text:
Chapter 13: Peter Wittwer
- GM’s market share is going down, their market share is projected to decrease from 24% to 20% within the next five years, they are also being forced to buy out employee contracts and pensions, which is costing them billions of dollars.
- – Jerry York is campaigning for the removal of Wagoner his criticisms of GM include no fire or passion in the engineering process, engineers and employees at GM aren’t excited about the production of cars. He also criticizes GM for trying to prevent bankruptcy and make changes when 3/4 of the damage was already done to their company, and he believes GM’s strategy of unloading excess inventory by selling cars at a discounted price to rental companies is like putting a band-aid on a fatal wound.
- Wagoner is carrying out “the plan,” a strategy developed by the best and brightest GM employees to avoid bankruptcy and start to grow again. “The plan,” is to shrink North American operations, improve and diversify the product lineup, and start to grow overseas.
- In 2005, GM was racing to file their annual report with the SEC. Cash flow numbers from the GMAC mortgage business had been misclassified and GM was forced to get an extension. GM management came under a lot of criticism from the board and the media for looking unprepared and foolish. Wagoner’s credibility was brought into question since he was on a business trip to Asia during a time when he should have been in Detroit to deal with the crisis.
- Wagoner decides to approach the board giving them an ultimatum, either give them his support or he will resign. The board minus a few detractors such as Jerry York vote in favor of keeping Wagoner as the CEO and shortly thereafter Wagoner successfully orchestrates the sale of 51% of the share of the GMAC Commercial Real Estate Unit.
- York and Wagoner represent the two extremes of management, who do you think has a more successful approach, the more passive Wagoner who is taking a long term approach to the turnaround of GM, or the aggressive York who only cares about the bottom line and immediate results?
- Was the extension needed on the annual report as big a deal as the board and media made it out to be? Did Wagoner deserve to be put on the hot seat due to such a trivial mistake
- “Now the company was hurting, but Wagoner was convinced it was on the right path. GM would not turn around overnight. It required patience and persistence— something York just did not appear to have.”
- “He described Wagoner as a good guy who sweated the details but too often missed the big picture. ‘It’s basically what’s been wrong with GM for the past thirty years,’ Lutz said. ‘It’s all analytical, businesslike and risk avoidance— keep everything on an even keel at all costs.'”
Chapter 14: Peter Wittwer
- March 31, 2006 Delphi in bankruptcy court, they want to close 21/29 factories in the U.S., cut 1/4 of their workers, freeze pensions, and void all labor agreements. Delphi felt their future was in Brazil, India, and China.
- Gettelfinger and the UAW threaten to fight back with strikes, if Delphi goes under GM will go under, if UAW strikes GM will be crippled and nearly bankrupt.
- Auto manufacturers and the UAW managed to workout a deal. Ford and GM were both allowed to engage in buyout deals with employees, since Gettelfinger realized they were inevitable. However Daimlerchrysler was not given the same break on healthcare since they were turning a profit.
- Jerry York wanted to merge GM with Renault-Nissan and have Carlos Ghosn be the new CEO. The GM-Renault-Nissan merger would have created a three headed monster that could almost monopolize the auto industry and eliminate the growing and serious competition from the Japanese powerhouse Toyota.
- The merger was met with serious hesitation from Wagoner and the rest of the board, which caused Kerkorian and York to go public with the possibility of the merger, which increased the GM stock by 9%.
- Do you think the merger between GM and Renault-Nissan would be beneficial for both parties?
- Would Renault-Nissan benefit disproportionally by gaining one of the largest manufacturers in the auto industry? – Should GM stick with their plans for long term growth and see if they can recover? Or should they execute the merger and hope Ghosn can restore GM to its former self?
- “The news hit Ron Gettelfinger like a kick in the teeth. ‘This is a travesty, and a concern for every American ,’ he said. It didn’t take long for the UAW to threaten a counterattack. If its labor contract was canceled, the union said it would be ‘impossible to avoid a long strike.’”
- “As Detroit got weaker, the union’s muscle withered along with it. The best Gettelfinger could do was extract as much money as possible from the companies to buy out some workers so that jobs would be left for others.”
- “Paul Ballew, GM’s top market analyst, concluded that GM’s current 24 percent share would fall to 20 percent within five years. It was a disturbing decline considering the company had lots of new products coming.”
Chapter 15: Peter Wittwer
- Ford’s sales consistently decreasing, in the first half of 2006 they already had a net loss of $1.4 billion. The luxury brands under Ford such as Jaguar couldn’t compete with foreign luxury cars like Lexus, Mercedes, and BMW.
- Two top tier executives, Mark Fields and Don Leclair were in a huge feud that was dividing the leadership team. They constantly fought over money and control.
- Bill Ford was completely overwhelmed and decided to step down and hire a CEO, the top of the list was the Executive Vice President of Boeing Alan Mulally.
- In meetings with Mulally Bill Ford explained the company needed to shift from trucks to greener cars, downsize North American operations, and needed to borrow billions of dollars to do it.
- After a lot of convincing Mulally finally agreed to serve as the CEO of Ford in order to save such a huge industry from collapsing.
- Why do you think Chrysler was able to escape the legacy payment issues that Ford an GM were facing?
- Do you think the initiative to focus on greener cars is a good business move, or should Ford continue to focus on bigger cars?
- “Some people think the United States can’t compete in the design and production of sophisticated products,” he said. “I personally think we can.”
- “I want you to go to Seattle and don’t come back until you have him,” Bill said. “I mean it. Do not bring your ass back to Detroit without Mulally. And if you don’t come back with Mulally, don’t come back. I don’t care if you have to buy a house out there. Get him.”
Chapter 16: Moody Heard
- Executives Renault-Nissan and GM continue discussion about potential merger of the two companies. Wagoner, Henderson and the board members of GM propose Ghosn and the rest of Renault-Nissan pay GM over $2 billion if they want cooperation.
- GM executives and board members decide against the deal, leading to Jerry York’s resignation from the board.
- UAW president Ron Gettelfinger rejects a health care deal that would have saved the struggling DaimlerChrysler $300 million. Dieter Zetsche “goes ballistic.”
- “[Wagoner] said the two sides were just too far apart and the GM board had voted to cancel the alliance talks. When he offered that GM might be interested in doing an individual project or two with Renault-Nissan, Ghosn cut him off. ‘Let’s just end it,’ he said.” (166)
- “After discussing it with Kerkorian, York decided to resign from the board immediately.”
Chapter 17: Moody Heard
- Alan Mulally steps in soon after Ford crashes, noting inefficiency and inconsistency in production across the board, as well as bureaucracy and a general lack of communication.
- Mulally meets with top executives regularly to discuss operation.
- cut costs
- standardize processes and parts
- reduce number of models and brands
- Mually gives compelling speech to potential investors outlining Ford’s turnaround plan. Banks agree to lend $23.5 billion.
- “‘These three companies have been slowly going out of business for eighty years… They were insulated and had great success early on with 70, 80 percent of the market. But they were arrogant. They made fun of the Japanese. And then they made shoddy products, all of a sudden they had some competition , and their arrogance caught up with them.'” (170) – Mulally
- “‘Why is everything so inconsistent?'” (171) – Mulally
- “First and foremost, Ford had to cut costs, standardize processes and parts, and reduce the number of models and brands.” (173)
Chapter 18: Moody Heard
- Zetsche and the rest of Daimler from DaimlerChrysler secretly planning to let Chrysler go.
- Chrysler comes out with Chrysler 300, which turns out to be a huge success, but still not enough to save Chrysler
- DaimlerChrysler CFO Bodo Uebber publicly comments on potential for Chrsyler to be dropped, infuriating Chrysler CEO Tom LaSorda
- Rick Wagoner of GM and Jurgen Hubbert, representing Cerberus, both express interest in purchasing Chrysler.
- “There’s an old saying in Detroit: ‘It’s your turn in the barrel.’ The point is that at least one of the Big Three is always hurting and drawing negative attention, while another is on the rise.” (184)
- “Zetsche, however, had been planning in secret for months to sell off Chrysler.” (180)
- “When one analyst asked whether there was any possibility of Chrysler being jettisoned, Uebber spoke up. ‘We don’t exclude anything here,’ he said.” (183)
Chapter 19: Jier Qiu
- More international competitors started to appear in the US market during the 2007 Detroit auto show.
- The competition between General Motors and Toyota was becoming bigger.
- Bob Lutz decided to produce more fuel-friendly vehicles in GM and purchase Chrysler at a cheap price.
- GM quited the purchase after two private equity firms, the Blackstone Group and Cerberus, joined in.
- Daimler finally sold Chrysler to Cerberus.
- “Cars and be built anywhere by anybody and sold wherever people could afford them.”
- “Bob Lutz…prove the company could make more than just gas-guzzling trucks and fast cars.”
- “Wagoner, Lutz, and Fritz Henderson were studying a move that could keep GM on top for a long time to come: buying Chrysler.”
- “(Steve Feinberg) told them how proud he was to buy Chrysler and to make it an American-owned company once again.”
Chapter 20: Jier Qiu
- Allan Mulally decided to change Ford’s way to survive.
- Ford could either go bankrupt or sell the company.
- Toyota surpassed GM and became the number one player in the auto industry.
- Gettelfinger’s UAW trying to fight against the Detroit Three.
- “The Blue Oval was special, he said, and Ford had a unique place in automotive industry.”
- “The Fords were at a serious crossroads.”
- “The critical issue before them was whether to hire the bankers to investigate all available options, including a potential sale.”
- “For the first time in more than seventy years, GM wasn’t number one anymore.”
- “If the Big Three needed to close ‘the gap’ to survive, how could the union fight them?”
Chapter 21: Jier Qiu
- Gettelfinger met with Feinberg to discuss the influence of Chrysler becoming privately owned on UAW labor contracts.
- The new CEO of Chrysler Nardelli was appointed by Cerberus.
- Nardelli’s former position in Home Depot was exposed and got much media attentions.
- The Big Three and UAW started contract talks.
- Gettelfinger had settled down with GM on a tentative agreement.
- “The UAW president was deeply suspicious of what private ownership would mean for Chrysler.”
- “They focused predictably on Nardelli’s messy exit from Home Depot, his gigantic severance package, and his shot for a comeback in Detroit.”
- “the union and GM announced a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract.”
Chapters 22-24: Juan Cruz Mayol
- GM agreed to keep paying for health care
- Daimler sells Chrysler. It was making money with the Ram, but losing money with all the other models.
- Nardelli starts closing down plants and eliminating models despite the opposition of the unions
- Ford negotiated lower wages in exchange of not closing the factories.
- There is great optimism for the Big Three despite the continues fall in the stock prices
- Ford sold the luxury brands that kept losing money (Land Rover and Jaguar sold to Tata), to save Ford. They narrowed costs, and increased revenues. Mulally worked on the image of the company, standardized parts, and turned truck plants into car plants.
- Ford tries to get their workers to take jobs at other companies. Decides to produce the new Fiesta kinetic in Mexico.
- GM is still #1 in sales over Toyota by 3000 units.
- Kerkorian starts buying a lot of Ford stocks.
- Chapter 22:
- “I went from te best-managed company in the world to the worst in one day. And my instruction was, very simple, to make Chrysler make money.”-Nardelli.
- “Twenty years ago, sure, we were the Big Three then. But we’re not big anymore”-Merlo Brooks, Chrysler worker.
- Chapter 23:
- “While the Big Three muddled along, Toyota was smashing sales records and making more money than any car company in the world.”
- “The staffs were suspicious, résumés were pouring out to other companies, and nobody knew whose head would roll if Chrysler crashed.”
- Chapter 24:
- “For years, Ford’s finest engineers and hottest executives worked on trucks and SUVs…But Derrick Kuzak was changing that… Pickups made big money, but demand for small cars was exploding around the world.”
- “After all the plant closings, job cuts, and labor negotiations, Detroit was still overproducing and needed to get smaller…There were job fairs at all the plants, and Ford mailed to every worker a special DVD titled Connecting with Your Future that extolled the promise of new careers beyond the assembly line.”
- What would have been of the US auto industry without people like Farley and Nardelli?
- How does the unification of the models help the businesses?
- Why weren’t they doing it before?
- Was it really necessary to sell the luxury brands? Could they have rearranged their structures to start making profits (as they currently are)?
- Will Toyota and the other Japanese firms face the same structural problems as the American firms?
- Why would Kerkorian now start buying Ford stocks? Would it be to get access to the board, or did he see potential in the comeback of the Big Three?


text:
TOWIE star Amber Turner looks as good as gold as she shows off her toned figure . . . to promote a haircare product.
Tanned Amber, 27 posed in a skimpy swimsuit for brand GENi.
Her silky smooth locks seem to be in perfect order as she pushes a product that claims to eliminate frizz.
Earlier this week she jetted out to Dubai with boyfriend and TV co-star Dan Edgar, 30, for an “exciting business venture” to be revealed soon.
They did not reveal what it was but said Dan had been working on “over the past few years.”
They hope to reveal details soon. Guess Amber’s just waiting to get the green light.
Amber who recently lost 19lbs, revealed they both tested negative for coronavirus before travelling.
Anti-body tests had also come back clean.
They are staying at the super luxury Palm Jumeirah hotel.
Amber told her social media followers it was her “favourite”.
GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL [email protected]
Source: Read Full Article

domain: news


text:
Watch Brit Bennett discuss her bestselling novel, ‘The Vanishing Half’
This month, members of the L.A. Times Book Club have been reading “The Vanishing Half,” Brit Bennett’s bestselling novel about family secrets, identity and twin sisters whose lives take radically different paths.
Bennett joined Times readers at 6 p.m. Pacific Time Aug. 25 to discuss her book with writer Carla Hall. The virtual book talk is free and livestreamed on The Times Facebook Page, YouTube and on Twitter.
In a recent interview, Bennett says the novel was inspired by a conversation with her mom about growing up in rural Louisiana. There was one story too good to let slip by.
“She brought it up the way parents often do, like it’s something everybody knew … that there were towns where people would intermarry so that their children would get lighter with each generation,” Bennett recalls. “And I was like: ‘Wait! Go back to that.’”
“The Vanishing Half” has dominated bestseller lists this summer and spurred a Hollywood bidding war in June. HBO won and is turning the novel into a limited series.
Sign up for the book club newsletter for author interviews, book news and and event updates.
Sign up for our Book Club newsletter
Get the latest news, events and more from the Los Angeles Times Book Club, and help us get L.A. reading and talking.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.


text:
Vice-President Dr. Bawumia and Aunty Muni Waakye displaying their phones on the GhIPSS QR Code. Looking on is Ursula Owusu Ekuful (left). Picture by Gifty Ama Lawson.
Ghana reached a significant milestone in its digitisation agenda when it started the use of the Quick Response (QR) Code system yesterday.
QR code is a barcode machine-readable optical label that contains information about the item to which it is attached. In practice, QR codes often contain data for a locator, identifier or tracker that points to a website or application made up of black and white squares which represent certain pieces of information that can instantly be read using a smartphone camera, and basically works in the same way as a barcode during a transaction.
At a launch in Accra yesterday, Vice-President Dr. Bawumia could not hide his excitement as he and Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu Ekuful, used the application to buy the local waakye from popular Auntie Muni Waakye joint at a location in Ridge.
An obviously elated Dr. Bawumia could not hide his excitement when the transaction went through instantaneously and in real time.
“It is a very historic day because we are solving a major problem here in Ghana…Ghana will be the first country in Africa to launch a QR Code payment system. Not only are we the first country in Africa, we are also, as far as I am aware, the third country in the world to do a universal QR Code after Singapore and India.”
Even in the case of Singapore and India, he indicated that their QR Codes only catered for bank customers, while Ghana’s would cater for both bank and non-bank customers including mobile money customers.
“The QR Code essentially allows all people who receive payments to receive the payments on their mobile phones; so if you go, you can pay using your mobile phone. The merchant can receive the payment using their mobile phone instantly,” he explained, and added that “you scan the QR Code and you can confirm that yes this is the merchant and I am paying this amount to. It is very secure in that regard and very convenient.”
That, he said, went to solve a problem that had been with the Ghanaian economy since independence; adding that the country is more of a cash-based economy which makes it inefficient for the simple reason that most people are excluded from the financial system, aside the risk of robberies and contracting viruses through physical cash transactions.
He therefore described Ghana’s Code as unique and the first of its kind in the world, saying “and so we have to be rightly proud as Ghanaians that we are using technology to solve a problem that exists in our society and in doing so we are really leading the world in this manner;” while commending the collaborative effort between Ministry of Communications, the Bank of Ghana, Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement System (GhIPSS), the telecommunications (mobile phone service providers) companies (telcos) and the financial service providers (Fintechs).
So far 13 banks have started operating on the QR Code system, with the Vice-President and Ms. Ekuful urging Ghanaians to hook on to the system and join the fray.
The Ghana QR Code (GhQR) is a new and easy way to make payments to a merchant by scanning a QR Code displayed by the merchant with one’s mobile phone.
The merchant gets the money instantly, just like paying with cash.
There are two ways by which one can make payments with GhQR at a merchant location, by scanning to pay or dialling to pay using a smart-phone (Scan to Pay): Log into ones mobile app and follow the prompt instructions) to pay.
Using a feature phone (Dial to Pay) or what has come to be known as ‘yam phone’, one needs to Dial the USSD code (e.g.*123#) of his or her payment service provider and follow the prompt to pay any merchant irrespective of where they received their GhQR point of sale display from.
Once payment is successful, both the customer and the merchant will receive transaction notifications.


text:
Spammers are at it again; this time taking advantage of the recent financial market fluctuations.
“Pump-and-dump stock” scams have become popular among hackers hoping to gain profits on intentionally overvalued penny stocks. These email scams are pumped by their owners to inflate the price of the stocks as much as possible. This is so that they may then be dumped before their value lowers to the original worth. Using fake information, the criminals try to sway the victim that the penny stock is worth more than it is, or that it will soon skyrocket.
When they work, these scams can actually falsely increase the price of the stock where the scammers decide to sell their share. This ends the spam campaign and lowers the stock back to its original price.
Most “pump-and-dump” stock email scams have been targeting North American users. They are recognized by the random line breaks and spaces between words and sentences, or poorly translated texts within the email or subject lines.
While it’s hard to get inside the head of a cyber criminal, one thing is for sure: these bad guys continue to use current news and events to steal confidential information for profit.


text:
Closing the Gap 2013: three good news stories
With the Prime Minister’s Closing the Gap report published in February this year, here are three ways Menzies is helping to improve the lifespan and wellbeing of Indigenous Australians.
We’ve discovered that smoking rates are down
“Only a few years ago when we set up the Tobacco Control Research Program at Menzies, few were optimistic,” says Associate Professor David Thomas.
“Many said that it was too hard and nothing had worked.”
But the facts don’t call for doom and gloom, he says.
Menzies research has shown that smoking prevalence has declined by about 0.5 per cent every year among Indigenous men in both remote and non-remote Australia, as well as among Indigenous women in non-remote Australia.
Smoking prevalence increased and has now plateaued among Aboriginal women in remote Australia.
“We have shown that from 2002 to 2008 increasing numbers of Aboriginal people have successfully quit,” Thomas says.
“And there are encouraging signs that less Aboriginal boys and girls are now starting to smoke.”
“I think we can be really optimistic. We are riding a wave of change which is pushing down Aboriginal smoking and the harms it causes Aboriginal families and communities.
“And now we have dramatically increased resources to do much more and assist the passage of even faster improvements.”
We’re helping nutritionists improve support to the outback
"Traditionally, Indigenous Australians were physically lean and didn’t gain weight with age,” says Dr Julie Brimblecombe.
For instance, 30 years ago, a small family group of Aboriginal people living a traditionally oriented lifestyle in north-east Arnhem Land were extremely slim and showed no risk of type 2 diabetes or heart disease.”
Twenty years on this picture has shifted dramatically.
As Brimblecombe explains: “After tobacco, obesity and being overweight contributes most heavily to the disease burden affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.”
Yet in the domain of nutrition, gains are being made to help turn the picture around.
Menzies, for one, has a number of innovative initiatives in orbit – including community-run ‘shelf talker’ systems in remote stores to help guide shoppers to healthy foods; and trials to test the effect of reduced pricing on fruit and vegetables.
Further, its Keeping Track of Healthy Foods tool (RIST tool) has enjoyed steady uptake among nutritionists working in Indigenous health.
The tool issues real-time information on spending patterns, in addition to feedback on how the food supply is tracking. It generates reports on sales of key foods in remote stores and offers nutritional analysis of food sales, thus identifying the main sources of ‘nutrients of concern’: mainly sugar, saturated fat and salt.
Though initially designed to assist store managers, the resource has reputedly enhanced the capacity of public health nutritionists, and dietitians to deliver tailored advice that improves food supply and diet. It’s a resource embraced by store committees and other members of remote communities, too.
Menzies’ nutrition team aims to convert the tool into a web-based application to further expand the resource’s benefit, utility and reach.
“Aboriginal people living in remote communities are among Australia’s poorest. Yet they pay much more for food, and have limited availability to a healthy diet. Innovative strategies are needed to help alter this imbalance,” says Brimblecombe.
Training Indigenous nutrition researchers
Iron deficiency, or anaemia, makes it difficult for the body to carry oxygen to all parts of the body, leaving sufferers feeling tired, pale, and in some instances, breathless.
To stem the high rates of this condition among infants and to help grow our Indigenous health workforce, Menzies is training community-based workers from Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australian in infant nutrition and the preparation of healthy foods as part of the Fred Hollows Foundation Early Childhood Nutrition and Anaemia Prevention ‘Sprinkles’ program.
Workers from the ‘Sprinkles’ program regularly visit families with vitamin and mineral supplements containing the recommended daily intakes (RDIs) for iron, zinc, iodine and folic acid.
The visitors also provide educational support about nutrition and the preparation of healthy foods.
“The model for the program was unique in that the community based workers were trained to deliver both the supplements and the supporting education, and that’s excellent for building capacity within communities,” says Senior.
“As well as giving Indigenous infants a better nutritional start to life and building community and maternal education, the program is offering local women real employment and training opportunities by teaching them how to run and evaluate their own programs.
With many Indigenous infants experiencing major nutrient deficiencies, the program is critical to helping to prevent health problems later in life.
As Senior says: “Working in close partnership with Fred Hollows ensured the program had a strong level of buy in from the community workers as well as strengthening our ties in the communities.”


text:
The Journal, which only just began reporting upward mobility in September, experienced a 13.2 percent surge in October advertising linage, according to estimates released Thursday by parent Dow Jones & Co.
While the Journal's year-to-date ad linage is down 2.5 percent, the financial news publisher indicated October improvements in every key category except for financial services, which declined 9.1 percent for the month. General advertising, however, rose 8.1 percent, while technology advertising soared 47.0 percent due to increases in computer software and communications advertising.
"We're very encouraged, said Rich Zannino, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Dow Jones & Co. He noted that the Journal's October results follow a 29 percent ad linage gain in September.
"As we've noted in the past, we'd like to see three to four months of consecutive gains in all our major ad categories before calling a sustainable recovery in B-to-B advertising," he said, noting for example, that November and December ad sales are pacing at relatively "flat" rates.
USA Today, meanwhile, recorded a 15 percent gain in advertising revenues on a 14 percent increase in October advertising pages, parent Gannett Co. reported Thursday. The company said national ad demand was strong from the technology, automotive, telecommunications and pharmaceutical categories, although travel and retail remained soft.


text:
Two massive retailers are now making a major comeback after filing for bankruptcy and going through the liquidation process.
BuyBuy Baby got dragged into Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation by its parent, Bed Bath & Beyond.
But unlike the main brand its assets were not acquired by the former Overstock.com.
Instead, the baby brand was purchased by one of its vendors, Dream on Me.
“Dream on Me, which recently bought BuyBuy Baby’s brand and digital assets for $15.5 million, was the successful bidder for 11 store leases at a bankruptcy auction for about $1.17 million, court records filed last week show,” Retail Dive reported.
The BuyBuy Baby e-commerce site and stores have been liquidated and closed due to bankruptcy.
But BuyBuy Baby is now under new ownership and is working on relaunching an elevated online and in-store experience soon,” the company said.
“With its website having already started selling, the new owner will reopen 11 brick-and-mortar stores on Nov. 18,” reports TheStreet.
Dream on Me has not said whether it plans to increase the number of physical BuyBuy Baby stores going forward.
Circuit City is another bankrupt company that had gone through liquidation and is now making a comeback.
“‘Powered by Circuit City’ brings a store-in-store concept to our partners, both online and in-store. Our first pilot recently launched with JCPenney.
We are powering their online sales for consumer electronics and have in-store placements in 288 select locations,” the company said in an email to TheStreet.
The new Circuit City plans to add new partners in 2024 and expand its digital and brick-and-mortar operations, says TheStreet.
Other Economy News Today
A new wave of massive layoffs now hit Florida as more businesses announce upcoming job cuts for the new year.
Tyson Foods has announced a new round of layoffs in Jacksonville where hundreds of employees will lose their job.
Under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, an employer with more than 100 full-time workers must provide a 60-day notice before laying off 50 or more people at a single site.
“The plant will close on January 8 and will be the eighth plant Tyson has closed since the beginning of 2023.
As a result of the closure, 219 staff will lose their jobs,” reports Ash Jurberg.
“We are making the difficult decision to close …We understand the impact of this decision on our team members.
We will make every effort to offer them opportunities to remain with the company at other locations and will partner with state and local officials to provide additional resources.
With a focus on optimizing our operational footprint, we are reallocating resources to operate as efficiently as possible while maintaining ample capacity to serve our customers, said Tyson Foods in a statement.
“As part of the Company’s business strategy to operate more efficiently, Tyson Foods has determined that it must eliminate all jobs at its Jacksonville facility located at 5441 West 5th St, Jacksonville, Florida…
The last day of work is anticipated to occur on or about January 8th, 2024, at which time the facility will close on a permanent basis,” the company said.
For far in 2023, approximately 9,283 employees have been laid off in 2023 across 190 companies.
California remains the #1 state with the most layoffs in the country.
Market News Published Daily 📰
Don’t forget to opt-in for push notifications so you don’t miss a single article!
Also, thank you to all of our blog sponsors. This year we’ve been able to increase push notifications slots making it more convenient than ever for new readers to receive their daily market news and updates.
- Gain access to EXCLUSIVE FrankNez articles you won’t find here.
- Become part of a private and safe Discord community, just for retail investors.
- Get drawn at the end of the year for holiday giveaways.
Recommended For You ✨
- Florida Now Has Massive Departures As Hundreds of Thousands Leave
- Massive Layoffs in California Now Underway Prior to Holidays
- A US Company Now Declares An Unexpected Bankruptcy
- Wells Fargo is Now Freezing Bank Accounts in New Scandal
- The US Treasury Direct is Now Freezing Customer Accounts
- A US Bank is Now Denying Customers Access to Money


text:
Image: Gem Diamonds
Gem Diamonds has announced the sale of a 13.33-carat pink diamond, discovered in February at its mine in Lesotho, for $8.8 million.
The tender sale, which took place in Antwerp, represents a record per-carat price of $656,933 for the company, it said Thursday.
The result builds on a successful 2018 for Gem Diamonds, which more than doubled its profits to $46.6 million, it reported. The miner said this was due to a record number of large stones recovered at the Letšeng mine, with its haul of diamonds weighing more than 20 carats rising 21% to 257.
Last year, it sold 44 diamonds for more than $1 million, achieving a total of $137.2 million. This includes the Lesotho Legend, which garnered $40 million last March.
Despite its positive financial results, Gem Diamonds failed to declare a dividend for 2018, saying its priority was strengthening its financial position given the uncertainty of the current diamond market.


text:
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Residents in West Roseland said their neighborhood is one step closer to becoming a pharmacy desert after the permanent closure of their Walgreens.
Many were left shocked after learning the Far South Side pharmacy would permanently close its doors at the end of business on Nov. 9.
"It's kind of baffling. This move is so undeserved," said resident Darryl Coleman.
The Walgreens store at 115th and Halsted is among roughly 150 locations nationwide that the Deerfield-based company announced would close as part of a cost-cutting measure that also includes layoffs of 500 corporate workers.
"I'm saddened, I'm devastated because it's a way for us in the community to come and get our meds and any toiletries we need for every day," said resident Vincent Hatter.
According to multiple reports, a spokesperson for Walgreens said company officials looked at several factors before making the difficult decision to close the store.
With the closure of the Walgreens at 115th and Halsted, area residents will now have to travel at least two miles to get to the next-closest Walgreens, like the one at 103rd and Michigan.
The store's patient pharmacy files will be transferred to a Calumet Park Walgreens at 128th and Ashland. But that's a problem for 82-year-old resident Jeri Boyd, who doesn't have a car and walks to the pharmacy to pick up her prescriptions.
"I don't have on way to get all the way out there," she said.
The closed store sits in Ald. Ronnie Mosley 21st Ward. In a statement posted on social media, Mosley said he's frustrated by the news adding in part, "this is the only stand-alone pharmacy in the 21st Ward...This closure has a significant impact on our seniors, youth and those with chronic health conditions."
Other nearby Walgreens are located at 103rd and Western Avenue, 111th and Kedzie Avenue and 118th and Western Avenue.
The popular retailer becomes the second national chain to leave the South Side community this year. Walmart closed four full service stores in April, including its superstore in Chatham. It's another hardship for Yvette Burns who recently suffered a stroke and will have one less local healthcare option.
"I'm sorry they chose this store, but that's life right," she said.


text:
Manheim has acquired Dealer Auction, the UK online trade-to-trade vehicle remarketing channel, for an undisclosed multi-million pound sum.
This latest deal with Dealer Auction comes only six months after Manheim bought Motors.co.uk, the UK’s second largest online classified portal.
Dealer Auction’s electronic sales cater mainly for vehicles arising from franchised dealers. The e-auctions operate on a rolling basis and allow registered trade buyers online access to part-exchanges and other non-required stock.
Buyers and sellers deal directly with each other and it is only the online bidding and listing platform which Dealer Auction provides to its customers.
John Bailey, Manheim’s chief executive said: "The industry is in a period of sustained change and our remarketing business is simply moving with the times.
"Inter-dealer wholesaling is an age-old practice and still thrives completely outside the traditional remarketing arena."
Bailey believes the Dealer Auction business sits naturally alongside Manheim's main remarketing business.
The two founders of Dealer Auction, Clive Colyer and Gavin Smith, will remain as joint managing directors at the business and will now report directly to Bailey who will take up a position of chairman on the Dealer Auction board.
Colyer said: "Since we founded the business three years ago it has grown dramatically. This success has been achieved despite facing the fiercest competition we’ve ever seen in the industry and it has really underlined the demand for our type of service.
"However, we needed major scale and investment to fully exploit our true potential and, to now be part of Manheim, gives us just that."


text:
Dairy market slows down as growth of butter eases
Growth in the dairy market in the 12 weeks to 17 June slowed down to 3.8% from 4.5% in the previous period. Despite this slowdown the market is still growing faster than the overall grocery market and fresh and chilled, which decreased down to 2.2% and 2.6% respectively.
The sector driving the decline is butter, accounting for £10.5 million of the £18.25 million less spent on dairy year on year. Behind this was milk, with growth down by £4.4 million, and margarine at £2.1 million.
Commenting on the findings, Oliver Bluring, Client Executive, Kantar Worldpanel, said: “The retailer which has seen the steepest decline in butter is Tesco, having gone from £4.1 million growth in the previous 12 weeks to losses of £1.6million. The Co-Op saw the next biggest drop off, losing out on £1 million of spend. This is echoed when you look at the performance of these retailers in dairy overall, where Tesco sees a fall of nearly £15 million and the Co-Op £3.3 million. Additionally, Ocado saw an easing of £1 million, a proportionally greater amount to the smaller online retailer”.
This slowdown in dairy comes through all life stages, though retired shoppers drive a considerable amount of the losses. When we look at social demographic groups, shoppers in lower-middle class and non-working families especially drive decline.
The fall back in butter sales have come through a mixture of both non-promoted lines and those being sold through the Y for £X mechanism. As temporary price reduction sales remain in marginal growth. When you look at the overall dairy market, the decline comes through all promotional mechanisms, though Y for £X more so than the others.


text:
Madrid, Spain – Minister of Tourism, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom has participated in the first Global Tourism Crisis Committee meeting in 2021.
Organized by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the meeting held in Madrid saw solid plans to restart tourism, including the integration of vaccines to boost confidence in the sector through various coordinated efforts.
Members discussed pre and post-vaccine cross-border travel. With countries around the world now rolling out vaccines against the COVID-19 virus, the Committee explored options for making vaccines just one part of a harmomized approach to safe travel, looking into ways to introduce health certificates and travel passes among others.
The rollout of vaccines is a step in the right direction, but the restart of tourism cannot wait.Zurab Pololikashvili
“Vaccines must be part of a wider, coordinated approach that includes certificates and passes for safe cross-border travel. In the longer-term, we also need to restore confidence in tourism. The United for Travel campaign will help us achieve this, providing a clear and strong message that safe tourism is now possible.” said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili during the meeting.
UNWTO Secretary-General Pololikashvili also announced plans for the launch of a new global campaign aimed at restoring confidence in international travel and tourism. The initiative, United for Travel, will be launched soon and will unite governments, international organizations, destinations and businesses behind a common message.
A new global travel and tourism crisis system was also proposed during the meeting. The proposed System for International Travel and Tourism Emergencies (SITE) will be established from experiences and data collected since the beginning of the pandemic.
Tourism numbers have been above expectations recently, with Minister Mausoom, in an interview to CNBC International stating that even though 2021 will be challenging, we will see a very promising year ahead.


text:
AlphaPoint Announces Clef Support
AlphaPoint, the technology platform behind many of the largest Bitcoin exchanges, integrates Clef’s passwordless two-factor authentication to make logins safe and easy.
Today AlphaPoint is announcing support for Clef to provide secure, passwordless logins for exchanges built on its platform.
AlphaPoint provides the technology backend for more than 20 Bitcoin exchanges, including Bitfinex, the world’s largest, and offers a white label solution that allows clients to launch their own digital currency exchange in under 20 days. The partnership with Clef will enable exchanges powered by AlphaPoint to accept Clef’s popular two-factor authentication solution.
“We take security extremely seriously and are always looking to leverage the latest solutions for our exchanges and their users,” said Joe Ventura, AlphaPoint CTO.
“We’re very excited to offer Clef’s robust, intuitive solution and believe it will help ensure more traders use 2FA to protect their accounts.”
Clef’s solution has been spreading quickly throughout the Bitcoin ecosystem, with the company announcing major partnerships with Koinify, Ziftr, and others - all in the last month. meXBT will be the first AlphaPoint exchange to use the new integration. Two other AlphaPoint clients, Rio de Janeiro-based FlowBTC and Barbados-based Bitt, will follow shortly thereafter.
“AlphaPoint is the technology leader for Bitcoin exchanges and is bringing cryptocurrency to more places around the world,” said Brennen Byrne, CEO of Clef.
“They also have huge reach into Bitcoin so it’s exciting to work with them and help make 2FA on their client exchanges more accessible and user-friendly.”
Security is a top priority for exchanges, which see large volumes of assets pass through their systems every day. For exchanges to protect traders, they need tools that are simple and straightforward to use. Clef’s popularity has been expanding because it helps sites attract and maintain more customers. Typically, sites that offer two-factor authentication see fewer than 1% of users opt in to protect their accounts, but sites that use Clef have seen more than 50% of their users opt in to safer login. To make logins seamless, Clef recognizes a user’s phone instead of anything he or she needs to remember or type.
A customer can log into an AlphaPoint exchange using Clef on any computer in the world by holding their phone up to the computer screen. Using the phone’s camera and an animation called the Clef Wave, the phone seamlessly syncs with the computer and logs the user in. The process already protects more than 65,000 sites and is backed by public key cryptography, which is much stronger than any password. Clef works on any iOS or Android device, and is available for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Clef is an Oakland startup building the two-factor of the future. By taking advantage of the rapid spread of mobile devices, Clef has built technology that is not only much more secure than traditional logins, but also much easier to use. Since 2013, Clef has spread to more than 65,000 sites and received accolades from The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, and The Economist. Clef is funded by Morado Ventures and angels from a broad variety of product and security backgrounds.
For more information, visit the Clef website http://getclef.com/
AlphaPoint is a technology company that powers digital currency exchanges and provides institutions aggregate access and order routing to digital currency markets. Its secure, scalable, and customizable platform can process nearly 1 million transactions per second, enabling customers to innovate, differentiate, and transform their businesses. As the world's leading white label exchange provider, AlphaPoint powers several of the largest Bitcoin exchanges worldwide, and is led by a seasoned team with 35+ years in financial technology. AlphaPoint has offices in New York City, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.
For more information, follow us at @AlphaPointLive or visit our website http://www.alphapoint.com/


text:
Copyright © 2014 Albuquerque Journal
A dozen Latino immigrants in Albuquerque are pursuing their dream of owning a business thanks to a new program that teaches financial management and small-business development in Spanish to aspiring entrepreneurs.
The 14-week program, run by the nonprofit education and advocacy organization Encuentro, graduated its first class of 12 participants on Monday. All of them are now pursuing either service startups such as home and office cleaning or retail businesses to sell things such as cellphones and handmade candles.
“The class has meant a lot to me,” said Antonio Casas, a mechanic who plans to launch an auto-repair shop. “It has given me information about issues related to business when I didn’t know where to go for it before.”
Encuentro, which works to empower Spanish-speaking immigrants with skills and knowledge to broaden their job prospects and improve their lives, partnered with various groups to teach the new course. That includes Prosperity Works, which manages a statewide asset-building program that offers individuals matching grants of up to $4 for every $1 a person saves.
Course participants put $100 into the grant accounts, known as “individual development accounts,” making them all eligible for $400 in matching funds that they can now use to help finance their business endeavors, said Prosperity Works President and CEO Ona Porter.
“You are the next generation of business owners to launch with individual development accounts,” Porter told the graduates on Monday. “Today, over 500 businesses in New Mexico have started with IDAs.”
Encuentro Executive Director Andrea Plaza said the IDAs, the program’s financial and business instruction and the opportunity to meet people and organizations who can assist them are all critical for Latino immigrants.
“Immigrants are huge contributors to the New Mexico economy, but many of these resources are often not available to them,” Plaza said.
Viridiana Palacios, 22, said the course gave her confidence to go from being a supervisor for Boost Mobile to a franchise owner.
“It taught me what I need to know to actually manage a business,” Palacios said.
Ramon Dorado, 51, said he and his wife will use the IDA funds and the knowledge learned in the course to expand their home- and office-cleaning business,
“Like most Hispanics, we opened our business because we know how to work hard, but we lacked the skills to actually manage and build a business,” Dorado said. “This class has taught us what we need to do.”


text:
Rochelle Udell will join Chico’s FAS Inc. on May 11 as senior vice president and creative director for the Chico’s brand.
She will be responsible for the creative, marketing and advertising efforts of Ft. Myers, Fla.-based Chico’s, taking on responsibilities previously handled by Judd Harner, who has left to pursue other opportunities. She will work closely with Lee Eisenberg, director of creative strategy for the company, and Cynthia Murray, president of the Chico’s brand.
“Rochelle Udell has time and again proved that she is one of the truly inspired designers and brand builders working today,” said Eisenberg. “It’s thrilling to contemplate the excitement she will bring to the creative, marketing and advertising efforts at Chico’s.”
Most recently chief talent officer of the Arnell Group, Udell was previously chief creative officer for Revlon Inc. following a career in publishing that included numerous posts with Condé Nast Publications, parent of WWD, such as editor in chief of Self, president of CondéNet, art director of Vogue and president of Fairchild Internet.
Chico’s operates 614 Chico’s stores as well as 41 outlets under the Chico’s brand. Its White House|Black Market nameplate has 327 units and 17 outlets and its Soma Intimates brand has 69 front-line stores and one outlet.


text:
The August 2022 month is about to end and several select Galaxy devices are already grabbed the August 2022 security patch update. According to the information, Verizon has started releasing the August 2022 patch for Galaxy A02 and the latest update is rolling out with the build number RP1A.200720.012.A025VSQS2BVG6.
In order to update the latest patch all you need to do is visit the system Settings > Software updates > check for updates to check the update manually. We also suggest you switch over to a WiFi network before downloading the update to avoid data charges.
Samsung Galaxy A02 Specifications:
Samsung Galaxy A02 phone was launched with a 6.50-inch touchscreen display offering a resolution of 720×1600 pixels. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by a quad-core processor paired with 3GB of RAM. The Samsung Galaxy A02 runs Android 10 and is powered by a 5000mAh non-removable battery.
On the rear, the smartphone consists 13-megapixel (f/1.9) primary camera and a 2-megapixel (f/2.4) camera. The rear camera setup has autofocus. It sports a 5-megapixel camera on the front for selfies with an f/2.0 aperture.
Connectivity options on the Samsung Galaxy A02 include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, Bluetooth v5.00, Micro-USB, Wi-Fi Direct, 3G, and 4G with active 4G on both SIM cards. Sensors on the phone include an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor.
Meanwhile, Samsung has rolled out a new firmware update that fixes GPS for millions of other Galaxy phones, including the Galaxy S5 Neo, the Galaxy Alpha, the Galaxy S6 series, and the Galaxy A7 (2018).


text:
Bitcoin’s unique properties make it the best way to preserve wealth in a time of crisis. But there are some things to keep in mind to prepare.
“I will explain why I allocate a share of my wealth to bitcoin and how I see it as ideal for preserving the value of my net worth.”
NFT influencer and founder Farokh talked to Bitcoin Magazine about the future of Ordinals and Bitcoin NFTs.
Bitcoin Core users should be sure to read through the release notes before updating their software to the latest release version.
A new company will be formed by the acquisition of embattled lender Celsius, which went bankrupt amidst the larger turmoil of 2022.
The company is encouraging users to withdraw their funds and to save transaction statements before the app’s closure.
Chen elaborated on the mission of MicroBT and how the updates in the new machines exemplify this focus.
The partnership will leverage Chain Reaction’s ASIC announced at Bitcoin 2023 to further develop systems for miners.


text:
In a surprising move, IBM has killed its Watson IoT platform. This is big news for the tech industry, as IBM has been a leading player in the IoT space for years. So, what does this mean for existing Watson IoT users? And what will IBM be doing instead?
The IBM Watson IoT Platform is a cloud-based platform that allows developers to connect devices and sensors to the internet, so they can collect and analyze data. The platform includes an IoT gateway, which is used to manage devices and collect data from them. It also has a set of tools for developers to build applications that can make use of the data collected by the devices. The platform was launched in 2015, and was intended to be used by businesses to build IoT applications.
What happened to IBM Watson IoT Platform?
Lately IBM announced that they would be discontinuing their Watson IoT Platform. This decision was made as part of IBM’s larger plan to focus on other areas of their business.
The news comes as a surprise to many in the IoT community, as IBM has been a major player in the space for years. However, recent changes in strategy and leadership at IBM may have signaled that this was coming.
Who is affected by the shutdown of IBM Watson IoT Platform?
In any case, the impact on existing Watson IoT Platform users is clear: they will need to find a new solution for their needs. This could mean migrating to another platform or building their own infrastructure from scratch.
For many companies, the decision to use Watson IoT Platform was driven by its integration with other IBM products and services. With the platform being shut down, these companies will now need to assess whether they can continue using those other products and services or if they need to switch to alternatives.
The shutdown of Watson IoT Platform is a significant event for the IoT industry. It remains to be seen what impact it will have on IBM’s position in the market and on the overall ecosystem.
If you’re an existing user of IBM Watson IoT Platform, there’s no need to worry till December 2023 – your service will continue to work as normal up to that time. However, IBM is no longer accepting new signups for the platform, and it’s recommended that you migrate to a different service. Obviously you need to plan to shift yourself.
There are a few different options available, depending on your needs. However, self hosting will be a future proof option. If you need more flexibility and control over your data, consider using a gateway such as DeviceHive or ThingsBoard. These platforms allow you to self-host your data and gives you more control over how it’s used and accessed.
As can be expected, we have a lot of guides on IBM Watson IoT Platform for ESP32 Arduino, such as Controlling AC Powered Appliances With ESP32 and IBM Watson IoT. We will publish updated new snippets for alternate setup.
Reference News : https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/15/ibm_set_to_retire_watson/


text:
How many smart phones in your household?
Two thirds of Canadians own a smartphone.
Some 67 per cent of Canadians owned a smartphone in 2014, up from 62 per cent the year prior. Tablet ownership jumped by even more, to 49 per cent of all Canadians. In 2013, the figure was 39 per cent.
With more devices and faster networks, it's no surprise that Canadians are consuming more data. Wireless data usage was up by 15 per cent, the CRTC said, adding that people with a smartphone or tablet connected to the internet use an average of about 1 gigabyte of data per month.
As more Canadians are subscribing to faster internet speeds and using smart phones and tablets, they are able to participate more actively in the evolving digital economy.
Our land-based connections are getting faster and more prevalent, too. More than a third of Canadian households with an internet connection had a relatively fast one, capable of downloading greater than 16 megabits per second. In 2013, only a quarter of households had that.
And growth among even-faster connections of 50 megabits per second and up, doubled to eight per cent of households in 2014, from four in 2013.


text:
Supply chain problems didn’t start with the COVID-19 pandemic. They’ve been constantly disrupted over the past two decades, thanks to the advent of online ordering, rapidly developing technology and an aging workforce.
“Supply chain disruptions have become our new normal, and we should expect and plan for them in the foreseeable future,” said Chuck Moyer, former president of the Customized Logistics and Delivery Association.
In other words, supply chain issues are nothing new.
“Pre-pandemic, we’d see issues in one part (of the supply chain),” said Adam Hill, president and chief operating officer for the Scarbrough Group of Companies. “We could always finagle around one issue. If they hit at one time, you’d have chaos.”
Hill pointed out that another of the big weaknesses in the supply chain can be traced back to the recession of the early 2000s. But that’s not the only factor.
“It goes all the way back to FedEx and Amazon,” Moyer said. “They changed consumer expectations. Before that, the delivery companies would tell the consumer when to expect their orders.”
Instead of shippers telling consumers, “Your package will be delivered in three weeks” — as in previous shipping models —shippers started asking consumers, “When would you like it delivered?”
Hill said that shift in the business model completely changed the way people buy things now. Instead of products being ordered and shipped to big-box retailers, the market is seeing more items being shipped directly to consumers.
The previous way of doing things had been stable for decades, he said, and now that stability is gone. That the supply chain now resembles more of a “hub-and-spoke” model, like an airline.
“Previously they were stable,” Hill said of the world’s supply chains. He said that in the past, the freight industry was the information collector. Now it is providing the information, as well as the solutions.
Hill said the lessons spurred by this shift will take time to learn.
However, when COVID-19 hit as a global pandemic 2020, the final stressor on the supply chain crashed into place.
“China was locked down for nine weeks due to the virus. Factories were shut down. Production ceased. That caused the steam ship lines to stop servicing those ports,” Hill said.
“Then, COVID started making its way around the world. Europe shut down. The U.S. shut down,” he continued. “And just as manufacturing in China picked up again, we started to see skyrocketing consumption in the U.S. fueled by lockdowns.”
The world’s adaptation to the pandemic and partial return to “business as normal” has not alleviated supply-chain stressors.
“Fast-forward (to) now, and we’re seeing the ports in LA and Long Beach trying to handle a 30-plus-percent increase in traffic from their pre-pandemic numbers. Those goods are locked up even now as things ease a bit, but it’s still chaos,” Hill noted.
“The warehouses on the coasts are 130% full. We have more than 20 loads for every individual truck that’s available to come out on the West Coast,” he added. “It’s just a perfect storm of problems. In the past, we may have had one of these problems and the rest of the supply chain could figure a way around it. We can’t do that now. That’s why I describe what’s happening as chaos. Not disruption. Chaos.”
The issue has hit U.S. consumers, who had quickly become accustomed to receiving online orders in a matter of days — or, in many cases, overnight — particularly hard.
“During the pandemic, we saw Americans change their purchasing habits with many consumers buying more large and small products online,” said Darrel Harris, president and COO of Yellow Corp., said. “This change has led to tighter freight capacity; however, our freight professionals are hard at work to ensure Americans receive their goods as promised.”
Just a few weeks ago, the expectation was that the supply chain and problems seen in it would ease in 2022.
Then Russia invaded Ukraine. Now Russia, one of the world’s largest oil and natural gas producers and suppliers, is facing economic sanctions and could retaliate by holding back its crude oil and gas supplies from countries that oppose its war on Ukraine.
For now, members of the trucking industry can only watch and wait.
“We are concerned about diesel fuel prices going up and certainly watching for other impacts on the supply chain,” said Norita Taylor, director of public relations for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.
“We’ll definitely see some impact,” Moyer said. “It’s hard to know the outcome. Hopefully (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and Russia will become more cooperative. It’s hard to predict.”
Moyer said it’s likely that the U.S. will see an increase in fuel prices that will impact all sectors.
“That will drive prices up across the board,” he said. In addition, he noted that cyber-attacks on infrastructure, which the U.S. has seen on a small scale, could become a tool of war.
“I think there’s a higher chance we could see that impact,” Moyer said. “We’ve (already) seen impacts on the electrical grid and pipelines.”
Once invisible to most consumers, the supply chain has entered Americans’ daily vernacular, thanks to media’s coverage recent snags and blockages. Now the supply chain is one of the more familiar aspects of the economy for everyday Americans.
A large part of curbing consumer anxiety and stabilizing the supply chain will depend on how the workforce incorporates technology and use their creativity. One new way of dealing with the supply chain issues is linking all stakeholders and keeping them up to date one their goods.
“Today it’s very fragmented,” Moyer said, adding that in the near future, stakeholders will be sharing information throughout the supply chain from beginning to end and will have access to the same information.
“When I look at the supply chain issues of today, I believe the root cause is that most companies lack visibility and measurements in their supply chain,” Moyer said. “What they need is a ‘control tower’ — a way to gain full visibility, all the way from the manufacturing of the goods through every leg of the supply chain.”
Moyer also said he believes having real-time systems that are linked to all of a company’s stakeholders and can monitor weather and industry issues will play a role in the supply chain.
“This will help everyone in the supply chain to plan accordingly,” he said. “This will allow optimization of every component in the supply chain. If you have that control tower, you can optimize everything from your agreements to your scheduling, insurance, inventory control (and) placement of facilities, and adjust as needed and keep your customers informed. Creating a proactive culture and solution is an investment and provides a distinct advantage and ROI.”
Of course, professional truck drivers are needed to make everything work, and a lack of drivers has led to a number of public-private partnerships working to get more qualified hands on the wheels. Companies are also putting extra effort in to retain current drivers.
“The nation’s driver shortage remains a significant industry wide concern,” Harris said. “As a result, we’re focused on increasing the number of permanent driver academies and enhancing driver recruitment and retention. Yellow Corp. has 16 permanent driver academies, with additional programs being added as needed. In addition, we’ve boosted hiring for other critical jobs, including dock and mechanic positions, which is just as important as hiring drivers.”
Cooperation and a coordinated effort by all parties involved are vital to a healthy supply chain.
“Partnerships matter,” Hill said. “Providers need to do business with people who are like-minded. They must do business with people they trust and know they can depend upon. This is the time where service wins and good partnerships are how you provide a high level of service. The world relies on those of us who make the supply chain work and we need to work together to make that happen.”
Planning ahead and finding a way to anticipate unexpected events are also important links in the chain.
“Disruptions are ongoing and somewhat unpredictable, but planning now and changing the way we do business will position companies to take advantage of those disruptions in the future, and gain market share” Moyer said, adding that, in his view, if things stay stable, improvements will follow.
“Ride (it) out and expect disruptions,” Moyer said. “Disruptions are not new.”
Joseph Price has been a journalist for almost two decades. He began in community media in 2005 and has since worked at media outlets in Virginia and Arkansas. He is also a commercial drone pilot and video editor. He hosts a weekly community radio show focused on goth, metal and industrial music that airs Wednesday evenings at 6 p.m. at www.kuhsradio.org.


text:
SHANGHAI: Chinese authorities are probing a local unit of global catering giant Compass Group Plc over mouldy and expired food found at a private school served by the group and said it would inspect other schools around the city.
The market supervisory administration said in a statement over the weekend it was investigating Shanghai Eurest Food Technologies Service Co Ltd’s operating qualifications and food safety controls at the Shanghai SMIC Private School.
Food and drug safety incidents can have an outsized impact in China where regulators and consumers are hyper-sensitive to safety and quality, especially related to children, following a spate of issues ranging from expired vaccines to reused meat.
The case was as high as number 12 on the most-read topics on China’s Twitter-like social media platform Weibo on Monday.
“If the school and the contractor are found to have been violating the law, then they will be swiftly and severely investigated according to the law,” the market regulator said.
Britain-based Compass is the world’s biggest catering firm with 22.6 billion pounds (US$29.56 billion) in revenue last year. Eurest is one of its main brands along with Chartwells, ESS and Flik.
The SMIC school, which has nearly 3,000 students, said in a statement that during an inspection by parents on Friday, they had found “certain expired or stale food, with suspicious date of manufacturing labeled on certain food items inside the kitchen of the school cafeteria”.
The school apologised and said it would suspend one staff member and reprimand others. It has set up a task force to respond to the issue and had temporarily ceased its food supply deal with Shanghai Eurest.
“The school will strengthen its oversight of the food supplier and enhance the implementation of a more stringent food quality control process,” it said.
A person who answered the phone at Compass Group in Shanghai said she could not comment because an investigation was ongoing. Reuters could not immediately reach Shanghai Eurest, a wholly owned subsidiary of Compass, for comment.


text:
Facebook has been in talks to buy a stake in Mukesh Ambani’s digital operation Reliance Jio to try to expand its presence in the Indian digital market with a preliminary deal for a 10 per cent share.
Google also has been engaging in talks with Reliance Jio, after Microsoft last year announced plans to work with Jio to offer cloud computing to business.
India has become a vital market for Facebook and WhatsApp.
Reliance Jio since launching in 2016, has emerged as the only credible homegrown company capable of matching the US tech rivals in the fast-growing Indian digital market, from mobile telecoms to home broadband to eCommerce with 450 million active users in the country.
The number of internet users in India is expected steeply rise to 850 million users by 2022. Facebook now has more users in India than any other single country.
India overtook, US last year to become the world’s second-largest smartphone market after China by unit shipments.
The Indian market has become difficult for Silicon Valley to access as the Indian government has imposed restrictions on overseas businesses operating there, including its proposed Personal Data Protection Bill.
The Facebook deal forms part of Reliance’s plans to cut net debt to zero by March 2021. Reliance has sought to sell off stakes, including 20 per cent of its refining unit to Saudi Aramco, and a $3.3bn investment by Brookfield in its tower business.
Facebook who in the past has collaborated with Reliance on a digital literacy initiative last year, but the social network ran into trouble four years ago when the telecoms regulator blocked its “Free Basics” app, which was an effort to provide free access to popular internet services, including Wikipedia and weather forecasts, and its own social networking apps that were launched in partnership with Reliance as critics accusing Facebook of “digital colonialism”.
Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man and owner of Reliance announced last year that it would separate Jio into a new company to attract potential investors before an eventual listing.


text:
Chinas Solargiga Energy Holdings Limited posted a 1.6% increase in annual revenue to CNY 2.9 million last year, according to its preliminary unaudited financial results.
The publicly listed PV manufacturer made CNY 2.84 million in revenue from its production business, up 1.3% over the previous year. It saw a sharp rise in the sale of electricity generated and other revenue, which increased 14.5% to CNY 66.2 million.
Solargiga reported an external shipment volume from its production business of 1,151 MW a 13.2% increase over 2014.
Revenue and external shipment volume from the groups production business comprise its processing service, sales of silicon solar ingots, wafers, cells and PV modules as well as the engineering, procurement and construction of PV systems.
Solargiga announced in November plans to increase PV module production by 600 MW through a new joint venture with Motech, doubling its overall capacity.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: firstname.lastname@example.org.


text:
With the craft beer market increasing in popularity, Steel Brew owner Nick Palfrey, wanted to see if he could start his own brewery. He began his business journey with a homebrew beer kit which he set up in his garage back in 2018. Using alternative ingredients, Nick began experimenting with new flavours and soon created a distinctive recipe which he felt was commercial.
Nick first spoke to SWIG Finance about start-up funding in 2019, and successfully accessed £17,000 Start Up Loan. This support helped him to produce 750 litres of his craft beer and set up a taproom.
As the business matured, it went from strength to strength. However, whilst the new premises had been secured, it was forced to delay opening due to Covid – and this would have significantly impacted the business, had they not taken steps to future-proof by pivoting their business model.
With restrictions in place, Steel Brew Co diversified its income streams and began selling bottled beer online, which help raise the brand’s awareness and generate new sales.
In July 2021, the Steel Brew Co taproom was officially opened to the public and Nick could finally begin sharing his brews as planned in the beginning – as cask ales.
The business has received a hugely positive response from locals and visitors alike.
Soaring popularity, coupled with plans to sell through wholesalers and offsite through pop-up stands at food markets, music events and festivals, meant that the business needed to increase their production levels and storage facilities, which would require significant investment.
As their bank was unable to help, Nick reapproached SWIG Finance for further support, and a new loan backed by the British Business Bank’s Recovery Loan Scheme was approved.
Nick was assigned to Business Manager Rachael Taylor, who helped him prepare a cash flow forecast which considered a range of scenarios which could impact the future of the business.
Nick says that the craft beer market is a friendly but competitive one, and there are many complexities to consider when it comes to growth. For example, craft beer has a limited shelf life which makes storage, alongside increasing sales volumes, critical elements for consideration.
Steel Brew currently employs 10 people and they are looking to triple their headcount over the next 3 years.
Of the funding, Nick said “In the craft beer industry, it is very difficult to grow without working capital. This funding means that as we grow, we can work to improve our operational process as a whole, rather than working on specific components, which often results in a disjointed process. We chose to work with SWIG Finance because we knew that they would take the time to understand where our business is now and where we want it to be. Our business manager, Rachael, was so personal and helpful, we were grateful for her assistance throughout the process”.
SWIG’s Business Manager, Rachael Taylor, commented “We were delighted to support Nick in 2019 and we were really pleased that he came back to us for further funding. Nick and the Steel Brew Co team have worked tirelessly to ensure that the brand continued to grow, even in the harshest business environment, and that is a true testament to their dedication to the business.”
SWIG Finance was established more than 30 years ago to support businesses who are unable to secure funding from mainstream lenders. By empowering underserved businesses in the region to overcome their financial barriers, SWIG Finance is working to create a balanced financial eco-system.
About SWIG Finance
SWIG Finance is the South West’s leading Community Development Financial Institution. We are passionate about bringing social and economic benefits to people and places in the South West. We do this by providing support and finance to Start Ups and growing SMEs that can create and secure employment opportunities.
As the South West’s leading delivery partner for Start Up Loans UK, we can provide Start Up Loans from £500 – £25,000. For more information visit https://www.swigfinance.co.uk/start-up-loans/
We also have business loans from £25,001 to £250,000 available to South West SMEs who cannot access sufficient funding from their bank https://www.swigfinance.co.uk/business-loans/
If you would like an informal discussion about your funding requirements, please get in touch with our friendly and professional team: [email protected] / 01872 227 930.
Legal Notice: The Recovery Loan Scheme is managed by the British Business Bank on behalf of, and with the financial backing of, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. British Business Bank plc is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. It is not authorised or regulated by the PRA or the FCA. Visit http://www.british-businessbank.co.uk/recovery-loan-scheme


text:
Wolseley acquires Edmonton, AB-based national supplier Amre
July 4, 2018 | By Jillian Morgan
Wolseley Canada Inc. has acquired Amre Supply Company Limited, headquartered in Edmonton, AB.
Amre president Doug Swane, soon-to-be divisional president, said the acquisition will allow the company to expand its market reach in Canada through Wolseley’s distribution network.
Amre currently has 12 locations across Canada in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.
“We are very excited to leverage each other’s strengths,” said Kevin Fancey, Wolseley Canada president. The company plans to leverage Amre’s multichannel approach and e-commerce platform.


text:
Digital TV News: VOO
Daiwa partners with dbx-tv for sound in 4K TVs
Jun 5, 2020 – Daiwa has launched two Smart TVs in India - its Daiwa D43QUHS (109cm) 4K UHD and D43QFS (109cm) FHD LED televisions. Daiwa also announced a partnership with dbx-tv sound technology for all its 4K TVs.
News categories: Daiwa, dbx-tv, Arjun Bajaaj, Les Tyler, Digital TV, India, Smart TV
Dish TV India offers VOD content with MX Player app
Apr 27, 2020 – Dish TV India has announced that it has partnered with MX Player to offer video-on-demand content to its customers. DishTV and d2h users can access MX Player’s content through their Android Set-top-Boxes.
News categories: MX Player, Dish TV India, Abhishek Joshi, Anil Dua, Android TV, Apps, Digital TV, India, Satellite, Set Top Box, Streaming
Dish TV India launches range of 'Smart Connected Devices'
Oct 11, 2019 – Dish TV India has launched an Android-based HD Set Top Box and a Voice enabled Alexa Built-in smart kit. The smart kit dongle allows subscribers to access OTT Apps and Alexa skills on their existing set top boxes.
News categories: Dish TV India, Anil Dua, Apps, Digital TV, India, Satellite, Set Top Box, Smart Home, Streaming
Over 100 million monthly active users for ThinkAnalytics' cloud content discovery
Jul 9, 2019 – ThinkAnalytics has announced that its cloud-based personalized content discovery platform is the first in the industry to scale to over 100 million monthly active users in the cloud. Four of the firm’s OTT customers now have a combined user base that exceeds that number.
News categories: ThinkAnalytics, Peter Docherty, Big Data, Digital TV, UX, Worldwide
DVB to demo DVB-I advanced OTT delivery and deployment readiness at IBC
Jul 2, 2019 – At IBC2019, DVB will demonstrate how it is enabling an open standards-based approach to OTT and broadband television through its new DVB-I suite of specifications, highlighting support for low latency, enhanced service discovery, and mABR.
News categories: DVB Project, Peter MacAvock, Digital TV, IBC2022, Set Top Box, Smart TV, Streaming, UX, Worldwide
PureFlix.com taps 24i Media to reach more screens
Apr 8, 2019 – 24i Media has announced that it has built and deployed a suite of video apps for PureFlix.com, an SVOD service serving consumers in the U.S. and Canada. PureFlix.com is using 24i’s SmartOTT solution to power its SVOD service on a broad array of platforms and devices.
News categories: 24i Media, PureFlix, Martijn van Horssen, Ramon Duivenvoorden, Marc Beckwitt, Apps, Canada, Digital TV, NABShow, Streaming, USA
24i Media app technology helps power Sinclair's STIRR
Mar 27, 2019 – 24i Media has announced that it is helping power STIRR, the streaming service from Sinclair Broadcast. STIRR, powered in part by 24i Media's app technology, is available on a variety of mobile and connected TV platforms in the U.S.
News categories: 24i Media, STIRR, Ramon Duivenvoorden, Adam Ware, Apps, Digital TV, Streaming, USA
Kaltura powers Cloud TV service, VOOT by Viacom18
Sep 17, 2018 – Kaltura has announced that Viacom18’s VOOT Cloud TV service is using Kaltura to support explosive growth, with more than 37 million active users across mobile, web and smart TVs accessing over 50,000 hours of content and 100 million app downloads.
News categories: Kaltura, Viacom18, Dr. Shay David, Mohit Srivastava, Content Distribution, Digital TV, India, Streaming, Subscribers, Worldwide
Viacom18 adds ThinkAnalytics personalized multi-language recommendations to VOOT
Sep 11, 2018 – ThinkAnalytics has announced that Viacom18 in India has gone live with ThinkAnalytics on the ad-funded OTT service VOOT. VOOT’s users now have personalized recommendations on the home screen, making it quicker and easier to find content they want to watch.
News categories: ThinkAnalytics, Viacom18, Peter Docherty, Mohit Srivastava, Big Data, Digital TV, IBC2022, India, Streaming, UX
- Integral Ad Science ad verification goes live with Netflix
- DoubleVerify media quality measurement now available to Netflix advertisers
- EU clears acquisition of VOO and Brutélé by Orange, subject to conditions
- Liberty Global Belgium to launch takeover bid for Telenet Group Holding
- Proximus extends partnership with ThinkAnalytics
- Allente launches Google TV device powered by 3SS and SEI Robotics
- Streaming TV now most-watched TV form in the EU5
- StarHub introduces interactive advertising with Hoppr
- Breezeline Stream TV launches in Pennsylvania
- SES-18 and SES-19 C-band satellites for the U.S. successfully launched
- OTT TV revenues in Western Europe to reach $45 billion by 2028
- DVB publishes updated Multicast ABR specification and guidelines
- Channel 4 adds Xandr to its digital ad-buying suite
- Mola boosts ABR streaming quality with Broadpeak
- Mainstream Media launches female-centred FAST channel with Amagi
- Eastern Europe OTT revenues to double by 2028
- Video spend in Sweden up 9% in 2022 versus 2021
- StarGroup renews with Eutelsat for StarTV DTH in Mexico
- ORF selects Bitmovin video streaming player
- QYOU Media India selects SpringServe as primary ad server


text:
You only have until July 6 to claim your free Whispers of The Old Gods packs.
When Whispers of The Old Gods launched for Hearthstone earlier this year, it came with quite an attractive launch promotion. Players could earn up to 13 free packs of cards, just by playing the game. Sadly, all promotions have to come to an end, and Blizzard has announced that this one will be ending on July 6.
For a quick refresher on how to get these packs: the first three are awarded simply for logging into the game. You can then get five more packs for completing a “win two games in the new Standard mode” quest, after which a “win seven games in the new Standard mode” quest will appear, awarding an additional five packs.
However, players will still get a free C’Thun and two Beckoner of Evil cards in the first Whispers of The Old Gods pack that they open, even after July 6.


text: Announced at San Diego Comic Con a few months ago, LEGO Marvel Super Heroes will feature Stan Lee as a playable character. A new trailer was released today showing some of his super powers and featuring Stan Lee recording his lines. The game comes out this fall on all current gaming platforms. Be sure to pre-order your Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii U from Walmart.com to get the Iron Patriot minifigure pre-order bonus. Check the box on the right to see availability in for non-US markets.


text:
Mary Meeker of US venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins presented the firms’s annual Internet Trends survey this week.
Lafferty News is still waiting for someone to invent an app that reduces the 355 slides to a manageable ten or so. For readers of Lafferty News, there’s no big shockers in here, as technology news has become fairly mainstream.
Big Chinese internet firms are climbing into Top Ten lists previously occupied by American firms: it remains to be seen how much software they will roll out which takes a share of software traditionally dominated by the West. Naturally for Kleiner Perkins, there’s an unstated message that technology provides seamless solutions, which remains unchallenged.
Among the takeaways, for instance: voice search is growing, with 20 percent of inquiries on mobile done by voice. There’s no indication of the amount of correct answers delivered by Siri, Echo and so on. Lafferty News suspects about 25 percent of the enquiries yield correct answers. Another interesting tidbit: In India, mobile phones account for about 78 percent of internet usage (thanks in part to the $25 billion investment by Reliance to roll out a new 4G network). Only Nigeria surpasses that, with 80 percent of internet access via mobile.
Of course, it’s the ubiquity of mobile phones that has forced people to reconsider the future of the POS and in particular the PIN.
In the West, Jack Dorsey of micromessaging service Twitter founded Square, which was one of the first devices to take advantage of the connected computing power of the mobile phone to allow small merchants to receive card payments.
In the East, Tencent reconfigured its own micromessaging site into WeChat, out of which emerged mobile-to-mobile payments for merchants. Now, Edgar Dunn asks: is the extinction of POS terminals nearer than we think? Are we in the middle of another ‘software eating the world’ story? “As with the paperless office or the cashless society the retailer without a POS terminal is not likely to happen in the next 20 or 30 years,” says the report.
“Conversely, PIN-on-glass and contactless devices without a PED [PIN entry device] are more likely to be mainstream within the next five years, but retailers will still want the choice to accept cards with and without the PED. Just as we have seen the magnetic stripe reader is still an integral part of the POS terminal its days are numbered because in the next few years the mag-stripe card will fade away entirely as the chip on the card and contactless technology becomes the only standard. The next ten years will see further advancements in the function of the POS terminal, it will not be comparable with anything we see today but software will take the lead not the hardware.”
Barclays Zimbabwe will be acquired by Malawa-based First Merchant Bank, according to reports, as Barclays moves to divest of its African businesses. Barclays has been operating in Zimbabwe for more than a century.
As the FT reports, “Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe, which has $476m of total assets and made $10.9m of net profit last year, is a similar size to First Merchant Bank, which has $450m in assets and made $10m of profit last year. Barclays will transfer all of the bank’s 700 employees, 25 retail branches and five corporate service centres in Zimbabwe to First Merchant Bank.
The UK bank will reduce its risk-weighted assets by £292m.” Barclays is selling down its African business to concentrate on British and American markets. Barclays employees in Zimbabwe had gone to the courts to prevent the sale of the business, arguing that they deserved first refusal.
For some years now, Italian banking has been in need of a little luck. A lot, actually. The start of summer 2017 seems to be providing brief respite. Someday, a historian may judge that Italy’s luck turned this year. “First-quarter expansion was revised up to the fastest in six years, according to a report on Thursday, with a boost from inventories and solid consumer spending,” says Bloomberg. “While investment and net trade proved a drag, and Italy is still lagging its European peers, the news lifted hopes for the health of the economy.” Perhaps the G7 meeting in Sicily convinced Berlin and Rome that they have a common problem, and would do well to work together. So, Monte Dei Paschi (MPS) will be rescued (again) via a bail-in. Junior bondholders and shareholders will be tapped to contribute, private buyers will take MPS’ bad loans, and the state will assist in the recapitalisation of the bank.
Expect, however, that the bail-in will result in a lot of unhappy tales if more mis-selling of bonds emerges. Margrethe Vestager, EU competition commissioner, said she and the Italian prime minister had agreed in principle to allow state aid. “MPS will undergo deep restructuring to ensure its viability, including by cleaning its balance sheet from non-performing loans,” she said. “I hope this will enable MPS to focus on lending to the Italian businesses and support the Italian economy.”
Speaking of which… Lafferty News’s home town was full of vintage Minis last weekend, many featuring themes from The Italian Job, which sealed the reputation of that chirpy automobile as the getaway vehicle of choice for the Cockney tea leaf. As it turns out, Italy is the capital of bank robberies, though in this case it’s good old heists of cash that we’re talking about.
“Economists Giovanni Mastrobuoni and David A. Rivers studied nearly 5,000 bank robberies in Italy between 2005 and 2007. The average heist lasted 4 minutes, 16 seconds and yielded €16,000 (about $19,800 at the exchange rate of the time). Though each additional minute in the bank, on average, leads to about €1,400 more in earnings, the majority of robberies last three minutes or less because the risk of getting caught increases with time.”


text:
Comment from Semperis: Facebook outage
October 2021 by Guido Grillenmeier, Chief Technologist, Semperis
This some comment below on the Facebook outage this week from Guido Grillenmeier, Chief Technologist, Semperis:
The fact that Facebook was unreachable and along with it the Facebook Messenger app, as well as WhatsApp and Instagram, was noticeable globally – for users of all ages.
But beyond the mentioned well-known apps – due to Facebook also acting as an Identity Provider for other apps, its outage had far-reaching consequences beyond their own services: any other application, typically web-apps that use the “Sign in with Facebook” option was affected and with this the business that relied on those identities.
It soon became clear that the culprit of the whole outage was related quite simply to the process of resolving the readable part of the website URLs, i.e. their domain name and related server names, to their respective IP addresses. The latter are required for the different machines to communicate with each other – while we humans use names, computers and apps use their IPs to connect with each other. But if the system that you rely on to resolve those names to IPs , i.e. the Domain Naming System, in short DNS, is malfunctioning, you are in trouble.
When the Facebook IT team were doing some updates, a configuration mistake led their systems to send out routing updates to other DNS servers around the globe accidentally telling them that facebook.com no longer exists – meaning that there were no DNS servers out there anymore that could resolve any names related to facebook.com to an IP address, which could be used to connect the different systems wanting to use the different Facebook services.
Your corporate business may not have been directly affected by this outage. However, many companies have started to use WhatsApp and Instagram to collaborate with their customers, for example to offer technical support. Other companies are strongly dependent as their users authenticate with their Facebook accounts – i.e. they utilize Facebook as an identity provider. Once facebook.com was no longer reachable, no new connections could be established.
It’s a horror scenario for any identity provider. Think of Azure AD no longer being available in the web – in that case it could only be fixed by Microsoft and not yourself. On a smaller scale, your local on-premises Active Directory has just as many dependencies on a properly configured DNS.
In any case, whether it’s from a DNS misconfiguration or for some other reason such as a direct cyberattack – if your identity system goes down, your business will be affected dramatically. So ideally you have validated your backups and have your incident respond plan ready to go.


text:
Following Facebook's disclosure of its recent security breach which impacted millions of its users, the head of its enterprise business offering, Julien Codorniou personally reached out to one of its biggest clients to inform them that their data had not been exposed.
The client was Walmart and the company is just one of the many businesses that have signed up for Workplace by Facebook which allows employees to interact with one another using the same tools they are familiar with from the social network. According to Facebook, the service is currently used by 30,000 organisations including Starbucks and Chevron.
After the social network's recent security breach was disclosed, Codorniou worked quickly to personally inform Workplace's customers that steps were being taken to further separate the enterprise-focused service from its consumer offering.
New domain same product
Facebook is planning to give Workplace its own domain separate from the main site to boost its branding and build customer trust.
The new domain, Workplace.com, is currently live as a marketing site for the service though it is expected to become Workplace by Facebook's landing page at some point in 2019.
Customers had previously expressed concerns over the fact that the enterprise tool is hosted on the same domain as Facebook's consumer business and the move will likely appease these concerns.
Product manager for Workplace by Facebook, Luke Taylor explained the decision to separate the businesses to CNBC, saying:
“We have been in a position where even though we are separate from them, it’s a bit difficult to have that story when we are hosted on the Facebook.com domain. This is something that we want to do from a brand point of view but also something that I think gives our customers more trust in the product itself.
“When you look at the Oculuses, Instagrams and even the Facebooks of the world, they all have their own domains and their own brand identity. As we’ve seen our growth increase so rapidly and our traction in the market increase, we just felt it was exactly the right time to step forward with our own brand.”
- We've also highlighted the best online collaboration tools


text:
Smithfield Foods to be acquired by Chinese Meat Processor
World’s largest hog, pork producer to be sold to China’s Shuanghui for $4.72B
By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com
Chinese meat processor Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. has reached a deal to buy publically traded company Smithfield Foods Inc. for $4.72-billion (U.S.). The purchase values Smithfield at $7.1 billion, making this the largest Chinese takeover of a U.S. company.
In a news release, Smithfield CEO Larry Pope said "This is a great transaction for all Smithfield stakeholders, as well as for American farmers and U.S. agriculture." Smithfield shareholders will receive $34 per share, which is a 31 per cent premium on the company’s closing stock price of $25.97 on Tuesday. Both companies’ boards have approved the deal, which is subject to closing conditions – approval by Smithfield shareholders and from U.S. regulators before its final.
Hong Kong-based Shuanghui has 13 plants that produce more than 2.7 million tons of meat per year. Smithfield’s existing facilities and locations are to remain along with the collective bargaining agreements for 46,000 of Smithfield workers. The transaction is expected to be completed by the second-half of 2013.
China is the world’s biggest consumer of pork.


text:
Fintech is not dead, as Ramp reports accelerating revenue growth – TechCrunch
Not all companies are struggling in this downturn.
Despite a cooling market, Ramp, the start-up of the company’s consumption management, reports that it has more than doubled its revenue drive since the beginning of the year.
The feat would be impressive in normal times, but is especially the case when technology companies – large and small – lay off, freeze employment and / or report declining growth. But it is even more remarkable for a start-up – in an increasingly competitive area – to more than double its turnover in a few months in the midst of deteriorating market conditions.
Ramp confirmed in March that they had secured $ 550 million in debt and $ 200 million in equity in a new financing that doubled the valuation to $ 8.1 billion.
Now the company not only sees more SMB customers – a logical assumption considering that Ramp’s biggest competitor Brex recently announced that it would largely stop operating businesses in that category. According to CEO and co-founder Eric Glyman, it sees increases across all stages of the company’s maturity.
Especially in June he said Ramp closed a total of 38% more business – expected revenue from new customer registrations – than it did in May. Interestingly, the company saw the most growth in the corporate segment – with more than a 300% increase in customers there. It also saw an increase of more than 50% in intermediate market customers, and an increase of approximately 22% in SME customers. June’s growth figures are more than double, or about 221% higher than the figures for December 2021, the company said. While Glyman did not disclose harsh revenue figures, he pointed out that the company had crossed $ 100 million in annual revenue before the third anniversary in March. This is, he added, while retaining over 80% of the equity raised on the balance sheet.
Remember that Ramp earns its revenue from brokerage fees. For each transaction it conducts, Ramp receives a portion of the costs as a top line. Annualized income is the exchange earned in the last monthly period, annually. Let us also remind you that rival Brex – which started offering credit cards to startups – earlier this year stated that they “a big push”Both in software and business.
“We believe that Ramp’s ability to help customers spend 3.5% less is uniquely appealing and valuable to businesses in this macroeconomic climate,” said Glyman.
“Our biggest hope is to go to work for more companies that want to cut costs, become efficient and do it in ways that improve business quality, while maintaining the ability to make investments and support people and employees,” he told TechCrunch. in an interview.
Last week, another player in the room, Airbase, said they had secured $ 150 million in debt financing led by Goldman Sachs. It is interesting that while the company has historically generated most of its revenue from software, it is now improving its card offering.
CEO and founder Thejo Kote told TechCrunch that it is still a priority to generate SaaS revenue for the company. But, he said, since the company has served medium-sized and early businesses over the years, it has offered them a pre-financed card that they can use to make purchases. In recent months, however, Airbase has realized that many can take advantage of the opportunity to make purchases with “30 days of float”, said the manager.
“We started this process by offering a payment card model because as we continue to grow and scale revenue and increase our customer base more aggressively, we found that there are definitely customers out there who can not afford to give up on 30 days of flow as a cards give them either because of cash flow reasons or because of philosophical reasons, Kote said.
Meanwhile, while Ramp delivers software, exchanges are still the biggest revenue driver. And in the future, the company with 350 people plans to operate with the same strategies that have driven it to this point.
“We have been conservative with our use of funds and aimed to be operationally efficient,” Glyman said. “We have been able to be very slim and efficient, and we have managed to keep more than 80% of the capital we have ever raised. When we look at the size of people who are in the same industry category, they usually have many more employees for either a similar or meaningfully smaller income scale. “
My weekly fintech newsletter, The Interchange, was launched on May 1st! Sign up here to get it in your inbox.


text:
Despite dire predictions, the Polish economy got a measure of good news as figures from Poland’s Office of Statistics (GUS) showed that industrial product was 0.5 percent higher in June this year than in June 2019.
This is a surprisingly good result as the Ministry of Development had forecast production to be 5 percent lower than last year’s figures for June and analysts had expected the fall to be in the region of 7 percent.
The rise in production compared with May of this year was 13.9 percent (9.7 percent allowing for seasonal factors). The rise is explained by the fact that in April and May, much of the production in factories was stopped as a result of the lockdown following the Covid-19 outbreak.
The figures from those months were disastrous, showing that production fell by 24.6 percent in April and 17 percent in May.
Get your daily dose of Remix News straight to your mailbox!
You have successfully joined our subscriber list.