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FW Davison & Company Announces Name Change to PrismHR
FW Davison & Company (Davison), the leading provider of high-performance software solutions for the Professional Employer Organization (PEO) and Administrative Service Organization (ASO) industries, today announced that the company is changing its name to PrismHR.
Weve served the PEO and ASO market for the past 18 years and have seen our clients thrive on our platform, said Frederick Davison, Founder and Chief Visionary Officer. Today were excited to usher in the next generation of the company and our software platform, all signified by a single brand, PrismHR.
The new brand is part of a cohesive strategy that reflects the companys broader commitment to the service relationship of its customers and its customers worksite clients and employees through continued investment in technology and talent. This announcement is supported by the companys continued growth and an investment by Accel-KKR fueling hiring and technology development and deployment.
Were extremely excited about launching PrismHR today, said Gary Noke, President and CEO, PrismHR. What this means for all HRO firms is that more resources than ever are hard at work creating great technology and services that will help them run and grow their businesses.
To learn more about PrismHR, visit us at http://www.PrismHR.com.
PrismHR — formerly FW Davison & Company — creates enterprise software solutions that help the Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO) industry, including Professional Employer Organizations (PEO) and Administrative Service Organizations (ASO), service worksite clients and employees. The PrismHR service delivery platform leverages best-of-breed partner solutions and complex core functionality that facilitates payroll processing, benefits and human resources administration, billing, account management, new hire onboarding and online benefits enrollment. For more information, visit http://www.PrismHR.com.
Keith Knowles, VP Marketing & Product Management
For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2015/2/prweb12518869.htm


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SAN FRANCISCO -- Optimism is flowing here at Semicon West, the world's largest trade show for semiconductor production equipment, materials and software. With chip makers scrambling to expand their plants worldwide, organizers of the annual event released a revised outlook for semiconductor capital spending to what is now a conservative 36% growth forecast for 2000, but more than double the projection at the start of this year.
A mid-year poll conducted by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) shows growth in production tool sales expected to reach $34.5 billion in 2000, followed by a 23% increase to $43.0 billion in 2001. In 1999, semiconductor equipment sales were stronger than originally forecast, coming in at $25.5 billion, an increase of 18.4% from the depressed market conditions in 1998, when worldwide revenues were only $21.5 billion, said SEMI.
The release of a more bullish mid-year SEMI Consensus Forecast comes at a time when industry analysts are also hiking their projections for capital equipment spending to as much as 70% over 1999 (see July 6 story). While this year is much stronger than anyone originally expected, some market observers are now predicting the likelihood of a slump in chip markets during 2002, partly because of overspending on new production capacity.
But semiconductor capital equipment vendors are not being bothered by the prospects of slower growth in several years, and many are expanding their offerings for the next-generation 300-mm fabs. Applied Materials Inc., for example, rolled out 21 new tools for 300-mm wafer processing at the show on Monday (see July 10 story).
"The promise of a major ramp-up in semiconductor manufacturing in 2000 is being realized, which is in turn fueling demand for added capacity," said Stanley Myers, president and CEO of the SEMI trade group, which hosts the Semicon West event in San Francisco and San Jose this week. "New manufacturing technologies, including the much-anticipated transition to 300-mm wafers and the introduction of 0.15- and 0.13-micron chip designs, are also giving a boost to the current upturn."
By product category, SEMI's mid-year Consensus Forecast shows sales of wafer process equipment rising almost 40% to $23.5 billion in 2000 from $16.8 billion in 1999. Sales of assembly and packaging equipment are expected to increase to $2.4 billion, up 21.5% from $2.0 billion in sales in 1999. Test equipment sales should reach $7.0 billion in 2000, up 35.5% from the $5.2 billion sold in 1999, according to the San Jose-based trade group.

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MPs divided on Canada-Colombia trade agreement
By Jeremy Warren, Saskatoon StarPhoenix
9 May 2010
Increasing trade between Canada and Colombia would help fight drug traffickers and improve human rights in the South American country, says Saskatchewan MP Brad Trost. But critics say the country’s poor human-rights record should put any free-trade plans on hold.
A Canada-Colombia free-trade agreement is working its way through Parliament, and Trost is one of several Conservatives leading the push to ratify the agreement.
Trade between the two countries totals about $1.3 billion annually. That’s not a lot compared to other countries, but trade expansion could mean more than just the exchange of goods, Trost said in an interview from Ottawa.
The free-trade pact would mean more jobs for Colombians as companies expand trade with Canada, he said.
“Increasing trade with Canada allows industries to hire more and that’s a direct social benefit,” Trost said. “If you want to help people, give them a job.”
Conservatives aim to increase exports to Colombia for Canadian producers of goods such as wheat, barley, paper products and heavy agricultural equipment. Colombia’s exports to Canada include coal, coffee and bananas.
A free-trade agreement would also make investment easier for mining companies looking to expand in Colombia, according to Trade Ministry officials.
The elimination of tariffs would allow Canadian goods to compete with U.S. exports in South America, Trost said.
“The 15 per cent (tariff) in a commodity driven market really puts our guys at a disadvantage,” he said.
A Colombian-United States free-trade agreement has been signed, but ratification has been stalled in the U.S. Congress, where concerns about human-rights abuses in Colombia has slowed progress.
The federal NDP opposes Canada’s agreement for similar reasons.
“Colombia has an appalling human rights record,” said NDP MP Peter Julian, his party’s international trade critic. “Signing the trade agreement is likely to exacerbate the problem.”
The Colombian government has forcibly removed peasant landowners in order to sell land to international companies, and the government continues to ignore labour rights, Julian said.
About 2,700 Colombian trade unionists have been killed since 1986, although the numbers have dropped annually since reaching a peak in the mid-90s, according to Human Rights Watch.
Canada’s proposed agreement does nothing to ensure the rights of farmers and labourers are protected by trade expansion, Julian said.
“(An agreement) rewards a government that has its hands soaked in blood,” said Julian, who compares the situation to signing a trade agreement with North Korea or Burma.
“The Conservatives wants to sign an agreement as a smoke and mirrors attempt to coverup their lack of an economic strategy.”
Colombia and Canada signed the agreement in November 2008, but Parliament has yet to ratify the trade pact that was first tabled last March.
The bill has passed second reading in the House of Commons and is now in committee where MPs are bringing in witnesses — from union representatives to Colombians now living in Canada — before the bill heads to a third reading, which Trost expects sometime this June.
The Liberal Party has supported the agreement, but has proposed its own amendments.


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A temporary eatery and pop-up shops are set to open this winter as part of the expanding Downtown in December festivities at the Myriad Gardens.
The shops and restaurant will be set up in a 6,000-square-foot restaurant built, but never opened, as part of the $34 million makeover of the gardens completed in 2011.
Maureen Heffernan, executive director of the gardens, said the eatery and shops will open onto an ice rink that last year drew 30,000 people and is being expanded by 20 percent.
“Our No. 2 question asked when people come to the gardens is ‘Where is the gift shop?'” Heffernan said. (The No. 1 question is about restroom locations.)
The pop-up shops idea was being contemplated for months by local retail consultant Allison Bailey, who helped coordinate the first experiment with temporary storefronts as part of the Better Block OKC festival staged at NW 8 and Hudson last spring.
A pop-up retail space is a venue that is temporary — a trend gaining momentum nationwide that involves a shop “popping-up” one day, then disappearing days or weeks later.
Bailey said she discovered with Better Block the more personal connection a person can make with a retailer through such event-driven shopping.
“Oui was one of the shops,” Bailey said. “I bought a pair of earrings from her. Every time I wear them, I think of this fleeting, dreamy shop I visited that was there, and is no longer there. It's kind of whimsical …”
The shops will share space in the empty restaurant with a temporary eatery to be run by Caliber Bistro, which also operates a cafe at Full Circle Bookstore at 50 Penn Place. The eatery and shops will open Black Friday, Nov. 24.
The $2.9 million restaurant, built with glass windows imported from Italy, was designed for “white linen table” fine dining, even though several local downtown area restaurant operators advised that such a concept would not work at the gardens location. City officials responded they were confident the concept would work, and built the restaurant without an operator.
The city and the Myriad Gardens Foundation have been unable to find an operator for the restaurant. The one bid submitted by the Deep Fork Restaurant Group proposed a burger and shake eatery and was rejected.
Heffernan, hired as foundation director after the restaurant was built, hopes the temporary eatery might show how a permanent restaurant can succeed at the gardens.
“We asked a number of local places, but they were all too busy to open a holiday cafe. But we found Caliber, and we're all very excited about it,” she said.
The eatery will have a rotating menu with soups, salads, deserts, hot chocolate, coffee and cider, she said. “It will be very family friendly — they'll sometimes be making mac and grilled cheese sandwiches, black angus hot dogs, chicken salads and wraps,” Heffernan said.
The eatery is set to stay open through the end of the Devon Ice Rink season in late January. Heffernan suggested the eatery might remain longer if it is popular with visitors.
In the meantime, Heffernan said the restaurant has been rented out for banquets, weddings and special events. Nonprofit groups have been allowed to use the space for discounted rates, and sometimes for free.
“We're still looking for a permanent operator,” Heffernan said. “We have leads we are pursuing. Caliber won't be the ultimate operator. But this will be a very interesting way to test the water.”
If you go
Myriad Botanical Gardens
Pop-up shop schedule:
Nov. 29 to Dec. 7:
Dec. 11 to 15:
Dec. 17 to 24:
Devon Ice Rink schedule:
The rink opens Nov. 23. The schedule will be Mondays and Tuesdays, 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesdays and Thursdays, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sundays 10 a.m. through 8 p.m.


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On May 26, 2018, the video game world weeps for the passing of Ted Dabney.
Samuel F. “Ted” Dabney was born on May 15, 1937. He was the co-founder of Atari, Inc. alongside Nolan Bushnell, and one of the creators of the first successful arcade game, Pong.Read More →
The buzz on Ataribox continues to grow, and we can’t wait to share more news in the weeks ahead. Ataribox will first be made available via a crowdfunding campaign this Fall 2017 with shipments planned to start in Spring 2018.Read More →


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A pet guard dog named Lucky continued to sleep through a mock robbery drill when an armed robber entered a jewellery shop in Thailand.
The mock drill was conducted by the police and aimed to train the jewellery store staff on how to react in case of armed robberies as per reports.
Worawut Lonwanawong, the owner of the Husky and the jewellery shop, kept waiting for Lucky to wake up and deal with the fake robber, but it was all in vain as the dog continued to snooze despite the chaos that was created.
The video which has now left many amused was shared on a Facebook page dedicated to Lucky. The owner called Lucky an active and smart dog, who he adopted 7 years ago.


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Jul 18, 2018
BookMyShow raises USD $100 million in Series D funding led by TPG Growth
Mumbai – July 18, 2018 – Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., which owns and operates BookMyShow, announced today it has executed definitive documents to raise USD $100 million in Series D funding led by TPG Growth, the middle market and growth equity investment platform of alternative asset firm TPG. The round also saw participation from existing investors. This fresh infusion of funds will fuel BookMyShow’s growth plans as it transforms into the ultimate ‘Entertainment Destination’ for its customers.
Ashish Hemrajani, Founder and CEO, BookMyShow said, “BookMyShow is excited to welcome TPG Growth as our newest partner. They bring with them extensive experience across the global media and entertainment sector, which will be instrumental as we look to accelerate our growth plans in this space. The strategic value that all our investors continue to provide us will also be of immense importance as we begin a new chapter of our standout story.”
“TPG Growth is committed to partnering with dynamic companies and entrepreneurs that are at the forefront of global media and entertainment,” said Bill McGlashan, TPG Growth Founder and Managing Partner and Co-Founder and CEO of The Rise Fund. “BookMyShow has a tremendous chance to transform how Indian consumers discover and experience entertainment, and we’re looking forward to working with Ashish and the team to capitalize on this opportunity.”
“Traditionally dominated by movies, India’s entertainment industry is rapidly changing and expanding, driven by factors such as rising income levels, growing consumer appetite, and higher internet usage,” said Akshay Tanna of TPG Growth. “In partnering with BookMyShow, we saw the opportunity to invest behind an innovative company that is set to benefit from these trends and become the leading organization across entertainment genres.”
For many years, TPG Growth has been actively engaged in the global media and entertainment landscape. Across funds, TPG’s portfolio in the sector includes Cirque du Soleil, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Moretickets, Spotify, STX Entertainment, and Vice Media.
Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to BookMyShow and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. were the legal advisors representing the company during this round.
BookMyShow works with partners across the industry to provide unmatched entertainment experiences to millions of customers, on par with global entertainment standards. It is constantly innovating to increase its ownership share in the Indian entertainment value chain by relying heavily on its analytic capabilities and incisive understanding of customers. BookMyShow has produced music concerts and theatricals, introduced audio entertainment service Jukebox, built India’s largest organic reviews and ratings engine for movies and has driven technology innovations, such as the m-ticket, impacting both users and the industry at large.
Since its launch in 2007, BookMyShow has been committed to its customers. With investments from TPG Growth, Stripes Group, SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Network 18, BookMyShow is invested in providing the best user experience, whether it’s on ground at an event or online. Demonstrating category leadership, BookMyShow has expanded its operations to Sri Lanka and Indonesia and has invested in companies including Do-It-Yourself events registration and ticketing platform Townscript and Fantain, a fantasy sports platform for Cricket and Kabaddi. It is also committed to society at large by way of their charity initiative BookASmile, which provides entertainment experiences to the underprivileged. For more information, please visit www.bookmyshow.com
About TPG Growth
TPG Growth is the middle market and growth equity investment platform of TPG, the global alternative asset firm. With approximately $13.2 billion of assets under management, TPG Growth targets investments in a broad range of industries and geographies. TPG Growth has the deep sector knowledge, operational resources, and global experience to drive value creation, and help companies reach their full potential. The firm is backed by the resources of TPG, which has approximately $84 billion of assets under management. For more information, visit www.tpg.com.
BookMyShow: Arushi Maheshwari | email@example.com | + 91-8802999023TPG: Snigdha Nair | Adfactors PR | firstname.lastname@example.org | +91 9920481191


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Codenamed “Urbanite", the company is planning to build a hot of EVs by 2020.
The Pune based manufacturer has been in the news for a lot of reasons, and most often than not, it is a good one. With the latest being the eyebrow-raiser Triumph-Bajaj global partnership, Bajaj is making the right moves to get ahead of the competition soon enough.
Now, fresh information from the industry sources is pointing out at the firm’s newfound love for alternative fuel powered vehicles, most probably being electric. Coined as "Urbanite", the new project will aim at developing upmarket products in the electric vehicle segment.
Both Japanese technology giants will co-develop electric powertrain systems for vehicles of the future.
Honda has always been at the forefront of technology and is a major player in the world of artificial intelligence, robotics and big data. Now fresh new information has cropped up suggesting that the Japanese Red is getting serious about developing electric vehicles and so is being busy partnering with another technocrat, Hitachi Automotive Systems.
As a matter of fact, both these companies had signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this year in February and they have escalated those talks by signing in for a joint venture partnership in March. They have christened the JV as Hitachi Automotive Electric Motor Systems, and it will be heeding to develop, manufacture and sales of motors for electric vehicles, both for Honda and other players.
The company plans to roll out two new products every year.
Hero Electric has been the sub-brand of Hero MotoCorp, the world’s largest motorcycle manufacturer. The company is a multi-product and a multi-location enterprise with interests in Electric Vehicles, Bicycles and Healthcare. With the newfound interest in electric powertrains, Hero has made strides in this direction and are betting big on the technology.
It has been launching electric two-wheelers for some time now and has sold over 1 lakh customers. They, however, were not market spec vehicles like the Tork T6X or Ather S340 and were very underpowered. Now, they have tied up with the German Technology giant, Bosch, to get things around for them.
In the future, motorcycles will whiz past you on the tracks but you won’t hear a thing!
Dorna Sports, S.L. is that commercial entity that holds the rights to conduct all MotoGP Championships and all forms of supersport and superbike racing held around the world. Now, this organisation is prepping up for conducting races that will consist of electrically powered superbikes.
Dorna boss, Carmelo Ezpeleta, confirmed the same during an interview with a Spanish publication, Motciclismo.
Setting up everything from scratch is no joke.
Built by a Bangalore-based startup, Ather Energy, the S340 is the country’s first premium electric smart scooter. The company was founded by two IIT-ians who are committed to building smart, connected, uncompromising vehicles and seeks to reimagine urban commute with the help of technology.
Their first offering is the Ather S340, which they are building it from the ground up and promise to change the way we perceive the electric transport till now. The company has received fundings to the tune of ₹6.3 crores from Flipkart, ₹76 crores from Tiger Global and the very recently ₹205 crores from the world’s biggest manufacturer of two-wheelers, Hero MotoCorp. This has allowed Ather to sustain momentum in its journey of building a future-ready product platform and to accelerate the infrastructure and ecosystem development around electric vehicles in the country.
But down the line, the development stage is taking the toll because the management overshot on their calculations for giving us the production ready model.
An electric commuter scooter that gives the rest a run for their money.
We had, not long ago, featured the Tork T6X: the country’s first production electric motorcycle. Then a Bangalore based startup, Ather Energy, has been in this pursuit since their inception in 2013 and are on an epic journey to give the country’s first premium electric smart scooter christened as Ather S340.
Now, there is an all new player trying to make the difference in giving us a ‘Solution from Pollution’. The electric two-wheel manufacturer who goes by the name Okinawa Autotech has launched its pioneer project e-scooter, the Ridge.
The American is going electric
You know things are actually getting serious when stalwarts like the Harley Davidson are putting their money and testing out electricity to power their machines. And if you have been following the Marvel studio’s Avenger series, you might have caught the stunning Scarlett Johansson picking up things for the boys on a stealthy looking black widow’s electric motorcycle.
That very bike is the next major milestone for the Milwaukee company who have made a handful of the LiveWire bikes to bring it on the streets of the world and gain feedback from customers. What one might think of it as blasphemy, few were simply awestruck at what the engineers at Harley Davidson have come up with pulling off something that seem impossible by the brand.
Thinking a 100 years ahead
BMW is not some run of the mill company. It has one of the most prestigious history books and for nearly a century, they have been making impeccable products that beam innovation and technological acumen. Started as an aircraft engine manufacturer, BMW started manufacturing two wheelers in 1923 with the R32 that made use of the iconic flat-twin boxer configuration engine.
100 years down the line, BMW Motorrad still uses this boxer engine to power the finest of the finest motorcycles. To commemorate this heritage, BMW has offered us a sneak at how its next 100 years is going to be by showcasing the BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100 at the “Iconic Impulses. The BMW Group Future Experience” exhibition in Los Angeles.
After giving us saliva bubbles with its vision of the future through the MINI, Rolls-Royce and the BMW concepts, BMW now gives us BMW Motorrad Vision Next 100, a motorcycle that is a completely radical concept of the traditional machine on two wheels today. Almost like being officiated at the altar of Utopia, this is “the essence of motorcycling and a symbol of the ultimate riding experience of the future” according to Adrian van Hooydonk, Senior Vice President BMW Group Design.
India’s first smart electric scooter
“Electric vehicles is the future” is what you will see under the banner of every automotive manufacturer now. They are moving away from the addiction to liquefied dinosaurs in a bid to a cleaner alternative to protect the environment. Time and again it has been proved that electric/hybrid vehicles have an overwhelming advantage especially to ride within the town and this evolution has been a gradual process for some – and an exciting start for others.
We had, not long ago, featured the Tork T6X: the country’s first production electric motorcycle. Now, a Bangalore-based startup, Ather Energy, has been in this pursuit since their inception in 2013 and are on an epic journey to give the country’s first premium electric smart scooter christened as Ather S340. The company was founded by two IIT-ians who are committed to building smart, connected, uncompromising vehicles and seeks to reimagine urban commute with the help of technology.
Their first offering is the Ather S340, which they are building it from the ground up and promise to change the way we perceive the electric transport till now. The company has received fundings to the tune of ₹6.3 crores from Flipkart, ₹76 crores from Tiger Global and the very recently ₹205 crores from the world’s biggest manufacturer of two wheelers, Hero MotoCorp. This has allowed Ather to sustain momentum in its journey of building a future-ready product platform and to accelerate the infrastructure and ecosystem development around electric vehicles in the country.
Everything you can imagine is real. So is this.
Imagine a world in 2050. Actually, you know what… don’t bother. Because this is what it’ll look like.
An Italian company (obviously), Aero, has managed to coup up this extraterrestrial green motorcycle which seems more like a hypothetical or a fictional character from a sci-fi flick. And it is called the E-Racer. This Aero project was in collaboration with an Italian automotive magazine – Inmoto and after almost a year of work, they landed this space age E-Racer in the 2016 EICMA show in Milan.
A small step for a motorcycle, one giant leap for mankind
Yes. I stole the quote from the legend Neil Armstrong. And i’m sure he would too agree with me on this.
Countering to the deals that lurk all around the use of combustion fuel and its effects on the environment, a greater deal of thought is gone into using alternative sources to power our vehicles and one such attempt is made by the Indian start-ups that are striving for a greater cause. There has never been a better time to introduce zero emission vehicles that cater to a larger mass of bikers and commuters alike. There hasn’t been a lot of success stories on this front, but things have now started to change for good.
India’s first avatar of an indigenously designed and developed electric motorcycle by a Pune based start-up is the first commercial zero emission motorcycle of the country. The TX6 is ideal for riding around the town and is equivalent to any of the 200cc motorbikes available.
In its quest to manufacture their first electric bike, Harley-Davidson has decided to bring their Project LiveWire to Asia. Project LiveWire is the initiative of the manufacturer to launch their electric bike after seeking valuable assessment from consumers by offering them a ride on the bike and help to guide through the development of the new motorcycle. This particular project made its debut in the U.S. last year in the month of June; the manufacturer had expressed its plans to extend this project in Canada and Europe by this year. On 25th February, Harley-Davidson will initiate its event at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit and will continue till 4th of March. The media and invited people only are to be allowed in this event.
What the Project LiveWire Experience does is that it invites customers to test ride the concept electric bike. Through the journey, the rider automatically gets to know more about the features of the motorcycle and thus they later provide their comments of their experience. Those who don’t yet ride will have the chance to feel the power of Project LiveWire through a simulated riding experience called - the Jumpstart™ demo. Harley-Davidson Chief Marketing Officer Mark-Hans Richer said, “Project LiveWire has reset expectations about what a Harley-Davidson motorcycle can be. The first phase of the Project LiveWire Experience tour provided valuable feedback about the features and experience riders expect from an electric Harley-Davidson motorcycle. This year we’re expanding that experience to a global audience to gain even deeper insights from riders to help us shape the future direction of this exciting technology.”
Click past the jump to read more about Project LiveWire Motorcycle
Mahindra group have recently unveiled a new electric scooter for the U.S. market and also inaugurated an electric two wheeler plant and a technical centre at Michigan.
Mahindra has launched a two wheeled electric scooter in U.S. keeping in mind the needs of the US customers. The first-of-its kind electric scooter named GenZe has been launched for the ease of travel, specialized storage and an impressive top speed of 30 miles/h. It has been loaded with many industry first features too. In most of the states in US, no driving license is required to ride this bike with 30mph top speed and GenZe is the advantage factor here for many people who does not own a license but needs a two-wheeler for commuting.
Vish Palekar, CEO, Mahindra GenZe have said that this new scooter has been targeted primarily for the students or the urban commuters who feels irritated due to the usual hurdles like congestion, increasing gas prices and lack of parking space. GenZe is the perfect scooter with its compact design to suit the daily needs of the commuters as it can be charged anywhere on the go. This urban electric scooter will be manufactured in the United States itself in its new manufacturing facility at the Mahindra GenZe electric two-wheeler facility and the North American Technical Center in Southeast Michigan. This facility owns the capacity of assembling 9.000 vehicles per year and also can produce up to 20,000 vehicles if required.
With this launch, the company extends its market in the United States.
Mahindra has always been one step ahead of its competition when it comes to electric vehicles. The Mahindra Reva E20 is one of its biggest examples. Now Mahindra is venturing in the electric scooter market also but this time they are making these electric scooters not for our Indian market instead Mahindra two wheelers have decided to build and develop these scooters for the American market. The new scooters is developed entirely at Palo Alto, California, it will be christened as GeneZe and slated for launch in the US market this year.
The new electric scooter has been designed to fulfill the riders every basic need such as carrying groceries, goods and stuff there is plenty of space provided at the rear of the scooter in the form of a bucket behind the rider. There is even space to carry personal things such mobile phone or any other electronic equipments just below the seat. What is even more interesting is the fact that there is even a mobile charger via which the rider can recharge their electronic equipments. In the front end of the scooter a 7 inch weather proof touchscreen has replaced the conventional instrument cluster. This 7 inch touchscreen also displays important information about the scooter such as the battery charge status, range, diagnostics and route. The rider can even listen to music via Bluetooth enabled device or even use the GPS.
The electric scooter uses a 1.4 KW motor which is powered by a replaceable lithium ion integrated power module, which includes the battery pack, controller and the charger in a single compact unit. The electric scooter has an overall range of 50 Km and has a topspeed of 50 km.
The GeneZe styling and sporty stance might attract the young crowd towards it; it will perhaps be launched later in the markets of India and China.
When all the manufacturers are preparing themselves for the upcoming Auto Expo Hero Motocorp took a step ahead and unveiled five of their new products for the Indian market. These five new vehicles include two motorcycles, two new scooters and a diesel hybrid concept.
Hero Motocorp promised to bring a range of new products and innovations which will open the door towards a new age of technologically advanced vehicles targeted mainly towards the youth of the Country. All these new vehicles that Hero Motocorp unveiled are based on new platforms and developed by Hero Motocorp themselves. Hero engineers have tried their best by utilizing all the modern technologies they have in developing these new and innovative products which will soon be available not only for the Indian people but also for those people who are scattered around the World.
Hit the jump to find out all the details of the unveiled products


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Independent streaming company Cinedigm in partnership with Elvis Presley Enterprises has announced the forthcoming launch of The Elvis Presley Channel.
“We are thrilled to partner with Cinedigm to launch The Elvis Presley Channel,” Marc Rosen, president, entertainment, Authentic Brands Group (ABG), which owns Elvis Presley Enterprises, said in a statement. “The Elvis fandom is incredibly passionate, and Cinedigm is best-in-class when it comes to serving fervent fan bases.”
The new channel plans to feature continual Elvis programming with exclusive specials and documentaries of the artist who died from heart disease in 1977, including his famed 1968 comeback special “Singer Presents…Elvis,” “Elvis Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite” and “Elvis by the Presleys.”
There also will be footage from the archives of legends including Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and more, specials highlighting impact cities like Memphis that helped shape rock ‘n’ roll, as well as some general music documentaries.
“The new channel will provide viewers an intimate view into the artist that defined a generation with exclusive films, specials, and documentaries,” the press release stated. “The Elvis Presley Channel will also give fans a chance to watch rare home footage from the Graceland Archives.”
The new channel is slated to launch in early 2022 and will be available in the US and Canada.


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July 31, 2013
Registration has opened for the upcoming Great Lakes Truck Expo, set for Sept. 18-19, 2013 in Cleveland.
Registration includes free admission to the Expo and the corresponding educational sessions, but seating is limited for the sessions so interested parties are advised to sign up quickly, Expo organizers say. The Expo will be held at the Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center and will feature more than a dozen educational sessions in addition to the trade show.
For more information or to register for the event, go to www.greatlakestruckexpo.com.


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Slash & gain: Pandora Media climbed 6 percent to $12.76 Friday after the streaming music company issued a strong revenue forecast, citing a rise in advertising sales. The company also said it will cut about 7 percent of its jobs to reduce costs.
Drug test: Pharmaceuticals company Endo International dropped 8.6 percent to $14 Wednesday after Donald Trump criticized the high cost of drugs at a news conference. Other drug companies also took stock hits that continued later in the week. Endo shares closed Friday at $13.19.
Dim the lights: Lighting maker Acuity Brands dropped 15 percent to $202.98 Monday after its earnings fell short of expectations and the company said soft demand that dampened sales in the period could extend into the next quarter. Acuity shares closed the week at $215.18.
Fast lane: Drugmaker Merck rose 4.7 percent to $62.77 Wednesday on news that the Food and Drug Administration will do a quick review of one of the company’s drugs for its potential to treat a type of lung cancer. The stock finished the week at $62.34.
Deal bounce: VCA vaulted 28.3 percent to $90.79 Monday after the pet health care company agreed to be acquired by food and drinks company Mars Inc. for around $7.7 billion. VCA shares closed Friday at $91.25.
Bah humbug: Ascena Retail Group plunged 11.3 percent Tuesday to $5.33 after the company slashed its profit forecast, citing holiday season sales, which fell for most of its brands, including Ann Taylor, Lane Bryant and Dressbarn. The stock closed Friday at $5.42.


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FRANCE: Boisset to sell spirits business to La Martiniquaise.
Burgundy-based drinks group Boisset is selling its spirits branch to French counterpart La Martiniquaise, for an undisclosed sum.
Boisset said the sale would allow it to refocus the business on still and sparkling wines, for which it occupies a strategic position.
The branch represented EUR85m ($122.04m) of Boisset's global 2007 turnover of EUR227m.
Its portfolio includes brands such as Duval and Casanis, (pastis), L'Héritier-Guyot (crème de cassis), Saint Raphaêl (apéritif wine), Manor, Rapha and Valuria (natural sweet wines) and Avèze (bitter liqueur).
The sale also includes Belgian company, Bruggman, which mostly produces gin.
The 45 staff which make up Boisset's spirits branch will be retained by La Martiniquaise, which also this month bought the Glen Moray Scotch whisky distillery from Glenmorangie.
Proposed new legislation in Scotland aimed at tackling alcohol abuse has sparked huge debate. Chris Losh believes the plans display muddled thinking and fail once again to address the real cultural pr...
Drambuie is to link up with whisky distiller Morrison Bowmore in Scotland, as group CEO Phil Parnell tells just-drinks that the group is in good financial shape to weather the recession....
Nearly 700 bottles of rare Highland Park single malt whisky are to be rereleased on the UK market, after being discovered in Japanese warehouses....
Talks on a free trade deal bewteen the EU and South Korea, which could include lower tariffs for Scotch whisky imports, are set to take place at next week's G20 summit in London....
Constellation Brands has completed the sale of its "value" spirits business to Sazerac Co for a total of US$334m....
Whyte & Mackay has appointed a new CEO. The Scotch whisky firm, which was bought by India's UB Group in 2007, said today (24 March) that John Beard started in the new position yesterday, replacing Ash...
The Edrington Group has announced plans to create two separate sales and distribution teams for South Korea and Taiwan, as part of the Scotch whisky firm's role in the reorganisation of the Maxxium v...
Beam Global is backing its Teacher's Scotch whisky with a GBP1.5m ad spend in the UK this year, and is set to a fresh on-pack offer to create more interest in the brand....
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The demise of the newspaper:
For first time, you online news consumers outnumber those newspaper readers: the impact on politics | Top of the Ticket | Los Angeles Times: "For the first time in history, a larger percentage of Americans (46%) get their news online than get their news on that paper stuff that leaves their fingers ink-smudged (40%).
Only local television news (50%) still surpasses online as a source of news for Americans. And its lead is shrinking.
The little-noticed development has many major implications for American politics, how they operate and how they are consumed."


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Automotive and Fintech company, Autochek has raised $13.1 Million in seed funding to expand its operations across Africa.
Participants in its latest funding round include existing investors such as Golden Palm Investments, Enza Capital, Lateral Capital, TLcom Capital, and 4DX Ventures. First-time investors such as Mobility 54 Investment SAS, the venture capital arm of Toyota Tshusho, and ASK Capital also participated in the round.
Recall that last year, Autochek raised $3.4 Million in pre-seed funding to grow its markets in Nigeria and Ghana. That round also saw TLcom Capital, 4DX Ventures, and Golden Palm Investments in participation. The funding came months after Autochek acquired marketplaces Cheki Ghana and Cheki Nigeria from one of Africa’s largest classifieds Group, ROAM Africa. The company continued its expansion by acquiring Cheki Kenya and Cheki Uganda to expand into East Africa. The company also partnered with CFAO Group to bring its marketplace into the Francophone region.
Cheki was launched in 2010 as an online car classified for dealers, importers, and private sellers in Nigeria. The startup, headquartered in Lagos, expanded operations to Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. In 2017, Cheki got acquired by ROAM and joined a list of online marketplaces and classifieds in its network like Jobberman.
Autochek is currently present in five African countries, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Ivory Coast, and Uganda and according to reports, the company has set its sights northwards and southward on the continent towards the second-largest and third-largest economies in Africa, South Africa, and Egypt.
Autochek is an automotive/fintech company that was founded by the co-founder and chief executive of Jiji subsidiary Cars45, Etop Ikpe. Autochek’s platform operates a marketplace-driven model and has a focus on financing and after-sales. The company generates revenue through fees charged on customer transactions and commissions paid by dealers and service shops on the platform, the company also has financing partnerships with banks.


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Blame for scandals enters boardroom
Directors start to pay the price for firms' woes
Published 6:30 am, Saturday, January 8, 2005
WASHINGTON - Most of the punishment from the recent wave of business scandals has fallen on corporate executives and in some cases the accountants and other professionals who advised them.
But corporate board members, who are directly responsible for protecting shareholder interests, have largely escaped untouched. Now that may be changing.
A handful of recent developments, highlighted by this week's tentative agreement of 10 former WorldCom outside directors to pay $18 million of their own money as part of a $54 million settlement of a shareholder lawsuit, suggests that board members at scandal-ridden companies may indeed wind up paying a significant price for failing to stop alleged misdeeds.
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What was once a gilded position offering hefty compensation for minimal work is becoming a more challenging job fraught with the risk of significant financial liability. "All of this will make directors begin to take their jobs far more seriously than they do now," said Laura Thatcher, an attorney and corporate governance expert at the law firm Alston & Bird.
The legal landscape surrounding corporate board members is clearly shifting.
In addition to the WorldCom settlement, directors at Walt Disney Co. are being sued in Delaware over their approval of a $140 million severance package given to Michael Ovitz, who spent a disastrous 14 months as Disney's president. Experts said that before the rash of scandals, such a case would likely never have made it to court.
New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed suit last year against former New York Stock Exchange director Kenneth Langone over Langone's role in engineering a $139.5 million payment to then-NYSE Chairman Richard Grasso. Spitzer sued Grasso as well.
In May, a judge in Delaware found two outside directors at Emerging Communications liable for approving a sale price for the company that shareholders said was too low. The judge said the two directors possessed enough expertise to know the deal was not a good one.


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The company that processes payments for Amazon and Swiggy has reported a data leak of over 100 million debit and credit cardholders
- Information of over 100 million debit and credit card users has been leaked online from payments processor
- The leak includes the user’s names, contact information and information related to their debit and credit cards.
- Juspay processes payments for companies like Amazon, Swiggy, MakeMyTrip and several other companies.
- Cybersecurity researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia who first spotted the breach has said that it could become a lot more serious if hackers figure out the encryption algorithm.
AdvertisementIn what could be a major data breach, information of over 100 million debit and credit card users from payments processor Juspay has leaked on the dark web. Juspay processes payments for companies like Amazon, Swiggy, MakeMyTrip among others.
The leaked data is in the form of a data dump and has been leaked through a compromised server of Juspay. Juspay has confirmed the data leak in its official blog post, outlining the details of the breach.
“It pains us to inform you that a data breach did happen on 18th August 2020. Non-sensitive masked card information, mobile numbers and email ids of a subset of our users were compromised,” the company said.
Cybersecurity researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia discovered the data breach. He found that the data dump was available for sale on the dark web.
Speaking to Business Insider, Rajaharia noted that this data breach could be a lot more serious if the hackers figure out the encryption algorithm used to hash card numbers.
Here’s what was leaked in the
As per Juspay, the leaked information includes non-sensitive masked card information, mobile numbers and email IDs of a subset of users. The company has said that the leaked information does not include full card numbers, order information, card PIN or password.
The data on the dark web includes information such as the bank that has issued the card, card expiry date, the last four digits of the card, masked card number, card type and the user’s name, among other details.
Should you be worried?
Rajaharia pointed out that there could be a major risk to users if the algorithm used to hash card numbers is leaked or if the hackers figure it out on their own.
A hash is a unique and fixed-length string that is mapped to a set of data. In this case, Juspay has hashed the 16-digit debit and credit card numbers in order to process transactions.
AdvertisementIf hackers can figure out the algorithm used to generate these hashes, they could use brute force and find out what the original card numbers are.
Juspay has masked only six digits out of sixteen-digit card numbers. Rajaharia says that while this is good, the safety of users rests primarily on the hashing algorithm.
Scammers could also exploit this data leak
In addition to the risks mentioned above, Rajaharia also pointed out that scammers could exploit this data leak to dupe cardholders. Since the leak includes mobile numbers, they could call unsuspecting cardholders and trick them into revealing the full card numbers, PIN, CVV as well as one-time passwords.
Rajaharia also pointed out that since these users are paying customers, they are a lot more valuable than non-paying customers. This makes the
According to him, the seller he is in touch with has demanded $8,000 in Bitcoin to purchase the data.
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Hackers are sending customers fake shipping messages appearing to come from Amazon and UPS as a 'shipageddon' is expected during a hectic shopping season
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The UK food-to-go market is predicted to be worth £23.4bn by 2027, 26% more than pre-pandemic levels, according to the new forecast from insight provider IGD. While inflation is set to be the main driver of growth, operators and retailers have an opportunity to support consumers through the cost-of-living crisis as they look to save money.
By 2027 the market will be worth £23.4bn, 26% more than 2019.
This year (2022) the UK food-to-go channel will be worth £18.9bn, 3% more than its pre-Covid value in 2019. The market has performed better than predicted since the pandemic, but this will slow by the end of the year and throughout 2023 as consumers battle rising energy, fuel and food costs.
Nicola Knight, Senior Analyst for Food-to-Go and author of the forecasts, explains: “Foodservice businesses were the biggest beneficiaries of pent-up demand for food on-the-go last year because of all the innovation they put into working around lockdowns, such as flexible delivery solutions and click and collect offers. But as the cost-of living-crisis comes in these operators will be under pressure as they become more of a premium option compared with lower priced food-to-go alternatives from a retailer, or preparing food at home.”
Inflation will be the main driver of growth over the next 18 months.
“Inflation is already affecting many consumers but until now food-to-go has continued to perform strongly. This will change as the true impact of rising prices really kicks in in the last quarter and takes hold next year. So, while inflation will boost the overall value of the market, volume will, at best, stay the same in 2023.
“The next 18 months will be a challenging period for the sector, mainly for coffee and food-to-go specialists, as operators attempt to balance rising costs with helping consumers to save money.
“Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) that focus on communicating their value, particularly around deals and family offers, will do well with consumers that are still looking for the occasional treat without breaking the bank.”
The cost-of-living crisis will bring challenges for foodservice food-to-go operators but opportunities for retailers
With the focus back on value for at least the next 18 months, retailers are in a strong position. The price point, range and execution of meal deals will become fiercely competitive, as they aim to capitalise on the opportunity.
“During the pandemic, retailers deprioritised food-to-go space in favour of in-demand categories, leaving them on the competitive back foot as footfall returned and consumers sought a change from homemade meals. However, if they can get their price, offer and format right, by 2027 retail could more than regain the share lost to foodservice operators during the pandemic to claim 23.7% of the food-to-go market, compared with 22.9% in 2019 and 20% in 2020/21.
“Key opportunities for retailers over the next 18 months will include strengthening their meal deal offers as consumers become more value-led, and utilising customer data to create tailored offers that are relevant and savings-focused. There’s also an opportunity for them to increase food-to-go ranges to meet consumer needs across a wider variety of meal occasions.”
The annual Food-to-Go forecast report from IGD examines in detail the outlook by sector for: QSR, coffee shops, food-to-go specialists, supermarkets/hypermarkets, and convenience, forecourts & other retailers.
For media enquiries please contact Alexandra Crisp at [email protected]


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No one knows exactly how many Americans have lost money in fraudulent charges through the money transfer app Zelle, though millions could be at risk. One thing is clear: neither Zelle, nor its parent company Early Warning Services, nor the banks that host the app have been stepping up to refund the stolen funds.
News reports from all over the country—in Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco—tell stories of customers swindled out of their money with no way to get it back, except in individual cases brought to specific banks’ attention by reporters. Debbie Shepard-Polak, for example, a landscaping company owner in the Chicago suburbs, recently lost $4,600 in a Zelle scam.
The torrent of complaints from angry customers has spurred two Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Robert Menendez of New Jersey to write a letter to Early Warning Services telling the company that it and banks need to provide “appropriate redress to defrauded customers.”
Zelle is an app created by EWS, which is owned by seven of America’s biggest banks: Bank of America, BB&T (now Truist), Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, PNC Bank, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. Hundreds of banks and credit unions across the U.S. offer Zelle.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau considers these fraudulent money transfers to be covered by a federal law, Regulation E, which means that the consumers should be getting their money back.
“Regulation E protects consumers when they use electronic fund and remittance transfers,” a spokesman for the CFPB said in an email. “Financial institutions must comply with this regulation when they are responding to consumer notices of error. When a consumer provides notice to a financial institution that money was stolen from the consumer’s account, the burden is on the institution to show that the transfer of funds out of the consumer’s account was authorized by the consumer.”
Banks deny responsibility
Many banks have been refusing to reimburse customers defrauded through Zelle, arguing that the customers themselves approved the transfers. Right now, the only recourse for customers that banks won’t help out is to file a complaint with the CFPB.
Neither Zelle nor EWS responded to requests for comment.
In the meantime, banks might consider bolstering their security measures to protect customers using Zelle.
To access bank customer’s money, thieves often impersonate the customer’s bank in a phone call or text—with the bank’s phone number spoofed so that the communication looks like it actually is from a bank official.
In one common scenario, the customer receives a text that looks like it’s coming from the bank asking if a payment had been made with Zelle. The customer texts no. Then there’s a phone call from a person impersonating a bank official who asks about another transaction. While on the phone, with the phony bank official, the customer receives another text asking if they authorized a different payment via Zelle and provides a six digit code.
The phony bank representative then tells the customer to log into their account and provide the six digit code to reverse the transaction—but by typing in the code, the customer is authorizing it instead.
Consumers love the speedy money transfers, but that speed is part of what makes the frauds successful, said Michael Levy, a former prosecutor and currently an adjunct professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law.
“The real problem is that Zelle and other things, like Venmo, are instantaneous,” Levy said. “So there’s very little time for the customer to notice and say there’s a mistake that the bank needs to undo.”
By contrast, payments made by credit card move slower, Levy said.
“That means credit card companies have some ability to reverse a transaction,” he added. “Another thing about credit card companies is they have algorithms that are really good at detecting fraud and pick up transactions that look weird.”
Levy recommends that people not give out any information when they get texts or calls even if they look like they’re coming from the bank. It’s best to just call the bank yourself or log on to your account and see if there’s anything amiss, he said.


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Dual function residential roof tiles or shingles that incorporate solar PV (photovoltaic) cells into an integrated PV system for new build and retrofit homes have already received the ‘hype’ from Tesla’s Elon Musk but a new kid on the blog is set to go head to head with Tesla for this niche US market both from a manufacturing and installation perspective.
Contruction of a Tesla powerpack battery at the 60MW Gannawarra solar farm in Victoria, Australia - said the be the first battery storage system that has been retrofitted to an existing solar farm in the country - has been completed ahead of schedule.
In the hotly contested Californian residential solar market, new data compiled by ROTH Capital Partners highlights, amongst many data points, that Tesla’s solar panel supply base and suppliers is undergoing a major transition and that it has been changing for several years.
Tesla reported another major decline in its residential solar installations for the fourth quarter of 2017, while a supply shortage in its energy storage system ‘Powerwall’ has created a customer backlog of solar and storage installs of more than one year.
Energy storage in the state of South Australia has continued its prolific pace of development with the announcement of two new grid-scale projects and a sizeable commercial and industrial (C&I) installation.
From technology trends breaking out at scale, China’s mind-blowing deployment, a certain trade case in the US and of course, one or two notable bankruptcies, 2017 was never short of drama. But which stories drew your attention in 2017?


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In April last year Travis Scott held a concert on Fortnite. The set lasted around 15 minutes and was viewed simultaneously by over 12.3 million gamers. The artist re-aired the virtual show another four times to a total of 27.7 million unique viewers nabbing him around US$20 million for his time. This equated to over 5x more per show than his 56-stop world tour in 2018-19 (and presumably for a lot less effort).
The concert was a hit as people tuned in to the platform from their mobile devices, PCs and consoles to watch. It also highlighted a changing of the gaming industry, that has been underway for some time, from a hardware-centric to user-centric model. To date, this shift has been facilitated by the proliferation of mobile devices and internet access which has seen the number of gamers globally rise to more than 3 billion. Looking ahead, the advent of cloud gaming, augmented and virtual reality, and the roll out of 5G will further accelerate this trend.
The shift is an example of Ben Thompson’s aggregation theory which is explained in detail here in his 2015 Stratechery article on the topic. Essentially with less emphasis on consoles, value will accrue to the platforms which aggregate the most users as network effects take hold. Game developers will also benefit from cheaper content distribution and access to more users than ever before.
Current industry forecasts have total gaming revenues increasing to US$250-300 billion in 5 years. We believe new revenue streams such as subscription fees, virtual events and advertising revenues will emerge as a result of the shift that these projections do not fully appreciate.
This trend will have implications for the industry for the next 10+ years and several companies in the Swell Global Portfolio are positioned to participate over that time.
About the Author
The Education of a Value Investor by Guy Spier
The Digitisation of Everything - Retail
The Digitisation of Everything - Entertainment
The Digitisation of Everything - Automotive
The Digitisation of Everything - Payments


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JACKSONVILLE — Land transport companies appear to have turned a corner since the recessionary lows of 2009. Like the rest of the economy, however, transportation’s rebound remains slow and sometimes precarious.
The Association of American Railroads reported that U.S. monthly rail traffic remained mixed year-over-year in January 2013. Intermodal traffic — container traffic using multiple modes of transport such as ship, truck and rail — rose 5.3 percent, but carload freight volume fell 6.3 percent. Coal shipments showed the greatest weakness, while petroleum and intermodal shipments showed strength.
The American Trucking Association reported the best January in five years for its truck tonnage index, a measure that tracks month-to-month changes in trucking tonnage nationally. That followed increases for November and December and decreases for the three previous months.
Closer to home, Jacksonville transport executives said the news is favorable. But no one’s cheering quite yet.
Raven Transport Company Inc.
Stephen Silverman, chief operating officer of Raven Transport Company Inc., said, “I think the market’s bottomed out. Within the industry, there are pockets and regions that are better than others, though.”
Raven Transport, a Jacksonville company, is the 221st largest trucking company in America, making it mid-sized compared with its competitors.
Silverman said his company had grown every year for 10 years, culminating in record sales in 2008. Then in 2009, revenue plummeted nearly 20 percent, from $81 million to $66 million.
“The big difference was volume,” Silverman said. “My largest customers are MillerCoors and Procter & Gamble Co. [NYSE: PG]. People think these businesses are recession-proof, but they aren’t.”
It took the company three years to get back to its pre-recession levels. In 2011 the company made revenue of $85 million and in 2012, revenue grew modestly again to $87.3 million.
That positive news is tempered by tight profit margins, shrinking driver availability, the looming debt ceiling debate, and an uncertain economy. Silverman describes his outlook, at best, as cautiously optimistic.
“The economy needs to improve more,” he said. “I’d like to see a GDP of 3 percent. What we’ve got, at 2.1 percent, is like treading water. We’re just not going anywhere.”
The Grimes Cos.
A Jacksonville company that has been in business for nearly 50 years, The Grimes Cos. had provided mainly warehousing services until 2005, when it added regional transport and contract logistics.
Then the recession hit and the business model changed again.
“Inventories evaporated nationally and warehouse income evaporated,” said Mike O’Leary, Grimes’ president. “We found ourselves sitting on square footage. Everything was throttled back nearly 40 percent.”
Within a year, Grimes went from filling 1 million square feet of warehouse space to filling 200,000 square feet. The economy recovered slowly, but inventory demand did not.
“People were being a lot smarter about what they manufactured,” O’Leary said. “There was less concern about making sure it was on the shelf than there was about making sure it wasn’t sitting on a warehouse floor.”
Grimes didn’t recapture the business it had before; it adapted. Transport recovered more readily, so the company grew its regional trucking fleet from 20 to 60.
“We went into this recession as a warehousing company that provided transportation and packing services,” O’Leary said. “We emerged as a transportation company that has warehousing and packaging services. We got smarter about how we do business.”
CEVA Logistics U.S. Inc.
CEVA, a leading logistics company with 51,000 employees in more than 170 countries, was hit in 2009 by the same drop in trading volume felt throughout the transport industry.
That affected the part of the company which is asset-based — warehouses, trucks, trailers and drivers — where revenue is directly tied to volume.
Like Grimes, CEVA found new profits from another company division.
“One thing we didn’t expect was the number of first-generation outsourcers we would pick up for our contract logistics business,” said Keith Goldsmith, CEVA vice president of business development. In contract logistics, an outside company manages the movement and storage of goods for a company.
For example, CEVA bought the warehousing and trucking arm of a company, operated that resource for multiple customers, and sold the service back to the original company on a variable cost basis.
“Shared warehouse space isn’t anything new,” Goldsmith said. “What the recession did, though, was create a series of customers who traditionally did not outsource their supply chain, who now said maybe we should now find more cost-effective ways to do that.”
The logistics contracting offset, but didn’t erase, the effects of weaker trading volume, Goldsmith said. Although trade has since increased, the outlook isn’t bullish yet.
“It’s going to be a long launch out,” Goldsmith said. “The most recent volumes are going to continue to pick up slowly and incrementally.”
CSX (NYSE: CSX), like many U.S. companies, felt the brunt of the recession in 2009, with carload volume dropping 15 percent and revenue dropping 20 percent, CSX spokesman Gary Sease said.
The company responded by storing a portion of its locomotives and railcars and furloughing employees.
At the recession’s worst, more than 700 locomotives out of 3,800 were sidelined, as were 37,400 railcars out of 70,000. More than 2,500 employees out of 32,000 were furloughed.
The cutbacks allowed CSX to remain profitable in 2009, though earnings per share dropped nearly 22 percent from the previous year.
Traffic volume began recovering in the second half of 2009. Despite the recession’s strain, CSX continued to invest in infrastructure.
“We anticipate continued slow and steady growth in the economy,” Sease said.
That growth could accelerate, he said, if Washington resolves “difficult policy issues” and balanced regulations are maintained, allowing railroads to reinvest in networks and equipment.


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Bawumia launches digital card for MASLOC
The Vice President, Alhaji Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has outdoored a digital system to enhance the operations of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC).
The system will support the operations of MASLOC by processing loan disbursement digitally, increase access to their products and services.
Speaking at the launch in Accra, Dr. Bawumia said the Ghanaian SME sector had embraced modern technology and the use of ICT in service delivery, as it would place MASLOC in a position to respond appropriately to the changing world order arising from the effects of Covid 19.
“The implementation of what we can call the ‘MASLOC Card’ could not have come at a better time. It will make public sector service delivery and the administration of credit schemes simpler and effective.
“Ghana, before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, had taken a decision to aggressively pursue digitization. The President has had a clear position on this matter of digitization and development. But the global pandemic has reaffirmed the position of the President that building a digital economy is the way to go.
“Yes, the COVID-19 has been destructive in many ways of our lives. But destructive events can catalyze change for the better. We are witnessing the awakening of a new world order. Business will not be as usual after the crisis. An obvious change after the crisis will be an increased confidence in technology. Online payment systems will be radicalized and institutions will have no option but to subscribe to digital service delivery.”
Emphasising the critical role MASLOC plays in the credit market, Dr Bawumia noted that people who would otherwise not have had access to credit in the formal credit sector are assessed and assisted by the scheme, helping family businesses and budding entrepreneurs to get the start up.


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Bangalore, February 24 2014: On a day when it assumed a new name -- Mobileum -- Indian talent fuelled, US-headquartered telecom data analytics leader Roamware, announced that it would be helping another big Indian name Airtel -- to improve the travel nd roaming experience of its customers in Africa.
Mobileum will analyze Airtel Africa customer, network and commercial data to generate innovative insights on Airtel Africa’s traveling customer population like travel prediction, roamer detection and roamer segmentation, amongst others. These insights will enable Airtel Africa to create tailored travel and roaming experiences for their customers. Airtel Africa operates in 17 countries across Africa with a customer base of over 68 million across Africa. Mobileum is a strategic partner to Airtel and has roaming solutions already installed in Airtel’s operations across Africa and Asia.
Said Andre Beyers, Chief Marketing Officer, Airtel Africa: “Analytics will help us use the data that we have on our customers, networks and operations to provide us with deeper insights on how we are running our business and how our customers are using our services to help us serve our roaming clients better.”, said.
Added Ori Sasson, Chairman & CEO, Mobileum: “Airtel is a globally renowned operator and an early adopter of innovative technologies and business models. It is a privilege to work with them on Telco Big Data Analytics. We have provided a variety of innovative roaming solutions to Airtel and are best placed to help the Group leverage the power of data in their networks with our innovative Wisdom generating analytics portfolio. We look forward to starting a new chapter in our engagement with Airtel Africa with Telco Big Data Analytics.".
Airtel has operations across African in: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
Building on Roamware’s brand legacy of being the world’s leading roaming solutions company, Mobileum offers customers not merely informational insights but Just Wisdom from their data. Mobileum’s Just Wisdom promise is endorsed by its rich experience and judgment gained by processing petabytes of mobile operator data regularly for the past 13 years.
Mobileum’s Analytics offerings include Traveler Analytics, which enables operators to understand and better monetize the traveler segment; Analytics for Customer Experience Management that provide operators rich and predictive insights into a subscriber’s experience across the relationship lifecycle and facilitates real-time responses to issues, and Data Monetization which adds a new revenue stream for operators, from the sharing of target segment insights with third-party brands.


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Press coverage about Ever-Glory International Group (NASDAQ:EVK) has been trending somewhat positive recently, Accern reports. The research firm rates the sentiment of media coverage by analyzing more than 20 million blog and news sources. Accern ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Ever-Glory International Group earned a media sentiment score of 0.12 on Accern’s scale. Accern also gave news coverage about the textile maker an impact score of 46.1595134775075 out of 100, meaning that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an effect on the stock’s share price in the near term.
Shares of Ever-Glory International Group (EVK) opened at $2.35 on Tuesday. Ever-Glory International Group has a 1 year low of $1.96 and a 1 year high of $3.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.77, a P/E ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 2.45.
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Ever-Glory International Group Company Profile
Ever-Glory International Group, Inc (Ever-Glory), through its subsidiaries, is a retailer of branded fashion apparel. Ever-Glory is also a global apparel supply chain solution provider with a focus on casual wear, outerwear and sportswear brands. The Company operates through two segments: Wholesale and Retail.
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September 19, 2008 |
MUMBAI: Mobile users may soon be able to credit or debit money from their bank accounts using handsets, if the Reserve Bank's proposed operative guidelines for banks regarding mobile payments come into practice. Mobile payment involves debiting or crediting funds into a customers account on the basis of instruction received through the mobile phones. The Reserve Bank proposed that licensed banks would be allowed to offer mobile payment services to Indian residents after getting approval from their boards.
June 30, 2010 |
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Internet and mobile banking would be expanded during the coming days and more facilities would be added to ATMs, State Bank of India , Kerala Circle, chief general manager BS Bhasin said. Steps would be taken in the current fiscal to expand the base of internet banking with additional facilities to disburse salaries for employees, Bhasin and SBI Kerala circle general manager V Ramamoorthy told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.
October 28, 2010 |
NEW DELHI: Telecom regulator Trai on Thursday floated a consultation paper on making mobile banking easily accessible and more secure for users. The consultation paper by Trai has sought comments from the operators on how to make basic financial services easily available through mobile phones. Trai has sought views on methods of communication on mobile network (GSM and CDMA) that would be suitable for enabling financial transactions through mobile phones and parameters to be defined to ensure timely delivery of information.
March 4, 2008 |
MUMBAI: In an attempt to offset their disadvantage of having just 4 branches in India, Barclays Bank has launched a mobile banking service that will enable customers to make banking transactions from their phone, irrespective of its make. The service is menu-based and the first one in the country to be on the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) platform which is a safer and quicker channel than the currently prevailing platforms like text-messaging and GRPS.
November 27, 2009 |
NEW DELHI: Strong opposition from the Reserve Bank of India and the home ministry has forced the government to drop the idea of a cost-effective, convenient and efficient mobile-based model of financial services that allows transfer of funds outside the banking system. The RBI is concerned that regulating the system will be difficult and it would cause uncontrolled credit creation outside the banking system. The home ministry is concerned about the misuse of the facility from a security consideration.
January 12, 2008 |
MUMBAI: In a move that will take the frontiers of banking transactions beyond the ATM and internet, full-fledged banking transactions through mobile phones have been introduced by ICICI Bank. The bank has now kicked off a mobile banking service, where a customer can replicate all transactions through mobile similar to an internet banking transaction. Till now, customers were only able to get all information like balance in the account and mobile alerts through mobile phones.
July 2, 2015 |
MUMBAI: Mobile banking transactions will overtake internet banking transactions over a period of two years as customers find it a convenient mode of transaction, according to Nitin Chugh, head - digital banking at HDFC Bank. As of now there is a huge gap between the transactions on internet banking and mobile banking platform in terms of value and volumes. Over the last one year, transactions through mobile banking has seen a steep rise with emergence of smart phone and high speed data being available at a competitive price in India.
July 7, 2014 |
A recent survey by software security firm Trend Micro says India ranks third among countries most affected by mobile banking malware. We tell you how to secure your transactions. 1) Develop safe habits Don't be scared of using your mobile for banking. It is safe if you take basic precautions. One, never store your account information, such as the account number, debit and credit card PINs, on your mobile handset. Two, if you use a banking app, never store your user name and password on your mobile handset for automatic login.
July 7, 2015 |
MUMBAI: ICICI Bank has created a dedicated payments gateway for the mobile banking transaction which will enable much faster transactions for its customers. The move to have a separate gateway comes in the backdrop of the bank 'acquiring more customers for mobile banking than for internet banking.' Relaunching its mobile bank app, ICICI Bank's Rajeev Sabharwal, executive director said that it has the bank is currently adding 3 lakhs new mobile banking customers every month. "We acquire 5 lakh customers for mobile and internet banking every month.
April 22, 2008 |
COIMBATORE: HDFC bank would soon launch its mobile bank for the benefit of micro finance clients and also to reach the unbanked and under-banked sections of the society, a senior bank executive said on Tuesday. The bank was ready with the necessary software and to start with mobile bank-cum-ATM would be introduced on trial basis in Coimbatore district in a couple of months, K Manohara Raj, senior Vice president-micro Finance HDFC bank ltd, Chennai, told reporters here.


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Porsche Cars North America, Inc., importer and distributor of Porsche sports cars, Cayenne SUVs and the Panamera four-door sports sedan, today celebrated a landmark groundbreaking of its new headquarters, to be known as One Porsche Drive. Located adjacent to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the 26.4-acre site is the first complex to be built in the “Aerotroplis Atlanta” business district.
Employees from Porsche Cars North America and its affiliates Porsche Financial Services, Porsche Business Services, and Porsche Consulting attended the event alongside executives from Porsche Group companies in North America and Germany, as well as local dignitaries. Most of Porsche’s North American operations will be consolidated under one roof once the new facility is finished in the second half of 2014.
“Porsche’s presence has been embraced by Atlanta and the state of Georgia for the last 14 years,” said Matthias Mueller, President and CEO of Porsche AG. “We’re happy to reciprocate the sentiment with this new facility, which contributes to the state’s economic development and also adds a bit of glamor to the local community.”
Mueller also reminded the audience of the lasting love affair of the Americans with Porsche, which goes back to the early fifties and is a powerful incentive for the company to safeguard and nurture this extraordinary relationship. “Our investment here in Atlanta is a testament to our belief in the future of this great nation and, above all, our confidence in this very important market,” he said.
Together with Dr. Wolfgang Porsche, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Porsche AG, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, Bernhard Maier, Member of the Executive Board Sales and Marketing of Porsche AG, Detlev von Platen, President and CEO of Porsche Cars North America, Matthias Mueller celebrated the landmark groundbreaking for this project.
Ultimately, One Porsche Drive will house 400 employees, including 100 jobs that will be new to Georgia. In addition to corporate offices, it will also be comprised of a Technical Service and Training Center, a Conference Center and a Museum. As an industry first, the Porsche headquarters campus will feature a Customer Experience Center including a 1.6-mile test track and handling road course to showcase the capabilities of Porsche’s industry-leading vehicles.
“This world-class facility underscores our commitment to customers and dealers in the United States, which remains the single largest market for Porsche vehicles,” said Detlev von Platen, President and CEO, Porsche Cars North America. “Today’s ceremony also symbolizes Porsche putting down permanent roots here in Atlanta, a city we have proudly called home since 1998.”
Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Georgia Governor Nathan Deal were among the event attendees. “I am delighted to extend a warm welcome to the first tenant of the Aerotropolis development site,” said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed. “Porsche’s presence here underscores the City of Atlanta’s continuing commitment to attract world-class companies and iconic brands to our city. Furthermore, it sends a clear and unmistakable signal to other companies that Atlanta is open for business.”
Neighboring facilities currently include the Delta Air Lines world headquarters, Wachovia Bank’s principal processing center and the world’s busiest airport, which served more than 92 million travelers in 2011.
“Porsche’s new headquarters is a terrific asset to Georgia’s economy and a unique travel destination for the millions of travelers who arrive in our great state each year,” said Nathan Deal, Governor of Georgia. “I’m confident One Porsche Drive will become a renowned address that stands for vision, innovation and success – as well as one of the greatest driving experiences in the world.”


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The Brics summit is stealing the headlines this week and a number of very important bilateral trade deals between South Africa and China have been signed by representatives of President Jacob Zuma and his newly elected Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping.
The New Age reported in detail about the various deals as well as the pledged “Year of South Africa in China” for 2013 and “Year of China in South Africa” in 2015.
“Our two countries have signed the terms of reference of the joint inter-ministerial working group on South Africa-China cooperation. We can therefore look forward to many activities that will bring our countries and peoples even closer,” Zuma said.
Agreements included a memorandum of understanding that could see a significant improvement in the delivery of services to pupils and a declaration of intent to boost trade between the two countries focusing on cooperation between customs agencies for import and export purposes. With China being SA’s largest trading partner (R201bn in 2012), this is quite important.
“We appreciate the hard work that you have put to ensure that the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (Brics) summit is a success,” Jinping said. And consensus is that the Durban occasion has reaffirmed South Africa’s ability to host important events. Whether, as per my previous blog, we will be hosting the Brics bank is another question altogether.
Fin24.com quoted Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, saying: “It’s done,” after talks with his counterparts with regards to the Brics bank on Tuesday. “We made very good progress, the leaders will announce the details.”
The development bank to be formed by Brics would be expected to take on more risk than western institutions such as the World Bank, which should make members more self-reliant. According to Business Day Live Brics leaders are expected to provide more information on the bank to define its mandate, structure, governance and headquarters, although officials earlier proposed injecting $50bn in seed capital into the bank.
There is still a lot to be decided on before the Brics bank can become a reality and it is not likely to be up and running for years. “The World Bank said on Tuesday it was ready to support the new development bank. But “establishing a development bank is a significant undertaking”, it warned.”
Our Chinese business partners have also travelled to South Africa to join the summit in Durban but not without first visiting us in the Winelands.
Since we have developed a specific wine label for China, we have become the biggest exporter of South African wine to China with our three brands, La Motte, Leopard’s Leap and the exclusive label, L’Huguenot.
L’Huguenot was also the wine served at the summit this week.


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The mysterious Zwei that Bethesda has been teasing has finally been revealed – The Evil Within.
As we reported yesterday, The Evil Within is a survival horror title that’s been in production since 2010 at Tango Gameworks – a Tokyo based, ZeniMax owned studio helmed by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami.
“We’re incredibly proud to announce The Evil Within,” said Mikami. “My team and I are committed to creating an exciting new franchise, providing fans the perfect blend of horror and action.”
The Evil Within will release in 2014 on PC, PS3, 360, and “next-generation consoles”.
You can visit the official website here.
In the meantime, here’s the absolutely horrific blood-drenched live-action trailer, courtesy of GameRiotArmy.
I am excited. Survival horror fans unite!


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China’s Huawei Technologies has changed its strategy in Kenya this month to showcase an affordable $100-200 range of smart phones, hoping the increased sales will boost its local market share, the company’s country manager said on Thursday (September 14).
Huawei is ranked number three in the fast-growing local smart devices market, behind South Korea’s Samsung Electronics and Tecno, owned by Hong Kong’s Transsion Holdings.
Derek Du, the local boss of Huawei, said the company had started offering three smart phones with retail prices starting at 8,999 shillings ($87) to 22,999 shillings ($220), as part of a strategy to lift its market share in that segment from 4 percent to 15 percent.
“This year, why we focus on this we found that Kenya market is price sensitive market and also entry level smartphone is popular here. So we also from this year not only launch high level we also in Kenya the market size is also the biggest so we highlighted this,” he said.
Safaricom, the biggest operator with 72 percent market share or 28 million users, said there are 13 million smart phones on its network, up from 10 million last year.
Consumers have been giving up their well-worn feature phones to take advantage of relatively fast Internet speeds and applications such as WhatsApp and those that facilitate banking and taxi-hailing services.
He said the new strategy will help the firm to boost its overall market share to 25-30 percent, from the current 14 percent, in the next two years.
“Actually we are growing a bit slow than our competitors like Samsung, Tecno and actually our market share is only 14 percent so we want to approach higher but actually Kenyan market is hard to say, its a different market in a low cost level,” said Du.
Huawei previously focused on the mid-range of smart phones, where it has a 30 percent market share. It also sells the premium “Mate” series phones in the Kenyan market for the well-heeled.
Huawei, which is based in Shenzhen, China, competes with Apple and other devices vendors for global consumers.
“They trend like right now we have launched the mid range phones where people do love them they move like daily we could sell like 10 to 20 phones,” said sales rep, Anthony Makau.
“Its nice its not that much expensive, its good, the price is ok, not expensive, actually right now am going to look for something and then I come for it,” said Bill Koremo, a customer.
The annual average Kenyan wage is $1,200, official figures show, so most people cannot afford expensive smart phones.


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By a 218-208 vote, the U.S. House passed a standalone fast-track trade measure key to the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement on Thursday.
The House did not take up the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) legislation, involving assistance to U.S. workers displaced by the trade agreement.
Although the Senate has already passed both the fast-track and TAA trade measures as part of a package, it will have to reconsider the fast-track legislation now that the House has approved it without the TAA component.
The House tried last Friday to advance the full trade package, but it stalled as a result of Democratic opposition to the TAA.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH,8) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are looking to bring up a standalone TAA measure in their respective chambers after the fast-track bill, or the Trade Promotion Authority, gets through Congress.
Fast tracking would limit debate on the final Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and prevent Congress from making changes to it. The president insists he needs such authority to close the Pacific trade deal.
In response to the fast-track legislation's passage in the House, Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter issued this statement:
Today, the Republican leadership rammed undemocratic stand-alone Fast Track legislation, also known as Trade Promotion Authority, through the House of Representatives. This bill puts transnational corporate interests ahead of the American people. Just last week, Congress stood up for its constituents when it voted down a key portion of the Fast Track trade package and stalled the bill's progress. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and President Obama should have accepted the will of the American people rather than resorting to parliamentary chicanery to push their corporate trade agenda.
Less than a week ago, the House roundly rejected the worker assistance program that had been part of the Senate legislation; today, the House narrowly passed the Fast Track provision and there is no guarantee the stranded worker assistance program will ever be rejoined to the trade package. The Republican leaders who have fostered a bitterly divisive Congress are now demanding that Democrats and the American people take this commitment on good faith in order to finalize a trade agenda that imperils consumers, workers and the environment.
Fast Track will also pave the way for Congress to rubber stamp the as-yet-unseen Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact that will undermine key consumer, public health and environmental protections, and other trade deals that follow. The trade deals facilitated by Fast Track could undermine America's food safety standards and commonsense food labeling measures, bringing a rising tide of unsafe imported food to our grocery stores and restaurants. Just last week, U.S. legislators gutted country of origin meat labeling laws, a sad example of our politicians kowtowing to unelected trade bureaucrats. With Fast Track, we can expect to see more of the same.
The legislation that barely squeaked through the House today faces a much more uncertain future in the Senate. Today's narrow vote to approve Fast Track in the House is an ominous harbinger of the fate of Fast Track in the Senate, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the electoral prospects for Fast Track supporters.
Voters will remember all this and hold members of Congress accountable for siding with transnational corporations rather than their constituents.


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By Jana Mlcochova
PRAGUE, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Czech finance ministry slashed its growth outlook for this year to almost zero on Thursday after poor economic data showed the year-and-half old economic downturn deepened.
The ministry now expects the economy to eke out just 0.1 percent growth in 2013, down from 0.7 percent seen in its October forecast.
“The Czech economy was probably going through a shallow recession in 2012. It could emerge from (the recession) in the beginning of this year although a revival of economic activity should be very gradual,” the ministry said.
A series of tax hikes and budget cuts by the centre-right administration of Petr Necas hit household consumption while falling demand for Czech industrial products from the euro zone prompted companies to lay off people, curb wage increases, and cut investment.
Falling industrial output, the main driver of Czech growth, and purchasing managers indexes on the manufacturing sector have shown companies suffered from falling new orders.
Contracting retail sales, decelerating inflation and rising bank deposits have underscored defensive consumers.
The Czech economy has not grown since the middle of 2011 while the central bank cut borrowing costs to zero to prop up demand and said it would weaken the crown if it needs to ease policy further, to avert expectations for price falls and push people to spend.
The ministry expects household demand to contract by 0.7 percent this year, deeper than the 0.5 percent fall seen in October, and it sees the contribution of net exports to growth at 0.7 percentage points, down from 1.0 points seen in the autumn.
“The forecast seems slightly pessimistic... however, I agree with the view that the state budget will be tight this year and demands caution,” said Pavel Sobisek, chief economist at UniCredit Bank.
Regional peer Poland saw its growth fall to its weakest in three years in 2012 and is still slowing, adding to signs that one of Europe’s most resilient economies risks dipping into recession.
However, latest data from Germany, the Czech Republic’s main trading partner, including the business climate index Ifo and PMI showed business morale and activity has improved.
Czech Central Bank Deputy Governor Vladimir Tomsik told Reuters in an interview earlier this week the outlook for growth abroad has not worsened since the bank’s November forecast, which was a good signal.


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Record snowfalls have people all over the country cursing the winter weather, but it’s made the owner of one eastern Iowa company very happy. The Yeoman manufacturing plant in Monticello makes snow shovels, and C.E.O. Tom Yeoman says the 20 workers are near the top when it comes to that work.
He says they can assemble approximately 10,000 snow shovels a day and are the second largest winter tools manufacturer in the country. Yeoman says normally at this time of year they aren’t still making snow shovels. Yeoman says ordinarily they would be shipping spring tools like garden rakes and hoes. But this is not a normal winter with big snows hitting areas of the country that don’t usually have to deal with so much of the white stuff.
Yeoman says he’s been getting orders from Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky, as he says it’s been “a very unusual winter.” Yeoman says sales are already ahead of the record the 80-year-old company set two years ago, and says it’s huge for the company with a lot of the business coming in just the last three weeks.
So for now, employees continue riveting snow shovel blades to handles and piling them on fork lifts to be hauled away for shipping to those areas trying to dig out from the record winter.
Read more about the company here: Yeoman website.


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Karamba has pledged to tighten up its marketing procedures after the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) banned an advert published on its website.
Promoting the ‘Starburst’ slot game on Karamba.com, a platform operated by Aspire Global, the advert was entitled ‘Tips and tricks on how to win at Starburst’ and set out a so-called ‘Starburst Strategy’.
AG Communications, which operates as Karamba.com, said the offending pages were uploaded to the website in error and had not gone through the standard internal procedure to ensure they complied with regulations.
Although AG said the web pages in question attracted low levels of user traffic, it has taken the ads down from Karamba.com and opened a full internal review to address the issue.
In a statement released to iGamingBusiness.com, Karamba said it was “dismayed” to learn that the advert was published as a result of human error and added that the Karamba brand has a “strong focus” on regulation compliance.
“Karamba is a brand that operates under six different regulations with a strong focus on complying with the different regulatory guidelines and standards,” Karamba said.
“We were dismayed to learn that these ads were uploaded due to human error, insomuch that they did not go through our internal procedure for approval of marketing materials.
“Following this issue, of which there will not be a reoccurrence, we have tightened our procedures as well as undertaken additional measures to ensure all new marketing materials are fully compliant with the regulatory standards.”
A single complainant challenged the advert for being “socially irresponsible” as it “misleadingly implied” that certain strategies could lead to profit gain.
The complainant also said such strategies “encouraged gambling behaviour that could lead to financial, social or emotional harm”.
The advert featured a series of suggestions as to how to play the game in order to win, setting out how “wins at the minimum bet rate are much less frequent and pay out significantly smaller sums”.
Other wording in the ad included “changing the cycle of the game to get back on the winning track by toggling the spin and max bet buttons. The bet rate will stay the same, but you may trigger more bonus features and, most importantly, wins”.
In its ruling, the ASA said the advert must not appear again in its current form.
The regulatory body has also spoken to Karamba to ensure future marketing communications contain nothing that is “likely to encourage irresponsible gambling behaviour that could lead to financial, social or emotional harm”.
The ASA’s sanction comes after the regulator told iGamingBusiness.com earlier this month that it is examining whether World Cup adverts by Bet365 and William Hill contravened new gambling guidelines.