,” he says. “People are not visiting their customers nearly as often. Corporations may love seeing the savings of not having people travel as much, but what happens when the script changes and it begins to hit the bottom line? Transacting business over Zoom is cost-effective in the near term, but you will hop on a plane every time to make a client visit if you think you might lose business.”
Industry analysts expect business travel to begin to pick up this fall and carry through into 2023. Davis says that the construction of the new Dallas convention center will aid the city’s ability to attract more meetings and events. Although the current capacity of about 725,000 square feet of exhibition space may sound like a lot, parts of the building were built in the 1950s, and the last renovation occurred in 2009. The new $2 billion convention center, expected to break ground in 2024, will feature 2.5 million square feet of total space. Opening in 2029, Davis says that the North American Spine Society has already signed on to host its 2031 conference in Dallas.
Top Hotel Market
Another positive indicator is the amount of hotel development in the region. There are more than 30,000 hotel rooms in the city and 78,000 throughout the region, according to VisitDallas. And Dallas continues to pace the country when it comes to hotel construction, with nearly 20,000 more rooms in the pipeline, according to industry trade publication Lodging Econometrics.
Omni, which has four existing hotels and about 2,500 rooms in North Texas, is among those working on new projects, with its 500-room Omni PGA Frisco resort slated to open in 2023. “The central location of DFW and the infrastructure of our airports make it the perfect destination for organizations from around the country to gather people together for meetings and events,” Alexander says. “DFW is a dynamic market that in many ways is the NYC of the 21st century. People, organizations and capital from all over the country want to be here and benefit from the network effect. Adding a world-class resort in North Dallas will be a significant change for this market, and as a destination.”
Emerging hotel developers include luxury independents, such as Auberge Resorts (which is entering DFW with a project in the Knox neighborhood), Dream Hotel Group (which is set to anchor the new Firefly Park in Frisco), Pendry Hotels, and Proper Hotels & Residences. “Customers who can afford it want experiential travel that inspires them more than traditional hotel options,” Scovell says.
Penn Collins, CEO of Gatehouse Capital, says he and his team are keeping a close eye on “the durability of trends we’ve seen over the past three turbulent years, amid a wildly dynamic economic landscape as we find it in 2022.” Founded in 1997, the Dallas-based company is known for developing tech-forward luxury properties such as the W Hotel & Residences in Dallas (and Hollywood, San Diego, and Silicon Valley).
“The past three years demonstrated a resilience in extended-stay, drive-to resort markets, and medical hospitality—an area in which we are very active,” Collins says. “The afterglow of those respective performances during COVID has elevated projects in those realms to be among the most desirable, and we’re banking on that preference to remain for a while. With a wealth gap seemingly exacerbated by the pandemic, luxury hotels—once amenities and services were allowed to resume—also demonstrated a surprisingly high ceiling.”
Despite the “painful intersection” of rising construction costs and interest rates, Collins says he’s hopeful the stabilization of the supply chain and labor pool will mitigate added interest costs for new projects. “With new supply low and demand coming back in extraordinary fashion at unseen rates, 2023 hotel underwriting should be able to hang its proverbial hat on terrific performance that, among many hotel markets and sectors, is due to set a reliable benchmark for the industry.”
Scovell shares concerns about rising rates. He also believes projects “that have no business getting financed” will still get investors because there’s so much nontraditional capital available. He’s encouraged, though, by gateway markets gaining steam, international travel picking up, and opportunities presented by group travel, including gatherings for workers that are now working remotely across the country. “We believe that our hotels will continue to recover for 2022, driven by strengthening group and business travel demand,” Scovell says. “We remain bullish on the hotel business. In each of the last nine recessions, hotels have outpaced inflation.”


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Samsung has updated its Galaxy Watch 3 in several countries and now the update has arrived for Indian users. There was a first-generation Galaxy Watch also that grabbed GPS updates but it was limited to the USE users for now. Later we expect for expansion in other countries.
Apart from the Galaxy Watch, the Samsung Galaxy M33 5G users reportedly receiving the August 2022 security patch update in India. Check the latest update information below.
Galaxy M33 5G August 2022 Security Update:
The latest software update for Galaxy M33 5G users comes with build number M336BUXXU3AVH1 and the update package size is 447MB. This update includes the August 2022 patch alongside the eight apps update.
- Samsung Notes Add-On
- Samsung Kids
- Samsung Notes
- Samsung Health
- Samsung Members
- Samsung TV Plus
- Voice Recorder
Samsung Watch 3 August 2022 Security Update:
Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 is getting a new August 2022 firmware update. The latest update was previously released in UAE and Europe. Now, Indian users are able to install the new firmware with build number R840XXU1CVG1 and the update size is 35.42MB.


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‘intelloCut’, a material planning and optimization software for sewn products industry (apparel / leather / inflatable / upholstery / footwear / home furnishing manufacturers/ technical textile etc.), developed by Threadsol Softwares, has won the Microsoft Bizspark Startup Challenge 2013 National Final held in Bangalore. 10 winning companies from 10 cities participated in this grand finale and intelloCut was declared as the first runner up.
The Microsoft BizSpark India Startup Challenge is an annual platform celebrating entrepreneurial excellence across the country by helping fast-track the success of promising startups in the early stages of their career.
The Challenge provides them with software, support and visibility, as well as a chance to be recognized on the national stage. An array of cash and non-cash prizes help them further their business plan and give them a real shot at achieving business success.
Marking the close of an exciting and fiercely-contested month-long competition which saw more than 700 entry submissions, was held across 10 cities and featured 100 startups brimming with exciting business ideas, the finals concluded with team intelloCut getting the first runner up award, taking home the grand prize of an Acer Netbook, XBOX 360 and an exclusive branding package and also won Nokia Lumia 820 as well as cash prizes worth $4,000 as the regional winner to boost its business plan. intelloCut also received the BizSpark Plus membership of worth $60,000 of Windows Azure, which helps cover cloud computing costs.
Commenting on the great entrepreneurial promise showed by early startups throughout the event, Rajinish Menon, Director - Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and Cloud Strategy at Microsoft India, said, “This year, the Microsoft BizSpark India Startup Challenge saw more startups compete. The variety and quality of startups have been fantastic. We believe that the startup ecosystem in India is well.”
On the occasion, Manasij Ganguli, Co-Founder & CTO, intelloCut says, “We are really very excited to be one of the winners. As a start up, this kind of platform is very important for us which brings our visibility into the market and also gives us access to a mentor network that can help us in our go-to market business strategies.”
intelloCut measures, predicts and optimizes material utilization and productivity for sewn products industry. With offices in Bangalore and Delhi, intelloCut claims to saves upto 10% material, improves cutting productivity by 30% and reduces end bits by 70% in the practical scenarios.
About Threadsol Softwares:
Established in 2012, Threadsol Softwares was started by a team of smart thinkers with deep understanding of apparel production and software engineering, with a view to turning apparel and garment enterprises into smarter ones.
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Google’s internal startup incubator, Area 120, unveiled last year, has to date led to the creation of a number of projects, including a personal stylist app Tailor, a voice messenger Supersonic, and most recently, an app for watching YouTube videos together called Uptime. We’ve now spotted another app in development over there called Appointments, a salon booking tool.
Appointments has not yet been publicly released to the app stores or web, but its project page is currently live at salon.area120.com.
The app appears to be a competitor of sorts to more robust scheduling services like Vagaro, StyleSeat, Square Appointments, Mindbody, and others. However, unlike some of its rivals, the app goes beyond offering just an online booking system, but also includes an integrated website for participating businesses and a tool that turns SMS client texts into booking links.
The website and bookings app work online or via mobile devices, the site says, and will display to customers a week’s worth of availability. The business website, meanwhile, can also include other information, like the services offered at that location, directions and a map, photo gallery, price list, and contact information, like the address and phone number, for example.
As the project is clearly still in its early stages, there isn’t a lot more information about the technical details, the team behind this project, or its larger plans – if any – to monetize. The app download link, which also doesn’t yet work, does imply that it will be free.
Despite the limited information, this project in particular could be interesting for Google, which today works to list businesses on Google Search and Maps. It also today aids businesses with setting up their web presence, from buying their domains to setting up their email, and even creating basic websites and making them work well on mobile devices.
However, Google has yet to offer software specifically dedicated to booking appointments online – a space that Microsoft moved into with the launch of its Office 365 service, Bookings, announced last year.
If Appointments became successful, it’s reasonable to think that it could become an alternative solution to Microsoft’s, designed to fit in with Google’s own suite of productivity tools.
Of course, at this time, it’s too early to say what will become of Appointments in the future.
Area 120 projects, by way of background, are meant to encourage entrepreneurial spirit within Google, instead of losing valuable team members to startups. According to prior reports on how the incubator works, teams first submit business proposals to Google, which, if accepted, let them join the program and work on their product for a few months. They may also have the opportunity to pitch Google for additional funding.
These teams are based in Google’s San Francisco offices, but don’t have a dedicated press contact for inquires at this time. Attempts to ask Google for more details through main press channels have gone unanswered.


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BECCA is ELC’s first makeup acquisition since Smashbox in 2010—and the latest in a series of portfolio additions for the company including Le Labo (2014), Rodin Olio Lusso (2014), Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle (2015), GLAMGLOW (2015) and By Kilian (2016).
According to ELC, BECCA Cosmetics, which launched in 2001, has experienced exceptional growth over the last several years with a product line that includes primers, concealers, foundations, blushes and highlighters that use the “beauty of light” to enhance the complexion.
The brand is popular in North America, in retailers including Sephora and Ulta, and is headed for global expansion. BECCA boasts more than one million Instagram followers.
At press time, The Estée Lauder Companies announced it had signed an agreement to purchase Too Faced Cosmetics for approximately $1.45 billion, ELC’s largest acquisition ever. Stay tuned for details.


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Frankie Ford Dead At 76
He started out as a blues performer then found fame in 1959 at the age of 19, when his version of Huey 'Piano' Smith's Sea Cruise became a hit single around the world, selling more than a million copies.
Although the vocalist and pianist never repeated the commercial success, he'd continued performing. Mike Shepherd, boss of the Louisiana Hall Of Fame - which inducted Ford in 2010 - tells the LA Times: "Frankie had the best voice in rock'n'roll." Check out "Sea Cruise" here.
The Blues Magazine is an official news provider for antiMusic.com.


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Netflix Beats Amazon’s Streaming Lineup for Top Movies, TV Shows
Netflix provides more recent titles — with 10 of the 50 box-office leaders from 2013, versus three for Amazon — while Amazon’s library includes more top movies that are two years old, according to the report. Of the top 50 movies for each of the last three years, Netflix has 12%, Redbox Instant by Verizon has 7%, Amazon Prime has 6% and Hulu Plus has 1%, [Piper Jaffray Companies] found. Meanwhile, Hulu’s subscription service delivers nearly three times as many recent top-rated shows as Netflix. Hulu Plus has 57% of the top 75 series from the 2013-’14 season, compared with 20% for Netflix and 9% for Amazon. – Todd Spangler, Variety http://ift.tt/1zbbAtN
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Jamaica welcomed 916,300 cruise passengers between January and September, a 10% increase over the same period last year, a result of Disney and MSC cruise lines diverting from storm-affected islands.
“Both Disney and MSC came to Jamaica in summer, which did not happen last year,” William Tatham, head of cruises at the Port Authority of Jamaica, said in a phone interview on Monday.
“We got an additional 12,000 passengers based on the diversion from other Caribbean islands. We missed the storms this time, but others did not. We are very lucky this year to experience no disruptions. It resulted in four additional calls that we didn’t anticipate.”
Between May and September, however, the growth jumped to 20% year-on-year. The bulk of the growth came from the Falmouth Cruise Pier, Ochi Rios grew slightly, and Montego Bay remained flat year-on-year. Tatham said that the island remains on the “border” of achieving record arrivals this year.
Just this week, large attraction Dolphin Cove stated that cruise ship arrivals resulted in increased profitability at the listed company.
MSC Cruise Line entered the island on and off for a decade, but it’s the first time it sailed during summer to Jamaica, while Disney entered the island last October for the first time.


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Believe it or not, the blokes at U.K.-based gambling site Ladbrokes are placing odds on who will take over for Steve Ballmer. Nokia CEO and former Microsoft executive Stephen Elop leads the way with 5-to-1 odds of leading the Redmond software giant.
Next is Microsoft COO Kevin Turner at 6-to-1, with former Windows chief Steven Sinofsky and devices and studios VP Julie Larson-Green just behind at 8-to-1.
Other notables: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings (16-to-1), Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer (33-to-1), Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (40-to-1) and T-Mobile CEO John Legere (40-to-1). Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is listed at 50-to-1, while Apple CEO Tim Cook is at 100-to-1 — hey, anything is possible, right?


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Forza Horizon 5's map will be around 50 per cent larger than in Forza Horizon 4, which means more off-roading and road racing overall, says PlayGround Games.
Playground Games have been showcasing plenty of Forza Horizon 5 content ever since the game was announced at Xbox Games Showcase earlier this year. The team already released a couple of developer vlogs, where they talked about the sound design, biomes, weather and skyboxes.
The next episode of this dev vlog series named Let's Go! Forza Horizon 5 is set to be premiered today, where the team will show us the full map of Forza Horizon 5, which is 50 per cent larger than the map in Forza Horizon 4 .
The team also revealed that due to the size of the map, players can expect a lot more off-road racing but also road racing overall. The proportions of each are similar to Forza Horizon 4, Playground Games stated when asked about off-road racing.
"The map is 50% larger than in Forza Horizon 4, so there will be more off-roading and road racing overall, however, the proportions of each are comparable to previous games."
The next episode of Let's Go! Forza Horizon 5 will be live-streamed on the Forza YouTube channel later today.
Forza Horizon 5 is officially hitting the shelves on November 5, 2021, for PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S consoles.