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Plenty of targets out there for BWNG to consider if it wants to expand its brands - some well known names.
Sunday Times today -
"High street tycoon Philip Day has put his Pea****s and Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) chains up for sale.
Day has appointed the advisory firm FRP to sound out potential buyers for the two retail chains, which employ about 7,000 people and trade from more than 900 outlets. FRP asked for offers by last Friday. Day triggered the sale process this month after an unsolicited approach for Pea****s, which is more likely to be offloaded than EWM.
Day amassed a £1.14bn fortune by buying up distressed retail brands and integrating them into his empire. Covid has been painful for Day, depriving EWM of the over-60s and foreign tourists on which it depends. Pea****s has reopened fewer than half of its 550 shops.
Separately, Day is also marketing his Jaeger, Austin Reed and Jacques Vert fashion labels to suitors.
During lockdown, Day, who now lives in Switzerland, furloughed almost all of his 24,000 staff. Pea****s racked up tens of millions of pounds in unpaid debts to landlords and suppliers, which would be inherited by any buyer."
Interesting that the Notice of AGM to be held on 12-10 and the resolutions to be voted on do not make reference to the requisition of a GM received by them on 9th September.
So it looks like another GM will be called before 28-10 to be held on or before 25-11 to vote on the replacement of directors.
No doubt the present board are gathering the wagons round and will attempt to make a defence - depends who their supporters are and whether they intend to make some amends in terms of costs etc.
But RL now has 18%+, and a few of the known supporters 3%+, so that may be a big hurdle to overcome.
Likely to be an eventful month ahead.
Now that the gangplanks are at the ready and the boarding crew all tooled up they are unlikely to give up now - if anything they'll redouble their efforts.
Should be an interesting ride whilst all this plays out - made a bit more exciting by the goings on at GGP.
Someone has been busy....
TM17 rated a "Buy" in today's The Times Tempus column.
"Team 17 has a strong pipeline of new games and the industry is likely to be boosted by the launch of the next generation of Xbox and Playstation later in the year. Goodbody, the stockbroker, predicts that annual revenues will rise to at least £80 million from £62 million last year. Its shares trade on a multiple of more than 30 times next year’s predicted earnings. Team 17 is not cheap, but it operates in a sector with solid growth prospects and boasts an experienced management team with skin in the game.
Why Team 17 is highly rated for a reason — it’s a well run company in a growth sector"
Tempus does have a pretty good record og picking winners, I find.
Following the previous period of consolidation a few weeks ago, in the 30's, the price pulled back close to its low's during that period around 33p on 1.8.20 , before commencing an almost daily rise to around 65p on 18.8.20.
We are now again pulling back closer to the 50p level after recent trading in the mid 50's.
Hopefully the chart will repeat again, and move up towards the 100p level following the AGM.
"He said he would eventually like to float the company on the London Stock Exchange. "I'd rather take the company up to a £500 million valuation than let it get bought by a big US tech company and the best way to do that is often through an IPO," he said. "It's really sad when a national champion gets swallowed up so I'll be doing my level best to make sure that doesn't happen."
8% or so of £500M would account for almost the entire valuation of ASLR - not including all the other bits.
Interesting, and IPO possible as well.
Bid deadline keeps on being put back - they must be busy....
Click view on the last link.
Our two potential drilling ships haven't moved in weeks - one still in The Thames Estuary, the other off Port-Gentil.
Flagship brand J D Williams looks to be doing well
Jacamo looks solid
Simplybe slightly less so (maybe to do with the time of year) -
Hopefully site visits translates into volume and profits.
Interesting chart from Standard Deviation on twitter.
Targeting the grey area.
Above 160p and were breaking out of a 6 year downtrend.
Not yet but end of year could be within reach.
Looking forward to the AGM on 10th September.
Cannot believe that we will not get some form of statement on the last 6 months trading and something on forward guidance.
Many competitors have issued statement, so can't see why BWNG would be different.
Critical, I think will be any provision for bad debts, given the covid situation.
Some credit issuers have recently made fairly large provision for bad debts, although, in the main, their share prices reacted positively as the provisions were lower than expected. And such provisions can always be written back into the accounts if the outcome is better.
Still sticking (just) to my 100p prediction made some time ago, for the morning of the AGM.
Quite a boost needed to get there by the end of next week, but some nice H1 figures, and decent guidance could get us there.
I think pre covid they were looking at profits in the region of £70-£80m, so that would put BWNG on a p/e of 2.
Don't see why this should still not be achievable in the medium term, and even bettered, although short term trading may be a bit rough.
I think that is right the 7p or so cost of the option goes to the option seller - in this case many were from Mr Akers, the 6p/18p for the warrants goes to ASLR.
But the 7p cost is paid in AAA shares!
So it is all very circuitous - if none of this is worth much then the present big holders aren't going to get much out of it.
Unless of course they've already sold at inflated prices.
Willing to wait and see for while yet.
The 6p's, both warrants and options, expire on 30-10-20, the 18p's 31-9-20, so not long to wait to see what happens.
Actually got the warrants mixed up - there are 15.5M @6p, amd 5M @ 18p, so a bit better deal for AAA, but the cost to obtaining the options for the warrants I did calculate at 7p.
So a profit for AAA if ASLR stays at 30p, but not huge.
I guess the warrants (which need to be exercised within a month or two, or lapse) could lead to further dilution, but most are exercisable at 18p, and AAA will also be paying the sellers of the warrants (mainly Mr Akers) for the right to excercise as well (I calculated around 7p for each warrant - by may be wrong on that, so do your own calc - I think the price actually went up recently, but nothing is paid if they aren't exercised), so in relation to the present price of around 30p per ASLR share they aren't "cheap" at all.
At 30p per ASLR share there is little immediate profit in them for AAA, merely the right to take a sizeable stake in ASLR.
Of course ASLR would get an injection of funds.
Many odd manoeuverings here over recent months, I can only think it is all above board as there are some notable names involved along the way, but certainly mighty odd, some involving share transfers at prices way higher than that today.
I'm not sure how it will pan out - boom or bust I reckon.
As I've said before I happened to buy in the Yolo days, and sold half in the days before suspension, so am still in profit, but if it all went south I'd be frustrated at having wasted 6 months researching matters.
Hopeful, but by no means certain, of a decent outcome.
Disappointed, and somewhat confused by today.
Someone has gone to a lot of trouble if there is nothing there.
Reflecting and slightly puzzled.
AAA is paying around 25p is for the warrants in total so hardly a bargain at the price given for ASLR.
Also AAA whose only real asset is a potential 18% of ASLR has a total market capitalisation greater than ASLR.
They're down today also, but one of these shares is vastly undervalued or overvalued - the only question is which one?
There's something out there to which pi's are not privy.
If you look back at various RNS's BWNG do tend to give a trading statement a few weeks after an important trading period- thus usually there is one around mid January reporting on parts of the Q3/Q4 period, which includes the Christmas runup.
They don't tend to issue after each quarter period end, but do if there is important news, such as Covid or when dealing with unexpected events such as an increase in PPI claims.
So I think, as H1 ends on 31-8-2020, there is a good chance of a trading update at the AGM on 10-9-2020, particularly as we live in exceptional times and there will have been no update on trading since 26-6-2020, a time during which many peers have been reporting increased online sales.
Not expecting news until then, and quite happy with current share price performance.
Very interesting - and here is another angle, again in The Times today -
The difference between overall retail performing well and the shops performing poorly is that it appears online has filled the gap.
"Jonathan Athow, the deputy national statistician, said: “Retail sales have regained all the ground lost during the height of the coronavirus restrictions as more stores open for trade and online sales remain at historically high levels.”"
"Retail sales rose above their pre-pandemic levels in July, the first full month that shops selling non-essential goods were open since the country went into lockdown in March"
"The unexpectedly strong figures — economists had forecast a rise of 1.4 per cent — have put retail sales 3 per cent above pre-pandemic levels in February and reflect a release of pent-up demand after the easing of lockdown.
Although supermarkets and food shops received a boost from the lockdown as more people ate at home, and while online sales have jumped, many companies in the retail sector are struggling. Clothing shops have been hit hardest and the volume of sales in July was 25.7 per cent lower than it was in February, even with a increase of 11.9 per cent during the month."
This from The Times today on the brutal revolution at MKS.
On line clothing sales have increased from 22% pre covid to 41% now.
"The closure of shops during lockdown forced shoppers online overnight and customers have become used to spending in this way. As restrictions have eased, shops may have reopened but shoppers have not returned and Mr Rowe believes that customer habits have changed forever."
Bodes well for N Brown.
The times today suggests that the current "Tech Boom" could continue for a while yet.
Interesting to see what a stake in a leading machine learning and AI company could be worth.
SJ, no - but see my post of 9-8-2020 concerning the potential valuations.
AAA shares are roughly 6p which means it is presently valued at circa £46M - excluding warrants etc.
Their only real asset is a potential 18% of ASLR.
So, if that AAA valuation is anywhere near correct that suggests ASLR is worth a whopping £255M - again ignoring warrants etc.
I'll ignore the warrants as it complicates matters and the figures appear pretty way out anyway.
Presently ASLR has 105,361,443 shares in issue, so if it were to be worth £255M each share would be worth 242p!
That appears too amazing to be true however in a proposed placing earlier this year - subsequently cancelled - warrants were to be issued exercisable at 130p and 280p.
So if the AAA share price is anywhere near "correct" as a valuation ASLR could come back at somewhere way, way north of the 47p price it was suspended at, and indeed substantial numbers of ASLR shares were subsequently traded off market at 70p it seems by someone who it appears subsequently became a director of AAA.
Also the AAA share price has increased by around 100% since the ASLR/MESH deal was announced.
And various insiders were bidding up the price of AAA warrants when the AAA price was around 1p-2p.
I guess on readmission to trading it will either be boom or bust - and not much room for anything in between.
Possible fireworks either way.
CC, anyone can surmise that this company offers good value, and they may be right or they may be wrong.
But when a director takes 24,791,667 shares this reinforces the view that there is value here.
I don't believe that he bought them on a exchange, but took them in the last fundraising on 20th July at 0.3p as the RNS that day refers to him having taken that number of shares.
He did however put in real money, around £74,375.00, for real shares.
And he is officially an "insider" and became such the day after his appointment, when presumably the crown jewels were revealed to him.
AH put in real money that day also, and swapped debt for shares.
Looking good despite the odd wobble.
News anytime, as the "purchase" isn't recent.


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“Nike always wants to make an incredibly strong, powerful statement for moms that are trying to get back and get fit. That was basically it for me,” she said.
It isn’t the first time Williams has made a fashion statement on the court. In August 2018, Williams competed at the US Open in a Virgil Abloh designed black tutu, a direct comment on the French Open’s ban on Williams’ famous catsuit. Earlier this year in Australian open she wore turquoise green romper by Nike with fishnet stockings and this is not the end of her fashion statements, and we can’t wait to see what is yet to come.
US Open 2018, Black tutu by Virgil Abloh & Nike
While she is continuing her winning in the Wimbledon games, we collected a few of her memorable outfits from the past few years.
2016 US Open, Nike
2016 French Open
2018 French Open, Nike catsuit
2018 US Open, Nike & Virgil Abloh
2019 Hopman Cup, Nike
2019 Australian Open, Nike turquoise green romper and fishnet stockings
2019 France Open, Nike & Virgil Abloh “Queen Collection”
2019 Wimbledon, Nike & 34 Swarovski crystal swoosh

domain: news


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While talk of a Mario and Raving Rabbids crossover by Ubisoft popped up earlier this month on the list of planned games for the Nintendo Switch, many though that it was a mistake. However, that does not seem to be the case. Rather, there might be a turned-based RPG where the Rabbids enter the Mario world.
While it has not been officially announced, a new video about Ubisoft’s 30th Anniversary hints at the partnership, showing Mario, Luigi, and Toad with Rabbid ears. The video also shows how the company celebrating the anniversary in Paris which they hoped would give guests, fans, journalists, business partners, and others in attendance “a sneak peak of what will come next with game production”.
Along with this exciting hint, they showed a game with the Rabbids where they were throwing foam balls at smart boards, as well as concept art, sculptures from Watch Dogs 2, a stringed ensemble, stuffed animals, costuming, an amazing cake, comics, Assassin’s Creed weapons, a neat landscape lighting display, a rather unique piece of equipment that allows for them to create 3-D models rather quickly from real life objects and even humans, and staff with V.R. headsets on.
Additionally, the company has its 30 days of giveaways currently going on as the holidays approach. Those interested will need to log into their Ubisoft account and check out this calendar. The giveaways started on the 24th of this month and will continue until the 24th of December. Today’s free gift is their Rayman mobile game.
For more of the latest gaming news, stay tuned to Nerd Much?.


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It turns out that when you're selling pants, it doesn't matter how handsome or athletic your model is, so long as he's got a crotch. According to Pandodaily, Betabrand's Head of Customer Acquisition Julian Scharman admitted that when promoting their pants, crotch shots get the most clicks when it comes to social platforms.
Although a wee bit embarrassing, this totally makes sense, right? Because at the end of the day sex sells, even if the pants you're selling are relaxed and made out of terrycloth. Scharman told Pandodaily that his company, which prides itself in creating unique clothing pieces, stumbled upon this discovery inadvertently.
In an attempt to find a photo that showed off the company's pants on a Facebook News Feed ad, Scharman picked one that best showed the detailing of the belt and the pockets as well as the look and fit. This turned out to be a rather close-up photo of their model's genital region, but whatever, look at the pants! What resulted was a huge spike in conversion rates on Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter, there was a 156% spike in retweets and a 78% increase in follows. On Facebook, email sign-ups increased by 60% and click through rates by 30%. Clearly, Scharman was on to something. And that something was that people love crotches.
From then on, Scharman instructed photographers to snap photos of the models' midsection so that it can be cropped "in ways that are useful for these new advertising revelations." They're not only using these kinds of photos on Facebook and Twitter, but also on their website. Just take a look at the men's pants section to see for yourself.
While crotch shots have resulted in an increase in the company's popularity, Scharman also believes it's because customers are noticing the quality of the fabric and detailing of their products. You keep telling yourself that, Mr. Scharman.
(Image: Betabrand )


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Potential UPS website error shows iPhone XS delivery dates pushed to Monday
The issue appears to be exclusively with orders that were shipped via UPS rather than FedEx. One Twitter user said that UPS quoted a "customs issue" as the culprit for the supposed delay, while another said the estimate is a website error.
AppleInsider staff are among the many affected, with iPhone XS Max shipments initially set to be delivered tomorrow now showing delivery dates changed to Monday.
Confusingly, Apple's own order status page still shows delivery tomorrow, contrary to UPS tracking information. This could be a database syncing issue, but UPS customer service has reportedly replied to at least one distressed early adopter, saying the Monday delivery estimate is erroneous.
According to one Twitter account a UPS representative chalked up the misinformation to a glitch in its system caused by the vast number of iPhone shipments being processed. The buyer was assured that their order would arrive on Friday as promised.
The contradictory statements issued by UPS representatives, and disparate delivery times quoted on UPS and Apple websites, leaves customers very much in limbo. Until the supposedly inaccurate website is fixed, or official confirmation from Apple or UPS is received, customers are unlikely to find out whether their respective shipments are actually delayed until tomorrow.
The scope of the problem is unknown, though quite a few people are taking to Twitter to complain about the issue.
Frustrated users have taken to Twitter -- pitchforks in hand -- calling out UPS for the non-launch day deliveries that they were expecting:
#UPS screwed up! Apple phones were supposed to be delivered tomorrow and now they're not coming till Monday-- Cindy Golembuski (@goldengirl269)
-- Jeff True (@jtrue28)
If you are eagerly awaiting your new phone's arrival, now might be a good time to double check the tracking info.
#iphoneXsMax delivery delayed. #UPS very impressively saw my tweet, contacted me, looked into it and got back to me in less than 10 minutes. Delayed due to customs. I blame #Apple for not anticipating this issue.-- Ron Mummaw (@rmummaw)


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Reverse Factoring: 5 Tips to Avoid Supply Chain Finance Foul Ups
October 24, 2016
Over on Spend Matters, I recently shared two reverse factoring case studies, courtesy of Kyriba’s Eric Riddle and Wells Fargo’s Stephen Elson, who presented at CFA’s Supply Chain Finance/Factoring World event in Miami, which took place last week. The panel absolutely nailed the key success factories in traditional reverse factoring programs. So how do you avoid supply chain finance foul ups? Read on.


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BidaskClub cut shares of Silicon Laboratories (NASDAQ:SLAB) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Friday.
SLAB has been the subject of several other reports. Benchmark began coverage on Silicon Laboratories in a research report on Friday, April 6th. They issued a buy rating and a $120.00 price target for the company. Zacks Investment Research upgraded Silicon Laboratories from a sell rating to a hold rating in a research report on Thursday, April 5th. Roth Capital boosted their target price on Silicon Laboratories from $110.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Monday, June 11th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on Silicon Laboratories from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, June 15th. Finally, ValuEngine upgraded Silicon Laboratories from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, April 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Silicon Laboratories has an average rating of Buy and an average price target of $112.82.
Shares of NASDAQ SLAB opened at $103.75 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.54 billion, a PE ratio of 44.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.44. Silicon Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $66.35 and a fifty-two week high of $110.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 6.74 and a quick ratio of 6.21.
Silicon Laboratories (NASDAQ:SLAB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 25th. The semiconductor company reported $0.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $205.38 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $199.33 million. Silicon Laboratories had a return on equity of 11.67% and a net margin of 7.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.63 earnings per share. equities research analysts predict that Silicon Laboratories will post 2.63 earnings per share for the current year.
In other Silicon Laboratories news, Director Nina Richardson sold 1,351 shares of Silicon Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $106.25, for a total transaction of $143,543.75. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 4,845 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $514,781.25. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Jack R. Lazar sold 4,750 shares of Silicon Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $108.23, for a total value of $514,092.50. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,101 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,417,921.23. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 19,211 shares of company stock valued at $2,058,121. 1.96% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of SLAB. M&T Bank Corp bought a new stake in Silicon Laboratories during the fourth quarter worth about $202,000. Amundi Pioneer Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Silicon Laboratories during the fourth quarter worth about $203,000. Lido Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Silicon Laboratories during the first quarter worth about $207,000. First Republic Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Silicon Laboratories during the fourth quarter worth about $220,000. Finally, Zeke Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Silicon Laboratories during the first quarter worth about $238,000. 89.85% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Silicon Laboratories Company Profile
Silicon Laboratories Inc, a fabless semiconductor company, designs, develops, and markets mixed-signal integrated circuits (ICs) in the United States, China, and internationally. The company offers Internet of things products, such as 8-bit mixed-signal, 32-bit wireless, and ultra-low-power 32-bit microcontrollers; wireless connectivity devices, including multiprotocol wireless Gecko system-on-chip devices; real-time operating systems; sensor products comprising optical, relative humidity/temperature, and hall effect magnetic sensors.
Receive News & Ratings for Silicon Laboratories Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Silicon Laboratories and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.


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SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 27 (Korea Bizwire) — AgilePQ®, a privately held security software company, today announced the general market release of its revolutionary new platform to secure the smallest of IoT endpoint and edge gateway devices. The AgilePQ SLiM (Secure Last IoT Mile) product was specifically developed to secure the last mile in the new IoT deployment paradigm.
A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on the image or link below:
The Internet of Things is fostering the development of new computing platforms using IoT devices with extremely constrained processors and highly limited memory. These limited-resource devices are being used for a variety of business reasons, including cost and battery savings. Last year, the number of small, constrained IoT (M2M) devices surpassed the number of human-to-machine devices globally and are expected to comprise 80% of the world’s compute platforms by 2023. A significant number of these devices will operate in the clear, without a security solution like AgilePQ SLiM.
AgilePQ’s platform is specifically designed with a total code footprint of only 2.4 KB on IoT endpoint devices and a fully featured tool for rapid integration into customer IoT platforms. With its unique differentiation, AgilePQ has seen rapid adoption of its platform since it launched AgilePQ SLiM. Multiple new customers have signed contracts, with numerous other contracts currently in the pipeline.
“Customers see the critical need for AgilePQ SLiM in the IoT marketplace and are very responsive to the AgilePQ SLiM platform. It provides unparalleled security for Class 0, 1, and 2 endpoint devices that encompass today’s IoT deployments,” said Ron Brumfield, AgilePQ Vice President of Product Strategy. “These endpoint devices operate with fewer than 10 KB data size and 100 KB code size. The limited resources associated with these devices require a solution that AES/TLS clearly cannot provide due to their large footprint. The AgilePQ SLiM platform delivers a solution that legacy standards like AES/TLS cannot.”
|CLASSES OF CONSTRAINED DEVICES|
|NAME||DATA SIZE (e.g. RAM)||CODE SIZE (e.g. Flash)|
|Class 0, C0||< 10 KB||< 100 KB|
|Class 1, C1||~ 10 KB||~ 100 KB|
|Class 2, C2||~ 50 KB||~ 250 KB|
|Source: IETF RFC7228 (May 2014)|
AgilePQ SLiM scales from the largest cloud compute platforms (e.g., Microsoft Azure) to the leading edge of unsecured, constrained endpoints comprising IoT’s last mile. SLiM provides secure data-in-transit from cloud-to-endpoint and all points in between, including edge-gateways. In addition to enabling a secure last mile, AgilePQ SLiM deploys several compelling capabilities that allow the IoT ecosystem to uniquely differentiate its offerings. Key differentiators in the AgilePQ SLiM platform include:
- Code footprint (Flash) less than 2.4 KB
- Operational memory (RAM) has a footprint smaller than 2 KB
- Transport Layer similar to TLS with 1/10th the data to connect
- Processing speeds up to 5x faster than legacy AES/TLS
- Reduces power (battery) usage up to 85% over AES/TLS
- Uses a key space that is 429 orders of magnitude greater than legacy AES-256
- Not susceptible to quantum computer attacks
- Has an agile and adaptable key size, and encryption block size
- Key is changed with every packet sent and received providing even greater security
- Data-in-transit security for numerous protocols (e.g., Wi-Fi, Cellular, Bluetooth, etc.)
“In many of our early engagements, teams have designed endpoint solutions with the assumption data-in-transit security can be added at a later date,” Mr. Brumfield continued. “When the realization that security for these constrained endpoints is requisite, customers see that legacy AES/TLS security will not fit within their endpoint device’s resource envelope. Having to add hardware to support legacy data-in-transit security further exacerbates the challenges and economics. AgilePQ SLiM allows companies of all sizes to deploy secure, cost-effective, constrained endpoints that meet their IoT economic requirements while offering protection against quantum computing threats.”
AgilePQ’s early adopter customers offer products and services in consumer products, physical and perimeter security, logistics, supply chain, retail, inventory management, Artificial Intelligence (AI) facial recognition, transportation, industrial sensors and other key segments.
“The agile, flexible benefits of AgilePQ SLiM make it highly compelling for middleware IoT software designers, hardware designers and manufacturers, systems integrators, consumer electronics designers, and a host of other development entities,” concluded Mr. Brumfield. “SLiM also has strong appeal to entities in the security space that appear to be competitors. However, they do not have a full-featured endpoint security solution with a sufficiently small footprint to secure data-in-transit for the enormous and growing number of constrained IoT endpoints being deployed. As a result, we are licensing components of our platform technology to these entities, providing a missing solution set for use with their offerings.”
AgilePQ is working with multiple companies, governments, solution providers, integrators, application enablement platforms, and OEMs to integrate the SLiM platform into future product offerings for secure IoT solutions.
AgilePQ is a pioneer in IoT security with offices in Salt Lake City and San Diego. The company has developed a complete IoT endpoint security solution for the evolving edge that is quantum-computing resistant. The AgilePQ SLiM IoT solution fits in 2.4 KB and can confidently Provision, Deploy, Identify, Authenticate, and Authorize all IoT devices, no matter how small. SLiM integrates seamlessly with an organization’s existing network and cloud infrastructure, including endpoint devices incapable of using TLS. For more information and to engage with our team, please visit agilepq.com.
AgilePQ is a trademark of AgilePQ, Inc., registered in the U.S.
VP Product Strategy
Source: AgilePQ via GLOBE NEWSWIRE


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* Southern hemisphere summer boosts jobs
* Jobs in farming, hotels, restaurants increase
* World No.1 copper producer’s economy growing briskly
By Anthony Esposito
SANTIAGO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Chile’s jobless rate for November to January inched down to 6.0 percent, hitting a six-year low due to increased employment in farming, hotels and restaurants during the southern hemisphere summer, the government’s statistics agency said on Thursday.
The unemployment rate was forecast to have remained at 6.1 percent, according to the median response of 11 analysts and economists polled by Reuters.
The rate for November 2011 to January 2012 was 6.6 percent. The last time the jobless rate fell to 6.0 percent was in October-December 2006.
The data reaffirms Chile’s brisk economic performance, buoyed by booming domestic demand and firm investment.
The country’s central bank has kept its key interest rate on hold since a surprise cut in January 2012 as it weighs this strong local performance against global economic risks.
Also on Thursday, the government announced manufacturing production grew 4.3 percent in January from a year ago chiefly due to growth in the food industry, beating a Reuters forecast.
Chile’s small, open economy has generally fared better than expected despite easing commodities demand from top trade partner China and fallout from the euro zone’s debt crisis.


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UK buyout firm opens in France
NBGI Private Equity, a UK-based buyout firm which focuses on small to mid-market businesses, has launched an operation in France, where private equity activity has intensified since the start of the year.
NBGI’s French unit will focus on buyouts and recapitalisations of small to medium-sized companies as well as growth equity investments. It plans to write equity cheques of between €3m ($5m) to €15m.
Riebel joins NBGI from restructuring specialist NewBridge Partners, which he co-founded.
Allégot joins from SPEF LBO, a subsidiary of Natixis Private Equity where he was a managing director.
The team will focus on investments in light industrial manufacturing and services, construction materials, businesses services, consumer products, healthcare, agri-businesses and retail sectors.
NBGI generated a six times return in June from the sale of Hamworthy Heating to French engineering business Atlantic. It was the seventh exit from NBGI’s debut fund and generated an internal rate of return of 38%. NBGI’s debut fund has exited more than half its investments at an average IRR of 65% year on year, and a cumulative return of 6.7 times the money invested.
Buyout activity in the French market has intensified since January. Four bidders, including Axa Private Equity, are in the midst of a battle to acquire business services group Socotec, while sovereign fund Qatar Investment Authority last month fought off buyout groups to buy engineering group Cegelec in a €1.6bn deal. Also last month, LBO France bought a stake in power conversion company Converteam in a €2bn deal.


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iQOO’s next phone, the iQOO 11 5G, is set to be released by the end of 2022, according to rumors. Aside from that, news has been steadily coming out about this device, including not only its specifications but also some of its color options. The company plans to launch two different models, the iQOO 11 5G and 11 Pro 5G– one with a 6.75-inch display and another with a 6.4-inch display. Both devices will have an in-display fingerprint sensor powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC mobile platform.
In addition to the new flagship chipset, iQOO’s upcoming device will also have an upgraded camera setup with triple rear cameras. LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage are also reportedly included in the machine. The new flagship device from iQOO is likely to be released in December or later, according to the release schedule provided by Global Sources.
Regarding the hardware, we still do not have the final confirmation of what it will pack. However, we can speculate that it will include the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC chipset, which was recently announced.
This new chip has been claimed to have 40% power savings over its predecessor and unlock more than 60% more performance than the current SoC on mobile devices while providing a longer battery life. It sounds fantastic, but only time will tell whether this is true.
The upcoming iQOO11 5G display is expected to be larger than its predecessor. Not only that, but the resolution is also likely to increase significantly. Rumors suggest the device will include a 6.75-inch display with a resolution of 3200 x 1440 pixels (QHD+) and a 19:9 aspect ratio.
It is also likely that it will have an AMOLED screen with a 144 Hz refresh rate and will support mature 3D gesture recognition technology such as AirActive Touch and AirLift Display.
The iQOO 11 5G will also likely include a triple-rear camera setup. The three rear cameras will probably be of different sizes and have a 50MP primary camera sensor with an f/1.9 aperture, a 13MP ultrawide camera, and an 8MP macro sensor with an f/2.4 aperture.
It is possible that the three rear cameras will have F1.5/F2.4 apertures, optical image stabilization, and a dual LED flash and shall support 4K video recording at 60 fps, full HD shooting at 240 fps, and slow-motion recording at 720p HD resolution.
The iQOO 11 5G should also boast 4K video recording capabilities for its front-facing camera. The handset will come with a 16-megapixel front camera for taking selfies.
The new iQOO flagship is expected to pack a larger battery than the one currently featured in the regular variant of the iQOO 11 phones. Based on the leaks, it has been claimed that the smartphone will pack a massive 5000 mAh battery unit.
The company claims to have incorporated numerous battery-saving technologies in its new flagship, including more efficient power management, software-based gestures, and AI-based tools.
Also, the Neo 7 SE is expected to have some of the same features, but the chipset will differ.
There is no official launch date or announcement by iQOO for its upcoming flagship model. We will update you with any more reports or leaks about iQOO 11 5G in the coming days.
Isle of Man Edition and Track Edition is the two colour options for the iQOO 11 launch. We see a Red Crimson Color in the leaked images.
Should You Buy this device?
The device’s specs are excellent, and the battery life is a massive boost, but there are many things to consider before picking up this phone. The price has not been announced yet, and since there was an earlier leak about this device, it is expected to be a little expensive.
With such a costly price tag for the device, you also need to consider that iQOO does not have an excellent record regarding its recent launches.


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The Zambian government has decided to reissue the call for tenders for the execution of the digital migration process, reaffirming its commitment to adhering to the 2015 deadline.
6 Dec 2013 11:46
The fourth annual PwC South Africa Entertainment and Media Outlook was launched recently and I caught up with Vicki Myburgh, Entertainment & Media Industries Leader for PwC Southern Africa.
By Danette Breitenbach 29 Nov 2013 15:01
The African Media Leaders Forum in Addis Ababa last week ended on a weak note: Politicians want the media to generate a new, positive African narrative, different from the one that had been imposed for so long from the West. It is a tired line.
By Anton Harber 15 Nov 2013 06:33
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
Moving Tactics, the leading South African digital signage solutions company, has partnered with Hungry Lion, one of the fastest growing Quick-Service Restaurants (QSR) in South Africa, to implement a dynamic digital signage solution within their stores in South Africa and Africa. Hungry Lion, part of the Shoprite Holdings Ltd Group, has had a presence in Africa for some time and is continuing to grow their footprint on the continent with the first phase of new stores being opened in Zambia.
Issued by Moving Tactics 29 Oct 2013 17:02
Is Africa the Dark Continent when it comes to the advertising industry? On the contrary, says Alan Edgar, Regional Creative Director, Ogilvy Africa and one of regional judges for African and Middle Eastern categories at this year's Loeries. It's alive and vibrant, but in dire need of world-class tertiary training institutions to tap into that potential.
By Staff Reporter 21 Sep 2013 14:25
Y&R is committed to having 20 agencies by 2015 on the African continent. Leading the charge to achieve this is Yossi Schwartz, chairman of Y&R South Africa, now also chairman of Y&R Africa. To find out what that means, I caught up with him before he raced off to Lagos, Nigeria, on his mission.
By Danette Breitenbach 5 Sep 2013 05:42
MTN on Wednesday (14 August) reported a 22% rise in headline earnings per share to 654c for the six months to June‚ up from 536c a year ago. Diluted headline earnings rose to 649c from 532c.
14 Aug 2013 13:05
First National Bank (FNB) Zambia recently launched their Solwezi branch in a ceremony attended by the Minister of North Western Province, Nathaniel Mubukwanu, who officiated as the guest of honour.
14 Jun 2013 14:45
Amid continuing calls to increase primary school enrolment in Africa, a new report urges greater emphasis on the quality of what students learn. The Africa Progress Panel, a policy think tank chaired by Kofi Annan, former UN secretary-general, noted in September that "many of the children in school are receiving an education of such abysmal quality that they are learning very little."
By Kingsley Ighobor 15 Apr 2013 09:37
Population growth, rapid urbanisation, adoption of new technologies, unlocking of abundant resources and the deepening of the financial sector are the five major trends that are set to drive Africa's economic growth, Simon Freemantle, Standard Bank Africa senior analyst, told a media roundtable in Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday, Thursday 6 October 2011.
By Issa Sikiti da Silva: @sikitimedia 7 Oct 2011 09:56
The Loerie Awards has introduced a PR category to this year's awards. Public Relations Industry of Southern Africa (PRISA) spokesperson Bridget von Holdt believes the move is indicative of the importance of strategic communication in the overall communication mix and that the inclusion of PR exposes other industries to the real value of strategic communication and its vital role in brand management.
20 Apr 2011 13:11
The housemates of the second edition of Big Brother Africa were unveiled to members of the press and other invited guests on Sunday, 5 August 2007, at the Bar Royal, Planet one, Maryland, Lagos.
By Emeka Enyadike 8 Aug 2007 09:28
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John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin are amongst 17 authors suing OpenAI for “systematic theft on a mass scale,” the newest in a wave of authorized motion by writers involved that synthetic intelligence packages are utilizing their copyrighted works with out permission.
In papers filed Tuesday in federal courtroom in New York, the authors alleged “flagrant and dangerous infringements of plaintiffs’ registered copyrights” and known as the ChatGPT program a “large business enterprise” that’s reliant upon “systematic theft on a mass scale.”
The swimsuit was organized by the Authors Guild and in addition consists of David Baldacci, Sylvia Day, Jonathan Franzen and Elin Hilderbrand amongst others.
“It’s crucial that we cease this theft in its tracks or we’ll destroy our unbelievable literary tradition, which feeds many different artistic industries within the U.S.,” Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger stated in an announcement. “Nice books are usually written by those that spend their careers and, certainly, their lives, studying and perfecting their crafts. To protect our literature, authors should have the power to regulate if and the way their works are utilized by generative AI.”
The lawsuit cites particular ChatGPT searches for every creator, similar to one for Martin that alleges this system generated “an infringing, unauthorized, and detailed define for a prequel” to “A Recreation of Thrones” that was titled “A Daybreak of Direwolves” and used “the identical characters from Martin’s current books within the collection “A Track of Ice and Fireplace.”
In an announcement Wednesday, an OpenAI spokesperson stated that the corporate respects “the rights of writers and authors, and imagine they need to profit from AI know-how.
“We’re having productive conversations with many creators all over the world, together with the Authors Guild, and have been working cooperatively to grasp and talk about their considerations about AI. We’re optimistic we’ll proceed to seek out mutually helpful methods to work collectively to assist folks make the most of new know-how in a wealthy content material ecosystem,” the assertion reads.
Earlier this month, a handful of authors together with Michael Chabon and David Henry Hwang sued OpenAI in San Francisco for “clear infringement of mental property.”
In August, OpenAI requested a federal choose in California to dismiss two related lawsuits, one involving comic Sarah Silverman and one other from creator Paul Tremblay. In a courtroom submitting, OpenAI stated the claims “misconceive the scope of copyright, failing to keep in mind the restrictions and exceptions (together with honest use) that correctly go away room for improvements like the big language fashions now on the forefront of synthetic intelligence.”
Writer objections to AI have helped lead Amazon.com, the nation’s largest e-book retailer, to vary its insurance policies on e-books. The net big is now asking writers who need to publish by way of its Kindle Direct Program to inform Amazon upfront that they’re together with AI-generated materials. Amazon can also be limiting authors to 3 new self-published books on Kindle Direct per day, an effort to limit the proliferation of AI texts.


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A new partnership between credit information provider CRIF and BMW Financial Services will help drive instant decisions on lending applications and make the purchasing experience smoother.
CRIF will supply BMW Financial Services and its associated brands with advanced open banking services across hundreds of UK vehicle retailers, to power seamless credit checks for car finance.
Open banking-powered credit checks provide a more comprehensive picture of an applicant’s true creditworthiness, meaning people – who might previously have been turned down – will be accepted for a loan without any extra risk for the lender.
In turn, customers will be able to access car finance more easily, benefitting from faster decisions, with financial products tailored to them and appropriate for their current financial circumstances.
CRIF believes it will also help retailers approve more borrowers, thanks to a holistic, enhanced view of an applicant’s creditworthiness.
In the US, CRIF’s Indirect Lending Service has helped thousands of car dealers and lenders make loan approvals faster, more accurate and virtually paperless. CRIF technology has resulted in a 7.5% increase in consumer lending across all geographies and customers, with an 11.9% decrease in risk for consumers.
Sara Costantini, regional director for UK & Ireland at CRIF, said: “We’re seeing the UK car industry brush off the impacts of the pandemic and return to strong growth. Our partnership with BMW Financial Services in the UK will support this, helping more people to access the finance they need when buying a new motor.
“By utilising open banking transaction data, BMW Financial Services accesses more accurate consumer insights and extends its services to those who may have a thin credit file, due to living abroad for example, or those with non-traditional income patterns, such as those working in the growing gig economy.
“Ultimately, this will help UK consumers to access the finance they need without extra risk, with the potential to increase sales for hundreds of BMW dealers and associated brands across the country.”


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San Fransisco, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/14/2012 -- Over the past few years, cloud computing has played an increasingly dominant role in the world of technology. Today, businesses across the world are experiencing the benefits of cloud computing, including convenience and cost-savings.
But cloud computing is not a static industry. The world of cloud computing changes on a daily basis, and one website seeks to keep UK business owners updated about the latest advancements in the field. CloudServerNews.co.uk features quality editorial content on all the latest advancements from the world of cloud computing.
A spokesperson for the website explained how Cloud Server News helps visitors make an informed decision about cloud hosting:Cloud Server News
“Our website features news that will appeal to several broad groups of people. Business owners can use the site to learn how to save money through cloud computing, and cloud service providers can use our site to discover what kinds of technological advancements will be arriving in the near future.”
But CloudServerNews.co.uk is far more than just a news aggregator. The website also has resources for those who know very little about cloud computing. A list of frequently asked questions answers queries like “What is cloud hosting?” and “What is a public cloud?”
A spokesperson explained why it’s important for the website to cater to businesses and individuals of all levels of knowledge about cloud computing:
“Although cloud computing has been around for several years, we understand that not everybody fully understands what it is. And even those who have a rudimentary knowledge of cloud computing might not understand the difference between public clouds, private clouds, and hybrid clouds. Our website is designed to teach visitors about these topics while providing the latest industry news.”
The website also keeps visitors up-to-date on the latest news about infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), which is the most popular type of public cloud hosting. With infrastructure-as-a-service hosting plans, the host provides virtual or physical machines for the client as well as an operating system platform controlled through the cloud. It’s the most basic form of cloud computing available today, and it’s a system that is helping business owners across the United Kingdom save money by avoiding the high costs of physical server space.
Whether currently using cloud computing to save money or interested in learning about the benefits of cloud hosting for the first time, CloudServerNews.co.uk wants visitors to use the website to learn everything they need to know about cloud computing and its cost-saving benefits.
CloudServerNews.co.uk offers information about cloud computing in the United Kingdom. The website also features articles about the latest news from the cloud computing industry. For more information, please visit: http://www.cloudservernews.co.uk


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The process will start slowly, with food only available via delivery or through drive-throughs.
The news comes after McDonald’s reopened some of its points of sale in France solely for driving.
The Irish Farmers Journal reports that the original plan would have closed restaurants until July, but that date has been brought forward.
McDonald’s closed its restaurants on March 23 to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
It had originally planned to continue serving take-out, delivery orders and car trips, but was completely closed to protect staff.
“It is not a decision that we take lightly, but a decision taken taking into account the well-being and safety of our employees as well as in the best interest of our customers”, explained at the time a communicated.
“We will be working with local community groups to responsibly distribute food and drink to our restaurants in the coming days. “
But since it closed, a number of competitors have again opened stores cautiously.
So far, KFC, Nandos, Five Guys, Pret and many others have all said that some branches will open to the public again.
However, all have placed heavy restrictions, including operating for delivery only or just near NHS sites.
In France, people queued for hours to order Big Macs again in one of the reopened restaurants.
To help ensure safety, staff were seen wearing face masks and refusing cash payments.
Out of 1,490 McDonald’s restaurants in France, only 30 of them reopened their service by car.


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[THE INVESTOR] Mobile payment is all the rage, with big tech firms such as Samsung and Apple competing head-on to win the burgeoning market. However, the current solutions running on QR code, Bluetooth or NFC seem to have not yet secured a firm footing because, among other things, they require storeowners to install extra machines to read different signals.
Korean startup Mobidoo has come up with a brand new solution to iron out these issues -- using ultrasonic sound waves, the high-pitched sounds that are inaudible to humans.
The solution picks up ultrasonic signals from all machines attached with speakers or microphone receivers, turning your TVs, phones and fridges into credit card readers.
There are also no security concerns as the signals do not contain any sensitive information of the credit card holder. According to the firm, the ultrasonic waves are safeguarded by the tokenization security technology, which replaces sensitive data components with non-sensitive ones under strict security controls.
“More than 4 billion devices will be connected by 2020, while the current network technologies like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth have limitations in connecting the devices due to high costs,” Mobidoo CEO David Lee told The Investor in a recent interview.
“Using ultrasonic technology will make the connection of all devices a lot easier,” he said, adding that the solution could be used more widely for user authentication in the era of Internet of Things that connects all machines, including smartphones and cars, via the Web.
Prior to establishing his own startup in August 2013, Lee, a former consultant at IBM, worked at Samsung for 2 1/2 years. His key role was searching for promising startups in Silicon Valley for the Korean tech giant to invest or take over.
“During years of monitoring and screening new technologies and startups, I myself wanted to create something new to make an impact on society,” Lee said. “So, I jumped into the startup scene a month after I quit Samsung.”
Recognized for its technology, Mobidoo attracted a combined 1.5 billion won (US$1.32 million) from Lotte Members, Samsung NEXT and Capstone Partners this year alone. Especially, the firm became the first Korean startup to get funding, worth US$300,000, from Samsung NEXT, Samsung’s investment arm.
Mobidoo's solution picks up ultrasonic signals from almost all machines attached with speakers or microphone receivers.
Samsung has acquired a slew of payment and IoT companies in recent years, including US mobile payment system firm LoopPay, the company behind Samsung Pay, IoT technology firm SmartThings and the artificial intelligence system developer Viv Labs.
The CEO said Mobidoo like other startups is also open to merger and acquisition opportunities with bigger rivals for long-term growth.
“The firm’s business model is seeking growth through collaboration rather than doing everything on our own,” he stressed.
Mobidoo’s solution has already been deployed in Lotte Group’s mobile payment solution L.Pay to be used at the retail giant’s department and supermarket stores across the nation.
The firm is also setting its eyes on overseas markets such as Indonesia and Finland. It is currently running a pilot project with a Finnish bank to develop a mobile payment system.
By Kim Young-won (email@example.com)
The Investor Profile
Founded: August 2013
Description: Mobidoo develops an ultrasonic wave solution for mobile payment, user authentication and connection of electronic devices.
Founder/CEO: David Lee
Funding: About US$15 million in 2017
►700 million won (US$620,457) from Lotte Members
►500 million won from venture capital firm Capstone Partners
►US$300,000 from Samsung NEXT


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Phone makers may be forced to provide 7 years of updates in this one market
- A new German government proposal calls on smartphone brands to offer seven years of security updates.
- This is two years longer than the EU’s own stated proposals.
Samsung has led the way for Android smartphone updates in recent times, promising three years of OS updates as well as four years of security patches for its most notable devices. This is a major step in the right direction, but it looks like the German government wants manufacturers to go even further.
Germany is now pushing for smartphone manufacturers to deliver seven years of security patches and spare part availability, Heise Online reports. A government spokesperson also told the outlet that spare parts should be made available “at a reasonable price.” This proposed commitment to security updates is two years longer than the European Commission’s own stated proposals.
In any event, most smartphone brands only offer three years of security updates right now. So even the European Commission’s five-year proposal is a major leap over the status quo.
Heise Online adds that industry association DigitalEurope, which represents the likes of Samsung, HUAWEI, and Apple, is pushing back against Germany’s proposal. More specifically, the association is proposing that three years of security patches and two years of OS updates remain the required standard.
It’s worth noting that security update commitments aren’t solely on smartphone brands, as chipset manufacturers and carriers can also act as bottlenecks for update pledges. So we hope these players are also on board with longer update pledges. It also stands to reason that more markets could get seven years of patches if manufacturers are indeed forced to deliver this commitment in Germany.
Do you think smartphone manufacturers need to offer more than three years of security updates? Let us know via the poll below.


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The participants noted the revolutionary nature of artificial intelligence and its multifaceted applications in the development of computer chips. Karl Freund of Moor Insights & Strategy told of an instance in which an AI program placed chip components “in [a] completely unintuitive manner,” but nonetheless resulted in lower power usage and a smaller chip size. This result, Freund said, is “game changing.”
Arun Venkatachar, Synopsys’ vice president of AI and central engineering, agreed that the implications of these technologies are effective and far-reaching.
“With the advent of AI and big data, this gives us a new dimension, a new arsenal in our weaponry,” he said. “It’s really the data that’s generating the algorithms now, rather than the other way around.... [AI is] all the way through the [design] food chain, trying to get optimal solutions for these complex problems.”
The comments come after the recent news of Synopsys’ unveiling of the so-called Design Space Optimization program, which uses AI to automate chip design.
“More than two years ago we set out on a fascinating journey to bring AI to chip design, partnering with academic researchers, industry thought leaders, and AI technology pioneers,” said Sassine Ghazi, general manager of the Design Group at Synopsys. “...our journey in AI is only just beginning."
Numerous product rollouts have come out of the AI Hardware Summit since its founding in 2018. In 2019, Vicor unveiled its Vicor Power-on-Package solutions, which Vicor says brings “modular approach to power conversion and regulation, offering a high level of integration, advanced low-noise switching topologies and thermally adept packaging.” This year, machine learning company Groq featured their Tensor Streaming processor, which, according to HPCwire, “seeks to reduce some of the overhead (instructions) required to use general purpose microprocessors by physically moving and reorganizing functional elements.”
Synopsys and AI Chip Market Worth
Synopsys has been around since 1986, and has since grown to over $3 million in revenue over the last twelve months and a net income of about $532 million. Current projections estimate that Synopsys’ stock price will grow by about seven percent in the coming year.
The artificial intelligence chip market is expected to grow by 45.2% in the next five years. The market was worth $6,638 million in 2018, and is anticipated to be valued at as much as $91,185 million by 2025.
The artificial intelligence industry is widely considered to be one of the largest emerging markets in the world, and each leading country is racing to gain a foothold in the industry. And while the United States holds a leading position with homegrown companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon trailblazing the artificial intelligence industry, countries like China, Canada, and Israel are leveraging the technology for governmental and private sector use.
The uses of artificial intelligence for these countries cannot be overstated. For Israel’s private sector, the autonomous car company Mobileye seeks to unseat Tesla as the leader in self-driving automobiles by using artificial intelligence. Intel bought the company for $15 billion shortly after. According to Science | Business, “37 percent of the total capital raised last year was for AI companies” in Israel.
For the Israeli government, the way forward is investment in Israel’s thriving startup economy. The country’s investment in such technologies through the National Cyber Initiative has served to make Israel a leader in cyberdefense, which Israel National Cyber Directorate Head Yigal Unna calls a necessity.
“It happened when we noticed cyberattacks on states, like Estonia and later in Georgia, and even the mishap that happened to the centrifuges in Iran,” Sunna told Israel Hayom. “This process made us acutely aware of the fact that it [cyber] had the potential of becoming a battlefield."
The advancements made by companies like Synopsys will, in all likelihood, serve to make the systems that power these services even more intuitive and functional. By using artificial intelligence to drive innovations in chips, companies in the United States and abroad will drive technological advancements for generations to come.
About the Author
Elijah Labby is a graduate of the National Journalism Center. He has previously written for Broadband Breakfast, a technology and internet policy website.


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There was a little more optimism in the market this week for those trading packaging plastics.
But it was a much tougher market for those in the paper sector who struggled to move material.
In metals, copper was up by £200 per tonne, but the rest of the scrap metal market was stable.
More on all of this in the specific sections below.
The pound was down just a touch on last week at $1.397 compared to $1.405 this time last week, but this wasn’t enough to make much difference.
Prices for shipping containers doesn’t appear to have changed much for March, but those who are exporting are still waiting to see whether there will be any availability disruption as a result of Chinese New Year.
With some schools also off this week for half-term in the UK, it also added another element to make the market quieter overall.
However, despite it being a quiet market, we have largely completed both January and February trading, and following the Chinese ban, material is still moving. Indeed, as we begin the run-up to Easter, there is some optimism that we may have hit the bottom in the market, and that there will be some improvement in conditions in the coming weeks.
Packaging grades got a little boost this week with £5 per tonne added to each of them.
The reason for this appears to be that end destination recyclers were flooded with material after Christmas and were struggling to process it all.
However, most of that material has now been dealth with helping to add a bit more liquidity into the market.
Demand has definitely improved, at least for the short term, helped by the strength of the global economy bringing more buyers into the frame.
European demand from manufacturers there remains good, while Asian destinations are also opening up a bit more again for good quality material.
The increasing PRN price for plastic, just below £60 per tonne is also helping.
See plastic pricing data at the bottom of the page here
The market was almost asleep this week as many reported trading volumes to be very low.
Those with material to sell were finding spot market orders from export or domestic sources were not there.
Or there was a stand-off with buyers offering extremely low prices with sellers refusing to take them up.
OCC came off again losing its gains from last week and more, while mixed lost a further £3 per tonne to fall below £10.
For OCC though, quality was king, and retail tonnage was able to attract up to £70 per tonne.
However, there is some optimism that March might bring a better market, with Chinese New Year appearing to delay purchasing for the month by a week. It is also hoped that improved quotas may be issued following the break from the Chinese Government.
See paper pricing data at the bottom of the page here
Copper grades improved on the back of extra demand being seen on the LME. Improving economic demand for copper from growing global economies is helping to boost demand.
Other metals were stable this week.
See metal pricing data at the bottom of the page here


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BitPay Inc. and Verifone Inc are looking forward to securing a deal
BitPay Inc. and Verifone Inc. are looking forward to securing a deal to provide physical points of sale in various shops across the U.S. According to Bloomberg, the newest Verifone points of sale will include payment with cryptocurrencies. Merchants across the country will be able to receive tokens and coins from various cryptocurrency wallets. The terms were not disclosed.
The partnership with Bitpay will allow the company to solve the main problem within the crypto industry: volatility. BitPay uses its own technology to protect merchants from the volatile nature of cryptocurrency, which allows them to sell for a specified price as with fiat currencies. Once the transaction is completed, merchants will be able to receive money directly from their bank accounts.
Bitpay already processes more than 60,000 transactions in a month. The CEO of Verifone, Mike Pulli, stated that the company is looking forward to giving users options and allowing them to pay for goods that they buy daily with cryptocurrencies or other digital assets.
Previously, another large company, Twitter, implemented cryptocurrency payments on its website, joining a group of companies that work in favor of crypto adoption in the “real world.” According to Pulli, merchants are more than happy to accept payments in cryptocurrencies and are already lining up for the products. Some brands, like Macy’s, Taco Bell and Whole Foods are welcoming customers with cryptocurrencies.
The partnership details have not yet been disclosed from both sides.
Binance’s Trading Volume Hits $100 Billion in Just One Day
Binance continues to see unprecedent trading activity while attempting to sail through regulatory hurdles
Binance’s daily volume hit an eye-popping $100 billion on Oct. 20, according to a tweet by CEO Changpeng Zhao.
The leading crypto exchange recorded this crucial milestone on the day Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, reached a new all-time high of $67,276.
Despite introducing stricter measures for users due to severe regulatory scrutiny, Binance enjoys a comfortable lead over other crypto exchanges in both spot and derivatives trading, according to data provided by CoinMarketCap.
Eerier this month, the trading platform also announced a $1 billion ecosystem fund.
Meanwhile, the decentralized finance sector is catching up with centralized behemoths. The total value locked in DeFi protocols has hit $100 billion for the first time.
Binance Smart Chain DeFi protocol PancakeHunny suffers flash loan attack
As the users argue “what’s better,” Ethereum or Binance Smart Chain, the latter saw another decentralized protocol being exploited. PancakeHunny on BSC was attacked by a flashloan and no, this wasn’t a first for the protocol.
Blockchain security and data analytics company Peckshield Inc. announced the attack on Twitter.
The last time that this protocol was exploited, was in June, wherein the team had noted the creation of a smart contract to exploit the Hunny Minter Smart Contract. The contract was subsequently executed 91 times, as per the team.
The team took a long time to respond to the hack this time but assured the users that their funds were safe. The team added in a preliminary report,
“On 20 October 2021, at 0920 UTC. A smart contract was created to exploit the Hunny TUSD vault. The Contract was subsequently executed 26 times.”
PeckShield provided some details about the same noting,
According to the agency, this hack was possible due to a profit inflation bug, which converts the relatively small amount of harvested ALPACA, to a large amount of TUSD for staking. PeckShield added,
“These converted TUSDs are then counted as profit, now inflated to mint large amount of $HUNNY!”
Actions taken by the team
The PancakeHunny team has stopped the minting process for the TUSD vault while assuring that funds in Hives were all SAFE. The exploit did not affect other Hives and Vaults but the price of HUNNY.
They added that the issue has been identified and the team will change its rooting to higher liquidity pools to prevent the aftereffects of price manipulation of LP pools.
NBA Makes Coinbase Its Exclusive Crypto Partner
Coinbase has joined FTX in scoring major partnerships in the sports industry
The National Basketball Association has announced a multi-year deal with Coinbase, America’s biggest crypto trading platform in an Oct. 19 press release.
Coinbase will act as the exclusive partner of the NBA, NBA G League, Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), and other leagues.
As part of the deal, the exchange will have a brand presence during televised games as well as unique content and activations that are meant to boost crypto awareness.
Kate Rouch, Coinbase’s chief marketing officer, says that the company is proud of joining forces with the NBA:
The freedom to participate and benefit from the things you believe in is at the heart of Coinbase’s mission. Nobody believes this more than NBA and WNBA fans. We’re proud to become the Leagues’ official cryptocurrency partner.
The shares of Coinbase are up roughly 3% at press time.


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Amazon, Big Basket, Grofers and Flipkart have curtailed home deliveries. The run on essential items in supermarkets has reached a new high. As consumers panic due to stuck shipments and order delays, companies are scrambling to make sense of the supply-chain disruption due to the Coronavirus.
On the fulfillment and logistics side, e-commerce players were announcing delivery delays last week caused by spikes in online ordering related to coronavirus concerns, with the surge straining capacity. The 21-day shutdown has, however, derailed things.
As on March 23, e-commerce majors reported a record 230 per cent increase in return-to-origin (RTO), according to data from logistics intelligence platform Clickpost.
RTO refers to the non-deliverability of a package and its return to the seller's address.
Noting that logistics is the lifeline of the country, employing 40 million people and contributing $200 billion to the economy (prior to the Covid-19 pandemic), the report by Clickpost and Shadowfax states that order-fulfilment has become an industry-wide challenge.
Data showed stuck shipments (pertaining to orders for which no scan is done at a warehouse for more than 2-3 days) was at 9 per cent, while order delays (orders that have breached the expected delivery date) surged 21 per cent between March 10-20, as compared to the historical average for last month.
Delivery percentages notched a clear decline of 9 per cent during the same period.
What China did
In China, in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak, e-commerce reportedly drove the Asian country's stay-at-home economy. While Alibaba and Tencent-backed JD.com registered huge online sales of grocery, fresh produce and other essentials during the quarantine, it drove up the country's online retail sales of physical goods by 3 per cent to over 1 trillion yuan in the first two months of 2020.
Given its strong logistics network, China's online grocery market is now expected to grow 62.9 per cent in 2020 as compared to 29.2 per cent growth in 2019, according to a March 17 report by iiMedia Research.
Though a recent study in India had pegged 10.5 per cent annual growth for the logistics market, expected to reach $215 billion by the end of 2020, the Coronavirus appears to have put paid to some of these projections.
Experts state that the logistics sector will have to undergo a course correction, even as e-commerce companies expect the consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak to negatively impact operations.
Doubling down on its efforts earlier in the month, logistics aggregator LetsTransport has been working on an ‘All cities’ business continuity plan', realising the criticality of maintaining uninterrupted supply chains during this crucial time.
Conducting mock drills and dry runs across 15 cities, including rotational shifts for on-ground staff, as part of contingency measures to contain the impact of the pandemic, the aggregrator has been working with its driver-partner network to ensure operations are least impacted.
Many e-commerce players are also utilising the “stuck period” to work with brand partners to forecast demand and effectively plan the supply chain so as to minimise out-of-stock exposure on their portals as and when demand resumes.
And resume it will. Digital platform Payoneer, which streamlines commerce, expects consumer demand to return in the long term and supply chains to stabilise, despite estimates of first-quarter sales volume plummeting between 20-50 per cent.
Payoneer has suggested e-commerce businesses lean on service providers from across the entire ecosystem to try and minimise losses at this time and has asked businesses to take the time to ensure redundancy and crisis-planning in every step of their value chain.
Pointing out that most marketplaces have been recommending best practices to e-commerce businesses such as selecting longer shipping time options and increasing the frequency of communication with buyers, the agency said some marketplaces have also been enacting policies to protect sellers from logistics delays, while a select few have waived penalties for refunds, which are also on the rise.


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Wall Street analysts expect Aptiv PLC (NYSE:APTV) to post sales of $3.37 billion for the current fiscal quarter, Zacks reports. Five analysts have provided estimates for Aptiv’s earnings, with the lowest sales estimate coming in at $3.28 billion and the highest estimate coming in at $3.45 billion. Aptiv reported sales of $4.29 billion during the same quarter last year, which indicates a negative year over year growth rate of 21.4%. The firm is scheduled to announce its next earnings results on Wednesday, May 2nd.
On average, analysts expect that Aptiv will report full year sales of $3.37 billion for the current year, with estimates ranging from $13.58 billion to $14.10 billion. For the next fiscal year, analysts anticipate that the firm will report sales of $14.70 billion per share, with estimates ranging from $14.34 billion to $15.08 billion. Zacks Investment Research’s sales averages are an average based on a survey of research firms that follow Aptiv.
Aptiv (NYSE:APTV) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The auto parts company reported $1.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.33 by ($0.05). Aptiv had a return on equity of 50.01% and a net margin of 8.27%. The business had revenue of $3.44 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.31 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.83 EPS. Aptiv’s revenue was up 7.7% on a year-over-year basis.
In related news, SVP David Paja sold 6,287 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.08, for a total transaction of $578,906.96. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Frank J. Dellaquila acquired 500 shares of Aptiv stock in a transaction on Friday, February 9th. The shares were bought at an average price of $86.50 per share, for a total transaction of $43,250.00. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 0.32% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Aptiv during the 4th quarter valued at $2,049,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in Aptiv during the 4th quarter valued at $2,394,000. Dixon Hubard Feinour & Brown Inc. VA bought a new position in Aptiv during the 4th quarter valued at $263,000. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new position in Aptiv during the 4th quarter valued at $14,141,000. Finally, Intercontinental Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Aptiv in the 4th quarter worth about $267,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.50% of the company’s stock.
Shares of Aptiv stock traded down $2.08 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $83.82. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,578,401 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,774,427. Aptiv has a 1-year low of $61.73 and a 1-year high of $96.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $22,389.03, a P/E ratio of 18.06, a PEG ratio of 1.22 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17.
Aptiv PLC, formerly Delphi Automotive PLC, is a global technology company serving the automotive sector. The Company designs and manufactures vehicle components, and provides electrical and electronic and active safety technology solutions to the global automotive and commercial vehicle markets. The Company’s segments include Electrical/Electronic Architecture, and Electronics & Safety.
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Future Group has decided to remain and trade in only three industries – food, fashion and home.
Future Group is reasonably strong in all these categories. Its first aim is to retain market share in the organised food and grocery market.
The company will vertically integrate these and increase efficiency to profit customers. Through Retail 3.0, it developed an ecosystem to decipher how it would use data, its wallet and its finances.
Future Group has its own products, factories and supply chains. It did a tie-up with Bajaj for credit; this way, through alliances, it developed an ecosystem in which technology can be used to provide the customers things from the ecosystem.
Future Group seems to be the right candidate for global players trying to win physical retail space. Over the past six years, the company has acquired half a dozen supermarket store chains and put together a total retail space of 13.6 million sq ft, with a presence in 255 cities through 930 stores. Only Reliance Retail comes close to Future Group’s national presence.
Nearly 10 per cent to 15 per cent customers are acquired online-to-offline by Future Group which it expects to go up to 35 per cent, especially through online promotions.


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A good sign that US also will increase their rate. Lets buy usdchf
Bank of Canada raises policy rate 25 basis points, continues quantitative tightening
The Bank of Canada today increased its target for the overnight rate to 4¾%, with the Bank Rate at 5% and the deposit rate at 4¾%. The Bank is also continuing its policy of quantitative tightening. Globally, consumer price inflation is coming down, largely reflecting lower energy prices compared to a year ago, but underlying inflation remains stubbornly high. While economic growth around the world is softening in the face of higher interest rates, major central banks are signalling that interest rates may have to rise further to restore price stability. In the United States, the economy is slowing, although ... (full story)
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BOC STATEMENT REMOVES APRIL LANGUAGE ABOUT HOW BANK IS PREPARED TO RAISE RATES FURTHER IF NEEDED.— Breaking Market News (@financialjuice) June 7, 2023
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BOC: UNDERLYING INFLATION REMAINS STUBBORNLY HIGH GLOBALLY, MAJOR CENTRAL BANKS ARE SIGNALING THAT RATES MIGHT HAVE TO RISE FURTHER TO RESTORE PRICE STABILITY.— Breaking Market News (@financialjuice) June 7, 2023
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Basic Element ready to buy 100 % of Russia’s No.2 insurer
Basic Element, the majority shareholder in Russia’s number two insurer, Ingosstrakh, is ready to buy 100 per cent control of the company. Billionaire Oleg Deripaska’s holding is in talks to buy out minority shareholder PPF Investments of the Czech Republi
The ongoing saga about management strategy at Ingosstrakh could soon be resolved.
Basic Element says a legal battle initiated by the Czech-based company has forced it to bid for all of Russia’s second largest insurer.
After months of wrangling over board representation and corporate strategy, Basic Element says it's in negotiations with the Czech company but has not disclosed the price it's offered for the stake.
However, experts say that PPF investments may not want to sell. The Czech company has recently sold a 49 per cent in the subsidiary through which it owns a stake in Ingosstrakh to Italian insurer, Generali.
Russia’s fast- growing insurance market is becoming a magnet for large international insurers, and these often prefer to buy into existing companies than to start their business in new markets from scratch.


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Now that Nvidia has addressed the consumer market with its latest graphics cards based on the “Pascal” architecture, the next solutions in the company’s Pascal rollout addresses the deep neural network market to accelerate machine learning. These solutions arrive in the form of Nvidia’s new Tesla P4 and Tesla P40 accelerator cards to speed up the inferencing production workloads carried out by services that use artificial intelligence.
There are essentially two types of accelerator cards for deep neural networks: training and inference. The former should speak for itself, accelerating the training of a deep neural network before it’s deployed in the field. Inference, however, is the process of providing an input to the deep neural network and having it extract data based on that input. That includes translating speech in real-time and localizing faces in images.
According to Nvidia, the new Tesla P4 and Tesla P40 accelerator cards are designed for inferencing and include specialized inference instructions based on 8-bit operations, making them 45 times faster in response time than an Intel Xeon E5-2690v4 processor. They also provide a 4x improvement over the company’s previous generation of “Maxwell” Tesla cards, the M40 and M4.
The company said this week during its GTC Beijing 2016 conference that the Tesla P4 sports a small form-factor that’s ideal for data centers. It’s 40x more energy efficient than CPUs that are used for inferencing, and a single Tesla P4 server can replace 13 CPU-only servers built for video inferencing workloads. Meanwhile, the Tesla P40 is ideal for deep learning workloads, with a server containing eight of these accelerators able to replace more than 140 CPU-based servers.
Compared to the previous Tesla M40, the new P40 packs more CUDA cores, higher clock speeds, a faster memory clock, a higher single precision of 12 TFLOPS, and a higher number of transistors at 12 billion. However, the power requirement (thermal envelope) stays the same, thus Nvidia has managed to boost the performance-per-watt level without forcing the card to require more power. The same holds true with the slower Tesla P4 model too when compared to the older Tesla M4 card.
“With the Tesla P100 and now Tesla P4 and P40, NVIDIA offers the only end-to-end deep learning platform for the data center, unlocking the enormous power of AI for a broad range of industries,” said Ian Buck, general manager of accelerated computing at Nvidia. “They slash training time from days to hours. They enable insight to be extracted instantly. And they produce real-time responses for consumers from AI-powered services.”
Nvidia revealed the Tesla P100 during its local GTC 2016 conference five months ago. This card is ideal for accelerating neural network training, delivering a performance increase of more than 12 times compared to the previous generation Maxwell-based solution. Again, neural networks need to be trained first before they’re deployed into the field, and the new Tesla card speeds up the process, cutting AI training down from weeks to days.
In addition to the two new Tesla cards, Nvidia also launched TensorRT, a library for “optimizing deep learning models for production deployment.” The company also introduced the Nvidia DeepStream SDK for simultaneously decoding and analyzing up to 93 HD video streams. However, here’s a brief list of hardware details for Nvidia’s two new Tesla cards that are now avaialble:
|Tesla P40||Tesla P4|
|GDDR5 Memory Clock||7.2Gbps||6Gbps|
|Memory Bus Width||384-bit||256-bit|
|Single Precision||12 TFLOPS||5.5 TFLOPS|
|TDP||250 watts||50 to 75 watts|
- How to watch Tesla’s AI Day tonight and what to expect
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- Why AI will never rule the world
- EVGA’s feud with Nvidia gives new options to GPU makers
- Nvidia RTX DLSS: everything you need to know


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As if the temptation to give up on the subway and splurge on an Uber cab weren’t great enough already, Google Maps is now connected to the on-demand rideshare app.
An update of Google Maps released yesterday includes the Uber integration, as well as a few more enhancements. Now, when you look up directions on your device and select the walking or public transportation options, a prompt reading “Get an Uber” is at the bottom of the list of possible routes. The app also highlights the Uber travel time in a bright color, just to reinforce how much time you’d save by taking a car.
As TechCrunch reminds us, Uber is a Google Ventures portfolio company. Google “always maintains its venture arm operates independently from the rest of the organization,” TC says, but we doubt the search giant added the Uber feature out of the goodness of its heart.
If you do click the Uber option, Google Maps will transport you directly to the Uber app. Double-check that surge pricing isn’t in effect, and you’re good to go.
The update also comes with improved driving directions. It’ll tell you which lane to stay in or move to, Google’s blog reports, and provide easier access to alternate routes. It includes offline maps now, too, as long as you plan ahead and save the map ahead of time. This will prove especially clutch for long subway rides.


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Thursday, December 25, 2008
Coraline keys found on building
Lauren Vega spotted a building in Chicago covered in keys. One end of the keys looked like a button and featured the official site's url. More photos at Flickr, and a closeup at Neil Gaiman's site. There's a key on sale at eBay.
*Preorder Coraline toys at Entertainment Earth.


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Maltodextrin, azodicarbonamide — the ingredients in processed foods often read off like pronunciation tongue twisters, but it’s important to understand them.
“You have to look at the ingredients and the quality of ingredients,” says nutritionist Haylie Pomroy, author of the upcoming book “Fast Metabolism Food Rx” (Harmony, Feb. 23).
Here, nutritionists break down which ones should raise a red flag as well as those that sound harmful but are OK to include in your diet.
Bad for you:
Agave nectar: Found in bottled iced tea and granola bars, this sweetener is natural, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy. It can have more fructose — which drives up blood sugar and can serve as a catalyst for weight gain and diabetes — than corn syrup, Pomroy says.
Maltodextrin: Typically corn-derived, this additive is used to thicken everything from crackers to ketchup. “Scientists believe that it has some … addictive properties … it intensifies cravings,” says Pomroy.
Azodicarbonamide: This flour-bleaching agent is used to make breads soft and elastic, but, perhaps disturbingly, it’s also used to do the same for rubber products like yoga mats and flip-flops. Australia and the UK have banned the use of this chemical in food, since it can potentially induce asthma and allergic reactions, and there are calls to ban it in the US.
Soy protein isolate: Used in breakfast cereals and granola bars, this soy plant derivative packs lots of protein, says New York-based nutritionist Tanya Zuckerbrot. The problem: It’s high in isoflavones, compounds that could potentially promote estrogen-sensitive breast cancer when consumed in high doses. Eating moderate amounts, however, is OK.
Titanium dioxide: Used to whiten sweet treats or prevent caking, this chemical was recently ditched by Dunkin’ Donuts in its powdered-sugar pastries, as high quantities of the nanoparticles in the chemical could be potentially harmful.
“A lot of people believe it’s a neurotoxin,” says Pomroy. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety also lists the chemical as a potential human carcinogen.
Potassium bromate: It’s banned in the EU, Canada and Brazil, but is still found in the US, typically in bread. While the additive — which bleaches dough and gives it an elastic texture — is typically cooked out of breads, any remaining amount is potentially carcinogenic.
OK to eat:
Castoreum: This additive found in flavored yogurt, ice cream and candy is actually derived from beavers’ anal glands — gross! — but it’s a safe, natural flavoring, Zuckerbrot says. The compound’s smell and flavor can range from vanilla to honey to strawberry.
Xylitol: This natural sweetener — common in sugar-free gum — is dangerous for dogs, Pomroy says, but safe for humans. “The name sounds very chemical-y,” she says, but xylitol derived from hardwood or beech — not corn — is generally healthy. Though it doesn’t contain fructose, it’s best to limit consumption as it can induce stomach problems like diarrhea if eaten in large amounts.


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Self-driving cars may not hit the road in earnest for many years - but autonomous boats could be just around the pier. Spurred in part by the car industry's race to build driverless vehicles, marine innovators are building automated ferry boats for Amsterdam canals, cargo ships that can steer themselves through Norwegian fjords and remote-controlled ships to carry containers across the Atlantic and Pacific. The first such autonomous ships could be in operation within three years. One experimental workboat spent this summer dodging tall ships and tankers in Boston Harbor, outfitted with sensors and self-navigating software and emblazoned with the words "UNMANNED VESSEL" across its aluminum hull. "We're in full autonomy now," said Jeff Gawrys, a marine technician for Boston startup Sea Machines Robotics, sitting at the helm as the boat floated through a harbor channel.
Ford said it would invest $4 billion through 2023 in its newly formed autonomous vehicle unit, Ford Autonomous Vehicles, as it looks to produce self-driving cars in the next three years. The No. 2 U.S. automaker said the new unit would include self-driving systems integration, autonomous vehicle research and advanced engineering. It will go up against Google parent Alphabet's Waymo, Uber, Tesla and doxens of other into the lucrative market. Ford recently announced a collaboration with Miami-Dade County in Florida to test its self-driving vehicle business model on the streets of Miami and Miami Beach. The No. 2 U.S. automaker said the new unit would include self-driving systems integration, autonomous vehicle research and advanced engineering.
The prospect of self-driving cars is particularly concerning to people who make their living by driving, whether it's a taxi or working for Uber or Lyft. Companies such as Lyft have made no secret about being interesting in adding autonomous vehicles to their fleets. But where does this leave their human drivers? Lyft's product director Taggart Matthiesen told Recode that while the company is focusing on self-driving tech, they will always employ people as drivers. Matthiesen explains that the company already has an advisory board that is working on how human drivers will fit into a vision of a driverless fleet.
Self-driving cars have been a focus for a variety of tech companies, but they've typically been boutique or high-end models that have had to be produced in limited numbers. However, General Motors has made a major investment in its self-driving offerings that could make them easier to produce down the road. GM announced Tuesday it had completed production on 130 Chevy Bolt EVs equipped with self-driving technology. Notably, this group of Bolt EVs is the first to be produced in a mass-production facility. The fleet was produced at GM's factory in Michigan where production began in January.
Like many self-driving car companies, Waymo has an extensive testing and research presence in Arizona. To help with their testing, Waymo has now joined up with an unlikely partner. Waymo announced Monday car rental company Avis Budget Group would help manage its fleet of self-driving cars in the state, Bloomberg reported. As part of the partnership, Avis facilities in Arizona will provide physical maintenance for Waymo's fleet of cars, including tasks like tire and oil changes, but will not care for self-driving hardware on the car like its Lidar sensors for environmental detection. The stock price for Avis Budget Group, the parent company of companies including Avis and Zipcar, jumped to a high of $29.14 per share on news of the partnership.


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Bass considers bid for Westmont
BASS is believed to be eyeing Westmont Hospitality, one of the hotel industry’s biggest privately owned investment companies. A takeover of Westmont would be the first significant move by Bass, since the sale of its brewing arm for £2.3 billion.
Based in Houston, Texas, Westmont has interests in more than 400 hotels worldwide. It was not clear whether Bass is looking at the whole company or just its European division, which has more than 80 hotels.
Westmont, many of whose hotel deals have been jointly funded with Goldman Sachs’s Whitehall Street real estate fund, already has close ties with Bass. It is the biggest European franchisee of Bass’s hotel brands, which include the Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Inter-Continental brands.
Westmont’s European interests include Orion